"The Chess" has been released for more than a month, and millions of viewers go into theaters every day to watch this movie, setting off a huge movie-watching craze across the country.

At the same time, the media has also paid very high attention to this movie. Many film magazines including "Popular Cinema", "Film Art", "Film Review", "Contemporary Film" and so on have given high praise to "The Chess".

"Popular Films": "The Chess Master" is an excellent patriotic film that deserves the love of all Chinese people.

"Film Art": Knowing that something cannot be done but doing it, Jiang Nansheng interprets the true meaning of "Chess Master" with a fearless spirit.

"Contemporary Film": With his profound artistic skills, Chen Huaikai dedicated a patriotic film to the national audience, leading the audience back to that turbulent era.

In these media, in addition to articles praising "The Master of Chess", they also published stills of "The Master of Chess".

Tony Leung Ka-fai is the absolute protagonist of "The King of Chess", so his face has appeared frequently in these movie magazines for more than a month, coupled with the popularity of "The King of Chess" and "The King Behind the Curtain".

The popularity of his face is now as good as that of local movie stars such as Zhu Shimao, Zhou Lijing, Liu Xiaoqing and Pan Hong.

"Hui Zai is now a big star popular on both sides of the Taiwan Strait!"

When they met again, Lin Chaoyang saw Liang Jiahui and couldn't help but patted him on the shoulder and joked.

Listening to his words, Liang Jiahui looked shy, "Mr. Lin, you are joking. I cannot have this fame without the cultivation of you and Director Li!"

Lin Chaoyang laughed loudly, "There is no need to cultivate or not cultivate. It's up to you to strive for success."

He said to Li Hanxiang again: "Old Li, you have picked it up this time. Hui Zai is not only the new Best Actor at the Academy Awards, but also a box office elixir. If "Fire Dragon" does not succeed, it will be your fault."

Li Hanxiang said, "Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah!" "Crow's mouth! My movie will definitely gain both box office and word-of-mouth success. Stop cursing me!"

Lin Chaoyang shook his head, "Feudal superstition!"

After the success of "Curtain Behind the Curtain" last year, Li Hanxiang originally planned to pursue the victory and make a series about Cixi, but he ended up falling out with the co-production company due to uneven distribution of the spoils.

This time he found CCTV to cooperate, and the subject of the movie changed from Cixi to Puyi. These two people can be regarded as the historical figures that Li Hanxiang is most interested in in the later stage of his career.

The idea of ​​filming Puyi actually preceded the filming of Cixi. However, four years ago, Li Hanxiang came to the mainland and proposed to the superiors to make a film about Puyi based on Puyi's "The First Half of My Life", but it was rejected.

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The reason given above is that some people around Puyi are still alive and have not yet made a final decision, so it is difficult for the film to accurately process it.

This time Li Hanxiang came up with the subject of Puyi again. The reason why it was successfully passed is that on the one hand, after a few years, many people who are still alive have withered away, and on the other hand, Li Hanxiang found a different approach this time.

This time he abandoned "The First Half of My Life" and adopted "The Second Half of His Life" written by Puyi's wife Li Shuxian after the liberation.

It tells the story of the second half of the life of the former emperor Puyi as an ordinary person after liberation, and the love life between him and his wife Li Shuxian.

In this way, there will be far fewer taboo areas in the film, and naturally there will be no obstacles to filming.

"Fire Dragon" is scheduled to start shooting in early December. One of the main filming locations of the movie is Puyi's former residence, located at No. 40 Dongguanying Hutong, Xicheng District, just across from the two-in-one courtyard house that Lin Erchun bought some time ago.

An alley.

Today, Lin Chaoyang was invited by Li Hanxiang to come here for a walk. The preparations for the filming of "Fire Dragon" have basically been completed, and the filming will start in two days.

"The Chess Master" was successfully released in Hong Kong, and Li Hanxiang was very excited when talking about it.

He didn't direct this movie, but he invested hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong dollars, and now the movie has gained a lot of box office and word-of-mouth reviews. Naturally, he, as an investor, will benefit from it.

Don't look at the fact that the 10 million box office of "The Master" in Hong Kong is far less than the nearly 30 million of the two parts of "The Master", but the investment in "The Master" is also low, only one-fifth of the investment of "The Master"

One of them, Duoduo, is a typical example of Xiao Bo Da.

The box office share of Hong Kong alone doubled Li Hanxiang's investment share, and according to Li Hanxiang, film producers from Southeast Asia have been contacting him recently.

Southeast Asia has always been one of the ticket warehouses for Xiangjiang movies, but Xiangjiang movies are mainly introduced there through buyouts.

In the past two years, Hong Kong movies have been booming. Some big-budget movies with strong star casts are often cast only by the cast, and film producers from Taiwan and Southeast Asia take the initiative to send money with cash boxes.

"Chess Master" is a co-production between Mainland China and Hong Kong. There is no need to worry about the Bay Island market, and the Southeast Asian market must not be ignored.

According to Li Hanxiang's estimation, it is not a big problem to earn HK$3 million from this wave of buyouts of "The Master of Chess".

When Li Hanxiang said this, his tone was full of regret, "It's a pity that "The Master of Chess" doesn't have any big stars, otherwise it wouldn't be impossible to sell it for five million!"

Then he asked Lin Chaoyang, "How big is the box office of "Chess" in the mainland now?"

"I don't know. All the money went into China Film's pocket. I guess it should be 40 million."

It has only been released for one and a half months, and based on the popularity of "Chess", the box office of 40 million is only a conservative figure.

"That's more than 1 billion Hong Kong dollars. People in Hong Kong think that the mainland is poor and the market is small. They don't understand the terrifying power of a market of one billion people!"

