China Entertainment Mythology 2004

At the end of September, "Taken" was released one after another around the world. Its final box office in mainland China was 280 million yuan, breaking the 250 million box office record set by the film "Hero" directed by Zhang Yimou, becoming the new national box office champion.

In the North American market, "Taken" finally took home a box office of US$120 million, and the total overseas box office was as high as US$230 million. Coupled with its box office in mainland China, the global box office of "Taken" has reached US$270 million.

Breaking the highest global box office record for a Chinese-language film set by "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

As "Taken" continues to set records for Chinese-language films, all parties involved in the film have gained both fame and fortune.

First of all, Brother Cheng Long's global reputation has soared due to this movie. Friends from all over the world keep calling to congratulate Brother Cheng Long for his box office miracle.

Next is the Western Film Group, one of the film's investors. In the past three months, as the box office of "Hurricane Rescue" has been getting higher and higher, director Yan Yiyun of Xi Film Studio has been glowing every day. During this period, he has continued to participate in

Conducted multiple film seminars on "Taken".

Again, it comes to the actors who participated in the movie. Liu Yifei not only gained a lot of attention in China with this movie, but also gained international influence and gained a large number of movie fans in Europe and the United States.

Even Song Qie, who had a very small role in this film, received many film offers. However, she rejected all these film offers because at this time she had already received an invitation from Li Mu for a new movie. Song Qie did not hesitate at all.

, and immediately agreed.

Of course, as the film's screenwriter and assistant director, and rumored to be the ruthless person who could directly stop Cheng Long from revising his film plans on Cheng Long's crew, Li Mu certainly received a lot of attention from the industry.

Just when Li Mu was fully preparing for the new movie "The Master of Hypnosis", he suddenly received an invitation from Wang Zhonglei of Huayi Brothers Group.

At this time, when making movies in China, it is really difficult to avoid the Huayi Brothers Group. If nothing else, let’s talk about its many actor resources. It is impossible for Li Mu to completely abandon it when making movies in the future.

7 p.m., private room at Grand Hyatt Hotel.

Li Mu went to the appointment alone, while three people came from Huayi. In addition to Wang Zhonglei, the president of Huayi Group, there were also actor Li Lianhua and Li Lianhua's sister Li Xuehua.

In addition to being Li Lianhua's sister, Li Xuehua is also Li Lianhua's agent. This person has been a top student since she was a child, which also made Li Lianhua, a poor student, feel very inferior when facing her own sister.

Later, Li Lianhua made a career in the entertainment industry by chance. After graduating from college, Li Xuehua joined Huayi Group and became her sister Li Lianhua's agent.

Li Xuehua has a good eye for film selection. It is reported that whether it is the movie "A World Without Thieves" or "The Wind", these two movies that are crucial to Li Lianhua's film career were all made possible by the help of his younger sister Li Xuehua.

It was only after some persuasion that I decided to star.

Later, Huayi Brothers broke up with Wang Jinghua, the top agent in domestic entertainment. Li Xuehua took advantage of the situation with her outstanding work ability and became the number one person in charge of Huayi's agent business. Later, she served as the joint general manager of Huayi Brothers and Wan Xuehua.

Major film and television executive, chairman of Hesong Media and other positions.

Hesong Media was founded by him independently. At the same time, his sister Li Lianhua is also a partner of this company. Later, Zhao Liying will join Hesong and become Hesong's new partner.

The two parties met and after some polite exchanges, Wang Zhonglei finally revealed the reason for inviting Li Mu.

""Taken" sold $270 million globally. Lionsgate Pictures and Columbia Pictures in the United States both saw business opportunities. Both companies wanted to replicate the success of Cheng Long and "Taken", so they both

Everyone joined together to find Li Lianjie and hoped to invite him to star in a new Kung Fu movie."

Li Mu nodded. The reactions of the two companies were not difficult to understand.

At this time, Wang Zhonglei continued: "However, Li Lianjie neither agreed to the invitation of the two companies nor flatly rejected the other party. The two companies then approached Huayi again, hoping that Huayi could help find out Li Lianjie's true thoughts.

