China Entertainment King of Science Fiction

Chapter 561 Chinese audiences are unable to resist this kind of movie (2-in-1)

"Eagle Warrior" is the opening film of the Shanghai Film Festival, and it also had its de facto premiere on the day of the opening screening.

The double buff blessing not only brought almost all the stars who attended the opening red carpet to the scene, but also gathered a large number of movie fans and animation fans, attracting huge traffic to the fantasy and science fiction screening section after the Shanghai Film Festival.

After all, this is a long-awaited movie that Skyhawk fans have been waiting for for almost two years since the project was announced in 2018.

It is also China's first comic book blockbuster. Although there have been live-action movies adapted from anime IPs before, they were all small and medium-sized investment movies. With the level of "Sky Eagle Warrior", it is even directly benchmarked in the mouths of fans.

There is no comparison with the big productions of Hollywood comic book adaptations.

DreamWorks has always been at the forefront of the trend in the creation of film and television dramas. For this huge breakthrough, the media and animation fans have also created an atmosphere of great attention in advance.

Moreover, the "Sky Eagle Warrior" animation also has considerable influence overseas, especially in East and Southeast Asia, so it is definitely the most watched commercial movie this summer.

Arranging for a five-day small-scale screening of "Aquila Warrior" at this film festival, coupled with the establishment of a fantasy and science fiction screening unit, will immediately increase the traffic of the film festival.

The various screening activities of this year's film festival are still concentrated in the five large theaters that have been cooperating with each other. The film festival ticket purchase channel was paralyzed by ticket grabbers as soon as it was launched online.

The organizing committee even predicts that the film festival, which has been extended by two days compared to last year, will last for 12 days and include more than 400 films, and the average attendance rate at each screening is expected to exceed 70%.

Generally speaking, it is simply impossible to recover the cost of a single-episode drama like this.

It wasn't until the majestic music and the 80-meter-high super mecha carrying huge impact on the big screen that the theater let out exclamations of surprise that the smile returned.

Chen Jingxing was not worried about Fu Sheng's somewhat joking tone: "The pressure on production costs is indeed not small, but fortunately Netflix has promised to spend 48 million US dollars on procurement, so it can be considered as sharing a large part and can recover it.

The cost is enough, and we don’t really expect to open up more areas for domestic dramas no matter how much profit we make, so it’s worthwhile to cross the river by feeling the stones.”

Of course, now in 2020, China's film industry has initially developed production capabilities, not to mention DreamWorks, which has Asia's number one special effects studio. Creativity is DreamWorks' strength.

I know that Mr. Chen, your "1951" special effects production is not that fast, but the upper part should be in time. Otherwise, if you miss the summer release, the National Day release, and next year's Spring Festival release, you may not be able to make it, so you have divided it into two parts.

It’s too late.”

In China, even if this kind of space science fiction drama can be released on the stars and sold to TV stations, the result will only be that it will be sold out.

It’s just an urban drama, and it can’t be compared with the generosity of Director Chen. It’s Mr. Chen who dares to be the first in the world, to create a 500 million space science fiction masterpiece. Who in the industry doesn’t admire this courage, not to mention the netizens and the media.”

According to Chen Jingxing’s original idea, it would be better to abandon the so-called competitive comprehensive film festival and learn from the Toronto Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival, without messy awards and competitions, and directly turn it into a film screening event.

Film and television, IP trading platform.

If you want to make a space science fiction drama, you must add water to increase the number of episodes. However, this will reduce the cost of a single episode and it will not reach good visual effects standards. When the time comes, the special effects will be scolded for 50 cents, so it is better not to film it.

He has been targeting the National Day release for the first part of "1951", but the competition for the National Day release is too fierce, and it is still undecided. In the end, it depends on the wishes of the National Film and Film Bureau.

Although more and more film directors have begun to make TV series in recent years, there has not yet been a director of Feng Xiaogang's level.

