Entertainment tycoon since 83

Chapter 248 Cooperation between Old Friends
The crew is actually in Anhui Province now.

But Huang Ze still returned to Shanghai first, partly to see his family, after all, he hadn't seen them for a long time.

Another reason is, of course, an appointment with an old classmate.

I need to meet him in Shanghai first and have a good chat.

……

"Wow, this is the famous Dongping Road!"

Zhang Yimou, who arrived at Huang Ze's house in a taxi with Gong Li, looked around after getting off the car and couldn't help but exclaimed in admiration.

"Is there any legend about this road?" Gong Li was either studying in Beijing or filming with Zhang Yimou. He had only been to Shanghai a few times, so he really didn't know what was so special about this road.

"Many famous figures from the Republic of China had houses here, such as Chiang Kai-shek, Song Yuen and Kong Ming."

"How do you know all this?" Gong Li looked at Zhang Yimou with a gleam in his eyes, and became more and more satisfied with the man next to him.

Although, I'm a little bit older.

But she thinks that it doesn't matter if a man is old and ugly, the key is to have talent.

What's more, he is so talented.

"Hey, stop talking, stop talking." Zhang Yimou originally wanted to say it, but a fear from deep in his heart directly suppressed his desire to speak.

His grandfather was a wealthy family in Lintong, and their home was similar to the one in "Raise the Red Lantern". After watching the movie, his father said that their original house was only big, not small.

My grandfather had three children, all of whom were sent to Huangpu.

My uncle was from the 9th batch, and later ran away to Wanwan. We only got in touch with each other a few years ago.

My second uncle was in the 15th batch and was later executed.

My father was naturally also related to Huang Pu and became Huang Pu's quartermaster.

This family, this history.

Decades ago, it was a colorful black.

I was bullied a lot because of this when I was a child.

If he explained, he would have to tell him what his father used to do, and all those memories would come flooding back.

"Hey, does Director Huang live alone in this house?" Gong Li asked curiously, looking up at the big black iron gate and the villa behind it. Then, thinking about her own pay, she felt a fire burning in her heart.

"Yes, I heard from Lao Gu that it seemed to be bought a few years ago."

"Let's not talk about this anymore." Zhang Yimou pressed the doorbell and the door opened. A young bodyguard-like man looked at Zhang Yimou and said, "Are you Director Zhang?"

"it's me."

"Mr. Huang said you would come today, come in." After opening the door, the bodyguard walked in and told Huang Ze.

"Here we are!" Huang Ze, Zhang Yimou and Gong Li shook hands and led them to the reception room.

The reception room is in classical Chinese style.

But there is a rather abrupt cabinet in a conspicuous place, on which are placed some photos of Huang Ze, mainly group photos, which can be seen as soon as you enter the reception room.

Zhang Yimou could naturally see it. When he saw the person holding hands with Huang Ze in the first photo, Zhang Yimou was shocked. He slowly turned his head and looked at Huang Ze, "This, this, this, him."

"What's wrong? We took this photo together when we were working on Yangcheng Street. He was working in Shanghai at that time."

"In fact, there is another calligraphy piece. It is placed in the office reserved for me at the film and television city."

The calligraphy has collection value, but there is not much of it, so Huang Ze naturally put it in the film and television city.

"Who is this in the second picture?"

"It's from Shanghai. Okay, sit down and have some tea?"

"Just plain water will do."

"Where's Gong Li?"

"I don't need that. Thank you, Mr. Huang!"

"You're welcome. Lao Zhang and I are old classmates. There's no need to be so formal." Huang Ze smiled, took two glasses of water and placed them on the table. After asking Zhang Yimou to sit down, the two did not get straight to the point, but instead talked about the Oscars and "Pulp Fiction".

As they chatted, they finally got to the point. When it came to investing in the film, Huang Ze slapped his thigh and said, "You found the right person to invest in the film. What's the relationship between us? I guarantee that you can get the film to your satisfaction."

"How about I give you one million as the director's fee?"

A Golden Bear Award-winning director who has just entered his peak creative period and almost every film of his can win awards. For such a person, a director's fee of one million per film is not expensive at all.

Besides, knowing that Zhang Yimou is an evergreen who can make money, does not bother to do anything and just likes to concentrate on making movies, Huang Ze will naturally offer a high enough price to tie him up!

Huang Ze believes that this price is enough to tie him down.

After all, in his previous life, when he and Zhang Weiping parted ways, it was already 2012.

That year, "Lost in Thailand" made Xu Zheng earn 50 million yuan in one go.

But Zhang Yimou and Zhang Weiping have been working together for more than ten years, and they only earned more than 10 million yuan in director's fees.

Zhang Weiping was able to tie him up until that time with such a trick, so there is no reason why I can't do it if I treat her with sincerity.

In fact, this offer really shocked Zhang Yimou.

Even a little scared.

Thinking back to when I was filming "Red Sorghum", the production cost of the entire film was only 80 yuan. It's only been three years. Can I get so much director's fee?

