The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 201 Wu Jing's Box Office Appeal (Two in One)

As soon as Wu Jinggang came home, he picked up his son Wu Zhuang, who was walking by the stroller, and was waiting at the door: "Hey, did you behave well today?"

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."

"Have you grown up a bit?"

"Yeah eeeeeeee..."

"Mom beat you today?"

"Whoa whoa..."

His wife, Xie Nan, looked at the father and son with a dark face: "Okay, don't get tired of it, I was surprised when you called me back today, I think Director Zheng and other actors are still promoting in Yangcheng? "

Wu Jing put his son back into the stroller, gave his wife a bear hug and kiss, accompanied by the babbling voice of a child, and after being pushed away by Xie Nan blushing, he said with a relaxed face: "This is not your home. Isn't your husband's box office appeal unusual?"

When it comes to the box office, Wu Jing's face is also a little excited: "The movie has only been released for five days, and the box office has exceeded 2.7 million. Although the Legion of Heroes will be released soon, according to the producer, the final box office will be at least 4.5 million yuan." Billion, it must be a success, Director Zheng put down the stone in his heart, and I dared to ask for leave to come back."

But Xie Nan didn't believe it. Wu Jing has always been a person with a strong sense of responsibility. From the announcement of "Slaying the Wolf 2" to its release now, from various press conferences, media meetings, program interviews and road shows around the world, Wu Jing He has never been absent, other actors and even the director have asked for leave halfway, only he has not.

Of course, it is also because Wu Jing is the leading actor in "Slaying the Wolf 2", this is one of the very few opportunities he can get as a leading actor in a movie.

From his debut to the present, Wu Jing has mostly played supporting roles, whether in the Mainland or Hong Kong Island, and the few leading roles he has played are not good actors, and the response has been mediocre.

He has been working hard to pursue the development of his acting career, but he has never been able to get good opportunities and resources, especially after the film and television capital has started to concentrate on leading actors and traffic stars in the past two years, good resources are even less available to him. Forced him to create resources by himself.

The two male lead dramas in recent years - the movie "Spike Fang" and the TV series "I am a special soldier" are all projects that he has brought in and invested in, which can be called an inspirational model for actors.

Therefore, he attaches great importance to the movie "Slaying the Wolf 2". Although Wu Jing said that because of the good box office, the director's heart has fallen, but Xie Nan knows that he is the one who bears the most pressure in this movie, especially Wu Jing recently. The film project that is being prepared is facing many difficulties, and he is worrying about attracting investment. If "Slaying the Wolf 2" hits the street, it will make things worse, let alone find investment.

If there is no urgent matter, with Wu Jing's sense of responsibility, it is impossible to ask the director and producer for leave.

Wu Jing also knew that Xie Nan couldn't be coaxed by these words. He looked a little confused, and while hugging his son who had jumped to his lap, he said: "The main reason is that DreamWorks contacted me and said that there was a movie that thought I was more suitable, so I I made an appointment with them to go to DreamWorks tomorrow to discuss this project."

"Dreamworks?!" Xie Nan was a little surprised, and then asked with interest: "Is it Chen Jingxing's movie? I heard that many companies are inquiring about Chen Jingxing's new movie recently, and not only investors are holding money to Dreamworks The company, as well as many actors are also eyeing it, but there is still no movement."

In fact, it is not appropriate to say that there is no movement. All kinds of gossip and roadside clubs are quite lively. Not only most of the first-line stars in the entertainment industry have been taken out for a walk, even many [-]th-line artists have been followed by various marketing accounts. Chen Jingxing's new film got involved, and he looked like he was about to ascend to the top, which caused all famous and unknown celebrity fans to tear up Chen Jingxing's big cake.

After all, there are examples such as Luo Chen, Lei Jiayin, Hu Ge, Wan Qian, Bao Shengming, etc., whether it is traffic, or TV drama actors who have been struggling to make breakthroughs on the big screen, or unknown little stars. Artists can achieve leapfrog development in the hands of Chen Jingxing, and both the status and resources have been improved qualitatively.

