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The success of "Jianghu 2" made Golden Harvest Company very attentive to Wang Qinian's suggestion. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoIn addition, Golden Harvest Film Company is itself more innovative than many companies.

For example, the two high-quality masterpieces in Hong Kong comic films, "Storm and Clouds Dominate the World" and "Chinese Heroes", were both invested and filmed by Golden Harvest Film Company.

It's not because Zou Wenhuai likes to read comics, in fact, he doesn't read comics, but he reads newspapers. In the "Crazy Boy" series of Hong Kong comics, not only did the movie sell well at the box office, but also the movie disc sold softly.

Zou Wenhuai immediately invited Liu Weiqiang, the director of "Crazy Boy", and Ekin Cheng, who played Chen Haonan, to film "Fengyun" and "Chinese Heroes". Because, the influence of these two comics in the Hong Kong comic industry is even more amazing than that of "Crazy Boy". Facts have proved that the adaptations of "Fengyun" and "Chinese Heroes" are indeed relatively successful.

After Wang Qinian proposed to adapt "Sea Tiger", Zou Wenhuai had already asked people to find a comic of the "Sea Tiger" series and flipped through it all night.

After that, I had a little impression of the comics and felt that "Sea Tiger" was really worth investing in, so I acted vigorously and asked people to contact Ocean Ideas to buy the copyright of "Sea Tiger".

Compared with Hong Kong comics such as "Dragon and Tiger Gate", "Chinese Heroes", "Fengyun", "Sword Laughter" and so on, they have been repeatedly adapted into film and television works. The comic "Sea Tiger" has never been adapted.

Because, although "Sea Tiger" has a niche reputation, it is not the most popular Hong Kong manga. The most popular Hong Kong comics are basically monopolized by the two giants Huang Yulang and Ma Rongcheng.

Comics under the pseudonyms of the two, even if they are popular, it is difficult to enter the eyes of film and television companies.

This is like the era when martial arts novels were red and purple, there were thousands of writers who wrote martial arts, and there were hundreds of professional martial arts writers. But the vast majority of martial arts novels are impossible to adapt. Most film and television companies. staring at the adaptations of Jin Yong, Gu Long, Liang Yusheng and other famous artists.

Even if all the works of famous artists are adapted, investors would rather remake the works of famous artists than invest in novels by second-rate authors.

"Sea Tiger" is in the Hong Kong comic market, in terms of circulation, the top 20 are not ranked, and it is definitely not a popular Hong Kong comic. It's just a Hong Kong comic that can be mixed with food.

Even some of the popular works of Huang Yulang and Ma Rongcheng have not all been adapted by film and television. Golden Harvest Film Company, a tycoon in the Hong Kong film industry, actually contacted Ocean Creation Company to buy their comic rights to adapt the movie.

So much so that the main creators of the comic "Sea Tiger" were all surprised!

"What, Golden Harvest Film Company wants to buy the copyright of "Sea Tiger"?" Wen Riliang couldn't believe it.

"Yes, boss!" Deng Zhihui, a cadre of Ocean Comics, raised his fingers excitedly, "The offer is three million Hong Kong dollars." Boss Zou said, I'm old, I don't have the heart to negotiate, a fixed price! ”

"Why is Boss Zou suddenly interested in "Sea Tiger"?" Wen Riliang was puzzled. He doesn't narcissistically think that Boss Zou has become a fan of his comics.

If you were to watch his comics, you should have bought the copyright of this comic when "Sea Tiger" was serialized in the early years. But now several years have passed, and the popularity of "Sea Tiger" has cooled down a lot before I came to buy the copyright. Obviously a little unsavvy.

"It is said that the director Wang Qinian from the mainland is your fan, and he named the boss of Jiahe. to cooperate in the adaptation of Wen Riliang's "Sea Tiger". You know, in the past few years, Golden Harvest has made money from the films he has cooperated with Wang Qinian, so he depends on him! Deng Zhihui guessed.

"Really, even if the mainland is red and purple. Am I a fan? Wen Riliang felt a little dizzy.

"It shouldn't be fake, otherwise, it won't be specified that Golden Harvest will shoot "Sea Tiger"!"

