China’s Huayi Wants to Continue, Possibly Expand Relations With STX (Report)

Huayi Brothers Media, one of China’s leading film studios, says it wants to renew and expand its relationship with Hollywood’s STX Entertainment.

The stance was expressed by Huayi co-chief James Wang at the Boao conference in Hainan and was reported by Bloomberg. “We’d like to renew and deepen our cooperation with STX beyond slate financing,” said Wang, who also goes by his Chinese name, Wang Zhonglei.

Huayi’s current three-year contract to co-produce and co-finance films with Robert Simonds’ STX runs out at this time next year. Wang’s eagerness to deepen the relationship comes despite STX’s patchy record of hits and misses, and despite possible difficulties stemming from China’s recently imposed capital controls. “It’s fortunate that our overseas business plan is not acquisition-driven, nor are we financial investors, so our needs for foreign exchange are not vast,” Wang said.

He said that the two companies would look at ways to expand cooperation in a broader fashion than the companies’ current deal. “STX has a lot of plans in television and multimedia. They also have a lot of new ideas for the Asian market,” Wang said. “We have had a lot of contacts in this regard.”

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