LOS ANGELES, MAY 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Proxima Media
LLC has entered into collaboration agreement which sets the stage
to create the first and largest worldwide East-West studio. The
agreement includes Proxima acquiring a large stake in the publicly
traded Studio, taking over management and building out the Studio.
This includes creating state of the art production facilities, a
worldwide theme park, four-star lodging, and a one of a kind
worldwide travel experience, which marks a truly historic moment in
the U.S. and China filmed
entertainment and overall cultural relationship. Under the pact
Proxima will produce up to 10 U.S. feature films with $250 Million of Equity (leveraged to over
$ 1 Billion of Production capacity)
at National Arts.
National Arts Entertainment, a publicly traded Hong Kong studio, sits only one hour from
Hong Kong on over 1,000,000 sq
meters miles of land, making it an ideal home for the world's
largest physical studio. Proxima's plan includes National Arts
building of replicas of the world's most famous tourist
destinations including the Venice Canals, where gondola rides will
be offered, skating in Central Park, Hawaii's beaches with a surf and wave pool,
Hollywood Blvd.'s walk of fame, Central
Paris, and many others. "This allows the hundreds of
millions of local Chinese to actually travel the world and see and
experience what each of these amazing places is really like,
including local cuisine and experiences as if they were there,
within an hour drive of their home," said a National Arts
Spokesperson. "It's something most of them would never
otherwise have been able to do in their lifetime."
"Each of the 'mini-cities' of the world, will be replicas with
actual near perfect (non scale) buildings thus doubling as the
first 'world-studio' where any production that is being shot can
not only build on the vast sound stages but will no longer need to
go to the expense and trouble of traveling all over the world. They
will be able to use our studio and capture virtually anywhere in
the world, being only one hour outside of Hong Kong," they continued.
"Never before has their been a location with the right location,
cost structure, infrastructure and capabilities to perform every
aspect of A-list U.S. productions in one location. From
pre-production to editing and posting the largest and most
sophisticated U.S. productions will shoot in entirety in one
location, while saving on production costs, creating jobs and
creating an entirely new economy. It also ensures that each
production will have the maximum exploitation in the two largest
filmed entertainment economies which insures at least a 30%
increase in each films revenue."
Centrally located Xiqiao National Arts Studio opened in 2015 at
Foshan in Guangdong city. It
already boasts a number of unique panoramic buildings including
Kowloon Walled City, A Chinese Palace, A Mansion, The Yamen, a Hong
Kong Street and a Shanghai Street. It also has a burgeoning
tourism business.
As part of the deal, Proxima will run, structure, and become one
of, if not the, largest shareholders while consulting on all
aspects of production including refurbishing the existing studios
and creating the state-of-the art production and post-production
facility, on an ideally-situated 100-square-mile ranch only an hour
from Hong Kong. The intention is
to have eight technologically-advanced sound stages, and 'ahead of
the curve' post facilities. "This truly will be the start of a new
era," said Proxima CEO and Founder Ryan
Kavanaugh. "Now we have both the right place, the right
time, and the clear demand to create both a physical and virtual
east-west content powerhouse."
This ambitious deal comes on the heels of China's announcement last month that the
$9 billion Hong Kong film industry will be given greater
access to the mainland Chinese movie market following a relaxation
of rules that had kept their films and filmmakers on a separate
footing.
Upon completion of the deal, Proxima Media will become a
significant owner of the publicly-listed entity. Together, they
will be responsible for executing the new business plan to be known
as, The World Studios.
"What Chairman Sin has accomplished here is amazing. The land,
location and principle is the foundation on which the world's
largest and first one-stop filming location will take place," said
Kavanaugh.
Proxima Media plans to contribute its slate of 30+ pieces of IP
in film and television, which it has been developing for a number
of years. The films are projected to have budgets of between
$15 million and $80 million USD with commercial themes and
genres, starring internationally-known talent. "We are extremely
excited about Proxima's slate," said Chairman Sin. "It is what a
first class studio's slate should look like. For the first time we
are not concerned with or focused on cultural constraints rather
making commercial first class product that will achieve maximum box
office in both the U.S. and China," he continued. This is a new era.
"This is a chance to get a powerful footing with an accomplished
partner with vision and potential, in one of the most lucrative and
fast-growing regions of the world," explains Kavanaugh. "With their
infrastructure and our knowledge base, this is a complementary
alliance and a synergistic home run."
"We are honored to partner with Proxima Media and its respected
and visionary leader, Ryan
Kavanaugh," said Chairman Sin of National Arts. "We
believe that by combining our resources we will shorten our
learning curve and quickly bring our studio, parks hotels and
related production facilities to the highest industry standards
creating the largest and most global studio in existence
today."
