Since "The Crow", Wang Shuai has not made any other movies.
"The Crow" had a deep impact on Wang Shuai. It went to Cannes, but it didn't win any substantial awards. It had a good reputation and the box office was not bad, but in the end, it didn't win anything in terms of awards.
Later, I wanted to write something that would satisfy me, but my hair was almost turning white and I couldn't write anything in the end.
"The Crow" allowed him to exhaust his talents.
His directorial skills are still there, and his control over human nature is still there, but he just can't find a suitable work for him to show off.
He thought of Zhou Yang and wanted Zhou Yang to get some notebooks, but he couldn't help but feel embarrassed for a while. He was complaining to Shen Changwei when he happened to receive a call from Zhou Yang.
Shen Changwei has also been feeling depressed recently.
As one of the representatives of the Five Generations of Chinese Directors, who has made great strides in both literary and commercial films, he finally made the film "Hero", which was both commercially and well-received, but he suffered repeated setbacks in terms of winning awards.
"Hero" went to Berlin and didn't get anything. It went to the Oscars, but in the end it didn't get anything. It almost didn't even get into the Oscars.
Although the Academy Awards and the Golden Horse Awards award some substantive awards, they are still impressive at home, but embarrassing overseas.
"Overseas awards have always been like this in recent years. If you want to win, you have to capture some of China's domestic pain points. The special effects of "Heroes" are really awesome, and the plot is also quite deep, with feelings of family and country, but when you go to
Overseas, those foreigners can’t understand it. They only know that people flying around in the sky are very cool, but they don’t understand Chinese culture at all..."
"But when I take pictures of painful spots, I feel that my butt is not straight. I am specifically trying to expose China's ugliness to outsiders..."
"But without the vigilance and encouragement of these movies, people would be paralyzed and shoot these songs and dances every day. Isn't this the old Southern Song Dynasty?"
"That's true..."
Shen Changwei and Wang Shuai walked into the conference room while chatting.
Although he belongs to the China Film Association, he has never cared about a lot of bad things. He has neither followed these people to make noises because of the worsening treatment, nor has he supported An Xiao's decision in public.
Always in a state of freedom.
This time I came to Huaxing with Wang Shuai, just to have a look, with no other ideas.
"This book is great! Would you like to play a role?"
"forget it……"
"Will Huang Feihong continue to be played by Huo Yuanjie?"
"Well, let's continue acting. After all, it is a series of movies. In addition to the second part, there is also a third part..."
"Is the booklet of the third part out?"
"Not yet, but I have an outline. I'll shoot this one first."
"After "The Grandmaster 2", Huo Yuanjie's net worth has increased a lot, and I'm afraid the investment needs to increase a bit..."
"I, Hua Xing, will invest some!"
"How much to invest?"
"Ten million……"
"Hahaha, this is too little. As a Huaxing production company, you only invest 10 million. This is too little, right? Isn't it a full 100 million?"
"The company has invested too much recently. If we invest more, we won't be able to turn around."
"Okay, OK, no problem. Let's make this project bigger. In addition to investment, the company will also get 30% of the box office share. I will find someone for the remaining 70%..."
"I have talked with Mr. Zhang, and Mr. Zhang is willing to invest 100 million..."
"It doesn't matter. I don't even need to find anyone. Haha, I've been waiting for you for so long for the script of "The Grandmaster 2" and I've contacted you many times. Now it's finally finished."
When they came over, Huang Jiacheng was already in the conference room.
Huang Jiacheng chatted with Zhou Yang about "The Grandmaster 2" with a smile on his face. His nearly two-meter body was as big as a hill even when he was sitting down.
After talking about filming and investment, Huang Jiacheng took the copy of "The Grandmaster 2 Top Gun" and couldn't put it down.
Compared with Wang Shuai and Shen Changwei, Huang Jiacheng is now at the peak of his career. Although "The Grandmaster" did not win many awards overseas, it won numerous awards domestically and broke historical records at the overseas box office.
It started a trend, and for a while it became the number one box office player in Chinese movies.
Shen Changwei, Wang Shuai and Huang Jiacheng said hello and sat down.
Wang Shuai looked at Zhou Yang...
I found that compared to the previous days, Zhou Yang looked very haggard at this moment, with frightening dark circles under his eyes, but his eyes were very energetic, as if a ball of flame was burning, and his fighting spirit was high.
This made it difficult for Wang Shuai to connect with the young man who had low self-esteem and was slightly shy. Wang Shuai once thought that he had seen the wrong person, or that something had taken over Zhou Yang.
"Director Wang... I wonder if you are interested in "Infernal Affairs 2"?"
""Infernal Affairs 2"?"
"Yes, it is about Liu Jianming as the protagonist. It mainly tells the story of Liu Jianming being trapped in a paranoid dreamland after Chen Yongren's death, with some schizophrenia. This is probably the outline of the story..."
"Oh? Let me take a look."
