Mr. Shangkong | We can't fix everything with the internet
The internet is essential, but is Alibaba over-estimating its importance for movie making?
Can the internet really fix everything? What about finding the next William Shakespeare or Mark Twain just on the internet?
Xu Yuanxiang, vice president of Alibaba Pictures, apparently frustrated many veteran movie professionals by saying publicly last week that his firm "would not hire professional movie script writers any more" but turn to so-called "netizens' wisdom" for the next great story that his firm would make into a national bestselling movie.
Xu's comments, made at an industry forum, indicated that the profession of writers would be no longer as important as it was in the old days because nowadays we have the internet.
In response, many movie professionals expressed disagreement at Xu's comments about the less important role of writers in the era of the internet. For example, Manfred Wong, a veteran Hong Kong movie director, was quoted by Chinese news portal NetEase as saying: "If it is only money that can make good movies, why is Li Ka-shing [Hong Kong's richest man] not doing that alone rather than waiting now for new money to step in?"
Xu explained that the average age of the Chinese movie audience is below 22 and the size of the Chinese movie market is about 50 billion yuan (HK$60.5 billion) a year. To grab the hearts and minds of this audience you need a story that is already popular on the internet, most likely coming from online gossip forums and written or posted by internet users, not professional writers.
Alibaba Pictures is the flagship entertainment business of Alibaba, China's No1 e-commerce firm founded by English teacher-turned businessman Jack Ma Yun. In recent weeks Ma has been reported to be interested in acquiring the (SCMP).
