new kung fu king

Chapter 571 Not Everyone Can Play Big Movies
"In 11 months it will be ten years!"

In the early morning, after exercising, Wang Xiaohu stood on his balcony and uttered this inexplicable sentence with emotion.

It has been nine years and three months since he opened his eyes on October 1971, 10 in Hong Kong, a place that is both familiar and strange.At that time, he also complained that time passed too slowly, and those female stars and male stars did not grow up.

Fast forward ten years, and I have grown from that little dragon and tiger martial artist to a tycoon in the film industry. With money, my life is also very fulfilling. Every day I am not sitting in the office at the company, or going home, my wife and children are hot on the kang, and occasionally He will also direct a movie himself.

Ordinarily, the current life is enough for Wang Xiaohu to feel satisfied, but he always feels that something is missing.

Is it about movies?

Wang Xiaohu asked himself, in the past ten years, Hong Kong movies have undergone earth-shaking changes. In terms of movie quality, since the Seven Little Fu brothers became independent, the overall action quality of Hong Kong kung fu movies and martial arts movies has greatly improved.

It's just that this change has gone far beyond Wang Xiaohu's memory. The biggest change was the bankruptcy of Golden Harvest Company. In the 70s, the two dominant companies, Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers, became Xiehe and Shaw Brothers.

After Golden Harvest went bankrupt, there was no such big movie star as Zou Wenhuai in Hong Kong movies. It was not until the end of the 70s that Wu Siyuan, who had worked in Golden Harvest, took up the banner and became the third official film company besides Xiehe and Shaw Brothers. movie company.

In the early 80s, Siyuan Films began to expand on a large scale. First, it took Tsui Hark, Xu Anhua and other new wave directors under its umbrella, and then cooperated with Xiang Huasheng and Xiang Huaqiang brothers to create another continuous film independent of the Dragon and Tiger Warrior Union. Martial arts team.

All these, Wang Xiaohu saw it in his eyes and kept it in his heart, as long as Xin Yi'an did not violate the rules, he would not take any action.

Another huge change is the gradual unification of Hong Kong theaters. In the late 70s in his previous life, Lei Juekun set up the Golden Princess Cinemas to fully support New Art City, making New Art City a contender for hegemony with Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers in a short period of time. strength company.

Today, there are less than 100 scattered theaters in Hong Kong, which is far less powerful than the current theaters of Concorde, not to mention the more than [-] theaters of Shaw Brothers.

Wang Xiaohu doesn't know what Lei Juekun is busy with now. If he is busy collecting and reorganizing these small cinemas, then the Hong Kong film industry will probably be very lively!

To be honest, at Wang Xiaohu's current level, he will less and less interfere with the Hong Kong film industry, but let others develop, even if Xiang Huaqiang makes a small move, as long as there is no suspected money laundering or forcing artists to make films. , he would still turn a blind eye.

"Ahu, come over for breakfast!" His wife's gentle voice came from downstairs, Wang Xiaohu sighed, and walked upstairs to the living room slowly.

My son Wang Jiaen is about to turn four years old. The little guy can already sit at the dining table and eat independently. How time flies!

"Ah Hu, after "Shanghai Bund", I don't plan to watch any more TV or movies." Zhao Yazhi said suddenly while eating.

Wang Xiaohu chuckled and said, "Do you feel too tired?"

Zhao Yazhi shook her head and said: "Tiredness is part of it. The main reason is that Jia En is getting bigger and bigger now. The next step is to educate him at home. You don't know, last time he relied on Qingxia's beauty and rubbed his head hard. It’s Qingxia’s.”

"I didn't!" Wang Jiaen became anxious when his mother said his embarrassing things, "I'm a good boy!"

"A good boy would never do something like that!" Zhao Yazhi scowled, scaring Wang Jiaen to sit down and eat obediently with her mouth curled up.

"See, your son is getting more and more disobedient now!"

Wang Xiaohu frowned, obviously, this is a very serious problem, his son has the potential to be a pervert!
Wang Xiaohu didn't want his son to become like that, and he didn't want him to be too involved in the entertainment industry. He only wanted his son to have a carefree childhood, but he didn't want the little guy to be bad in elementary school.

