"Police Story" is finished, and then immediately enters the intense post-production stage, which also means losing the great opportunity to compete for the summer files in July and August, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and others feel very pity, but Wang Xiaohu patted them on the shoulder and said: "It's okay, we have a theater in our hands!" ”

Whether it is in Hong Kong or Hollywood, as long as you have a theater chain in your hand, it means that you have a monopoly on the final output of the film industry, and it doesn't matter if you can't catch up with the Spring Festival and summer files, we can completely extend the release time of the film, and there is nothing more than extending the screening and re-screening to increase box office revenue in these years. [Full text reading]

Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and others breathed a sigh of relief, and they remembered why Ah Hu questioned the acquisition of the theater chain in the early stage of the company's development, and admired him from the bottom of their hearts.

Seeing that everyone was busy with post-production, Wang Xiaohu finally had free time these days, and began to arrange another drama to enter the mainland.

This movie was created by Wang Xiaohu for Jet Li, and at the same time, he also had to take care of Yuan Biao, who had not appeared on the screen for several years.

Since the release of "Hong Xiguan", Jet Li and Stephen Chow and others have insisted on exercising at the base every day, in addition to learning Wing Chun, they also involve many aspects of martial arts, and Billy Zhou, who is now a little famous in the Hong Kong fighting industry, will also make guest coaches from time to time. Of course, the Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts Union also has many well-hidden masters, which make Jet Li feel very fresh, and the positive surname of learning makes Stephen Chow, a martial arts idiot, admire.

The name of this film is "Dragon in Shaolin".

"Dragon in Shaolin" is about Xiaolong, although he has practiced good martial arts in Shaolin Temple, but after all, he is still young and childlike, although he has wisdom roots, he still lacks training. Seeing this, the old host decided to send Xiaolong down the mountain to find the Buddha's fate. In the end, Xiaolong was separated from his brother and lived on the streets, but fortunately he met the street boy under hunger and cold, and finally recaptured the Buddha's head. In Dixifolin, Zhong Yishan solemnly installed the Buddha's head on the Buddha statue, and finally completed the task satisfactorily. At this time, the old host of Shaolin Temple also came, and he congratulated Xiaolong on finding the true Buddha's fate.

The original version of "Dragon in Shaolin" is Shi Xiaolong's classic masterpiece, in addition to the popularity of Shi Xiaolong, Hao Shaowen, a little comedian, is also loved by everyone. The two little guys, one is good at kung fu, the other is funny, and they cooperated in the filming of the "Laughing Forest Kid" series before "Dragon in Shaolin", and then cooperated in the filming of "The Adventure of the Golden Island", "Nezha vs. the Monkey King" and other popular films.

It can be said that Shi Xiaolong and Hao Shaowen won the laughter and applause of the public with their shaved heads and sunglasses, and also accompanied many people to grow up. It's just that later, as the two grew older, the naughty and cute image of the year was gradually not accepted by the audience, so they also disappeared from the film industry.

Wang Xiaohu still remembers that the last time he saw Shi Xiaolong star in the movie was "Ip Man 2" before his death, but Shi Xiaolong at that time was a big boy in his 20s, and his acting skills were even more flattering to ordinary people, and I heard that he was still with a super girl

The topic is a bit far away, since Wang Xiaohu "abducted" Jet Li to Hong Kong, he began to think about how to arrange the development path of the future kung fu emperor, and finally decided to let him take the route of Shi Xiaolong in the next few years.

is to pretend to be cute on the screen, show off his kung fu, cultivate popularity, and hone his acting skills, paving the way for the future.

Among all Shi Xiaolong's works, Wang Xiaohu only fell in love with "Dragon in Shaolin", which is not without reason, because after five or six years, Jet Li will star in "Shaolin Temple", all of which are Shaolin, a children's version and a juvenile version, which is also a logical thing. (It seems that Jet Li, who is 77 years old, is already very tall, uh, everyone thinks of him as a cute appearance like Shi Xiaolong.) Wang Xiaohu first closed his eyes and recalled the plot of "Dragon in Shaolin" in his memory, and after having an overall concept of the movie, he wrote the outline of the script.

