Riding the wind of rebirth

"Long time no see, Miss Lu." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "Your Mandarin has reached the announcer level, which is really not easy for Hong Kong actors."

"Thanks to Mr. Zhou for your advice." Lu Siyi said shyly, "I'm really sorry about what happened in the boiling water room."

"It's okay. To be honest, I forgot about it. Miss Lu, please sit down." Zhou Zhi said and stretched out his hand to Jesse Cheng, saying hello: "Hello Jesse, this is the first time I've met a real person. I'm glad to meet you." .”

"Little brother, please sit down too." Jesse Cheng was very approachable, but his hands were also very strong. When he shook hands with Zhou Zhi, Zhou Zhi's palms were a little sore. Then he pulled him and sat down: "I've wanted to see you for a long time. Let's take a look. Who the hell is it that can conceive of those shots, I finally got to see it today!”

"I admit that some of the shots were designed a bit ahead of their time, such as the scene where you grab the transport plane and take off..."

"That part is actually not bad." Jesse Cheng fell into deep thought: "Wearing goggles solves the big problem, but how did you come up with the flying wing suit and the pulley suit..."

"Speaking of which, you have great energy!" Zhou Zhi couldn't help but marvel: "You can borrow the wind tunnel of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it's amazing!"

"This film uses too much energy." Jesse Cheng said with a smile: "It also involves locations in several countries including Oros, Turqi, India, and Egypt. Not even the Li family would be able to make it happen."

In Zhou Zhi's story, criminals used nuclear submarines to transport precious cultural relics and traded them at an abandoned scientific research station in the Arctic. Jesse went to intercept the tigers; there was also a Tocharian scripture scroll found at the Devil's City ruins on a sandbank in northern Xinjiang, and then based on clues Go to India to search for Xuanzang's relics and get the copper formula for the purple gold alms bowl, which can be used to confirm the true and false zodiac bronze heads during theft.

In short, Zhou Zhi made the plot complex and compact. Jesse Cheng's movies are usually "not enough plot, just make up for the action", but this movie takes into account both storytelling and enjoyment. Needless to say, the Li family, Jesse Cheng attaches great importance to , which was created as the foundation work for him to become an international star.

But the expenses were gone. Jesse asked Zhou Zhi: "Sheng Zhou, money is a bit tight now. I want to give you these courtyards in the capital."

"Why are you so short of money again?" Zhou Zhi felt strange: "Didn't AXA Fund invest seven million US dollars? Are you just burning money?"

"Shouldn't I Blame You?" The film initially planned to invest US$15 million, of which the Li family invested US$7 million, and introduced strategic partners AXA Fund to invest US$6 million, as well as Hollywood Paramount Pictures. It also invested two million US dollars and provided a theatrical release guarantee in America.

And Jesse Cheng takes the basic salary as an investment, that is, he will only give one million US dollars in salary as a guaranteed income, and the rest will be divided according to the box office income, and all will be paid after the film is released.

This investment is already very scary in the Chinese-language film industry. Last year, a few Hong Kong martial arts movies and comedy movies such as "The Deer and the Cauldron" made a box office of less than 80 million, making them really popular.

So at the beginning of this year, there was a fight between gods and gods. The fat director attracted an investment of 50 million Hong Kong dollars and prepared to continue to create Jin Yong's big IP "The Legend of Heaven and Dragon Sword".

The pressure is on Jesse. He has to prove his worth among Hong Kong stars. Just in time for this "Twelve Zodiac" which is almost tailor-made for him, as well as the two big companies Li Jia and AXA. Investors must work hard.

After all, this is a blockbuster with extremely high production costs. It is claimed that hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars were invested in it. The production is indeed too big.

Even though Jesse Cheng is now in his prime, in ordinary movies, the salary is only about HK$5 million, and his salary will basically account for half of the overall production cost of Hong Kong Island movies.

But in this movie, it's not even drizzle. What’s even more exaggerated is that even so, there is still a shortage of funds.

Because nuclear submarines, large transport planes, military bases, etc. were all real-life; the Pyramids, the Louvre, Hagia Sophia, the Taj Mahal, and the Forbidden City were all shot on location using connections.

All the props that needed to be smashed were hired to be reproduced one-to-one by skilled craftsmen according to the precious cultural relics.

There are also many scenes that reflect ancient copper mining, copper smelting, casting and other crafts, as well as the ancient cities on the Silk Road, the prosperous scenes of Chang'an and Luoyang in the Tang Dynasty, all of which need to be restored.

The state directly built a "Datang Film and Television City" on the outskirts of Xi'an to meet filming needs.

Zhou Zhi also arranged the ancient restoration scenes of the mausoleums of the Han Dynasty and the rich area under the Five Tombs, and the transition shots of the modern fields of grain and wheat, as well as the imperial palace of the powerful Han Dynasty with golden horses and bronze camels, and the towering paradise of Luoyang in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

To achieve the effect Zhou Zhi had in mind, this shot could only be completed by Pixar Animation through computer special effects. In just over 20 seconds, it cost three hundred thousand dollars.

So Jesse Cheng is now complaining about Zhou Zhi, using this excuse to want Zhou Zhi to take stock of the "bad assets" that he purchased in a fit of enthusiasm. Zhou Zhi is really speechless.

"How many yards did you build at that time? How much money are you prepared to pay? Have you approached all the big guys in Beijing?" Zhou Zhi asked.

"When the reporter interviewed me, I said I only bought six units." Jesse smiled playfully, but he looked like he was under financial pressure. It was clear that he was not optimistic about the real estate market in the capital: "Actually, I bought ten units."

"Those friends of yours are keeping their wallets closed even though they are talking about the economic downturn."

"Didn't you tell them that when the economy goes down, the lottery and entertainment industries are the best businesses?" Zhou Zhi asked, "Besides these two, there is nothing good to invest in."

"What?" Jesse Cheng himself didn't believe what Zhou Zhi said: "Just tell Li Laoer, I'm just a coolie."

"Ah? Hahahaha..." Zhou Zhi couldn't stop laughing: "Jesse, what you said is a bit unscrupulous. Your salary for one movie is enough... Forget it, if your yards really don't want it. , then transfer it to me, how much do you think is appropriate?"

"I don't make any money either. How about giving it to you in the same way? I bought a set of 500,000 yuan at that time. The total is 5 million, but I need Hong Kong dollars."

Now the exchange rate between RMB and Hong Kong dollar is almost the same, about one Hong Kong dollar and one point two RMB. Zhou Zhi then smiled and said: "Then let's count it as five million Hong Kong dollars."

This actually allowed Jesse Cheng to earn a 20% premium, but Zhou Zhi continued: "But you have to tell me what you are going to do with the money? I don't believe you will be short of money. You are on the crew now, There’s nothing to spend money on, right? At most it’s just for emergencies, and it’s just inconvenient to exchange money.”

"It's like this. A friend told me that there were four old houses for sale in Huizhou. He took pictures for me. I felt quite satisfied with them and planned to buy a piece of land in Xindao. Then I bought the four houses and moved them to Xindao. Let’s go to the island to recover and provide for our parents in their old age.”

Zhou Zhi suddenly became vigilant: "Building? Ancient Huizhou building?" (End of this chapter)