"OK, I have no objection!" Wang Xiaohu nodded in acquiescence, and Wang Jiaen shed tears when he heard the grievance, threw his chopsticks away, and said bitterly, "Old Dou, you bully me too! Hmph, I'm ignoring you!"

"Capricious, mischievous, and unreasonable." Zhao Yazhi raised her hand and patted her forehead and said, "Strict discipline must be imposed."

"Hehe, I agree too!" Wang Xiaohu said with a smile.Most of the time, Wang Xiaohu respects Zhao Yazhi's opinions. The two of them will inevitably encounter various troubles in their lives, especially after the birth of the little ancestor, the family becomes more busy. The wife can make such a decision, from the side It also shows that what she values ​​more is the family of two people, which has something to do with the concepts instilled by Zhao's father and Zhao's mother since childhood.

"Azhi, there are some things I have to tell you." After drinking the red bean soup, Wang Xiaohu thought for a while and said, "I plan to focus on Hollywood and China in the next step."

"Huh?" Zhao Yazhi looked at her husband, and said after a long time, "What about Hong Kong?"

"Let Ah Biao and the others fight. We should take a longer-term view. Sooner or later, they will rush into Hollywood and the mainland. We will lay a good foundation for them in advance."

Wang Xiaohu said with a smile: "And I also want to cooperate with "Film Biweekly" and other unions in the film industry to establish our own Hong Kong Film Awards."

"Hehe, if that's the case, our Xiehe Company will take most of the awards, right? Is it unfair to others?" Zhao Yazhi said with a chuckle.

With the current scale and influence of Xiehe Company, the phenomenon mentioned by Zhao Yazhi is very likely to happen.

"Haha!" Wang Xiaohu shook his head after laughing and said, "I don't care about others, anyway, if I direct or star in a movie, I won't be able to appear in the Academy Award."

"You are an Oscar-level director!" Zhao Yazhi said, "If you do that, it will be like bullying a child. If it were me, it would be meaningless."

"Yes." Wang Xiaohu sighed, not only did he have no sense of accomplishment, but he didn't even have any meaning at all. He couldn't be complacent about it, because there was no comparison at all.

"Let's take Jia En to watch "Modern Bodyguard" tonight, we haven't gone to the movies for a long time." Zhao Yazhi suggested: "Going as an audience, maybe we will have a different experience."

The "Modern Bodyguard" of the three Xu brothers was a success again this time, with a box office score of more than 600 million in the first week of its release. The box office of "Bodyguard" will have greater appreciation potential.

For this reason, Xu Guanwen held a grand celebration reception, and invited Wang Xiaohu, Wu Yusen, Jackie Chan, Hung Jinbao and other Concorde employees to participate. At the same time, Liu Jialiang from Shaw Brothers, Tsui Hark from Siyuan Company and others were present.

"Ah Hu, I don't know if I can break your record this year!" Xu Guanwen said enthusiastically.

Wang Xiaohu touched his nose with a smile and said, "Does my little record make you worry about it?"

Xu Guanwen shook his head and said, "How can I not worry about it! I have been fighting to break your record, okay?"

Xu Guanjie interjected, "Brother Hu, don't listen to my big brother's bragging. You should know that the box office is very different from what it was a few years ago. Even if he easily got 1700 million, it's still not as good as your previous 1600 million!"

Xu Guanjie said that there is indeed a big difference in the difference. Think about the original "Fist of Fury", a movie ticket was only 3 Hong Kong dollars when it was released, and it was already 5 Hong Kong dollars when "The Way of the Dragon" was released. At that time, it had reached 10 Hong Kong dollars a piece, but now "Modern Bodyguard" has reached an unprecedented 14 Hong Kong dollars when it is released.

From this, you can see another change in Hong Kong movies, that is, the price of movie tickets increases with the cost of film investment.

There are many reasons for the increase in film investment costs, some of which are large shooting scenes. For example, "Police Story" spent more than half of the cost on the set, not to mention "Mythology", which cost more than 2000 million Hong Kong dollars.

