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Hollywood Wants You To Be Afraid Of The Yellow Horde (Update)

CardSharp

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A humourous blog entry about the upcoming "red dawn" remake.

red_dawn.jpg


Remember over a year ago when I wrote about the incredibly inadvisable remake of the 1984 chest-thumping, patriotic puff film called Red Dawn? This version was going to feature China as the bad guy, but for some inexplicable reason, they’ve had trouble sliding this cinematic turd out of the punchbowl.

I guess it didn’t help that producer MGM went tits up a while back and is flopping around in reorganization. By the way, the press says that MGM might get bailed out by an affiliate of China Film Group, so I’m sure someone will argue that the latest Red Dawn reshuffling is just MGM’s pathetic attempt to suck up to their new overlords. Cue the conspiracy theories!

But as usual, I’m getting ahead of the story here.

The LA Times gives us an update on a film anticipated to be so awful that it may actually break some dubious box office records currently held by Howard the Duck (hmm, also a Lea Thompson movie – she must be so proud of her work in the 80s):

China has become such an important market for U.S. entertainment companies that one studio has taken the extraordinary step of digitally altering a film to excise bad guys from the Communist nation lest the leadership in Beijing be offended.

When MGM decided a few years ago to remake “Red Dawn,” a 1984 Cold War drama about a bunch of American farm kids repelling a Soviet invasion, the studio needed new villains, since the U.S.S.R. had collapsed in 1991. The producers substituted Chinese aggressors for the Soviets and filmed the movie in Michigan in 2009.

Theme of the Times article: Money whore Hollywood is ceding creative control to the Communistas. Dammit, and I was just getting used to the notion that we Jews were in control of all that stuff. Before you know it, they’ll be opening up Chinese restaurants in Culver City. Well, more of them, at any rate.

Anyway, I sort of doubt that too many folks over here were losing sleep over the imminent release of the Red Dawn remake. More likely that the officials at the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) and the Ministry of Culture will, after seeing a review copy, assume that Hollywood has finally jumped the shark and declare all US films banned for import.

To be honest, I’m not so sure they shouldn’t go nuclear on Hollywood anyway; indeed, I’m a little surprised they didn’t do so after Tron: Legacy came out. (Yes, I’m still feelings the effects of that execrable sequel. Like a particularly strong Tequila hangover, watching Tron made me feel like someone was taking a sht in my prefrontal cortex.)

But potential distributors are nervous about becoming associated with the finished film, concerned that doing so would harm their ability to do business with the rising Asian superpower, one of the fastest-growing and potentially most lucrative markets for American movies, not to mention other U.S. products.

Let’s not be naive here. The distributors were just as worried about being saddled with the theatrical equivalent of a cabbage fart than they were about pissing off China. With the exception of teenage boys, and perhaps North Korea watcher and modern-day Nostradamus Gordon Chang, I’m not really sure who the audience is for this movie. The latest content fix is probably a last-ditch effort to make at least a few shekels in overseas distribution.

As a result, the filmmakers now are digitally erasing Chinese flags and military symbols from “Red Dawn,” substituting dialogue and altering the film to depict much of the invading force as being from North Korea, an isolated country where American media companies have no dollars at stake.
Makes sense. Everyone said that a land invasion by China was a stretch anyway. One by North Korea is certainly more believable, the digital scrubbing of the film is pretty easy, and all the actors from Japan and Hong Kong they originally filmed to play Chinese soldiers can pass for North Koreans just fine for an American audience of 14-year-old boys.

The changes illustrate just how much sway China’s government has in the global entertainment industry, even without uttering a word of official protest.
Just for the record: Beijing also didn’t protest Gigli, Leprechaun 2, or Ishtar. By the way, did I mention Tron: Legacy?

My point: this sht is not on anyone’s radar, unless they’re looking for a good laugh.

Although it’s unclear if anyone in China has seen “Red Dawn,” a leaked version of the script last year resulted in critical editorials in the Global Times, a communist party-controlled paper.

Speaking of a good laugh . .

http://www.chinahearsay.com/hollywood-wants-you-to-be-afraid-of-the-yellow-horde-update/
 
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I read they canceled the movie, well, not really.

But now they will be replacing Chinese with North Koreans.

'Red Dawn' Remake Replaces Chinese With North Koreans - The Moviefone Blog
MGM are fools. This has great potential to be a cult classic, ESPECIALLY within China. If there is pressure from China, it's probably from the same clueless and clearly incompetent image consultants who are in charge of marketing China's foreign image. This movie is so ridiculous that it shines a bright light on the subtle China demonization that is NOT as obvious. This movie should be distributed as a block buster release and when it falls flat on its face, it would serve as counter propaganda against the anti-China crowd. It's so obvious, yet the naive dummies in China are yet again showing their incompetent PR skills.
 
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MGM are fools. This has great potential to be a cult classic, ESPECIALLY within China. If there is pressure from China, it's probably from the same clueless and clearly incompetent image consultants who are in charge of marketing China's foreign image. This movie is so ridiculous that it shines a bright light on the subtle China demonization that is NOT as obvious. This movie should be distributed as a block buster release and when it falls flat on its face, it would serve as counter propaganda against the anti-China crowd. It's so obvious, yet the naive dummies in China are yet again showing their incompetent PR skills.

Well actually no one cared about it in China to protest at all.

MGM did it all on its own.
 
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Check out a game called HOMEFRONT, it's about a future america in 2027 and it is being occupied by North Korea who is now the new super power. Storyline is good, but gameplay is average.
 
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Check out a game called HOMEFRONT, it's about a future america in 2027 and it is being occupied by North Korea who is now the new super power. Storyline is good, but gameplay is average.

Let them do with North Koreans or Russians, it is none of our business.
 
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MGM are fools. This has great potential to be a cult classic, ESPECIALLY within China. If there is pressure from China, it's probably from the same clueless and clearly incompetent image consultants who are in charge of marketing China's foreign image. This movie is so ridiculous that it shines a bright light on the subtle China demonization that is NOT as obvious. This movie should be distributed as a block buster release and when it falls flat on its face, it would serve as counter propaganda against the anti-China crowd. It's so obvious, yet the naive dummies in China are yet again showing their incompetent PR skills.

It's actually scary how many people think this movie is some kind prescient cautionary tale.
 
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