Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 261 Introduction
Surprise, definitely a surprise!

In fact, before coming, all theater managers had their expectations for "Stone".

They all work in cinemas, and their most important job every day is to watch movies. They can usually tell whether a movie is good or not after watching it a few times.

Zhang Chen had boasted a lot before, saying that Ning Hao was a genius in the film industry and that "Stone" was great, but everyone was an old hand and just thought he was just hype.

But today's "Stone" really gave them a surprise.

There are only a few films with multi-line narratives in the world so far. Why?
Because this type of movie not only has high requirements for the script, but also for the director.

Most movies have a main plot, and the story takes place along the main plot, with at most one secondary plot.

The reason why multi-line narrative is called multi-line narrative is because there are multiple clues moving forward in parallel, and then converging into one point at a certain moment, giving people a sense of surprise.

Many people watch "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "The Stone" and just think that the scripts are clever, but they don't know that this type of movie also has extremely high requirements for the director.

There are multiple main lines of advancement, and they are actually divided into primary and secondary ones, but if one is not handled well, the logic of the movie will appear confusing, and the whole movie will be ruined.

"Stone" has four clues, one is the security department headed by Bao Shihong, one is the Dao Ge trio, one is the international thief Mike, and the other is Xie Xiaomeng.

The four lines intersect with each other, resulting in all kinds of coincidences and errors.

The jokes come from these intersections, giving people the illusion that they are being fooled by God.

At the beginning of the movie, a Coke can connects the three lines of the Security Department, Dao Ge's trio and Xie Xiaomeng, which is amazing.

At the end of the movie, several clues are also intertwined.

Xie Xiaomeng replaced the real jade with a fake one, and then gave the real jade to Jingjing.

Jingjing's affair was discovered, and Dao Ge thought the jade was fake, so he replaced it with a fake one.

Boss Feng discovered that the jade was fake, and Dao Ge knew he had done something stupid.

Mike wanted to prove himself, but found out that he had killed his own employer.

Bao Shihong exchanged the fake jade he had snatched back as a real one, but gave the real one to his girlfriend as a fake one.

One misunderstanding follows another, with countless jokes in between.

It can be seen that the movie borrowed from "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", but the borrowing was very successful and the conception was extremely ingenious.

Theater managers all agreed that the film was very well made.

At this time, they looked at Ning Hao differently.

At the same time, he also had a higher opinion of Xingchen Entertainment. From then on, this company not only had Zhang Chen, but also Ning Hao.

No wonder Zhang Chen would go all out for him, no wonder Zhang Chen said Ning Hao is a genius!
Zhang Chen smiled and said, "It seems that everyone is very satisfied with the quality of the film. I believe no one will think that I am bragging now."

The cinema managers laughed, they all knew what was going on.

In terms of script, there is no better one in China, and in terms of its excitement, it is even better than "The Accidental Detective".

If "Infernal Affairs" was the beginning of Hong Kong films paying attention to scripts, then they had a hunch that "Stone" was probably the beginning of mainland China paying attention to scripts.

"Congratulations to Director Zhang and Manager Dong. Your company has produced another masterpiece. What's even more gratifying is that you have added such a great director."

Theater managers congratulated them one after another. They are the group that is most happy to see the birth of a masterpiece.

Only when there are good movies will people be more willing to go to the cinema and the cinema chains will make more profits.

At the same time, everyone has officially recognized Ning Hao as an excellent director.

If the previous film "The Dark Knight Rises" still relied on the influence of the previous work, then with this "Stone", Ning Hao has completely proved his directorial skills.

Some people will definitely say that in "Stone", the script is more important than the director.

Hehe, the script was also written by Ning Hao, but it was completed by three people, the other two being his wife and Yue Xiaojun.

"Manager Dong, has the release date of Stone been set?"

The person asking the questions was Gao Jun from New Film Association.

Among the three major cinema chains, New Film Association has the closest relationship with Xingchen Entertainment. Gao Jun is very optimistic about Zhang Chen. Every time Zhang Chen's movie is released, New Film Association will give it a substantial tilt in the screening schedule.

Dong Jianqiang glanced at Zhang Chen and said, "July 7th."

"July?" The theater managers were a little surprised, as they originally thought it would be August.

But someone immediately thought he had figured out the key.

Xu Ke's "Seven Swords" will be released on July 7th. "Stone" will be released half a month earlier than "Seven Swords". It seems that this is an attempt to snipe "Seven Swords".

They also knew that Zhang Chen had offended the Hong Kong circle because of Ning Hao, so it was natural for them to think so.

But it doesn't matter to them.

"Seven Swords" was invested by a Hong Kong company, and mainland theaters did not participate in the investment, so it doesn't matter to them whether it is right or wrong.

Several managers of major cinema chains exchanged glances.

Zhang Chen watched the whole process, and he paid special attention to Gao Jun.

In his previous life, "Stone" was released in 06. With a cost of 300 million, it earned more than 2000 million at the box office. It was praised by the media as a box office dark horse, and Ning Hao himself was dubbed the "genius director".

But Gao Jun was not interested in "Stone" at that time and even sang a different tune.

He once publicly stated that the success of "Crazy Stone" was just a coincidence in time, and that dialect comedy was not the right way for low-budget movies.

then……

Then, Ning Hao's second film "Racing" directly entered the 100 million yuan club.

In his previous life, Gao Jun had been very critical of "Stone", but in this life, probably because of Star Entertainment, Gao Jun highly praised "Stone" and even Ning Hao.

"Since everyone thinks the quality of the film is pretty good, I hope the managers will take good care of it in the next scheduling~"

Zhang Chen stood up and said that Ning Hao was still a little unknown, so at this time, Zhang Chen must support him.

