The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 722 "The Wandering Earth"

A man came in from outside the door, wearing frameless glasses and with strands of white hair mixed in with his black hair.

"Boss La!"

Lu Yuan and his companions stood up and greeted the newcomers.

"Boss Wang, Boss Ye, Director Ning Hao."

La Peikang laughed loudly, first shook hands with Wang Changtian, Ning Haoye and others, and then looked at Lu Yuan who was standing at the innermost side.

"Mr. Lu, this is our first meeting. You look more charming in person than on camera."

"Haha, Mr. La, thank you for the compliment." While Lu Yuan was being polite, his gaze lingered briefly on the other person's face.

La Peikang looks to be in his fifties and is qualified to take over Han Sanping's position. He must be much younger than the 61-year-old Han Sanping.

Unlike Han Sanping who looks like a gangster boss, La Peikang looks more elegant and easy-going.

The two have completely opposite temperaments, which is understandable.

When Han Sanping took office, the domestic film market was in a state of disrepair, so he made drastic changes and acted in an unconventional way.

The Chinese film industry has grown from a total national box office of less than 2002 billion yuan in 10, with about 100 domestic films produced, to an annual box office of nearly 200 billion yuan today, a 20-fold increase.

Of course, 200 billion is not the end. The market is booming. As early as 2011, Han Sanping had already set a target of 500 billion.

The film market is now on the right track, and the successors will inevitably adopt more moderate measures and will not be able to make drastic reforms.

La Peikang sat down and Han Sanping also poured him a cup of tea.

Several people talked about the development of the domestic market.

Most of the time, it was La Peikang who was talking, and Lu Yuan and the others were listening, occasionally interrupting. If it weren't for Han Sanping's introduction, they actually wouldn't be able to get along with each other.

"This tea is good."

La Peikang put down his cup and said with emotion: "The development of domestic films in recent years has been getting better and better."

"From 8 million at the beginning of the century to more than 2011 billion in 130, and then to 2012 billion in 170.73, it has become the world's second largest film market. It is inevitable that it will exceed 200 billion this year. The annual growth rate exceeds 36%, which can be said to be rare in the world."

"Nowadays, there are a number of small and medium-cost films with realistic themes that are competing with the intensively bombarded Hollywood blockbusters, and they have basically achieved effective competition."

"This result is enough to prove that after 10 years of industrial reform, Chinese films have made a qualitative leap and have achieved the current situation..."

"Old Han has made a great contribution!" He gave a thumbs up, looking very admiring.

Lu Yuan and the others nodded slightly, basically agreeing with La Peikang's point of view.

Take this year's summer movie season for example, among the 16 films that grossed over 9 million yuan, 7 were domestic films and were imported films.

This series of figures shows that Chinese films are reaching an important turning point in their market competition with imported films - from being completely passive in the past to gaining competitive strength to compete with Hollywood in the domestic market, thus basically bidding farewell to the downturn that has lasted for many years.

Han Sanping blew the tea leaves floating on the water in the cup, obviously enjoying it, but he said modestly: "Exaggerated, too exaggerated."

La Peikang shook his head and continued, "Old Han has set such a high tone and laid such a good foundation. To be honest, no matter who takes over, the pressure will be great. I dare not expect to surpass Old Han, but at least I have to make some improvements on his foundation. So I have been thinking about what I should do and what I can do during this period."

"Bang!" He slapped his knee: "I finally found it."

Lu Yuan and others looked at him.

La Peikang said: "The rise of domestic small- and medium-cost films with realistic themes is a good thing. It provides the Chinese film industry with a differentiated development path that is very different from Hollywood blockbusters, and to a certain extent maintains the market share of domestic films."

He paused, and slowly scanned the crowd. "But this does not mean that they are the ticket to victory for Chinese films. In the long run, if the Chinese film industry is to achieve better development, I believe it must create its own high-quality blockbusters."

"Okay, no need to keep us in suspense. I briefly told everyone about it before you came." Han Sanping smiled and added some water to his cup.

"Oh, is that so?" La Peikang leaned against the sofa, a little surprised, and changed his sitting position.

"Then I'll get straight to the point. China Film Group produces more than a dozen films every year. But since the rise of low-budget films such as Time Travel and Lost in Thailand, which were starred by Mr. Lu, the market has been following suit. The types of films are all the same. But a normal film market should be diversified, with multiple themes and volumes."

