China to get big-screen cartoon superhero

Mr Mika said The Annihilator had begun life as a “wonderful 12-15 page treatment that he [Lee] wrote on his typewriter”. “It was a thrill to read as an original concept as it must have been to read about Spider-Man back in the day,” he said.

China’s first Hollywood superhero was “a good boy who seems to get into trouble as he grows up,” Mika said. “[He] is a complex individual, very similar to other Stan Lee characters like Peter Parker / Spider-Man. They are not Super Men – they are humans with human problems.”

Magic Storm Entertainment’s website describes The Annihilator as “a young Chinese man given a second chance as an international superhero who returns home to mete out justice”.

In a video posted on the website, with Chinese subtitles, Mr Lee said: “I would love to get a hero who is Chinese, whose origin is in China but who will appeal to people all over the world.”

Set in contemporary China and scheduled for release in 2014, the film was one of a series of US-China co-productions announced at the Shanghai festival by China’s National Film Capital or NFC, which is supported by a $422 million state-fund.

According to the Motion Picture Association of America, boxoffice sales in China rocketed nearly 30 per cent last year to some $2.1bn, making it the world’s third-largest after the United States and Japan. Mr Mika said the Chinese market was now a crucial sector for Western filmmakers.

“Now it is very easy to see the projections of where China’s growth will be over the coming years,” he said, adding that the film would showcase “the commercial growth of China”.

Chinese companies keen to boost their global brand had also expressed interest in contributing to the budget.

Hollywood’s growing overtures to China have triggered concerns that western producers would start tailoring their plot lines to government tastes or self-censoring delicate issues out of their scripts.

Mika said he had told the film’s scriptwriter Dan Gilroy, who wrote the sci-fi action film ‘Real Steel’: “Don’t worry about censorship. Just use some common sense.”

The satirical Twitter-account The Relevant Organs – renowned for poking fun at the Chinese government – reacted to the announcement with suggestions as to the abilities and traits a Chinese Superhero might have.

“Multibillionaire playboy, manages to keep his Ferrari on the road,” read one tweet. “Impervious to reason.” Another said: “Secret identity is a US passport.”

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