On January 9th, the Lunar New Year schedule became clearer. The total box office of "The Adventures of Li Xianji" reached 470 million in the three weeks after its release. After the New Year's Day holiday, the box office was significantly higher than the other two blockbusters.
And "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate", a seven-day period that includes a long holiday, only has less than 70 million box office left, with a total box office of 480 million.
And "The Thirteen Beauties" is already in its fifth week, with a single week of 25 million and a total box office of 550 million.
"Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" has fallen behind, and "The Adventures of Li Xianji" was released two weeks later, with a box office gap of only 80 million. Judging from the current trend, it is only a matter of time before it catches up.
Zhang Weiping is becoming more and more anxious. Although the investment is definitely not as high as 600 million, with the domestic box office, the loss is inevitable. Now he just wants to reduce the loss.
I don’t want to think about making any money anymore. If I lose a little, I will make a profit, and at least I want to win the Lunar New Year championship!
Zhang Weiping began to accept various interviews more and more frequently, and his words became more and more exaggerated.
A reporter from Tengxun Entertainment asked: "Mr. Zhang, the box office of "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins" is currently less than 600 million, and the cost has not even been reached. This will be Zhang Yimou's first loss-making movie. What do you think is the reason? For today's
What do you think about the domestic film market?"
Zhang Weiping said with a confident smile: "The Thirteen Beauties of Jinling has sold the copyright to many countries outside of North America and Asia. After being screened in North America, it will be fully released in 150 countries around the world."
No matter what, we can't say it's a loss now. When we hear it's a loss, the audience's first reaction is, this film is no good.
Instead, you have to brag a lot, wait until the painting is finished, and then sell it out.
That's not all. When talking about Ni Ni, Zhang Weiping even said, "Ni Ni's English is good. If she wins the Oscar this time, she will become an international superstar in no time."
Among the 'Girls', Ni Ni is probably the one who has risen the fastest, because there has never been a film as highly anticipated by the international film community as 'The Thirteen Beauties'!"
Regarding the prospect of Oscars, Zhang Weiping did not care about the ridicule from netizens.
""The Thirteen Hairpins" is a global film. It has assembled a completely international cast and crew. In this film, the technical part is from Mi Lijian, the special effects part is from England, and the visual part is from neon.
The people and costumes are from Xiangjiang, and the actors are from China, Neon, and Mi Lijian.
There is also a famous British explosion special effects team filming war scenes, which can be said to be a rare multinational force in the history of Chinese film. Moreover, our film has 50% foreign language dialogue, and the film has a purely "international style" from the beginning.
route.
This is completely different from previous domestic films. Our goal from the beginning was globalization. This is a film for the world. This will change overseas audiences’ views on Chinese films. It is definitely the highest level of Chinese films.
Chinese movie!”?????
Watching Zhang Weiping's interview at home, Li Qian had a question mark on his forehead. This man seemed quite smart, how could he do stupid things?
"Hey, Zhang Weiping said that Ni Ni is going to become an international superstar. She seems to have signed up for the Oscar for Best Actress, right?"
Tong Liya lay on Li Qian's shoulder and said with a narrow look.
As he talked, he felt it was funny, "This guy is really bragging without drafting, and you can see that he is not embarrassed at all, he speaks plausibly, as if he is telling the truth."
International superstar?
Li Qian shook his head, leaned back on the sofa, and said with a smile, "What does it mean to be an international superstar? I signed up for the best actress. Dare you say that? Zhang Weiping is really willing to go all out."
Not to mention, the new pictures really dare to promote, Zhang Ziyi's successor, the next Chinese actress to go global, has been arranged for Ni Ni.
For those who don’t know, they think they have already been nominated. They just sign up. If you apply for Qinghua University in the college entrance examination, you will be regarded as a Qinghua student?
The Chinese New Year is coming soon, and Li Qian occasionally participates in some exclusive interviews to promote his performance to the media. If you give others face, others will give you face.
In the afternoon, I accepted an exclusive interview with Xinlang Entertainment in the hotel.
Lu Chao, who fought for this exclusive interview opportunity, was a fan of Li Qian's and this was his first time face to face. The distance was less than one meter, so he was still a little excited to see Li Qian alone.
"Hello Director Li, I am Lu Chao, a reporter from Xinlang Entertainment. You can just call me Xiao Lu."
"Hello, Reporter Lu." Li Qian smiled.
