Huayu: Starting from Fahrenheit

Chapter 423 Andy Lau VS Wu Tianwang

What projects are you planning to undertake? Do you have any plans?

Wu Zhuo looked at Kong Sheng.

Since the other party wants to invest, it means they already have a plan.

"I plan to adapt 'Fleet of Time' into a TV series."

Kong Sheng quickly explained.

Perhaps worried that Wu Zhuo would disagree, he then confidently stated:

"Youth films have fully emerged in the market after 'Fleet of Time,' and we are confident that we can make a good film about 'Fleet of Time.'"

Upon hearing this, Wu Zhuo pondered for a moment.

It's clear that Kong Sheng and the others are restless and eager to get right back to filming.

However, Wu Zhuo was somewhat worried that the TV series might fail.

He remembered that the TV series version of "Fleet of Time" in his previous life didn't have particularly good ratings.

"Mr. Wu, what do you think?"

Kong Sheng looked at Wu Zhuo expectantly.

Wu Zhuo pondered for a moment and asked, "How much investment? Who do you plan to cast as the lead actor?"

"We plan to use Eddie Peng! We've calculated that we'll only shoot 16 episodes for this show."

The total investment is approximately twenty million.

Upon hearing this, Wu Zhuo nodded.

An investment of 20 million is actually considered a small investment now that it's almost 11 years old.

Nowadays, big-budget TV dramas typically cost 80 to 90 million yuan.

As for why Kong Sheng chose to use Eddie Peng.

The reason is simple: Eddie Peng joined Wu Zhuo's Legendary Pictures.

You could also say that they sought refuge with Wu Zhuo.

This is not surprising.

Wu Zhuo is now basically the biggest star from Taiwan on the mainland.

Unlike others, he turned to capital at a young age.

He became one of the leading figures in the mainland entertainment capital market.

Although his superstar status is so dazzling that few people pay attention to this aspect of his identity.

But this does not include Eddie Peng.

This guy is definitely a smart person.

He understands his strengths very well.

In terms of looks, he is actually not the most handsome among this generation of artists.

There are plenty of people more handsome than him.

But he eventually became one of the synonyms for handsome.

The reason is that he knows his own strengths.

This guy is extremely self-disciplined in order to make himself more competitive in this industry.

While it might be an exaggeration to say that he gets a certificate for every film he makes, he is indeed the kind of person who will put in a lot of effort to study the profession of a character.

Cycling, gymnastics, sign language, boxing...

He has reached the pinnacle that an actor can achieve.

Of course, this is not the only factor in his success.

Another reason for his success is that he received strong support from Taiwanese capital.

He, Mark Chao, and Ethan Juan were known as the Heavenly Banquet in their previous lives because the three of them received concentrated support from Taiwanese capital.

In this life, with the appearance of Wu Zhuo, although the Heavenly Banquet still exists, because of Wu Zhuo's presence, capital has prioritized Wu Zhuo's choices.

They naturally received far fewer resources.

In addition, Taiwanese capital had not yet reached its limit at this time, and people could not promote them as much as they would 15 years later.

Therefore, Eddie Peng was not doing so well at this time.

So when Wu Zhuo established his company in mainland China, he immediately followed suit and became a member of Wu Zhuo's company.

In fact, Wu Zhuo did not want to be categorized as one of the Taiwanese actors.

Once you're categorized into that group, your future path in mainland China will be very difficult.

But the course of events is never entirely up to you.

In the eyes of Taiwanese actors and artists, he is the pillar of Taiwanese artists.

Many artists who develop their careers in mainland China are drawn to him because of his strong abilities.

Gradually, a small circle of people from Taiwan naturally gathered around him.

A Taiwan-based political circle led by him.

Because he has gathered around many such people, he cannot simply kick them out.

Having no other choice, Wu Zhuo could only continue down this path to the bitter end.

However, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

It's not that Taiwanese people will be unable to make a living in mainland China in the future.

As long as there are no fundamental problems, they can still do very well...

"I will have the finance department hand over the work to you in a few days."

Wu Zhuo ultimately agreed to Kong Sheng's proposal and invested in the project.

Although he was somewhat worried about the risks, there's no such thing as a risk-free industry when it comes to film and television investment.

Moreover, this project was filmed earlier and the entire cast has been changed, so Wu Zhuo doesn't believe it will flop.

Also, although Eddie Peng may not seem to have many acting roles in mainland China, he is actually quite popular with audiences.

As long as it doesn't turn out like Pocahontas.

