Wednesday, December 7, 2005
And what do their actors get paid? An extra ration of acorn pie? One relative out of the gulag?
Kim Jong-Il is looking to his film "industry" to create a salable product:
Washington Times: Kim casts North as movie magic
Mr. Kim, known to his countrymen as "the Dear Leader," recently paid a visit to North Korea's Pyongyang Film Studio to give auteurs the benefit of his "on-the-spot guidance."
His message was combative.
"He said we are not competing with U.S. and European films. We have to beat U.S. films," Kim Man-sok, the head of the studio's foreign sales division, told foreign reporters.
In North Korea, what the Dear Leader wants, the Dear Leader gets. So the first potential international blockbuster already is in the pipeline...
They'll have to do better than this.
(H/T: Mingi Hyun)
I wonder what happens to the director when it fails to win an Oscar?
Does he automatically get a "Lifetime Achievment Award" posthumously?