"We can't do an overwhelming advertising campaign like 'Heroes.'" Han Sanpin's first sentence was explained.

"I know, I didn't plan to do that, and we didn't have an actor who could be on the cover of Time Magazine's Asian edition like Li Lianjie." Li Xiaole said with a smile.

"You don't have an appealing star in this film, which is very unfavorable for promotion, what are your plans?" Han Sanpin looked at him with a curious eye, he knew that Li Xiaole had succeeded in South Korea, but he also knew that Li Xiaole's previous methods were almost all with the Internet as the main medium, which may not work now that the Internet in the mainland is underdeveloped.

When it comes to distribution, the disadvantage of lack of star effect is revealed.

"Mr. Han, in fact, there are no stars that is precisely our advantage." Li Xiaole smiled faintly.

"What do you say?" It was the first time Han Sanpin had heard such a strange theory.

"Although our film is unknown from the actors to me as a director, the quality itself is excellent, and it is easy to form a good reputation after release, which will form a contrast with our low-cost lineup, which is our selling point." Li Xiaole said his reasons.

"Yes, I see what you mean." Han Sanpin nodded, but frowned again:

"But you ignore two problems, the first word-of-mouth is that the audience can only have it when they enter the cinema, and you are now even having a problem with how to pull the audience down in the cinema, and second, even if you have a word-of-mouth, it will take time to brew, and piracy will appear during this period, which is the biggest fatal wound for "Crazy Stone".

"Well, Mr. Han, you're right, so I plan to conduct a small-scale screening to control piracy, and do a free warm-up jihua." Li Xiaole looked at Han Sanpin with confidence.

"You want to control piracy?" Han Sanpin, who has always been unfazed, opened his mouth slightly when he heard this, and immediately looked at Li Xiaole and laughed: "You are not afraid to flash your tongue when you say this." ”

"Don't worry, I know all these ways in the industry, and I hope you will hand over all the execution of the issuance work to me, and you can control the big picture." Li Xiaole knew that Han Sanpin didn't believe in himself and thought he was a newcomer.

"Hmm......" Han Sanpin groaned, but in his heart, if the box office of "Crazy Stone" is unfavorable, if he fully supports Li Xiaole, even if the box office fails, this talent is retained, and the next movie can start all over again, but he knows that the distribution side has to rely on himself when he hits the wall.

If you want to grasp everything, I'm afraid that Li Xiaole will be like Feng Xiaogang and Lu Chuan, feeling too constrained to leave Zhongying, after all, it's still a rare talent, Han Sanpin sighed in his heart, and decided:

"Okay, since you are so confident, I will leave the specific details of the release to you, but I suggest that the film schedule should be made immediately, Zhang Yimou's "Hero" will be released on October 19th, and it will definitely attract more audiences to the cinema at that time, without Feng Xiaogang this year, your comedy can follow "Hero" together."

"October 19th?" Li Xiaole was a little puzzled when he heard this date, and immediately shook his head: "Mr. Han, you may not understand Zhang Weiping's strategy, he is just a preliminary publicity, and then it will definitely have a national premiere in the Great Hall of the People on December 14, and we will conduct a free trial broadcast in Shenzhen like them, and all the rhythm will follow the coming of "Hero"."

"Great Hall of the People premiere?" Han Sanpin's heart skipped a beat first, and his brain quickly analyzed, Li Xiaole said so surely, it could never be groundless, and according to his understanding of Zhang Weiping, this kind of thing was really possible, he immediately dialed a phone call:

"Hey, Director Liu? I want to ask you, is the agenda for December 14 in the Great Hall of the People, and we want to have a premiere there, do you think it will work...... Oh, there's an event......"

Han Sanpin listened to the phone, his face was cloudy, although the other party did not answer directly in the principle of confidentiality, he tried it with words, and probably figured out that there were indeed arrangements related to the movie that day, and he trusted Li Xiaole a lot when he looked up again.

"Just do as you say, you can call me if you need anything, I'll turn on 24 hours a day." Han Sanpin said.

"Mr. Han, I still have to borrow some people from you." Li Xiaole immediately seized the opportunity to make a request.

"Say it." Han Sanpin also smiled.

"There should be a lot of veterans in the group's security section, I want to borrow 40 people from you, the kind that has received a traditional revolutionary education and can absolutely withstand the temptation of money, I want to borrow it for a month, give them food and shelter, and 5,000 per person." Li Xiaole said.

"There aren't so many people in the security department, I'll help you find them." Han Sanpin was a soldier when he was young, and his comrades-in-arms are now all school officers in major military regions, so it is not difficult to find some trustworthy veterans.

"Don't you ask me if I need these people?" Li Xiaole looked at him curiously.

