Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 553: Small-mindedness and high demands
After the huge success of "Love Is Not Blind", Teng Huatao enjoyed a period of glory.

Although its brilliance was later overshadowed by "Interstellar" and "Let the Bullets Fly", the movie "Love Is Not Blind" is still remembered by people.

This is something that many movies fail to do.

As for Teng Huatao, there is no need to mention him. He jumped from a TV drama director to a famous film director.

During that period, he was always welcomed wherever he went, and the bosses of various film and television companies also greeted him with smiles and vied to win him over.

This was a treatment he had never enjoyed before, not even when he had starred in a series of TV series with huge viewership ratings.

The difference in influence between TV series and movies is vividly reflected at this moment.

To be honest, although he felt a little proud at that time, he was really grateful to Jiahe.

No one knew better than him how many difficulties "Love Is Not Blind" had gone through in the first place. After asking all major companies for help, only Golden Harvest extended a helping hand and invested money in him.

It is also thanks to Golden Harvest's promotion that this movie has achieved such success.

Not to mention other things, the fact that the movie was able to be jointly promoted with Taobao at that time was something that not ordinary film and television companies could do.

After working with Golden Harvest for a while, Teng Huatao understood more clearly the strength of Golden Harvest Group, which was much stronger than Huayi.

It wasn't that he had any ulterior motives. At that time, he really wanted to join Golden Harvest Group, where he could get more resources and go further in the film industry.

I thought that with "Love Is Not Blind" as a stepping stone, Golden Harvest would also try to win him over like other film and television companies did.

He thought he could be a little reserved and then discuss some conditions, so he agreed. However, he didn't expect that the other party had no intention of doing so at all.

No matter how popular he was outside, Jiahe, the person he most wanted to win over, never showed up and ignored him.

To be honest, he was a little angry and anxious at the time, but as a big director, he couldn't just beg Golden Harvest Group to let him join.

That’s right, at this moment he felt that he was a promising future director.

At least he felt that he was much better than Xu Zheng. At the beginning, the other party had only made one movie, "Lost on Journey", which grossed over 100 million yuan at the box office, but he was already too high-profile.

His own movie "33 Days of Broken Love" had much higher box office than "Lost on Journey" and had much greater influence. It was also a breakthrough work, so there was no problem for him to call himself a great director.

And amid the applause, Teng Huatao inevitably became inflated and more arrogant.

So he inevitably felt a little insulted by Jiahe's neglect.

He felt that he needed to make a better movie to make Golden Harvest feel regretful, so that he could vent his anger.

After excluding Golden Harvest, which was his favorite option, the conditions offered to him by other companies were basically the same, so he finally returned to Huayi without hesitation.

Huayi really regretted not investing in his movie, so it tried very hard to win him over, fearing that he would leave Huayi.

He felt more accomplished when facing Huayi, not to mention that he had been signed with Huayi before and was also a member of the Beijing circle. When he was unable to join Golden Harvest, Huayi was undoubtedly his best choice.

After returning to Huayi, he was undoubtedly valued by the Wang brothers. Not only did they give the green light to his new project, but they also fully increased the investment budget. He no longer had to work as tight as he did when filming "Love Is Not Blind".

The new movie is also a love movie. In fact, he thought about making other types of movies, but the Wang brothers persuaded him to wait until the next part.

Teng Huatao could understand their thoughts and no longer forced them. It was a good opportunity for him to make another romance film to consolidate his position.

Didn’t Liu Zhou also make two romance films first and then switch to other types of movies?

Of course, the release date is still set on Double Eleven, which is a release date that we created to a certain extent, and Double Eleven is indeed more suitable for romance movies.

I thought that the year is almost halfway over and no one would compete with me during this period.

But it’s already May, and I didn’t expect Golden Harvest to make a move.

At this time, "Ex-Files" was scheduled to be released on Double Eleven, and Teng Huatao instinctively thought that Golden Harvest was targeting him.

After all, when he returned to Huayi because he was resentful of Jiahe, he said some sarcastic words to Jiahe.

He was very happy at the time, but afterwards he was really worried that Jiahe would mess with him, but the other party had not made any move so he thought the matter was over.

In the end, I didn't expect that someone was waiting for me here.

