Dr. John Chua Guest Lectures at Oxford University

02/06/2010

American and Russian Cooperation in Film Production

Dr. John Chua has recently returned from Oxford University where he made a presentation at Lady Margaret Hall, one of Oxford’s constituent colleges.

He lectured as a guest of the Oxford University Russian Society(OURS) on the 'Short and Long History of American and Russian Cooperation in Film Production.’

“The long and mostly forgotten history of cultural exchanges and cooperation between these two countries dates back to 1926, when Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, the Brad and Angelina of their day, took a holiday in the Soviet Union and ended up appearing in a Russian feature length comedy,” said John Chua.

That history continues today with many prominent Russian filmmakers working in Hollywood.

‘The most commercially successful of these Russian filmmakers in Hollywood is probably Timur Bekmambetov, who directed the action thriller Wanted, starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman,” Dr. Chua added.

John Chua, who has worked in both Hollywood and Moscow, is himself a part of this long history of film co-production. In 2007, Bekmambetov optioned an unpublished short story of his for development as a feature film at Universal Studios. Dr. Chua co-wrote a Russian feature length cartoon that screened at over 600 cinemas across CIS territories this year and will be available soon in English.

OURS arranges frequent cultural events and lectures by well known and influential speakers. This Oxford society, which recently celebrated its centenary, was founded by then student, Prince Felix Yusupov, best known in the West as a key figure in the killing of Grigori Rasputin.

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