by Julia Pierrepont III

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- "There are so many ways we can mutually benefit from working together," said Aaron Mendelsohn, secretary of Writers Guild of America (WGA) West, America's leading writers' group.

Business insiders found a new trend is hitting Hollywood as more Chinese producers hire Hollywood screenwriters to write films destined primarily for the international market, and a growing number of American screenwriters and directors are heading East.

The cooperation between the two countries to improve relations, strengthen international ties and create more mutually-beneficial opportunities was highlighted in the meeting between China Film Association (CFA), China's leading film industry group, and WGA held in Los Angeles this August.

"The WGA has been successfully providing assistance and protections for its members for over 65 years, so we have a lot of experience in how to improve work conditions, job opportunities and compensation for our members," Mendelsohn explained to Xinhua on Thursday, who is currently working on a China-based project of his own.

"The China Film Association is interested in learning more about how the WGA supports its members and about the WGA's organizational structure and duties work," Deputy Secretary General of CFA Bi Wenyu told Xinhua after the meeting.

"The WGA's long experience in representing writers has led to affiliations with writer's guilds all over the world," Bob Underwood, WGA film and TV writer, told Xinhua. Underwood is currently doing two scripts in China that he developed with Stan Lee of Marvel Studios fame. "It is a natural step for the WGA to build a bridge with China writers."

"For over 70 years, the most successful writers in all forms of film, TV [and recently] the internet, have been members of the Writers Guild of America," added Underwood, who also welcomed more collaboration with China.

A hot topic was cross-border hiring that would enable China's writers to learn from seasoned Hollywood pros with decades of experience about how to write scripts for a more international audience - something China's rapidly growing film industry has yet to master.

"Great films all start with the right script," said Emily Dell, WGA Foreign Employers Task Force member and an executive at Screencraft.org, a leading online portal for blogs, interviews and masterclasses for writers. Her company intends to make their sizeable archives available in China for aspiring Chinese writers and directors.

"We are curious about Hollywood style writing," said Yuan Yuan, a young, successful Chinese screenwriter who wrote China's box office hit, "Go Away Mr. Tumor."

"Hollywood has been in a leader in this business a long time and we are just building our film industry," she explained.

"Hollywood writers have a long tradition of creating stories that play to audiences around the globe," said Jonathan Fernandez, a WGA board member and professor at the American Film Institute (AFI).

"I think a conversation between Chinese writers and American writers would be productive for both sides," he said. Fernandez is currently writing an action feature script set in Shenzhen, China, for a Chinese film company.

"Chinese film companies are eager to learn from the Hollywood system, so good opportunities exist for experienced Hollywood writers and directors and other creatives to work on Chinese productions," said Donna Zheng from the International Creative Collaborative (ICC), who co-organized the August meeting.

"The WGA has created seminars for writers around the globe - what American writers have learned over the years as our best practices," explained Fernandez. "But it's a two-way street - American writers can learn from Chinese writers too," he added.

WGA writer and board member Michele Mulroney, best known for co-writing "Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows", starring Robert Downey Jr., agreed.

"Many of us here have already worked with Chinese companies who tend to hire us for our storytelling and our ability to write or revise screenplays so that they can appeal to a wider international audience," she explained. Mulroney is currently writing a screenplay about famed Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang.

WGA members are also curious to learn more about the similarities and differences between the Hollywood and Chinese writer-director-producer relationships.

"In China, the director is very powerful - more important than the producer. So often the director will hire the screenwriter and they develop a script together," explained Yuan, whose box office hit had been directed by Zhang Xiaoling, one of China's leading directors, who also attended the CFA-WGA meeting.

"She had a fresh voice," director Zheng Xiaoling, director and chairman of Shanghai ShiGu Film Co., told the group. "I believed she had the skills to reach a younger audience, then we worked together for a long time to develop the script."

"Exploring opportunities for U.S. and Chinese writers to work together on projects is a great way for both sides to learn from each other," Donna Zheng told Xinhua on Friday. "Cooperation for mutual benefit is important for the global film industry as a whole," she added. Enditem

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