Chapter 197 Divestment
After Han Sanping saw the article about Jiang Heng in the newspaper, he called immediately and asked about the film "Memories of Murder".

"It's a crime movie, a very good one. If you want to see if you want to introduce it to Korea, you can contact Korea. The box office performance is good. I remember there were more than five million viewers." Jiang Heng explained briefly.

Han Sanping was very excited after hearing this.

Firstly, the film itself had very good box office performance, and more importantly, Jiang Heng's inadvertent mention of it during an interview made many people interested in this film.

I believe that after the film is introduced, the box office performance will not be bad.

A typical example is Zhang Yimou's "Hero", which was highly praised by director Quentin Tarantino, a Kung Fu fan, when it was released in North America.

When Kill Bill 1 and 2 were released, trailers for Hero were shown before the feature films, and they were marked with Quentin's recommendation, which greatly increased the appeal of Hero to Americans.

Han Sanping had made up his mind, and immediately asked Jiang Heng, "Are you really not optimistic about Wu Yusen's "Red Cliff"?"

At this point, Jiang Heng did not hide anything and said, "Many directors in Hong Kong lack systematic Chinese history education. Their view on historical events is different from that in the mainland. They have also been influenced by gang culture for a long time, so their vision is not very broad..."

In fact, "Red Cliff" is still pretty good. What's even more outrageous is "Guan Yunchang" directed by Mai Zhaohui and Zhuang Wenqiang. To use the sharp comment from "The Tenth Screening Room": If you don't have anything to say about such a historical theme, then you will turn the legend of Guan Yunchang, a man of great righteousness and eternal respect, into "The Lost Daolang".

Jiang Heng’s explanation this time was more thorough, and Han Sanping also listened to it, and finally decided to withdraw his investment in "Red Cliff".

In fact, he was also very conflicted, as this matter was different from when he invested in "The Promise".

When investing in "The Promise", Jiang Heng and Chen Kaige seemed to have a good relationship.

But this time, the relationship fell out and both sides "bombarded" each other in the media.

It was just because of the dignity of a public figure and a cultural person that I didn't swear directly.

What’s even more outrageous is that a group of people in Hong Kong actually came out and declared that they wanted to boycott Jiang Heng. This is a bit disgusting.

Whether from the perspective of supporting Jiang Heng or worrying about the box office, China Film should not continue to invest in "Red Cliff".

After hanging up the phone, Han Sanping convened a meeting to discuss the matter with the senior management of the group company.

Naturally, everyone stood on his side. Firstly, they had made a lot of money by cooperating with Jiang Heng over the years, but more importantly, they didn't like the dominance of the investors in Hong Kong.

Among the actors initially shortlisted, the good roles are almost all played by artists from Hong Kong and Taiwan, while those from the mainland are all supporting roles that are ranked lower.

In the original history, this situation could be tolerated, after all, the Hong Kong film industry was more developed at that time.

But in this life, because of the appearance of Jiang Heng, the mainland market is obviously stronger, so why should mainland filmmakers play supporting roles?

Some people even suggested that they should just not bring Wu Yusen and the others to play.

They filmed "Red Cliff" and we also film "Red Cliff" to see who films better.

As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately sparked heated discussions among the public, with people discussing who to invite to direct and who to cast as Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang.

What's more, some people even suggested that Han Sanping should direct the film himself, which would surely produce a masterpiece that would go down in film history.

Han Sanping was at a loss whether to laugh or cry when he heard this. This proposal was nonsense. The Film Bureau would not agree to shoot one film each in the mainland and Hong Kong!

I quickly rejected it and ended the meeting.

At the same time, someone was sent to inform Zhang Jiazhen that China Film Corporation had decided to withdraw its investment in "Red Cliff" and would no longer participate in the production of the film.

In Hong Kong, Zhang Jiazhen was shocked when he heard this and asked hurriedly why?
The person in charge of notifying the Central Film Bureau was probably a fan of Jiang Heng. He sneered, "You've offended Director Jiang, and you're still trying to make a living in the mainland?"

He looked as if he had offended the abbot and still wanted to leave, and then he hung up the phone.

Zhang Jiazhen was shocked. He had been hanging out with Wu Yusen in Hollywood for the past few years. Although he knew that Jiang Heng was doing well in the mainland, he lacked a more direct experience. Only at this moment did he realize how great Jiang Heng's influence was in the mainland.

After telling Wu Yusen about China Film's decision, the latter was also surprised, because among all the investors in the mainland, China Film was the main investor, and other companies participating in the investment included Shanghai Film Group, Forbidden City Films, Orange Sky Zhihong, Zhongkai Century and many other companies.

The largest investment in the film came from Japan's Avex Entertainment.

Although China Film Group has withdrawn, the missing funds are easy to find.

However, China Film's absolute strength in distribution is difficult to replace by other capital.

In particular, the "China Film Red Cinema Line", which is the number one in the country, has built many new cinemas with Jiang Heng's continuous investment, and has achieved a lot of box office revenue with its advanced equipment and beautiful decoration.

It is hard to say whether the feud with China Film Group will affect the film’s distribution and box office performance.

What’s even more frightening is, will China Film’s withdrawal trigger a chain reaction, leading to the withdrawal of other mainland film and television companies?
If that happens, even if we can find alternative overseas capital, the box office in the mainland market will be completely unguaranteed!
Thinking of this, Wu Yusen became a little panicked.

After the failure of "Windtalkers", he now urgently needs a box office victory to prove himself.

Otherwise, he would be marginalized in the circle like his old friend Xu Ke.

"Do you want to talk to him?" Wu Yusen asked.

Zhang Jiazhen said: "Wait a little longer!"

As a result, in the evening, Forbidden City Pictures called and said they wanted to withdraw their investment.

The next day, another company called to withdraw. Wu Yusen couldn't sit still, because if he withdrew again, the project would fail.

He immediately called Jiang Heng and told him that it was all a misunderstanding.

He definitely had no other intentions at the beginning. Zhang Jiazhen was instigated by others.

As for those people in Hong Kong who are calling for a boycott of Jiang Heng, it has nothing to do with them.

Jiang Heng naturally would not push too far and expressed his understanding. In fact, there was no malicious intent in what he had said to the media before.

Both sides talked a lot of nonsense and the matter was over.

After hanging up the phone, Wu Yusen's face turned pale and looked extremely ugly.

After so many years in the film industry, he never expected to suffer such a huge loss at the hands of a junior like Jiang Heng.

"We must make this Red Cliff movie a good one, so that they know that Jiang Heng is not the only one who can make blockbuster movies!"

Zhang Jiazhen also said: "That's right, we still have to break Jiang's box office record. I don't believe we will lose to him!"

The two men secretly made up their minds and contacted a number of investors by phone, which managed to appease them.

The film and television company that said it would withdraw in the morning decided to participate again.

After all, Jiang Heng only cooperates with China Film Group and doesn’t even give them a sip of soup.

I wanted to withdraw before because I saw China Film Group withdraw its investment and I thought the box office prospects might not be good.

Now, from what Zhang Jiazhen said, the misunderstanding has been resolved, and China Film Group is also actively coordinating, so they will not withdraw.

After all, Rainie Wu is an internationally renowned director who used to work in Hollywood. It’s not easy to be able to participate in a film directed by him. It should be a sure win!

(End of this chapter)