The king of ghost horse comedy

Chapter 340
In the next few days, Xu Guanwu, Richard and David all stayed in the office and looked through scripts, looking for more suitable film investment projects.

Although most of these scripts have plot outlines, which makes it convenient for Xu Guanwu to read quickly, but he still gets dizzy after reading so many tens of thousands of scripts.

And while they were reading, scripts were still being sent over.Xu Guanwu estimates that in this short period of time, Richard has collected more than [-] scripts.

Although a large number of these are from previous stocks, there are also many works in recent years.It can also be seen from this that Hollywood has a strong background and can come up with so many scripts one after another.Let's not talk about the quality, but the quantity is enough to be proud of the world.

Judging from the speed at which Hollywood produces hundreds of movies every year, it will take at least 20 years to finish filming these tens of thousands of works.In the past 20 years, I am afraid that a large number of scripts will be produced.

Therefore, when Hollywood is making a film, it can freely select among these tens of thousands of scripts.Over and over, over and over, trying to sift through the best scripts for the most consistent box-office hits.

Relatively speaking, the background of Hong Kong movies is not so strong.They are notorious for not paying attention to script creation. They often don’t even have a script when filming. They only have a story outline, and then the screenwriter writes the story on the spot.A piece of paper with lines and stories written on it just flies between the screenwriter, director, and actors, so it is also called Flying Paperboy!

If the screenwriter wasn't in the mood that day, and couldn't write any decent plots, the crew had to call it a day, wasting a day in vain.

The reason for Flying Paper Boy is that during the prosperous period of Hong Kong film, hundreds of films were produced every year.However, there are not so many professional screenwriters in Hong Kong, and most of them are just military advisers who write Duqiao.As a result, the production of scripts cannot meet the demand.

In the golden age of Hong Kong films, it was popular to sell films. As long as the cast is strong, you can get a sum of money from the film dealer to start the film, and then sell the film easily with the actor's name.You can easily earn millions of Hong Kong dollars once you come and go.

Because at that time, celebrities had a strong box office appeal, and they could make money just by relying on their names, so who cares about the quality of the script? !At their peak, the salaries of top Hong Kong actors were in the millions, and screenwriters had to pass three hurdles before writing a script to get paid.

In the first level, the screenwriter gets the down payment first; in the second level, after the filming is completed, the screenwriter receives the second payment; in the third level, after the film is released, the screenwriter can only get the final payment after checking the box office.

In many cases, the screenwriters did not receive the final payment of the third installment, and all of them were withheld for various reasons.As for dividends or bonuses, don't even think about it.Only a very kind company will give a red envelope to the screenwriter after the box office hits.

As a screenwriter, he is not taken seriously, and his salary is not high. If he wants to receive the reward he deserves, he has to go through three trials and tribulations. How can this prevent the screenwriter from being discouraged? !So some screenwriters couldn't stand it and quit the stage, another part of the screenwriters had no skills and could only suffer, and some screenwriters tried their best to be promoted to directors.

So in the end, the only ones who were able to stick to the post of screenwriter were those who had no ability, could neither give up the job of screenwriter, but were unable to be promoted to director.The quality of the scripts they created can be imagined.

Later, when mainland movies and TV dramas were on the rise, a large number of Hong Kong filmmakers came to the mainland as directors with the title of famous screenwriters, and produced a lot of bad TV dramas.In fact, they are the group of screenwriters who stick to it and have no skills.

……

Xu Guanwu is deeply aware of the quality of a movie without a good script.

The script of "The True Colors of a Hero" directed by Wu Yusen has been prepared for a long time, so the strong brotherhood after it was filmed moved a lot of audiences.It is still regarded as a classic of Hong Kong films, and "A Hero's True Colors" is bound to be on the list almost every time a Hong Kong masterpiece is reviewed.

But "The True Colors of Heroes 2" was filmed under the circumstances of Wu Yusen's strong opposition.The New Art City company saw the popularity of "The True Colors of Heroes", so they wanted to follow suit and make money.However, the first part of "The True Colors of Heroes" did not lay the groundwork. Brother Ma has already been headshot, and Ahao has also been sent to prison.

But because Xiao Ma's role is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, in order to get a better box office, New Art City did not hesitate to force Zhou Runfa into it, so he installed a twin identity.And the script was written hastily, without careful polishing.

Although in the end "The True Colors of Heroes 2" made a lot of money by taking advantage of the fire of the gunfight movie, but after careful recollection, it lacks the pleasure of bursting out after depression and brotherly loyalty in "The True Colors of Heroes" That kind of emotion.

The same situation actually appeared in "A Chinese Ghost Story". "A Chinese Ghost Story" achieved a very good reputation at the time, but because of Xu Ke's consistent high requirements, "A Chinese Ghost Story" did not make a lot of money.So "A Chinese Ghost Story 2" was subsequently put on the shooting schedule.

But because the scripts were written impromptu by Fei Zhizi, the rhythm of the story was fluctuating, the movie itself had many flaws, and the plot was variously unreasonable.

For example, after Fu Yuechi was a civil official, why did he have such superb martial arts; Ning Caichen was only in his 20s, so why did he repeatedly mistake him for Zhuge Wolong's senior; and this Zhuge Wolong was arrested for several years, why did Fu Tian Qiu was only locked up and taken to Beijing now; why did Fu Yuechi and others want to rescue him now...

There are a lot of bad things, if it wasn't for the fact that Zhang Guorong was popular at the time, Wang Yuxian was beautiful, and the most beautiful Hong Kong girl Li Jiaxin was a vase, and the song god Zhang Xueyou messed up in various ways... This movie would definitely not have achieved such a high box office.

