Here’s a good example of the challenges that China will face as it tries to transition from an economy that not only makes but creates. Agency rejects Wall-E remake for copyright infringement:
Disney, which owns the copyright of Wall-E, told China Daily via a spokesperson that the company "values and protects its intellectual property vigorously and takes reports of suspected infringement very seriously".
"We are aware of this issue and are working proactively with the relevant government authorities to address that," the spokesperson says.
Xia Peng, the director who submitted the summary to the SARFT, said that he tried to purchase the remake rights to Wall-E for 700,000 yuan ($110,000).
With that amount of money, senior producer Ben Ji said, it is impossible to buy the remakes right of such a celebrated picture.
Xia admits that he does not have any contract to prove he has bought the remake rights, neither did he include any license agreement of the original scriptwriter in his materials submitted to the Beijing branch of the SARFT.
He even says he wants to make a 3-D Wall-E with an eight-person team. When asked if so few people can fulfill the work, he responds: "You don't know about the animation industry. It's quite simple, just some computer work."
In a way you have to admire the moxie of this guy for thinking that he could buy the rights to remake “Wall-E” for a little more than a hundred Gs and for believing that he could get it done, in 3-D no less, with eight people.
