Chapter 390 Birthday Party Invitation

"Jackie Chan, Li Lien... both have nine-figure salaries, and they are action stars. It would be inappropriate for them to star in this kind of film..."

"Where's Zhou Runfa?"

"After "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Chow Yun-fat's salary was US$8 million..."

Huang Zhongjun was speechless: "Eight million U.S. dollars? How dare you ask for that price!"

Shen Xudong nodded: "Zhou Runfa has little appeal... "Bulletproof Monk" lost tens of millions of dollars. If "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" hadn't been a hit at the box office, I guess he would have to return to Hong Kong!"

"...Look for Gong Li!"

"Gong Li will join the cast of "The Old Man" next month and it will take two months to film... Will it delay "The Banquet"?"

Feng Xiaogang shook his head: "No, I will shoot at the end of the year!"

"Actually... Zhang Ziyi can do it too!"

"Forget it, if you can use Gong Li, of course you can use Gong Li!"

Shen Xudong said nothing...

He was wondering when the project for "Golden Armor" was established?

"Do you want to participate in the script of "The Night Banquet"?"

Shen Xudong quickly declined: "...I'm not interested in this kind of palace drama, human tragedy or anything like that..."

Feng Xiaogang advised: "Don't you give it a try?"

"...I have studied Gogol and Ibsen, but not much about Shakespeare...let's forget it!"

Shen Xudong still refused.

Seeing this, Feng Xiaogang and Huang Zhongjun stopped trying to persuade them.

But Qiu Gangjian said: "The script is already perfect, no need to change it!"

Feng Xiaogang said nothing...

Qiu Gangjian was unwilling to adapt the original time and space, so Feng Xiaogang asked Sheng Heyu to take over.

Sheng Heyu has participated in the screenwriting of TV series such as "Toward the Republic" and "Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty". He has the title of first-level screenwriter and won the Cao Yu Drama Literature Award...

…

"Night Banquet", Shen Xudong is impossible to accept!

The tone of "Hamlet" is here, the framework is established, and it is definitely a tragedy.

Tragedy actually doesn't matter, the key point is that the whole story is a conspiracy, the darkness of human nature shrouded in power and so on...

In the past, he didn't understand why these directors liked to focus on these things. If they didn't capture the darkness of human nature, would they not be great directors?

"The Promise", "The Night Banquet", and "A City Full of Golden Armor", the pictures and props are extremely gorgeous, but in terms of content...

Not only is the plot obscure, but the actors' performances and lines also present a kind of non-life-like morbidity, which makes people feel nondescript and pretentious. It’s more like a stage play than a movie!

Shen Xudong is really confused...

Later, I studied screenwriting, and I roughly understood something: the ultimate mission of movies, including literature, that is, literary and artistic works, is to reveal the shortcomings of social reality to the public, express one's own thoughts, promote public attention and improve it.

Because of this naive idea, they have a natural tendency to approve of artistic works that depict the miserable, ugly and poor!

Therefore, works that are joyful, positive, entertaining, and complimentary are not recognized.

This is also a manifestation of the industry's narrow and single aesthetic appreciation of art, and is also a common problem among some nominal artist groups.

But Shen Xudong is not an artist...

In other words, he is naturally disgusted with this kind of aesthetics.

I don't like it from the bottom of my heart.

He doesn't like it anymore, so how could he possibly want to change it?

Moreover, Qiu Gangjian is very good at writing erotic scenes - he has scripted many C-level films, and "The Night Banquet" naturally has many erotic scenes as well!

Shen Xudong hates erotic dramas very much. It's not that he doesn't want to write them, or that he can't write them well... it's that even if he writes them, he can't shoot them, and even if he shoots them, he has to edit them. Since there's no way to show them to the public... why shoot them?

So, I hate it even more...

…

The blockbuster era is coming!

"The Promise", "The Night Banquet", "The City is Full of Golden Armor", in fact there are also "Mo Gong", "Jiangshan Beauty" and the like...

Thanks to "The Promise", this film completely kicked off the period when costume blockbusters were not blockbusters - they were not blockbusters worldwide: the global box office was 38 million US dollars, the mainland accounted for 25.16 million, and the overseas box office was only 13 million US dollars;

Then "The Banquet", the overseas box office was 7 million US dollars...

"Ink Attack" is close to 10 million US dollars...

When did you stop buying?

In fact, it’s not that I don’t want to buy it. The overseas copyright of “Confucius” sold well in 10 years, but it is no longer like it is now. For example, for “Glory of the Tang Dynasty”, North American film producers immediately offered 20 million when they heard that Jackie Chan was also in the costume. USD price tag…

When it came to "Confucius", no one in North America was buying it. The Japanese studio offered a price of US$1.8 million. They wanted to sell it, but if they didn't sell it, get out - Japan really didn't buy the copyright!

Overseas markets are no longer enough to recover the cost - from a business perspective, large-scale costume productions cost a lot of money, and they have to hire celebrities and have big scenes. The cost is too high. But I can’t guarantee the box office, and it’s true that I’ll lose more money and make less money. To put it bluntly, it’s all business, so it would be great to shoot something that can make money.

Moreover, domestic audiences no longer like to watch large-scale costume dramas, and no longer chase so-called big scenes and blockbusters. When they hear the word "blockbuster", they are directly equated with bad movies!

A domestic blockbuster that can’t afford to be hurt…

Shen Xudong has nothing to say about this matter, and he can't change it!

The investment in a movie is huge. If you want to recover the cost, you cannot just rely on the mainland box office. You must consider overseas markets.

Costume blockbusters are the most popular type of Chinese films in overseas markets.

At this stage, overseas film producers have identified China’s costume action genre, and are offering relatively high prices!

Other themes cannot be sold at high prices.

Even if Jackie Chan, Li Lien, Gong Li, and Zhang Ziyi were all on board, and there was no action in the drama, the price offered by an overseas company would only be 1/5 of the action movie.

You say this is a strong culture and unfair, and you want to change it and reverse it - no one listens to you!

All he can do is make a few good costume blockbusters, such as "Glory of the Tang Dynasty" and "The Legend of Zhao Yun"...

The "Zhao Yun Zhuan" project has been launched - the most important thing about the blockbuster is the actors, starring Andy Lau, screenwriter Shen Xudong, and director Chen Desen. The total cost is 25 million US dollars. The main funders are Jiahe, China Film and... Tianmei Media.

Tianmei Media originally planned to invest 2 million US dollars, but after hearing from Shen Xudong that this project had a high probability of making money, it simply took 40% of the investment...

Casting should be taking place now.

…

On the 16th, Shen Xudong showed up at the company's office according to his schedule. There will be an interview today to talk about "Witnessed by All"...

Cooperate with the publicity!

After "Witness" entered the working day, it has exceeded 10 million in a single day for three consecutive days. According to the box office trend, it should be able to break 100 million by the end of this week.

Breaking the ceiling of crime and suspense genres!

According to the unanimous opinion of critics: The most advantageous aspect of "Witness" lies in a good script...

The interview... was nothing new. They talked about the cooperation experience, the performance of the actors, and, by the way, box office predictions and a few words about the film market.

They were all routine questions, and Shen Xudong naturally responded to them with ease.

After finishing the task for more than an hour, he got up and was about to talk to Zhao Linhai about the situation of "The Best Butler". Then his phone rang, so he took it out and took a look...Liu Yifei!

I'm quite curious, what is Liu Yifei going to do with him?

Liu Yifei on the other end of the phone said concisely and concisely: "I have my birthday tomorrow!"

"...Are you spending time at home? I'll order a big cake for you!"

"...at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse...are you coming?"

"…I…"