Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 776: Chaos in "Heavenly General"

“The film is jointly produced by Hehe Films and Modou Qianyi Films, written and directed by Cao Baoping, and starred by Liu Ye, Zhang Yi, Wang Ziwen and others.

The black humor suspense film "The Murderer" officially started shooting today..."

"He Jiong's first film directorial debut, the youth-themed film "Gardenia Blossoms", held its opening ceremony in the capital.

Popular young actors such as Li Yifeng, Zhang Huiwen, and Jiang Jinfu starred in the film.

“It stars dozens of talented actors including Zhang Ziyi, Ge You, Asano Tadanobu, Zhong Xintong, Ni Dahong, and Yuan Quan.

The large-scale spy suspense film "The Last Romance" has officially been announced to be completed.

Since the film started, it has been kept extremely low-key and confidential..."

On the 10th, the most anticipated event was the premiere of "Dragon Blade".

In addition, there is also a constant flow of other film and television information in the circle, a considerable part of which is news from Berlin, such as:
"Zhang Ziyi, Huang Xiaoming, Xu Jinglei, Wu Fengji, Feng Shaofeng, Fan Binbin and many other actors and artists appeared at the airport Berlin Film Festival..."

“The crews of the films “Zhong Kui: Snow Demon and the Devil Spirit,” “Wolf Totem,” “There’s a Place Only We Know,” “Dragon Blade,” and “The Crossing” have arrived at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The corresponding films will be screened, promoted, and copyright transactions will be carried out during the film festival.”

"Director Jiang Wen and Zhou Yun were interviewed and revealed that "One Step Away" has been screened three times as of today and has received rave reviews..."

"Director Jiang Wen is competing in the main competition unit of the Berlin International Film Festival for the second time with "One Step Away", aiming for the Golden Bear Award for Best Film.

Previously, in 94, Director Jiang Wen participated in the Berlin Film Festival for the first time. At that time, the film "Benmingnian" starring him won the Silver Bear Award at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival..."

More and more celebrities and artists have arrived in Berlin, and there are more and more good news about "One Step Away".

Seeing this scene, many people in the domestic entertainment industry naturally sent their blessings.

Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, Feng Xiaogang, Gu Wei...

Gu Changwei, Xu Ke, Wang Quanan, Guan Hu...

Ning Hao, Lu Yang, Xu Zheng, Wu Jing...

Guo Xiaosi, Han Han...

Whether they are big directors or small and medium-sized directors, everyone followed the previous practice and posted their blessings on Weibo.

After all, being united against external foes is an old tradition!

Ali Films.

General Manager Zhang Qiang looked at the invitation letter in his hand, and his face turned a little unhappy when he heard the secretary report that Xingchen Film and Television Company wanted to invite Tai Chi Ma to attend the press conference of "Mojin: The Lost Tomb".

The two sides had an unpleasant argument a while ago, and now the other party is so earnest in inviting Tai Chi Ma. It goes without saying that there must be some special purpose.

However, Gu Wei specifically invited his boss, so even though Zhang Qiang had a lot of ideas at the moment, he could only report this matter to Tai Chi Ma first.

Ali is now a big family with a huge business, and Tai Chi Ma has a lot of things to do. He didn't think much after receiving Zhang Qiang's call. In addition, his last meeting with Gu Wei was not pleasant, so he naturally made an excuse that he was busy. However, in the end he still let Zhang Qiang go on his behalf.

After hearing the order from the gang leader, Zhang Qiang naturally had to obey. He was just a worker, so what else could he do?

.........

It was afternoon now. Previously, "Dragon Blade" had held three premieres in Guangzhou, Jinling and Shanghai respectively.

But in comparison, it is naturally not as grand as the scene in Shanghai.

Gu Wei and Miss Liu "exercised" for a while after lunch, and it was not until nearly four o'clock that they staggered out.

The premiere of "Dragon Blade" was held at the Yaolai Chenglong International Cinema (Wukesong Branch) in the capital, although many big-name artists in the domestic entertainment industry are now in Berlin.

But for the sake of his reputation, Jackie Chan still invited many celebrity artists to attend the event.

At around 4:30, when Gu Wei arrived at Yaolai Cinemas, many reporters had already gathered at the entrance.

After Gu Wei and Miss Liu got off the car, the audience gathered at the entrance of the cinema was excited.

There were endless shouts of "Yifei, I love you" and the two of them held hands and responded with smiles throughout.

As they walked across the red carpet and reached the door, they were surrounded by reporters from several media outlets.

"Director Gu, may I ask why the press conference for Mojin: The Lost Tomb was suddenly held?"