To be honest, he is not too afraid of competition. After last year's success, he has more confidence in his own abilities.

This movie "Waiting for the Wind" basically follows the plot of "Love Is Not Blind".

"Love Is Not Blind" is a story about the hero and heroine who go through laughter, anger and insults and finally find true love.

"Waiting for the Wind" is similar. The male and female protagonists and several others form a tour group and start a "happy journey" to Nepal, but the tourists in the group all have their own life problems.

The tour group encountered troubles from the beginning, but during a series of events including being disbanded shortly after being established, the midnight shock of a power outage in the hotel, living alone in a small hotel on the top of a mountain, encountering local riots, etc., the members of the tour group took care of each other and understood each other, and everyone showed their true selves.

Although the hero and heroine did not end up together, it was a bit regrettable that they just stood there waiting for the wind to come.

However, it also left the audience with beautiful fantasies. Teng Huatao had been conceiving of that beautiful scene in his mind for more than a month, and he firmly believed that it would become the most classic shot in all love movies.

Having said that, he was still a little worried about competing with Jiahe.

According to the information he had heard, Golden Harvest took "Ex-Files" very seriously, which made him even more nervous.

Although the director of "Ex-Files" is a newcomer, who dares to ignore the newcomer launched by Golden Harvest?

Even if other people could do it, he couldn't, because he was one of the newcomers introduced by Golden Harvest.

But there is no point in thinking too much now. Since Jiahe has already made its move, we can only deal with it as it comes.

What's more, he didn't believe that any newcomer launched by Golden Harvest could be better than him.

Since competition is inevitable, let's face it head-on.

After calming down, Teng Huatao returned to the set the next day to continue filming.

Of course, Golden Harvest didn't know that launching a movie called "Ex-Files" would make the Wang brothers and Teng Huatao think so much. In fact, it might be that only Golden Harvest itself didn't think so. As the industry leader, its every move actually affects the hearts of other companies, which is also a reflection of Golden Harvest's strong influence.

This time, the film was released on the same day as Huayi’s, which of course made Huayi feel like it was facing a formidable enemy.

But to be honest, Golden Harvest didn't really take "Ex-Files" seriously, it was just a low-budget romance movie.

The movies that Golden Harvest really values ​​are "Aftershock" which will be released in the summer, Zhang Yimou's "The Flowers of War", Xu Ke's "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate", as well as "Mojin: The Last Dragon" and "Painted Skin 2" which are currently in preparation.

The reason why Liu Zhou agreed to invest in the movie "Ex-Files" as soon as he heard Zhang Zhao mention it was because he valued this series.

Although the box office of the first two "Ex-Files" films was good, ranging from over 100 million to 200 million, this result is nothing compared to Golden Harvest.

"Ex-Files 3" was a box office bomb, earning more than billion and nearly billion yuan at the box office. The box office of the fourth film also exceeded billion yuan.

But as a love movie, a box office performance of more than 3 million is considered very good. After all, breakthrough works like "Love Is Not Blind" or "Ex-Files " are really rare.

Therefore, Liu Zhou didn't pay much attention to the movie "Ex-Files" at all, and arranged all the operations by his subordinates.

But news always gets distorted. He just nodded and agreed to make the movie, but when it got out, it became that he was very optimistic about the movie.

The fact that Golden Harvest scheduled the release date of "Ex-Files" on Double Eleven was not really meant to target Teng Huatao, they just simply thought that the schedule was suitable.

As for Teng Huatao's sarcasm at the beginning, Jiahe didn't take it to heart at all. There were many people criticizing Jiahe. If everyone cared about it, then Jiahe would have no time to do anything else.

And no matter what, Teng Huatao made a lot of money for Golden Harvest and also made Zhu Yawen and Yang Mi into movie stars.

As for why he was not recruited under his command, this was of course Liu Zhou's decision.

Others may think that Teng Huatao is a rising star in the film industry, whose first movie was a great success at the box office and in good reputation.

But only Liu Zhou knew that he reached the peak as soon as he debuted. The success of "Love Is Not Blind" can be said to be the result of the right time, place and people.

"Love Is Not Blind" was a surprise for Teng Huatao, the next two films were his true masterpieces.

