By Alexandria Sage

CANNES, France |
Fri May 18, 2012 11:41am EDT

CANNES, France (Reuters) – Just who exploits and who is exploited in the sex tourism industry is the question asked in director Ulrich Seidl’s “Paradise Love”, a powerful and unsettling exploration of female loneliness and economic imbalance in Africa.

Called “Paradies: Liebe”, the German-language movie is in competition at the Cannes film festival and had its world premiere on Friday.

The Austrian director chose as his subject white European women in their 50s who go on holiday in Kenya where they meet so-called “Beach Boys,” young men who become their lovers.

The women, past their physical prime and disappointed by past relationships at home, seek sexual fulfillment and a sense of feeling loved.

The men, who have few job prospects other than selling trinkets on the beach, expect money or gifts in exchange, if not the promise of a better life in Europe.

The women dream of finding someone who accepts them as they are and their lovers dream of getting ahead. The clash of intentions allows the film to paint a bleak picture of people’s ability to communicate.

“Hakuna matata,” or “no problem,” might be the phrase the beach boys like to repeat, but the master-slave relationships create a tense atmosphere in the beach front paradise.

A form of colonialism is alive and well here, as the young black men struggle to please and to be paid.

One arresting image is of a group of young men hovering around a line of beach chairs on which the women sun themselves. The men watch attentively just meters away, hoping to be noticed, but they are segregated by a rope barrier.

Paradise Love is the first film in a trilogy that took Seidl four years to shoot. The three features tell separate stories about three women from the same family.

Seidl shot the film without a script, relying on the ability of actors to improvise around scenes sketched out in advance.

He spent a year and a half in the editing room before realizing that the three different plot lines would not hold together, leading to his choice of a trilogy.

TORTURED RELATIONSHIPS

Lead actress Margarethe Tiesel, a strong early contender for the best actress prize for a tour de force performance as Teresa, sees female loneliness at the heart of the tortured and artificial relationships between unfulfilled white women and young African men, many of whom are already married.

“The people who are at home, exploited, travel abroad and become exploiters in turn,” Tiesel told a news conference. “I don’t judge these women, I understand them fully and what leads them to this situation, the loneliness they struggle with.”

That loneliness is exacerbated by disappointment, as the audience sees each young man that Teresa meets eventually pressure her for money, dispelling her hopes that they could love her.

In one sequence, Teresa tries to teach her awkward new lover, Munga, how to caress her breasts with tenderness.

“No, I’m not an animal. A cat, you know you pet them like this. Do it like this. With feeling. Do you understand? With feeling,” she instructs him.

Seidl cast real-life beach boys in the film, a decision which adds to a sense of unsparing reality that is often hard to watch on the screen.

“He had experience with European women. He was authentic,” Seidl said of the actor who plays Munga, Peter Kuzungu.

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage)

By Alexandria Sage

CANNES |
Fri May 18, 2012 7:27am EDT

CANNES (Reuters) – Obsession with celebrity is the focus of Italian director Matteo Garrone’s new movie “Reality” at the Cannes film festival, one of two pictures in the lineup exploring the corrosive power of instant fame and the desire to be watched.

Garrone is best known for his last film, the gritty “Gomorrah” about a Naples crime syndicate. But with “Reality” he switches gears, creating a modern day fairy tale whose protagonist’s soul is slowly and inexorably eroded by the lure of fame.

The second film, screening outside the main competition on Saturday, is “Antiviral,” the debut feature of Brandon Cronenberg, son of Canadian director David Cronenberg. Its plot follows a clinic worker who sells fans injections of viruses harvested from sick celebrities.

In “Reality,” Lorenzo is an affable Naples fishmonger and loving father and husband whose family convinces him to try out for the reality TV show “Big Brother.”

Garrone chose as his main actor Aniello Arena, whom he discovered working in a prison theatre troupe. Arena, who is still serving his term, was allowed out of prison during the days to film but returned to custody in the evenings. He was not allowed to accompany the rest of the cast to Cannes.

“Never give up your dreams!” Lorenzo is told by the television crew who audition him for a spot on the show. Lorenzo is convinced it’s only a matter of time before he receives the call saying he’s been picked, and his status in his small community gets an instant lift.

As the days drag on and the call doesn’t come, however, Lorenzo’s obsession grows, and his hold on reality wavers. He starts to believe that crew from the TV show are spying on him, to determine if he would be a good pick for the show.

