Kirch to Buy 7.5% of New Regency Productions

German media mogul Leo Kirch’s check-writing blitz in Hollywood continued Thursday with the announcement that he is buying 7.5% of prolific film producer New Regency Productions.

Kirch joins such deep-pocketed investors as Australian billionaire Kerry Packer and Korean electronics giant Samsung Entertainment Group in backing the ambitious plans of producer Arnon Milchan, whose Warner Bros.-based company made such hit films as “A Time to Kill,” “Tin Cup” and “Heat.”

Milchan was one of the unsuccessful suitors attempting to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer earlier this year until billionaire Kirk Kerkorian won out. Kirch is also known to have taken a look at the studio.

Some people close to Regency have speculated that Milchan may one day form a group to buy all or part of Sony Pictures Entertainment if its Japanese parent ever has a change of heart and decides to unload its struggling Columbia and TriStar studios. Indeed, two top executives in Milchan’s operation once worked at Sony: former TriStar chief David Matalon and former Columbia production chief Michael Nathanson. Sony executives have said they have no plans to divest the operation.

In the meantime, Milchan is planning to use the funds as part of a major diversification and growth push by his Regency group of companies, including boosting television production and entering the music business in a deal expected to be announced shortly.

The two companies said the Kirch investment projects a value of $850 million for Regency, which would make a 7.5% stake worth about $64 million. Kirch’s company will make its investment in two steps--the first giving it 5% of Regency--through TaurusFilm, which is part of his Kirch Group. Milchan remains majority owner, with Packer owning about 27% and Samsung owning 7.5%.

Earlier this year, Kirch committed to spending about $5 billion for the German television rights to films and TV shows from the major Hollywood studios.

Kirch’s deals come in tandem with Germany’s emergence as one of the world’s hottest TV markets. The number of channels there has exploded, creating a hunger for movies and television programming, which Hollywood has in abundance. In July, Kirch became the first to launch a digital TV service in German.

Kirch’s spending spree--providing cash to Hollywood studios at a time when profits are being squeezed by soaring talent and marketing costs--has made him one of the most important figures for the U.S. entertainment industry. The reclusive 69-year-old tycoon, who suffers from diabetes and is said to be nearly blind, got his start in the 1950s, driving around Germany in a beat-up Volkswagen selling Federico Fellini’s “La Strada” to theaters.