China Entertainment 1997

After the Best Actor and Best Actress were awarded, the last two awards were also awarded. [Best Director] was won by Johnnie To, and [Best Film] was also won by "New World".

There were 8 nominations, and "New World" finally won 6.

Sun Honglei lost the "Best Supporting Actor" award to one of his own. Strictly speaking, "New World" only lost the relatively unpopular award of "Best Editing". It was a great success at this year's Academy Awards.

The next day, Cao Xuan and Mr. Zhou were awarded gold statues as Best Actor and Best Actress, which also made headlines in many entertainment pages.

This is the first time that mainland actors have won all the Best Actors and Best Actors at the Academy Awards.

However, before that, there was a time when mainland actors won the Golden Horse Awards, namely Liu Huohua and Qin Hailu in 2001. The two were not only mainland actors, but also classmates.

But Liu and Qin were hardly famous at that time, and many people only knew about such a movie after they won the award.

Apart from being mainland actors and classmates, the two of them have almost no gimmicks that can be used by the media for publicity.

However, Cao Xuan and Mr. Zhou are different. An international superstar, a four-star actress, undoubtedly top-notch, the media is clamoring for coverage.

Among them, the Hong Kong media has many styles of painting, and some have broken the defense, angrily complaining that the Hong Kong Academy Awards have no spine, are rubbish awards, and should be closed down.

Some people feel that the Hong Kong film industry is in decline. Counting last year's International Awards and three of the Academy Awards in the past two years, two pairs of best actors and actresses were won by mainland actors.

However, some people feel that it is well-deserved, and that it just proves the fairness of the Hong Kong Film Awards, and they also advocate for greater openness, so that the Hong Kong Film Awards can transform from the regional Hong Kong Film Awards into the Chinese Film Awards. .

The three parties were quarreling with each other and had other opinions. In short, it was a mess. It is said that the scolding war lasted for two weeks before slowly stopping.

Compared with the chaos in the Hong Kong media, the media in the mainland and Taiwan are relatively unified and start blowing the news directly.

Due to the popularity of Cao Xuan's "Legend", Asian media also gave Cao Xuan a considerable amount of news space for Cao Xuan's award as Best Actor, and even European and American media reported on it.

The New York Times in the United States put the photo of Cao Xuan holding the trophy on its front page and commented directly.

"This Chinese is not only a top musician, but also an excellent actor. If Hollywood film company bosses don't act quickly, maybe he will be the next Bruce Lee and Jack Cheng..."

I don’t know if the bosses in Hollywood are interested, but Cao Xuan’s win as Best Actor this time has caused quite a stir in the country.

With the rise of the Internet in the past two years, the three gold medal awards for Chinese-language films have become more and more known to many fans and moviegoers, and they naturally understand the weight of the two gold medals.

Basically, those who can achieve two of them are among the top actors in the industry, and even many top actors do not have this achievement.

Moreover, due to geographical restrictions, it is difficult for Hong Kong and Taiwan actors to win the Golden Rooster, and it is difficult for mainland actors to win the Golden Statue, especially male actors.

Therefore, mainland actors can often collect all the Golden Horses and Golden Roosters, but cannot win the Golden Statue. Hong Kong and Taiwan actors have won several Golden Horses and Golden Roosters, but it is difficult to be nominated for the Golden Rooster.

So far, only Cheng Long last year and Cao Xuan this year have both overcome this hellish difficulty.

Cheng Long is still short of a golden statue, and Cao Xuan is still short of a golden horse. Considering the current situation, resources and connections of the two people, the advantage of collecting the Grand Slam is still huge.

Apart from other things, Cao Xuan has two films, "Xiu Chun Knife 2" and "New World", which will be awarded the Golden Horse Award at the end of the year. "Painted Skin" may also be released in the summer, and the chance of success is not small.

It was only then that many people looked away from Cao Xuan's crazy achievements in the music world and discovered that Cao Xuan's film and television achievements had already reached this level of glory.

The only reason is that Cao Xuan's career as a singer was so successful that it was so dazzling that it overshadowed all his other achievements.

Although everyone has watched many of his movies and TV series and is deeply impressed by his roles, when it comes to Cao Xuan, the first subconscious impression is that of a singer.

