Movies in General

Just came back from the Mecca of movie fandom... Comic Con International. I know it was reported in USA Today that Comic Con had it's first violet crime. I was in the room but didn't witness it myself. The strange thing was there was no commotion until after the fact. I guess with people dressed up as zombies and other costumes the crowd was detached from reality for a moment and questioned if it was real. But apparently a Harry Potter fan was upset that someone was saving a seat for a friend in Hall H, which is the big room where the big stars show up and first time annoucements happen. The guy stabbed a pen into the seat-saver's eye and then was dragged out of the room by police in cuffs. The incident knocked the schedule off completely and made A-List stars wait... oh no! 5000 people were trapped in a room by police where witnesses had to be questioned. Blood had to be cleaned off the floors and chairs. But people turned it into something humorous. Then after everything was cleaned up and handled Iron Man director Jon Favreau introduced the cast of Cowboys vs Aliens which included Daniel Craig. But the big star in the cast that's never been to Comic Con before was Harrison Ford brought out in hand-cuffs escorted by two police officers. From then on it was all these jokes speculating about what two geeks would stab each other for. I hope these actors sent a card at least to the guy that got stabbed in the eye.

I'm not really big on comics. I'm just a movie fan but you can feel the electricity in the air when they introduced all the cast of the highly awaited Avengers movie. We also got to see a clip from Thor. Better than I expected since a pic was released of Thor about a month ago that made him look like a Las Vegas magician's act. Then we saw a clip of Captain America which was just Chris Evans in costume silhouetted and he throws his shield at the camera. This Comic Con was a comic book fan's dream on movies coming soon. Avengers... Thor... Capatain America... Green Lantern...

Got to see a special movie screening with the stars and the director of a comic I never heard of... Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Very unique and fun movie. You probably have seen trailers that have been out on TV and the internet. It's basically about a geek that falls for this girl who has 7 evil ex-boyfriends and he has to deal with them in a video game like hierarchal level battle. The actors were trained by Jackie Chan's stunt team. Then after the movie a concert with one of the bands, Metric, featured in the movie. You watch this movie and see all these punkish girl characters with different hair colors and then imagine them all Hollywood wearing mini-skirts and stilletto high heels and that's what we saw.

Also saw the pilot episode of CW TV show Nikita which is one of many remakes of the Luc Besson La Femme Nikita. This one takes place a few years after the Busson movie. Not sure if they're saying it's the same character since this one stars Maggie Q who is half-Vietnamese and some of the elements from the original movie have changed. It had interesting action scenes but remains to be seen if the story arch is interesting. She seems to be out to take down the organization that made her and maybe working for another agency.

Anybody a fan of Spartacus: Blood and Sand will be happy to know the star Andy Whitfeild who was diagnosed and treated for cancer has been cleared to go back to work. But because of his treatment they had to film a prequel so some of the characters that died in the first season will be back for that before season 2 airs.

China allowed "The Expendables" to be shown in Chinese theaters? Just because Jet Li was in it? That was an extremely violent action movie.

'Inception' gets early China bow
Nolan film premiere moved up three weeks
By Jonathan Landreth

Aug 26, 2010, 10:38 AM ET


BEIJING – Global blockbuster “Inception” will butt heads in China next week with “The Expendables” when the Christopher Nolan film opens here on Sept. 2.

The China Film Group is handling the “Inception” distribution for Warner Brothers, now three weeks earlier than previously expected. Local media reports state that the film passed through censorship without any cuts.

Although “Inception” will now miss the late-September crush of titles lined up to meet the Oct. 1 National Day rush, its dazzling effects and Leonardo DiCaprio will have to vie with Sylvester Stallone and local hero Jet Li.

Chinese moviegoers spent 73 million yuan ($10.7 million) on “The Expendables” in the first three days after its Aug. 20 premiere.

DiCaprio was China's leading man for 12 years as the star of James Cameron's "Titanic," which was the country's all-time boxoffice hit until late 2009.

China's boxoffice grossed $909 million in the first six months of 2010, and could reach $1.5 billion by the end of the year.




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Seems to be trend. American movies and TV shows being redone for Chinese audiences. Maybe we'll someday see a Chinese crew on a Star Trek starship. That would be funny to see.

Hollywood comes to China
August 3, 2010: Will the Hollywood back catalogue be turned into Chinese films?
By Malcolm Moore

I met for lunch the other day with Dan Mintz, the chief executive of DMG, a Beijing-based advertising company which is now branching into film production.

Last year, DMG invested in the patriotic Founding of the Republic (a good way to kick off your career in Chinese cinema if you want to please the authorities), and this year they have a hit on their hands with the Chinese romantic comedy Du Lala.

