China Entertainment Times 1999

Chapter 258: The box office exceeded million, and "House of Flying Daggers" was overhauled! (Please subscribe!)

The plane landed at Beijing Airport.

A large group of people from the "Dark Side" crew showed up at the airport lobby.

Media reporters who had been waiting for a long time swarmed over, carrying cameras and recorders.

Assistants and security guards immediately formed a human wall to keep all these people out.

"Director Lin, the new movie will be shot in less than a month. Is this a low-budget movie?"

Lin Xuan wore sunglasses and answered as he walked.

"The investment in this film is not large, but there is no need to worry about the quality of the film."

"The movie has been completed, can you reveal some content?"

Lin Xuan smiled and complained: "What good things are you thinking about? Except for the information disclosed when the movie was approved, we can't say anything else."

The reporter asked again: "The box office of "The Blind Shaft" in the mainland exceeded 100 million. What do you have to say about this?"

"Well, congratulations to Director Li Yang. Such an excellent movie deserves such a high box office.

I believe that "The Blind Shaft" will be the box office champion of small-budget reality-themed movies for a long time. "

"Can you please predict the box office of the new movie? Are you confident that it will surpass "The Blind Shaft"?"

"I won't make predictions. But I have the confidence to surpass "The Blind Shaft", so please stay tuned."

After answering a few questions, Lin Xuan walked quickly to the underground parking lot, got into the vehicle arranged by the company, and left.

"Can the box office of "The Dark Side" really exceed 100 million?"

In the car, Fan Xiaopang was very excited and looked at him expectantly.

Lin Xuan smiled and nodded: "If I don't even have this confidence, then why should I shoot it?"

Hearing this, Fan Xiaopang nodded slightly, with a bright smile on his face.

The same was true for Gao Yuanyuan on the side.

Lin Xuan never said anything he was unsure about.

With his guarantee, it is certain that the new movie will be a hit.

Both of them wished they could jump directly to a year later and enjoy the applause and flowers from the audience.

Billionaire heroine, this title sounds exciting.

Soon, news that the crew of "The Dark Side" had finished filming and returned to Beijing spread, including his statement that "the film is confident of surpassing "The Blind Shaft" at the box office."

People in the industry had different reactions to Lin Xuan's bold words.

Most people thought he was floating.

Even Zhang Yimou didn't have the confidence to say this right after the movie was shot.

Besides, the mainland film market has just started, and there are only a handful of films that have grossed over 100 million yuan.

Feng Xiaogang, the king of Lunar New Year films, is recognized as the mainland's most proficient director in commercial films.

The top box office of his movies is at the level of 5000 million.

Lin Xuan opened his mouth to say 100 million, so he was not afraid of being slapped in the face when the final results were announced.

Outsiders don't understand, but those who have been in contact with Lin Xuan and know his character have great confidence in him.

First of all, as movie theaters become more popular, the mainland film market is also gradually expanding.

Two years ago, if a movie box office wanted to exceed 100 million, it needed government support.

To put it bluntly, an internal notice was issued to let civil servants, teachers, and students go to the movies.

This is what Feng Xiaogang did, and he was ridiculed by the boss in public.

The themes of Lin Xuan's films are varied, but none of them fall into the supportable category, so they cannot reap this wave of dividends.

However, with the expansion of the market, the number of moviegoers has increased, coupled with his extremely powerful appeal.

As long as the movie's themes reach a wide enough audience, it is not unattainable to achieve a box office of over 100 million even without policy support.

…………

Back in the courtyard, Lin Xuan received a call from a friend to congratulate him.

"The Blind Shaft" has a box office of over 100 million. As the sole investor, "Lin Xuan Studio" will definitely make a lot of money.

They were equally curious about the movie "The Dark Side."

What is so special about this suspense thriller that gives him the confidence to shout a slogan that surpasses "The Blind Shaft".

It's a pity that Lin Xuan was very tight-lipped and didn't reveal any information to them.

Suspense thrillers are all about trickery.

Once this thing is leaked, it will cause a fatal blow to the movie.

Wang Zhongjun and Han Sanping also called him.

After hearing the news that "The Blind Shaft" had a box office of over 100 million, both of them felt regretful.

When they were in the club, they both met Li Yang and also read the script of "The Blind Shaft".

But no one cared about this unknown grassroots director.

Unexpectedly, he actually succeeded and gained both fame and fortune.

The more this happened, the more they admired Lin Xuan's vision for being able to find a piece of gold from the sea of ​​sand.

The envious tone of the two people could be felt through the phone.

But only Lin Xuan himself knew that he bought half of the 100 million box office of "The Blind Shaft" with points.

It's like spending money on marketing out of your own pocket.

Excluding this part of the box office, the real box office of "The Blind Shaft" should be less than 5000 million.

After all, a considerable number of people followed the trend and watched the movie after seeing it became popular.

