Chapter 271 Song Ge's Expectations

After more than three years of preparation, shooting and post-production, Li Shaohong's new version of "Dream of Red Mansions" was broadcast for the first time on various local TV stations.

The audience was very enthusiastic and thought it would be a great film, but the result was beyond everyone's expectations.

"It's shot just like a horror movie. The TV series remakes are getting worse and worse."

Especially the scene where Daiyu buries flowers. The Kunqu opera music plus the "gloomy" scene give it a vivid sense of the supernatural, and the style is exactly the same as that of a horror movie.

Not only netizens, but also experts and media have criticized Li Shaohong severely.

"The new version of Dream of the Red Chamber treats the audience as children."

Some netizens believe that the other party ruined the classic.

"As long as it's Dream of the Red Chamber, there will be controversy."

“Don’t take it out of context.”

Unable to withstand the pressure, Li Shaohong quickly stepped forward and responded.

……

Although "Painted Skin 2" has not yet been released, both the island country and South Korea have sent people to the country to discuss distribution issues.

Especially in South Korea, CJ and the other two companies are competing with each other, and no one wants to fall behind.

"Mr. Song, CJ is the number one entertainment company in South Korea. We had a very pleasant cooperation last time. I hope we can continue to cooperate in the future."

The other party came and started to talk about relationships and feelings, and spoke from the heart.

"Haha, the specific matters still need to be decided by Director Gu, so I can't give you an answer."

"It's okay. We can wait until Director Gu is done with his work before visiting us."

The other party also knew that Gu Wei was busy filming, so he came over just to say hello in advance.

After talking with CJ Company, Song Ge and representatives from several other companies said the same thing.

After seeing them off, Song Ge couldn't help but call Gu Wei.

"Japan and South Korea are good, but it would be even better if they could land in North America."

In Song Ge's mind, domestic films can only be considered successful if they can enter Hollywood. As for Sino-US co-productions, they are still mainly Hollywood-oriented.

"Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia are naturally close to us culturally. They read the Four Great Classics and Jin Yong's novels. Nowadays, many people in Southeast Asian countries also follow online novels. In terms of film and television dramas, the old Hong Kong movies and the current classic historical dramas from the mainland are also very popular in these places.

I think there is no need for our domestic films to focus on getting the films released in North America just to gain the false reputation of being released worldwide.

As long as Chinese blockbusters can gain a foothold in the film markets of Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia, they will have the capital to succeed.

As for entering Europe and the United States, using Chinese culture may not work. It is better to use future-style technology blockbusters to successfully enter."

Different from Song Ge's idea, Gu Wei finds that the so-called Chinese culture is not recognized by the European and American cultural systems at this stage, so it would be better to focus on Southeast Asia.

There are many reasons why Chinese-language films are not doing well, and limited market capacity is one of them.

The reason why Hollywood dares to make big productions with production budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars is that the world is dominated by the European and American cultural system.

They can sell films to most countries and regions in the world, and Hollywood films occupy a dominant or even advantageous position in the film markets in those places.

But the same cannot be said for Chinese-language films. More than 90 percent of a film's box office revenue is generated domestically, and the box office revenue is collected in a short ten-day period. Under such circumstances, naturally there are not many companies that dare to make special effects blockbusters.

Another reason is the Chinese people’s “taking shortcuts” mentality. They don’t dare to shoot special effects blockbusters, so they make “fake blockbusters”.

For example, if you take out an investment of 100 million and find a few charismatic actors, 70 or 80 million will be gone, and the remaining money will be spent on various things. The result is a movie with a bad plot, lousy special effects, and characters that don't speak human language.

After the film was made, the producers had no idea what was going to happen, let alone money for publicity and distribution, so they had to rely on others to advance the money. The publicity and distribution companies were not stupid, they relied on distribution to make a living, so could they not see what kind of film you shot?

The box office expectations are low, and the publicity and distribution companies certainly don't dare to advance a large amount of money. In addition, some of the expenses are unknown, so the publicity effect can be imagined. Whether this kind of "pseudo-blockbuster" will make a profit or a loss in the end depends on whether the audience in the selected period is easy to deceive.

What Gu Wei and Song Ge said were from the bottom of their hearts, but now domestic filmmakers like to focus on Europe and the United States, as if they will be more sophisticated after returning from a trip to Cannes.

Golden Harvest, the dominant company in Hong Kong's film industry, attempted to enter Hollywood several times and refused to give up for decades.

Song Ge didn't know if he only had his eyes on the European and American markets, but he kept talking about this in his mind, and there were hints in his words. After all, he came to Xingchen Film and Television because he was attracted by Gu Wei's future plans.

"Director Gu, what you said makes some sense, but we cannot deny that North America is the largest film market. As long as domestic films succeed in entering the market once, it will only get easier in the future."

Song Ge began to mutter again, speaking with some emotion in his tone.

