China Entertainment started in 2004

Chapter 367 Never expected

As the auditions for "Travel to Taipei" begin, major media outlets are reporting on it.

No need to pay for hype, the media takes the initiative to publish articles.

Cast auditions are obviously a way to save money on promotion.

There has been heated discussion on the Internet.

One person posted on the Internet.

Title: "Holy shit! An 18-year-old young director wants to make a zombie movie, can you believe it?!!"

Content: "With an investment of 3 million, the tentative name is "Taipei Tour". Auditions and casting have started in Beijing today. Many artists came to the scene, all trying to get roles. The competition is extremely fierce."

When someone posts, someone responds.

1L: "What 18-year-old young director? He's 21, okay? But you said he wanted to make a zombie movie, weren't you kidding?"

“What’s wrong with making zombie movies now?”

It is difficult for a Chinese-language film to reach 1 million U.S. dollars at the overseas box office.

So much so that as long as domestic audiences talk about zombie movies, they will definitely not be able to bypass "Travel to Taipei".

When censorship policies are tightened, this zombie film may become a swan song.

"The Wandering Earth" has proved that Chinese science fiction films cannot work overseas.

There are also people posting.

Because for this kind of project, it can be seen at a glance that the investment and income are not directly proportional, and only those with grass in their heads will come up with ideas.

Switching to China, any bad movie made in 2015 would have a production cost of one or two billion.

"What do those old hackers in China do besides making a fool of themselves? Only Director Wang in our country is different."

Although "Interstellar" was produced by Nolan, who is a fan of real-life shooting, Nolan's real-life shooting was to make the picture more realistic, and there are not many actual special effects at all.

No one in China would invest in this kind of project, and Wang Shu would not foolishly spend his own money to hire a crew to film it.

On the contrary, "Interstellar", "Avatar", etc. are different. These movies can only complete the special effects part by spending huge sums of money to go to the United States.

If the investment cost of "Interstellar" is 6 million, a simple calculation is that if the box office of "Interstellar" triples, it would require 3 billion to break even.

In fact, Wang Shu only wrote the script "Travel to Taipei" from beginning to end, and there was no so-called "Travel to New York".

Moreover, since the scenes of the movie are not large, the cost will not be high.

In 2008, the top-grossing Chinese-language film in mainland China was "If You Are the One" with 3.25 million.

Even if Wang Shu uses a production cost of 10 billion to make "Interstellar", the global box office will need 30 billion to recover the cost.

In this era, there is no North American market as a ticket warehouse. If you want to get a box office of 18 billion, you can only dream of it.

Moreover, the production cost of the original film "Train to Busan" was only 5500 million yuan, and it was still 2015 million yuan in 5500, so it was not considered a big production.

2L: "Upstairs, you are talking about 18-year-old young directors. Don't you understand the importance of 18-year-old young directors? In one word, they are crazy! They are not comparable to those old Chinese talents."

Many of the green screen shots can be shot in real scenes.

3L: "I would like to ask, why is this zombie movie called "Travel to Taipei"? Doesn't it work for demons? Or not for the capital? Or not for the mainland? This guy Wang Shu kneels down and licks the treasure island to collect private goods."

Therefore, as long as Wang Shu dares to spend huge sums of money to produce "Interstellar" now, the market will dare to make him lose nothing.

Not only can it be filmed, but it is also a film that can make money.

Because no domestic director has ever made a zombie movie, I subconsciously thought that Wang Shu couldn't make a movie with this theme.

Chinese-language films are not successful in the North American market, and "The Wandering Earth" only made a few million dollars at the box office when it landed in North America.

Moreover, "Travel to Taipei" was originally planned by him to take advantage of the period when domestic film and television censorship policies have not been tightened yet and are relatively loose, and to use the energy of China Film to pass the censorship and shoot it.

"Besides, don't believe it. All the major media have reported it. If you don't believe it, go search it yourself."

Not to mention, the production cost of "Interstellar" directed by Nolan was US$1.65 million, totaling 10.2 billion yuan.

"Rumors say, Director Wang's "Travel to Taipei" was originally called "Travel to New York". It was originally planned to be filmed in Hollywood. After returning from Hollywood, due to some reasons, it was changed to "Travel to Taipei"."

"Sci-fi movies, just make them!"

In this era, if this zombie movie is made, it will definitely go down in the history of Chinese films.

"Train to Busan", although one-third of the entire film was completed in green screen, the green screen shooting was actually just to save money.

In general, the scenes and shots of "Train to Busan" are works that could be produced through more live-action shooting at the level of mainland movies during this time period in 2008.

