Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 142 This won't pass the trial
We decided to have dinner at Quanjude.

There are only a few famous roast duck restaurants in Beijing, including Quanjude, Bianyifang, Dadong, Siji Minfu, Liqun, and Dayali.

Among them, Bianyifang has the oldest history, Dadong is the most expensive, and Quanjude is the most famous.

Dadong is expensive because its main customer group is foreigners. The prices of Quanjude and Bianyifang are similar, but not cheap either.

It's fine for treating guests to a meal, but for ordinary people to satisfy their daily cravings, the better choices are definitely Dayali or Siji Minfu, which are more cost-effective.

Zhang Chen really likes Quanjude's food, which is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

And this store is quite interesting.

Zhang Chen once bought half a roast duck at Quanjude. Half a duck was exactly half a duck, even the duck's mouth was half, just right, and you couldn't find any fault with it.

When Zhang Chen entered the door, the three people had already arrived.

"Hello Director Shang, hello Ning Caishen, sorry, I'm late~"

After some greetings, everyone sat down.

Everyone was a little reserved at the beginning, but after a few drinks, they gradually became familiar with each other.

"Director Zhang, I heard from Manager Dong that it was you who insisted on investing in 'Wulin Wai Zhuan'. Thank you for being so optimistic about our drama."

Shang Jing and Ning Caishen raised their glasses together. In recent times, they have experienced the fickleness of the world in their efforts to attract investment.

When many investors heard that they were going to make a costume sitcom, they kicked them out without even letting them finish their words.

"You are too polite. With your talents, 'Wulin Wai Zhuan' will definitely be a masterpiece..."

After praising him for a while, Zhang Chen turned around and asked, "Boss, how much did we invest in "Wulin Wai Zhuan" in total?"

The boss replied: "The total budget is 1200 million. We invested 1000 million, Ning Caishen invested 150 million, and Director Shang invested 50."

Zhang Chen nodded. The investment situation was similar to what they had discussed before.

Zhang Chen has always believed that for this kind of project, the main creative staff must hold shares, no matter how much.

The mentality of owning shares and not owning shares is completely different.

If you don't hold shares, the project may not be a big deal at the beginning, but in the later stages, when your energy and sheer spirit are almost exhausted, you will most likely develop the mentality of a worker.

Anyway, once the film is done, we can just take the money and leave.

If you own shares, your mentality will be different. You will treat it as your own business, and your subjective initiative will be very different.

"By the way, you two, I haven't asked yet, how is the casting going?"

He asked this because he actually wanted to confirm whether the cast was the same as the original one, so he wouldn't interfere and come up with something like butterfly wings, which would be counterproductive.

"Oh, we have almost contacted the actors. They are basically all the actors from my previous work. Director Zhang, would you like to take a look..."

Shang Jing was actually quite afraid of Zhang Chen's meddling, as no director could stand this, but he was an investor after all.

"No, no, just pick the two actors. Use whoever you think is suitable. I have no objection. I only have one request. The actor who plays Mo Xiaobei must be pleasing to the eye and at least good-looking."

In its original time and space, "Wulin Waijia" is a great TV show to watch while eating, and you never get tired of watching it.

Every character in this movie is vivid and interesting, but the only character Zhang Chen doesn't like is Mo Xiaobei.

No matter how I look at it, I feel like she doesn't fit in with this drama.

They are both young actors, but Yang Zi is so good.

However, his strange request made Shang Jing a little confused, but seeing that Zhang Chen had no intention of interfering too much, he nodded in agreement.

"Is Brother Ning the only one who wrote the script?"

Zhang Chen was not going to call Ning Caishen by his real name anymore, so he just called him by his stage name.

Ning Caishen scratched his head: "Well, I'm alone at the moment."

Zhang Chen immediately said, "This kind of sitcom usually has one or two episodes that are independent stories, and the plots won't be intertwined. I think Brother Ning can find a few more screenwriters and write together. This will be more efficient and easier."

He clearly remembered that when the filming of "Wulin Waijia" was in progress, Ning Caishen's inspiration was exhausted, and writing the script every day became his most painful thing. He even added a constable named "Xie Budong" in the script in the later stage, which sounded like "unable to write".

"That's possible." Ning Caishen was of course happy to lighten his burden.

"Our company has a very mature screenwriter team, and we can let them participate and help write together."

Of course, we should make full use of the ready-made tools.

Moreover, the job of a screenwriter requires you to write more. The more you write, the more experience you gain.

"By the way, I can also invite some celebrities to guest star. I've seen that foreign sitcoms are basically done this way."

In recent years, "Friends" has been all the rage in the disc market. If you are an English major in college, teachers will basically recommend that students buy a set of "Friends" to practice speaking.

At that time, students had just started to watch American TV series, so they had never seen this.

It is common to see a group of people in the dormitory gathered around a computer watching "Friends", and they would burst into laughter from time to time.

"Friends" often has popular Hollywood stars making guest appearances, and "Wulin Waijia" can certainly do the same.

