Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 413: Praise from the Central Media

The Spring Festival period is nearly half over, and the average daily box office of "The Flowers of War" has always remained at around 3000 million, and only occasionally exceeded 4000 million on weekends.

But it is obviously hopeless to make 10 billion. It is a luxury for Zhang Weiping to recover the costs domestically. Now it all depends on the performance in North America.

Zhang Weiping was a little anxious at this time. You know, this movie was exclusively invested by New Picture, and the money was borrowed by him.

"Make an appointment with the media reporters and prepare for a round of interviews and reports." In the New Picture office, Zhang Weiping called his assistant and gave the order directly.

That afternoon, news about Zhang Weiping's exclusive interview was reported.

New Picture Pictures, the producer of "The Flowers of War", revealed that the film's North American distribution company submitted all the individual awards that the film will compete for to the 84th Academy Awards jury, a total of 13 awards.

"The Hollywood production company suggested that I prepare for half a year before launching The Flowers of War on a large scale in North America. According to Hollywood practice, the distributor needs half a year to prepare for the film's release, but I rejected this suggestion.

In order to win an Oscar, The Flowers of War was willing to sacrifice its overseas box office. "

It's true that Zhang Weiping's words were both promotional and a bit sensational, and they really seemed to be true. In order to win an award for Zhang Yimou, business was sacrificed.

Of course, there was an effect. The next day, the average daily box office of "The Flowers of War" exceeded 40 million for the first time on a weekday.

Seeing this, Zhang Weiping became excited again and continued with his old tricks, talking about the difficulties of making domestic films. He invested his entire fortune in making this movie. If the box office did not meet the expected target, the circle would lose a filmmaker who made films with heart, etc.

Hearing this, other film and television companies in the industry almost said, "Quickly leave the film and television industry. Domestic films will get better and better without you."

However, "The Flowers of War" was, after all, the film chosen for the Oscars, so people could only complain about it in private, and no one dared to say it directly to its face.

.........

After Xingchen Film and Television Company signed a cooperation agreement with the six major Hollywood companies, the news instantly spread throughout the entire mainland entertainment circle.

Especially after the exact content was revealed, it once again attracted heated comments from netizens, and even CCTV's "News Broadcast" reported the news.

This time it really "made the news" because every director is different. Other directors are generally at a disadvantage when working with big American companies. The gap between the two countries causes many people to lack confidence when facing Americans.

But Xingchen Films is different. It can not only take advantage of the Americans, but also introduce technology to promote the development of the mainland film industry.

Although it is still hard to say whether the mainland animation industry can develop, at least people are making efforts.

This is the domestic environment. If you have made achievements, the elders will naturally praise you.

In this situation, what else can netizens say? They can only shout that Director Gu is awesome. Various posts praising Gu Wei have come out, and they have received quite a lot of clicks.

Some so-called knowledgeable filmmakers were making comments in a serious manner, discussing how the success of Gu Wei's collaboration had promoted the development of the mainland film industry, making it seem as if Chinese films were no longer inferior to those in Europe and the United States overnight.

Netizens just followed the crowd's advice, while film and television companies in the industry discovered a clue: the shares announced by the newly established animation film company seemed to be missing a portion.

"Are there other companies joining in?" Many people had doubts.

"Maybe Director Gu reserved it for a domestic film and television company. Do we have a chance to join?" Someone changed his mind and the more he thought about it, the more he felt it was possible.

To this end, China Film Group, Shanghai Film Group, Bona Film Group, Wanda, Guangguang, and Huayi Film Group all took action.

Everyone has the same goal, but different ideas. China Film Group and Shanghai Film Group really want to join in and vigorously develop domestic animated films.

However, Bona and Huayi want to connect with major Hollywood companies by acquiring shares and increase their company's stock price.

As for Wanda and Guangxian, the idea is even simpler: if they follow Gu Wei, there will definitely be gains.

The praise from the central media made Gu Wei the most popular person at the moment. Various media, interviews, and variety shows all wanted to invite Gu Wei to grab traffic.

At the beginning, Gu Wei went to two CCTV interviews for the sake of face, but they ended up talking about the same old topics, which were really boring.

After two days, he felt he couldn't handle the enthusiasm anymore and cancelled all the following shows. Song Ge felt it was a pity but couldn't say anything because he was his boss after all.

However, Gu Wei stayed in the villa for fear of disturbing others and did not even go to the company. As a result, he had only been away for two days before Han Sanping, Wang Changtian and Ye Ning came to visit him together.

"Haha, Director Gu is in a good mood. He's been looking for you outside like crazy, but you're hiding here." Wang Changtian joked with a smile as soon as he entered the door.

Then he walked around the lobby of the villa, and kept clicking his tongue as he looked around, "Director Gu has good taste. Compared with yours, mine seems a bit vulgar."

Hearing this, Ye Ning's forehead was full of black lines. You are so good, Old Wang, how can you flatter someone like that? Don't you care about your dignity?

Han Sanping on the side smiled and shook his head, walked straight to the sofa and sat down, as if he didn't want to pay any attention to this guy.

