MCLC: China meets Hollywood

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: China meets Hollywood
***********************************************************

Source: Wall Street Journal (4/17/12):
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577239152267848104.h
tml

Odd Couple: China Meets Hollywood
By MICHELLE KUNG

David Franzoni, the Academy Award-winning producer of "Gladiator," knows
how to craft a film out of a historical event. He faces a new challenge
for his latest project: working with the Chinese government, which has its
own ideas about filmmaking.

Hired last year by a state-owned production company to write a script for
a $30 million drama set in the Tang Dynasty, Mr. Franzoni proposed using a
rebel general as a "window" into the ancient world.

One problem: To Chinese censors, the general, rather than a hero, was a
foreign interloper who betrayed an 8th-century emperor, according to Mr.
Franzoni and his Chinese producers. The producers told Mr. Franzoni he
should be less sympathetic toward the general and focus more on the
emperor and his consort. So the story went into rewrite.

China and Hollywood are gearing up to make more films together. Hollywood
wants access to a rapidly growing foreign market, while China wants
Hollywood's help to duplicate the success of big-budget U.S. films.
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577239152267848104
.html#>

On Monday, Walt Disney Co. and China's DMG Entertainment said they agreed
to co-produce the next "Iron Man" film in China.

Other major U.S. studios have announced Chinese joint ventures or
co-productions in recent months.

But Mr. Franzoni's experience with the Tang Dynasty film highlights the
challenges that lie ahead. While the Chinese government has taken key
steps recently to lure foreign filmmakers, it still maintains a tight grip
over who participates in its film industry and what they are allowed to
make.

In the case of "Iron Man," Dan Mintz, chief executive of DMG
Entertainment, wouldn't directly answer if Chinese officials had viewed
the script yet. But he said he had already had lengthy discussions with
them and was confident any creative issues would be worked out. A state
film official appeared at the "Iron Man" news conference on Monday, saying
that the new Disney-DMG partnership would help with "China's important
task of improving the quality of the country's films."

Mr. Mintz, an American, has been operating in China for many years. "Back
home, you're really only concerned with one group of people<the consumer,"
he explained in a recent interview. "In China you have to be good at
handling the government and the consumer."

U.S. studios have tried to slip their films through China's tight
foreign-film restrictions for decades. Their goal is a bigger return from
the country's growing box-office revenues, which by 2015 are expected to
reach $5 billion, according to government reports. That is up from $2.1
billion last year.

In February, China agreed to allow more foreign films within its borders.
It will permit 34 films annually instead of 20, provided the additional
films use either large-screen IMAX or 3-D technologies. The country also
will let U.S. studios keep roughly 25% of the box-office revenue from
China viewing. Currently, U.S. studios get between 13.5% and 17.5%. (The
limits don't apply to films co-produced with a Chinese company.)

The trade agreement came the same day that DreamWorks Animation SKG
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Inc.DWA +1.82%
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announced a venture with three Chinese partners to develop films and
television programs in China. DreamWorks Chief Executive Jeffrey
Katzenberg described it as a "historic alliance" that will produce
animated and live action products "for China, by the Chinese, in China, at
a quality that actually can be exported to the rest of the world."

Many of the new U.S.-China partnerships aim to create films that appeal to
audiences inside and outside China. But that is a tricky balancing act.
Films with Chinese themes and allusions often fizzle with Western
audiences. Strong governmental oversight makes the challenge even more
complex.

Signs of those challenges are clear in several recent films, including
last year's "The Flowers of War." Starring Christian Bale<best known for
playing Batman in "The Dark Knight"<the Chinese- and English-language film
grossed more than $95 million in China in 2011 and 2012. That made it the
country's highest-grossing Chinese film released last year.

In the U.S. however, no top distributor wanted the film. American
distributors were concerned about the film's intense, often nationalistic
violence, historical focus, and that much of it was in Chinese, according
to people familiar with the distributors' decisions. Some worried that the
movie would be grabbed and distributed by film pirates, still a big
problem in China, before it reached U.S. theaters.

The film was picked up by distributor Wrekin Hill Entertainment, released
in the U.S. in January and grossed roughly $300,000 in American theaters.
Wrekin Hill Chief Executive Chris Ball says the film sold out during its
one-week Academy Award-qualifying run last December, but "fell flat" after
opening in January. He attributes the falloff to piracy, mixed reviews and
the film's powerful, but difficult story.

"People are trying to design projects for success globally, but producers
today really have to make a judgment call about if their films can really
appeal to both the Chinese- and English-speaking markets," says Stephen
Saltzman, a Hollywood lawyer who has handled several Chinese film deals.

The next two years will be a test. Several U.S.-China co-productions,
including a science-fiction thriller from DMG starring Bruce Willis, are
expected to hit theaters while top U.S. filmmakers are developing Chinese
co-productions.

Doug Liman, director of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" in the U.S., is moving forward
on a film about a British bodyguard to Sun Yat-sen, considered the father
of modern China. A Sylvester Stallone action film called "The Expendables
2" recently had its application denied.

As of November, the China Film Co-production Corp. had processed 87
applications from foreign filmmakers, including seven from the U.S. This
was an increase from 2009, when the government entity processed 65
applications, with three from the U.S.

