Interesting Article on Politics Influencing Marvel, etc. 0

[The Less Blob]

https://www.cnet.com/features/marvel-is-censoring-films-for-china-and-you-probably-didnt-even-notice/

We all know this is in play (and why Mephisto was a likely no go), but I did not realize the casting decision in Dr. Strange, which Marvel and Swinden got hounded over, was pushed by this, and they couldn't really come out and say "this is why we did it," instead they got accused of all sorts of stuff.

[The Less Blob]

I guess Marvel figured Iron Fist wasn't going to make money in China, so they didn't feel the need to make all the Tibetan monks white guys, although they did mix up some of the backgrounds a bit.

[MatterEaterLad]

Such a difficult reality to navigate.

One of my books was optioned for film. The main characters are Chinese American and Japanese American. The deal involved Chinese investors and fell apart in 2014 when the two countries were squabbling (again) over the disputed Senkaku islands. I was told anything with Japanese characters were DOA at that point.

That same book was translated into Complex Chinese (Hong Kong) and Simplified Chinese (Mainland). The complex edition sold well. The simplified edition was held up by government censors for 18 months.

[The Less Blob]

3 hours ago, MatterEaterLad said:

Such a difficult reality to navigate.

One of my books was optioned for film. The main characters are Chinese American and Japanese American. The deal involved Chinese investors and fell apart in 2014 when the two countries were squabbling (again) over the disputed Senkaku islands. I was told anything with Japanese characters were DOA at that point.

That same book was translated into Complex Chinese (Hong Kong) and Simplified Chinese (Mainland). The complex edition sold well. The simplified edition was held up by government censors for 18 months.

It is absurd in that it isn't necessarily a market based reality, but just censorship. True, maybe the market agrees with the censors, who knows, we won't get the chance to find out. That Joker made over a billion with no Chinese screens is amazing. I don't think I'm kidding when I say French fans probably saw it 6 times. Mind you, I'm not sure how that would play  in China anyway. Its a movie about mental illness and hopelessness. Of course, the Chinese "art house" crowd is probably half the size of the United States, so still a big market.