Mintz was a director of photography in Hollywood before coming to China in the early 1990s, so in a sense getting into film is a return to what he knows. His timing seems spot-on. The Chinese box office could hit 10 billion yuan ($1.47 billion) this year, up 61%. China was the world's biggest market for the disaster film 2012 and the second biggest worldwide market for Transformers 2.

Because of the current system, under which the 20 foreign films that win distribution rights in China each year only win 13pc of their gross for their studios, Hollywood has not taken much of an interest in China. Indeed, the big studios have worried that if they release their movies in China too promptly, they will just get pirated.

Now though people's ears are beginning to prick up, especially at the news that the number of cinemas is likely to increase from 5,000 to 35,000 in the next five years.

DMG's latest project is a remake of the Mel Gibson movie, What Women Want, starring Andy Lau. Paramount, the owners of the film, approached Mintz to see if it could make some money off the franchise - slowing DVD sales means the film is of little value to the studio otherwise.

It's an interesting idea, and there are plenty of other Hollywood movies that could cross over into a Chinese production. I'm looking forward to seeing who comes next.

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Check out the trailer on this website. I can see the Hollywood influence yet still a Chinese movie.

James V. Hart Scripts Rob Minkoff's 'Chinese Odyssey'
By MIKE FLEMING | Wednesday September 1, 2010 @ 1:40pm EDT


Screenwriter James V. Hart has signed on to write Chinese Odyssey, a 3D action adventure fantasy that will be directed by The Lion King's Rob Minkoff. The plan is to shoot the film in China by next spring in what would be the first major feature film developed with Chinese funding. The film's produced by Minkoff and Pietro Ventani through their Tiger 62 Media banner, in partnership with the China Film Group and Beijing Galloping Horse Film & TV. China Film Group was involved in funding the John Woo-directed Red Cliff, and is a partner in his next big China-themed film, the WWII aviation saga Flying Tigers. Minkoff and his partner formed their banner, with offices in L.A. and Beijing, to hatched a series of China-centric films. Hart, whose scripts include Dracula and Hook, most recently scripted The Legend of The Leafmen with William Joyce and Ice Age director Chris Wedge.

News is Top Gun 2 is in development. Maybe they could pass it off in the 80s using an F-5 as some super advanced Soviet fighter but I don't know how they're going to do it today without fake CGI combat. Ideally it would have to be the F-35 vs T-50 but that's not going to happen without CGI. So the adversary is going to have to be downgraded to Flankers. But could they use real Flankers. I would have to believe just like with the US anyone using their fighters for such a thing would have to get permission from Russia first. Chances are that's not going to happen because they would know the outcome of the movie. I don't know how they're going to do this movie without fake CGI fighters. That's of course if they follow the same formula as the original.

AssassinsMace said:

News is Top Gun 2 is in development. Maybe they could pass it off in the 80s using an F-5 as some super advanced Soviet fighter but I don't know how they're going to do it today without fake CGI combat. Ideally it would have to be the F-35 vs T-50 but that's not going to happen without CGI. So the adversary is going to have to be downgraded to Flankers. But could they use real Flankers. I would have to believe just like with the US anyone using their fighters for such a thing would have to get permission from Russia first. Chances are that's not going to happen because they would know the outcome of the movie. I don't know how they're going to do this movie without fake CGI fighters. That's of course if they follow the same formula as the original.

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Will it still involve homosexual innuendos LOL? Don't believe me hear what Quentin Tarantino said about it :

Companies & Industries October 14, 2010, 5:00PM EST text size: TT
Hollywood Looks to China for Movie Money
China hopes its investments in Hollywood will help build its own entertainment industry
By Ronald Grover and Michael White

Han Sanping is a big fan of actor Will Smith. After entertaining Smith in Beijing two years ago, the chairman of China Film Group found a different way to keep up with Smith's filmmaking efforts. State-run China Film contributed $5 million to help finance a remake of The Karate Kid, produced by Smith and starring his son Jaden. Han's mogul turn was a hit. The film, distributed by Sony's (SNE) Columbia Pictures, grossed more than $356 million in worldwide ticket sales and was a huge hit in China.

For Hollywood, always a dream factory powered by other people's money, the People's Republic of China offers huge potential as both a funding source and a market. On Sept. 26, Orange Sky Golden Harvest Entertainment, a Hong Kong-based film company, paid $25 million for a 3.3 percent stake in Legendary Pictures, the maker of such hits as The Dark Knight and Inception. Meanwhile, China's new class of millionaire entrepreneurs is financing locally made films. Hollywood executives are even taking meetings with Chinese toy companies eager to take their creations to the big screen.

