Once Upon A Time In The East

The future of international f ilmmak ing, or a colossal folly? Empire scales The Great Wall, 2017’s strangest blockbuster.

- Dan Jolin

Thomas Tull was eight years old when he first heard that the Great Wall Of China is the only man-made object you can see from space. Like all powerful myths, it lodged itself in this New York boy’s imagination and dug its roots in deep, never to be withered by the fact it’s totally untrue. “It might be an urban myth, but I found it fascinating,” Tull says now. “I couldn’t get it out of my head.” Questions buzzed around his young mind: “Why would they build something like that? What were they trying to keep out?”

It wasn’t until 2010 that the answer — the mythical answer, that is — came to him, during a trip (of course) to China. By this point, Tull was 40 years old and had set up the appropriately named Legendary Entertainment, a production outfit specialising in bombastic sci-fi and fantasy films such as The Dark Knight, Watchmen, Clash Of The Titans and Inception. “I started thinking, ‘Well, what if this feat of engineering — this incredible undertaking that required sheer force of will — was really to repel not people or a band of raiders, but mythical creatures?”

That was the moment Thomas Tull started building his own Great Wall.

For years now, Hollywood has had to adapt to the rapid growth and intensifying enthusiasm of Chinese cinema audiences; according to the most confident current estimates, China will be the world’s biggest film market in just two years. It’s a tough market to crack, though, given the strict state controls over the business there, not to mention the differences in audience taste and sensibility. One way in has been to cast Chinese stars in prominent roles (such as Jiang Wen and Donnie Yen in