Huayi Brothers, the Chinese film production company, has announced plans to launch an animation division headed by veteran Hollywood producer Joe Aguilar. This plan comes as a part of its expansion plans and will involve other industry veterans.
The former DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox producer, Joe Aguilar, will serve as chief executive of the new unit. He has earlier helped DreamWorks to establish its India division, which has produced animation features including Madagascar 3 and How to Train Your Dragon.
Huayi said in the statement, “The establishment of an animation company signifies that the company will enter the animated movie industry with world class production skills.”
The new animation studio’s art director will be Markus Manninen, who was VFX supervisor for The Croods and Kung Fu Panda.
Huayi said that it further plans to announce additional Hollywood hires for the startup animation unit in the coming weeks. This move of Huayi Brothers comes as an effort to expand and establish its stature in the international business front.