When the two Chinese and Cantonese versions were placed in front of Wang Xiaohu, he was not in a hurry to release them in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, which made many people scratch their heads and did not know what medicine Wang Xiaohu sold in the gourd. [No pop-up novel network]

"Brother Tiger, in the past few days, agents from all over Southeast Asia have called to urge and ask when our "Myth" is going to be released."

Since the three versions of "Myth" were edited, a 3-minute "Myth" trailer interview, agents across Southeast Asia were shocked after watching it, and the mercenary businessmen immediately realized the business opportunities behind this film, and they were very interested in the film with an investment of 30 million Hong Kong dollars, and wanted to win the agency as soon as possible to arrange publicity.

Wang Xiaohu held his jaw and thought about it, and said, "Don't worry, wait." ”

Xu Junlong snorted, but did not leave, that means: How long to wait?

"If they still call, you tell them this: 'Mythology' will be released in North America first, then the mainland, then Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia."

"Huh?" Xu Junlong screamed, his mouth opened and closed, and the whole person was stunned in surprise.

"Any questions?"

Xu Junlong finally came back to his senses and said, "No, no problem." ”

"Well, you go get busy." Wang Xiaohu waved his hand and continued to fall into a state of contemplation

After getting off work, two female employees walked out of the Concord Company, and they whispered as they walked.

"Hey, Xiaozhen, have you heard, "Myth" is going to premiere in North America first."

"Yes, yes, I just heard that Xiao Zhao from the distribution department said that our brother tiger is going to play a big move this time!"

"It's just that in this way, when will I see the full version, I'm about to be tormented by that romantic trailer."

"Me too, I've been flying in Tiangong in my dreams these past few nights."

"Oh, you dead girl has a spring heart, tell me who you dreamed of flying with?"

After a while, several more employees walked out of Concord, and the topic of discussion also revolved around the release time of "Myth".

"Xiao Zhao, did you hear it right, did Xu Tou really say this to the agents in Southeast Asia?"

Xiao Zhao is the secretary of the distribution department, a young man who is only in his 20s and has a black lens, he nodded solemnly and said: "It's not wrong, if I didn't just send information to Xu Tou and heard it, it is estimated that no one in our company would know." ”

"It can't be false information, right?" Someone asked.

Xiao Zhao helped the black frame on the bridge of his nose and said, "If you don't believe me, there's no way, let's see." ”

The next day, the news that "Myth" was released in the United States spread widely, and it quickly spread in the Hong Kong film industry, and some people were amazed that Wang Xiaohu was so generous, envious and admired, such as people from several satellite companies of Concord.

But more disdain and criticism!

Run Run Shaw, who has always maintained a good relationship with Wang Xiaohu, just smiled wryly and shook his head after hearing the news, he didn't bother to say anything now, so when facing the media interview, he expressed his heartfelt wishes to Wang Xiaohu, hoping that he could realize his dream back then.

Everyone in Hong Kong knows that since Bruce Lee and Wang Xiaohu opened the door to the international film market, many companies have tried to enter Hollywood, and the first to bear the brunt is Golden Harvest, they and the big Hollywood company Warner Bros. jointly concocted Bruce Lee's "posthumous work" "Game of Death", originally wanted to make a profit, but Wang Xiaohu was forced into the dust, and Golden Harvest Company has also become the past tense of Hong Kong films.

Subsequently, Wang Xiaohu became famous as the director of "Rocky" in Hollywood, becoming the first Chinese to win the Golden Man at the Oscars, breaking the record of only foreign faces in the history of the Oscars, and his investment in "Rocky 2", "Jaws", "Contact of the 3rd Kind", and "Star Wars" dominated the North American box office for four consecutive years!

Such a crazy move is not only shocked by Hollywood, but also by the Hong Kong film industry, who doesn't want to be the second in Concord, so Run Run Shaw also secretly pulled Wang Xiaohu and Hollywood behind his back.

In 1975, when Wang Xiaohu was fully preparing for "Shocking", Shaw Brothers cooperated with the British salthorse company (Hammer), known as the "vampire base camp", to shoot "Seven Golden Corpses", so most of the dialogue in the film was in English, and the Chinese actors also read the dialogue in person.

