Chapter 54: History of Being Advanced
Of course Lin Xi has considered this question that Huang Zhan said, and the reason why he decided to make a TV series is because some things in his memory have been advanced in this time and space.
For example, Leigh's TV was acquired.
Even Huang Zhan, who doesn't care much about this news, knows that the Australian consortium, which controls the majority of Li's TV shares, intends to sell this part of the assets, and this matter was reported by the media more than a month ago.
Lin Xi has always paid more attention to the news in this regard, so he knows more.
Just two weeks ago, a newspaper specializing in financial news went on to report that Qiu Degen of Hong Kong's Far Eastern Group was interested in buying Leigh's TV.
Ordinary people only saw the appearance of this news, but Lin Xi got three key words from it: Far Eastern Group, Qiu Degen, and Li's TV.
Combining these three keywords together is exactly the same as the establishment of ATV in 82 in memory.
Although there was a time difference of more than a year between the occurrence of this incident and his memory, Lin Xi concluded that this acquisition should have reached the final stage after continuing to pay attention to this matter for a while.
Perhaps both sides have already reached an agreement and are just waiting for an opportunity to make the news official.
Lin Xi doesn't know what factors prompted ATV to be established so much earlier than he remembers, but he knows very well what kind of changes ATV will bring to the Hong Kong TV industry after its establishment.
First of all, the threat of bringing severity to wireless is certain.
In another time and space, ATV made TVB very nervous at the beginning of its establishment, not to mention that in the following years, the two sides fought fiercely over TV ratings, and it was difficult to solve.
Wireless has a Miss Hong Kong beauty pageant, and ATV has launched a Miss Asia beauty pageant; Wireless has increased the output of TV dramas, and ATV has also invested heavily in filming various TV dramas, and every time a ratings war breaks out, it will become a hot topic in the media and the market.
If ATV is really established in advance as Lin Xi guessed, I am afraid there will be a lot of pressure on Shao Yifu, who has just become the chairman of the board of directors of Wireless at this time.
In this time and space, because Bruce Lee did not pass away unexpectedly, Golden Harvest Film Company has firmly occupied the position of the leading boss in the Hong Kong film industry, and the Shaw Brothers Film Company, which is the old man of Golden Harvest Company, is naturally not much better, and even more difficult than Lin Xi's memory.
But ten years ago, the position of Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest was exactly the opposite of now, when the Shaw family was dominant, and Golden Harvest was fortunate to be able to maintain it, not to mention competing with it head-on.
The turning point of events happened to Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee, who developed in the American film industry in 1970, revealed in an interview with Hong Kong media that if the script and salary are suitable, he will consider returning to Hong Kong to film. After the news broke, a number of film companies sent invitations to Bruce Lee, including Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers. Bruce Lee was actually more inclined to cooperate with the wealthy Shaw Brothers at the beginning, but Shaw Yifu felt that Bruce Lee's development in Hollywood was not satisfactory, and Shaw Brothers did not need to offer a high price for such an actor, so when the two sides negotiated, they had the attitude of a big boss, requiring Bruce Lee to return to Hong Kong first, and then the Shaw Brothers would further discuss cooperation with him in detail.
Bruce Lee, who has always been arrogant, naturally refused to agree, and even strongly asked Shaw Brothers to send someone to the United States to talk to him first, and then he would return to Hong Kong to film after the negotiation.
Both sides are people who are unwilling to compromise, and the cooperation will naturally fail.
Bruce Lee and Shaw Brothers failed to cooperate, but they gave Golden Harvest a chance.
At that time, the people sent by Golden Harvest to the United States were not specifically looking for Bruce Lee, because even Zou Wenhuai felt that Golden Harvest was tantamount to a fool's dream to compete with Shaw Brothers for Bruce Lee, but no one expected that Bruce Lee and Shaw Brothers would collapse when they talked about it.
The people on Golden Harvest's side came to the door with full sincerity, not only promised to give Bruce Lee a salary of $7,500 per movie, but also tried their best to meet Bruce Lee's other requirements, and finally moved Bruce Lee and promised to return to Hong Kong to shoot two movies for Golden Harvest.
These two movies are "Big Brother Tangshan" and "Jingwumen".
