What China wants (2)

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By Li Jingjing (Global Times) 08:35, September 17, 2013

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Chinese, yet Hollywood

With the producer's devotion to progressing Sophie's story, Zhang's love for the character and Gordon's own ideas for film, the project kicked off with high energy.

Yet the process was not smooth. The story was developed first in the US and then brought to China to localize it.

"Our goal was to make a real Chinese movie for Chinese audiences that would feel Chinese and be in Chinese, but it would have a specific Hollywood style, because that would be something new," Gordon said.

And new is what the Chinese audiences demand. So Sophie's adventure this time around takes her all the way across Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao and the Chinese mainland. The film pokes some fun at classic spy and romance movies, but at its heart, My Lucky Star is a love story.

Backbreaking schedule

Keeping the teams on schedule from city to city made filming difficult.

Gordon said many protocols in China differed from those in the US, and she has learned a lot about how to solve problems from the Chinese team. Instead of being direct and quick to blame, she tried to be patient and understanding of the situation in order to build a more harmonious set.

But even Mother Nature tried to derail production. In Hong Kong, Gordon said they filmed one day and then had to evacuate because of a typhoon. All their sets were blown away and their production was halted for nearly 10 days.

However, after the typhoon, they had no time to delay. Wang had to go back to prepare for his concerts and Zhang had to finish filming The Grandmaster (2013). "It was crazy. Some days we had to shoot 24 hours to make that schedule," said Gordon.

Not to mention that on set, communication was a whirl of English, Putonghua, Cantonese and even Shanghai dialect.

Fortunately, a "lucky star" for them came unexpectedly, as Jackie Chan, a close friend of Zhang and Wang, visited the set and saw their dire situation.

Recognizing their need, Chan offered support in the form of his own production team and equipment.

"It touched me deeply," Gordon said. "Jackie was like my brother. He came aboard to help us in a way that we can never repay."

More on the way

Gordon revealed to the Global Times that she is already preparing to work on more Chinese films.

Next up is the reboot for another Chinese feature, Go Lala Go! (2010), which was adapted from the novel A Story of Lala's Promotion. She said they would start shooting next spring in Hawaii and China. Two more will come after that, including one action drama that will be shot both in China and Nepal.

So far, it seems Gordon is off to a good start on her journey to bring Hollywood to China.