Another aspect is that the salaries of the actors are too high. Needless to say, just for the actors in Concorde, Chow Yun-fat, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Brigitte Lin, Lin Fengjiao, etc., the salary of each film contract has reached millions of Hong Kong dollars. Among them, Brigitte Lin Her salary is the highest among female artists in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Of course, some people may say that Zhao Yazhi's salary is higher, but has Zhao Yazhi made a movie invested by others?No!Even "Shanghai Bund" was filmed solely by Wang Xiaohu.

In Hong Kong, few people would hire these guys to make movies, because once they are used, it means that your movie investment cost will directly soar to more than several million!
But this sentence can't be said too absolutely, because immediately such a big guy came out to talk to Wang Xiaohu about borrowing an actor.

The person who came was Wang Xiaohu, who is still in love with the outstanding director of the Sina field - Tsui Hark!

"Brother Hu, I want to borrow some actors from your company to make a movie."

Tsui Hark has curly hair and a mustache on his chin, which looks like a director.

If someone else talked to Wang Xiaohu like this, Wang Xiaohu wouldn't even pay attention to it, but Tsui Hark was one of the directors he admired very much in his previous life, even though Tsui Hark hasn't shown that big-name demeanor now, Wang Xiaohu still admires him very much.

"Who do you want to borrow?" Wang Xiaohu looked at Tsui Hark with a smile, very polite.

A trace of panic flashed in Tsui Hark's eyes. Just now he had to bite the bullet and come over to toast. He never thought that Wang Xiaohu would talk to him so politely.

"I, I would like to borrow Brigitte Lin, Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung and others from your company." Tsui Hark said nervously, "Make a magical movie."

"Let me guess, is it a magic movie?" Wang Xiaohu pretended to frowned, but in fact he already knew very clearly what kind of movie Tsui Hark wanted to make. Besides the "New Shushan Swordsman", is there any other choice? ?
there is none left!
"Do you want to adapt other people's martial arts novels?" Wang Xiaohu said: "Of course, the definition of martial arts is too narrow. Generally speaking, I define it as a fairy tale novel."

"Xianxia novels?" Tsui Hark was taken aback, then frowned and asked, "What is Xianxia novels?"

"If the protagonist in martial arts novels can break a stone with one punch, it is considered very powerful, then in fairy tale novels, a mountain can easily disappear with a single blow of a sword, and at least one person will die, hundreds and hundreds of people." Wang Xiaohu said. An example: "One is martial arts, and the other is fairy art. People like Monkey King are more representative characters in fairy tale novels."

Tsui Hark blinked his eyes, this was the first time he had heard of such a theory, he came back to his senses after a long time, shook his head and said, "I, I won't shoot "Journey to the West", we will shoot Ni Kuang's "Ziqing Shuangjianlu" .”

Wang Xiaohu pretended to ponder and said: "The Ziqing twin swords, couldn't they be adapted from "The Legend of the Shushan Swordsman" written by Huanzhu Zhuzhu?"

"Yes, Brother Hu has also read this novel!" Tsui Hark had a smile on his face, not to mention the beauty in his heart. If someone else said it, Tsui Hark would think he knew something, but whoever said this It is very different if the person is Wang Xiaohu. Whether it is director or screenwriter, Wang Xiaohu is a Hong Kong film tycoon. With Wang Xiaohu's approval, Tsui Hark feels that he has a lot of face.

"Hehe, Tsui Hark, to be honest, I admire your courage and unconstrained style." Wang Xiaohu patted Tsui Hark on the shoulder, clinked glasses with Tsui Hark, drank a sip of red wine and said, "It doesn't matter if you borrow someone, as long as Siyuan Company can It’s OK to pay the corresponding salary, now it’s not the old system of one package to death a few years ago, you should know that our Xiehe company is very humane, allowing its artists to take on outside plays.”

"Thank you Brother Hu, thank you Brother Hu!" Tsui Hark couldn't mention that happiness in his heart, because Xu had drunk red wine, his face was flushed, and he pointed to the seat in the corner and said: "Brother Hu, over there Let's talk about it, I have some things to ask you for advice."

