#Chinese movie production companies tv#

Celebrity salaries were capped to a mandatory set percentage of overall production costs tax authorities shredded loopholes and enforced sweeping new rules that impacted everyone from screenwriters to production companies.

#Chinese movie production companies tv#

The government then turned its ire on the film and TV industry as a whole, making it a public example of shameful extravagance and flagrant corruption. The 37-year-old star of films such as “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and “Iron Man 3” was held under house arrest for five months after she and her companies were charged with evading 248 million yuan ($34 million) in taxes. Xu added that even before the coronavirus, China’s film industry still bore the weight of the 2018 Fan Bingbing scandal. It has yet to receive a new release date. Ten years in the making, and produced at a cost of $80 million, “The Eight Hundred” is the first Chinese film shot entirely on IMAX cameras. Soon after, the government canceled the film’s national release indefinitely. Some people I know are doing things like selling products online, just to survive.”ĬOVID-19 came on the heels of another major setback for Jin, who was assistant director on the Guan Hu film “The Eight Hundred.” An eyebrow-raising portrayal of China’s Nationalist Kuomintang (the exiled government that now rules Taiwan) as heroes of a historical battle that took place in Shanghai during the Sino-Japanese war, “The Eight Hundred” was pulled from its opening-night slot at the 2019 Shanghai Film Festival one day before its premiere.

A lot of production companies have switched their focus to doing other things because we can’t work. “But no new productions have started, and it’s having a very serious effect on those of us working in the film industry here. “All the productions that I know of that are filming now had already begun filming before Chinese New Year ,” said Jin. Larger productions like Zhang Yimou’s new film “Impasse” is already in production, but its scaled-down crews are subject to strict safety oversights. Most projects remain shelved the few given the green light are primarily those that were shooting before the outbreak began. People are having to shift to other ways of making a living.” “It’s the independents and the smaller production companies that have really been hit hard,” he said. Feeling the biggest squeeze is smaller to mid-size production companies, which lack government support and protection. However, he added, those projects don’t tell the whole story. Their productions may be postponed, but they’ll survive because they’re backed by the government.” For the big directors and production companies, this epidemic has certainly been an inconvenience, but it’s not fatal. “But the film industry is very different. “Cafes and offices here are, I’d say, about 70 percent back to normal now,” he said. Speaking from his cell phone on a sunny day in Shanghai, screenwriter Xu WeiBing struck a defiant, if cheerful tone while describing a bleak scene. And while bigger projects may be delayed, many smaller indie projects have been scrapped. Yet many of the smaller productions and studios scattered across the country have been unable to resume work.

They also must provide a government-issued letter proving 14 days of quarantine, and participate in twice-daily temperature checks on set for the duration of production.

Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ Banned in Vietnam Over China Propagandaįor the moment, Hengdian World Studios - the largest film studio in the world, located near Shanghai - requires mandatory COVID-19 testing for all actors and film crew members. For example, productions that normally have crews of 100-200 now have to operate with less than 100 people on set.” Some film production has resumed, but with restrictions. Movie theaters are still closed, and we are not allowed to meet in person for any kind of preparation to discuss new projects. “But the film industry has yet to recover. “Things are getting more or less back to normal in China now,” said Cai Jin, a China-based assistant director. However, the omnipresent role of China’s government - which demands its citizens treat health recommendations as rules, and already has total authority over which productions are financed, made, and released - means that any resemblance between the two entertainment industries may be superficial at best. Many of its concerns are familiar, including reduced crew sizes, new safety guidelines, and moving blockbuster movies to online premieres. As China’s entertainment industry sputters back to life, Hollywood watches carefully: It seems like the closest thing we have to a crystal ball for what the new normal might look like.