Acting school started in 1998

Chapter 356 The Crisis of Huayi Brothers

There are two people standing next to Tianzhuangzhuang. One is Mr. Wang from Huayi Brothers, and the other is about the same age as Mr. Wang. He wears a pair of glasses and looks very elegant. Even if Li Tang doesn't know him, he can guess the same. , no need to ask, it must be Lu Chuan, the director of "Looking for the Gun".

"Mr. Wang, hello!"

Even though he calls me "Mr. Wang" behind his back, he still calls him "Mr. Wang" in person.

"Li... uh, Teacher Li, should I also call you Mr. Li!" Mr. Xiao Wang shook hands with him with a smile.

Li Tang looked slightly embarrassed and said: "I don't dare to take it seriously. Compared to the Huayi brothers, my place is just a grass-roots team, just making small fuss."

It has to be said that Huayi Brothers has developed rapidly in the past two years and has now firmly occupied the top spot among China's private film and television companies.

But even though he was sitting in the top spot, Mr. Wang was thinking in his heart: a small fight?You earn 2000 million a year and still do it in a small way?Even though the Huayi brothers have a big business, they still couldn't earn this amount in the past two years.

Thinking of this, he had to admire the other party's good luck.But it was good luck the first time, but what about the second time?On the first day he came to Venice, he had already heard that "Metro to Spring" brought by Li Tang was very popular, and the organizer even made an exception and screened it twice.

As for the movie "Looking for a Gun" that I brought, although Jiang Wen had the blessing, no one came, so the response after the premiere of the movie was average, which made the originally smug Mr. Wang a little disappointed.

To be honest, the movie "Looking for a Gun" is nominally the work of new director Lu Chuan, but anyone who has watched the movie knows that it is full of Jiang Wen's personal style.When it originally signed up to participate in the Venice Film Festival, the company also wanted to replicate last year's glory in Cannes - "The Devil Is Coming" directed by Jiang Wen won the Jury Prize, just one step away from the Palme d'Or.Of course, Jiang Wen also paid the penalty of being banned from directing for five years.

But this time, we didn’t even squeeze into the main competition unit, and fell into the sub-level upstream competition unit.Jiang Wen was so angry that he simply didn't attend.Mr. Xiao Wang personally led the team this time, thinking that even if it was a unit going upstream, it would be able to achieve success based on the quality of the films, but the result was still the opposite.

Seeing Li Tang at this time, Mr. Wang was inevitably a little jealous and couldn't help but said sourly: "Teacher Li, you are not funny. You were not seen at our movie premiere the day before yesterday!"

"I'm really sorry, something happened at the last minute!"

As Li Tang spoke, he reached out to Lu Chuan who was standing aside and said, "Director Lu, I'm sorry!"

"Li...Mr. Li, it's okay." Lu Chuan said with a smile.

He is a proud man. Seeing that Li Tang is not very old, he really doesn't want to follow Mr. Wang and call him Teacher Li, so he can only call him Mr. Li as a compromise.

In fact, fundamentally speaking, he can be considered a Shanghainese, and he and Li Tang can be said to be from the same hometown.

After the end of the Anti-Japanese War, their ancestors moved to Shanghai, and his father also grew up in Shanghai in his early years.Later, due to family background problems, he went to the countryside of Anhui to join the team early, and was later assigned to the northwest. After becoming famous for his writing, he was transferred to the capital to work.

Originally a new director, Dangdang graduated from the first batch of Nortel's directing graduate class with a master's degree. Because he has a father who is a famous writer and screenwriter, his entry into the entertainment industry was smooth sailing.First, he cooperated with the famous writer and screenwriter Zhang Chenggong and adapted Zhang Chenggong's novel "Black Hole", which received a good response.As a first-time director, he was able to write and direct, and was joined by Jiang Wen, the biggest actor in the country.

Although the filming process...

Alas, I won’t talk anymore. If I talk too much, I will shed tears.But after all, his name is written in the column of writer and director, and this is his work.But meeting Li Tang, especially in Venice, gave him the same feeling as meeting Jiang Wen on the set. He couldn't feel proud at all, and even felt despised.

As a new director, I came to Venice for the first time, and I was originally very excited.But as for him, this year is already his second year. Last year, he won the Little Best Actor Award in the Upstream category that he was shortlisted for this year. This makes him not proud.

But when his movie premiered, he didn't come at all; and today when Gianzhuangzhuang's "Spring in a Small Town" premiered, he not only came, but also chatted and laughed with the creative team. In an instant, he felt deeply despised and Feeling looked down upon.

Of course, he had a good upbringing since he was a child, and he still responded very appropriately when facing Li Tang.

Li Tang didn't know about the twists and turns in his stomach, so he thought he was shy. After all, the directors he had come into contact with, such as Lou Ye and Cheng Er, were more or less a little afraid of society.

At this moment, he explained to the other party seriously: "There was no way, I really couldn't leave at that time."

