Shanghai Int'l Film Festival-Industry Summit

Forget the World Expo for a moment, Shanghai 's getting its share of glitz and glamour with the Shanghai International Film Festival, which opened this weekend.

Stars from China, Hollywood and beyond have decended on the city for the 13th annual festival. Adrian Brody, Clare Danes and Jet Lee are just some of the famous names making an appearance.

And its hollywood that's on the mind of organisers this year, as the theme is "The New Front for Industry Collaboration Between China and Hollywood"

Liu Yan has been mingling with the stars and has more from Shanghai.

One would think that the key word of the summit was "collaboration" and thus harmony was to be expected. Well, think again.

Renowned Chinese director Feng Xiaogang made everyone's jaw drop when he started by saying,

"Don't ever expect to break into the Hollywood market. It's not that we don't want to, it's just that this market always tries to pull you in, and then asks you to make unreasonable sacrifices, and eventually grabs your stuff at a really low price."

The other Chinese members of the discussion panel agreed with Feng, and said oftentimes, Hollywood was all about money. They cited the blockbuster Avatar as an example. It grossed 200 million US dollars in China's 4,000 movie theaters, while it grossed 570 million US dollars in North America's 40,000 theaters. In other words, we only have 10% of North America's cinemas, yet we can reach almost 40% of their revenue. That's why so much U.S. capital is flowing into the Chinese market this year and the interest in "collaboration" has never been stronger.

Jason Reed, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Walt Disney Pictures, explained the situation from Hollywood's perspectives.

"It's not an easy road. It requires a lot of communications. That's what we listen and learn with our partners. We see it not as a give or take, it's a real partnership—investing in a long-term partnership, and really a friendship."
Chinese director He Ping immediately shot back.

"Thank you, this is all very nice to hear, and oh so familiar. When I was working with Columbia Pictures, that's what they told me as well. 'We really want to shoot a movie the Chinese way, to attract Chinese viewers", and then after six or seven years of hard work on our part, they pulled the money. So, while I think it's important to have nice wishes and everything, we need to have real, practical methods to solve the problem."

To ease the tension a little bit, director Feng Xiaogang cracked a joke to reinforce the idea that we can't always trust Hollywood.

"I don't speak English very well, and I was told that you should be careful with what foreigners tell you. If you ask them, 'What do you think of my movie?' and they go, 'It's interesting', that's not really a compliment. They are not saying your movie is fun or funny or whatever. They are actually saying, 'I don't know what the hell you were thinking.' If they really dig your work, they would say, 'kick ass'."

And with the thunderous laughter, all the tension disappeared and it no longer seemed like the Chinese members were ganging up on their American guest.

Executive VP of Walt Disney Pictures Jason Reed ended the discussion on a positive note.

"What I think the most important things that can come out of our collaboration between Hollywood and China is finding a way to tell stories to each other that allows (us) to understand each other better."

No one would argue with that. Or as director Feng Xiaogang might say, "Right on, brother. Right on."

For CRI, I'm Liu Yan in Shanghai.