Shooting on Location

When Beijing film producer James Wang Zhonglei ran into his old friend Zhang Ziyi at Cannes last May, he told the Chinese actress that he had a big "headache" because he didn't have a leading lady for his new film, "The Banquet." His first choice was Gong Li, Zhang's costar from "Memoirs of a Geisha," but she had scheduling conflicts. Zhang looked at him, and he looked back. Five minutes later, Wang was on his mobile phone with Feng Xiaogang, director of "The Banquet" and China's leading commercial filmmaker. Would he consider the 27-year-old Zhang, who hadn't made a movie on the mainland in two years, for the role of the fortysomething queen? "Why not?" Feng replied. To make the part more age-appropriate for Zhang, Wang got his team to rewrite her role in the story, a retelling of "Hamlet" set in an ancient Chinese court, for a younger sovereign. Now the $20 million epic, due out in the fall, has become one of Asia's most anticipated films of the year.

Wang, 36, certainly knows how to make things happen. As president of Huayi Brothers Film Investment Co., he's one half of a dealmaking duo that's China's equivalent of the notorious Weinstein brothers--the American siblings whose wildly profitable art-house features redefined the market for independent films. Over the past 10 years, Huayi has transformed the Chinese film industry with a combination of savvy marketing and intense attention to script development and casting. Movies like "World Without Thieves" (2004) and "Kung Fu Hustle"--a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Golden Globes--have earned both critical plaudits and money at the box office (some $6.7 million for Feng's 2003 sleeper hit "Cell Phone," and $11 million for "World Without Thieves"). And the company has produced several small but internationally acclaimed art-house movies, like 2004's "Kekexili," about a Tibetan antelope patrol in Western China. "Huayi is the only one," says John Chong Ching, CEO of film production and distribution giant Media Asia. "They're the biggest privately owned film company in the mainland, they are very market-oriented, and they know the tastes of the people in China."

Wang and his older brother Zhongjun, 46, started their venture in 1994, while China's capitalist boom was just getting underway. Zhongjun, who also goes by the English name Dennis, had just returned from studying graphic design in the United States, and the brothers decided to plunge into China's relatively new advertising industry. They bought an existing company called Huayi; within two years they'd turned it into one of Beijing's top agencies.

The Wangs, who loved movies, realized they could help their ad agency by expanding into the film industry, which was then mostly the province of state-owned studios. "When we were growing up in Beijing in the 1970s, going to films was big entertainment," says Wang Zhonglei in a rare interview. "We went to a lot of war epics, many pictures from Japan, Russia and India. Films were free. We saw some films 10 to 20 times. It wasn't a matter of choice, though, because we saw whatever the cinema was playing." Much of it was in black and white. "Superman," starring Christopher Reeve, was the first American movie he saw in color and he was awed. When Huayi Brothers began investing in movies, Zhongjun focused on advertising and corporate strategy while Zhonglei took an active role in film development; today he is considered one of the most knowledgeable and best-connected personalities in the business. Their mini empire has also grown to include talent management and music.

Indeed, the company is a model example of how private enterprise is transforming Chinese entertainment. The Wangs, who own 77 percent of Huayi, spend at most $30 million to make about four films a year. Tom Group, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire investor Li Ka-shing, owns 7 percent of the shares, while the rest belong to Yahoo, whose chairman in China, Ma Yu, recently also became chairman of Huayi. "Being a private company, they work with a greater degree of flexibility," says Albert Lee, CEO of Emperor Motion Pictures, the influential Hong Kong entertainment company that is coproducing with Huayi the upcoming Jackie Chan baby-snatching caper "Rob-B-Hood." "They are commercial-minded. The Wang brothers started in advertising, so they are more receptive to marketing ideas"--which pleases investors. With promotion budgets for Chinese movies easily reaching a staggering one-third of production costs, Huayi's relationships in the mainland's advertising world make the company a valuable producing partner. "A World Without Thieves," directed by Feng, featured what Wang refers to as "the commercial": several minutes of footage showing a new sedan by BMW--one of their advertising-side clients--crossing the picturesque wide-open highways of western China.

It will be tougher to use product placements in "The Banquet," which is a period piece. But the company is talking to several international luxury brands about hosting high-profile events to help promote the movie, as well as to high-tech clients about endorsements. "They are very good at advertising and can call in a lot of sponsorship," says Chong. "It is very helpful in relieving the burden of marketing in China," where creating buzz is difficult due to the country's vastness and the still-modest size of its film industry.