Strategy+Business – August 2019

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ditioners or DVD players. You can’t make them cheaper or faster. And unless

you’re willing to spend that kind of money, you can’t get into that business.”

Now there was an uncomfortable silence in the room.

“But,” I continued, “the truth is that there are only a handful of countries

in the world that can sustain a domestic film industry — meaning there’s a large

enough home audience to turn a profit without relying on government subsidies

or international sales: India, Japan, Korea, the United States — and, along with

a few others, China.

“So my question to you,” I went on, “is why haven’t you made Sleepless in

Shanghai? Or Four Weddings and a Funeral, set in Beijing? Or Lethal Weapon, set

in Hangzhou? If I were you, I’d grow the Chinese domestic audience first.”

Predictably, the Internet trolls weighed in the next day, outraged that “James

Bond Screenwriter Says China Can’t Make International Movies,” misconstru-

ing everything I’d said. But two weeks later, a venture capitalist friend from

Beijing called, proposing a partnership: “Let’s make those movies for the Chi-

nese domestic audience,” he said, adding, “I’ll bring the money, you’ll bring the

Hollywood storytelling.” It took me about two seconds to say yes. I got a visa,

we added a young Chinese development executive to the team who’d worked for

Miramax in Asia, and we were off and running. I began shuttling between L.A.

and Beijing, meeting with Chinese filmmakers, reading scripts, and listening to

pitches, trying to find movies to produce.

The trip to Changsha and the Golden Eagle festival turned out to be the

beginning of a personal odyssey. A great part of my work, during the years that

followed, focused on helping young Chinese filmmakers make better movies —

not to compete internationally, but for the far more important and interesting

purpose of cultivating their home audience. In the process, I learned a great deal

about cultural imperialism in general and American business egotism in particu-

lar. Not only had I been wrong in many of my assumptions about the Chinese

film industry, I had been completely incorrect about the inspiration for those

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