Chapter 367 Never expected
As the auditions for "Travel to Taipei" began, major media outlets reported on it.
No need to pay for hype, the media will take the initiative to publish the article.
The crew audition is obviously a way to save money and promote publicity.
On the Internet, there has also been heated discussion.
One person posted on the Internet.
Title: "Holy shit! An 18-year-old young director wants to make a zombie movie, can you believe it?!"
Content: "Investment of 300 million, tentatively titled "Taipei Tour", today The auditions have started in Beijing, and there are many artists at the scene, all trying to get the roles. The competition is extremely fierce.”
1L: "What is an 18-year-old young director? He's 21, okay? But you said he wanted to make a zombie movie, weren't you kidding?"
It’s not that this person doesn’t believe it, but that many people don’t believe it.
Because no domestic director has ever made a zombie movie, I subconsciously thought that Wang Shu could not make a movie with this theme.
2L: "Upstairs, you are talking about an 18-year-old young director. Don't you understand the importance of an 18-year-old young director? In one word, it is crazy! It is not comparable to those old Bangcai in China. . ”
“What else do those old-timers in China do? Only Director Wang in our country is different.”
"What's wrong with making zombie movies now?"
"Besides, don't believe it. All the major media have reported it. If you don't believe it, go search it yourself."
3L: "I'm taking the liberty to ask. , why is this zombie movie called "Travel to Taipei"? Is it not possible in the capital city? Or is it not possible in the mainland? There are people who kneel down and lick the treasure island. Post.
"Grapevine, Director Wang's "Travel to Taipei" was originally called "Travel to New York". It was originally planned to be filmed in Hollywood. After returning from Hollywood, due to some reasons, it was changed to "Travel to Taipei". ”
In fact, Wang Shu only wrote the script "Travel to Taipei" from beginning to end, and there was no so-called "Travel to New York".
Furthermore, "Travel to Taipei" was originally a film he had planned to take advantage of when domestic film and television censorship policies had not continued to be tightened and were relatively loose, and to use China Film's energy to pass the censorship and shoot it.
When censorship policies are tightened, this zombie movie may become a swan song.
So much so that as long as domestic audiences talk about zombie movies, they will definitely not be able to avoid "Travel to Taipei".
If you can't get around "Taipei Trip", you can't get around him.
In this era, if this zombie movie is made, it will definitely go down in the history of Chinese films.
Wang Shu took out this script precisely for this reason.
Moreover, the production cost of the original film "Train to Busan" was only 55 million RMB, and it was still 55 million RMB in 2015, so it was not considered a big production.
Shifting to China, any bad movie made in 2015 would have a production cost of one or two billion.
"Train to Busan", although one-third of the entire film was completed in green screen, in fact, the green screen shooting was just to save money.
Many of the green screen shots can be shot in real scenes.
Of course, real scenes cost more money.
In general, the scenes and shots of "Train to Busan" are works that could be produced through more live-action shooting at the level of mainland movies during this time period in 2008.
And, since the scenes of the movie are not big, the cost will not be high.
Not only can it be filmed, but it is also a film that can make money.
On the contrary, "Interstellar", "Avatar", etc. are different. These movies can only complete the special effects part by spending huge sums of money to go to the United States.
No one in China would invest in this kind of project, and Wang Shu would not foolishly spend his own money to hire a crew to film it.
Because of this kind of project where the disproportionate investment and income can be seen at a glance, only those with grass in their heads will come up with ideas.
Although "Interstellar" was produced by Nolan, who is a real-shooting enthusiast, Nolan's real-life shooting was to make the picture more realistic, and there are not many actual special effects.
If the investment cost of "Interstellar" is 600 million, a simple calculation is that the box office of "Interstellar" triples, that is, 1.8 billion is needed to breakeven.
1.8 billion is just capital preservation, not profit yet.
In 2008, the Chinese film with the highest box office in the Mainland was "If You Are the One", with 325 million.
Chinese-language films are not successful in the North American market, and "The Wandering Earth" only made a few million US dollars at the box office when it landed in North America.
In this era, there is no North American market as a ticket warehouse. If you want to get a box office of 1.8 billion, you can only dream of it.
Not to mention, the production cost of "Interstellar" directed by Nolan was US$165 million, totaling 1.02 billion yuan.
Even if Wang Shu uses a production cost of 1 billion to make "Interstellar", the global box office will need 3 billion to recover the cost.
Chinese-language films have a hard time reaching over 100 million U.S. dollars at the overseas box office.
In total, only two martial arts and kung fu films, Li Eu’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and Zhang Yimou’s “Hero”, have grossed over US$100 million in overseas box office.