This film was a combination of local and foreign, and Shaw Brothers promoted it aggressively back then, but because there were too many things mixed in the film, the audience at that time couldn't accept it, resulting in a box office fiasco.

Wang Xiaohu also learned about this later, when he laughed at Run Run Shaw fiercely, he knew that the Hong Kong film industry would not dare to touch the zombie theme again in the next ten years, until Lin Zhengying's zombie series appeared, and zombie movies showed their strength in Hong Kong.

In 1976, Wang Xiaohu went to the mainland to shoot "Earthbreaking", and it was during this period that the ambitious Run Run Shaw invested 60 million Hong Kong dollars to shoot the film version of James Clare's best-selling novel "Taipan" (not the one starring Chen Chong).

In 1978, Shaw Brothers invested another $16 million in the Hollywood blockbuster "Earth Catastrophe" starring Sean Connery

In this way, whether it is shooting a large-scale production for the international market, or directly investing in Hollywood blockbusters, Shaw Brothers has invested heavily in the intention of opening up the international market.

It's a pity that it backfired, and the 76-year-old "Taipan" had almost no repercussions; "Catastrophe of the Earth" was mediocre at the box office, and in short, the commercial failure of these major productions eventually made Shaw disheartened about entering the international arena. In contrast, it was inspired by the unexpected sale of Shaw Brothers' low-budget film "The First Punch in the World" in 73 years, which continued to export a large number of kung fu films to the European and American markets, and obtained quite a lot of profits, and thus had a large number of loyal fans like Quentin Tarantino abroad.

So Run Run Shaw simply gave up his dream of entering Hollywood, watching Wang Xiaohu soar to win gold and silver in a foreign land, and at the same time pinned his dream entirely on Wang Xiaohu, hoping that he could make a name for himself in Hollywood on behalf of Chinese films.

Others don't have the same cultivation as Shao Daheng.

Wu Siyuan was the first to jump out and say to reporters: "I can't help but admire Wang Xiaohu's courage, don't look at him so well in Hollywood, that's because the movies he shoots cater to the tastes of Americans, but it is difficult to make Americans accept authentic Chinese culture, and "Myth" may become a big joke! ”

The reporter was very unconvinced and asked rhetorically: "But according to the employees of Concord, the trailer of "Myth" is great, highly imaginative, and romantic!" ”

"Trailer? None of us have seen it, it's just their internal propaganda, which of you has seen it? Wu Siyuan said with a laugh.

The reporters shook their heads, indeed, I'm afraid that only the employees of Concord who have watched the trailer of "Mythology", but do the words of the employees of Concord count?

"Are Americans lacking romance? How can a rich imagination be compared to "Star Wars"! Wu Siyuan chattered: "I'm not afraid to tell you that our Siyuan company is preparing two big productions, both of which are directed by our great director Tsui Hark."

Wu Siyuan's words were not finished yet, and the reporters understood one after another, it turned out that Wu Siyuan was using Wang Xiaohu to hype his new movie, and now they were not even interested, and they retreated with long guns and short cannons, leaving only Wu Siyuan blinking there.

After a long time, Mr. Wu tore up the speech that had been prepared in his hand, pointed to the group of reporters who were far away, and said: "White-eyed wolf, it's too fucking shocking!" ”

"Concord Company has undergone major changes, and the original five major film companies are freely combined, which will fully prosper Hong Kong films." -- Ming Pao

"Sing Tao Bao" reported: "Is it a blessing or a curse? Does Concorde's move mean that Wang Xiaohu is about to abandon the five major satellite companies to please Hollywood? ”

"Wang Xiaohu spent 3,000 Hong Kong dollars to create "Myth" for two years, but gave up the box office in Hong Kong's domestic market and gave priority to Hollywood premieres.

"A movie with strong oriental elements should be released in Hollywood, Wu Siyuan, president of Siyuan Pictures, said that it is very puzzling, he believes that there is a huge surprise between Eastern and Western cultures, and the only way to make Western audiences recognize Hong Kong films is kung fu films."

This is the second time that the Hong Kong media has targeted Concord, Wang Xiaohu, and "Mythology", before that, every time Wang Xiaohu changed the type of film shooting, everyone would doubt him, but when "Hong Xiguan" was released, all these doubts disappeared, and everyone began to believe that Wang Xiaohu had a very accurate grasp of the tastes of audiences in Hong Kong and even Southeast Asia.