Zhang Yimou and Gong Li both used tactics to drink water.

"Ah, Lao Huang, too much, too much."

"What's so much?" Huang Ze waved his hand. "You've won a Golden Bear, plus we have a relationship, so this is the price." "But I don't know how to make commercial films!"

"Who asked you to make a commercial film? You can make whatever film you want and however you want. I won't interfere with you."

"That's good enough, but the director's fee is really too high." Zhang Yimou said with a worried look on his face, "I don't know how to make commercial films. This will put too much pressure on me. How about this, 200,000 yuan for the film."

"You feel pressured..." Huang Ze looked at her and it didn't seem like she was lying. In order to let her concentrate on filming in the future, he said, "How about this, I'll give you a bonus based on the final performance of the film."

"That's good!" Zhang Yimou nodded with satisfaction.

He really felt that the one million was too hot to handle.

If I could make money for Huang Ze and then give him a bonus, he would feel much less pressure.

"Okay, let's make it a deal then." Huang Ze laughed and held out his hand. "Mr. Zhang, happy cooperation."

"Pleasant to work with."

"By the way, you asked me to invest in your movie. What kind of movie do you plan to make?"

"Hehe..." Zhang Yimou wiped his chin and rubbed his hands with a smile on his face, "I haven't thought of anything yet. I've been reading all kinds of literary magazines, but I haven't thought of anything I want to shoot."

"Just write a script out of thin air. You know I don't have that ability, right?"

"Hey, Lao Huang, you won the Best Original Screenplay award at the Oscars, right?" Zhang Yimou rubbed his hands faster and faster.

“Do you have a suitable script?”

"Haha." I didn't expect that Zhang Yimou, a simple-looking man, could be so cunning. Huang Ze smiled, with a look of disbelief, "You really don't have a suitable script?"

"Really?" Zhang Yimou shook his head. "The last movie I was satisfied with was Ju Dou. I really can't find a suitable one now."

"If you have a suitable story, please help me think of one. I am also making a film for your company."

"haha, okay."

Huang Ze pointed to his head and said, "Let me think about it."

Huang Ze’s head turned, and he immediately recalled Zhang Yimou’s filming history in his previous life.

What comes after "Ju Dou"?

"Qiu Ju Goes to Court"?
After thinking about it carefully, Huang Ze understood.

"Qiu Ju Goes to Court" has an original novel called "Wanjia Lawsuit", and the original author Chen Yuanbin started writing it in late 90, and it was published in 91.

It is normal that Zhang Yimou does not have "Qiu Ju's Lawsuit" at this time.

There is still half a year before I start conceiving the idea, so it shouldn’t be a big problem to finish it in advance.

Huang Ze came back to his senses and said, "I have an idea here, would you mind listening to it?"

"It's about a rural woman whose husband was kicked by the village chief, and he started to ..."

Huang Ze told the story of "Qiu Ju's Lawsuit" in one breath.

The more Zhang Yimou listened, the brighter his eyes became.

Looking at Gong Li, he felt that this story seemed to have room for Gong Li to play, and nodded immediately, "Let's go for this, your story is good, I like it."

"Where's the script?"

"You don't have a script for your movie, and I don't have a script either!" Huang Ze laughed, "To be honest, I don't have time to write a script of tens of thousands of words. The crew is still waiting for me in Anhui Province. And to be honest, I don't know many details about our rural areas, such as your dialects."

"How about this, I'll write a rough outline, and you can work with a screenwriter to polish the script."

"Alright." Zhang Yimou felt that he had understood the story pretty well, so he didn't need to ask Huang Ze for help. "I'll go find Lu Wei to discuss it."

"have you heard of it?"

"Let me tell you, this screenwriter is quite capable, even though he used to be a cook at the Xi'an Film Studio."

"I've heard something about it." Huang Ze nodded slightly.

In fact, it’s not just something I’ve heard of, it’s something that is very well-known.

He was a famous screenwriter in China in his previous life. He was the screenwriter of "Farewell My Concubine", "To Live" and "Not One Less".

"Let's choose him. If you're worried, you can always come to me after the script is finished and I'll check it out."

"Mmmm!"

Zhang Yimou took another sip of water and felt much better.

"Old Huang, to be honest, I made the right choice to come to you today. I knew you had a story in your head, and it turned out to be true."

“This is just made up.” Huang Ze smiled.

"Is this really made up?"

"What do you think?"

"..."

Zhang Yimou had to believe it even if he didn't want to.

Otherwise, why doesn't Huang Ze have a script?
If I had such a story, I would have polished the script long ago.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yimou, who was not very good at writing scripts, admired Huang Ze even more and gave him a thumbs up, "You can make up such a wonderful story on the spot? Great!"

"Okay, stop talking about these nonsense. We have to save it for dinner today!"

"No, that's not the case. By the way, are you going to shoot a new movie? You don't mind having one more person, right? I'll help you for a while."

"I promised you before, but Red Sorghum won an award, and you haven't filmed in China since then. You can't miss this opportunity."

(End of this chapter)