China Star Entertainment has confirmed that it has struck a three-year output deal with regional broadcast powerhouse Star TV covering the 100 features produced under its 100 Years Of Cinema banner (Screendaily, May 16).
The three-year deal gives Star exclusive video-on-demand, pay-per-view and pay-TV rights in both Mandarin and Cantonese versions. Although neither company confirmed financial details, the value of the deal is understood to be in the region of $30m.
One Hundred Years Of Films is headed by Chinese filmmaker Tsui Hark, a former action director for Jackie Chan, who has assembled a team of directors including Ringo Lam, Gordon Chan and Johnnie To.
Titles already set to be delivered to Star include Gordon Chan's Okinawa Rendezvous, with Leslie Cheung and Faye Wong, Old Master Q, a comic story mixing animation and live action that stars Cecilia Cheung and Nicholas Tse, the Tsui Hark-directed The Legend Of Zu, with Sammo Hung, Cecilia Cheung and Ekin Cheng, and Tsui Hark's Black Mask 2.
Charles Heung Wah-keung, China Star chairman said; "[our] quality movies will now be seen by many more communities. This agreement will elevate the Chinese movie industry to another level."
Bruce Churchill, president and COO of Star TV said: "Today's announcement represents the largest and most encompassing movie licensing deal for television in the history of Hong Kong. This deal, combined with all our other programming partners places our Star Chinese Movie service as the most powerful Chinese movie channel in the world."
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