Theater managers promised that the atmosphere was good.

Producers want to maintain good relations with theaters, and theaters also want to form long-term cooperation with capable producers. As long as the movie is good enough, everyone's interests are the same.

"Then on behalf of Director Ning, I would like to thank you all in advance~" Zhang Chen smiled and bowed, "Well, after watching the movie for such a long time, everyone must be hungry. We have prepared a dinner and some small gifts. Please move over..."

As the host, basic etiquette must be followed - a one-stop service for food and drink. Although the status of the guests is not low, no one cares about these things, but I can refuse them, but you can't refuse to give them.

Otherwise it would be ignorant.

A dinner is a party in nature. The atmosphere is relaxed and there is space between people, which is very conducive to interpersonal communication.

Today's film screening is not just a film screening, Zhang Chen also intends to push Ning Hao out.

At present, the quality of the film has been recognized by everyone. The next step is to introduce Ning Hao to various bigwigs at the party.

If the movie released this time was "Taken" instead of "Stone", there would be no film screening at all.

Zhang Chen is already a big director with two billion-dollar works under his belt.

But Ning Hao needs it.

Although "Stone" is of high quality, movie promotion cannot rely solely on word of mouth.

Especially when the movie is first released, word of mouth has not yet built up, and the attitude of the media is very important at this time.

Xingchen Entertainment now has many enemies. It goes without saying that when "Stone" is released, it will certainly be subject to a lot of criticism. This requires that the other party must not be allowed to gain the upper hand in public opinion in the early stages.

That's what the famous journalists and film critics invited here do.

Well-known journalists have media resources, and well-known film critics usually have columns in major magazines, which are what "Stone" needs.

At the dinner, Zhang Chen took Ning Hao to toast to various bigwigs and introduced Ning Hao to them.

"Manager Zhang, this is Ning Hao, the director of Stone. Please take care of him in the future~"

"Mr. Wang, thank you for your support of Stone. This is Ning Hao. Even if we get to know each other, we are still friends~"

Zhang Chen spared no effort to expand his good brother's network.

He is not afraid of Ning Hao going solo. Ning Hao is his good brother. As long as things develop well, Zhang Chen would be happy even if he doesn't cooperate with him.

It can be seen that Ning Hao is not used to such occasions, and he is simply forced to follow Zhang Chen to socialize.

"Congratulations to Director Zhang and Director Ning for another great work~"

Wanda Ye Ning came forward with a smile.

"It all depends on Mr. Ye's support, Haozi, this is Mr. Ye from Wanda~"

Zhang Chen introduced to Ning Hao that although Wanda only has four cinemas now, Zhang Chen does not dare to underestimate them. It will be the largest cinema chain in China in the future and will cover the entire industry chain.

“Stone is such a good movie, Wanda must support it, we are looking forward to further cooperation with Director Zhang and Ning Hao…”

The last time they met, Ye Ning vaguely mentioned that he wanted to become a partner with Xingchen Entertainment.

Just like in its previous life, Wanda is not satisfied with just running a cinema chain and wants to get involved in every aspect of the film industry.

"Okay, okay, there will definitely be a chance."

Zhang Chen is certainly willing to make friends with such potential stocks. Making movies in China is always inseparable from theaters. If a movie has the support of theaters, it is at least half successful.

Throughout the entire dinner, Zhang Chen took Ning Hao to meet various bigwigs, and the party only stopped halfway through.

The two of them found a corner, and when they saw that no one was paying attention to them anymore, Ning Hao put away his smile.

"Not used to it?"

Ning Hao nodded.

"I'm not used to it either. Usually, this is what Manager Dong does."

Zhang Chen finally went ahead with it today for the sake of his good brother.

"I...I'm a little worried..."

"worry about what?"

"Worried about the box office~"

Zhang Chen smiled and patted his shoulder: "Don't worry, the box office of Stone will be good."

In the previous life, the cast of "Stone" was all amateurs, and it was able to get more than 2000 million at the box office.

In this life, the cast of "Stone" has been greatly upgraded, and neither the production nor the publicity are comparable to the past. If it still fails, Zhang Chen will not have the face to say that he is a reborn person.

The previous life's "Stone" was really stingy.

The only familiar faces in the whole film are Liu Hua and Guo Tao.

These two people just look familiar, but the audience can't even remember their names.

Guo Tao is actually quite famous in the drama world and has very good acting skills, but he seems to have a special physique and it's difficult for him to become popular.

Even in later generations, when people talk about Guo Tao, the only one they remember is "Parents' Love".

He is the protagonist in "Stone", but he is not the famous one.

Huang Bo became famous, Liu Hua became famous, and Wang Xun became famous too, but Guo Tao, who had the most roles, did not become famous.

Huang Bo was really an amateur before "Stone". Although he had starred in "Get On the Bus, Let's Go", he was not famous.

It was a TV movie and was never shown in theaters.

After "Stone", his career took off and he has been unstoppable ever since.

After "Racing", he became a first-tier star directly.

The others, Yue Xiaojun and Wang Xun, are all amateurs as well.

Yue Xiaojun’s main job is not acting, but screenwriting.

He has participated in a series of Ning Hao's films.

Wang Xun is even more of an amateur, just a comedian in the Sichuan Opera Theater. After "Stone", he jumped out of Sichuan Opera and entered the attention of people across the country, and his career has risen exponentially.

Although there was an awkward period afterwards, with the help of Huang Bo, he was doing well.

Otherwise, why would he change his wife?

(End of this chapter)