Film Industry

When the Chow Yun-fat action-comedy epic "Let the Bullets Fly" opened in China last year, it quickly became a phenomenon. Lured by its splashy fight scenes and whip-snap dialogue, filmgoers swarmed theaters. The movie wound up taking in more than $100 million at the box office in China, the most for a homegrown film. Yet despite its Hollywood-style violence and an actor with international name recognition, "Let the Bullets Fly" hasn't even managed to find a distributor in the United States.

The reason the bike lane on Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles is bright fluorescent green is so drivers and bicyclists alike can see it easily and avoid running into one another. However, the very conspicuousness of that color has brought on a collision between politics and business in the city. Bicyclists and downtown neighborhood groups are fans of the 1.4-mile stretch of green bike lane on Spring Street from Cesar Chavez to 9th Street. But location scouts and production managers who bring filming to the city's historic downtown core are not so happy.

In a computer room crammed with students, freshman George-Michael Bluth is conferring with his dad, Michael, about his ambitious plans to create a social media website. The scene, featuring actors Michael Cera and Jason Bateman, was set at UC Irvine but played out on the campus of Occidental College, where the crew of the TV series “Arrested Development” spent two days last week filming around the campus. Occidental College is perhaps best known as the school once attended by President Obama.

Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to temporarily lower filming fees at their newly opened Grand Park downtown. Movie and TV crews previously had to pay $20,000 a day per block of park space they used. Many entertainment executives said that was too high, especially compared with similar backdrops. The cost of permits was the main reason why only one film has been shot at the park since it opened last year, executives said. Under the new fee structure, crews will pay as much as $5,000 a day, depending on time of day and what part of the 12-acre park they use. Supervisors voted 4 to 1 to approve the new costs, with Don Knabe casting the only no vote.

On the eve of the release of Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell touted the bipartisan benefits of Virginia's budding film industry. "The increase in jobs and revenue from Virginia's film industry is encouraging and demonstrates the effectiveness of our state's incentive programs for film production," McDonnell said in a news conference at the historic Byrd Theatre in Richmond, Va., prior to a special screening of "Lincoln" hosted by the Virginia Film Office and the Virginia Tourism Corporation.

More than a dozen California state parks that have been a rich source of filming for such classic Hollywood movies as "High Noon," George Lucas' "Star Wars" sequel "Return of the Jedi" and Steven Spielberg's "Back to the Future III" are in danger of going dark. They are among 70 state parks, historic sites and recreation areas — or 25% of the 278 parks statewide — that Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed closing in response to the state's budget crisis. The planned closings, which are part of the $33 million in park cuts approved by the Legislature this year, are likely to be the subject of intense upcoming budget negotiations in Sacramento.

The deadly rampage in Colorado shattered a fundamental appeal of moviegoing: a chance to escape the humdrum for a world of fantasy. Now, theater owners and theWarner Bros.studio must figure out whether"The Dark Knight Rises"can still be an entertaining diversion, not a reminder of a tragic mass shooting. The shooting also raised the specter among moviegoers that they could become targets, leading theater owners and some police forces to step up security measures this weekend. "It's horrifying what happened in Colorado and it makes me scared about copycats here," said Katie Gerber, 34, who had tickets for a Friday afternoon screening at the ArcLight in Hollywood.

— Beneath a star-filled African sky, crowds of city dwellers and rural farmers gather before a giant inflatable screen. It's movie night in Rwanda and thousands have come to see films selected in this year's Rwanda Film Festival. Most of them have never seen a motion picture on a large screen before and for many this will be the first feature-length film they have ever seen — in any format. Seventeen years after the genocide that tore this country apart — killing more than 800,000 in just 100 days — there is a palpable sense of renewal in Rwanda.

HONG KONG - When Mabel Cheung, one of this city's leading directors, shot her historical-political drama "The Soong Sisters" in China in the mid-1990s, the nature of the exchange for the co-production was simple: Beijing provided inexpensive manpower, and professionals from the British colony's highly developed movie industry provided the expertise. Hong Kong cinema, after all, had been enjoying a golden age for close to two decades - celebrated directors such as John Woo and Wong Kar-wai had helped the city's filmmakers garner a global fan base.

If you want to film at the Grand Avenue Park, it will cost you -- $20,000 a day in fact. That's how much county officials plan to charge filmmakers to shoot at the new park, much to the chagrin of local film industry officials. County officials said they developed the fee based on what other landmark parks around the country charge. But critics in the film industry noted that the fee is well above what Los Angeles County charges at most other local parks for filming, which is typically $450 a day. Sarah Walsh, director of the Motion Picture Assn.