As the saying goes, success depends on Xiao He, and failure depends on Xiao He. I am afraid that the title of Best Actor Cao will never surpass Cao Tianwang in this life.

Unless Cao Xuan wins an Oscar, the chance of this happening is too small, not even one in 10,000,000.

There are many things to consider when it comes to the Grammys, but the Oscars are entirely decided by the American Film Institute.

Not to mention the Oscar winner slapping the host, even if the Oscar ceremony is directly bombed, it is easier to achieve than Cao Xuan winning the Oscar...

………

Mr. Zhou, who had just returned to the set of "Painted Skin", was attacked a lot. Reporters waiting here gathered around.

"Congratulations on winning the Best Actress award. Do you have any thoughts? Share it with everyone."

"After you won the award, did you tell your boyfriend about the good news? We saw Daqi forwarding the news of your award on his blog."

"There are reports that you and Cao Xuan returned to Beijing on a plane. Why didn't you see him coming to the set?"

"..."

More than a dozen questions were thrown at him, half of them were asking Cao Xuan, which showed the true purpose of this group of media.

Mr. Zhou also has a temper. He answered other questions first and then finished everything, which made the media angry and then expressed his calmness.

"He had some work at the company, so we separated at the airport. As for when he will join the group, I don't know."

The media wanted to ask more questions, but Mr. Zhou stopped answering. The assistant and the security personnel from the "Painted Skin" crew came over immediately to fish him out.

Mr. Zhou strolled to the dressing room, and Hu Jing, who had white hair, ran over and gave her a hug, congratulating her.

"Congratulations to Queen Zhou for being crowned Best Actress."

"I'm delighted that the actor in your family deserves one-third of your credit."

"You're asking for a beating, right?"

Hu Jing gave Zhou Gongzi a blow. The two of them knew each other when they were filming "Ci of Daming Palace". They met when they were young. They are real old friends and have not stopped communicating over the years. Although they are not the closest, they have always been together. very good.

Therefore, Mr. Zhou is also one of the few artists who dares to joke about "three stays and three flights" in person. If it were anyone else, he would not have thought about another project in Fan Xingxing without considering changing careers.

"By the way, what kind of script meeting does your family go to? I won't tell you if I ask."

Hu Jing glanced at the door and whispered: "Actually, the wind should blow out after a while. Next year Fanxing and China Film are preparing to make a big production, and he will go to a meeting."

"How big is a big production? 200 million or 300 million yuan?"

"300 million is just the bottom line!"

Mr. Zhou was stunned. At present, the highest investment in domestic films is "The Promise" and Lao Mouzi's "A City of Golden Armor", both of which are around 300 million.

With a base price of 300 million, no matter how much it goes up, it is a rare super-large production in the Chinese film industry.

Even though Mr. Zhou knew that he had just won "Painted Skin" and would no longer be able to win an important role over all the other actresses, he still couldn't help but feel excited.

"What's the theme and script?"

Mr. Zhou is going to collect some information and be somewhat prepared, just in case there is a chance.

Hu Jing didn't care about her petty thoughts. Anyway, she had already determined that she would not be an important heroine in it. She even estimated that Fanxing and the others had gotten the news and didn't mind giving Mr. Zhou some insight.

"Three Kingdoms, Battle of Red Cliff."

…

"The Battle of Chibi in the Three Kingdoms is a plot familiar to countless audiences. The drama and grand scenes are very charming, and a large number of popular characters appear..."

In the conference room of Fanxing Building, Vice President Ding Ying skillfully used the PPT on the large screen in the conference room to explain the plan to Cao Xuan and relevant leaders and persons in charge.

This movie, tentatively titled "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff", was prepared as early as the end of last year with the consent of Han Sanye and Cao Xuan, and received strong support from a certain bureau and even the publicity department leaders.

Apart from other things, the relevant leaders directly helped solve the problem of using troops to help with filming. Within two groups, the crew could directly negotiate and contact each other.

With the strong support of their leaders, Cao Xuan and Mr. Han are more open-minded.

"Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff" is planned to be divided into two parts: Part One and Part Two.

The main character in the upper part is Zhuge Liang. Filming started with the retreat from Xinye. Famous scenes such as riding the savior alone in Changbanpo and breaking the Dangyang Bridge are also included. Then, he joins forces with the sun to fight against Cao Cao, fights with Confucian scholars, borrows arrows from a straw boat, and finally officially Welcome to the Battle of Chibi.

