A new documentary criticizes Hollywood’s relationship with Communist China

It is unusual for a film to be made to disparage the film industry.

But here’s what the filmmakers behind the documentary had to say, Taking Over Hollywood: China’s Control of the Film Industry I finish.

In the trailer, stars such as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr are seen promoting their films in China, with one commentator saying the medium is “so powerful, but for some, that power is not being used for good”. “.

However, the film does not target celebrities, but rather studios that they claim have knelt down to the Chinese Communist Party.

So, it contains plenty of examples of edits and additions that the documentary’s makers say were made to popularize the films at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party, or to avoid negative party backlash and risk their box office potential.

“They could take over America without firing a shot, because they control access to our minds,” a director says of the Chinese Communist Party in the trailer.

Apparently, such claims were deemed sensitive enough that YouTube took the unusual step on Monday of removing the trailer for review. when Newsweek I asked the Google-owned platform why, and it replied: “After review, we determined that the video does not violate our community guidelines.” The video was replayed late Wednesday.

Hollywood takeover Produced and narrated by Tiffany Meyer, who hosts a show called China in focus for NTD Television, a subsidiary of the right-leaning and often controversial Epoch Media Group.

Mayer said Newsweek She is accustomed to hostile treatment from YouTube, where three years ago the platform canceled her show and stopped promoting it, causing viewership to drop from 2 million per episode to about 20,000.

She claims this is because she and her team, some from inside China, were reporting on hypotheses that the Covid-19 epidemic may have leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan and that the country was engaging in “draconian” lockdown policies, as well as that food was being donated to people in lockdown. In their homes, they would end up in garbage bins.

“There is a history: When you say something critical of the Chinese Communist Party, things disappear from different platforms,” Mayer said.

YouTube confirmed that it had removed the channel from its partner program, meaning uploads are allowed but monetization is not, but it declined to say why.

But for now, Mayer’s focus is on that Hollywood takeover, which is set to make its red carpet debut next week at the Harmony Gold Theater in Los Angeles before heading to Epoch TV. Negotiations are underway for further distribution.

Newsweek Watch the movie before its release. In it, Chris Fenton, a production executive who has done business in China for two decades, is described in the film as a “fixer” and “diplomat” who gets what China needs so that films can be released in the giant market. Of 1.4 billion people.

He says in the film that he was “punched in the nose”, figuratively, by people, including his wife, who wondered if he was not doing China’s bidding. He justified his actions by telling himself that his work helps the American economy and encourages the adoption of democracy in China.

He has since written a book: Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion-Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA and American Business.

One of his first successes was helping to get a Bruce Willis film made. And bearto China, although the country typically avoids time travel movies because it wants to control how the past and future are presented.

One way the film appeased Chinese censors was by having characters played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeff Daniels in conversation. “I’m going to France,” says Gordon-Levitt. “I’m from the future,” Daniels replies. “You should go to China.”

One section of Hollywood takeover It specifically targets Marvel, and uses the Disney-owned studio as an example of growth in China: Iron Man, Released in the United States in 2008, it grossed a record $15 million there; iron Man 3 It exceeded $121 million in 2013 and 2019 Avengers: Endgame It has collected more than $600 million in China, according to BoxOfficeMojo (although… Hollywood takeover uses slightly different numbers).

Film producer Jason Jones says in… Hollywood takeover The birth of Hollywood’s relationship with China was in 1997 Titanicwhich impressed Jiang Zemin, then General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, with its emotional power so much that he insisted that the most powerful party members see it.

Jones also says Hollywood’s relationship with China has become “really skewed” with Disney’s 2020 live-action remake of the film. Mulan Because it insinuates that the Uyghurs are the bad guys. Both Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump have accused China of involvement in the “genocide” of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.

Disney has not responded Newsweek Request for comment.

“The Chinese Communist Party seeks control, and they need to write a narrative to be something other than what they are,” Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn says in the documentary.

Newsweek I have reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Los Angeles for comment and will update the story if they respond.

Same year Titanic Released, movies like Red corner, Condon And Seven years in Tibet It so enraged the Chinese Communist Party that, for a time, it did not allow other films from the studios behind it to enter the Chinese market, according to Hollywood takeover.

in Red CornerRichard Gere plays an American in Beijing who is accused of murder and is told that if he does not accept a plea deal he will be executed and his family will bear the cost of the bullet.

The other two relate to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, which China annexed in 1951.

Another example is used in Hollywood takeover It’s a trailer Top Gun: Maverick, where Paramount Pictures removed patches representing Tibet and Japan (Chinese archrival) on Tom Cruise’s flight jacket, and backlash ensued. By the time the film was released in 2022, the patches had been reinstated. The film was released in Hong Kong but not mainland China.

Film reviewer Christian Tautou says in… Hollywood takeover It’s in 2006 Mission: Impossible III The scene was changed because Cruise was seen running through Shanghai neighborhoods where clotheslines were visible, indicating that residents did not have the means to purchase clothes dryers.

But he said the most egregious example of Hollywood’s subservience to the Chinese Communist Party is the 2012 remake of the film. Red dawnwhere the villain was initially the Chinese Army but all the flags and uniforms were digitally altered in post-production to indicate that it was the North Korean Army that had invaded a small town in America.

Taking over Hollywood It also features an interview with Chen Guangcheng, the blind human rights activist who gained international attention for challenging China’s one-child policy and spent four years in a Chinese prison and an additional year under house arrest.

The film shows news footage of actor Christian Bale trying to visit him, and the two became friends after US officials kidnapped Guangcheng in 2012.

“We almost designed this maneuver Mission: Impossible To bring him to the embassy,” says former US Ambassador to China Gary Locke in a clip used in the film.

Guangzheng, speaking in Chinese with subtitles, says that because of Bell’s efforts, the Chinese Communist Party banned his films in China.

Guang Cheng also says that when he arrived in the United States, a film producer tried to make a film based on his human rights activities and their subsequent suffering, but the Chinese Communist Party somehow intervened and the film was cancelled.

“During this experience I realized how much the CCP cares about influential American institutions like Hollywood and how many people and money the CCP has invested in influencing Hollywood,” Guangcheng told Mayer.

But it’s not all bad. Fenton said Newsweek Hollywood has recently been steadfast against Chinese Communist Party censorship.

Restored spots on Cruz’s jacket Top Gun: Maverick is one example. And also in Marvel doctor strange, that Afternoon times A newsstand is featured in one scene, although the outlet has been highly critical of China.

Fenton also says so recently Spider Man The Chinese Communist Party asked Sony to remove the Statue of Liberty, but the studio refused.

Films are often adapted to suit different markets, but Americans should be concerned when China imposes adaptations on global audiences, as is often the case, Fenton said.

Fenton says he is not a whistleblower, given the stature of the film industry and how well-known many of the tales are.

“My mission is to protect the industry I love and the creative freedoms of filmmakers,” he said. Newsweek. “As someone who was a big part of the cause of the problem to begin with, I’m proud to now be part of the solution.”