The world begins with Hong Kong movies

Chapter 262 Change
At that time, "Mongkok News" and "Fiction Monthly" were the leading literary publications in Hong Kong.

Even the related comic book publishing has been able to thrive despite the immense pressure from Jade Dragon International, the dominant comic book publisher in Hong Kong.

It has a certain influence and good reputation not only in Hong Kong Island, but also in neighboring Macau Island and Chinese communities in Southeast Asia.

It's quite a bit like replicating the pattern that led to Jin Yong's explosive popularity back then.

However, Wu Feng's novel platform is clearly more competitive and has a better future.

After all, Ming Pao was built on the efforts of one person, unlike Mong Kok News and Fiction Monthly!

Every day, the newspaper receives a considerable number of novel submissions.

In particular, the high-quality novel manuscripts sent from the mainland can easily overwhelm editors.

Any high-quality novel that can be serialized in "Mongkok News" may not necessarily become a huge hit, but it can easily attract a large number of readers.

Once you have enough popularity, it's easy to adapt it into comics, movies, and TV series.

The cultural and entertainment synergy model created by Wu Feng has already shown considerable advantages.

Putting aside everything else, movies adapted from novels have never failed at the box office.

This is incredible!

It's important to understand that filmmaking is a high-risk investment, fraught with uncertainty!
Why does Cinema City keep focusing on comedies? Isn't it because comedies have a higher success rate?
For example, Golden Harvest placed a heavy bet on Cheng Shilong. If Cheng Shilong's film failed, the entire company would be immediately weakened.

Other film companies are in a similar situation; they simply have no control over whether a film is popular or not.
Similarly, Fengrui Film and Television, along with the newspaper, recruited many part-time screenwriters to adapt popular and high-quality novels, ensuring that there would be no problems with the scripts.

In fact, if a novel's plot is popular with readers, then as long as it is adapted into a film or television series, it will have a natural readership as its core base.

Because of Wu Feng's strict requirements, he always scrutinizes the process of adapting a novel into a screenplay.

Coupled with the good habits brought from the mainland, such as script readings, and strict control over the plot, this is the main reason why movies adapted from popular novels have basically had no problems.

With a great script, meticulous production, smooth plot, and effective promotion, it would be hard for it not to succeed!

Even Wu Feng hadn't anticipated that, unknowingly, his entertainment and cultural linkage system would have more than fifty full-time screenwriters, with an even larger number of part-time screenwriters.

Because the film adaptations of the novels performed well at the box office, many film and television companies came to the newspaper to buy the film and television adaptation rights to the novels.

Initially, Wu Feng did not intend to monopolize the film and television adaptation rights. He simply held onto the rights to the most popular and innovative novels, while selling off some of the film and television adaptation rights to other high-quality novels.

On the one hand, Fengrui Films couldn't adapt the content, and on the other hand, it was also for the sake of making more profit.

Of course, Wu Feng's thoughts at that time were also very simple!
The hope is to expand the influence and reputation of its novel platform through this model.

As long as a film company that has purchased the film and television adaptation rights to a high-quality novel makes a profit or at least breaks even, it is considered a victory.

Unfortunately, he overestimated the integrity of Hong Kong film companies!

Damn it, the film and television companies that bought the film and television adaptation rights to excellent novels, I don't know where they hired the screenwriters, or maybe they didn't even have a proper screenwriter. They didn't even read the excellent novels they bought carefully to understand the specific plot and the most essential content, and then they just made a bunch of random adaptations.

Naturally, they didn't gain anything from the result, and the film was a box office flop!
That's not all. The newspaper didn't blame the other party for making haphazard adaptations, but the other party directly pinned all the blame on the newspaper, saying that the film adaptation failed because the novel provided by the newspaper itself had problems.

What a damn problem!
Liu Wenxiang, the newspaper manager, was a cultured man. Although he was angry about the shameless behavior of his business partner, he was helpless.

But who is Wu Feng?

He is already quite cultured for not bullying others.

As a result, some people actually took advantage of the situation and didn't know any limits!
Even without Wu Feng's intervention, the owners of those small film companies quickly fell into trouble.

They either got into a car accident or encountered some inexplicable trouble.

Don't even think about getting through this if you don't shed a layer of skin.

By the time Wu Feng heard the news, the matter was already completely over.

