Vietnam banned Sony and Tom Holland’s action adventure film Uncharted over the weekend because of a scene featuring a map that shows China’s favored territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The map displayed in the scene includes the so-called “nine-dash line,” which is used on official Chinese maps to illustrate the country’s vast claims over the strategically important South China Sea, including areas rich in natural resources that Vietnam regards as its own territory.
“The film was banned from distribution after we watched it and found it contained an illegal image of the infamous nine-dash line,” state-run Vietnam News Agency reported, citing Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, a government body that overseas the import of foreign films.
Vietnam has blocked Hollywood content from its screens over the same issue before. In 2019, DreamWorks’ Abominable was blocked from cinemas because of the nine-dash-line, and last year Netflix was asked to drop several episodes of the series Pine Gap because of the same violation.
The privileging of China’s territorial interpretation in Uncharted — and its Hollywood predecessors — was probably no accident. Featuring Vietnam’s preferred version of the map would likely have resulted in major backlash in China, home to a theatrical box office that is nearly 50 times larger than Vietnam’s.
Uncharted opened in China on Monday and is currently forecasted by ticketing app Maoyan to earn about $15 million in the country — more than any Hollywood film has ever earned in Vietnam.
Directed by Ruben Fleischer (Venom), Uncharted has earned just over $300 million worldwide.
The film was conceived as an adaptation and origin story for video game series’ globe-trotting adventurer Nathan Drake (Holland). Nathan begins the story as a bartender before he is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to recover a fortune amassed by Ferdinand Magellan and lost 500 years ago. What starts as a heist job for the duo becomes a globe-trotting, white-knuckle race to reach the prize before the ruthless Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), who believes he and his family are the rightful heirs.
The screenplay was written by Rafe Lee Judkins, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. The film is produced by Charles Roven, Avi Arad, Alex Gartner and Ari Arad.
Source: Hollywood