In the Hong Kong screenwriting industry, if someone knows that Wang Xiaohu first "watched" the movie and then wrote the script, they will definitely vomit blood. Because according to their habits, they often have an idea or idea in their minds first, this idea can be a weapon, a funny point, a person, etc., and then according to these ideas to reproduce more characters and plots, which are connected to the prototype of the script, and the script is adjusted and changed at any time, and sometimes it feels that the shooting effect is not good and will be modified on the spot, so most of the film is completed, and the script is finally finalized, so the quality of such a film can be imagined.

A large number of talented screenwriters emerged in the glorious decade of Hong Kong films, but they still used such methods, which led to a fault in the screenwriting industry in the end, and the new forces could not take over the mantle of their predecessors, which became the main factor in the serious shrinkage of Hong Kong film production and quality in the early 90s.

Fortunately, Wang Xiaohu pays attention to the creation of the script, just like the few apprentices he accepted at the beginning, and now Li Shaonan has become the person in charge of the script revision of the four film and television companies of Xinyicheng, Xu's, Yuan's, and Debao, once the four satellite companies have any good ideas, they will hand over the frame of the script to Li Shaonan's responsible department, Li Shaonan will mobilize a group of young script apprentices to improve the script, just like Wang Xiaohu tortured him back then, so that the efficiency of the one-stop flow operation is very high, and the quality can be close to ordinary citizens to the greatest extent, the most representative surname is "Genius and Idiot" released by Xu's company a few years ago.

Wang Xiaohu's scripts are all completed by himself, not that he doesn't want Li Shaonan and others to help, but the current Li Shaonan is only suitable for Hong Kong's commercial production model, and their scripts are mainly aimed at audiences in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

In addition to facing audiences in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, "Myth" and "Dragon in Shaolin" also have to consider the mainland, especially "Myth" is to hit the Hollywood market, and these scripts must be kept improving, and there is no room for sloppiness.

Before Wang Xiaohu finished writing the big frame of the story of "Dragon in Shaolin" and was about to call Yuan Biao, Jet Li and others to come to the office to avoid talking, Sammo Hung knocked on the door with a script and came in.

"Ah Hu, I have a script I want to shoot, you can help me check it first."

Wang Xiaohu stopped writing, took the script over, looked at the name, and immediately smiled: "Sande Monk and Rice Six", and then saw that the screenwriter's name was a person named Huang Feng.

"Huang Feng? Isn't this the director who filmed "The Golden Sword of Death" back then? Wang Xiaohu raised his head and asked.

It was November 1971, not long after Wang Xiaohu's rebirth, he and Yuan Biao took refuge with Sammo Hung who had already been a martial arts instructor, and it was because of his desperate performance in "The Golden Sword of Death" that he attracted the attention of insiders, and Huang Feng was the director of "The Golden Sword of Death".

Thinking about it, six years have passed, when he was still a small dragon and tiger martial artist, but now he is the leading entertainment tycoon in the circle, and Huang Feng After filming "The Golden Sword of Death", he filmed "Shandong Xiangma", "Aikido", "Life and Death Battle in the Sino-Thai Boxing World", "Black Road", "Taekwonxing Shock Kyushu" and other movies, and this year's summer file also has his new film "Four Major Schools".

It's just that the box office of "The Four Major Schools" is not very prosperous, and it only received a box office of 1.24 million Hong Kong dollars in 12 days of release, and the theater chain directly withdrew it.

Sammo Hung said: "Well, after he watched my "The Loser" a few years ago, he felt that there were still some themes that could be made in this kind of movie, so he handed me this script a while ago. ”

Wang Xiaohu nodded, in his memory, "Sande Monk and Chung Mi Liu" is a rare classic of Sammo Hung in the late 70s, as Sammo Hung's first kung fu film written, directed, directed and acted, although Sanmao did not completely get rid of the cliché of this type of film, but added witty elements, and applied three-dimensional lens transformation and editing techniques to enrich the action performance. The later sister chapter "Mr. Zan and Looking for Qian Hua" has also become a classic production of Sammo Hung's early works, and you can see Sammo Hung's not fat but flexible figure in the film.

If according to Wang Xiaohu's current thoughts, this type of movie does not need to be filmed at all, after all, under their own leadership and education, the Seven Xiaofu brothers have gradually formed their own action styles, "The Loser" and "Drunken Fist" have opened the door to kung fu comedy, it doesn't matter if you shoot one or two movies of this type, but once there are more, the audience will be aesthetically fatigued.

