Li Hanxiang believes that after Xu Wangqiu announces the news that he will be able to get a share of the box office in the mainland market by cooperating with an export company, the entire film industry will definitely go crazy about it, and the entire pattern of Hong Kong films may be rewritten. For more than 20 years, Xiangjiang's Zuopai filmmakers have been suppressed and ignored, and now they are finally waiting for the day to turn over.

For Li Hanxiang, when he returned to the mainland to shoot "Listening to Politics", it meant that he was banned by Taiwan Bend, which meant that no one in Xiangjiang was looking for him to make films, which can be said to be a gamble on his future. Now it seems that he really got the bet right. He said with a smile: "Actually, I have a plan in my heart that has been brewing for decades, that is, from the time Cixi entered the palace, to photograph the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance, to feel Cixi's life, and to photograph the history of the last few decades of the Qing Dynasty." There are five stories in my conception, "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace", "Listening to the Government with a Curtain", "Tongzhi Zhongxing", "Reform of the Law" and "The Eight-Nation Alliance". ”

Xu Wangqiu remembered that Li Hanxiang only filmed "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "Listening to the Government with a Curtain", and the last three were not filmed for various reasons, otherwise they would have become outstanding series of works, so he said: "From 1840 to 1949 liberation, this hundred years is the most humiliating and darkest history of our nation. Someone should indeed take a picture of this history to remind us today and future generations never to forget. Mr. Li is good at costume films and historical films, your movies not only have beautiful pictures, elegant language, deep meaning, and grand scenes, so that they can be appreciated by both the elegant and the vulgar. However, in order, "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" should be filmed first, and then "Listening to Politics with a Curtain", how did you shoot "Listening to Politics with a Curtain" first?"

Li Hanxiang said with a wry smile: "At first, I wanted to shoot "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace", but this story has a lot of war scenes, and it takes a lot of money to build the exterior of the Old Summer Palace, and domestic film studios can't invest too much money, so I combined the two parts of "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "Listening to the Politics of the Curtain", and tried not to shoot big scenes, which can save a lot of costs. ”

Xu Wangqiu said directly: "Now that our export company has taken over this project, you don't need to worry about money." I think it's better to make "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "Listening to Politics" into two movies. These two stories are connected, so I think it's better to shoot them directly and finish filming two scenes at once. So as not to recreate the crew, find the actors again, can save a lot of trouble. ”

If "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "Listening to the Politics of the Curtain" can be filmed consecutively, Li Hanxiang naturally can't ask for it, but he still reminded: "If the two movies are filmed consecutively, it will cost a lot of money, maybe seven or eight million, or even ten million." ”

Xu Wangqiu chuckled: "As long as the movie can be made well, don't say 10 million, even 20 million, we can also vote, the key is that the movie must be made well." As long as the quality of the film is excellent, we can recoup the cost in the mainland market alone. In addition to the Xiangjiang market and the Southeast Asian market, it will definitely be able to make money. So, there is no need to worry about money. ”

Li Hanxiang felt that Xu Wangqiu's words were a bit exaggerated, and said suspiciously: "Is there really no problem with investing tens of millions?"

As soon as Xu Wangqiu heard this, he knew that Li Hanxiang felt that he was too young and worried that his words would not work, so he smiled and comforted: "Not only do I think so, but Minister Wang also thinks the same way. ”

Li Hanxiang was immediately relieved when he heard that Wang Lanxi also had the same opinion, and said with his hands on his hands: "That's really great, I've been waiting for many years, and I've finally waited for this day! I can't wait to start work right away!"

Speaking of this, he sighed and said: "When I talked to the mainland film studio, I didn't have a contract. But the cooperation with the mainland has not been completed, signed a contract with Shaw Brothers last year, and now has two film contracts in hand, and can only complete the work of Shaw Brothers before filming "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "Listening to Politics". ”

Xu Wangqiu said with a smile: "It's okay, just wait until you finish the Shaw Brothers film and then cooperate with us." During this time, it is just the right time to polish the scripts of "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "Listening to Politics with the Curtain". These two films have a huge investment, and you are the first non-Zuo director to return to the mainland to shoot, so you have to be an instant hit. ”

Li Hanxiang nodded with a serious expression: "For both of us, this is a war that can only succeed and cannot fail, and I will do my best to shoot these two dramas well." He remembered that Xu Wangqiu was also a director, and his level was extremely high, so he said: "I asked the old playwright Mr. Yang Cunbin to write a script for "Listening to Politics with a Curtain", are you interested in reading it?"

Xu Wangqiu's master Su Zhensheng has cooperated with Yang Cunbin and filmed Yang Cunbin's script, and when he heard that the script of "Listening to Politics with a Curtain" was written by Yang Cunbin, he said: "Of course, I just appreciate and appreciate the new work of Yang Senior. ”

Li Hanxiang got up and went to the study to take out the script of "Listening to Politics with a Curtain" and handed it to Xu Wangqiu, wanting to hear his opinion.

Xu Wangqiu took the script and slowly flipped through it, Yang Cunbin's script was written from Cixi's entry into the palace until she listened to the government. Because there are many characters and events to talk about, I grab a little eyebrows and mustaches, and I talk about everything, but I don't explain it thoroughly, and it seems superficial.

After reading the script, Xu Wangqiu put forward his thoughts and suggested that it must be divided into two parts to shoot. He held that the war between the Qing government and the Western powers was a war between agricultural civilization and industrial civilization, that there was a generational gap, and that the defeat was particularly miserable, and that after the founding of New China, the reason for gritting its teeth and engaging in industrialization was because the lessons of history were too painful; since we want to film this period of history, we should try to photograph the root causes.

