The Crown Prince of Huayu!

Chapter 126 Struggle (please subscribe)
Huayi.

After Wang Zhongjun returned to the company after talking with the people from Shanghai Film Studio, he called Feng Xiaogang to the office.

"How much do you estimate the box office of "The Night Banquet" will be in the end?"

"It should be over 1.5 million. It will be difficult to go higher."

Feng Xiaogang looked serious.

"The Banquet" has now been released for more than half a month, with a box office of just over 1.4 million, surpassing "Fearless" and ranking third among all movies released this year, second only to "Inception" and "Assembly".

But Feng Xiaogang was a little unhappy.

Although the cost of "The Banquet" is not as much as the US$20 million claimed, it is at least hundreds of millions.

I barely made a loss by relying on foreign copyrights, but I didn't make much money either.

More importantly, even though market conditions have improved significantly and investment has increased, the box office of "The Banquet" is not much higher than that of "A World Without Thieves" a few years ago.

It made Feng Xiaogang feel like he had seen his upper limit.

Especially in comparison with the newcomer Han Jiadong.

Even if he is not compared with Han Jiadong, but compared with his old rivals Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, he, who is best at making commercial films, now ranks last in terms of box office.

"The "Night Banquet" is already like this, let the people below take care of the rest."

Wang Zhongjun was not satisfied with this result.

As a director who pioneered the Lunar New Year slot, Feng Xiaogang would normally release his films in the Lunar New Year slot.

I just didn't expect that "The City of Gold" would only start shooting in April. Zhang Yimou took time to finish filming the film while busy with the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. He also finished the post-production very quickly. It is confirmed that it will be released in the Chinese New Year. Released on file.

In the end, Huayi did not dare to compete head-on with "The Golden Armor", so it had no choice but to advance the release date of "The Banquet".

Even the release date of "The King of Kung Fu" is mentioned in November.

"What do you think of the movie "Xiu Chun Knife"?"

Wang Zhongjun suddenly changed the subject.

Feng Xiaogang was a little confused and couldn't figure out why his boss mentioned a movie that was almost two years ago.

However, whether it was due to the quality of the film or the director of that film, he would not speak ill of "Xiu Chun Knife" and would only praise the film.

Wang Zhongjun nodded after hearing this: "If you were asked to direct the sequel of this movie, would you be willing?"

Feng Xiaogang was stunned.

My subconscious reaction is to say no.

He knows how much he weighs, and the style of his movies tends to be family-oriented. Although he doesn't agree with what some people call "petty-minded", it does not match the style of martial arts movies.

But after thinking about it carefully, Feng Xiaogang's heart moved again.

Perhaps, this is a good opportunity for me to break through my upper limit?
"Is there a script already?"

"There is."

"Is it written by the young master?"

"Yes."

Feng Xiaogang felt confident.

If he were asked to write a script for the sequel to "Xiu Chun Knife" from scratch and then start filming, he would definitely not have the confidence.

But Mr. Dong has already provided the script, so what else is there to be afraid of?

The most I can do is hold on to my creative desires and not change a single word of Dong Shao's script during the filming process. With the quality of Dong Shao's script, I don't believe that this can mess it up!

"I want to try it!"

Feng Xiaogang's eyes were firm.

Wang Zhongjun was not surprised at all, and took out the script of "Xiu Chun Dao 2": "I'm not sure it's you yet. You may have to compete with Kai Ge."

Feng Xiaogang smiled: "Kaige... If it were Zhang Yimou, I would definitely step down and make way for someone better. As for director Kaige... he should make a commercial movie that makes money first."

the other side. Chen Kaige also got the script of "Xiu Chun Dao 2".

After "The Promise" failed at the box office, he has been looking for an opportunity to prove himself again.

Since Han Jiadong is so successful in business, the scripts he writes are naturally very attractive to him.

"Are you sure you want to fight?"

His wife Chen Hong asked, wearing a haze blue sleeveless chiffon shirt and a white gauze skirt, she was beautiful and elegant.

"Fight?"

A trace of contempt flashed in Chen Kaige's eyes: "Xiao Gang's comedies are still very popular, but martial arts movies are so grand..."

Although he himself has never made a martial arts film, in his opinion, "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin" and "Xiu Chun Dao" are similar in that they are both types of martial arts films that combine history.

Moreover, "The Promise" also demonstrated very well that it can indeed make movies majestic and magnificent.

Unlike Feng Xiaogang, even when filming "The Night Banquet", there is a sense of pettiness.

Chen Kaige has always been a confident and even arrogant person.

In his opinion, the previous failures of "The Promise" and "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin" were just because he did not encounter a good script.

Now that I have Han Jiadong's script, if I polish it myself and add my own strength, I will definitely succeed!
Just like the previous "Farewell My Concubine".

Both of them looked determined to win, which put a group of investors in a difficult position.

Especially after listening to the two of them talking about their own advantages. For example, Chen Kaige said that his style is more suitable and can produce a rich sense of history and the atmosphere of martial arts films. Feng Xiaogang said that all of his commercial films have made money without losing money. They were even more convinced. It's confusing.

Because from the words of the two people, they could clearly hear that Chen Kaige was implying that Feng Xiaogang's style did not match, and Feng Xiaogang was implying that Chen Kaige was losing money in commercial films.

The key point is that what the two people said was reasonable and well-founded, and it was all facts.

But in comparison, they still prefer Feng Xiaogang.

After all, it doesn’t matter whether his style matches or not, making money is the last word!

Especially after seeing the cost estimate given by Chen Kaige is as high as 15 million US dollars!

Feng Xiaogang only asked for 50 million yuan.

Just out of worry and not wanting to offend Chen Kaige, they finally decided to let the two of them rehearse a scene to determine the outcome.

Both of them readily agreed.

After agreeing to this, Chen Kaige immediately sent invitations to the male and female protagonists of "Xiu Chun Dao" Chen Kun and Fan Bingbing.

Chen Kun agreed directly.

Fan Bingbing said she wanted to read the script first.

Then after hanging up the phone, she immediately took the initiative to call Feng Xiaogang.

She is still a member of Huayi!
And compared to Chen Kaige, Feng Xiaogang, who has worked with him, is obviously more familiar.

But Feng Xiaogang happily rejected her kindness, saying that the heroine had already decided on another candidate.

Fan Bingbing had no choice, so she sent Chen Kaige another accurate letter.

Feng Xiaogang's side.

"Are you really not going to use the actors from the previous film?"

Wang Zhonglei and Feng Xiaogang confirmed.

Compared to Chen Kaige, who cheated Huayi once, Huayi naturally supports Feng Xiaogang more.

Feng Xiaogang said with a smile: "Some of them are still used. The names of Ding Xiu, Wei Zhongxian and Chongzhen have not changed and they are still the actors from the upper part. But Mr. Dong specially changed the male lead to Shen Yi and the female lead to Bei. Zhai, the story is completely different, and the main characters must be changed, otherwise the audience will easily become upset."

"Can it be done?"

"Don't worry, I will choose the role carefully so that Kaige has no chance of winning!"

(End of this chapter)