Author/filmmaker Salman Rushdie joined Jon Stewart Tuesday night on "The Daily Show" to talk about the forthcoming film version of his bestselling novel "Midnight's Children. "  The 1981 novel won a slew of awards -- including the Man Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Prize, and the "Booker of Bookers" (twice) -- but the film rights, Rushdie said, went for a dollar.  Stewart, who is about to leave to work on a film of his own, seemed unimpressed. "We in the business refer to that as 'bupkis,'" he said.

Director John Woo, who has primarily relocated from Hollywood to Asia, will next make the World War II drama “Flying Tigers” as a combination movie-television miniseries in China. The production, announced in Shanghai this week, will be co-financed by Holland's Cyrte Investments and China Film Group, with filming set to begin early next year. The production, based on the true story of an American who trained the Chinese to fly fighter planes against Japanese invaders, and produced by Woo's longtime partner Terence Chang, will yield a two-part feature and a six-hour miniseries, the companies said.

China's film and television business generated revenue of $15.5 billion, or 100 billion yuan in local currency, and supported more than 900,000 jobs in 2011, according to a new study by the Motion Picture Assn. and the China Film Distributors and Exhibitors Assn. The report did not offer comparable figures for 2010, but said film and TV revenues have grown 85% in non-inflation-adjusted sales from 2006. The figures underscore the growth of the Chinese market, which within a few years is expected to pass the United States as the world's No. 1 box-office territory.

Paramount Pictures will cast Chinese roles for its upcoming “Transformers 4” through a reality television show in the world's most populous nation, the studio announced Thursday. The sequel, set for release next summer and directed by Michael Bay, previously was announced as a coproduction between the American studio and China Movie Channel and Jiaflix Enterprises. Known as “'Transformers 4' Chinese Actors Talent Search Reality Show,” the competition will select four actors for the film: two professionals and two amateurs.    The competition is scheduled to start this June and will be judged by Jiaflix producer Sid Ganis, the former president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences; Lorenzo DiBonaventura, the producer of the “Transformers” sequel; casting director Denise Chamian; and Paramount marketing and distribution executive Megan Colligan.

BEIJING -- Just a few minutes after the lights dimmed and the credits rolled, Chinese censors on Thursday yanked Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" from cinemas around the country. A Shanghai cinema company posted to its official Weibo account Thursday morning that screenings of the film would be delayed indefinitely for "technical reasons. " The cinema announced it would reimburse viewers who had already bought tickets. China's State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (SARFT)

HONG KONG - When Mabel Cheung, one of this city's leading directors, shot her historical-political drama "The Soong Sisters" in China in the mid-1990s, the nature of the exchange for the co-production was simple: Beijing provided inexpensive manpower, and professionals from the British colony's highly developed movie industry provided the expertise. Hong Kong cinema, after all, had been enjoying a golden age for close to two decades - celebrated directors such as John Woo and Wong Kar-wai had helped the city's filmmakers garner a global fan base.

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso - The film festival crowd had filled the last seats in the Cine Neerwaya and, when there was no room left, sat four abreast in the aisles. The opening credits hardly dimmed the buzz in the theater; for those who missed a crucial plot twist, a neighbor was always eager to offer a running commentary. Whatever pieties had been observed for more solemn films at the Fespaco festival, which ended this month, there was a sense that "Congé de Mariage" (Marriage Holiday)

The stars continue to align for the Bayou State. Showing signs of continued robust growth, Louisiana's film industry is gearing up for another busy year, with movies starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Morgan Freeman, Harrison Ford and Russell Brand set to begin filming in the state early this year. Summit Entertainment's "Now You See Me," a crime caper starring Freeman, Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson, began filming in New Orleans last month. This month, the city will host another Summit movie called "Ender's Game"— based on Orson Scott Card's popular sci-fi novels and starring Ford — as well as a portion of the Weinstein Co.'s "Django Unchained," Quentin Tarantino's spaghetti western starring DiCaprio.

Village Roadshow Pictures Asia released its first Chinese-language film with no certainty the modestly budgeted movie would succeed with audiences in the world's most populous country. But "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons," a comedic take on a well-known 16th century Chinese fantasy novel, had a February opening-week gross of $93.5 million - the biggest ever in China. It already has made $200.5 million, and it could go on to gross more at China's box office than any other Chinese-made film in history.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez says she now backs a program to expand the state's film tax credit. Martinez recently vetoed a bill that would increase the state's film credit to 30% for TV series shooting at least six episodes in New Mexico, saying she questioned the logic of an "unlimited subsidy to a single industry. " But Martinez changed her tune over the weekend. At a news conference on Saturday in Santa Fe, she said she would, in fact, support the improved incentive as part of a large package of tax reforms approved by state lawmakers, including a proposed reduction in corporate tax rates.