Chapter 162 Waterloo

How much does Chen Kaige value "The Promise"?
Many years later, on the variety show "Actors Please Take Your Place", guest Li Chengru said that he had not watched "The Promise" because of the reviews.

At the same time, he emphasized that he would definitely watch more good works. For example, he had watched Director Chen's Farewell My Concubine many times and liked it very much, and thought it was a great work.

Chen Kaige responded on the spot, "Teacher Li Chengru is relatively conservative. He comes from a family of opera performers and a closed world, so he is relatively conservative. He doesn't care much about the progress of the world! He is an old artist who lives and is immersed in the past era and feels the sunset of the past era."

The words are quite sharp!
Before the movie was released, a few words scared the newly debuted Liu Yan.

At the movie launch the next day, he publicly accused Liu Yan of being disrespectful, which scared Liu Yan so much that she had nightmares for a month, fearing that she would be fired by the company for offending a big director.

Not only the host was not allowed to ask random questions, but even long-time friend Lu Wei, the screenwriter of "Farewell My Concubine" and "To Live", was very angry after watching "The Promise". He felt that the theme of the movie was false, the plot was disorganized and messy, and it was a failure.

After Lu Wei told Chen Kaige these views, Chen Kaige had no more contact with him.

Director Chen’s attitude is that one cannot say that his “The Promise” is bad.

If you think the movie is bad, that's your problem, you didn't understand it.

But later he said that no one would be able to understand "The Promise" within ten years, which was simply a paradox.

At the premiere dinner, seeing Jiang Heng's harsh words, Chen Kaige was furious and sneered, "Director Jiang is a commercial director from Hong Kong. He always values ​​box office and never considers the artistry when making films, let alone whether they win awards. It's normal that you don't understand it."

Jiang Heng laughed, "In the past, that was true, but this time I go to Hollywood, I want to try to win an Oscar!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Kaige really wanted to say, can a mere Oscar Commercial Award be compared with the Cannes "Golden Palm"?

However, he has always claimed to be a master, and with so many guests and stars on the scene, he did not want to lose his composure.

Of course, the main reason was that Jiang Heng's status and fame were not inferior to his, and Chen Hong, Han Sanping and others interrupted to smooth things over. Finally, he said angrily: "Then I wish Director Jiang to win the award soon?"

"I also wish Director Chen great box office success and great word-of-mouth!"

After Jiang Heng finished speaking, he stood up and left.

Seeing this, the other guests also made excuses to leave.

The main creators in particular did not want to offend Chen Kaige, and even more so did not want to offend Jiang Heng.

Han Sanping said a few words to comfort Chen Kai, then went after Jiang Heng and caught up with him in the lobby.

Sighing, he said, "Let's go and find a place to talk!"

The two of them went to a different teahouse and asked for a private room. After drinking tea, Han Sanping sighed, "How did this matter get to this point today?"

"Does Mr. Han think I'm deliberately ruining the place?"

"No, no, definitely not!"

Han Sanping could naturally see that Jiang Heng had already given him a lot of face. When Chen Kaige asked for the first time, Jiang Heng had already expressed his attitude in a roundabout way.

But Chen Kaige insisted on asking what was good and what was bad. He was just giving her a way out and was forcing her to jump down!
Moreover, after today's release, several old colleagues from the China Film Group Corporation, without fear of offending others, quietly told him that they felt the film was not well made.

Han Sanping suddenly felt unsure and wanted to hear a more objective opinion.

"Do you really want to listen?" Jiang Heng asked with a smile.

Han Sanping's expression turned even uglier when he heard this. He felt that what Jiang Heng said would be very sharp.

But as the head of China Film Corporation and one of the producers of "The Promise", he really wanted to know the box office performance of this film.

"It probably won't exceed 1.5 million!"

"hiss!"

After hearing this, Han Sanping took a deep breath and wanted a quick-acting heart pill.

With a box office of 1.5 million in mainland China, the shareable income is only around million.

The investment in this movie was less than 3.5 million, and it was announced to be million. If it only earned more than million at the mainland box office, it would be a big loss. I made so much money by cooperating with Jiang Heng to make a movie before, but now I have lost so much.

"Is the box office really that low?" Han Sanping refused to give up.

Jiang Heng sighed, "It should be just a few, not too many!"

In the past, the first domestic blockbuster that mainland audiences watched was "Hero", and the second was "The Promise".

Just because of this, plus the gorgeous special effects shots, the film grossed 1.75 million yuan in the mainland box office.

In this life, with Jiang Heng’s several special effects blockbusters as a foundation, the shock caused by "The Promise" to the audience will inevitably be greatly reduced.

If the word of mouth collapses again, the box office will probably be even worse.

Han Sanping really didn't want to believe it, so he said, "Will there be a miracle?"

Jiang Heng smiled and said calmly, "Maybe!"

He immediately called the driver to take him to the hotel.

The next morning, I took a flight to London to continue filming.

Jiang Heng waved his sleeves, leaving not a single cloud behind.

But what happened at the premiere dinner of "The Promise" had already spread in the entertainment circle.

Some guests who attended the premiere were afraid of offending Chen Kaige and did not dare to make any random comments.

With Jiang Heng proofreading in front of them, they didn't care much about it. They told their friends about it, which caused the reputation of this film to collapse in the entertainment industry.

Chen Kaige had naturally heard about it. He was furious but could do nothing about it. He just hoped that the audience could understand and support him.

Unexpectedly, after the movie was released, its reputation plummeted, and the film’s entry on Douban Movies was flooded with negative reviews.

Reviews of the movie in various forums are mostly negative.

What's even more terrible is the box office. It was 2200 million yuan on the first day, but it plummeted to 1800 million on the second day, 1500 million on the third day, and only million on the fourth day.

Looking at this trend, it will be difficult for the box office to exceed 100 million.

At this moment, the conversation between Chen Kaige and Jiang Heng at the dinner was posted online in its entirety, instantly causing an uproar.

Some say that although Director Jiang has never won a major award, his vision is truly amazing. What's even more rare is that he doesn't make irrelevant statements and trick the audience into going to the cinema.

Some said, we are all famous directors, who is afraid of whom!
No matter how glorious your awards are, can they be as impressive as my billions of dollars in global box office?

Some also said that Director Jiang went to Hollywood this time to make a movie that could win a big award, so it must be good.

"When it comes to blockbuster movies, it has to be Director Jiang!"

"Don't even mention Director Chen, Director Zhang is almost there!"

"Hero is not that good. I look forward to Director Jiang's new film!"

"Director Jiang, please stop shooting science fiction and focus on mythology. I like mythology!"

"Mechas are fine too, let's make Pacific Rim 2!"

Jiang Heng, who is hotly discussed on the Chinese Internet, is currently filming the most complicated "weightlessness fight" scene in the movie in a converted aircraft hangar in north London.

The crew specially built a hotel corridor that can rotate 360 ​​degrees in order to complete the shooting of relevant shots.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who played Arthur, spent weeks training and personally performed all the actions required by the script.

After completing these and filming at the University of London, the crew hurried to Paris to shoot the shocking street explosion scene and the classic shot of the folding city.

(End of this chapter)