Sun Dahai is also planning to arrange for Liu Zhenwei to serve as the deputy director to help Zhang Yimou, and at the same time let Cheng Xiaodong continue to be his executive director and stage director. As for whether to recruit Tsui Hark to be the producer of the film, we will see when the time comes.
With the help of Liu Zhenwei and Cheng Xiaodong, even if the script is similar to the previous one, I believe Zhang Yimou can make a "New Dragon Inn" that is different from the previous one.
With "A Better Tomorrow", "The Last Emperor" and "The Last Days" as the basis, Sun Dahai is going further and further on the road of demon reform.
In the first two movies, it was just a change of actors, but by the time of "The Love of Ghosts", the scope of the magic changes has become bigger and bigger.
Sun Dahai's planned "New Dragon Inn" will not only change the director, but also the leading actors. Although Tony Leung has good character and acting skills, he is not from Youlian.
Sun Dahai's elbows must be turned inward, so he naturally wants to leave the leading actor to his own people. The first choice in his mind is Simon Yam.
Fa Ge is too powerful, while Leslie Cheung is a bit weak, and Simon Yam is just right, not too much, not too little.
Moreover, Sun Dahai is also planning to use this film to significantly increase the remuneration of the actors and staff. Sun Dahai has long had enough of the low-cost movies that are just makeshift and misleading in the Hong Kong film industry.
Anyway, everyone knows that Simon Yam gets paid in millions of dollars. His high salary attracts the public's attention in the first place, and the salary of other people will increase by 30 to 50%, so it will not be too attractive.
Attractive.
Since the remuneration of actors and staff has increased significantly, Sun Dahai can naturally demand that the quality of the film be improved accordingly. In this way, he can slowly widen the gap with films produced by other film companies and build his own reputation.
As for the casting of the two heroines in the film, Sun Dahai is still hesitating. Lin Qingxia and Maggie Cheung combined to create two extremely classic roles for the audience, which Sun Dahai could not bear to destroy.
Besides, Youlian's yang is rising and yin is declining, and there is really no one who can replace them. Wen Bixia is still far behind, Sophie Marceau and Catherine are foreigners, and Fan Wenfang has not made her debut yet.
Sun Dahai thought about it and found that there was only one Zhong Chuhong who was qualified, and his reputation and acting skills would never be at a disadvantage.
But she is now eagerly waiting for Xiying to get married. If Sun Dahai wants to give her more money, it is really not kind enough.
However, it is too early to mention this now. Since this movie will definitely be co-produced and various programs have been run, it is estimated that the filming will not start until the end of next year at the earliest.
Moreover, Sun Dahai also has a small ambition hidden here.
Mr. Ying will retire next year. His successor has been basically determined, and it is his recommended deputy Liu Changhai.
Liu Changhai has just turned fifty and has been working in a cultural propaganda outlet. He has partnered with Yinglao for several years and is also very familiar with Sun Dahai.
He is a typical reformist and has discussed box office sharing with Sun Dahai many times before. Of course Sun Dahai fully supports this.
Otherwise, when co-productions are made, Youlian will always lose money and make a profit, and let the mainland take a big advantage. Over time, there will be opinions within Youlian. The benefits are related to everyone's wallet.
In Sun Dahai's memory, the first imported film to receive a share of the box office from mainland theaters was the imported Hollywood blockbuster "True Lies" in 1995.
In this life, Sun Dahai hopes that this record can start with "New Longmen Inn".
It is now September 1989, and all the procedures have been completed, and the start-up time will not be until at least the end of next year.
If we also include the time it took for the main actors and crew members to adjust their schedules, it would be good to officially start filming after the Spring Festival in 1991.
"New Longmen Inn" will be shot on location in Gan Province in the northwest region of mainland China.
In the previous life, this movie took a total of more than eight months from start to finish, and cost 8 million Hong Kong dollars before it was finally completed.
If Sun Dahai wants to reshape classics in this generation, the production cost will be significantly increased. He plans to spend 50 million Hong Kong dollars in filming costs, which will also be the largest investment in a single film in the history of Hong Kong movies.
Even so, Simon Yam could only accept the filming of this film at half the price. Otherwise, he would get a salary of 4 million US dollars, equivalent to 30 million Hong Kong dollars, so why would anyone else have fun?
However, after "The Last Love" is released globally next month, I'm afraid Simon Yam's salary will continue to rise. The specific situation can only be discussed at that time.
Increasing actors' remuneration is only one aspect. Sun Dahai also plans to use a large number of special effects lenses in the film, which will cost money.
Leading studios have received a sum of money from Sun Dahai's personal account. They will continue to recruit talents, purchase equipment, and strive to occupy the commanding heights of Hollywood film and television special effects technology.
Sun Dahai knows well that if "New Dragon Inn" can really get a share of the mainland box office, even if it cannot reach the mainland box office of "True Lies" of 120 million US dollars, it will only reach half of it, which is 60 million US dollars, equivalent to 500 million yuan.
The box office revenue has also fully recovered.
Cinema fees and various taxes account for about 60% of the total box office. After deduction, they are shared with domestic partners at a ratio of 3:7. Youlian can also share tens of millions of yuan in revenue, which is nearly 100 million Hong Kong dollars.
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This is the fundamental reason why Sun Dahai dared to invest heavily in "New Dragon Inn". Only by getting a share of the box office from the mainland market, Youlian's investment can be repaid and profitable.
If you include the box office revenue in Xiangjiang, as well as the sales revenue in Bay Area and Southeast Asia, "New Dragon Gate Inn" will definitely become a real and profitable project.
Moreover, with such a distinctive film, Sun Dahai is absolutely confident that it will be sold into the mainstream European and American film markets.
Even if you can only sell out the screening rights, if you add in the income from derivatives such as subsequent video tapes, a large amount of unobtrusive income will be quietly recorded.
The outline of the story of "New Dragon Gate Inn" was dictated by Sun Dahai, and the screenwriter team just wrote it into a script. Sun Dahai looked through it and felt that it was not much different from his previous life.
Sun Dahai is a film layman, so he will not interfere with the work of the review team. He left the review team after knowing that the scripts of "New Dragon Inn" and "The Gambler" had been shortlisted for review.
"Director Wang, your script has passed the preliminary review and will be reviewed tomorrow. You'd better come over tomorrow. If the review team has any questions about your script, you can answer them directly. You understand all this.
"
When Sun Dahai came out, Fatty Wang was chatting with Catherine. When he met such a beautiful woman, Fatty Wang would definitely strike up a conversation.
Hearing Sun Dahai's words, Fatty Wang was so happy that he turned his attention to Catherine again.
Catherine was chatting with Gao Yi just now, hoping that Gao Yi would talk to Sun Dahai and help her find a suitable role in Kasol's new film. Who knew that Fatty Wang would post it.