Chapter 825 Competitive Blockbuster
As August approached, the post-production of "If You Are the One" was completed and the preparations for "Hero" were also progressing smoothly, but Zhang Yimou became more and more anxious.
There are two main reasons for his anxiety.
On the one hand, there has been a lot of news about tribute films in recent times.
The filming of "The Opium War" directed by Xie Jin has just started, and it has been clearly stated that this is a film prepared for the return of Hong Kong.
"The Opium War" has attracted much attention since its preparation. Some newspapers said that Princess Diana of England would play the role of the Queen of England, some newspapers said that the script had been revised seven or eight times, but Xie Jin was still not satisfied, and some newspapers also said that Xie Jin invited directors from Taiwan to join, etc. It attracted a lot of attention at once.
CCTV also co-produced a TV series with the Hong Kong Silver Capital Organization to celebrate Hong Kong's return.
There are more and more movies and TV series about the theme of returning to the past recently, which will inevitably distract the audience's enthusiasm for tribute films. This is one of the reasons for Zhang Yimou's anxiety.
Another reason is that "The Emperor's Ode to Qin" has also been in the news recently. This movie caused a certain response when it started filming last year.
Somewhat similar to "Hero", this is a big-budget movie. Hong Kong Ocean Pictures invested 40 million in this movie. In addition to the powerful Hong Kong producers, the producers of this movie are also the Xi'an Film Studio.
The director is Zhou Xiaowen, who, like Zhang Yimou, graduated from the Photography Department of Yanying Film Academy. He is a few years older than Zhang Yimou and also belongs to the fifth generation of directors.
But the plot of "Ode to Qin" is more similar to "Hero". "Hero" tells the story of the assassination of Qin Shi Huang, which is based on the historical story of Jing Ke assassinating Qin Shi Huang, while "Ode to Qin" tells the story of another famous assassin, Gao Jianli, assassinating Qin Shi Huang.
Although "Hero" promoted the concept of "Chinese blockbuster", if we talk about true Chinese blockbusters, "The Emperor's Ode" should be regarded as a pioneer.
40 million RMB investment, co-produced by institutions on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, written by Lu Wei, starring Jiang Wen, Ge You, and Xu Qing...
Each of these factors made Zhang Yimou feel extremely heavy-hearted. He was not only worried about being criticized for plagiarizing others, but also worried that if "The Emperor's Ode to Qin" was a good success, the audience would get tired of this subject matter, which would directly affect the performance of "Hero".
In the words of later generations, "Hero" and "The Emperor's Shadow" are competing products. The release date of "The Emperor's Shadow" was scheduled for the end of October, earlier than "Hero", which could not but make Zhang Yimou worried.
The production of "If You Are the One" has been completed, and Zhang Yimou is about to take the film to participate in this year's Venice Film Festival. But before going abroad, he was restless. After a few days, he couldn't bear it anymore, so he found Lin Weimin and complained to him.
He took on the role of "Hero" with great difficulty in the beginning. Now, two months have passed and the preparations for the film are going more and more smoothly, but he is becoming less and less confident in himself.
Lin Weimin could understand his mentality. "The Emperor's Shadow" will be released in a few months. This is Zhang Yimou's benchmark. It would be fine if the movie did not have ideal box office and reputation, but if it was really popular, it would be a shackle for Zhang Yimou.
His "Hero" can only be better than "Ode to Qin", and not just a little bit better, but much better.
"Hero" has an investment of 80 million RMB. Now the second version of the script is being revised. Compared with the original version, it has undergone major changes. The motive of Wuming and others to assassinate Qin has been strengthened, that is, the impact of the war on the people. The character settings are also more vivid and full, and those affected and inexplicable lines and behaviors have been removed. The texture of the script has been significantly improved compared with later generations.
Because the script is still being revised, the actors have not been completely confirmed. For the time being, only a few confirmed leading roles have been decided, with Han Zhuangzhuang playing Ying Zheng, Zhang Guorong playing Wuming and Gong Li playing Feixue.
The names of the characters in the movie still continue the style of the original "Hero". As for why this was done, it happened to be related to the reason why Zhang Yimou came to Lin Weimin to complain.
The fifth generation of directors from the 1990s to the early 21st century all focused on the story of "The Assassination of Qin".
Zhou Xiaowen's "Ode to Qin", Cheng Kaige's "The Emperor and the Assassin", and Zhang Yimou's "Hero".
The film "The Emperor's Shadow" was the first to be produced and released. In terms of quality, it was remarkable. However, when it was released in 1996, the film made two fatal mistakes, which led to it being urgently withdrawn from theaters after only four days.
The Hong Kong production company was fined 500,000 yuan, and the Xi'an Film Studio was ordered to inspect. It was not until a year later that the film was allowed to be re-released. The result was naturally a failure, the box office was a disastrous failure, and the investors lost all their money.
The film "The Emperor's Avatar" begins with a shot of Gao Jianli's mother feeding infants Ying Zheng and Gao Jianli. There would have been nothing wrong with that, but the director insisted on having the mistress feed the babies separately, making the shot overly revealing. There is also a plot in which Gao Jianli rapes Ying Zheng's most beloved daughter, Princess Liyang, and Princess Liyang, who was suffering from a leg disease, unexpectedly recovers as a result.