"Director Li, shall we start directly?"
"let's start."
Time is precious. Although he is a loyal movie fan, Lu Chao has not forgotten his work.
"Director Li, first of all, there is a question that the audience is very concerned about. In your comedy film "The Truman Show," what does Truman refer to? Is it a name of a person, a place, or something else?"
"Truman is a personal name, and it is also the name of the male protagonist in this movie." There is no need to keep such a small issue a secret.
Lu Chao then asked, "Can you tell us a little bit about the meaning of the title? What is the story about? Does The Truman Show refer to another time and space?"
Li Qian shook his head, "Spoilers are not a good habit. After the movie is released, everyone will naturally know about it. I believe it will surprise you by then."
Surprised?
Lu Chao was refreshed. It was indeed extraordinary. Although Li Qian often boasted, he realized everything by himself.
In other words, this is still an imaginative movie!
As a senior movie fan, Lu Chao has a clear definition of "The Truman Show" in his mind.
"Previously, Jiangning City announced that it would spend 7 billion in Xinzhou District to build exterior scenes for "The Truman Show." What kind of world is this?"
"Actually, it's nothing special. It's just like our real cities."
Is it similar to the real world?
Lu Chao's mouth twitched. Just like a real city, why spend 7 billion to build outdoor scenes? It can't be done by just shooting in real scenes.
"I Am Legend" went through so much trouble before and was shot on location in Shanghai. Now a comedy spends so much money on location construction. Isn't it nonsense?
Looking at reporter Lu's suspicious eyes, Li Qian couldn't help it. He was telling the truth, and it was indeed similar to the real city.
Lu Chao then made some insinuations about the content of "The Truman Show", but basically didn't ask for any important information.
I had no choice but to give up. What could I do if I met such a helpless person?
So, I turned to ask about "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins" competing for Olympics.
"Director Li, do you think it is possible for the international "The Thirteen Hairpins" to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film again after 10 years?"
I only asked about Best Foreign Language Film, and I didn’t have the nerve to ask about other individual awards, but no one with a brain would believe that it could be nominated for other individual awards.
"The hope is not high." Li Qian said matter-of-factly, "The biggest advantage of "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins" is that a homeless man, a wine dealer, an ordinary foreigner, participated in the redemption of Jinling. And such a
Ordinary foreigners truly embody human nature and are in line with Western individual heroism.
However, you may not have studied the Oscars in depth. In fact, the Oscar selection first focuses on the theme. The theme must be acceptable to them. Back then, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was in an era when Eastern Kung Fu was popular all over the world. Cheng Long and Jet Li were well known to the global audience.
, DVDs and videotapes sold for tens of millions of dollars.
Eastern Kung Fu is a very popular theme. Coupled with director Li An’s experience, he added some Western elements to the film, so it won four awards including Best Foreign Language Film.
Previously, director Zhang's "Ju Dou" and "Raise the Red Lantern" were nominated for the best foreign language film. It was also because of the theme. At that time, the overseas impression of China at that time, if these two films were replaced now, I think
The probability of nomination is greatly reduced.”
There is a track record for Oscars, otherwise why would there be so many films dedicated to competing for them?
In fact, if "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" were released today, the possibility of winning an award would be very low, because in the past ten years, Hollywood has become tired of costume movies and oriental kung fu movies, and it will even lose points in terms of themes.
But after all, he won the award, so Li Qian couldn't comment casually.
However, this directly said that Zhang Yimou's two films in the 1990s that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film were products of the times. Lu Chao still secretly smacked his lips.
"Director Li"
Lu Chao wanted to remind Li Qian, but Li Qian smiled and interrupted him, "My words do not deny the meaning of Director Zhang's two films. Any film with the characteristics of the times cannot be divorced from the times.
Look, no matter what, it was the pinnacle representative of Chinese-language films of that era. Decades later, it will still be recorded in the history of Chinese films.
Now we are talking about the Oscars. Looking at the Oscars over the past few decades, winning movies are actually inseparable from three characteristics.
The first is the technical level, which is the fundamental reason why Hollywood leads the world, including technology at the technological level and technology at the creative level.
The second point is the theme. This can be seen from Hollywood’s marketing about the Oscars. Many films competing for awards will carry a hot social topic.
Many people paid attention to the 2010 Oscars. "Avatar" ultimately lost to "The Hurt Locker" in the Best Picture competition. The former was the hottest topic at the time and swept the world, but the topic behind the latter has been going on for ten years.
