Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 188 198 [The 94 version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, shooting a costume movie? ]

Sichuan and Shu.

After staying in her hometown for a few days, Li Yishu prepared to return to Yanjing, then went south to Hefei, and then took a flight to Hong Kong to deal with the cooperation with Jackie Chan on "Rumble in the Bronx".

After all these trivial matters are taken care of, Li Yishu will have to retreat for another two months to start the post-production of "Central Station" and "Nobody".

"Central Station" is fine. After the initial cut and rough cut, it's basically done. The post-production music and sound effects are also done. We are just waiting for Li Yishu to finalize the final film, and then waiting to send a copy to the Berlin International Film Festival at the end of the year.

"You little brat, Qinqin is going to study in Yanjing this time, you have to take good care of her."

Zhao Xue admonished her son.

"I know, Mom. I will definitely take good care of Qinqin." Li Yishu glanced at Jiang Qinqin who was smiling beside her. She didn't know how much magic this girl had given her mother to why she was so biased towards her now.

Zhao Xue was still a little worried, and she kept talking: "Originally, Qinqin's mother wanted to go with her, so that it would be convenient to carry luggage, but they have been busy with a lot of things in the factory recently, and it is not convenient to bring too many winter clothes and beddings at this time. When you arrive in Yanjing, you must help Qinqin prepare all these things, and don't let anyone bully Qinqin, she is young..."

Li Yishu interrupted with a look of confusion: "Mom, don't worry. There is a canteen selling bedding in the school. What's more, I have already informed the teachers at Beijing Film Academy. Qinqin will not be bullied when she goes there."

"Yes, godmother."

Jiang Qinqin ran over with a smile and hugged Zhao Xue's arm, saying happily: "Brother Yishu will definitely take good care of me, and I already know our class teacher, Teacher Yu. With Teacher Yu taking care of me, there will be no problem."

Zhao Xue looked at her son in confusion: "Who is Teacher Yu?"

Li Yishu said, "I am a female classmate of mine. She graduated this year and happened to stay on campus to be a teacher for freshmen in the acting department. I brought Qinqin to meet her before."

"That's good. I have a classmate and teacher to help me."

Zhao Xue nodded slightly. With this relationship, Jiang Qinqin would not be afraid of being bullied when she went to Beijing Film Academy.

There is no way. Jiang Qinqin is just 18 years old this year, and she has hardly ever traveled far away alone. Not only is Jiang's mother worried, but Zhao Xue, her godmother, is also worried.

Fortunately, my son is also at Yenching University, and many of his former classmates and teachers are at Beijing Film Academy.

The family chatted for a while, and seeing that it was getting late, in order to avoid being delayed on the road, Li Yishu took Jiang Qinqin and the suitcase and headed to Sichuan Airport.

It's about two o'clock in the afternoon.

Yanjing.

Inside the courtyard of Nanluoguxiang.

Yu Feihong was helping Jiang Qinqin make the bed. The two girls, who were not much different in age, were chatting and laughing happily.

"Well, I'll probably arrive in Hefei tomorrow afternoon. Please tell Engineer Jiang to take me to visit the DVD R&D team."

Outside the house, Li Yishu chatted with Huo Wenxi for a few words and then hung up the phone. Hearing the two women in the house laughing, he was curious and was about to go in to ask. Suddenly, his cell phone rang. He picked it up and saw that it was an unfamiliar call.

"Hello, who is it?"

A man's voice came from the other end of the phone: "Hello, is this Director Li Yishu?"

Li Yishu asked in confusion: "Yes, it's me, who are you?"

"Hello Director Li, I'm Wang Fulin... I'm the director of CCTV's TV series Dream of the Red Chamber."

Wang Fulin!!

When Li Yishu heard about "Dream of Red Mansions", she immediately remembered who the other person was: "So it's Director Wang, hello, hello, I've seen your version of "Dream of Red Mansions", it's so good, it's a perfect restoration of the original novel~~"

Wang Fulin said modestly: "No, no, Director Li is too polite. I can't compare to Director Li's achievements in the film industry."

"Haha, this is different. If I were to shoot Dream of the Red Chamber, I would definitely not be able to capture this feeling and artistic conception."

Li Yishu exchanged a few pleasantries, then suddenly asked curiously, "Director Wang, I remember you were filming Romance of the Three Kingdoms, right?"

Director Wang Fulin is considered a third-generation director, but he mainly focuses on TV dramas.

As early as 1960, he filmed the TV series "Youth Song" which premiered on Yanjing TV Station. This was also the first TV series broadcast by a mainland studio.

Over the next twenty years, many excellent works were produced. The most well-known ones are the 87 version of "Dream of Red Mansions" and next year's 94 version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

Wang Fulin on the other end of the phone nodded and said, "Yes, Director Li. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is still being filmed. I asked someone to get Director Li's cell phone number this time. It's actually for the crew's business."

"Director Wang, please feel free to speak up. As long as I can help the crew in some way, I will never refuse."

Li Yishu smiled brightly. This version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms was definitely the best one Li Yishu had ever seen on the Three Kingdoms theme.

The actors are simply amazing.

Especially the images and acting skills of several main characters, Liu Xuande, Guan Yu, Zhang Yide, Zhuge Kongming, Cao Mengde..., etc., simply crushed the later "New Three Kingdoms" including Wu Yusen's "Red Cliff".

For such a classic TV series, Lee Yi-su doesn't mind providing timely assistance. When various Three Kingdoms actors reunite in the future, they may praise Lee Yi-su as "rain in need".

