Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s strand in which, each fortnight, we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films making a splash internationally. The industry is more global than ever and breakout projects are appearing in pockets of the world all the time, making it hard to keep track, so we’re doing the hard work for you.
This time round we’re looking at Wham! 10 Days in China. Today, the BBC feature documentary has a rare one-day theatrical release that will see it play on 1,000 cinema screens around the world in territories including the U.S., the UK and Australia.
Name: Wham! 10 Days In China
Country: UK
Network: BBC
Producers: Sony Music Entertainment UK, Supercollider
For fans of: Buena Vista Social Club and music docs with a wider cultural lens
Distributor: Sony Music Vision (UK/U.S.), White Light (RoW)
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When Wham! became the first Western pop group to play in communist China in 1985, the goal was wider than simply introducing Chinese audiences to Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. The band was on a mission to generate a whirlwind of press attention that would be a springboard to success in the U.S.
Luckily, there was a film crew and Oscar-winning director in tow. The planned documentary did not turn out as planned, however, and was quickly shelved. Now, new footage from that trip captures the moments when George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley played their historic shows in Beijing and Guangzhou in Wham! 10 Days in China. The film follows the pop duo and also shows how Chinese audiences reacted to their first taste of a major Western pop phenomenon.
“Everyone knew the rushes existed and that they were effectively buried in a warehouse, and everyone knew that the whole trip happened and that it was intriguing, but no-one really knew what went on,” says Mike Christie, who directed Wham! 10 Days in China, which is produced by Zinc Media’s Supercollider and Sony Music. “It’s one of those unicorn projects that everyone has wanted to make.”
The rushes come from footage shot by Lindsay Anderson, the British New Wave filmmaker. His credits include If… and This Sporting Life. Anderson himself appears in the footage and it becomes evident that he had little connection with Wham! or the project, and there’s friction. One cringe-inducing scene shows George Michael literally cold-shoulder the esteemed director. Anderson did make a film, If You Were There …, but it did not pass muster with the band and was largely confined to the archives. A different doc was cut from the footage called Wham! in China: Foreign Skies.
Christie and the Wham! 10 Days In China team started out with the footage from these two documentaries, but obtained the treasure trove of original rushes when Ridgeley and the George Michael Estate (GME) got behind the new project.
“We knew these cans existed, but no one knew what was in them,” Christie says. “It took seven months of restoration and projection and capturing to get the actual rushes into the edit suite. We suddenly realized that we were actually cutting a whole new film from rushes and we weren’t relying on anything else.”
It was Christie’s approach to the project that won over Ridgeley and the George Michael Estate. The director wanted to pan out and tell a wider story, offering different viewpoints on Wham!’s journey east.
“We had George and Andrew’s personal perspective, the band’s perspective, the press perspective, the documentary [makers’] perspective and the Chinese perspective,” the director explains. “The approach we were proposing worked because it was looking at the bigger picture rather than just endlessly focusing on George and Andrew. Suddenly it stops being a celebrity vehicle.”
Today, Trafalgar Releasing is behind a one-day cinema release of the film across 1000 screens in the UK and U.S. among other territories, a rare feat for a BBC documentary. On TV, the film will bow on BBC Two in late August and the UK pubcaster is getting in the Wham! mood by scheduling a night of Wham! and George Michael programming to accompany the doc.
A hugely challenging tour
Supercollider
Christie interviewed dozens of contributors across China, the UK and U.S. to tell the story of Wham!’s time in China from different angles.
There is, of course, also plenty of Wham-tastic footage of messrs Ridgeley and Michael as they are ushered between meetings with Chinese and British dignitaries, grand banquets and encounters with wide-eyed fans before taking to the stage during what became a hugely challenging tour. We also see them battling the British tabloid press, underscoring one of the ironies that the film highlights. Namely, that the primary reason they were there was to generate the coverage and attention that would catapult them into U.S. staduims, and yet they were often at loggerheads with the press pack that was following them.
The film covers the trip’s rougher edges. Christie says the team wanted to step outside of the realm of the perfectly manicured music doc.
“How comfortable were we showing George having a massage, you know, pretty naked? How comfortable were we with things that were just backstage? How comfortable were we having Andrew and George at the press conference, being outspoken?,” he questions.
“Andrew and GME held true to the authenticity of it. I think in a day and age where we see very carefully manicured public images of celebrities and documentaries that seem to not really look behind the curtain, this was an incredibly honest account of what happened.”
What shines through, even when they’re at odds, is the bond between the two Wham! stars. “What we’re appreciating is the authenticity, the quality of the performances. The other thing you get from the film is actually seeing George and Andrew’s friendship unfolding before your eyes.”
A quick cut to Wham! playing a sell-out show in America shows that the China trip had achieved its goal. Soon after, the band would split. The new film captures 10 days that became a pivotal part of their story and a bona fide moment in pop history.
