China Entertainment: Been working as a director since 03

Chapter 627 Wrong understanding
Recently, there was another piece of news that attracted much attention in the film industry.

Teng Huatao's love, science fiction, and war masterpiece "Magic City Fortress" has begun to release news.

When Li Yu first got the news, he was a little surprised.

In his impression, Director Fuji poured a lot of effort into the production of "The Fortress of Devil City", which took six years.

What’s going on? Last year, Director Fuji wanted to work with Li Yu, and this year he made this epic masterpiece?

After checking the information, Li Yu found out that the film was completed in just three months.

For a serious science fiction blockbuster, this speed is amazing.

The next door movie "The Wandering Earth" took more than a year to finish filming.

Since Director Fuji has the same quickshooter skills as Wang Jing, it is normal for the film to be shot quickly and the post-production to be fast as well.

Moreover, Li Yu feels that the nature of a film like "The Fortress of Devil City" is different if it takes one year to produce and if it takes six years to produce.

With only one year, people would feel that it was too rushed, and it would be normal to rush out a shoddy and bad film.

It is really shameful to spend six years to make a huge bad movie, and people will laugh at you mercilessly.

Li Yu didn't know that Director Teng's acceleration had a lot to do with him.

Last year, Director Fuji personally came to Hualiu Company and sincerely invited Li Yu to work together to create a domestic science fiction blockbuster.

He passionately described the science fiction world in his mind in front of Li Yu.

As a result, Li Yu only praised some of the TV works he had filmed before, and then refused to cooperate on the grounds that he had no time.

This incident made Director Teng feel that Li Yu was too narrow-minded and had a poor vision, and was unable to recognize the real gold.

What is the sci-fi film "Ready Player One" shot by Li Yu like? It's the future world, but there's still gaming. The gaming elements are almost surpassing the sci-fi elements. How petty.

What can compare to his "The Fortress of the Demon City"?

The concept of "The Fortress of Demon City" is so lofty that the protagonist grows from an ordinary college student to a brave warrior.

For the fate of all mankind and to save the world, the protagonist is ready to sacrifice himself. The climax of the movie is when the protagonist rushes towards the alien mothership alone, shouting "Fire at me" before leaving.

In the end, the protagonist came back alive, became a hero of mankind, and also found love.

This is what a true science fiction blockbuster is.

In short, Li Yu’s refusal to cooperate has made Director Fuji a little uncomfortable.

What made Director Fuji even more uncomfortable was that he had considered asking Da Tiantian to play the female commander and wanted Da Tiantian to invest in her movie.

According to the information he had heard, Da Tiantian refused to invest and refused to participate in the performance because she listened to Li Yu's advice.

This made Director Fuji feel that he could no longer tolerate this. This was too much to bear. Li Yu had gone too far in bullying him.

Saying that you don’t have time to work with him is fine.

But Li Yu turned around and suggested to Da Tiantian not to invest in his movie. What’s the difference between this and not liking his project?
Director Teng was very angry at that time. If Li Yu did not have a high status in the underworld, he would be laughed at for criticizing Li Yu for no reason. He would have publicly criticized Li Yu long ago.

In the end, he turned his inner resentment into motivation to move forward, and he finished "The Fortress of the Demon City" in just one year.

He wanted to let Li Yu see how great the potential of a good project that Li Yu had rejected was.

If Li Yu knew this, he would definitely laugh himself to death.

At the same time, another movie invested by Li Yu, Kong Dashan's "Space Exploration Editorial Department" is also scheduled to be released.

"Cosmic Exploration Screenwriting Department" is a science fiction film, but the cost is very low. The original version only had an investment of two million yuan, and it was finished in a month. Guo Fan brought Kong Dashan to Li Yu at that time.

Li Yu gave Kong Dashan a super double, giving him five million at once.

Da Tiantian was at the scene at that time. She was very smart and thought that since Li Yu had invested, the project must be good.

He followed suit and invested another five million, bringing the total investment to ten million.

In addition, Li Yu gave Kong Dashan 600,000 yuan for free to build a space return capsule wreckage, which is the most important prop in the entire movie.

The six hundred thousand was given to him for free by Li Yu personally and is not counted as investment.

Even if the 600,000 is included, the total investment is only 10.6 million, which is extremely shabby even for a science fiction movie.

No one would have thought that such a low-budget science fiction film could achieve the difficult feat of low cost and high return.

Li Yu and Kong Dashan discussed it and decided on the release date of "Space Exploration Editorial Department".

Kong Dashan was a little worried: "This is not good, I heard that Huayi has a science fiction blockbuster with an investment of more than 300 million yuan and it will be released soon.

To be on the safe side, I think we should wait until their release date is announced before setting the release date.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a month earlier or later than them, as long as the time is staggered.”

"No need to stagger the two, we can just decide first, we decide ours and they decide theirs. The director of that movie invited me to work with him, but I refused.

In my opinion, if the script is not significantly revised and the director and the main actors are not completely replaced, there is no chance of success at all.”

Li Yu directly characterized this movie as a super bad movie.

While "The Wandering Earth" finally opened the door to domestic science fiction, "The Fortress" has closed the door again.

This movie can be nailed to the pillar of shame of domestic science fiction films.

Kong Dashan felt like laughing and crying at the same time.

He wanted to laugh because Li Yu looked up to him, and he wanted to cry because Li Yu looked up to him too much.

"Space Exploration Editorial Department" is his independent directorial debut.

He is just a newbie in the boxing arena. If he fights against a boxing champion right from the start, then he will have no chance. He will just be a foil and won't be able to make any waves.

Li Yu saw Kong Dashan's dilemma and said, "You don't need to care so much about your competitors in the same period. The Fortress of Demon City is not your competitor. It doesn't matter even if it is in the same period. We will release ours and they will release theirs.

"Cosmic Exploration Editorial Board" itself is a low-budget production and has no potential to become a box office dark horse. "

What Li Yu said was true. Kong Dashan nodded, thinking that what he said made sense.

That’s right, his goal is to prevent the two investors, Li Yu and Da Tiantian, from losing money.

A new director’s debut film is a success if it can break even.

From this perspective, even if "Fortress of Devil May Cry" becomes a box office dark horse, it will not have much impact on "Space Exploration Editorial Department".

Li Yu is right, "The Fortress of Devil City" is no match for him.

However, he misunderstood the true meaning of Li Yu's words.

He thought that the difference in size and strength between the two was too great, so they were no match.

What Li Yu wanted to express was that "Magic City Fortress" was not worthy of being a rival to "Space Exploration Editorial Department".

(End of this chapter)