Chapter 270 He is the person I am looking for
Yang Liwen is very efficient in her work and does not mention the rejection to other crew members. The [Operation Mekong] crew quickly communicated with her.
[Bona Film and Television] did not hesitate and responded on the same day, agreeing to the request to convert the film remuneration into investment.
The [Journey to the West: Subduing the Demons] side will reject it.
Gu Wei received two important phone calls one after another. One was from Zhou Xingchi himself.
I hope I can persuade him to take up his own movie.
Gu Wei was quite surprised when he received a call from Zhou Xingchi.
He has grown up watching Zhou Xingchi's movies and has a good impression of him.
After all, the title of King of Comedy is not just for words. Many of the movies he has starred in in the past can be called classics.
[The King of Comedy], [Tang Bohu Dian Qiuxiang], [Westward Journey], [Kung Fu], etc. are all very excellent works.
It's a pity that Gu Wei is a relatively rational person. He likes Zhou Xingchi, but he doesn't have any admiration for him, let alone change his decision for him.
Of course, the conversation between Gu Wei and Director Zhou was quite lively on the phone. He praised him in various ways, giving Zhou Xingchi the impression that Gu Wei was his little crush.
Finally, I regretted that I couldn’t take the photo this time due to the full schedule. I will definitely cooperate with him next time I have the opportunity.
After hanging up the phone, Gu Wei's smile quickly disappeared.
Zhou Xingchi’s Mandarin is average and his speaking speed is relatively slow, so he doesn’t say too much in a conversation. To show his sincerity, he offered to give Gu Wei a higher salary on the phone. Unfortunately, Gu Wei ultimately refused. refused.
The Zhou Xingchi who became the boss of making movies is different from the actor he used to be.
Now he is more like a businessman. When he makes movies by himself, the first thing to consider is what factors have the greatest impact on the movie’s box office and how to maximize profits.
If you look at it vertically, you will find that since Zhou Xingchi became director, the protagonists of his movies have always been the most popular stars in the entertainment industry during that time.
[Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons] is looking for Wen Zhang and Huang Bo, [Mermaid] is looking for Deng Chao, [Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons] is looking for Li Jiaheng.
He has always believed that movies with popular actors will have higher box office.
Now that I am so interested in inviting Gu Wei, I also see Gu Wei's high popularity and extremely strong box office appeal.
But in fact, when people watch Zhou Xingchi’s movies, they mainly focus on the word Zhou Xingchi. As for who the leading actor in the movie is, it actually doesn’t matter much.
As long as the quality of the movie passes the standard, everyone will come to watch it for the sake of Mr. Xing.
The second call was from Yu Dong, the chairman of [Bona Film and Television].
Compared to Zhou Xingchi, Yu Dong is more enthusiastic in attitude. This boss is one of the real giants in the film and television industry.
He also graduated from film school, but he studied neither acting nor directing, but majored in management.
After graduation, he was assigned to work at Beijing Film Studio. The director of Beijing Film Studio at that time was Han Sanping, now the chairman of China Film Studio.
Yu Dong rose to prominence in the factory with his hard work and excellent interpersonal communication skills. He was quickly appreciated and promoted by Han Sanping, and became the youngest department-level cadre in the history of Beijing Film Studio.
Until 1999, after accumulating many years of distribution experience, Yu Dong jumped out of the public sector to start a business and founded Beijing Bona Cultural Exchange Co., Ltd. - China's first private film distribution company, and won the national The first "Film Distribution License" issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
After years of development, [Bona Pictures] has become one of the private giants in China's film and television industry comparable to Huayi and Enlight.
Just because of Yu Dong's strong official background and his previous work experience, Bona has actively cooperated with the official in recent years, and the style of the works produced by the entire company is biased towards the main theme of red movies.
"Dong Yu is so polite. You are also my senior. We are all a family, so of course we should be closer.
Last time I had dinner with Director Han, he even mentioned it to me Thank you, I didn’t expect that we would have the opportunity to work together so soon.
Don’t worry, junior brother, I can’t say anything else. There is still some box office appeal. This cooperation will definitely make the movie a hit.
If I didn’t have this confidence, I wouldn’t be able to take the initiative to use my salary to become a shareholder.