Year.
The third category is the standpoint of the film. When "Brokeback Mountain" and "Crash" competed, "Brokeback Mountain" won the best director, while "Crash" won the best picture. At that time, most domestic filmmakers could not
accept.
Even the director of "Crash" said in an interview a few years later that "Brokeback Mountain" should have won the Best Picture Award. Even in the minds of mainstream Hollywood filmmakers, "Brokeback Mountain" is considered superior.
But even so, when voting, most people still voted for "Crash". The main reason is because "Brokeback Mountain" tells the story of a minority, while "Crash" is indeed about the collision and conflict between races.
, communication and reconciliation, sympathy and redemption, to put it bluntly, it is politically correct.”
After a long speech, Lu Chao was a little hard to understand for a while.
It's not that I don't understand what Li Qian said, I just can't figure out how a commercial director like Li Qian can know so much about Oscars. He's not as enthusiastic about various awards like other directors.
Before a serious blockbuster is released, he will go to Europe for a tour, and then use the opportunity to vigorously promote it. I have never seen Li Qian participate in major international film festivals.
However, this is not the focus of the interview. Lu Chao then asked, "Director Li and Zhang Weiping said that "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling" is an international film and is called a film composed of multinational coalition forces, and the little gangster Mi Lijian has undergone transformation.
, has become a savior’s influence, which is in line with Milijian’s personal heroism, wouldn’t Oscar accept it?”
multinational coalition
What kind of idiot would it be to say something like this and flaunt internationalization every day, as if this can truly lead to internationalization?
The technical part is from Mi Lijian, the special effects part is from England, the visual part is from Neon people, the costumes are from Hong Kong, the actors are Chinese, Neon people, and Mi Lijian, and nearly half of the dialogues are in foreign languages.
Good guy, the only thing missing is that the director is not a foreigner.
Constantly emphasizing the importance of foreigners and ignoring the role of the Chinese is really as if we were blindly worshiping foreigners now or a few years ago.
There were some unpleasant words that Li Qian didn't want to say out loud. From the beginning to the end, Zhang Weiping was always looking for presence. Zhang Yimou didn't say anything. Li Qian still had basic respect for him.
After thinking about it, Li Qian just said tactfully, ""The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling" is actually not in line with Oscar's preferences in terms of theme and stance. The movie is about the war between the Chinese and the Neon people, and the war between the Mi Lijian people.
It doesn’t matter, it can’t be solved by inserting a Milijian protagonist in, even if”
Almost saying it, Li Qian coughed lightly and continued, "Even if we do this, they won't accept it because they have never participated in the war between our two countries in history."
The technical level is not enough, people don’t care about the topic, let alone the position.
After saying that, Li Qian couldn't help but want to scold Zhang Weiping, and then added.
"As a layman, Zhang Weiping uses words like multinational force and internationalization to describe a movie that depicts the suffering of the Chinese nation. He is no longer worthy of being a filmmaker. What he has done for so many days is an injustice to
The biggest insult of this movie is that it insults our own country and people, and it also insults director Zhang Yimou."
He scolded her directly
Lu Chao clicked his tongue, but there was no need to fan the flames. These words were enough, and there was not much time for the exclusive interview.
He then asked, "But Schindler's List, which was not a war in which the Militians participated, also won the Oscar for Best Picture?"
Li Qian shook his head, "Just think about the content of this movie."
Just kidding around the world, that's the Jews. Hollywood is controlled by Jews.
The interview was not long. Near the end, Lu Chao asked Li Qian if he had any thoughts about competing for the Olympics.
"To be precise, you can't use the word Olympics. When you want to hit a certain achievement, you have to go in that direction. But I won't make a movie specifically to cater to their tastes. I'm just tacky.
He is just a commercial film director who makes films that the audience likes." Li Qian said with a smile.
Having said everything that needed to be said, and seeing that the time was almost up, Li Qian stopped the interview.
"That's it for today. Thank you for your hard work, Reporter Lu."
Lu Chao said quickly, "Thank you, Director Li, for taking time out of your busy schedule to accept our interview. In fact, I have always been your idol. Whether it is the movie or the emotions and humanistic care conveyed in the movie, I think you are a social person."
A director with a sense of responsibility.”
Li Qian smiled and said, "Thank you, I just make movies that the audience likes. This shows that most audiences still like positive and uplifting movies."