"I don't ask, even if I ask, I agree or disagree that I will hand it over to you, why ask?" Han Sanpin smiled, looking at Li Xiaole's smiling and immature face, and he didn't know if he was right to trust him.

***

After hearing that Li Xiaole was going to hold a free test screening two months before the release, the production directors of China Film Group suspected that there was something wrong with his head, except for those who gloated, such as Jiang Wen, kind-hearted veteran directors called him one after another to persuade him.

All the meanings can be summed up in one sentence: "In the mainland, movies are a one-shot deal, just two weeks of box office, and the rest is piracy, and there must be no free test screenings in advance." ”

Li Xiaole acted as if he hadn't heard, and carried out his test screening, he first personally supervised the production of the film copy, carried the original copy with him, divided the other copies into three sections, upper, middle, and lower, and kept them with three soldiers who didn't know each other, and then returned to the second producer's office and destroyed all the working materials of "Crazy Stone".

Then contacted by Han Sanpin, the "Dahua Cinema" under China Film in Chuzhejiang Province conducted a test screening for film critics and ordinary audiences, and he did not go to the theater during the whole test screening process, but organized those soldiers to monitor at the door of the theater.

First of all, they have to sign a consent form, except for the screening time of "Crazy Stone", theater staff are not allowed to enter and exit the screening room and screening hall without the permission of the second producer or accompanied by security personnel, and the full-time security personnel of the second production will patrol around the clock.

Before and after each screening, Li Xiaole will let those military security guards take instruments to inspect the screening hall and eliminate any miniature camera equipment.

A set of six film copies, each of which was in charge of three groups of personnel, each carrying a different sequence, and three copies of the film were placed under Li Xiaole's own pillow.

Everyone thinks that this thing is not so exaggerated, and even thinks that it is unnecessary, and pirates are not so pervasive, right?

But just two days later, there was almost the same incident as the test screening of "Crazy Stone", and Zhang Weiping, the boss of the new picture, used the same means as Li Xiaole to conduct a one-week trial screening of "Hero" in Shenzhen, which actually evolved into a cultural event.

As a result, CNN and BBC reporters all went to Shenzhen, and everyone thought that it was incredible to want to prevent piracy in China, and "Crazy Stone" also joined the media report because it did the same thing, and some people even said that "Crazy Stone" is the ancestor of anti-piracy, and "Hero" is a copycat.

This is definitely a powerful publicity for Crazy Stone.

When Han Sanpin saw this news, he became more and more surprised, could it be that Li Xiaole had any direct connection with Zhang Weiping? Or did he think ahead of Zhang Weiping, all this is too coincidental.

The test screening of "Crazy Stone" in Chu and Zhejiang Province also achieved the expected results, and the discussion about this film has spread in the literary and artistic circles of Chu and Zhejiang, and many film critics have published their feelings after watching the trial broadcast of "Crazy Stone" in their own columns and blogs.

The famous director and film critic Zheng Dongdi admired this film very much, and wrote in the column of the "Chuzhejiang Evening News" for a week's movie: ""Crazy Stone" is simply too exciting, it is difficult for people who have not seen it to imagine that there will be such a comedy model in China, maybe there is no profound thought in it, but compared with Hong Kong's nonsensical movies, this black comedy is closer to art itself." ”

Qian Xuechrome, an associate professor of acting at Beijing Film Academy, commented in his newly published paper: "We should see that "Crazy Stone" shows the practical significance of the new era, not so much a comedy, but a satirical drama of China's lower class after the reform and opening up. ”

However, not everyone likes Li Xiaole's films, such as Zhou Dudu, who is the most popular online blog and praised by the Los Angeles Times as "China's most famous film critic", wrote an article on his blog after watching the screening of "Crazy Stone" entitled "The Most Vulgar Parody Show, the Disappointed Rookie Director"

"Crazy Stone" has a very similar routine to previous Hong Kong movies, beauty, wealth, and a group of boring stories that make people crazy for wealth, piling up all kinds of tasteless jokes, if the perverts who chase wealth in Hong Kong filmmakers are the underworld and the god of gambling, then "Crazy Stone" just replaces the protagonist with a laid-off worker who is berthed and an ignorant thief.

"Crazy Stone" is all about the little people who are extremely crazy, most of these low-level little people have no deep thoughts, just driven by instinct, such as the Hong Kong movie "Crazy Boy", in order to jump the control of the block, you can kill people and sell goods, compared with the businessman in the movie "Crazy Stone" is even more perverted to ask an international killer to come out in order to buy a piece of land, this kind of crazy routine is simply Hong Kong has become a third-rate king Kyoto dare not think.