It's reasonable for me, a stuntman, to live a crazy life, right?

Chapter 1133: Low-key start? The general environment of the film and television industry has changed again! What movie? 7 million investment?
"Recently, the highly anticipated film "The Mermaid 2" has quietly started filming in Shenzhen, announcing that director Zhou Xingchi's yet another fantasy comedy masterpiece has officially entered the filming stage. Lead actress Lin Yun released a Weibo announcement about her latest entry into the crew..."

"The comedy film "Li Cha's Aunt", co-produced by Happy Twist and New Classics Media, directed by Wu Yuhan, and starring Huang Cailun, Allen, Celina Jade, and Song Yang, has officially wrapped up this morning!"

"Feiyue Films released a movie release notice. The comedy film "Take My Brother Away", starring Zhang Zifeng, Peng Yuchang and Zhao Jinmai, will be released in major domestic theaters on August 8, competing in the summer season."

"The Hollywood imported superhero blockbuster Black Panther grossed 1.52 million RMB on its first day of release."

"The comedy, romance and action film "Journey to the West: The Women Kingdom", produced by Xinghao Films and starring Guo Fucheng, Feng Shaofeng and Bai Lu, has been released for 21 days and has accumulated a total box office of 6.82 million.

Due to the exhaustion of its box office potential, the film was officially withdrawn from theaters at 12: am yesterday.

...

In a blink of an eye, six days have passed since the Oscars ceremony.

As new entertainment news comes out one after another, the heat about the Oscars has gradually dissipated.

Many domestic media wanted to do an exclusive interview with Chen Fei, but he had not returned to China yet, so they finally gave up.

It just so happened that Zhou Xingchi's "The Mermaid 2" suddenly announced the start of filming, which immediately attracted the attention of countless people.

Compared to the two series of films in the "Journey to the West" series "Conquering the Demons" and "Conquering the Demons 2", movie fans are quite looking forward to the sequel to the "Mermaid" series of films.

After all, when "The Mermaid 1" was released, the box office once exceeded 30 billion RMB because the quality of the film was quite good!

Now that "The Mermaid 2" has been announced to start filming, and the director is still Zhou Xingchi, this means that the quality of the film is definitely guaranteed.

The only thing that is puzzling is that this film has been very "low-key" since the beginning of its project preparation.

Especially in terms of casting, although there is a variety show called "Star Mermaid", in fact, only some supporting roles were selected through this show.

As for the real protagonists, except for Lin Yun who has been confirmed to replace Zhao Liying as the leading female role of "The Mermaid 2", most of the other characters have not been publicized.

This also means that netizens can only analyze based on a few words.

However, so far, the only thing that can be confirmed is that Deng Chao will continue to return to the "Mermaid" series of films.

As for other characters, they are still kept confidential.

Many netizens are discussing this online:

"Isn't it just the cast? Is there something shameful about it? Why keep it a secret?"

"That's right! There wasn't even a press conference. Are they planning to do something big?"

“Is this also a marketing strategy?”

"I really didn't expect to choose Lin Yun. If you don't know, you might think she is Stephen Chow's daughter. Are they just trying to push her to the top? Is this necessary?"

"Lin Yun's acting is really embarrassing. I don't know why Zhao Liying didn't participate in "The Mermaid 2"? It's really strange."

...

Although Chen Fei is in Hollywood, he is not completely isolated from the mainland film and television circles.

He also received the news about the low-key start of filming of "The Mermaid 2", and it was Wang Changtian who called to inform him specifically.

"I have received accurate information. In addition to Lin Yun, Ai Lun, Deng Chao, and Luo Zhixiang, the popular star Wu Yifan has also been confirmed to participate in the filming. He will have a lot of scenes in the film, almost the No. 1 male role..."

Hearing this, Fade Chen sighed secretly and observed a three-second silence for Zhou Xingchi.

Wu Yifan, Luo Zhixiang... two bombs were buried in "The Mermaid 2" in succession, and they might explode at any time.

By then, if the film has been officially released, it would be fine, at least the cost could be recovered somewhat from the box office.

But if the film has not been released by the time the "thunder" explodes, then the project will undoubtedly collapse halfway.

