China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Chinese, Aussie filmmakers working together
Australian movie and TV producers unveil projects combining Chinese and Australian elements. Xu Fan reports.
Over the past few years, Australian filmmaker Tony Coombs has toured Yunnan province in southwestern China many times. He went there as he was fascinated by the ethnic Yi fable of Ashima, a beautiful young woman who rejects an evil lord son’s proposal, to pursue her true love.
Believing that the story could easily be made accessible to an international audience with a well-developed storyline, Coombs did research on the local history, watched the 1964 Chinese movie Ashima, and wrote a script for an animated feature called Girl of Ashima.
Now, he is seeking Chinese partners to work on the project, and says he hopes to bring the Chinese story to a broader, younger audience, internationally.
Last week, at a forum at the China Australia International Film Season held in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, Coombs alongside his partner David Redman promoted the movie.
They were among a nearly 40-member team from the Australian film industry who were in China to seek opportunities in collaboration.
The Chinese film industry’s rapid rise in recent years has made the country one of the world’s most alluring markets for foreign players.
Despite having a long history of working with Hollywood, Australian filmmakers are now shifting their focus to China, the world’s secondlargest movie market.
The Wuhan event, held over Nov 7-9, is a follow-up event to the fourth China Australia International Film Festival, which is backed by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television to promote cinematic exchanges between China and Australia.
The Wuhan show was hosted by the publicity department of the Wuhan government, the Wuhan International Culture Association and the Brisbane-based company VAC International Group.
At the three-day event, 11 movies — including Australian star Jack Thompson’s Don’t Tell and Chinese documentary Twenty Two — were shown in nine cinemas and four universities in Wuhan, attracting more than 10,000 viewers to a total of 30 screenings.
But despite the films, the two forums held on Nov 9 to discuss the future of coproducing works with Australia were of key interest to Chinese decisionmakers and producers.
At the event, Australian producers from 10 movie and television companies unveiled more than 20 projects combining Chinese and Australian elements.
Besides Girl of Ashima, the titles included Lost in Australia, the fourth installment of the hit franchise Lost; Young Dragon in Paradise, a comingof-age drama about a Chinese immigrant family in Australia; Shimalaya, an aviationthemed feature set in World War II and The Docks, a period television program based on the true story of a Chinese sailor’s love affair with a local racist politician’s daughter in Sydney in 1878.
Redman, CEO of Harvest Pictures and producer of Lost in Australia, says the movie will have Hong Kong veteran Yip Wai-man, director of the franchise’s first movie Lost on Journey (2010), on its producing team.
Currently, Yip is working with the Shanghai-based company Hiver Pictures to develop the story, which features adventures in Australia of several Chinese characters — an undercover agent, a romantic fool and a rancher.
Despite the growing interest of Australian filmmakers in collaborations, the total number of coproductions done till now is small.
Collen Champ, coproduction manager of the country’s key funding body, Screen Australia, says Australia has coproduced 175 films with other countries, but only eight with China.
The movies include The Children of Huang Shi (2008), The Dragon Pearl (2011), 33 Postcards (2011) and the upcoming adventure movie Guardians of the Tomb, starring top actress Li Bingbing.
Champ says an upcoming sci-fi movie Bleeding Steel, which is a Chinese movie recently shot in Australia, shows that the country also has many picturesque locations and talent with post-production skills which the Chinese can use.
Bleeding Steel, led by Jackie Chan, is one of the biggest budget Chinese movies filmed in Australia.
The movie hired more than 250 Australians, saw 100 million yuan ($15.1 million) spent for the Australian leg and filmed in Australian locations for 28 days, according to Champ.
Miao Xiaotian, general manager of China Film Co-Production Corp, says coproduction has huge market potential in China, as five of the 10 top-grossing films in the country are coproductions.
“Coproductions are a short cut to win audiences from different cultures,” he says.
Pushing the coproduction theme, Matthew Deaner, CEO of Screen Producers Australia, says: “Australia is a country which has a small population and large continent. A large number of people are immigrants. So, they have unique stories rooted in their cultures, and they would love to watch such stories on the big screen.”
Citing the instance of Lion, an Oscar-nominated movie based on the true story of an Indian child adopted by an Australian couple, Deaner says Australian and Chinese filmmakers can make such movies that resonate with audiences in two countries.
Ren Zhonglun, president of the Shanghai Film Group, says he held talks with VAC around two years ago about creating a romantic Chinese tale with Australian scenes and its unique animals.
Jiang Ping, general manager of China Film Co Ltd, says the historical connections between the two countries, including the advent of Chinese laborers in Australia more than 100 years ago and the rapid growth in the number of Chinese students and immigrants headed to Australia in recent years, are all good material for coproductions.
So, what is the future for coproductions.
At the Wuhan event, 10 contracts with a total estimated value of 6 billion yuan were signed.
The contracts include a strategic cooperation treaty to promote coproductions signed by Ausfilm, the Screen Producers Australia, the VAC International Group and the Wuhan Teem Hoo Films Holding Group.