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Published on November 16, 2007

"I plan to make two films in Thailand at the beginning and start shooting next year. They will be action movies," president Masafumi Fukui said yesterday.

The films will be based on Japanese cartoons, and production will be entirely by the local partner, he said.

"The company will spend Bt30 million for each film, and the Thai partners may invest in the movies, as well. The two movies will be distributed both in Thailand and the global market. In the future, Thailand will be the film production base for the company," he said.

Animation is popular worldwide and generates about 300 billion yen (Bt91.76 billion) per year in Japan, he said.

While "Transformer" is an example of such content developed into a feature film, Hollywood also plans to create more animated movies from Japanese cartoons, he said.

After doing business in Japan for five years, he decided to enter Thailand as the first foreign location, due to the steady progress in its production prowess. Many Thai movies are screened abroad and are recognised in the global film market, he said.

The company is also eyeing other countries, such as the US and South Korea, to produce Japanese animated features, he said.

It is now in talks with GMM Grammy about producing music albums for Japanese female singers in Thailand.

Three years after the company has operated its business abroad, Wedge Holdings' revenues should increase tenfold to ¥30 billion, he said.

The investment expansion follows last month's acquisition of 40 per cent of Wedge Holdings by APF Holdings, the investment arm of Japanese-based Asia Partnership Fund.

Wedge Holdings, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, produces films, music albums and cartoons.