The protagonists of the second part are Zhou Yu, Jiang Qian steals books, plots to kill Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, Kurou plot and Huang Gai sing a tune, plot to deceive the iron armor, and finally burns Chibi, and Cao Cao's army is wiped out while talking and laughing.

To write the script, Cao Xuan hired a luxurious team of screenwriters.

Chen Shou, the author of "Three Kingdoms", Sima Guang, the author of "Zi Zhi Tong Jian", and Luo Guanzhong, the author of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" are writers related to the history of the Three Kingdoms.

However, these positions are no longer there, and the screenwriters who are actually alive and participating in the creation of the script are the latter few.

Du Jiafu and Zhu Xiaoguang, the two major screenwriters of the 1994 version of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

Well-known historical screenwriter, Liu Heping, screenwriter of "Ming Dynasty 1566" and "Yongzheng Dynasty".

Lu Wei, the screenwriter of "Farewell My Concubine" and "Alive", is also among them.

It is worth mentioning that Lu Wei is also one of the screenwriters of the original "Red Cliff", but according to him, his script has long been abandoned by Wu Baige, and a large part of the final product was not written by him.

As for the reason why it was abandoned, Lu Wei himself wanted to explore the pressure and inner feelings of Soochow Zhou Yu and other soldiers during the war and the situation at that time. The theme was to fight for faith and independence without fear of rape.

Wu Baige, on the other hand, wholeheartedly advocates "peace" and pays special attention to Xiao Qiao's role.

Not only did Mengmeng stand up, but in the end, Xiao Qiao was asked to lurk beside Cao Cao as an undercover agent. From the two major power groups fighting for hegemony in the world, he turned into a gang boss trying to steal his son...

"Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff" is basically based on the above-mentioned screenwriters.

The two people who worked on the 1994 version of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" were more of consultants and did not participate much in the creation. They were mainly responsible for checking.

It is Liu Heping and Lu Wei who really control the movie script. Liu Heping is ranked first and is responsible for shaping the machinations and historical weight. Lu Wei is ranked second and explores the heart and brilliance of the characters within the framework of the historical plot.

In addition, there are four on-the-job screenwriters from Fanxing to provide assistance. They are all experts from Fanxing's script creation center. They have all independently been responsible for a certain project and have good abilities and experience.

There is nothing to say about the abilities of Liu Heping and Lu Wei, but one of them is from historical evidence, the other is from literary and artistic films, and "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff" is a major commercial production.

Cao Xuan was afraid that if these two people took action, the script would be too dark or literary, so he added four screenwriters and screenwriters.

These have all participated in successful commercial film and television projects, and have their own sense and acumen of the current film and television market. They can greatly balance Liu and Lu to prevent them from letting themselves go.

The screenwriting team has now started writing, and filming will not start until next year. There is plenty of time to polish it, and Cao Xuan and others are not in a hurry.

On the contrary, the choice of director is the top priority now.

Many aspects of the script direction, preliminary preparations, and casting and location selection must be personally controlled by the director. Not to mention that such a large project has a long cycle and heavy tasks, so it must be selected as soon as possible to avoid delays.

Today is said to be a script meeting, but in fact it is more about discussing the director selection. In comparison, other things are minor issues.

"How is Brother Chen Kai?"

A China Film executive put forward his idea, and the scene was silent. Many people looked at him as if they were fools without concealing it.

Although many people still think that "The Promise" was just an accident, Director Chen was eventually pulled down from the altar.

Moreover, the tragic example of "The Promise" is right in front of us. It's less than half a year, and Mr. Han has a headache just thinking about him. How could he be given such a big project again?

Not to mention Cao Xuan, even if he was the director himself, there was no way he would let Director Chen waste his money.

"Where is Wu Baige? Recently I heard that he has the idea of ​​returning to China for development."

"He has never been involved in any historical-themed movies and has failed in big-budget productions. I am not optimistic about him."

Cao Xuan directly expressed his opposition, and Wu Baige's reputation is still quite high. He broke into Hollywood in the late 1990s, and "Mission: Impossible 2" even won the 2000 global box office championship.

Judging from the commercial box office resume alone, he is the representative of Chinese directors. The famous Li Eucalyptus was also ranked behind him before he won the Oscar for "Best Director".

