Rebirth of the Director in Korea

As one of the directors and investors of “The King and The Clown”, “The King and The Clown” has not been very smooth from the beginning of filming, especially in Production crew. During the preparatory stage, there were a lot of bad things, but fortunately, Lee Joon-ik survived this stage.

I originally thought that Production crew started filming, and there could be less awkward things. What didn’t expect was that Eagle Pictures, one of the original investors, actually planned to divest halfway. Lee Joon-ik called EaglePictures, Naturally, I did not get a satisfactory response.

Compared with big-production big-scene movies like “Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War”, the total investment budget of “The King and The Clown”, which is also adapted from the stage play “Er”, is somewhat smaller It’s shabby. The cost of film production is about 4.5 billion. Adding publicity and other expenses, the total budget is only 6 billion, which is a saving in comparison.

It’s just that EaglePictures suddenly drew out funds, which made Lee Joon-ik very puzzled. Not to mention the contract and breach of contract signed by the two parties before, just because EaglePictures has invested 1 billion in the film since the filming started, how could they suddenly propose to withdraw funds at this time?

Lee Joon-ik didn’t understand, and he didn’t plan to think about it anymore. Now there is still a problem waiting for him, that is, how to make up the remaining funding gap?

Anyway, my company Cineworld has no more liquidity.

As a film production company founded by himself, Cineworldat first’s development was not particularly smooth. In 2003, because of a series of failures of his own, the company was in debt. There was no money to ask for a director. Lee Joon-ik would be the director again. Filmed the historical costume drama “Mount Huang”. After the film was released, it attracted 2.9 million viewers and attracted attention.

It is precisely with the sudden power of the movie “Mount Huang” that Cineworld has recovered. Two years is not a long time. Lee Joon-ik invested in several movies in the middle. , As for the profit that’s all that can be profitable, there is no big production, and no big stars. It is almost impossible to make a lot of money.

At this time, I finally found an investor and brought this movie to the big screen with myself. Who ever thought EaglePictures dropped the chain in the middle?

From yesterday afternoon until this morning, Lee Joon-ik did not close his eyes for a moment, and the cigarette butts in the ashtray on the table piled up into a hill. There was no window in the house, so it was closed. indoors Sitting on a chair, Lee Joon-ik’s face seemed to be hidden behind this sea of ​​clouds, mountains and mist.

“President…cough cough cough!”

As soon as Lee Joon-ik’s assistant girl opened the door, she coughed involuntarily, with a fair face because The cough was flushed and it looked so uncomfortable.

“Oh, it’s Meijing!” Seeing someone coming, Lee Joon-ik squeezed out the cigarette butt, stood up and opened the window for ventilation, and then asked: “What’s wrong, what’s the matter with you? Are you?”

After coughing for a while, the assistant sister felt much better. When the Boss asked herself, the sister hurriedly explained: “President, someone is looking for you outside, so I came in because there was no appointment. I would like to ask you!”

“Who is it?” Lee Joon-ik was startled at first when he heard the assistant’s words, and then asked.

“He said his name is Jung Hyuk-jae, and he said that as long as he tells you his name, you will see him.” The girl replied busy.

“Jung Hyuk-jae?” Lee Joon-ik is even more confused. Shouldn’t he be busy filming the TV series “My Lovely Sam-soon” now? How can I have time to see you at this time? Yourself?

the past few days news about him has blown up the screen. Who didn’t know that the number of viewers of the movie “Welcome to Dongmakgol” he invested in exceeded one million in two days. The film production companies in the small circle jumped over the wall with jealousy.

If Lee Joon-ik thought that Jung Hyuk-jae was a good youngster, a good screenwriter and TV drama director before, then now he needs to change his words. Jung Hyuk-jae is not only a A good screenwriter and director, he is also an investor in sinister vision.

Who would decide to invest half of the money after seeing the script? Who would decide Park Kwang-hyun without even fighting for the director’s selection? Who would invest 1 billion dollars in a newcomer with only one third director experience?

