Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 538 China's Own Superhero

It is still early for the casting of "Joker". The script has just been completed and it is still unclear whether this project can be approved by Warner.

To be honest, Liu Zhou really likes this movie. If it weren't for the copyright issues, he could have started preparing for it himself without having to consider Warner's opinion.

Although the plot has nothing to do with DC comics and "Batman: The Dark Knight", the character of the Joker became popular because of their comics and movies.

Even if there is no infringement, if the box office is good, people will come to you. Even if the box office is not so good, people will stick to you when they see that it is you, Liu Zhou and Dingfeng Entertainment.

Copyright is taken very seriously in Hollywood, and because it is sometimes difficult to determine whether a film copyright is infringed, copyright lawsuits are numerous in Hollywood, and the slightest contact could lead to a lawsuit.

Therefore, any Hollywood film and television company with a little bit of strength will have a dedicated legal department or a long-term cooperative law firm.

The Big Seven in Hollywood are the best among them, as they own the largest copyright library, so copyright lawsuits are commonplace, and of course they are the ones who mainly sue others.

The legal affairs of the Big Seven Hollywood companies are like hyenas and are notorious.

So if Liu Zhou dares to shoot "Joker" without Warner's authorization, he will definitely be targeted by them.

They are worried that they can't find an opportunity to attack Summit Entertainment. Even though Liu Zhou and Warner seem to be getting along well, and the cooperation between Golden Harvest and Warner was also good in the past, this doesn't prevent them from turning against you.

In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, it is better to cooperate with Warner.

Moreover, if you want to fully unleash the box office potential and influence of the movie "Joker", cooperating with the Big Seven Hollywood studios is indeed the best choice.

It would be best if they don't kill the project. If the project is rejected, Liu Zhou can only try to contact Warner or change the project.

However, Warner's project review department is composed of a very professional group of people. There may be occasional loopholes, but their capabilities are above standard. Given the quality of "Joker", the worst outcome should not happen.

Of course, everything will have to wait until he goes to Hollywood. Liu Zhou also plans to spend a few days arranging things in China before going to North America.

Although he is not as busy this year as in the previous two years, it will not be easy if he really has to shoot "Joker".

If things go well, the film project will be prepared immediately, and then "Aftershock" will be released at the end of July, so he has to come back in advance to promote it.

The actual filming of the movie may not start until September, which will take at least two months, and then it will be November, which is also the annual Lunar New Year holiday.

This year's Lunar New Year holiday features two films by Xu Ke and Zhang Yimou, both of which are key projects of Golden Harvest. As the boss of Golden Harvest and also a director, of course I need to support them.

At the same time, Liu Zhou also has to start conceiving and preparing for the movie to be filmed next year.

So this year's schedule is actually quite full, just not as busy as last year.

I don’t know if they knew that Liu Zhou was going to North America, but Ning Hao and Xu Zheng came to him one after another to discuss the new movie.

First of all, Ning Hao, after returning from North America, he had been in seclusion for several months and finally came up with the science fiction movie he wanted to shoot.

However, because it was his first time, Ning Hao was still a little nervous, so he wanted to come to Liu Zhou to communicate or seek some encouragement.

Liu Zhou seemed to have not seen Ning Hao for a long time. They only met once last year when he just came back from North America, and then he plunged into writing scripts for science fiction movies.

After not seeing him for a few months, Ning Hao looked a little thinner, with less flesh on his face, but he seemed to be more fierce. With his big gold chain, he looked like a real gangster.

However, this gangster seemed a little reserved in front of Liu Zhou.

"Haozi, you've been in seclusion for so long and are you finally willing to come out?"

"My wife, the original author and I have been polishing the adapted script for three or four months. I feel it should be fine. I want you to take a look. If you think it's fine, I will start preparations."

"Come to think of it, I don't even know which novel you've chosen?"

"Mr. Liu, you should remember that it was you who personally decided to obtain the copyright for "Heaven's Will" which was published in "Science Fiction World" in 2004."

"'Heaven's Will'? Why did you choose this novel?" Liu Zhou asked with some surprise.

