China Entertainment 1997.

Chapter 117 Amitabha, sin, sin!

Still in [Flying on the Grass], Cao Xuan saw Li Yuan and Qian Yanqiu again.

In fact, before that, Cao Xuan roughly knew Qin Xingtai's bottom line through Qian Yanqiu.

In principle, Qin Shengtai is willing to sell this project, but it would be best if it can retain a certain share.

In this way, you don't need to invest too much, and it doesn't matter if you lose. If it becomes popular, even if you don't make any money, it's Qin Shengtai's achievement.

Seeing this, Cao Xuan simply came up with a cooperation plan acceptable to both parties.

Fanxing contributed all the investment, occupying more than 80% of "Journey to the West" and the absolute dominance of the crew.

Qin Shengtai does not need to pay a penny, but it needs to provide some professional behind-the-scenes personnel, venues and various channels. Qin Shengtai is also responsible for liaison, accounting for 20% of the share.

To put it bluntly, Cao Xuan spent money, Qin Provincial Taiwan provided resources, "Journey to the West" made money, and the two families split the accounts.

Qin Provincial TV must have made money, it just borrowed the resources of the TV station, Fanxing was responsible for the related expenses, and took [-]% of the profit for nothing.

Cao Xuan is not at a loss. If he is allowed to handle these channels by himself, the money will not be less, and the effect may not be good. It is better to cooperate directly with Qin Xingtai.

Not to mention, if they can take this opportunity to make good friends with Qin Xingtai, it will also benefit Fanxing's future development.

Cao Xuan's proposal has been approved by Qin Shengtai, and relevant leaders will be specially sent to the capital to sign the contract at that time.

Li Yuan and Qian Yanqiu were even more delighted.

The former was happy that his director had been retained. Although he had to hand over the power, he had not spent so long with this project in vain. The latter was happy that, according to the previous agreement, after Fan Xing led the crew, he could take over.

Cao Xuan also kept his previous promise.

After the negotiations, Cao Xuan, who basically won the leading role in "Journey to the West", immediately promoted Qian Yanqiu to the position of director.

In addition, Cao Xuan added another director, namely his queen MV director Chen Hanzhu.

Although Lao Chen has not yet signed Fanxing, he has been with Cao Xuan for so long, and he is considered half of his own. Cao Xuan still trusts him.

Most of the crew of "Journey to the West Continued" are guaranteed to be from Qin Xingtai, Fan Xing must send someone to watch.

Cao Xuan himself was not free, and Jiang Yue was not familiar with film and television production. Generally speaking, Chen Hanzhu was the most suitable person for Cao Xuan.

Moreover, Chen Hanzhu being the director also facilitates Cao Xuan's remote control of "Journey to the West" at any time.

Don't get me wrong, Cao Xuan is not Chang's principal, and he has no intention of using micro-manipulation techniques, so he won't easily intervene in the director's specific shooting, but he can't just sit idly by.

For example, what ghosts and animals are doing, shaking the camera to shoot these weird routines, avoid them if you can, and just shoot in the normal mode honestly.

The script is 20 episodes, Cao Xuan personally hopes to write more, this is not difficult for the screenwriter.

When Qian Yanqiu was in the original time and space, he put "Journey to the West" under the skin of Shi Gandang and filmed 45 episodes directly.

Cao Xuan did not ask for more writing, after all, too much water was poured, which slowed down the rhythm of the plot, but properly enriched some details, which had little effect on the overall quality, and even had a beneficial effect.

The number of major TV series is too small, not to mention that they cannot be sold at a high price. The key point is that many TV stations are unwilling to accept it.

Therefore, Cao Xuan would rather pay more for this, and also hope that Qian Yanqiu will expand the script, not to mention the original 30 episodes, at least 25 episodes.

In this way, the high-level team of "Journey to the West" has been established.

Cao Xuan and the relevant leaders of Qin Shengtai are the producers, and Cao Xuan also serves as the producer.

The producer is mainly on the name, and Cao Xuan doesn't have much time to talk to the crew. Again, as long as the crew's shooting does not exceed his expectations, he will not easily intervene.

In addition, Li Yuan serves as the chief director, the two co-directors are screenwriters Qian Yanqiu and Chen Hanzhu, and Jiang Yue, the deputy general manager of Fanxing, is temporarily named as the producer.

During this period, Cao Xuan tried to see if he could find a professional counterpart. If he couldn't find one, he asked Li Yuan and Chen Hanzhu to act as producers jointly.

The producer also reminded Cao Xuan of this incident.

