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Thriller franchise author and former counterintelligence agent and bodyguard Simon Gervais has signed with APA for film and TV projects.

Gervais wrote The Last Protector as part of his Clayton White series, with the next installment, The Last Sentinel, to launch Aug. 9. He also wrote the Pierce Hunt series for Thomas and Mercer and the Mike Walton book series for The Story Plant.

And Penguin Random House and the Robert Ludlum estate tapped Gervais to create and write a new Ludlum series within the Jason Bourne universe. The first installment, Robert Ludlum’s The Blackbriar Genesis, will be published on Oct. 18.

“Simon Gervais is an exciting and propulsive franchise writer. We are thrilled that he will be joining contemporaries Lee Child (Reacher) and C.J. Box (Big Sky) at APA,” the talent agency’s partner Debbie Deuble-Hill and media rights agent Alec Frankel said in a joint statement.

At the low-key opening ceremony April 28 of Wanda Studios in Qingdao, Li Guoqi, deputy director of State Administration of Film, made a little speech that had a big message. He told the crowd sitting before him, including China’s top filmmakers such as Feng Xiaogang, Huang Bo and Wu Jing — as well as those travelling from Hollywood — that cinema in the middle kingdom was more than just a bourgeoning, lucrative industry.

Cinema in China, Li said, served the important function of publicizing the ideology of the Communist party and must demonstrate the determination to implement and develop Chinese socialism.

“We must follow the direction of [president] Xi Jinping … to realize the great Chinese dream,” Li stressed in his speech to the assembled movie industry executives and the media.

Wanda Studios, or Qingdao Movie Metropolis, pictured above, is a 50 billion yuan ($7.9 billion) 166-hectare (410 acre) site that is home to 30 soundstages completed in...

Butter Lamp

Written & Directed by Hu Wei

France & China, 2013

For the nomad yak herders who live in Tibet, iconic Chinese images like Tiananmen Square, a scene from the Beijing Olympics, and the cartoon faces at China’s Disneyland, are simply part of the “outside world” and seem to have little to do with their lives. “They are not familiar with those cultures at all,” said Chinese Director Wei Hu. “However it does not mean that the two are separated.”

In Wei’s short film Butter Lamp, these locals come face to face with these images, posing in family photographs in front of tourist trap locales while the glorious mountains of their home lay ignored in the background, captured in the film’s remarkable final shot.

Tibet’s culture is slowly vanishing, with “globalization and deterritorilization”, as Wei argues, gradually changing the nomadic lifestyle and the families who live in the region.

A popular online video site is bringing the irreverent, topical humor of Saturday Night Live to China.The late-night U.S. comedy sketch show that regularly mocks politicians, popular culture and celebrities is being shown exclusively on the website of Sohu Video, a unit of Chinese online media group and Nasdaq-listed Sohu.com Inc.Ten episodes from the current 39th season of SNL are available now. Future episodes will be available online without subtitles the Monday after airing in the United States, and a version with Chinese subtitles and explanations of cultural references will be available at 10 p.m. the following Saturday,...

Jackie Chan Ridiculed In Hong Kong For Pro-China Stance Hong Kong action icon Jackie Chan faces a backlash in his hometown for joining China’s top political advisory body. Hong Kong remains suspicious of the mainland and many believe Chan was selected to appear at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference because of his visibility. Professor Sonny Ho, co-director at the Centre for Greater China Studies, describes the conference’s “united front” strategy as a campaign to promote a strong and peaceful homeland, unified with Taiwan. China’s growing clout has seen actors from Hong Kong and Macau drafted into patriotic movies that glorify the country’s past including the early Communist Party era. Chan’s appointment to the conference met derision online for his pro-Beijing stances such as calling for limits on the right to protest. Beijing is blamed for everything from political interference to rising property...

Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan this week joins China's top political advisory body in a move analysts say highlights Beijing's growing "soft power" efforts to project unity between itself and the former British colony.

But the 58-year-old actor, famous in the West for "Rush Hour" and "Police Story", faces a backlash in his hometown where the mainland is viewed with increasing suspicion.

According to professor Sonny Ho, co-director at the Centre for Greater China Studies, Chan was selected to appear at the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (Cppcc) because his stardom could help promote ties.

"Jackie Chan is acting under the soft power and united front of the Prc (mainland) government," he said. The "united front" strategy, he said, was a campaign to promote a strong and peaceful homeland, unified with Taiwan.

China's growing clout over the past decade has seen actors from Hong Kong and Macau drafted...

Hong Kong – The reformist credentials of China’s new leadership have been thrown into doubt as a Beijing newspaper was forced by propaganda officials to publish a government-sanctioned opinion piece attacking a liberal-leaning publication in Southern China. Political commentators describe this move as contradicting the recent pledges from Xi Jinping, who has spoken publicly about the need of transparent and responsible governance in China since he succeeded Hu Jintao as the Chinese Communist Party's general secretary in November. The publisher and editor-in-chief of the Beijing News have reportedly offered their resignation after they were coerced by

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Washington -- Actor George Clooney's blitz of the U.S. capital to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis in border regions between Sudan and South Sudan arrived at the Oval Office on Thursday, and the actor said he came away from meeting President Barack Obama encouraged that there is high-level interest in doing more to help a region that soon could suffer mass starvation.

