"Dreamworks is famous overseas, and "Shushan" becomes the opening film of the Venice Film Festival!"

On September 3, the Oriental Daily published an explosive news on the front page of the newspaper.

Zou Wenhuai came to the office and sat down. As soon as he picked up the coffee from his assistant, the secretary knocked on the door and said, "Mr. Zou, Deng Guangrong is here again. Are you seeing him or not?"

Deng Guangrong later invested 40 million and asked Wang Jiawei to film "The Legend of A Fei", but the box office was so bad that he was so angry that he went to the hospital.

This person became famous in the 1960s for starring in "The Prince of Students". He became a youth idol star at the age of 17. He has been popular for ten years since then. Later, he changed from a movie to a company boss and opened a Darong Film Company. The films he made have been released in Jiahe Theater.

Darong Film Company has never been in a good schedule in Jiahe. The establishment of Xinbao Cinema immediately attracted Deng Guangrong to cooperate with him. However, "Yellow Peril" filmed by Darong Company last year was released to Nanyang by Jiahe four months ago. Now it is time to share the accounts, Jiahe dragged down the share of Deng Guangrong for various reasons.

That was a total of more than 1 million yuan. Deng Guangrong's company made at most two movies a year. He told him that more than 2 million yuan was not a small amount of money, so he naturally had to come to Zou Wenhuai every day to ask for money.

When Zou Wenhuai heard Deng Guangrong's name, he had a headache, took a sip of coffee and said, "Call him in."

A moment later, the handsome middle-aged man in a white shirt walked in, greeting with a smile on his face, "Hello Mr. Zou, I came here so early, didn't disturb you?"

"No, no, please sit down!" Zou Wenhuai also said with a smile.

After the two of them chatted around for more than ten minutes, Deng Guangrong said: "Mr. Zou, "Yellow Peril" has been filmed in Nanyang for more than three months. Should the share of Darong Company be paid?"

"Have you arrived yet?" Zou Wenhuai pretended to be surprised, picked up the phone and said, "I'll help you urge me."

Deng Guangrong watched Zou Wenhuai act with anger in his heart, but he had to maintain a smile on his face. He was always the one who suffered a loss when he was really froze.

"Yellow Peril" tells the story of Vietnamese refugees pouring into Chinatown in the United States. Although many shots were shot in Hong Kong, they were still inevitably filmed in the United States. Therefore, the filming investment was quite large, and almost emptied the funds of Darong Film Company. Unfortunately, the box office of "Yellow Peril" was not very good after its release, and with the money earned in Taiwan and Nanyang, I could barely make 200,000 to 300,000 yuan.

For this reason, Deng Guangrong has not filmed for nearly a year. He only waited to take back all the investment in "Yellow Peril" before opening a new film. It was because Zou Wenhuai knew about this and deliberately delayed Deng Guangrong's money.

Zou Wenhuai pretended to make a call, and then chatted with Deng Guangrong with a happy face for a while. The latter could only say goodbye and leave, and then asked Jiahe's issuing company for money. As for whether the money can be obtained smoothly, it depends on luck.

As soon as Deng Guangrong left, He Guanchang walked in with a newspaper and said, "Deng Guangrong is here to ask for money again?"

Zou Wenhuai nodded and said, "Yes, I come every day, I still have to hide from him."

He Guanchang said: "Then give him the money, it's only about one million. If Deng Guangrong really wants to start a new show, he won't be that little money."

"I have already ordered the issuing company to pay." Zou Wenhuai sighed, "This Princess Jin and Xinbao are really messing around, making it more and more outrageous."

When Princess Jin was just established, in order to obtain film sources, she did not hesitate to cancel the theater base system, which caused Jiahe Cinema and Shaw Cinema to follow the reforms and lost a large amount of profits. Later, with the growth of Xinyi City and the implementation of the large studio system, Princess Jin's other satellite companies also stabilized. Princess Jin's theater source was too numerous to use up, so she began to live in "peaceful" with Jiahe Cinema.

