1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 237 Zombie Universe but Marvel
The people in the conference room tried to hold back their laughter.

Liu Zhenwei was both embarrassed and unconvinced.

What is brainstorming?
How many years have I been doing this?

Aren’t you Xu Qi the leader of the New Wave? Isn’t Wu Yusen the one who made 30 million at the box office? Doesn’t Fatty Wang just have a good father?
Don’t bully the poor middle-aged people!
"Although Liu Zhenwei has only been a producer in the past and his box office performance is not as high as yours, I hope you won't laugh at him. I personally think he is still qualified to be a good director."

Zhai Yuan and Shi Nan were born the latest, and they didn’t know that Liu Zhenwei had already shown off in front of Wang Jin and the others.

Seeing the three of them trying to hold back their laughter, I wondered why the atmosphere in the company had become so bad?
Take away my Grape Ancestor, you can't target him~
"The concept of series movies has become quite popular in Hong Kong in recent years, whether it's "Best Partner" or our "A Better Tomorrow". America also has the "Superman", "Spider-Man" and "The Hulk" series, but there is an essential difference between the two. The opponents of Baldy, Mark, and God of Gamblers Gao Jin are always one or a group of bad guys. After a few movies, even if the location is changed to the Golden Triangle to fight drug lords, the audience will get tired. But Hollywood's science fiction heroes have a lot of room to act, they can go to heaven and earth to save the world, and always keep the audience's expectations..."

Zhai Yuan instilled some future generations' experience into the frogs in the well in Hong Kong.

In fact, there is no essential difference between the series of movies. At the beginning, they all used a "broken stick" to beat "crayfish", but later on it became using a "destructive stick" to beat "super king crayfish".

But Hollywood can produce dozens of hit movies in a series and create countless derivative IPs and CPs. However, due to market and cost issues, Hong Kong filmmakers will fail in their plans even if they have such ideas.

Zhai Yuan criticized Xu Qi by name: "In fact, your "New Shushan Swordsman" has great potential to create a fairy-tale universe, but it's a pity that the story was shot too hastily. With 30 million yuan of investment from Jiahe, you wanted to cram the entire Shushan novel into the movie. The novel has 4 million words, but you only have 90 minutes! There is no foreshadowing for all the characters, and it is assumed that the audience has read the original novel and will follow the plot. Of course, it will flop!"

Outside the conference room.

Ye Yuqing and Li Lizhen bent over the glass door, peeking at what was happening inside through the gap in the blinds.

Zhai Yuan spoke eloquently, conveying his ideas to a group of directors and screenwriters.

Li Lizhen couldn't help but whisper: "Mr. Zhai looks very impressive. Great directors like Xu Ke and Wu Yusen also want to listen to his lectures."

"Of course, otherwise how can you be my idol?"

After saying this, Ye Yuqing turned around and saw three girls standing not far behind her: Moon Lee, Chow Hui Man and Ann Bridgewater.

She waved at the three of them and lowered her voice: "Come on, come on! The idol is very handsome!"

Ann Bai took the lead and moved over, standing behind Ye Yuqing and looking into the meeting room.

"let me see."

"Shhh! Be quiet."

Moon Lee looked at their backs with their buttocks raised, smiled and shook her head.

She is only one or two years older than these girls, and is also at the age of chasing stars. However, she entered the industry several years earlier, joining RTV at the age of 15, and is relatively mature.

"I'm going to practice with Sister Hong and Sister Qing."

Moon Lee greeted Chow Hui Man with a smile, then left immediately after saying this.

Zhou Huimin stood there in a daze, struggling internally for more than ten seconds. Finally, she couldn't help but walked forward, stood behind the three people and looked inside.

In the conference room.

Xu Qi was used as a negative example by Zhai Yuan. He laughed dryly and said, "Shushan had an investment of 30 million yuan, and the special effects team of "Star Wars" alone took 1,500 yuan. At that time, we also had to consider the actors. Zheng Qiuguan, Liu Songren, Hong Xinbao, Yuen Biao, Lin Qingxia and other first-line stars all had to arrange the plot. It was indeed difficult to take care of both."

Old eccentric Xu spoke sincerely. If Zhai Yuan had not known that he later made another equally empty film "The Legend of Zu", he would probably have thought that he was really reflecting on himself and learning his lessons.

Shi Nansheng was not satisfied with him talking about his man, so he chimed in, "If we invest 30 million and only let Ah Xu take care of one or two leading actors, he will definitely be able to tell a good story."

"So why not just give him a copy of Once Upon a Time in China this time? We can make two or three films in this series and just make Jet Li famous."

Zhai Yuan smiled and said, "But the story of Huang Feihong can't be filmed for long, so we still have to talk about Mr. Vampire. After adding the supernatural setting, there is a lot of room for drama. Uncle Jiu can fight zombies and then the sorcerer, fly from the world of the living to the underworld, from the early Republic of China to the modern times..."