It’s not that “Heaven’s Will” is bad, but this novel is somewhat special. It is one of the rare oriental science fictions in China.

The novel mainly tells the story of an alien spaceship that landed in the Bohai Sea in ancient times. Later, the spaceship malfunctioned due to erosion by sea water.

However, the aliens on Earth found that they could not find the raw materials to repair the abnormal situation. Just when they were at a loss, they discovered that the moon could cause space-time warping.

Not only can it reverse time, it can also reverse part of space.

Therefore, the aliens came up with a solution, which was to fill up the Bohai Sea area, and then rewind the filled-in flat land to the front of the disaster, so that the spacecraft could land on the flat land instead of in the sea.

But human civilization at that time was too backward. In order to realize his plan, the aliens had to spread civilization to the earth, improve human capabilities, and help him complete the land reclamation plan.

Because of the contributions of this alien, he is also respected by humans as the ancestor Fuxi.

Aliens have snake heads and human bodies, so the images and totems of Fuxi that have been passed down also have snake heads and human bodies.

However, although humans respect him, they also regard him as a figure of faith or myth. When he really appears in front of humans, he will definitely be regarded as a monster and rejected.

The alien certainly has no interest in being the ancestor of mankind. His goal has always been to reclaim land. In order not to be rejected by humans, he has to find a spokesperson.

He first looked for Qin Shihuang, who had accomplished the unification of the country. However, as the first emperor to unify the country, Qin Shihuang certainly felt that this matter was not so simple, so he did not agree to his request.

Then the aliens found Han Xin, and the story of the novel also incorporated some famous historical events from the end of the Qin Dynasty, such as the secret crossing of Chencang, Farewell My Concubine, the suicide at Wujiang River, the humiliation of Han Xin under the crotch, etc.

The course of history has not changed, but the process may be more ups and downs.

In the novel, Han Xin's ability to be named King of Chu is closely related to Canghai Ke and the girl Ji Jiang. The owner of Canghai Ke is the legendary Fuxi, an alien.

After learning about the aliens' purpose, Han Xin realized that if he helped the aliens achieve the reversal of time and space, human civilization would return to the starting point. Therefore, Han Xin flatly refused to help the aliens fill the sea, and even used the Shadow Sword provided by the aliens to cause a volcanic eruption, destroying the aliens' instruments for controlling time and space, and also damaging the Nine Cauldrons, a sacred artifact used to help the emperor control the world.

In addition, Han Xin also planned to kill him for the continuation of human civilization. However, not only did he fail to kill Fuxi, he was also framed by Fuxi's subordinate Canghaike, who made Liu Bang kill Han Xin on the charge of treason.

However, before he died, he used an alien's time-travel device to send the girl Ji Jiang to the modern era two thousand years later, to remind modern people not to destroy human civilization by helping Fuxi.

The story of the novel ends when Ji Jiang comes to the modern era.

To be honest, the novel has a lot of imagination, but of course the most important thing is that the content is very well written.

This is also one of the few science fiction novels in "Science Fiction World" and even in China that contains oriental history.

“I think the novel ‘The Will of Heaven’ is well written. You also know that I was with the ‘Harry Potter’ crew in North America before, and I felt that Hollywood is quite good at making movies.

Originally, "Harry Potter" was a children's book, but Hollywood was able to make it into a movie for all ages. I think the most important point is that magic culture is very popular in the West.

I had some vague ideas at the time, and later when I was looking for science fiction novels to adapt, I fell in love with "The Providence" at first sight. I think we can also incorporate our oriental culture into our science fiction movies.

Not only will it allow domestic audiences to feel more involved, but if this movie is fortunate enough to be released overseas, it will also be able to spread our Chinese culture to a certain extent.

Of course, the novel's plot is also quite dramatic and brilliant, and there are many large-scale scenes that require special effects, which will have a strong visual impact if filmed."

Liu Zhou couldn't help but nodded slightly at Ning Hao's idea.

When Liu Zhou went to Science Fiction World to purchase the copyright of the novel, he also took a liking to "Heaven's Will" at first sight. His idea was similar to Ning Hao's, and he was also attracted by the oriental historical background of the novel.

