hollywood melon man

Chapter 492 The person who has the greatest influence on Chinese-language films.

As July begins, the North American summer season is still very busy.

"Spider-Man 2" was only popular for two weeks before it was replaced by "The Legend of the Condor Heroes 2", which was co-directed by Alfonso Cuarón and Tsui Hark and co-starred by Jackie Chan, Shu Chang, Dwayne Johnson, Bingbing Li, Meng Da Wu, and Chris Tucker.

This is the second part of the series. Cheng Long and Xiaoyu's father will pursue the ancient legend of Shambhala and continue to explore the secrets of the twelve talismans.

At the same time, some magical objects will appear, with incredible powers.

During this process, there has been a group of people fighting with Cheng Long to snatch the talismans, as well as the villains who possess these objects with magical powers.

In the previous movie trailer, the film showed unparalleled imagination.

The most attractive scene in the trailer is when Cheng Long falls into the desert following the cargo from the plane, and when everyone finds the legendary Shambhala.

When the main creators were promoting the film, the art director from Hong Kong Island, China, said that many of the film's artistic scene designs came from director Gilbert Jr.

Gilbert Jr. did not attend the premiere of the film because he was busy preparing for "Batman Begins".

However, he still promoted the film on social media and said that action-adventure fans should not miss this film.

"The Mystery of the Talisman 2" has a certain audience base because of the accumulation of the previous work, and Jackie Chan is also very popular.

As long as the quality of the sequel is maintained, it will not be a problem to recoup the investment or even make a profit through box office sales.

In fact, before "Mystery of the Talisman 2", a Hong Kong police and gangster film "New Police Story" starring Cheng Long himself was released in North America and earned a box office of 4352 million US dollars.

It is entirely due to Jackie Chan's personal appeal that a Hong Kong film can achieve such a high box office in North America.

From a side perspective, this is also one of the butterfly effects brought about by little Gilbert.

It is said that Hong Kong films are going downhill, but at least Cheng Long's Hong Kong films still have a certain market. The largest box office of "New Police Story" is actually North America, and Hollywood is one of the culprits that destroyed Hong Kong films.

I have to say, this sounds a bit ironic, but it is true.

The media in Hong Kong Island are still praising Jackie Chan as the representative and leader of Hong Kong films, even though he was originally one of them.

First, "Infernal Affairs" was remade by Martin Scorsese, and then "New Police Stories" was a big hit in North America. Who said that Hong Kong films are on the decline?

But those who are knowledgeable know that this is just an appearance.

Gilbert Jr. also discussed this issue with Cheng Long. Gilbert Jr. said: "This is because you are very popular in North America. Once your popularity declines, you will no longer have the appeal you have now and will not be able to promote the film.

The seemingly good situation now will disappear in an instant."

Cheng Long asked: "Then is there any way to change this situation?"

"There is no way. As long as you still regard yourself as a small market or a small circle, you will never change," said Gilbert Jr.

Cheng Long said that he understood. If a small circle cannot be maintained, then he should integrate into a larger circle.

"But we are already doing this. In recent years, many directors, practitioners and actors have moved north to develop their careers," said Cheng Long.

"Is that development? First of all, your attitude is not right." Little Gilbert was speechless. He said he was too lazy to care about these things: "Forget it, there will always be a way out when the car reaches the mountain."

Cheng Long wanted to ask more, but since little Gilbert didn't say anything, he was embarrassed to ask more.

During the promotion period, Cheng Long kept thinking over and over again about his conversation with Little Gilbert. He felt that Little Gilbert had a solution, but was just unwilling to say more.

That's normal. It's inappropriate for a Hollywood director to meddle in other people's affairs.

Unlike his previous life, Jackie Chan is now doing very well in Hollywood and has a better understanding of the Hollywood film industry.

He knew that Hong Kong films had long lost their competitiveness. Both "New Police Story" and the "Infernal Affairs" series were just small and insignificant victories in the midst of a major defeat.

The only way to survive is to become a big circle and develop the mainland market.

But even though Jackie Chan is very powerful and has a high status, not everyone in the Hong Kong circle listens to him.

Although it was difficult, Cheng Long still wanted to give it a try, so he sent a letter to the Hong Kong Film Awards Organizing Committee, suggesting that the selection restrictions be relaxed to allow more mainland films to participate.

Cheng Long mentioned in the letter: "We should not limit the Academy Awards to Hong Kong Island. We should create the most authoritative and fair award in the Chinese film world, so that more Chinese films can participate in this event."

I have to say, this suggestion is good, but difficult to implement.

As soon as Cheng Long's letter was sent, it immediately caused heated discussions in the Hong Kong media, and the media next door and in the north also got involved.

There were some who supported it, but there were more voices of opposition, so the matter came to nothing.

Of course, it was not without gain. At least the organizing committee of the Academy Awards relaxed the conditions a little, allowing more mainland filmmakers to participate.

