Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 556 Cooperation and Disapproval
Liu Zhou and Deng Wendy are old acquaintances. They have known each other since she came to China, which has been four or five years.

However, their relationship is not very close and is limited to work-related contact.

Since Murdoch wanted to expand News Corporation's business to mainland China, his wife Wendy Deng has spent most of her time in mainland China, trying to help him open up the market.

Liu Zhou is a very influential person in the mainland entertainment industry, so Wendy Deng came to visit and make friends with him early on.

Liu Zhou didn't want to pay much attention to her at first, but he had to admit that she was not just a pretty face to marry Murdoch, the media tycoon. In the end, she was able to get enough compensation when they divorced, which was quite impressive.

So with Wendy Deng's good communication skills, Liu Zhou couldn't be too rude to her, and gradually the two sides established a friendship.

Even the success of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", a collaboration between Summit Entertainment and 20th Century Fox, was due to her playing a significant role.

With interests involved, the relationship will naturally become deeper and deeper. If Deng Wendy hadn't invited him personally this time, he wouldn't have wanted to come.

"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" should be the last peak of her influence in the domestic film and television industry. As the situation becomes clear, News Corporation will be completely unable to enter the country.

Wendy Deng and Murdoch will then divorce. After that, Wendy Deng still has some influence due to her previous accumulation, but without the identity of the boss lady of News Corporation, her influence is greatly reduced.

Murdoch's marriage to her almost came to an end when News Corporation was trying to make a breakthrough internally, but after all these efforts failed, their marriage almost came to an end.

Although there may be various factors involved, Murdoch's willingness to marry Wendy Deng is definitely closely related to his career. It has to be said that he is still so dedicated to his career at such an old age and is willing to risk his life to do so. It is really admirable.

"Hello, Mr. Liu, thank you for taking the initiative to attend this premiere." Wendy Deng said with a smile in fairly authentic Mandarin.

"Ms. Deng, you personally invited me, so I dare not not come."

"We all heard the cheers from the audience outside just now. We didn't expect Mr. Liu to be so popular."

He was really amazed. He knew that Liu Zhou had a great influence and was also known as a star director, but he didn't expect that his popularity was even higher than that of first-tier superstars.

Even when Cheng Long came over just now, the cheers were not this loud.

In her opinion, people like Liu Zhou are considered behind-the-scenes staff, and their popularity is naturally not as good as those popular actors, such as Zhang Yimou, Feng Kuazi and others.

Only Liu Zhou seems to be an outlier, his popularity is no less than that of some first-line superstars.

"I have been in the industry for more than ten years, and it is all thanks to the love of my fans."

The two chatted briefly for a while, and then Wendy Deng took Liu Zhou to the Zuowei direction.

There Liu Zhou saw the other two producers of "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan", Ren Zhonglun of Shanghai Film Group and Wang Zhongjun of Huayi.

These two people were not as enthusiastic about Liu Zhou as Deng Wendy.

Wang Zhongjun is easy to understand. His relationship with Liu Zhou has never been good, and this is common knowledge in the circle.

Moreover, last month, Golden Harvest's "Ex-Files" was scheduled to be released on Double Eleven, competing with Huayi's "Waiting for the Wind", which is obviously a competition.

At least the outside world and Wang Zhongjun believe that Golden Harvest is deliberately targeting Huayi.

Therefore, if he wants to have a good face when facing Liu Zhou now, he does not have that kind of self-control.

Don’t think that those business tycoons will always greet you with a smile even if they have a bad relationship with you. Sometimes they may also be sarcastic or even curse at you.

Just look at the confrontation between Brother Xiao Ma and Red Cannon when they meet and you will know that they are also human beings, they have emotions and desires, and they can also curse.

Ren Zhonglun and Liu Zhou don't have any conflicts. In fact, because of the last Shanghai International Film Festival, they have a good relationship.

But he couldn't be happy when facing Liu Zhou.

Last year, during the Lunar New Year holiday, "The Orphan of Zhao", invested by Shanghai Film Group, was defeated by "Interstellar" and its box office did not even break 100 million yuan. The latter's box office exceeded that of "Avatar", setting a domestic box office record in film history.

The comparison between the two makes the failure of "The Orphan of Zhao" even more obvious.

You know, when these two movies were first promoted, they were compared with each other.

In the end, this result was embarrassing not only for poet Chen, but also for Shanghai Film Group, especially since China Film was also the investor of "Interstellar".

It is even more shameful for Ren Zhonglun, who has always been competing with China Film Group.

Moreover, last year's Lunar New Year box office not only lost face, but also lost substance.

