Leading private Chinese movie company Huayi Brothers plans to list in the Chinese mainland or Hong Kong next year, a news report said Friday, citing the company's co-president.

Hollywood trade publication Variety also quoted Wang Zhonglei as saying on the sidelines of the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea that Huayi Brothers plans to get into the movie theater business.

"For 2008, our plan is to go public, either in Hong Kong or the mainland, and invest in (movie) exhibition to develop into a high-quality cinema chain," Wang said, Variety reported on its Asian news website.

Huayi Brothers is one of most prominent private movie companies in China. The influential State-owned China Film Group is reportedly also planning a share listing on the Chinese domestic market.

Huayi Brothers Media Group includes advertising, movie, pop music and artist management divisions.

It wasn't immediately clear if Huayi Brothers plans to list the entire group or just the movie division and how much it hopes to raise.

Guo Na, a Huayi Brothers publicist, said she couldn't immediately confirm Wang's comments.

Among Huayi Brothers' recent productions are the Feng Xiaogang's war movie "Assembly," which just premiered at the Pusan International Film Festival, and the Chinese imperial drama "The Banquet."

Huayi Brothers said earlier that in two weeks it plans to start shooting a US$20 million movie about John Rabe, a German citizen who protected Chinese refugees amid Japanese slaughter in 1937 and has been likened to Oskar Schindler.

That film, called "John Rabe," is a co-production with German company Hofmann & Voges Entertainment.