Acting school started in 1998

Chapter 228 Arrived in Venice

"Teacher Li Tang, thank you very much for accepting our exclusive interview this time."

"Reporter Meng, I hope that you and your magazine will give us some good words about our movie."

At the gate of a teahouse in the Asian Games Village, Li Tang shook hands and said goodbye to Meng Jing, a reporter from Sanlian Life Weekly who came to interview.

"Sanlian Life Weekly" can be regarded as a very prestigious media in Beijing, and its target readers are intellectuals and the middle class.

And this group of people is precisely the main contributor to the movie box office these years.

Entering the 21st century, the mainland movie box office market has become more and more corrupt. Last year, the total box office revenue nationwide was only 8 million yuan.

At the beginning of this year, Brother Cheng Long's "Magic Secret Service" and the Hollywood blockbuster "Girls in the Thunderbolt" successively won 4000 million and 7500 million box office, which once gave hope to the mainland film box office market. In the same file, "Operation Swordfish", "Legend of Shushan", "Soldiers Under the City", including "Rush Hour 2" starring Cheng Long and Zhang Ziyi, all suffered Waterloo, and the highest box office did not exceed 2000 million.

Thinking about it, it is better to buy a pirated DVD for five yuan than a movie ticket that costs more than ten yuan and 20 yuan, so that the whole family can watch it together.

To be honest, the domestic piracy of film and television cultural products has reached the point where it cannot be increased. According to rumors, a pirated CD production line worth 5000 million somewhere along the coast of the East China Sea is fully powered, and the investment may be recovered in a month, and a few dollars a year. Billion is like playing.

It is also in this general environment that "The Third Man" has been scheduled to be released on October [-].Originally, "The Third Man" premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September [-]th, and the film festival closed on September [-]th. After media fermentation, it will be released in mid-to-late September, with the Golden Week in between, which is the most ideal of.

But there is no way, in order to stagger with another movie "The Story of Escort" starring Li Tang, the release date of "The Third Man" can only be postponed later.What's more terrible is that on October 2, there will be a Hollywood blockbuster "The Mummy [-]" which will be released on the same day.

The current situation is that Li Tang has already spent more than 100 million yuan. At present, "The Third Man" really doesn't have much money except for printing some posters.In addition, it costs money to go to Venice, Li Tang can only accept as many interviews as possible to create more momentum for the film.

A total of four Chinese films have been shortlisted for this year's Venice Film Festival. Except for the Hong Kong film "Hollywood in Hong Kong", which was shortlisted for the main competition unit, the other three were shortlisted for the upstream unit.

The film "There's a Hollywood in Hong Kong", as described by Li Tang in Zhou Xun before, is roughly similar to Cheng Guo's last film "Durian Fluttering".

As for the fact that the women who lost their feet because of Mao are all from the mainland, and all of them are cast by mainland actresses, Li Tang feels that whether it is intentional or not subjectively, it is more of a reality.This is like going to a karaoke hall to find girls. It is a reason why most of the girls are from economically underdeveloped areas.

In addition to "The Third Man", shortlisted in the upstream competition unit, there are Zhang Yang's "Yesterday" and Zhu Wen's "Seafood", all films from mainland China.

Zhang Yang and Zhu Wen can also be regarded as old acquaintances of Marco Muller. Zhang Yang was shortlisted for the San Sebastian International Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival and other international film festivals with his film "Bathing" the year before last. famous film festival.

Although Zhu Wen is a newcomer in the field of directing, he is an experienced screenwriter in China. The screenplays "Wushan Cloud and Rain" and "Homecoming for Chinese New Year" written by him have won international awards.In particular, "Going Home for the New Year" won the Silver Lion Award for Best Director at the last Venice Film Festival. This alone is enough to make his new work shortlisted for the unit that encourages new directors to rise above the current.

To put it bluntly, being shortlisted for an influential overseas film festival is similar to looking for a job interview. In addition to your own work ability, you must first have a relationship, and then you must have a performance.

From this point of view, "The Third Man" was not only lucky enough to be shortlisted this time, but more importantly, Naian helped a lot from it.

In addition, among the four films shortlisted for this year's Venice Film Festival, "Hong Kong is Hollywood" is a Hong Kong film, and the mainland media naturally focused on Zhou Xun.Zhou Xun was originally a popular idol, and this time she was shortlisted for the main competition unit. The media hyped that she was expected to be named queen this time, which made Xiao Zhou extremely annoying.

Not to mention that there are as many as [-] films shortlisted in the main competition unit of this year's film festival, the chances are very small.Moreover, in a world dominated by white people, discrimination against people of color will always exist, but it is hidden under the high-sounding under the current social environment. An award representing personal honor.

