Chapter 17 Suspected of Stealing the Script
Hong Kong, Jiahe Company.

Zou Wenhuai, Cai Yongchang and Liang Feng gathered in the conference room to discuss the 98 Spring Festival period.

江恒横空出世之前，定档98年春节档的只有三部影片，分别是1月16日公映的《行运一条龙》，17日的《我是谁》和24日的《98古惑仔之龙争虎斗》。

Among them, "The Lucky Guy" is a work by Stephen Chow to repay a favor, and its quality is very limited.

"Young and Dangerous" was very popular in 96, but the second highest-grossing film "Enter the Dragon" only made more than million, which is not in the same league as Jackie Chan's films.

In addition, Chow Yun-fat had already gone to Hollywood. In the eyes of the leadership of Golden Harvest, the box office champion of the 98 Spring Festival was already in their pocket.

When Jiang Heng and his "The Matrix" announced that it would be released during the Spring Festival and would compete with Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow at the box office, Jiahe didn't bother to pay any attention.

How to put it, the difference in levels is so huge that they feel like they will lose if they look at or respond to Jiang Heng.

Unexpectedly, "The Matrix", which came out of nowhere, was first released in mainland China, and its box office performance has been soaring, with a box office of more than 70 million, and it was even reported by CCTV News. This has to be taken seriously!

"What is the origin of that kid?"

Zou Wenhuai looked deep in the eyes and took a deep puff of his cigarette.

Cai Yongchang said, "He was originally a minor actor in Shaw Brothers Studios. After his father died, he left him a house, a car, and a lot of cash and stocks, probably more than 20 million! Not long after, this guy registered a film company called Youteng, which is a complete shell and doesn't even have any employees."

Zou Wenhuai looked puzzled. Back then, he left Shaw Brothers together with He Guanchang and Liang Feng to establish Jiahe Company. He also won over his cousin Cai Yongchang and other Shaw Brothers colleagues, and invited Bruce Lee to shoot "Fist of Fury" at a high salary, which allowed Jiahe to gain a foothold in the Hong Kong film industry.

Jiang Heng seemed to have popped out of a stone. With just one person, one shell company, and by tricking two newcomers into starring, he made a special effects blockbuster that raked in tens of millions at the mainland box office, and might even earn over 100 million. It's incredible!
"too weird!"

Zou Wenhuai didn't know where to start for a moment, and it took him a long time to utter these words.

Liang Feng suddenly said: "I heard something even stranger!"

Seeing Zou and Cai looking at him, Liang Feng took out a cigarette slowly, lit it and took a puff, "I heard that Yuan Heping is in the United States, helping Hua Na Brothers Company train actors, and it seems that the film they are going to shoot is also about the Internet, artificial intelligence, and science fiction!"

"What do you mean?"

Zou Wenhuai narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling full of oppression.

"I was wondering, is there a possibility that someone stole Hua Na's script, and then..." Liang Feng made a bold guess.

"How is it possible? How could a minor actor in Shaw Brothers Studio steal the script from Hua Na? Even if it was Yuen Woo-ping, he probably only knew the plot outline!" Cai Yongchang questioned.

The Hollywood film industry is much more standardized than that in Hong Kong, and many measures are taken to ensure the confidentiality of scripts.

If you print it on dark red paper, every word on the script will be difficult to recognize whether you use a mobile phone, camera, or photocopy it.

Or maybe not giving actors paper scripts, only allowing them to read on their iPads, and setting up an automatic deletion program.

When Marvel was filming "Avengers 4", it was said that only one actor read the script in its entirety, and that was Robert Downey Jr., who played Iron Man. The rest of the actors could only see scenes related to the characters they played.

Not to mention that Jiang Heng was a minor actor on the Shaw Brothers studio before, even if he was a minor actor on the Hua Na studio, he couldn't steal the script!
"Why do you think this way?" Zou Wenhuai asked with a puzzled look.

Liang Feng smiled and said, "I just think it's too weird. Jiang Heng's upbringing and work experience have nothing to do with the story of The Matrix. It doesn't seem like something he could write. And that movie has a distinct Hollywood style!"

Although Liang Feng had never watched the movie in the cinema, he sent people to Shenzhen and knew what "The Matrix" was about!

Zou Wenhuai and Cai Yongchang both nodded slightly.

The latter asked: "What do you mean?"