Chen Fei's memory is still quite clear. Anyway, this movie has not been released since he was reborn.

And at that time, the two bombs of Wu Yifan and Luo Zhixiang had already exploded.

All the investors of the film lost a lot of money. Not to mention recovering their costs, even the project could not be saved at all.

After all, even the leading actor had to go in and use a sewing machine, so how could the movie possibly pass review?

Chen Fei asked casually: "So the final investors of this movie are still the same companies that invested in Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back?"

"That's right. There are almost no changes. Besides, the producer of this film is still Xu Ke. These two can be regarded as a strong combination."

"Haha, a powerful alliance? I don't think so."

Chen Fei curled his lips and expressed his objection.

Although Zhou Xingchi has not yet reached the point where he has "run out of ideas", he has been getting closer to capital and seems to be on the verge of being "led astray".

As for Xu Ke, his directing skills are indeed very high, but he has not come into contact with a high-quality script for a long time.

In addition, because of the continuous cooperation with Huayi, there have undoubtedly been tremendous changes in my thoughts and attitudes!
Based on this, Chen Fei believes that even if "The Mermaid 2" can be successfully released in the end, the quality of the film is unlikely to be much better.

"Why? Aren't these two a strong team?"

Wang Changtian seemed to want to continue to discuss the topic of "The Mermaid 2" with Chen Fei in depth, but Chen Fei had lost interest.

"You will know later. This is just my guess."

After giving him a response that was not really an answer, Chen Fei changed the subject directly: "I've seen that the main theme movie "My Motherland and Me" produced by Alibaba Pictures and directed by Chen Kai seems to be quite popular in the mainland film and television industry recently?"

"That's not fire anymore, it's almost exploding!"

Wang Changtian said this with great emotion, his tone full of envy.

Ever since movies like "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy", "Operation Mekong", "Operation Red Sea" and "Wolf Warrior 2" became hits one after another, "main theme" has unexpectedly become the hottest topic.

Recently, even Guangguang has begun to study "main melody" themes.

After all, this stuff is really profitable! As long as it doesn’t play with love and personal heroism like “Sky Hunter”, the box office will definitely be good after the movie is released!
"Mr. Wang, don't you realize that the overall environment of the film and television industry is about to change again?"

"Um?!"

Wang Changtian's surprised and puzzled voice came from the other end of the phone: "You mean..."

Chen Feiyi sat on the back of the chair in the office, crossed his legs, and said slowly: "If nothing unexpected happens, youth-themed movies will gradually come to an end, and the mainstream in the future will definitely be the main theme movies with 'patriotism' as the selling point.

For example, the reason why "Operation Red Sea" and "Wolf Warrior 2" were so popular is that they attracted a large number of fans with the support of "patriotic sentiment"..."

Listening to the sounds coming from the phone, Wang Changtian narrowed his eyes slightly and fell into deep thought.

He knows very well that in the film and television industry, every change in the environment means both opportunities and challenges!
Chen Fei's words undoubtedly pointed out to him where the future "opportunities" would be.

"Don't bother with romance or love, they are useless. Main-theme films should show various ways of being 'patriotic'. In the next five years at least, this type of theme will definitely be as enduring as the youth-themed films of the past few years..."

Chen Fei's voice was still ringing on the phone, and the full sense of certainty in his tone made Wang Changtian more excited and excited.

At this moment, countless thoughts flashed through his mind, about future project planning, market trends, actor selection...

As senior practitioners in the film and television industry, they naturally understood the profound meaning of Chen Fei's words.

This is not only a judgment on future market trends, but also a warning that the entire industry ecosystem is about to change.

In this era full of uncertainty, how to follow the trend and seize opportunities is undoubtedly the most important and worthy of deep thought!

At the same time, while the two of them were chatting on the phone, Huayi had already started taking action.

After Alibaba Pictures announced that it would produce the main theme project "My Motherland and Me", Wang Zhonglei could no longer sit still and immediately began preparing for the new project.

The person he chose to cooperate with this time is Guan Hu!
The latter had actually been working on the script four years ago, and the plot was based on the "Battle of Sihang Warehouse", the last battle of the Battle of Shanghai in 1937.

