The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 267 Found a Treasure
"Okay, let's not talk about this. I heard that your next movie is still related to space, so I called Director Ren. Director Ren has always been very curious about you. This time I said He couldn't wait to come over."

Qin Zhonghe quickly turned the topic to Chen Jingxing's new movie. Winning over DreamWorks and deepening cooperation with DreamWorks is also the direction he wants to advance, so he attaches great importance to the cooperation intention presented by Chen Jingxing.

It is no exaggeration to say that DreamWorks is currently the most creative cultural enterprise in Huaguo, and it is also a rare film company with a brand that has market appeal.

From a commercial point of view, it is definitely profitable to cooperate with DreamWorks to develop film and television projects, and the performance pressure of state-owned enterprises is not light.

Moreover, what the country advocates is to make a good main theme movie and tell a good main theme story. This is not easy to achieve. As the "eldest son" of the film and television industry, this task falls on the shoulders of Guoying.

Telling the main theme story well is easy to say but difficult to do.

Do it yourself, the audiences don’t want to watch it, so leave it to a filmmaker of real quality, they have artistic pursuits, and their ideology may not be the same as yours.

You want everyone to be happy and have positive energy. People will shoot tragedies for you. If you want to promote the spirit, people will bring you private goods. In short, the advanced productivity and creativity of the film and television industry are not in the same way as you.

From "Signal", "Source Code" to "The Mekong River", and then to "Gravity", Chen Jingxing can perfectly integrate the value of the main theme with the form that the audience loves to hear and see, and it is rare in science fiction or Huaguo. It can be displayed in the form of genre movies, and it can also be exported abroad.

For Qin Zhonghe, establishing a closer relationship and cooperation with DreamWorks is the direction he really wants to advance, and it is even related to the future development strategy of Guoying.

"Director Chen, what kind of space disaster do you want to create this time? Which space project of our country do you want to destroy?" Director Ren, who was full of energy and had an intellectual temperament all over his body, asked with a smile, Although it seemed like a joking question, there was a hint of curiosity and expectation in his tone.

Director Ren is the leader of the Aerospace Port that Qin Zhonghe mentioned to Chen Jingxing after watching the first cut version of "Gravity".

"Leader, what you said seems like I'm specifically having trouble with our country's space vehicles. This time it's not really a space disaster. The main story is that an astronaut was left alone on Mars due to an accident, and he planted potatoes on Mars. The story of waiting for rescue after more than 500 days."

Even though Chen Jingxing had said before that his next movie would be related to space, Qin Zhonghe and Director Ren were still not at all psychologically prepared for the movie story he told.

"Before you came, Director Ren and I had a bet. I guessed that it was about landing on the moon, but Director Ren had a wild guess about the story of the exploration spacecraft in the universe. You have made a bet. I was caught off guard, haha..."

Qin Zhonghe only felt that every time he communicated with Chen Jingxing about the project, he couldn't keep up with the thinking of the young man in front of him. He felt like a mental patient with a wide range of ideas.

Sci-fi movies are related to Mars, which is still a conventional idea. Growing potatoes on Mars is something that ordinary people can't think of.

The down-to-earth story of growing potatoes is quite magical when it is connected with Mars.

Chen Jingxing quickly outlined the main line of the whole story, including how the protagonist was landed on Mars, how to make a "vegetable greenhouse" after surviving the catastrophe, and how to grow vegetables on Mars. potatoes.

There is also what method the Huaguo Space Administration will use to rescue the male protagonist.

The most special temperament of "The Martian" is that the director did not add any in-depth artistic thinking. The same type of "Mission to Mars", "Interstellar Exploration" and even the original "Gravity" are sentimental and sad in a bad way. And corny.

Science fiction is just the skin, and the core idea that the director wants to express is the essence. This is of course understandable, as is the case with most classic science fiction films.

The special feature of "The Martian" is that it has an extremely strong spirit of scientific optimism, without any negative connotations. A problem arises and a problem is solved, whether it is the male protagonist who is alone on Mars, or the hero on the earth. The aerospace sector has and only solved problems.

But silent actions have the power of silence. Constantly calculating, thinking, failing, and restarting is a huge power in itself.

While many sci-fi movies explore grand propositions and even look at the exploration of the universe with a compassionate attitude, "The Martian" is quite different.

After listening to Chen Jingxing's highly optimistic story about space exploration, both Qin Zhonghe and Director Ren fell into silence.

"You are a Martian version of Robinson Crusoe..." Director Ren gave a more precise summary after finishing the whole story.

Director Ren thought about it and said, "It sounded a little unreliable at first, but after hearing it, I felt that it was still feasible... Director Xiao Chen, I feel that you have a deep understanding of aerospace technology.

The Mars spacecraft flies with Hall thrusters... This is actually a focus of current research.

Using the rocket fuel of the Mars landing module, which is hydrazine, first decomposing hydrogen with platinum, and then mixing it with oxygen to burn to produce water...Using compressed and drained feces as fertilizer...Using hexadecimal algorithm to send messages...

In fact, they are quite feasible. Director Chen, why do I feel that you have long wanted to grow potatoes on Mars?Have you spent a lot of time thinking about it? "

Facing the ridicule from professionals, Chen Jingxing could only be humble: "It was inspired by reading a science fiction novel by chance, and besides, it still depends on your opinion? The script hasn't been written yet."

"The Martian" is really an adaptation of a novel, and when Chen Jingxing was perfecting the script, he also thought of another science fiction novel about Mars, "Death on Mars".