"I suspect that it was other Hollywood producers who got the Hua Na script out, and somehow it fell into Jiang Heng's hands!"

Liang Feng expressed his own judgment, and Zou Wenhuai and Cai Yongchang both felt that this was very possible, otherwise it would be difficult to explain the special effects!

Without the support of a major Hollywood studio, how could Jiang Heng, alone, handle such difficult post-production special effects?
"It's easy to verify the guess. Just send someone to Shenzhen and secretly take some videos and photos and send them to them!"

Zou Wenhuai's eyes were deep and his words were powerful.

Jiahe and Huana started cooperating as early as the Bruce Lee era, and have been in contact over the years. As long as the "evidence" is sent over, Huana will not ignore it as a prank.

Cai Yongchang said: "Stealing the script is just our wild guess, the probability is too low. Or what if the plot is not similar, how to deal with it?"

Zou Wenhuai said arrogantly: "When an enemy comes, we will fight him with our generals; when water comes, we will block it with earth. It's A-Long's movie, so why should we be afraid of him?"

Cai Yongchang smiled bitterly. His cousin had dominated the Hong Kong film industry for decades and was becoming more and more arrogant.

The three of them discussed it over and over again, and all they talked about were the conventional "ways of play"!
In fact, there was another trick, which was to order people to go to the cinema in Shenzhen to shoot, and try to get a clearer and complete source of the film, and send it to Fatty Li, so as to get the pirated videotapes out first, which would definitely affect the box office of "The Matrix".

However, Jiahe’s employees went through customs to Shenzhen and went to the cinema to shoot clips and photos of "The Matrix", and handed them over to Liang Feng after returning.

The latter wrote a brief document of the plot of "The Matrix", packaged it together with photos and sent it to the email address of Hua Na Company's office in China, and also compressed the plot clips of "The Matrix" and sent it over.

He immediately called the office manager Zhao Yan and said, "Hey, brother, I saw something interesting in a theater in the mainland. I think it has something to do with the film that Hua Na Company is preparing. I have sent it to your company's email address. Hurry up and open it and take a look!"

Zhao Yan, who answered the phone, was a little confused. What does the film showing in mainland theaters have to do with Hua Na Company?
His position as manager of Warner Bros.' China office may sound prestigious to outsiders, but it is only considered a middle-level position at Warner Bros.

First, the mainland market accounts for a very low share of Hollywood's global box office market, and the company pays limited attention to it.

Secondly, Hong Kong’s plate is smaller. If the company did not value Hong Kong’s outstanding filmmakers, it would not have set up this department.

Therefore, since Zhao Yan joined the company, he knew very little about what was happening at the headquarters. After all, there was the Pacific Ocean between them!

I also heard that the company spent one million US dollars to buy the copyright of a script from the Wolock brothers, and needed an excellent martial arts instructor, so they contacted Yuen Woo-ping and recommended him.

As for the content of the film being prepared, he had no idea.

What's more, under normal circumstances, who would have thought that the script would be leaked and filmed in advance?

Impossible!

Zhao Yan returned to the office and opened his email. He read the plot summary written by Liang Feng and the stills taken in the cinema.

"Is this Jiang Heng's The Matrix?"

Zhao Yan had heard of the directors and special effects blockbusters that suddenly emerged, but he never thought that they were related to his own company.

All I can say is that the headquarters’ confidentiality measures were too good, or maybe because he is Chinese, it takes a certain amount of time and effort to gain the company’s trust.

Zhao Yan felt his heart beating wildly. Although he had no responsibility for this matter, he still felt extremely excited.

He glanced at the video download in the second email and turned off the player. "Huh!"

Zhao Yan let out a long sigh, paced a few steps in the office, and called the vice president of Warner Bros.

"Hey, man, I have some big news that I need to confirm with you!"

Silver, the vice president of Warner Bros., looked outside, stood up and pulled down the blinds.

"What happened?"

It was he who recruited Zhao Yan and strongly recommended him for the position of manager of Warner's China office. He usually called him vice president when they called him, but now he called him "brother", which obviously meant something serious.

"Company, are you planning to make a movie called The Matrix?"

"Who did you listen to?"

"Don't worry about that for now. Tell me, is it true?"

Silver said, "Yes, the company is preparing a science fiction blockbuster, but the name The Matrix was only decided this morning. How did you know about it?"

