director of the millennium

The reason why Zhang Guorong took the script to Wu Yuan was that he hoped to get his approval.

After all, although Wu Yuan has focused on the commercial film industry in recent years, his achievements in art films in his early years were second only to Zhang Yimou in China, and he has also won the three major best film awards in Europe.

He is even the first person in China to achieve such success in the Oscars. After all, the Oscars can be used for public relations. When he was in Hollywood, Disney publicized a lot of technical awards for him when he was filming the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, and later he succeeded in winning the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

If we talk about the people who know the most about European film festivals, it is only Zhang Yimou and Wu Yuan in China. If we talk about the Chinese who knows the most about North American awards, it is only Wu Yuan.

By giving the script to Wu Yuan for review first, he could at least ensure that his film could at least make it to the shortlist, so that he wouldn't spend years painstakingly polishing the script only to fail to even make the shortlist in the end.

If Wu Yuan made any suggestions, he would make revisions as soon as possible, so his chances of winning the award would naturally be higher than those who did not have the guidance of a director of the same level.

Throughout Asia, there are only a few "film masters" who can guide other directors to win awards.

As for the money, he had never worried about it. After all, neither he nor Light and Shadow Times were short of the 18 million, and they were not here for the money.

Yes, although the mainland film industry is very hot now and the cost of making movies is rising rapidly, these are all dividends in the field of commercial films.

In the field of art films, the development of the mainland's commercial film market in recent years has not only failed to bring development dividends to art films, but has instead accelerated the decline of Chinese-language art films.

There are really not many directors who still insist on making art films now, and the level is indeed getting worse with each generation.

The booming development of commercial films has not affected art films. Now, making art films is something that is not popular among everyone. Directors cannot get much investment and actors cannot get much money.

Investing 10 million to make an art film is already enough to make an excellent art film. After all, even "superstars" in the field of art films like Tan Zhuo and Liao Fan only have a salary of one or two million for making an art film.

It’s not that they don’t want more, but they ask for too much and the investors can’t afford it.

However, Liao Fan made a lot of money when he filmed Jiang Wen's "Hidden Man", after all, Emperor Entertainment Group is rich!

Zhang Guorong gave himself a budget of 1200 million for the filming of "Glass Love". He originally planned to pay for it himself, but Wu Yuan waved his hand and the company took on the responsibility.

Wu Yuan did not expect the film to make money, but he was optimistic about the script, which was adapted from Zhang Guorong's own emotional experience, and felt that it did have the potential to win an international award or something, so he could just consider it as spending money to buy an award.

After all, Guangying Times really needs this kind of international award to enhance the company's foundation.

This is much cheaper than PR for the Oscars.

After receiving Wu Yuan's affirmative response, Zhang Guorong was not as excited as before, but at least he was very confident and ready to officially start the film with great enthusiasm.

Of course, that had to be after attending the premiere of "The Monkey King".

The next day was the day when the premiere of "The Monkey King" was held.

As the domestic commercial film market matures, ceremonies such as premieres have long been mature, and both media reporters and invited guests are very familiar with this set. Of course, holding a premiere for a new movie is no longer a new thing. The newest thing now is to hold a preview before the movie is released!

Preview screening, also known as pilot screening, refers to the screening of designated films in individual local theaters, usually in advance of films that have not yet been officially released.

This has been going on in Hollywood for decades and it is not uncommon in China. In 2002, "Hero" was the first movie to be screened in advance.

However, at that time, people in the circle only dabbled in it.

In the past five or six years, the trend of preview screenings has suddenly swept the film industry. Almost every commercial film has to be previewed before it is officially released, then premiered, and finally released on a large scale.

"The Monkey King" has also been screened in advance, with 3-5 previews scheduled in seven or eight major cities across the country, and a lot of movie ticket draws were given out.

However, the audience who attended the preview signed a confidentiality agreement and were not allowed to disclose specific details of the movie, which means they could not spoil the film.

But it can be evaluated.

After all, the purpose of preview screenings is to warm up word of mouth!
In the early years, those who held advance screenings were all very confident in their films. They believed that their films would definitely be well received and liked, so they dared to hold advance screenings.

Nowadays, if you want to have a preview, you have to pay for it, and there are many internet trolls to help boost word of mouth. Even if the quality of your own movie is average, you are not afraid that the preview audience will "speak nonsense" on the Internet and affect word of mouth.

After all, the preview will only have a few thousand or tens of thousands of viewers at most, and the internet trolls hired by major film and television companies can suppress their negative reviews in minutes.

Guangying Times is actually doing this. Even though the word-of-mouth of the preview of "The Monkey King" is actually quite good, and the more than 20 previews have basically received good or even excellent reviews on the Internet, the company still has a lot of Internet water armies cheering for it and expanding its influence.

Wu Yuan did not stop this, but just asked not to exaggerate the publicity, and to expand the publicity based on the actual preview word-of-mouth reviews.

There is no way. As the saying goes, this is an era where even good wine will not be appreciated if it is not well known. Some necessary publicity work must be done, and even big directors like Wu Yuan and Zhang Yimou are not immune to it.

Because if you don't do it and others do it, you will be at a disadvantage in public opinion. I don't know how many directors and film and television companies want to use these two people as stepping stones and become famous by stepping on them.

On December 2018, 12, the weather was fine.

Outside the largest cinema of Guangying Times Cinema Chain in Chaoyang, Beijing, promotional posters of "The Monkey King" have already been hung.

Self-media from all over the country, invited film bloggers, Tik Tok celebrities and other influential internet celebrities entered the cinema under the enthusiastic guidance of the on-site waiters, stopping from time to time to take a few photos or record a few videos, and then reluctantly handed in all the electronic devices they were carrying.

In Theater No. 1 inside the cinema, people in the industry who arrived earlier had already surrounded Wu Yuan.

Even several big domestic directors who have not appeared in public for a long time, such as Jiang Wen, Chen Kaige, and Feng Xiaogang, came to the scene and talked with Wu Yuan very skillfully.

"Director Wu, it's getting harder and harder to make commercial films." Jiang Wen said with a depressed expression, slapping his thigh with his left hand. (End of this chapter)