Okay, I'll wait for you to call me. Then call Director Han and let's get together." Compared to Zhou Xingchi, Gu Wei's conversation with Yu Dong was more casual, although Yu Dong was more senior than Zhou Xingchi in terms of status. Even better, but he and Gu Wei are inextricably linked.
Yu Dong is an old subordinate of Han Sanping. [Bona Film and Television] develops from weak to strong. Without Han Sanping's help and official support, Gu Wei is also a person that Han Sanping likes very much. After several cooperations and his friendship with Han Jia'v, Han Sanping now responds to his requests. He treats them as one of their own
In addition, both of them are from film schools and are alumni, so they are naturally close to each other
It should be said that having a professional background is really useful for some people. When you are truly capable, this status will easily gain the favor of your fellow seniors who graduated from the same school as you.
Everyone will be closer when communicating, and of course it will be easier to reach a cooperative relationship.
Of course, if you are at the bottom, you can’t do anything, and no one will help you just because you are an alumnus. There are many people who can provide you with icing on the cake, but few people who can help you when you need it. You still need to be hard-working.
The movie "Operation Mekong" produced by Yu Dong is actually very fake.
At this time, main theme movies have not yet gained momentum.
The company's last film "Taking Tiger Mountain by Wisdom" was also co-produced by Bona in collaboration with Wanda Pictures, Bayi Film Studio, China Film and others, and it was also based on the idea that risks could be shared.
Unexpectedly, the final box office was more than 800 million, making a huge profit.
However, "Taking Tiger Mountain Out of Mind" is already famous. "Yang Zirong" in "Linhaixueyuan" is not only well-known to everyone, but also a classic in the hearts of a generation.
The bandit secret code of "The king of heaven covers the tigers of the earth, the pagoda suppresses the river monsters" has been passed down from generation to generation as a "hot meme".
In contrast, far fewer people know about the real events adapted from [Operation Mekong].
Moreover, police and gangster films have always been the most popular genre of Hong Kong films. Although the film director Lam Chao-hsien is also a famous director on Hong Kong Island, it is impossible to film a story about mainland police in the style of a Hong Kong Island police and gangster film.
In recent years, even the authentic Hong Kong-style police and gangster films produced locally on Hong Kong Island, with the participation of many movie stars from Hong Kong Island, have not done well at the box office, not to mention that this film must have a mixed style.
And the film has the support of the Ministry of Public Security, so the final content of the film must be approved by the Ministry of Public Security. Random changes will definitely not work.
So in order to consider the box office after the movie is released, Yu Dong can only work hard on acting.
I hope to find an actor who can carry the box office to support [Operation Mekong].
Although Zhang Hanyu has good acting skills and has participated in some of the best-selling movies, if you study carefully you will find that his best-selling movies are basically with big directors, such as Feng Xiaogang's "Assembly" and Xu Ke's 【Take Weihu Mountain outsmart】.
Without the blessing of a famous director, it would be completely impossible for him to take the lead alone.
In 2013, Zhang Han collaborated with Wang Luodan on a love movie "What I Love is You Love Me", which only had a box office of 30 million.
Later, the movie "Running for the Red" starring him and directed by Li Ming also failed at the box office, and the investors suffered heavy losses.
It can be seen that Zhang Hanyu is a good actor with acting skills, but he is not a big star who can attract fans to watch movies.
At this time, [Left Ear] had just been released, and Gu Wei naturally came into his sight.
The low-budget love movie was only driven by Gu Wei, and its box office performance was almost on par with the big IP movie "Taking Tiger Mountain by Wisdom" directed by Xu Ke and joined by many movie stars.
At that time, Yu Dong knew that Gu Wei was the big star he was looking for to support the movie.
With Gu Wei joining the cast, even if [Operation Mekong] does not perform well after its release, as long as Gu Wei's fans support it, it will still be able to break even.
So when Gu Wei proposed to become a shareholder based on his salary, he agreed without hesitation. Anyone in the film and television industry who can truly make a company bigger understands the importance of sharing the pie.
Exclusiveness is delicious, but one hundred percent and five hundred and fifty percent, which one is more obvious.
Only by finding someone to make the cake bigger can you get more. Sometimes sharing will not harm your own interests, but you will get more by making your base bigger.
(End of this chapter)