Zhang Yimou in favour of more Hollywood-China collaborations in future
BEIJING: Although The Great Wall collapsed in the international market, director Zhang Yimou is unmoved.
He is still in favour of having more Hollywood- China collaborations. Zhang reckoned the gut-wrenching performance of The Great Wall is attributable to its insipid storyline.
Added Zhang: “The actors are all very good; (star) Matt Damon and everyone was splendid. Probably the story is a bit weak, or the timing of it wasn’t right, or we didn’t do a very good job in making the film. There could be many reasons.”
Zhang spoke amid preparations for the Beijing opening of the stage play 2047 Apologue, which he described as a “conceptual performance” linking Chinese traditional culture with an imagined future of how humans will interact with technology.
Producers of The Great Wall had hoped the movie with a US$ 150 million production budget could buck the trend of China-US co-productions failing to score in both markets, at a time when movie makers wrestle with how to appeal to Chinese and Western audiences at the same time.
The script for the 3-D adventure fantasy that has Damon and Chinese warriors fighting monsters with China’s iconic Great Wall as protection took Hollywood seven years to develop. Zhang added elements of Chinese culture and his opulent visual style, seen in the romantic kung fu drama House of Flying Daggers and the 2008 Beijing Olympics ceremonies.