"Okay!" Wang Xiaohu also wanted to hear how Tsui Hark filmed "New Shushan Swordsman".

After taking his seat, Tsui Hark organized his thoughts, a little like a primary school student answering a question, and said nervously: "Boss Wu plans to invest 2200 million Hong Kong dollars to shoot this movie this time."

"Where did you get the money? Could it be Xin Ngee'an's black money?" Wang Xiaohu narrowed his eyes, thinking that he was still worried about this matter in the morning, but he didn't expect Xiang Huasheng and Xiang Huaqiang brothers to lose their composure so soon?
"No, no!" Tsui Hark hurriedly waved his hand and said, "The money comes from absolutely clean sources! Brother Hu may not know that your "Mythology" is now selling very well on the black market in Taiwan, and the filmmakers in Taiwan basically rely on this The movie revived. The Taiwanese government wanted to intervene in the management at first, but later the Bamboo Union gang fought a guerrilla with the government. After a few times, the government didn’t bother to take care of it. Therefore, they are very optimistic about movies with this theme and want us to Siyuan Company will do it."

"Oh. Are you saying that the Taiwanese film studios raised the money for your filming?" Wang Xiaohu was a little skeptical.

"Yes, it is so."

Wang Xiaohu nodded: "I don't care about the market in Taiwan, go back and tell Wu Siyuan not to do anything that will ruin his career."

Tsui Hark knew what Wang Xiaohu was referring to, and immediately said in awe and fear: "I will tell Boss Wu about this matter personally, Brother Hu, just rest assured."

"Actually, Siyuan Company has prepared two plans. One is that I plan to shoot it now, and the other is a parody of "Star Wars" with the Shaw Brothers. It is currently selecting actors."

Tsui Hark is more cautious in speaking now, because what he said is suspected of commercial secrets, especially the co-production between Siyuan Company and Shaw Brothers. I don’t know why he trusts Wang Xiaohu so much. That feeling is very strange, even Tsui Hark couldn't explain clearly himself, so he spoke out in a daze.

Wang Xiaohu heaved a long sigh, and after a while he patted his forehead and said, "Let's not digress, let's just talk about the movie you want to shoot, how you plan to shoot it, and whether it's mature or not." idea."

"Of course it would be better to shoot the wonderful "Mythology" like Brother Hu." Tsui Hark said with a wry smile: "But Siyuan Company does not have a special effects company in this area, so after thinking about it, I still came to Brother Hu for help. I want to borrow Brother Hu's 'Industrial Light and Magic' team in Hollywood to create this movie."

"Would you like me to lend you the special effects studio where "Mythology" was filmed?" Wang Xiaohu said with a chuckle.

"Okay! If it's not a joke."

"Okay, no kidding." Wang Xiaohu propped his chin and said seriously: "If that's the case, let me tell you, 2000 million is far from enough!"

"Maybe you only saw that I spent more than 2000 million yuan on the filming of "Myth". Preparation time, but other things, I spent hundreds of millions just to set up Industrial Light & Magic."

Wang Xiaohu didn't say much, just these few words made Tsui Hark's mouth wide open in surprise.

Wang Xiaohu's analysis is very thorough. The success of "Mythology" is not achieved overnight. If there is no money spent earlier, if there is no mature "Industrial Light and Magic" now, everything is just nonsense.

"Then, how much does the special effects cost?" Tsui Hark's self-confidence was shaken at that moment.

"If you want to meet the standard of "Mythology", at least 300 million US dollars. That is more than 1800 million Hong Kong dollars, which has already accounted for more than half of your investment cost, so a mere 2000 million won't make a big movie."

"But I only have the right to call 2000 million funds. If there is more, Boss Wu can't guarantee whether the source of funds is clean!"

Tsui Hark was caught in a dilemma at this moment. To be honest, he really wanted to be Wang Xiaohu's second, and he really wanted to shoot his own "Myth". Blockbuster movies are not something anyone can afford to play. It turns out that the amount of money I can mobilize is only so small!

"Hey, forget it, how about selling you a favor?"

(End of this chapter)