The audience didn't dare to say it, but the American film company knew a lot about Shao Shuaijun, "Buried Alive" and "Source Code" were both excellent works, and they didn't make a lot of money but didn't lose money, accumulating a little fame for him. Therefore, there are quite a few distribution companies interested in "Painted Skin", among which the most interested are Miramax Films and Lionsgate.

Lionsgate doesn't need to be repeated, it has worked with Shao Shuaijun twice, and is very optimistic about "Painted Skin", especially after Rob watched the director's cut, he praised it more than once. Miramax Films is also actively in contact with Wang Zhonglei and Yang Hongtao, and they made a lot of money by releasing "Hero" last year, and they naturally don't want to miss "Painted Skin", which is also from China.

In addition, several other companies are interested, but a little daunted, and if "Hero" and "Source Code" have made American studios start to pay attention to Chinese films, Chen Kaige's "Wu Ji" has undoubtedly poured water on this momentum. First, the box office was not satisfactory, and the Weinstein Company terminated the North American distribution contract with "Wu Ji", and then the American media gave "Wu Ji" a bad review.

"Wu Ji" did not use characters to impress the audience watching the movie like Chen Kaige's previous classics "Farewell My Concubine" and "Fengyue", this time Chen Kaige abandoned the movie itself to pursue special effects in the digital field, which made the movie bad, and from a technical point of view, the film is more like a video game."

"Fundamentally, movies are entertainment. But the characters in Chen Kaige's movies are too pale, the plot is designed to be a little naïve, and they rely too much on 'magic', which makes the audience feel too far from reality. ”

After such an evaluation came out. undoubtedly makes the road to the release of "Wu Ji" in North America become hopeless. Even the impression score of Chinese films in North America has been greatly reduced, and they have just improved commercially, and as a result, they have been immediately relabeled as "Chinese films are only suitable for film festivals".

Fortunately, Li Yu's "Brokeback Mountain" became a heart-saving pill and slightly saved the image of Chinese films. It's a pity that "Brokeback Mountain" is essentially an American film and cannot play a fundamental role, which will make American film companies want to stop talking about "Painted Skin", afraid of becoming the second "Wuji".

For more theaters, and a better way to share. Huayi Brothers, Poly Bona, China Film Huana Hengdian, Huaxia Film, Media Asia Variety Show Film and Television and Huanyu Film are six investors. After the director's cut came out, he immediately sent people to lobby in major theaters in the United States. Shao Shuaijun and others, near Hollywood, Lionsgate held a small meeting. It was finalized that Miramax Films and Lionsgate would compete for the North American distribution rights to Painted Skin.

Miramax Films is a Disney-owned company. It can affect more theaters. Lionsgate has worked well with and is willing to return box office revenue on top of the original 17% share. Increase the share.

Both sides have their pros and cons.

Shao Shuaijun prefers to cooperate with Lionsgate, but in "Painted Skin", he is only a director and does not have any commercial operation. In the end, the six investors negotiated and reached an agreement with Miramax Films, giving the North American distribution rights to Miramax in the form of a 17% split.

They pay more attention to being able to come up with more theaters to arrange releases, believing that the release cycle of Chinese films in the United States is usually not long, and a larger number of theaters means a higher box office.

Rob, who was drinking coffee with Shao Shuaijun, had disappointment written on his face: "Shao, it's a pity, "Painted Skin" is very good, but we can't work together anymore." ”

"Rob, I'm sorry too, but I don't count what I said."

"I know, by the way, Shao, did you come to the United States this time just for the release of "Painted Skin". I know that one of your new films has just won the highest box office in Chinese mainland, do you have any new film plans? If not, we at Lionsgate would like to ask you to direct a movie, I wonder if you are interested? ”

"Ask me to direct a movie, what kind of movie is it?"

"A horror movie, remember the last time we had a private chat about the director of "SAW", James . Is it warm. You talk a lot about your ideas for horror movies, and I find that you have a lot of ideas for horror movies. We recently happened to receive a book, which is adapted from Clive. The script for Buck's novel is called "Midnight Cannibal Train". ”

Rob briefly talked about the content of the script.

Shao Shuaijun listened patiently, and finally politely declined, he is not very good at horror films, maybe he will delve into this aspect in the future, but now he has no time to waste himself: "Rob, I don't have much grasp of horror films, thank you for the invitation, I don't think I'm suitable." ”

"Oh, that's a pity."

"Actually, we still have the opportunity to cooperate, I came to the United States this time to make a movie, that is, to adapt the currently popular "Twilight: Twilight", I think Rob will be interested, right? If Lionsgate can help us gain a foothold in the U.S., we can co-invest in Twilight. ”

Opening an agency in the United States, such as Twilight Entertainment, is simple. However, it is not easy to open a film company, to obtain a shooting permit, a film production permit, a screening permit, and so on. Li Xiuxiu sent a team of professional operators from Jiahe to operate the operation of the new company, but he has not yet sorted out the clue.

The United States is a country that claims to be democratic, but in fact it is very xenophobic to the Chinese, and many places have deliberately made things difficult.

Shao Shuaijun hopes to gain a foothold with the help of Lionsgate.

Whether it will be a company or a company has not yet been decided.

Rob was very interested in "Twilight", and after introducing Li Xiuxiu to Rob, Shao Shuaijun didn't care about it anymore. Now another trouble lay ahead of him.

"What, Miramax Films, still have to cut "Painted Skin" shorter?"

Wang Zhonglei shrugged his shoulders: "Junzi, I didn't do it, Mira Company felt that the movie was too long, a full 145 minutes, and they hoped to cut it to 120 minutes." ”

"120 minutes, Brother Lei, that means I have to cut 25 minutes of footage, we took a lot of effort to shoot the content! After cutting it before, I felt that a lot of good shots had been abandoned, and now I have to cut it again, this cut is still "Painted Skin"! ”

Although "Painted Skin" bragged about the production cost of 500 million, the real cost of 200 million could not run, and it took more than 50 million to shoot alone. If you don't count the special effects shots, "Painted Skin" has a total of 3,200 sets of shots, which is equivalent to saying that each set of shots is at least a cost of tens of thousands of yuan.

In a word, Mira Company is going to give up millions or even tens of millions of shots, and Shao Shuaijun feels no different from digging meat. Moreover, the movie is shortened, can you still explain what Shao Shuaijun wants to express?

"It can't be helped, Mira is very determined in this regard, and it has to be cut. Junzi, if you can't do it, we'll ask a professional editor to cut it? ”

Shao Shuaijun gritted his teeth: "Forget it, I'll cut it!" (To be continued......)

PS: It's finally on the shelves, no matter what the grades are, I put my heart into writing this book. I hope that friends who subscribe can vote for a monthly pass to support, thank you! Thank you for accompanying "Director's Legend" all the way to growth!