There is a Ripley coming to town, believe it or not. This would be the movie production of Ripley’s believe it or not. The lead role is played by none other than the most unbelieveable, Jim Carrey.

This is not to be confused with the movie Ripley Underground which is the sequel to The Talented Mr. Ripley. I am sure that Jim will play a very talented Ripley, but I want to know how he will handle the Chinese.

Working in China has proven to be  quite a challenge for the foreign production teams that have come over here, but the actors themselves usually have had favorable experiences.

Let’s see how believable their production is.

Oh Shanda, what will we do with you? Shanda is making very questionable moves once again. The9.com, following on it’s highly successful World of Warcraft partnership is now negotiating with Blizzard Entertainment with the expansion pack. This is very coherent to the9.com strategy and within their core business of interactive entertainment and online gaming. Here’s a summary:

Vivendi Universal subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment announced on Friday that it has invited Chinese online game company The9 (Nasdaq: NCTY) to negotiate the expansion set to World of Warcraft (WoW), The Burning Crusade. The9 is Blizzard’s current partner for WoW in mainland China, and also owns 30 percent of the company operating WoW in Taiwan. According to the release the expansion is currently planned for 2007 in mainland China, whereas previous expectations had the expansion hitting China in late 2006. According to several industry analysts, The9’s contract with Blizzard for World of Warcraft already gives The9 the rights to operate any expansion of the game in mainland China.

Meanwhile, after Shanda’s foray into countless incongruous decisions. This time they are going crazy, launching an e-magazine with an American company based on a kart racing game entitled “Crazy Kart”! Right, now there is a sorely needed product, that I am sure everyone is clamouring for. This has gone too far! I think someone is purposely trying to drive this company into the ground, or the people at the helm are drunk.

Why don’t we tally up the strange and mysterious the big S has made inpast months:

• Launching a Health food and Beverage brand
• Losing Marketshare to Netease and the9.com due to complacency, then countering it by giving away games for free
• Opening up an online music store, seemingly ignoring the rampant piracy in China
• Discounting the X-box 360, killing their chances of a deal with Microsoft Games
• Buying up Korean games to bring to China, hoping that Chinese will like them
• Launching an e-magazine based on a kart racing game, that has not been launched yet

This is by no means a complete list, but it seems they need to do a bit more thinking in the decision making, wouldn’t you think. Any business shoudl stick to it’s core business, or else they should chage their core business to what they are doing. Shanda doesn’t seem to know what kind of company it is.

The East-West Theater Company is now officially in Shanghai! Set up to do their very own comedy show entitled “Night of Mirth“, they plan on bringing stage comedy to a whole new audience. Formed by a group of exuberant and sometimes obnoxious foreigners and locals, they are breaking new ground on stage in China.

Only recently have western style stage performances begun to catch on. With the big musicals coming to town and more western performers finding their way into Shanghai, this is the beginning of a long trend.

The Theater Company plans to do a one-off show to “test the waters” in the Chinese landscape. Contact them for more info including how to get tickets.

Yes, a big budget film, along the magnitude of Mission Impossible 3 will be hitting the shores of Shanghai before we know it. The name has not yet been disclosed, but they will be doing a lot more shooting in China that MI3 did. They will be shooting for several weeks in multiple locations. Actually, it seems their budget (at least in China anyways) will be larger than what we saw with the Painted Veil or MI3. Let’s see if that pans out.

One way or another, this is continuing the trend of US based production companies shooting in China. Of course, this will hopefully provide more opportunities for us actors here in the Pearl of the Orient.

You heard it here first folks! I will update if I get more info.

It’s not quite what you might be thinking. China has been bitten by the reality TV bug. In one of their first installments they are staging a competition to determine the next “kung fu superstar” along the lines of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. They are holding this in the “Shaolin Temple” in Henan, the “birthplace of kung fu”. Yes, because it seems to make the kung fu more authentic. Here is the company line:

The Global Chinese Kung Fu Star TV Competition follows the international success of similar musical competitions such as Pop Idol in Britain, American Idol in the United States and last year’s Super Girl in China, which had a 400 million-strong audience.

So like American Idol, only the contestants get to beat the crap out of each other? I hope it’s like Ultimate Fighting Championship meets Super Voice Girls. Now that would be worth tuning in to!

Also, in the tradition of low quality fakes making cheaper to produce representations of other products, an “Apprentice” copycat has been launched in China. The role of Donald Trump will be played by… wait for it… all of China! Yes, the audience will serve as the savvy business guru. I am sure all those high school graduates and housewives will be well suited to this task. Anyhow, expect to heard throngs of people yelling “你被炒了”, or in English, “You’re Fired”. Yes, you are fired, and your penalty is you haev to fight in the kung fu reality show.