China turns to scandal for film, TV projects

November 08, 2008 A Beverly Hills- and Beijing-based production house -- working in tandem with Chinese partners -- is ripping scandalous headlines from local papers there to use as scenarios for a growing slate of TV and film projects. Shenhart Entertainment co-founders John Venturini and former CCTV producer Steven Shen have managed to do what just a decade ago might have seemed impossible -- taken highly sensitive stories from Chinese headlines and turned them into hit TV series there. The same was the case with another hit TV series film in both China and the U.S., about a rogue Chinese politician who amassed a fortune at home through bribery and corruption.

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