During my years at China Entertainment

Chapter 438: The Seven Deadly Sins of Hong Kong Films - Invitation from King Liu

After resting for a few days, Lu Yang came to Shanhe Shuimo as expected and led people to complete the post-editing and production of "A Man's Martial Arts".

"How do you feel about going to Hong Kong for filming this time?"

The so-called post-production editing does not require the director to keep an eye on it all the time, so Wei Jin still has time to chat with Lu Yang.

"It's OK. The efficiency is good in all aspects. But the place is too small. There are too few places to shoot. We have to apply for road closures frequently. We can only shoot for a few hours a day. It's quite troublesome."

Wei Jin nodded upon hearing this. This was the bad thing about filming in Hong Kong. Traffic pressure in many busy areas was too heavy, and the time available for the crew was very limited. It would often take several days to complete a scene.

Like the previous "Lucy", there was also a car chase scene, which took seven or eight days to shoot.

In "A Man's Martial Arts", the road duel between Xiahou Wu and Feng Yuxiu was almost blocked for several hundred meters before and after. Although it only lasted for a few minutes in the movie, it took four or five days to shoot, which was really troublesome.

“How long is the post-production expected to take?”

"About forty to fifty days."

"Well, there's no rush. There's not much time left this year. Let's wait until next year."

Having said that, Wei Jin paused, a hint of teasing appearing at the corner of his mouth.

"Speaking of which, did Boss Yang do the PR for you during this trip to Hong Kong for the shoot?"

"Hey, brother, you know me, I'm a pure love person. I won't fall for Boss Yang's sugar-coated bullets, haha."

"It doesn't matter, the sugar coating can be eaten, just shoot the shells back at him, haha."

Public relations are unavoidable anywhere, especially in Hong Kong. Lu Yang is a veteran in the domestic entertainment industry. With his current status and position, it is reasonable for him to be the one doing the public relations. As long as he can handle it, Wei Jin will naturally not mind.

With Lu Yang's company, Wei Jin felt that the post-production work was not so boring, and time passed quickly until noon.

After a simple meal, Wei Jin took a nap. When he arrived at Shanhe Shuimo in the afternoon, he saw Lu Yang walking towards him excitedly.

"Brother, come and see, there is a lot of fun"

Wei Jin took the phone from Lu Yang and looked at it, wow, what a thing.

The Shanghai Film Festival has come to an end, but the excitement has just begun.

The chairman of the Academy Awards, Wen Jun, brought a group of veterans from the Hong Kong circle and angrily denounced their mainland counterparts for excluding the Hong Kong circle.

The cause is that recently some mainland media blasted Hong Kong films and listed the "seven sins of Hong Kong directors".

They said that the older generation of Hong Kong directors were not ambitious and only lived off their old reputation, and that the younger generation of directors lacked creativity; that they not only used mainland money to support Hong Kong production teams, but also used mainland first-line actors to play supporting roles for Hong Kong actors; that a large number of Hong Kong production teams were making money in the mainland while belittling and perfunctorily treating mainland producers and audiences.
This report is very detailed, lists quite a number of cases, and uses extremely sharp words. It is basically a true portrayal of the "cooperation and exchanges" between Hong Kong and the mainland over the years.

At this moment, the Hong Kong circle was jumping up and down anxiously, and even cursed at the closing ceremony of the Shanghai Film Festival, saying that the mainland media was too vicious and made up stories, which was destroying the unity between the two places.
However, not everyone is so stubborn. Wang Jing, Chen Kexin, Wu Baige and others have shown another side of the Hong Kong circle.

Although he also refuted this article, his words were extremely humble, and he even said soft words like "We are of the same root, why are we so eager to fight each other?"

"Hehe, just wait and see, the Hong Kong circle will never be a big deal again"

Listening to Wei Jin's judgment, Lu Yang nodded. With these famous directors taking the lead, the Hong Kong circle will be further divided. Those who rely on the mainland can still barely beg for food, but the remaining old stubborn ones are likely to die.

After several collaborations, Guangfa was very satisfied with Shanhe Ink's technical level.

Now, the special effects of "The Four 2" are back again.

Naturally, there was no need for Wei Jin to step in for such matters. Chen Zhiming was responsible for connecting with Chen Jiashang and signing the contract.

During the lunch break, Wei Jin showed some concern.

"Old Chen, when will the group join over there?"

"Our team will have to follow by late July at the latest."

Wei Jin nodded, Chen Jiashang was indeed quite efficient.

"What grade did you sign?"

"It's still the lowest tier, but this time the bid is 60 million."

"Oh? Why is it so much taller?"

