Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 516 Pacific Rim Trailer
To be fair, Jet Li's performance in "The Warlords" is actually not bad.

The literary drama can be said to be the strongest among all his works.

But unfortunately, the audience wants to watch his fighting scenes.

You said Chen Kexin didn’t know?
He must know.

Knowing that it was still promoted like that, I can’t blame the audience for cursing.

In fact, this is also the helplessness of all successful action actors.

If you are good at action scenes, the audience will automatically label you as an action actor.

Once you have this label, it means that your action scenes are recognized by everyone.

But on the other hand, it also means that people will not buy into your other types of movies.

This is the case with Jet Li's "The Warlords" and Jackie Chan's "Glass Bottle".

Actually, Zhang Chen was a little confused about Chen Kexin's thinking.

What were they thinking when they spent 100 million to invite Jet Li but didn't film any action scenes?

Jet Li's salary for this film is 100 million.

The quotes for those who come back from Hollywood are really high.

His market value in Hollywood is 1500 million US dollars. His agency allows him to take roles lower than this, but not much lower.

Speaking of which, this guy has made a lot of money in the past two years.

He was not only the leading actor in "Huo Yuanjia", but also the producer, and his final profit exceeded 3000 million US dollars.

In "The Forbidden Kingdom", both he and Jackie Chan received a salary of 1000 million US dollars, but Jet Li only had a fixed salary, while Jackie Chan received a fixed salary + a share of the box office.

In "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor", Jet Li, as the final boss, appeared for only a dozen minutes in total and was also paid $1500 million.

"The Warlords" was based on "The Mummy", so it's already a friendly price.

After all, one only appeared for a dozen minutes, while the other was the leading actor.

The entire "The Warlords" is actually Jiang Wuyang's memoir. In Zhang Chen's opinion, the filming was actually OK.

It’s just because of Chen Kexin’s outrageous behavior that the reputation is very bad.

He was somewhat emotional when filming "The Warlords".

When filming "A Moment of Love" that year, they were full of confidence and wanted to enter the mainland market, but were crushed by "The Promise".

But "The Promise" is garbage.

Being beaten to a pulp by a piece of trash means you are even worse than trash.

Later, I thought I understood the logic of mainland blockbusters: there must be big stars, big scenes, big investments, and good release dates.

So I made "The Warlords" according to this standard.

A big star with a salary of 2.5 million yuan was hired to shoot a large-scale cold weapon war scene involving thousands of people. The investment was million yuan and it was scheduled for the Lunar New Year holiday.

By the way, “The Promise” also taught him a lesson: to cling to the right people.

Chen Kexin's original words:

China Film Corporation was able to make a movie that had such a bad box office in Hong Kong and other parts of the world a huge hit in mainland China. Everyone feels that China Film Corporation's power is invincible!
Therefore, "The Warlords" enlisted the support of China Film Corporation, with the main purpose of joining the group if one cannot defeat the other.

Satisfied that he could make a comeback this time and avenge his previous defeat.

did not expect……

The Douban score of this film hovered between 6.5 and 7 for a long time, and later rose to 7.6.

People in later generations said that this was an underrated good movie, which is not wrong.

The costumes and props are first-rate, and the details are well done.

The cotton-padded jackets of the hungry people were tattered, and the armor of the Qing army was very bulky. They looked protective but not handsome at all.

This is also true of cold weapon combat, where every blow draws blood and every punch hits flesh. There are no fancy moves and it is basically realistic.

This style is sharp and popular in later generations, but in 2007, the audience did not buy it.

Today’s audiences have seen less and prefer those that are flashy, such as… “Hero”.

Are there any movies in the same genre?

Yes, "Heroes of Heaven and Earth", which is also realistic, failed miserably at the box office, proving that this realistic style is not yet accepted by people.

Director Chen Kexin has made a big move this time.

"The Warlords" is not only adapted from the real historical event "The Assassination of Ma Chao", but he also gave a second interpretation to Pang Qingyun, giving him a very complex personality.

Chen Kexin played a lot of tricks:

In the early part of the story, Pang Qingyun gave a passionate speech to Zhao Erhu, and every word he said was about righteousness. You felt that he was a chivalrous man with the world in his heart.

In the middle period, Gou Zi and Xiao Si were killed for military justice;

After Zhao Erhu sneaked into Suzhou to persuade the garrison to surrender, he killed all of them, making Zhao Erhu a dishonest person, simply because he was afraid that these surrendered soldiers would rebel again;
Finally, he even plotted to kill Zhao Erhu, just because the court believed he was disloyal;
At this time, Pang Qingyun's image completely collapsed, and he was a politician who would do anything to climb up.