Many films will change their names repeatedly during the preparation period, shooting period and final release period. Some films change their names because they feel that the original names are not good, while others change their names to confuse competitors for the sake of confidentiality.

So even though Zhao Yan had heard of Jiang Heng and "The Matrix" a long time ago, he was unable to connect them with the film his company was preparing.

Because the script was kept secret from him, the name was finalized after some revisions.

At this moment, Zhao Yan felt like his brain was about to explode. He had never experienced anything like this before!

"Well, a special effects blockbuster is being shown in mainland China. It has already grossed over 80 million yuan, which is a very good result!"

Silver laughed and said disdainfully, "So what? You called me across the border, no, across the Pacific Ocean, just to tell me this? The Chinese are making a science fiction movie. This joke is not funny at all!"

“That movie is called The Matrix!”

Silver found it even more amusing. "And then, you don't think that what they filmed is the same as what we are preparing, right? That's impossible!"

Zhao Yan was speechless. Although he knew that this matter was a bit strange, Silver was a bit too arrogant.

"Well, I don't know either, because I don't know the outline of the script for the film that the company is planning to shoot. However, the story of The Matrix, which was released in mainland China, has already come out!"

Zhao Yan then slowly read out what was written in the email.

After reading only half of it, Silver on the other end of the phone felt as if he had seen a ghost.

"Impossible, impossible, how is it possible? How did you know the content in the script? Where did you see it?"

Zhao Yan looked helpless, closed his eyes and said slowly: "It was sent to me by Jiahe Company!"

"Stealing! They are shameless thieves who stole our script. We will sue them until they are completely bankrupt!"

The script that was being prepared was stolen and filmed ahead of time by another company. This is definitely a major scandal for the company.

Silver didn't know whether he would be implicated. After all, many things could not be explained in the end.

Once you get caught up in the game of power and faction, the truth becomes unimportant.

That's why it seems flustered and even a little illogical.

"That film was not produced by Jiahe Company. It was produced by a young man named Jiang Heng. The film he made has already been released in mainland China. In Hong Kong, it is scheduled for January 1th!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, this is really too serious, I just lost my composure!"

Silver also knew that he was too panicked just now, so he calmed down and said slowly, "Well, let's tell the story again!"

"Okay, let's do it again!"

Zhao Yan slowly told Silver the contents of the email, combining it with what he had heard during this period.

The call ended only when the latter confirmed that he had indeed figured it out and would not make any mistakes when reporting to the board of directors. At the same time, he ordered Zhao Yan to send the relevant information by email as soon as possible.

After Zhao Yan had settled all this, he went online to find a report of Jiang Heng's interview. Looking at the young and handsome face in the report, he murmured, "Young man, you don't know how high the heaven is and how deep the earth is. If you offend Warner, you will not end up well!"

Little did he know that the Warner headquarters had been thrown into chaos by the news he brought.

First of all, it is necessary to confirm whether the film "The Matrix" released in mainland China was filmed based on the script written by the Wojcicki brothers.

Secondly, it is about holding people accountable!

This is definitely the biggest scandal in Hollywood in recent years, no doubt about it.

Not only did they spend a million to buy the script, they also eagerly invited various celebrities to audition, but it turned out that the film had already been filmed in advance.

How can we hold people accountable and end this? There is no precedent!
Of course, these are too far-fetched to think about, and the first thing to do now is to confirm.

The company immediately booked air tickets and arranged for screenwriters the Wojcicki brothers, as well as Vice President Silver and others to fly to Shanghai.

At Pudong Airport, after getting off the plane, the group asked their assistant to send their gifts to the hotel, while the rest of them went to the nearest cinema.

"I never thought that there would be so many people watching movies in China?"

"Isn't it said that their film industry is in a slump and a large number of cinemas have closed down?"

"From the looks of it, it seems like they all came here for The Matrix!"

"Let's go and take a look first!" said the older brother of the Wozhowski brothers.

Several people entered the ticket hall and waited in line for a long time before they bought tickets. However, they were not for the nearest show, so they could only wait in the hall bored.

Silver was finally smart enough to stop a couple and said in Chinese with a slightly strange accent: "Hello, I'm in a hurry to see that movie. Can you sell me your tickets?"

Seeing Silver pointing at the "Matrix" poster with an anxious look on his face, the young couple felt a sense of pride.

This foreigner has also started watching Chinese blockbusters, and he looks very anxious!
"Okay, I'll give it to you!"

(End of this chapter)