Who are you calling "little fresh meat"? I'm the king.

Chapter 683 Leaving (23)

"Zhou Chu Eliminates the Three Evils," costing 4000 million...

The male lead is Shen Yan, and the supporting cast includes Xie Miao (Chen Hui), Wu Zhenyu (Xu Weiqiang), Liang Jiahui (Lin Luhe), and Kara Hui (Zhang Guiqing)!
Yes, co-productions…

Actually, director Shen Yan originally planned to find a Hong Kong director—"Zhou Chu Eliminates the Three Evils" is a typical modern martial arts film, and Hong Kong film directors are best at this.

But... Lu Yang read the script and got very excited, insisting on becoming the director.

Then let him be the director...

By the way, Ren Suxi was cast as Xiao Xiangxiang.
Recommended by Rao Xiaozhi!

Among Shen Yan's group, Rao Xiaozhi comes from a theatrical and comedic background, so he really knows many actors with superb acting skills...

Wan Qian, Ren Suxi... were all recommended by him, and then successfully joined the circle, becoming regular members of several directors' teams...

For "Zhou Chu," Shen Yan received a 5 million yuan salary plus a tiered profit-sharing system. Similar to "Life's Big Events," the starting point was 300 million yuan in box office revenue, with a 5% share of the profits. For every 100 million yuan exceeding 100 million yuan, the share would increase by one percentage point, with a maximum of 50%.

There's no way around it, Shen Yan's salary is just too high!
If we really want to calculate the market price...

Taking the unrecorded film "Major Events in Life" as an example, the revenue from the distribution was at least 7.2 million yuan. After deducting the costs of promotion and production, the profit exceeded 6.5 million yuan...

Shen Yan's share is 20%, which is 1.3 million!
That's right, the actors' salaries alone amounted to 1.3 million.

He is also a major shareholder of Spark Studio, the production company that primarily controls the film...

Shen Yan initially thought that "Zhou Chu" would most likely not surpass "Life's Big Events" at the box office, but "Zhou Chu" will be released next summer...

Everyone probably remembers what kind of movies will be released next year—a whole bunch of terrible films, and famous directors making a series of blunders…

Then "Zhou Chu" might surpass "Major Events in Life"...

At this point, Yang Mi needs to invest...

Shen Yan countered, "Hasn't the compensation already been converted into shares?"

"...I'd like to invest another 1000 million..."

"The total cost is only 4000 million... How about this, you invest 500 million, and I'll calculate 10% of the investment amount for you!"

“Okay…” Yang Mi nodded, then did some mental calculations and asked, “Wait a minute, if my salary is 5%, then 500 million should be 12.5%!”

"...You've already gotten a good deal. Shaw Brothers invested 20 million, and we're only taking 2000%!"

"The Shao family?"

"If a movie is being filmed in Hong Kong, you definitely need to find local experts to handle the location shooting!"

"Then...why Shaw Brothers?"

Shen Yan explained, "Our company spearheaded the establishment of a new film studio in conjunction with Tencent Video, specifically for shooting online movies, while Shaw Brothers provided a library of remakes..."

"Does Shaw Brothers have any movies worth remaking?"

"Yes, cult classics... there are quite a few martial arts films that could be remade!"

It's only of some value...

Let's try it out first and see if it has market value...

Yang Mi nodded as if she understood, then continued, "...I heard they're planning to reboot the 'Aces Go Places' and 'Lucky Stars' series..."

"Who?"

"Yaolai Films..."

"The copyright of 'Best Partners' belonged to Cinema City. After Cinema City dissolved, the copyright was returned to Golden Princess... Golden Princess later sold the copyright to Asia Satellite Television... Later, this company was acquired by News Corporation and renamed Star Media... So, what gives Yao Lai the right to restart it? They don't even have the copyright!"

In 97, Hong Kong Telecom's Interactive Television Service (IMS) and its Video on Demand (VOD) officially launched, posing a significant challenge to the cinema, videotape, and DVD rental industries. Golden Harvest and China Star Entertainment responded to the market changes by forming Lucky Access, directly providing content for Hong Kong Telecom's IMS VOD service.

