Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 530 Attention
In addition to the drama "Empress Wu Zetian", of course everyone's most concerned is the film project.

This is not only because the roles in Golden Harvest's film projects are very popular, but also because the box office of Golden Harvest's films is so sharp, and last year it was a hit from beginning to end.

So artists in the circle are paying attention, bosses of major film and television companies are paying attention, and even netizens are paying attention.

The news coming out from Golden Harvest did not disappoint everyone. "Painted Skin 2", "Ghost Blows Out the Light: Mojin: The Legend", and "Cold War" all caused quite a bit of discussion.

There is no need to talk about "Painted Skin 2". The first part raked in more than million yuan at the box office and had an excellent reputation. "Painted Skin" can be said to be a rare blockbuster in China that achieved both box office success and good reputation.

Especially after the fermentation of the past few years, and with the contrast of its peers, this ancient costume fantasy blockbuster has become increasingly popular in the hearts of movie fans.

In fact, many people are already looking forward to the sequel of this movie, and some true fans have been leaving messages on Golden Harvest’s official Weibo.

However, because Golden Harvest Group has had many projects in recent years, the production of "Painted Skin 2" has been put on hold, but the script has already been polished.

Now, after four years, "Painted Skin 2" has finally started, which has made fans of this movie celebrate and has also made more fans look forward to it.

The management of major film and television companies could not help but remain silent upon seeing this situation. It seems that needless to say, unless "Painted Skin 2" is filmed like a piece of shit, the box office will definitely not be too low.

This made them a little envious, as Jiahe had so many films to shoot.

In their opinion, not only "Painted Skin 2", but also "The Swordsman 3" and "Detective Dee 2" are all very good projects.

But Golden Harvest is forcing it down. If they owned these projects, they would have started production long ago.

What they don’t know is that the main reason why Golden Harvest didn’t make sequels to these movies, besides because they really had no shortage of projects, was because these two projects were somewhat out of date.

Two "Brotherhood of Blades" films have been produced, both of which have received good box office and reputation. Moreover, because the first film was called a new martial arts film by the media and netizens, it also holds a high status in the hearts of movie fans.

But it is undeniable that martial arts movies are no longer popular nowadays. A large number of martial arts movies were released in the past few years, and the audiences are already tired of them.

Even the martial arts film "Sword Rain", produced by Xu Ke and of very good quality, only managed to gross 200 million yuan during last year's Spring Festival.

This achievement was possible thanks to Xu Ke's appeal and Golden Harvest's full-scale promotion and marketing. Despite this, the box office was only 200 million.

You have to know that seven years ago, the box office of "The Blade of the Immortal" was more than 200 million, which was higher than "Sword Rain".

At that time, the era of domestic commercial films had just begun, and the only domestic film to break the 100 million yuan box office was "Hero". When "Sword Rain" was released, a box office of over 100 million yuan was just the passing line for a blockbuster.

Therefore, martial arts movies are really not doing well in China. If "Sword Rain" was a project of other companies, it would be difficult to break the 100 million yuan box office, let alone reach 200 million yuan.

This was the case in the original time and space. "Sword Rain" was produced by Wu Baige, who was more famous than Xu Ke at the time. After all, Xu Ke had not joined Golden Harvest at that time and was still dormant because of the failure of "Seven Swords".

Although Wu Baige was not as famous as when he had just come from Hollywood and filmed "Red Cliff", his influence was indeed higher than Xu Ke's at that time. After all, his successful resume in Hollywood gave him a lot of points.

But despite this, despite Wu Baige's full promotion, "Sword Rain" only earned tens of millions at the box office.

Later, because the quality of this movie was really good, some movie fans found it and highly recommended it.

They have been doing some research and feel that "Sword Rain" was born at the wrong time, that the film had a bad release schedule, and that the distribution company was not good, which is why the box office was so low.

But in fact, there is only one real reason: martial arts movies are no longer popular, and their audience has been greatly reduced compared to a few years ago.

Today's martial arts movies are in the same situation, so even if you take out the third film in the "Swords of Blade" series, which has a considerable influence, and add the full distribution of Golden Harvest Group, the box office will not be very high. Two hundred million is the limit.

This result may be good for other movies, but for the "Swords of Time" series, it is a failing grade.

As one of the early domestic martial arts blockbusters, this movie is not only special in the hearts of some movie fans, but also has a special status in this series within Golden Harvest.