Fu Sheng defended Chen Jingxing and said sincerely: "This is all slander by ignorant netizens and some unscrupulous media. In the past two years, the Magic City Film Festival has become more and more influential, especially overseas.

Even San Sebastian and Locarno, which are the top three in the country, are just like this, let alone the Tokyo and Magic City Film Festivals that are behind them.

"King Kong River" describes the last battle of the Korean War, the beginning of the Battle of Jincheng, the defense of the Konggang River Bridge, and the surprise attack on the White Tiger Regiment is undoubtedly the climax of the Battle of Jincheng.

This kind of two-dimensional animation is naturally not interesting to him, and there is nothing shocking about it.

The final budget was determined to be 500 million because the communication between Chen Jingxing and Netflix was relatively smooth. Netflix, which has begun to shift its focus to developing the Asian market in recent years, is very willing to spend money. It has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Japan, South Korea and India, using local film and television

Talent produces work for Asia.

This time it was Fu Sheng who laughed, and then He Xi couldn't hide the sourness in his tone.

The domestic space science fiction drama officially announced by DreamWorks has a total of ten episodes and an investment of RMB 500 million, which means that the cost of a single episode will reach RMB 50 million.

Moreover, such dramas are usually based on ancient puppets, and the audience is quite large.

In a bizarre and unbelievable beheading operation, a team of 13 people wiped out 223 enemies without any casualties.

But at this moment, the complex mechanical device made a loud "click, click, click" sound, and the smell of engine oil came through the screen.

The smile on Fu Sheng's face froze: "It's not a movie. It's not that Xiaogang wants to change his mind and make an online drama."

An interleaved detachment composed of the 2nd Battalion of the 609th Regiment of the 203rd Division of the 68th Army and the reconnaissance squad of the 607th Regiment passed through a 3-kilometer artillery fire blockade and advanced deeply towards the South Korean Army.

In the process of annihilating most of the Southern Korean Army, a reconnaissance squad disguised as Southern Korean soldiers escorting US military advisers cleverly passed through multiple sentries, broke through the obstruction of the Southern Korean Army reinforcements, and quickly inserted into the headquarters of the White Tiger Regiment of the Southern Korean Army.

Chen Jingxing, who strives for novelty, gave up filming this story and changed it to "1951".

The stories of "Operation Red Sea" and "Spike II" seem much more real in front of it.

Chen Jingxing's heart skipped a beat. It seemed that it was right to leave the tea. Qin Zhonghe's retirement was indeed influential. If Mr. Qin knew that "King Kong River" was scheduled for National Day, he would definitely let him know.

Fifty million US dollars in purchases is really a drop in the bucket for Netflix. The self-produced series that Netflix has launched in the past two years have an average collection of tens of millions of US dollars, which can be said to be a waste of money.

The National Day movie has been confirmed to be a tribute film "My Youth and Me" co-produced by Ning Hao, Xu Zheng, Chen Sicheng and other directors. If "King Kong River" is also scheduled to be released on the National Day, there will definitely be no room for other gift blockbusters.

Fu Sheng's words were obviously a compliment, but secretly they sounded like a demonstration.

But it certainly cannot accommodate large-investment military blockbusters with the same theme of the Korean War.

There is a huge difference between the domestic TV audience and the Internet audience. The main reason why DreamWorks has been following the online drama route since the TV series "The Signal" is actually due to this. DreamWorks' dramas simply do not match the TV station's audience.

Based on its previous successful experience, Netflix has paid more attention to DreamWorks.

So Jingying Film relied on the script of "Assault on the White Tigers" that satisfied the film bureau leaders so that "King Kong River" could be scheduled for National Day?

Chen Jingxing was thinking a lot in his mind but did not show any emotion. Although he was a little disappointed, in fact, his obsession with the National Day schedule was not that strong. Wouldn't it be possible to achieve good box office results if it was not in the popular schedule?

