Chapter 133 Nine-tailed Demon Fox
The movie Cao Yang wants to make is "Painted Skin", but it has been slightly changed.
The movie "Painted Skin" is a movie shot by a Xiangjiang director against the backdrop of the collective movement of Xiangjiang filmmakers to the north.
After its release, the film's reputation was not good, but the box office was good, with more than 200 million in box office, ranking third in the domestic box office rankings in 2008, second only to "Red Cliff" and "If You Are the One".
The most criticized aspect of this movie at the time was that the content of the movie and the painted skin of the Chinese character studio were almost two different stories. However, whether before or after its release, the movie was always marketed as an adaptation of the Chinese character "The Painted Skin of a Chinese Character".
The story of Painted Skin in Liaozhai, simply put, is that the scholar Wang Sheng was married, met a beautiful concubine on the road, was greedy for beauty, raised her in the study, and sang every night.
I met a Taoist priest by chance. The Taoist priest said that he was full of evil spirits and might be deceived by monsters. Wang Sheng didn't believe it.
When I returned to the study, I saw that the door was locked, so I climbed the wall and went in. I saw that the beautiful concubine had taken off her human skin and turned into an evil ghost. She was drawing on the human skin with a brush in her hand. After a while, she put on human skin and became a beautiful concubine again.
Wang Sheng was almost scared to death and hurried to find the Taoist priest.
The Taoist priest gave Wang Sheng a handful of floating dust to warn the Painted Skin Ghost.
Unexpectedly, the Painted Skin Ghost became so angry that he cut open Wang Sheng's stomach, took out his heart and left.
The Taoist priest was very angry and dared not give face to the Taoist master, so he killed the painted ghost.
In order to save Wang Sheng, Wang Sheng's wife swallowed the phlegm of the hermit master in public. After returning home, the more she thought about it, the more she felt sick, so she vomited... A heart came out and Wang Sheng was saved. Everyone was happy.
The story of "Liao Zhai: Painted Skin" cannot be said to have nothing to do with the story of the movie "Painted Skin", it can only be said that they have little relationship.
The movie "Painted Skin" is about a love triangle, a general, a monster hunter, a lizard spirit, and the former leader of the Wang Family Army...
Two men love a woman, and the woman gets married to one of them. The frustrated man chooses to leave. The married man saves a painted-skin demon, and the painted-skin demon also falls in love with the man...
Apart from the gimmick of a painted skin, both the story and the core are different.
The core of the painting in Liaozhai is about retribution and desire.
The core of the movie "Painted Skin" is not desire, but love; not degradation, but transcendence; not the fierceness and willfulness of demonic cold tones, but the forbearance and femininity of human warm tones.
The movie "Painted Skin", aside from the gimmicks of the adaptation, is pretty good as a commercial film.
What is the standard line for commercial films?
First of all, the story must be told clearly.
On the basis that the story can be told clearly, it is best to have big scenes, the fighting scenes should be exciting, the actors' performance should not be distracting, the service should be good, the plot should not be procrastinating, and it is best to have attractive stars...< br>
"Painted Skin" basically meets these requirements.
Since Cao Yang didn't want people to think that the movie adaptation was too nonsense, he simply didn't use it as an adaptation from the beginning, and even changed the movie title to "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox".
When I was writing the script, I added a little plot.
At the beginning of the movie, there is a misty mountain, a little fox and a beautiful woman. The beautiful woman is the little fox's grandmother, an old fox.
It's just that the old fox appears in human form, because she can make painted skins, and the commonly used painted skin is the image of a beautiful woman.
The old fox told the little fox interesting things about the world. The little fox was yearning for it, stole one of the old fox's paintings, and secretly went down the mountain.
Since the little fox's magic power is limited, she cannot use her own magic power to nourish the painting, but can only use people's blood to nourish it. This is the reason why she poaches people's hearts from time to time.
The next plot is almost the same as the plot of Yuan, except that in the later plot, she took off her painting skin and was discovered by Wang Sheng's wife Pei Rong. What was revealed was not a ghost, but a little fox.
So the name of the movie was changed to "Nine-tailed Demon Fox". As for why it is called Nine-tailed Demon Fox instead of directly calling it a demon fox or fox demon, it is actually very simple. The name "Nine-tailed Demon Fox" seems to be a bit more stylish.
In fact, in order to fit the title of the film, Cao Yang didn't mind giving the little fox nine tails.
With such a change in the script, it seems that the little fox has become the main protagonist of the movie.
Except for the animal becoming a spirit, there are no scenes or scenes that are difficult to review in this movie.
As for the issue of animals becoming sperm, that would be better solved.
The boss now wants Cao Yang to quickly make a commercial film to explore the market. As long as it is not a major issue of principle, basically no one will dare to get stuck in the review.
In addition, the worst case scenario is that it is said to be an adaptation of Liao Zhai when it is submitted for review, and no one will be embarrassed, but it will be fine if the film is released and promoted without mentioning this.
Since you want to make commercial films, you must set up a company or studio.
Cao Yang also asked Hou Keming specifically because he was currently employed at Qingying Factory and didn't know if there were any relevant regulations.
Hou Keming waved his hand and said, "You can go ahead and register. There are many public officials opening companies outside now, so this will have no impact."
