China Entertainment Mythology 2004

Chapter 39 Storm Center
At the end of September, "Taken" was screened around the world one after another. Its final box office in the mainland was 9 million yuan, breaking the box office record of 2.8 million yuan created by Zhang Yimou's film "Hero" and becoming the new national box office champion.

In the North American market, "Taken" finally won a box office of 1.2 million U.S. dollars, and the total overseas box office was as high as 2.3 million U.S. dollars. In addition to its box office in mainland China, the global box office of "Taken" has reached 2.7 million U.S. dollars. Breaking the highest global box office record of a Chinese-language film created by "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

And as "Taken" continues to refresh the records of Chinese-language films, all participants in the film have gained both fame and fortune.

First of all, Brother Cheng Long's global reputation has soared because of this movie. Friends from all over the world kept calling to congratulate Brother Cheng Long on his box office miracle.

The second is Western Film Group, one of the investors of the film. In the past three months, as the box office of "Taken" has been getting higher and higher, the director of Western Film Studio Yan Yiyun is full of red every day. Several film seminars on "Taken" were held.

Again, for the actors who participated in the film, Liu Yifei not only gained a lot of attention in China with this film, but also achieved international influence in one fell swoop, gaining a large number of European and American fans.

And Song Jia, who had very few roles in this film, received many film offers, but she rejected them one by one, because at this time she had already received Li Mu's new film invitation, Song Jia did not hesitate. , directly agreed.

Of course, as the film's screenwriter, assistant director, and the ruthless person who was rumored to be able to directly stop Cheng Long from modifying the film's plan in Cheng Long's crew, Li Mu of course also received a lot of attention from the circle.

When Li Mu was fully preparing for the new movie "Master of Hypnotism", he suddenly received an invitation from Wang Zhonglei of the Huayi Brothers Group.

At this time, it is really difficult to bypass the Huayi Brothers Group when making movies in China. Let alone the many actors under its umbrella, it is impossible for Li Mu to completely abandon it when making movies in the future.

At 7 o'clock in the evening, the private room of the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

Li Mu went to the appointment alone, and there were three people from Huayi, besides the president of Huayi Group Wang Zhonglei, actor Li Lianhua, and Li Lianhua's younger sister Li Xuehua.

In addition to being Li Lianhua's biological sister, Li Xuehua is also Li Lianhua's manager.This person has been a top student since he was a child, which also made Li Lianhua, who is a scumbag, feel very inferior when facing his own sister. Later, Li Lianhua made a name for himself in the entertainment industry by chance. Therefore, he joined Huayi Group and became the manager of his sister Li Lianhua.

Li Xuehua has a good eye for film selection. It is reported that whether it is the movies "A World Without Thieves" and "The Wind", these two films that are crucial to Li Lianhua's film career are all thanks to her younger sister Li Xuehua's efforts. I decided to play after persuasion.

Later, Huayi Brothers broke up with Wang Jinghua, the No. Big film and television executives, chairman of Hesong Media and other positions.

He Song Media was founded by him independently, and his sister Li Lianhua is also a partner of this company. Later, Zhao Liying will join He Song and become a new partner of He Song.

The two sides met, and after some courtesies, Wang Zhonglei finally told the reason for inviting Li Mu.

""Taken" sold 2.7 million US dollars worldwide. Lionsgate Films and Columbia Pictures in the United States all saw business opportunities. Both companies wanted to replicate the success of Cheng Long and "Taken", so the two of them The family teamed up and found Li Lianlian, hoping to invite Li Lianlian to participate in the new kung fu movie."

Li Mu nodded, the reactions of the two companies were not difficult to understand.

At this time, I heard Wang Zhonglei continue: "However, Li Lianjie neither agreed to the invitation of the two companies, nor flatly rejected the other party. The two companies found Huayi again, and hoped that Huayi could help find out Li Lianlian's true thoughts. I have met Li Lianlian in the past few days, and Li Lianlian did not hide it from me. According to him, he has two main concerns. First, he is on the same level as Cheng Long, and now Cheng Long’s new movie "Hurricane Rescue" is a global hit , if his new kung fu movie fails at the box office in the future, then he will become a meme in the idiom."

Li Mu nodded, Li Lianlian's concerns were not unreasonable.

Wang Zhonglei continued: "Secondly, the scripts presented to him by Lionsgate and Columbia are very lackluster, and he doesn't believe that such scripts can be sold—not to mention the results of "Taken", I am afraid that it is difficult for ordinary movies to achieve the passing grades. "

Li Mu said at this time: "But Li Lianlian really wanted to make a movie that can be compared to "Taken", so he didn't directly reject the other party."

Wang Zhonglei nodded: "Yes, Li Lianlian's concerns are not unreasonable. If Cheng Long's "Hurricane Taken" has just achieved outstanding results, Li Lianlian's side will immediately follow suit. The grades are too bad, and I really don’t look good, so my idea to Li Lian is to fight for a brand new kung fu movie co-starred by him and Cheng Long.”

Li Muxin said: "It's coming, it's finally coming, is it you? "The King of Kung Fu"?"

Wang Zhonglei continued at this time: "After Li Lianlian listened to my opinion, he was really interested. He thinks that "Taken" has made this kind of movie to the extreme. But if the two Kung Fu superstars Li Lian and Cheng Long can be put into one movie, and let the two have a peak duel, there may be a real possibility of surpassing "Taken."

Li Mu doesn't quite agree with this. The two kung fu superstars' peak confrontation is enough for gimmicks, but whether it can be recognized by the audience depends on the quality of the movie in the end.

In this regard, "The King of Kung Fu" is a living example.

Wang Zhonglei added: "After I made this suggestion, Li Lianlian thought for a while and said that he could give it a try, but he hopes that you will write the script."

"I?"

"Yes."

After finishing speaking, Wang Zhonglei took a deep look at Li Mu, and continued: "Li Lianlian said, your screenwriting talent is very good, and what's even more rare is that you have an extremely accurate grasp of Western tastes. During this period of time, several American friends have asked him about a book called "The Hunger Games", and it is reported that the author of this book is Chinese."

"The author of the English version of "The Hunger Games" is signed by Mu Li. I heard that several film companies have expressed interest in the film and television copyright of this novel, including Lionsgate Films. Li Lianlian searched for relevant information Afterwards, I was very surprised to find that there is a Chinese version of "The Hunger Games" published in China, and the name of the author of the Chinese version is Li Mu."

After finishing speaking, Wang Zhonglei looked up at Li Mu, and said: "So it took only eight months for this book to sell nearly 800 million copies in the United States, of which only one month in August, the first two volumes of the novel sold out in total. 165 million copies, and the novel author who topped the "New York Times" bestseller list for six consecutive months is you, right, Mr. Li Mu?"

In the private room at this time, everyone's eyes were on Li Mu's face, and the eyes of Li Lianhua and Li Xuehua were even more brilliant.

The current status of China's entertainment industry is that those in the mainland look up to Xiangjiang Treasure Island, and those in Xiangjiang Treasure Island look up to Hollywood.

Although Xiangjiang movies have declined at this time, mainland filmmakers still can't get over their heads for a while, and they have to wait until "Tai囧" is a big hit at the box office and completely crushes movies with Xiangjiang's director and star as their selling point. When facing Xiangjiang filmmakers, I finally gradually gained confidence.

And the filmmakers in Xiangjiang Baodao look up to Hollywood very much.The big directors and stars of Xiangjiang are all proud of going to Hollywood to develop and become famous, and the English version of Li Mu's "The Hunger Games" has achieved such a huge success in the United States. , is simply a dimensionality reduction blow.

(End of this chapter)