1980 My literary era

Before the Lantern Festival, on February 10, 1998, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this year's Academy Award nominations. "Hero" was nominated for Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Foreign Language Film. Waiting for nominations for four awards,

When the news spread back to China, it immediately aroused heated discussions among countless industry insiders and people.

"Hero" was nominated for four Oscars. Although the really valuable ones are Best Director and Best Cinematography, this is after all, another big win for Chinese films at the Academy Awards after "Farewell My Concubine". Victory is worth celebrating.

Taking advantage of this craze, Wenhua Film and Television held a press conference.

The Spring Festival has passed, and the city streets are as busy as usual. Nowadays, there are more and more private cars in Yanjing. The Mercedes-Benz that Lin Weimin drove has long become inconspicuous, and even a little outdated.

He came to the press conference in the morning. The main content of today's press conference was about the film projects that Wenhua has launched this year.

After three years of accumulation and precipitation, this year's Wenhua Film and Television can be said to be strong and strong.

A single sequin list can arouse bursts of discussion from all the reporters present.

After "Hero", Zhang Yimou will once again compete in a costume historical blockbuster and will direct "The Last Tang Dynasty", a costume historical movie set in the Tang Dynasty.

The story background of this movie is that during the Anshi Rebellion, the main force of the Tang Army in the Western Regions returned to Chang'an to quell the rebellion. The thousands of soldiers who stayed behind fought against the hundreds of thousands of Tibetan troops. This lone army defended the Western Regions for forty-two years, preventing them from taking advantage of the chaos to invade Chang'an.

The story takes place in AD 790. Only two cities, Qiuci and Xizhou, are left in the Western Regions. Military funds are transported between the two places. However, the transportation team perished with the enemy halfway. While stealing property, a refugee was killed by the man who had fainted before. Tang soldiers' uniforms. As a result, Tang Bing escorted the refugees on a journey to send money, and finally went through all kinds of hardships and finally delivered the military money.

The source of this movie is a later micro-movie "The Last Transfer of Money in Mobei of the Tang Dynasty". It is a micro-movie of only 16 minutes. It has no high production costs and no celebrities to join, but it is such a micro-movie. However, it broke the Internet in a short period of time, moved thousands of netizens, and was called the most epic Chinese blockbuster by countless people.

After filming "Hero", Zhang Yimou once wanted to try new themes, but Yu Dong felt that Wenhua had finally taken the road of costume blockbusters, so it would be a waste to just give up, and a costume blockbuster of the level of "Hero" would also be Not just any director can shoot it if he wants to.

He persuaded Zhang Yimou for a long time before Zhang Yimou finally agreed to continue to work in this field.

The theme was there, but the script became a difficult problem.

With "Hero" Zhuyu in front of him, ordinary movie scripts simply cannot inspire Zhang Yimou's creative desire.

Yu Dong mentioned this matter to Lin Weimin years ago, and Lin Weimin chatted with Zhang Yimou, and thus a movie like "The Last of the Tang Dynasty" was born.

In addition to Zhang Yimou's return to the costume historical blockbuster "The Last Tang", Feng Xiaogang's new movie "A Sigh", which has dominated the Lunar New Year movies for three consecutive years, has also been approved recently and the script is being written. This time, Feng Xiaogang and Wang Shuo are the golden pair. The partners joining hands again naturally aroused the expectations of many people.

In addition, the Chinese Literature Society has four films in production this year, two of which are the product of last year's script solicitation activity, and the other two are animated films.

At today's press conference, Lin Weimin did not go on stage, but just sat in the audience as a spectator.

After more than three years of experience, Yu Dong's movements are full of aura, like a big boss, and he can hold down the scene.

After the press conference, Zhang Yimou was surrounded by many reporters. Feng Xiaogang ran over and said hello to Lin Weimin.

The two chatted for a while. Feng Xiaogang looked in the direction of Zhang Yimou, who was surrounded by people, with a bit of envy in his eyes.