Wei Jin was a little surprised. Even if there was no discount, the price wouldn't be 20 million higher all of a sudden, right?
"Hey, Chen Jiashang is going big this time, planning to make a 3D martial arts movie. We'll need an extra team just for the labor. Can we charge more?"

Wei Jin nodded. Since the success of "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate", martial arts movies seemed to have found a new way to open up. Even Teacher Liu jumped out and called for a 3D version of "Journey to the West" movie. It was not surprising that Chen Jiashang made such a choice.

But many people forget that movies are ultimately for the audience, and all technology is only meaningful when it is based on the story.

It is not so easy to get high box office by relying solely on technology and ignoring the story.

In the film market, "Pacific Rim" is still wreaking havoc. Even though it has been released for the third week, the weekday box office still remains at a high level of 40 million.

The current box office revenue has exceeded 8 million, and the goal of guaranteeing a minimum of billion is about to be achieved.

The film "Saving Mr. Wu" was withdrawn from theaters after a month of release, and its final box office revenue was reported at 3.66 million yuan, failing to lead Lu Yang into the 4 million yuan director club.

But Lu Yang is still very satisfied with it. After all, it is a transitional work with realistic themes. At least it proves that his achievements in commercial box office are not accidental.

Moreover, this result has already broken the 2 million domestic box office of "Knife Identity 3.52". In his words, as long as there is progress, it is good.

Lu Yang believes that in the future 4 million, 5 million or even 10 billion will no longer be a dream.

Wei Jin was very pleased with Lu Yang's open-minded attitude. If it were someone else, he would probably blame the world or complain about the bad schedule.

On the 29th, Shanhe Media held a grand celebration banquet for "Saving Mr. Wu" at the Royal Hotel.

Although this movie has the participation of King Liu, the latter reduced his salary at the beginning, so the production cost is not high, only 30 million. Even if the publicity and promotion costs are included, it will definitely not exceed 50 million.

The domestic box office share alone was close to 1.5 million yuan. Taking into account product placement and patch ads, the net profit was at least over 1.2 million yuan, which can be called a big hit.

In addition, Wei Jin did not attend the previous premiere, so the celebration banquet was quite large.

When Lu Yang and Wei Jin came to the Royal Hotel from Shanhe Shui Mo, the atmosphere was already quite lively. Chen Zhiming, producer Wang Xu, and a group of main creators had arrived early, and many companies in the industry also came to show their support.

"Boss Wei, Director Lu, congratulations on the box office success."

"Thank you for coming!"

Congratulations rang out one after another, and Wei Jin could only respond one by one. After some greetings, he greeted the main creators.

"Brother Hua, Brother Hong Lei, long time no see, haha."

"Director Wei, it's been a long time since we last met. Director Lu and we just separated not long ago, haha."

Wei Jin smiled and hugged them one by one.

After becoming a father, King Liu has become more energetic and handsome, without any signs of being old at all, which is really scary.

In comparison, Sun Honglei, who is 9 years younger than him but in his early s, looks much older, but his smile is quite funny, and his squinting eyes are almost invisible. It can be seen that both of them are quite happy, after all, this should be their best movie in recent years.

You know, if an actor's commercial value cannot increase at the box office in the long term, it will be greatly affected.

Take Zhen Zidan for example. He has not proven himself in more than a year since "Ip Man 3". The salary offers from the outside world have dropped to 1200 million, which is at least a % drop compared to his peak period.

Although the box office of the movie "Saving Mr. Wu" was average in Wei Jin's opinion, it was still a result that could not be underestimated in the industry, and it was a great help to the two of them.

After some greetings, Wei Jin was planning to go and greet other people in other circles, but unexpectedly, King Liu followed him. From the looks of it, it was obvious that he wanted to talk about something serious.

Wei Jin was not in a hurry. He found a corner away from the hustle and bustle and started chatting with King Liu.

"Brother Hua, what's the matter?"

"Director Wei, do you have any thoughts on participating in this year's Golden Horse Awards?"

Wei Jin frowned slightly, not understanding what King Liu meant, and shook his head. The Golden Horse Awards six years ago should have been his last time attending a Chinese film festival.

"Brother Hua, I don't have any idea about Chinese film festivals, and the Golden Horse Awards are no exception."

Looking at Wei Jin's calm look, King Liu was stunned for a moment. After thinking for a while, he continued to speak.

"To be honest with you, Director Wei, I am the chairman of the jury for this year's Golden Horse Awards."

"Oh? Congratulations, Brother Hua."

Wei Jin did not continue the topic. King Liu told him the news that had not yet been announced, and the meaning was very clear.

"Director Wei, I think 'The Girl at the Bottom' can be considered for the Golden Horse Awards. The chances of winning should be quite high."

"Ok?"