Unfortunately, it's useless...

In fact, as early as 1992, Golden Harvest sold 400 films (films from 1970 to 1992) in its film library to Asia Satellite Television Company. In 1998, it sold the remaining 170 films to Time Warner. Golden Harvest transformed from a film production company into a distribution and theater company, with its profits mainly coming from film distribution in Southeast Asia.

Prior to this, Star Media had already acquired the film rights to Golden Princess, Cinema City, and D&B Films.

The copyright of Raymond Wong's Oriental Films was inherited by his son's Pegasus Motion Pictures.

The films produced by Shinbo Cinemas are mostly invested in by Taiwan's "Big Eight" film studios, and their copyrights largely belong to Taiwan.

The ownership of the copyrights for those films from Hong Kong's golden age of cinema becomes quite clear.

By the way, Starry Sky Media was later acquired by Canxing Media, went public through a reverse merger, and changed its name to Starry Sky Chinese Media…

Therefore, the co-producers of "A Better Tomorrow 2018" wrote Starry Sky Chinese...

Yang Mi asked in confusion, "Then why did they announce the reboot of 'Aces Go Places' and 'Lucky Stars'...?"

"Let's show you a PowerPoint presentation and start by praising it..."

As they approached the airport, Yang Mi remembered something else: "Did Stephen Chow really ask you to film 'The Mermaid'?"

"...They just asked someone to invite me, but I didn't agree!"

Why don't you agree?

Shen Yan sneered: "Do you know director Chang Cheh?"

"...I know him, he's the director of 'The One-Armed Swordsman'!"

"Director Chang Cheh remained devoted to writing scripts for Stephen Chow in his later years, tailoring something like 'The Wise Man and the Male Killer' for him... but Stephen Chow couldn't be bothered with him, and I was just as indifferent to Stephen Chow!"

……

In the original timeline, Xu Zheng was approached for the film "The Mermaid," but he withdrew due to differences in creative vision with Stephen Chow. Instead, Deng Chao was approached.

"The Mermaid 2" was initially planned to have two male leads, with Wu Fan playing Long Jianfei and Deng Chao reprising his role as Liu Xuan...

Wu Fan's films like "The Demons Strike Back" and "Europe Raiders" proved that he is completely incapable of acting and that he cannot carry a film at the box office!

Moreover, Deng Chao was trying to change his image at the time and didn't want to act in comedies anymore, so he only made a cameo appearance in one scene, and the storyline became a leading role for Long Jianfei.

So Stephen Chow wanted to approach Shen Teng, but Shen Teng didn't like the script and recommended Allen instead…

In fact, after Stephen Chow entered the mainland, his movies lost their unique charm—he didn't understand mainland culture!

Comedy is precisely the kind of thing that needs culture the most…

Looking at all the films he made in mainland China, only "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" received decent reviews, and the merits of this film had nothing to do with comedy...

It makes sense when you think about it—expecting a 60-year-old man who grew up and became famous in Hong Kong during the British colonial period, whose primary language is Cantonese, to create films that appeal to people in their twenties to forties in mainland China is an impossible task in itself…

I heard that the plot of "The Mermaid 2" is stiff and there are few jokes, so no distributor is willing to take it on!
Even if it drops to 3 million...

No film or television company has taken on the distribution!
Let's just keep it suppressed.

As for the affair between Chang Cheh and Stephen Chow, it's true!
Back then, when Che said he would be making a movie with Stephen Chow called "The Wise Man and the Male Killer," he added, "Sing wanted to change his image and came to me for help, so I gave him a hand." He hoped to transition into a comedic action actor. He also praised Chow for his charm and potential for a breakthrough.

However, many media outlets have stated that 'if Stephen Chow accepts this, it would be tantamount to artistic suicide!'

Well, that makes sense. After all, Stephen Chow's lowest-rated film, "The Thief of Time," was directed by Chor Yuen, who was roughly the same generation as Chang Cheh...

By the way, Shen Yanfei went to Hong Kong that night…

(End of this chapter)