It's a new chapter in U.S.-Chinese relations — cinematically speaking. “Kung Fu Panda 3” opened simultaneously here and in China, thanks to a partnership between DreamWorks and its partners there; writer-director Sian Heder's feature debut was inspired by her experiences as a nanny.
How DreamWorks is working to make 'Kung Fu Panda 3' a true international success
DreamWorks has positioned "Kung Fu Panda 3" to top not one, but two box office markets when it releases this weekend.
The movie's English version was re-scripted, re-voiced, and re-animated for a wholly distinct version, which will come out in China just as the English version releases in America. You can see DreamWorks's approach via the two trailers in this post — they're practically identical, but one is entirely in Mandarin, and the characters really look like they're speaking Mandarin.
Melissa Cobb has produced all three of the "Kung Fu Panda" movies, and she was recently named the Head of Studio and Chief Creative Officer at Oriental DreamWorks. When Cobb joined us on The Frame, she talked about the advantages of making two distinct versions of the same movie.
Interview Highlights:
Let's talk about the two different versions of "Kung Fu Panda 3" that are being released. There's one in English here, and there's one in Mandarin in China. And these weren't just dubbed — you made two different versions of the film, right?
Yeah, that's correct. Normally, a film would be dubbed into dozens of different languages, but in this case, we didn't just do a straight translation of the movie. We actually adapted the script to take into account different cultural things between the Mandarin and the US version, and then we cast a great cast in China, re-recorded the movie, and then we re-animated all of the character animations.
When you talk about re-animation, that's about getting the mouth movements to match the way in which Mandarin is spoken, so it doesn't look like a badly-dubbed "Godzilla" movie from the 1960s.
[laughs] Hopefully it doesn't look like a badly-dubbed anything. We were really able to capture the performances of the Mandarin cast, and you really feel that when you watch it. It was quite extraordinary for me, and I don't speak Mandarin, but watching the characters now speaking in another language, I felt like I was watching the movie for the very first time.
I want to talk about the bigger role of China. China will soon become the biggest box office market in the world. What are DreamWorks' plans writ large in China going forward?
Oriental DreamWorks is set up as an ongoing studio, so the first thing that we did there was this co-production on "Kung Fu Panda," which is really an opportunity to ramp the crew into big feature, animation production. But going forward, the idea is to continue to make films for the worldwide market out of that studio in Shanghai.
The first "Kung Fu Panda" did about $26 million in China in 2008, and then the second movie grossed about $92 million in 2011. I know you're not going to give us a box office prediction, but how optimistic are you about the film's prospects in China?
[laughs] I can't put a number on my optimism, but I hope that people there embrace it as much as they did the first two movies. It's an incredible experience to fly halfway around and have people who know and love your movie. It's incredibly emotionally rewarding, so we cross our fingers and hope all the families in China will go see what we think is a great family movie.
Writer-director Sian Heder draws from her days as nanny for 'Tallulah'
When Sian Heder moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film, she made ends meet by working for a nanny agency. Her clients were primarily wealthy parents staying at ritzy hotels. One night, Heder was particularly struck by the neglect and indifference shown by one mother toward her toddler, whom Heder was hired to watch while the woman pursued an affair.
This experience became the basis for Heder's first short film, "Mother," which received recognition from several film festivals — including Cannes — when it was released in 2006.
So Heder developed the material into a feature. The result, "Tallulah," starring Ellen Page and Allison Janney, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2016. "Tallulah" tells the story of a young nanny who, in an impulsive rescue attempt, kidnaps the child of a neglectful Beverly Hills housewife.
"Tallulah" was one of the most anticipated movies at Sundance. Roughly a week before the festival even began, Netflix purchased the rights, reportedly for a price in the mid-seven figures. It's being released on July 29th.
Heder has worked with Netflix previously as a writer on "Orange Is The New Black," but the debut of "Tallulah" marks a new era in her writing and filmmaking career. It's a process she documented on the tumblr: Tallulah the movie. The Blog.
You can hear Heder's interview with The Frame's John Horn by clicking the play button above. Below are highlights from their conversation beginning with the initial inspiration for the film. She goes on to say she hopes the film will open up conversations about what she describes as the "trauma" of motherhood.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
I probably could have written a lot of movies about the experiences that I had, but there was one woman in particular — I had a completely bizarre night with her. She'd come to the hotel to have an affair and she hadn't brought her nanny because she thought the nanny would tattle to the husband. So she was alone with her toddler for the first time. And it was very clear that she'd hired me more as a confidante, a friend to her rather than someone to watch her kid.
I desperately wanted to take that baby with me when I left. And I didn't, because that would have been kidnapping.
Because you felt that she was incapable of being a parent?
She was trashed. The room was trashed. She was helpless. She felt like a toddler herself. She couldn't turn on the TV. She was calling down to the concierge to have someone come up just to turn on the TV. She was this kind of helpless rich lady. And her little toddler was clearly more of an accessory. She had all these kind of matching outfits with her kid.
