Posted: Fri., Mar. 13, 2009, 11:01am PT

Majors prep projects for Asia

Warner, Disney and Fox roll out new works

By Patrick Frater

• Warner, which still maintains a joint venture with China Film Group, now has a slate of movies in India, two of which have been released, while its Warner Japan unit, which oversees distribution, production and production investment, has 15-20 movies in development. Its Turner TV unit also has outlined plans to make movies in India.

• Having released "The Magic Gourd" in 2007, Disney has completed "Touch of the Panda," and has two more pictures in China ready to lense in 2009. In India, it is building its own production team and has announced "Zokkomon," which is starting production in a couple of weeks, and Tamil pic "The 19th Step," which Oscar winner A.R. Rahman will score. Studio also has an animation partnership with Yash Raj Films and is majority owner of Indian major UTV.

• Fox recently wrapped a Japanese-language remake of "Sideways" and is poised to announce another Japanese movie this month. In much of the rest of Asia, the studio's filmmaking operations are to be channeled through Fox Star Studios, a 2008 joint venture with News Corp.'s regional satcaster Star. At its most advanced in India, where Star has been the predominant paybox, FSS aims to put together three separate slates: India, South East Asia and Mandarin-language pics for "greater China," according to FSS.