The long-lasting battle between Turkey and Armenia over the acceptance or denial of the Armenian genocide has gone to Hollywood, which has wheeled out two historic epics to offer competing perspectives on the World-War-I-era massacre. The Promise and The Ottoman Lieutenant are both panoramic love stories set in the chaotic twilight of the Ottoman Empire, but worlds apart.

"Film co-productions can help foster greater cultural exchange and understanding between two different countries, such as China and the United States," Hollywoord film director Julia Pierrepont III said at her home in Sunland, Los Angeles.

Paramount Pictures said Friday it has inked a co-financing deal with two Chinese companies for the Hollywood studio’s slate of movies over the next three years. Under the terms of the deal, Shanghai Film Group and Huahua Media will also set up an office on Paramount’s lot later this year, the studio said in a statement. [...] It’s the latest China-Hollywood tie-up, as both sides aim to beef up their presence in each other’s movie industries.

As Hollywood comes to China in desperate search of new, lucrative audiences, China is desperate to harness something of the elusive magic. If it can build its own film industry, the argument goes, it can use it to develop its so-called "soft power", in the same way US movies have carried American values and norms around the world for a century or more.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has embarked on a quest to make China’s voice heard internationally. “President Xi Jinping has vowed to promote China’s cultural soft power by disseminating modern Chinese values and showing the charm of Chinese culture to the world,” China’s Xinhua News Agency wrote in 2014. “The stories of China should be well told, voices of China well spread, and characteristics of China well explained,” the president said. 

China has never been shy about its desire to acquire “soft power” – the kind of cultural and economic influence that can’t be wielded by military might. And Hollywood has often been a partner in its project. China’s bid for soft power was on show this week, as Sony Pictures Entertainment formed an alliance with Dalian Wanda, a Chinese company that has become one of the world’s largest media empires...