Even if some of the investment deals by Chinese companies in Hollywood entertainment assets have recently soured, others firms are not discouraged and have pursued their own deals. One such company is Jiaflix Pictures which has teamed up with the 1905 Pictures of China Movie Channel and Lorenzo di Bonaventura to begin a global movie franchise.
Futuristic Action Thriller
The movie “Speedhunters” is a $100-million futuristic action thriller to be directed by Rob Cohen who was behind “The Fast and the Furious” franchise and “xXx: Return of Xander Cage,” Deadline Hollywood reported. Like many Hollywood films that target to benefit from the box-office potential of a China showing, the upcoming movie would have an international and Chinese cast.
By July, the movie would being principal photography in Shanghai, at Studio Babelsberg in Germany and other global locations. The producers plan to release “Speedhunters” in summer 2018. Like “The Fast and the Furious” franchise, the film features Formula racing. The racers and crew become a part of a revolutionary technology that threatens to change the world.
Global Franchise
The movie brings together the same team that produced the 2014 movie “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” but Paramount Pictures in not involved in the project. According to Di Bonaventura, who is producing “Meg,” a joint venture between Flagship Entertainment of Warner in the U.S. and China, “Speedhunters” has all the tenets of a global franchise.
He cited its action sequences, characters whom viewers from different countries could relate to, visual effects and a storyline that takes ordinary folks through a journey of extraordinary circumstances.
Jiaflix Pictures is a production, marketing and digital distribution company with offices in Beijing and Los Angeles. It was established by Sid Ganis, a former Paramount executive, Marc Ganis and Kenneth Huang, a Chinese entrepreneur, according to The Hollywood Reporter.