"Okay, it's hard to sell the copyright of "Sea Tiger" to Zou Wenhuai!" Wen Riliang thought for a while and said, "Not including the copyright of "Martial God" and the follow-up!" Future. Wait for their movie "Sea Tiger" to become popular. "Martial God" is to be sold at a price, and the one with the highest price wins! ”

"Clever!" Deng Zhihui said with a thumbs up.

In fact, the current Ocean Publishing Company is having a very hard time, and more than a dozen employees in the entire company rely on the comic "Martial God" to eat.

Although "Martial God" is very popular, it only has sales in the early 20,000s, and the sales of each issue are declining. In a few years, I will be able to sell thousands of copies, and I will already be snickering.

Of course, this is not a decline in the quality of "Valkyrie" or something. But Hong Kong comics as a whole are in a state of decline, and almost the vast majority of comics are declining.

Some of the new serialized Hong Kong comics, some of which have sold hundreds or thousands of copies, can't afford the labor and printing costs. As a result, a lot of new comics that were originally very creative, hastily serialized for a few issues, died quickly.

The major comic companies rely on the release of some old works to sustain themselves. This is something that can't be helped.,Hong Kong comics' readership is very old.,Generally, I only read those comics that I'm familiar with.。 As for the new deeds, they may not be able to win the market of old readers. As for new readers, most of them go to Japanese manga, and the number of Hong Kong comics is very small.

It is precisely for this reason that Hong Kong comics are not only a group of cartoonists because their incomes are getting lower and lower, and then some old guys are sticking to it, and it is difficult for newcomers to enter the industry to persevere, so there is gradually no successor. Even the readers are gradually losing their successors.

Of course, American superhero comics suffered a similar dilemma in the 90s. Comic companies such as Marvel and DC are almost going out of business due to the declining comic publishing and distribution business, and they are unable to make ends meet. But later, American comics embraced Hollywood, and after superhero comics were screened on a large scale, they not only recovered, but also began to radiate from the American market to the world.

There are examples of American comics in front of us, and there is a way in front of Hong Kong comics, one is to sit back and wait to die, and the other is to rely on film adaptations to gain greater influence.

……

On June 10, 2002, Golden Harvest Film Company announced the acquisition of the film and television adaptation copyright of the "Sea Tiger" comic at a price of HK$3 million. At the same time, it plans to seek partners to jointly invest more than 100 million Hong Kong dollars to launch the "Sea Tiger" movie adaptation plan.

As soon as the news was announced, the industry was surprised - what the hell is "Sea Tiger"? It seems that few people who don't know Hong Kong comics know "Sea Tiger".

However, after the announcement of the "Sea Tiger" movie plan, this Hong Kong comic quickly began to become popular!

Like what. The single comic of "Sea Tiger" has sold more than 100,000 copies, which makes Wen Riliang's case very cool!

The advent of "Sea Tiger" is indeed an epoch-making setting for Hong Kong comics. In the past, most of the Hong Kong comics imitated the settings that martial arts novels already have. Some adaptations were made.

Only "Sea Tiger" has integrated technology and begun to broaden Hong Kong comics to a new field.

It's a pity that after the advent of "Sea Tiger", Hong Kong comics have declined. In the glorious period of Hong Kong comics, there were millions of Hong Kong comic fans in Hong Kong alone. Relying on a city in Hong Kong as the basic disk, it has incubated the world's third largest commercial comic after Japanese comics and American comics!

That's right!

In the glorious period of Hong Kong, it was always the market size. In addition to Japanese manga and American manga, it surpasses the manga of other countries in the world. It is the third largest commercial comic market in the world.

It can be seen from this that the comic book readers in Hong Kong were so hardcore!

Like "Chinese Heroes", "Dragon Tiger Gate" and other early-rise classic Hong Kong comics, the circulation of each issue at its peak exceeded 200,000 copies.

At that time, the Hong Kong comic was basically a single comic, which was serialized as a magazine, and readers were obsessed with it. Popular manga can be serialized in hundreds of issues. The popularity is not waning!

But after the 90s, the older generation of comic book readers. I still like to watch Hong Kong comics. However, the younger generation of comic book readers are mostly Japanese comics. For example, Hong Kong's largest comic company, Jade Dynasty, was forced to distribute Japanese comics as an agent in order to consolidate its market share.

Golden Harvest Films announced that it was looking for a partner. After co-producing "Sea Tiger", Wang Qinian announced very cooperatively: "The partner company is willing to invest 30 million yuan to participate in the production of the film version of "Sea Tiger"! ”

……

Originally, Golden Harvest Film Company planned to invite Liu Weiqiang to direct "Sea Tiger".