For example, Luo Chen happened to meet the big production "Monster Hunt" jointly invested by Jianghe Culture and Hong Kong Island Film Company after filming "Signal". Because a top-notch student was detained, the leading role scene needed to be re-shot. The film crew did not hesitate. I directly found Luo Chen to play the role. In addition, the high-profile production "Journey to the West: Fu Yao Chapter" supervised by Mr. Xu's director Xingye also cast Luo Chen as the leading actor. It is said that the filming will start in August. , and even a Hollywood film company asked him to make a movie.

Hu Ge even stepped into the gate of blockbuster movies with "Source Code", and became the protagonist of the action blockbuster "Operation Mekong" co-invested and produced by State Film DreamWorks under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Security.

Lei Jiayin, Wan Qian, and Bao Shengming have more and more film appointments, and they are all big screen resources, and their upward momentum is very strong.

Thinking of this, Xie Nan was a little excited: "Isn't this a great thing? Chen Jingxing's movie! I have dreamed that I interviewed him on the show, but unfortunately he has rarely given interviews in the past year... Cough, I also dreamed that you acted in his movie, became an instant hit and became an international superstar, comparable to Cheng Long...Why do you have such an expression?"

Wu Jing snorted: "I know you are his fan, but I didn't expect him to be in your dream?"

Xie Nan snorted: "What are you pretending to be? Who is the one who yelled to read "Source Code" again as soon as he walked out of the screening hall? Who said that if he was the male lead, he would perform better?"

"Hey, I really like the movie "Source Code", but I'm not his fan or anything like that."

Wu Jing really likes the movie "Source Code", and has watched it more than twice. Whether it is the story or the action scenes, even in his heart, this movie is second only to the "Once Upon a Time" series of movies. , It’s just a pity that I can see that the movie has a very good martial arts finger, but the actor is not a star after all. Although the fighting scenes with the KB elements appear clean and neat under the effect of editing, they are still a little bit off.

An actor, especially a tepid actor like him, will have the idea of ​​"what if this role is played by himself" when he sees many film and television dramas, but "Source Code" is a drama in which he has a stronger idea. Of course, he also knows that his image and temperament may not fit the role.

Wu Jing sighed: "If it's really Chen Jingxing's movie, of course I wouldn't be so entangled. The question is whether he directed it or not. It's Dreamworks' new movie, directed by Guo Fan, the director of "Operation Mekong."

"Dreamworks' new movie..."

Although DreamWorks theoretically developed not only the film project of Chen Jingxing, they also approved several animation projects, as well as the "Signal" TV series, and "Operation Mekong" was also jointly produced by China Film and DreamWorks.

But all the films that DreamWorks has shown so far are works of Chen Jingxing, so in the eyes of many people, DreamWorks is Chen Jingxing, Chen Jingxing is DreamWorks, the two are the same, even though DreamWorks has already invested like an octopus There are so many projects, but the current image of DreamWorks is still an accessory of Chen Jingxing, just like Xinghui Company is to Master Xing, and Emperor Cheng Long is to Cheng Long.

So not only Xie Nan was stunned, but then his excitement receded slightly, Wu Jing also experienced such emotional changes when he received the call from DreamWorks.

Only then did Xie Nan understand the entanglement in Wu Jing's heart. In fact, Wu Jing's entanglement was not because he looked down on Guo Fan so much, but because he was preparing a movie project - "Spike 2".

Wu Jing devoted all of his efforts to this film project. Ever since he directed and acted in "Spike Fang" and achieved brilliant box office success, he has been determined to make "Spike Fang 2", which originally had the first box office success Theoretically speaking, the sequel is not worrying about investment, and he and the original author and screenwriter of "Spike Fang" also think so.

The initial progress was also relatively smooth. When the script was not ready, some small and medium-sized film and television companies were willing to invest in him. Even Jianghe Culture, one of the five major studios at the time, showed investment intentions, but the next day Seeing that after the success of "Spike Fang", Runying's similar theme "Armed Storm" hit the box office, which made the capital in the industry a little timid.

Of course, no matter how disastrously "Armed Storm" fails, the success of "Spike Fang" is not deceiving, and it is not enough to make capital avoid snakes and scorpions. At least it is not difficult to raise tens of millions of production costs.

But after the success of "Spike Fang", Wu Jing's requirements for the sequel script have also been greatly improved. In fact, during the filming of "Spike Fang", he deleted many plots he liked because of the tight production cost. , This also annoyed the screenwriter of the original author of "Spike Fang", so the two decided to make up for all the previous regrets in the script of "Spike Fang 2".

