hollywood melon man

“If Disney’s funding is involved, this project will become a co-production.”

After listening to Guo Fan's ideas, Little Gilbert said this.

"Science fiction films should focus on the world, whether it is made in China or in Hollywood, I think if it can be made and filmed well, it is a good science fiction film."

Guo Fan's explanation satisfied Gilbert Jr.: "Perhaps it's time to let the world see the charm of Chinese stories. Submit a plan and I will convince Disney to invest in part of it and serve as an overseas distributor."

Guo Fan was overjoyed. Gilbert Jr.'s influence in Disney was unquestionable, and his agreement basically meant that Disney agreed.

What surprised Guo Fan even more was that the film might be released overseas.

You have to know that these days, domestic distribution companies basically do not have the ability to distribute overseas, and their influence is limited to East Asia. Overseas, they basically sell copyrights to local distributors, which has basically nothing to do with domestic distribution.

He had also worked in Hollywood and knew the exclusiveness of the North American market. Without the support of a Hollywood giant, it would be difficult to make any progress.

Guo Fan immediately expressed his gratitude and invited Gilbert Jr. to be the producer. If Gilbert Jr. can be the producer of "The Wandering Earth", the project should be favored by more people.

Gilbert Jr. agreed and recommended it to Disney. He also served as the producer to help guarantee the success of the film.

Back at the film forum, facing the film experts talking about art and culture, Gilbert Jr. expressed his disagreement.

“I think the most important thing a movie cannot ignore is the audience.”

Facing several film experts and the audience, the answer given by Gilbert Jr., an internationally renowned director, was unexpected.

“Many people may think that what I said is full of money and philistinism, but the reality is that movies need to make money from the audience’s pockets.

Why can your movie make the audience willingly pay for it? That is because your movie must have something that touches them. "

Looking at the thoughtful crowd, Gilbert continued, "I know that the Chinese market is booming now, and the most obvious is the increase in the number of moviegoers.

The number of moviegoers reached 15 billion last year, and this year it has reached 10 billion in the first half of the year alone. It will not be a problem to surpass last year's performance in the first half of the year.

This means that a steady stream of new audiences are becoming the target audience of the film market. How to convert these new audiences into loyal fans is a question that Chinese-language filmmakers need to think about today.

What movies do they like? What are their tastes? Have you done any market research? Have the film companies or filmmakers considered the audience's tastes?
I think these are questions that Chinese filmmakers need to think about.”

Gilbert also said that today's audiences are still in the stage of not having seen the world. Even many films of very poor quality can make money in the film market.

But later, the audience grew up and their standards for watching movies also improved. But the Chinese filmmakers who were not enterprising were still living in the past and still stuck to the old ways.

What's worse is that when a film fails, some people don't think it's their own fault, but instead blame the audience.

If a director dared to scold the audience in Hollywood, he would probably never find a job in Hollywood in his life.

Hollywood directors know one thing very well: they must not offend the audience. Even independent film directors know this clearly.

But these Chinese-language film directors are different. The audience supports them, but they curse the audience instead.

A few months after the release of Nezha 2, a film critic said: “I can’t see where the upper limit of the Chinese-language film market is, but I can see clearly where the bottom line is.

Without Nezha 2, the bottom line of this market would be shockingly low. And the reason for all this is those self-righteous Chinese filmmakers.

It is they who destroyed the future of Chinese-language films with their own hands, and then blamed it all on the audience.”

Of course, these are all things that happened in the previous life. With the participation of Little Gilbert in this life, perhaps the results will be different. Finally, Little Gilbert ended the discussion in the forum with one sentence: "I remember a sentence in "The Three-Body Problem" that weakness and ignorance are not obstacles to survival, but arrogance is.

I hope my colleagues in the Chinese film industry can remain humble and respect the audience, and there will always be a future.”

Several film experts were amazed that Gilbert had actually watched The Three-Body Problem, but they did not take his advice seriously. As a result, Gilbert is also a beneficiary of the booming film market.

After the forum, Gilbert Jr. revealed the details of his new project to Guo Fan.

"I am planning to make a space science fiction movie. Matt has been chosen as the lead actor. However, there are several Chinese characters in the movie. I would like to find some Chinese actors to play them."

"Are you looking for Da Mi Mi?"

Little Gilbert was stunned: "Why do you ask that?"

"Didn't you like her Weibo post? I thought you thought highly of her!"

Little Gilbert waved his hands and said, "That was just a prank. I prefer Chen Baoguo and Chen Shu. Can you help me communicate with them and see if they are interested?"

Guo Fan accepted the task: "It just so happens that I know them all. I will ask them for you when the time comes."

The matter was finalized, and later Gilbert Jr. and Emma Watson went to Shanghai Disneyland to participate in an event, which could be regarded as an advertisement for Disneyland.

After finishing their trip in Shanghai, Gilbert Jr. and Emma Watson headed south, made two stops in Guangzhou and Hong Kong Island for a roadshow, and then flew to Singapore.

After Guo Fan returned to Beijing, he found Chen Baoguo to discuss the project.

"You mean, Director Gilbert Jr. invited me to act? What role?"

Chen Baoguo knew that Gilbert Jr. had invited Tony Leung to star in "Inception" and that Tony Leung had a lot of scenes in that movie.

This is only Tony Leung Ka Fai. If it were a younger actor, he would have been crowned an international superstar long ago.

"It's a space science fiction movie, and you play the role of the director of the China Space Administration. Your role won't be big, it's just a cameo." Guo Fan's answer was very honest.

Chen Baoguo thought for a moment and said, "No problem. Just send me a notice when you have time."

Chen Baoguo agreed, and Chen Shu did not hesitate either. Naturally, he would participate in the international cooperation project.

However, because the project has not been made public yet and the two of them are very tight-lipped, they did not announce this collaboration to the public.

During Gilbert's trip to China, "Cyberpunk 2077: Prologue" retained the weekly box office championship with 5389 million US dollars. Including the box office of four working days, the North American box office has reached 2 million US dollars.

The overseas box office took in $1 million this weekend, pushing the film's global box office to $8292 million.

The outstanding box office results almost announced that the film will definitely have plans for a sequel. More importantly, the film’s surrounding products continued to perform well, which was honestly a bit unexpected.

The importance of peripheral products is self-evident. Nowadays, the bulk of the profits in the film market come from peripheral products. A movie may break even or make a small loss at the box office, but it can make money from peripheral products.

And peripheral products of popular commercial blockbusters are the focus of profit.

As an animation film giant, Disney has always been strong in the peripheral areas, and this time it is no exception. (End of this chapter)