Chapter 218 Huayi’s conditions
Wang Zhonglei is indeed a little worried.
The brothers originally thought that Huayi was at the height of its popularity and its appeal and cohesion could not be underestimated. It would be great if Wang Jinghua could attract half of the celebrity artists.
Who would have known that the closer August gets, the more people will react, to the point where Huayi is worried about one thing and not the other, and is exhausted.
Following this trend, even if Huayi will not be completely hollowed out, there may not be a few leading stars left.
This is also related to Huayi's business strategy. In order to expand Huayi's influence and basic base in the circle, and also to suppress Wang Jinghua's influence, Huayi has been a loyal believer of Lafayette in the past few years. No domestic slave policy.
Except for Feng Xiaogang's royal team and those few young and beautiful female stars, many stars under Huayi cannot join the crew invested by Huayi.
This is also an important reason why Wang Jinghua can respond to everything at once.
Faced with such a critical situation, the second king also panicked.
Wang Zhongjun has been focusing on Li Bingbing and Fan Bingbing these two days, and is prepared to keep these two most famous young actresses at all costs.
Wang Zhonglei set his sights on Xu Kun, who was very popular recently and had a close relationship with Huayi.
The former is to prove that Huayi has the ability to retain the leading actress; the latter is to prove that Huayi still has enough attraction and appeal to popular stars.
Before arriving, Wang Zhonglei had already thought of a plan.
He knew something about Xu Kun, and knew that Xu Kun was a smart young man whose only obvious weakness was his emphasis on loyalty and nostalgia for old friendships, so he was prepared to play the emotional card first.
Unexpectedly, when they met in the conference room, before Wang Zhonglei could say anything, Xu Kun comforted him with a look of regret: "Mr. Wang, I heard about Huayi - well, all the banquets in this world must come to an end. Don’t be too sad. With Huayi’s background, as long as you focus on cultivating the people left behind, you will be able to regain your strength sooner or later.”
With just one sentence, Wang Zhonglei knew that if he didn't bring something real, he would definitely not be able to capture Xu Kun.
He immediately threw the manuscript aside and laughed: "I'm not here to come to you today because of these annoying things - I heard that you have written a New Year's comedy script yourself and plan to write, direct and star in it yourself. Is this the case?”
Although there is no airtight wall in the entertainment industry, Wang Zhonglei was able to explain this matter clearly, and he must have done enough homework in advance.
Xu Kun laughed and said, "It's just a whim. Compared with Director Feng's New Year's film, it can only be regarded as an imitation. I have no intention of becoming a director. At most, I will be a part-time producer like I am now."
Wang Zhonglei shook his head when he heard this: "Although the producer has a lot of power in the crew, in terms of limelight, how can it compare to directing and acting?"
Without waiting for Xu Kun to reply, he exclaimed: "What a terrible young man. When I was your age, I knew nothing but messing around, but you have already saved money twice in a row by yourself. With a crew worth 20 million, he promoted himself as a popular niche actor!"
"It's just luck. My small achievements are still far behind Huayi, whose family has a big business."
Although the flattery was pretty good, Xu Kun was not moved at all. The success of "Zhu Yuanzhang" gave him more confidence than before.
Now that Huayi is about to enter his weakest stage, if he goes in at this time, it will be a timely help. If he does not have enough chips, he will never go into this muddy water.
And what he wants is naturally Feng Xiaogang's leading role in a blockbuster movie.
It's not the kind of empty verbal promise, but a contract that needs to be implemented on paper and clearly states the breach of contract terms and compensation matters.
But what Xu Kun didn't expect was that Wang Zhonglei suddenly asked a completely unrelated question: "Do you think the most important reason why "Heroes of Sword" that you created on your own was so successful is that What."
Xu Kun really thought about this question.
The success of "Heroes of Sword" is inseparable from the efforts of the director and actors, as well as the financial support of Jia Yueting and Lao Baigan. But the condition that really played a decisive factor was Xu Kun's delivery of food during the epidemic and the friendship he forged with Beijing and Taiwan.