Because this was Liu Zhou's first blockbuster, and it was a masterpiece that achieved both box office success and good reputation, Golden Harvest has always attached great importance to the "Blade of the Immortal" series.

So even though Golden Harvest had already completed the scripts for the third and fourth parts of "Blade of the Immortal", they did not dare to go into production. They did not dare to take risks with this series.

What's more, there are good projects within Golden Harvest.

In fact, Liu Zhou is not willing to launch the "Xiu Chun Dao" series now, the reason is of course that the market is not good at the moment.

But he knows that the audience's tastes will change. They may be tired of martial arts movies now, but they may miss them again in a few years.

By then, people's tastes may become more sophisticated, but if you make a high-quality martial arts movie, the audience will still buy it.

Otherwise, the original time and space "Xiu Chun Dao" would not have emerged as a dark horse, popped out of nowhere, and had a very high reputation.

Therefore, Liu Zhou also decided to wait until the low period of martial arts movies was over, and then wait a few years to start the "Xiu Chun Dao" series.

Although the first two parts of the original version have been released, Liu Zhou feels that there is still a lot of content to be filmed, such as the story after Shen Lian went to Yangzhou.

Jiangnan in the late Ming Dynasty was quite exciting. The common people were living in poverty, but the powerful people in Jiangnan were living in peace and prosperity. If you just take some historical stories and integrate them into the film, you can make a good movie.

Later, the Qing army entered the pass, and the Three Days of Yangzhou, the Three Massacres of Jiading, etc. were all very good materials.

Therefore, if the box office continues to be good, the "Swords of Eternal Love" series can continue to be filmed. If the third film is successful, then the series will truly gain a foothold.

Even if the market is unfriendly to martial arts movies in the future, it will not have much impact on "The Blade of the Sword".

But that's all for the future. Even Liu Zhou doesn't dare to start the production of the third part of "The Sword of Embroidery" easily now.

But "The Swordsman" is not allowed, but the sequel to "Painted Skin" is fine.

As a costume special effects blockbuster, it is really everyone's favorite type at this time.

Now, just a rumor that has been circulating has caused heated discussion among many netizens.

A large number of people did not quite believe it and thought it was just another hype by some media, so they kept asking questions on Golden Harvest’s official Weibo account.

Seeing this, Jiahe no longer hid the news and announced it directly.

Not only did the official announce the fact that "Painted Skin 2" is in preparation, but the director and cast of the film were also announced.

The director is no longer Xu Ke, but a new director Wuershan.

Everyone is undoubtedly very unfamiliar with this person, let alone ordinary netizens, even most people in the circle don't know him. However, netizens are still very resourceful. In less than half a day, they found Wuershan's resume.

He graduated from the directing department of Beijing Film Academy in 1994, and has been working as an advertising director since graduation. He has a great reputation in the advertising field.

Then he directed one short film and that was it, not even a single theatrical movie.

No one expected that an advertising director would become the director of the hit sequel of "Painted Skin" overnight, and Golden Harvest has not yet arranged a producer. It is obvious that he is worthy of the title of director.

The outside world didn’t understand what abilities he had that made Jiahe recognize him so much, and for a while the name Wuershan became the focus of everyone’s discussion.

This is the influence of Golden Harvest. Even if you were unknown before, if you are associated with Golden Harvest, you will immediately gain considerable fame.

It wasn't Liu Zhou who chose Wuershan to be the director of Painted Skin 2. If he had chosen him, he would definitely have chosen Xu Ke to continue to direct the sequel.

This is not only safer, but the return of the original cast will undoubtedly be a bigger gimmick.

However, Xu Ke was unwilling to do so. He preferred to direct another movie, "Ghost Blows Out the Light: Mojin: The Lost Tomb", so he recommended the newcomer Wuershan.

Wuershan is actually not a complete newcomer. He was recognized by Golden Harvest in its emerging director support program and the company invested in his debut film "Swordsman".

The film has been completed and will be released during the May Day holiday this year.

After getting to know him, Chen Guofu felt that he was quite talented, so he signed him.

He himself was also quite interested in special effects, which were beyond his reach, so he often went to Xu Ke for advice, and was even willing to help in the preparations for "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate".

Xu Ke was not unkind to the newly signed director. He was willing to ask for advice and was willing to give some pointers if it did not affect his work.

But I didn't expect that after several exchanges, I found that this newcomer Wuershan actually has some talent.

