As New Year's Day approaches, the new US Secretary of State visited Hong Kong and reached a number of cooperation agreements with Patten Chris Patten, many of which seem to be beneficial to Hong Kong's economy, but in fact contain evil intentions.

These include the opening of Hong Kong cinema investment access qualifications to American investors and the halving of the entertainment tax required for the release of American films in Hong Kong, etc., which have torn several cracks in the thick walls of Hong Kong films that have stood for half a century.

However, for this result, Lin Xiaozhi is actually quite satisfied. Although he started operating a few months in advance, the Hong Kong media and the film industry took turns to put pressure on the Hong Kong government, but from the beginning he did not expect to completely stop the Hong Kong government from causing chaos in Hong Kong, which was about to return to the motherland. This result can be regarded as a great luck in misfortune, at least the industry's actions still affected the will of the Hong Kong government, so that Patten did not completely remove the wall of Hong Kong films in the mainland to resist the invasion of the United States.

In the original history, the British government in Hong Kong began to completely cancel the entertainment tax on American blockbusters released in Hong Kong in June 93, and about 50% of the box office revenue of foreign films released in Hong Kong belongs to the income of the theater chain, and the remaining less than 50% is still subject to 10% entertainment tax (the entertainment tax should have been borne by the theater chain, but because the Hong Kong theater monopoly of the release channel, it has always been borne by the distribution company and the film producer), and then deduct the publicity cost and the income of the local distribution company, etc., Unless the box office of foreign films in Hong Kong can exceed 20 or 30 million Hong Kong dollars, they will not only not make money but also lose money when they are released in this market.

In the early years of Hong Kong, there were not too many restrictions on Hong Kong local businessmen and British businessmen, but there were many constraints on foreign capital (mainly to prevent mainland capital from controlling Hong Kong cinemas to make films to promote leftist ideas). For example, the legislation stipulates that the theater must be operated by local businessmen, and the foreign capital shall not exceed 20% of the total investment, and there are many restrictions on the management to prevent the emergence of the second Yindu cinema line that is difficult to control!

It is precisely this provision that has created the transcendent position of Hong Kong cinema businessmen since the 60s, and even if Taiwanese capital has invested heavily in Hong Kong cinemas since the late 70s, in fact, the control and operation rights have always been in the hands of Hong Kong businessmen.

Historically, the British government in Hong Kong has also revised the measures for the operation of hospitals and businesses since 93. One of the core is that foreign capital only needs to register a company in Hong Kong, and then invest through the company to fully operate and manage the cinema chain, completely breaking the monopoly strategy of local businessmen. At the same time, the rule that foreign capital investment in existing local cinema chains should not exceed 20% was drastically reduced, and it was raised to 60%, and later the protests of local cinema developers were reduced to 40%, but that was many years later.

Just like putting pressure on the Hong Kong government on the entertainment tax, Lin Xiaozhi also contacted many local merchants to conduct public relations with the Hong Kong government, and finally although Patten increased the amount of foreign capital investment to 40% of the total investment, the plan that completely broke the monopoly of local businessmen and allowed foreign businessmen to register companies in exchange for the right to operate the theater chain was stillborn and failed to take shape.

In this way, although the best effect was not achieved. However, the profits of American blockbusters released in Hong Kong in the future are still very meager, and it is estimated that many American film companies will have to consider the problem of whether they can make money when they bring the film to Hong Kong for release. The cinema chain is still monopolized by local businessmen, which also means that it is up to local cinema dealers to decide how many foreign films to be released in Hong Kong each year, which is undoubtedly a huge victory.

After New Year's Day, when the entire Hong Kong media was still hyping up the 'Academy Awards' with a series of big moves, Lin Xiaozhi himself got on the plane to Egypt in a low-key manner. His next film, The Mummy, is finally ready to be filmed after nearly two months of location setup.

Because this movie is to meet the upcoming American blockbuster - "Jurassic Park", and Lin Xiaozhi is also looking forward to it, hoping to snipe it in Hong Kong and even the world when the Hollywood blockbuster "Jurassic Park" hits this summer.

Although he himself knew in his heart that this possibility was not high, Lin Xiaozhi was still unwilling to give up so easily if he didn't try it. For this reason, he gave up his vacation and was busy like a spinning top, Hong Kong had just finished handling his work, and comforted Zhou Huimin, who had successfully conceived his second child for a few months, and got on a plane to Egypt with the crew.

This time, the mainland also helped a lot in Egypt. Although China was one of the world's five hooligans in 93, it was far less powerful than later generations. But when it comes to the official relationship between Egypt and China, or between Egypt and Britain, the former is naturally better.

