Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 513 "The Voice of China"

Luc Besson can be said to be the most famous French director in mainland China.

France has made extraordinary achievements in art films, and great directors have emerged in large numbers, but to be honest, except for a few, most art films are unknown.

Maybe he is very famous in the industry or among veteran movie fans, but few ordinary audiences know him.

On the contrary, commercial films can easily become popular. Luc Besson is a very outstanding commercial film director, and he is also a great commercial film director who understands art very well.

The movie "Léon: The Professional" that made him famous is a commercial film with a strong artistic atmosphere.

It was this movie that made him so popular in the country.

After that, Luc Besson had a lot of exchanges with the Chinese film industry. He not only collaborated with Jet Li on "Kiss of the Dragon", but also collaborated with Hong Kong action director Yuen Kwai on "The Transporter".

That’s right, it was the action movie that was claimed to be an Audi commercial. Jason Statham became famous in mainland China through this series of movies. The heroine of the third movie was Hong Kong actress Shu Qi.

Entering the second decade of the 21st century, Luc Besson's Europa Films collaborated with China's Shanghai Film Group to produce a Sino-French co-production "Warrior's Gate".

However, the box office performance was not good, only earning over 20 million in the mainland, so it did not make much of a splash.

His most well-known movies in mainland China are the "Taken" series and "Lucy".

Although "Lucy" has now been handed over to Summit Entertainment by Liu Zhou, the first film in the "Taken" series was released in 2008.

At that time, Liu Zhou had just acquired Summit Entertainment, and it was impossible for him to intercept this well-known series.

In fact, Liu Zhou also thought about adapting "Taken" into a Chinese-language movie, but he felt that if domestic actors were to play the male and female protagonists, it would be almost impossible to get much box office overseas.

Not only overseas, even the domestic box office will not be too high. If it was released in 2006 or 2007, even with the appeal of Liu Zhou, the box office should only be two or three hundred million.

This was a good result at the time, but this movie is a typical commercial action film, it's all about fun. Audiences will be drawn to it while watching it, but they may forget a lot of the plot after watching it.

Such a meaningless movie meant little to Liu Zhou at the time, so there was no need to waste his time just to get it.

Wouldn't it be much better to use this time to study and shoot science fiction movies? Not only would it be something you would enjoy, but it would also have significant implications for the entire domestic film industry.

Liu Zhou is not bragging. After "The Martian", the science fiction atmosphere in China has been completely aroused. Film and television companies have also seen the market for science fiction films, and several large companies have invested in it.

However, since there are almost no directors and teams in China who can shoot hardcore science fiction films, other companies except Golden Harvest have not produced any related results.

But this situation will soon improve. Since 2009, Liu Zhou and Golden Harvest have used their own resources to send some people to Hollywood to study every year.

Not only directors were sent over, but also other related behind-the-scenes personnel. These people were not all from Golden Harvest, and there were also many people from other major companies.

Of course, there are also some young talents who do not belong to any company. Some are graduate students or lecturers at the Beijing Film Academy or the Central Academy of Drama.

This can also be regarded as cultivating younger talents for the Chinese film industry.

Some are still studying in Hollywood, while some have already returned.

Ning Hao is one of the first people to return from Hollywood after completing his studies. Since he is a member of the Golden Harvest Group, he must have received better treatment.

Liu Zhou personally arranged for him and contacted Warner to let him serve as assistant director in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2", following the entire process of the film's preparation, shooting and post-production.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" is the last film in the series, and it surpassed "Transformers " to become the North American box office champion this year.

This movie will be released during the North American summer vacation this year. So far, the movie has been almost completed, so Ning Hao came back without stopping.

At this time, Ning Hao was digesting what he had learned in Hollywood for more than a year. At the same time, he kept going to Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio, wanting to learn more about the studio's special effects production level.

The whole company knows that Ning Hao is going to shoot his own science fiction blockbuster. Zhang Zhao, Chen Guofu and other senior executives are also looking forward to it. If Ning Hao's science fiction movie can be successful, Golden Harvest will have another trump card.

To be honest, Liu Zhou is also looking forward to it. He doesn’t care whether Ning Hao’s science fiction movie can be successful. What he cares about is whether Ning Hao can grow.

