Entertainment: Who still wants to fall in love when there are cheats?

Chapter 194 A Mishaps on the Road

When she heard that Li Boda had the idea of ​​making a second film, Wang Jie's face blossomed with a smile.

To be honest, Sister Wang was really worried that Li Boda would give up his idea of ​​becoming a director.

After all, the profits generated by the Rubik's Cube phone during this period have been enormous; a small goal of pure profit can be achieved with ease.

Movies like Li Boda's "Night Shop" have already generated so much revenue, but in reality, Li Boda only made 20 million in profit, which is just one-fifth of a small goal.

In terms of returns, the difference is not just a little bit.

Sister Wang is really worried that Li Boda will plunge headlong into Rubik's Cube Technology, continuing to develop mobile phones and such, and completely abandon his career as a director.

It's worth noting that there aren't many directors in China who can make as much money as Li Boda from a single film.

Now that Li Boda has the idea of ​​continuing to direct and make movies, Sister Wang naturally supports him wholeheartedly.

"Boss, next, I'll collect more scripts for you. This time, let's pick a better one," Sister Wang asked energetically.

"I plan to try writing the script myself this time," Li Boda said, expressing his idea.

After the release of "Night Shop", it was well received because of its quality and good box office performance, even though Li Boda only had a cameo role and not much screen time.

However, it also triggered a cheat code.

In "Night Shop", Li Boda plays the role of a genius director. After triggering his cheat ability, it did not increase Li Boda's directing ability much, but it did slightly improve his scriptwriting skills.

After filming "Night Shop" was completed, on Lunar New Year's Eve, the actors in the crew went home by plane or train. At that time, Li Boda didn't have any particular thoughts.

However, this time, the cheat code was triggered, and Li Boda's scriptwriting ability was amplified. Then, when the ability merged into Li Boda himself, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he thought of the topic of the Spring Festival travel rush.

So Li Boda plans to write a script about the Spring Festival travel rush.

Li Boda explained the general direction of the script he wanted to write to Sister Wang.

When Sister Wang heard that Li Boda wanted to write about the Spring Festival travel rush, she realized that this topic actually seemed quite good.

Because the Spring Festival travel rush is something many people have experienced firsthand. Every year before and after the Spring Festival, a large number of migrant workers return to their hometowns. In order to get home smoothly, they have to queue up in the middle of the night to buy train tickets.

These days, there's no policy for buying train tickets in advance. If you want to buy a train ticket, you have to queue at the window in the middle of the night and wait all night.

Even now, every Chinese New Year, there are always a group of professional scalpers. They carry quilts, wear cotton-padded coats, and queue up at the ticket windows the night before, just to be able to grab train tickets when they go on sale and then resell them.

It can be said that the Spring Festival travel rush every year is like a battlefield.

If you create a script based on the Spring Festival travel rush, as long as the script is good, the resulting film will also be good, and it can really attract a lot of viewers. After all, the Spring Festival travel rush is a topic that many people can relate to.

With an idea and a direction in mind, the next step is scriptwriting.

Of course, the first thing to determine is the genre of the script: is it a comedy, a drama, an action crime film like "A World Without Thieves," or even a science fiction or fantasy film? Once the genre is determined, you should try to keep it in that direction when writing the script.

After filming the low-budget comedy "Night Shop," Li Boda's idea remained the same: to continue making comedy films.

The main reason is that comedy films are really easy to get high box office returns.

Now, apart from big-budget films like those made by Zhang Yimou, the only films left that are profitable, or at least relatively easy to make money from, are comedies.

And so, this hilarious comedy script about the Spring Festival travel rush was created. It didn't take long; in less than a week, a comedy script titled "Lost in Thailand" about the Spring Festival travel rush was freshly completed.

However, although the script has been completed, its completeness, the smoothness of the plot, the absence of awkward parts, its coherence, and its relevance to reality still need to be considered.

So Li Boda revised his script a second time. After the second revision, Li Boda invited Yue Xiaojun, a professional screenwriter, to review the script and see if there were any imperfections or room for improvement.

Therefore, the script for "Lost in Thailand" underwent its third revision.

With this, the final version of "Lost in Thailand" is now complete.