If you say that the plot is too revealing, in fact, many films of that era were even more revealing than "The Emperor and the Assassin", but why was it the only one banned?
This is mainly due to the director's personal opinions and his independent deconstruction of history.
To put it bluntly, it is a mistake of historical nihilism.
Gao Jianli raped Ying Zheng's most beloved daughter, Princess Liyang, and unexpectedly Princess Liyang, who was suffering from a leg disease, recovered as a result.
What would you think of when the movie was released in 1996?
The path of "The Ode to Qin" is neither history nor parody, but fiction within the framework of history. Moreover, this fiction is controversial and subversive. In the film, Jiang Wen's character Ying Zheng once said, "History is written by me!"
It is hard not to understand this line as the director using the character's mouth to promote his own personal goods.
If "The Song of Qin" was a complete parody, it wouldn't matter. But it focuses on historical details, but does not refer to historical records in the narrative. The history in the movie has become the context of a literary text, which is completely contrary to the historical materialism that my country has always adhered to. So it is not surprising that it was banned.
Lin Weimin was no stranger to "The Legend of Qin" and was also familiar with the various news about the film when it was released. Naturally, he would avoid the problems involved. He also made the names of the characters in "Hero" vague in order to avoid encountering the problems of "The Legend of Qin".
"Hero" is intended to be a commercial blockbuster, not a true historical restoration, so there is no need to get stuck on that issue.
Zhang Yimou talked to Lin Weimin about his distress and anxiety, and was comforted by Lin Weimin.
At the end, Lin Weimin said mysteriously, "You've seen Zhou Xiaowen's movies. They're too literary. If he had continued to shoot a movie like The Emperor's Ode to Qin with the previous ideas and pace, the final result would have been a loss in both box office and reputation. You can't have it all. As long as you stick to the idea of making an excellent commercial movie, the result will be right."
Lin Weimin's words were so firm that Zhang Yimou inexplicably felt more confident.
That’s right, I want to make a commercial blockbuster that is close to the audience.
After talking with Lin Weimin, Zhang Yimou regained some confidence.
But Lin Weimin knew very well that this self-doubt and self-certainty would haunt Zhang Yimou at all times in the next year.
Because what he did was something that had never been done before. Even the movie "The Emperor's Ode" with a 40 million investment and many big stars could not compare with "Hero". The essence of "The Emperor's Ode" is still an author's film in the guise of a blockbuster.
"Hero" is a completely commercial film. When Lin Weimin was guiding Tong Zhonggui and Mo Yan in writing the script, he also strictly followed the commercial creation model.
Respecting the creation itself and respecting the audience are the prerequisites for the success of a work. Whether the connotation is profound or not is not the point.
Two days later, Li Xin suddenly found Lin Weimin's office and brought him good news.
The sales of the last issue of "Red Bean Comics" officially exceeded 6 million copies yesterday.
The achievement of 6 million copies in a single issue is a cause for celebration. Not only did it surpass the sales of "The King of Painting", it also made "Hongdou Comics" the undisputed number one publication in the field of popular reading in China.
Since 1985, popular reading materials in China have flourished, and a large number of publications with excellent sales have emerged, such as "Popular Movies", "Legends of the Past and Present", and "Story Club".
"Popular Movies" once achieved a record of 9 million copies in a single issue, but that was only a flash in the pan. With the decline of the film industry in recent years, "Popular Movies" has long lost its former glory.
In recent years, the top spot in the popular literature field has been monopolized by Story Club, with sales volume maintained at between 5 and 6 million copies for many years.
In the past few years, Tongwen Press successively founded "Jiuzhou Heroes" and "Red Bean". The sales of "Jiuzhou Heroes" have been at 4 million copies per issue for many years. Last year, the sales of "Red Bean" once surpassed "Story Club" because of its cooperation with the TV series "Flower Season and Rainy Season", but the sales soon fell back to less than 5 million copies.
The first issue of "Red Bean Comics" was only published in the second half of last year. It took less than a year for it to successfully break the 6 million copy barrier of "Story Club". All this was inseparable from the assistance of the "Spirited Away" comics.
"Spirited Away" has been on the market for more than three years since its publication. Not to mention how many readers have read it when it was serialized in "Childhood", the total sales of books published by Guowen Publishing House alone has approached 19 million copies, and is very close to the 20 million copy mark.
In the history of Chinese publishing, except for certain specific books, no other book has been able to achieve such amazing sales, which is enough to prove the influence of the novel "Spirited Away".
Riding on the popularity of the original novel "Spirited Away", the manga "Spirited Away" helped "Red Bean Comics" break the sales record of 6 million copies in just over half a year, which seemed both natural and surprising.
After all, this is just a girls' comics publication.
Of course, Li Xin came to see Lin Weimin not just to tell him the good news.
The successful record-breaking of Hongdou Comics is not only a happy event for Tongwen Publishing House and Guowen Publishing House, but also a happy event for the Publishing House.
This comic publication was selected as one of the publications in the "5155 Project". It has achieved such great success in less than a year since its launch. This is also good news for the Ministry of Rites and the Press and Publication Administration, which initiated the "5155 Project".
"President, our comic magazine is so successful, and the comic books we published are also doing well. Should we also set up our animation company?" Li Xin said.
(End of this chapter)
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