"With Director Li's words, I feel relieved."

Wang Fulin is a straightforward person. Hearing Li Yishu's cheerful tone, he immediately said, "That's right, Director Li. The filming is going quite smoothly. I talked to a few directors and it will be finished in about two months. The higher-ups are planning to air two episodes during the Spring Festival..."

Hearing Wang Fulin about to talk endlessly, Li Yishu interrupted and said, "Director Wang, just tell me directly, is it because of insufficient funds? If it is the case, I can personally contribute a little."

Wang Fulin quickly said, "No, no, the funds are sufficient. The big expenses in the early stage have been spent, and now there is basically no big expense." The main large-scale scenes of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms have basically been filmed, and the battles such as Chibi, Guandu, and Hulao Pass have all been completed.

Currently we are filming the scenes of Zhuge Liang and Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition. These are just small scenes with not many extras, so the funding is no longer needed.

"That is?"

"It's about selling copyrights. I heard that Director Li's movies can basically sell copyrights overseas, so I was thinking if I could trouble Director Li to see if I could sell the copyright of Romance of the Three Kingdoms overseas."

Wang Fulin had no choice but to call Li Yishu.

As the crew is about to finish filming, the next problem they face, apart from post-production, is how to make their money back.

You should know that the total investment in Romance of the Three Kingdoms was 1.7 million RMB!!

Nearly 1 million yuan was used to build the filming base, and 7000 million yuan was directly invested in filming.

The crew built the two largest studios in China in Zhuozhou. Each studio covers an area of ​​1200 square meters and the two studios cost a total of about 4000 million yuan.

The "Three Kingdoms City" in Wuxi and the "Tang City" built at the same time for the TV series "Tang Minghuang" cost a total of about 2000 million yuan.

Zhuozhou's "Han City Wall", "streets" and "Bronze Sparrow Tower" cost about 3000 million yuan.

加上服装1000余种、3万多套，耗资约500万元；道具近7万余件，耗资约700万元；共耗资1亿多元。

These have all been reported by the media in recent years.

Nowadays, film and television city tourism is not popular, and historical themes themselves are not very popular in this era. People prefer to watch modern urban films. In the eyes of CCTV and most people, the Three Kingdoms City and Seoul Base, which cost 1 million yuan to build, are actually a loss-making business.

But thinking that I could use it in the future, I gritted my teeth and did it.

1.7 million, converted into US dollars, is almost 3000 million US dollars. (1:5)

"Selling copyrights~~Has anyone ever talked to you about the copyright of Romance of the Three Kingdoms?"

Li Yishu frowned, he remembered clearly that the copyright of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was sold to Japan, and the price given was really cheap in his opinion, only 1.5 US dollars per episode.

A total of 84 episodes, $1260 million, less than half of the cost.

In later generations, the first broadcast of a TV series would easily sell for hundreds of millions of RMB, in addition to which there would also be second and third rounds, including the right to be screened online.

This 1260 million US dollars is really not enough in Japan.

In this era, no one understands better than Lee Yi-su how much the Japanese love the Three Kingdoms.

Various Three Kingdoms games, various Three Kingdoms animations...

Wang Fulin said: "Yes, Japan had discussed it with CCTV as early as last year, but it was still being filmed at the time, so we thought we would talk about it after the filming was finished."

"How about this, Director Wang? I may not be very free recently. How about this? I'll go to your crew in the middle of next month and bring an assistant who knows about copyright to talk to Director Wang in person?"

"No problem, Director Li. I will definitely be there to welcome you when the time comes!"

"Haha, Director Wang, I'm not Xu You."

"Yes, yes. I can't be Cao Mengde either."

The two sides chatted for a few minutes before Li Yishu hung up the phone.

The copyright of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"~~
Li Yishu's eyes flickered. He knew that this TV series caused a great response after it was broadcast in Japan. If that was the case, then he couldn't just sell the TV series copyright.

After being reborn decades later, Lee Yi-su understands the value of IP very well. Although "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a novel from the Ming Dynasty and a publicly copyrighted work, the copyright of the TV series is not public.

It is entirely possible to make a lot of money in Japan through TV dramas.

For example, we cooperated with Japan's Nissin instant noodles to develop the card collecting business that was very popular in the mid-to-late 1990s.

You can also learn from "Yu-Gi-Oh" and get a set of authentic Three Kingdoms game cards. There are 1200 characters of all sizes who appear in the Three Kingdoms, and this does not include some people who did not appear in the novel but are quite famous in history.

"A blockbuster movie, Three Kingdoms..."

Suddenly Li Yishu remembered what Han Sanping had said before, and narrowed his eyes in thought. His train of thought was blocked by the "blockbuster" that happened more than 30 years later.

Thirty years later, blockbuster movies are basically synonymous with science fiction themes.

But in fact, costume blockbusters are also blockbusters.

However, this requires careful planning, as costume films are expensive, time-consuming, and require all kinds of costumes and props, which all need to be arranged in advance.

Wu Yusen's Red Cliff took three years to shoot. The first two years were spent on preparation, half a year was spent on shooting, and the last half a year was spent on production.

If Li Yishu wants to make a blockbuster film on the Three Kingdoms theme, regardless of the production cost, there will be no problem in making a profit.

With Japan as a box office, and some Southeast Asian countries, we can also find a way to release the film in Europe and the United States or sell the copyright, and maybe even make some money.

The main reason is that the shooting cycle is long, and the preliminary preparation takes at least one or two years.

(End of this chapter)