Chinese broadcasters and producers have this week struck a string of TV co-production deals with production houses from Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
The unrelated moves underline the growing international involvement in the Chinese TV production scene. They come after years of build-up involving trade missions and a growing number of bilateral co-production treaties.
Singapore’s mm2 Asia announced that it had signed an agreement to collaborate with China-based production company, Shanghai Man Man Er Culture and Broadcast on its 35-episode television series in China called “My Love, Farewell.” The 35-episode TV series has an estimated production budget of US$10.5 million (RMB 70 million) with funding raised from stakeholders in China.
mm2 Asia licensed the original story rights to Man Man Er and production is now under way. mm2 Asia is responsible for global distribution outside China, while Man Er will find distributors and platforms in China.
Australian factual producer, WildBear Entertainment announced the completion of a two-hour co-production with state-owned China Central Television’s main factual channel, CCTV10, and the signing of a licensing agreement with Foxtel’s History Channel.
WildBear has made “The War That Changed the World: The Making of a new China,” a story of the war between China and Japan. It covers the 1931 to 1945 period when China fought to expel invaders and how the ‘War Against Japanese Aggression’ was subsumed into the WWII.
The show will premiere in China on CCTV10 in July and in Australia on The History Channel in September 2016. International sales for the series are being handled by Wild Thring Media in the U.K. Sales in Asia are handled by Angelina Wang, international sales manager for CCTV.
China’s CCTV and New Zealand’s NHNZ revealed plans to make documentary series “Glamourous China.” The series would be a reciprocal follow up to “Glamourous New Zealand,” which screened this week in China. Both series will screen in New Zealand later on Choice TV.
The “Glamorous” series was launched at an event attended by Stephen Chow and Deng Chao at Te Papa, New Zealand. The event also marked the opening of the 2016 New Zealand China Film Week.
In recent weeks NHNZ has signed three other co-production agreements with CCTV: to coproduce “Panda and the Kiwi,” an animated children’s series: a second season of the popular children’s series “ZooMoo – Animal Friends;” and a documentary series on the Silk Road.
China’s ambassador to New Zealand, Wang Lutong said the increasingly close links and co-operation between the Chinese and New Zealand film industries heralded a “golden age” and described them as “a model for China’s successful relations with Western nations.”