"Hello, Director Gu. The official Weibo account of Xingchen Films announced that the director of Mojin: The Lost Legend is Wen Muye. May I ask..."

Facing the interviews from numerous reporters, even Gu Wei showed a wry smile. Under normal circumstances, he could reveal some inside information, but this press conference for "Mojin: The Lost Tomb" was specially arranged, and it was obviously inappropriate to leak the news at this time.

At this time, Cheng Long came out with a few assistants. Seeing this scene, he asked his assistants to push away the crowd and said loudly, "Everyone, Director Gu was specially invited by me. Please give me some face. If you have any questions, you can ask them next time."

It has to be said that Cheng Long does have a lot of face. After hearing what the big brother said, the reporters gave up the subsequent interviews.

Then, under the leadership of Cheng Long, Gu Wei and Miss Liu went straight into the venue.

A few of them chatted and laughed, and all they talked about was the movie "Dragon Blade". When they learned that the copyright price negotiated for the film in Berlin was not low, Gu Wei smiled and said congratulations.

"Hey, no matter how high you are, you can't compare to Director Gu. The global box office of the movie "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" has exceeded 1 billion US dollars, and I haven't even congratulated you on winning the North American box office championship last year."

Cheng Long was originally quite happy to hear Gu Wei's praise, but when he thought of the other party's achievements in recent years, he immediately flattered him back.

Hearing this, Gu Wei also waved his hand. Although the global box office of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" was not low, its box office in North America was not high. It can only be said that most of Hollywood's blockbusters failed badly last year, otherwise this movie would not have come into being.

...

At the same time, at Xingchen Film and Television Company, Song Ge was holding the final publicity and promotion meeting for "Lost in Thailand" with Ning Hao and others.

In the conference room, the head of the publicity department was holding a red laser teaching pen and pointing at the data on the screen, explaining:
"During the Spring Festival this year, seven movies were released on February 2, including Dad's Holiday, Where Are We Going, Dad 19, Triumph in the Skies, The Great Swordsman, Zhong Kui Conquers the Demons, Wolf Totem, and The Man from Macau 2."

As the saying goes, if you know yourself and your enemy, you will win every battle. Even though the pre-sale box office of "Lost in Thailand" has exceeded 80 million, Ning Hao still feels a lot of pressure when looking at such intuitive data.

Song Ge, who is also in charge of "Lost in Thailand", gradually became serious when he heard that there were so many strong competitors during the schedule.

"Dad's Vacation" and "Where Are We Going, Dad 2" are two different production teams for the same project, both scheduled to be released on the first day of the Lunar New Year to compete with each other. In addition, there are too many blockbusters in the same period, and the industry predicts that this film will not be able to replicate the box office miracle of the first one.

"Triumph in the Skies" is a typical Hong Kong drama, adapted from a TVB anniversary drama and distributed by Enlight Pictures. Even before the movie was released, it was not well received by the industry, and netizens directly complained that the Hong Kong people were still reheating leftovers. As for "Zhong Kui Conquers the Demons", which was mainly controlled by Monkey King International and jointly produced and distributed by Enlight Pictures and Wanda, although Chen Kun starred in it, the IP, investment, and special effects were all low-profile versions. I believe that the audience who are used to the special effects blockbusters produced by Xingchen Films will not like such a film. "

The highly anticipated "Dragon Blade" is a costume action drama by Jackie Chan, with an investment of US$6300 million and Hollywood stars joining the cast. Fortunately, the director is Li Rengang.

Hearing this, everyone in the room laughed.

To be honest, the inability to make historical films can be said to be a common problem among Hong Kong directors, but it is most serious in the case of Li Rengang.

So much so that netizens joked: "I love smoky eyes, I wear a flying saucer hat, and my history teacher died early!"

Ultimately, it is because Hong Kong directors are not familiar with mainland history and always use their own ideas to shoot this type of film, but they don’t know that many historical stories are basic common sense for mainland audiences.

As a result, many works that make people laugh and cry appeared!
"At present, Dragon Blade is our main competitor. Judging from the posters released by the other party, it is still the flying saucer hat series.

But the gimmick of the Western Han Dynasty colliding with the Roman Empire is still very attractive, and Jackie Chan still has a high market appeal! "

After listening to the introduction of the head of the publicity and promotion department, Song Ge thought for a moment and then said something directly.

"A gimmick is just a gimmick. Director Li Rengang's style is well-established, and this time he will probably just distort history.

So I think even with Cheng Long in charge, the box office will definitely not meet the other party's expectations."

