When Daniel walked into the familiar office of radio and television, he really felt a lot of emotion in his heart.

When he was still in China, he was summoned by different sixth-generation directors - it is also appropriate to say that they are summoned. Many of his works are difficult to define whether they are right or wrong, true or to meet international needs, but at least one thing, a large part of them is not popular with radio and television.

It seems that around this time, China has made a slight adjustment to its film policy, which cannot be called liberalization, because the relaxation in some places has brought stricter enforcement standards. Suffice it to say, the scale of the previous films could be 60 or 80, and the criticism you get is 50 points. Then after the change, you will not be criticized for scale 60, but scale 80 will be criticized for 100 points. For some less "stubborn" people, such as Jia Zhangke, this is a good thing, but for more intense directors, it is tantamount to a murder.

In Daniel's vague memories of China, it is indeed not easy to leave some pictures in this office, which can also show how deeply impressed he is here.

After a slight shake, Daniel quickly recovered after being reminded by Sally.

Radio and television came forward with a deputy director Pan, an acquaintance of Daniel in the previous life, China Film and Huaying are both bosses, before they came back, Daniel admired their name for a long time, and they should have heard of Daniel, but the two sides lacked cooperation.

"Congratulations."

Pan's first words confused Cusa, Sally and the others, but Daniel understood the thinking of these bureaucrats: Concealment can show their inscrutable and supernatural powers. The congratulatory part of this trip to China was certainly not the Foundation, which was basically sending money and technology. Last night, they talked with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and basically determined a framework for their investment in the Internet and communications fields. Obviously, one night. Deputy Bureau Pan is well aware of this achievement.

"We are looking for cooperation with sincerity, and I believe that we all feel this sincerity."

Daniel dealt with him with a gentle expression.

Obviously, Daniel's sophistication surprised Deputy Pan a little, and the two sides talked nonsense for almost an hour before Mr. Han of China Film opened his mouth to point to the topic.

"Mr. Sandler. We're actually very willing to work with Hollywood. After all, Hollywood's film industry has a history of nearly 100 years, which is very complete and developed, while the development of contemporary Chinese films has only been less than 20 years, and commercial films have only started in the past few years. To say something that is not afraid of your jokes, we are all puzzled as to what we can do with you. After all, cooperation is always two-sided. ”

"Of course, the cooperation is of course on both sides. I would like to give a very simple example. I'm here this time. We signed a cooperation agreement with the Rongcheng Giant Panda Base, and we tried to help shape Po, the main character of the film, Panda, by observing the behavior of real pandas, which is a good example of cooperation. China has a lot of material, and Hollywood has also made various movies such as "Mulan", "The Last Emperor" and so on. Bruce Lee's kung fu is well-known in North America, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has also received high praise, and Chinese elements and Chinese style have more and more fans around the world. Hollywood, on the other hand, has good technology. A well-developed film industry, if the two can be combined. This is beneficial for both parties.

In addition, DD Pictures will also produce some local film products for the Chinese market. We will introduce the core competitiveness of the Hollywood film industry to China, how we make commercial blockbusters that make the world crazy, and the superb service provided by our special effects technology company can also be provided to Chinese film companies. We attach great importance to the Chinese market. Chinese audiences should also watch more good works. ”

Daniel did not mention the topic of the Chinese market, which is impossible to break through at their level. Daniel wouldn't expect his words to get Deputy Pan and the two CEOs to tell the Chinese leaders to open up more American films.

"We wanted to be more direct. The gap between the Chinese and American film industries will not be the same as some people fear. Our market and industry will be disrupted, and if your DD Pictures comes to China and has the same policy as us, I doubt that this kind of competition is acceptable. Will we lose the space to live? ”

Mr. Fu of Huaying is very direct.

But Daniel laughed, "You are too modest, China is very unique. You know very little about the world, about the United States, but at the same time, we know very little about China. Chinese studios know far more than Hollywood what Chinese audiences want. Maybe you see some Hollywood commercial films that have done well at the box office in China, but that doesn't mean that we are more competitive here than the local Chinese film industry. I even think that if China's film industry can learn a more mature way in terms of technology, concept, and operating mechanism, it will be more effective than limiting the number of account-sharing films.