What's more, now that "Police Story" is about to be released, the field of Hong Kong kung fu films is about to enter a new chapter.

"Sanmao, do you really want to shoot?" Wang Xiaohu raised his head and looked at Sammo Hung and asked.

Sammo Hung smiled, nodded vigorously and said: "I want to shoot, I want to shoot it so much, I didn't enjoy filming "The Loser" last time, and the box office of this type of movie is not saturated, Debao has no other works except for "Seven Little Blessings", and it is necessary to hit the popularity of the market." ”

"It's good!" Wang Xiaohu read the script roughly and said: "But this script must be revised, and it is best if you have your own things in it." ”

"Well, I'll do it." After Sammo Hung finished speaking, he handed over a budget at the same time, "I roughly calculated, the cost is about less than 800,000 Hong Kong dollars, which should be considered a small cost in our company." ”

"Okay, it just so happens that "Police Story" is about to be released, and you can do a comprehensive promotion." Wang Xiaohu is very supportive of Sammo Hung being able to insist on his own point of view, after all, Sanmao's movies are also rare comedy kung fu films in the long history of kung fu films, and there is no reason why he should not let him shoot them.

At the end of July, "Police Story" completed a quarter of the post-production, which can be said to be the film that took the most time since the establishment of Concord, and the post-production of other films was relatively easy because of the low investment and few action scenes, both editing and post-recording, and even this year's "Hong Xiguan" took less than a month to complete it all.

But more than ten days have passed, and "Police Story" is only a quarter complete, and it is still a rough cut, and you can fully imagine how much film was wasted in the whole film. In fact, film accounts for one-tenth of the total cost of "Police Story", and the cost of film alone is enough to shoot several ordinary films.

Lin Qingxia, Lin Fengjiao, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat, Dong Bi, Feng Ke'an, etc. are all first-line stars in Hong Kong and Taiwan, directly burning more than 4 million Hong Kong dollars, and the other two are burning money after all: props and insurance.

The vehicles, sets, glass, etc. in the film are the most consumed ingredients in "Police Story", especially glass, don't watch the actors take their heads and bodies to hit the glass and suffer crimes, the price of those glasses is not cheap, so later Wang Xiaohu cried and laughed and said: This is "Police Story", it is clearly "Glass Story", after the filming is completed, the broken glass alone will be shipped out several cars!

Before the release of "Police Story", Wang Xiaohu would not consider entering the mainland for filming. Taking advantage of this time of space, he began to select the main crew members for "Dragon in Shaolin".

The director's position should be handed over to Yuan Heping to be competent, which is what Wang Xiaohu clearly told him after denying the script of "Eagle Claw Iron Cloth Shirt" submitted by Yuan Heping in June this year: You can just find someone to shoot this kind of script, and you have more important and arduous tasks.

The main actors are Jet Li, Yuan Biao, Stephen Chow, Lin Fengjiao, Wu Mengda, and of course, Hui Yinghong, who took over from Liu Jialiang's apprentices. The overall lineup is like this, Wang Xiaohu distributed the script to all the actors, so that they could familiarize themselves with the script as soon as possible.

After arranging these tasks, Wang Xiaohu asked Yuan Heping and Yuan Biao to arrange the action design according to the script, which is also a very important work, Yuan Biao showed a great positive surname and said to Wang Xiaohu: "Ah Hu, I can finally participate in the action design, I have been looking forward to this day for a long time!" ”

Wang Xiaohu sighed with a wry smile, everyone else has sharpened their heads to become stars and actors, but the brothers of Qi Xiaofu are good, and they have a strong interest behind the scenes.

Everyone has their own ambitions, and Wang Xiaohu can only support and encourage this good brother, and at the same time he also said to Yuan Heping: "Big eyes, shoot with your heart, after this movie is finished, you will become the second action director of Hong Kong films." ”

"Action Director!" Yuan Heping was thrilled when he heard this, the meaning of this position is too important for people in the martial arts instructor class, as long as you can be promoted to action director, it also means that you can be competent for most of the action movie genres, which is a sense of superiority in identity, and at the same time, you will become a top-notch representative in the circle.

(To be continued)