China Salesman

[GeneChing]

Tyson vs. Seagal. WTH?! :eek:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njLZ7Y7X_qE

[GeneChing]

You gotta wonder how this film will do in the present political climate - it stars a convicted rapist and an accused sexual predator. Will Seagal escape the fate of Weinstein & Spacey (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70520-An-Open-Secret-Hollywood-Please-Watch)? He's dodged that bullet for so long now and he's friends with Putin. :eek:


NOVEMBER 05, 2017 6:30am PT by Alex Ritman
Steven Seagal and Mike Tyson's 'China Salesman' Is the Most 'AFM' Film of AFM (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/steven-seagal-mike-tysons-china-salesman-is-afm-film-afm-2017-1055023)
A supercharged plot about a humble Chinese cell phone salesman who somehow averts a civil war in Africa, featuring explosions, bazookas, tanks and an eight-minute fight sequence between the action heavyweights. Sold!

http://cdn5.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/NFE_portrait/2017/11/img_14bd0c3ca4b2-1.jpeg
Courtesy: TriCoast Worldwide
'China Salesman'

A supercharged plot about a humble Chinese cell phone salesman who somehow averts a civil war in Africa, featuring explosions, bazookas, tanks and an eight-minute fight sequence between the action heavyweights. Sold!
In today’s age of major film industry disruptions, Silicon Valley billions flooding the market and diminishing opportunities for traditional schlocky AFM fare, it’s good to see that some people are still sticking to the classic Loews model. That being: well-travelled action star *+ high-octane, low-dialog script + intense '80s-era poster (optional) = just enough of a global audience to make it work.

One such example is China Salesman, being offered by TriCoast Worldwide and the first honoree of The Hollywood Reporter’s "Most 'AFM' Film of AFM" award, an impressive achievement for a title that doesn’t star Nicolas Cage.

Based on a supposedly true story, the $20 million film follows a quick-thinking Chinese telecoms sales rep who uncovers a major conspiracy while on a trade mission to sell equipment to North Africa, somehow averting a major civil war in the process. So far, so "Right, I see."

A casual glance at the poster, however, reveals a couple of killer ingredients. Not only has director Tan Bing secured the services of AFM hero Steven Seagal as a legendary mercenary, but he’s landed former boxing champion Mike Tyson as a gun-toting army general. As if this wasn’t enough, the two square off in an eight-minute long fight scene that pits Seagal’s lightning fast palms against Tyson’s thunderous fists.

Casting these two action heavyweights was no easy feat, involving a “very difficult” negotiating process for Tan, who had to make separate trips to the U.S. to persuade them to come on board. The main issue, he says, was that “both wanted to be the winner of the fight,” forcing him to placate matters by saying it ended in a draw (it doesn't, by the way).

Working with Tyson – not exactly a classically-trained actor – didn’t come without its hurdles, with Tan having to shoot the film chronologically so he could get into his role. “But it was a very special experience for him, he was very moved by the process,” he says.

Offering a taste of China Salesman’s action, the trailer — an explosive spectacle that boasts tanks, bazookas, girls and angry mobile phone technology comparisons — seemingly has more fatalities in its four minutes, 19 seconds than the whole of Rambo (which it actually appears to channel quite heavily in moments). And it’s wracked up some 1.5 million YouTube views (not all by THR on Saturday afternoon), showing that there’s definitely some appetite for this sort of old-fashioned action romp still out there.

China Salesman and Tan Bing, we salute you. Watch the trailer below.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMiaXULFpLw

[GeneChing]

Film News Roundup: Mike Tyson’s ‘China Salesman’ Bought for North America (http://variety.com/2018/film/news/mike-tyson-steven-seagal-china-salesman-bought-1202663343/)
By Dave McNary @Variety_DMcNary
Film Reporter

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/china-salesman-mike-tyson.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1
CREDIT: COURTESY OF CLEOPATRA ENTERTAINMENT
In today’s film news roundup, Mike Tyson’s “China Salesman” gets a VOD deal, Cinemand expands operations, and STX hires three veteran executives.

