Paramount has issued a press release (below) confirming a rumor from last year that Transformers 4 has entered a "Cooperation Agreement" with the China Movie Channel and Jiaflix Enterprises. It sounds like a similar agreement that Hollywood has entered into with the company for filming portions of Iron Man 3 and The Wolverine. The latter film even has a special cut of the film that features several China stars just for the China market. The reason for the deal is the $165 million box office Dark of the Moon earned in the country and Paramount is hoping that number will be higher for TF4 if its got portions of the film actually made in the country. China talent will be cast in the film but too early to know how the extent of their roles nor how much of the film will actually be produced in the country.Last November I stated a few reasons for deals like this and the danger it puts in any crew sent to China. Suffice it to say that money and blackmail have a lot to do with it. It will also be interesting to see if Bay and the cast are willing to head over to China to film scenes or if that side will be a 2nd unit only production (so mostly supporting actors or non-actor specific scenes will be filmed there). I think the phrase "Cooperation Agreement" is pretty telling as I suspect it allows for a great deal of latitude on exactly how much Hollywood actually films in the country and what portions of the film use or are set in the country. At the end of the day the Chinese government's primary goal is to keep their propaganda machine going for their own citizens so if none of the main unit films there, I doubt they could care less as long as they are able to insert their own propaganda into the film as desired.
Read More »
