As I began reading Chris Fenton’s Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, and American Business, I started to come to the realization that the author may well not be what he claims to be. Get extra facts about Chris Fenton
The initial hint of this came throughout the opening chapter. There, the author gushes like a schoolgirl when relaying the fanfare of Robert Downey, Jr.’s arrival at the premier in Beijing. His descriptions are granular, as he goes into great detail concerning each of the required security needed to safeguard one of your most significant movies stars in the world. But instead of describing his part as a “player”, he provides a rather detailed account of what’s it prefer to be a mid-level coordinator operating using the actor’s agents and the actor’s security group.
The thrilling cliffhanger of these 1st couple of chapters? Are there enough blockades for the fans? Can the author convince Iron Man portrayer Downey not to put on a mask for the premier on account from the badly polluted air?
Spoiler alert: there were not adequate blockades and Robert Downey, Jr. - RDJ for the cool children - didn't wear a “smog” mask.
For all of the giddy excitement of a world premiere, author Fenton comes off as a mid-level flunky. This process wouldn't be performed by someone running a multi-billion dollar company, working as an integral liaison among the Chinese government in addition to a titan of your US film industry.
As I study additional in to the book, it became abundantly clear that I was not reading a memoir of an individual who had really done all these impressive accomplishments he writes about. No, instead it seemed to become the very first hand account of a person who sat on the sidelines and watched all of the action - a spectator if you will. If it would have been presented that way, it would happen to be a a lot more honest and genuine account from the goings on.
And that’s the vital dilemma with Feeding the Dragon. He didn't present a credible case that he in fact did what he says he did. So, regrettably, he comes off as just a further within a lengthy line of Hollywood phonies. Why bother? One would suppose he would do it to support the book, at the same time as sell himself to news agencies including Fox News, exactly where he has appeared a number of instances and others as a “China Expert”.
In an effort to make and, a lot more importantly, exhibit a function film like Iron Man 3 in China, one should really have encyclopedic expertise with the arcane elements of business development. Very first, one need to know the way to truly make a movie. Second, one must understand how to negotiate with Marvel. Third, one should possess an acute understanding on the people and culture of China. Fourth, and maybe most important, one will have to know how to navigate the byzantine workings in the Chinese government to safe work permits, exhibition rights, and so forth. These are not trivial understandings entrusted to a mid-level security coordinator.
In line with an write-up published on True Hollywood Speak, Fenton stated that he doesn’t speak Chinese and has spent no greater than a month inside the nation. He is not a Chinese government specialist and he’s certainly not a filmmaker. Despite the fact that inside the book he requires credit for all of it.
Within the end, Chris Fenton seems to be one who over hypes his involvement on projects. What are his intentions? Probably his aim is usually to make himself out to become an expert on all items associated to each China and the movie business. Doing a deeper dive of Chris’s background, one finds that numerous of his claims usually are not based on reality but instead by his personal stories which he uses to further his profession. No doubt, Hollywood includes a large amount of very good people in addition to a lot of self-serving bad ones at the same time. And like many other autobiographical books, Feeding the Dragon is jam packed with hyperbole and self-serving speaking points. In author Fenton’s hands, they come off as a methodology to land additional gigs as a cutting edge China expert.
Details and actions will always speak for themselves. But everyone who requires the time for you to delve into his background or speak with his associates will know Chris Fenton Will not be feeding a dragon, he’s just feeding his own hype.
