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Zhou Buqi considered it comprehensively and finally agreed.

All parties wanted to do it.

And the final decision-making power of this matter was not actually in his hands. It was not realistic for him to force a stop, and it would appear too overbearing.

It would also help Ziweixing Global's own business.

So he agreed.

However, the script of "The Great Wall" must be overturned and rewritten, and it cannot be the same as in the previous life. The director must also be replaced, and Lao Mouzi cannot play a "radio gymnastics" style movie again. Many old-school filmmakers in China grew up in a collective culture and were deeply influenced by it. They believe that a big scene is to get a lot of people together, and then be uniform and orderly, which is a large-scale collective dance-style big scene thinking.

Occasionally, it is really shocking.

There is no director in the world who can shoot such a magnificent scene.

But it is always the same mode.

It feels fresh to watch it once, but it is easy to form a fixed mindset every time it is like this. Foreigners think that your aesthetics are like that. North Korea holds military parades every year, which makes people feel not shocked but laughed at.

Zhou Buqi thinks it must be changed.

He is a senior movie fan. He knows almost every flaw of "The Great Wall". He must overturn them comprehensively and on a large scale.

This is a fantasy blockbuster about the offensive and defensive battle between humans and monsters centered on the "Great Wall".

In this case, invite a director from Hollywood who is really good at making fantasy blockbusters.

Even if it is not well made and messed up...

When the domestic public opinion ferments, at most they will scold foreign directors and say that they do not understand Chinese culture, so that Boss Zhou will not be affected at all.

As a layman in the film industry, Zhou Buqi can only be thick-skinned and make some high-level guidance for the movie "The Great Wall".

He made some suggestions.

First, we should shoot historical themes with modern thinking, design characters with modernized shapes, costumes, and makeup, and do not dig into Chinese history.

This is a lesson learned from the Disney version of "Mulan".

The makeup of the movie has been criticized.

They think that the makeup of the women in the film is too weird and too annoying, almost like Japanese geishas.

With such a preconceived notion, how can the box office of the film be good?

But in fact, "Mulan" specially invited historians to study the makeup and styling of the time to maximize the presentation of the original historical appearance, and it was not learning from Japanese geishas at all. On the contrary, the reason why Japanese geishas have such makeup is because Japan admires Chinese culture and came to the Tang Dynasty to worship and learn from the past.

This is a very common thinking error in Internet product design.

Don't use "reality" to design products, use "cognition" to design products.

The so-called "cognition" is the user's cognition of the product.

The truth is not right, the user is right!

They like white, young and thin, so the beauties in history must be white and thin; they like Internet celebrity makeup, so the beauties in history must be Internet celebrity makeup.

It's just a commercial movie, don't pretend to be noble and want to spread the truth.

As a fantasy blockbuster with historical themes, "The Great Wall" must use modern people's thinking and modern conventional cognition to design historical scenes in the choice of "history".

In the product thinking of the Internet, commercial products do not seek truth!

What they seek is a kind of "thought massage", which is to cater to the user's cognition, touch the audience's emotions, and make the user feel comfortable.

Second, don't tell court stories.

The court stories in ancient China are really too complicated and profound. Not to mention foreigners, even if the locals dare to touch them, the death rate is over 99%, and it is easy to make the turbulent court politics into a brain-dead drama.

Moreover, this is a Hollywood blockbuster, facing the whole world.

Who knows what happened in the court of ancient China?

What emperors, eunuchs, queens, relatives, ministers, vassal states, generals... It's easy to be confused.

Once the court plot is involved, it is guaranteed that neither China nor foreigners will be pleased, and there is no doubt that it will die.

"The Last Emperor" is a drama and art film, which can be analyzed in depth.

As a commercial blockbuster, "The Great Wall" should not talk about those mysterious things. It should shoot something that everyone can understand and conform to the current audience's understanding and mainstream thinking!

"Yes!"

"You can't tell the story with the values ​​of the time, you have to tell the story with the values ​​that everyone likes most now!"

For this reason, Zhou Buqi simply listed a plot outline for this movie.

It adopts the most common three-act structure in Hollywood scripts.

Since it is a Sino-US co-production, white actors and Chinese actors must appear together.

Act 1.

It can be during the Crusades, a white team from Europe ran to the Great Wall of China with the female slaves they plundered. They met a Chinese team, the team leader and a maid.

Both sides went to investigate a shocking news that there was a monster eating people.

Under the collision of Chinese and Western cultures, the two sides had a fierce conflict.

They looked down on each other.

But both sides still found the traces of the monster at the same time.

At the last moment, the two sides cooperated and killed the monster together. Although the slave girl and the maid got separated, who cares about women in this era? The men on both sides made peace and became good friends.

The plot entered the climax of the first act.

Then the reversal came.

Unexpectedly, they were shocked to find that this extremely powerful monster was just a scout. They discovered a dense and extremely powerful group of monsters. They have the ability to destroy humans!