Clooney, whose visit to Washington has drawn outsized press coverage at every turn, said he was optimistic that Obama would press Chinese President Hu Jintao to join international efforts to bring peace to the ravaged region when the two meet this month on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in South Korea.

"The good news for us is we feel like there's a commitment at a high level" to deal with the Sudanese situation, Clooney told reporters after his meeting with the president. He...

On the eve of a dialogue on human rights with Beijing, the president has finally begun talking tough about China's crackdowns. It's a sign he realizes his toothless policy of the last two years has failed, says Joshua Kurlantzick.

As the U.S. and China prepare to meet on Wednesday and Thursday for their annual Dialogue on Human Rights, Beijing and Washington have begun sniping at each other mercilessly. Beijing has blasted America's wars in Afghanistan and other countries as human-rights abuses and warned the White House not to "position itself as a preacher of human rights." The Obama administration, meanwhile, has emphasized the growing crackdown on rights activists across the People's Republic, publicly chastising Beijing even before the dialogue begins.

Related story on The Daily Beast: Democrats' Negotiator in Chief

Far from being a cause for concern, the sniping is a positive sign that the Obama administration has learned...

Photographs by Darren Soh

An elderly women holds a sign that says "Please, sir hold on. I'm not asking for a red envelope." | Photographs by Darren Soh

It is a couple of weeks before Chinese New Year and Chen Guangbiao is sitting in the back of his SUV, barking orders out the window at his press secretary, a serious lady with a serious clipboard: "Beijing News, Beijing Evening News, Beijing Youth Daily ..."Chen, a member of China's new and fast-growing billionaire ranks, has just paid these newspapers to publish articles listing the charitable deeds he's done over the course of the year.

"Make sure it's all sourced to the People's Daily," Chen says, referring to the Chinese Communist Party's mouthpiece. Then he picks up his mobile phone and starts calling his friends. "Hey, did you see the papers today?" he says, chuckling. "Chen Guangbiao's Report Card for the Year 2010!"

One...

Obama told the Chinese pianist at the state dinner for China's President Hu Jintao (a k a America's banker): "Hey, we meet each other again." Michelle: "Thanks for your inspiration to my daughters in learning piano." Hu hugged the pianist with: "Please regard your parents for me." And on our phone call, he spelled his name. "L-a-n-g L-a-n-g." So the pronunciation's Lang Lang? "No. Leung Leung." Can I call you just Leung? "No. Double. Leung Leung." Oy, this was like one from Column A, one from Column B.

Monday, 19 March 2007, 10:39

C O N F I D E N T I A L Section 01 Of 07 Beijing 001840

Sipdis

Sipdis

State Also For Inr/B

Treasury For Oasia/Ina Haarsager, Winship, Cushman

Usdoc For Ita Das Kasoff

Usdoc For 4420 Ita/Mac/Ocea McQueen

Eo 12958 Decl: 03/19/2032

Tags Pgov, Econ, Efin, Scul, Elab, Soci, Ch

Subject: Zhejiang Party Secretary Touts Economic Successes

And Work Towards Rule Of Law At Ambassador's Dinner

Ref: A. Beijing 1672

B. Beijing 1760

Classified By: Ambassador Clark T. Randt, Jr., Reasons 1.4 B And D.

1. (C) Summary. Zhejiang Province Communist Party Secretary Xi Jinping, a contender to succeed President Hu Jintao in 2012/2013, describes Zhejiang as a driving force behind national economic growth. Zhejiang ranks high for income, low for income disparities, and makes substantial contributions to migrant worker employment and transfer payments of fiscal revenue to the Central Government. Xi dismissed concerns about overheating, noting that the faster his province grows,...

Beijing - The Chinese not the Us president is the most powerful person in the world, according to Forbes magazine. President Hu Jintao was placed first on the list, ahead of Us President Barack Obama, who topped last year's rankings, in the list published Wednesday in New York. Forbes said Hu was the 'paramount political leader of more people than anyone else on the planet; exercises near dictatorial control over 1.3 billion people, one-fifth of world's population. 'Unlike Western counterparts, Hu can divert rivers, build cities, jail dissidents and censor internet without meddling from pesky bureaucrats, courts.' Obama was ousted from top spot following the set-back of Tuesday's mid-term elections. 'It's quite a come-down for last year's most powerful...

Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg has appealed to Chinese President Hu Jintao to use his nation's influence in Sudan to put a stop to the genocide in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan. In a November 15 letter to Hu released on Thursday - Spielberg's second missive this year - the filmmaker remarks the near-five-year conflict in the African nation has deteriorated since his last correspondence. He writes, "So I write to you now with a renewed sense of urgency in the hope that China will redouble its efforts to pressure Sudan to join in a fair peace agreement and, at last, bring an end to the genocide. China's economic, military and diplomatic ties to the government of Sudan continue to provide you with the influence and the obligation to press for change. Without China's insistence, I fear Sudan will simply 'wait out the clock.' I believe the decisive hour for Darfur is now. The world needs China to lead here. So many lives are at stake." Spielberg - who is the artistic director for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing - came under criticism earlier this year from actress/activist Mia Farrow for not using his involvement with the global event to speak out about the humanitarian crisis.

