Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 441 Ice and Fire

After the movie ended, Cao Sheng didn't rush to leave the theater. He watched the end credits on the screen and listened to the end credits song while waiting for the other audience members to leave.

He is already aware of his status as a celebrity, and in such public settings, he will not rush to leave the screening room first.

Therefore, even though he was sitting still, he could hear some audience members talking as they left the theater.

"This movie is truly amazing! The online reviews are genuine!"

"Yeah! It's really great! Andy Lau is so handsome in this movie!"

"He's really handsome! His IQ is amazing!"

"Although Zhongyuan Yidianhui is a bit of a womanizer, his screenwriting skills are truly amazing! I'm afraid only he could write a script like this!"

"It's amazing that our mainland can produce someone like Zhongyuan Yidianhui..."

……

Listening to the audience passing by discussing the "a speck of dust in the Central Plains," Cao Sheng smiled slightly.

Why did the female audience member praise him first, instead of saying "Zhongyuan Yidianhui is a bit of a womanizer"?
Are the recent rumors spreading this widely?
When the screening room was almost empty, Cao Shengcai took out sunglasses from his pocket, put them on, and walked out of the screening room unhurriedly.

Just as he stepped out of the movie theater and was about to get into his car, his cell phone rang.

He took out his phone and saw that the caller ID showed Andy Lau.

Cao Sheng opened the car door, got in, and answered the call.

"Hello? Mr. Cao! This is Hua Zai. Is now a convenient time to talk?"

Cao Sheng: "Hello, it's convenient. Please let me know if you need anything!"

Andy Lau: "Hehe, it's nothing really. It's just that our next stop for 'Drishyam' is Huizhou for promotional activities, and the director and Manyu both want to meet you. Do you have the time to spare and have a couple of drinks with our main creative team?"

Cao Sheng: "Oh? Really? You're coming to Huizhou to do promotions? No way?"

In his memory, popular movies rarely come to Huizhou when they are promoting themselves.

They usually go to big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

Even when people come to Anhui Province to promote their work, they usually go to the provincial capital. This is the first time he has ever heard of someone coming to Huizhou to promote their work.

Andy Lau: "Hehe, yes! The main reason is that everyone wants to meet you and get to know you. Of course, Huizhou is so beautiful, and everyone wants to come and see it. I wonder if you have some free time?"

What else could Cao Sheng say?

People say that they come to Huizhou to promote their cause mainly because they want to see him. How could he possibly refuse?

"Sure! When are you arriving? I'll treat you all then."

Andy Lau: "The day after tomorrow! Yes! The day after tomorrow! We're going to Hangzhou tomorrow, and we'll arrive in Huizhou the day after tomorrow, probably in the morning. I hope we can have lunch together."

Cao Sheng: "Okay! I understand."

……

After ending the call, Cao Sheng drove away.

at the same time.

In a private room at a hotel in Shanghai, the creative team behind "Drishyam" remained silent, all looking at Andy Lau.

Director Lau Wai-kwong, lead actress Maggie Cheung, supporting actor Chan Pak-cheung, and others all put down their chopsticks and remained silent. After Andy Lau put down his phone, Lau Wai-kwong smiled and asked, "Did Mr. Cao agree?"

Andy Lau smiled and nodded.

Maggie Cheung: "Andy Lau's influence is still very useful. Speaking of which, I haven't met Mr. Cao yet. Now that we've met, I must toast him properly!"

Chan Pak-cheung was all smiles. He has a good reputation in the industry and is very successful. Although his role in "Drishyam" was small, he was still considered a major character.

This time, she even managed to infiltrate the main creative team.

At this moment, he also said, "I hope Cao Sheng can hold his liquor better, so I can have a few drinks with him then! His screenwriting skills are truly unparalleled."

Maggie Cheung remarked with some emotion, "To be honest, our film couldn't compare to 'The Legend of Zu' in terms of star power when it was released at the same time. I never expected that we would completely outperform 'The Legend of Zu' at the box office and in terms of word-of-mouth. I think everyone can see the role the script played."

Director Liu Weiqiang waved his hand and said, "Is there any need to say more? Although I am the director, I know that the success of this film is mainly due to the script!"

Maggie Cheung looked at Andy Lau with a smile, "Andy! Everyone says that this script was tailor-made for you by Mr. Cao. It seems that you two have a good personal relationship. I wonder if you can ask Mr. Cao to write another one for you when you see him this time? If he does, we can collaborate again?"