And this is still produced by famous Hong Kong film directors Wu Yusen, Xu Ke, etc. Their eagerness somewhat made up for the shortcomings of the plot, but compared with the first script that was carefully crafted and polished, it is undoubtedly more difficult. It pales in comparison a lot.

In the later period, whether it was "The True Colors of a Hero: Song of the Sunset" directed by Xu Ke or "A Chinese Ghost Story 3: Dao Dao Dao", they all encountered Waterloo at the box office.Not only is it far inferior to the first one, it is even inferior to the second one.

……

Xu Guanwu saw the serious consequences of this, so he spared no effort to implement the new system.The seven-member team reviewed and confirmed the script. If the script failed to pass the review, no matter how strong the cast was, it would be of no use.This forces these directors to pay attention to the script and the talents who create the script.

People like Hong Jingbao, Mai Jia, Zeng Zhiwei, etc. also respected the military master Qiao Wang who was hiding behind the scenes, and Cheng Long even spread his silver papers in order to find a master screenwriter.As the screenwriter's status has improved, he has been respected by others, and his income has increased. Naturally, he will work harder to write scripts and create one after another high-quality goods.

And the success of these screenwriters will naturally attract others to pursue this career.And the more people are engaged in screenwriting, the more opportunities they have to produce high-quality works.The more high-quality films are produced, the better the Hong Kong films will be.The better the Hong Kong film, the more confident the audience will be, and the higher the box office will be.

The higher the box office, the more the boss likes it, and it will stimulate a lot of capital investment in the film business.And the film market is bound to become more developed, so that everyone can take advantage of the opportunity to make money as the tide rises.

This has formed a very good virtuous circle. If this virtuous circle continues, let alone Hong Kong films will not decline, even if they take advantage of the trend, it is possible to break into the European and American markets.

Cheng Long's "Red Fan District", "Who Am I", and "A Good Man" have achieved good box office results in the United States; Wu Yusen's "Spy War Two Heroes" is regarded as a classic by European and American filmmakers. "Young Huang Feihong: Iron Monkey" co-produced by Zhen Zidan and Yu Rongguang, which earned over [-] million US dollars at the box office; "Infernal Affairs" co-produced by Liu Weiqiang and Mak Siu-fai was bought by Hollywood for the adaptation rights at a high price, and "The Infernal Affairs" was filmed Had a great success...

All these show that Hong Kong movies are not incapable of breaking into the American market, and American audiences are not picky at all.Japanese cartoons, Indian musicals, British black humor films, French romantic films, Italian experimental films... as long as they are good films, they can get a good box office in the American film market.

Movies from other countries can do well at the box office, but there's no reason why Hong Kong movies can't.Of course, the premise is that the quality of your movies is high enough, and you can't always rely on bad movies to fool people.

……

Xu Guanwu has high hopes for Hong Kong films, and he knows the abilities of Hong Kong filmmakers.Hong Kong filmmakers have flexible minds and quick thinking, which cannot be compared with those rigid-headed filmmakers in Europe and the United States.

European and American filmmakers are like machines, they follow the procedures meticulously and strictly. Although they seem a bit old-fashioned, they can guarantee the pass rate of the products to the greatest extent.

In comparison, Hong Kong films are more like the radical creations of artists. Although many excellent works have come out, the defective products have also increased significantly.If Hong Kong filmmakers can focus their ingenuity on how to make good films, Xu Guanwu believes that they will definitely do more.

So what he has been pushing is to curb follow-up filmmaking. Hong Kong filmmakers are quick-witted. Once a movie becomes popular, several movies of the same type will be released immediately.

After the black stick movie "The True Colors of Heroes" became popular, movies such as "Love in the Jianghu", "Supreme", "Heroes", "Heroes Without Tears" and other movies came out together.

After the new martial arts movie "Swordsman" became popular, "The Legend of the White-haired Witch", "Sword Laughter", "Six-fingered Qin Demon" and so on came out in a swarm.

After the zombie film "Mr. Zombie" became popular, "Zombie Resurrection", "Maoshan School", "Unifying Zombie Mountain" and so on flocked to the movies.

After the ghost film "A Chinese Ghost Story" became popular, "Millennium Banshee", "Chasing the Sun", "The Immortal in the Painting" and so on are also popular, and most of them are starring Wang Tuoxian, who vowed to play the female ghost to the end.

Even the triadic romance films have followed suit. After "The Stealing Mirror of the Jade Raw Treasure" sold 800 million at the box office, the screens in Hong Kong were filled with "Liao Zhai Yan Tan", "West Chamber Yan Tan" and so on. ", "Liang Zhuyan Tan" and so on...

It is not impossible to follow the trend of filmmaking, in fact, there are also follow-up filmmaking in the United States.But the U.S. market is larger than the Hong Kong market, and the market for other popular films can be digested.Not to mention that there are so many TV stations in the United States alone, and each TV station can basically recoup the investment by broadcasting it once.

Needless to say, the film market in Hong Kong is small, and there are only two TV stations.Even if you want to sell the film screening rights, you can't sell the price.So people can make special feature films, but not here in Hong Kong, because you are not qualified, and you can't afford it at all.

Xu Guanwu's film productions try to avoid following trends, and strive to have different selling points for each film.For example, "Drunken Fist" is more funny than kung fu compared with "Snake-shaped Diao Shou"; "San De Monk and Chong Mi Liu" uses Shaolin Kung Fu, and "Mr. Zan and Chang Qian Hua" puts Wing Chun on the stage ...So both are Kung Fu movies in the early Republic of China, but there are differences when you look at them carefully.Keep innovating so that the audience will not be bored.

What's more, he also invested in the filming of new types of films such as "Male Thief and Female Singer", "Yin Ling", and "It's as simple as catching a thief", which greatly expanded the themes of Hong Kong movies.

(End of this chapter)