Li Hanxiang particularly agreed with Xu Wangqiu's point of view, the total strength of the Qing army in the Battle of Bali Bridge was 50,000 to 60,000, and the total strength of the British and French forces was 10,000; as a result, the Qing army suffered 1,200 casualties, while the British army only suffered 2 dead and 29 wounded, and the French army lost 3 dead and 18 wounded. As long as he has sufficient funds, he will definitely shoot it well, so that everyone can remember the truth that if you fall behind, you will be beaten.

chatted until six o'clock in the afternoon, Xu Wangqiu had to hold down the conversation before getting up to say goodbye. Li Hanxiang greatly appreciated Xu Wangqiu's ideas and insights, and resolutely refused to let them go, and invited them to dinner. Xu Dunyang said that Xia Meng held a banquet to entertain the crew of "Falcon" in the evening, and Xu Wangqiu must not be absent. Li Hanxiang said with a regretful face that when Xu Wangqiu finished the promotion of "Falcon", he must have a good chat with her.

Coming out of Li Hanxiang's house, Xu Wangqiu felt that there was wind under his feet when he walked. Li Hanxiang is a famous director in Xiangjiang in this era, and has great influence in Xiangjiang, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.

Since it was late, I had to go to the reception banquet held by Yindu. Xu Dunyang stopped a taxi on the side of the road and told the driver to go to Yong Kee Restaurant. After Xu Wangqiu got into the car, he looked at the pedestrians outside the window and thought about his plan.

The car drove for a while, and Xu Dunyang suddenly asked, "Wangqiu, when will you announce the policy of the export company?" ”

"Wait for the first week of "Falcon" to come out at the box office. Xu Wangqiu turned his head to look at Xu Dunluo and asked, "What's wrong?"

Xu Dunluo sighed and said: "After Changfengxin merged into Yindu last year, most of Changfengxin's actors left, including Liu Xuehua, Li Yanyan and others who were ready to be carefully cultivated. Now that the export company wants to cooperate with the Xiangjiang Film Company, I am wondering if we will recruit a new group of actors to train them. ”

Xu Wangqiu was slightly stunned when he heard this, and he didn't want Yindu to continue to train actors, Yindu had his own actors, so the actor's salary would be very low, which was not conducive to the development of his plan. One of the reasons for the collapse of Hong Kong Films in the 90s was the flood of hot money into the film industry, which led to a sharp increase in the salaries of stars and film workers.

1993 was the turning point of Xiangjiang films, and three things that happened in that year completely changed the fate of Xiangjiang films, the first was the conflict between Xiangjiang Film Company and Taiwan studios, which led to the relaxation of restrictions on Hollywood by Taiwan; second, "Jurassic Park" easily defeated many Xiangjiang films and topped the box office, which was the crushing of heavy industry films against hand-made films; third, in this year, the salaries of Xiangjiang stars skyrocketed, and the most asked questions by celebrities, whether in public interviews or in private, were "What is your salary this year" or " How much has your pay gone up this year."

Celebrity salaries have skyrocketed, causing the cost of movies to soar. The cost of movies remains high, and the Taiwan market has been lost, so it is becoming more and more difficult for movies to make money. The remuneration of celebrities remains high, and in order to reduce costs, film companies are desperately trying to save money in the production process, resulting in shoddy films. Due to the rampant bad movies, the audience no longer watches Hong Kong films and turns to Hollywood movies with higher production standards. In this way, it is more difficult for movies to make money, investors and hot money have fled the film industry, and Xiangjiang Films has completely collapsed.

The same thing happened not only in Xiangjiang, but also in many countries and regions. South Korea had a similar problem around 2004, when hot money and capital poured into the film industry. At that time, it was said in the Korean film industry that "in this day and age, a director who can't make his debut is a fool." After hot money owned the film industry, it led to a surge in film production, producing a large number of bad movies, and also causing a lot of film losses. Then the capital began to retreat, and Korean films entered a cold winter, and it was not until a few years later that they gradually recovered.

The same problem has appeared in Chinese films since around 2014, and a large amount of hot money has poured out of the film industry, especially some companies that are preparing to go public, in order to fight for performance, they often invest tens of millions of dollars in film and television dramas, blindly invite big-name stars, and raise the salary of stars. The cost of many film and television works, star salaries account for the lion's share, and the production costs can be saved, and a large number of shoddy works have been concocted, and the audience is full of complaints. In the end, the state introduced policies to restrict the remuneration of celebrities, and the audience was tired of the little fresh meat with no acting skills, and Chinese films gradually got on the right track.

If you want the Xiangjiang film market to collapse in advance, you should try every means to increase the salary of stars, and Yindu is a fixed salary for signing artists, which is an obstacle to Xu Wangqiu's plan. It's just that if Yindu wants to develop and grow, it must have its own masters, and it is impossible not to let them do it.

Xu Wangqiu pondered for two seconds and said: "I think it's right to recruit new people to train, and it should be done, but it can't be done according to the past model." Take "Falcon" as an example, Bao Qijing's salary for participating in this drama is only a few thousand yuan, while Yuan Heping took 400,000 yuan. Liu Xuehua, why did they leave, that is, there was no chance to stay in Yindu, and the income was much less than that of other companies. If we don't change this system, even if we unearth the new summer dream, we will soon be poached by others. ”

Xu Wangqiu saw Xu Dunluo nodding slightly, so he continued: "I think we should learn from Hollywood, establish a brokerage company, and implement a brokerage system. Yindu can set up a special brokerage company, which exists as an independent subsidiary, operates independently, is responsible for its own profits and losses, and specializes in star economic business. This company can not only discover new talents and cultivate them on its own, but also poach mature actors from other companies. ”