The Fox film studio is nearing agreement with Dalian Wanda Group, one of China's largest real estate developers and movie theater owners, to co-produce films in China, a Fox studio executive said.
Talks between Wanda and Fox began last year and continued in early September when Wanda's chairman, Wang Jianlin, came to Los Angeles to announce the closing of the company's $2.6 billion purchase of theater owner AMC Entertainment.
During that visit Wang met with Disney, Universal, Warner Brothers and other studio executives to discuss co-financing English or Chinese-language films or to create a fund to invest in a slate of films, according to several people with knowledge of those meetings.
Wanda, which owns 86 theaters in China, spent $80 million to enter the film industry and expects to make six films this year and 10 annually, according to its website.
Wang in his visit to Los Angeles earlier this month said the company is prepared to invest $10 billion over the next decade to expand its U.S. holdings and plans to buy hotels, shopping malls and more theaters.
Fox and Wanda haven't yet identified the movies the two companies would co-produce, according to Fox co-Chairman Jim Gianopulos, who acknowledged talks that were first reported in the Los Angeles Times.
"China is an exciting new market, and the infrastructure Wanda has put in place is very impressive," Gianopulos said in an interview. "The process now is to find the right movies for this agreement."
Gianopulos said he and Sanford Panitch, Fox's international president, started negotiations with Wanda during a trip to China last year.
Fox, a unit of News Corp, is among the most aggressive Hollywood studios in setting up joint projects with Chinese companies. It jointly produced the Chinese language film "Hot Summer Days" with China's Huayi Brothers Media in 2010.
The U.S. studio also owns a 20 percent stake in Beijing-based Bona Film Group, which is in discussions with Hollywood studios about co-producing films for international distribution.