Chris Fenton - Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, & American Business

A POST HILL PRESS BOOK

ISBN: 978-1-64293-586-8

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-64293-587-5

Feeding the Dragon:

Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, & American Business

2020 by Chris Fenton

All Rights Reserved

All people, locations, events, and situations are portrayed to the best of the authors memory. All of the events described are true, and, as a work of nonfiction and one thoroughly covered by journalists, real names were unavoidable, necessary, and extremely appropriate. The exceptions were aliases used in a couple of the more sensitive areas.

Cover art by Cody Corcoran

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Post Hill Press

New York Nashville

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Published in the United States of America

Self-reflection is an extremely powerful force. When I started writing, I felt passionate as a voice of dissent. By the end, I learned I was also complicit. Though my thoughts have altered, my mission has remained steady: we either continue to coexist through the bond formed by the exchange of culture and commerce, or we consciously start a cold war between the worlds two superpowers.

In Memory of J.C. Spink

Dedicated to my wife, Jennifer, and my children, Kaylie and Dylan.

Special thanks to my parents for giving me the foundation for success and purpose.

Thanks to my amazing in-laws, brother, extended family, and friends for inspiration and support.

Thanks to the US-Asia Institute for including me in your vital mission of bilateral diplomacy.

Thanks to my former colleagues for providing a platform to utilize my skills, network, drive, experience, and persistence. Parts of my story detail our work from the turn of this century through 2013. Those activities were both colorful and historic. I portray those days with absolute reverence and adoration for each of you. We shared a wonderful journey together!

Thanks to all others involved in my memoirsyou made them educational and entertaining.

And finally, thanks to filmmaker Kevin Feige and his amazing colleagues at Marvel. You proved bilateral success can be achieved while also being true to your brand, movies, fans, and, most importantly, your nationour nationthe United States of America.

The views expressed in this book are mine and do not necessarily reflect the stances of the US-Asia Institute.

Though I used extensive notes and other source materials to detail events from long ago, certain creative freedoms did come into play, possibly resulting in some inaccuracies.

My career has focused largely in the movie business, where showing rather than telling is the norm. The quoted dialogue from real people throughout the book was inspired by my recollection of each event and should not be taken as verbatim. That said, my goal was to handle the words of each character with great sensitivity and deep respect, since this books mission is to entertain with great constructiveness towards a larger purpose. Its intent and content are not of a tell-all work of gossip and sensationalism.

Table of Contents

April 6, 2013,

five hours before the red carpet

Beijing, China

C an you believe this shit? Andy Anderson, one of DMGs Beijing-based VPs, peered through the fog of brownish haze across the courtyard of Taimiao, the Imperial Ancestral Temple. It was here at the temple, the holy shrine behind the heavenly gates that lead to the Forbidden City, where we would premiere Iron Man 3 . I was on my early afternoon check-in. A sea of workers hustled around us in the freezing gloom, hammering nails, smoking, spitting, and taping the red carpet to the ground. The whole thing hummed with activity, but at this point, it all seemed more random and precarious than productive.

Is it cloudy today? I asked, slipping on a pair of gloves. Feels like its going to snow.

Andy laughed nervously. Gonna be cold as a motherfucker tonight, but no worries about snow. He craned his head back and squinted, trying to see the Beijing sky hidden behind the covering of smog. Believe it or not. Its actually sunny today. Above the toxic haze.

Tens of thousands of feet above where we stood on the eastern edge of China, a cold front descended from the Arctic. The front crossed the Asian continent west to east, the cold dense air squeezing the warmer air in the lower atmosphere and pushing it east. This weather effect caused fresh winds to howl across the Mongolian steppes, and thunderclouds of clay-colored dust to tumble through the Gobi Desert. Here in China, the easterly winds effectively swept a winters worth of automobile exhaust, the puke from industrial activity, methane from animal production, and pollution from the booming nations coal-burning power plants east, straight through the Black Triangle toward Beijing. Thats where mountains slowed the breeze of blended toxins and trapped the poisonous concoction from blowing out to sea. As the cold air continued to roll down from the Arctic, it formed a layer over the city that compressed the smog, sealing the capital and its citizens in their own gaseous waste.

Whats the PM2.5 count? I asked Andy. PM2.5 is an air pollutant that damages the heart and lungs and is linked to cancer. PM2.5 was the principal toxic agent in the Chinese smog swirling around us. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a good level of PM2.5 would fall between 050 PPM (parts per million) on the Air Quality Index. A reading of 150200 PPM is considered unhealthy. I was hoping the number would fall in this range.

Andy shot me a look. Sure you wanna know? He clicked his radio and began talking in Mandarin.

Of course, I wanted to know. I wanted to gauge the air quality and safety for the hundreds of people working outdoors. I also had other concerns on my mind, and they were as pervasive as the smog.

Andy pinched the receiver in his ear and listened to a garbled response. His Mandarin was much better than mine, but he was still shaky. However, with something like an air quality reading, it was pretty basic. PPM is approaching six hundred, he translated, and climbing. Itll get worse throughout the day.

Jesus, I thought. Gotta be a Karmic lesson in all of this . Its as if Maoist China, long underfed and mostly agrarian for thousands of years, finally got to gorge on the mass-produced factory food of their Industrial Revolution. And, when indigestion set in and China farted, Mother Earth gave her a Dutch oven. If theres a lesson, its one I did not have the perspective to appreciate.

Not only was the air quality an issue that day, so was the safety of one of Americas most valuable assets. As part of our launch strategy, we were bringing a national treasure and diplomatic tool. More valuable than the Hope Diamond, the Crown Jewels, or any gem sitting in a vault or art hanging on a museum wall. This asset, which needed to be safeguarded against climate, theft, and physical harm, had generated tens of billions of dollars, brought joy to countless citizens around the world, and had the unique power to make men, women, and children of all colors and creeds rise up from couches, movie theaters, subways, and seats on airplanes to cheer, laugh, and cry. Im not talking about our former NBA client Kobe Bryant or our past marketing ambassador and Olympic champion Michael Phelps, either. That day, the asset was known to us on the ground as RDJ. To the world, hes Robert Downey Jr.