world as he paints on the largest canvas he’s ever been given was something
I couldn’t pass up.”
For all the visual effects (and Zhangconirms there are “1,500 shots
with pure computer graphics”), this was also a production that involved
extensive set construction. During the six-month shoot from March
to August 2015, four sections of Zhang’s Great Wall were erected in
the village of Huangdao, on the coast of the Yellow Sea. The largest was
500 feet long, 40 feet high and comprised of actual stone bricks. And
this was in addition to the huge interior sets built at Beijing’s China
Film Group Corporation.
It was a massive endeavour — even without the communication
challenges. Damon says that while things ran smoothly, “Things took
a tiny bit longer because you had to translate everything — every
direction was shouted out on a bullhorn in two languages.” The production
required no fewer than 100 translators, which meant, says producer Charles
Roven (who’s worked with Legendary sinceBatman Begins), that
occasionally, “Things got lost in translation. These kinds of collaborations
are not always perfect or easy, but everybody just rallied around Yimou.
They knew we were deinitely part of something unique, that had never
been done before.”
Zhang knowingly took on a tricky challenge when he accepted this
“mission” to direct a movie that would satisfy his Hollywood producers,
but which he’d also have to remould to his own preferences and realise
using his own exacting methods. “It’s not an easy process because there’s
a lot of negotiation with Hollywood,” he says. Zhang introduced the idea
of The Nameless Order being divided into ive colour-coded corps. He also
concocted a tense, fog-wreathed battle sequence, transformed the wall into
something Roven describes as being more like an “aircraft carrier in terms
of the armaments that ultimately show themselves”, and opened out the
climax so the action would move beyond the wall.
But it wasn’t just the spectacle Zhang tweaked. There was one part
of the script he’d inherited that particularly bothered him. “They had
one of those very clichéd relationships between the hero of the movie
and the main female lead, like you would see in 007 movies where the
hero would end up in bed with her,” he explains. “I wasn’t very comfortable
with this idea, especially given the female character is a war general.
I wanted to portray Matt Damon and Jing Tian’s relationship as more
like a relationship between two trusted warriors. During this negotiation
Hollywood was very worried about giving up the sexual elements, but
I was quite persistent on it.”
For Tull, such negotiations were part and parcel of hiring a strong-
willed ilmmaker. “We’ve been fortunate enough, from Chris Nolan right on
down, to work with some amazing directors,” he says. “And they always
have a strong point of view. If they don’t, then to me that’s a red lag.” And
Tull says there were no notes from the Chinese government itself, which has
previously censored such ilms asSkyfallandPirates Of The Caribbean: At
World’s End. “No-one came in and said, ‘Look, the monsters need to
look slightly different ’cause that’s not accurate.’ Fortunately we were
just able to tell the story.”
Even so, itwas a story that started drawing criticism before the
ilm had even been seen. After the irst trailer debuted on 28 July 2016,
it didn’t take long for the ilm to be accused of ‘whitewashing’, or submitting
to ‘White Saviour Complex’ through its positioning of Damon at the heart
of a mostly Chinese cast.Fresh Off The Boatactor Constance Wu tweeted,
“Our heroes don’t look like Matt Damon. They look like Malala. Gandhi.
Mandela... We don’t need salvation.” It’s a subject Zhang respectfully
declines to even discuss whenEmpireraises it, but Damon himself is willing
to grasp the nettle.
“I want to be sensitive to that point of view,” he says, “and certainly
there’s a longer conversation to be had about the systemic nature of
that kind of thing, but in terms of this movie I would love people to
at least see it irst before they label it or judge it.” Roven concurs, while
highlighting the fact that the plot requires two key characters to be
outsiders. “You can’t have outsiders if you don’t have outsiders,” he
argues. “I mean, I guess we could have made the outsiders Chinese,
but then they wouldn’t have been outsiders.”
Tull, as you’d expect, inds the accusations frustrating because, he says,
“It’s the opposite of the spirit of the ilm. This is about a man, a mercenary
from European culture, coming to China and learning about honour,
humility and technology. And to this point, every single person of Chinese
descent, or in China, that we’ve shown the ilm to has had an incredibly
positive reaction. So I really do think the ilm is gonna speak for itself.”
A few days after we speak,The Great Wallwill not only open in
China with an opening-weekend haul of $67.4 million (the country’s fourth-
biggest of the year, after Stephen Chow’s eco-fantasyThe Mermaid,
Captain America: Civil WarandWarcraft), but also to reviews that to some
degree contest the whitewashing accusation. “Those who ranted against the
project as another case of Hollywood ‘whitewashing’... may have to bite
their tongue, for [Matt Damon’s] character... spends the course of the ilm
being humbled, out-smarted, and re-educated in Chinese virtues of bravery,
sellessness, discipline, and invention,” wroteVariety, for example. Though
the worldwide release and response has yet to come, it seems the great
gamble — plus Zhang’s persistence and protectiveness — is paying off.
And it’s not just about adapting to a huge new market, Roven insists.
“This is a singular opportunity to create something for worldwide
consumption that, in a very entertaining, pop-culture way, is a way of
exporting Chinese culture.” Tull says that though seeing Zhang’s vast
sets blew his eight-year-old self ’s mind, what impressed him most was
witnessing “a truly international collaboration on a massive scale. It was
an exceptional experience of how our different cultures and countries
can work together.” Zhang, meanwhile, says, “If this ilm were to succeed,
I believe it would open many doors.”
So it turns out Thomas Tull’s own Great Wall, though designed to keep
out ravenous green monsters, might not be a barrier at all. In fact, in terms
of American-Chinese ilmmaking relations, it could prove the exact
opposite. The gates have been thrown wide open.THE GREAT WALL IS IN CINEMAS FROM 16 FEBRUARY. ALAMY