"It's a largely untapped market," says Clark Hallren, managing partner at Los Angeles-based financial advisory firm Clear Scope Partners. "There appears to be great promise there and a tremendous amount of capital. Similar to how those in search of capital once focused on the Middle East, the same dynamic seems to be occurring with China."

The dealmaking to date has been more a trickle than a waterfall. Chinese investors weighed bids for Miramax and debt-plagued Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer when those studios were put up for sale in the past year, but they didn't bite, says attorney Schuyler M. Moore, a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in Los Angeles. Their activity may pick up, however, as Chinese officials become more comfortable with the ways of Hollywood.

"Chinese investors are very sophisticated and have been contemplating the kinds of investments they want to make," says Charles "Skip" Paul, a longtime Hollywood executive and a senior adviser to investment bank Centerview Partners. Paul negotiated the 1986 agreement with the Chinese government that opened the country to limited imports of foreign-made films. He also advised Orange Sky in its Legendary deal and travels to China every six weeks to meet with potential investors.

The Chinese government hopes to use its investments to gain the technical and creative knowhow the country needs to aggressively build its film industry. In the next three to four years the number of screens in China will increase to about 13,000 from 8,000 today, according to John P. Wilmers, chief executive officer of Ballantyne Strong (BTW), which makes digital movie equipment. The U.S. has about 39,000 screens. China is the largest non-U.S. market for Imax's (IMAX) big-screen theaters, with 37 built and an additional 59 scheduled to be added by 2013. In 10 years, says Imax CEO Richard L. Gelfond, China may be the largest exhibition market in the world.

"They want to be market leaders in producing films," says Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures, which made The Karate Kid mostly in Beijing. The Chinese are using their financial relationships to get teaching moments whenever they can. The Columbia crew, for instance, showed the local Chinese production team how to more quickly upload film from daily shoots to be viewed online, says Belgrad.

That level of involvement sets Chinese investors apart from others who have come to Hollywood offering cash, says Clear Scope's Hallren. "I don't think this will be the next case of intelligent people investing money in unintelligent ways," Hallren says.

What China possesses already is plenty of capital for the right project. Sheng Boyu, a 30-year-old real estate developer, put up $50 million to help finance Double Lives, a film about a modern-day treasure hunt starring Pierce Brosnan being filmed in China. "There is money if you know how to navigate the landscape," says Dan Mintz, CEO of Beijing-based Dynamic Marketing Group, which distributes and markets American- and Chinese-made films in China. Mintz says he raised $100 million in China, "and we could go higher" to invest in films made or distributed there.

The obstacle for outsiders, he says, is that the government favors Chinese-made movies and continues to impose a limit of 20 foreign films a year that can be shown in the country. With investors who are Chinese, some films can reach the market without counting as part of the 20-slot quota. And there may be other benefits: When Mintz released The Founding of a Republic, a film his company financed with China Film Group, he said the government ordered rival films out of many mainland theaters.

China's potential has sent dealmakers descending on Beijing. Goldman Sachs (GS) is advising the Chinese Investment Corp. sovereign fund on film investments, according to two knowledgeable Hollywood financiers. Deutsche Bank (DB) has stepped up its efforts in China to focus more on entertainment deals as well, says Brian C. Mulligan, vice-chairman of Deutsche Bank Securities' media and telecommunications practice in Los Angeles, which advised Legendary in the Orange Sky deal.

Still, investing in Hollywood hasn't always turned out well for those writing the checks. "Some will benefit from smart and knowledgeable advisers," says Amir Malin, founder of New York-based private equity firm Qualia Capital and former CEO of film studio Artisan Entertainment. "Others will be taken on an endless merry-go-round of Hollywood premieres and empty financial returns."

The bottom line: Hollywood is looking to China for money to help produce films. The Chinese want those relationships to bolster their own movie industry.

With Eva Woo

Grover covers the media and entertainment industry for Bloomberg Businessweek in Los Angeles. White is a reporter for Bloomberg News.


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Thanks for posting in this thread A.Mace!

Here's the trailer for the new Green Hornet movie.. It's a "leave your brain at the box office" kinda flick..The film co-stars Tiawanese actor Jay Chou in the role of the Hornets sidekick Kato.



Another no brainer flick The Green Lantern.



I love these "leave your brain at the box office" kind of movies.:nana:

Here's an interesting rumor. Heard of the Alien prequel headed by original director Ridley Scott? Well looks like everyone who wants to make big office these days has to think about China especially if rumors are it's going to cost $200 million to make. Ridley Scott is again looking for a kick-ass female lead. Guess who the rumor is referring to. If it happens they'll probably have to have her co-share leadership.

