Hollywood could soon be working with China and New Zealand on tripartite film ventures, officials with New Zealand's biggest city government said Monday.
Direct and immediate economic benefits were starting to flow from this month's Tripartite Economic Alliance talks between businesses from Auckland, southern China's Guangzhou city and Los Angeles, in the United States, according to Auckland City Council' s Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) agency.
ATEED's specialist screen industry unit, held positive discussions in Los Angeles with the producers of four feature films and one television documentary about locating productions in Auckland, and they also looked at leading film studio infrastructure, said ATEED chief executive Brett O'Riley.
"Some of the feature films are potential U.S.-New Zealand-China co-productions, so the Tripartite was the perfect venue to get around the table with key people for all three cities and make progress," O'Riley said in a statement.
More than 40 Auckland companies attended the first tripartite summit and associated business meetings.
"Auckland council's tripartite team was able to facilitate crucial introductions and connections for innovative Auckland companies with counterparts and potential investors in China and United States, and it is now up to them to clinch deals," he said.
The second summit was expected to be held in Auckland early next year.
The Tripartite Economic Alliance, an historic three-way trade and economic agreement among Auckland, Guangzhou and Los Angeles, was signed in November last year in Guangzhou.