Bleeding Cool has shared another excerpt from Feeding The Dragon, the new book from Chris Fenton, the former president of the Chinese-based DMG Entertainment Motion Picture Group.
As you may recall, Iron Man 3 was the first Marvel Studios production to team with a Chinese production company in order to increase interest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the country. It proved to be something of a failed experience, as audiences in the country rejected what they felt were shoehorned in scenes and a waste of actors who are big stars in the Middle Kingdom.
Ultimately, it didn't matter as Marvel Studios movies are now a huge hit in China, but Fenton has now shared some insight into the lengths they went to in order to appease Chinese audiences.
"The Beijing shoot for Iron Man 3 was so crucial," he explains. "Not only did we have to get good footage for the global cut of the movie, but we also had to make it known that we were there. The film's production in China was indeed happening, despite what Shane Black said. People needed to know that."
In order to get the word out, Fenton decided to take a photo which could be leaked online to build excitement. "At the end of shooting that day, we took a photo to leak to the press. In it was Wang, Iron Man, at least from the waist up, and the ancient Chinese gate. To make it look like a shot from production, we added into the frame the top part of one of the production cameras. Additionally, we put everything a little off-center."
He adds that it would have been impossible for anyone to sneak on to Iron Man 3's set, but Fenton was extremely pleased to see the staged set photo receive a lot of attention online as, "our intended audience in China saw that part of Iron Man 3 was being shot in Beijing."
Later, the former executive revealed that Robert Downey Jr. was never on the set, and as interesting as it is to get some insight into how the media was manipulated over the Chinese shoot of Iron Man 3, it's crazy to think it didn't really help the movie all that much. On the plus side, it helped Marvel Studios realise that pandering like this wasn't the best way to make an impact at the Chinese box office.