Is Chris Fenton Feeding the Dragon or Feeding His Hype?

Posted by Thomas Shaw on March 22nd, 2021

As I started reading Chris Fenton’s Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, and American Business, I started to come to the realization that the author may well not be what he claims to become. Get more info about Chris Fenton



The initial hint of this came throughout the opening chapter. There, the author gushes like a schoolgirl when relaying the fanfare of Robert Downey, Jr.’s arrival at the premier in Beijing. His descriptions are granular, as he goes into terrific detail with regards to all of the important security necessary to guard one of your most significant movies stars within the world. But instead of describing his part as a “player”, he provides a rather detailed account of what’s it prefer to be a mid-level coordinator operating using the actor’s agents plus the actor’s security team.



The thrilling cliffhanger of those 1st few chapters? Are there enough blockades for the fans? Can the author convince Iron Man portrayer Downey to not wear a mask for the premier on account with the badly polluted air?



Spoiler alert: there were not adequate blockades and Robert Downey, Jr. - RDJ towards the cool kids - didn't wear a “smog” mask.



For all the giddy excitement of a world premiere, author Fenton comes off as a mid-level flunky. This process would not be performed by an individual running a multi-billion dollar company, operating as an integral liaison among the Chinese government along with a titan with the US film business.



As I study further in to the book, it became abundantly clear that I was not reading a memoir of a person who had essentially carried out all these impressive accomplishments he writes about. No, rather it seemed to be the very first hand account of a person who sat around the sidelines and watched all of the action - a spectator should you will. If it would happen to be presented that way, it would have already been a more sincere and genuine account with the goings on.



And that is the crucial issue with Feeding the Dragon. He did not present a credible case that he truly did what he says he did. So, unfortunately, he comes off as just an additional in a lengthy line of Hollywood phonies. Why bother? One would suppose he would do it to support the book, also as sell himself to news agencies which include Fox News, where he has appeared various occasions and others as a “China Expert”.



In order to make and, a lot more importantly, exhibit a function film like Iron Man 3 in China, one really should have encyclopedic knowledge of your arcane elements of business development. Very first, one need to have to know how you can essentially make a movie. Second, one must understand how to negotiate with Marvel. Third, one must possess an acute understanding in the people and culture of China. Fourth, and possibly most important, one need to understand how to navigate the byzantine workings of your Chinese government to safe work permits, exhibition rights, and so forth. They are not trivial understandings entrusted to a mid-level security coordinator.



According to an short article published on True Hollywood Speak, Fenton said that he doesn’t speak Chinese and has spent no greater than a month inside the country. He's not a Chinese government expert and he’s undoubtedly not a filmmaker. Despite the fact that in the book he requires credit for all of it.



Within the end, Chris Fenton appears to become one who more than hypes his involvement on projects. What are his intentions? Probably his goal would be to make himself out to become an specialist on all items connected to both China and the movie business. Undertaking a deeper dive of Chris’s background, one finds that a lot of of his claims usually are not primarily based on reality but alternatively by his personal stories which he uses to additional his career. No doubt, Hollywood includes a great deal of excellent people and also a great deal of self-serving bad ones at the same time. And like a lot of other autobiographical books, Feeding the Dragon is jam packed with hyperbole and self-serving talking points. In author Fenton’s hands, they come off as a methodology to land more gigs as a cutting edge China professional.



Details and actions will always speak for themselves. But any individual who requires the time to delve into his background or talk to his associates will know Chris Fenton Is not feeding a dragon, he’s just feeding his personal hype.