Liu Zhenwei raised his hand and said, "Mr. Zhai, in the script, Uncle Jiu has such high magical powers? Can he live to the modern society?"

Zhai Yuan said: "So you need to brainstorm and connect the events in the subsequent plot! Captain America can live from World War II to modern society, why can't Uncle Nine?"

The character of Uncle Jiu in "Mr. Vampire" is already very rich, but the background setting is ultimately in the early Republic of China and cannot keep up with the times. Even though Lin Zhengying later filmed a modern version of "The Exorcist Police", the protagonist changed from Uncle Jiu to Uncle Feng. Apart from the actors, there is no relevance between them, which wastes the IP in vain.

"I can provide you with some simple ideas to give you a general direction."

Seeing a group of people looking at him with a confused look, Zhai Yuan knew that creating a movie universe was still ahead of these so-called new wave directors, so he continued, "If the protagonist of Mr. Zombie in the first part is Uncle Nine, then in the second part, I can make him his senior and junior brothers. In the third part, the senior brother becomes the villain, and Uncle Nine and his junior brothers team up to deal with each other. In the end, they come to modern society and fight against new crises with new characters."

Thor - Uncle Nine, Loki - Junior Brother, Hela - Senior Brother.

Uncle Jiu transitioned from the early Republic of China to the city, was hung up and hammered by a Hydra-like organization, returned to Mount Mao-Asgard-to learn thunder magic, and fought against the mastermind behind the scenes with the protagonist group...

Sew! Sew hard!

It is difficult for Asian actors to open up the North American market, but at least local IP should be incubated in the Asian market before Hong Kong becomes Marvel's backyard.

Zhai Yuan is well aware of his own level. When it comes to such a difficult original work, he can only provide a skeleton at most. The flesh and blood of the plot still needs to be filled in by the group of directors and screenwriters in the room. Even more people may be needed to do this, but that is all for the future. For now, he is just working hard in this direction.

Wu Yusen said thoughtfully: "Treat the movie as a TV series."

Wang Jin hissed, "It's going to cost a lot of money to do this."

Xu Qi's eyes lit up: "Mr. Zhai, I think I can act in this movie."

Liu Zhenwei: “?”

Wang Jiawei yawned out of boredom: What a shallow popcorn plot. Am I the only one who likes Naruse Mikio?

"The first play used a relaxed style to establish the characters, which was not too difficult to shoot, and Liu Zhenwei was capable of handling it."

Zhai Yuan said to Xu Qi: "Mr. Vampire and your film Once Upon a Time in China are both being filmed in the mainland. If you are interested, you can visit the set anytime. The most important thing during this period is to help Liu Zhenwei prepare a detailed storyboard. If this series can continue, everyone will have the opportunity to direct independent films in the future."

Before today, no one had high hopes for "Mr. Vampire". When this project was handed to them before the New Year, everyone made excuses. But now, after listening to Zhai Yuan's plan, Xu Yi and others are somewhat envious of Liu Zhenwei.

The creators have different ideas in mind.

As the housekeeper, Shi Nansheng was taking notes in a notebook while Zhai Yuan was talking.

Then he asked the most crucial question directly: "Mr. Zhai, with such a long production cycle, have you ever considered who to cast as the male lead?"

Wang Jin stood up silently after hearing this and said: "Who said that Uncle Jiu can't be a fat man?" Just as he finished speaking, before it was the turn of the people in the conference room to give Wang Jin the middle finger, the glass door with the blinds drawn was suddenly pushed open by someone from the outside.

Ye Yuqing and Li Lizhen stumbled into the conference room, followed closely by Zhou Huimin and Bai Anni.

"I told you not to push, who is pushing me from behind?"

Ye Yuqing turned around and glared at the three girls behind her. She turned her back to Zhai Yuan and winked at them: "Go, go, go! They are still in a meeting!"

Zhai Yuan said unhappily: "Come back!"

The four girls froze in their tracks. Ye Yuqing turned away with an apologetic smile. Li Lizhen and Bai Anni also looked embarrassed. Zhou Huimin buried her head in her chest in embarrassment.

"Idol, it's none of my business." Ye Yuqing was the first to stumble into the door, but she complained first: "The three of them wanted to see your style, and they had to drag me to peek."

Li Lizhen didn't indulge her at all: "It was you who instigated us to come here, and now you want to betray us?"

Ann Bai nodded repeatedly in agreement.

It would have been fine if these three girls were just clever and quirky, but Zhai Yuan didn't expect that Zhou Huimin would also get involved.

Zhai Yuan pretended to be dissatisfied and said, "Huimin, tell me what's going on."

Ye Yuqing coughed twice and threatened Zhou Huimin with her eyes.

