"Rape of Nanking" on Big Screen

A documentary film based on Iris Chang's book, Rape of Nanking(Nanjing) is near completion, and the financer, Ted Leonsis reveals his motivation to make this film in a Washington Post story.

Mr. Leonsis, a vice chairman of American Online(AOL), made billions during the merger of AOL with Time Warner in 2001, was always fascinated by the success of Steve Spielburg's Schindler's List. He spent 2 million dollars to made this documentary in a test drive for investing in film market. (read Leonsis's blog(Ted's Take) here)

Regarding the story of Rape of Nanking, "It's got Germany. It's got Japan. It's got an invasion that had terrible consequences to the Chinese people, and it's a story that hasn't been told," side Mr. Leonsis. He added that it's also a story that common people became heroes and did great good.

In 1937, when Japanese emperor army invaded Nanjing, an estimated 300,000 Chinese were killed. Westerners in the city created a safe zone that protected 250,000 Chinese from the Japanese army. The story's chief hero is a German businessman named John Rabe, who referred by Iris Chang in her book as "Oskar Schindler of China".

CCTV, China Central Television, has paid "significant" advance for broadcast rights for the film. Because next year will mark the 60th anniversary of "Rape of Nanjing".

The movie is scheduled to be showing at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 2007.