20th Century Fox, working with film festival organizers, brought in a series of award-winning films to the ongoing event for special screenings. "Independence Day" was one of them and will have 5 sold-out screenings from June 16 - 18.
"It is a rare opportunity for die-hard fans to see the film for the first time on the big screen, which compensates those who had no chance to see the classic 20 years ago," said Sirena Liu, managing director of 20th Century Fox China.
"Independence Day" grossed over US$817.4 million worldwide in 1996, becoming that year's highest-grossing film and the second highest-grossing film of all time at that point. It also won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. It was not imported to the Chinese market, but many Chinese fans watched it on VHS, VCD and DVD, stunned by the world landmark explosions and wide scale of the story in the film -- many saw it as one of the greatest eye-opener films and feel a sense of nostalgic fondness for the film.
Its sequel "Independence Day: Resurgence," also directed by Roland Emmerich, will hit Chinese theaters on June 24 and the director and Chinese actress Angelababy, who has an important role in the new film, will start their promotional tour in Beijing on June 22.
Rain Lao, played by Angelababy, is the best Chinese pilot working on a moon base featured in the film. Despite the prominent absence of Will Smith, old cast members Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch and Vivica A.
Fox will return and work with new stars such as Liam Hemsworth in the film. Fox executive Liu revealed that 20th Century Fox also have other award-winning films to screen for Chinese audiences in the Fox Searchlight Film Celebration selection at the Shanghai festival, including Academy Award-winning "Birdman" (2014), "Little Miss Sunshine" (2006), "The Descendants" (2011), "The Last King of Scotland" (2006), "Black Swan" (2010), "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (2014) and "Waking Life" (2001).
The 19th annual Shanghai International Film Festival will be held from June 11 - 19, 2016. There are many special screening selections this year, including Pixar animations, the Harry Potter series, "Tribute to Masters,""Classic 007 Films Screening,""Oscar Film Panorama,""Jackie Chan Action Movie Week,""New Works of Renowned Japanese Directors,""Korean Films,""Retrospective of the Recent Works of Woody Allen,""4K Restored Classic Film Panorama" and others.
Forty-five cinemas in Shanghai will participate in the film screening. The online ticketing system crashed due to heavy traffic for an entire hour after the film tickets started selling on June 4.
Source: china.org by zhang rui