Potential Casting, New Details & Title Emerge for 'Alien' Prequel?
December 8, 2010
Source: Vulture
by Ethan Anderton


Though we've been hearing about the upcoming Alien prequels from director Ridley Scott for some time now, details have been few and far between. We've heard rumblings of a female Colonial Marine General, potential casting for that role and a reference to an alien that Scott has referred to as the Space Jockey, but other than that, we're pretty much in the dark. However, Vulture, who has been responsible for most of the scoops for these prequels, has a slew of new updates. First and foremost, let's give this sucker a title since the prequel has apparently been dubbed Paradise. But that's not all, because there's even more info below.
In addition to the new title, Vulture reveals that this prequel is more or less a reboot of the Alien franchise. It sounds like the story still takes place years before the events of Alien, but Paradise will once again with a group of isolated space travelers who find themselves face-to-face with a monstrous alien that begins killing the crew one right after the other. Hopefully this isn't a lifeless rehashing of the original, because that would render these prequels mostly irrelevant and be a waste of some talented actors. Speaking of actors, while no official offers have been made, there are plenty more names in the running.

We've already heard about Noomi Rapace and Natalie Portman being in the running for the lead female role of Elizabeth Shaw, but she's obviously not the only one facing off with these monsters. Much like the first film, Paradise also has an android character by the name of David which is said to be "an earlier version of the Bishop 341-B character that Lance Henriksen famously played in Aliens." Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) has been sought for that role, but apparently his agents/managers shot for the moon with their paycheck request, which kind of caught Sir Ridley Scott offguard, and the director may have changed his mind.

Though everyone's used to a strong female leading the charge against these aliens, there's room in space for more females. Apparently Scott is interested in giving the "tough but sexy" female role of Vickers to Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Tomorrow Never Dies). She's not an obvious choice and she has quite the action background, so that's a plus. But perhaps the most interesting character that Vulture reveals is one that will be crafted entirely by digital effects, but brought to life by an actor through motion capture. While you may think mocap master Andy Serkis is perfect for the job, apparently the casting call is specifically looking for an actor who is six feeet, five inches tall.

While all this information sounds wholly intriguing, a recent Twitter update from 20th Century Fox's account has us skeptical. A studio rep updated their feed saying, "I don't know where to begin to correct what is being written about a certain Ridley Scott project…" It sounds like there might be some false information floating around, but no specific details have been debunked. Just to be safe, take these new details with a grain of salt until official word surfaces. Personally, I just want this to get into production already. At least the recent rumors of a production delay are untrue, so it looks like the first film will still see the light of day in the next year or two rather than 2013 or 2014.

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On a side note... heard how the next most likely leader of China is a fan of Hollywood movies and has criticized China's own movie industry? Well by what movies he likes hopefully he breaks apart the present creative restrictions put to moviemakers in China where all they can make without violating the rules is historical dramas.

AssassinsMace said:

On a side note... heard how the next most likely leader of China is a fan of Hollywood movies and has criticized China's own movie industry? Well by what movies he likes hopefully he breaks apart the present creative restrictions put to moviemakers in China where all they can make without violating the rules is historical dramas.

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I doubt it. Xi Jinping has said that he likes American war movies because good always triumphs over evil at the end, and that he finds Chinese movies does not promote those values enough.

AssassinsMace said:

Han Sanping is a big fan of actor Will Smith. After entertaining Smith in Beijing two years ago, the chairman of China Film Group found a different way to keep up with Smith's filmmaking efforts. State-run China Film contributed $5 million to help finance a remake of The Karate Kid, produced by Smith and starring his son Jaden. Han's mogul turn was a hit. The film, distributed by Sony's (SNE) Columbia Pictures, grossed more than $356 million in worldwide ticket sales and was a huge hit in China.

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Does anyone else feel that this new "Karate Kid" movie felt so fake? It's not a bad movie, but the depiction of Chinese in the movie was still heavily stereotyped.

- The lead girl goes to watch a shadow-puppet show and says the legend of niu lang zhi nv is her favorite story. How many 12 yo do you know would do or say that?

- The lead girl again, acts so shy before dancing on that DDR machine, then she starts dancing like a pro.

- A martial arts school teacher who encourages his students to injure each other. How does he not get his pants sued off???

- The Jaden kid runs around China without any money on him, yet the lead girl somehow falls for him. :rofl:

They even get the dates all mixed up. They go from near October 1st at the beginning of the movie (there's a sign saying preparing to celebrate National Day), jumps to qi xi (July 7th on lunar calendar, which would've been around August) later on, and then back to July (solar calendar) when Jackie Chan wrecks his car.