"I have lived abroad for several years and compared many countries. I found that science fiction films are a very important genre, but this genre is a blank in the Chinese film market. Science fiction themes are scarce, and industrialized large-scale productions have never existed."

"China is such a big country, and it always talks about building a big film country, especially moving from a big film country to a powerful film country. It certainly won't work without science fiction films. So I hope to fill this gap, and I think this is also the responsibility of all Chinese filmmakers."

Lu Yuan and Wang Changtian exchanged glances.

Wang Changtian understood immediately and said, "Boss La, we have actually considered what you said a long time ago. However, whether from a technical or market perspective, making science fiction movies now will involve relatively large risks."

La Peikang nodded slightly: "Yes, of course we have to consider the return, but the science fiction movies on the Chinese market are almost all imported from Europe and the United States. We can't let these foreign science fiction movies flood the Chinese film market."

"I don't know what other people think, but I think that China Film Group, as a state-owned enterprise, and all of you who are passionate about movies, if we don't take this risk, who will?"

"The current level of film industrialization is indeed not enough. This is the fact that we are now making science fiction films and science fiction-themed films, but I think we have to make a start."

"There has to be a movie to start the historical process of the development and progress of Chinese science fiction films. This film also lays a good foundation for China to make better science fiction films in the future."

“After dozens or hundreds of years, when our descendants look back at the history of Chinese cinema and come across the figures who opened a new era for Chinese science fiction films, perhaps some of you will be among them.”

Wang Changtian pursed his lips. He was indifferent to this pie.

La Peikang said to himself: "China is not short of money now. We have strong financial strength and we have talents in these areas. The key is what kind of film to shoot and how many to shoot. Once there is a successful case, countless followers will appear, and this kind of industrial foundation will be visible to the naked eye, and it will grow quickly."

Lu Yuan picked up the teacup and took a sip.

The underlying meaning of Lapekham's words is obvious.

After he takes office, China Film's goal for the next few years is to focus on the rise of science fiction blockbusters. Although he has not said it explicitly, it is likely that he wants to bring the people present here to do it together.

No matter how rich China Film Group is, it will not take on too much responsibility and use all its funds to gamble. At most, it will just make a start and then raise funds from the market.

He thought for a moment and then continued, "So, Mr. La has a goal?"

La Peikang stared at "Professor Chen", who was extremely popular in Asia, and admitted it.

"I don't know if Lao Han has told you that I stayed in France for a while. Once I attended a friend's birthday party and a French friend gave me a few novels by Liu Cixin and asked me if I knew this Chinese writer." "I was shocked at the time. In a foreign country, a foreigner asked me about Chinese writers. You may not understand the pride I felt because for a long time, science fiction was marginalized in the domestic literary field. It was once known as a children's science popularization. There was no Chinese science fiction in the international arena."

"But after reading several of Liu Cixin's novels, I can say with confidence that he has single-handedly brought Chinese science fiction to the world level."

Lu Yuan smiled and said, "If Mr. Liu Cixin knew that you praised him so much, I wonder how happy he would be."

"In fact, I went to Yangquan, Shanxi to look for him," La Peikang admitted. "I invited him to dinner and planned to develop a project based on his novel. He told me that the adaptation rights of his novel were in your hands and that you had bought them out in 08."

At this point, Lu Yuan basically determined the other party's purpose and asked directly: "Then may I ask which novel Mr. La is interested in?"

"The Wandering Earth, Micro Era, Supernova Era!"

"Are we going to shoot three films in one go?" Lu Yuan was surprised and muttered to himself, this man looks elegant, but how come he is more fierce than a mountain eagle? The future of Chinese science fiction films is still unknown in the current market, but he dares to shoot three films right away. It seems that other people's money is not money at all.

La Peikang was stunned for a moment, but did not answer. Instead, he asked, "Mr. Lu, if it were up to you to choose, which novel would you adapt?"

"Well, if it were me." Lu Yuan tapped his knees with his fingertips and thought for a moment: "The Wandering Earth!"

"Oh!" La Peikang seemed surprised.

"why?"

"First of all, its story is relatively weak, which provides a lot of room for film and television adaptation."

"Secondly, the science fiction genre was created by Hollywood. If Chinese films want to explore and innovate in this genre, the difficulty lies first in the story. They cannot simply imitate others, but must be unique and have a unique worldview constructed by Chinese creators and values ​​nurtured by Chinese soil."

"China's unique worldview and values." Wang Changtian, Ning Hao and others present at the meeting all savored these words at the same time.