ACQUISITION

Cleopatra Entertainment has acquired North American rights to the adventure “China Salesman,” starring Mike Tyson, Steven Seagal, Dong-Xue Li, Janicke Askevold, Li Ai, and Eriq Ebouaney, Variety has learned exclusively.

“China Salesman” is produced by China’s Wanda Corp. with a reported $20 million budget. Chinese filmmaker Tan Bing wrote and directed the film, which is set in Africa where a Chinese engineer/salesman comes face-to-face with a corrupt competitor over the contract for the first African mobile telecom technology.

Tyson portrays a tribesman and Seagal plays a mercenary with both drawn into the conflict in a brutal hand-to-hand fight while the entire country faces civil war battles.


“China Salesman” will be released theaterically on April 20 and on VOD plaforms on May 1. The deal was brokered by Cleopatra’s CEO Brian Perera and Tim Yasui with TriCoast Worldwide on behalf of the filmmakers.

CINEMAND EXPANSION

Three-year-old Cinemand has launched Cinemand Films with plans to finance original narrative features from filmmakers in both the theatrical and digital space.

Cinemand Films’ first project “Funny Story” wrapped production last week. The film stars Emily Bett Rickards (“Brooklyn”), Matthew Glave (“Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce”), and Jana Winternitz (“The Thinning”) and is set to have its world premiere at the 2018 Slamdance Film Festival.

Glave portrays a former TV heartthrob as he attempts to reconnect with his estranged daughter Nic (Winternitz) by inviting himself to crash her vacation in Big Sur and then hooks up with his daughter’s friend. The film is directed by Michael Gallagher (“The Thinning”) and co-written by Gallagher and Steve Greene.

Gallagher, Winternitz, and Michael Wormser produced the film through their Cinemand Films label. Cinemand produced “Internet Famous,” which streams on Netflix, and the dystopian teen thriller “The Thinning,” which which was acquired by YouTube Red.

STX HIRINGS

STX Entertainment has hired a trio of veteran executives with STXinternational appointing Rhiannon Harries as finance director to oversee international financial operations. Harries joins from AMC Networks International UK, where she spent more than a decade.

STXdigital has named former Time Inc. business development executive Brandon Fong as its senior VP of business development. Fong will be based in Burbank, Calif., and tasked with growing and diversifying STXdigital’s business slate.

Jack Teed has joined STXfilms as senior VP of creative advertising, after an extended consulting period. Teed’s previous posts include the same senior role at Relativity EuropaCorp Distribution.

Better unload this one fast, because - see next post. :eek:

[GeneChing]

Steven Seagal Accused of 1993 Rape: ‘Tears Were Coming Down My Face’ (https://www.thewrap.com/steven-seagal-rape-regina-simons-faviola-davis/)
LAPD is investigating a separate 2005 accusation against the actor
Itay Hod | Last Updated: January 11, 2018 @ 5:04 PM

https://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Steven-Seagal-and-Accusers-.jpg
Left to Right: Faviola Dadis, Steven Seagal, Regina Simons

Regina Simons says she was 18 and an extra on Steven Seagal’s 1994 film “On Deadly Ground” when he invited her to a wrap party at his Beverly Hills home. But when she arrived, she said, he was the only one there.

“He took me into this room and then just closed the door and started kissing me,” she said. “He then took my clothes off and before I knew it he was on top of me, raping me… I wasn’t sexually active yet. People always talk about fight-or-flight. But no one talks about the freeze.”

Simons is one of more than a dozen women who have accused Seagal of sexual misconduct, but she appears to be the first to publicly accuse him of rape. She and another woman, Dutch former model Faviola Dadis, told TheWrap they filed reports about Seagal with the LAPD in the last month. Dadis said he groped her during an audition in 2002.

