The Mintz Dynasty

Judging by the way Mintz's little company has grown, he does, in fact, have both. As a private company dealing in many capacities with the Chinese government, DMG is rather touchy about disclosing profits, but Mintz himself puts its annual revenue growth at 50%-plus since 2001. The company is now handling VW's Olympic sponsorship (estimated cost: $200 million) as well as that of China Mobile, the country's leading wireless company. It's even doing work for the Beijing Olympic Committee itself. And over the course of 2005, DMG won new accounts with the likes of Johnson & Johnson, Audi, and Nike. (In getting the Nike account, DMG even took a chunk of business from none other than Wieden+Kennedy, Phil Knight's longtime ad stalwart.) Total DMG billings for 2005 probably reached or exceeded $100 million, says Mintz, and look set to rise significantly in 2006.

Now the brand Mintz most wants to build is his own. In addition to creating DMG, he somehow found time over the years to direct two low-budget feature films: Cookers, a supernatural thriller about crystal-meth dealers, which nabbed Best Film and Best Director at the 2002 Milan Film Festival, and another thriller called American Crime, starring Annabella Sciorra and Rachael Leigh Cook. Neither would probably have happened via the traditional script-shopping route; instead, Mintz lined up a Chinese backer, which intrigued the Hollywood suits who are hungrily eyeing a country with more teenagers than America has people. Through Fenton, Miramax and Fox have both hired Mintz to consult on production challenges in China. Even Variety chief Peter Bart has visited DMG in Shanghai.

"Let's put it this way," says a top CAA agent, "the Chinese market is driven by relationships, and the relationships that Dan and his firm don't have are probably the only ones you don't need."

After the general's dinner, Fenton and Mintz are standing just outside the Forbidden City when a police car pulls up and drives them into the massive inner courtyard framing the fabled Jin Shui Qiao, or Golden River Bridges. This is a special accommodation Mintz has arranged only once before, and as the cops patiently stand by, the pair steps out for a brief walking tour, with Mintz explaining the significance of various ornate monuments looming against the clear night sky. The buildings' scale alone is breathtaking, and Mintz reveals himself as a reverent if self-taught student of the history around him.

"This," he whispers, "is as close as anyone can get to feeling what it was like to be the emperor."

Jamie Bryan is a freelance writer living in New York. His work has appeared in Details, Premiere, and on MTV.

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