HONG KONG, March 14 (Bernama) -- Malaysia’s Animasia Studio has successfully inked a deal with Zero One Animation of China to co-operate for a new CGI animated movie titled Chuck Chicken – The Movie at Hong Kong FILMART 2016 today. This brand new animated movie is a spinoff from the successful animated TV series, "Chuck Chicken a.k.a. KungFu Chicken", which premiered on Disney China (includes Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau), Disney South East Asia, Nickelodeon India (includes South Asia), Middle East and the C.I.S regional TV stations. The successful Chuck Chicken TV series has also garnered over 300 million views, within six months of its launch, on China's VOD platform iQIYI (China).

The signing ceremony that took place at the Malaysia Pavilion, witnessed by Mr. Azmir Saifuddin Mutalib, Senior Director of Commercialisation of National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS): Mr. Elvin Law, Fujian Director of Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC): Ms. Huiqin Tang, Representative of Fujian Province Department of Commerce: and Mr. Wan Ke Feng, Representative of Fujian Provincial Administration of Press Publication, Radio, Film & Television will further strengthen the relationship between Malaysia and China in the creative industry. Animation production services are among the biggest contributors to export revenues in the Malaysian creative content industry. This can be seen from the growing revenue of exports from creative content, which has increased to more than USD140 million at end of 2014 from approximately USD46 million in 2009.

Chuck Chicken – The Movie is set with a budget of USD 8 million (RMB 50 million), and is targeting for theatrical release early 2018. At Hong Kong FILMART, the Executive Producers of the film, Edmund Chan, Raye Lee and Helen Dong are taking this first step to announce their joint collaboration in gathering creative talents from China, Malaysia and North America to contribute to the production of this 3D CGI film, meanwhile raising funds and securing potential investments from prominent partners in the upcoming months.

Chuck Chicken – The Movie, an action comedy concept that targets predominantly family viewers brings Chuck together with his friends, Flick and Wing to operate ‘The Golden Egg Securities’ on Rocky Perch Island. Chuck has big ambitions and dreams - he wants to be rich! But yet the business is not generating money and the greed in Chuck changes the philosophy of their services, Chuck is willing to take on any job that pays good money. The change of goodness in Chuck causes the golden egg to start losing its power, and conflicts start to grow among Chuck and his team. Flick decides to leave the company while Chuck is getting into more trouble. Will the golden egg end up as a useless rock? Can Chuck still save the day?

The story and script development process has started since November 2015 and it was a collaborative effort headed by China's Chen Xi (“无不想”, nominated for Magnolia Awards – Best Animated Series); Helen Dong (“Pet Pals”) and Malaysian animation director Wong Kuan Loong a.k.a. Ah Loong (“Bola Kampung The Movie”). The Pre-Production works will set to commence in early June, while the CGI production targets to start in late 2016.

With the success of this co-operation announcement, “We are eager to launch one of our most anticipated animated projects in our recent slate of contents, and this co-operate partnership bring us a step closer in jointly producing a Blockbuster movie for an important market such as China.” quoted from Edmund Chan, Executive Producer & Managing Director of Animasia Studio.

Helen Dong, General Manager of Zero One Animation said, “This partnership with Animasia Studio will elevate our experience in China to a different level, and we are thrilled to co- operate in this movie with Animasia Studio. We are very happy with the concept and script for Chuck Chicken – The Movie and I am confident that investors will back us for this mega project.”

With honour, Dato' Kamil Othman, Director General of National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS) also commented, "It is our pleasure to witness this significant milestone at Hong Kong FILMART and I am delighted that there is another remarkable international film project happening between Malaysia and China studios.”

For photos of the signing ceremony please download here:
 
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwLYwpxYTieJQmNWN2JkRTVwZHM&usp=sharing
 
About Animasia Studio
 
Animasia Studio, a one-stop-solution 2D Animation Studio that covers full production pipeline, offersout-of-the-world creative animation through on-going ideas of vibrant colours, fun and adventures,turning still life into animated contents. Animasia Studio is proud to be one of the first few ISO certified (ISO 9001:2008) animation companies in Asia and also a MSC Malaysia Status Company with more than 10 years of experience in the animation field. Animasia Studio, the biggest animation service provider in Malaysia, has outclassed many Government Ministries and creative companies from around the world in the capacity of character design, concept artwork and storyboarding.
 
Learn more at www.animasia-studio.com
 
About Zero One Animation
 
Zero One Animation Co., Ltd. established in 2012, the company has more than a decade of experience in the animation industry. The core founding team was formed by animation producers, filmmakers, and experts of licensing & merchandising. The company’s profile has more than 97 projects and over 50,000 minutes of animation. Zero One Animation is also a collaborative partner of China Mobile Communications Corporation (CMCC) Migu Comic Co., Ltd. and China Telecom Animation Base. One of the projects, KungFu Chicken a.k.a. Chuck Chicken has made a major breakthrough in China, and it
has gathered over 300 million views on iQIYI (China) within six months of its launch.

Source : Global Creative & Media Agency Portal Sdn Bhd (GCMA)

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: 
Name : Andrea Lok, 
Head of Distribution, Animasia Studio
Tel  : +603 7784 6987 / +6012 394 7752
Email : andrea@animasia-studio.com

--BERNAMA