Red Dawn film replaces Chinese villains with North Koreans

Red Dawn film replaces Chinese villains with North Koreans - Telegraph.co.uk

Red Dawn, which stars Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, the star of Thor and Snow White and The Huntsman, has recently been released in the US and involves a Chinese invasion of America, but the villains are thwarted by a high-school football team.

However, when studio bosses at MGM realised the plot could potentially offend the Chinese, and therefore jeopardise the film's success in China, they ordered that all references to the superpower be removed.

Rather the villains were recast as North Korean and all Chinese flags and symbols were replaced with North Korean ones.

The film is a remake of a 1984 Cold War film of the same name which starred Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen. In the original film the villains were portrayed as Russian invaders.

China is one of the fastest growing markets for Hollywood movies.

Dan Mintz, whose DMG Entertainment is a leading producer and distributor of movies in China, said that, had the movie been released with Chinese villains: "There would have been a real backlash."

He told the LA Times: "It's like being invited to a dinner party and insulting the host all night long. There's no way to look good ... The film itself was not a smart move."

The film is by no means the first to skirt round the sensitive Chinese market.