China Media Capital, the giant state-backed Chinese investment fund, has taken a minority stake in pioneering visual effects company, Base FX, which contributed over 400 shots to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The new partners have also announced the creation of Base Media, a joint venture production company that will develop and produce cutting-edge VFX-driven films for the Chinese and international markets.
"With CMC’s strong resources, operational experiences, and financial support, Base will expand its efforts in developing talent, tools and creating content for the next generation of Chinese cinema," said Base FX founder and CEO Christopher Bremble.
The Beijing-based VFX studio, which has an existing strategic partnership Lucasfilm's Industrial Light and Magic, has worked on numerous other Hollywood pictures, including Transformers: Age of Extinction, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Pacific Rim. Base FX was also the lead visual effects company behind Chinese blockbuster Monster Hunt, the country's highest-grossing film ever. It is the largest VFX company of its kind in China, with over 450 employees working in studios in Beijing, Wuxi and Xiamen.
"China is the fastest growing film market in the world, soon to be the largest," said Li Ruigang, Chairman of CMC. "Seven out of ten highest-grossing films in China are visual effects-driven films, and Base FX worked on three of them: Transformers: Age of Extinction, Jurassic World, and Monster Hunt. We decided to invest in Base FX and co-found Base Media to create VFX-driven spectacles made in China, not only because of the huge potential in VFX spectacles, but also because visual effects will be a key factor that drives innovation in many aspects for Chinese cinema, such as the subject matter, storytelling style and business models."
Financial terms were not disclosed, but CMC is understood to have taken a minority stake in the effects company.
Projects in the pipeline for Base Media include China’s first epic disaster picture. The partners say the film will be made in China and delivered with Hollywood-quality effects. Base Media also is developing and producing a fantasy franchise based on a classic Chinese story, utilizing VR technology. This project will be made in partnership with a major American studio for global distribution, the partners said in a statement. Both projects are untitled as of yet.
In late 2015, China Media Capital made worldwide headlines with the announcement of Flagship Entertainment Group, a major joint venture with Warner Bros. that will develop, distribute and produce a slate of Chinese-language tentpole films for distribution in China and around the world.
CMC also has invested in such ventures as Oriental DreamWorks, DreamWorks Animation’s Chinese joint venture, and Imax China. It acquired 21st Century Fox's 47 percent stake in Star China TV in 2014. CMC's chairman, Ruigang Li, was formerly the CEO of Shanghai Media Group, where he was credited with transforming the regional broadcaster into one of China’s largest media companies.