Lee Joon-ik asks himself, it’s impossible. If he breaks in without even asking about the market, then waiting for himself will definitely not be a good result, but Jung Hyuk -jae did just that, and he did it more successfully than anyone else!

As soon as the box office of “Welcome to Dongmakgol” was released, in addition to the crazy praise and publicity of many media, many media dug up the inside story of the film in the preparation stage, like what Park Kwang -hyun fell flat in the script. Dozens of film production companies are not optimistic. Jung Hyuk-jae took over the script and so on.

Compared with the boring figures in the report, these anecdotes are obviously more attractive to the audience.

Although the report did not explicitly say which film production companies rejected Park Kwang-hyun’s script, the report mentioned’a few well-known domestic film production companies’. There are not many production companies that can be named, and readers have dug up such things as ShowBox and New, and staged a lively “Today you love to answer me, tomorrow I will let You can’t afford it’!

“Go and invite him to the Conference Hall next door!” The smell of smoke from the working indoors will definitely not go out for a while, so Lee Joon-ik asked his assistant to invite Jung Hyuk-jae Go to the Conference Hall next door.

“Okay, I’ll be there!”

The assistant sister went out and did not forget to bring the door to the room. Lee Joon-ik went to the bathroom and washed his face, now tired His face looked much better, but his eyes still looked red, which was obviously the result of not sleeping all night last night.

………………………………….

Jung Hyuk-jae was sitting in this Conference Hall. Not much time, the door of the Conference Hall was opened from the outside. After a glance, it turned out to be Lee Joon-ik, but this is the same as the previous day. The difference he saw was quite a lot, it seemed that he was obviously affected by the sudden situation yesterday.

Seeing Lee Joon-ik, Jung Hyuk-jae got up and shook hands with him, smiled and cared: “Director Lee, although you know that this movie has cost you a lot of effort, you still have to Pay attention to your own body, after all, the body is the capital of the revolution!”

“Haha…” Upon hearing Jung Hyuk-jae’s words, Lee Joon-ik smiled heartily, the laughter was loud, not at all I can’t tell that he is almost half a hundred.

“Why did Jung Hyuk-jae-ssi think of coming here today?” Lee Joon-ik picked up the teacup and poured two glasses of water in front of Jung Hyuk-jae.

“Thank you!” Jung Hyuk-jae thanked him, and then explained: “How did Lee Joon-ki perform in Production Crew after the filming started?”

“This young man is pretty good. Although there are some minor flaws in acting, but with the further progress of filming, the acting has actually been improving. A very good youngster, it can bear hardship!”

Speaking of Lee Joon-ki, one of the leading actors in the film, Lee Joon-ik couldn’t help but sigh.

“I can get such an evaluation from Lee PD, so I am relieved. I hope Lee PD can take care of me for the next shooting!”

Jung Hyuk-jae sincerely Said, it made Lee Joon-ik stunned for a while, what is going on?

Seeing Lee Joon-ik looking at him with puzzled eyes, Jung Hyuk-jae also explained, “Lee PD, maybe I haven’t told you before, Lee Joon-ki’s The actor contract has been signed to me, so Lee PD needs to take care of him!”

After listening to Jung Hyuk-jae’s explanation, Lee Joon-ik was completely convinced and had to admit that he had already I’m old and can’t keep up with the modern youngster’s thinking. Think about what I was doing when I was twenty-six or seventeen, and then look at others. It’s really constantly comparing oneself to others will only make one angry!

“Yah!! Before, there was a brokerage company that used me to find Lee Joon-ki -ssi and talked about wanting to sign a contract with her. Didn’t expect you to act so fast here, and you have already signed with him. Signed!”

For Lee Joon-ik, Jung Hyuk-jae was just laughed and did not say much on this topic. After all, his purpose this time is not for this, this is just an opening remark. that’s all.

“I haven’t been able to make time since Production crew started filming before. Today I planned to come to Production Crew to take a look. Who knows, I only know it after inquiring. It turns out that Production crew has stopped. This is What’s the matter?”