This novel is similar to "The Martian", the difference is that the setting of "Death on Mars" is more extreme. After the earth disappears, only the male protagonist in the Mars base and the female protagonist in the Mars orbiting space station are left. , and an artificial intelligence named Laomao.

But the overall tone of this novel is hopeless. No matter how optimistic you are in the early stage, bickering with the old cat and talking about cross talk, but apart from the mechanical descending, how can there be any hope for the two humans who lost the earth and lived alone on Mars? ?

And the intelligent civilization of Mars, the mechanical descendant, can easily destroy the hardcore sci-fi temperament of the story.

From Chen Jingxing's point of view, the commerciality of "Death on Mars" is not as good as "The Martian".

But it doesn't mean that "Death on Mars" has no value in adapting film and television dramas, and even has great value. In the future, it will be good to make TV dramas or movies.

Of course, this is the future. The script of "The Martian" has not yet been formed, and consultants or experts from the aerospace department are needed to help improve it. This is not a modest word from Chen Jingxing.

After all, the story takes Huaguo's aerospace industry as the protagonist, and the final script must be tested by Huaguo's aerospace expert consultants, especially in the end. All plans for direct rescue using gravitational slingshots really need to refer to the opinions of professionals.

Although "The Martian" is a sci-fi film, not a scientific documentary, and everything is not necessarily reasonable, Chen Jingxing's positioning of this film is actually similar to that of "Gravity". They are both space disaster films in the near future. The hard core is An air that cannot be lost.

Where it can be reasonable and rigorously conforms to science, we must try our best to do it.

"Your "Gravity" hasn't even been released yet, and [-] million may be in vain. How dare you invest a huge amount of money to open another space science fiction project?"

Qin Zhonghe is already very excited, but when he thinks about the investment cost of "Gravity", he still feels a little nervous, isn't it too risky?

Chen Jingxing shook his head: "The production cost of "The Martian" is far lower than that of "Gravity". Almost every shot in "Gravity" is rendered by CG. There is no special effects studio of this level in China. It is naturally expensive for a special effects company to produce this kind of CG movie.

The production of "The Martian" is actually far easier than "Gravity", the number of special effects shots is not at the same level, and the main post-production visual effects work can also be handed over to Mo. Although the script has not yet been written, according to me It is estimated that up to 3.5 million can cover the cost. "

These are Chen Jingxing's sincere words, not for fooling around. The special effects shots of "The Martian" in the previous life are not as many as "The Wandering Earth". Of course, the overall special effects level is still higher than that of "The Wandering Earth", with a budget of 3.5 million Not nervous.

"Huh, 3.5 million is not a lot. You are really 3.5 million. Besides, do you have any movies with such a high real cost in DreamWorks? I don't know where you are so bold to make so many high-investment movies. " Qin Zhonghe breathed a sigh of relief, but he was still secretly surprised by Chen Jingxing's tone.

The "Edge of Tomorrow" that Guo Fan is shooting is a 3 million-level sci-fi blockbuster. He knows this.

The scale of DreamWorks is not the largest film and television company in the country, but he does not know where the all-or-nothing courage comes from, but even he finds it inconceivable. Generally speaking, such large-scale productions often have to demonstrate and prepare for one or two years before paying for it. In order to diversify risks, it is necessary to attract other investors to enter the market.

Judging from Chen Jingxing's tone and expression, it was obvious that he had made up his mind to shoot, this young man deserved to earn money.

He has never seen a second company boss in this circle who doesn't take money as money and has almost no sense of risk. Sure enough, the one who can achieve such success in two years is either a madman or a genius.

After driving these emotions out of his mind, Qin Zhonghe turned his head to look at Director Ren who seemed to be still thinking about some details in the story of "The Martian", and sighed with a smile: "Director Ren, did you pick up the Baby!"

Director Ren was taken aback for a moment and quickly reflected, nodding hastily.

Huaguo's aerospace department is incomparable with the military or other departments. The one-year budget is quite limited, and the money is spent carefully. Compared with the current achievements and the grand blueprint of the plan, it is completely disproportionate.

Naturally, there is little energy and funds to pay attention to publicity.

It is completely incomparable with the military in maritime affairs, air affairs, and Bayi Film Studio. It has filmed various military-themed TV series and even movies. Even after the unprecedented success of "The Mekong River", it turned its attention to This kind of military action blockbuster.

Having no spare capacity for publicity does not mean that the aerospace department does not want to publicize. The power of publicity can be seen from "The Mekong", and the official has also begun to advocate more filming of this kind of main theme commercial production.

DreamWorks came here to send pillows, and directly sent two three-piece suits.

The argument of "the poor eat grass and the west drinks the wind" is not without it, and in recent years, due to the joint advancement of the space station and the Chang'e project, the aerospace industry in Huaguo is relatively quiet at present. There have been no major moves of attention for several years, and related film and television are also needed. Works to do space propaganda.

It's just that there were almost no sci-fi movies in Huaguo before, let alone space sci-fi movies.

"What I'm worried about now is that your more entertaining space movie has lifted the hearts of the common people, but the aerospace industry can't keep up." Director Ren said with emotion, half joking and half serious.

"Leader, don't worry, China's aerospace industry has been making small strides over the past few years, and everyone has seen it. We are not the kind of country that talks big and only shouts but doesn't practice.

These space-themed sci-fi movies are spiritual encouragement and a footnote to progress. They not only allow everyone to look up into space, but also enhance national self-confidence. There may be mocking voices abroad, so don’t worry too much. Over time With the passage of time, everyone can see that we are really working hard, and our stars and seas are not just talking about it. "

(End of this chapter)