Walt Disney Studios has signed a multiyear agreement with Shanghai Media Group Pictures to develop Disney-branded movies.
Writers based in the United States will team up with Chinese writers and filmmakers to develop stories and scripts that incorporate Chinese themes in Disney movies, the studio said in a statement Thursday. Disney said the partnership with Shanghai Media would also expand training opportunities between Chinese and American writers and filmmakers.
Last December, the Walt Disney Company and BesTV New Media, the digital media unit of the Shanghai Media Group, joined forces in China to provide entertainment using both companies’ technical and marketing expertise.
Tony To, the studio’s executive vice president of production, will oversee the co-development program, which could allow for easier releases of English-language films in China.
The 37-member Film Censorship Committee vets every movie in China for nudity, violence and politically sensitive scenes. Western films in addition must meet the committee’s “amendment opinions” to be one of the 34 Hollywood films permitted in China each year.
Last year, Disney’s superhero film “Iron Man 3” had its debut in China and included a top Chinese actress and footage shot in China, additions that helped the film ease past strict censors and often confusing rules for Western films.
In February, the official Xinhua news agency reported that China would maintain its quota for imported Hollywood movies this year, rejecting reports it had planned to increase access for American films to the world’s second-largest cinema market.
Production companies like Viacom’s Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG have hired Chinese actors and set up co-productions with Chinese firms.
China’s entertainment and media market is estimated to grow to $148 billion by 2015 from around $120 billion in 2013, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
In 2012, Disney was named founding partner of a National Chinese Animation Creative Research and Development Project, an initiative to advance China’s animation industry and train local talent and promote the development of Chinese content and franchises.
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