More are coming. Earlier last month, a Chinese government-backed fund said
it would begin co-financing and co-producing movies in both China and the
U.S., and a Chinese media entrepreneur set up an $800 million fund to
finance films around the world.

For Mr. Franzoni, who wrote the Tang Dynasty script, the path to China
started with a fascination with Asia; his aunt had been a teacher in
China. He also was having trouble getting certain projects off the ground
in the U.S. His last three films as a screenwriter had been historical,
including the Roman drama "Gladiator." In recent years, major film studios
have focused on big-budget franchise films and remakes.

"I have stories to tell, and to be honest, I prefer doing nonmainstream
historical epics, which are harder to get made in the U.S. unless they
involve a brand name," he says.

Enter the Xi'an-based Qujiang Film and Television Investment Group, which
had been working on a Tang Dynasty film since 2007, first as a Chinese
project to be written and directed by local filmmakers and with a Chinese
script. After roughly a year, the group changed gears and began looking
for an American filmmaker to help "interpret Chinese history and culture
in a way that Westerners could understand," says QFTV Chairman and
President Guan Zhaoyi.

To help it interpret Chinese culture for a Western audience, the QFTV, in
2010, hired "Training Day" director Antoine Fuqua. "They seemed like they
had a certain amount of creative freedom to push the subject matter," Mr.
Fuqua said.

Mr. Fuqua quickly tapped Mr. Franzoni, his partner on another historical
epic, "King Arthur," to work on the story. In May, QFTV announced it would
spend $30 million on the film, the Chinese group's first major production
investment as it sought to find new opportunities in Hollywood. The
filmmakers set August 2012 as a tentative start date for filming.

Any film that hopes to play commercially in China must be approved by the
State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Committees from the
group oversee all films shot in China at multiple steps of the production
process and screen for content<typically political<that they consider
harmful to the Chinese people.

With that in mind, Mr. Franzoni crafted about 10 pages to give his
sponsors a sample of the story. Writing a synopsis was a rare exercise for
the Oscar winner, but he thought it would be a good way to get in sync
with his new collaborators. QFTV gave Mr. Franzoni use of its in-house
historian to help guide his writing.

The story focuses on the Tang emperor Xuanzong, his imperial concubine,
named Yang Guifei, and the foreign-born general, An Lushan. A favorite of
both the emperor and his consort, the general went on to betray his former
allies when he led a rebellion starting around 755 that led to their
downfall.

Mr. Franzoni decided to use the outsider general, a familiar archetype to
Western audiences, as a central character to help foreign audiences better
grasp those distant times. "We have to make sure that if we fall down the
rabbit hole, we have a rabbit we're familiar with," he says.

QFTV officials read Mr. Franzoni's treatment this past summer and passed
it to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. The censors
quickly raised concerns about Mr. Franzoni's approach, which they said
risked presenting an unfaithful interpretation to historically aware
audiences. QFTC told Mr. Franzoni that Chinese audiences would never
accept Lushan in a heroic light.

Mr. Franzoni says he explained to his partners that even villains needed
some humanizing elements to become complete characters. He cites Iago in
Shakespeare's "Othello" as a character who was villainous yet
well-developed.

Still, Mr. Franzoni reworked the treatment to address the government's
concerns.

In the new version, "I treat the Emperor and Yang like Adam and Eve, and
the palace like the Garden of Eden," Mr. Franzoni says he explained to his
sponsors, "An Lushan's the snake." He adds that he remained true to his
vision.

QFTV Chairman and President Guan Zhaoyi explained, "We had some conflicts
about the script because if we change the story too much from what the
Chinese know and expect, they won't be able to accept the film." QFTV
chose to make the film a tragic love story, because it was a plotline that
could be followed in any language, he says.

The government censors and other state officials didn't respond to
requests for comment.

The goal is to appeal to wider audiences than several recent
co-productions including Fox Searchlight's "Snow Flower and the Secret
Fan," which only grossed $7.1 million in China and $1.3 million in the
U.S. Fox Searchlight is owned by News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street
Journal.

Another worry: seeing popular Chinese movies like "Let the Bullets Fly," a
2010 action-comedy from China Film Group and Emperor Motion Pictures, only
play in limited release in the U.S. "Bullets" is China's highest-grossing
Chinese film of all time but has brought in roughly $61,000 from 15
locations in the U.S. since its release earlier this year.

"The audience for this film is your geek, fan boy and cult film crowds,"
said Jason Pfardrescher of Well Go USA Entertainment, the studio
distributing the film in America. "It's definitely not mainstream America."

Instead, Mr. Franzoni and QFTV want a movie like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon," which 12 years after its release remains the U.S.'s top-grossing
foreign film. Hoping to grab some of that magic, the filmmakers
tentatively secured "Crouching Tiger" co-stars<Asian actors Chow Yun-Fat
and Zhang Ziyi<for their film currently titled "Love Affair of the Tang
Dynasty." Mr. Franzoni says the production also wants to cast a Western
actor as the general.

After a January meeting with the censors over Mr. Franzoni's approach,
QFTV officials got the green light. Regulators suggested that Mr. Franzoni
work with another historian as he writes the script to help alleviate
their concerns about the film's historical accuracy, according to the
screenwriter. "I don't envision any problems," he says. "But I'm a very
optimistic guy."

<Laurie Burkitt and Ethan Smith contributed to this article.Write to
Michelle Kung at michelle.kung at wsj.com