The king of ghost horse comedy

Chapter 403 "Moonlight Panic" Released

The TV series "Crocodile Tears" is initially estimated to be [-] episodes. Of course, if the ratings are high, it can be extended for another five episodes.Long-running urban dramas like this require a relatively high investment. Therefore, whether it is general TVB TV stations or Li TV stations, because of cost considerations, they are not too inclined to shoot TV dramas of this length.

But because the two TV stations have now formed an alliance, the cost of filming has been greatly reduced, so this kind of urban long drama is naturally not a problem in terms of cost.And if the ratings of such a long drama are good, then the return is also very high, so it is the first choice for the cooperation between the two TV stations.

The initial estimate of the cost of the TV series is 180 million, and the average production cost of an episode is 180 Hong Kong dollars.More than half of it is used to pay stars' salaries, and a small part is used for costumes and props. The cost of screenwriting and director is the least, and they are only paid on a monthly basis. For the cost of 100 million, of which 80 million will be paid by TVB, and [-] will be paid by Li's TV station. The future profits will be shared according to this ratio, and the two parties have no other opinions.

As for the actors, because TVB's artists are relatively well-known, more than half of the artists are selected from TVB. However, for the sake of balance, Li's actors also account for more than [-]%, and the leading role is also played by Li's head Xiaosheng Pan Zhiwen. serve.

Pan Zhiwen, known as "Pan Weng", is the head of Li's TV station. He also stayed in TVB for a while before, and performed the first TV series "Under the Lion Rock" of TVB. Later, he became the head of the niche, and he has starred in "Ten Strange Cases", "Ten Assassins", "Wang Taosha" and so on. He can be regarded as one of Li's more capable stars.

Pan Zhiwen's appearance is gentle and elegant, and his appearance is suitable for ancient times and modern times. Whether he is a hero in ancient costumes, a businessman in the Republic of China, or a modern rich man, he is competent.He played Duan Zhengchun in Huang Rihua's version of "The Eight Parts of the Dragon", Ye Yongji in "Heaven and Earth Man", and Rong Heng in "The Grace of the Earth" are more familiar to mainland audiences.And this person is very beautiful, ATV, TVB, and has always been praised by the TV stations, so he is also called "the tumbler".

And the screenwriter of "Crocodile Tears" is Xiao Ruoyuan, the master screenwriter that Xu Guanwu has been looking for. Xiao Ruoyuan is a very capable screenwriter, which can be seen from his title, master screenwriter, listen It's very powerful when you go up.And this person is not only proficient in writing TV drama scripts, he is also very good at writing movie scripts.Many of the works produced by Maijiaban are all written by Xiao Ruoyuan, who can be regarded as the chief think tank of Maijiaban.

After Xiao Ruoyuan left Maijiaban to develop, he also achieved very good results, such as "Tang Bohu Spots the Autumn Fragrance" and "The Deer and Ding Tale" series with Zhou Xingchi. Can be considered a classic.

Xu Guanwu has always attached great importance to script writing, so he is quite eager for screenwriters.Xu's currently has a group of screenwriters in captivity, and has written many movie scripts, but except for a few that are used by the company's directors for filming, the others can only be sold to small film companies.Screenwriting is a very talented profession. It doesn't mean that as long as you work hard, you will be successful.The screenwriters in Xiang Xu's current screenwriting department are typical of thankless efforts.And talented screenwriters like Huang Bingyao, Huang Baiming, and Wang Jing, although they are small in number, are the pillars of Xu's film industry.

The film scripts they produce account for more than [-]% of the annual film production, which can be said to be crucial talents.For Xu Guanwu, the more important talents like this, the better.However, due to the previous agreement with Li, they were not allowed to poach each other's corners during the alliance, so Xu Guanwu could only helplessly miss out on Xiao Ruoyuan.

……

The TV series "Crocodile Tears" is produced in two parts. After the first part is filmed, if the ratings are high, the second part will be filmed.This kind of shooting method is not uncommon in Hong Kong. Like the [-]rd edition of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", because the investment was too high and the ratings could not be guaranteed, the TV series was divided into three parts to produce, namely " "Iron Blood and Heart", "Evil in the East and Poison in the West" and "On the Sword in Huashan".

Lidi's other excellent work "Grace from the Earth" is also produced in three parts, namely "Home in the Pearl River", "Thunder in the Ancient Capital" and "Dream of Jinshan".In addition to controlling risks and costs, this can also adjust the plot in real time according to the audience's reaction.

Of course, doing this is a test for the screenwriter's skill, because if the plot turns too bizarre, or if the plot is not satisfactory and there are many flaws, it will seriously affect the reputation of the series.Simply put, Hong Kong screenwriters are relatively smart, and this rarely happens.

The forty episodes of the first half of "Crocodile Tears" mainly tell the story of how Lu Wenjun, played by Pan Zhiwen, went from a fledgling college student with lofty aspirations to being reduced to a homeless family with nothing to achieve and his wife and children separated.

The second half tells the story of Lu Wenjun who learned from the pain, came to his senses, and then used various methods to climb up, vowing to double everything he lost.

