Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Chapter 18

"This Yang Ye is simply Hu Jinquan's second best."

As soon as He Guanchang returned to Jiahe, he said to Zou Wenhuai.

He did not agree to Yang Ye's conditions on the spot, but chose to come back to discuss with Zou Wenhuai.Because Yang Ye's request was too weird and he couldn't make the decision.

When Zou Wenhuai heard He Guanchang's evaluation of Yang Ye, his eyes lit up. Wasn't this evaluation too high?

Hu Jinquan is a master director!

"So, he is indeed a talent?" Zou Wenhuai asked.

He Guanchang handed the script he brought back to Zou Wenhuai and said, "You will know it as soon as you read it."

As he spoke, he lit a cigarette and smoked silently, waiting for Zou Wenhuai to read the script.

This script only has the beginning part. Yang Ye’s explanation is that the complete version of the split-shot script is too thick and inconvenient to carry.

Zou Wenhuai watched for more than ten minutes and finally understood what He Guanchang meant. He closed the script and exclaimed: "This boy has a lot of breasts!"

Yang Ye's script has almost stringent requirements for costumes, props, scenes, lighting and other aspects. No wonder He Guanchang said that he is the second to Hu Jinquan.

But his ability to control the entire movie seems to be better than that of Hu Jinquan, because Hu Jinquan has a lot of ideas and needs to shoot a lot of material, then screen and edit it slowly.

Before Yang Ye started shooting, he had already arranged the shots, scene scheduling, and action design. As long as he followed the script, he could directly complete the film, saving a lot of time and cost.

After all, film is expensive.

Zou Wenhuai said: "I heard that Go masters can play blindly, but I never thought there was such a person. His movie hasn't even started shooting yet, but the whole movie has already been formed in his mind. What conditions did he put forward?"

In Zou Wenhuai's opinion, when meeting such a person, He Guanchang should finalize cooperation with Yang Ye on the spot.But he actually came back with the script, which meant that Yang Ye must have put forward extremely unreasonable conditions.

He Guanchang said: "You have also seen that he requested to restore the Shaolin Temple's gate and tower forest one to one. He also wanted to go to Taiwan for filming. The budget needs at least 200 million Hong Kong dollars, and it may increase later."

Zou Wenhuai said decisively: "Promise him!"

He Guanchang said gloomily: "It would be fine if he just has a budget requirement, but when it comes to profit sharing, he is too open-minded."

"Oh, what did he say?"

"He opened a film company of his own and asked to cooperate with us. We would be responsible for the investment and he would produce the film and offered 30% of the box office dividend."

Zou Wenhuai burst into laughter: "He is quite smart. He followed our cooperation model with Bruce Lee. But Bruce Lee didn't get such a high share. What do you say?"

After Bruce Lee proved his strength with "Brother Tangshan" and "Fist of Fury", he formed his own "Concord Film Company" and affiliated it with Golden Harvest to start cooperation.Xiehe is responsible for producing the film, and Golden Harvest is responsible for investment and distribution.

This satellite company model was later carried forward by Golden Harvest. Xu Guanwen's "Xu's Pictures", Hong Jingbao's "Baohe Pictures", Chen Long's Quanwei Pictures, and Weihe Pictures all emerged one after another.

In this mode, Golden Harvest is like a wolf king, leading a pack of ferocious wolves to tear the Shaw Brothers, the overlord of the film industry, to pieces.

He Guanchang said: "Of course I support this cooperation model, but Bruce Lee didn't get such a high share. He was a newcomer, and his demands were too much, so he was reduced to 10%. I am sure that except for us at Golden Harvest, all of Hong Kong I couldn't ask for a better partner.

That woman Fang Yihua also knows that she will definitely not agree to Yang Ye's request. As for the left-wing film company, I don't think Yang Ye will cooperate with them.But Yang Ye seems to have seen through our current predicament and is convinced that we are the one who can't afford it, so he refuses to give in. "

Zou Wenhuai frowned and said: "This kid is really smart. He actually saw that we are in an extraordinary period and took the opportunity to blackmail?"

He Guanchang said with a cold look: "Do you think it is possible for us to use some special means?"

Zou Wenhuai shook his head: "He is too famous now, and dealing with him involves a lot of public opinion risks. Moreover, he is a local gangster in Kowloon Walled City. For someone who grew up in that kind of place, ordinary methods are useless against him." ." He Guanchang sighed and said: "He and I couldn't reach an agreement. In the end, he actually came up with a whimsical idea and proposed a new sharing model based on geographical distribution."