The LAPD detective who Seagal and Dadis said they spoke to declined to comment, citing confidentiality. An LAPD spokeswoman said the department is investigating a separate case involving Seagal from 2005 but declined further comment.

Both Simons and Dadis told TheWrap that they shared their accounts with several other people years ago before going public, and those people corroborated the women’s accounts in interviews with TheWrap.

Numerous attempts to reach Seagal for comment on this story were unsuccessful. His son, actor and model Kentaro Seagal, told TheWrap he did not know how to reach his father.

A producer who recently worked with Seagal put TheWrap in touch with an attorney he said represented Seagal, but the lawyer did not respond to a lengthy description of the accusations, or to phone calls seeking comment.

‘On Deadly Ground’

Simons — now a 43-year-old mother of two — said she had just turned 18 when she met Seagal — then in his early 40s — during an open call for his movie “On Deadly Ground” in 1993. The year before, Seagal’s “Under Siege” had raked in more than $156 million, even earning two Oscar nominations for sound production.

When her brother heard she was going on an audition for a Seagal movie, he asked to tag along. Seagal was casting for Native Americans, and Simons, who is part Navajo and part Sioux, wore borrowed tribal regalia.

As they waited with hundreds of other hopefuls, Simons said, Seagal stopped, introduced himself, and invited her and her brother to join him on set.

https://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/IMG_5241.jpg
Regina Simons at her audition for “On Deadly Ground.” Steven Seagal can be seen in the background

Soon, they were sitting in Seagal’s trailer. She said her brother and Seagal did most of the talking: She was a shy girl from a conservative Mormon family. When she mentioned a minor headache, Seagal offered to give her a massage. She said he rubbed her hand and neck, which seemed odd, and then went to the set. (Her brother, Ben, corroborated her account of the day to TheWrap).

Steven Seagal On Deadly Ground A few weeks after shooting her scene, Simons got a phone call: She was invited to his home for the wrap party. When she arrived, she said, no one but Seagal was home, and there was no sign of a celebration.

“I asked him where is everyone and he said that they had already left,” she said.

She said Seagal then took her into an adjacent room and raped her. She was so overwhelmed that she froze — though she cried through all of it, she said.

https://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/220px-On_deadly_ground.jpg

“The only way I’m able to describe it is I literally felt like I left my body,” Simons explained. “I think because of the situation I was completely caught off guard. Tears were coming down my face and I know that it hurt. He was three times my size.”

She couldn’t utter a word, she said.

“I was crying when he was on top of me,” she said. “Even now, my 43-year-old mind knows how to process this and understand what a loving relationship is and what consensual sex is. And there was none of that.”

When it was over, she said she quickly grabbed her clothes and made a “beeline” for the door.

“All I remember is him asking me if I needed any money,” she said. “I shook my head and ran towards my car. I cried the whole way home.”

She said she contemplated coming forward and sought advice from her Mormon bishop, but decided against it.

“I wasn’t even allowed to date so for me it was a shameful thing,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, how could this have happened?’ So, I blamed a lot of it on myself and tried to pretend it didn’t happen.”

The bishop corroborated her story, with Simons’ permission. He asked that his name not be used, but said he would be willing to come forward if necessary.

“She had done a lot of crying and I tried to comfort her as best I could,” he said.

Simons said Seagal kept calling her. “I just told the lady I was living with to not take his calls,” she said. “And he finally just stopped.”

That woman, Patricia Alaniz, said she remembered Seagal calling for several weeks. She said she warned Simons to be careful.

“His behavior, calling so often, it felt predatory to me,” Alaniz told TheWrap. “He was a middle-aged man, married at the time, and she was young and naive. I thought he was grooming her.”

Simons said the trauma soured her on acting. She moved home to Utah, then back to the Los Angeles area, where she now works as a case advocate for Native-American families.

She said she went to counseling for years and a therapist diagnosed her with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in August. Her psychologist, who asked to remain anonymous, corroborated her account with Simons’ permission, saying she believed the incident with Seagal was the source of her trauma.

