Disney High School Musical: China

Dark Matter was really good. Meryl Streep did some tai chi in it, and I tried to get an interview with her on that, mostly because it would have been absolutely cool to talk to Meryl. But it was not to be. The tai chi scene wasn't pivotal, but it was still a great sleeper film. Meryl nailed the character of a rich sinophile.

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Disney takes 'High School Musical' to China (AP)
Source: AP Sun Nov 22, 2009, 11:55 pm EST

HONG KONG - How do you say school's out in Chinese?

Disney is recreating its hit franchise film "High School Musical" in the East as it turns its attention to the millions of teenagers in the massive China market.

The announcement comes just weeks after the Burbank, California-based company said the Chinese government has approved plans for a Shanghai theme park.

"Disney High School Musical: China" will be a co-production with Chinese companies Shanghai Media Group and Huayi Brothers Media Corp., The Walt Disney Co. said in a statement Sunday, allowing it to bypass China's annual quota of 20 films that foreign studios can share profits in.

The story of two friends who overcome odds to win an inter-school singing competition marks Disney's third co-produced film in China after "The Magic Gourd" in 2007 and this year's "Trail of the Panda" and its sixth international co-production.

Featuring six newcomers, the film will be shot in Shanghai and is scheduled for a summer 2010 release, Disney said.

"High School Musical" started out as a TV movie that launched in the U.S. in January 2006 but went on to become a big hit internationally, airing in more than 30 languages in some 100 countries and turning Zac Efron into a household name, according to Disney. Its sequel, also a TV movie, was also a success. Disney then released the third installment in movie theaters in October 2008, with "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" grossing $250 million worldwide.

Disney's choice of director for the Chinese version is unusual.

Chen Shizheng is better known as stage director, mounting a 19-hour production of the classic Chinese opera piece "The Peony Pavilion" in 1999. His first feature film was the 2007 drama "Dark Matter," the story of a troubled Chinese astrophysics student studying in the U.S. starring Meryl Streep and China's Liu Ye.

The deal also burnishes the credentials of one of China's leading nongovernment film studios. The project marks Huayi Brothers' second major co-production deal with Hollywood in recent years. The company, which recently went public, also made "The Forbidden Kingdom" — the first on-screen collaboration between Jackie Chan and Jet Li — with Casey Silver Productions and Relativity Media.

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The Huayi Brothers are doing New Shaolin Temple too. They are definitely a film powerhouse to watch now.

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Disney to add Chinese flavor in Shanghai
By Wang Ying (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-23 10:34

SHANGHAI - Encouraged by the box office success of Kungfu Panda in China, Walt Disney is fast forwarding to go native with its entire line of business.

This effort is being spearheaded by Stanley Cheung, executive vice-president and managing director of the Walt Disney Co's Greater China division. With 18 years of experience in developing the Chinese market for various multinationals including Pepsi Cola and Procter & Gamble, Cheung is believed to be the man to make Shanghai Disney a reality.

At a media briefing in Shanghai on Thursday, Cheung said that his main business thrust was to "lift our customers' entertainment experience by blending Disney's quality standards and technology with Chinese cultural elements".

Cheung's team started the localization campaign in China by building strong cooperation with local partners in movie production, book publishing, franchise stores and English- language schools. In addition, the US entertainment giant has reached an agreement with Shanghai Media Group to create a show based on the popular US TV show, the Amazing Race.

The Amazing Race is a reality television game show in which teams of two people who have some form of a pre-existing personal relationship, race around the world in competition with other teams.

The company plans to release the movie High-school Musical, which is a joint production with film producer Huayi Bros Media Group and Shanghai Media Group, featuring an all Chinese cast this summer.

Separately, Monkey King, a blockbuster cartoon movie produced by China Central Television, CCTV, is being aired on Disney's Asia-Pacific channel. This movie is based on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West.

An earlier production with Huayi, The Secret of the Magic Gourd, which was adapted from a novel by a Chinese author, grossed 21.70 million yuan in 2007 and won several Chinese movie awards.

Some 14 percent of Disney's total revenue comes from its international operations, which amounted to $9.73 billion in the first quarter of 2010. "China is becoming an increasingly important market for us and we will be looking for more opportunities to cooperate with our Chinese partners in the future," said Cheung.

Since returning to the Chinese market in the 1980s, Disney has made significant inroads into retail and education, especially in Shanghai.

The Shanghai provincial government approved construction of the 25 billion yuan ($3.66 billion) theme park in Pudong. The project is expected to be complete in 2014.

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This should be on our Chollywood Rising thread. I'll add a link there.

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High School Musical: Hollywood’s Attempt to Invade China Failed
Published on 07 October 2010. | Written by E Nelson

High School Musical in China

In an attempt to establish Hollywood’s presence in China, which is one of the world’s biggest and fastest growing film markets, a Chinese version of the blockbuster US film, High School Musical, was created. The Chinese version was entitled Musical Youth.

The fact that the Chinese film market is on the rise makes it interesting for the US, especially in this case, Disney Channel. High School Musical is a story of two high school students who fall in love with each other, and whose love story is told through music and dance.

The famous musical film has reached sequel number four. Moreover, it has also been used for a number on ice, a computer game, a traveling stage show, and even a reality TV show. High School Musical also has its versions in Nigeria, Hong Kong, Brazil, and Argentina.

This summer’s remake of High School Musical into a Chinese one was the first ever movie remake to be done in China by a Hollywood-based studio. Disney was a co-producer of the movie, partnering with two Chinese studios, Shanghai Media Group and Huayi Brothers. This was the set up that would allow the project to be approved in Beijing, where only 20 international films are to be distributed each year.

However, there was no success for the movie. There were almost no theater running the movie, and one of the few that had it consisted of only one viewer.

The ticket retailers claimed that it was almost impossible for them to sell more tickets due to very strong and tight competition with the local films. In addition, lack of planning and poor distribution were also factors that led to the failure of the High School Musical – Chinese version.

Some critics and analysts further explained that the Musical Youth was very westernized and appeared too Hollywood, which is not a plus point for a country that has a very strong sense of patriotism.

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High School Musical: China (2010) Only $21.99!

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How do you say "flop" in Mandarin?

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May I suggest 失败