I don't know what Tangren was thinking, casting Hu Ge as a supporting actor and Eddie Peng as the lead.

Honestly, although Eddie Peng is popular with audiences, he's still a notch below Hu Ge.

Hu Ge is incredibly popular with audiences.

In television dramas, anyone who casts him as a supporting character is doomed.

Wu Zhuo even felt that if he were to act in a TV series and invite Hu Ge to play a supporting role, there might be a situation where he couldn't hold his own.

After receiving a clear response, Kong Sheng left happily.

Wu Zhuo finally had time to focus on his new album.

Like the previous album, the new album is a multilingual mixed album.

Wu Zhuo has now completed the selection of all the songs.

They are: "Faded", "We Don't Talk Anymore", "Trap" (Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean versions), "The Actor", "Clearly", "Special Person", "Unfortunately If", "Lemon", "Fireworks", "LOSER", and "SOBER".

There are eleven songs in total, and several of them, which are in foreign languages, have Chinese versions.

In a way, domestic music fans are quite lucky.

Since there are 19 songs in the domestic version, and all the foreign language songs have Chinese versions, that means there are 11 Chinese songs, as well as several songs in Japanese, English, Korean, and other languages.

After finalizing the songs for his new album, Wu Zhuo, to avoid being too busy filming next year, immediately immersed himself in the recording studio starting in October.

While recording the song, he also filmed the music video.

For the music videos, Wu Zhuo chose well-known actresses to play the female leads for several of his main songs in China.

"Ming Ming Jiu" features Gulnazar, a newcomer actress from Tangren Media. Her recent hit drama "Xuan-Yuan Sword" has garnered her a lot of popularity, which led to her being noticed by Wu Zhuo.

The film "The Actor" featured Jin Chen, who was just starting out in the industry.

"Special People" used Liu Shishi, since she had nothing else to do, so they recruited her as a laborer.

"Unfortunately, If Only" stars Michelle Chen, who recently rose to fame after starring in "You Are the Apple of My Eye".

Actually, Michelle Chen was not originally in Wu Zhuo's consideration, but Tianxi recommended her.

Michelle Chen's current management company is Tianxi.

Out of respect for his former employer, Wu Zhuo used him. Then there were songs in other languages; for Korean songs, he found Ham Eun-jung from T-ara and Kim Tae-yeon from Girls' Generation.

In Japan, they used female artists from Sony's label.

Then there were a few English songs, but they didn't cast any well-known female artists.

It's too expensive, and the unit there is US dollars. Wu Zhuo's songs don't really need anyone to help promote them, so it doesn't matter whether he finds a famous female artist or not.

I had already looked for other actresses, but it was a waste of money, so I just found a few relatively unknown but pretty female celebrities.

Time was spent recording songs and filming music videos.

2010 quickly became a thing of the past.

After entering 2011, Wu Zhuo's album was almost half completed. While recording songs and shooting music videos, Wu Zhuo, who was not very busy, also began to promote the film "Ip Man 2" with the crew.

"Ip Man 2" is scheduled for release on January 22, aiming to compete with other films during the Lunar New Year holiday season.

To be honest, this is the first time Wu Zhuo has had a movie released during the Lunar New Year season.

His previous films were mostly released during the summer season.

There's nothing we can do about it; his fan base is mostly among students.

To boost box office revenue, and also because of the film genre, they were mostly released during the summer season.

This year, "Ip Man 2" is a sequel, and it has a fan base from the first film. In addition, Wu Zhuo's influence has gradually spread to different age groups, which makes Oriental Film Company dare to choose this release date directly.

The competition in this year's Lunar New Year film season remains fierce.

Production companies from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong all have films scheduled for this release window.

"Let the Bullets Fly", "If You Are the One 2", "All's Well, Ends Well 2011", "Shaolin", etc.

However, "Let the Bullets Fly" and "If You Are the One 2" are scheduled for release in the first half of the year, so they do not conflict with "Ip Man 2".

On the contrary, "Shaolin" is a film that directly confronts "Ip Man 2".

The two movies were released only three days apart.

"Shaolin" will be released on the 19th, while "Ip Man 2" will be released on the 22nd.

In a way, this could be considered a case of Wu Zhuo beating Wu Zhuo.

Because the director of "Shaolin" is Benny Chan.

Wu Zhuo happened to have worked with him on "Connected," so when he was filming this movie that brought together big names from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong, he also invited Wu Zhuo to make a cameo appearance.