“What are they thinking about me?” he worries in his mind, in which he already plays a starring role. He sells his fish business so he’ll have money to fix up their home.

“So it will look good in interviews,” he explains to his wife, played by Loredana Simioli.

The audience is kept in suspense for much of the film, wondering whether the call will come that will release Lorenzo from his self-imposed torture and normalize his family relations, which have deteriorated.

Garrone is a fan of long pans in his latest film, which capture the beauty of a crumbling Naples while at the same time adding to the sense of voyeurism.

The movie opens with a sweep of the southern port city seen from above, gradually focusing in on a golden carriage drawn by two white horses and a footman in red breeches. When a bride and groom emerge, we see them enter their version of a fairy tale wedding – presided over by the host of Big Brother.

Garrone said it wasn’t his goal to judge society’s obsession with celebrity.

“What we were trying to do was to portray with great love a character while denouncing an aspect of society, but the aim was not at all to be critical,” Garrone told a press conference.

“We didn’t want to provide any answers,” he added.

As for Cronenberg, celebrity obsession is part of something bigger in human society.

“I think that world is fascinating, both because of how grotesque it can be and how much it’s really just one version of a much broader human impulse to deify and eviscerate,” the young director told Screendaily.com.

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage, editing by Paul Casciato)

By Mike Collett-White

CANNES, France |
Fri May 18, 2012 10:17am EDT

CANNES, France (Reuters) – The joke is on Europe, and in particular France, with the third animated “Madagascar” adventure, which has its world premiere at the Cannes film festival on Friday bringing big names in comedy to the red carpet.

“Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted”, from DreamWorks Animation, is the first installment in the franchise to be shot in 3D, and studio bosses will be hoping it can match the box office magic of its predecessors.

A slot at the Cannes film festival, where hundreds of news outlets descend each year, can be an ideal launchpad, particularly because the notoriously fussy critics tend to blunt their pencils for animated entertainment.

“This festival, it celebrates all types of film … Our film’s about travelling to Europe and what better place could we launch a film like that than in Cannes?” said Tom McGrath, one of three directors working on the movie.

“What we always aspired to do was to take you to a fantastic world, like everyone was transported when they saw Pinocchio,” he told a news conference after a press screening.

“That’s the great thing about CG (computer generated animation). First people aspired to do photo-realism, and now we’re trying to create these fantasy worlds.”

In Madagascar 3, the central characters of Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman leave Africa in search of their penguin friends who have flown to Europe to spend their gold and gems in the casino in Monte Carlo.

“Operation Penguin Extraction” goes predictably awry, and in the ensuing havoc the heroes join a travelling circus in their bid to get back to their beloved New York.

On the way, via Rome and London, European stereotypes are sent up, including France’s reputation as a country where people work short hours and its cultural icon Edith Piaf, whose famous song “Non, je ne regrette rien” is gloriously parodied.

When Vitaly, a grumpy Russian tiger, disagrees with Alex, he counters “That’s Bolshevik!”, prompting an American penguin to add: “Never thought I’d say this … but the Russky’s right.”

Famous scenes from well-known action movies are also recreated, including the bus balancing on the edge of a cliff in “The Italian Job” and people dodging flying bullets, or in this case bananas, in “The Matrix”.

The main villain in Madagascar 3 is deranged French animal control officer Capitaine Chantel DuBois, voiced by Frances McDormand.

Part Cruella De Vil and part rottweiler, she terrorizes the fleeing animals, hell bent on claiming Alex’s scalp to complete her stuffed animal wall hangings.

Ben Stiller returns as the voice of good-hearted lion Alex, Chris Rock reprises his role as the irrepressible zebra Marty and David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith are back as Melman and Gloria respectively.

New to the cast in the “threequel” are Bryan Cranston as Vitaly, Martin Short as the scene-stealing Italian sea lion Stefano and Jessica Chastain as a sultry jaguar.

According to website Boxofficemojo.com, the first Madagascar film from 2005 earned $533 million in global ticket sales and the second (2008) around $604 million.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

By Zorianna Kit

LOS ANGELES |
Thu May 17, 2012 4:37pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Peter Berg parlayed successful acting work on TV shows like medical drama “Chicago Hope” to an even greater directing career of movies such as “Friday Night Lights,” which later became a TV series, and the Will Smith action flick “Hancock.”

On Friday, Berg’s latest film, alien-invasion actioner “Battleship,” steams into theaters. It takes its title from the Hasbro board game in which two players engage in a guessing game to see who can sink the other’s naval ships.

