Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 425 Returning to the Country, the Sixth Princess
The Cannes Film Festival lasts for 12 days, but Zhang Chen returned home before it ended.

Both films he brought with him were sold, so there was really no reason to stay there.

However, before leaving, he specifically looked for Johnnie To and asked whether there would be a third part of "Election".

The original series has always been about filming a third part, but it has never been filmed.

It seems that the film's domestic box office was too poor and Galaxy Image was hesitant to start the project.

Of course Zhang Chen was looking forward to it.

He really felt that "Election" captured the essence of Hong Kong gangs and was no worse than "The Godfather".

At this year's Cannes Film Festival, there were only two Chinese films that made it to the screen: "Summer Palace" and "A Quiet Place."

The former was shortlisted for the main competition unit and was the focus of attention, but unfortunately it did not cause any waves.

What Jia Zhangke shows in his films seems too childish to Europeans.

It's a pity for Hao Lei. She gave so much but in the end it was all in vain.

As for A Quiet Place, it was purely due to word of mouth.

Of course, it's not that kind of professional reputation. In fact, professional film critics are extremely dismissive of this movie.

The popularity of "A Quiet Place" is entirely due to word of mouth from the audience.

There are many backpackers who come to Cannes for pilgrimage, and many of them are fans of art films, but art film fans do not necessarily hate commercial films.

The reason why a commercial film is called a commercial film is because it is commercial enough and knows how to attract audiences by shooting things that they like.

"A Quiet Place" is this type of movie, which grabs the audience's hearts with the little boy in the first ten minutes.

Gradually, "A Quiet Place" actually gained a very good reputation among the general audience.

Both Zhang Chen and Xinxian were very happy about this.

Why do so many people like to join in the fun of film festivals? Isn’t it because they can help promote movies?
Except for the beginning, "A Quiet Place" was sold out for the rest of the time.

Of course Zhang Chen would not miss such good material, and soon the country began to report this grand event.

Other media quickly followed suit.

Just kidding, they are worried about what to report in Cannes~
"Summer Palace" is a hot favorite, but it is not allowed to be reported. However, no other Chinese-language films are shortlisted. So what are they reporting on this year's Cannes?
You can't just say it's all abroad.
The emergence of "A Quiet Place" just fills this gap.

It just so happens that "A Quiet Place" is also making great efforts during this period. It is already June, and it is the window period for promotion.

Various interesting stories from the shooting were released one after another, attracting people's attention.

People gradually learned that Zhang Chen had a movie to be released in July, and that the movie caused a viewing frenzy in Cannes.

The last time the media reported on the same thing was "Taken".

After the publicity process started, Zhang Chen took Fan Xiaopang to participate in various programs of all sizes.

Today I participated in an interview with a movie channel~
The Movie Channel is also known as the Sixth Princess of CCTV and has always had a good relationship with Zhang Chen.

Every film Zhang Chen made was sold to the Sixth Princess, and he usually got a high price of five or six million.

For a movie channel, it is really a high price.

“A Quiet Place, why is it called this name?”

"Because the background of the story is that the world has been invaded by alien creatures. The characteristic of these alien creatures is that they are particularly sensitive to sound. They will kill any object that makes a sound..."

"Oh, I heard that when the movie was screened in Cannes, the audience didn't dare to make any noise?"

"Haha, yes, this is also an interesting part. Every time the protagonists in the movie make a noise, they are chased by monsters. This emotion obviously affects the audience. The usual behavior of drinking beverages and eating popcorn while watching a movie is completely absent in A Quiet Place.

When you eat popcorn, you will find that people around you are looking at you, haha~"

"Yes, in order to verify it, I actually bought a ticket to secretly observe the audience's reactions. It was indeed like this. Those who brought food into the theater looked the same when they took it in and when they took it out..."

Fat Fan also said with a smile.

The host also cooperated: "That's really exciting. I really want to see this movie as soon as possible. I also want to see what kind of movie can make people dare not even make the sound of eating..."

The scripts were all discussed in advance.

Since we are here to promote the movie, of course there must be something memorable.