In total, only two martial arts and kung fu films, Li Yu's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and Zhang Yimou's "Hero", have grossed over US$1 million in overseas box office.

It’s not that this person doesn’t believe it, but that many people don’t believe it.

No one else can fight.

Of course, real-life scenes cost more money.

18 billion is just capital preservation, not profit yet.

If you can't get around "Taipei Trip", you can't get around him.

It was precisely because of this that Wang Shu took out this script.

At a time when Wang Shu was able to film "Interstellar" in China, only mainland theaters could make a single film break several billion yuan.

In this era, due to the improvement of film special effects technology, not only the production cost of the film can be reduced, but there is also a market to recover the cost and make money.

But by this time, "Interstellar" had already been put on the big screen by Nolan.

Compared with these blockbusters with high production costs, a low-budget film like "Train to Busan", whose production cost was only 2015 million yuan in 5500, is more suitable for Wang Shu to put it on the big screen.

He previously said that "Travel to Taipei" was adapted from "Travel to New York", but it actually sold poorly.

Who would have known that this tragedy would become more and more outrageous.

Now the rumors are even more serious.

At this point, even if he knew it was nonsense, he couldn't clarify it.

As the names of the scripts "Travel to New York" and "Travel to Taipei" came out, there was a heated debate on the Internet.

"First it was "Travel to New York", and then it was changed to "Travel to Taipei". What he really liked was that there was no trip to the capital, the magic city, or the mainland. From this, we can see that Wang Shu worships foreigners and is deliberately disgusting."

"Yes, if we don't worship foreigners and love the United States and Taiwan, "New York" could be changed to "Journey to the Capital" or "Travel to the Magic City" instead of "Travel to Taipei".

"Those upstairs, Treasure Island is an inseparable part of us. Director Wang changed "Travel to New York" to "Travel to Taipei". It can be said that he is kneeling and licking Treasure Island, but it can't be called worshiping foreigners, right?"

"Haha, you said that Wang Shu is not a foreigner, so you are pretending to be confused because you understand, right?"

"Then what? Is there a possibility that the purpose of calling the movie "Travel to Taipei" is to avoid censorship? I think you also know how outrageous the film bureau's censorship is. If Director Wang had written the title of the movie as "Travel to Beijing" or "Travel to Beijing" "Magic City Goes", doesn't this mean that the zombie virus broke out in the capital and the mainland, and it can pass the review? On the contrary, if the zombie virus breaks out in Taipei, it will probably pass the review. "

Wang Shu was surfing the Internet at the moment and happened to see the debate on the Internet about the title of the movie "Travel to Taipei".

With a thought in my heart, I logged into my account and replied. "Don't wash it, okay? Wang Shu is obviously a fan of foreigners. The so-called purpose of avoiding censorship is nonsense. If it is because the zombie virus broke out in Taipei, the movie name can be changed instead of directly calling it "Taipei Trip". Take it hard. "Taipei Tour" definitely refers to mainland artists kneeling down to Hong Kong Island. It's not unusual. It's normal. "

The so-called black and red are also red, not to mention the "OK" in "Travel to Taipei" is not the OK or not, but the OK of traveling.

Therefore, Wang Shu is not worried about being labeled as advocating foreigners or licking the treasure island because of the movie title "Taipei Trip".

Later, as more information is revealed, everything will become clear.

Now, if we follow this topic and hype it up, it will actually increase the popularity of the movie "Taipei Trip".

Wang Shu contributed his strength without hesitation and joined the Black King Tree army to contribute.

"The box office and quality of a movie only determine the lower box office limit."

"Hype is the key to determining the box office ceiling."

If he wants "Travel to Taipei" to achieve good box office results, Wang Shu will not let go of any opportunity to create hype.

Looking back on those days, Gu Changwei, Chen Kaige, and Feng Xiaogang all happened to be the material for his movie hype.

Nowadays, these people have learned to be smart and no longer take the lead.

Wang Shu now wants to use this as a way to hype up the situation, but he can't find a reason.

Fast forward to January 1th.

Zhou Xun is filming on the set of "Painted Skin", and Mei Ting's contract for "How Far Is Happiness" is also starting in the suburbs of Beijing.

Wang Shu is hosting the audition for "Taipei Trip".

This audition will determine the role.

"Hello, Director Wang, I am Li Xiaolu."

Li Xiaolu knocked on the door and walked into the audition room, greeting Wang Shu with a reserved expression.

Wang Shu asked first, and then said hello to the "guardians on the left and right" beside Wang Shu.

Wang Shu was drinking tea when he saw Li Xiaolu walking into the audition room. The surprise in his eyes flashed away.

Unexpectedly, Xiaolu also came.