Without this prerequisite, it would have been impossible for Xu Kun to have the idea of building his own crew, and it would have been impossible to attract Jia Yueting to join the project.
So why did Wang Zhonglei ask this question?
An idea flashed in Xu Kun's mind and he blurted out: "Wang always wants to remind me that distribution channels are the most important?"
Wang Zhonglei slapped his thigh and laughed loudly: "Haha, if you can make yourself famous, your brain is much better than that of ordinary celebrities!"
Then he leaned forward slightly and said seriously: "The promotion of movies and TV series is different. There are TV stations in every province. If we can't negotiate with this one, at worst, we will go to the next one.
However, there are only a few companies that control the theatrical distribution channels in China, and most of them only focus on distributing films they have invested in. It is extremely difficult for others to get involved.
Even if it can be independently distributed, without the connections that have been cultivated over the years, just the problem of under-reporting or even non-reporting by the theaters will make a movie that could have been a big hit end up losing money to investors! "
At this point, Wang Zhonglei paused for a moment until he confirmed that Xu Kun had listened, and then continued: "Now the outside world believes that Huayi's two most important assets are the star artists under Director Feng and Wang Jinghua.
But they were all wrong. Huayi's real foundation is its 44% stake in Xiying Film Studio and its layout in publicity and distribution over the years! As long as this publicity channel is in the hands of Huayi, Huayi's ability to create stars and blood will never be cut off! "
As he spoke, he waved his hand in an imposing manner.
Then he went back and added: "Of course, Director Feng is also very important to Huayi, and a young and promising actor, screenwriter, and director like you is also very important to Huayi!
You also know that Director Feng has recently changed his style and wants to shoot blockbusters with more serious themes. Naturally, Hua Yi fully supports this.
However, Lunar New Year comedies have been Huayi's signature brand over the years. If someone can take over Director Feng's mantle and take up the banner of Lunar New Year comedies, we will naturally be happy to see it happen. "
This is very different from the conditions Xu Kun expected.
He didn't expect that Hua Yi actually planned to make him the successor of Feng Xiaogang!
No wonder Wang Zhonglei always mentioned "self-direction" before.
But isn’t Huayi afraid of overturning? You must know that he, Xu, has never been a director, let alone any New Year comedies!
Xu Kun's confidence in "A Stranger on the Road" comes from the memories of later generations, but why is Huayi so confident that his "A Stranger on the Road" can shoulder the banner of a New Year's comedy? ?
"Haha~"
Faced with Xu Kun's doubts, Wang Zhonglei smiled slightly and said confidently: "As long as you agree to invest this film in Huayi, we at Huayi will not only provide funding for the filming, but also let Director Feng serve as the producer. You get on the horse and take another ride."
This time Xu Kun finally understood.
The heir to Feng Xiaogang's mantle is just selling dog meat with sheep's head!
It is said that Feng Xiaogang will supervise the production, but who will have the final say on the crew then? Do you still need to ask?
Xu Kun even suspected that as long as he agreed to this condition, Hua Yi would immediately hire a special screenwriter to rewrite the script of "People on the Road"!
This seems to be Huayi's effort to support itself, but in fact it is a sure-profit deal for Huayi.
After all, there are some doubts within Huayi about Feng Xiaogang's transformation into blockbusters, especially now that it is the most turbulent time for Huayi and it cannot withstand too many storms.
But Feng Xiaogang had just spread the word that he wanted to transform, so he couldn't break his promise so quickly.
So Huayi simply arranged for him to be the producer, and created another Feng comedy to guarantee Huayi's bottom line. At the same time, he also used the gimmick of writing, directing and acting to win over Xu Kun, a popular niche actor whose acting skills were widely praised.
This is simply killing two birds with one stone!
If Xu Kun can really show his potential as a director, he will kill three birds with one stone!
(End of chapter)