The Hong Kong/China feud and the repercussions for GvK/the Godzillaverse.

[LSD Jellyfish]

China has more than a billion people. Add to that the number of Americans that won’t know or care that Legendary is a Chinese-owned company and I’m not sure how the HK protests will greatly impact this movie.

Because Chinese censorship boards can be fickle and a worsening of the situation in Hong Kong might cause them to reassess their stance on this film. Not to mention Legendary itself (or their Wanda financiers) might recut the film, alter the release date, or even pull it altogether (highly unlikely but not without precedent) should anything unexpected come up; many films had to be altered or were straight-up cancelled after 9/11.

No one’s trying to start a “preemptive narrative” blaming anyone should the film underperform; it’s just that in an unfortunate happenstance the filmmakers seem to have chosen to set a decent portion of the film in a city that has since once more become a major sticking point in Sino-Western relations, and that may very well have an impact on the film

Yeah that's true.

But to be honest, I don't think in making the film, Wanda or whoever wasn't pre-emptively aware of these situations. Like, Any film with Chinese pandering hasn't had anything that would encourage anything pro-Hong Kong ideas. A good example would be how in Pacific Rim Hong Kong is treated as "just a city". In fact, I think that KOTM was already made in mind to get past Chinese censors and not be controversial there so we can assume the same will be done with GVK.

I'll also be really transparent here, it's really annoying and frustrating as an American to see American/American based studios be completely subservient to a foreign country to have any success in the box office. I sort of just wish that films could just have lower budgets and be more successful in America. Film budgets are so bloated these days.

[G2000]

Unless the Hong Kong setting is used to promote democratic government then I’m not sure how that would negatively affect the film. For all we know, Chinese fans will want to see Hong Kong crushed in a monster battle.

But to be honest, I don't think in making the film, Wanda or whoever wasn't pre-emptively aware of these situations. Like, Any film with Chinese pandering hasn't had anything that would encourage anything pro-Hong Kong ideas. A good example would be how in Pacific Rim Hong Kong is treated as "just a city". In fact, I think that KOTM was already made in mind to get past Chinese censors and not be controversial there so we can assume the same will be done with GVK.

I don't think anyone was planning on these protests, and Legendary definitely made the film to be uncontroversial as possible to appeal to Chinese audiences. I'm talking worst case; if a bunch of people wind up dead IRL I could easily see the censor board that approved this film deciding that Hong Kong getting trashed is a bad look, or that MONARCH in Hong Kong in the film represents "Western forces interfering in HK" or some shit.

Like I've said before, if things do get that bad GvK will be a minor loss compared to everything else, but it would be unfortunate if this film becomes a casualty of events completely out of Legendary's control.

I'll also be really transparent here, it's really annoying and frustrating as an American to see American/American based studios be completely subservient to a foreign country to have any success in the box office. I sort of just wish that films could just have lower budgets and be more successful in America. Film budgets are so bloated these days.

Oh, I'm in full agreement with pretty much everything in this statement. It's utter bullshit that films have become so bloated that they basically have to do well in China just to make a buck.

[Rhedosaurus]

I'll also be really transparent here, it's really annoying and frustrating as an American to see American/American based studios be completely subservient to a foreign country to have any success in the box office. I sort of just wish that films could just have lower budgets and be more successful in America. Film budgets are so bloated these days.

Oh, I'm in full agreement with pretty much everything in this statement. It's utter bullshit that films have become so bloated that they basically have to do well in China just to make a buck.

And even that's not totally true since 75% of the profits that Hollywood movies make in China stays in China. So China gets most of the riches from Hollywood, anyway.

[LSD Jellyfish]

https://issuu.com/mipmarkets/docs/mipcom_2019_news_1

Pg. 57.
"The key driving content will be different in each territory," he says. "For instance, in China the Hollywood versions contributed greatly to Godzilla's popularity, while in the U.S. and Europe the original Toho films are mainly responsible,".

I think this is interesting, and direct acknowledgement. A greater issue at hand here is that due to some the two countries hatred for one another, Japanese films generally do not do well in China.

[G2000]

Dumb conspiracy theory time, part of the reason we haven't seen a trailer for GvK yet is because all the money shots are from the Hong Kong fight so they're waiting for a lull in the controversy before they release it

This is largely facetious

[LSD Jellyfish]

Dumb conspiracy theory time, part of the reason we haven't seen a trailer for GvK yet is because all the money shots are from the Hong Kong fight so they're waiting for a lull in the controversy before they release it

This is largely facetious

That would be funny, but yeah I doubt it.
It's not like they couldn't still release some re-confirmation of the film coming out or edit a new trailer together if it's still an issue.