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg has threatened to leave his position as artistic director of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, unless China takes action against Sudan. China is a major investor in the African country's oil industry and has been criticized for failing to send United Nations peacekeeping troops to the troubled Darfur region. The Chinese have also been accused of selling weapons to Sudan. Spielberg wrote to Chinese president Hu Jintao in May urging him to use his influence to encourage Sudan to accept peacekeepers. Now he is warning he will decide in the next month if he will withdraw his support of the games. His spokesman Andy Spahn says, "Steven is one (of) many advisers to the Beijing Games and he is trying to use the games to engage the Chinese on this issue. Steven will make a determination in the next few weeks regarding his work with the Chinese. Our main interest is ending the genocide. No one is clear on the best way to do this." Spielberg's move comes after actress Mia Farrow criticized him for supporting the games. She said, "Does Mr. Spielberg really want to go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games?"...

Steven Spielberg has appealed to Chinese President Hu Jintao to pressure Sudan over the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. The director is serving as an artistic advisor for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and hopes the host country can help persuade the African nation to allow access to United Nations peacekeepers in the troubled region. In a letter to Jintao, Spielberg writes, "I share the concern of many around the world who believe that China should be a clear advocate for United Nations action to bring the genocide in Darfur to an end. Accordingly, I add my voice to those who ask that China change its policy toward Sudan and pressure the Sudanese government to accept the entrance of United Nations peacekeepers to protect the victims of genocide in Darfur. China is uniquely positioned to do this and has considerable influence in the region that could lead efforts by the international community to bring an end to human suffering there." Earlier this year Spielberg was criticised by actress Mia Farrow over his involvement in the Chinese Games, given the country's dubious human rights record. She said, "Is Mr. Spielberg, who in 1994 founded the Shoah Foundation to record the testimony of survivors of the Holocaust, aware that China is bankrolling Darfur's genocide?"...

TOKYO -- The top legal counsel for Microsoft Corp. praised advances made in China on intellectual property rights and copyright issues, but warned in a press conference here that much work remains to be done.

"Last year was the most important and encouraging in terms of software IP, and we saw some significant steps," Microsoft senior vp Brad Smith said Thursday while speaking to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.

He emphasized the positive impact of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Seattle last year and Beijing's commitment to better protection for software rights. The U.S. this week announced plans to challenge China through the World Trade Organization over its record on intellectual piracy.

"We are seeing new PCs with legitimate software being installed, which is very encouraging, while government ministries are also buying legitimate software," he said.

"But no-one is saying that the work is done in China," he cautioned. "We need to continue to focus our efforts on this area."

He also pointed out that China needs to take international legislation on copyright seriously as its own industry starts producing high-quality products that need protection.

BEIJING -- Chinese President Hu Jintao wants to "purify" the Internet with tougher rules and closer monitoring, he told communist officials gathered this week to study the fastest growing Internet population on Earth.

Hu's call to "actively and creatively nurture a healthy online culture" went out to China's ruling 24-member Politburo, the official Xinhua news agency reported late Wednesday.

"Maintain the initiative in opinion on the Internet and raise the level of guidance online," Hu said in a speech, Xinhua reported. "We must promote civilized running and use of the Internet and purify the Internet environment."

Hu's speech came on the heels of Beijing police busting a prostitution ring targeting well-to-do Web surfers with online ads sent from an Internet cafe on the south side of the capital.

Hu made no direct mention of censorship in his speech, preserving the official line that Chinese online have unfettered access to the Internet.

However, experts watching online development here say that the majority of China's 137 million netizens regularly run into Web sites blocked by government censors employing sophisticated technology that watches for words critical of the ruling party and its policies.

NEW DELHI -- The week-long Kolkata Film Festival, India's only non-competitive festival, ended Friday with a screening of Kaalpurush by renowned Indian director Buddhadeb Dasgupta.

Now in its 12th year, a highlight of this year's festival was the first-ever participation from China, which saw four contemporary films screened including a Sunday premiere Sunday for 7 Colours, a collection of seven short films. One the film's seven directors, Lu Yitong, and actress Yang Qing were in attendance.

The Chinese flavor at the festival comes just a week before the official visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to India.

Other Chinese films unspooling included Yang Li's noirish 2003 title Blind Shaft; 2005 Cannes Jury Prize winner Shanghai Dreams, directed by Xiaoshuai Wang; and 2005's Perpetual Motion, by director Ning Ying.

The festival, which opened with Danish filmmaker Andres Thomas Jensen's Adam's Apples, showcased 225 films, compared with 149 last year, from 53 countries, including a special showcase of eight films by Ingmar Bergman.

Also included were retrospectives of Italian filmmakers Luchino Visconti and Roberto Rossellini, whose birth centenaries are being observed this year.