In addition to this, another important reason why he attached so much importance to this novel was some ideas he derived from "Heaven's Will".

Liu Zhou is very clear that in the next few years, American superheroes will sweep the world. Dozens of IPs created by DC and Marvel, such as Superman, Batman, Spider-man, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and the Hulk, have been adapted into movies, games, and downstream derivatives that are popular all over the world.

Marvel's Avengers, in particular, has become popular all over the world, and these superhero movies have also spread the culture of the United States to the world.

At that time, Liu Zhou was wondering, does China have its own superhero?

Of course there is.

For example, Sun Wukong. Journey to the West is the most well-known IP in China. Later, China also shot one Journey to the West movie after another, and all of them made huge profits.

This has caused Mr. Zhang, who was once a highly respected old artist in the country, to lose his reputation in his later years.

In addition, Nezha, Erlang Shen and others can also be considered Chinese superheroes.

In fact, Liu Zhou had also thought about shooting independent films about Nezha, Erlang Shen Yang Jian, Lei Zhenzi, Jiang Ziya and others, and then bringing them together to shoot a "Investiture of the Gods".

However, there is too much uncertainty in doing so. After all, these mythological characters do not belong to anyone exclusively and anyone can take pictures of them.

If Golden Harvest succeeds in making a movie like "Nezha", other film and television companies will definitely follow suit. By then, they will release a bunch of shoddy movies like "Yang Jian", "Lei Zhenzi" and "Jiang Ziya", and Golden Harvest's plan will most likely come to nothing.

After all, the domestic film and television industry is particularly prone to following trends, and the phenomenon of bad money driving out good money often occurs.

Not only that, even if the audience only recognizes movies produced by Golden Harvest, these mythological characters and mythological stories are well-known to everyone, so it is difficult to make a movie successful.

After all, it is easy to draw a ghost, but it is difficult to draw a chicken.

What's more, there are requirements for special effects. If two or three films fail, there will be no foundation for filming "Investiture of the Gods" at the end, and it will not be possible to be as popular as "Avengers".

In fact, there were also companies in China that did this later, but they were in the form of animated films. "Ne Zha" was certainly very successful, but the others were not particularly successful.

I just don’t know if there will be an animated movie of “Investiture of the Gods” in the end, but looking at the current situation, it should be difficult.

Therefore, if we want to use ancient mythological characters as domestic superheroes and then film them in the form of movies to create China's own superhero world, it would be extremely difficult.

But Liu Zhou thought that since ancient mythological characters didn't work, he could also create modern superheroes like Marvel in the United States.

Marvel's superheroes, whether it's Spider-Man, Thor, or Captain America, actually have a common name in the eyes of some people in China, which is urban superheroes.

That’s right, some of them are veteran readers who have been reading online novels for more than ten years.

Today's online literature may be more imaginative. In the urban supernatural novels ten years ago, the abilities of the protagonists were varied and relatively conventional, and there was no system.

Moreover, an organization often appeared in urban supernatural online novels at that time, and that was the famous Dragon Group.

The mysterious Dragon Group is an organization that generally manages people with superpowers in China, and is similar to Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D.

So Liu Zhou wanted to create a few Chinese urban superheroes, that is, modern superheroes, and then build a Chinese superhero world.

And "Heaven's Will" is a very important introduction.

In Liu Zhou's opinion, after Ji Jiang came to the present, the aliens did not disappear. Instead, they secretly cultivated many minions and even established an evil organization.

After the aliens discovered Ji Jiang's arrival, they also arranged their men to hunt her down.

These people have always been the focus of the Dragon Team's defense, so Ji Jiang was rescued by the Dragon Team, and then she revealed the existence of aliens.

But she didn't know at the beginning that those who were chasing her were aliens. As the story unfolded, she realized that it was the aliens who controlled this evil organization.

During this period, the Dragon Group also launched a series of fierce battles with this evil organization.

Here you can film various distinctive urban super-powered warriors, who finally combine together and, under the leadership of the Dragon Team, defeat the evil alien organization and ultimately kill the aliens.

(End of this chapter)