But while we're at it (cause fuck it), imagine the trailer has Kong climbing this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internati ... rce_Centre
before leaping out onto Godzilla, who is in the harbor.

[G2000]

Dumb conspiracy theory time, part of the reason we haven't seen a trailer for GvK yet is because all the money shots are from the Hong Kong fight so they're waiting for a lull in the controversy before they release it

This is largely facetious

That would be funny, but yeah I doubt it.
It's not like they couldn't still release some re-confirmation of the film coming out or edit a new trailer together if it's still an issue.

But while we're at it (cause fuck it), imagine the trailer has Kong climbing this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internati ... rce_Centre
before leaping out onto Godzilla, who is in the harbor.

They already made t-shirts for the film crew of Godzilla and Kong fighting next to the Bank of China Tower

Added in 4 minutes 57 seconds:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BwApMWIAmjQ/
What's telling is that these were worn while filming was wrapping in Australia rather than in HK proper, which to me seems to indicate that HK is going to be the site of a big battle between the two

[_JNavs_]

Would it be far-fetched to assume that Tower could be used under a fake guise, secretly being an ORCA Tower. Resulting in a rather wild outcome.

That's kinda what I'm getting from looking at that T-shirt.

[LSD Jellyfish]

Dumb conspiracy theory time, part of the reason we haven't seen a trailer for GvK yet is because all the money shots are from the Hong Kong fight so they're waiting for a lull in the controversy before they release it

This is largely facetious

That would be funny, but yeah I doubt it.
It's not like they couldn't still release some re-confirmation of the film coming out or edit a new trailer together if it's still an issue.

But while we're at it (cause skreeonk it), imagine the trailer has Kong climbing this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internati ... rce_Centre
before leaping out onto Godzilla, who is in the harbor.

They already made t-shirts for the film crew of Godzilla and Kong fighting next to the Bank of China Tower

Added in 4 minutes 57 seconds:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BwApMWIAmjQ/
What's telling is that these were worn while filming was wrapping in Australia rather than in HK proper, which to me seems to indicate that HK is going to be the site of a big battle between the two

If this means anything, the bank at the bottom says May 2020, that's what the kanji lists. So this shirt was designed a long time ago?
Edit, I misread that, so that shirt was made a while ago, but confirms the release date. Filming then took well before the current controversy.

[G2000]

Filming then took well before the current controversy.

Sort of-kind of. Current round of protests in response to the extradition bill started in late March while the HK filming took place in April (and was evidently the last set of scenes to be filmed), but it wasn't until June and July that the really massive demonstrations and rioting started taking place.

[kaijuguy19]

https://issuu.com/mipmarkets/docs/mipcom_2019_news_1

Pg. 57.
"The key driving content will be different in each territory," he says. "For instance, in China the Hollywood versions contributed greatly to Godzilla's popularity, while in the U.S. and Europe the original Toho films are mainly responsible,".

I think this is interesting, and direct acknowledgement. A greater issue at hand here is that due to some the two countries hatred for one another, Japanese films generally do not do well in China.

That does make sense. I'm not sure if the tension between Japan and China is still that bad or not but all the same it's a great way to expand Godzilla beyond the Toho film linage since fans from both sides of the world get what version they like the most, and what helps is that KOTM did a lot better there then in the West in comparison so it make sense to build on that in some manner or another regardless of what's going on currently in China.

[LSD Jellyfish]

https://issuu.com/mipmarkets/docs/mipcom_2019_news_1

Pg. 57.
"The key driving content will be different in each territory," he says. "For instance, in China the Hollywood versions contributed greatly to Godzilla's popularity, while in the U.S. and Europe the original Toho films are mainly responsible,".

I think this is interesting, and direct acknowledgement. A greater issue at hand here is that due to some the two countries hatred for one another, Japanese films generally do not do well in China.

That does make sense. I'm not sure if the tension between Japan and China is still that bad or not but all the same it's a great way to expand Godzilla beyond the Toho film linage since fans from both sides of the world get what version they like the most, and what helps is that KOTM did a lot better there then in the West in comparison so it make sense to build on that in some manner or another regardless of what's going on currently in China.

I don’t disagree, it’s a smart business decision, I just find it hilarious that a company is openly admitting an original product intended to be for America (g14) gained a lot of ground in China, and to an extent is just as much of a Chinese film with KOTM.