The upper and lower parts echo each other, one is so good that it makes people heartbroken, and the other is so badass that it is heinous. Naturally, it is a test of the actors' acting skills, and such a reversal is naturally full of plot tension, making it easier to watch. .The so-called Evans does not like watching mountains, but in fact watching TV dramas is the same. The more ups and downs the plot is, the more fascinating it is.

……

When "Crocodile Tears" was under intense filming, it was already the end of [-].

In the previous month, "Moonlight Panic", invested by Xu Guanwu, was screened in theaters under the National Entertainment Company during Halloween.Halloween is a traditional festival in Europe. It is somewhat similar to the oriental ghost festival. On this day, people dress up and make all kinds of strange appearances, and children can go door to door to ask for sweets. "Trick or treat" is their unified slogan.Around Halloween, it's time for horror and thriller movies to come together.

The investment of the film "Moonlight Panic" is only 50 US dollars, and the investment of this film in the previous life is even lower, only more than 30 US dollars. The actors need to prepare their own clothes.Originally, Lei Shidong didn't take this cheap horror film seriously, so it was only shown in about [-] theaters under his banner.

But I didn't expect it to be well received after it was released, especially the protagonist Michael Myers, wearing a mask, holding a butcher's knife, silent, just killing people silently, really makes people shudder.And the film does not use bloody murder scenes to intimidate the audience like European and American horror movies, but focuses on the rendering of horror, suspense and anger, and this invisible horror is actually more scary.

The so-called unknown is the scariest thing. If people know his criminal motive and his purpose of killing, they will not be so afraid, but will find a way to solve the matter.But now people don't even know why he kills people, they are just being chased by him to death, so that kind of fear cannot be resolved.

And "Panic in the Moonlight" was also rated as the scariest movie in Hollywood because of its grasp of the horror atmosphere, and "Panic in the Moonlight" topped the list.And Michael Myers is also known as one of the three most terrifying killers in the United States. Two of them are the nightmare demon Freddy in "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and Freddy in "NO.13 Friday". Immortal Jason.

After the film was released, the word of mouth was quite good, and it was immediately spread ten, ten, hundreds, thousands, and thousands. Men and women who came to watch this movie, eager to be scared on Halloween, quickly lined up at the entrance of the theater. There is a long dragon.

The popularity of ticket sales was completely beyond Lei Shidong's expectations. He scolded himself as an idiot. He knew that the movie was invested by Xu Guanwu, so why didn't he pay more attention to it? Big publicity.

Horror films have never been the favorite of the eight major film companies. Even if they release, they will release suspenseful thrillers like Hitchcock, relying on the plot to scare the audience.Instead of relying on a killer wearing a human skin mask and wielding a chainsaw to scare the audience with buckets of artificial plasma, that would be a bit too low-level.

Therefore, 20th Century Fox did not pay much attention to the release of "Moonlight Panic".But now hearing that the movie was a hit, 20th Century Fox immediately became interested.Low-level is low-level, the most important thing is to make money in your pocket.So he hurriedly cooperated with the National Entertainment Company to give vigorous publicity.

And in the subsequent Halloween schedule, it took 500 million U.S. dollars with the help of this film. Considering its investment of only 50 U.S. dollars, it is equivalent to a 120-fold increase in value, which definitely belongs to the category of big profits.In the previous life, the cost of this movie was only more than 30 yuan, but the box office was 500 million yuan.

In the previous life, after the filming of this film, no film company was willing to distribute it, and finally the producer had to set up a distribution company to distribute it by himself, and used various means to hype the popularity of the film. Finally, with this The film's high reputation has earned more than 5000 million US dollars at the box office.

In this world, there is a joint effort between 20th Century Fox and National Entertainment, which pushed the box office of the film by more than 1000 million US dollars, and "Moonlight Panic" saw a big tree with a knife, and earned more than 50 at a cost of less than 6000. With a return of more than 120 times at the box office, it has become the brightest dark horse in the North American film industry this year.

After the movie was finished, Richard Zanjuk announced the good news to Xu Guanwu, so annoyed that he didn't know what to say.If he had known that this movie was so profitable, he would have been the producer a long time ago.The filming time of this movie is only one month. If he spares this month to make a cameo appearance in the crew, he will earn nearly a million dollars in terms of dividends. This money is equivalent to free money.

But who told me that I was so stupid at the beginning, just didn't like this kind of low-cost horror film, but now I can only sigh at the high box office.

Xu Guanwu was not surprised to hear that "Moonlight Panic" has achieved a box office of more than 6000 million U.S. dollars. In fact, horror movies have always been based on themes of small-scale movies, such as "Chain Saw", "A Nightmare on Elm Street", "Friday the 13th", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Ghosts" and other series of horror movies, the investment is far less than those action blockbusters, but the return on investment is quite amazing.

Lionsgate Films, which started out by distributing B-level horror films, is the most commercially successful independent film company in Hollywood, and its profitability even exceeds that of several traditional Hollywood companies. This shows that horror films not only look scary, but also have the ability to attract money. It is also quite terrifying.In fact, not only Lionsgate released horror films, but several major Hollywood film companies also set their sights on the horror film market that they didn't care about before as their profits became thinner.Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures, and even Walt Disney Studios have all entered the horror market on a large scale.

(End of this chapter)