China Entertainment: Director’s happiness is so simple

Back at the office, Lu Pingan stopped caring about Yang Mi and focused on "Wonderful Night 2".

The script of "Wonderful Night 2" has now been finalized.

The structure is similar to the original version, but the content will have more adaptations than "Wonderful Night 1".

The original "Wonderful Night 2" is actually not particularly good.

The original "Wonderful Night 2" has significantly more special effects than the first episode.

Including IMAX, the second film is said to have many more screening channels than the first film.

The first part was only shown on more than 3,700 screens in the United States, while the sequel had nearly 300 more screens.

The second part had a budget of US$150 million and earned US$176 million in the United States, with a global box office total of US$410 million.

Although this achievement is extraordinary, it pales in comparison to the US$250 million in the US box office of the first film and US$570 million in global box office.

You know, the budget for the first part was only $12 million.

Therefore, the box office performance of "Wonderful Night 2" shows that this sequel is lazy in some aspects.

The original "Wonderful Night 2" tells the story of the male protagonist who achieved great success in his career and became a big boss after the first film.

Then I returned to the museum after many years, only to find that the museum was about to be replaced, the old friends were to be replaced by high technology, and the old exhibits were to be sent to Washington for storage.

After saying goodbye to his old friends, the protagonist receives a call for help. It turns out that the capuchin stole the gold medal, so that the entire warehouse exhibits came to life. The old friends were hunted down, and the protagonist went to rescue them.

In Washington, the protagonist meets several new NPCs, including Einstein, the sincere Lincoln, and the pilot Amelia who always fascinates him. The historical elements involved include the Washington Museum of Natural History, the Space Museum, etc.

In the end, the protagonist defeated Carmenra and their gang, stopped the legion from the underground, successfully rescued his friends, and then returned to the old museum.

Overall, the museum in "Amazing Night 2" is bigger, there are more characters, the heroine is more beautiful, and the movie is still lively.

But after the excitement, I always felt that something was missing.

If you analyze it carefully, the reason is actually very simple.

The story of the original "Wonderful Night" comes from a fairy tale book.

Stunning creativity, a complete story and plot, and Hollywood's stunning special effects complete this commercial blockbuster.

In contrast, "Wonderful Night 2" is a simple copy of the plot pattern of the previous game by the screenwriters.

"Wonderful Night 2" still has the protagonist rescuing NPCs in the museum.

The characters and plot don't develop much.

Therefore, apart from shouting at the amazing visual effects, people cannot have any more impressions of the plot during the viewing process.

Most excellent sequel movies have story and plot extensions.

For example, "The Godfather Part II" tells the story of the growth of the new Mafia family leader Michael Corleone and his transformation into a father figure.

"The Mummy 2" develops children. Although the story routine remains roughly the same, there is an additional clue about the child.

Another example is that "Iron Man 2" began to reveal clues about S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers.

If nothing else, these films surpass their predecessors in terms of action and visual effects.

It can be seen from this that fancy changes in special effects and production quality are only inevitable means. If the sequel is to have a good harvest at the box office and word of mouth, it must also work hard on the storyline.

"Wonderful Night 1" includes Larry's transformation from "can't" to "I can", and there is also the emotional transmission between father and son.

In the sequel, there is no room for development of the relationship between father and son, except for the addition of a female pilot, a dispensable acting vase.

The villains such as the Pharaoh's brother, Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon and the Mafia are only formal bluffs, more than enough to make jokes, and not enough to promote the plot.

Although the director spared no effort to display special effects and humorous jokes, and even added tributes to "The Mummy Series" and "300", it did not leave much impression on people after watching it.

So to put it simply, "Wonderful Night 2" is an authentic bowl of egg fried rice.

Cold rice and hot stir-fry are not fresh enough.

So how to adapt it?

At the beginning, Lu Ping An also faced two options.

One is copying.

The total box office of "Wonderful Night Trilogy" was not bad to begin with, and now Lu Ping'an can eat two fish with one fish, which is equivalent to six movies.

In this way, even if the last two movies are the same as the original one and the box office is worse than the last, he will still be able to make a lot of money.

In addition to copying, there is a second option.

That is to optimize the trilogy and add more grand themes and world views.

This will be accompanied by huge risks.

For example, the adaptation was so unsatisfactory that it flopped at the box office.

After all, since it has been adapted, there is no reference point, and no one knows what the future results will be.

But Lu Pingan finally thought about it and felt that he still needed to change.

Because he has confidence.

The confidence does not come from the ability to adapt, but from "one fish and two things".

If the Chinese version can't be modified well, wouldn't it be better to make the old American version back to the original version?

This is equivalent to having two testing sites, and the two testing sites will not have much related impact.

Because Chinese movies about culture are not very popular, this leaves plenty of room for the American version at the box office.

The two versions of "Wonderful Night 1" have already proven this.

Of course, if the Chinese version of "Amazing Night 2" goes out, even if it causes a global sensation, it will not affect the American version of "Amazing Night 2" to continue to use the original version.

After all, Chinese and Western cultures are different.

So the soil for trial and error is already there.

The next step is to make bold assumptions and try carefully.

As a result, the Chinese version of "Wonderful Night 2" now has the following changes.

The first is structure and theme.

This version of "Wonderful Night 2" can be the same as the original version, and it is also about saving old friends.

There is no problem with this.

But in the process of salvation, a lot of content and details can be added, as well as a more grand theme.

For example, the protagonist in the first film has grown.

In the second part, the protagonist can take his son and let him grow up.

Where does your son need to grow?

The theme that can transform a son from cowardice to bravery is applicable to all teenagers and children.

On this basis, since it is a "museum", we can add our older son. After receiving a lot of baptism in Western culture, he has grown from disdain for his own history, characters, and cultural relics to realizing the vividness of history. , profound, proud of the five thousand years of history of our country, proud of the five thousand years of spirit passed down by the Chinese nation, and a change in attitude that we are willing to continue passing on.

This is applicable to both the son and the protagonist, as well as to all audiences.

The so-called making the museum come to life is not just to make a hodgepodge and let everyone play house, but also to connect each of them to show a deeper meaning.

This was not reflected in the first part. It just made history come alive. It focused more on the personal growth of the protagonist and only touched on the theme of history.

So it’s just right to use it now.

Lu Ping'an couldn't think of a more suitable theme for a movie like this to be shot in China.

Being able to do this, Lu Pingan feels that this movie will be better than the original second part no matter what.

In addition to this, some more attractive elements should be added to the background of the "turtle back plate".

Just like many movie fans are curious now, everyone is guessing why the turtle back plate has such magical abilities. It was not clearly stated in the first film, and King Zhou played by Jay Chou did not know the origin of this thing.

Therefore, in the second part, we can decrypt more, instead of decrypting everything, we should just dig a deeper hole to pave the way for the third part.

After determining the overall structure and theme, the next step is to shape the skeleton and flesh (end of this chapter)