With completely different fight scenes from previous kung fu films, "Tangshan Big Brother" not only set the highest box office record in Hong Kong history after its release, but also caused an unprecedented sensation in Hong Kong and the entire Southeast Asian region.
Released the following year, "Jingwumen" took this step further, combining Bruce Lee's kung fu charm with the extremely exaggerated national feelings, making the film a great success, not only breaking the local box office record held by "Tangshan Big Brother" in Hong Kong, but also opening up the markets of Japan, Europe and the United States.
Golden Harvest made a lot of money with these two unprecedented blockbuster films, and finally had the strength to compete with Shaw Brothers.
Since then, Bruce Lee has established Concord Pictures with the financial support of Golden Harvest, and has successively launched a number of blockbuster movies, breaking box office records in Hong Kong one after another, and Bruce Lee has also become an international kung fu superstar, and his influence has even spread to Hollywood on the other side of the ocean.
Shao Yifu didn't expect Bruce Lee to achieve such brilliant achievements, it was nothing for him to miss a good general, and what made him most depressed was to let the enemy Jiahe pick up this big bargain.
Bruce Lee is like a rainbow here, and Shaw Brothers is also beginning to find a way to deal with it, it just so happens that at this time, the former Shaw Brothers rebel Li Hanshen failed to run a film company in Taiwan and secretly returned to Hong Kong to develop, Shao Yifu knew that although Li Hanshen was down-and-out at this time, he still had the ability to auction movies, so he recalled him back to his banner regardless of his previous suspicions, and Director Li Da also lived up to high expectations, and returned to Shaw Brothers' first work "The Great Warlord" Although the box office is not as good as Bruce Lee's movie, it is also popular.
And Li Hanshen also has an advantage, he shoots quickly, often Bruce Lee finishes a movie for Golden Harvest, Li Hanshen has already made two or three films for Shaw Brothers, although the box office of a single film is not as good as Bruce Lee, but it can also be made up for by quantity.
The production of Bruce Lee's movies has not been high, and it is often a year or more before a new work comes out.
During this period, the two sides can be said to be on equal footing, and it was not until Xu Guanwen, known as the "cold-faced smiler", left Shaw Brothers and switched to Golden Harvest that the balance was broken.
Xu Guanwen was originally the host of the TVB TV program "Double Star Annunciation", and was later promoted by Li Hanshen to star in "The Great Warlord" and became famous in one fell swoop, and then the two sides cooperated in many movies, and the box office and word of mouth had good performances, and Xu Guanwen also sat firmly on the throne of Hong Kong's first comedian.
After becoming famous, Xu Guanwen intended to transform into a creative filmmaker who wrote, directed, and acted, and wrote a script and handed it to Shao Yifu, hoping to share the profits with the Shaw Brothers joint venture, but Shao Yifu, who has always been arbitrary, couldn't tolerate such a non-dividing request from his subordinates, so he categorically refused.
Xu Guanwen switched to Jiahe in a fit of rage, and after reading the script he brought, Zou Wenhuai agreed to all the conditions he put forward without hesitation.
Three months later, the movie called "Ghost Horse Double Star" was released in Hong Kong, and the local box office finally reached 6.25 million, surpassing Bruce Lee's movie in one fell swoop, causing a huge sensation in Hong Kong.
Although the box office record of this film did not last long before it was broken by Bruce Lee's new film, Xu Guanwen followed up with many new works, and the number made up for the shortcomings of Golden Harvest, Golden Harvest soon surpassed Shaw Brothers, and firmly sat in the position of the old man and boss of Hong Kong movies until today.
The Shaw Brothers were not reconciled at first, but Golden Harvest had two magic weapons, Bruce Lee and Xu Guanwen, who monopolized almost half of the share of the Hong Kong film market every year.
The more sluggish Shaw's side is, the more Shaw Yifu has high hopes for wireless. ATV will definitely be treated by Shao Yifu as the number one enemy at this time, and his life will definitely not be better than that of Jiahe back then.
Presumably, Mr. Qiu Degen, who bought Li's TV, did not immediately announce the news because of such concerns, but this is an excellent opportunity for Lin Xi to change history.