I think there's one thing that you'll agree with. Learning is much faster than figuring it out on your own. DD will bring Hollywood mechanics to China, and I think it's the easiest way for you to learn. ”

Daniel didn't expect these big names to look down on Chinese movies so much – far more serious than they said in the news.

So he changed his strategy and tried to convince them by helping the development of the Chinese film industry.

It looks good.

The conversation turned to how Chinese films should draw nourishment from Hollywood.

During this period, Daniel also threw out his own chips, such as promoting Chinese-language films in North America, co-producing some works that show Chinese elements and the development of modern China, and how to help the Chinese film industry improve its status in the global film industry.

The conversation was quite pleasant, and Daniel's "anything can talk" way of thinking similar to that of the Chinese made Pan and the deputy bureau very adaptable—something that is relatively rare in communication with foreigners. Foreigners at this stage will list one, two, three, four, which is more rigid, that is the American way of communication, one requirement, will not say that half of the implementation is implemented, the other half is put away, and most of the work is to make every effort to get the government to accept this request in its entirety.

Kusa and Sally didn't say anything during today's conversation.

It's just that when talking about some topics about Hollywood, Kusa said a few words, and Sally didn't say anything at all, basically Daniel communicated directly with them. This is completely different from the previous plans of the two men, in their opinion, they have prepared a large amount of data - box office results, peripheral development system, a series of authoritative rankings, these should be important materials in the talks, can make the Chinese side fully understand the capabilities of DD Films, whether in terms of production or market grasp, it is worth investing in the Chinese film industry to learn.

Unfortunately, from beginning to end, Daniel's conversations with these Chinese officials were specious, without concrete data to back them up, and many of them were macro topics, looking for the future - or utopian.

But in the end, it did work out well. 、

Because when Deputy Bureau Pan finally spoke, although he did not explicitly express his support, he still vaguely said that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television expects the local industry to learn more beneficial things from Hollywood, so as to achieve the great development of Chinese film culture. In the context of the Chinese, this is basically equivalent to support.

"It's a very puzzling country." Cusa shook his head, "A very different civilization does give other countries a sense of threat for no reason. Daniel, is this considered a success? DD China can start working? ”

The DD China mentioned by Kusa is an independently operated Chinese company invested by DD Pictures - that is, an upgraded version of the current DD Pictures China office, registered in Beijing, China, which is a joint venture, and the next series of plans will inevitably start after opening up the relationship between all parties.

"It's not that easy, and there's a lot more to be done." Daniel shook his head, "We have to choose the company we want to work with, and it is impossible for China Film to directly invest in DD China." ”

In China, access to the media sector is a key area, and in 2004 China made regulations on foreign investment access in this field. Foreign capital is not allowed to enter the distribution field, but it can enter the production field in joint ventures with Chinese capital - it should be noted that foreign capital cannot control the shares, and at most cannot exceed 49% of the equity. There is no way around this, and it will be this policy ten years later.

……

Daniel, who flew from Beijing to Shanghai, basically ended the main work of this trip to China, and the next Shanghai International Film Festival was all about supporting the scene and industry exchanges.

He also knows that several private film companies in China are now wary of his arrival. Because China has always had a very unbelievable situation -- it would rather give to foreign thieves than domestic slaves, that is, it would rather give it to foreigners than private enterprises. This existed in many industries at the end of the last century, and state-owned enterprises, because of the lack of technology, preferred to let foreign companies earn most of the money and directly purchase it for assembly, but did not allow private companies to enter the development of related industries. Of course, the situation is much better now, but it is not ruled out that China Film and Radio and Television may "go crazy".

Huayi Brothers and Weinstein Pictures have a cooperative relationship, and when they learned that Daniel was visiting China, they also considered whether to try to cooperate with him, but after the brothers' analysis, they still felt that it was impossible to seek skin with the tiger.

The reason why Daniel went straight to the top, but did not think about cooperating with private companies, is also one of the reasons why these companies are vigilant, otherwise China's current policies and laws do not actually limit foreign investment to state-owned enterprises, or cooperate with private enterprises. In terms of grasping the initiative, it is more appropriate to cooperate with private enterprises, but DD Pictures intends to be a "Shunmin" in China, so it only needs to have professional authority in the joint venture, and Daniel feels that everything else is acceptable.

On June 17, the 9th Shanghai International Film Festival officially opened.

Hundreds of media from Europe, North America, Asian countries and China brought the "international" film festival to the brim. (To be continued......)