Now that Xinbao Cinema is established, and the decline of Xinyi City has led to insufficient high-quality film sources, Princess Jin and Xinbao Cinema have increased the box office share of the film company at the same time, which has suddenly taken away many independent film companies.

For Jiahe Cinemas and Oriental Cinemas, Princess Jin, Xinbao's move is purely a vicious competition. But Oriental Cinemas doesn't matter, because DreamWorks' large studio system provides it with a stable film source and does not have to worry about the sharing rules of other cinemas.

But Jiahe Theater is different. Most of the films released by satellite companies are from satellite companies. Princess Jin and Xinbao's actions have a great impact on it.

He Guanchang put the newspaper in his hand on the table and said, "Jiahe's biggest competitor is not the company from Princess Jin and Xinbao, but Kang Jianfei's Dream Factory."

Before Zou Wenhuai had time to read today's newspaper, he put on his glasses and swept the newspaper on the table. He instantly saw several keywords: Dreamworks, Shushan, Venice Film Festival, and opening video.

"Is it the big cast that DreamWorks announced the filming of the year before yesterday?" Zou Wenhuai asked in surprise.

He Guanchang nodded and said, "Yes."

Zou Wenhuai asked: "Didn't that movie be cut in half? Why did it suddenly become the opening film of the Venice Film Festival?"

He Guanchang said: "The "Shushan" was cut in half and was uploaded by a newspaper. I asked a friend from DreamWorks. The movie was indeed shelved for a while, and even the male protagonist Zheng Shaoqiu left DreamWorks. However, the shooting plan was restarted later, and the time to rewrite the script, it took a total of 21 months to produce "Shushan".

After hearing this, Zou Wenhuai was silent for a long time and suddenly said, "Fortunately, "Shushan" was not participating in the Cannes Film Festival."

Zou Wenhuai's words are not that the Venetian Film Festival is not as good as the Cannes Film Festival, but because the latter is held in May, and after being shortlisted, it can be released in the summer season. The Venetian Film Festival is held in September, and it will not have a good schedule until the end of December, and the box office gain effect of "Shushan" cannot be maximized.

Seeing Zou Wenhuai breathed a sigh of relief, He Guanchang couldn't help but reminded: "Japan will hold the Tokyo International Film Festival at the end of October."

The Tokyo International Film Festival was the first to be launched this year. Most Hong Kong film practitioners have no idea about this news. He Guanchang only heard a few days ago that the first Tokyo International Film Festival is scheduled to be held at the end of October.

Zou Wenhuai said: "You mean DreamWorks will take "Shushan" to Tokyo for exhibition?"

He Guanchang nodded and said, "The Tokyo International Film Festival has just held its first session, and it is definitely to invite films from all over the world to participate in the exhibition to increase its influence. "Shushan" is the only Chinese-language film shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival this year, and will definitely receive invitations and most of them will win awards."

Zou Wenhuai pondered for a moment and suddenly sighed: "We are fighting here, but DreamWorks are sitting behind the mountain watching the tiger fight." Zou Wenhuai called his assistant over, "Appoint Lei Juekun and Chen Rongmei out for a meal, and said I had something important to discuss with them."

...

The century-old humiliating history of China has formed a huge contrast with the once prosperous and splendid Celestial Kingdom. This contrast brings inferiority to Chinese people all over the world. It also highly praises everything from European and American countries, and even envies and worships Japan, which is separated by water.

As social animals, humans are extremely eager to come from the recognition of others. The expansion of this need for identification to the entire ethnic group is reflected in the Chinese's desire to be recognized and praised by other countries.

Chinese-language films have won few awards internationally, but every award-winning film will inevitably be sought after by all parties.

14 years ago, Hu Jinquan spent 5 years shooting "The Legend of the Condor Heroes". He spent countless money but suffered a box office failure.

