Chinese and foreign film producers, companies and investment firms signed movie cooperation deals worth 13.8 billion RMB ($2.3 billion) on Monday, demonstrating how foreign movie makers increasingly want a piece of the growing Chinese market.
The 36 deals were signed on the sidelines of the Beijing International Film Festival, an annual event in its fifth year, and were worth about a third more than those signed last year, according to Zhao Zhiyong, of the festival organizing committee.
The former chairman of Walt Disney Studios signed a deal with CITIC Guoan, a unit of state-owned CITIC Group Corporation, to invest $150 million into his new Dick Cook Studios.
Cook, chairman and CEO, told the signing ceremony: "Our discussions with CITIC Guoan have always come back to the importance of family entertainment, whether it's through movies, television, books and even things that have not even been invented. In the coming years we will look forward to telling quality stories for the entire family that will live on from generation to generation."
Beijing Hairun Pictures, the film production arm of Chinese TV production company Hairun Media Group, and Village Roadshow Pictures Asia, whose holding company is the Los Angeles-based Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, signed a deal to co-produce five feature films. One will be a biopic of Stephon Marbury, the former NBA player who led a Beijing basketball team to three championships since moving here four years ago, and Marbury will play himself in the film, according to the two companies.
A host of Sino-foreign co-productions were announced, including "The Beast," a Chinese-New Zealand animation, the Chinese-Irish "Under the Dancing Stars," a love story set against dancing in Ireland and Inner Mongolia, and the Chinese-Australian "Girl of Ashima," based on a Chinese folk tale.
Other deals included a fund to help young aspiring filmmakers, building cinemas and a theme park.
California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction
California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday.
California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform's algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children's access to social media, but they have faced challenges in court.
The California law will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companies in the world. Similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years, but Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law in 2022 barring online platforms from using users' personal information in ways that could harm children. It is part of a growing push in states across the country to try to address the impacts of social media on the well-being of children.
"Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night," Newsom said in a statement. "With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits."
The law bans platforms from sending notifications without permission from parents to minors between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also makes platforms set children's accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the legislation say it could inadvertently prevent adults from accessing content if they cannot verify their... Read More