As a result, Lu Chuan was noncommittal and just smiled. However, Mr. Wang laughed and said, "Teacher Li, I was joking with you just now. Don't take it seriously."

Even though he is also from a big courtyard boy, he is actually a person with a very high emotional intelligence. There is no trace of the superiority of the big courtyard boy who is polite on the surface but condescending in reality. On the contrary, he gives people a special sense of laughter and laughter. A sincere and cordial feeling.Then he changed the topic again: "You guys will still cooperate with the French MK2 this time, right?"

Businessmen are always used to talking about business.

"Yes, it's better to be experienced than to be a stranger. We already reached a verbal agreement before coming here." Li Tang said frankly.

"Haha, it's the same as us. In fact, we don't know much about overseas distribution. Mainly because we have cooperated with Columbia Company for several years, and we still leave it to them for distribution this time. It's just that their company has no problem in North America, Japan and South Korea, but it is in Europe. It may not be as good as European local distribution companies like MK2."

Having said that, it can be seen that Mr. Xiao Wang is still quite proud.After all, a Hollywood giant like Columbia is a giant in the world. Even in Europe, it has a very complete distribution system, which is far beyond the reach of small European companies like MK2, which mainly deals in art films.

Li Tang could only respond with a smile.

It’s just that Mr. Xiao Wang’s words just now were just foreshadowing, and then he said sincerely: “Mr. Li, if there are any good projects in the future, our two families can definitely cooperate. By the way, how will you handle the domestic issuance this time? "

Last year, the General Administration issued five policies, namely, allowing films to be produced independently; no longer restricting films from being owned by studios, allowing private film companies to produce films independently (that is, without buying a factory label); allowing private companies to independently distribute films (Yu Dong's Bona) Obtained the first block of distribution and photography); allowed private cinemas to be built, and allowed the formation of private cinema chain companies.

As the leader of private film companies, Huayi Brothers also obtained filming rights for film distribution this year.

"Sorry, Mr. Wang, we have reached an agreement with Bona for this movie." Li Tang apologized.

Before coming to Venice, Zeng Jia and Yu Dong went through several rounds of negotiations and finally reached a film distribution agreement.When Li Tang saw this agreement, he had to admire Yu Dong's magnanimity and adventurous spirit.

That is, regardless of the box office of the movie, the distributor Bona will pay the producer 200 million, of which 100 million is a guarantee, and the other 100 million is the cost of publicity and copy development.This means that the producer does not have to take any risks, and at least the 100 million is a real net income.In addition, if the box office sells well and the share exceeds 200 million, Bona will share 35% of the excess amount with the producer.

Calculated this way, the box office of "Subway to Spring" must reach 600 million for Bona to make money.If the box office reaches 1000 million, the producer can earn an additional nearly 200 in addition to the original 50 million.

This does not include the income from TV rights sold to movie channels, as well as other messy DVD rights, etc. If the box office can really reach 1000 million, the production cost will be almost recovered if the box office can reach [-] million.At that time, the overseas income will be almost a net profit as long as the expenses for participating in the film festival are deducted.

Li Tang was quite satisfied with this distribution agreement, and also took a look at Donggao. At least he did not rely on Mr. Han's relationship to deliberately lower the price. On the contrary, the conditions were quite favorable, and as a producer, there was almost no risk involved.

When Mr. Xiao Wang heard this, he was obviously disappointed and said, "It seems that our company is still moving slowly..."

After saying that, he took Li Tang's hand again and shook it vigorously: "Teacher Li, we should strengthen communication in this area in the future!"

"sure."

Strengthening communication is a good thing. Although Bona's conditions are favorable, it is always good to introduce a competition mechanism.Furthermore, Huayi Brothers is not a single film distribution company like Bona, but a large company that integrates investment, production and distribution. It already has the prototype of a large company like Columbia.What's more, they had cooperated with Sister Hua two years ago and merged the brokerage department. This is already a trust model.It is entirely possible to cooperate in the field of production in the future.

In fact, investing in a movie is a lot like gambling, it is very risky, and no one can say whether the movie will be a big hit or not.So even if you have money, generally speaking, you need to bring in other investors to share the risk.

From another perspective, if you always make a fortune alone and do not let your peers participate, then this road is destined to not go far.

The reason why Mr. Wang is so anxious today is that after all, Huayi Brothers has encountered trouble this year. The biggest crisis is that Feng Xiaogang, who originally signed a contract with them for five years, did not renew his contract after the expiration.In other words, they have lost the company's biggest drawcard, Fung's Lunar New Year comedy.

That’s why this year they are going all out. In addition to supporting seemingly talented young directors like Lu Chuan, they are also actively cooperating with Hong Kong film companies, proactively responding to the General Administration’s call, and starting a co-production model between the two places. .

As the leading actress signed by Huayi Brothers, the ex-girlfriend is a direct beneficiary. In the second half of this year alone, she took on the role of the second female lead in two co-productions invested by Huayi Brothers.

　The second update, I have the audacity to ask for a ticket!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)