At first, I just wanted to make money

Chapter 390 Birthday Party Invitation

"Jackie Chan, Li Lianlian...the salary is nine figures, and they are action stars. It's not appropriate for them to act in this kind of movie..."

"Where's Zhou Runfa?"

"After "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Zhou Runfa's salary was 800 million US dollars..."

Huang Zhongjun was speechless: "800 million US dollars? How dare you ask for the price!"

Shen Xudong nodded: "Zhou Runfa has no appeal... "Bulletproof Monk" lost tens of millions of dollars. If "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" hadn't been a box office hit, he would have to go back to Hong Kong!"

"...Let's find Gong Li!"

"Gong Li will join the cast of "Old Thousand" next month, it is estimated that it will take two months to shoot...Will it delay "The Banquet"?"

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

"Actually... Zhang Ziyi is fine too!"

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

Shen Xudong didn't speak...

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

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

Shen Xudong quickly declined: "...I'm not interested in this kind of court drama, human tragedy, etc..."

Feng Xiaogang persuaded: "Why don't you give it a try?"

"...I have studied Gogol and Ibsen, but not Shakespeare...forget it!"

Shen Xudong still refused.

Seeing this, Feng Xiaogang and Huang Zhongjun didn't try to persuade him anymore.

It was Qiu Gangjian who said: "The script is already perfect, there is no need to change it!"

Feng Xiaogang didn't speak...

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

Sheng Heyu has participated in the screenwriting of TV dramas such as "Towards 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...

……

It is impossible for Shen Xudong to accept "Night Banquet"!
The tone of "Hamlet" is here, the framework is established, and it is definitely a tragedy.

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

In the past, he didn't understand why these directors liked to focus on these things. If they didn't shoot some dark human nature, they wouldn't be great directors?
"The Promise", "Night Banquet" and "Curse of Golden Armor", the pictures and props are extremely gorgeous, but the content...

Not only is the plot obscure, but the performances and lines of the actors all present a non-lifelike morbidity, which makes people feel nondescript and pretentious.It's not so much a movie as it is a stage play!

Shen Xudong is really confused...

Later, when I studied screenwriting, I roughly understood one thing: 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 my own thoughts, promote public attention and improve them.

Because of this naive idea, they have a natural tendency to approve of works of art that depict misery and poverty!

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

This is also a manifestation of the industry's narrow and single aesthetics for art, and it is also a common problem of some nominal artist groups.

But Shen Xudong is not an artist...

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

I really don't like it.

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

Moreover, Qiu Gangjian is very good at writing erotic dramas - he has written screenwriters for many tertiary films, and "The Banquet" naturally has many erotic scenes!
Shen Xudong hates pornographic dramas very much. It's not that he doesn't want to write them, or they can't write them well...but that they can't be filmed even if they are written, and they have to be edited if they are filmed. Since there is no way to release them...why film them?

So, it's even more annoying...

……

The era of blockbuster movies is coming!
"The Promise", "Night Banquet", "Curse of Golden Armor", in fact, there are "Mo Gong", "Jiangshan Beauty" and so on...

Thanks to "The Promise", this film has completely kicked off the prelude to the blockbuster blockbusters in ancient costumes - they are not sold worldwide: the global box office is 3800 million US dollars, the mainland accounts for 2516 million, and the overseas box office is only 1300 million US dollars;
Then "The Banquet", the overseas box office is 700 million US dollars...

"Ink Attack" is close to $1000 million...

When did you stop buying it?

In fact, it’s not that I don’t want to buy it. The 10-year overseas copyright of “Confucius” sold well, but it’s not like it is now. For example, for “Glory of the Tang Dynasty”, the North American film studio heard that there was a costume and Jackie Chan, and immediately offered 2000 million yuan. USD price tag...

When it came to "Confucius", no one in North America bought it at all. The Japanese Benzene filmmaker offered a price of 180 million U.S. dollars. They love to sell it, and if they don't sell it, get out--Nippon Benzene did not buy the copyright!

Overseas markets are no longer enough to recover costs—from a commercial point of view, large-scale productions of costumes cost a lot of money, and the cost is too high because it requires celebrities and a big scene.But I can’t guarantee the box office, and it’s true that I lose more and earn less. To put it bluntly, it’s all business, so it’s good to make some money.

Moreover, domestic audiences don't like to watch that kind of large-scale costume dramas anymore, and they no longer chase after the so-called big scenes and blockbuster movies. When they hear the word "blockbuster", they directly equate it with bad movies!
Can't afford to hurt the domestic blockbuster...

Shen Xudong has nothing to say about this matter, and he can't change it!
The investment in film is huge, and if we want to recover the cost, it is not enough to rely on the mainland box office alone, and we must consider overseas markets.

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

At this stage, overseas film companies have recognized the Chinese costume action genre, and the price they pay is relatively high!
Other subjects cannot be sold at high prices.

Even if Jackie Chan, Li Lianlian, Gong Li, and Zhang Ziyi are all on stage, and there is no action for a literary play, the price offered by an overseas company is only 1/5 of the action film.

You say it's a strong culture, it's unfair, you want to change it, reverse it - no one listens to you!

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

The "Zhao Yun Biography" project has already started - the most important part of the blockbuster is the actors, starring Andy Lau, screenwriter Shen Xudong, director Chen Desen, the total cost is 2500 million US dollars, and the main contributors are Golden Harvest, China Film and... Tianmei Media.

Tianmei Media originally planned to invest 200 million US dollars, but Shen Xudong said that this project has a high probability of making money, and it simply accounted for 40% of the investment...

Casting should be in progress now.

……

On the 16th, Shen Xudong appeared in the company's office according to the schedule. Today there is an interview, let's talk about "National Witness"...,

Cooperate with the publicity!
After "National Witness" entered the working day, it broke [-] million in a single day for three consecutive days. Judging from the box office trend, by the end of this week, it should be able to break [-] million.

Breaking the ceiling of crime and suspense genres!
According to the unanimous opinion of the critics: the most dominant aspect of "National Witness" lies in a good script...

The interview... nothing new, just chatting about the experience of cooperation, talking about the performance of the actors, by the way, there are also box office predictions and a few words about the movie market.

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

After finishing the mission for over an hour, he got up and was going to talk to Zhao Linhai about the situation of "The Best Housekeeper", when his phone rang, he took it out and took a look... Liu Yifei!

Quite curious, what is Liu Yifei looking for him for?
On the other end of the phone, Liu Yifei said succinctly: "I celebrate my birthday tomorrow!"

"...Stay at home? I'll order a big cake for you!"

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

"…I…"

(End of this chapter)