Andy Lau listened with a broad smile, and was about to speak when Chan Pak-cheung raised his hand and said, "Count me in! Count me in too! Let's have the original cast collaborate again!"

This was echoed by everyone in the private room, except for Andy Lau.

Andy Lau's smile deepened.

He was in a very good mood, of course.

His acting skills and the quality of his films are often criticized, so his desire to star in good movies is naturally very strong.

Although the final box office figures for "Drishyam" are still some time away, the current box office performance and word-of-mouth are enough to convince everyone that the film's total box office will definitely not be bad.

"Drishyam," which was released on the first day of the Lunar New Year, has now grossed over 2000 million yuan at the mainland box office, and he believes it will become one of his representative works.

He was even happier about the success of this film than the box office success of "Infernal Affairs".

Although "Infernal Affairs" is still in the later stages of production, it cannot be released for the time being.

However, if only one of these two films can be a box office hit, he would prefer that it be "Drishyam".

reason?

Because "Infernal Affairs" had a large investment and a much stronger cast than "Drishyam," if "Infernal Affairs" becomes a box office hit, Andy Lau's contribution will not be significant.

But "Drishyam" is different; the main star lineup of this movie is him and Maggie Cheung.

No one can deny the contribution of the male lead to the success of this film.

And what about Infernal Affairs?

There are two male leads.

It also distinguishes between middle-aged male protagonists and young male protagonists.

In other words, there were four people who played the male lead in "Infernal Affairs".

Andy Lau can only play one of them.

……

The same afternoon.

Inside a private room of a teahouse in Guangzhou.

Xu Laoguai sat alone at the tea table, silently pouring himself tea with his head down. His complexion was noticeably worse than it had been recently.

Her already slightly sunken cheeks became even more sunken.

Her hair was messy... and even more white.

"The Legend of Zu," to which he invested heavily and poured a great deal of effort, was officially released simultaneously in mainland China and Hong Kong on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

Before the film's release, he was somewhat worried about its box office performance, estimating that it would be difficult to recoup the costs.

The truth is that this film repeatedly exceeded its initial budget during filming.

As a creative director who enjoys improvisation, he gets a lot of inspiration while filming each movie and can't help but film those inspirations.

As a result, many viewers love his movies, saying that his martial arts films are very flavorful and that he is very talented.

As a result, it gained a group of die-hard fans.

But... investors have always had a headache with him.

On the one hand, investors acknowledge his talent, but why is he called "Old Freak Xu"?
If it's just to praise his talent, why give him the title of "old freak"?

It's because he was very willful and stubborn when making movies.

For better film results, he would insist on his own opinions and often film without following the script.

For example, the character Dongfang Bubai in the script was depicted as a man's uterus, and should have been played by a male actor, but he suddenly had the idea to ask Brigitte Lin to play the role.

He didn't care even if it offended the original author, Jin Yong.

only……

During the filming of "The Legend of Zu Mountain," he improvised and often filmed scenes outside the script, resulting in costs far exceeding the budget, which was a bit alarming.

The main problem is that this movie has too many special effects shots.

Adding just one more scene could require millions or even tens of millions of dollars in special effects shots.

The original budget of 4000 million yuan turned into a cost of more than 8000 million yuan as filming progressed.

The cost of external publicity is 1 million.

Before the film's release, he was a little apprehensive, estimating that the movie would likely lose 20 to 30 million yuan.

But I don't feel a lot of pressure.

After all, although the film collaborated with four Hollywood special effects companies, his own special effects studio also took on a lot of work. Adding in his director's fee and other expenses, he should be able to break even.

The losses should be borne by other investors.

The problem is not big.

However, he never dreamed that "The Legend of Zu Mountain," which he had high hopes for and firmly believed would shock countless viewers, would experience a dramatic drop in box office revenue after its release.

After grossing over 700 million yuan on its opening day in mainland China, the box office plummeted by half on the second day, and then by half again on the third day…

After 8 days of release, the box office has been declining by half every day.

The setback sent chills down his spine, caused the film's screening rate in theaters to drop continuously, and even caused the main creative team that had come with him to the mainland for promotion to take leave and leave.

When they came to Guangzhou for promotional activities, the last few members of the main creative team suddenly flew back to Hong Kong.

Only he and his wife remained in Guangzhou.

His dream of becoming the top director in the Chinese-language film market was shattered.