So what's the point of signing Teng Huatao? Should we let him shoot "Fortress of the Demon City"?
Of course, he is quite good at filming TV series, but how could anyone agree to sign him to film a TV series?

They are preparing to make great achievements in the film industry. If you ask them to make a TV series, even if you are Golden Harvest, they will not pay attention to you.

Therefore, instead of doing this, it would be better for them to just cooperate on "Love Is Not Blind" this time, so that everyone can maintain their friendship.

However, Jiahe probably didn't expect that they would be complained about just because they didn't try to recruit him.

Then the release date of Double Eleven will also be considered as a target. Although this is indeed a bit easy to be misunderstood, it is more because of Teng Huatao's own nature that he imagines others to be like this.

It doesn’t matter what he thinks, and no one will care, let alone Liu Zhou.

While the country was bustling with the May Day holiday and "Ex-Files", Liu Zhou had already been filming for more than a week on the set of "Joker" in New York.

"Joker" is a very heavy and even cruel movie. It not only bloodily presents the bullying and injustice of the entire society against people living at the bottom of society, but also reveals the cruel reality of how class gap makes people become demons.

In fact, the movie mainly tells the story of Arthur, the clown who brings joy and smiles to everyone, but because of the cruelty of the society, he becomes a rat crossing the street and is hunted by everyone, and eventually becomes the "crazy clown" feared by the citizens.

If you are a veteran movie fan who has watched every classic movie, you should be familiar with this kind of protagonist setting.

Both "The King of Comedy" and "Taxi Driver" by Hollywood director Martin Scorsese have very similar shadows.

The leading actor in both films is Robert De Niro, and in this "Joker", Liu Zhou invited him to play the host Murray, who makes fun of other people's sadness, enjoys the benefits of the upper class but continues to oppress the lower class.

"Ka, well done!"

At this time, the scene where Arthur the Clown shot and killed the host Murray had just been finished.

Due to schedule reasons, and in order to keep Joaquin Phoenix in good shape later on, Liu Zhou plans to finish filming some of the other people's scenes first, and then he can just keep filming Joaquin.

The scene where Arthur the Clown attends Murray's show and then shoots him is a climax of the whole movie.

However, both of them are excellent actors. Robert De Niro is a veteran first-line actor in Hollywood, so his acting skills are naturally impeccable.

Joaquin Phoenix is ​​no ordinary person either, and he has been preparing for this for a long time.

For this movie, he lost 23 pounds in less than a month.

One very difficult part about playing the role of the Joker is the Joker's laugh.

In order to fully understand this demonic laughter, he watched many videos of people with pathological laughter, that is, those who could not control their crying and laughing when stimulated.

You have to know that this reflection has nothing to do with your true inner emotions.

Therefore, the acting between the two can be described as a perfect match, which is extremely enjoyable for everyone to watch.

Liu Zhou originally thought that this scene would take two or three days to shoot, but unexpectedly it was done in one day, and both of them only had to do two NGs.

Liu Zhou was quite satisfied with their performance the third time, but to be on the safe side and have more possibilities, he asked the two to keep two more replies, and they both performed well.

To be honest, Liu Zhou felt a little nervous as he looked at Joaquin Phoenix, who was wearing a bright red suit jacket, a bright yellow and green shirt underneath, green hair, and clown makeup, and was smiling as he walked towards him.

Especially since he was holding a prop gun and slapping the outside of his thigh again and again in the rhythm of his footsteps, it always felt like he was going to shoot himself in the next second.

His makeup is not made out of nothing, but is based on the famous American serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

Its characteristics are extremely large mouth and eyes. Unlike the clown makeup in most children's parks, which is mostly flat, the clown has sharp angles on its mouth and eyes, giving off an uncomfortable evil aura.

Plus, Joaquin Phoenix had just left the court, and his expression and eyes were a little nervous. Not only Liu Zhou, but everyone else also looked a little nervous when they saw him.

However, this feeling only lasts for a moment. Joaquin Phoenix has high demands on himself and he has to review his performance after each shoot.

He sets high standards for himself, and Liu Zhou is happy to see this. Sometimes, even if Liu Zhou thinks a shot is good enough, he is still not satisfied. As long as it is within the framework, Liu Zhou is willing to let him continue shooting, since the budget is sufficient anyway.

(End of this chapter)