In fact, with Ning Hao's current appeal and Golden Harvest's promotion and marketing, the box office of his science fiction movie should not be too bad, but whether it can satisfy the audience is the key.

His movie "Crazy Alien" in the original time and space was invested heavily, and the shooting equipment and shooting locations were top-notch.

At that time, "The Wandering Earth" and "Crazy Alien" were both filmed in Oriental Movie Metropolis. The former was as poor as a loser, while the latter was like a tall, rich and handsome man.

Because Guo Fan and Ning Hao have a good relationship, and they both went to Hollywood to study together, Guo Fan often went to "Crazy Alien" to borrow equipment and props when filming "The Wandering Earth".

But after the two films were released, "The Wandering Earth" was called the pioneering work of domestic science fiction films, opening a door for domestic science fiction films.

The latter is only regarded as a comedy movie, and its reputation is far inferior to the first two movies in the Crazy series.

You know, "Crazy Alien" had a box office of 2.2 billion, which can be said to be an extremely good result, but its reputation is not good.

This movie can be said to have squandered the good reputation accumulated by "Crazy Stone" and "Crazy Bicycle".

It can be said that in the original time and space, Ning Hao really didn't learn anything when he went to Hollywood. He was originally highly expected, but after going around in circles, he went back to making comedy movies.

But it's okay, at least it's not as forceful as Teng Huatao, who forced it to stay there even though the bottle was clearly half full. The domestic science fiction movies finally had some improvement, but it was suppressed again.

Before Liu Zhou's rebirth, the only science fiction film that could be considered outstanding in China was "The Wandering Earth". The second and third parts were filmed one after another, but no other science fiction films appeared.

But looking at Ning Hao's current state, it should be very different. Liu Zhou is also looking forward to what kind of work he can produce this time. This should be a brand new science fiction movie.

There is no rush for this movie of his. Judging from Ning Hao's performance, it may take more than half a year to prepare. It would be good if it can be released next year.

Apart from Ning Hao, Liu Zhou thinks that he could collaborate with Luc Besson to make a science fiction movie.

Judging from the many connections between Luc Besson and the domestic film industry, he would not refuse the cooperation with Golden Harvest. Of course, Liu Zhou's biggest confidence is the growing domestic film market. Now even the seven major Hollywood studios are paying more and more attention to the domestic market. He does not believe that Luc Besson will not be tempted.

In addition, Golden Harvest is the number one film company in China and it also has considerable strength overseas. The cooperation between the two parties can be described as a strong alliance.

There are many excellent science fiction novels in China, many of which are suitable for adaptation into movies. Golden Harvest alone cannot film all of them. Co-production can also bring these excellent science fiction novels to the big screen more quickly.

Moreover, co-production with overseas film companies will be more conducive to the dissemination of the film, and to a certain extent it can be regarded as the overseas expansion of Chinese science fiction.

This time with Europa Films is just the beginning. If the cooperation is good, we can even cooperate with the Big Seven in Hollywood in the future.

Like "The Three-Body Problem", this novel is also very well-known overseas, but it is somewhat difficult to adapt, and if you want to film it well, the investment will be very large.

It would be difficult to recover costs if we rely solely on the domestic market, and no one can be sure that the movie can earn 50 or 60 billion at the box office.

Liu Zhou feels that a box office of more than 5 billion yuan should be the ceiling for domestic films, and it will be difficult to increase it further.

In order to recoup costs and fully exert the influence of the novel "The Three-Body Problem", overseas box office cannot be ignored. Perhaps co-producing "The Three-Body Problem" with overseas film companies is one of the options.

……

After the decision was made to seek cooperation with Europa Films, the situation of Golden Harvest International was almost the same.

Golden Harvest International's plan for the coming year is also very simple. It is enough to continue to maintain distribution in Asia. The expansion in Europe will not produce results soon.

In addition to establishing cooperation with Europa Films next year, it will be a success if the offices in Italy and the UK can maintain cooperation with local distribution companies.

Afterwards, Liu Zhou also turned his attention to Li Wei, the general manager of Golden Harvest Production who had just joined Golden Harvest Group.

Among all the people present, Jiang Xueruo and Li Wei had the least experience and were the only two senior executives who did not own shares in the group.

