If you're not following Chris Buckley (@ChuBailiang) on Twitter, you probably should. The New York Times reporter who gave us panda TV (addendum: postmodern panda watching pandas on TV), double-decker bus-driving fail, and his timely "Pulitzer Prize" series of tweets (e.g., "...for urban planning goes to Zhengzhou for planting trees under an expressway") is who we should thank for the above, via People.cn, which really needs no additional commentary.
Chinese product placements, superfluous scenes with Fan Bingbing, inflated ticket prices… what did all of that get Iron Man 3′s much anticipated debut in China this week? Only every record in the books. “Disney is confirming that Iron Man 3 broke every opening day record in China’s box office,” according to BoxOffice.com. “The official figure... Read more »
Hot on the Iron Man 3 promotional trail, Robert Downey Jr. was in Beijing on Saturday, and basically showed everyone what publicity done right looks like. Reports People’s Daily (Downey’s quotes, all): I have been longing to come to China an it’s a dream that has come true. In the West we think we understand China... Read more »
There’s been a lot of hoopla over one of Iron Man 3′s film location, namely China — we heard the buzz as early as April 2012 — but only two notable Chinese actors appear in the film, Wang Xueqi and Fan Bingbing, and the latter doesn’t even appear in the new trailer. How disappointing, considering... Read more »
You might miss them if you blink, but Wang Xueqi -- who plays Dr. Wu -- and Fan Bingbing -- who plays his assistant -- actually appear in the latest trailer for Iron Man 3.
We saw Wang posing with an Iron Man in Beijing in December. Fan's role is small enough, unfortunately, she doesn't even make it on IMBD's list of cast and crew. Oh well. We'll still watch, because Iron Man is cool.
Hollywood Reporter calls the image a “photo leak” — though it’s as likely to have been planted by a publicist — and explains: It is not clear whether Robert Downey Jr is in that armor – the Chinese blogosphere have been abuzz with speculation about his presence on set ever since filming in Beijing began... Read more »
Wang Kang, a self-described do-it-yourself expert, is somewhat of an Iron Man enthusiast, and by "somewhat" I mean he's a much bigger enthusiast than you, and just about bigger than anyone else. How am I almost certain of this? Because in the above video, he parades around a Beijing office building in a fully powered Iron Man exoskeleton, complete with a functioning light that represents Tony Stark's nuclear heart. Wang made the suit with friends. I really wish he'd have smashed a minivan's windshield to take his work to the next level, but the nonviolent parading will have to do.