Sure enough, “Good things don’t go out, bad things spread for thousands of miles.” Lee Joon-ik sighed then said, and then explained: “Nothing, it’s funds There are some problems.”

“I heard that EaglePictures is planning to break the contract and divest?” Jung Hyuk-jae whispered.

When I heard Jung Hyuk-jae say this, Lee Joon-ik was taken aback. It has only been a long time since the incident. How could he know so clearly? You must know that the ordinary staff of Production crew don’t know. These inside stories, I thought Production crew kindly took a day off.

But this stupefaction was only a few seconds, Lee Joon-ik thought of Jung Hyuk-jae’s words just now. As an artist under his banner, Lee Joon-ki is in Production crew, why wouldn’t he know? What about these inside news?

“It’s like this. Yesterday afternoon, I went to EaglePictures’ company in Seoul, but I didn’t see the Chief-In-Charge that I had signed before. An executive of their company received me. It’s just that the explanation given is not satisfactory.”

When talking about this, Lee Joon-ik’s face obviously changed. Obviously, he was still a little unhappy about EaglePictures’ sudden divestment.

In fact, Jung Hyuk-jae also asked about EaglePictures’ investment ratio in the movie “The King and The Clown” before coming. As one of the two investors in the film, EaglePictures The total amount of funds invested accounted for more than half of the total investment in the film. As for the income after the film was released, it was evenly divided with Lee Joon-ik’s company Cineworld. After all, Lee Joon-ik’s personal directing was also considered a saving of director fees. .

But recently EaglePictures film production company not only wants to do film production work, they also aim at film distribution, but it is not easy to break a blood path from many distribution companies, so EaglePictures currently divides They didn’t put much effort into it, and there were some minor problems with their funds. The main reason was that after a few movies were released, the box office has not been able to come back, and they are still working on the cinema.

Another point, Lee Joon-ik always hopes that EaglePictures can invest more in the production cost of the movie. After all, a good movie needs better pictures and music to reflect its beauty, but EaglePictures can’t even take care of itself, where can I take care of “The King and The Clown”.

It should be said that EaglePictures’ divestment is really helpless, but who knows the suffering of Lee Joon-ik? With insufficient funds, production crew spends not only time, but also money, every day of shutdown!

Although Lee Joon-ik relies on his many years of relationship in the film industry, he has found several film production companies that are normally well-connected, but those production companies do not say that there are too many films. If you don’t have any funds, you will just buckle in every possible way. Anyway, Lee Joon-ik can understand it. At the critical moment, all of these people are unreliable!

“Lee PD, did you find a follow-up investor for the next film? Production crew can’t just stop like this, right?” Jung Hyuk-jae said.

Lee Joon-ik is also nodded. It’s just that these companies are not shrewd. If you see you down and want to step on a foot and pull you again, if there’s no other way, Lee Joon- ik had no choice but to give up part of the profits in his film in exchange for follow-up funds.

Thinking of this, Lee Joon-ik suddenly glanced at Jung Hyuk-jae in front of him. It seemed that from the moment he walked in, he was always concerned about the divestment of Production crew. Thinking of the news about Jung Hyuk-jae’s previous investment in “Welcome to Dongmakgol”, Lee Joon-ik’s eyes lit up. What kind of film production company is he looking for? Isn’t there a ready-made one in front of him?

“Jung Hyuk-jae -ssi, are you interested in investing in this movie?” Lee Joon-ik asked softly.

In fact, before Lee Joon-ik speaks, Jung Hyuk-jae will switch the topic to this, but in this transaction, whoever speaks first will be in a passive position. It’s not that Lee Joon-ik doesn’t know this, but because of time, he has to compromise first.

“Lee PD, let’s not talk secretly. In fact, the main purpose of my visit this time is the movie “The King and The Clown”. After all, I wrote the script. Like my own child, if I can’t see this movie on the screen, I don’t feel good!”

“That’s natural!” Lee Joon-ik echoed.

Hearing what he said, Jung Hyuk-jae slightly smiled. At this moment, “The King and The Clown” is like meat on a chopping board, let anyone kill it!