Although the box office result of 5000 million is enough to compete with Feng Xiaogang's movie "Mobile Phone" this year, it is still within the acceptable range for insiders.

A small-budget reality-themed movie with a box office of over 100 million is an exaggeration in any era.

Li Yang was already stunned by the surprise.

During this time, he has been staying at home. In addition to keeping an eye on the movie box office results, he also received the bosses of various film and television companies.

The news that he was "banned" from radio and television for two years has long spread in the industry.

Even so, many film and television companies have offered him an olive branch.

New Picture has Zhang Yimou, Huayi has Feng Xiaogang, and Lin Xuan has established his own business.

Other film and television companies also want to have their own big-name directors.

In order to win this new member of the "Billion Dollar Club", he is also the winner of the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival.

These film and television companies have given contracts with very favorable conditions.

Li Yang was so confused these days that he even called Lin Xuan to tell him about his worries about happiness.

Lin Xuan was very down-to-earth and advised him not to worry and just choose whoever has good conditions.

…………

On the second day after returning to Beijing, Lin Xuan took the film negatives to the company to have a meeting to arrange the post-production tasks for the new film.

An excellent suspense thriller requires not only the actors' expressive performances, but also top-notch rhythm control and a top-notch soundtrack.

Lin Xuan named several classic movies at the meeting and asked the post-production department to learn from them and imitate the editing styles of these movies.

Finish the work, it's getting late.

Lin Xuan left the company and took a car to a hotel in Beijing.

The crew of "The Blind Shaft" is holding a celebration party tonight.

The last celebration banquet was to celebrate Li Yang winning the Silver Bear Award, and this time it was to celebrate the movie's mainland box office exceeding 100 million.

At the entrance of the banquet hall, Li Yang was wearing a crisp suit and receiving guests with a smile.

There were many industry insiders attending the banquet. Li Yang did not have such great energy. These people were all invited by Lin Xuan.

There are friends in the industry, actors I have worked with, famous directors, film and television company bosses, and leaders of relevant departments.

Lin Xuan walked around in the crowd holding champagne, accepting everyone's compliments.

The process of tonight's celebration banquet is very simple, just eat, drink, and chat.

Except for the unavoidable part where the crew and creators go on stage to speak, other inconsequential processes are simply skipped.

Neither Lin Xuan nor Li Yang are the kind of people who like to be in the limelight.

Two hours later, Lin Xuan put down his cup and sat on a chair to rest.

He invited too many guests today. Even with the simplest courtesy, it would take more than two hours to complete a toast. Besides, these guests were all invited by him, and he had to chat with them for a while and say hello.

As soon as he sat down to rest for a while, Zhang Yimou came over.

"Lin Xuan, it's time to reply to me today about what I always told you before."

"Oh, you were talking about "House of Flying Daggers". I'm so sorry, I've been so busy lately that I forgot about it."

"The movie will start shooting at the end of next month. If you don't give me a reply, I will find someone else."

As early as when he was in Berlin, Zhang Yimou talked to him and wanted to invite him to star in the movie "House of Flying Daggers".

This is a martial arts movie with two male protagonists. One of the male protagonists is Liu Dehua, and the female protagonist is Zhang Ziyi.

However, everything must be reversed at the extreme. Lin Xuan has filmed too many martial arts dramas, and now he has a feeling of resistance, so he rejected it at the time.

There is another unknown reason, which is that the filming of "House of Flying Daggers" was terrible.

Zhang Yimou's three lowest-rated films are "The Golden Armor", "Three Guns" and "House of Flying Daggers".

The cinematography, color, and photography of the movie are excellent.

As I said before, Zhang Yimou's level in this regard is world-class.

But compared to its advantages, the movie has too many shortcomings.

The logic of the script is confusing, the martial arts scenes are distorted, the characters are emotionally weak, and the actors' performances are extremely poor.

With these shortcomings, it is impossible for Lin Xuan to participate in the film.

They are both filmmakers, so he speaks very straightforwardly.

Unexpectedly, Lao Mouzi did not give up after hearing this, and even called him every now and then to talk about the movie.

If there is a problem, what are you afraid of? As long as it is solved, it will be fine.

The logic of the script is confusing: I give you the pen, you write it!

The martial arts scenes are distorted: You are also a martial arts instructor, so you can shoot whatever you say!

The characters are emotionally weak: the same as the script, just change it.

The acting is extremely poor: I disagree with this.

Lin Xuan, Liu Dehua, Zhang Ziyi, who are not powerful actors?

Aren't you scolding yourself?

Lin Xuan burst into laughter. The above are all comments from the original version.

In the original drama, Takeshi Kaneshiro played the role of the golden catcher. His acting skills were really eye-catching, not much better than the future little fresh meat.

If Lin Xuan himself were to star, there would definitely be no need to worry about his acting skills.

