The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies
The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies |
| Posted: 16 Jun 2011 01:42 AM PDT HOLLYWOOD'S new top lobbyist avoided tough issues earlier this week in his first speech in China, one of the industry's most coveted yet most inaccessible markets, instead lauding Beijing's progress in combating piracy and launching foreign co-productions. Former US Senator Chris Dodd is visiting China for the first time since taking over in March as chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America. However, in his first speech at the Shanghai International Film Festival, Dodd didn't mention the issues that have frustrated Hollywood studios operating in China for years: a de facto quota of 20 foreign blockbusters a year and the inability to distribute their own movies in the country. Dodd took a diplomatic approach, heaping praise on the tremendous strides the Chinese film industry has made in domestic productions and working with foreign studios. "In the last 10 years, we have seen growth and development that allows me to say here this morning that the Chinese film industry has fully matured. So too has the relationship between the American film industry and Chinese filmmakers, Chinese audiences and even the Chinese government," he said. Dodd paid tribute to recent Chinese productions, naming the Jiang Wen political satire Let The Bullets Fly, the Tsui Hark fantasy epic Detective Dee: Mystery Of The Phantom Flame and Chinese actress-director Xu Jinglei's romantic comedy Go Lala Go! "All the ingredients are there for China's film industry to become a major, major, major player on the world stage, just as China has always been a major player on the world cultural stage," he said. The former senator also noted recent high-profile Hollywood-China co-productions like The Forbidden Kingdom, which co-starred Jackie Chan and Jet Li, The Karate Kid remake starring Chan and Jaden Smith, and The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor, which paired Li and Brendan Fraser. "These are world-class pictures that appeal to Chinese audiences, American audiences and audiences all across the globe," he said. But Dodd said he will "speak very candidly, as friends do and must," in upcoming talks with Chinese officials in Beijing. "I will not ignore the concerns that Hollywood has raised for years," he said without identifying the concerns, adding, "but I will not fail as well to acknowledge and indeed celebrate, if you will, the progress we have made," including Chinese efforts in recent months to curb movie piracy. Dodd said that as a senator, he supported closer economic ties between the United States and China, noting he backed China's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001. The comment was ironic given that some Hollywood executives may see China as flouting WTO rules. Beijing failed to meet a March deadline to comply with a WTO ruling urging the Chinese government to let foreign studios distribute their own films in the country. The MPAA said in a statement in March that it was "disappointed" by the missed deadline, adding that it hoped American and Chinese officials can work toward compliance quickly. Dodd's comments also contrasted to a more toughly worded speech by one of his constituents, Rupert Murdoch, at the Shanghai festival on Sunday. Murdoch, who controls Hollywood studio Fox, said limited access to the Chinese market undermines its potential and "presents significant challenges." Fox is keen to replicate the success in China of its 3D sci-fi release Avatar, which brought in US$204mil (RM618mil) in the country – a figure second only to US revenues. – AP Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Posted: 16 Jun 2011 01:41 AM PDT Hollywood producer Mike Medavoy honours his Shanghai roots in a new film. MIKE Medavoy walked the red carpet, mingled with Chinese studio executives and attended industry seminars. But unlike other Hollywood producers pressing the flesh at the Shanghai International Film Festival, he isn't just shopping for projects in what is fast becoming America's hottest foreign movie market. For the producer who worked on films like Rocky, Apocalypse Now and The Terminator, the festival is a homecoming of sorts. Medavoy was born in Shanghai in 1941 to Russian-Jewish parents and lived there for six years before moving with his family to Chile and then the United States. His grandfather moved to Shanghai to avoid the pogroms of imperial Russia. And now the veteran producer has found the perfect project to honor his Chinese roots – an adaptation of a Chinese love story set against World War II-era Shanghai, where many European Jews sought refuge from persecution. Medavoy announced on Monday that he and partner Shanghai Film Group will turn Chinese author Bei La's The Cursed Piano into a feature film and shoot an accompanying six-hour TV miniseries exploring the Jewish experience in Shanghai, based on the Daniella Kuhn story Tears Of The Sparrow. "I feel a great deal of responsibility to get this story told," Medavoy said. "My fear of course is based on the fact that I have to measure up not only to the standards that these gentlemen have set for the project," he said, referring to his Chinese partners, "but I also have to measure up to my own standards and the standards my parents brought to me when they decided to have me born here." Medavoy said he hoped to complete the project while his 90-year-old mother is still alive. He received a vote of confidence from Bei. "I think he will create something outstanding by pouring in his own emotions and his parents' emotions," Bei said. Medavoy shared vignettes from his family history. He said his father became a car mechanic in Shanghai at age 12 before shifting to a telephone company. When the Medavoy family moved to Chile, his employment options were limited because he didn't speak Spanish – but he could fall back on the car repair skills he had picked up in Shanghai. Medavoy's Shanghai heritage has cropped up quite a few times since the festival kicked off on Saturday. He proudly told a red carpet interviewer at the opening ceremony that he was born in Shanghai. Speaking at a panel discussion on film finance on Sunday, he described his parents' emotional return to Shanghai 18 years ago, when they travelled with him to the inaugural Shanghai International Film Festival. "As soon as I got down (from the plane) and my father started walking out of the Shanghai airport, he started to cry," Medavoy said. Asked why he was so upset, his father responded, "I'm crying because this is the place that saved our lives. I don't think any of us would have existed without the friendship of the Chinese people during the war." The Cursed