BEIJING – DMG Entertainment has hired trans-Pacific talent manager Lillian Ng to head up a new talent management division centered around initial clients such as Hong Kong veterans director Jingle Ma (Mulan, 2009) and actor Simon Yam (Echoes of the Rainbow).
Ng comes to Beijing seconded to DMG, the advertising firm-turned film producer and distributor, from Plan C Management, a part of the Los Angeles-based Plan C Group, a company whose website says it was established in 2003 as an Asian lifestyle company.
“I’m always scouting new talents who can cross over and go back again,” Ng told The Hollywood Reporter. “My job is to balance the cultural differences and ensure both parties are happy with a healthy working relationship.”
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At Plan C, where her work continues, Ng helps clients such as Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu (Inseparable) or rapper Jin Auyeung work in the West and costume designer Patricia Field work in Asia. Ng attached Field to the 2010 box office hit Go La La Go, directed by Xu Jinglei, which DMG helped present.
At DMG, Ng also will work with recent DMG hire Alan Chu, formerly a development executive with director Oliver Stone, on the development of Chinese films and co-productions.
China’s gross box office grew 64% in 2010 to hit $1.5 billion, led up in part by imports such as Resident Evil: Afterlife, the 19th most-successful box office film of the year, with $21 million in tickets sold. DMG helped the China Film Group distribute the film.
In January, DMG, best known perhaps for its work in advertising with the National Basketball Association, announced it would co-produce director Rian Johnson’s Looper with Endgame Entertainment.
The sci-fi thriller stars Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt and Chinese TV actress Xu Qing, with whom Ng said DMG is now in talks about representation.
“Why would Hollywood care about her?” Ng said, repeating a question The Hollywood Reporter asked her: “Because she’s about to play Bruce Willis’ wife.”
Chu, who Ng said is heading up the Looper project from Beijing, could not be immediately reached for comment on his new role at DMG.
