DragonSlate Media, a new production partnership in Malaysia

Veteran Hollywood producer-financier and former Village Roadshow Pictures CEO, Greg Coote announced the formation of a new joint-venture company with Malaysian producer Leon Tan called DragonSlate Media, to develop and produce TV and films production together with local industry players and government initiatives.

DragonSlate is Coote’s initiative in the expanding Asian media development and production sector. It plans to build a world-class media production company in Malaysia by producing a USD multi-million dollar slate of films and TV projects, made predominantly in Malaysia with key international partners/producers. The new company has already structured an international slate of feature films and TV projects, and plans to put at least two films into production in 2014. Details on the projects and its principals will be announced soon.

DragonSlate also announced that it has closed strategic investment from the Malaysia Venture Capital Management (MAVCAP), country’s largest venture capitalist and wholly-owned by the Minister of Finance. Based in Los Angeles, Coote has had a decades-long career in the film business, most recently as Chairman and CEO of Dune Entertainment. 

During his tenure, the company co-financed over sixty 20th Century Fox movies, including Avatar, the highest grossing movie of all time. Coote was also founding President and CEO of Village Roadshow Pictures, during which he forged a USD multi-million dollar production deal with Warner Bros. that exists to this day and where he “greenlit” The Matrix which spawned a billion dollar franchise. 

He currently is a non-executive Director of Eros International, the Indian production giant who last week listed on the NYSE. He chairs China Lion, is Chairman of ScreenSingapore, and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars), the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (the Emmys) and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).

Coote will co-manage DragonSlate with Tan, who is also CEO of animation/postproduction powerhouse Tripod Entertainment and producer of Malaysia’s award-winning 3D stereoscopic animated feature War Of The Worlds: Goliath. In the execution of its projects, it will engage and co-develop the Malaysian ecosystem with other industry players and government initiatives, including Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios, Film In Malaysia Incentive (FIMI) rebates, and the growing community of world-class industry talents, expertise and resources in Malaysia and the region.

‘Malaysia has dynamic and hungry filmmakers, award-winning expertise and talent, and a conducive environment to nurture a world-class film and TV production hub, backed by both public and private sectors. The world will be surprised and impressed with the film and TV projects coming soon from DragonSlate and its Malaysian colleagues’, said Coote.

‘We may be a start-up but already our slate is full of exciting projects in active development. I look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with Greg, and together we’ll provide a great showcase for Malaysian stories and talents, and put Malaysia firmly on the global map of worldclass filmmaking,” added Tan.

‘We are excited about investing in these great minds from the creative industry, where Leon’s Malaysian roots and Greg’s international reach present a new paradigm in media IP development for Malaysia. At MAVCAP, we recognize that DragonSlate is not just a financially-sound investment, it will help fuel our creative industry’s aspirations to engage new markets, new partnerships and acquire new knowledge and expertise’, remarked Jamaludin Bujang, CEO at MAVCAP.