According to Cheng Long, the Hong Kong Film Awards Organizing Committee is just playing the game of playing the game of peace and not offending anyone. But can not offending anyone save the gradually declining Hong Kong films? It is impossible. Some people say that "Mystery of the Talisman 2" is also a Chinese-language film, after all, it tells a story about the twelve zodiac signs.

But in fact, it is not the case. In essence, "Mystery of the Talisman 2" is still based on the Hollywood formula. You can replace this formula with Greek mythology, Mayan legends, etc. It is universal.

The film performed well at the box office in its first weekend, earning $7361.2 million in North America, successfully dethroning Spider-Man 2 as the box office champion of the next week.

The overseas regions simultaneously earned 1 million US dollars, and together with the North American box office, it successfully became the global box office champion this week.

It is worth mentioning that when this movie hit the Hong Kong market, several local newspapers were very dissatisfied with the casting, believing that mainlanders accounted for too large a proportion of the cast.

A Hong Kong reporter interviewed Jackie Chan during the promotion of a movie about this issue, but Jackie Chan blocked the question with just one sentence.

"The casting of the film was finalized by Director Gilbert Jr., and the candidates he picked were all suitable," said Cheng Long.

The reporter was speechless. He couldn't possibly say that the Hollywood director had poor taste in selecting actors, right?

You know what, there was actually a media outlet that said that. A local newspaper in Hong Kong strongly criticized the selection of Xiaoyu in the first part of "The Mystery of the Talisman".

The newspaper also said that there were many suitable people in Hong Kong Island, and then blamed Cheng Long, saying that he did not train new people from Hong Kong Island, and that there were only a few old faces coming and going.

Cheng Long was speechless after reading the report. He has no say in this project. How can he decide who to recommend as the leading actor?
Fortunately, Gilbert Jr. has not read this report, otherwise he would tell the media that it is too early to say these things now. In another ten years, it will be the same old faces coming and going.

Apart from the media factors, the film still grossed HK$875.8 million in its first week on Hong Kong Island, becoming the box office champion of the week.

Hong Kong movie fans raved about this action-fantasy masterpiece and were very satisfied with Jackie Chan's performance and loved Shu Chang's Xiaoyu.

Continuing northward, Gilbert Jr.'s "Wushuang" has already grossed 1.12 million RMB in the mainland market, making it one of the few films this year to have grossed over million RMB.

When "The Mystery of the Talisman 2" came to mainland China, it earned 3350 million RMB in the first week of its release, which is quite good.

The previous film, "Mystery of the Talisman", earned 9325 million RMB in the mainland, which is a pretty good result. Now it is not a problem for the sequel to break the million RMB box office, which once again consolidates the status of Shu Chang and Bingbing Li.

The most important thing is that the film performed well in the global market and became a truly internationally renowned work.

Guo Fan, who is currently filming his new movie, also invited the main creators to go to the cinema to watch the movie together, because he originally studied in this crew.

At the end of the movie, Guo Fan was surprised to find his own name and felt very excited.

It's not easy. Apart from the actors, these are the few cases where Chinese behind-the-scenes staff have their names included in the ending credits of a Hollywood movie.

Although there were a large number of Chinese staff members in the previous "Lord of the Rings", they were not counted at all.

Guo Fan could understand this. After all, a purely Western fantasy movie would seem out of place if there were a large number of Chinese people on the production list.

The Matrix had an action director team led by Yuan Heping, and most of the crew of The Spell came from Hong Kong Island. When the subtitles of a movie are played, there is always a sense of pride.

How do I describe it? It's just that it feels great to have a part in this great movie.

After returning, everyone enthusiastically discussed this Hollywood movie with Chinese roots, and asked Guo Fan about his experience learning on the crew.

Guo Fan said: "This is a very special experience, and you all know that. But I still gained a lot. Studying in the center of the global film industry for a few months has benefited me a lot."

Lead actor Huang Bo asked, "Director Guo, will you make science fiction films in the future?"

When faced with this question, most people will only say something ambiguous, such as let's wait and see, or let's talk about it when there's a chance.

But Guo Fan was very determined: "Of course, I have dreamed of making science fiction movies since I watched "Real Steel" in junior high school."

No one laughed at Guo Fan for overestimating his own abilities and daydreaming.

After working together for a few months, everyone got to know Guo Fan and knew that he was not the kind of person who boasted.

So everyone expressed their belief, but they didn’t think Guo Fan could really succeed. Some even thought that when Guo Fan ran into a wall, he would know that this road was not easy to follow.

Huang Bo was different. He smiled and said, "Okay, if there's a chance, remember to save a role for me."

"Easy to say, easy to say..."

If we were to choose the person who has had the greatest influence on the Chinese film industry since the 1990s, it would undoubtedly be Gilbert Jr. Even Zhang Yimou is not worthy of that title.

After all, the fake student incident last year caused a lot of uproar and almost destroyed the so-called circle.

The commercialization and development of Chinese films is also inseparable from Little Gilbert. Without the influence of Little Gilbert, Guo Fan might have wasted another decade.

But now, Guo Fan can confidently embark on an unknown road.

No one can predict how Chinese-language films will change in the future.

(End of this chapter)