But at the end, when Pang Qingyun met Cixi, and Cixi asked him what reward he wanted, he only said that he hoped the empress dowager would exempt the Liangjiang area from taxes for three years and let him rest and take care of the people.

At this time, he turned back into the chivalrous man who cared about the world.

I don’t know if the audience felt that the characters were more three-dimensional, but I felt it was very fragmented.

Jet Li has always played high-profile positive roles, such as Fang Shiyu, Hong Xiguan, Huang Feihong, Zhongnanhai bodyguard, Chen Zhen...

Then in "The Warlords", things suddenly turned bad.

The audience will feel emotional and say, Brother Jie, you are getting old and you can’t keep your integrity in your later years?
Back to the movie, it can be seen that Chen Kexin has big ambitions.

He wanted to depict the conflict between the ambition for power and brotherhood, and how an idealist was beaten to a pulp by the intrigues of the court.

Zhang Chen finally understood why Jet Li's action scenes were not filmed.

Because action scenes will steal the show.

There are too many things that Chen Kexin wants to portray. If she adds action scenes, no one will pay attention to these profound things.

"The Warlords" definitely failed at the box office, but it was recognized in terms of awards.

Chen Kexin's painstaking efforts were finally not in vain.

In the 08 Academy Awards, "The Warlords" won the Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay nomination, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Editing nomination, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design...

Jet Li defeated King Andy Lau to win the Best Actor award for his role as Pang Qingyun, finally achieving his breakthrough.

But in fact, if we only talk about the performance in the play, King Liu acted better than Jet Li, but the character of Zhao Erhu is just a template, a fool from beginning to end, while the character of Pang Qingyun is more complicated, so in the end the Best Actor award was given to Jet Li.

In China, "The Warlords" and "Whiplash" were competing fiercely. Almost two months before the release of "Pacific Rim", the first trailer was finally released.

After the logos of Star Entertainment and Warner, the screen went dark. The background sound suddenly turned into a sharp alarm, and then a narration sounded: Humans have always believed that aliens come from outer space, but in fact they come from an alien dimension entrance at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

Then the figure of an aircraft carrier appeared on the screen. The difference was that there was no plane on the aircraft carrier. Instead, there was a huge skeleton.

Then the scene changed, and a huge monster was wreaking havoc on the Golden Gate Bridge. The steel cables of the bridge broke like threads, and cars fell into the sea one after another.

Background sound: In order to deal with monsters, humans began to build their own monsters.

In line with the background sound, the three siblings of the Fan family entered the cockpit, and the lights on the Storm Red suddenly lit up, and the mecha seemed to come to life in an instant. Then the scene changed to a scene where three mechas from China, the United States and Russia were deployed on the battlefield.

Storm Red was the first to be released. The moment it stood up, rain flowed down the outer shell of the mecha.

In the sky behind them, Cherno Alpha and Danger Wanderer were deployed to the battlefield one after another, and the three mechas surrounded the monster.

Flashback
Starring Fan Binbin;
The mecha and the monster fought each other, and the huge fist hit the monster;

Industrial Light & Magic is dedicated;

The Battle of Hong Kong, a chaotic fight between mechas, monsters and pandas;

The latest work by Zhang Chen, director of Taken;
On the streets of Hong Kong, the monster and the mecha gradually approached each other. The monster's steps were heavy, and the mecha Storm Red was dragging a cruise ship in his hand. As the two approached, their speed became faster and faster. The moment they touched, the cruise ship in Storm Red's hand was swung down like a baseball bat...

Then the screen finally showed a line of subtitles: December 12th, "Pacific Rim", see you there!

The editing of a trailer requires a lot of technique and approach.

The picture should be exciting and arouse the audience's interest, but it should not reveal too much of the plot.

These trailers were not edited by Zhang Chen, but by a dedicated person at Warner.

This version of the trailer is not the usual two and a half minutes, but only one minute.

It's not that the editor was lazy, but Warner's publicity strategy.

This time, Warner Bros. is planning to take an unconventional approach in promoting Pacific Rim.

Most movies have one or two trailers, and some blockbusters may have five or six, all of which are around two to two and a half minutes long.

But this time Warner is preparing to release trailers frequently, an average of one every three days, and even one every day in the last half month.

The purpose is simple, which is to arouse the audience's curiosity.

Anyone who has seen a movie knows that the trailer is definitely the most classic part of a movie.