The news that "Hero" has been shortlisted for four Oscars this year has just reached China. Zhang Yimou appeared at a press conference today and was naturally the focus of reporters.

"Envy?" Lin Weimin asked with a smile.

"Envy is for sure. Among the directors in our country, who doesn't envy Director Zhang!

Making literary and artistic films can win awards at European film festivals, and making commercial films can earn hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office. How do you say that? Wen Neng can bring peace to the world with his pen, and Wan Neng can use his horse to settle the world.

I’m talking about Director Zhang! "Feng Xiaogang said with half envy and half emotion.

“When you make comedy films, you are inherently at a disadvantage in this aspect, unless you make a film of Chaplin’s level.

But you don’t have to worry. You can only do comedy when you are young. In a few years, you won’t be able to do it even if you want to. "

The art form of comedy not only requires people to let go of themselves, but most importantly, they must have full enthusiasm and overflowing talent.

To put it simply, create a tragedy and write a few people to death easily to earn the tears of readers or viewers.

But in comedy, you want to make readers or audiences laugh, and you also want to have a long aftertaste and meaningful meaning, which is much more difficult than tragedy.

Moreover, when many people reach a certain age, their talents may not diminish, but after they become famous, it is difficult to let go of themselves, and their enthusiasm also weakens, making it even more difficult to produce good comedy works.

Feng Xiaogang was working on comedy-themed movies, so he naturally understood what Lin Weimin meant. He nodded and sincerely approved of these words.

After chatting for a few words with Feng Xiaogang, Lin Weimin and Yu Dong sat together.

"Performed well today!" Lin Weimin praised.

Yu Dong smiled sheepishly and asked, "If you sit down below, I will know it in my heart."

Feng Xiaogang on the side thought to himself: Otherwise, he would be the general manager at such a young age. Look at this art of language!

Yu Dong and Lin Weimin talked about their trip to Shanghai two days ago. Wenhua Film and Television took advantage of the opportunity to produce "Shuke and Beta: Tigers and Tigers" to recruit many of the Shanghai American animators. It was reasonable to communicate with Jin Guoping.

So just after starting work after the New Year, Yu Dong went to Shanghai.

Seeing Jin Guoping, Yu Dong's posture was very low. As a result, it was difficult for Jin Guoping to ask for help. After all, Wenhua Film and Television hired high-paying people. Humei Factory itself did not give high wages to its employees, but Wenhua Film and Television was willing to pay them. These employees are highly paid, so he can't scold them. That would be so shameless!

Of course, another important reason why Jin Guoping couldn't be angry was the performance of "Shuke and Beta: Tigers and Tigers" after its release.

This animated film was released on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Although there was Cheng Long's New Year's film "Who Am I" at the same time, the movie-goers on both sides have very different styles, so "Who Am I" is more important than "Shuke and Beta: Tigers and Tigers". Had almost no impact.

In the first week last week, "Shuke and Beta: Tigers and Tigers" achieved a box office of 8.1 million.

As soon as this number came out, Wenhua Film and Television was filled with joy.

"Shuke and Beta: Tigers and Tigers" invested 6 million yuan and publicity expenses were 1.5 million. Wenhua Film and Television is well aware of the current situation of cartoons in China, so their expectations for the box office of their first movie are not that high, but It would be great if it can exceed 10 million at the box office.

But the box office of the movie in the first week really gave Wenhua Film and Television a big surprise.

In the second week, the box office trend of "Shuke and Beta: Tigers and Tigers" increased steadily, reaching 12.5 million yuan, and the cumulative box office in two weeks exceeded 20 million.

Such a result is perfect for a domestic animated film.

The 1970s and 1980s were considered the peak period of domestic animated films. Audiences during that period could occasionally see domestic animated films in cinemas, but most of the time these animated films were popular science screenings and basically did not make any money at the box office.

After the 1990s, the environment for domestic animated films deteriorated rapidly, and they have basically disappeared from cinemas.

