Hollywood is paying more attention than ever before to China, which could have the world’s biggest box office by 2017. And that means courting Chinese censors, who allow distribution of as few as 34 foreign films each year.
"No Hollywood producer that wants to take advantage of the Chinese market would at this point include a film that includes anything about Taiwan, about Tibet, about Tiananmen," Aynne Kokas, author of the forthcoming book "Hollywood in China" and a professor at the University of Virginia, recently told Business Insider.
And that’s just the start.
"You won’t see the Chinese government acting as an enemy to the US state, but you will see the counterexample of things like 'The Martian' and 'Gravity' where Chinese astronauts save an American astronaut," Kokas said. "If the US and China had that level of cooperation in their military and space programs, we wouldn’t be having all these conflicts in the South China Sea."
Beijing also looks down on "violent content, sexual content, political content, particularly anything that shows Chinese leaders who are corrupt — American leaders who are corrupt is less of a problem. Also supernatural content," Kokas added. (It’s worth noting that China doesn’t have ratings, so all movies must be approved for a general audience.)
Kokas expects even more seamless coordination between Hollywood and China in the future, as US and Chinese companies announce collaborativefilmslates, Chinese companies buy US entertainmentcompanies, US studios announce more Chinese coproductions, and US studios open China-focusedsubsidiaries.
"There are really structural changes in the US media industry that are less visible to consumers but will have a substantial change in how Hollywood actually operates," Kokas said.
We've rounded up some movies that made obvious changes in hopes of Chinese distribution:
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Marvel’s "Doctor Strange" changed The Ancient One from Tibetan in the comics to Celtic. "If you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that he’s Tibetan, you risk alienating one billion people who think that that’s bullshit and risk the Chinese government going, '…we’re not going to show your movie,'""Doctor Strange" screenwriter C. Robert Cargill said.
Cargill also claimed this was a no-win scenario, saying the original character was "a racist stereotype."
Source: Double Toasted via Cinema Blend
"Iron Man 3" changed The Mandarin from an evil Chinese mastermind in the comics to a Western actor hired by the real villains. It also crammed the movie with product placement and more.
"Iron Man 3" shows a doctor drinking China’s Gu Li Duo milk — positive propaganda after batches of domestic milk in real life China were contaminated with mercury. It also features Chinese medicine, product placement for China’s TCL and Zoomlion, two Chinese supporting actors, and a winning shot of cheering Chinese schoolchildren, as noted by The New York Times.
Some of these elements exist only in the special Chinese cut.
"Cloud Atlas" removed nearly 30 minutes from its Chinese cut, largely plotlines and scenes with controversial sexual relations.
Notably, the same-sex romance between two men and sex between a future "human-replicant" and her foreman.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
