We should’ve seen this one coming. ‘Bollywood coming to Hollywood‘ + ‘Spielberg wants to reinvent DreamWorks‘  = this post? Apparently DreamWorks’ Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg are in talks with the Indian Reliance Group to invest in their studio.

The big three have been discontent with the Paramount deal for a long time and have been talking to several competing parties. Now it seems like Spielberg and co. will get $500-$600 million from Reliance to become independent yet again.

DreamWorks’ parting from Paramount is pretty much confirmed by now and both don’t seem to mind (at all). But will they really end up in Indian arms? And start the injection of Indian movie capital into Hollywood while the US studios are keeping the money in their pockets?

China is a hot topic in today’s day and age, so here’s a look at what’s happening at the film front. At the Beijing Student Film Festival the deputy head of the film bureau said China is looking to further its commercialization of Chinese movies.

“… after China adopted the policy to commercialize its film industry in 2003, the box office takings of Chinese films have risen by 20% annually,” Zhang said. To create more commercially successful film companies, he said to allow movies to be sold on the market, break down monopolies and help to raise funds outside of China.

With 402 movies last year, the box office total was only $434 million. That’s an incredible low ratio and lags far behind countries like South Korea or Japan. The main problem was the lack of a clear investment, production and marketing plan for the movies.

With the impact of the Chinese economy on the world, I’m surprised the film industry is lagging this much. I understand the lack of potential for overseas distribution, but with over a billion people, you would expect a more mature industry. Compared to India’s Bollywood, the Chinese film industry is kinda nonexistent.