It was just because we couldn't find investors at the time that the project had been at a standstill.

Until the past two years, when "main theme" movies suddenly became popular, this project naturally entered the attention list of major film and television companies.

As Huayi offered the highest bid, it naturally became Guan Hu's partner.

"7 million???"

In the huge office, Guan Hu was stunned when he saw the investment budget for the movie "Eight Hundred" handed over by Wang Zhonglei.

Isn’t the scene of “The Wandering Earth” grand enough?
Is the cast of “Shanghai Fortress” strong enough?
Aren’t the investors of mainstream theme movies such as “Operation Mekong”, “Operation Red Sea” and “Wolf Warrior 2” awesome enough?
But even so, the investment in none of these films exceeded 7 million yuan.

The initial investment budget of "Eight Hundred" is as high as 7 million, not counting the investment in the later stage of publicity and promotion...

"Boss Wang, isn't this amount a bit too exaggerated?"

Guan Hu always felt that he couldn't handle it. After all, when the 5 million yuan budget of "Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings" invested by Huayi was announced, it was questioned by the entire film and television industry.

If he had shouted out the slogan "7 million investment" for "The Eight Hundred", wouldn't he have been subject to more and greater doubts?

However, Wang Zhonglei said with a smile: "Director Guan, this is not a number I made up casually, it was calculated after comprehensive consideration by the company's expert group.

Think about it, the site of the "Battle of Sihang Warehouse" has now been built into an Anti-Japanese War Memorial and cannot be used for filming at all, so we have to recreate the actual battlefield scene on the north bank of Suzhou River in a 1:1 ratio, right?

68 buildings, more than 30 square meters of construction space, and the 200-meter-long "Suzhou River". It will cost a lot of money to complete all of these.

In addition, we have to find suitable actors who have both acting skills, popularity, and can also attract box office, which will also cost a lot of money..."

After hearing this, Guan Hu opened his mouth, but in the end he couldn't say anything against it.

In fact, he also knew that at least half of the huge sum of 7 million yuan was used by Huayi to "transfer accounts".

But this has nothing to do with him. People are willing to spend a lot of money to invest in his movie, and they will not reduce his director fee. Isn't this a "godsend opportunity" for him?

And the most crucial thing is that because he previously supported Zhao Yanzi and Dai Liren, the mainland film and television circles now have a lot of opinions about him.

At present, except for Huayi, other companies all look at him with a hint of "tinted glasses" when cooperating with him.

Only the two brothers of the Wang family only cared about "money and making a lot of money" and did not care about what he had done before.

Therefore, he had no reason to refuse.

"Then let's do as Mr. Wang said."

"Haha, OK." Wang Zhonglei smiled and stretched out his hand towards him, saying enthusiastically: "Then I wish us a happy cooperation."

After seeing Guan Hu off, Wang Zhonglei went to find Wang Zhongjun again and repeated all the discussions he had just had with Guan Hu and the details of the contract for the movie "Eight Hundred".

After listening to them, the latter was immediately delighted: "Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings, Cell Phone 2, Eight Hundred... Good, not bad, these projects are really good!"

According to budget planning, the total investment in these three films is approaching 20 billion yuan.

If all this money can be successfully put into operation, the brothers' personal assets will undoubtedly usher in a new wave of skyrocketing.

"Then I'll make the arrangements?"

"Yeah, go ahead." Wang Zhongjun waved his hand and reminded, "Be sure to do it carefully and don't overdo it. I heard that Xiao Cui has started jumping again recently? Just hold him down when necessary."

"Don't worry, he won't cause any trouble. He's just a useless person."

Wang Zhonglei's tone was quite confident, and he did not seem to have the slightest intention of placing Cui Yongyuan in the position of "opponent".

After all, compared with the current Huayi, Xiao Cui is just an "ant".

At the same time, just as Wang Zhonglei began to prepare for the movie "Eight Hundred", Chen Fei, who was far away in Hollywood, turned on his computer and logged into the Google website after ending a call with Wang Changtian.

He remembered that Natasha had specifically reminded him yesterday that the news of Walton Pictures' acquisition of 20th Century Fox would be announced today. He didn't know how the outside world would react at the moment.

(End of this chapter)