Hollywood financiers focus lens on Asian films

SINGAPORE, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Hoping to bankroll the next "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", international financiers said on Wednesday they will pump millions of dollars into the Asian film industry to ride the region's growing consumer wealth.

Ashok Amritraj, chief executive of Hyde Park Entertainment, a Hollywood firm that produced movie hits such as "Bringing Down the House" and "Raising Helen", said it is investing millions into film projects in India, South Korea, Japan and Singapore.

"This is Asia's time. Over the next 10 years, both economically and from an entertainment standpoint, the change will be dramatic," he told reporters at the Asia Media Festival in Singapore.

Amritraj said Hyde Park's Asian projects will be announced in the first quarter next year, but declined to give an exact investment. The firm will open its Asian headquarters next year.

The fast growth of the Asian film market may see it outstrip the market in the United States by 2020, said Edward Pressman, chief executive of Edward R. Pressman Film Corp.

"The fact that the agencies are here in Asia and the major studios are building infrastructure in this part of the world is a clear indication of the importance of the region," said Pressman, an acclaimed Hollywood producer who gave Arnold Schwarzenegger his first starring role in "Conan the Barbarian".

The total revenues from China's radio, television and film industry surged 18 percent to about $15 billion last year, according to government data.

Pressman said the presence of top talent agency, William Morris, in Shanghai was testament to Hollywood's attraction to Asia.

Film financing provides an opportunity for investors to get exposure to films and to secure profits from "pre-sales" -- selling the distribution rights before the film is produced.

Over the last few years, Asian horror movies such as Japan's The Ring and Singapore-Hong Kong production The Eye have been remade for Western audiences and met with commercial success.

"The directors were probably watching American movies ... and then translating them into their own versions, which is why these films work so well," said Cassian Elwes, senior vice-president of William Morris Independent.

Ang Lee's blockbuster, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, won an Oscar for best foreign language film in 2000. But India has never won the Oscar for best foreign film, despite having the world's biggest film industry in terms of ticket sales.

"This part of the world is at a crossroads ... You are taking a local industry, whether it be the India film industry or South Korea or Singapore or Japan and broadening it out to a global audience," Amritraj said. (Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Jerry Norton)