Edited together in a fast-paced manner, it is easy to make people excited.

In addition, "Pacific Rim" is a science fiction film, and both the mechas and monsters in it are elements that are easy to attract attention.

However, as a result, the number of trailers reached a terrifying thirty.

Of course, each one is short.

Except for the first few, the rest only last about half a minute.

There is a drawback to doing this. If a viewer collects all the trailers, he or she will probably know all the plots.

It doesn't matter.

Even if they know it, they will definitely watch it.

For movies like "Pacific Rim", what sells them is never the story, but the special effects.

What people want to see is the hand-to-hand combat between mechas and monsters, not flashbacks.

That’s the beauty of the trailer.

The trailer for "Pacific Rim" was suddenly released on October 10rd on the official website of Star Entertainment.

Not many people know about it at all.

Then Zhang Chen reposted it on his blog, and it went viral.

For media people, Zhang Chen’s blog is a bonus pool, and no one knows how many people are watching it every day.

The trailer was immediately reposted as soon as it was released, then began to spread on major forums, and then spread throughout the entire Internet.

Now Qingcheng Wuji is not only the moderator of Zhangchen Bar, but also a full-time employee of Xingchen Entertainment.

Since the Hong Kong Massacre, he has been summoned to peace.

Different from the Liangshan heroes who were reluctant, Qingcheng Wuji accepted the amnesty with great pleasure.

You don’t have to work in the office, you still do the same job as before, and you get an extra salary.

Well, how should I put it, Qingcheng Wuji’s feelings towards Zhang Chen have now turned from liking him to believing in him.

As long as Zhang Chen doesn't break the law, he can like him for a hundred years. It's really nice to chase stars while getting paid.

But even though he is one of us, he still has no channels to get the trailer, and he still has to rely on himself to carry it.

At this time, the trailer that Qingcheng Wuji moved had just landed on the forum and immediately received dozens of clicks.

Then the dozens quickly climbed to hundreds.

Then someone posted a message.

[It’s beautiful, beyond imagination, unimaginable, this is a science fiction we made ourselves, to be honest, I think it’s better than Transformers~]

[I agree with the above. Director Zhang really didn't let me down. From today on, Zhang Chen is my godfather. Just for the godfather special effects, I must support it when it is released...]

[Storm Red really touched my heart. I really don’t understand how they designed such a cool mecha? ]

[Have you noticed that the mechas of China, the United States and Russia each have their own characteristics, but I still like Storm Red the most~]

[Damn it, didn’t anyone notice that Storm Red had two arms one moment and three arms the next. What the hell is going on…]

[Brother, haven't you read the comics? The comics say that Storm Red died in a battle to defend Hong Kong in the early stage~]

[Oh my god, do I have to be so miserable? No, I have to buy the comics and read them, otherwise I won’t have anything to brag about…]

The comics of "Pacific Rim" have been on sale for half a year, which is a strict calculation.

By the time the movie is released, the comics have also reached the end of the first season. They will not affect each other at all, but will instead have a promoting effect.

[Everyone, I want to ask, at the end of the trailer, I seemed to see a panda. Does the comic say that pandas are also Kaiju? ]

[Well, that's not the case. I don't know what's going on with the panda, but it shouldn't be a Kaijumon. There was a flashback scene where a panda was fighting a Kaijumon. That panda should be on our side...]

[Fuck, the Chinese mythical beast is fighting against the Kaiju beast? ]

[That panda is so handsome, I really want to know what’s going on…]

There are endless discussions on the Internet, but the two most popular ones are Storm Red and the panda.

Especially the panda, there are all kinds of speculations about it.

Some of them are even infinitely close to the truth. We can only say that there are talented people among netizens. It is no exaggeration to say that there are hidden dragons and crouching tigers.

The trailer was very successful, and it successfully implanted an idea into the audience's subconscious mind - this is an extremely exciting movie.

After just watching the trailer, some people can't wait to see the full movie.

After watching the trailer, netizens who were still unsatisfied began to leave messages in an organized manner under Zhang Chen’s blog - they couldn’t get enough!

However, Zhang Chen didn't know all this. After releasing the trailer, he led the team to Busan, South Korea, where the 12th Busan International Film Festival was about to open.

Busan International Film Festival, abbreviated as BIFF.

It is a very young film festival, founded in 1996. It is the most important film festival in South Korea and one of the most influential film festivals in Asia and even the world.

"Pacific Rim" is the opening film of this film festival.

(End of this chapter)