From e-commerce, Alibaba Group is expanding outside e-commerce by foraying into movie production. To direct a feature movie for the new Alibaba Pictures Group, the company hired a prominent Italian director.
He is Giuseppe Tornatore who was awarded by the Oscar for his direction of the film “Cinema Paradiso. Tornatore announced that he signed an agreement with Alibaba Pictures on Sunday, the first day of the Beijing International Film Festival, according to Hollywood Reporter. Zhang Qiang, CEO of Alibaba, signed on behalf of the film company.
Tornatore’s “Cinema Paradiso” was the Academy Award’s Best Foreign-Language Movie in 1988, one of the 14 movies that the director has made over 30 years. His last movie was “Correspondence,” released in January, starring Olga Kurlenko and Jeremy Irons.
Although Alibaba Pictures was launched in 2014, it has not yet released a movie, although the first one would be “The Ferryman,” for release on the second half of 2016. It is produced by Wong Kar-wai and directed by Zhang Jiajia.
Besides the Italian director, Alibaba has also signed a deal with Chinese actress and filmmaker Vicki Zhao to direct “My Fair Princes,” an animated film adaption of a hit period TV drama that launched Vicki’s career in the 1990s and made her a star.
Other movies from Alibaba in the pipeline include “The Flying Tigers,” a World War II movie with China as focus, script by Randall Wallace, the writer of “Braveheart.” Alibaba has Skydance Media as co-financier and producer of the movie.
Tornatore noted that the deal is an agreement in principle, meaning they have not agreed on a specific project yet, explained the director. He said the shooting of the movie would likely take placed within the next two to three years, reported Fortune.