Chapter 226: Got scammed again

While "Zhu Xian" was being filmed intensively, "Red Cliff" directed by Wu Yusen was filmed for more than half a year and was completed in November 05.

The crew held the world's first press conference in Beijing, where director Wu Yusen and main actors including Liang Chaowei, Jin Chengwu, Zhang Fengyi, Zhang Zhen, Lin Zhiling, and Hu Jun made a collective appearance.

Producer Zhang Jiazhen talked about the difficulties of filming the film, including the last-minute replacement of the cast before the start of filming, the continuous heavy rain that collapsed some outdoor sets, and the filming overruns and time limits. Fortunately, director Wu Yusen was outstanding in ability and determination, and led a crew of more than a thousand people to complete the filming task.

It was also stated that the movie "Red Cliff" will be released in two parts, the first part will be released in early July 2006, and the second part will be released in December 7.

At present, director Wu Yusen is working non-stop on post-production. The entire film will have more than a thousand special effects shots to create stunning visual effects, and will become the pinnacle of Chinese costume films.

A reporter asked a question at the scene, saying that Jiang Heng would have a new film "Zhu Xian" released in the summer of 06.

According to his usual pace of filming, there will be a blockbuster released during the 06 Lunar New Year holiday.

The two parts of "Red Cliff" were released during the summer and Lunar New Year holidays in 06 to compete with Jiang Heng. Aren't you worried about the box office?

Producer Zhang Jiazhen said that the reason why Jiang Heng's special effects blockbusters were able to achieve extremely high box office in mainland China and internationally was mainly due to the lack of films of the same quality and type.

In addition, Jiang Heng is very good at marketing. He organizes midnight shows, premieres, advanced screenings, and roadshows for promotion. It can be said that the publicity and promotion teams and strategies of mainland commercial films all learned from Jiang Heng.

As for the international market, it is due to the fact that European and American audiences have a special preference for special effects blockbusters with Hollywood blockbuster standards and "mysterious oriental elements".

Jiang Heng’s films are good, but the reason why he has been successful before is ultimately because he lacks rivals.

To use an ancient Chinese phrase, “When there are no heroes, young men become famous!”
But starting from 06, this situation will change, because the Three Kingdoms-themed movie "Red Cliff", with a total investment of million US dollars, which brings together superstars from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong, draws on the four great classics, and is the first to be brought to the big screen. It will be released worldwide.

Zhang Jiazhen told the reporters in a rather domineering manner: "Red Cliff has never regarded other films as rivals, nor is it afraid of any rivals."

When these words came out, all the entertainment reporters at the scene were stunned.

Although we don’t know how the movie version of “Zhu Xian” will perform next summer, judging from the performance of director Jiang Heng’s previous works, it will have a box office of at least 500 to 600 million yuan.

Aren't you afraid of competing with "Red Cliff" in the same period as the previous one?

However, after the event, a group of media reporters hurried back to write press releases without mentioning it.

Zhang Jiazhen, Wu Yusen and a group of main creative staff, as well as representatives of several major investors had dinner together.

This time, although China Film Group did not participate in the production of the film, Beijing Film Studio was one of the 20 production companies of the film.

Of course, the amount invested is not much, it can only be considered as a token of appreciation.

For this film, the investment cost was as high as 6 million yuan, of which only 1.5 million yuan was contributed by several mainland companies, and the rest mainly came from Japan's Avex Company, South Korea's Showbox Films, Taiwan's Central International and Hong Kong Standard Chartered Bank.

This time, Wu Yusen brought over Hollywood's four-in-one financing model of producers, distributors, banks and insurance companies to guarantee film shooting. His own American company first obtained the completion film insurance from the film guarantee company, and Standard Chartered Bank of Hong Kong then provided partial loans for the film shooting.

Therefore, when it comes to publicity and distribution, neither Wu Yusen nor Zhang Jiazhen will speak without thinking.

Because these promotional strategies and methods were negotiated with representatives of the Japanese and Korean companies and Standard Chartered Bank. After all, the main investment in the film came from them.

The publicity strategy of the publicity team of Red Cliff was to smear Jiang Heng. They did not explicitly say that they would challenge Jiang Heng, but as long as they mentioned it at the press conference, the reporters would imagine and write about it.

However, due to the overwhelming publicity, the audience knew that "Red Cliff" would be released next summer, in the same period and of the same level as Jiang Heng's "Zhu Xian".

During the dinner, the representative of the Korean company suddenly asked, "Can we publicize that the visual effects of Red Cliff will far surpass the new film that Jiang Heng is making, and will be the pinnacle of Chinese-language films?"

Wu Yusen smiled awkwardly, "It will be hard for the audience to believe this, and it may backfire!"

Zhang Jiazhen also said: "We can't promote it like that. Jiang Heng has a lot of fans, and overly exaggerated publicity can easily lead to smear campaigns."

The South Korean representative said with regret: "I thought this movie could surpass Jiang Heng's previous works!"

The Japanese representative said: "We are just using Jiang Heng's fame for publicity. We are not really going to compete with him. There is no need to do those things."

Zhang Jiazhen said: "Yes, Jiang Heng's "Zhu Xian" should be released in mid-July. We only need to release it in early August to avoid its peak viewing time."

The Japanese representative narrowed his eyes and smiled: "This is a really good idea. Not only does it save a lot of publicity costs, but the effect is also very good!"

Zhang Jiazhen said with a smile: "Who made Jiang Heng the current number one in China? As the number one, he is bound to face various challenges. When our Red Cliff tops the mainland box office, someone will come to challenge us!"

"Hahaha!"

Everyone at the table laughed, and they quite agreed with what Zhang Jiazhen said.

It was mainly because of the box office of Jiang Heng’s mainland films that raised the box office expectations of some filmmakers.

They would think that Jiang Heng's films can make 700 to 800 million yuan in the mainland box office. If I give you a 20% discount, it should be 500 to 600 million yuan!

Zhang Jiazhen and others calculated that "Red Cliff" was released in two parts. Even if one part only had a box office of 400 or 500 million, the two parts together should have a box office of 1 to 8 billion.

When the film is promoted as one, people will be happy to see the total box office of Red Cliff break the mainland box office record. The media likes to report such record-breaking and exciting events.

As long as the frequency of publicity is frequent enough and the scope is wide enough, the audience will gradually accept this matter.

If Wu Yusen can win the "crown" of No. 1 in the mainland commercial film box office, things will be easier afterwards.

That is to shoot China's own "Titanic" - "The Taiping".

Like "Titanic", the "Taiping Incident" also happened in reality. It belonged to the Zhonglian Shipping Company at that time, and its boss Cai Tianduo was the father of the Taiwan host Cai Kangyong.

Naturally, Wu Yusen was inspired by "Titanic" and came up with the idea of ​​filming "The Taiping".

Old friend Zhang Jiazhen is also very optimistic about this project. He thinks it would be a good idea for Wu Yusen to raise funds to shoot "The Crossing" after he returns to the mainland with "Red Cliff" and gains both fame and fortune.

Because according to their expectations, the film would require huge investment to produce shocking effects and achieve the same impressive results as "Titanic".

At this moment, the box office and reputation of "Red Cliff" are very important, and there is no way to avoid "bumping into" Jiang Heng!
(End of this chapter)