The Film Studio That Shoots in Shandong and Draws Protests

choi

Ben Fritz and Steven Zeitchik, Relativity Media Is at a Crossroads; CEO Ryan Kavanaugh is trying to build Relativity into an innovative, full-service media company — an 'anti-studio' — even as the firm loses its principal backer. Los Angeles Times, Nov 13, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-relativity-20111112,0,449542.story
("Although the movie is about a group of students out for a night of partying in a U.S. college town, additional scenes would have to be shot, and set, in China. * * * The move was classic Kavanaugh: plucky, opportunistic and maybe a little shameless.

Note:
(a) The quotation, together with the first and thrid paragraphs from the bottom, are the three instances of the report that mention China. But the report does talk about the newly released movie Immortals.
(b) sword-and-sandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword-and-sandal
(a genre of largely Italian-made [h]istorical or Biblical [e]pics that dominated the Italian film industry from 1957 to 1965; used in a condescending way by film critics)

Apparently "sandal" alludes to the footwear of the era depicted.