Japanese Start 1st Hollywood Film Studio

While not on the scale of a major film factory, it’s a start: Apricot Entertainment, which boasts $50 million in backing from private Japanese investors, said Wednesday that it has bought a Hollywood building with two sound stages and intends to make pictures.

A spokesman said the enterprise is believed to be the first Hollywood production company and studio with Japanese funding.

For many months, much bigger Japanese interests, such as Sony Corp., have been shopping for major studios, such as MGM/UA and Columbia Pictures, but no deals have been reported.

The modest production schedule announced by Apricot Chairman Naofumi Okamoto envisions two films each year for the next three years at $6 million each. By comparison, the average cost of a major studio production is about $20 million.

However, the deal furnishes tangible evidence of the Japanese interest in breaking into Hollywood.

Some action has been seen already. Sony, which bought CBS Records about a year ago, has a New York-based unit that has been making some low-budget films since last summer--though it does not own a studio itself. And money from Japan has been invested in individual movie projects, including several that turned out to be flops at MGM/UA.

Financing Sought

Joint distribution as well as production deals are being stirred on both sides of the Pacific. Last week, the famous 78-year-old Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa told a Tokyo news conference that he plans to make a film next year to be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. and Steven Spielberg’s film company, Amblin Entertainment.

According to reports circulating in the industry, some of Hollywood’s big players are seeking or considering Japanese financing.

Okamoto said Apricot’s funding will cover the cost of prints and advertising, adding: “Being in a position to finance both production and marketing costs enables Apricot to have its distribution in place before filming begins.”

Before he obtained financing to start Apricot Entertainment, Okamoto was a director of business development for a Japanese entertainment conglomerate, Fuji Sankei Communications International, in New York and San Francisco. There he acquired films for a Japanese cable network. He also produced an off-Broadway musical, “Personals,” and the Grand Sumo Tournament in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Okamoto, who is now visiting Japan, personally raised Apricot’s funding from individual investors there, according to Sergei Goncharoff, the company’s executive vice president.

Last month, Okamoto bought the studio building at 940 N. Orange Drive, which had been used by several small producers over the years, and began refurbishing it. The studio has two editing rooms and is adding facilities for 12 more.

While preparing to produce its own pictures, Apricot is renting some of its facilities to other independent producers, with or without Apricot financing.

The company’s own initial project in development is “The Chrysanthemum Covenant,” a drama about World War II that Okamoto researched and outlined.