Hello Hollywood! says Alibaba with stake in Spielberg company

Alibaba investments include Star Trek Beyond.[Photo/ China Daily]

Yet to reveal details of their collaboration, Ma and Spielberg are expected to bring some Chinese stories to the silver screen.

In addition to The BFG, other well-known movies by Amblin include The Light between Oceans, The Girl on the Train and A Dog's Purpose.

While Tencent Pictures, the Chinese arm of another Chinese tech company, Tencent Holdings Ltd, is mainly financing domestic films, Alibaba seemingly more focuses on Hollywood.

Zhang Wei, president of Alibaba Pictures, says the firm began to negotiate with Amblin earlier this year.

Many Hollywood studios see Chinese companies as just sources of capital and as gateways into the Chinese market.

But the partnership between Alibaba Pictures and Amblin is different, she says.

Alibaba Pictures and Amblin will work together in different aspects of filmmaking, she says, from coproducing to merchandising to distribution.

Since 2014, when Alibaba Group purchased a 60 percent stake in a Hong Kong-based company and named it Alibaba Pictures, the movie subsidiary has yet to release an in-house feature.

Relying on Hollywood skills to polish the filmmaking is widely regarded as one vital element for the deal.

Just a few days earlier, Shanghai-based Fundamental Films acquired a 28 percent stake in French director Luc Besson's EuropaCorp for $67 million to be its second-largest shareholder.