Disney and Viacom Form Partnerships with Chinese Firms in Content Productions
On October 16, Disney China and Tencent’s China Literature jointly announced that the two companies will partner in content productions. The “Star Wars” Chinese-version novels will be first launched in digital on China Literature’s online reading platforms. This marks the first time that Disney has granted electronic copyrights of “Star Wars” novels in mainland China. In addition, Guo Wang Bi Xia (“His Majesty”), a popular online writer from China Literature, will work with the company’s team and Lucasfilm Story Group to create the first-ever “Star War” novel written by a Chinese author. Right on October 15, one day before the event for announcing Disney-China Literature partnership, Alibaba-owned video streaming site Youku and Viacom International Media Networks signed a multi-year content development and distribution partnership deal at MIPCOM in Cannes, France. The two companies will co-create an original animated series titled Little Luban (working title). According to its publicity materials, Little Luban is targeted at kids audience as well as families, and will integrate Chinese culture and philosophy into its storytelling. The two partnerships shares similar logics in collaboration and business, according an article on WeChat media account yiyuguancha. On one hand, it can facilitate original Chinese content “going out” to international markets. On the other hand, foreign content can reach more Chinese audience through Chinese local platforms. Besides, this indicates that the ties between Hollywood and China have never been stopped. Formats of their collaborations are more diversified than ever, ranging from copyrights licensing to co-development of derivatives. Read more on yiyuguancha
Oscars: ‘ Ne Zha’ Enters Long-list of Best Animated Feature Film
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released a longlist of the Best Animated Feature Film at 2020 Academy Awards, which includes a record-breaking 32 titles. Chinese animated film Ne Zha, and two Sino-US co-productions, White Snake and Abnominble, are in the list with Toy Story 4, Frozen 2, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Japanese title Weathering with You, and other titles. To be selected in the longlist for the Best Animated Feature Film, submissions are required to be released between January 1 to December 31 in 2019, and be screened in Los Angeles with publict ticket sales. All submissions that satisfy all of required conditions can be included in the longlist. It is expected that the Academy will soon announce the shortlist for the award, which may include approximately 10 titles. Read more on Mtime
