The Hollywood blockbuster Iron Man 3 will have a Chinese look.

The superhero film will have two versions - one for the Chinese market and the other for US and international audiences.

Both will include significant Chinese elements and footage shot in Beijing last December, according to a Disney spokesperson in an e-mail statement to China Daily. The company acquired Marvel Entertainment in 2009.

Chinese actor Wang Xueqi plays Dr Wu, a new character who masters both Chinese medicine and modern science, and is a friend to Tony Stark, the protagonist.

Robert Downey Jr., who has reprised his role as Stark in the third installment of the franchise, describes the film as "a multicultural story about both the United States and China".

"Dr Wu is kind of the reason Tony Stark is still alive in the end of Iron Man 3," Downey said at a promotional event for the film in Beijing on April 6.

"He is a bit of a prophet of all the trials Tony Stark is going to go through. He is somebody who knows Tony is going wrong, but he will be there for him later."

DMG, a Chinese media and entertainment company, collaborated with Marvel on the Chinese elements in the film, and is marketing and distributing the film in China. The Chinese version of the film will also feature actress Fan Bingbing and will offer specially prepared bonus footage made exclusively for Chinese audiences, according to Disney.

"Marvel Studios' experience working on this film with Fan Bingbing and Wang Xueqi, and in shooting in China has been very positive and has created a springboard for future collaboration with China's talented stars and its growing film and television industry," the Disney statement says.

The film's Chinese elements also include product placement by TCL, China's leading television and mobile phone manufacturer.

Iron Man 3 is not the only Hollywood film to have Chinese connections.

Paramount's Transformers 4 will be partly filmed in China and star Chinese actors. Brad Pitt's World War Z, to be released in June, has also been tinkered with to make it more Chinese-friendly. The source of a plague in the film is China in the Western version, but in the Chinese version, the virus is called Moscow flu.

"The attractive Chinese market is the reason, no doubt of that," says Ben Ji, a senior producer who has worked in both Hollywood and China. "Probably, there will be more Chinese-friendly versions for Hollywood tent-pole films, but these special versions do not enhance the films' quality. I don't see it becoming a mainstream approach. It is more like a special marketing approach in a certain period."

According to the Motion Picture Association of America, China replaced Japan in 2012 as the second largest film market in the world, next only to the United States.

China's box office has been surging by up to 30 percent a year since 2003. It has been the biggest overseas box office territory for many Hollywood films, such as Kung Fu Panda 2 and Avatar.

The Chinese government has loosened controls on imported films, allowing 14 more foreign films, in 3D or IMAX, to be released in theaters every year.

The first two Iron Man films were released in China. Iron Man was the fourth highest grossing foreign film in China in 2008 and Iron Man 2 the sixth in 2010. Disney is confident it can reprise the glory with its latest installment.

"We are confident that our stories will continue to be enjoyed by Chinese audiences," the company says. "And adding a local flavor will enhance the appeal and relevance of our characters in China's fast-growing film marketplace."

But the market is not just a field of gold. With the existence of censorship and the absence of a rating system, Hollywood studios face complicated challenges.

For example, Quentin Tarantino's revenge drama Django Unchained was pulled from theaters on Thursday, it's opening day in China, for what authorities defined as "technical reasons". The release date is still unknown.

Iron Man 3 will premiere on May 3 in the United States and China.

liuw@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/16/2013 page18)