1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 613 "A Sunny Day"

"Finished writing?"

"It's finished."

Haima Film and Television Creation Center.

Jiang Xian took a manuscript from Jiang Wen and could tell at a glance that it was about 100,000 words long.

This is a script.

It was Jiang Wen who volunteered, and it was also the task that was assigned to Jiang Wen.

"A sunny day."

Jiang Xian read the title of the script aloud.

What started as "Animal Fierce" has finally become "In the Heat of the Sun".

"I acted on my own initiative."

Jiang Wen reported to Jiang Xian somewhat nervously, "When I was writing this script, those old scenes kept appearing before my eyes, all bathed in sunshine. I feel nostalgic whenever I think about them. I miss those days in the courtyard, where we were all children who grew up together, surrounded by sunshine and red flags everywhere."

"Hmm, this name change is quite good."

Jiang Xian gave him an affirmation, "Actually, it's quite a coincidence that the name you changed coincides with my original idea. When I was thinking about the title of the novel, I thought of many, including one called 'Sunny Days,' but in the end I chose 'Ferocious Animals,' because I think 'Ferocious Animals' is a better title for the novel."

"Oh, so you already had this in mind." Jiang Wen said with a fawning smile. "You think 'Animal Fierce' is good, then let's stick with 'Animal Fierce' and I won't make any changes."

"Alright, let's call it that."

Jiang Xian ignored Jiang Wen's flattery. "Movies are different from novels. Movies not only need to pay attention to their artistic merit, but also to the market atmosphere. This title will definitely sell more movie tickets than 'Ferocious Animals'."

"You've thought this through so well. Otherwise, you'd be the boss, and I'd still have a lot to learn from you." Jiang Wen said cheerfully, like a wise advisor.

Since the airing of "Stories from the Editorial Department" last year, most of the screenwriters at Haima have been assigned new tasks.

Jiang Wen is directing a film, which is a remake of Jiang Xian's novel "Ferocious Animals".

Jiang Wen himself couldn't understand why, given how famous the novel "Ferocious Animals" was and how many studios were vying to adapt it into films, he didn't hand it over and instead kept it for himself to adapt.

After thinking about it, I guess the subject matter is too sensitive.

If you hand it over to a film studio, they might cut or change things, ultimately altering the original meaning of the novel and losing its essence.

I'd definitely feel much more at ease if I did it myself.

Moreover, this film, "Ferocious Animals," was made as the first movie featuring the seahorse, so it had to be a huge hit.

This novel was already famous and is one of Jiang Xian's representative works. Regardless of the quality or how well it was filmed, it will at least have a group of loyal readers to guarantee that it won't lose all its money.

Moreover, Jiang Wen was happy to adapt this novel into a film.

He loved the novel "Ferocious Animals" so much.

I still remember the first time I read it, it was seven or eight years ago. Jiang Wen was a high school student at the time. The moment I finished reading the novel, all the messy things buried in my heart exploded, and I have never forgotten it since.

By sheer coincidence, I've actually gotten the opportunity to film the novel "Ferocious Animals".

Although Jiang Wen is an actor, he has always dreamed of becoming a director.

When he talked to Liu Xiaoqing, he mentioned that he wanted to be a director, but if he wanted to be a director, he had to study in the United States for ten years.

Liu Xiaoqing is also an extraordinary woman. She told him that what directors need is talent, not experience, and that it would be too late after ten years.

This time, when the opportunity presented itself, Jiang Wen decisively seized it.

He wanted to invite Jiang Xian to write the script, believing that Jiang Xian's involvement would guarantee the script's quality.

Jiang Xian refused, telling him that the famous director Akira Kurosawa once said:

"To become a director, you must first be able to write films."

To sum it up, the gist is: if you want to make a film, then write your own script; I'm too lazy to write one.

So Jiang Wen took on the task of writing the script himself, and went into seclusion to cultivate his skills. He lived in a small room of six square meters, with only a table, a bed, and a small window connecting to the outside world.

Holding "Animal Fierceness," Jiang Wen began writing. He was a novice; he had practiced and written scripts before, but he had never actually written a screenplay for a film.

But as soon as he saw the novel "Ferocious Animals," it was as if he could smell it, as if something was urging his hand to write "swish, swish." Moreover, many times his pen couldn't keep up with his thoughts, but he didn't feel tired or bitter; he just wanted to do it.

I just kept writing, and I've forgotten the exact days I wrote it.

This finally allowed him to complete the script, writing a full 90,000 words.

Jiang Xian glanced at it briefly.