No one else can fight.
Therefore, as long as Wang Shu dares to spend huge sums of money to produce "Interstellar" now, the market will dare to make him lose nothing.
"The Wandering Earth" has proved that Chinese science fiction films cannot work overseas.
The era when Wang Shu was able to film "Interstellar" in China was the only time when a single film in mainland theaters could break several billion yuan.
In this era, due to the improvement of film special effects technology, not only the production cost of the film can be reduced, but there is also a market to recover the cost and make profits.
But by this time, "Interstellar" had already been put on the big screen by Nolan.
Compared with these blockbusters with high production costs, a low-budget film like "Train to Busan" with a production cost of only 55 million yuan in 2015 is more suitable for Wang Shu to put it on the big screen.
He previously said that "Travel to Taipei" was adapted from "Travel to New York", but it actually sold poorly.
Who would have known that this tragedy would become more and more outrageous.
Now the rumors are even more serious.
At this point, even if he knew it was nonsense, he couldn't clarify it.
As the names of the scripts "Travel to New York" and "Travel to Taipei" came out, there was a heated debate on the Internet.
"First it was "New York Trip", and then it was changed to "Taipei Trip". What he said was that there was no trip to the capital, the capital city, or the mainland. From this, we can see that Wang Shu worships foreigners and is deliberately disgusting."
"Yes, if we don't worship foreigners and love the United States and Taiwan, "New York" can be changed to "Beijing" or "Magic City" instead of "Taipei"."
" Those upstairs, the treasure island is an integral part of us. Director Wang changed "New York Trip" to "Taipei Trip", which can be said to be a tribute to the treasure island, but it can't be called worshiping foreigners, right?"
"Haha, you are saying that Wang Shu is not a foreigner and is pretending to be confused because he understands, right?"
"Then what. Is there a possibility that the purpose of the movie "Travel to Taipei" is In order to avoid the review? I think you also know how outrageous the film bureau's review is. If Director Wang writes the title of the movie as "Journey to the Capital" or "Travel to the Magic City", wouldn't this mean that the zombie virus broke out in the capital and the magic city? Is it possible for us in mainland China to pass the review? On the other hand, if the zombie virus breaks out in Taipei, it will probably pass the review.”
Wang Shu was surfing the Internet at the moment and happened to see the debate on the Internet about the title of the movie "Travel to Taipei".
With a thought in my heart, I logged into my account and replied. "Don't wash it, okay? Wang Shu is obviously a fan of foreigners. The so-called purpose of avoiding censorship is nonsense. If it is because the zombie virus broke out in Taipei, the movie name can be changed instead of directly calling it "Taipei Trip". Take it hard. "Taipei Tour" definitely means that many of our mainland artists kneel and lick the treasure island of Hong Kong. It is not unusual for Wang Shu to kneel and lick the treasure island."
The so-called black and red are also red, not to mention the "OK" in "Travel to Taipei" is not the OK or not, but the OK to travel.
Therefore, Wang Shu is not worried about being labeled as advocating foreigners or licking the treasure island because of the movie title "Taipei Trip".
Later, as more information is revealed, everything will become clear.
Now, following this topic and hyping it up will actually increase the popularity of the movie "Taipei Trip".
Wang Shu did not hesitate to contribute his strength, joining the Black King Tree army and contributing.
“The box office and quality of a movie only determine the lower box office limit.”
“Hype is the key to determining the upper box office limit.”
If he wants "Travel to Taipei" to achieve good box office results, Wang Shu will not let go of any opportunity to create hype.
Thinking back to those days, Gu Changwei, Chen Kaige, and Feng Xiaogang all happened to be the material for his movie hype.
Nowadays these people have learned to be smart and no longer take the lead.
Wang Shu now wants to use this to create hype, but he can’t find a reason.
In a blink of an eye, January 10th.
Zhou Xun is filming on the set of "Painted Skin", and Mei Ting's contract for "How Far Is Happiness" is also starting in the suburbs of Beijing.
Wang Shu is hosting the audition for "Taipei Trip".
This audition will determine the role.
"Hello, Director Wang, I am Li Xiaolu."
Li Xiaolu knocked on the door and walked into the audition room, greeting Wang Shu with a reserved expression.
Wang Shu asked first, and then said hello to the "guardians on the left and right" beside Wang Shu.
Wang Shu was enjoying tea when he saw Li Xiaolu walking into the audition room. The surprise in his eyes flashed away.
Unexpectedly, Xiaolu also came.
On July 6, 2012, Li Xiaolu and Jia Youliang held their wedding.
