Showbiz Sandbox 466: How Hollywood Kowtows to China
October 28, 2019
Entertainment companies are finding themselves in compromising positions when it comes to avoiding political pitfalls in China. Movie studios and media conglomerates don’t want to disrupt their bottom line by appeasing Chinese authorities while surrendering their creative freedom. The result is that companies distributing content in China find themselves censoring themselves.
“South Park,” on the other hand, chose an alternative path; directly offending the Chinese government and immediately being banned throughout the country. Even when companies do kowtow to the Chinese government, they find themselves getting into trouble at home and abroad. Just ask the producers of the animated film “Abominable,” an animated film which was banned in the country for showing a map that favored China’s disputed territorial claims.
Meanwhile, the new television season started. Not that you’d know it based on the ratings, which are down almost any way you slice them. And the clear message is this: people’s viewing habits have changed, probably forever, and it’s not going to help TV channels trying to sell eyeballs to advertisers.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including a tie for this year’s Booker Prize, Netflix somehow adds even more subscribers and a big Hollywood talent agency scraps its long awaited IPO.
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Showbiz Sandbox 465: Ang Lee’s Latest Science Project
October 14, 2019
Filmmaker Ang Lee is arguably one of the best directors to ever step behind a camera. He’s made acclaimed films such as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Brokeback Mountain” and “Life of Pi,” winning three Oscars along the way. However Lee’s latest efforts have been more concerned with filmmaking technology than their script.
That was certainly the case with “Gemini Man,” an action film that stars Will Smith playing an assassin opposite a digitally de-aged version of himself. Geoff Boucher of Deadline spoke with Lee about the challenges of making the film, which was shot in high frame rate at 120 frames per second.
Meanwhile, China deleted “South Park” from the airwaves (and the internet) after a new episode mocked the country’s human rights record. Then China canceled the broadcast of an NBA basketball game being played in Shanghai after a league executive showed support for anti-government protestors in Hong Kong. We discuss what this means for all the businesses that want a piece of the Chinese market but don’t want to damage their brand worldwide.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded to a controversial writer, a new K-Pop supergroup storms the music charts and Apple launches an in-house production studio with some big name talent.
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Showbiz Sandbox 464: Warner Bros. Gets the Last Laugh With “Joker”
October 7, 2019
After winning the top prize at the Venice Film Festival last month, “Joker” shattered October box office records around the world. This was despite mixed critical reviews and concerns about violence that led to heightened security at movie theaters. The question remains whether the movie will be too dark for Oscar voters come awards season.
The box office in China also made headlines over the past week as the country celebrated National Day by heading to the movies. China’s biggest release for the holiday week even made it onto the North American box office charts.
Meanwhile, one of Hollywood’s biggest talent agencies was hoping to raise a lot of money by going public and ultimately change how agents do business. However, Endeavor wound up pulling its initial public offering at the last minute as market makers began raising doubts.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how who will be performing at next year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, Spider-Man rejoins Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and Apple will release (some of) its movies in theatres with a 90-day theatrical window.
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