What Zhang Chen and Fan Xiaopang said just now was true. "A Quiet Place" was really popular in Cannes, and no one dared to make a sound while watching the movie.

This is the memorable point and also a form of publicity.

It’s just like when a romance movie is released in later generations, the media reports that the theater will give tissues to every female watching the movie.

Handing out tissues is a disguised way of saying that the movie is very touching, thereby arousing people's curiosity.

Propaganda, then, is about finding ways to attract people to the cinema, whether by deception or any other means.

As we chatted, we unconsciously talked about Cannes, which just closed yesterday. The King of Sunglasses's actions shocked the world.

"The King of Sunglasses is quite willful. He won five Best Actor and Best Actress awards at once, which completely ruined Cannes.
As for the Palme d'Or, he admitted in an interview afterwards: He gave the Palme d'Or to Ken Loach's "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" because he felt there were no good films, so he just regarded it as a tribute to his predecessor.

Are you willful or not?
Salute with the Palme d'Or
"

"Then is there no one to restrain this kind of behavior?"

"No~"

Zhang Chen prepared to explain to the host: "This kind of film festival uses an elite jury model, that is, a jury chairman and multiple judges, but the jury chairman has absolute power.

In other words, who wins what award in the end is entirely up to the chairman of the jury.

So the Sunglasses King can do whatever he wants, and the film festival organizing committee can only accept it and at most stop cooperating in the future. "

"In fact, this is part of the rules. There is no so-called fairness in the film festival. All previous presidents like to give the awards to their own people...

When Polanski was chairman, the Palme d'Or went to the Coen brothers.

When Zhang Yimou was chairman, the highest award went to Ang Lee."

"You have successfully predicted Venice and the Oscars before, why don't you predict Cannes this time?"

Zhang Chen shrugged: "Last year I was able to predict Brokeback Mountain because the subject matter of this movie is very special, and choosing this subject matter itself is very appealing...

But I can’t say for sure about this Cannes, the behavior of the King of Sunglasses is totally unpredictable…” Of course he knew that this year’s King of Sunglasses produced five Best Actor and five Best Actress winners, but he couldn’t and didn’t dare to predict it.

If such a niche answer is correct, then it is not just a matter of vision, there must be something fishy going on.

Some people may think that Zhang Chen is just reading with the answers in mind, so he must be caught and sliced ​​into pieces for research.

Seeing that he couldn't get any more information from this topic, the host decisively changed the subject: "I heard that your fans on the Internet are rejoicing that you are finally making horror movies again~"

"I've noticed what you said. The fans you mentioned are mainly horror fans, but I really want to explain that A Quiet Place is not actually a horror movie. If it must be categorized, I think it should be more accurately described as a thriller~"

But he knew that even if he explained, these fans would not believe it.

There has always been a saying on the Internet:
Apart from Zhang Chen, there is really no other director in China who can make horror films.

But Zhang Chen is a very fickle guy. After filming "The Dark Invasion", he went to tinker with other themes, and each time they were different themes.

You thought he was a horror film director, but then he made a monster movie.

You thought he was a monster movie director, but he turned to suspense.

You just classified him as a suspense director, and he started to do action, then oriental fantasy, and then science fiction...

Moreover, no matter how good or bad the performance of these movies is, Zhang Chen will not make sequels.

No, that's not accurate.
It’s not that there won’t be a sequel, but Zhang Chen never shoots the sequels himself and leaves it all to other people.

Other directors would press on to launch sequels right away based on the success of a movie to consolidate their influence, but Zhang Chen doesn't do that.

The sequel to "The Darkness" was given to Ning Hao, the sequel to "The Shallows" was given to James Wan, and the sequel to "Taken" was given to Lu Yang...

This is what scares other film and television companies the most.

Other directors are proficient in a certain subject, but Zhang Chen is not. He makes a hit with every subject he shoots. So far, his movies have never failed.
And without exception, they made a lot of money~
Zhang Chen was aroused to express himself: "I want to talk about "Summer Palace", is that okay?"