After the script was completed, Sister Wang looked at the script for "Lost in Thailand" and couldn't help but slap her thigh in praise. She felt that the quality of this script was even better than her previous script for "Nightclub".

Ultimately, the problem with "Nightclub" is the limited filming location—just a small supermarket. How much can happen in that setting? Even with its good comedic effect, there are still many awkward and unnatural moments. "Lost in Thailand," on the other hand, is undoubtedly better and more outstanding. From the airport to the plane, then to the train, and the subsequent scenes, it's somewhat like a road movie—no, this is a road movie.

The scenes that unfolded between the two male protagonists on their way home were absolutely hilarious and incredibly entertaining.

The script was finished, and now it was Sister Wang's turn to get busy.

First, Sister Wang submitted the script for "Lost in Thailand" to the State Film Administration for review. Only after the script was approved could the project be approved and filming begin.

Of course, this is the standard procedure.

In reality, as long as the script isn't too outrageous or crosses any lines, the script review process is quite easy.

So, while Wang Jie was submitting the script for "Lost in Thailand" to the State Film Administration, she was already preparing to approve the project and establish a production team.

However, right after Sister Wang submitted the script for "Lost in Thailand" to the State Film Administration, many people came knocking on her door.

These people all had checks in hand, wanting to invest in the movie "Lost in Thailand".

Their enthusiasm stemmed primarily from the script of "Lost in Thailand," another low-budget comedy.

As a director, Li Boda has made a low-budget comedy film that has been a great success, which means that Li Boda has demonstrated his talent in this field.

Now, his second film is still a low-budget comedy, which means that Li Boda's second film is in his area of ​​expertise!
Therefore, the probability of the second movie losing money is much smaller; in fact, it's safe to say that there's about a 70% chance that the second movie will make a huge profit.

With such a high success rate, how could these investors possibly give up investing in such an excellent project?

Just like when Ning Hao filmed "Crazy Racer".

However, the production cost of the script for "Lost in Thailand" was ultimately too low.

According to Sister Wang's estimate, the production cost of this script won't be much higher than that of "Nightclub".

The filming cost of "Night Shop" was only three million, and the filming cost of "Lost in Thailand" was probably only one million more, around four million.

Even with the production cost of four million, Sister Wang also considered the issue of increasing the salary of the male lead, Xu Shanxiong.

That's right, one of the male leads in the movie "Lost in Thailand" is Xu Shanzheng.

The main reason is that after working together once, it's easier to work with people again.

After all, director Li Boda was already familiar with actor Xu Shanzheng, making it easier for him to work with him during filming.

Moreover, Xu Shanzheng himself is very obedient. When he received a call from Sister Wang asking if he was available, Xu Shanzheng patted his chest and said that he had plenty of time. When he heard that Li Boda was going to shoot a new movie and planned to let him play the male lead again, he spoke up again and said that he was willing to act for free.

Putting everything else aside, Xu Shanzheng's attitude is at least quite likable.

Of course, even though Xu Shanzheng said he would act for free, Sister Wang couldn't really not pay him. She still paid him, but it was slightly lower than the market rate, a discount.

The film is a low-budget comedy, directed by Li Boda, and starring Xu Shanzheng. Upon hearing these names, investors became even more eager to invest. After all, it was the director and lead actor's second collaboration, within their area of ​​expertise, making the possibility of loss extremely low.

However, this movie is ultimately a low-budget film. Four million is something Li Boda could come up with on his own, so why would he need any external investment?

However, the behavior of eating alone is unacceptable in any circle.

If you want to grow, avoid being targeted, and avoid being ostracized, you must learn to share.

So, Sister Wang immediately agreed to China Film Group's investment.

Well, whether or not we accept the investment intentions of other investors is another matter, but we absolutely have to accept the investment from China Film Group. If China Film Group doesn't want to invest, that's fine, but if they do want to invest, then it's best to accept their investment.

With China Film Group involved, Ms. Wang directly excluded all other investors.

After all, this script was too low-budget, only four million. It wasn't even enough for him to take a slice. Now that he's brought in China Film Group and other people are involved, how is this small cake going to be divided?
With such a low production cost, and the backing of China Film Group, the "Lost in Thailand" project didn't need any other investment.

(End of this chapter)