As a director, Ning Hao naturally understands the disadvantages of arbitrarily changing the historical background of the story. Now he directly made a box office prediction for "Dragon Blade".

"Haha, that makes sense. Director Gu and Yifei are going to attend the premiere of 'Dragon Blade'. We'll know after it's over just ask them what they think." Huang Bo said with a smile.

Seeing that all the content had been introduced and analyzed, Song Ge spoke directly, "The previous promotion and distribution of the movie "Lost in Thailand" was mainly based on ticket subsidies, hard advertising, and publicity.

So far, the effect is good, but after careful consideration, the company has decided to increase the ticket subsidy by 30 million yuan, which will be paid in advance by the company. "

As soon as the words fell, Ning Hao and others smiled instantly. Although this money needed to be paid by several investors in proportion, that would be after the film was released.

Seeing Song Ge casually increase the publicity and promotion expenses by 30 million, Ning Hao felt a little impressed by the company's wealth.

However, seeing that the company looked like a wealthy company with plenty of money, Ning Hao naturally expressed his opinion, "The company pays, and we do the hard work. During this period before the movie is released, I will try to take the main creators to more shows to increase exposure."

As soon as this was said, Huang Bo and Xu Zheng beside him echoed it. After all, everyone had invested money, so naturally they had to put the box office first.

...

Ning Hao was talking about Li Rengang's "glorious history", while Gu Wei and Miss Liu were watching this person "making up history".

Behind a hit movie, in addition to the right release date and appropriate marketing, quality is also crucial.

For example, "The Crossing" is a typical example of quality failure, while "Us and Them" and "The Mermaid" are all examples of guaranteed quality and successful emotional marketing.

But after watching the movie "Dragon Blade", Gu Wei's first impression of it was chaos.

"I'm a little confused. Did the Western Han Dynasty and Rome fight a war in history?" Miss Liu was a little dizzy at the moment and asked Gu Wei in a low voice.

"Definitely not, it's obviously nonsense." Gu Wei said dimly.

"Ah, can historical war films be made up?" Miss Liu was confused.

"Haha, divide it by people."

On the stage, director Li Rengang was talking about the many difficulties in filming "Dragon Blade".

Cheng Long, John Cusack, Adrien Brody, Lin Peng, Choi Siwon, Wang Ruoxin, Xiao Yang, Wang Taili and Simon Zi, who were on the same stage, also accepted interviews one after another.

A group of people were chatting, and the topic suddenly turned to Gu Wei.

"Director Gu, after watching the movie, what is your evaluation of "Dragon Blade"?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Li Rengang and Cheng Long stared at Gu Wei.

After all, with Gu Wei's current status, if he could give a few positive comments now, it would at least increase the box office revenue.

"Fuck, how can I comment on this?" Gu Wei complained in his mind and suddenly felt a little regretful for coming to attend the premiere.

In the end, there was really nothing I could do but to brush it off by saying, “Brother’s acting skills and professionalism are impeccable.”

Upon hearing this, except for Jackie Chan, everyone else looked a little unhappy, especially Li Rengang. It was obvious that the quality of the film "Dragon Blade" was not good.

Unfortunately, what they didn’t know was that Gu Wei said this sentence just for Cheng Long’s sake, otherwise it would have been just two words: “bad movie”.

To be honest, after watching "Dragon Blade", Gu Wei suddenly realized that Cheng Long was really old.

It's not just that he can't fight anymore, but also that the preaching in his films is no longer real and touching.

Just like in Cheng Long’s early movie “Police Story”, some of the lines of the big brother make people feel sad.

But the preaching in "Dragon Blade" is a bit funny.

Like: "We all hope that everyone can turn enemies into friends, maintain peace and coexist regardless of race."

"We Chinese soldiers are different from you. You are trained to kill, but we are trained to save people... Revenge will only increase hatred."

Such preaching lines are so distracting and out of place that not only fail to move the audience, but also distract them from the show.

Gu Wei can now guess that when the movie is released, the audience will know how bad the movie is after watching it, and it will inevitably be criticized.

After the film screening and interview sessions, the next step is naturally the banquet.

But Gu Wei really disliked Wang Zhonglei who was present, so he said hello to Cheng Long and left with Miss Liu.

But before leaving, he did chat with Xiao Yang for a few minutes. Even though it was only a few short sentences, it made the other party flattered.

Last year, the song "Little Apple" made Chopstick Brothers famous all over the country. Based on the principle of hiring whoever is popular, these two did not escape Huayi's attention.

Looking at the backs of Gu Wei and Liu Yifei leaving, Xiao Yang suddenly felt that good luck might befall him.

.........

(End of this chapter)