“For a first sexual encounter to be violent, it skews your views of the world, relationship and sex,” the therapist said. “It modified the trajectory of her life.”

The therapist also said her response — to freeze during a rape — is “unfortunately very common.”

Simons’ mother, ex-boyfriend and ex-husband also corroborated her story in interviews with TheWrap.

Betty Simons, Regina’s mother, said her daughter told her about the incident about a year after it happened.

“She was having these terrible migraines and she was stressed out and wasn’t excited about things,” she said. “Finally, she broke down and told me what happened.”

‘This Audition Is Over’

Last month, Dadis took to Instagram to accuse the actor of sexually assaulting her in 2002, saying that he fondled her breasts and grabbed her crotch during an audition for a part in an epic about Genghis Khan. The movie was never made.

She said she was invited to a “private audition” at the W Hotel in Beverly Hills where she was told to wear a bikini under her clothes so that Seagal and his team could evaluate her figure. She was promised that a production assistant and a casting director would be present.

But when she got to the hotel room, Seagal and his security guard were the only ones there.

Dadis said Seagal asked her to take off her clothes and walk through the room in her bikini. He then approached her and said he wanted to act out a “romantic scene.”

“I expressed that I was uncomfortable with that especially since I was in my bikini,” Dadis told TheWrap. “And then he started pinching my nipples and grabbing my crotch area with his other hand. I quickly yelled ‘This audition is over!'”

She said she tried to run out of the room but was blocked by Seagal’s security guard. “I began yelling: ‘I need to leave right now, this is B.S., I need to leave right now!’ He motioned to his security guard to let me go and I ran out.”
continued next post

[GeneChing]

https://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Screen-Shot-2018-01-08-at-2.45.04-PM.png
Photo: Faviola Dadis/Instagram

TheWrap spoke to Dadis’ mother and her ex-boyfriend, who corroborated her account. Her mother, Ute, said her daughter told her what happened about a week later.

Dadis is currently being represented by civil rights attorney Lisa Bloom.

Both Dadis and Simons share an agent, but said they did not discuss their accounts before deciding to come forward. They said their agent introduced them to each other after learning from each of them, separately, about their accounts.

Seagal has been spending time in Asia and Russia, where he is a passport-carrying citizen and enjoys a cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin.

He has been previously been accused of harassment and other misconduct by actresses Portia de Rossi, Julianna Margulies, Katherine Heigl, Eva LaRue, Rae Dawn Chong, Lisa Guerrero and Jenny McCarthy. (A rep for Seagal told The Daily Beast of McCarthy: “Her claim is completely false”).

Seagal has also been accused of sexual misconduct by several ex-assistants: Patricia Nichols, Kayden Nguyen, Blair Robinson, and an unnamed assistant.

Marty Singer, Seagal’s lawyer at the time of Nguyen’s accusations, called them a “complete fabrication without a scintilla of truth.” Singer also said Seagal had “no knowledge” of Blair.

Singer no longer represents Seagal.

Seagal's 'at it again (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?37259-Seagal-is-at-it-again)' may finally be catching up to him at Hollywood's Open Secret (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70520-An-Open-Secret-Hollywood-Please-Watch) gets exposed. I wonder if this will affect his latest film, China Salesman (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70325-China-Salesman&). I doubt they could pull a Plummer/Spacey swap on that one.

[GeneChing]

I kinda stopped posting trade reviews in hopes that there would be more KFM members posting reviews or I often just post my own reviews. But I just couldn't resist posting this one. Maybe it'll save me from watching this myself, but y'all know I'm incorrigible when it comes to bad MA movies. I'll probably watch this someday, when I can stream it for free.

