Looper and Iron Man 3 both made special overtures and concessions to secure one of the limited number of foreign film slots the Chinese government grants. Transformers 4 looks like it's gearing up to do the same. With American box office numbers down and the Chinese film market flourishing, producers are keenly interested in the second largest box office draw in the world. How will this affect Joss Whedon and his plans for The Avengers 2? Joss weighs in below:
"I’m working on the script right now, and if someone came to me and said, ‘We’re looking into doing a chunk of this in China’—well, I’d have to think about it," admitted Joss Whedon. "China is on my radar. It can’t not be at this point," said Whedon in reference to the country's importance to international box office revenue. However, Joss says he's only willing to go so far to cater to that specific interest, "If a studio person said to me, ‘Hey, that scene that takes place in Miami and features flamingos has to be filmed in China,’ I would be like, ‘Well, no, that doesn’t make any sense. And no, there is no scene about flamingos in Avengers 2. I can’t stress that enough. I don’t want the fanboys to be abuzz tomorrow about flamingos."
I repeat, there are no scenes in The Avengers 2 about flamingos. That said, don't be surprised if Marvel Studios repeats the same overtures in made in Iron Man 3 to the Chinese film market for The Avengers 2. We should probably start asking if the same things are being done in all the Phase Two films.
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