This is not surprising, not to mention that Egypt was a British colony for a long time before World War II, and was exploited and plundered by British colonists. Just because Egypt was founded after World War II, the British first tried to snatch away the management of the Suez Canal, and then after that failed, they waved the flag for Israel several times with their big cousins in the United States, which was enough to make the Egyptian authorities, who are still under the rule of the military junta, not very much buy the British.

China, on the other hand, is not only a third world country with Egypt, but the two sides have established diplomatic relations very early, and since the 60s, including North Korea, there have been a lot of arms and sensitive machinery transactions between the three countries.

So in order not to appear that Jackie Chan was blackmailed by the locals when he was filming in Africa, he asked someone to help inform the Egyptian authorities in advance, although it cost a little money, but it can also save a lot of trouble. And the benefits don't stop there, according to the Egyptian side, they can help arrange for people to shoot some big scenes in the movie for a fee.

Technology is a great power, every time he takes a plane, Lin Xiaozhi will always have such a feeling in his heart. Thanks to the advent of airplanes, the distance between Hong Kong and Cairo has been reduced from a flight of several months to less than a day. Halfway through, the group only needs to make a short stop in Dubai and will soon arrive at their destination.

Although this trip to Egypt is to shoot the movie "The Mummy" as close to Egypt as possible, and then use the 'original ancient Egyptian mythology' to knock on the world market. However, because of the large number of crew members of "The Mummy", it is impossible to load people at all by chartering only one plane, and there is a group of personnel behind them who will arrive half a day later than them, together with the filming equipment.

Because of the early arrangement, after getting off the plane, the group took four buses to a four-star hotel on the outskirts of Cairo.

After staying in the sky as high as 10,000 meters for nearly 20 hours, the down-to-earth feeling after getting off the plane made Lin Xiaozhi's mood quickly improve, and through the car window, he looked at the exotic Egyptian scenery of one of the four ancient civilizations, Lin Xiaozhi was a little relaxed, and Fa Ge, who was sitting next to him, was also emotional.

"I used to hear people say that it was a waste to live in Egypt. The outside world is really big, and it's really too small compared to Hong Kong! ”

"Fa Ge is coming to Egypt for the first time?" Lin Xiaozhi asked with a smile.

Chow Yun-fat nodded, his eyes moved away from the Saqqara pyramid faintly visible outside the window, and he turned around and asked Lin Xiaozhi curiously, "What, Lin Sheng has been here before?" ”

Lin Xiaozhi smiled and nodded but didn't say much, he did travel to Egypt in his previous life, and he did sightseeing in Cairo for a few days. It's just that the plane he took at that time flew directly to Cairo International Airport in the center of the city, but the current Cairo airport has obviously not been built there, and the 'new airport' they arrived at today is only a second terminal that was only put into operation in 1986, and it is still a short distance from the city center, mainly serving European, Far Eastern, Gulf and North African airlines.

"Hong Kong is a little smaller, but in the future, with the internationalization of film production, not to mention the mainland and Africa, Europe, America, Australia, we will have the opportunity to go there to shoot!"

Lin Xiaozhi said confidently.

Chow Yun-fat smiled and nodded slightly, a hint of longing flashed in his eyes.

Turning his head sideways, Lin Xiaozhi looked at a young white man who looked a little restrained sitting next to him, and felt a little proud.

"Arnold, how's the script going?"

In English, he asked the young white man with short hair, Arnold Vosroux, an Irish-South African who was about the same age as Andy Lau, but who had achieved as much in South Africa as Andy Lau in Hong Kong. He was once one of the best theatrical actors in South Africa, and after feeling that his career in China had reached its peak a few years ago and South African films could not help him take his career to the next level, he went to the United States to seek development like many European and South American artists.

It's a pity that Arnold still underestimates the deep-rooted contempt and indifference of American filmmakers to foreign artists. After staying in the United States for three or four years, he almost spent all his savings, and he only got a role in two small-budget films, one of which was cut from all the scenes in post-production, and the other was not released because of the scale and could only be released in the form of video tape distribution, so naturally he didn't earn much fame.

There was no way, he could only return to his old job in the United States, while participating in some stage plays to make a living, while looking for the crew everywhere to recommend himself, and finally got a role in the historical blockbuster "The Biography of Columbus" invested and co-produced by Britain, France, the United States and the West last year.

