Lifestyle

Actually, three films jointly produced by Chinese and American studios - Shanghai starring American actor John Cusack, Chow and Chinese actress Gong Li, The Karate Kid featuring kungfu star Jackie Chan, and Hot Summer Days - drew large audiences last year.

In late December 2010, Director Zhang Yimou announced that British actor Christian Bale would join the cast of his latest movie Nanjing Heroes.

Also in that month, a major Hollywood studio bought the rights to remake Director Jiang's Let the Bullets Fly, and Jiang himself has been invited to direct the U.S. remake.

This cooperation trend continues this year. A 3D animated cartoon, Little Big Panda, made by Chinese and German studios at a cost of 350 million yuan ($52.24 million), will be shown in China during the Spring Festival period starting from February 3.

A film summit between the United States and China, with the theme of Co-production and Cooperation, was held in Los Angeles last November. This shows that the enormous Chinese market has attracted the attention of Hollywood directors and producers.

"Breaking the cultural barrier is the foundation of the bilateral cooperation in the film field," said Bill Mechanic, who served as chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment from 1994 to 2000. In collaboration with Hong Kong Director John Woo, he is currently planning to shoot a movie about Chinese immigrants building railways in the United States in the late 19th century. "We hope to produce a movie enjoyed by both Chinese and American audiences," he said.

In the past, Hollywood sold a lot of U.S. films to China, but seldom cooperated with Chinese studios in making movies. Such a situation may be changing soon. Hawk Koch, Co-president of the Producers Guild of America, has had a pleasant experience working with his Chinese colleagues. He believes China will become the world's second largest film market in the near future.

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