Wei Jin was a little surprised. He thought that King Liu would invite him to "20 Again", but he didn't expect that he would mention this movie which has not been released yet.

Of course, according to the rules of the Golden Horse Awards, whether a film is released to the public does not affect registration for the competition.

"Brother Hua probably hasn't seen this movie, right? How can you be sure that it has a high chance of winning?"

King Liu smiled when he heard this and said, "Director Wei, although I didn't attend the Cannes Film Festival, many of my friends have seen this movie and gave it very high reviews. The copyright price should also be quite good, right?"

"good."

Seeing that Wei Jin was uninterested, King Liu did not continue the topic and changed the subject to other things.

"Director Wei, why didn't Tiantian come today? I wanted to thank her in person."

Wei Jin sighed. He was worthy of being the king of pop who had been popular for forty years. He really had a good grasp of the ways of the world.

Since "The Martian", King Liu and Jing Tian have always had a good relationship.

Before this, when King Liu got married, Jing Tian gave the baby a jade Buddha, as the saying goes, boys should wear Guanyin and girls should wear Buddha.

But by pointing this out now and combining it with the invitation of "Girl at the Bottom" to participate in the Golden Horse Awards, King Liu has almost made his cards clear.

"She has an endorsement advertisement today, so she might still be busy now."

“That’s a shame.”

"It doesn't matter. I'll definitely see it at the premiere of The Storm next month."

"Haha, yes."

The conversation with King Liu did not last long, because Lu Yang had already called the main creators of the crew to go on stage.

After talking about his feelings and experiences, Lu Yang led the main creators to smash the ice sculpture that symbolized the box office, and the atmosphere on the scene reached a climax.

Then it was dinner time, and people began to walk around in the banquet hall in twos and threes.

"Mr. Ye, thank you for the North American affairs, haha."

Wei Jin picked up the drink and expressed his gratitude to Ye Ning.

"The Shallows" was released in North America last weekend, with a box office of 2800 yuan on the first day and a box office of 1680 million US dollars on the first day.

So far, after five days of release, the North American box office has reached 5400 million US dollars, and the global box office has reached 7600 million US dollars.

This result is quite impressive for a low-budget thriller with a cost of only 1500 million US dollars.

The achievement is certainly due to the reputation of Summit Entertainment and the quality of the film itself, but the support of AMC Cinemas' screening schedule is also very important.

"Hey, Mr. Wei, you are too polite. There is no need to say more about the relationship between our two families. This is as it should be."

Ye Ning stopped and did not take credit for this matter. He knew very well that cooperation is mutually beneficial, and being too pretentious would only make people disgusted.

"By the way, Mr. Wei, has the budget for "The Killing Cycle" come out?"

"Not yet. Warner Bros. is planning to invite Tom Cruise to star in the film and is still in talks. The addition of such a top actor will have a huge impact on the budget, so just be patient and wait."

Han Sanping and Ye Ning's eyes lit up when they heard this. If they could invite this person to join, the prospects of the project would be even better.

"Okay, okay, okay, then we'll wait, haha"

Looking at the expressions of the two, Wei Jin knew what they were thinking and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

At present, people in China really believe that foreign monks are better at chanting, as if movies cannot sell well without the participation of top actors.

Previously, there was "The Flowers of War", which cost 2000 million US dollars to invite Oscar-winning actor Bale to join the crew, but he only shot for days;
Later, there was "1942", which invited Oscar-winning actors for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor to play supporting roles that only had a few shots in the movie.

The two are Adrien Brody in "The Pianist" and Tim Robinson in "The Shawshank Redemption".

Although the movie attracted a lot of attention and created a lot of hype, it is said that Huayi spent a lot of money.

Brody even said cheerfully in front of the media: "It's okay if I have a small role. I came here to learn about Chinese culture."

The implication is simply that all you have to do is pay enough, and they really treat the domestic producers as suckers, but they really can't resist the producers falling for it.

China Film Group and Wanda are no exception. At the beginning of the year, they participated in a co-production film initiated by Universal Pictures - "Man of Tai Chi".

The film was directed and starred by Keanu Reeves, the star of "The Matrix", and he also invited Mo Wenwei to join.

Although Wei Jin had never seen this movie in his previous life, just hearing the name gave him the feeling that it was a copycat of "Batman" and "Iron Man".

In addition, Keanu Reeves was a crossover director, so Wei Jin knew with his toes that he would probably lose money, so when he received the invitation, he decisively refused.

However, China Film Group and Wanda are still very fond of the film and have been supporting it in various ways. It is said that the filming is almost finished, and I don’t know how much of the 2500 million US dollars production cost can be recovered by then.

But maybe China Film Group and Wanda, the two big dogs, don’t care at all?

(End of this chapter)