The film uses the board game as a jumping off point to tell of two brothers (Taylor Kitsch and Alexander Skarsgard), both Navy officers, whose ships must battle aliens invading Earth.

Berg spoke with Reuters about the film, his own memories playing the board game and why he cast pop star Rihanna in her first acting major movie role as a petty officer.

Q: Were you given any particular instructions from Hasbro when trying to adapt the board game to the big screen?

A: “‘Battleship’ was a great creative exercise. I was under no mandate to do anything but make an entertaining and compelling film. That being said, it was a lot of fun for me and the writers to come up with creative ways of referencing the game. One of my favorite sequences is almost a literal reference to the actual game of ‘Battleship’ where we see some low tech attempts to locate the enemy.”

Q: Another reference is a variation of the famous phrase in TV commercials: ‘You sunk my Battleship!’ Any others?

A: “There was a variation, yes. And if you look closely at the weapons that the aliens fired, they just might resemble those old plastic pegs from the game, only a little more vicious. Also, the idea that the radar is out and we cannot locate the enemy, we cannot see the enemy, we are fighting blind. Those are just a couple of references. If you pay attention, I think you can find a few more.”

Q: Did the Navy have strict rules you needed to abide by if you were going to use its equipment?

A: “I have a very good relationship with the Department of Defense and the Navy in particular. My father was a Naval historian and a Marine. I was brought up going a lot to Navy museums and listening to stories of the great battles of history. The Navy expects you to be reasonable. If you want the privilege and the luxury of filming on a $2 billion destroyer that’s fully loaded with all kinds of missiles, you can’t portray Navy SEALs doing things Navy SEALs can’t do. All they asked is that I be fair to their rules.”

Q: Like what?

A: “We had an actor playing a sailor in a supporting role. He showed up to Hawaii about 30 lbs overweight. The Navy has a very strict body fat rule. They told me this actor was not acceptable and could not represent the Navy. I couldn’t argue over that. I had to tell this actor he lost the job. We had to get another actor.”

Q: You cast many real-life war veterans. Their wars were real, in ‘Battleship,’ it’s aliens. Why mix reality and fantasy?

A: “It was an opportunity for me to pay respect to veterans. That is a group I think we can all pay respect to, whether we serve or we don’t. The alien component was brought in to help soften the reality of the war that we’re all living with today. I wanted this to be a fun summer movie, not a bloody war about America and China killing each other. We have enough problems in that area today. I wanted to make a film that was as escapist as anything else.”

Q: “Battleship” has already made $215 million overseas. Why do you think a film about American soldiers is playing so well internationally?

A: “At the end of the day, the movie is about people. You stop thinking about these sailors as representatives of an army. They’re young people trying to survive. I felt that if we could accomplish that, the jingoistic aspects of the film could be diminished and people would get on the ride and go with it.”

Q: This is singer Rihanna’s big screen debut. Were you confident she could act?

A: “I had success with (country singer) Tim McGraw in ‘Friday Night Lights’ and ‘The Kingdom.’ In the case of Rihanna, I always felt she had such tremendous presence and charisma. When I met with her, it was apparent to me that she had everything it took for this role. I felt very confident I could get the performance out of her.”

Q: Do you have any personal memories playing the Battleship board game as a kid?

A: “I remember it was the first time my dad talked to me about cheating. I was maybe five and my dad said, ‘G7′ and it was a hit. I realized I could possibly move my ship so I said, ‘Miss.’ I had a horrible poker face. My dad asked me if I was telling the truth and I said no. The game provided me with that first opportunity to do the right thing, to tell the truth.”

(Reporting By Zorianna Kit; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

LOS ANGELES |
Fri May 18, 2012 2:59am EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Rock band Van Halen on Thursday postponed more than 30 concert dates of their U.S. summer tour, leading to speculation the “Runnin’ with the Devil” group was feuding again.

The band’s official website, van-halen.com, took down all its dates after June 26, listing only 15 more shows, ending in New Orleans. Closely-watched fan site, Van Halen News Desk, said 31 dates had been postponed, starting on July 7 in Uncasville, Connecticut and ending on September 25 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

A spokeswoman for the group had no official statement about the postponements and declined further comment. The band began the current tour in mid-February.

Rolling Stone said a source with knowledge of the tour told the magazine, “the band is arguing like mad. They are fighting.” But that could not be confirmed and throughout its current tour there have been no public reports of the band mates arguing.

