"DreamWorks is famous overseas, and "Shushan" has become the opening film of the Venice Film Festival!"

On September 3, the "Oriental Daily" published an explosive news on the front page of the newspaper.

Zou Wenhuai came to the office and sat down, and as soon as he picked up the coffee brewed by the assistant, the secretary knocked on the door and said, "Mr. Zou, Deng Guangrong is here again, do you see it or not?" ”

Deng Guangrong was the one who later invested 40 million yuan and asked Wang Jiawei to shoot "The True Story of A Fei", but the box office hit the street and was so angry that he went to the hospital.

This person became famous in the 60s for starring in "The Student Prince", became a youth idol star at the age of 17, and has been popular for ten years since then. Later, he changed from a film to a company owner and opened a Darong Film Company, and the films he made have always been screened in Golden Harvest Cinemas.

Darong Film Company has not been scheduled for Golden Harvest, and the establishment of Xinbao Cinema Line immediately attracted Deng Guangrong to cooperate with it. However, "The Yellow Peril" filmed by Darong Company last year was just released to Nanyang through Golden Harvest four months ago, and now it is time to divide the account, but Golden Harvest has dragged out the box office share to Deng Guangrong for various reasons.

That's a total of more than 1 million, Deng Guangrong's company makes a maximum of two movies a year, and more than 2 million is not a small amount of money to him, so he naturally has to come to Zou Wenhuai every day to ask for money.

Zou Wenhuai had a headache when he heard Deng Guangrong's name, took a sip of coffee and said, "Call him in." ”

After a while, a handsome middle-aged man in a white shirt walked in and greeted with a smile on his face: "Hello Mr. Zou, I came here so early, didn't disturb you, right?" ”

"No, no, please take a seat!" Zou Wenhuai also said with a smile.

The two talked for more than ten minutes, and Deng Guangrong said: "Mr. Zou, "The Yellow Peril" has been in Nanyang for more than three months, and Darong Company's share should be received, right?" ”

"Haven't you arrived yet?" Zou Wenhuai pretended to be surprised, picked up the phone and said, "I'll help you urge." ”

Deng Guangrong watched Zou Wenhuai act with breathlessness, but he had to maintain a smile on his face, he was always the one who suffered when he was really stiff.

"The Yellow Peril" tells the story of the influx of Vietnamese refugees into Chinatown in the United States, although many scenes were shot in Hong Kong, but it was still inevitable to go to the United States to shoot, so the film was made with a lot of investment, almost emptying the funds of Taiei Film Company. It's a pity that the box office of "The Yellow Peril" was not strong after its release, and with the money earned in Taiwan and Nanyang, it was barely able to earn two or three hundred thousand.

For this reason, Deng Guangrong has not filmed for nearly a year, and he only waited for all the investment in "The Yellow Peril" to be recovered before opening a new film.

Zou Wenhuai pretended to make a phone call, and chatted with Deng Guangrong and Yan Yue for a while, the latter could only leave aggrievedly, and then asked the distribution company under Jiahe for money.

As soon as Deng Guangrong left, He Guanchang walked in with a newspaper and said, "Deng Guangrong came to ask for money again?" ”

Zou Wenhuai nodded and said, "Yes, I come every day, and I still have to hide from him." ”

He Guanchang said: "Then give him the money, it's only a million yuan, if Deng Guangrong really wants to start a new play, he won't be short of that money." ”

"I've already told the issuing company to give the money." Zou Wenhuai sighed and said, "This golden princess and Xinbao are really messing around, and they are getting more and more outrageous." ”

When Princess Jin was just established, in order to obtain the source of the film, she did not hesitate to cancel the theater package system, which made Golden Harvest Cinemas and Shaw Brothers Cinemas also have to follow the reform, and lost a lot of profits. Later, with the growth of Xinyicheng and the implementation of the large-scale studio system, and several other satellite companies of Golden Princess were also stabilized, the Golden Princess Cinema Line had too many film sources to be used up, so it began to coexist with Golden Harvest Cinema Line "peacefully".

