Los Angeles, Nov 22: Chinese movie-goers may soon get a chance to see their first James Bond film in five years after Beijing dropped a screening ban on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movies, studio officials have said. As the 20th incarnation of 007, "Die Another Day" was poised to open in the United States and Britain, MGM executives were upbeat that the slick British secret agent would be able to strut his stuff in mainland china.

"We are in the process right now of submitting (the film) to the Chinese government," said MGM's marketing chief Danny Rosette yesterday, adding that a 1997 ban on MGM movies was quietly dropped in 2001.
"China's an interesting opportunity for us. We're anxious to get back into (that) marketplace," he said.
The last two Bond adventures never made it to China's mainstream movie theatres because of the ban, imposed after a politically-sensitive Richard Gere film called "Red Corner" was set in Beijing and distributed by MGM.



Gere is a passionate campaigner for Tibetan independence and has been a vocal critic of China's control of the region, a sensitive issue in China.



MGM sources said that while "Die Another Day" did not yet have an opening date in China, they were encouraged as the last two movies in the 40-year-old Bond series - "Tomorrow Never Dies" in 1997 and 1999's "The World Is Not Enough" - were not even considered for distribution by Beijing.



But studio executives met with Chinese officials almost two years ago and the "Red Corner"-inspired ban on the studio's films was lifted last year by China's state administration for radio, film and television, officials said.


Bureau Report