"Well, what I just said is in vain. We will start producing domestic blockbusters in the second half of next year at the latest. Don't worry."

Gu Wei gave the other party another reassurance, and then said: "The distribution rights in Japan and South Korea will be decided after the release of Painted Skin 2, so as to maximize the benefits."

Hearing this, Song Ge also realized that it would be a waste not to earn some money to support his daily life and to support the country.

"I talked to them and they said that the final decision is up to you."

………The film market is becoming more and more prosperous.

At the end of June, Wang Quanan announced the launch of a new film project "White Deer Plain", which was jointly produced by Shaanxi Bai Lu Yuan Film, Guangying Pioneer Cultural Media, Xi'an Film and Television Production Company, Western Film Group and other production companies with an investment of 100 million yuan.

Wang Quanan is the screenwriter and director. The filming is scheduled to start in September and is currently underway for preliminary preparations.

On the same day, Lu Chuan announced to the public that he would direct the billion-dollar blockbuster "The Banquet".

"The new film, The Banquet, will use a new historical perspective to recreate the magnificent lives of three historical figures: Liu Bang, Xiang Yu and Han Xin."

He then said: "The script is currently being written and filming is expected to start in the first half of next year."

This speech does seem to be true and is full of momentum.

"To be honest, I don't have much expectations for your movie anymore."

"Let these historical figures go. You can't take good photos of them, you know? You just don't have the ability to do it."

Unfortunately, netizens did not give him face and kept mocking him, which almost broke Lu Chuan's defense.

"These two people, one likes to take pictures of flying saucer hats, and the other likes to change history. Now they have collided again. It's going to be a good show to watch."

Jiang Wen, who is busy with the post-production of Let the Bullets Fly, said in an interview with reporters: "Historical blockbusters are not so easy to control. I hope some people can be self-aware."

Jiang Wen's remarks sparked discussion among netizens, and Lu Chuan responded bluntly, and the two started arguing again.

Jiang Wen later posted another Weibo post, apparently mocking Lu Chuan, and Gu Wei also secretly liked it.

...

On the fourth day after the release of "Love Is Not Blind", the single-day box office exceeded 20 million. Taking into account the data from the first three days, the media predicted that the first week's box office would reach over 100 million.

The movie's reputation has been getting better and better. Apart from the so-called film critics, most netizens have given it positive reviews.

"We watch movies for fun, not for those people to nitpick."

"Su Chang and Zhu Yawen performed very well, and the supporting actors were also good."

The huge success of "Love Is Not Blind" boosted this year's summer movie season, but it also crushed other movies released during the same period.

For example, Derek Yee's "The King of Guns" had a box office of less than 30 million in the first weekend. Compared with the cost, it was definitely a loss.

In North America, "Despicable Me 2" has been released for several months, and the global box office has successfully exceeded million US dollars.

It is currently second only to "Toy Story 3", surpassing films such as "Ice Age 3", "The Lion King", and "Finding Nemo", ranking second in the global animation film box office.

The reason why it is ranked second is that several other animated films have not yet started shooting, such as "The Incredibles" and "Zootopia", which have just started or are still in the planning stage.

The success of "Despicable Me 2" has made Warner and Universal Studios full of expectations for "Frozen" which will be released in the second half of the year.

The two companies have already started related publicity.

"Boss, you can submit Despicable Me 2 for an Oscar this year. I think it has a great chance of winning."

Reid and Gu Wei, who were on the other side of the ocean, talked about this matter right away.

The nomination process for the Oscars for animated features is different from that for narrative features, with members of the Academy's animation branch independently responsible for determining the nominations (animation nominees will also be determined by a preferential voting rule for Best Animated Feature, rather than a numerical rating system).

Previously, the Oscar Animation Award nomination committee was composed of 50 animation producers and people from other branches. The nomination process has always been less than transparent and often has the problem of low voter turnout. The Academy has always hoped to change this situation. Part of the problem is that the animation department award includes the short film award.

However, there has been news recently from the Oscars that the jury hopes to separate the short film award from the animation part, and this may happen soon.

This is also one of the reasons why Ryder suggested going to Oscar.

"No problem, I hope I can win a good prize this time."

Gu Wei has no plans to do any public relations for Despicable Me 2 for now, so let it all depend on luck.

In the past two years, the Oscars have seemed increasingly unprofessional, and their fairness and openness have been questioned by many people outside. There is no need to spend a lot of effort on public relations for the judges.

Unless Gu Wei participates in the Oscars again in the future, I won’t take it too seriously.

Upon learning that the filming of "2012" was about to be completed, Reid suddenly became excited.

"Avatar has set so many records, and I'm still waiting for the movie to break them after it's released."

Hearing this, Gu Wei couldn't help but shook his head. He himself didn't have much confidence that he could win, but the other party was quite confident.

"Boss, do you think there is a chance?"

"Ahem, maybe."

...

(End of this chapter)