I just can't resist Harvey's comment "Whateveristan" - might have to poach that term someday. :p


Film Review: ‘China Salesman’ (https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/china-salesman-review-1202848782/)
Chinese propaganda, Mike Tyson, North African strife, Steven Seagal, and international action excess are thrown together in a memorable hot mess.
By Dennis Harvey
Film Critic

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/china-salesman.jpg?w=950&h=508&crop=1

Director: Tan Bing With: Li Dongxue, Mike Tyson, Janicke Askevold, Li Ai, Clovis Fouin, Eriq Ebouaney, Steve Seagal, Wang Zijian, Xuan Miao, He Qiang, Joaquim Tivoukou, Randall Lowell, Henri Bruno, Alexandre Boumbou. (English, Chinese dialogue) Release Date: Jun 15, 2018
1 hour 50 minutes

In the 1960s, economic high times in the West triggered the rise of so-called “Europuddings,” tortured contractual liaisons between international talents whose feature-film products were often the cinematic equivalent of Esperanto — something intended to appeal to everyone, but so culturally disconnected and artistically generic as to typically wind up pleasing no one.

Today’s emerging equivalent may be represented by “China Salesman,” which is apparently what happens when umpteen private investors (those companies and producers listed below are just the tip of an iceberg) plus the PRC government pool their resources to make a popcorn extravaganza both populist and propagandistic. How that resulted in a largely Africa-set action adventure jumble involving industrial-political espionage, not to mention the inimitable starring combo of Mike Tyson and Steven Seagal (actually billed here as “Steve”), is anyone’s guess. Indeed, a tell-all chronicle about how this movie came into existence might be more compelling than the film itself, and require angry denials from authorities in response.

But that’s not to say “Salesman” doesn’t have entertainment value of its own, intentional or otherwise. In fact, it’s the rare kind of sprawling, costly hot mess that achieves instant camp gratification other fiascos must wait decades to ripen toward. Already a box-office dud on home turf, it seems unlikely to do much better elsewhere, including this weekend’s U.S. theatrical launch. However, home formats will eventually draw gawkers to a movie whose awe-inspiring excesses recall such past peaks of ideologically blindered war-is-hell entertainments as the Unification Church-funded “Inchon” or John Wayne’s Vietnam War huzzah “The Green Berets.” Their motivating patriotic delirium is only spiced further here by a very 21st-century sense of cinematic ADD.

Sparking unintended guffaws straight off from the introductory note, “This movie is based on the true story,” director Tan Bing’s screenplay then has its hero Yan Jian (Li Dongxue from “Brotherhood of Blades”) delivering the first of much cluttered explication in voiceover. A nameless “most chaotic country in Africa” has just ended a long-running civil war. Representatives from various nations have arrived to compete for the contract to rebuild and upgrade the nation’s telecommunications networks.

IT engineer Yan and sales executive Ruan Ling (Li Ai) rep a virtuous, industrious Chinese firm, while their sneering European rivals are spearheaded by duplicitous Frenchman Duchamp (Clovis Fouin). Weighing the bids are the struggling county’s own officials plus a supposedly neutral international commission headed by Scandinavian blonde Susanna (Janicke Askevold). Initially haughty, and seemingly in cahoots with Duchamp, she soon proves otherwise by warming towards humble-but-manly Yan Jian, husking, “Be careful!” as he faces more perils than Pauline, and frequently requiring that he rescue her from various gunfire- and explosion-filled crises.

These occur because murky forces are trying to destabilize Whateveristan yet again for their own murky purposes — among them Kabbah (Tyson), a supposed prince who wants to restore his questionably-still-existing ancestral tribe to their glory days of 2000 years ago, and who’s in league with the nefarious Duchamp.

Lurking somewhat inexplicably — but not at all inconspicuously — around the periphery is ex-mercenary arms dealer and bar owner (in an alcohol-banning nation) Lauder, played by Seagal. The latter’s current Danny Aiello-like physicality is not rendered more imposing by the black shoe polish apparently deployed on his (or somebody’s former) hair. Further, the strenuous camera, blocking, and stunt mechanizations required to make a nearly-immobile Seagal resemble a lethal force in his big fight scene with Tyson are an early sign that “China Salesman” is going to be something very “special.”