As part of the pact, Proxima will also recruit and retain a
diverse and accomplished management team, as appropriate to the
tasks defined by the expansive alliance.
Additionally, an international quality theme park, dedicated to
filmmaking, will be envisioned, created and managed as part of the
agreement. The huge land area and appealing geography, in the
Xiqiao Mountain area, complemented by the infrastructure of actual
content creation, make this a natural and cost-effective
opportunity. For a fraction of the price of international travel,
any Chinese citizen can visit perfect replicas and experience the
look, feel, culture and cuisine of many of the world's most
important areas including Paris,
London, Los Angeles, New
York, Venice and other
landmarks—all this while being on an actual set, seeing A-list film
and television productions, and having the up close and personal
experience of being on a real life Hollywood set.
The studio plans on having two hotels (currently it has a
four-star 400 room hotel) a seven-star brand new facility built
from the ground up for talent and VIP's and a 400-room three-star
property for tourists. They will be complemented by an array
of international restaurants with cuisines from the great culinary
capitols of the world. In addition, the restaurants will correspond
with the Great Cities of the World sets, that will serve as both
production facilities and tourist attractions. An aggressive and
creative merchandising program to feed the booming tourism business
will also be implemented.
National Arts, one of the largest physical studios in
China, already includes film
production, cinema, artist management, hotels, tourism, and other
entertainment entities. To complement their work and physical
location, the Guangdong Provincial Government is launching, "The
Guangdong Hollywood Plan," which provides film and television
producers numerous subsidies and other incentives to attract
filmmaking, with the intention of making the facility the largest
film and television base in southern China. They also are growing their cinema
business with eight theatres boasting more than 1,000 seats so
far.
"Everyone talks about doing business in and with the huge
Chinese market," explains Kavanaugh, "yet there remains a business,
cultural and facilities gap. With the lifting of foreign quota
restrictions in China, this is a
precipitous time to enter into a visionary agreement with honorable
and powerful partners. The Chinese film market is already the size
of the U.S. film market, its potential is vast and with our
location, land and experience this becomes a game-changing
alliance."
The deal was structured by and will be overseen by Jaeson Ma, Chairman of Proxima East.
Proxima Media was founded by legendary Hollywood Producer Ryan
Kavanaugh who together with his colleagues has been responsible for
more than 200 films, with a box office of $17 billion. Among their productions are
Immortals, Social Network, Fast and the Furious, Girl with
Dragon Tattoo, Salt, Wanted, Limitless, The Fighter, Mirror Mirror,
Safe Haven and Beyond the Lights The Social Network,
which received eight Oscar nominations. Other films include
Mamma Mia! 3:10 to Yuma, Grown Ups and Dear John.
Mr. Kavanaugh is also credited with originating a number of
first-of-their-kind deals that changed the film industry, including
for Marvel Studios, which led to the creation of the Marvel
Cinematic, Universe, that has amassed more than $17.5 billion at the worldwide box office. Mr.
Kavanaugh followed-up that success with a first of its kind
television pay deal with Netflix and created what is today known as
the SVOD window for Netflix, which boosted Netflix's market
capitalization to $10 billion USD. He
was also honored with a 'Hollywood Producer of the Year' Award and
was named by Variety as, 'Showman of the Year.'
Mr. Kavanaugh has a depth of experience in China as he was instrumental in launching Sky
Land Entertainment, which entered into a historic partnership with
Huaxia Film Distribution Co. Ltd. to handle production and
distribution of films in China and
the U.S. The deal marks the only strategic alliance to date between
a Hollywood film production entity
and a Chinese government-sponsored company. Among Mr. Kavanaugh's
other notable credits include what is now called Independent Sports
& Entertainment, an integrated sports, media, entertainment and
management company that represents 300 of the best athletes in the
NBA, NFL and MLB and is the second-largest integrated management
company in the U.S. with about $2.5
billion in player contacts. He also created the powerhouse
television company, now called Critical Content, which produced hit
shows such as Catfish on MTV and Limitless on CBS and
under his tenure had over 40 series on the air.
National Arts Entertainment and Culture Group Limited (Listed
Code: 8228) has been a top international company with its business
focusing on Xiqiao National Arts Studio, film production, cinemas,
artist management, hotels, tourism, wedding photography and other
allied businesses. National Arts entered the film and
television entertainment market in 2008 with China and Hong
Kong as its major target markets. Its diverse businesses and
innovative ideation have made National Arts influential and assured
their leadership in the entertainment and tourism business in the
Guangdong Province.
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SOURCE Proxima Media LLC