Mr Wu, Harvest Global Investment, and Pacific Alliance Group, the fund run by former TPG China head Shan Weijian, held preliminary talks with Summit Entertainment, the company behind the blockbuster Twilight vampire films, and Colony Capital, which owns Miramax, about a proposed deal to merge the two companies and then acquire the new entity, according to people familiar with the situation.

The consortium lost out to Lions Gate Entertainment, the independent film studio which this month agreed to acquire Summit for $413m.

“This is the closest Chinese investors have come so far to buying into a major Hollywood brand,” said one person close to the Chinese bidders. “It would have been a huge thing for the Chinese film industry.”