But if they are, it would not be the first time.

Van Halen was among the biggest rock acts of the late 1970s and early 1980s with hits like “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” “Jump,” “Panama” and “Hot for Teacher.”

When they were at the height of their fame, however, lead singer David Lee Roth had a falling out with the rest of the band members, and Sammy Hagar was brought in to join bothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony.

Over the years, the band’s makeup changed and this past January, they announced a new tour and album with Roth singing, marking Van Halen’s first full album with Roth since their “1984″ CD was released on December 31, 1983.

Anthony, the original bassist, has been replaced by Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie’s son, for the current tour.

Roth has rejoined the band before, once for a performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1996 and a second time to tour in 2007-2008. Interestingly, the posting on Van Halen News Desk – vnhd.com – noted the tour dates were “postponed, not canceled,” and that the 2007-2008 tour also had postponed dates that were ultimately rescheduled.

The abrupt postponements also raise questions about guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s health. In 2000, he began treatment for cancer in his tongue, but after later surgery, he was declared cancer-free in May 2002.

(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte, Editing by Jill Serjeant)

By Ronald Grover

LOS ANGELES |
Fri May 18, 2012 2:52am EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The big-budget action film “Battleship”, produced by Comcast’s Universal Pictures, is shaping up to become the next film to fall victim to “The Avengers’” record box office march.

Universal’s new sci-fi blockbuster, which opens on May 18 in 3,690 U.S. and Canadian theaters, is projected to rake in ticket sales of $35 million to $40 million over its first weekend, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com’s box office division.

“The Avengers,” which had ticket sales of $395.8 million through May 14, is expected to again top weekend movies for a third consecutive week with $50 million, he said.

Last weekend, Marvel’s super-hero franchise-builder surprised experts by cutting into the expected weekend ticket sales of “Dark Shadows,” starring Johnny Depp, which took just $29.7 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

“The Avengers” grossed $103 million, the first Hollywood film to cross $100 million in its second weekend.

“‘Avengers’ is making us throw our tracking out the window,” said one person familiar with studio tracking.

Starring Liam Neeson and the singer Rihanna, “Battleship” is loosely based on the Hasbro game.

“Battleship” needs to generate more than $50 million in weekend ticket sales to break even, said analyst Tony Wible, a managing director at Janney Montgomery Scott, who does not follow Comcast but compiles a data base to predict film performances.

Wible follows Paramount parent company Viacom, Dreamworks Animation, Walt Disney, and Time Warner, the parent company for Warner Brothers.

A large-budget film like “Battleship” usually generates domestic ticket sales of three times its opening weekend, according to Wible. Studios on average get half of box office sales. Universal contends it spent $209 million to make its special-effects laden film.

It also spent more than $100 million to market it, according to people with knowledge of Hollywood spending.

Next week, “Battleship” must also contend with the third installment of Will Smith’s futuristic comedy “Men in Black.” The last one in the series, in 2002, generated $190.4 million in domestic ticket sales.

“‘Battleship’ is a big, fun popcorn movie that has done well overseas and we hope will provide the same entertainment in North America,” said a Universal spokeswoman.

Universal decided to release “Battleship” early abroad, and has generated $220 million in 63 foreign markets since its April 11 debut, the studio said. Industry sources say it is on track to generate $250 million in those markets.

“The international strategy was a smart one,” said Dergarabedian. “$220 million gives them boost toward covering the negative (production) costs of the film.”

(Reporting By Ronald Grover; Editing by Michael Perry)

By Yinka Adegoke and Liana B. Baker

Fri May 18, 2012 2:50am EDT

(Reuters) – The big winner of this year’s upfront TV advertising sales season was an old favorite: the sitcom.

By the time the curtain came down on the network previews on Thursday, 16 of the 36 new scripted shows added to the programming lineups of the big four broadcast networks – CBS Corp, Walt Disney Co’s ABC, News Corp’s Fox and Comcast Corp’s NBC – were comedies.

Upfront week is the television industry’s annual rite at which networks preview upcoming shows for advertisers and media buyers in hopes of persuading them to buy commercial time in advance.

Broadcast networks invested heavily in original scripted programming, as opposed to reality shows. Much of the investment went toward the venerable situation comedy as networks sought to justify the hefty fees they charge advertisers in a world where viewers’ time is increasingly fragmented by online video and social media. The big four networks plus Univision and CW are expected to collect about $9.2 billion from this year’s upfronts, an increase of 3 percent over last year.

