Oct 4, 2017

Do not count Oriental Dreamworks; Chinese studio to announce 6 feature film project

Earlier reports of the death of Oriental Dreamworks (ODW) may have been premature.

ODW, a venture backed by Dreamworks Animation and a consortium of private and state-owned Chinese companies like CMC Capital Partners, Shanghai Media Group, and Shanghai Alliance Investment Limited, announced last week an ambitious slate of feature films in development, in addition to the previously-announced Everest, which is in production and slated for release by Universal in 2019.

The key exec heading up the creative side of the studio is Peilin Chou, who has been promoted from ODW's head of creative to chief creative officer. Chou, who was formerly v-p of original series at Spike TV and director of development at Nickelodeon, in addition to stints at Disney Feature Animation, AZN Television, and Touchstone Pictures, will be based in Shanghai and New York City. She will oversee a slate of more than a dozen active projects.

The studio has also figured out a new way to position its slate, explaining that it will produce family-oriented films “for the global market, with hyper-appeal in China.”

“Animation is a universal language that everyone understands and enjoys whether you live in Shanghai or Queens,” Chou said in a statement. “Creating global animated films, infused with authentic Chinese elements, is a lifelong personal passion of mine. To be able to do that at ODW, with the strong support of [Li] Ruigang [chairman of ODW], the extraordinary partnership of Frank [Zhu, CEO of ODW], and the crazy talented filmmakers we have in our greater ODW family is truly a dream come true.”

The studio has identified five upcoming projects, presumably those which are furthest along in development or in which it has the most confidence will be produced. These projects are:

Recent industry reports suggest that the new owner of Dreamworks Animation, Comcast-NBCUniversal, doesn't see eye-to-eye with the Chinese owners of ODW, and is looking to unload its 45% stake in ODW to another company.