Only Fu Sheng was eager to take advantage of this to get back a win in front of DreamWorks, so he demonstrated and succeeded at the same time.

Fu Sheng was talking about the first domestic space science fiction drama "Death on Mars" that DreamWorks officially announced a few days ago.

"Oh? What do you think, Mr. Fu?"

Fu Sheng, who felt secretly happy, had a smile on his face until the movie officially started.

It can be said to be a miracle in the history of war since World War II.

In fact, among the same type of film festivals, with the three major European film festivals, other film festivals can basically only be regarded as the leftovers of the three major film festivals, with little room for improvement.

"Congratulations to Mr. Fu and Director Guan. I think Director Guan did a good job filming last year's "The Eight Hundred". "King Kong River" will definitely not be inferior to "The Eight Hundred"."

The movie hasn't started yet, but a pre-roll advertisement has been added at the beginning of the film. Chen Jingxing sat in his seat and watched the trailer of "Li Yannian" in the pre-roll advertisement, listening to the compliments of Fu Sheng, the boss of Beijing Film and Television beside him.

"In the past two years when Director Chen has been the chairman, the reputation of our Shanghai Film Festival has grown more and more. I have told Director Li before that Director Chen should be allowed to continue to be the chairman for another two years. Isn't Ang Lee opposite?"

The Golden Horse Awards have been hosted for three years, and next year it will be four years."

Of course, there are many American dramas that cost more than 10 million US dollars per episode, but they can be broadcast on cable TV channels. Cable channels like HBO have more than 20 to 30 million viewers a year, and the subscription fee for streaming media and TV stations is 15 per month.

U.S. dollars, that’s two to three hundred million U.S. dollars in subscription revenue a month.

Maybe it will have more commercial value and influence.

Asking him to put "1951" on the summer schedule instead of "Li Yannian" means that "1951" has no chance of being on the National Day schedule, and next year's Spring Festival schedule will be too tight. If you don't rush it now, I'm afraid it will be suppressed in the future.

For a long time, you can only choose non-popular times.

Fu Sheng suggested that he move the lower-weighted "Li Yannian" from the summer schedule. Naturally, it was not because he was afraid of this movie, but he may not have taken this biographical tribute film to heart.

Fu Sheng was unprepared to realize the effect of moving a giant mecha from the two-dimensional world into a three-dimensional movie.

After Fu Sheng finished laughing, he turned the topic to movies: "I heard that DreamWorks will put "Li Yannian" on the summer schedule?"

There isn't even a plot needed, just the mecha appearing on the big screen, and the atmosphere in the theater became visibly heated up.

It was rare for Fu Sheng not to maintain his own position, and there was a bit of pretentious surprise in his expression: "Didn't Mr. Qin Wu tell Director Chen? The Film Bureau has decided to put Guan's "King Kong River" on the National Day schedule. Bureau Li said

"King Kong River" is very promising, and I am also very satisfied with the script of "Assault on the White Tigers"."

The cooperative relationship established between DreamWorks and Netflix is ​​indeed very coveted by other domestic companies. Who made DreamWorks start its overseas strategy long ago? It has international brand support, coupled with the phenomenal impact created by "The Walking Dead"

I don’t blame Netflix for buying into it.

Moreover, the chairman of the jury for next year's Shanghai Film Festival has already been decided, and it will be Guan Hu.

Then, while they were in a meeting, they suddenly opened fire, killing the leader of the White Tiger Regiment, seizing the flag of the White Tiger Regiment, destroying the regiment's command system, causing the Southern Korean troops deployed around to lose command, and the soldiers abandoned their weapons and ammunition and fled in all directions.

Who is leading this criticism of him and DreamWorks? Who is adding fuel to the flames?

"Signal" was sold to Mango TV at a high price, and people mainly came to it for Sun Li and Deng Chao.