So both sides went back and started asking for reinforcements.

The Europeans went to Jerusalem to request a large force of Crusaders, and the Chinese army also returned to the court to request support from the Imperial Guard to protect the Great Wall!

Act II.

The white female slave and the Chinese maid got separated while following the male masters to fight monsters.

Legends were heard in the process.

Monsters are incredibly powerful.

Can destroy all mankind.

Only the legendary dragon can defeat it.

Two brave girls go looking for traces of the dragon.

On the other side, the battle to defend the Great Wall has begun!

The Chinese army fought bravely and without fear of sacrifice, fought to the death against the monsters and defended the Great Wall. Just when he couldn't hold on any longer and was about to fail, the Crusaders came and bravely charged towards the monster.

White people and yellow people staged a magnificent defensive battle on the Great Wall and defeated the monster's attack!

The plot reaches its climax in the second act.

Then it reversed.

A more powerful attack from the monsters is coming. Super monsters have the ability to open mountains with one punch and are extremely powerful.

what to do?

Enter the third act.

After a quarrel, human nature finally defeated fear. The Chinese and European troops stood together, shook hands, and decided to defend the Great Wall!

Finally the war began.

Very tragic.

Many war heroes died.

The Great Wall was also broken into sections by monsters.

It's over!

The Great Wall is about to fall, and humanity is doomed.

what to do?

At this time, the final climax came.

The white slave girl and the Chinese maid, two very weak girls, rushed over with a dragon on their back. One dragon could spit fire and the other dragon could spray water, and destroyed the monster.

Finally there is a happy ending.

This outline is a main line of thinking.

The plot revolves around defending the Great Wall to fight monsters, and emotionally depicts the life and death of Chinese and Western armies, as well as the bravery, determination and ambiguity of female slaves and maids.

It’s not white people who ultimately save the world.

Instead, the two most looked-down "lower women" came to create a cultural impact on the superior male-dominated world, thereby reaching a certain height in film ideology.

Women can do things that men cannot do; men look down on women, but women can save the world by strengthening themselves!

In line with the trend of the era of feminism.

This is modern thinking.

…

Zhou Buqi simply wrote an outline of the script, and then called Michael Moore and Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull, "Follow my idea to enrich the script, and avoid digging into Chinese history. Historical themes do not mean To tell a historical story, you need to use modern values ​​to create a fictional story wrapped in history.”

The script is very simple.

He wrote it in Chinese, with a total of more than 4,000 words. Then it was translated into 5,000 English words by Ning Lu and Zhang Zetian.

Michael Moore read it quickly and said: "According to convention, commercial blockbusters need to have emotional lines."

Zhou Buqi said: "The relationship between the female slave and the maid is the biggest emotional line."

Michael Moore joked: "It feels like a Disney movie."

"Yes, it's Disney." Zhou Buqi was unambiguous and admitted immediately, "It's just copying Disney's strategy. In recent years, Disney's movies, relying on the interaction between women's rights and girls, can be said to have grabbed the top spot. With a huge market, why can't we? Plagiarism is the first way to make products! The concept of 'The Great Wall' is copied from "Game of Thrones", so there is no shame in copying Disney's values."

Michael Moore frowned slightly, feeling that this was a bit cheap.

What about Universal Pictures’ dignity?

What about the ethics of filmmakers?

The idea of ​​a movie like Boss Zhou is really too simple, crude, and oversimplified.

Are all Internet products created this way?

Isn't this a rogue strategy?

Fortunately, this project is controlled by Legendary Pictures.

It won’t damage Universal Pictures’ reputation.

Thomas Tull is different. He doesn't care about the structure or ethics. Legendary Pictures is just an independent film company. Survival is the most important thing. "Okay, I think this is good! Tell an adventure in the way that the audience likes most." story, and with this script, I feel more confident about the success of this project!”

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "Then hire a few powerful screenwriters to polish the script carefully. Then choose an excellent director with fantasy experience... In addition, you can hire a Chinese director as an assistant director to coordinate the Chinese actors Some of the filming. Ultimately, this is a Hollywood movie, shot according to the Hollywood model.”

Thomas Tull nodded, very happy in his heart, "You led the production of this year's Oscar-winning Best Picture "Visa for Life". I even heard that you are the chief producer?"

"No."

Zhou Buqi is somewhat proud of himself. The film "Visa for Life", which he strongly recommended and directed by Ann Lee, about the Republic of China diplomats issuing visas to Jews during World War II, won the Oscar as expected, but it was a pity that the best director was not awarded. Get it.

Thomas Tull said: "I think no one knows movies better than you. With your guidance, our "The Great Wall" will definitely be a big seller in the market!"

Zhou Buqi joked: "Don't forget to pay me for the script."

"Of course! Of course!"

Thomas Tull laughed.