China Entertainment: Been working as a director since 03

Chapter 794: Digging Up Stories
The total investment of "All Quiet in Peking" was about 150 million yuan, of which 100 million yuan was contributed by Li Yu.

After the TV series suffered losses, Li Yu was far from recovering his costs.

Liu Heping was ready.

He thought Li Yu would say to him, "You made me lose miserably."

In fact, Li Yu didn't care too much and comforted him by saying, "Investment means that there are both losses and gains. If you can't make a profit for sure, how can it be called investment? That's called picking up money. It doesn't matter if All Quiet in Peking loses money. Many good dramas lose money, but it doesn't stop me from liking them or thinking they are good dramas."

Liu Heping was deeply moved by Li Yu's answer at that time.

What is this angel investor?

A drop of water is a token of gratitude, and one should repay it with a spring.

Now that Li Yu has called him and he is needed, he will definitely do his best to refuse.

So here he is.

Li Yu smiled and said, "Editor Liu, long time no see."

Liu Heping smiled bitterly and responded, "That's not true. Director Li is now a famous international director. He spends several months a year in the United States. How could he still think of a small figure like me?"

Liu Heping had previously spoken some of his true feelings in a joking tone.

After All Quiet in Peking, Li Yu never contacted him again, and he did suspect that he might be on Li Yu's blacklist.

It's normal to be on the blacklist. People invested 100 million yuan, but ended up losing everything.

If any other investor was cheated this time, his name would be put on the blacklist permanently.

Facts have proved that he was overthinking it and was judging others by his own standards.

Look, Li Yu came to see him again today.

This shows that Li Yu really cares about the losses.

"Editor Liu, you are trying to disparage me, right? You are considered a nobody, so who is the big shot? How could I forget you? I have been working in Hollywood for the past two years.

The fastest way to gain popularity and success is to make commercial films. Movies like Aquaman and Barbie don't need you.

And at first they didn’t even give me permission to modify the script, so you couldn’t help me.”

Li Yu smiled and said.

Liu Heping deeply agreed with this.

This is true. He really couldn't help Li Yu in making those movies because his expertise was not relevant.

His forte is writing historical plays.

"I don't know whether Director Li asked me to come here to make a movie or a TV series this time." Liu Heping asked.

Movies are not his strong point, the most he can do is help Li Yu polish it.

It would be fine if it was a TV series, it would be in his comfort zone.

"TV series, I plan to make a TV series about the Ming Dynasty. Ever since the hit of "The Story of Qianlong" in 1991, pigtail dramas have been popular all over the country. In recent years, it has finally died down, and now we can make dramas about other dynasties." Li Yu complained.

"Ming Dynasty...Ming..." Liu Heping muttered a few words.

"The Ming Dynasty" is his pride, but also his pain.

It was first broadcast on Shonan TV, which had a huge audience at the time, but the ratings were only a few tenths, and it was a huge success.

It's really painful that such a great drama that was created with so much effort ended up with a poor viewership.

He did want to avenge his previous shame by producing a Ming Dynasty drama with high ratings and good reputation.

Li Yu happened to have such an idea, so he cooperated with Li Yu, which also helped him to resolve his worries. When Li Yu was still in the TV circle, he was a famous ratings king.

As long as it is Li Yu's drama, the ratings will definitely be high, and it will be explosively high.

He is responsible for the screenwriting, ensuring the depth and quality of the script, and Li Yu, the ratings king, is here to direct.

Just thinking of that scene, he wanted to excitedly shout, "The advantage is mine."

"Ming Dynasty drama, when do you plan to shoot it? Or which emperor?" Liu Heping has taken out a pen and is ready to start recording.

"Zhu Di, let's talk about Zhu Yuanzhang. A movie about him has been made before, the one played by Hu Jun. That drama is quite good, and since there is such a classic before it, we won't film it." Li Yu first denied the Zhu Yuanzhang period.

The Zhu Yuanzhang played by Hu Jun is definitely different from the Zhu Yuanzhang in history, and the personality of the Zhu Yuanzhang in history is definitely not the same as the one played by Hu Jun.

But Hu Jun performed in a different way, which was very good.

As for film and television works, Li Yu has always supported adaptations, but what he does not support is random editing.

That version of Zhu Yuanzhang's script is very good and can be considered a great historical drama.

However, due to its age, some flaws are unavoidable, and the details are not well thought out, especially the looks of some supporting characters, which are as shocking as those of the Shamatte film.

Chen Youliang had a big bald head and wore earrings, which was really shocking.

Considering that era, the mainland's ancient costumes and props were learned from Hong Kong and Taiwan. It is understandable that they adopted Hong Kong and Taiwan's crude studio-style costumes and props.

Many people have also filmed the events of Zhu Di's reign.

There are "Love Across Time and Space", "Zheng He's Voyages to the West" starring Tang Guoqiang, etc.

Except for "Zheng He's Voyages to the West", these plays all have a humorous flavor.

Especially the drama "Love Across Time and Space", the general plot is that the cultural relic thief Xiaowanzi and the policewoman Zhang Chuchu had a fight over the cultural relic Youmengxian pillow in a Ming Dynasty cultural relic exhibition, and ended up traveling back to the early Ming Dynasty together and fell in love with Zhu Yunwen and Zhu Di respectively. It is simply outrageous.

It's no joke that "Zheng He's Voyages to the West" is a story about a voyage to the West. As soon as you see the name, you know that the real leading actor is Zheng He, and it tells the story of a voyage to the West.

In summary, there have been some TV dramas about Zhu Di in recent years, but the protagonist is not Zhu Di. Even if he is, it is not filmed in the way of a serious drama.

Let's make a serious drama with Zhu Di as the protagonist.

Zhu Di's life was no less exciting than that of his father Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Di's queen was his white moonlight, the daughter of Xu Da, a founding hero of the Ming Dynasty. Most of his children were born to Queen Xu.

They found love, but when they were middle-aged, their father died. Their nephew Zhu Yunwen came to power and gave them, their uncles, a surprise. Not only did he reduce the power of the princes, but he also used fatal force, forcing their uncles to have no way to survive. The entire family of some princes was killed.

In order to save his life, Zhu Di had no choice but to rebel. He successfully counterattacked with 800 people and defeated Zhu Yunwen's army of hundreds of thousands, becoming the first vassal king in history to successfully rebel.

Afterwards, he moved the capital to Beiping, personally led many expeditions against the Mongols, compiled the Yongle Encyclopedia, sailed to the West, and so on.

Zhu Di was a man of great talent and strategy throughout his life, and there are many stories to be discovered.

As for the stories about the Ming Dynasty, Li Yu feels that only the stories of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di in the early period are suitable for making a serious drama.

It’s not to say that the late Ming Dynasty and the period of the Ming Dynasty’s God of War Zhu Qizhen are not suitable. These two time periods are also suitable for filming serious dramas, but they can easily raise the audience’s blood pressure.

There were basically no major events in the two hundred years in between, so the only stories we could make were about official intrigues or the Qi Family Army, like "The Ming Dynasty".

Li Yu was speaking, and Liu Heping wrote down Li Yu's request.

Li Yu planned to let Liu Heping write this script.

Liu Heping is the expert in this field. Why should he do it himself when he has such a great figure to use?

(End of this chapter)