The Taiwan Creative Content Agency and CatchPlay yesterday announced that they have invested a total of NT$200 million (US$6.78 million) in a new company, Screenworks, to promote original Taiwanese television and film content to an international audience.
CatchPlay is one of the teams behind such original Taiwanese content as The World Between Us (我們與惡的距離) and The Making of an Ordinary Woman (俗女養成記).
Its over-the-top (OTT) service, CatchPlay+, launched in 2016, is the only Taiwanese platform to successfully enter the international market, the agency said.
Photo: Hu Shun-hsiang, Taipei Times
CatchPlay has also had success investing in internationally coproduced films, it added.
CatchPlay has also worked to bring high-quality international content to Taiwanese audiences, CatchPlay Group chief executive officer Daphne Yang (楊麗貞) said.
Now is the time for it to use its experience in the international market to bring high-quality original Taiwanese works to the world, Yang added.
Yang said she hopes the partnership with the agency will help workers in Taiwan’s TV and film industries build a new platform to connect with the world.
Screenworks would focus primarily on the production and distribution of Taiwanese original TV and film content, selecting themes that would resonate with an international audience, and focus on developing films, mini-series and reality shows, the agency said.
Screenworks already has several projects in development, including The Making of an Ordinary Woman 2, which is being coproduced with Chinese Television System, CatchPlay said.
It expects to begin filming the drama in the fourth quarter of this year, it said, adding that members of the original cast and crew, including directors Yen Yi-wen (嚴藝文) and Chen Chang-lun (陳長綸), and actress Hsieh Ying-hsuan (謝盈萱), would return for the second season.
Screenworks’ short to medium-term goal is to invest in the production of 80 to 100 hours of original Taiwanese films and television works each year starting in 2022, CatchPlay said.
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