After all. Liu Weiqiang has experience in adapting Hong Kong comics, starting from the "Crazy Boy" series, to "Storm and Storm Dominates the World" and "Chinese Heroes", which are all movies adapted from popular Hong Kong comics, and from the perspective of box office results, these movies are not bad. It can be said that Lau Wai-keung is the director in Hong Kong with the most experience in adapting comics into big movies.

In particular, after the two films "Storm and Clouds Dominate the World" and "Chinese Heroes", a large number of computer special effects were used, which was very advanced in the Hong Kong film industry at that time.

However, Liu Weiqiang has now set up a basic film production company by himself, and is filming "Infernal Affairs", and he has no skills.

"I'm sorry, Boss Zou, "Infernal Affairs" is being filmed frequently, and I really can't spare time!" After receiving the invitation, Liu Weiqiang personally went to Zou Wenhuai's house to explain the reason why he did not accept this play.

"It's okay!" Zou Wenhuai said with a smile, "I wish "Infernal Affairs" a big hit first, and in the future, if there is a chance, let's cooperate again!" ”

"Thank you, Boss Zou, for your understanding!" Liu Weiqiang wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead.

In this era, although Golden Harvest is no longer as strong as it was in the 80s, it is still the mainstream film giant in Hong Kong, especially the strength of theatrical distribution, not only covering Hong Kong, but even having theaters in Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. Therefore, Hong Kong's film production companies still have to look at Golden Harvest's face.

In particular, during the period of recession in Hong Kong film production, the market influence of cinema operators has increased, rather than weakened. After all, the Hong Kong film market is just a recession for Hong Kong films, not a recession for films! Even in 2002, the size of the Hong Kong film market exceeded HK$1 billion, which is similar to that of the mainland market, but the Hong Kong film box office market, due to the lack of policy protection, has occupied the majority of Hollywood films.

Unlike the 80s and 90s, Hong Kong films are the mainstream of the box office market. At that time, Western films in the Hong Kong film market had only one or two percent of the market for a long time.

Who knows, after the late 90s, Hong Kong is declining. The market share of Hollywood movies has gradually occupied the mainstream.

But whether it is Hong Kong films or Hollywood movies. In fact, the theater chain did not lose anything, it was the film production company that suffered.

Zou Wenhuai is more generous now, in essence, because of his age, his competitive mind has faded. In fact, since Jackie Chan left Golden Harvest, the number of movies invested by Golden Harvest has decreased sharply. If it weren't for the cooperation with a small partner company, which gave Golden Harvest Film Company a little hope, Boss Zou wouldn't even bother to invest in movies and specialize in cinemas, wouldn't it be more worry-free?

Liu Weiqiang refused to direct "Sea Tiger" for "Infernal Affairs", which is actually very worthwhile. The movie "Infernal Affairs" was originally a Hong Kong film released in 2002. It was released at the end of the year and grossed 55 million Hong Kong dollars. Without "Jianghu 2", "Infernal Affairs" would have been the highest-grossing film in the Hong Kong film market in 2002.

Of course, even if "Jianghu 2" has a box office of more than 60 million in Hong Kong, "Infernal Affairs" will be a phenomenal movie.

After Liu Weiqiang had no intention of directing "Sea Tiger", Wang Qinian took over the director and screenwriter of this blockbuster. To say that Wang Qinian is a fan of "Sea Tiger" is pure nonsense. He just thinks that this comic is very creative in terms of setting, and if he wants to adapt the film and television, he still has to make a lot of adaptations to the content.

The biggest problem with Hong Kong comics is that many characters have an invincible and strong posture as soon as they appear. Even if there are opponents, their strength is also above ordinary people, and a bunch of strong people are fighting back and forth, so that ordinary readers have no sense of substitution.

In the comic "Sea Tiger", although the protagonist has grown, there is no doubt that he is a strong man as soon as he appears, and the sense of substitution has dropped a lot.

Therefore, if Wang Qinian is to lead the adaptation of the movie version, there needs to be a process of growth. The creativity and character design of "Sea Tiger" are adopted, but the plot has to be rearranged. (To be continued.) )

ps: The first update, thank you for mdogfish and Shen Yang's monthly ticket support!

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