After Zhou Yang handed the script to Wang Shuai, he looked at Shen Changwei again, his eyes began to look a little fiery, as if the flames were getting stronger: "Director Shen, do you have any ideas for making a movie recently?"
"Yes, yes, but it's hard to make a choice at the moment..." Zhou Yang's words came straight to the point, which made Shen Changwei a little uncomfortable for a while.
"Is there a script missing?"
"The script is always missing."
"Can you tell me roughly what type of script you want?"
"Huh?" After Shen Changwei heard Zhou Yang's reckless question, he was stunned for a moment, and then a bit of weirdness flashed across his face: "Can you compile a notebook on the spot according to my ideas, or have you stored a lot of notebooks?
?”
"Can you tell me first?" Zhou Yang looked at Shen Changwei with a bit of anticipation on his face.
"This..." Shen Changwei frowned slightly. He suddenly felt that this was a bit hasty. After hesitating for a while, he didn't know how to respond to Zhou Yang.
"Tell me, among the several scripts written by Xiao Zhou, which one is worse? Commercial and commercial, literary and artistic..." Wang Shuai flipped through the script of "Infernal Affairs 2" and was filled with surprises without looking back.
Say this.
"Haha, Director Zhou, I said I want to make a movie that can compete for Oscar foreign language films, can you do that?" Looking at Zhou Yang's serious look, Shen Changwei felt that Zhou Yang was extremely confident, so he joked
.
He thought that after he asked this question, Zhou Yang would be embarrassed, or at least give up, but he didn't expect that Zhou Yang sat back on the chair instead, and did not reply immediately, nor did he feel much embarrassment.
Instead, he fell into deep thought.
The conference room suddenly became quiet.
After the silence lasted for three or four minutes, Huang Jiacheng stood up and greeted the two of them cheerfully: "You guys go ahead and I'll leave first."
After Shen Changwei, Wang Shuai and Huang Jiacheng responded, Huang Jiacheng took the script and left the conference room.
The conference room suddenly became quiet again.
Wang Shuai was reading the script of "Infernal Affairs 2", while Zhou Yang, who was sitting in the main seat, lowered his head, picked up a pen and paper, and thought deeply while writing.
When Shen Changwei looked at Zhou Yang's serious look, his joking mood gradually disappeared and turned into worry.
He actually admires Zhou Yang.
He has watched every movie made by Zhou Yang, from "Under the Mine" to "Infernal Affairs".
He naturally also knew that after returning from Venice, the directors from the China Film Association suddenly attacked Zhou Yang, and Zhou Yang's life might be difficult in the future.
It is equivalent to one person facing so many directors in China, and cooperating with theaters and various capitals to threaten relevant departments with box office results...
At this stage, will the relevant departments sacrifice Zhou Yang alone, or will they sacrifice these older generation directors?
Things speak for themselves.
Even though An Xiao has a close relationship with Zhou Yang, as a newcomer, how long can she last and withstand the pressure?
Three billion!
Including "Infernal Affairs" and the box office completed by Zhou Yang, there is still a box office task of 900 million.
Three months!
How can it be possible to complete the box office task of 900 million unless there is another big hit like "Infernal Affairs"?
However, the box office of the movie "Infernal Affairs" is generally considered to be insufficient. Even if the script of "Infernal Affairs 2" is excellent, even if it engages in charity marketing, it is unlikely to reach 700 million!
And it’s not like the Chinese market has all given you Zhou Yang. You know, there are not too many Hollywood movies in the second half of the year. Although there are currently no blockbusters except "Jaws", there are always a few Hollywood movies every year.
It is normal that it is a blockbuster movie. Hollywood movies are bound to squeeze the living space of "Infernal Affairs 2".
All factors considered...
900 million box office mission!
How is it done?
Time continued to pass bit by bit, and half an hour later...
Wang Shuai finished reading the script of "Infernal Affairs 2" and raised his head with great satisfaction. When he looked at Zhou Yang who had been writing in the main seat, he did not speak but put the outline of the script in his arms.
Then, the door of the conference room opened.
Feng Kai walked in excitedly: "Mr. Zhou, I have prepared the movie shooting ideas of several young directors and the types of movies they are good at. They are outside now. Do you want to meet them? Ah, Director Shen
, Director Wang..."
Feng Kai's voice broke the calm in the conference room.
Shen Changwei nodded to Feng Kai, and when he was about to say something, he saw Zhou Yang standing up in the chair, holding the outline of the script he had written.
"Let's meet now... to see what type of movie they want to make, and I'll see if I can figure out a corresponding script..."
"okay."
"Director Shen, I have finished writing the outline of the script. Please take a look and I will go out and do some work."
"okay!"
Shen Changwei nodded, and then continued with the script outline, only to see that the script was called "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"...
After Zhou Yang left, he subconsciously picked up the script and started reading it...
At first he was quite careless, but then the expression on his face suddenly turned into one of shock!