Mr China

Adapted by BAFTA-winning screenwriter Jeremy Brock — co-writer of The Last King of Scotland (BAFTA Best Adapted Screenplay) and writer of Mrs Brown (BAFTA nominee, Best Original Screenplay).

Synopsis:

Mr China is a true-life, high-stakes tale of Western ambition colliding with modern China. Based on Tim Clissold’s acclaimed memoir, it follows a young financier who lands in 1990s China with $500 million to invest and a mandate to “buy the future.” Factories dazzle, partners charm, contracts look watertight—until cash goes missing, company seals are forged, and midnight meetings reveal a playing field ruled as much by guanxi and saving face as by term sheets. As deals unravel and alliances shift, our protagonist must unlearn Wall Street instincts and read a different battlefield—punctuated by lines from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. What begins as a gold rush becomes a sharp, darkly funny, and ultimately human story about trust, translation, and the cost of misunderstanding a country.