Super Me

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‘Captain America’s Hollywood Directors to Co-produce a ‘Captain China’
Home/Featured Stories, News/‘Captain America’s Hollywood Directors to Co-produce a ‘Captain China’
By Fergus Ryan|May 9th, 2016|Featured Stories, News

Russo Brothers working with Jungle Book illustrator as director
$30 million Chinese film a co-production with Beijing-based FangJin Visual Media
Actual title of the action sci-fi film translates roughly as The Hero’s Awakening

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Joe and Anthony Russo (Courtesy Facebook)

The Russo Brothers, the creative duo behind Marvel’s blockbuster Captain America franchise, have joined with a Chinese production company to create a new Chinese superhero movie which local media are dubbing “Captain China.”

According to local media reports, Anthony and Joe Russo, the brother directors, are joining with Beijing FangJin Visual Media Culture Communication Company (方金影视) to make a Chinese action sci-fi film whose actual title translates roughly as The Hero’s Awakening (英雄觉醒’).

Speaking to local media at a signing ceremony to mark the cooperation on Monday, Joe Russo reportedly said he hoped to be able to bring Chinese stories to the big screen. While the “Captain China” film will draw on Hollywood expertise, the story itself will be wholly Chinese, reports said. Calls to Beijing FangJin went unreturned.

In April, Joe Russo told the Los Angeles Times that his team was working with a young Chinese filmmaker on a “superhero origin film” that will “probably go into production in the fall” and has a budget of “about $30 million.”

According to Fangjin’s Weibo account, the company was founded in 2006. The company’s website says it has invested and produced a number of films, including The Sun Beaten Path (太阳总在左边), which won the Dragons & Tigers award at the 2011 Vancouver International Film Festival.

The announcement comes as the Russo brother arrived back in China to launch the latest installment of the Captain America franchise Captain America: Civil War.

Including previews, Civil War has taken in US $97 million in China since Friday, making it the second-biggest three-day opening in China, behind Fast and Furious 7 in 2015.

Anthony Leonardi III, concept illustrator for Disney’s The Jungle Book, has been invited to be the Russo’s new film’s “U.S. director” and creative director. Leonardi’s first and only feature film was Nothing Left to Fear in 2013.

The Russo brothers have been cultivating their work relationships in China for years and recently set up a startup studio in the country under their Anthem & Song banner with an eye to producing and creating Chinese-language films.

Despite recent pushback from some quarters in Chinese society against a perceived American cultural hegemony, the Captain America franchise has proven to be wildly popular.

Whereas Captain America: Civil War was renamed First Avenger in Russia and South Korea, the film retained its original title in China.

But replicating the success of the Captain America formula in the Chinese market could prove to be a difficult task for the Russo Brothers. Local critics long have doubted that a Chinese super-hero could get off the ground, given the country’s censorship restrictions.

— Additional reporting Chet Leung

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I wonder if they can get Scar-Jo or Tilda to play Captain China. ;)

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ENHANCED SOLDIERS
Move over Captain America, “Captain China” is on the way

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A student dressed as Captain America sweeping a street in Guangzhou. (Reuters/Stringer)

WRITTEN BY Zheping Huang
OBSESSION China's Transition
May 10, 2016

The directing duo behind Marvel Studios’ blockbuster Captain America franchise has signed on with a Chinese production firm to create an original Chinese superhero trilogy that’s already been nicknamed “Captain China.”
Joe and Anthony Russo, directors of the Marvel franchise’s last two films, will co-produce China’s own version of Captain America, Chinese media reported this week, just as Captain America: Civil War hit screens worldwide. The film had the fifth-largest opening weekend of all time, earning $182 million in the US. China’s opening gross is a strong $96 million.
Now the world’s second-largest film market will make its own national superhero franchise, with Hollywood’s help. Chinese production firm Fangjin Media (Beijing) has signed a deal with the Russo brothers and their team to make an action sci-fi trilogy featuring an original Chinese superhero. The first film, The Hero’s Awakening, will go into production at the end of 2016 and hit theaters in early 2018, said Fangjin Media spokesperson Su Zhenping.
A Captain China comic has quietly been published by US-based independent publisher Excel Comics for years. In the little-known series, which came out in 2012, Captain China is an “enhanced soldier” who survives the Mao era, sleeps for 50 years, and wakes up in the modern age. The superhero wears a costume made of China’s national flag and a police cap, and is equipped with a Mauser pistol (used by the Red Army during World War 2).

Images from the comic are circulating online in China, though they have nothing to do with the Russo brothers’ upcoming films.

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Captain China.(Excel Comics/Facebook)

In the upcoming Chinese superhero films, the hero will not actually be named “Captain China,” Su said, adding that the trilogy is “similar to Captain America.” The Beijing-based production company specializes in making noncommercial films aimed at domestic and Western film festivals, according to its website.
The first film of the series has a budget of around 350 million yuan ($53 million), and the trilogy a combined budget of 1.5 billion yuan ($230 million). (By comparison, Civil War’s production cost is $250 million.) The Russo brothers will co-produce the films, and their team will be in charge of everything from the screenplay to directing to special effects. The other two films, Nirvana and The Hero’s Sacrifice, are expected to hit Chinese theaters in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Joe Russo explained more about the upcoming Chinese superhero.

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He can control things with his mind. And it’s an origin story, it’s a little bit of a through-the-looking-glass concept; he’s a normal person with a normal life and one day he happens upon the fact that he has these abilities and it opens up a whole world to him that he didn’t know existed.

