Louis Koo plans to produce 10 films to help battered HK film industry

Louis Koo, seen here in last year's 'Line Walker 2', announced plans to produce 10 Hong Kong movies in the next two years with movie mogul Albert Yeung.

The movie industry in Hong Kong has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic, with productions suspended and cinemas closed since late March.

But there is hope that things will get better, with the reopening of cinemas yesterday and an announcement this week of a project to boost the industry.

On Thursday, Hong Kong actor Louis Koo, 49, and movie mogul Albert Yeung, 77, announced that they will work together to produce 10 Hong Kong movies in the next two years.

Koo, who founded film enterprise One Cool Group in 2013, and Yeung, who owns Emperor Motion Pictures, said the movies would be filmed mainly in Hong Kong and they would hire mostly Hong Kong actors and crew members.

They hoped the move would provide concrete support to crew members who have been left jobless or forced to take other jobs to survive.

"We hoped to come up with more good scripts and develop a new generation of movie workers with this collaboration," One Cool Group said in the statement.

The announcement came after the annual Hong Kong Film Awards took place on Wednesday, the first time that they were announced online in a livestream. The prize presentation ceremony was cancelled as a result of the Covid-19 situation.

In an interview with the Hong Kong media, Yeung said the move was first raised during a dinner last month with Koo, the current president of the Hong Kong Performing Artistes Guild. They noted that Hong Kong actors and directors were unable to work in mainland China due to the pandemic, while there were no movies being planned in Hong Kong.

Both Yeung and Koo felt that a collaboration between both companies would help to produce an average of one Hong Kong film every two months.

They said in the announcement that movie production would begin in the second half of the year, covering genres ranging from horror and suspense to love and comedy. Both new and veteran actors would be hired, they added.

The move was applauded by several Hong Kong actors, with Simon Yam believing that the Hong Kong government will provide support as well.

"I will help to act, produce or direct if I am approached," said Yam, who won Best Actor for Echoes Of The Rainbow at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2010. "I am even keen to take up jobs behind the scenes." – The Straits Times/Asia News Network