If Fanxing wants to enter the film and television industry, the two creative cores of director and screenwriter are really important, but the core producer behind the scenes who is familiar with the entire film and television production process and leads from pre-production to post-release is also the key.

In the follow-up, Fanxing really had to find a way to recruit or train some producers who could act on their own.

Cao Xuan, who held the leading role in the crew, called Chen Hanzhu, and everyone held a meeting for the crew of "Journey to the West".

Chen Hanzhu had received letters and calls before, and rushed to [Flying on the Grass] without stopping.

I briefly met with Li Yuan and Qian Yanqiu, exchanged some pleasantries with Jiang Yue, and then sat on the right side of Cao Xuan, pretending that I was loyal to Boss Cao.

Now that everyone has arrived, Cao Xuan briefly talked about the preparations for the crew.

Qian Yanqiu is in charge of writing the script, rushing out the 25-episode script as soon as possible, and Li Principle is in charge of setting up the crew and setting the scene.

In fact, the crew of "Journey to the West" had already started this part of the work before, and the shooting locations were all in Qin Province.

Now that Cao Xuan has taken over, he has no intention of changing it. After all, it is related to Qin Shengtai, so it is not in vain.

As for the last Chen Hanzhu, he is mainly responsible for the casting of the crew of "Journey to the West".

Of course, the other two directors also have the right to suggest and recommend casting, and Chen Hanzhu's work for the other two directors is also the same.

It's a game of checks and balances.

There are advantages and disadvantages to doing this, but considering Fanxing's current foundation is too weak, and his foundation in the circle is not deep, Cao Xuan personally thinks this method is safer.

Cao Xuan didn't know much about crew building and location selection, so he didn't direct, but he still had a say in the script and casting.

Especially the latter, with the original version poking there, Cao Xuan's vision of casting is definitely more accurate than Chen Hanzhu's in finding a needle in a haystack.

Cao Xuan didn't care too much, and only paid attention to a few important characters.

The first protagonist in the play fights against the Buddha Sun Wukong, without Cao Rong, he will focus on the sixth teacher.

Cao Xuan has no feelings for the sixth teacher, but he is really the best in the industry when he plays the monkey.

What's more important is to recruit Sixth Teacher to play Fighting and Defeating Buddha. If there is a hit publicity, the TV station is willing to buy it.

The difficulty lies in the fact that the crew had invited Teacher Six before, and the discussion was good, but the other party later refused to act, saying that it was his wife who disagreed.

What Cao Xuan meant was to add a certain amount of remuneration to see if Teacher Six could bloom once again.

If it still doesn't work, use plan B, and hire Ding Jian, the stand-in of the sixth teacher in "Journey to the West", who is also the actor of the six-eared macaque.

Ding Jian was born as a Peking opera actor and was good at monkey shows. It is said that during the filming of "Journey to the West", director Yang Jie once wanted to use him to replace Teacher Liu.

But Mr. Six's acting was too classic and famous, many people disagreed, and finally gave up.

Ding Jian later played Monkey King in "Lotus Lantern" and "Magic Phone", and his performance was also recognized by the industry and the audience. He is regarded as the best-known Monkey King actor besides Teacher Six.

In terms of performance, there is not much difference between the two, the sixth teacher's performance skills are better, and Ding Jiansheng can play at a young age.

But the sixth teacher is famous and can help sell "Journey to the West" at a higher price. For this alone, Ding Jian's priority is at the bottom.

The big villain Wutian, this Cao Xuan almost didn't hesitate, and decided on the original version of Heizi.

Heizi almost brought the fictional character of Wutian to life, so many people thought that there really was such a fairy in mythology.

With good quality and high cost performance, Cao Xuan would naturally not change.

For the role of Tang Seng, if possible, Cao Xuan would like to invite Zhao Wenzhuo to engage in a wave of powerful Tianlong Tang Sanbu.

However, Zhao Wenzhuo is very popular now, and he can get along well in the Hong Kong circle. The salary is not usually expensive, so he can only settle for the next best thing.

The original version of Huang Haibin and his old friend Ren Quan are both good choices, even packaged directly, one Tang Seng and one Qiao Linger.

Right now, Ren Quan is not expensive, but after "Youth Bao Qingtian" airs, his fame will increase greatly, and "Journey to the West" will be able to increase the price accordingly.

Boss Cao feels that he is becoming more and more like a profiteer.

The other roles are supporting roles, so Cao Xuan doesn't need to worry about it. At most, he will leave a role for Fanxing's first sister, Hu Jing, and Zeng Li can also make a guest appearance, playing a Guanyin or something.

(End of this chapter)