The host looked at the director and then got instructions: "The director said it's okay, but if it's not suitable, it will be cut out later~"

"Hmm~"

Zhang Chen nodded: "Summer Palace is a standard auteur film that expresses anti-establishment sentiment, so it is popular among literary and artistic youth.

But judging from the film structure alone, "Summer Palace" is not outstanding.

This is also a common problem of many auteur films. They don’t focus on telling stories, but instead put a lot of effort into metaphors and filming techniques, which I think are a bit pretentious~”

"It seems that you are very opposed to author films~"

"Yes, at least in my company, this kind of movie is impossible to exist. The reason why I always emphasize that I hate author movies is because this kind of movie is often stream of consciousness and does not tell a good story~"

"What do you think is your role in Xingchen Entertainment?"

"Producer, right?"

"Is Xingchen Entertainment a producer-centered system?"

“Well, I’m the producer.

What is a producer?
The producer is the overall person in charge of a film or TV project!

His role is crucial.

He is responsible for formulating all strategies, scheduling shooting, coordinating public resources, and coordinating the relationships between directors, actors and investors.

A producer is the boss. Directors, actors, and funding all come to him.”

After a pause, Zhang Chen continued, "In our company, all projects are initiated by me, I contact the funds, and I choose the directors and actors, so I say that our company is a producer-centered system..."

“So aren’t other companies?”

"Not really."

Seeing that the host didn't understand, Zhang Chen explained: "In our domestic film industry, there are almost no producers who can organize a group on their own. If you want to do a film project, you usually have to tie up with a big director.

Huayi is tied to Feng Xiaogang, and New Picture is tied to Zhang Yimou~
Although these companies also act as producers themselves, the role of the director is undoubtedly more important.

A large part of that money goes to the director. For a famous director, they might be willing to pay 2000 million, but for an ordinary director, even might be too much.

So for the time being, it is unlikely that the producer-centered value can be promoted in China.”

"I heard that not only will A Quiet Place be released simultaneously in China and the US in July, but it has also applied for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film?"

Zhang Chen nodded: "Yes."

"Culturally, themes like A Quiet Place have fewer barriers for the West and are easier to be recognized by the West."

"But Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is also a Chinese blockbuster and it still won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film~"

Zhang Chen shook his head: "Times have changed. In the past, costume blockbusters were attractive to foreign countries, and all costume blockbusters sold well.

But it’s different now. After The Promise, the popularity of period films has faded and they are no longer popular. The Oscars are no exception, as they have the strongest commercial attributes.”

"Actually, I wanted to apply for an Oscar last year with Taken, but unfortunately it wasn't accepted..."

The host said uncertainly: "Last year, the film that applied for the Olympics seemed to be The Promise..."

“Yes, it’s The Promise.”

He gets angry whenever he thinks of "The Promise". What kind of a movie is that? Apart from the pictures, there is really nothing good about it.

The special effects are lame, the story logic is confusing, and the character settings are also very uncomfortable~
"If it was Taken last year, it might have won its second Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film."

Zhang Chen is shameless in his words. Regardless of whether he is bragging or not, he sincerely thinks that "The Promise" should not be chosen any other movie.

Even the Chinese themselves can’t understand it, how do you expect those foreigners to understand it?
Zhang Chen was surprised that the Film Bureau selected "The Promise"
Do these people really have no idea what kind of movie “The Promise” will turn out like?

There was a lot of criticism at home, and the goods were returned abroad~
This was the first time Zhang Chen felt that Harvey Weinstein might be a victim.

"The Promise" has been criticized a lot, but even so, it is still the one who was selected. Others don't even have a chance to compete. I can only say that the connections are really powerful~
Zhang Chen has always felt that even if you choose "A Thousand Miles Alone" it is better than "The Promise"~
"I'm sorry, I was a little excited today and I seem to have said a lot of things I shouldn't have said~"

"It's okay. If there's anything inappropriate, we'll cut it out later~"

The Sixth Princess has always been very courageous. If the content of today's interview were given to other TV stations, they might not dare to broadcast it.

But it's hard to say for the Sixth Princess~
After the interview, the Sixth Princess specially invited Zhang Chen and Fan Xiaopang to dinner. They have always had a good relationship.

(End of this chapter)