China blocks filming of movie "Shanghai"

Official: China blocked shooting of Hollywood movie in Shanghai over
script issues

The Associated PressPublished: February 13, 2008





HONG KONG: China has blocked a Hollywood movie reportedly starring
John Cusack and Gong Li from being shot in the country because of
concerns about the script, a film official said Wednesday.

Luan Guozhi, director of international cooperation at China's Film
Bureau, declined to reveal the government's concerns about the story
for "Shanghai," but said the filmmakers could make changes and
reapply.

"We suggest they make some changes to the script and resubmit their
application," he said in a phone interview.
"Shanghai" is about an American who investigates his friend's death in
World War II-era Japanese-occupied Shanghai.

Producer Mike Medavoy confirmed China's decision to block the shoot
Tuesday, but didn't give a reason for the denial. Medavoy and
production company The Weinstein Co. didn't immediately respond to e-
mails seeking comment Wednesday.

Filmmakers have already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and
director Mikael Hafstrom has been in China since September preparing
for the movie, Hollywood trade publication Variety reported on its
Asian news Web site. Hafstrom was quoted by Variety as saying he plans
to move the shoot to Hong Kong.

Variety has reported the movie stars Cusack, China's Gong and Japan's
Ken Watanabe, and that producers are in negotiations with Hong Kong
actor Chow Yun-fat.

While China's concerns about the script weren't immediately clear,
Japan's World War II-era invasion of China is a sensitive topic.

Chinese are still angry about Japanese atrocities -- the worst among
them in Nanjing, where historians say Japanese troops killed 150,000
Chinese civilians and raped tens of thousands of women in 1937.

Other filmmakers have had difficulty getting official approval for
projects set in the same era.

Oscar winner Ang Lee recently acknowledged he edited dialogue in his
spy thriller "Lust, Caution," also set in World War II-era Japanese-
occupied Shanghai, so that the main character would appear less of a
traitor to the Chinese cause.

"Memoirs of a Geisha," a Hollywood movie starring Gong and another
major Chinese star, Zhang Ziyi, as Japanese entertainers, wasn't shown
in China amid speculation officials feared the film would spark a
major backlash.

Earlier, Medavoy described "Shanghai" as similar in feel to the 1942
Oscar-winning movie "Casablanca," about an expatriate whose ex-lover
asks him for help.

"It's a story of a man who comes to Shanghai to find that his really
good friend that he's known for a long time has been murdered. It's
(about) the intrigue within that story," he said.

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