So they joined Golden Harvest not only because they were happy to have a big platform and greater power in the circle, but also because of their desire for wealth.

For example, the earliest senior executives of Jiahe, which one of them didn't have a net worth of 10 to 20 billion? For example, the president Zhang Zhao has a net worth of 40 to 50 billion.

How many years has Zhang Zhao been with Golden Harvest? In just over five years, but less than six years, he has not only gained fame and fortune in the film and television industry, but also has a certain influence in the entire Chinese business community.

It may be a bit of an exaggeration to call him the working emperor, but he is already one of the most successful professional managers in the country.

This year, CCTV Finance selected him as one of the top ten CEOs. With his performance in leading Golden Harvest last year, he will definitely have a place.

It is precisely because these riches are visible and tangible that the two of them work very passionately and also want to obtain shares in Golden Harvest Group.

Now that Jiahe Group has become more formal, obtaining Jiahe's options will certainly not be as easy as before the listing.

However, for these two senior executives, if they have made achievements and worked for more than three years, Liu Zhou will not hesitate to give them shares, but it will definitely not be as much as he gave to Zhang Zhao and others before.

Despite this, it is also a rare opportunity for Jiang Xueruo and Li Wei to gain wealth.

Although Jiang Jiang Xueruo was the boss of Zhouyi Film and Television before, Zhouyi Film and Television, like Tangren, was notoriously poor and generally could only start the next project after the previous TV series had received payment.

If Jiang Xueruo had sold Zhouyi Film and Television during its peak period, it might have fetched two or three hundred million yuan, but when she sold it, Zhouyi was already in trouble, so Golden Harvest acquired Zhouyi for less than one hundred million yuan.

Even so, not all of Zhou Yi belongs to Jiang Xueruo, so her total net worth may be only tens of millions, or at most just over 100 million.

When the real estate industry reached its peak, her wealth might not have been as good as Yu Bo's, who even owned two courtyard houses.

Therefore, hundreds of millions of dollars in wealth is also a huge sum of money for Jiang Xueruo.

It is even more so for Li Wei. He used to have considerable power in Xiangnan Optoelectronics, but after all, he is a public official with a career system, so it is impossible for him to make a lot of money.

The main reason why he accepted Jiahe's invitation was because of money. He could make more money in Jiahe.

The two of them now cannot see the madness of the entertainment industry in the future, so they have no idea of ​​starting a business at this time.

Therefore, if you want to make more money with your own abilities, the best way is to join Golden Harvest, because for the senior management of Golden Harvest, the shares are real.

As for their future work at Golden Harvest, both of them had a very good start.

Jiang Xueruo produced the hit TV series "The Legend of Zhen Huan", which helped Golden Harvest Films to earn more than 2010 million yuan in profit in . She is also planning to make another big splash this year.

Li Wei is no less impressive. Although Golden Harvest Production is a newly established company and it is its first time producing a variety show, it has also produced a big hit.

Last summer, apart from Liu Yifei who became famous because of "Those Years", the most popular program was "The Voice of China" created by Li Wei.

Although this variety show was not originally created by him, he participated in its creation from beginning to end. He also made an indispensable contribution to the popularity of "The Voice of China" last summer.

"The Voice of China" seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and became a hit since the first episode. As the program was broadcast, the ratings continued to rise, even surpassing Shonan TV's "Happy Camp" and the recently launched "Day Day Up".

"The Voice of China" also became the first variety show to surpass "Happy Camp" in ratings.

The ratings may not be as good as the original "Super Girl", but the influence is not inferior at all. Both talent shows are phenomenal variety shows.

However, "Super Girl" was very popular in 2004 and 2005. At that time, talent shows were still very new, and everyone's main entertainment program was still television.

Nowadays, people have various ways of entertainment, especially with the popularization of the Internet, and fewer and fewer people watch TV, as can be seen from the sharp decline in the ratings of TV dramas.

So if "The Voice of China" was put on five or six years ago, its ratings would not be inferior to "Super Girl" at all. Looking at its current influence, we can see that the former is also a popular variety show.

Of course, for Li Wei, the most important thing is the crazy money-making ability of "The Voice of China".

(End of this chapter)