According to the two people, this day is the 1314th day since they met.
It is now January 2008, and Xiaolu and Jia Yuliang have not yet met.
It’s all Dong Xuan’s fault. If she hadn’t organized a hot pot dinner with friends in her circle, Jia Yuliang would never have imagined that she would meet Li Xiaolu and then fall in love and get married.
Dong Xuan is also a talented person. He unknowingly hooked up with Tang Yan's boyfriend, and then stole his best friend's boyfriend. Tang Yan broke up with him.
Organizing a dinner party for friends in the circle, I never expected that my best friend Li Xiaolu and Jia Yuliang would fall in love.
"Hello." Wang Shu put down the tea in his hand and responded with a smile.
He knew that Li Xiaolu had developed well in the past few years and was now releasing albums, starring in Hollywood movies, and on her way to becoming an international movie star.
Li Xiaolu felt Wang Shu's easygoingness and boldly responded with a bright smile.
The "left and right guardians" (staff members of Yishu) who were sitting next to Wang Shu began to host the audition for Wang Shu, limiting some scenes for Li Xiaolu to perform.
The film "Travel to Taipei" has three other investors besides Yikeshu, China Film and Television, Shanghai Film and Television, and China Film and Television. However, Shanghai Film and Television and Film and Television do not have the right to cast, and only China Film has the right to intervene in the casting. potential.
However, Han Sanping and Wang Shu have been cooperating for a long time and basically do not interfere with Wang Shu's casting.
Only when the character Wang Shu selected was not within Han Sanping's expected range would he ask.
After a while, Li Xiaolu finished her performance.
The guardians on the left and right glanced at Wang Shu and saw that Wang Shu did not speak. He immediately said: "The performance was good. You can go back first. We will contact you if there is news."
When Li Xiaolu heard this, she knew it was a polite refusal, and her expression became a little stiff. She looked up at Wang Shu unwillingly, hoping to hear words to persuade her to stay.
Naihe, the idea is beautiful, but the reality is skinny.
Wang Shu did not say anything to persuade him to stay, and Li Xiaolu left disappointed.
"Xiaolu, how are you?" As soon as Li Xiaolu came out of the audition room, her best friend Dong Xuan came up to her and asked with concern.
Li Xiaolu shook her head and said she failed the audition.
Seeing this, Dong Xuan felt sad that his best friend failed in the audition, but at the same time he breathed a sigh of relief.
Two completely opposite emotions appeared in her heart at the same time.
She will be sad because Li Xiaolu is her best friend and is infected by Li Xiaolu's emotions.
I was relieved again because Li Xiaolu came to the audition with her and was a competitor.
Li Xiaolu's failure to pass the audition not only means that she has an extra chance of passing the audition, but also shows that Li Xiaolu would not have been able to soar into the sky and leave her far behind without obtaining such high-quality resources.
As a best friend, she not only hopes that Li Xiaolu's career will be better, but at the same time, she does not want Li Xiaolu's career to develop too well and the gap between her and hers is too big.
Dong Xuan said with relief: "Director Wang is more interested in whether the actor fits the image of the role in the script. The role of the heroine is a pregnant woman. You are young, beautiful and cute. In Director Wang's eyes, you may not fit the role. The role of a pregnant woman.”
Hearing Dong Xuan's relief, Li Xiaolu felt better and said with a forced smile: "Maybe."
After speaking, he took a deep breath and added, "There are many people auditioning this time, and the competition is very stressful. , I estimate that there should be many actors who fit the role in the script. Director Wang will most likely not choose the actor on the spot, but will choose the one who suits the role best. "
"So you have to work hard and strive to become the actor that suits Director Wang the most."
"Instead of being like me, no chance."
Dong Xuan heard this and replied: "I haven't even passed your audition, how could I have such good luck?"
"I guess it's a waste of time."
Li Xiaolu answered: "You are different from me. You have worked with Director Wang before, and knowing Director Wang, you must have an advantage over me."< br>
Speaking of this, Li Xiaolu felt quite envious.
She also heard that all the actors who had worked with Wang Shu before had passed the preliminary examination.
This shows that even a little communication with Wang Shu is useful.
It is far more advantageous than an actress like her who has no relationship with Wang Shu!
Dong Xuan smiled bitterly upon hearing this, she knew her own affairs well.
I did work with Wang Shu many years ago.
It’s just that that was many years ago.
Now, during the holidays, I will take the initiative to send text messages to Wang Shu to say hello and interact with him.
However, with the lack of contact in reality, coupled with the change in status and the widening gap between the two, they finally separated.
(End of this chapter)