Hollywood in 5

Bowling feels Malaysia has potential to be recognised for visual effects.

Malaysia has to satisfy five factors in order to woo Hollywood studios into the country. HIZREEN KAMAL talks to Hollywood film luminary William Bowling.

WHEN Hollywood blockbusters Entrapment and Anna and the King were filmed in Malaysia in 1998 and 1999 respectively, the producers had, to a certain extent, introduced the country to the world.

A decade later, Malaysia has yet to see major Hollywood studios making movies here.

Is Malaysia a suitable location for Hollywood films?

Warner Bros worldwide location executive William “Bill” Bowling believes that Malaysia still has a long way to go to entice the studios.
“Malaysia is not well known. The best way to publicise the country would be with a successful film which will open doors,” said Bowling, who was in Kuala Lumpur to conduct a recent one-day seminar entitled Future of Malaysian Film Industry and its Development from an International Perspective and Location Business — Positioning Malaysia as an Attractive Location for Foreign Film Producers at the National Film Development Corporation (FINAS) in Ulu Kelang, Selangor .

The seminar was co-organised by the Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry and FINAS.

“Although Malaysia has the potential to become a suitable location it also depends on what a film requires from the country,” he said.

Bowling stressed five factors for a suitable location.

First is safety and security.

“Schedules are normally tight and a production cannot be halted due to this factor.”

The feasibility and cost-effectiveness of a location is also important.

The fourth factor is getting support from the local government.

“Filming is not simple. For instance, if a scene requires a car to be driven at high speed through a city, the support of the local council is essential.

“Also, film equipment has to arrive promptly and visas must be processed quickly,” he said.

The fifth aspect is skilled and highly trained crew members.

“This is necessary since studios do not want to fly in their crew which will increase production costs.

“Malaysia also needs to consider competition from its neighbours such as Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, which are wooing international film studios.

“For example, if a Hollywood studio wants to make a movie in Asia, it may consider Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines which are similar to Malaysia. If production costs is cheaper in Thailand and suitable crew members are available, it’s likely the studio will go there.”

Countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Singapore and South Korea also offer financial incentives to Hollywood studios.

“Financial incentives are a major influence on Hollywood studios. Malaysia needs to work on that.”

A classic example is New Zealand, the location of the award-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy.

“This is a big challenge for Malaysia but it is good that the country is working towards developing this industry.

“I look at the booming audiences in China and Indonesia as a positive sign that people are interested in cinema products and building more cinemas. Hollywood studios are looking at ways to penetrate the film markets there.

“They want to bring their products and be part of the Asian film industry,” said Bowling, who is a respectable film luminary in Hollywood.

Bowling has high regards for Malaysia and FINAS.

“A FINAS representative visited Warner Brothers to promote Malaysia. The country is serious about developing a viable and strong industry.”

As for visual effects, Bowling feels Malaysia has potential to be recognised.

“Some Hollywood studios have been in talks to develop digital technology here as another way to improve production costs. Sometimes, it is not just about bringing in a big movie crew but also bringing work in.

“If Malaysian companies excel at visual effects, they can be employed whenever Hollywood needs the expertise even if it doesn’t make movies here. But that takes a lot of training and skills.”

Bowling says filming Hollywood movies locally can create job opportunities and boost the country’s tourism industry.

“Local crew members can also get hands-on training in their respective fields.”

Bowling has worked in more than 80 countries in 25 years.

Among the feature films he was involved in were Talladega Nights, Starship Troopers, Saving Private Ryan and Speed Racer.

Venice Film Festival opens with Hollywood flash

Actors George Clooney, right, and Brad Pitt arrive for the premiere of the movie ‘Burn After Reading’. — AP pic

VENICE, Aug 28 — The Venice Film Festival opened last night with the premiere of the Coen brothers' dark comedy "Burn After Reading," giving a flash of Hollywood glamour to a festival lineup with a definite art house feel.

The 21 films competing for the coveted Golden Lion at the festival, which runs through to Sept 6, will provide a snapshot of world cinema, with entries from Ethiopia, Turkey, Algeria and a Brazilian-Chinese production.

While the lineup gives the impression of being light on celebrity-driven Hollywood fare — due both to the impact of last year's writers' strike and a late selection process for Cannes' springtime festival — festival director Marco Mueller said US films are well represented.

"This is the second time — and it is a record for the history of the festival — we have five American films in competition," Mueller said, emphasising that selections aren't based on any national criteria. "The festival is not an atlas of nations."

"Burn After Reading," starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton, is among another five American films being shown out of competition.

The first US film vying for the Golden Lion is Guillermo Arriaga's "The Burning Plain," starring Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger as a mother and daughter trying to forge a bond. The writer of "21 Grams" is making his debut as director.

Darren Aronofsky will present "The Wrestler," starring Mickey Rourke as a wrestler forced into retirement who strikes up a romance with an ageing stripper played by Marisa Tomei. Jonathan Demme will be showing his "Rachel Getting Married" starring Anne Hathaway as a daughter whose return home for her sister's wedding brings out old tensions.

Kathryn Bigelow is bringing "The Hurt Locker," an Iraq war drama portraying soldiers who defuse bombs in the heat of war. Also among the US entries is Iranian-born Amir Naderi's "Vegas: Based on a True Story," about the family life of a compulsive gambler.

Pitt picked up an award yesterday that he won last year — the best actor's prize for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."

"You can run but you can't hide," Pitt joked as he accepted the award during the opening ceremony. "It was an honour to receive this last year and it remains an honour to accept this this year."

German filmmaker Wim Wenders, whose credits include "Paris, Texas" and "Buena Vista Social Club," is heading this year's jury.

"We will see 21 films and I hope — and I have a lot of confidence in Marco — that we will see 21 films that will give us the state of art of what is cinema today," Wenders said.

"Burn After Reading" is Clooney's third film with the Coen brothers — completing what he called "his trilogy of idiots" after "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Intolerable Cruelty."

Pitt and McDormand play a pair of hapless gym employees who get in way over their heads when the memoirs of a failed CIA analyst, played by John Malkovich, fall into their hands and they try to peddle them as classified intelligence. Clooney plays a hypochondriac philanderer having an affair with the CIA analyst's disappointed wife, played by Swinton.

"We started writing the movie as kind of an exercise, thinking of what kind of parts these actors might play, what kind of story they might inhabit," Ethan Coen told a news conference.

The film is set within a spy story for no other reason than "we hadn't done one before," Joel Coen told reporters.

"It could have been a dog movie or an outer space movie. We just kind of landed on a spy movie," he said. — AP