His scriptwriting skills were learned from Cao Yu, and he has written so many scripts over the years that few screenwriters in China can surpass his skills.

And Jiang Wen's script is really good.

When Wang Shuo read Jiang Wen's script, he praised him highly, saying, "You spent several months writing this script, and it's longer than my novel. I studied it and learned how to write a movie script. It's a pity that after all these years, I have indeed been deceiving the world and stealing fame at times."

Even Wang Shuo felt like he was deceiving the world and stealing fame.

Then you'll know how much substance Jiang Wen has put into this script.

"Okay, let's use this for filming." Jiang Xian closed the script, looking satisfied.

Jiang Wen immediately became excited, "Then, the script is finalized? Let's start filming as soon as possible?"

"Not urgent."

Jiang Xian poured cold water on him, saying, "Making movies is a big deal. Movies are more complicated and more expensive than TV series. All of Haima's money is currently invested in TV series. We need to find someone else to invest in movies."

"Find more investors?" Jiang Wen was stunned.

Of course, he had no idea what Jiang Xian was planning.

Jiang Wen, the director, is notoriously unprofitable.

Take, for example, the movie "If You Can Do It, Then Do It" which was filmed in later years.

The entire film took seven years to make, and is said to be the culmination of Jiang Wen's seven years of hard work, with an investment of 280 million yuan.

Generally speaking, box office revenue needs to be at least three times the cost to break even.

With an investment of 2.8 million, the box office needs to reach around 8.4 million to break even.

As a result, the total box office revenue was less than 100 million.

There's basically no hope of breaking even.

This film can be considered the biggest "disaster" of the year. It's also Jiang Wen's third consecutive film to lose money.
What's even more heartbreaking is that five out of Jiang Wen's latest seven films failed to break even!
The math really hits home.

"Gone with the Bullets" cost 3.2 million yuan to produce and grossed 5.13 million yuan at the box office, but ultimately lost 1.1 million yuan.

The film "Hidden Man" cost 2 million yuan to make and grossed nearly 6 million yuan at the box office, but the production company still lost tens of millions of yuan after the revenue was split.

Well, that explains why Huanxi Media signed 11 directors back then, but he wasn't on the list.

In the film industry, he's truly daring, willing to throw anything at it, but he's not guaranteed to recoup his losses.

Furthermore, the details are quite outrageous.

The screenwriter of "Hidden Man" was locked up for 400 days and lost more than 40 pounds before handing over the script. It was like being in prison. Old Li scratched his head and muttered: What's the point of this? Is it really necessary to write a story?

For "Gone with the Bullets," the art department moved 6 tons of corn to fill a train car for a single shot. Just imagining that scene is exhausting. It took four years to produce a film. At that speed, any investor would be furious. In Northeastern dialect, that's incredibly persistent!

Sigh, let's fight it out.

Finally, "Hidden Man" and "Gone with the Bullets" were brought up again and analyzed repeatedly.

What about money?

I didn't manage to earn it.

In fact, this sign was already evident when he was making movies in his early career.

To achieve the effect of a black and white film in "Devils on the Doorstep," a total of 480,000 rolls of film were used, costing more than 30 million yuan.

The film was taken to the Cannes Film Festival and won an award, but it failed to pass censorship in China. In addition, it was penalized by the Film Bureau for participating in the competition without approval, and was banned from making films for five years.

Then came "The Sun Also Rises," which cost nearly 100 million yuan, but how much did it gross at the box office? 35,000! It hadn't even started to make a profit when it was released, and it was losing money so badly that it was almost unsustainable. Jiang Wen even thought that this was his final film.

Looking back over the years, it seems that only "Let the Bullets Fly" has made a profit.

As for the film "In the Heat of the Sun," the investors were actually from Hong Kong. Liu Xiaoqing helped Jiang Wen find Manfred Wong as a matchmaker.
Who is Manfred Wong?
Fans familiar with Hong Kong films should recognize this name.

Uh, Stephen Chow has a movie called "Forbidden City Cop", which has an "awards ceremony" in it.

The scene was filmed in a very comical way, yet it also contained a subtle satire, implying that some judges didn't know what they were talking about.

Who are they talking about?
Given that he didn't win any Hong Kong Film Awards at the time, it's easy to guess that he was referring to Manfred Wong, a famous film critic, screenwriter, and producer in Hong Kong at the time.

Manfred Wong was the screenwriter of "Young and Dangerous" and the chairman of the Hong Kong Film Awards at the time, holding a very important position in the awards.

There's no known time when he and Stephen Chow developed a grudge, but he actually said something like, "With me around, Stephen Chow can forget about winning Best Actor."