But this time is different, because the news from the Concord Distribution Department is that "Myth" will premiere in Hollywood on behalf of the two major film industries in Hong Kong and Chinese mainland.

Anyone who pays close attention to the newspapers in Hong Kong knows that the mainland has gone through a decade of turmoil during the Cultural Revolution in recent years, not to mention a decade of economic regression, and the film industry has never developed at all.

If Wang Xiaohu has no problem premiering in Hollywood on behalf of Hong Kong films, they believe that Wang Xiaohu has such ability, after all, "Hong Xiguan" and "Police Story" sold well in North America, and they all broke into the top 20 at the North American box office, but that is all due to the fact that Concord has released a large number of kung fu films and action-adventure films in the United States in recent years.

Now Wang Xiaohu does not shoot kung fu films and action-adventure films that he is good at, but cooperates with the mainland to shoot historical films, promotes China's 5,000-year-old culture, and spends more than 30 million Hong Kong dollars in it, tossing for two and a half years, not first releasing them in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia to earn word of mouth, but directly releasing them in Hollywood.

Many people have begun to believe that Wu Siyuan said: "Myth" will become a big joke!

And more people want to see this big joke happen, because in the past eight years, Wang Xiaohu has been so smooth, so smooth that this young man's self-confidence has swelled to an indescribable extent!

Hong Kong filmmakers are looking forward to the fall of Wang Xiaohu, the dazzling star, and only when he falls, can everyone take advantage of the situation to carve up the fertile and attractive cake of Hong Kong films

"What do you think?"

On March 12, 1980, Wang Xiaohu sat in the boss's chair and said to Run Run Shaw with a map of Chinese mainland.

The map was the size of a table, and at the moment it was covered with arrows and numbers in black, red, and blue.

Shaw looked at it and fell into deep thought, to be precise, he was looking for a more reasonable reason to persuade Wang Xiaohu to abandon this crazy plan.

"Black represents the free screening area, red represents the free screening area for the military and political axes, and blue is the area where you have to collect movie tickets, is that how it is divided?"

Run Run Shaw asked after looking at it for a long time.

Wang Xiaohu nodded: "It's divided like this." ”

"I don't see the slightest profit on your map!" Pointing to the blue area, Run Run Shaw said: "Here, it is only screened in six major relatively developed cities: Yanjing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Changchun, Guangdong, Xuzhou, and Jinan, and according to your statistics, there are only 120 theaters in these six cities." ”

Shaw pointed to the red and black areas and said, "And these two areas are free to screen, accounting for 90% of the proportion, how do you recover the cost?" ”

"Hehe, I didn't want to make a dime in the mainland at all!" Wang Xiaohu said with a smile.

"Xiaohu, this is not the conclusion that a successful businessman should make." Run Run Shaw sighed and said: "I still stick to my sentence, it doesn't matter how you toss in Hollywood, after all, Hong Kong is your home, you don't even care about your home, but you please the mainland market, will they appreciate it?" When will the 30 million you invested pay for itself! ”

Wang Xiaohu did not speak, but picked up a pen and wrote three English letters on the map: USA!

Run Run Shaw smiled, he felt that Wang Xiaohu was completely confused, and the painful experience of hitting Hollywood in the past five years told him that Americans are not interested in new things, especially foreign cultures, and they believe that only American culture in the world is cutting-edge and global.

"Xiaohu, my instinct tells me that your luck is coming to an end!" Run Run Shaw said: "Ten years in Hedong, ten years in Hexi, I appreciate the courage and courage of young people, but I don't appreciate things without brains, there is still a week before the time you specified, you should think about it, after all, you have reorganized the five major satellite companies, it can be said that once you fail, you can't even grasp the last life-saving straw in your hand!" ”

"They have their stage, I have my mission, and everyone's pursuit is different." Wang Xiaohu said seriously: "At the point of you and me, the amount of money is just a bunch of numbers, and it doesn't matter how many zeros there are, why not take advantage of your youth and take advantage of the opportunity to open up more space?" ”

(To be continued)