So I think I was really interested in a kind of neglect that was occurring among the wealthy. When we think about neglect, we think of it as low-income moms who are maybe substance abusers. I think among the wealthy there's this padding. In a way it's hidden away because you have nannies and housekeepers and you have this buffer to not really be able to see what's happening with some of these parents. I actually cried on the way home. And then I sat down immediately and wrote this scene.
Is that what became the short film, "Mother?"
It became the short. I was just, I have to write that down. That was one of the weirdest things that's ever happened to me. I just knew there was something to it. So I shot a short.
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But between the time you shot "Mother" and the feature film version, "Tallulah," you became a mother yourself. Does motherhood change the way you see that situation?
Hugely. I think I judged that woman very harshly. I judged a lot of the mothers I dealt with very harshly. And I think — my daughter was 16 months old when we shot. And I was actually six months pregnant with my son. I rewrote the script after [my daughter] was born because I had a lot of empathy for this villain character that I'd created. I realized that it's much more complex, and it's not black-and-white. There are all sorts of factors that go into being ill-prepared for the trauma of motherhood that I think a lot of women don't talk about.
What was the new perspective you brought to the script when you rewrote it? Was it that the woman had the awareness that she was failing as a mother? That she knew her own limitations and shortcomings?
There's a speech that she gives where she talks about seeing all these women on TV and on the street, and they're all doing it and it looks so easy — and why is it so hard for her and it's so easy for everyone else? Her child is taken, and there's a scene when [the mother], who's played by Tammy Blanchard, says, I wished for it. I wished so many times that this would happen. If she were just gone. It's an incredibly dark speech. And I get chills watching it because it's such a dark thing to say.
And it's interesting that just since the movie premiered, I've been cornered in bathrooms by women telling me these stories: When my daughter was born I didn't love her the way I thought I was supposed to. Or, I had postpartum depression and I couldn't connect with my child. I don't think I realized what I was making.
What kind of reaction did you think the film would start?
Certainly I wanted to start a conversation about it. I don't know that I knew it would touch such a nerve with people, that the amount of women — and men, quite frankly — like parents in general have come up to me and [said], I've had these weird dark thoughts. I think it's something that's kind of shameful to admit, and anyone who ever says that has to say, But I love my kids so much. And all of that is true. But I think — there is a death of your former self [after parenthood]. That's a battle in a lot of people. So I think I really wanted to address parenthood on a lot of levels. And Lu is Ellen Page's character — that's Tallulah. She's someone who doesn't really have a parental bone in her body. She's probably the last person in the world that you would say would be a nurturer. And in a moment of impulse she takes this child and discovers that part of herself throughout the course of the film.
You're almost describing parenthood, about bringing a child into the world and then being amazed by what he or she does on his or her own.
Yeah, and I think there is a process of birthing a film. This was a very fertile time for me! I found out I was pregnant and I found out the movie was financed at the same time. When I shot the movie, I was six months pregnant. The night I locked picture I left the editing room at 3 p.m. and I went into labor at 9 p.m. It was just the way that my life sort of mirrored the movie. But it's similar, birthing a film. Because you can prepare in a lot of ways, but you ultimately have to surrender. You have to be open to whatever comes. And I think there were moments on set, watching my actors work, where I started to realize, Oh there's something bigger here than I thought there was, in terms of theme.
Your three lead actors are women. Your cinematographer is a woman. Your production designer, art director, costume designer — you're detecting a trend here. I suspect that's intentional, not accidental.
A mixture, actually. I mean, Paula Huidobro, who was my [director of photography], shot my short film and she shot another short film for me called "Dog Eat Dog" that I made a few years ago with Zachary Quinto. So I had a working relationship with her. I admire her a lot as an artist. I think she's an incredibly poetic shooter, and has a great eye. And I have a visual language with her — it's a shorthand. We know what we like.
In terms of my other department heads I think I hired the — [laughter] — the best man for the job. When I was in the van on the first day, when we were off scouting, I looked around and realized we were all women. I actually had a moment of, like, Wait a second, what? Did I really do that? I didn't mean to do that. But it was very empowering. Even our gaffer was this tiny little woman.
That's a hard job for a tiny person of either gender.
And she's running this crew of these big macho guys. And there I was with this big, pregnant belly. Paula, my DP, is this beautiful Mexican woman who's very slight. And she's operating this handheld camera the whole time. Everything was subverting the traditional image of what these people are supposed to look like. And I really wanted to do a photo series and we didn't end up doing it.
But I think you're talking about a bigger issue, and that is the way in which — and this is obviously an independent film — the way in which the studios look at who looks like a filmmaker. They have this unconscious or conscious bias against women behind a camera. They just don't see it. They don't visualize it.
I think what's going to start the change is just seeing it more. You meet Paula and you [wonder], Well, can she hold an Alexa camera? Is she going to be able to do that? Look at this woman's résumé — she shot many hand-held movies, she's operated [camera] on all of her movies. I think that there's a lot of fear. A lot of money's on the line. Nobody wants to lose their job when they're an executive and they're green-lighting a movie, or they're a show runner and they're putting together their list of directors for the season.
There's a lot of fear. I think, the more people see it and realize that success comes from it, the more open they will be.