He knew perfectly well that it was all the work of the other leaders of Hung Hing!
It was just a favor he was doing, so he didn't really care.

However, the newspaper has tightened its grip on selling the film and television adaptation rights to its best novels.

At Wu Feng's request, the newspaper put forward extremely demanding requirements!

It's possible to buy the adaptation rights to a high-quality novel, but the adapted script must first be reviewed and approved by the newspaper before filming and production can proceed.

Alternatively, they could temporarily recruit screenwriters from the newspaper to serve as the main screenwriters for adapting the script.

The newspaper's reason was simple: they didn't want a fine novel to be ruined.

As a result, few reputable film and television companies in Hong Kong were willing to cooperate in this way.

However, many film and television companies established by various organizations are actively seeking cooperation.

In particular, the film and television company established with Lung Kin, the head of the Mong Kok brothel, was the most active.

I wonder if it's because he's made too many erotic films and wants to make some serious theatrical films to turn his reputation around, or if he has other motives.
In short, the film company established by Longgen directly chose the second option for cooperation.

According to this guy, it conveniently saves the trouble of finding a proper screenwriter!

The result was self-evident: with no problems in adapting the script, the film company founded by Long Gen being willing to invest money, and the filming and production being quite professional, the film's box office performance after its release was not bad.

The total box office of 13 million made Long Gen extremely happy, and he couldn't help but throw a big banquet to celebrate. Anyone who didn't know better would think he had made a movie called "A Better Tomorrow".

In fact, Longgen certainly had reason to be happy!

After all, they had purchased the film and television adaptation rights to a high-quality novel from the newspaper, and thus had business dealings with Wu Feng. Moreover, they were willing to accept seemingly harsh conditions, so Wu Feng would not ignore them.

Naturally, they helped contact Shuangnan Cinema Circuit, saving this guy the trouble of finding screening channels.

The other Golden Princess cinemas, along with Golden Harvest and D&B Cinemas, are quite ruthless when it comes to ripping people off.

They don't care whether Longgen is with Lian Shengtang!
In this way, Longgen easily connected with Shuangnan Cinema Line and gained access to a legitimate cinema screening channel.

In other words, any regular theatrical films produced by the film company established by Longgen will be able to be screened in the Shuangnan Cinema Circuit and receive normal screenings.

Don't underestimate the box office of 13 million!
Lung Gen has its own private channels for selling videotapes, plus some legitimate overseas copyright revenue, so its total box office revenue is definitely no less than that of Hong Kong Island!

In fact, a decent theatrical film can generate much higher revenue than an erotic film.

This incident caused quite a stir in the Hong Kong film industry.

As a result, the reputable film companies still didn't react much.

Meanwhile, the film company run by the guild was scrambling to buy the adaptation rights to popular novels. Wu Feng was utterly speechless at this situation.

However, he did not close the door to cooperation. As long as the other party was willing to accept the harsh cooperation conditions, he did not need to pay too much attention to other things.

The number of films adapted from novels is gradually increasing!

As for TV series adapted from novels, they are all currently being handled by ATV.

On the wireless side, no intention of cooperating has been revealed.

Wu Feng didn't care!

As long as the novel platform can continuously release various types of high-quality novels, the newspaper and publishing house can provide Wu Feng with a fairly stable income.

In particular, the number of submissions from mainland China is increasing.

It provides the novel platform with the most important high-quality novel resources.

Wu Feng's subconscious action back then has caused an ever-growing stir in the mainland cultural circles.

Many mainland writers earned remuneration and royalties that were quite astonishing at the time by submitting their work to Mong Kok News and Fiction Monthly.

This is no joke!
A novel of 500,000 words can earn at least 25,000 yuan in royalties.

In an era where the basic salary is less than two hundred, this is definitely a huge sum of money!
Similarly, quite a few mainland Chinese authors have become wealthy through a single book!
As its influence spread, many novel enthusiasts and non-writers also began writing novels.

Among them were many excellent works, which earned a considerable amount of money through publication in newspapers and magazines on Hong Kong Island.

It's similar to the development of online literature in later generations!

With sufficient financial incentives and low barriers to entry, the number of mainland authors plunging into the world of novel writing has surged dramatically.

Wu Feng wouldn't let such an opportunity slip by!

His group company in mainland China has a novel magazine published specifically for the mainland market.