Zhou Huimin pouted and glanced at her, then lowered her head and said hesitantly, "I have never seen Master in a meeting, so I came here to peek out of curiosity."

Without asking, everyone knew that this was Ye Yuqing's idea, but Zhou Huimin's soft personality and temper made her take the blame.

Zhai Yuan glanced at the creators who were watching the show, shrugged helplessly, and said to Zhou Huimin, "There's nothing to peek at. If you like, you can help me take minutes next time."

Ye Yuqing said dissatisfiedly: "Why?"

Zhai Yuan said, "You come too."

Only then did Ye Yuqing reveal a proud smile.

Li Lizhen and Bai Anni looked at each other. They also wanted to participate, but they didn’t seem to be as confident as the other. After all, one of them was an apprentice and the other was the partner’s sister.

"Fat guy."

Ye Yuqing imitated Zhai Yuan's tone and addressed Wang Jin, saying threateningly: "You are not allowed to be the protagonist in a script that insults my idol!"

Zhai Yuan frowned and pulled her ear: "Be more polite, you are so disrespectful!"

Wang Jin couldn't afford to offend Ye Yuqing. It was rare for Zhai Yuan to help him, so he looked at him with emotion.

Zhai Yuan immediately added, "But Ah Qing is right. I would rather tear up the script if Fatty plays Uncle Nine."

Everyone in the conference room burst into laughter.

Liu Zhenwei joined in the fun and said, "If Brother Jin plays the leading role, I will give the directing baton to Director Xu."

Xu Qi smiled and said, "Okay, but the script needs to be changed to 'Fat Man Fights Zombies'."

Wang Jin was not angry at being teased by a group of people, and said with a smile: "No problem, but I want to change it to a female zombie."

"Hey!"

The middle fingers that should have been raised long ago finally pointed at Wang Jin's face.

Shi Nansheng knocked on the table: "Hey! Let's get down to business. Let's decide who will be the male lead so I can go and negotiate the contract in advance."

Wang Jin said: "It is not necessary to find someone from outside. I think Wan Ziliang is good for playing the Taoist priest. He has a good temperament and is popular enough now. The most important thing is that he is an internal employee of the company and the fee is cheap."

When he mentioned this, Zhai Yuan recalled a play called "Mr. Evil" in which Wang Jin and Wan Ziliang collaborated in later life. In the play, Wan Ziliang played Shen Cihang, a sorcerer who was well versed in fortune-telling and looked kind. Wan Ziliang's acting range was indeed wide enough.

However, except for that man, the other players in the role of Uncle Jiu are probably not up to par.

"Wan Zi has too many dramas this year, I have another choice."

Zhai Yuan smiled and interrupted the discussion on whether Wan Ziliang was suitable: "What do you think of Lin Zhengying? Liang Erdi in "The Prodigal Son" and Er Shugong in "People Are Scary"."

When this name was mentioned, except for Wang Jin, who had the most connections, everyone else frowned and thought about the past.

Lin Zhengying is not well-known now.

Even though he started acting in movies in the late 1960s and hung out with Bruce Lee for a while, he always played minor roles. It was not until he played the sword-wielding constable in Tony Leung Chiu-wai's "Crazy Conan" that he did not even have a proper character name. It was not until he played Liang Erdi in "The Prodigal Son" that he became his first second lead with a name and surname.

With Wang Jin's reminder, Xu Qi and others gradually had a clearer impression of Lin Zhengying.

Everyone looked at Zhai Yuan in confusion: "Why him?"

Zhai Yuan smiled and said, "I think when he wears a Taoist robe, he fits the image of Uncle Jiu in my script very well."

The boss gave a very abstract answer, and no matter how many opinions others had, they had to obey.

Zhai Yuan said, "Sister Nan, I don't want to loan this actor out from Jiahe for one show after another. I plan to sign him to a long-term contract with our company. Can you help me negotiate with him?"

After learning about Lin Zhengying's identity, Shi Nansheng looked embarrassed: "Are they from the Hong Clan? When I went to Jiahe to discuss Hu Huizhong's contract, Hong Xinbao and his group seemed to be very hostile to us at Jiuyi Entertainment. If you don't know, you might think we stole his script!"

Zhai Yuan was stunned when he heard this, maybe you were right.

Shi Nansheng continued, "We are trying to poach someone from them again this time. Even though he is an unknown little actor, I am worried that they will still not let him go."

Zhai Yuan stroked his chin and thought for a while: "You go and talk to the other party first. If they refuse to release the person, I will go and talk to Hong Xinbao in person."

Several main creators looked at Zhai Yuan with strange eyes, and they all felt that Zhai Yuan was making a big deal out of nothing.

Just Lin Zhengying, who has been filming for more than ten years but has never become popular. Do I have to make a special trip just for him?
Is it true that apart from him, no one else can wear Taoist robes and play Uncle Jiu?

(End of this chapter)