As for Andy Lau, his acting skills are certainly good.

However, due to Anita Mui's serious illness, he asked for leave many times and left the group to return to Hong Kong.

Even if I join a group to film, I often can't find my groove and can only act based on my feelings.

The final result is that his expression is stiff, his lines are poor, and his performance is superficial.

It can be said that he didn't put any effort into acting in this movie.

The solution Lin Xuan gave was to shoot in advance.

Three months ahead of the expected start date, and the contract was signed to strictly prohibit leaving the group before completion.

Lao Mouzi is very sincere.

It can be seen that he really wants to continue to cooperate with Lin Xuan.

When Lin Xuan points out a problem, he solves it and constantly improves the script.

Over and over again, this matter has been delayed until now.

According to Lin Xuan's suggestion, the movie will officially start filming at the end of April.

Now that it was less than a month before the launch, he had to give an answer no matter what.

Lin Xuan took a sip of wine in silence and quickly recalled the plot of the new version of "House of Flying Daggers".

In the late Tang Dynasty, the emperor was fatuous and the people were in dire straits.

There was a sect of rivers and lakes where the rich helped the poor and acted for heaven, which was called Feidao Sect.

The imperial court was deeply aware of the danger and sent a large number of soldiers to destroy the Feidao Sect. The owner of the Feidao Sect, Liu Yunfei, was unfortunately arrested for covering the escape of the disciples.

However, the Feidaomen did not weaken. Under the leadership of the new gang leader, they established a new headquarters and sent people to rescue the old gang leader several times.

There are two head catchers in Fengtian County, and they are ordered to capture the new leader of Feidao Sect.

After investigation, the two suspected that the maiko girl was the daughter of the former gang leader, so they captured her and took her to a prison.

Under severe torture, the little girl did not reveal a single word, so the two head catchers decided to take a long-term approach to catch the big fish.

Lin Captou changed his name to Suifeng Daxia and robbed the prison at night to rescue his little sister.

He wanted to deceive his little sister into trusting him, and after he found out the new lair of Feidao Sect, he would send out an army to destroy it in one fell swoop.

On the way to escape, Sui Feng took great care of her little sister and was attracted by her earthly temperament.

The little girl spent time with him day and night, and gradually developed feelings for him.

But everything in front of me is a scam.

The younger sister and Capt. Liu are both members of the Feidao Sect.

Capt. Liu and his younger sister used a trick to lure Capt. Lin to Feidaomen's headquarters in order to use him as a bargaining chip to exchange for the former gang leader with the court.

Capt. Lin's true identity is the son of the chief constable of the state capital.

Only his friend Liu Captou in the county knew about this matter, but he didn't want to be used by him.

Feidaomen completed the prisoner exchange, and the old gang leader returned to the headquarters.

However, they did not let Mr. Lin go, but asked the younger sister to kill him with her own hands.

Anyway, it's already broken, so it's just a murder sacrifice.

The younger sister couldn't bear to do anything, so she secretly let him go.

Before leaving, the two completed the great harmony of life.

This scene happened to be seen by Capt. Liu. The two former friends were fighting in the wild, and the younger sister was being chased by people from Feidaomen.

After a hard fight, the younger sister finally killed the killer of Feidaomen.

She dragged her seriously injured body to Captain Lin's side.

In the end, in order to save Capt. Lin, the younger sister killed Capt. Liu with a flying knife.

Lin Captou was rescued. He cried sadly while holding his lover's body, and was buried for her in the heavy snow.

After many changes by Lin Xuan and the screenwriting team, the loopholes in the original script have been plugged.

However, the foundation of the script is not good, and even if it is improved, it will only change from a bad work to the level of an ordinary movie.

But even so, "House of Flying Daggers" earned a box office of 1.5 million in the mainland, and the global box office has exceeded million US dollars.

In terms of box office results alone, it will definitely be the most successful domestic film next year.

After hesitating for a long time, Lin Xuan had an answer in his mind.

"I'm pressed for time. All the scenes have to be shot together. I signed a three-month schedule with the crew at most."

Lao Mouzi had a hard time filming, and this was what he was most worried about.

"No problem, that's settled."

Seeing Lin Xuan relent, Zhang Yimou quickly agreed to his request.

Lin Xuan's acting skills are beyond doubt, and his martial arts scenes are among the best in the industry.

Three months is enough for him.

"Then Director Zhang will send someone to the company another day to sign the formal contract."

"Okay, I'll send someone there tomorrow."

After talking about this matter, tonight's celebration banquet is coming to an end.

Lin Xuan and Li Yang sent the guests to the door together, then chatted for a while and left.

"The Blind Shaft" will be released soon.

Li Yang, who is banned from coaching in the Mainland, plans to go to Europe for two years to develop.

This celebration banquet can be regarded as a practice for him.

(End of this chapter)