Chapter 43: The Dilemma of the Big Film Producers
After watching "100 Million BC" in the company's small screening room, Amy Pascal was completely stunned. She never expected Jiang Heng to shoot the film like this.

How should I put it? The front and the back are too disconnected.

Judging from the first part, it is just a low-budget tomb-robbing, adventure, and gun-fighting film, and all the actors are Chinese. It has almost no market in North America.

But the plot after these people were sent to the Jurassic period by the gravity caused by the "Nine Planets in Conjunction" astronomical phenomenon is absolutely thrilling and exciting.

How to describe it? It's like a football match. The same team is half-dead in the first half, but in the second half it is at the level of a World Cup winner. The contrast is really too big.

There are plenty of highlights to watch. The most attractive part of the "Jurassic Park" series is naturally the extremely realistic dinosaurs and the breathtaking chase and escape scenes.

In this film, there are countless ancient plants, animals, and insects that look incredibly fantastic.

But what Pascal likes most is the story of these people's survival in the wilderness after arriving in the Jurassic period, trying to fill their stomachs and find a safe habitat.

She is a woman, but she is extremely independent. She usually has short hair and likes mountaineering, rock climbing and outdoor sports.

I have never tried activities like wilderness survival, but they are also something I have always liked.

As for what is shown in "100 Million Years BC", it can only be described as double the excitement.

In addition to Amy Paschal, there were other executives in the screening room.

After watching the video, my first reaction was a bit confused.

"Which bastard taught him to shoot a movie like this?" an old white man who was quite old and had some knowledge of Chinese culture shouted.

"He never went to film school, he learned everything on his own!"

"He is so stingy in making this movie! It's even more Grandet-like than Grandet!" The old man blew his beard and glared.

He really liked the second half of the story, so he hated the first half even more.

It’s not that there can’t be modern scenes, but the title of the film is "100 Million Years BC". You should only tell the modern scenes for more than ten minutes to let the audience know who the male and female protagonists are and understand the ins and outs of the story.

If these people are brought to the Jurassic period, the audience will naturally worry about the life and death of these characters.

As the plot develops, the mood goes up and down, and the film's ratings will be much higher.

Jiang Hengke is good, but the first half is long and boring, making you think for a while that this is just a big bad movie that is just a money-making scam.

When you have secretly organized your words in your mind and thought about how to write a review to criticize him after leaving the cinema, he brings you the content you want to see in super double the amount!

The excitement in the second half of the film is even better than that in "Jurassic Park"!

But when they thought about the "bad" performance before, a group of Columbia executives were conflicted and wanted to "report to the authorities".

"How much money did he spend on this film?" someone asked.

Douglas Wick replied, "It was advertised as 100 million RMB, but in reality it's definitely not that much, probably only about 10 million US dollars!"

"Only 10 million?"

"Ten million!"

There was an instant burst of cheers in the small screening room. The production cost of "Jurassic Park 2" was 7300 million US dollars, but in terms of visual effects, it is no match for " Million BC".

After this movie is released, as long as the word of mouth doesn't drop too badly, it will not be a problem for the box office to reach 70 or 80 million.

If all the actors in the film were replaced with European and American faces and the original English soundtrack was used, it would be possible to get a box office of over 100 million.

Every time this happened, Pascal envied China's low pay and production costs.

"If he's willing to come to Hollywood, I'll definitely sign him. But I have to assign him a better producer, and I can't let him do whatever he wants!"

Pascal secretly sighed, and immediately called everyone together to discuss the promotion and marketing of the film.

Everyone came to a unanimous conclusion that if this movie wanted to be a big hit at the box office, it must maintain good relations with the media.

You can criticize, but you must mention the selling points of the film, so that readers will think your review is objective. And the audience who likes such selling points will naturally come to watch the movie.

Pascal and the others discussed for a while, and they became more and more excited as they talked, and they were looking forward to the film's box office performance.

Hong Kong, Jiang Heng walked out of the airport and took a taxi home alone.

I was thinking to myself that maybe I should set up my own team.

The movie "The Matrix" made him a lot of money and he had enough financial resources to set up a security and service team.

Besides, it’s not very safe to run around alone all the time.

Although those people have been much more well-behaved in the past two years, I am still afraid that some of them will take risks!
Causeway Bay, my own home.

Jiang Heng took off his shoes, leaned on the sofa, and thought about the release date of the film in Hong Kong.

In the Hong Kong film industry during the 99 Spring Festival, the only films with box office competitiveness were Cheng Long's "Glass Bottle" and Stephen Chow's "The King of Comedy".

Due to the overall environmental factors, the box office of both films did not reach 30 million.

This would have been unimaginable a few years ago.

After "100 Million BC" joins the fray, the box office performance of the two films will probably be even lower.

"Hey, bro, I'm back!"

Jiang Heng had almost finished his rest and called Hong Jinbao.

The latter was very surprised, "Did you just get off the plane?"

“We’re all home!”

Hong Jinbao "complained": "Why didn't you tell me so I could pick you up!"

Jiang Heng smiled, "Hey, we don't have to be so polite between brothers!"

During the filming of the film, the two deliberately got to know each other and their relationship became closer.

Sammo Hung acted closer to him than to his brothers from the "Seven Little Fortunes".

The reason is simple. He can no longer grasp the pulse of the Hong Kong film market, so there is no need to worry about being a director or producer.

As an actor, there hasn't been any major breakthrough, and I can't make it to Hollywood like Jackie Chan.

Apart from deliberately making friends with directors like Jiang Heng and Xu Ke who are capable of making big productions, what other methods are there?

You can't just live like this in your old age and eat up all your savings!
What's more, he has to pave the way for his son!
"Well, I'll book a restaurant and call everyone out to welcome you!" Then he hung up the phone.

Jiang Heng chuckled and said nothing more.

Half an hour later, Hong Jinbao called again and told the name of the restaurant and the time of the dinner.

Jiang Heng rested for a while before packing up and driving there.

When I entered the box, I saw that in addition to the people who often gathered in Hong Kong before, there were several more actresses. I was stunned.

Hong Jinbao explained with a smile, "They usually admire your talent very much and want to have the opportunity to work with you. They begged to come, and I couldn't do anything!"

"Director Jiang, I really like your movie The Matrix. Can you sign it for me?"

But it was an innocent-looking actress who came closer and took out a notebook.

Jiang Heng naturally would not refuse. He took the pen with a smile and signed his name.

I didn't expect another one to come and actually ask Jiang Heng to write his name on his clothes.

(End of this chapter)