Magazines similar to later ones like "Wuxia" and "Legend of Today and Yesterday" collected novels that were of decent quality but not good enough to be published in Hong Kong.

Of course, this doesn't mean that these novels are of poor quality or even unpopular; rather, it's that some novel genres are quite niche in Hong Kong.

Several different types of novel magazines became instant hits in mainland China upon their release.

The circulation of the first issue quickly increased from around 300,000 copies to 2 million copies.

In order to better manage its own magazines and novel brands, the mainland group has opened large-scale book sales and rental stores in provincial capitals across the country.

The goal is simple: to steal business from pirates!
Currently, the numerous popular and high-quality novels and comics published in Hong Kong alone, along with a few novel magazines from mainland China, are enough to make these stores extremely popular.

In fact, once the mainland economy develops further, these large bookstores, which already have a considerable reputation, will be able to play an even greater role.

Wu Feng wouldn't show favoritism!
Having established a booming novel market in mainland China, it's no surprise that they also have their own bookstores in the Chinese communities of Southeast Asia.

At the same time, it has accepted excellent novel manuscripts from Southeast Asia, and its reputation is only so-so.

In fact, Hung Hing played a significant role in helping Chinese communities in Southeast Asia open their own bookstores, saving them a lot of trouble.

Even in 2024, Southeast Asia will not be a place of order and tranquility.

By the late 1980s, the situation there was even worse!
If Hong Kong is rife with triads, then Southeast Asia is a stage for all sorts of demons and monsters.

Sometimes, the reputation of a club or organization is even more useful than money.

As I said before, Wu Feng doesn't mind using the club's resources as long as it can help solve the problem; everyone does it that way.

While Wu Feng was inspecting his businesses, the top triads on Hong Kong Island were not at peace.

Camel, the leader of Tung Sing, and Deng Bo, a veteran of the Lian Sheng empire, somehow got together and called Jiang Tiansheng to discuss some matters.

As for what to talk about?
Of course, it was the three Hung Hing bosses, Chiang Tin-sang, Leung Kwan, and Han Bin, who caused the blockade and boat incident.

That's a huge piece of fat, and it's not the fat that's already been divided up inside Hong Kong Island, but rather fat that's been created out of thin air. Naturally, they want a piece of the pie.

If it's just one company, they have absolutely no confidence in negotiating with Hung Hing.

Then let's join forces; Jiang Tiansheng will be somewhat wary of us.

What a good plan!
In fact, without even needing to inquire carefully, Lung Kin, the leader of the Mong Kok branch of the Lian Sheng gang, took the initiative to inform Wu Feng.

There was no other reason than that Long Gen felt he and Wu Feng shared common interests.

That means selling clothing and footwear to Siam and the Indochina Peninsula!
In fact, by December, Long Gen's business with Lin Ershao had grown quite large, and they did not want any conflict to break out in the Hong Kong underworld.

Those who shared the same idea as Longgen were Uncle Dongxing and his group, who had just entered the smuggling industry.

They all wanted to run their goods business peacefully and quietly make a lot of money in private!

If they could, they wouldn't even mind joining forces with Hung Hing to make things difficult for their own leader!

In the end, isn't everything in the underworld about money?
Uncle Ben and his gang from Tung Sing have been behaving themselves lately, not even bothering to provoke Boss B from Causeway Bay, giving Boss B a rare chance to catch his breath.

Upon receiving the feedback, Jiang Tiansheng immediately called Wu Feng to come over and discuss the matter.

When Wu Feng arrived at Jiang Tiansheng's villa with the outdoor swimming pool, Liang Kun and Han Bin had already arrived ahead of time.

"You two, you came back without even letting me know!"

Wu Feng laughed and scolded, "Especially you, Brother Kun, we're neighbors!"

"You became an elder without making a sound. I thought you wouldn't be involved in the club's affairs anymore!"

Liang Kun rolled his eyes and said irritably, "Besides, I've been having a terrible headache lately, I don't have time to chat and joke around with you."

"Can't you?"

Wu Feng said skeptically, "Hasn't the most dangerous time passed? From now on, Brother Kun just needs to wait to collect the money. What's there to worry about?"

"Hehe, Mr. Chiang wants me to be the leader of Hung Hing!"

Liang Kun hesitated and said, "I'm really torn. I don't know whether I should accept Mr. Jiang's offer!"

(End of this chapter)