I went to see Li Lianjie in the past few days, and Li Lianjie didn't hide anything from me. According to him, he mainly had two concerns. First, he and Cheng Long have the same status, and now Cheng Long's new movie "Hurricane Rescue" is a global hit.

, if his new kung fu movie fails at the box office in the future, then he will become a person who imitates others in the idiom."

Li Mu nodded, Li Lianlian's concerns were not unreasonable.

Wang Zhonglei continued: "Secondly, the script given to him by Lionsgate and Columbia was very lackluster, and he did not believe that such a script could be sold - not to mention the results of "Taken", I am afraid that it would be difficult to achieve the passing results of ordinary movies.

"

Li Mu said at this time: "But Li Lianjie really wanted to make a movie comparable to "The Rescue", so he didn't reject the other party directly."

Wang Zhonglei nodded: "Yes, in fact Li Lianjie's concerns are not unreasonable. If Cheng Long's "Hurricane Rescue" has just achieved outstanding results, Li Lianjie will immediately follow suit. If the results are good, it will be justified. If

The results were too poor and the reputation was really bad, so the idea I gave Li Lianlian was to get him and Cheng Long to co-star in a brand new Kung Fu movie."

Li Muxin said: "It's coming, it's finally coming, is it you? "The King of Kung Fu"?"

Wang Zhonglei continued: "After Li Lianjie heard my opinion, he was very interested. He believed that "Hurricane Rescue" has achieved the ultimate level of this type of movie. No matter how it is made in the future, it will be difficult to surpass this movie.

But if the two Kung Fu superstars Li Lianjie and Cheng Long can be put into one movie and have a peak showdown between them, it may really be possible to surpass "The Rescue"."

Li Mu doesn't quite agree with this. The showdown between two kung fu superstars is enough of a gimmick, but whether it can win the approval of the audience ultimately depends on the quality of the movie.

"The King of Kung Fu" is a living example of this.

Wang Zhonglei added: "After I raised this opinion, Li Lianjie thought for a moment and said he could give it a try, but he hopes that you will write the script."

"I?"

"That's right."

After speaking, Wang Zhonglei looked at Li Mu deeply and continued: "Li Lianjie said that your screenwriting skills are very powerful, and what's even more rare is that you have an extremely accurate grasp of Westerners' tastes. He now has a long time a year.

He has been living in a house in Los Angeles. During this time, several American friends have asked him about a book called "The Hunger Games". It is reported that the author of this book is Chinese."

"The author of the English version of "The Hunger Games" is signed by mu li. I heard that several film companies have expressed interest in the film and television rights of this novel at this time, including Lionsgate Pictures, and Li Lianlian searched for relevant information.

Later, I was very surprised to find that there was actually a Chinese version of "The Hunger Games" published in China, and the author of the Chinese version was Li Mu."

After speaking, Wang Zhonglei raised his head and looked at Li Mu, and then said: "So this book only took eight months to sell nearly 8 million copies in the United States. In August alone, the first two volumes of the novel were sold in total.

The author of the novel that has sold 1.65 million copies and topped the New York Times bestseller list for six consecutive months is you, right, Mr. Li Mu?"

At this time, everyone in the private room focused their attention on Li Mu's face, and the eyes of Li Lianhua and Li Xuehua were even more brilliant.

The current situation of China's entertainment industry is that mainlanders look up to Xiangjiang Treasure Island, and Xiangjiang Treasure Island looks up to Hollywood.

Although the Xiangjiang movies were already in decline at this time, mainland filmmakers still couldn't get over it for the time being. They had to wait until "囧囧" became a box office hit and completely crushed the movies with Xiangjiang directors and stars as their selling points, before mainland filmmakers were able to

When I faced the filmmakers from Hong Kong, I finally gained confidence.

And the filmmakers in Xiangjiang Baodao look up to Hollywood very much. The big directors and stars in Xiangjiang are all proud to go to Hollywood to develop and become famous, and the English version of Li Mu's "The Hunger Games" has actually won the first prize in the United States.

Such a huge achievement, compared to the current domestic entertainment industry, is simply a dimensionality reduction blow.