Piano is not Medavoy's first Shanghai-related project. He also developed the script for the 2010 film Shanghai, a World War II-era thriller starring John Cusack, Chow Yun-fat, Gong Li and Ken Watanabe, but later sold it to fellow American producer Harvey Weinstein. Sommersby and The Human Stain screenwriter Nicholas Meyer is to pen the Cursed Piano script. – AP Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Posted: 16 Jun 2011 01:41 AM PDT In his latest film, Jim Carrey embraces that which scares other actors – children and animals. THERE are no two ways about it – when you put Jim Carrey and animals together in a film, something magical happens. A case in point are the Ace Ventura films – no matter how many times one sees them, watching Carrey and the animals all over again will still put a smile on one's face. Thus, it's great that Carrey is starring in Mr Popper's Penguins, playing a guy who inherits six penguins that turn his world upside down. Directed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls and Freaky Friday), the film is loosely based on a 1938 children's book by Richard and Florence Atwater. It revolves around Thom Popper (Carrey) who is so intent on building a successful career that he'd rather work 24/7 than spend time with his wife and two children. As it happens, his personality is no different from that of his own father – who kept leaving Thom as a child to travel around the world. Souvenirs were their only connection. Well, the half a dozen penguins from Antarctica were his father's final gift from his travels. In an interview transcript provided by Twentieth Century Fox, Carrey admitted it was the fact that he would be working with real penguins that sealed the deal for him. He said: "I honestly did the picture because I love penguins and I am not kidding. When I looked at the script I said: 'Yes I've got to do the penguin movie.' "First of all, I am a sucker for anything that touches the heart and secondly the penguins just resonate in a world where all of us are cynical and we don't believe in anything anymore. The world is coming apart at the seams, at least it appears that way on the news, and this kind of movie cuts through it all and takes us back to the heart." Although it wasn't easy working with these majestic animals – they are, apparently, very difficult to train – once Carrey learned that all they want is fish, he'd have fish in his pant legs, shoes and pockets at all times so they'd follow him. According to him, he'd rather stink like a fish and have the chance of working with real penguins instead of pretending to be with computer-generated ones. Nonetheless, he conceded, computer-generated penguins are incorporated into the film in some scenes because there is just no way to plan what is going to happen with real penguins as everything they do is so spontaneous. Carrey described an especially crazy moment filming with the penguins. "There is one scene at the dinner table when they were absolute maniacs 'mrraaaa' (he makes penguin noises). They bit me mercilessly, actually, but I did not mind. I was constantly feeding them. I had to make them go to different spots when they would be on camera and my fingers were bloodied a bit here and there. They weren't unfriendly; they just don't like to be handled. But this is the thing, I am not afraid to work with animals. "A lot of people say, 'don't work with children and animals'. I really do not worry about it because I think it's wonderful. I love capturing the spark of innocence and who better than animals and children to bring out that spark? So I welcome it and I love the chaos of it." Mr Popper's Penguins was filmed in New York during one of its worst winters. This worked to the advantage of the film since penguins need the cold weather. Even when the production moved indoors, the temperature was kept well below zero to ensure the penguins were comfortable. "It is so important to keep them comfortable because when they start to do this (he makes crazy noises), it means you have to turn down the temperature. Humans really don't matter at that point because you can't hurt the penguins. If you do, it is straight to hell. By the way, no penguins were harmed in the making of this film." Carrey started out at the age of three as the comic relief at home – making his mother laugh whenever she was feeling down. That turned out to be a life-long calling for Carrey, only on a larger scale. He began touring as a stand-up comic when he was just 15. Then in 1990, he became a regular cast of the TV show In Living Color. Retaining that job for a decade, Carrey made his feature debut in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective in 1994. The 49-year-old went on to create some of the big screen's most memorable characters in films like The Mask, Dumb And Dumber, Liar Liar, Man On The Moon, The Truman Show, Bruce Almighty and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. "My goals involve approaching things a little bit differently and to be as authentic as I can. Even if I am being over the top or crazy, I want to do something different and original. "The focus for me has always been directed towards the person in the seat. There is nothing that makes me happier than when someone says, 'I watched your movie The Mask 300 times when I was kid.' I look forward to the time when I am 70 or 80 years old and there will be people coming up to me going 'It was you, dude'. That's an amazing feeling." When asked if he enjoys playing someone like Popper, who starts out not so likeable, he answered: "Well I am this guy, or I have been this guy in my life at different times, as many of us have, putting our eggs into the wrong basket, looking and focusing on the wrong things. "I have been down the wrong road before and have valued the wrong things. And I have experienced life happening to me and have had it spin me around to the point where there was nothing left except what was real. And that is what the movie is about; it's about a man being spun around when he is on the wrong track." He added: "The movie is about abandonment and the poor choices we make because of it, and I think we are all dealing with that. Practically every movie I see is about that on some level. The film is about discovering what matters and coming to an epiphany about love, and realising what love and family are worth. "We can beat our heads against the wall and try to strive in every area of our lives and accomplish great things, but if our family isn't intact and our kids are running around not knowing how much we love them, what is it all worth?" Mr Popper's Penguins waddles into local cinemas on July 7. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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