Hearing this, Shang Jing's eyes lit up.

He just makes sitcoms, how could he not know this? He wanted to do this when he was filming "The Story of the Kitchen Team", but unfortunately he didn't have any connections.

Now that Zhang Chen has promised it himself, there should be no problem.

Don’t underestimate this, whether there are guest stars or not is two completely different concepts.

If there are guest appearances by celebrities, at least the price can be higher when selling it to TV stations.

Both the host and the guests enjoyed the meal very much, and Zhang Chen gave a lot of suggestions during the conversation.

"Wulin Wai Zhuan" is a great drama. Almost all the characters in this drama became famous later. The number of replays has set a record, and it is replayed almost every year.

Even twenty years later, when the audience has changed several times, there are still people watching it on demand online.

……

At noon, after getting involved in the "Wulin Waijia" affairs, Zhang Chen appeared in Han Sanping's office in the afternoon with the script of "The Accidental Murderer".

Also present were cinema managers from Shanghai United, BJ New Film Association and Star Media.

Zhang Chen clasped his hands together and said, "The Shallows has made over 100 million yuan, and everyone here has contributed greatly. I hope you will continue to support my next movie. Here is the script, everyone please take a look first~"

After distributing the printed scripts to everyone one by one, Zhang Chen waited quietly.

The success of "The Shallows" proved that his initial expectation was correct. If he wanted good box office results, he had to get the support of theaters.

So this time, "The Accidental Murderer" is also planned to be released in theaters.

"Manslaughter"?
The name didn't sound like a monster movie, so everyone suppressed their curiosity and read it carefully.

Then Zhang Chen discovered that these people frowned at almost the same time.

Theater managers can be said to be the people who understand movies best in the whole of China. After only reading the beginning of the script, they already saw the problem.

Wu Hehu read the fastest and finished after half a while. Not long after, the others also finished.

No one spoke, but they exchanged opinions with their eyes.

Zhang Chen: "What do you think?"

Gao Jun from the New Film Association spoke first: "The script is good, but I'm afraid your plot won't pass the review, right?"

After Gao Jun spoke, others followed suit.

The plot of the script really amazed them. It was definitely a good story, especially the final reversal.

It seems that Zhang Chen is quite experienced in plot twists.

The previous film "The Shallows" was like this, and now "The Accidental Murderer" is like this...

But, this scale...

Han Sanping also said, "Yeah, you definitely won't pass the review like this, even if you set the story in a foreign country."

Han Sanping is an old hand.

Among everyone, he may not be the one who knows movies the most, but he is definitely the one who knows the most about censorship.

"Can't you?"

“No, definitely not.

Although you have given sufficient foreshadowing to the protagonist's motives for doing this, murder is murder.

A murderer gets away with it in the end. This kind of plot will never pass the review. Even if the script is approved through connections, you will not be able to release it in the end."

Han Sanping was very sure.

“But ‘Swordfish’ was released.”

Zhang Chen was still a little unconvinced. The "Swordfish" he was talking about was a Hollywood action movie starring Wolf and Travolta.

Among them, Travolta is a veteran villain in Hollywood. He starred in "Broken Arrow" and "Face/Off" filmed by Wu Baige after he went to Hollywood.

The movie "Swordfish" tells the story of a villain played by Travolta who holds a hacker expert played by Wolf hostage and forces him to help him hack into the government system and steal huge funds.

At the end of the film, Travolta escaped from the police pursuit, which is a relatively alternative ending.

This film was released normally in the country that year, so Zhang Chen mentioned it.

Why is "Swordfish" okay but "The Accidental Murderer" not?

"Don't be stubborn. That was in 01 and it was a foreign film. Now it's 04. There's no comparison at all."

Han Sanping couldn't explain it either. The operations of the Film Bureau were sometimes very mysterious. There was no pattern to what could be approved and what could not be approved.

"Listen to me, if you want this film to pass the censorship and be released normally, the protagonist must turn himself in at the end. There is no room for negotiation..."

After saying that, he still felt a little unsafe, and added: "It would be even better if you could make it a co-production, a China-Hong Kong co-production or a China-Thailand co-production..."

The domestic censorship system has always been relatively tolerant of co-productions.

Topics like corrupt police and evil police are never allowed to be filmed in China, but they can be filmed in Hong Kong.

In Zhang Chen's "The Accidental Murderer", Uncle in the Hat is the villain, which is a big taboo.

Although Zhang Chen has set the story in Southeast Asia, it is still a bit unsafe.

If it can be made into a co-production, the chances of passing the review will be a little higher.

"Zhang Chen, there's no need to argue about this. The movie is the most important~"

At this time, Gao Jun from the New Film Association was also there to advise.

Others echoed.

After all, Zhang Chen is still too young. The success of "The Shallows" made them subconsciously ignore the fact that Zhang Chen is only a junior student.

"Okay~"

Zhang Chen dejectedly took out the second script.

"This is my second plan, everyone take a look~"

(End of this chapter)