Although they did not pay for the bulk of the cost, the Spring and Autumn and Warring States City, which cost 70 to 80 million yuan to build, it was all paid for by the Xiangshan Film and Television Base.

However, even if the overseas copyright and distribution income are added, "The Orphan of Zhao" still lost more than 30 million.

You have to know that Shanghai Film Group is at least the second largest state-owned film studio in China, and it has large cinema chains that occupy the top five market shares.

Considering Brother Chen Kai’s reputation, it would be an understatement to describe this result as a disastrous defeat.

However, although he felt a little bitter when he saw Liu Zhou, Ren Zhonglun still maintained basic politeness and greeted Liu Zhou with a smile.

"I heard that Mr. Liu just came back from Hollywood. Has the film project over there been completed?"

"It's finished. It's just a feature film, there aren't any special effects, so it was shot faster."

"Boss Liu is really capable. Currently, Boss Liu is the only one in China who has the opportunity to make a movie in Hollywood, right?"

"In fact, there are many domestic directors who have opportunities in Hollywood. Once Wanda integrates MGM, there will be more opportunities."

Ren Zhonglun did not comment on Liu Zhou's words. Although Wanda acquired MGM, they also need to make money. It is difficult for Chinese directors to survive in Hollywood. Even if Wanda wants to, they will not send Chinese directors to Hollywood if they don't make money.

Besides, doesn’t Golden Harvest have a pretty strong film company in Hollywood? It doesn’t necessarily arrange for Chinese directors to go to Hollywood to make movies.

However, they have done a lot of things. Every year, they arrange some people to go to Hollywood to learn advanced production technology there, which is quite recognized in the industry.

In fact, Liu Zhou also understood their mentality at this time. At present, Hollywood's influence in China is indeed too great. Whether it is actors, directors, or even film and television companies, they are proud to break into Hollywood.

Just like this "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan", it is just a Sino-US co-production, and an art film, but it has caused such a big sensation in China.

However, in a few years, when the domestic film market picks up and the culture becomes more confident and the Hollywood filter is not so heavy, people will no longer always be thinking about breaking into Hollywood.

At that time, the domestic film market was enough to make all the major film and television companies very wealthy. Who would be so humble as to go to Hollywood and be looked down upon?

So at that time, there was very little news about breaking into Hollywood, almost no news at all.

Even at that time, when domestic audiences were somewhat tired of Hollywood blockbusters and they were no longer as popular, they still made a special effort to please domestic audiences, but their performance was a bit perfunctory, so the audience ignored them.

But this also led to another problem, because the domestic film market was good and very good, domestic film and television companies became a little perfunctory. The films they made were not sincere enough, and the number of bad films increased generally, and gradually people stopped buying them.

The audience is not so easily fooled. If you feed them overnight food, who would spend money to buy it?
So at that time, various film and television companies were shouting that the domestic film market was about to enter a cold winter, but the subsequent "Nezha 2" directly tore their lies apart.

"Nezha 2" proves that it is not that the domestic film market has cooled down, but that there are no high-quality films on the market and people are not buying them.

This also means that film and television companies can no longer blame the market downturn.

So the box office of "Nezha 2" has exploded this time. It has become the champion of the domestic box office in film history, which has many positive significances.

Back to the topic, after sitting down, Wang Zhongjun probably didn't feel uncomfortable anymore and went to greet other people. As the host, Wendy Deng also went to welcome some other heavyweight guests.

In the end, Ren Zhonglun was still there. He seemed to have adjusted his mindset at this time. He sighed and said:

"This summer, Hollywood movies are too fierce. There is also "Transformers 3" in July. If it weren't for your "Aftershock", this summer's movies would have been dominated by Hollywood blockbusters."

"Transformers 2" earned 4 million yuan in box office in China two years ago. With the current domestic film market conditions, the third film is guaranteed to earn at least million yuan.

Except for Liu Zhou and Zhang Yimou, anyone else who encounters this will basically be defeated.

"Aftershock was also filmed early, otherwise it wouldn't have been released in time for the summer season."

The domestic box office of "Transformers 3" will be higher than everyone imagines, but Liu Zhou is also confident about "Aftershock". It remains to be seen who will come out on top in the end.

This time, Liu Zhou can no longer use other means to stimulate the box office like he did with "Interstellar", and can only compete with it openly.

"This year, Golden Harvest will release two blockbusters, The Flowers of War and Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, during the Lunar New Year period. It seems that this Lunar New Year period will belong to Golden Harvest again.

