Board members at Japan's Picnic Pictures Inc have formed partnerships with two established film companies to set up separate production entities.

Picnic president Tadaatsu Shundo has partnered with Tokyo Theatres Inc to establish Parade Inc. Shundo will serve as CEO and Toshikazu Nishigaya will serve as board member and head producer.

Established after World War II, Tokyo Theatres is primarily an exhibitor, operating cinemas in Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ginza.

Tokyo Theatres also distributes the films of Takeshi Kitano and acquires foreign titles such as Elephant and recent pre-AFM acquisition La Boheme. The company regularly joins production consortiums and cited the deal as a means of expanding its in-house contents development.

Simultaneously, Picnic board member and film producer Hiroyuki Negishi has partnered with Bitters End president Yuji Sadai to set up new production company Match Point Inc.

Picnic and Bitters End's previous co-production credits include the Michel Gondry segment of omnibus Tokyo ! and youth drama Shindo, starring Ken'ichi Matsuyama. Bitters End is well known as a producer and distributor of domestic and foreign titles.

Negishi's producing credits include A Gentle Breeze In The Village after joining Picnic and Linda, Linda, Linda previously, both directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita. Match Point will develop projects for Yamashita and screenwriters Kosuke Mukai and Wakako Miyashita, both of who have collaborated with the director.

Parade and Match Point began business operations on November 25.

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