Now that Xinbao Cinema Line has been established, coupled with the decline of Xinyi City, the director of Xinyi City is short of high-quality films, Golden Princess actually raised the box office share of the film side at the same time as Xinbao Cinema Line, which pulled away a lot of Reading Film Company at once.

For Golden Harvest Cinemas and Oriental Cinemas, the initiatives of Golden Princess and Xinbao are purely evil surname competition. But Oriental Cinemas doesn't matter, because DreamWorks' large-scale studio system provides it with a stable source of films, and it doesn't have to care about the sharing rules of other cinemas at all.

But Golden Harvest Cinemas is different, most of the films released by it come from satellite companies, and the actions of Golden Princess and Xinbao have a great impact on it.

He Guanchang put the newspaper in his hand on the table and said: "Golden Harvest's biggest competitor is not the company of Princess Jin and Xinbao, but Kang Jianfei's dream factory. ”

Before Zou Wenhuai had time to read today's newspaper, he put on his glasses and swept the newspaper on the table, and instantly saw several keywords: Dream Factory, Shushan, Venice Film Festival, opening film.

"Is it the big cast that DreamWorks announced to shoot the year before last?" Zou Wenhuai asked in surprise.

He Guanchang nodded and said, "Yes." ”

Zou Wenhuai asked: "Didn't you say that the film was cut in half, how did it suddenly become the opening film of the Venice Film Festival?" ”

He Guanchang said: "The beheading of "Shushan" was uploaded by the newspaper, I asked a friend over there in DreamWorks, and the movie was indeed shelved for a while, and even the actor Zheng Shaoqiu left DreamWorks. However, after restarting the filming plan, plus the time to rewrite the script, it took a total of 21 months to produce "Shushan". ”

After Zou Wenhuai listened, he was silent for a long time and suddenly said: "Fortunately, "Shushan" is not participating in the Cannes Film Festival. ”

Zou Wenhuai said this, not to say that the Venice Film Festival is not as good as the Cannes Film Festival, but because the latter was held in May, and after being shortlisted, it cooperated with the publicity, and it could be released in the summer file. The Venice Film Festival was held in September, and there was no good schedule until the end of December, and the box office gain effect of "Shushan" could not be maximized.

He Guanchang was relieved to see Zou Wenhuai, and couldn't help reminding: "At the end of October, the Tokyo International Film Festival was supposed to be held. ”

The Tokyo International Film Festival was the first to be held this year, and most of the Hong Kong film practitioners did not know the news at all, and He Guanchang only heard a few days ago that the first Tokyo International Film Festival was planned to be held at the end of October.

Zou Wenhuai said: "Are you saying that DreamWorks will take "Shushan" to Tokyo to participate in the exhibition? ”

He Guanchang nodded and said: "The Tokyo International Film Festival has just held its first edition, and we will definitely invite films from all over the world to participate in the exhibition to increase its influence." And "Shushan", as the only Chinese film shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival this year, will definitely receive invitations, and most of them will also win awards. ”

Zou Wenhuai pondered for a moment, and suddenly sighed: "We are fighting here, but DreamWorks is sitting in the back and watching the tiger fight. Zou Wenhuai called the assistant over, "Ask Lei Juekun and Chen Rongmei out for a meal, and say that I have something important to discuss with them." ”

……

China's 100-year history of humiliation is in great contrast to the once culturally prosperous and splendid kingdom of the Celestial Empire. This contrast brings a sense of inferiority to Chinese people all over the world, and they greatly admire the Yiqiē of European and American countries, and even envy and worship the book separated by a water.

And human beings, as social animals, are extremely eager to be recognized by others. The need for this recognition extends to the entire ethnic group, which is reflected in the desire of the Chinese to be recognized and praised by other countries.

There are very few international awards for Chinese films, but every award-winning film is bound to be sought after by all parties.

14 years ago, Hu Jinquan spent 5 years filming "Chivalrous Girl", which cost countless dollars but suffered a box office hit.