"Are there no competition restrictions?" Cao Yang asked. This needs to be clarified to avoid confusion in the future.
Hou Keming shook his head like a rattle, "It's not a sophisticated industry with confidentiality obligations. Don't worry, there are no competition restrictions."
After pondering for a while, Hou Keming continued: "If you are worried, just set up a personal studio, or open a company in the name of a relative.
However, opening a personal studio is an aboveboard matter, so it's okay. Opening a company in the name of a relative and letting others be exposed always gives people a sneaky feeling and makes people criticize, so it is not a good choice. ”
Cao Yang thought for a while. Although many public officials and big celebrities in later generations opened many companies in the name of relatives, it did give people a bit of a sneaky feeling and left a bad impression. Then set up a personal studio first. At worst, you can use the investment from the American company to make a Sino-US joint venture blockbuster.
In the following days, Cao Yang began to recruit people, and Hou Keming also brought people to participate. Mr. Han from China Film Group definitely wanted to invest and also brought people over. He was the official promoter of this kind of mission-oriented film. who.
Because everyone is on their own, after breaking down the script and calculating based on the scenes and props, there won’t be much difference.
In the end, we came to the conclusion that without counting the actors' remuneration and publicity, the investment amount for this movie would be around 40 million because there are some special effects that need to be done.
This 40 million includes staff salaries and various expenses for almost half a year.
If it is announced, it will be tentatively set at 20 million.
In terms of actors' remuneration, it is controlled within 15 million.
These add up to 75 million.
The previous "Painted Skin" announced an investment of 15 million US dollars. According to the exchange rate of 2007, it was about 115 million, which was 40 million more than Cao Yang's version.
In fact, it cost more than 40 million. Cao Yang's director's salary was much higher than that of Xiangjiang's director at the time, and the actor's salary could not reach 15 million.
Although China Film may have to invest heavily in this movie, it is still Cao Yang who is in charge, or rather Cao Yang Studio.
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The copyright of the film also remains with Cao Yang Studio.
Qingying Film Studio had no objection to this. They invested 15 million and asked for a 20% share.
China Film Group originally wanted to comment, but since this was a mission movie, it had to be voted in, so they had no comment.
China Film invested 30 million, accounting for 40% of the share.
Cao Yang invested 20 million, and the director's remuneration and script remuneration were converted into 10 million, a total of 30 million, occupying 40% of the share and owning all the copyrights.
Cao Yang's 10 million director and screenwriter salary is actually a very friendly price. Before he won the Cannes Palme d'Or, he could get a director's salary of 2 million US dollars in Hollywood.
Now it will only be higher. If a movie is shot in Hollywood and the price is 3 million US dollars, there will definitely be many companies willing to pay this money.
The exchange rate in 2003 was about 8.27, which translates to nearly 25 million.
Of course, in China, it is definitely not possible to follow Hollywood standards, but it is still possible to get half the price.
Therefore, if Cao Yang is converted into 10 million, he is already very conscientious. This is because everyone is his own person.
If private or foreign capital enters, Cao Yang's quotation will definitely be more than this.
Once the funds are available, the next step is to prepare and select actors.
Regarding Wang Sheng's selection, Cao Yang had an impulse and wanted to try it himself. The purpose is to give myself a theatrical experience and see what it feels like.
He has always been curious about the garbage system and wondered if he could join the game to experience it.
There’s no rush for this, I’ll see if I have time and we’ll talk about it then.
Cao Yang opened the system and saw how much fame had been gained during this period.
Host: Cao Yang
Current reputation: 1816785
Available reputation: 516785
Entering the theater experience: +0
Filming the movie: "Nine-tailed Demon Fox"
……
There were more than 100,000 prestige points available before. The Palme d'Or in Cannes was increased by 300,000 points. The three Golden Rooster awards were increased by 60,000 points. There were also those added after the release of "Dark Sun". A total of more than 400,000 points were added.
It always feels like it’s not cost-effective to add commercial films to the theater experience. If you can’t win awards, the prestige gained by relying solely on the box office is really limited.
Based on the experience of these movies, Cao Yang probably has an understanding that if the box office exceeds 10 million, and the box office reaches 50 million, the reputation should increase by 50,000. I don’t know whether the upper limit is 50 million or 100 million.
You'll probably know after the movie "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox" is released.
It seems that if it is a commercial film that adds an on-screen experience, it will not win awards and can only make money back by relying on extremely high box office.
During this period, the school held a huge press conference, with many reporters and CCTV reporters coming.
At the beginning, it was a press conference after Cao Yang won the Palme d'Or in Cannes. In the second half, the school played the leading role and gave Cao Yang the appointment letter as a distinguished professor in front of reporters.
Several top leaders of the school spoke one after another, showing the teaching achievements of Nortel. The general meaning is that we have trained a student who won the Golden Lion and the Golden Palm during school. Our school is very awesome and cannot be found in the world. The second one.
Cao Yang was a little ashamed, bragging too hard in front of so many reporters.
Well, it seems that it paid off for me to play Nortel at the three major European film festivals.
If there is a chance next time, I will continue to brag and let everyone achieve mutual success.
(End of chapter)