Hang up your cape, Superman. Here comes the Annihilator – all the way from China.
Perhaps seeking to promote the country as one of the good guys, China is financing a Hollywood movie featuring a Chinese superhero who saves the world. The character has been invented by Stan Lee, the 89-year-old creator of figures such as Hulk and Ironman.
The Annihilator, the protagonist of the 3D movie scheduled to open in 2014, “trains in Qigong in China and then comes to America, where he becomes a superman by coincidence,” Wang Guowei, president of National Film Capital, the state-backed film fund, told the FT.
“Then he returns to rescue the world – including China – from a crisis. By including the idea of China rescuing the world, it competes with the ‘China threat’ theory.”
China’s ruling Communist party has long lamented that its “soft” power falls far short of that of the U.S.. Efforts to improve matters, however, have been hampered by an overeager propaganda agenda.
Mr Wang said this would change. “Our country puts too much emphasis on ‘going out’” – projecting itself abroad. “The harder you strive to do that, the less you will succeed,” he added, noting that Chinese film exports were “almost zero”.
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