In fact, Chen Jingxing also thought about filming the surprise attack on the White Tigers at that time. This story is so legendary, full of dramatic elements such as espionage, lurking, and surprise attacks. Moreover, this is a real incident, and the audience will have to believe it even if it is filmed.

It's just that his idea is destined to be impossible to realize. After all, who would dare to give up the title of the International Class A Film Festival? Although the so-called Class A, Class B, and Class C are just film festival type classifications, they do not represent influence.

"I'm just a latecomer. I'll be satisfied if I can safely hand over the baton to Director Guan. I see that Director Feng also came with the crew and creative staff? There were too many people and I didn't even have time to chat with him. What kind of movie is it?

?”

Even if "Death on Mars" had Zhao Liying, who is recognized as one of the top 85 stars in the ratings, and A-list superstar Luo Chen, it is impossible for any TV station to pay more than 20 million for a space science fiction drama with only ten episodes.

.

The effect of the mecha in the animation on the big IMAX screen in the live-action movie was beyond his imagination.

Now, who in the industry doesn't know that "The Wandering Earth" stole the opening screening opportunity of "The Eight Hundred Revelation" last year, which made Jingying extremely jealous?

If it is a spin-off series like "Star Trek", "Star Wars", or a spin-off series from a comic book movie, and it is part of the construction of the movie universe, it is worthwhile if the loss of the TV series can bring profits to the development of the entire IP.

Feng Xiaogang caused a lot of commotion after the Yin Yang Contract was exposed. Although he didn't get further into trouble, he kept a low profile for a while. Now that the limelight has almost passed, he started filming TV series with the support of Beijing Film Studio.

There was also an atmosphere of excitement and excitement that was quickly lifted in the theater, and there were even whistles.

After all, this was Netflix at its peak, with a market value of over US$200 billion.

It can be said that Chen Jingxing has a clear conscience in his position as chairman of the jury in the past two years. After all, the film festival cannot be significantly improved by relying on a few big-name international directors.

On the contrary, DreamWorks has fallen into some decline in this subject after the military action trilogy. Not to mention mid-to-low-cost biographical movies like "Li Yannian" - military movies with a cost of 150 million are not in Fu Sheng's eyes at all.

inside.

This news is also quite shocking. Space science fiction dramas have always been a patent of the other side of the ocean. After all, this type of drama has extremely high requirements for the production level and investment of the film industry.

The budget for "Death on Mars" initially had two versions, one was to reduce the special effects shots by 300 million, and the other was to restore most of the story scenes to 500 million - because the big screen was not considered, IMAX lenses were not used, and

Rather than shooting with 3D cameras, using the virtual production technology of our own film and television base that has been built can indeed significantly reduce costs.

However, the audience for science fiction-themed dramas is much smaller. Even the phenomenal "The Walking Dead", "Person of Interest" and "The Beginning" at the beginning of this year still lag behind the popular ancient puppets in terms of broadcast volume.

It can be said that most of the production costs were recovered by Netflix.

"Oh, that's incredible. The last time Director Feng made a TV series was more than 20 years ago, right? This is a good sign. Domestic TV series are becoming more and more high-quality."

Moreover, through the competition of gift films, Beijing Film has a tendency to catch up from behind.

Jingying took over the task of the Battle of Jincheng. After filming "King Kong River", it is not surprising that it would take advantage of the opportunity to shoot the highlight of the Battle of Jincheng - the surprise attack on the White Tigers.

Fu Sheng's smugness and pride had all been wiped away.

But huge investment is still the biggest obstacle.

"Except for DreamWorks, current online dramas are indeed a bit rough, and the artistic level is not high enough. We at Beijing Film Academy are also preparing to learn from DreamWorks and create high-quality online dramas with a movie quality. Film artists' descending to earth will also benefit the audience.

Without Sun Li and Deng Chao, why would the TV station go crazy and spend hundreds of millions on a 20-episode science fiction suspense drama?

""Surprise Attack on the White Tigers"?"