Therefore, in the script of "Spike 2", the number of scenes, characters, and storylines seem to be the size of a Hollywood blockbuster. The original author and Wu Jing are almost eager to stuff all the plots and stories they want into the script. It is completely treating "Spike 2" as the last movie.

This is also understandable. After all, domestic military-themed movies are indeed rare. Whether the success of "Spike Fang" is accidental or not, and whether it can be replicated is uncertain. Moreover, "Armed Storm" with a similar theme was also written by the author of "Spike Fang". It was extremely tragic, which made the author and screenwriter and Wu Jing relatively pessimistic about whether there is any chance to make "Spike Fang 3".

Also because of this reason, after the script came out, the investor was dumbfounded. According to this script, the production cost would be 1.5 million. Under the strong request of the investor, Wu Jing and the author reluctantly deleted part of the plot, but even so The estimated cost is no less than 1 million.

And Wu Jing didn't intend to give in any more, which brought the project to a stalemate, but with the mentality of breaking the pot, Wu Jing intensified it. He was dissatisfied with the deleted and revised script, so he deleted part of it again. The plot has been added back, and I am preparing to look for investment while waiting for the right time.

The reason why Wu Jing attaches so much importance to the box office results of "Slaying Wolf 2" is also for this reason. Although the genre of "Slaying Wolf 2" is very different from "Spike Fang 2", "Slaying Wolf 2" can also prove his Box office appeal, right?
With the success of two consecutive films, "Spike Fang" and "Slaying the Wolf 2", will more investors be more interested in his "Spike Fang 2" script?Will it give him more chips in front of him in investment?Maybe there is hope for "Spike 2"?
Indeed, in the past year, more film companies began to contact him about this project—a big reason is that the project shooting of "Operation Mekong", which cost [-] million yuan, changed the attitude of many film and television companies—but they were all rejected. The high cost of filming scared off.

But Wu Jing is becoming more and more optimistic. On the basis of the good changes caused by "Operation Mekong" and adding the box office results of "Slaying the Wolf 2", maybe this time it will be able to attract enough investment?He originally planned to knock on the doors of major film and television companies again with the script after the box office of "Slaying the Wolf 2" finally surpassed 5 million.

And if he takes over the movie from DreamWorks, it means that the project of "Spike 2" will continue to be pushed back. If the shooting time of this project of DreamWorks is longer, then "Spike 2" will have to wait until The Year of the Monkey is coming, and Wu Jing has been working hard for "Spike 2" for several years. This script has even become his obsession, and he doesn't want to wait any longer—if it is Chen Jingxing's movie, maybe his entanglement will be Lighter, for a movie like "Source Code", he is willing to suppress his inner obsession.

But Wu Jing is an optimistic person after all. Now that he has decided to talk to DreamWorks, he also has some ideas that can maximize his benefits: "Honey, why don't you go to DreamWorks with me."

"What am I going to do when you talk about the project?" Xie Nan was a little puzzled.

Wu Jing explained: "You also know that Huang Ge is not good at bargaining, let alone me, I plan to negotiate a better salary this time, and then I can also fill part of "Spike 2" investment."

It’s not that Wu Jing never thought of making “Spike 2” out of his own pocket. In fact, he has already done it, but it’s a drop in the bucket. He didn’t get much money from the box office of the first film of “Spike”, mainly because the investors made it. Moreover, he still has a wife, children, elderly people on both sides, and families to take care of, so he can't sell the house in the capital or mortgage it to the bank—even though he had such an idea.

Xie Nan clicked his tongue and nodded his head: "You elm head, you only have this little salary in your eyes? Have you never thought of directly attracting DreamWorks to invest in "Spike 2"?"

Wu Jing slapped excitedly: "That's right! Why didn't I think of that." He kept his eyes on traditional film companies, but always ignored DreamWorks, mainly because "DreamWorks is Chen Jingxing, and Chen Jingxing is DreamWorks "The impression was so deep that he subconsciously ignored that DreamWorks also invested in other film and television projects.

"DreamWorks can invest [-] million yuan in "Operation Mekong" and several hundred million yuan in space science fiction films like "Gravity". What is your movie? Don't you have confidence in the script? I think With Chen Jingxing's courage, as long as it is a good script, he is absolutely willing to vote."

(End of this chapter)