On July 2012, 7, Li Xiaolu and Jia Yuliang held their wedding.

According to the two people, this day is the 1314th day since they met.

It is now January 2008, and Xiaolu and Jia Yuliang have not yet met.

It's all Dong Xuan's fault. If she hadn't organized a hot pot dinner with friends in her circle, Jia Yuliang would never have imagined that she would meet Li Xiaolu and then fall in love and get married.

Dong Xuan is also a talented person. He unknowingly hooked up with Tang Yan's boyfriend, and then stole his best friend's boyfriend. Tang Yan broke up with him.

Organizing a dinner party for friends in the circle, I never expected that my best friend Li Xiaolu and Jia Yuliang would fall in love.

"Hello." Wang Shu put down the tea in his hand and responded with a smile.

He knew that Li Xiaolu had developed well in the past few years and was now on her way to becoming an international movie star by releasing albums and starring in Hollywood movies.

Li Xiaolu felt Wang Shu's easy-going attitude and boldly responded with a bright smile.

The "left and right guardians" (staff of Yishu) who were sitting next to Wang Shu began to host the audition for Wang Shu, limiting some scenes for Li Xiaolu to perform.

The drama "Travel to Taipei" has three investors besides Yikeshu, China Film, Shanghai Film and Television, and China Film and Television. However, Shanghai Film and Television and Film and Television do not have the right to cast, and only China Film has the potential to interfere in the casting.

However, Han Sanping and Wang Shu have been cooperating for a long time and basically do not interfere with Wang Shu's casting.

Only when the character Wang Shu selected was not within Han Sanping's expected range would he ask.

After a while, Li Xiaolu finished her performance.

The guardians on the left and right glanced at Wang Shu. Seeing that Wang Shu did not speak, they immediately said: "The performance was good. You can go back first. We will contact you if there is news."

When Li Xiaolu heard this, she knew it was a polite refusal, and her expression became a little stiff. She looked up at Wang Shu unwillingly, hoping to hear words to persuade her to stay.

However, the idea is beautiful, but the reality is skinny.

Wang Shu did not say anything to persuade him to stay, and Li Xiaolu left disappointed.

"Xiaolu, how are you?" As soon as Li Xiaolu came out of the audition room, her best friend Dong Xuan came up to her and asked with concern.

Li Xiaolu shook her head and said she failed the audition.

Seeing this, Dong Xuan felt sad that his best friend failed in the audition, but at the same time he breathed a sigh of relief.

Two completely opposite emotions appeared in her heart at the same time.

She will be sad because Li Xiaolu is her best friend and is infected by Li Xiaolu's emotions.

She was relieved again because Li Xiaolu came to the audition with her and was a competitor.

Li Xiaolu failed the audition, which not only meant that she had an extra chance of passing the audition, but also showed that Li Xiaolu would not have been able to soar far away without obtaining such high-quality resources.

As a best friend, she not only hopes that Li Xiaolu's career will be better, but at the same time, she does not want Li Xiaolu's career to develop too well and the gap between her and hers to be too great.

Dong Xuan said with relief: "Director Wang is more interested in whether the actor fits the image of the role in the script. The role of the heroine is a pregnant woman. You are young, beautiful and cute. In Director Wang's eyes, you may not fit the role of a pregnant woman."

Hearing Dong Xuan's relief, Li Xiaolu felt better and said with a forced smile: "Maybe."

After speaking, he took a deep breath and added, "There are many people auditioning this time, and the competition pressure is very high. I estimate that there should be many actors who fit the roles in the script. Director Wang will most likely not confirm the actors on the spot. I will choose the one who suits the role best."

"So you have to work hard and strive to become the actor who is most pleasing to Director Wang's eyes."

"Instead of being like me, no chance."

Dong Xuan heard this and replied: "I haven't even passed your audition, how can I have such good luck?"

"I guess it's just a waste of time."

Li Xiaolu answered: "You are different from me. You have worked with Director Wang before, and knowing Director Wang, you must have an advantage over me."

Speaking of this, Li Xiaolu felt quite envious.

She also heard that all the actors who had worked with Wang Shu before had passed the preliminary examination.

This shows that even a little communication with Wang Shu is useful.

It is far more advantageous than an actress like her who has no relationship with Wang Shu!
Dong Xuan smiled bitterly upon hearing this, she knew her own affairs well.

I did work with Wang Shu many years ago.

But, that was many years ago.

Now, during holidays, I will take the initiative to send text messages to Wang Shu to say hello and interact with him.

However, with the lack of contact in reality, coupled with the change in status and the widening gap between the two, they finally separated.

(End of this chapter)