The heavy bet on original scripted shows also has residual benefits thanks to insurgent companies like Netflix Inc, which have shown an appetite not only to compete, but to pay top dollar for the syndication rights to such programming.

“We’re seeing a lot of comedy added and a lot less new reality shows,” said Needham analyst Laura Martin. “This is good for the TV ecosystem because TV has to have good syndication windows to sell on shows to other networks. Reality has no library value,” she said, referring to the reluctance of broadcasters to pay big bucks for reality shows that are several years old.

In an effort to shake off their ratings cobwebs, ABC and NBC, which have long ranked third and fourth in the ratings, respectively, made the most significant revamps to their schedules.

ABC is adding 10 new shows to its schedule including six dramas and four comedies. Two of the network’s new dramas, “666 Park Avenue” and “The Last Resort,” received positive buzz from media buyers who attended ABC’s upfront presentation.

NBC – which most needs a hit – unsurprisingly added 16 new shows to its lineup, the largest number of any network. Among the highlights was “Animal Practice,” a sitcom set in a veterinary clinic. NBC sought to generate buzz for the show by bringing one of the stars – a monkey named Crystal – to its upfront presentation Monday.

Indeed, NBC is making the biggest bet of any network on comedies, scheduling sitcoms on four out of five week nights next season.

Media buyers also had high hopes for J.J. Abrams’ science-fiction drama “Revolution,” though the networks have tried and failed over the last few years to replicate the magic of “Lost,” the other Abrams-produced show that launched TV’s science-fiction fascination.

BRITNEY, BACON, QUAID

In contrast to NBC, CBS Corp’s eponymous network, the top-rated network in terms of total viewers, has the strongest returning lineup and is therefore least in need of new shows. It added only four – three dramas and one comedy – to its schedule for the new season, the fewest new shows of any network.

The best-received of its shows were “Vegas,” a new period drama starring Dennis Quaid in 1960s-era Las Vegas, and “Partners,” its lone new sitcom from the original creators of hit comedy “Will Grace” which also has a similar straight/gay buddy relationship as its theme.

Already featuring a strong comedy lineup with “Two and a Half Men,” “Big Bang Theory” and “Mike and Molly,” CBS boss Les Moonves decided against adding more comedies to his schedule despite the fact that they can help bring younger viewers to the network. CBS’ audience is the oldest on TV, with an average age of more than 55 years old.

“We looked at going to eight comedies but felt we already had a great schedule,” Moonves said.

Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger said CBS’ incumbency advantage is starker than ever.

“For CBS, there was no need to take notes; we can name all four new shows and their time slots from memory,” said Juenger.

“Imagine how much easier it is for CBS to drive awareness and interest in four new shows, compared to the other networks trying to launch six or 10 – or even 14 new shows.”

For its part, Fox, which trails CBS in overall viewership, added three sitcoms and two dramas.

But the biggest news from Fox did not involve new shows, but a new judge. “X-Factor” producer Simon Cowell appeared on stage Tuesday to announce that Britney Spears and Demi Lovato, who appeared alongside Cowell, had signed on as judges for next season after weeks of speculation in the news media.

Fox also drew applause from advertisers for luring veteran Hollywood star Kevin Bacon to TV for the first time ever for its new serial-killer drama “The Following.”

“Our audience has consistently asked, ‘Where’s the next “24″‘? I think we found it,” said Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly.

The addition of movie stars like Bacon, Quaid, and Lucy Liu, who will star in a new CBS show called “Elementary,” is viewed as significant for the broadcast networks since the perception is that they have been losing buzz and mind share to much smaller networks like AMC, home to award-winning shows such as “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad.”

And then there are insurgent newcomers like Hulu, Google Inc’s YouTube and Yahoo Inc, which are luring stars like Tom Hanks and Katie Couric to digital video by investing heavily in original content creation.

“This isn’t new to this year, the networks understand that there’s all this development on the other side,” said Mediacom Chicago managing director Matt Schwach.

LOSERS

With so many holes to fill, NBC and ABC inevitably had some losers at this week’s upfronts, with many of their new shows and schedule changes falling flat with critics and other media-watchers.

Horizon Media analyst Brad Adgate said NBC’s move to extend its hit talent show “The Voice” by an hour on Tuesday nights might be 60 minutes too much for audiences to bear.

“I think they’re going to kill ‘The Voice’ with over-exposure,” said Adgate.

