Korea's CJ Entertainment and Japan's Kadokawa Holdings have announced a wide-ranging partnership in various fields including production, investment, international sales, and publishing. Kadokawa Holdings, the core company of the Kadokawa Media Group, is in the midst of an agressive expansion which has seen it acquire distributor Nippon Herald, launch a new production arm Kadokawa Pictures, and take out an investment stake in Hollywood's DreamWorks. CJ Entertainment, which also holds a share in DreamWorks, will co-operate with Kadokawa in film production, particularly for adaptations of books and manga published by Kadokawa Shoten. Their first joint production will be One Missed Call 3, the next installment in the successful Japanese horror franchise. CJ, which operates the profitable exhibition chain CGV, will reportedly assist Kadokawa in expanding its multiplex business, while the Japanese company will help CJ to get more involved with publishing. Both have also shown an interest in building multiplexes in China. Kadokawa Holdings chairman Tsuguhiko KADOKAWA is quoted on Screendaily.com as saying, "The Korean film industry continues to produce superbly talented people, while building a system with companieslike CJ that strongly supports their work. I think the current Korean film boom will continue a long time."

 Darcy Paquet