"What do you mean?"

"He gave up the share of Hong Kong and Nanyang and only took the salary, but he exclusively owned the film copyright. If he distributes the film in other regions, it has nothing to do with us."

Zou Wenhuai was so surprised that he forgot to smoke and almost burned his fingers.After a long while, he said: "Is he arrogant or confident?"

He Guanchang said: "Our distribution channels are limited to Nanyang, and Japan's benzene is an accident. No one else can sell it except Bruce Lee. To be honest, his proposal is completely beneficial to us. But I always feel that this is not the case Simple."

At this time, "Enter the Dragon" had not yet been released in North America, and Golden Harvest didn't know that Hong Kong films could also be successful in North America.

But even if I knew it, I wouldn’t care too much, because just because Bruce Lee can sell it doesn’t mean that others can also sell it.

Zou Wenhuai thought for a while and said: "Judging from the songs, novels and scripts written by Yang Ye, this young man is indeed full of talent. If he dares to give up his share of Hong Kong and Nanyang, he must have enough confidence to determine that this movie will be successful in the future. It can sell well in other areas as well.”

He Guanchang said: "That's nothing more than selling it to Japan and South Korea, but he can't get any commission there. He can only receive the money from Japan Film Company to buy the film. How much can he get?"

Zou Wenhuai said with a smile: "That's a lot. If "Shaolin Temple" is really popular in Hong Kong and Nanyang, he might be able to sell more than [-] US dollars in Japan alone under the guise of Bruce Lee's second best. .”

He Guanchang nodded and said: "This kid won't let go, that's probably what he had in mind."

Zou Wenhuai said: "We can do some calculations. If "Shaolin Temple" is really a hit, how much box office can it sell? In terms of top dollar, if it breaks the box office record, how much money can we make?"

He Guanchang thought for a while and said: "If we follow this calculation, Hong Kong can sell 600 million Hong Kong dollars for the top day. If we include Nanyang, 1000 million is the limit. Taiwan is bought out directly by local film producers, so it doesn't count."

Zou Wenhuai sneered: "If we can really sell 1000 million, we will give him more than 300 million. We are the one who made the investment. After excluding the expenses, what will we eat?"

He Guanchang said: "So... this guy first proposed an ingredient plan that we absolutely cannot accept, and then presented a second plan. Is he sure that we will choose the latter?"

Zou Wenhuai sneered: "That must be the case! But do we have a choice? According to the first plan, we will definitely not be able to accept a 30% share, unless we conceal the box office, but if we conceal too much, it will definitely cause a fuss. Damn it. As for the second option, this guy is taking a gamble. If he can really sell the movie to Japan and South Korea, then he should make the money. But we are already full in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Nanyang, and it is nothing more than Just make a little less.”

He Guanchang said: "So...promise him?"

Zou Wenhuai lit a cigarette and said with a wry smile: "It feels really unpleasant to be plotted by a young man. But we can't afford it. Shao Laoliu is looking for a lawyer to file a lawsuit with us again. This old guy is taking advantage of others' danger. You want our lives...promise Yang Ye!"

Three years ago, Zou Wenhuai and He Guanchang turned against Shaw Brothers. In order to take away employees from Shaw Brothers, they encouraged martial arts star Wang Yu to go to Shaw Brothers to steal contracts.

Wang Yu brought a chisel, pried open the cabinet where the contracts were kept, stole more than 100 contracts in one go, and burned them.

So Zou Wenhuai successfully took a large number of employees to form Jiahe, and the two companies also became mortal enemies. Run Run Shaw has always wanted to get rid of Zou Wenhuai and then quickly!
When Golden Harvest was founded, it asked Chang Cheh and Wang Yu to remake Shaw Brothers' masterpiece "The One-Armed Sword", but Run Run Shaw sued the company for infringement.

The lawsuit between the two parties has been ongoing until now, and the legal fees alone have cost millions.

It had already died down, but when Bruce Lee died, Jiahe lost his general. When Shaw saw the opportunity, he immediately used various means to kill Jiahe.

It was under such circumstances of internal and external troubles that Zou Wenhuai agreed to Yang Ye's conditions.

After all, this condition is beneficial to Jiahe in every aspect.

If "Shaolin Temple" can really be sold outside of Southeast Asia, Jiahe will only lose a small amount of income.

If it is not sold, Yang Ye's work for Jiahe will be almost in vain.

(End of this chapter)