Korea's Daesung Group, an energy conglomerate that has become an active investor in the Korean film industry, has announced a multi-million dollar joint venture with New Zealand's Park Road Post, which was established by New Zealand director Peter Jackson. Under the deal, BiNext -- a venture capital arm of the Daesung Group will establish a US$30m fund to be used for making films, TV series, games, and digital contents targeted at the Asian market. The films made under the fund will then have access to the post-production facilities at Park Road Post, which has carried out post-production for The Lord of the Rings series, The Last Samurai and Peter Jackson's upcoming King Kong. The films made under the joint venture are expected to be of the big-budget variety, and the Daesung Group says that it hopes that co-operation between the two industries leads to increased skills on the part of Korean film technicians. To date, Daesung has participated as a minority investor in such films as Old Boy, Romance of Their Own, Running Boy, and the upcoming Antarctic Diary and April Snow. Korea and New Zealand have proposed the signing of a full co-production treaty, and are currently in the process of negotiating increased co-operation between the two industries.

 Darcy Paquet