Huayu: Starting from Fahrenheit

Chapter 365 Huayi Brothers Wants to Blow Out the Light?
"I remember you have the copyrights to a lot of literary works. With so many works, it would be very difficult for you to adapt them all into film and television on your own."

You know the reputation of Huayi Brothers in the film and television industry.

Perhaps we could develop it together.

Seeing that Wu Zhuo was interested, Wang Zhonglei immediately shared his thoughts.

Which work have you taken a liking to?

Wu Zhuo himself doesn't remember exactly how many copyrights he owns.

After he founded the copyright management company, he consistently instructed them to aggressively acquire various adaptable literary works.

To date, he himself is unaware of how many novel copyrights he holds that could be adapted into film or television.

“I think the ‘Ghost Blows Out the Light’ project can be adapted into a film or television series, and we would like to collaborate with Legendary Pictures on the development of this project.”

As soon as Wang Zhonglei spoke, Wu Zhuo fell silent.

He knew Huayi Brothers had big ambitions, but he never expected them to set their sights on one of his core projects at a glance.

Since Wu Zhuo acquired the copyright to "Ghost Blows Out the Light," many companies have approached him.

Initially, many companies thought that Wu Zhuo was unaware of the novel's value and wanted to buy it from him at a low price.

It wasn't until they discovered that Wu Zhuo valued this project highly and that "Ghost Blows Out the Light" was not for sale that they started thinking of various other solutions.

Clearly, Huayi Brothers also has high hopes for this novel and wants to get involved.

"I don't plan to start this project for now. You know the current censorship mechanism in China. A lot of things in Ghost Blows Out the Light simply can't be filmed."

Wu Zhuo shook his head.

This is also the biggest drawback of the "Ghost Blows Out the Light" project.

The book is a good book, and it has topped the domestic novel bestseller list for several consecutive years. Many people who don't read novels have heard of it.

But adapting this novel is too difficult.

The current review mechanism in China is still very strict.

The reason why this project was delayed for about 15 years before it was adapted into a film or television series was largely due to censorship issues.

"We have a professional screenwriting team, so we can make certain modifications. In addition, we have a good relationship with the censors, so if you entrust the task to us, it will be fine."

We are very confident that we can get this project off the ground.

Wang Zhonglei clearly didn't want to give up.

The "Ghost Blows Out the Light" project is really perfect for film and television adaptation.

Once they get past the approval process, they are very confident they can produce it.

Wu Zhuo remained unmoved.

If he hadn't been reborn, given Huayi Brothers' current meteoric rise to fame, Wu Zhuo might actually have believed Wang Zhonglei's words.

Unfortunately, Wu Zhuo was reborn.

He knew very well how difficult it would be to adapt this project.

As for Huayi Brothers...

Huayi Brothers was involved in both the previous films, "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe" and "Mojin: The Lost Legend".

As a result, both adaptations had significant problems.

Especially "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe," which was heavily criticized.

Director Lu Chuan, oblivious to his own ignorance, went on to create "749 Bureau," which dragged Wang Junkai down from the top of the film and television industry.

"To reiterate, I don't plan to work on this project at this stage, but we might be able to discuss other projects."

For example, "You Are the Apple of My Eye".

I wonder if Mr. Wang has read this novel. It's very popular on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Our company intends to turn it into a movie.

We've tentatively decided on Calvin Chen for the male lead.

Wu Zhuo still refused to produce "Ghost Blows Out the Light" and instead recommended "You Are the Apple of My Eye" to Wang Zhonglei.

In fact, this project had a much better reputation than the TV series "Fleet of Time" starring Wu Zhuo in its previous life.

Wu Zhuo had once considered starring in the project. However, after much deliberation, he ultimately gave up on it and instead cast Calvin Chen in the role.

There are several reasons.

One reason is that Wu Zhuo doesn't want to keep acting in youth films.

This makes it easy for him to become completely absorbed in this type of film.

Secondly, although "Fleet of Time" received poor reviews, its box office performance was not bad.

More importantly, this drama mainly depicts the Qing Dynasty literature in mainland China, and Wu Zhuo is trying his best to integrate into the mainland culture.

Well, actually, he's actively trying to please mainland audiences in order to plan for the future.

"With Calvin Chen as the lead actor, I'm afraid he'll have a hard time carrying the box office!"

Wang Zhonglei was clearly not someone who was oblivious to what was going on around him; he was aware of the project Wu Zhuo mentioned.

“If you were the one acting in this project, Huayi Brothers would definitely invest without hesitation. But if it's Calvin Chen, we need to do some market research.”

“I understand, but if possible, please ask Mr. Wang to expedite the process. If you haven’t made a decision by the end of the year, I may look for other investment companies or invest independently.”

After a pause, Wu Zhuo continued, "Although Calvin Chen has never acted in a movie, he has appeared in many TV series. He is fully capable of playing the lead role."

Furthermore, "Fleet of Time" will be released first. If "Fleet of Time" performs well at the box office, the similar film "You Are the Apple of My Eye" will certainly do well as well.

……

After chatting with Wang Zhonglei about work for a while, the two parted ways.

Wu Zhuo met up with Chen Jiashang and others and began smashing the golden eggs.

This is a common practice among many film crews.

The golden egg symbolizes box office success.

"Let's welcome our greatest contributors to the Painted Skin crew, Director Gordon Chan and Mr. Wu Zhuo..."

The production team respected Wu Zhuo and arranged a seat for him, allowing him to smash the golden egg with Gordon Chan.

With a snap, the golden egg shattered, and enthusiastic applause erupted from the audience.

No matter what the future holds.

At least for this moment, the Painted Skin crew is riding high.

It grossed 200 million yuan in less than ten days after its release.

This result suggests that Painted Skin has a good chance of winning the annual championship.

Furthermore, not to mention the project's current popularity in the international market.

Japan and South Korea have already purchased the screening rights to this project, and it is scheduled to be released next week.

Even in Europe and America, film and television companies have expressed interest in this project.

Universal Pictures intends to bring this project to the United States.

However, it's unlikely to achieve good box office results in the United States.

One is the difference in culture.

Another issue is the suppression of Asian films by Western countries.

No matter how good a movie is, it will inevitably face significant pressure in terms of screenings when it is released in Europe and America.

This can be seen in the later film "Ne Zha 2".

Therefore, no one, including Wu Zhuo, was very interested in the film being released in Europe and America.

If a movie is shown there, it might only earn a small copyright buyout fee at most.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Wu Zhuo and others.

As for using this to break into Hollywood...

If Hollywood were that easy to get into, there wouldn't be so few Asian actors who have made a name for themselves there.

You see, Jet Li was so successful in Asia, but when he went to Hollywood, he could only play supporting roles.

He's still the kind of villainous supporting character.

(End of this chapter)