19th May 2012
National Basketball Association Slam Dunks With First Movie In China
1st September 2010
Chinese filmmaker Hu Xuehua (aka Sherwood Hu) is to direct a
movie set in the rarefied world of the US' National Basketball
Association (NBA). And it is described as the "first NBA-themed
motion picture outside of North America".
With locations in New York, Shanghai and Beijing, the movie is
called Amazing and is scheduled to be released next year.
It creates the most unlikely partnership between the NBA, famous
for creating basketball legends like Michael Jordan and Shaquille
O'Neal, and the Shanghai Film Group (SFG), China's biggest movie
studio.
The only other feature films set in the NBA's rights-protected
world are from Hollywood, and they include the 1998 film He Got
Game, starring Denzel Washington, and Space Jam, a 1996 vehicle
specially produced around Michael Jordan.
The SFG and NBA collaboration arrives at a time when basketball
has become one of the most popular sports in China. The country
recently usurped Japan to become the world's second biggest economy
with the potential financial resources to invest in films.
Among the director's accolades is the Kennedy Center Honor, which
is given by the US' John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
for lifetime achievements. It was for his stage production of The
Legend of Prince Lanling, which was later turned into his first
feature Warrior Lanling.
Photography by Luis Sanchez Martin at Gallery 1839 London