It’s only because Xu Zheng’s Modern Times had a low box office during the Spring Festival this year, otherwise Golden Harvest would have dominated every schedule again.”

Liu Zhou understood what he meant. Last year, from the Spring Festival period at the beginning of the year, to the summer vacation period, to the National Day period, in between the Double Eleven period, and finally the Lunar New Year period, the movies produced by Golden Harvest were all box office champions.

Last year was indeed a year in which Golden Harvest dominated the film market.

It’s just that Golden Harvest failed during the Spring Festival this year, otherwise other film and television companies would have really joined forces.

Now seeing that Ren Zhonglun seems to be still frightened, he is obviously unwilling to accept this. Shanghai Film Group is the second largest state-owned film production group in China, not to mention other companies, this idea must be even stronger.

So Liu Zhou had to be modest at this time:
"Mr. Ren, you are flattering me. This year, not only the Spring Festival period, but also the May Day period, Golden Harvest also flopped. Moreover, there were no films released during the National Day period.

This time, the highlights of Golden Harvest are only the summer and Lunar New Year seasons.”

"These three movies from Golden Harvest are worth ten movies from other companies. Sometimes I really envy Mr. Han. I wonder when Golden Harvest will cooperate with our Shanghai Film Group?"

Liu Zhou couldn't help but realize that Ren Zhonglun had gone around in circles and it turned out that the last sentence was the key point.

"No problem. We can certainly cooperate if there is a suitable opportunity."

"Then it's settled. Mr. Liu can't go back on his word."

"Of course!"

Although Golden Harvest generally only cooperates with China Film, Shanghai Film Group is only slightly inferior to China Film, and its domestic industry influence is equally huge.

Since Golden Harvest has almost become the target of public criticism, it is necessary to win over Shanghai Film Group.

So Liu Zhou was not just being perfunctory when he said that he would work with him again when there is a suitable opportunity, but was speaking from the heart.

Ren Zhonglun seemed to be in a much better mood after achieving his goal. Looking at Wang Zhongjun who was chatting and laughing with the SoftBank executives, he said:

"Golden Harvest released a movie called 'Ex-Files' on Double Eleven. Mr. Wang must be furious now."

"This is also why Tian Yusheng came to us temporarily. He wrote the script for Lost on Journey, which helped Golden Harvest make some money, so it also helped him. In addition, due to the genre, it was just right for the Double Eleven release.

So it just happened to run into Huayi's "Waiting for the Wind", and I didn't have much expectation for the competition with Director Teng. "

Although there is no conflict of interest with Shanghai Film Group, even he does not quite believe Liu Zhou's words.

Damn, don't be too obvious about this targeting.

Liu Zhou saw Ren Zhonglun's expression and knew that he didn't believe it, but Liu Zhou and Jiahe really didn't do it on purpose, it just happened to come to their doorstep.

But he was too lazy to explain. It was just a misunderstanding, and he didn't care.

The two chatted for a while, and the premiere ceremony was about to begin.

As the producer, Ren Zhonglun also left first to prepare to go on stage.

At 7:30 in the evening, everyone took their seats and the premiere ceremony officially began.

As the US representative, Wendy Deng discussed with Ren Zhonglun and Wang Zhongjun the prospects of Sino-US co-production films.

It lasted for nearly an hour before the movie officially began.

Liu Zhou had seen this movie in his previous life, but it was not his cup of tea. He didn't feel much about it at all, or he couldn't appreciate the tear-jerking moments in the movie.

"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" is a movie about old lesbians. Old lesbians do not mean same, but refer to girls who were born on the same day of the same month of the same year and have similar looks and temperaments. They will take care of and love each other throughout their lives and never betray each other.

So this is not "lesbian", although there is a scene in the movie where Li Bingbing kisses Quan Zixian when she is dying, but it does not involve "sex", it is just a natural expression of deep emotion.

However, this shot is only in the overseas version, and the version released in China has been censored out.

In fact, the subject matter of "Lao Tong" movies is actually quite novel, but "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" is too dull and absolutely boring. The whole film is straightforward, the pace is slow, and there is no conflict in the plot setting.

It suffers from almost all the common problems of art films.

Director Wang Ying is quite famous in the field of art films, and his previous works are all good.

For example, "A Thousand Years of Prayer", starring Yu Feihong, which won great success at the San Sebastian Film Festival in 07, has a very smooth and unified rhythm.

This time, perhaps due to the influence of multiple narrative lines, it is a bit messy and the rhythm is not well grasped.

Judging from the forced looks on everyone's faces, it's clear that "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" is unlikely to do well at the domestic box office.

(End of this chapter)