This movie, which few people love to watch for the first time, was suddenly shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Cannes Film Festival after eating dust in the film library for 4 years.

Although it only won one technical surname award in the end, when "Chivalrous Girl" was re-released, it made a lot of money at the box office because of this award.

Some say that after a film is nominated for an Oscar, it will increase its box office by at least $20 million. However, the two box office encounters before and after "Chivalrous Girl" are not just as simple as the publicity effect of the award, it is endowed with a deeper national feeling.

Over the past few decades, such a situation has occurred two or three times in the Hong Kong and Taiwan film circles, and once a film is shortlisted for an international film festival, it will inevitably be applauded.

At that time, Tang Shuxuan's "Mrs. Dong" was so literary and artistic, and there were no theaters in Hong Kong that agreed to screen it. As a result, after being shortlisted for the Cannes Film Festival, major theaters immediately rushed to release it, and it actually got a lot of box office in Hong Kong, and it made a lot of money when it was released in Taiwan.

It is precisely because of these precedents that Zou Wenhuai and He Guanchang are so nervous, because once "Shushan" wins awards at the Venice and Tokyo Film Festivals in a row, then this year's Christmas and New Year's files will not be played, and they will definitely be the world of "Shushan".

What Zou Wenhuai can do is only to contact Lei Juekun, Chen Rongmei, Jiahe, Princess Jin and Xinbao to resist "Shushan".

……

Founded in 1932, the Venice Film Festival was the world's first international film festival, so it is also known as the "father of international film festivals", and many great directors have made their names here for decades.

The Venice Film Festival does not allow individuals to declare, so as early as the end of July, not long after the post-production special effects of "Shushan" were completed, Shi Nansheng found Tang Shuxuan to discuss. Later, Tang Shuxuan handed over the registration recommendation of "Shu Mountain" to the Venice Film Festival in the name of Oriental DreamWorks, and attached a 3-hour original version of "Shu Mountain". (The participation procedure of the Venice Film Festival is as follows: the film company submits the film registration recommendation to the film festival, and after the evaluation by the film festival experts, the qualified films will receive an invitation to the film festival, and the unqualified ones can only be promoted in the peripheral exhibition area at their own expense).

The theatrical version of "Shu Mountain" was not completed at that time, and the original version of "Shu Mountain" was driven out by Xu Ke and Tang Shuxuan who stayed up all night for several days.

Xu Ke and Tang Shuxuan's film ability is very good, like Zhang Shuping's editing skills were learned from Tang Shuxuan in the early years, and the 3-hour version of "Shushan" cut by the two together has a poor sense of rhythm and a lot of enhanced artistic connotation, this kind of film is not suitable for screening in cinemas, but it is definitely suitable for participating in international film competitions.

Five days after submitting the submission, DreamWorks received an invitation to the Venice Film Festival jury, but it is still unknown whether it will be shortlisted.

Tang Shuxuan's "Mrs. Dong" was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Cannes Film Festival, and "Goodbye China" was also exhibited at several major European film festivals in 78, so she still has a little bit of connections in Europe.

Of course, Tang Shuxuan's relationship with those judges is limited to knowing each other and having dinner, and it is impossible to know the results in advance. While waiting, Tang Shuxuan sent another 2-hour theatrical version of "Shushan" to the film festival, but there was still no news.

It was not until September 1 that the Venice Film Festival announced the shortlist, and "Shushan" was not only listed in the main competition list, but also was set as the opening film of the film festival.

When the news was transmitted back to Hong Kong, the Oriental Daily News took the lead in reporting the incident on September 3 because of the information provided by DreamWorks, which immediately caused a sensation in Hong Kong.

In the 80 years since the birth of Chinese films, only a few films have been shortlisted for large-scale international film festivals, and only "Shushan" can become the opening film of the film festival.

For this reason, the already poor "Film Fortnightly" tightened its belt to squeeze out funds, and sent a three-person team to Venice, and Shu Qi himself led the team to fly over. (To be continued.) )RL