Several of the biggest names in Japanese cinema are backing the launch of production shingle Asia Contents Center.
Outfit
aims to continue the recent Japanese trend for remaking TV shows into
boffo movies, which then segue back into smallscreen spinoffs.
ACC
is at the American Film Market with three properties currently
formatted as TV shows: drama "Wild Life," history series "Diaries of
Manyoshu" and cartoon adaptation "Stars of Destiny."
Founding
shareholders include Avex, film and arcade game operator Egg Box, real
estate company Ken Corp., pay TV net Wowow, satellite operator JSAT and
Softbank-owned broadband content supplier Broadband Studio. Board
members include Avex's Shinji Hiyashi, Hisashi Yamamoto and Takomi
Deguchi, both previously with Amuse, NHK's Takashi Inoue and TV Tokyo's
Kohichi Miyagawa.
Former Kadokawa Pictures exec Shoji Udagawa is set as ACC's exec VP, while Tokyo-based financier Peter Anshin is exec adviser.
The
company has strong ties to pubcaster NHK, which has scaled back its
production investment but is able to advance up to 80% of budgets as
pre-buys. ACC will use NHK coin and complete financing through DVD
pre-sales, fund investments and international sales.
Shows made
by privately owned net Fuji TV including "Bayside Shakedown" and
"Suspect X" have been retooled as bigscreen spectaculars and smaller
dramas built around individual characters.
Significant proportion
of projects greenlit by ACC will be targeted as co-productions with
China. The tense history between Japan and China ordinarily makes China
a difficult place for Japanese firms to do business, but NHK's track
record in quality feature movies and docs makes it an exception.
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