Li Hanxiang lamented the short-sightedness of his peers, but he couldn't help but complain about the distribution system of the mainland film industry.

"If we use Xiangjiang as an analogy, China Film Academy is the same as Shaw Brothers 20 years ago! All the staff in front of and behind the scenes can only receive wages, and all the money earned belongs to the boss.

It’s really strange, how can such a system be maintained for decades? And the mainland’s film market can still be so prosperous?”

"Your metaphor makes some sense, but it's not entirely correct.

The existence of China Film Group certainly poses certain constraints on the development of the film industry, but its existence also has a positive side.

You have to know that in addition to cities, China also has vast rural areas.

A large part of the huge profits that China Film makes from releasing movies every year is invested in rural areas. It is precisely because of the existence of those rural screening teams that ordinary people can watch movies for a few cents, and even

Watch movies for free.

This is also an important factor in promoting the prosperity of the Chinese film market.

But you said that the current film market is booming, which is not accurate. In fact, the domestic film market has been shrinking in recent years.

In the past, ordinary people had no other means of entertainment, and watching movies was the most cost-effective activity.

The number of TV sets has increased in recent years, and with the impact of new things like video halls, I am afraid that the movie market will continue to shrink in the next few years."

Lin Chaoyang's analysis was so insightful that Li Hanxiang nodded unconsciously. His understanding of the mainland film market was very superficial. After Lin Chaoyang's analysis, he felt a little enlightened.

"Chaoyang, according to you, it won't be easy to make money in the mainland film market in the future?"

"The film industry is a winner-takes-all. As long as the film is good, there is no argument that it will not make money. But with China Film here, it is indeed impossible for outside capital to make money."

Li Hanxiang nodded again, and after pondering for a moment, he asked again: "Speaking of which, the box office of the movies you wrote as a screenwriter were tens of millions or hundreds of millions, and you only received 18,000 yuan in royalties. Do you feel sad?"

Lin Chaoyang smiled and said: "Acid is useless, this is the reality."

Li Hanxiang wanted to continue talking, but someone happened to come over at this time, so he had to stop the topic.

"Brother Chaoyang! Long time no see!"

The visitor had a Chinese character face and was wearing a windbreaker. As soon as he approached, he enthusiastically held Lin Chaoyang's hand.

"Shifang, I haven't seen you for a long time, why are you here?"

The visitor is Zou Shifang, grade 77 of the Department of Philosophy at Yan'an University. He was a key force in literature and art when he was in school. He participated in the establishment of the May 4th Literary Society and was responsible for the magazine "Weiming Lake". He was an acquaintance with Lin Chaoyang.

"I'll come over to the crew for an interview."

Zou Shifang said hello to Li Hanxiang and Liang Jiahui.

After graduation, he was assigned to the supplement of the "People's Political Consultative Conference" as an editor and reporter. Puyi's workplace during his lifetime was in the CPPCC. After a while, the crew would go to the CPPCC compound for filming.

"Fire Dragon" is a film about the second half of Puyi's life. As the CPPCC media, "People's Political Consultative Conference News" naturally needs to pay more attention to it.

Zou Shifang came with a mission this time. Li Hanxiang and Liang Jiahui both had to be interviewed and some photos were taken.

When taking pictures, Zou Shifang called Lin Chaoyang together again, and everyone took a few more photos.

At noon, Li Hanxiang arranged to go to Donglaishun to eat hotpot mutton. Eating hotpot mutton in this season is naturally a beautiful thing, and everyone agreed.

When he arrived at Donglaishun and had some hotpot mutton, Li Hanxiang resumed the topic interrupted by Zou Shifang in the morning.

"If a production company in Hong Kong asked you to write a script, would you do it?"

Lin Chaoyang looked at him, "Who? You?"

Li Hanxiang laughed and said, "My small workshop cannot satisfy your huge appetite. I just started chatting with people from some production companies during this period, and they are all very interested in you."

"Interested? Are there any production companies in Xiangjiang that value screenwriters?"

Li Hanxiang said: "Xinyi City has become extremely popular in the past few years. Now not only the stars in front of the stage are making money, but the heroes behind the scenes are also getting dividends."

When he mentioned New Art City, Lin Chaoyang looked a little serious.

New Art City started its business by relying on a group of very talented filmmakers. Compared with companies like Shaw Brothers that treat talents as footwashing water and throw them away after use, New Art City is a rare group in the Hong Kong film industry.

Clear stream.

But at this stage, Xinyi City seems to have begun to split, right?

Lin Chaoyang chatted with Li Hanxiang for a while and listened to him talk about the situation of Xinyi City in the past one or two years.

Although Xinyi City has achieved great things now, the abnormal ownership structure has led to constant internal struggles within the company.

He was a short-legged tiger before. At the beginning of this year, Xu Ke, one of the Seven Eccentrics of New Art City, left and established his own studio after filming the annual box office champion "The Queen's Secret Order" for New Art City.

, the name is called Film Studio.

His wife, Shi Nansheng, is also a top official in Xinyi City. Naturally, Shi Nansheng cannot stay if he leaves. The couple's departure is nothing less than a major blow to Xinyi City.

Fortunately, after the couple established the studio, the financial backer was still Princess Jin’s boss Lei, who could be regarded as half of Xinyi City’s allies.

Lin Chaoyang listened to Li Hanxiang for a long time and asked: "I heard when I was in Xiangjiang that Xinyi City is full of talents. There should be no shortage of scripts, right?"

"Who told you that New Art City is looking for you to write a script? We have so many people, do we need you?"
To be continued...