Because of this, as soon as the original time and space Wu Baige returned to China, he immediately received strong support from China Film and received hundreds of millions of investments to shoot "Red Cliff".

But now that Cao Xuan is here, at least Wu Baige can't fool Fanxing.

In order to prevent anyone from getting lucky, Cao Xuan directly pointed out the classic record of this man who once worked in Hollywood——

Almost bankrupted Hollywood giant MGM!

In 2002, MGM, which was already in a difficult period for the company, took a big gamble and invested US$120 million, the largest investment in the history of the company, to let Wu Baige film "Wind Talker".

As a result, the box office in the three weeks after its release was about 30 million U.S. dollars. MGM's pants were gone, and the top management directly took the blame and resigned, making the already difficult situation even worse.

One thing to say is that MGM’s affairs are very complicated and we cannot blame all the reasons on Wu Baige.

However, it is an indisputable fact that "Windtalker" failed miserably at the box office and dealt a heavy blow to the precarious MGM.

It is also because of this that Wu Baige, who originally developed smoothly in Hollywood, never got a project in Hollywood. He only served as a producer and producer for some projects before returning to China to develop.

Even if China Film and others may know some inside story about this famous halo filter, they subconsciously ignore it or take a chance.

Cao Xuan knew this person's development and understood the other person's strengths better, so he didn't care about the so-called "famous guide halo".

Fanxing is the main controller of the project, and Cao Xuan strongly opposed it, so Wu Baige would definitely not be selected. Some supporters were a little regretful and moved out another one.

"How about Li Yu? He just won the Oscar for Best Director."

Cao Xuan was speechless. He could see that this group of people did have a strong "inferiority" mentality. Anyone who could achieve great achievements abroad would receive special points.

Although Cao Xuan himself benefited a lot from this, he didn't like this trend.

"Director Li Eucalyptus makes a literary film. You give him hundreds of millions to test the waters and transform into a business."

"So what if you try."

A senior executive from China Film Group muttered something in a low voice. Cao Xuan frowned, put down the pen in his hand, looked at Mr. Han, and spoke in a low voice.

"Han understand, don't blame me for speaking harshly. Fanxing invested 50% of this project, and I earned it every penny. I have to be responsible for my own money and the money of all investors.

Since it is a commercial project, it is rushing to get good reviews and crowds. It does not make any money, and there is no need for us to hold meetings here. This is not a political achievement project. "

These words were very rude, and several executives of China Film were a little unhappy, but Mr. Han did not express any reaction.

He knew what Cao Xuan said was right. Many people in the outside world had begun to criticize him, just because he was throwing away a lot of money and making one blockbuster after another, but his reputation was poor.

Although the blockbuster strategy has brought positive effects to the film market, the negative effects are also obvious.

Because of this, Mr. Han chose to deepen his cooperation with Fanxing to create high-quality films and set industry benchmarks.

In this case, Cao Xuan complained about a few minor issues and asked them to cooperate in the meeting, how could they not quarrel.

When he was competing for the investment share of "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff", he banged the table in Cao Xuan's office and used several curse words in his hometown dialect.

Master Han signaled everyone to calm down, and then asked: "Wu Baige and Li Yu are not suitable. Who does Mr. Cao think is suitable?"

"To be honest, I haven't thought about it either."

Cao Xuan pondered for a moment and added: "But I personally feel that directors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and foreign countries are not good at filming historical subjects. Many of them have no concept of ancient history at all. If they are forced to film, it will probably make a joke.

So even though Director Xu was the contracted director of our company, I never thought about letting him film Three Kingdoms. "

"If Hong Kong, Taiwan and foreign countries are not good, then there are mainland directors. The ones who are more successful now are Xiaogang and Yi. Do you prefer them two?"

Cao Xuan hesitated for a moment: "I personally prefer Director Zhang, as long as he doesn't touch the script."

This sentence caused many people to laugh at the scene. Lao Mouzi's visuals, scheduling and other directorial abilities are not worthy of mention, but the story has always been a flaw and has become a joke.

Cao Xuan's proposal also caused many people to think. To be honest, Lao Mouzi is indeed one of the most suitable candidates to some extent.

