China's film market promising: Dreamworks CEO

BEIJING -- Now is an incredibly exciting time to be pursuing the movie business in China because the country presents a promising market full of opportunities, says Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of Dreamworks Studio.

"China has unquestionably become a huge market -- the second largest in the world and in a handful of years, will in fact become the biggest market in the world," Katzenberg told Xinhua in a recent written interview.

Meanwhile, the Chinese elements in films, he said, are sure to be a great attraction for global movie-goers who are eagor to know more about China.

"I think China has one of the richest cultures and heritages of any country in the world," Katzenberg said. "More than 5,000 years in the making and I think that is of interest to the world at large."

Katzenberg said he thinks movie fans "are excited about seeing and learning more about China through its movies and ultimately through its movie makers and storytelling.

The head of Dreamworks, a California-based studio that has produced many box office hits including the "Kung Fu Panda" series, has visited China's southwestern city of Chengdu, also the home of the panda, for numerous times.

Katzenberg said that during his stays, those "little friends" were a great inspiration to him and his film making teams.

The upcoming "Kung Fu Panda 3" will explore more elements of China and its culture, he said.

Meanwhile, Katzenberg voiced excitement about his visit to Chengdu for the Fortune Global Forum that will run from June 6 to June 8.

"I think the Fortune Forum is a fantastic opportunity for the top business leaders from China as well as the rest of the world to gather and share ideas and to explore a future, particularly as it relates to China itself," Katzenberg said.

The Dreamworks founder also talked about his company's plans to localize their operation in China to gain more market share.

"Our future plans in China are extremely ambitious," Katzenberg said. "We are on a path to build a branded family entertainment company that makes world class movies, television, animation and is created here in China by Chinese, for the Chinese and for export to the rest of the world."

Katzenberg spoke positively about the efforts by Chinese film makers.

"We already are starting to see a very interesting acceleration of good movie-making and good storytelling from Chinese film makers and I think in time, there will be great success for those films outside of China," he said.