B*******a
发帖数: 452 | 1 http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-china-red-dawn-
LA Times: Reel China: Hollywood tries to stay on China's good side
Without Beijing even uttering a critical word, MGM is changing the villains
in its 'Red Dawn' remake from Chinese to North Korean. It's all about
maintaining access to the Asian superpower's lucrative box office.
China has become such an important market for U.S. entertainment companies
that one studio has taken the extraordinary step of digitally altering a
film to excise bad guys from the Communist nation lest the leadership in
Beijing be offended.
When MGM decided a few years ago to remake "Red Dawn," a 1984 Cold War drama
about a bunch of American farm kids repelling a Soviet invasion, the studio
needed new villains, since the U.S.S.R. had collapsed in 1991. The
producers substituted Chinese aggressors for the Soviets and filmed the
movie in Michigan in 2009.
But potential distributors are nervous about becoming associated with the
finished film, concerned that doing so would harm their ability to do
business with the rising Asian superpower, one of the fastest-growing and
potentially most lucrative markets for American movies, not to mention other
U.S. products.
As a result, the filmmakers now are digitally erasing Chinese flags and
military symbols from "Red Dawn," substituting dialogue and altering the
film to depict much of the invading force as being from North Korea, an
isolated country where American media companies have no dollars at stake.
The changes illustrate just how much sway China's government has in the
global entertainment industry, even without uttering a word of official
protest. Although it's unclear if anyone in China has seen "Red Dawn," a
leaked version of the script last year resulted in critical editorials in
the Global Times, a communist party-controlled paper.
That followed postings of pictures on China's popular Web portals Sina and
Tiexue in late 2009 of the "Red Dawn" set showing actors posing as Chinese
troops and mock propaganda posters of the U.S. Capitol building smashed by a
hammer. The posts received tens of the thousands of views. "When does it
come out?" read one Chinese comment. "There is no hope for theatrical
screening [censorship], wait for pirated version."
An MGM spokesman said that no one at the studio has had discussions with
Chinese government officials about "Red Dawn."
Hollywood has learned the hard way that besmirching China's image on-screen
can have long-running implications for the many arms of a modern media
conglomerate. In the late 1990s, Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures and MGM
all faced a temporary halt in their business dealings in the country after
releasing the movies "Kundun," "Seven Years in Tibet" and "Red Corner,"
respectively, which were critical of the communist government.
Today, China is far more important to the Hollywood studios, despite the
government's policy of allowing only about 20 non-Chinese films into
theaters each year. In 2010, China was the fifth-biggest box office market
outside of the United States, with $1.5 billion in revenue.
A number of Hollywood studios are deepening their business ties to the world
's most populous nation. Disney is building a theme park outside Shanghai,
Sony Pictures co-produced the recent "Karate Kid" remake with the government
-affiliated China Film Group, and News Corp.'s Fox International Productions
recently made the Chinese-language hit "Hot Summer Days" there. Even
independent studios like Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment will release
their films "Killers" and "Red" in China in coming months.
Dan Mintz, whose DMG Entertainment is a leading producer and distributor of
movies in China, said the "Red Dawn" story dramatizes how Western companies
can fundamentally misunderstand how the nation works. If the picture had
gone out without redacting the Chinese invaders, he said, "there would have
been a real backlash. It's like being invited to a dinner party and
insulting the host all night long. There's no way to look good.... The film
itself was not a smart move."
Mintz, who met with the producers of "Red Dawn" to offer some suggestions on
how they could proceed, said that doing business in China requires a
partnership approach. "The more you reach out, the better your relationships
will be," Mintz said. "This is bigger than a single film."
The "Red Dawn" remake follows several teenagers in Spokane, Wash., who fight
invading Chinese forces allied with Russia in the near future (in the
original film, the Soviets partnered with Cubans). The roughly $60-million
production stars Chris Hemsworth, who will become much better known to
moviegoers this May when he plays the title role in the superhero event
picture "Thor."
MGM had been set to release "Red Dawn" in November, but the debt-laden
studio filed for bankruptcy the month before and emerged under new
leadership at the end of the year. New chief executives Gary Barber and
Roger Birnbaum are seeking to sell both "Red Dawn" and the horror film "The
Cabin in the Woods," the last two pictures produced under a previous regime,
as they try to reshape the 87-year-old company.
China will be an important market for the studio as it goes ahead with plans
to produce two movies based on "The Hobbit" and James Bond sequels. The
last Bond movie, 2008's "Quantum of Solace," grossed $21 million in China.
In the last few weeks, MGM has begun showing "Red Dawn" to potential buyers
at other studios. Several people who have seen the movie but requested
anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record said they
couldn't risk distributing it given the potential blowback in China.
The feedback led to MGM's decision to make the highly unusual changes.
Although it's common to reshape movies in the editing room, there's no known
precedent for changing the nationality of an entire group of characters.
People close to the picture said the changes will cost less than $1 million
and involve changing an opening sequence summarizing the story's fictional
backdrop, re-editing two scenes and using digital technology to transform
many Chinese symbols to Korean. It's impossible to eliminate all references
to China, the people said, though the changes will give North Korea a much
larger role in the coalition that invades the U.S.
"We were initially very reluctant to make any changes," said Tripp Vinson,
one of the movie's producers. "But after careful consideration we
constructed a way to make a scarier, smarter and more dangerous 'Red Dawn'
that we believe improves the movie."
Representatives for director Dan Bradley did not respond to requests for
comment.
If MGM is unable to find a distributor for the movie, it could end up going
direct-to-DVD or could even be shelved, never to be seen by the public.
"Red Dawn" is not the only piece of entertainment to swap out Chinese
villains for North Koreans recently. The video game "Homefront," which was
released this week and features a script by John Milius, writer of the
original "Red Dawn," was also originally intended to feature a Chinese
invasion. For business reasons, publisher THQ changed the occupying forces
to North Korea.
A representative for MGM said it's hopeful the unusual changes will have a
simple result: turning "Red Dawn" from a complete write-off into a movie
that can find an audience and make money.
"MGM has been working with the film 'Red Dawn's' director and producers to
make the most commercially viable version of the film for audiences
worldwide," said Mike Vollman, executive vice president of worldwide
marketing. "We want to ensure the most people possible are able to
experience it."
Times staff writer David Pierson in Beijing contributed to this report.
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Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times | a********l
发帖数: 39524 | 2 money talks, and we got plenty of it! | s****i
发帖数: 2993 | 3 oh yeah, little sauce won! | t******t
发帖数: 15246 | | h***y
发帖数: 4936 | 5 怎么可能，现在这么做是为了以后的电影还有可能被引进，这电影是不可能被引进的。
【在 t******t 的大作中提到】
: 估计想去中国放吧
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