Even "1951", directed by Chen Jingxing himself, is divided into two parts. As far as he knows, the cost, cast and scenes are not big. It seems that there are only two male protagonists, Zhang Ruoyun and Bai Yu. Unlike "The Eight Hundred Revelation"

", "King Kong River" is not a movie of the same scale as it seems.

There may be room for other small and medium-budget films or films with other themes.

It is impossible for any TV station to buy it at a high price.

"Mr. Fu, you're too polite. Everyone said that I was acting for personal benefit, bringing the smell of copper to the art palace, and even turning the Shanghai Film Festival into the DreamWorks Film Festival. If I continue for another year, I'm afraid I'll be scolded to death.

."

The total cost of the two "1951" movies was only 700 million, and "King Kong River" alone had this budget.

Out of fear and research on the live-action version of "Aquila Warrior" filmed by DreamWorks, he also bit the bullet and watched a few episodes of the original animation.

Fu Sheng is indeed very proud. DreamWorks is known as the icebreaker of Chinese commercial films. It has not only pioneered science fiction films, space films, and animated films, but is also a leader in military action films, with brilliant achievements.

Coupled with the relatively mature development of other copyrights, it is not difficult to cover costs or even make a fortune.

"It's true that military-themed movies are difficult to make. It's not easy to make them. However, DreamWorks is a pioneer on this road. There are still many things that we, Beijing Film Academy, need to learn from."

This means that "1951" will definitely miss the National Day release.

Fu Sheng chuckled and said: "The sequel to "King Kong River" was originally assigned to the Battle of Jincheng. When Director Guan was filming "King Kong River", I asked Liang Hui to write the script for "Assault on the White Tigers". Li

The bureau and superiors were very satisfied with it and asked us to start filming immediately. It would be best to release it in time for the Spring Festival next year. Alas, time is tight."

"Haha..." Chen Jingxing couldn't help but admire the thick-skinnedness of the head of Beijing Film Academy.

On the other hand, other countries in East Asia, especially South Korea, are not as good as China in exporting non-idol dramas and TV series. To be precise, DreamWorks.

It is not that there are no dramas in China that invest hundreds of millions. Putting aside the water content, these huge investments can be diluted by more episodes. In fact, the average cost of a single episode is not high, and more episodes can sell more.

price.

Chen Jingxing raised his eyebrows. It turned out that this guy was here to demonstrate.

"Don't blame me for being presumptuous, Mr. Chen. I think "Li Yannian" shouldn't be moved to the end of the year? Such a good summer schedule is still suitable for more heavyweight movies.

Of course, this is also to make money for Jingying. After all, if you lose the bet with Jingying, you can't be idle.

My wife is in South Korea these days. She called me yesterday and told me that the Korean media had also reported on the opening of this year’s film festival. She even said that many young Koreans came to the country to attend the opening film screening. Director Chen’s

The contribution is obvious to all.”

But considering that this story has been preceded by Zhu Yu, there are not only Peking Opera adaptations but also movie adaptations.

However, starting from last year's "Eight Hundred Revelation", Jingying Film has begun to catch up. It was his wisest decision to let Guan Hu make a military-themed movie. DreamWorks has Guo Fan, and Jingying Film also has Guan Hu.

So what if a gift film or military blockbuster wins over DreamWorks?

In the field of Chinese science fiction films and commercial films, DreamWorks will always be the shining pearl.

All this is an example.

Even if Fu Sheng, who is approaching his sixtieth year, is not interested in such movies, as someone who has been immersed in the film and television industry for decades, he will not be able to understand what kind of movie can be a hit, and whether the audience is attracted by it at this moment.

It arouses adrenaline and I don’t know what the audience will like.

There was no doubt that even if the movie in front of him lasted only a few minutes and the plot did not even unfold, he could also be absolutely sure that the Chinese audience would not be able to resist this kind of movie.

(End of chapter)