Fun, thrills and innovation

Fantawild's parent company, Huaqiang Holdings Ltd., is a household name in Shenzhen. After its founding in 1979, Huaqiang snowballed from an electronics component manufacturer into a conglomerate investing in more than 60 domestic and international companies. These companies operate in hi-tech electronics components manufacturing, hi-tech entertainment, electronics market research and consulting, and sugar and papermaking industries and yielded around 15 billion yuan ($2.24 billion) in 2009.

To add versatility to its core competitiveness, Huaqiang bought a technology company with about 50 employees in 1998, and that company became Fantawild. With parental investment, Fantawild set out to make 4-D theaters with cylindrical screens in 2000. In 2002, Fantawild registered a patent in the United States for 3-D film imaging on cylindrical screens and has since developed and exported 4-D theater systems to more than 40 countries. The company also leased films tailored to the systems of overseas cinema operators.

Three years later, the company started developing high-tech theme parks. The opening of the Wuhu theme park in 2007 was a Fantawild milestone and has allowed the company to build up its profitability in recent years.

The theme parks, aside from providing fun and thrills to visitors, give the company a platform to maximize returns on its special films, cartoons and derivative products.

While investing heavily to upgrade its cartoon and 3-D film production lines, Fantawild has placed great importance on intellectual property rights protection.

Currently, Fantawild holds about 100 patents and 150 trademarks in special film, cartoon and digital game production, software design and equipment manufacturing. Half of its employees are R&D personnel, including creative designers, said Shang.

"Compared with the Hong Kong Disneyland, we have much lower operating costs, thanks to a number of intellectual property rights we have," Shang said. "While the Disneyland operator in Hong Kong will need at least an annual flow of 8 million visitors to make both ends meet, we will lead a cozy life with 2 million visitors every year."

Fantawild's profit this year is expected to reach 450 million yuan ($67 million), up from 1 million yuan ($149,000) in 1998. Its talent pool has also ballooned to 5,000, Shang said.

To mitigate talent shortages, the company is establishing industrial bases in major coastal cities and even offering specially designed courses at some colleges.

"China's cartoon design colleges are generally failing to update their training programs in accordance with the changing demand or the latest developments in the animation and cartoon industry. We want to get students ready to work for Fantawild with these courses," she said.

Fantawild's Global Vision

Except for its latest investment in writer-director Dayyan Eng's black comedy Inseparable, starring Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey and Daniel Wu, Fantawild's previous ventures into film have been minority investments in mainland-Hong Kong co-production.

"With a minority investment in the sci-fi action film Future X-Cops, starring Hong Kong actor Andy Lau, we obtained the copyright for theme park development of the movie, as well as Andy Lau's image," said Shang Linlin, Vice President of Fantawild.

But Inseparable places much less emphasis on computer graphics or special effects.

"It's a Chinese story told through international language. The screenplay uses a classical Hollywood narrative structure, with 70 percent dialogue carried in English and a recognizable face for Western audiences. That's the primary reason for our investment," she said.

Fantawild's leaders have been looking for ways to help Chinese culture, specifically Chinese films, go global, taking inspiration from overseas markets.

"Overseas customers to our theme parks look for fun and excitement. They aren't interested in stories with Chinese elements unless we reinterpret them and wrap them in hi-tech presentations that enable audience interaction," she said.

Likewise, Western audiences don't want to watch movies depicting the ignorant and backward side of old China, even if these films did win awards in Europe, Shang added.

"This has urged us to produce true blockbusters about modern and changing China, about how China perceives the world and what our values are," she said.

Inseparable helps bridge this gap—the movie centers on a young man (Daniel Wu) with problems at home and work who is befriended by a mysterious American expat (Spacey). Filming has wrapped up, but a release date has yet to be announced.