The result is still the same tragedy, this investment is called 70 million US dollars of 'epic blockbuster' "Columbus Biography" is actually not very good, and when it was released, it tragically bumped into Lin Xiaozhi's "League of Assassins", which was previously very optimistic about the media This epic film is more appropriate to say that it was crushed, and the box office in the United States is only more than 6.4 million US dollars, not to mention that the total box office is not even a fraction of the "League of Assassins", so it got things such as "the soundtrack is more exciting than the movie", ' The first half is acting, and the second half is watching the play' and a series of hot ridicule.

Even the famous director Ridley Scott, who was in charge of the film, was forced to announce his retirement under the accusations of the media and investors, which shows how failed the film was, and Arnold, who performed well in this movie, once again missed the opportunity to become famous, and had to give up his American dream, and instead went to Hong Kong, which has become more and more popular around the world in recent years, and submitted his resume to Media Asia.

"Uh, boss...... It's pretty much ......."

Arnold still thinks that this is simply a dream, he never imagined that he would be so depressed after a few years in the United States, let alone the second male lead, and even a supporting role with a line is difficult for him to receive. But he didn't want to because he heard that Hong Kong in Asia is now very prosperous, although the scale of this Oriental Hollywood is more than one line worse than that of the United States, but it is also one of the best film production bases in the world, so he came to Hong Kong to see if he could make a living.

But he didn't want to submit his resume to the only film company he knew, which also had a lot of fame in Europe and the United States, and it didn't take long for him to be invited to sign a contract by the company, and soon after he got the company's boss, and also filmed "Red Alert", "Resident Evil" and "League of Assassins" and many other blockbuster directors Lin Xiaozhi received him, and after a brief meeting, the other party conducted some acting skills assessment on him, and he successfully got the first copy in his life. Big Contract', with a salary of 1.3 million Hong Kong dollars of slightly less than $200,000, got the second male role in the new film "The Mummy" of the big commercial film director.

Of course, Arnold would never know that the reason why he was able to get the role of the second male in Lin Xiaozhi's new drama was entirely because in the original history, he became famous by playing the high priest Immorton in "The Mummy". Otherwise, with Lin Xiaozhi's current identity, it is absolutely impossible for his movie No. 2 to be played by a young actor who can hardly make movies in the United States.

When they arrived at the hotel, the staff who arrived in Egypt had already arranged everything for them.

A Media Asia employee named 'Wang Cheng' came over with a bearded Egyptian and introduced him to Lin Xiaozhi, "Boss, this is Mr. Said. ”

Lin Xiaozhi glanced at the middle-aged man in traditional Arabic clothing, and it was obvious that the other party should be a Muslim. As a non-religious person, although he has also dealt with some people who believe in Huang Lao, Buddhism and even Christianity in Hong Kong, there are not many Muslims in Hong Kong, and most of them are from the bottom of the society smuggled from South Asia, so he naturally does not know if the other party has any scruples.

Fortunately, the other party obviously saw his hesitation, took the initiative to reach out to shake his hand, and said: "Hello Mr. Lin, you can call me Said, welcome to Cairo!" ”

Said is not an ordinary man, he is from the Association for Ancient Egyptian Studies, is a professor of ancient Egyptian history at Cairo University, and is also one of the special consultants hired by Media Asia for the filming of "The Mummy".

Lin Xiaozhi was relieved to see that he spoke fluent English, and in the Arab world, it is said that as long as people who can speak English are far more enlightened and communicative than fanatical believers.

At the moment, he also politely expressed his gratitude: "Thank you Mr. Said and the Egyptian government for their help, with your support, our preparations for the new film are very smooth, and I believe that in another month, Hamna Tower will be officially used!" ”

Although most of The Mummy's locations were filmed in Egypt, it doesn't mean that all of the locations will be filmed here. In fact, the set of 'Giza Port on the Nile' that appeared in the movie will be filmed in Shenzhen, and Lin Xiaozhi has built a pier in the cinema that started construction in Shenzhen specifically for the shooting of the pier scene, and only needs to modify it temporarily to meet the needs of this scene.

And because the Egyptian government refused to open some temples and ancient buildings for the crew to film, so as not to cause secondary damage to the ancient buildings during the filming process, Lin Xiaozhi simply asked the Egyptian government to come forward and spent money to hire a group of experts who are proficient in ancient Egyptian architectural styles, and guided Shenzhen Cinema to modify the interior of several huge venues that have been built into rough into ancient Egyptian palaces and temples, so that the outer part can be filmed in Egypt, and the internal shooting will be completed in Shenzhen.

Although this will cost a lot of money, considering that the cinema can not only develop tourism in the future, but also provide convenience for Hong Kong film companies to shoot films about ancient Egypt, so it is not so distressing to spend millions more.