This movie that few people like to watch for the first time was released. After consuming dust in the film library for 4 years, it was suddenly shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Cannes Film Festival.

Although he only received one technical award in the end, when "The Legend of the Goddess" was re-released, he made a big box office because of this award.

Some people say that after a movie is nominated for an Oscar, the box office will increase by at least 20 million US dollars. However, the box office experiences of "The Legend of the Goddess" are not just the publicity effect of winning the award. It is given a deeper level of national sentiment.

Over the past decades, this situation has occurred in the Hong Kong and Taiwan film circles two or three times. Once a movie is shortlisted for an international film festival, it will inevitably be popular.

Tang Shuxuan's "Madam Dong" was so literary and artistic that no theater agreed to be screened in Hong Kong. As a result, after being shortlisted for the Cannes Film Festival, major theaters immediately rushed to play it, but they actually got a big box office in Hong Kong, and they made a big profit when it was released in Taiwan.

It is precisely because of these precedents that Zou Wenhuai and He Guanchang are so nervous, because once "Shushan" is allowed to win awards at the Venice and Tokyo Film Festivals in a row, then this year's Christmas and New Year's schedules will not be played, and it will definitely be the world of "Shushan".

What Zou Wenhuai can do is to contact Lei Juekun, Chen Rongmei, Jiahe, Princess Jin and Xinbao to advance and retreat together to resist "Shushan".

...

The Venice Film Festival was founded in 1932 and is the world's first international film festival, so it is also known as the "father of international film festivals". Many great directors have become famous here for decades.

The Venice Film Festival does not allow individual applications, so as early as the end of July, shortly after the post-production special effects of "Shushan" were completed, Shi Nansheng found Tang Shuxuan to discuss. Then, Tang Shuxuan handed over the registration recommendation for "Shushan" to the Venice Film Festival in the name of Oriental Dream Factory, and accompanied by a 3-hour original version of "Shushan". (The participation procedure of the Venice Film Festival is: the film company submits the registration recommendation for the film festival. After evaluation by the film festival experts, qualified movies will receive invitations from the film festival. If the unqualified one can only rent the exhibition area at your own expense to promote it).

The fine editing of the theatrical version of "Shushan" was not yet completed. The original version of "Shushan" was driven out by Xu Ke and Tang Shuxuan stayed up late for several days.

Xu Ke and Tang Shuxuan are both excellent in film abilities. For example, Zhang Shuping's editing skills were learned from Tang Shuxuan in his early years. The 3-hour version of "Shushan" that they worked together to cut together has a worse rhythm and has a much stronger artistic connotation. This kind of movie is not suitable for screening in cinemas, but it is definitely suitable for participating in international film competitions.

Five days after submitting the registration recommendation, DreamWorks received an invitation from the Venice Film Festival to judge, but whether it was shortlisted is still unknown.

"Madam Dong" directed by Tang Shuxuan was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Cannes Film Festival. "Goodbye China" was also exhibited at several major European film festivals in 1978, so she still has a little connection in Europe. "Shushan" was able to get a reply a few days after registration, which was also the result of Tang Shuxuan's privately squeezed out the film to several judges.

Of course, the relationship between Tang Shuxuan and those judges was limited to getting to know each other and having dinner. It was impossible to know the result in advance. While waiting, Tang Shuxuan sent a 2-hour "Shushan" movie version to the film festival, but there was no news.

It was not until September 1 that the Venice Film Festival announced the shortlist. "Shushan" was not only listed on the main competition unit, but also designated as the opening film of the film festival.

When the news came back to Hong Kong, Oriental Daily was the first to report the incident on September 3 because it received information provided by DreamWorks, which immediately caused a sensation in Hong Kong.

In the 80 years since the birth of Chinese films, only a few films have been shortlisted for large international film festivals, and the only one that can become the opening film of the film festival is still the only film "Shushan".
Chapter completed!