Hong Kong, Taiwan and foreign directors are not suitable. Director Chen passed. Feng Xiaogang had almost never shot any big-scene movies before, so he is not as trustworthy as Lao Mouzi in this regard.

If Lao Mouzi is not good enough and few new directors can hold on, then we will have to look to the third or fourth generation of veteran directors.

However, many people have not held a guide tube for many years, and whether they can shoot well is a question. To put it bluntly, the film and television works they produced at their peak are completely different from the current film and television shooting structure.

Instead of taking a gamble with an old director, it would be better to take a gamble from Lao Mouzi and Feng Xiaogang.

"Invite Director Zhang. Boss Zhang of the new scene won't have any ideas."

"Count him a share, specifically based on capital investment."

Cao Xuan did not take the difficult boss Zhang seriously. The control of the film must belong to Fanxing. He cooperated with Lao Mouzi and invested money according to the rules. He would definitely have a share in the project, but if he followed it and caused trouble, Fanxing and China Film are not vegetarians either.

If Mr. Han is sitting on a mountain, Cao Xuan can also be Cao's big stick, but his boss Zhang is definitely not Yang Zirong who beats a tiger up the mountain...

"I'm not worried about Boss Zhang."

Mr. Han muttered: "The main reason is that Yi is now the chief director of the Beijing Olympics. Does he have time to make movies?"

Cao Xuan scratched his head. He almost forgot about it. At the beginning of this year, the Beijing Olympic Games Organizing Committee officially invited bids for the position of chief director.

Many directors participated in the bidding, and Director Chen also staged a famous scene. He shocked the entire organizing committee with the sentence "Suddenly it was said that Jibei was coming from outside the sword, and his clothes were filled with tears after hearing it for the first time." Then, not surprisingly, he was eliminated in the first round.

After a competition, Lao Mouzi was still selected. However, because of his poor performance in the 8 minutes of the Athens Olympics, many people were not optimistic about him and even gave him the name "National Master" as a sign of ridicule.

Cao Xuan didn't care about Lao Mouzi's situation, but in this case, he doubted that he really had time to film "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff".

"I'll talk to Director Zhang later, and also prepare for the contact with Director Feng's team."

Feng Xiaogang is not good at history, but he is not bad at shooting big scenes. The relevant plots such as "1942", "Tangshan Earthquake" and "Assembly" are remarkable. If Lao Mouzi cannot win, he can only settle for the next best thing. .

Of course, Cao Xuan is not necessarily committed to these two. At the same time, there are also some alternatives from other directors for further comprehensive comparison.

The rest was mainly to discuss investment shares. Fanxing took 50%, China Film took 30%, and the remaining 20% ​​was given to various film and television companies.

Because of Fanxing's previous success, and because this is a super-large production, led by Fanxing and China Film Group, the "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff" project has received frantic grabs from the outside world, and everyone has refused to give up their investment share.

Cao Xuan originally wanted to receive dividends, but investors such as China Film Group would rather agree to pay Cao Xuan a total of 140 million yuan for the first and second films based on the market price, rather than take any more dividends as salary.

China Film and Fanxing are discussing how to divide the 20% this time. Each company has its own "relatives and friends". There are more wolves and less meat.

The bulk had been divided before. Han Sanye and Cao Xuan did not participate in the debate. Han Sanye, who was still worried about the director, thought of another candidate.

"What do you think about letting Jiang Wen take the photo?"

"Jiang Wen?"

Cao Xuan quickly shook his head. This person's style was too unique. He was afraid that Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu would be filmed eating dumplings and complaining about Cao Cao, and then they would kill Meng De together with knives in hand.

However, when Cao Xuan thought of Jiang Wen, his original decision suddenly wavered.

"Director Han, there is definitely no problem with Mr. Bao playing Cao Cao, but there is a lack of surprises. What do you think of Jiang Wen playing the role of Cao Cao?"

"Jiang Wen, Cao Cao."

Master Han's eyes lit up: "It's interesting."

He was moved, but Cao Xuan hesitated. This guy was too jumpy, and he was worried that ordinary directors would not be able to hold it down. He was also worried that Cao Cao would "change his taste" and skew the style of the entire movie.

"Let's discuss it later. Let's confirm the director first."

———

ps: There is one more chapter, it will be posted before 2 o'clock in the morning today. Please vote for me.