Actually, Benny Chan originally wanted to invite Ng Cheuk to play the male lead.

Yes, his first choice was not superstar Andy Lau, but superstar Wu Zhuo.

After being rejected by Wu Zhuo, she then chose Andy Lau.

Although Wu Zhuo declined to be the lead actor, he still made a cameo appearance, which helped to complete their large cast.

Speaking of the big lineup.

Ever since Zhang Yimou's "Hero" achieved a box office of over 100 million yuan in China.

In the years that followed, Chinese-language films truly entered the era of blockbusters.

Almost every year, there are movies that bring together a host of big names from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

In terms of word-of-mouth, it's mixed, and the same goes for box office performance.

However, it is undeniable that it is precisely these big-budget films with large casts that have drawn more viewers to the cinemas.

Take "Hero" for example, no matter how badly it was criticized.

This film truly ushered in a new era for Chinese-language films, ushering in a new period for them.

Then, the Founding of the Nation series produced by China Film Group in recent years, with its gathering of a host of big names, has also greatly stimulated the market.

This is why the box office figures keep rising every year.

Of course, economic factors are certainly an important reason as well.

However, the era of blockbuster movies did have its advantages.

Shaolin Temple VS Ip Man 2

Andy Lau VS Wu Zhuo.

This is the hottest theme of this Lunar New Year film season.

The media outlets publish one analysis today and another report tomorrow.

This directly boosted the popularity of both movies to the extreme.

The promotion for both films was also extremely extensive.

In the days leading up to the film's release, the lead actors from both sides were busy with promotional events and promotional activities.

Wu Zhuo and Andy Lau appeared at various events every day to promote the movies they starred in.

It's worth mentioning that the cast of "Ip Man 2" is just as strong as that of "Shaolin".

Wu Zhuo needs no introduction; he's a superstar, incomparable to Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and perhaps even less experienced than Andy Lau.

But in terms of box office appeal, he is definitely the top person in recent years.

Then, "Ip Man 2" also features Sammo Hung, Simon Yam, and others.

There's even a Hollywood superstar here.

Yes, Boyka is portrayed as a Hollywood superstar in the promotional materials for Eastern films.

However, this kind of promotion is not wrong.

Boyka's "Undisputed 3" was indeed very popular in the domestic DVD market.

Especially in the MP4 format that has become popular in the last two years.

MP4 is more advanced than MP3, as it allows you to directly download and watch movies.

Then, in the MP4 download charts, "Undisputed 3" ranked among the top 20 Hollywood movie downloads.

Therefore, it is entirely reasonable to give him the title of Hollywood superstar.

After all, when you're out in the world, you give yourself your own identity!

Hollywood is so far from China, who cares that Boyka is actually just a minor celebrity in Hollywood?

People only care that he has popular works in the country and that he is a foreigner.

The two production teams were vying to gain the upper hand in terms of momentum.

That's throwing money around.

Each premiere featured the support of numerous well-known celebrities.

The cast of "Ip Man 2" includes Aaron Kwok, Donnie Yen, Kent Cheng, Simon Yam, Huang Xiaoming, Jiang Wen, Wang Baoqiang, Xu Zheng, and others from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Meanwhile, "Shaolin" is equally impressive, featuring Louis Koo, Tony Leung, Carina Lau, Fan Bingbing, Ge You, and many others.

The number of actors from mainland China is relatively small.

Actors from Hong Kong and Taiwan, especially Hong Kong, basically all came to both production teams.

This can actually be seen as a battle between Hong Kong film and television giants.

Currently, the two top film companies in Hong Kong's film and television industry are Emperor Motion Pictures and Oriental Film Production Company.

The two companies practically monopolized all Hong Kong films in recent years.

Each year, more than half of the top ten box office rankings belong to two companies.

These two companies have been competing since the beginning of the new century, competing in films, in management, and even in distribution channels.

Therefore, rather than saying that this is a competition between "Shaolin" and "Ip Man 2", it is more accurate to say that it is a competition between two companies.

Wu Zhuo was completely indifferent to the competition between the two companies.

He didn't participate in it either.

Not only him, but also Andy Lau.

Both of them were simply following the contract and going with the film crew.

As for who wins or loses, that has absolutely nothing to do with them.

On the surface, they both acted as if our movie was bound to win.

In fact, the two had met privately.

They agreed not to believe the news reports from the media that were trying to sow discord between them.

Sometimes, if the media publishes something excessive, they will call each other to apologize.

(End of this chapter)