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The movie titles make the Chinese superhero franchise sound more like Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, and how the hero gets his superpower is a bit like Spiderman. While the name “Captain China” won’t be used in the films, the nickname has stuck in China. The nationalism of Captain America—a government-backed patriotic soldier—has sparked much discussion about what his Chinese counterpart will be like.
“Directors, can you really understand the core socialist values?” one blogger mockingly asked the Russo brothers on Sina Weibo (link in Chinese, registration required), referring to the ideology of the Communist Party.

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Time to share my pic of Capitano Mexico that I took at SVCC on behalf of Kung Fu Tai Chi (srlsy, more on this with our next issue)
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0...d2&oe=57E4C7EC

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‘Captain America’s Russo Brothers Produce First Chinese Film
By Fergus Ryan|October 20th, 2016|Featured Stories, News

The directors of Captain America bring their first Chinese-language project to the screen with Journey To The Dream.

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The first Chinese-language film produced by the creative duo behind Marvel’s blockbuster Captain America franchise launched in Beijing on Thursday.

Journey To The Dream (奇幻之旅) is the first film from Joe and Anthony Russo’s new venture Anthem Pictures, which is dedicated to creating Chinese-language films for release in China.

Described as a “dream-like fable” the film stars Wang Dalu (王大陆) as the male lead, Song Jia (宋佳) in the female lead, as well as Cao Bingkun (曹炳琨), Ma Jingwu (马精武) and Elaine Jin (金燕玲).

First-time director Zhang Chong (张翀) has previously worked as a producer on Phoenix Television and has co-written screenplays for 2010’s Driverless (无人驾驶) and 2012’s Full Circle (飞越老人院). Zhang described Journey To The Dream as having sci-fi, romance and comedic elements.

The Russo brothers were unable to attend the opening ceremony in Beijing’s capital as they are currently shooting the next Avengers film in Atlanta, but sent a video message. Todd Makurath, who heads up Anthem Pictures was in attendance.

“We are honored to serve as executive producers on this movie, we could not be more excited about it. We couldn’t be more proud of the screenplay,” Joe Russo said in the video.

Anthony Russo said that director Zhang Chong had “written one of the best screenplays we’ve read in a long time and he has an amazing vision for the film that we’re very excited to support and help bring to audiences and bring to the screen.”

Joining the brother’s Anthem Pictures International as producers are Black Ant Shanghai Entertainment 黑蚂蚁(上海)影业有限公司, Hehe（Shanghai）Pictures 和和(上海)影业有限公司, Alibaba Pictures Group 阿里巴巴影业集团有限公司 and Maxtimes Culture (TianJin) Films 麦特影视文化传媒（天津）有限公司.

The film’s Chinese executive producer Liu Bo’s past credits include Chongqing Hotpot (火锅英雄), **** and Bull (追凶者也) and What’s in the Darkness (黑处有什么). He has also worked on this year’s smash-hit The Mermaid (美人鱼) and the Renny Harlin-directed Jackie Chan starrer Skiptrace (绝地逃亡).

In May, the brother directors announced they were joining with a Chinese production company to create a new Chinese superhero movie that local media dubbed “Captain China.”

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Russo Bros are going Chinese in a major way now.

Changing the title from "The Hero’s Awakening (英雄觉醒) 'Captain China'" to "Super Me"

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Netflix Acquires Chinese Fantasy Feature 'Super Me'
3:17 AM PDT 4/6/2021 by Patrick Brzeski
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Courtesy of Netflix

Marvel mainstays Joe and Anthony Russo were once attached to the high-concept film as executive producers, but later stepped back from the project.
Netflix has picked up international streaming rights to Chinese film Super Me, a high-concept fantasy feature combining elements of comedy, romance and thriller.

Super Me is set for a wide theatrical release in China on Friday. Netflix, which hasn't unveiled a streaming date for the film yet, took all worldwide rights outside China, Yugoslavia and India.

Written and directed by Chong Zhang, Super Me stars Taiwanese actor Darren Wang (also known as Wang Talu) as a struggling screenwriter who's driven to insomnia by financial stress and deadlines, only to discover that he possesses the magical ability to bring objects from his troubled dreams back to reality. Soon this power allows him to become fantastically rich, attracting the attention of his longtime love interest (played by Song Jia) — as well as a dangerous gangster (Wu Gang) who's bent on exploiting him.

The film has had a lengthy journey to screen. U.S. director duo Joe and Anthony Russo, of Marvel fame, were once attached to the title as executive producers, back when they were working to set up a Chinese production banner in 2016 and 2017. The brothers sent a video message to a press event held in Beijing in late 2016, saying they were wowed by Zhang's script and "very excited" to support the project. But the duo later stepped back from the project, as well as other Chinese production ambitions.

Zhang carried on with the film, with Shanghai companies Hehe Pictures, Baima Film and Black Ant Entertainment producing. The project ran into several release delays, though, resulting in Zhang's second feature, The Fourth Wall, co-directed by Bo Zhang, opening in 2019, years ahead of Super Me, which had been envisioned as his feature debut. Super Me has popped up at a number of international festivals over the years, including at both the Sitges International Film Festival and Paris International Fantastic Film Festival in 2019, followed by the Shanghai International Film Festival in August 2020. No major international outlets have reviewed the film yet.

Beijing's media regulators don't allow Netflix — nor any other non-Chinese streaming service — to operate within mainland China's borders. But the streamer has made a habit of picking up commercially viable Chinese film titles for the large Chinese diaspora audience. Past Mandarin-language pickups have included the sci-fi blockbuster The Wandering Earth, teen thriller Animal World, romantic drama Us and Them and the 2021 Chinese New Year title The Yin Yang Master.


PATRICK BRZESKI

patrick.brzeski@thr.com
@thr

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