Chapter 109 Infernal Affairs

As soon as Lenovo's advertisement was completed, several mobile phone manufacturers including Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson came to contact them. Jiang Heng was busy filming and had no time, so he asked Li Xiaoping, vice president of iQiyi and Tencent Pictures, to receive them.

Li Xiaoping worked at CCTV for many years and has rich experience in media management and operations. In 99, she joined Guangxian Media and was responsible for the company's daily operations.

He was poached by Jiang Heng a few years ago and was busy participating in the preparation of "The Matrix" and crew management, which was considered an important task.

Facing a world-renowned mobile phone manufacturer, Li Xiaoping was also nervous.

But when she thought about the huge investment in the two sequels of "The Matrix" and their broad box office prospects, Li Xiaoping's mentality became calm.

Based on the reserve price given by Jiang Heng, the price was increased by another 50%.

After heated negotiations with representatives of three mobile phone manufacturers, they finally signed a contract with Motorola for US$486 million (approximately RMB 4000 million) for advertising placement in two films.

Afterwards, representatives from Pierre Cardin, Ford Motor, Coca-Cola and other companies came to the store one after another. Their prices were slightly lower but their numbers were greater.

In the end, a total of thirteen brands signed contracts for product placement, bringing the crew an additional 1.8 million RMB in revenue, or nearly 2200 million USD.

Although this matter has not been disclosed to the media, it has already spread in the Chinese entertainment circle, causing quite a stir.

In a teahouse in Beijing, Feng Xiaogang was discussing the script of "Cell Phone" with Liu Zhenyun. He picked up the phone and after listening to a few words, his eyes widened.

"How much? Two hundred million? Shit, I can't even make two hundred million for a movie, and he can actually charge two hundred million for advertising. It's really unbearable...!"

Feng Xiaogang exclaimed "Wow", which made Liu Zhenyun very curious.

"What's going on, Gangzi? Why are you so excited?"

Feng Xiaogang put down his phone, "Jiang Heng's new film, The Matrix, earned 200 million from product placement!"

"Fuck, is this true? This is too exaggerated. In the current Chinese-language film market, apart from his films, no other films have grossed over 200 million!"

"Yeah, I didn't want to believe it either, but Zhong Lei said that a guy from iQiyi, Youku and Tencent said it, and it's absolutely true."

"Too exaggerated, too exaggerated!" Liu Zhenyun still sighed, "Two hundred million, at present, only Zhang Yimou's "Hero" has a chance, right?"

Feng Xiaogang nodded, "Hero should be able to sell, and Lao Chen's The Promise should be similar. Even Stephen Chow's new film may not be able to sell well!"

Liu Zhenyun said: "After we finish filming Cell Phone, we will also make a blockbuster movie!"

Feng Xiaogang said: "It's time to make one!"

Historically, he should be considered one of the mainland directors who is better at making commercial films.

And in this time and space, because of Jiang Heng, Feng Xiaogang's status has seriously declined.

Since he hadn't won any international awards, he had an extremely strong desire to make a blockbuster movie.

The problem is that he doesn't have much money and doesn't dare to invest his entire fortune, so he relies on Huayi Brothers to invest money.

At least he has to help others earn more money, and Huayi will consider giving him money to make blockbuster movies.

"By the way, we can also put advertising in this film!" Feng Xiaogang suddenly said.

"Of course, let's get in touch, maybe we can get tens of millions!"

……

Many filmmakers in Hong Kong were shocked and numb after hearing the news. They couldn't even imagine earning 200 million yuan from product placement!
How many movies would it take to earn this much? Jiang Heng actually earned it easily just by product placement.

At the same time, I feel that Jiang Heng has almost settled down in the mainland and will never return to Hong Kong.

Lamenting the decline of Hong Kong films, and lamenting the decreasing amount of funding, projects and stars.

Since Jiang Heng is so rich, we have to ask him for investment!
In a tea restaurant in Central, Hong Kong, Mai Zhaohui suggested showing the script to Jiang Heng.

The inspiration for Infernal Affairs came from John Woo's film Face/Off, but Mai Zhaohui thought that the face-swapping plot in Face/Off was almost impossible in reality. So he asked if he could tell a story in which the two characters were swapped, but not through surgery, but just through the exchange of identities and hearts.

When Mai Zhaohui and Zhuang Wenqiang were writing the script for Infernal Affairs, they were always communicating with each other. Mai wrote a complete script and sent it to Zhuang, who revised it and sent it to Mai for revision.

In Mai Zhaohui's script conception, there was originally only a story line about a policeman going undercover in the underworld. Later, Liu Weiqiang added a lot of elements to the original script and added another story line about a gangster going undercover in the police station.

Even so, no one was optimistic about the script when it was first formed. The reason was naturally that there were too many police and gangster films in Hong Kong.

Every year, a large number of police and gangster films are shot and released, but most of them do not make money.

According to the original history, it was Wang Jing who recommended the script of "Infernal Affairs" to Huanya Company.

This time, because "Atlantic Rim" had such a bad reputation and the box office failed to reach less than 10 million, it offended Lin Xiaoming of Huanya, and Wang Jing didn't know who to ask for investment.

Mai Zhaohui, Zhuang Wenqiang and Liu Weiqiang were not giving up. When they got together to discuss, they suddenly heard that Jiang Heng could make 200 million yuan from advertising placement, so they thought that an investment of 20 to 30 million yuan would not be a problem.

Liu Weiqiang said, "I attended the premiere of his new film before, and I have met Mr. Jiang a few times. Although I can't guarantee that he will invest in it, I want to send the script to him, there is still hope!"

Mai Zhaohui said: "Mr. Jiang has a far-sighted vision and is the most successful commercial film director in the country. If he doesn't like it, there's no need to look for other people to invest!"

Several people nodded, and they all felt that there was some truth in it.

Previously, Xu Ke wanted to ask Jiang Heng for investment, but was rejected before he even submitted the script.

Old Monster Xu couldn't swallow this humiliation, and he begged everyone for help and finally got investment. It is now in the post-production stage.

But I heard from some friends in the crew that the film didn’t seem to be very well made, which is also a side proof of Jiang Heng’s vision!
After careful discussion, the three of them decided to go together and immediately called to book tickets.

The next day, they flew to Beijing together.

Among the three, only Liu Weiqiang had Jiang Heng’s number, which was the one given by his assistant, but fortunately he finally made an appointment.

At noon that day, the three of them brought the script of "Infernal Affairs" to the temporary office next to the set of "The Matrix".

"Mr. Jiang, we are here because we have a script and would like you to review it and give us some advice!"

Liu Wei Qiang said it very politely, without any airs of a senior.

Jiang Heng said hurriedly, "Well, you're welcome, you're welcome, we just want to discuss this together."

I flipped through the script and found it was indeed "Infernal Affairs", but the content was somewhat different from the final film.

Jiang Heng didn't waste any words and said directly: "Well, it looks good. How much investment do you plan to make?"

"Twenty million, Mr. Jiang, just twenty million is enough!" Liu Wei Qiang couldn't suppress his inner excitement.

Jiang Heng smiled, "No problem, but as for the actors, you guys go find them first. If I think they are not suitable, I will replace them immediately!"

(End of this chapter)