Word: kundun
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Last week Disney held firm and said it would release Kundun as planned next year. "Disney's potential business in China is infinite," says Peter Dekom, a former show-biz attorney who advises media companies operating in Asia. "But Disney had to decide whether it wants to facilitate business or stand for free speech...
Having been attacked by some U.S. church groups over last year's controversial film Priest, the Walt Disney Co. is no stranger to protest. Now the company has incurred the wrath of a government. China's leaders hotly object to Disney's plans to distribute Kundun, a Martin Scorsese-directed film currently in production that tells the story of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. China's leaders get to play the villains, and they are not amused, to the point of making threatening noises about Disney's future in the great market of the future...
...giants have already decided. Two years ago, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. dropped the BBC's World Service Television news broadcast to China from its Asian satellite to placate Beijing. And sources told TIME that last year Universal Pictures--and reportedly other studios--turned down the chance to distribute Kundun for fear of upsetting the Chinese...
...Jianzhong, head of China's film bureau, and Shanghai Mayor Xu Kuangdi have each visited the U.S. and complained about Kundun. These kinds of culture clashes won't go away soon. "They don't have any idea what will happen once they become part of the world market," says Gere. "Russia learned how countries just can't pick and choose what they want to see--after MTV and cable TV come in, it all comes in. You can't hold back a flood...