However, he later followed the trend of popularity and transformed into a "celebrity fan".

Manfred Wong, who was looking to develop his career in mainland China at the time, hit it off immediately with Jiang Wen. He was brimming with confidence for the film "In the Heat of the Sun," even slamming his fist on the table during an investor meeting.
“Investing in Jiang Wen should be worthwhile. He is recognized as the most talented male actor in China, and his popularity is far beyond what people imagine. Liu Xiaoqing, who volunteered to be the director, is a household name in mainland China. When we invest, we are not investing in the film, but in them. The return will definitely be worthwhile!”

Wen Jun made this bold statement.

Jiang Wen was moved to tears and said, "Brother, I will definitely repay you and live up to your expectations."

Well, Wen Jun probably never imagined that Jiang Wen's little drama would suffocate both his wallet and his soul.

How good is Jiang Wen at squandering money?
It's said that Cameron is incredibly extravagant with his spending. The most famous example is during the filming of "Titanic," when a group scene in a restaurant was filmed. Because the plates didn't have logos, Cameron simply waved his hand and scrapped everything that had already been filmed, and started filming again.

However, when it comes to spending money, even director James Cameron would have to call Jiang Wen "senior".

The plane's color is wrong? Repaint it and reshoot.

You've finished filming all your scenes and are ready to leave? No way! Your clothes are too new. We'll have to come back and age them again, then reshoot the scene!
Even the chimney of Prince Gong's Mansion was repainted and reshot because the color seemed wrong after the photos were taken!

Fortunately, this fellow wasn't completely devoid of humanity and hadn't gone to the point of being insane. He felt it was too much of a waste of manpower and resources, so in the end he only painted half of it. That's why the chimney of Prince Gong's Mansion has always been gray on one side and red on the other.

Then there are photos of Milan.

This photo, which is highlighted and whose price attracts the main subject, is featured prominently.

The protagonist is obsessed with this photo, and Jiang Wen seems to have become obsessed as well, being particularly fussy about this prop.

Ning Jing, wearing a swimsuit, was photographed a hundred times!

A hundred times!

A full 16 minutes of footage! A total of 960 seconds! 24 frames per second!
That is to say, one photo was selected from 23040 images!
At the time, the editor was a woman, and she directly protested, saying that because Jiang Wen and she spent the night in a dark room editing footage, rumors would spread throughout the crew if this continued.

Jiang Wen was quick-witted and said that this was too easy to solve. It just so happened to be Valentine's Day that year, so he gave every girl in the crew a box of chocolates.

Sigh, he continued to use this style in his later films.

In "The Sun Also Rises," during a 50-second scene of hunting, dozens of boxes of bullets were used up, and hundreds of pheasants were killed. The scene was so desolate that nothing grew in their wake.

In short, Jiang Wen's actions were so outrageous that Wen Jun realized he couldn't handle it halfway through filming, so he simply ran away and disappeared.

Jiang Wen desperately faxed him messages asking for the money.

After a final barrage of messages, Manfred Wong finally replied, saying that he was short of money lately and that his younger brother had been filming a Stephen Chow movie and was earning a living as an actor.

It just so happens that the film was "Forbidden City Cop".

Manfred Wong repeatedly claimed that he hated Stephen Chow the most, but he was forced to work in Stephen Chow's movies to make money.

Then you'll know how terrifying director Jiang Wen is.

Knowing the inside story, Jiang Xian naturally couldn't follow in Wen Jun's footsteps.

"In the Heat of the Sun" was Haima's debut film, and it was intended to make a splash and establish Haima's reputation. Therefore, the quality of the film could not be low. That's why Jiang Xian decided to make "Animal Ferocity," but the investors...
Let whoever wants to be it be it.

I heard that Liu Xiaoqing even gave Jiang Wen her own grocery money to support his filmmaking.

At that time, Liu Xiaoqing was already a millionaire.

Jiang Xian isn't Liu Xiaoqing; he wouldn't use all his savings to play this game with Jiang Wen.

Let others bear the investment risks.

When Jiang Wen heard that Jiang Xian was unwilling to spend money, he was extremely anxious. However, when Jiang Xian said that he would help him find investment, his anxiety was relieved a little.

"Okay, then I'll look for some actors in the meantime."

"Yes, this needs to be put on the agenda. We should try to get investment in so we can start filming immediately," Jiang Xian instructed.

I chatted with Jiang Wen for a while about "In the Heat of the Sun" before sending him away.

Then he received another call from the Emei Film Studio, informing him that filming for the movie "The Troubleshooters" had wrapped up.

(End of this chapter)