Adgate also was not a fan of ABC’s new sitcom “The Neighbors,” about an alien family living among humans, which the network plans to air after its hit “Modern Family” on Wednesday nights.

But from the TV industry’s point of view one person was a bigger loser than any show previewed during the upfronts: Charlie Ergen, chairman of DISH Network Corp. Network executives are hopping mad over Ergen’s launch of a DVR called the “Hopper” which allows viewers to completely skip over commercials rather than fast-forward through them.

The industry was collectively appalled that Ergen would attempt to undermine their key source of revenue – advertising.

“I do find it surprising that they’re going to do that to their largest content provider. I mean, more broadcast is watched on their service than anywhere else, and this is how the shows are paid for,” said Peter Rice, chairman of Fox Entertainment.

CBS’ Moonves was even more emphatic. “It’s preposterous, they can’t do this,” he said. “How does Charlie (Ergen) expect us to pay for the programming?”

(Reporting By Yinka Adegoke and Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by Peter Lauria, M.D. Golan and Matthew Lewis)

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK |
Fri May 18, 2012 12:28am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – China’s biggest political scandal in two decades is likely to have dashed playwright David Henry Hwang’s hopes of bringing his Broadway play “Chinglish” to mainland China anytime soon.

In a case of life imitating art, the comedy has so many similarities to events surrounding deposed Chinese politician Bo Xilai that Hwang says he doesn’t believe it would be acceptable to the authorities to allow a production to be mounted.

In the play, which premiered in Chicago last year before the Bo scandal erupted, an American businessman has an extramarital affair with a sexy Chinese female official and her boss is arrested on corruption charges.

There is also a British consultant “fixer” who arranges for the son of a Chinese official to go to a school in the UK. Beneath it all lies a power struggle, and there are many funny linguistic misunderstandings along the way.

In the real-life scandal, there are allegations of corruption surrounding Bo and his beautiful wife Gu Kailai, now a suspect in the murder of a British businessman, Neil Heywood. He had been a former family friend who had among other things arranged for Bo’s son to attend an exclusive school in the UK.

There is an elusive French architect who appears to have shared both an affectionate and close business relationship with Gu. And beneath it all, a power struggle, with the ambitious Bo climbing his way toward the pinnacle of the Communist Party.

“It has always been my dream that the play could be done in China proper,” Hwang, a 54-year-old Los Angeles-born Chinese-American writer, said in an interview.

“However, the Bo Xilai case and the fact there are these similarities probably makes it less likely that the play could be performed in China, at least in the near future.”

He said the play could be mistaken for criticism from overseas. “The Chinese don’t like to feel an outsider is criticizing them – it’s ok if they are criticizing themselves.”

CRACKDOWN

Still, Hwang says he does expect the play to be produced in Hong Kong in the next 6-12 months, though even that might be a test of the territory’s more liberal environment.

There is now little hope of a theater production on the mainland for at least four or five years, he said.

“There are still pretty firm freedoms of civil liberties and freedoms of expression in Hong Kong, but the question is whether the play could ever be done in China,” he said. “Right now given the high profile of the Bo Xilai case, it is probably unlikely.”

He once had hopes of taking his Tony Award-winning play “M. Butterfly”, which was turned into a movie by David Cronenberg, to China but the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 stopped that plan, Hwang said. It still cannot be produced on the mainland.

Some Chinese may get the chance to catch a movie version of “Chinglish”, with plans for it to be directed by Taiwanese-American Justin Lin. But they are more likely to eventually see the film online than in Chinese cinemas, which are subject to tight restrictions on the number and type of foreign movies.

CULTURAL CONFUSION

Hwang received a barrage of excited emails from theater lovers struck by the similarities between his play, which debuted on Broadway in October, and the Bo scandal.

Fans have approached the dramatist and observed, “Wow, the Bo Xilai case really reminds me of your play,” Hwang said.

More broadly, he said, the play and the real-life case of Bo showed that Westerners were no longer such rare or respected characters in Chinese life.

“A Western businessman going into China now, A, is only one fish in a pond with a lot of other Western fish and B, doesn’t command the same kind of authority and respect that he or she would have 20 or 30 years ago,” he said.

However, Chinese art and life remain culturally far removed from Western ideals, he added. “Yes, China is changing and is becoming more like the West but that doesn’t mean it is like the West – that is an important distinction.”

(Reporting By Christine Kearney; Editing by Martin Howell and Mark Bendeich)