'Kung Fu Panda 3' continues as tribute to Chinese culture

CHENGDU - The "Kung Fu Panda" franchise will continue to be a tribute to Chinese culture with the creation of its third installment, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, director of Kung Fu Panda 2, said at the ongoing 2013 Global Fortune Forum being held in southwest China's city of Chengdu.

"Chinese audiences will have a film that is set in China and a tribute to China. We certainly want to continue to do that. I'm hoping this will create a full circle in that it could actually come back to China, be made in China and also seen in China," she said,

"Kung Fu Panda 2," released in 2011, brought in worldwide box office earnings of over $660 million. Nelson is set to direct "Kung Fu Panda 3," which is scheduled to debut in 2015.

The film will be made in China as a co-production between DreamWorks Animation and Oriental DreamWorks, a Shanghai-based entertainment company that opened its doors in February.

The two partners said previously that they will make up to three motion pictures per year. They will also invest over 20 billion yuan (3.1 billion U.S. dollars) to build an animation studio and an entertainment complex in Shanghai that will include theaters, restaurants and tourist attractions.

Nelson said the third "Kung Fu Panda" film is still in early development.

"There's a huge talent base here in China. We're trying to get everybody involved and making movies like this," Nelson said.

"This is being made by people who love the history of China; these are people who love the appearance and the beauty of the culture of China. We want to show it to the world," she said.

The 2013 Fortune Global Forum will run from June 6 to 8.