Before the film's release, he had dreamed more than once that if "The Legend of Zu" was a box office success, he would have pioneered the special effects blockbuster genre in Chinese cinema and become the first person to make a fantasy film.

And China has so many fantasy and martial arts stories that could be made into films.

The Legend of Shushan could be made into several parts.

That's enough for him to live on for many years, and enough for him to firmly hold onto the throne of the number one director in Chinese-language films.

But now?

He was almost afraid to go back to Hong Kong, fearing that he would be killed by the investors who were about to go bankrupt.

Suddenly, the door to the private room was pushed open.

Xu Laoguai glanced at it and saw it was his wife, Shi Nansheng.

Old Master Xu picked up his teacup, took a sip, and remained silent.

Shi Nansheng walked over and sat down opposite him, sighed softly, looked at him, and remained silent.

They originally thought that even if "The Legend of Shushan" lost money, it wouldn't affect them.

However, we have received news today that the distributor has pulled "The Legend of Zu" from theaters. It is a foregone conclusion that the film will suffer huge box office losses, which will definitely fall on the couple.

The kind that results in a huge loss.

How could they possibly be happy about that?
Shi Nansheng: "If I had known this would happen, I would have arranged for 'The Legend of Zu' to be released after 'Ong-Bak'. The box office would definitely not have lost this much money. What do you think?"

Old Xu remained silent.

He directed Ong-Bak.

This made him very famous for a while.

The original release date for "The Legend of Zu" was shortly after the release of "Ong-Bak".

but……

When "Ong-Bak" was first released, it performed poorly at the box office in mainland China and Hong Kong, once again proving that the male lead Zhao Wenzhuo lacked box office appeal.

However, this film is a Sino-US co-production, so it was also released in the United States.

As a result, the movie "Ong-Bak" became a hit in the United States first, but its popularity abroad was more like a flower blooming inside the wall.

The news, when it reached China, boosted box office sales in mainland China and Hong Kong.

However, by then, "The Legend of Zu" had already sensed the unfavorable situation and withdrew from its release, postponing the premiere date to the Spring Festival.

They were worried that the box office failure of "Ong-Bak" would affect the box office performance of "The Legend of Zu".

Who could have predicted that Ong-Bak would turn the tide at the box office?

By the time they regretted it, "The Legend of Zu" had already been pulled from its original release schedule and could only be scheduled for the Spring Festival.

Yes!
Audiences have a strong desire to watch movies during the Spring Festival, and popular films often achieve box office returns far exceeding those of other periods.

but……

The competition during the Spring Festival film season is fierce, and it is even more brutal for films that fail to compete.

Just like "The Legend of Shushan".

After eight days in theaters, the film's poor box office performance led to it losing all its screenings to other films released at the same time, and it was subsequently pulled from theaters.

If it had been released in another time slot, even if the box office performance was poor, it might not have been announced that it would be pulled from theaters so quickly.

Now that it's off the screens, "The Legend of Zu" has lost its chance to turn things around.

Seeing that Xu Laoguai remained silent, Shi Nansheng sighed again and said softly, "Now it seems that Cao Sheng's suggestions for our script were very reasonable. It's a pity that we didn't listen to him."

Old Master Xu lowered his head slightly, remaining silent.

Because he knew in his heart that it wasn't "we didn't listen to him," but rather that he, Xu Laoguai, didn't listen to him.

His wife had initially suggested that he consider Cao Sheng's suggestion.

However, he felt confused about his own film, "The Legend of Zu," as if he were "too close to the mountain to see it," and was unable to objectively judge the quality of the film's plot.

The more I think about it, the better I feel about how I filmed it.

"Next... let's focus on filming Cao Sheng's 'Legend of the Demon Lord of the Tomb of the Gods'?"

This film has been in development for a while now.

The director has been confirmed as Tsui Hark.

Filming should have started much earlier, but firstly, a fantasy film like this requires finding suitable filming locations, and secondly, the couple spent most of their energy on the film "The Legend of Shushan" in the second half of last year. Therefore, the official filming date has been postponed again and again, and filming has not officially started yet.

And now?
Xu Laoguai glanced at his wife and nodded silently.

Since he's too afraid to return to Hong Kong for the time being, he'll just film this movie in mainland China! Hopefully, by the time he finishes filming and returns to Hong Kong, the main investor of "The Legend of Zu" will have calmed down.

(End of this chapter)