Lu Yuan continued to explain: "In The Wandering Earth, the sun is about to be destroyed, and the humans on Earth decide to migrate to other galaxies with the entire Earth, using the Earth as a spaceship, using tens of thousands of engines to push the Earth and wander with it."

"This concept is unprecedented. Neither Americans nor Europeans have it."

“Take ‘2012’ as an example. From a Western perspective, instead of spending thousands of years to take the Earth away, it would be better for capitalists to build Noah’s Ark and escape the Earth in the order of capital, or just put their hopes on superheroes for the future.”

"Only Chinese people can come up with such an idea. Since ancient times, we have believed that man can conquer nature. This is because Chinese people have a natural love for their country and are reluctant to leave their homeland. This is the romance of China."

"Pa pa pa!" La Peikang couldn't help clapping his hands and said three good words in a row.

"Boss Lu, China Film Group has invested in this project!"

"Uh" Lu Yuan was speechless.

What do you mean China Film Group invested? When did I say I wanted to make this movie? Didn't you say here that China Film Group had chosen three novels and asked me to analyze them?
La Peikang also came to his senses at this time and laughed.

On the side, Wang Changtian said sincerely: "Mr. Lu, please be sure to take me with you."

Lu Yuan: "."

"Haha." Han Sanping also laughed.

Seeing that my daughter and the nanny had already brought the dishes to the table, I hurriedly greeted them: "Okay, let's eat and chat."

A group of people came to the table and took two bites of the food.

La Peikang raised his glass and said, "Mr. Lu, to be honest, I am most optimistic about The Wandering Earth among the three novels. China Film Group will definitely make this project. I think we should put together a team, China Film Group, Wanda, Far Eastern Media, and Guangguang, and let Director Ning Hao direct it."

Before Lu Yuan and others could answer, Ning Hao hurriedly stood up.

"Boss La, I can't do it. I'm not afraid of being laughed at. Before filming "Lost in Thailand", I did plan to make a science fiction film. I even discussed it with Lu Yuan, but I soon found out that I was not suitable. Soft science fiction may be barely okay, but "The Wandering Earth" takes the earth far away from the solar system. It is a real hard science fiction. My ability is limited."

"Then we can only find foreign directors." La Peikang frowned.

"It's not appropriate to ask foreign film companies to shoot Chinese science fiction films. There are many similar failed examples. Can they really understand our audience? Understand our Chinese culture?" Lu Yuan asked in return.

He has always felt that it is a particularly unreliable idea to ask foreign directors to shoot films with Chinese themes.

"I agree with this point. Chinese stories can only have that flavor when filmed by Chinese directors. If we let European and American directors film them, it will still be European and American science fiction. We need the Chinese people's own core." Wang Changtian echoed.

"Do you have any recommendations?" La Peikang asked.

Lu Yuan picked up a piece of green pepper and said, "Boss La, actually Yuanfang Media also has the idea of ​​making a science fiction film, but it's not a movie, but a TV series."

"The current domestic technology is indeed a bit lacking for making a hard science fiction movie, so we plan to make a TV series first and produce an animation at the same time."

"From a single form of independent support to multiple forms of several legs, we can expand the influence of this IP and accumulate an audience base. In this process, we can also make technical reserves for the filming of the movie."

"After the movie is released, we will use the popularity of the TV series and animation to feed back the box office."

"We plan to complete this plan in three to four years."

That means it will be released around 17. La Peikang thought about it and was curious: "Which novel do you want to adapt?"

Lu Yuan glanced at him, his expression unchanged: "The Wandering Earth!"

Ning Hao was stunned. This is not right. Isn't it "The Three-Body Problem"? He clearly remembered that the company asked Guo Fan to shoot a TV series version of "The Three-Body Problem" next year to practice, and Guo Fan has already started preparing.

La Peikang asked again: "So you have a suitable director?"

"The drama version will be handed over to Guo Fan." Lu Yuan replied.

La Peikang felt that the name sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember who it was for a moment.

Han Sanping coughed and said, "At the end of the year, we will organize young directors to go to Paramount for exchange and study for a week. Guo Fan will be there. He is a contracted director of Yuanfang Media."

"Oh~" La Peikang looked at Lu Yuan meaningfully.

"What about anime?"

"The director's name is Tian Xiaopeng. His studio is currently producing the movie 'The Return of the Great Sage', which China Film Group and Guangguang have both invested in."

(End of this chapter)