Life in the Light and Shadow of Chinese Entertainment

Before Wu Yang traveled through time, he clearly remembered that the 86 version of "Journey to the West," which was the same age as him at that time, would still be rebroadcast during the summer vacation in 2025.

A classic TV series has been rebroadcast for nearly 40 years. What does that mean? And how many audiences has it reached?!

The main storyline of this movie is about a fox princess who longs for beautiful love among humans. In order to escape the forced marriage by the Peng demon king, she secretly runs away to the human world to find true love.

As a result, he encountered the male protagonist, a plumber. While eating his brought dinner, golden fried rice, at the sewer vent, the male protagonist noticed the female protagonist secretly swallowing her saliva.

He kindly shared half with her, and that's how the two met, got to know each other, and fell in love.

One is an introverted nerd who works at the lowest level, is somewhat sensitive and insecure, and is good at overthinking.

One is a fox princess who is ignorant of human affairs, loves and hates fiercely, has no identity documents, is penniless, and homeless.

Faced with the female lead's complete ignorance, the male lead conjured up a tragic story of being abducted and sold into slavery.

So they kindly took her in, and the stark contrast between the values ​​of humans and demons led to a series of hilarious and heartwarming moments.

In order to find the fox princess, the Peng clan demon king sent out a large number of shadow guards. One of the shadow guards, who had mistakenly entered the human world, successfully found the fox princess and even saw her washing clothes for a human man.

He then told the news to the Peng Clan Demon King, who, out of jealousy, accidentally crushed the sealing talisman in his hand.

This led to the previous generation's Tianpeng Ancestor, who cultivated forbidden demonic arts in an attempt to achieve immortality, breaking the seal and causing the demon realm to be polluted by demonic energy.

This caused all the demon races to fall into demonic possession, leading to them killing each other, while a few powerful demon races were able to maintain their rationality.

He crossed the interdimensional gate and arrived in the human world, leading a group of mindless demons to conquer it.

As a border crossing between the demon realm and the human world, this small industrial town has had a Sanqing Temple for decades.

Normally it is not open to the public, but after the demon race invaded, it immediately mobilized and summoned hundreds of celestial masters from all over the world.

With the help of modern military forces, they surrounded the industrial town and, after a great battle, not only eliminated the invading demon race but also successfully entered the demon realm.

Furthermore, the demon race's territory was incorporated into the Chinese map. After the fox princess succeeded to the position of demon king, she unconditionally submitted to the human race, but requested a marriage alliance with a human.

Finally, the male protagonist and the fox princess arrive at a forest in the demon realm and live a leisurely and happy life!

……

Wu Yang's writing is quite impressive; this can be considered a truly original script.

As for whether he could succeed, or whether he could make money, Wu Yang was not worried at all.

As long as the special effects designed in the mind are created, the character and monster models are done well, and the scene is made bigger with plenty of explosions.

It's likely that domestic audiences who still enjoy Hollywood's "boom-boom-boom" style will buy into it!

To reach the level of a Hollywood blockbuster, putting everything else aside, the production cost alone would be around 3 million yuan.

This is because some scenes can be filmed in existing industrial parks, while the actors and crew are all from China, which saves a lot of costs.

Otherwise, if Hollywood actors, crew, and sets were used, the production cost would increase by at least 40%.

The only worry was whether the script would pass censorship, but luckily, Master Han and Director Wang were there.

The former has always wanted domestic directors to make blockbusters, any genre is fine, but they must be big-budget, big-cast, big-production special effects blockbusters.

The latter hopes that domestic directors can break Hollywood's box office records. At his level, the only way to make progress is through hard work!

Although their goals differ, they ultimately arrive at the same destination! This illustrates the advantage of finding shade under a big tree!

As for the scripts for "Train to Busan" and "Snowpiercer," Wu Yang only spent 10 days writing the general content, part of the plot, and a few characters.

He faxed it to Peter, asking him to register global copyrights in Hollywood.

Because Peter has already signed the film and television adaptation rights to "Snowpiercer," and because the comic was created by different people at different times.

Therefore, the film and television adaptation rights for the three comics involve as many as six creators due to issues of distribution and various interests.

After negotiations, a package deal was finalized for $100 million, securing the film and television adaptation rights to the first three parts of "Snowpiercer" for 10 years.

Peter signed the contract through a shell company; if Wu Yang had negotiated it himself, the price would have been at least four times higher.

According to Peter, different status and rank naturally lead to vastly different prices!

Wu Yang was somewhat pleased about this, given his current international influence.

1000 million is just the base salary; the director can directly receive a share of the profits from the script, which puts him in the middle of the second tier of directors.

If Manchester by the Sea is another success, the actor's salary will continue to skyrocket!

This is the difference between a director and an actor; an actor needs to accumulate experience in all aspects to elevate their status.

Directors, on the other hand, don't need to worry about awards or high profits, as long as their work can bring in awards or high returns.

Completing just one of these tasks can increase one's salary and status; achieving both would be even better.

That would bring about a leapfrog improvement, just like Wu Yang, whose first film, "Buried Alive," produced both the actor and the script.

He only received a $100 million salary and a 10% share of the profits.

To date, the various copyrights and related merchandise of "Buried" have generated hundreds of millions in profits.

After deducting the initial cost of 2000 million, the profit was over 8000 million dollars, and Wu Yang's overseas account received another 300 million dollars in commission.

Moreover, there will be a continuous stream of income coming in, and Wu Yang will only receive 10% of the profits.

Leonardo DiCaprio's studio, as an investor, enjoys 90% of the profits from a low-budget film.

It has already brought him more than $7200 million in revenue!

It's important to know that this kind of income is long-term income; you can earn money passively.

Therefore, Xiao Li Zi also cared a lot about Wu Yang, and no matter how busy he was, he would call her every few days to keep in touch.

He always granted Wu Yang's requests, if it weren't for the fact that Xiao Li had shown him kindness and support.

When filming "Manchester by the Sea," Wu Yang wouldn't have refused Leonardo DiCaprio's offer of $1000 million; instead, he proactively lowered it to $800 million. Fortunately, the profit sharing also doubled, reaching 20%.

However, neither Wu Yang nor Xiao Li Zi would publicize the reason for the price reduction due to personal relationships.

Therefore, Wu Yang's publicly quoted salary is still starting at $1000 million, with the script's profit sharing to be calculated separately!

The next morning, Wu Yang took the script to Guangxian.

Then in the morning, he took Wang Changtian to China Film Group, and before lunch, he followed Master Han to Director Wang's office.

In the afternoon, the three of them followed Director Wang to CCTV and had a detailed discussion with one of the station directors.

Finally, with a satisfied smile, Wu Yang said goodbye to the three outside the door and then drove home!