The frantic, garbled intrigue only gets loopier from there. Soon we’re neck-deep in business meetings interrupted by indoor tanks, not to mention sword fights, bazookas, sabotage, general fu, genital-mutilation interruptus, the hero’s repeated dangling from precipices, and a whole lotta whatnot. Exactly who is trying to kill whom and why soon becomes hard to follow. While it’s possible that the script makes sense if one pays close attention, most viewers will prefer just letting the ludicrous pileup of incidents bounce them around like a water-park ride.

Its title a rare instance here of truth in advertising, “China Salesman” does sport a reassuring message amidst action tumult: Only the ingenuity and moral purity of Chinese economic expansionists can save other nations from tyranny, war, and corruption. Of course, that must be taken with a giant grain of salt, as the film seems largely a fantasy whitewash of real-world espionage scandals involving the likes of telecom giant Huawei — one in which Chinese companies are now the victim rather than the perpetrator of overseas skullduggery. Viewers must wade through 110 minutes and a purported $20 million in extravagant nonsense to glean at the final credits’ tail end that no less than seven mainland Chinese propaganda departments are co-producers.

The performers do their best — which often isn’t very good — under impossible circumstances. This is one of those films in which people of different nationalities phonetically yell English dialogue at each other, their vehemence only emphasizing they haven’t the faintest idea what they’re saying. (Realizing that we won’t understand either, such exchanges are often helpfully subtitled.) Native speaker Tyson is often even harder to grok, his speech peculiarities rendering for instance “blood” as “buh-lood.” He really throws himself into this enterprise, thinking he’s got some kind of tragic African nationalist hero role. The extent to which the movie then throws him to the wolves (with lines like, “For sure I can recover our nation!”) becomes a joke one eventually feels bad laughing at.

Fortunately, there’s little else that induces guilt in what’s overall a whopper of a guilty pleasure. The goldmine of silliness is only heightened by fairly luxe packaging, from impressive locations (mostly Tunisia and Sudan) to athletically hyperactive cinematography and editing. The slickness extends to a big conventional score by Liqiang Dong, as well as other polished design/tech contributions.

Film Review: 'China Salesman'

Reviewed online, San Francisco, June 14, 2018. Running time: 110 MIN.

PRODUCTION: (China) A Cleopatra Entertainment release of a Beijng Gold God Video & Culture Co., China Film Co., Jiaxing Broadcasting & TV Group, Shenzhen Galaxy Star Culture Investment Co., Zhangbaoyu Investment Co., Shandong Cienyuan Culture Media Co., Beijing Huaxia Star Culture Media Co., Dongguan Huaxia Xingguang Films & TV Culture Media Co., Zhongbaoyu Investment Co. presentation in association with of Wanda Media, Tik Films, China Digital Culture Group, Guangdong South Linghang Film Communication, Beijing Gehua CATV Network, World Group Co., Shenzhen Film Distribution Exhibition Co. Producers: Zhao Jianguo, La Peikang, Geng Weiguo, Ma Xueteng, Yin Shugui, Li Ye, Li Dean, Jiang Shujun, Liu Zhong. Co-producers: Zeng Maojun, Shen Bo, Liu Jie, Zhang Huijian, Guo Zhangpeng, Lin Bo, Huang Zhiqiang. Executive producers, Zhao Haicheng, Liu Zhifu, Zhang Jianwei, Zhou Shixing, Zheng Jianfeng.

CREW: Director, writer: Tan Bing. Camera (color, widescreen, HD): Ng Man-Ching. Editors: Zhang Yifan, Huang Hai. Music: Liqiang Dong.

WITH: Li Dongxue, Mike Tyson, Janicke Askevold, Li Ai, Clovis Fouin, Eriq Ebouaney, Steve Seagal, Wang Zijian, Xuan Miao, He Qiang, Joaquim Tivoukou, Randall Lowell, Henri Bruno, Alexandre Boumbou. (English, Chinese dialogue)