So when selecting the director of "Painted Skin 2", Xu Ke recommended him.

Then after being tested by Chen Guofu, he gained his recognition, and then he was chosen against all odds to be the director of "Painted Skin 2".

The director is a newcomer, but the cast has not changed, and the original cast from the first part has returned.

Of course not all cast members have returned, but the three main actors have all returned.

The male lead is of course still Huang Xiaoming. Although he is about to leave Golden Harvest, Golden Harvest still chose him to continue to be the male lead, which can be regarded as a breakup gift to him.

Needless to say, the heroine Zhou Gongzi, her role as Xiao Wei in the first film is arguably the most outstanding character. Many people are looking forward to the sequel to "Painted Skin" because of the role she will play.

Although she is planning to leave after her contract expires next year, Golden Harvest will not sacrifice public interest for personal gain. Even if she has already left, Golden Harvest will invite her back.

Another female lead, Zhang Tong, has not had any works or even appeared in the public eye for more than four years, and many people have forgotten her.

Only her fans remember her, but she doesn’t even have a Weibo account, so there’s no way to interact with her. All we know is that she is teaching at the Shanghai Theatre Academy.

Now that she has finally returned, her fans are almost crying with joy. The fans who have liked her until now are almost all true fans.

The entertainment industry is changing very quickly. If you haven't been heard from for two years, the audience will soon forget you. This is even faster in the era of traffic.

However, Zhang Tong is obviously not the kind of star who is neither up nor down. She was quite famous before, and became the pride of the 96 class of the Central Academy of Drama together with Zeng Li, Zhang Ziyi, Liu Ye and others.

Later, after playing the role of Peirong in "Painted Skin", her fame almost caught up with the four actresses and two Bing.

But he disappeared after "Painted Skin", and appeared again as a teacher at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. This was discovered and reported by the entertainment media, otherwise many people would not know about it.

So now that Zhang Tong has returned to the public eye, it immediately evoked everyone's memories of her.

Of course it was Liu Zhou who persuaded Zhang Tong to come out of retirement again. Although Liu Zhou knew that she enjoyed teaching at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, he understood that Zhang Tong actually still liked acting.

However, it was because of Liu Zhou that she retired to raise her children and teach.

Now that the child has grown up and is being taken care of by her mother, Liu Zhou feels that there is no need for her to suppress herself all the time.

He felt very sorry for Zhang Tong for not being able to give her a legitimate status, so he still hoped that Zhang Tong could do something she liked.

Then, under Liu Zhou's persuasion, and with some interest herself, she agreed to star in "Painted Skin 2".

In addition to these three leading actors, Yang Mi, one of the four newly signed young actresses of Golden Harvest, also joined the film.

According to the line-up announced by Golden Harvest, apart from the director who caused some doubts among the outside world, everyone else is quite satisfied.

However, netizens also know that Jiahe will not do anything stupid, so although they don’t trust Wuershan very much, they still trust Jiahe.

This time, Golden Harvest not only released information related to "Painted Skin 2", but also information about "Ghost Blows Out the Light: Mojin: The Last Dragon" and "Cold War".

The director of "Mojin: The Lost Tomb" Xu Ke was a bit unexpected. After all, it is well known that he is currently filming his 3D martial arts blockbuster "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate".

I didn't expect that he still had the energy to take care of another movie, but everyone is still relatively confident that he will be the director.

Then the cast of leading actors is also quite luxurious. The male lead, Liu Ye, has just become very popular in "Interstellar". His fame has surpassed Huang Xiaoming and is on par with Qin Hao.

Liu Ye can be said to be the top male actor in mainland China.

The heroine Shirley Yang, played by Liu Yifei, was also very satisfying.

Liu Yifei was already very famous, and with the protection of Jiahe, she didn't have so many bad things happen to her, so her fame was not affected at all.

Last year, the drama “Those Years” directly ignited her popularity. Almost all the characters she played were very popular and her fans were very loyal.

Therefore, Liu Yifei’s current fame is no less than that of the Four Dans and the Two Bings, and her commercial value is only slightly higher than that of Fan Xiaopang.

The other protagonist, Fatty Wang, is played by Huang Bo. Although he is not as famous as the other two, he is the Golden Horse Award winner and a real talent.

These three leading actors, plus the famous director Xu Ke, and most importantly, Liu Zhou himself as the screenwriter, make this movie no less popular than "Painted Skin 2".

(End of this chapter)