In the US, more Hollywood filmmakers are now finding that adding Chinese elements to films is a sure-fire way to increase earnings and box-office appeal in China. Some movies like Iron Man 3, The Karate Kid and Looper have reaped the benefits of having Chinese elements, and the upcoming Transformers movie has upped the ante by filming several fight scenes in China. James Cameron is another Hollywood director who has indicated that he is considering Chinese characters and settings for his Avatar sequels.
UK making headway
The buzz and the excitement about China is felt throughout the world, but it is countries like the United Kingdom that have taken concrete steps to forge strong cultural relations with China through a series of initiatives.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in London, where Electric Shadows, an initiative to forge stronger ties between Chinese and British cinema, is one of the most talked about events in entertainment circles.
Electric Shadows goes beyond the realms of ordinary alliances and seeks to build permanent bonds of friendship between Chinese and British filmmakers.
The first tangible results of the initiative were achieved after China and the UK inked an agreement recently to provide better financing options and easier market access to qualified co-productions from both countries.
Though China and the UK have similar co-production treaties with other countries, the latest agreement assumes significance as it helps British filmmakers reach out to audiences in the highly regulated Chinese film market.
China's current quota system allows the screening of only 34 foreign movies a year. Foreign production companies are allowed to retain only 25 percent of box office revenue, whereas co-productions are relatively unshackled as they are treated as domestic films.
It is forecast that China will replace the US as the world's biggest cinema market in the next 10 years, although experts indicate that it could happen much sooner. This is also the reason why more countries are keen on clinching deals with China, experts say.
Amanda Nevill, chief executive of the British Film Institute, says the co-production treaty with China, which has the largest growing film industry in the world, will be of great significance for the UK film industry, as it will pave the way for more collaboration. "An appreciation of each other's filmmaking culture is the foundation for commercial success ... We are starting to build an even closer collaborative relationship between our two industries to enable them to flourish."
Annual film production revenue in the UK was estimated to be around 1 billion pounds ($1.67 billion) last year, while British film exports were valued at over 1.7 billion pounds.
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