As far as this point is concerned, Xiao Zhou is still very clear-headed, and frequently responded that he does not expect to win the honor of Best Actress this time.

"Seafood" is said to be a black household without a license, and official reports have deliberately avoided this movie.And Zhang Yang's "Yesterday" is also very controversial because it tells the story of a former big star who became addicted to drug addiction and then successfully quit drug addiction with the help of family and friends.

So "The Third Man", which has no sensitive controversy, stands out, and I don't know if it is intentionally or unintentionally instructed by the relevant departments to encourage "normal" movies like "The Third Man" to participate in overseas film festivals. Time has received many interview invitations from powerful and influential media.

In order to promote the movie, Li Tang certainly enjoys doing it, but the expense is quite high.

"How much did you give this time?"

After seeing off reporter Meng and his party, Li Tang turned around and asked Zeng Jia.

"Mengji two thousand, photographer one thousand." Zeng Jia said.

Nominally, the media actively invites interviews, but as Li Tang, he has to be sensible, and transportation expenses must be paid. This is an unspoken rule in the industry.It's up to the reporter to say good or bad, not to mention it's for movie promotion, and it's impossible to be stingy.

Don't look at the thousands of thousands each time, it's not a small expense if there are too many times, and there are dinner arrangements and so on.

"The Third Man" was released in China, except for the promotional expenses in the early stage, because Naian's company does not yet have the qualifications for film distribution, so it can only entrust Shanghai Film Studio to distribute it.Among them, the distribution fee is not a small figure.

After getting into the car, Li Tang counted and counted with a tired face, inevitably full of resentment.It's not that he is reluctant to spend money, but that things are too complicated.But that guy Cheng Er is a social fear, hiding in the Shanghai Film Studio without showing his face, everything is on him alone.It means that Zeng Jian is capable of doing it, otherwise he might really quit.

"Jiajia, you have worked hard during this period. Go back to Venice and have a good rest and relax."

"It's okay, bro, I'm not tired."

Zeng Jia turned around from the passenger seat and smiled.

The relationship between people can often be seen from the name.For example, Li Tang called Zeng Jia "Miss Zeng" from the beginning to "Zeng Jia" and now "Jia Jia". is getting closer.

Similarly, Zeng Jia's address to him has also changed a little bit, from Mr. Li to Brother Li at the beginning, and now calling him Brother without the word "Li", the same is true.

But the second half of what she said to Li Tang was just what she had heard.Going to Venice can really have a good rest, can you play?As a person pursuing a career, she definitely doesn't think so. It is a very rare opportunity to go overseas to participate in film festivals, study with Naian, and make contacts.

……

Venice is no stranger to Li Tang.He has traveled here twice in his previous life, and of course not during the film festival, because his experience in Cannes told him that the annual film festival is undoubtedly the best time to cut leeks for a tourist city.In the past, the room rate of [-] or [-] euros had to be tripled or quadrupled at least.

Since there is no direct flight from the capital to Venice, the group needs to fly to Rome first and then transfer to Marco Polo Airport in Venice. It took nearly 28 hours to arrive in Venice on August [-]. early morning.

"Sister An, I'm tired."

Naian had already arrived in Europe a week in advance. On the one hand, he represented Lou Ye to discuss the investment of the new film with the French film studio.On the other hand, of course, as one of the producers of "The Third Man", I will make a stand for everyone.

"Why are you polite!"

After giving birth, Naian, although her body is slightly richer, she still looks vigorous and resolute.For example, I prepared a commercial bus similar to Iveco in advance, which can hold seven people and ten large suitcases.

No way, Xiaopang alone brought three big boxes, which contained three custom-made evening dresses and a dark green cheongsam representing Chinese elements.

Xiaopang is tall and fair-skinned. Wearing the dark green short-sleeved cheongsam tailored for her by a master in Shanghai, paired with a head of retro wavy curly hair, she looks very charming.But Li Tang always felt that this image was very familiar, very similar to a certain film and television image he had seen in his previous life, but he just didn't remember it for a while.

Venice is closed to traffic, and you have to change boats when you drive to the Roman Forum. Fortunately, there is a reception station for the organizer on the square. As long as the shortlisted films in the newspaper show the invitation letter, the staff will contact the boat and escort it all the way to the official The hotel arranged by the crew.

"It's small and dilapidated, and it feels similar to a domestic guest house."

Xiaopang walked into the room and looked around, and said with a look of disgust.

The whole city of Venice pays attention to the so-called sense of history. Even the best hotels on the island are products of centuries ago. Even such a room, Li Tang just noticed it at the front desk, and it is actually 10,000 dollars a piece. night.Simply, the four rooms for the seven of them were provided by the organizer, otherwise the entire film festival would last for nearly half a month, and the room fee alone would cost [-]+.

　The first!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)