In recent years, the only two animated films that have achieved good box office in the film market are imported films. One is "The Lion King" in 1995 and the other is "Toy Story 1" in 1996. Among them, "The Lion King" is even more popular. With a box office of 41.3 million, it has become a mountain that stands in front of Chinese animated films and seems insurmountable.

The cumulative box office of "Shuck and Beta: Tigers and Tigers" in the two weeks after its release was 20.6 million, which not only gave the producers and distributors a big surprise, but also allowed many animation practitioners and animation audiences to see the dawn of domestic animated films. .

Now that "Shuke and Beta: The Mighty Tigers" has been released for three weeks, the box office has dropped significantly in the third week, with only 7.2 million yuan, and the cumulative box office has also reached 27.8 million yuan. It seems that there is no way to exceed the 30 million box office. suspenseful.

Although this result is still far behind "The Lion King", it has broken the box office ceiling of domestic animated films and is worthy of everyone's pride.

As for the success of "Shuke and Beta: Tigers and Tigers", apart from Wenhua Film and Television, the one that benefited the most was Humei Factory.

Today's Humei Factory has long lost its former glory, and its operating conditions are deteriorating. It can be said that Wang Xiaoer's Chinese New Year is worse than the last.

Cooperating with Wenhua Film and Television was a helpless move due to internal and external difficulties, but what people didn't expect was that such a helpless move actually achieved impressive results.

Humei Factory invested 1 million yuan in "Shuck and Beta: Tigers and Tigers". If the movie can achieve a box office of more than 30 million yuan, then Humei Factory can reap an income of about 2.3 million yuan. The investment income is very considerable, but more importantly What is more important is the confidence and development prospects that "Shuck and Beta: Tigers and Tigers" bring to Humei Factory.

Therefore, facing Wenhua Film and Television, which has brought such success to Humei Factory, Jin Guoping will not break up with them under any circumstances.

Not only will there not be any rift, the two sides will continue to strengthen cooperation.

Yu Dong stayed in Shanghai for a week, finishing the affairs of the Shanghai branch of Wenhua Film and Television and settling in many of the animators who had been poached.

At the same time, the Shanghai branch's project for this year was finalized. One is "Shuke and Beta: The Year of the Rabbit" independently produced by Wenhua Film and Television, with an investment of 8 million yuan.

The other one is a collaboration with Humei Factory. The two parties invested 10 million yuan to develop the animated film "Calabash Brothers". This time Jin Guoping learned a lot and invested 3 million yuan. This share is also acceptable to Wenhua Film and Television. limit.

The success of "Shook and Beta: Tigers and Tigers" has given Wenhua Film and Television confidence, and also given Humei Factory the confidence to make animated films.

When Yu Dong said this, his tone became playful, "I heard that after I left, Lao Jin made some moves?"

"What action?"

"Humei Factory has sought a bank loan and seems to be planning to invest in another animated film."

Lin Weimin laughed when he heard this, "Money and silk are so touching!"

Yu Dong said: "I'm not very optimistic about their large investment in animated films."

Seeing Lin Weimin's inquiring look, Yu Dong explained a few sentences.

"When I was in Shanghai, I visited the Humei Factory. Their concepts and management methods have still not changed from the studio era. Lao Jin only saw the box office of "Shook and Beta: Tigers and Tigers" Successful but no research understands how it is successful.

The success of "Shuke and Beta: Tigers and Tigers" certainly has a lot to do with the quality of the production, but more importantly, it lies in the success of the marketing and publicity methods. Lao Jin and the others did not understand this and invested rashly, and the results may not be ideal. "

Listening to Yu Dong's words, Lin Weimin nodded and said: ""Shuke and Beta: The Power of a Tiger" has achieved a rare box office in the history of domestic animated films, but it also has many shortcomings, especially compared to Hollywood animated films. The plot He is young, the animation effect needs to be improved, and the audience is narrow. If it were not for the promotion point of 'Watching Shuke and Beta with the whole family', the box office would be far from reaching the current level."

After saying these words, he looked at Yu Dong with a look of relief in his eyes, "Yes, my mind is very clear and I can see clearly."