Gu Wei knew very well the purpose of these people coming here, but when Chinese people talk about cooperation, they prefer gradual progress and are more tactful.

Just like that, after chatting for a while, Ye Ning couldn't help but speak first. He was not a person who could not stand his temper, but he frowned as he listened to Wang Changtian's constant flattery.

"If you keep shooting, I'll give it to you. Then let's go?" Ye Ning thought to himself, but said, "Director Gu, last time we talked about making a domestic animated film, I went back to discuss it and Wanda fully supports it. Whether it's 100 million or 200 million, as long as you ask, we will definitely support it!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Wei continued to drink his tea leisurely. Han Sanping's expression remained unchanged, while Wang Changtian cursed in his heart, "It's not a big deal to be rich. You can do whatever you want if you have money!"

Seeing Ye Ning speak out, Gu Wei no longer hid anything and spoke out the content of the cooperation and the signing of the agreement. When he learned that there were still 20% of the remaining shares, Ye Ning spoke directly, "Director Gu, Wanda can buy shares at a premium, and will not interfere with the normal development of the company in the future."

Now, Wang Changtian couldn't sit still anymore. Everything was at a premium. I think Ye Ning was really hungry.

"Director Gu, Guangguang is not greedy. It's good enough to be able to participate. I think the remaining shares should be divided equally among the three of us."

Gu Wei smiled slightly, "Guangguang and Wanda can invest, each of you will own 10%, and China Film Group can forget about it this time."

"Forget it, forget it." Han Sanping's hand holding the teacup shook unconsciously. Oh my god, it seems that China Film Group will get nothing this time. Explanation, I need an explanation.

"Director Han, the nature of China Film Group is clear. Besides, you have a term of office, so it's not appropriate to buy directly."

Han Sanping thought about it for a moment and understood, "Okay, but China Film Group will also be involved in the subsequent production of animated films."

"No problem." Gu Wei said happily.

In fact, Gu Wei did leave some shares for Han Sanping privately, but not many, and he would not let Han Sanping hold shares directly. As for the candidate for holding shares, he already had an idea in his mind.

In recent years, Xingchen Films has made a lot of money by relying on the quota of imported films. This share can be considered as extra compensation.

After the matter was settled, the group moved on to another topic: what to shoot?
Wang Changtian has a relatively traditional way of thinking. He started by mentioning well-known stories such as Nezha and Erlang Shen.

“Although the story is a cliché, many people know it and it has an audience base.”

Han Sanping also nodded in approval.

Actually, Ye Ning thought so too, but there are only these mythological stories in China, either the Ancient Mythology series, the Conferred Gods series, or Journey to the West, etc.

You can't make an animated film on the Three Kingdoms theme.

Gu Wei shook his head slightly after hearing what the others said. Seeing this, Ye Ning asked, "Director Gu, do you have any good suggestions?"

"Recently I was wondering why there are so few superhero movies in China. After much reflection, I realized it was due to differences in customs and beliefs, and of course the limitations of the subject matter."

There was no one else in the villa, so Gu Wei just spoke out what he wanted to say.

"You're not trying to report this to the higher-ups and have them establish a film rating system, are you?" Han Sanping said dimly.

"That's not the case. We're just talking about this issue." Hearing this, Gu Wei waved his hand and continued.

"Hollywood blockbusters are indeed powerful, and small and medium-budget Chinese-language films simply cannot compete. As for why Chinese-language films cannot produce superhero movies, I think it's like this.

We Chinese people have always talked about teamwork and superheroes, but that is a mistake of individual heroism and should be criticized and educated.”

Everyone thought it was interesting and laughed. Wang Changtian gave Gu Wei a thumbs up and said with a smile, "Director Gu, you have a unique insight."

“The simplest question is what domestic animated films can be adapted into.

The Americans have a mature animation industry, but we only have Pleasant Goat, Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit, and Big Bear and Little Bear.

Let them protect the earth, Sheep Warrior, Rainbow Cat Warrior, Blue Rabbit Warrior, or just the whole Bear Warrior, these names are very eye-catching, and their shocking index is no less than that of Peach Blossom Warrior and Chrysanthemum Monster. "

"Pfft, haha."

As soon as Gu Wei finished speaking, several people laughed. After thinking about it carefully, it was indeed true.

“So, the animated characters that are popular on the market now are really not suitable for the big screen.

I mean, there are two directions. The first is to look upward and make some animated films in the prehistoric series.

Second, we will adapt online novels, especially fantasy and immortality novels, to create our own big IP animated film series.”

Gu Wei stretched out two fingers and spoke word by word.

"Director Gu, I do approve of the Honghuang series. After all, this type of story is well-known, but it's not appropriate to adapt it from an online novel." Ye Ning raised the question.

"Oh, Mr. Ye, tell me in detail."

“Most online novels are millions of words long, making them difficult to adapt, and their fan base is mostly young people, so their coverage is not wide.

Just like The Wandering Earth, which will be released after the new year, even if the script is streamlined, it is estimated that a movie cannot be made clearly, unless…”

"Unless it is divided into several parts, right?" Wang Changtian said.

Ye Ning nodded, agreeing with Wang Changtian's statement.

.........

(End of this chapter)