Chapter 851 The world has changed
The Internet is a really great thing. With it, the myth of a breath traveling a thousand miles has become a reality.
Lin Weimin opened his email inbox and sure enough, there were several emails quietly lying inside.
Two of them were work emails from his employees in the United States. The content was mainly to report on the recent work situation. Lin Weimin took a look at it, found it not very informative, and simply replied with two sentences.
There was another one from Roger Strauss. The old man is now an avid fan of E-Mail. He rarely calls unless it is an urgent matter. Otherwise, he always communicates by email.
Roger Strauss sent the email the day before yesterday, in which he told Lin Weimin that "Don't Knock on the Door Tomorrow" will officially be available in major bookstores in the United States tomorrow.
The English version of "Don't Knock on the Door Tomorrow" was published more than a month later than the domestic version, but it was published earlier.
In the email, Roger Strauss seemed very confident. The first print run of the novel was 500,000 copies, and he was full of blind confidence in Lin Weimin.
After replying to Roger Strauss's email, Lin Weimin wrote a few more emails.
The manuscript of his novel was sent almost simultaneously to many cooperating overseas publishing houses. Now the version published by FSG Publishing has come out, but there has been no movement from others.
This efficiency is not good, we need to supervise and urge them.
After putting pressure on several publishing houses, Lin Weimin felt relieved and stood up to stretch his muscles.
I watered the flowers and fed the fish, and before I knew it, more than an hour had passed.
In the evening, Tao Huimin brought the little bean buns back home. Both mother and daughter were carrying bags full of things, and it looked like they had made a great harvest.
As soon as they entered the house, they collapsed on the sofa.
Women are amazing animals. They can go out for a whole day despite having a high fever and menstruation, but they can also run out of energy in an instant when they get home.
"I bought you some clothes, please try them on," said Tao Huimin.
"I have so many clothes, I can't wear them all."
Lin Weimin said this, but his actions were very cooperative. He changed his clothes one by one and showed them to his wife and daughter.
“Dad is so handsome!”
Teacher Lin is very pleased that little Doubao has a sharp gaze at a young age.
"You are really a good daughter of your father!"
Lin Weimin brought Xiao Doubao over and kissed her on the forehead.
The little bean curd hugged his neck, his round eyes full of anticipation, and asked, "Dad, when will my roller skating rink be built?"
"It's almost done. It will be completed by the end of summer."
"summer?"
The little bean bun had a silly expression on his face, and counted seriously: "It's spring now, and after spring comes summer, and summer is still to come..."
When she got to this point, she became happy, "Great! Doubao's roller skating rink will be ready soon."
Little Doubao happily hugged Lin Weimin's neck and kissed him, which made Lin Weimin very happy.
Tao Huimin looked at the worthless smile on her husband's face with some disdain. This man was really being taken advantage of by his daughter.
While Lin Weimin was playing with his daughter, dinner was ready and the family had dinner.
At 7:30 in the evening, the news broadcast ended.
The TV programs at this time no longer appealed to Xiao Doubao, so she went to play with toys with her nanny Sister Qin.
Lin Weimin and Tao Huimin sat on the sofa and watched TV series, enjoying their rare time together.
"Jiang Wenli's acting is pretty good." Tao Huimin commented while looking at the character in the TV series.
"Her image and temperament are most suitable for playing Qingyi, so this kind of role is certainly suitable for her," said Lin Weimin.
Three days ago, the TV series "Holding Hands" produced by Wencheng Film and Television officially landed on CCTV.
The director of this TV series, Yang Yang, was recommended to Lin Weimin by Wan Fang. After Yang Yang was recruited by Lin Weimin to Wencheng Film and Television, he spent almost a year polishing this TV series.
Now the TV series is released. Although it has only been aired for a few days, the premiere ratings are good, starting directly from 8%. For Yang Yang, a director who has not yet experienced the beating of a long TV series, such a result is already a dream start.
In recent years, CCTV's ratings cannot be compared with the past. They have been steadily declining almost every six months.
Except for a few major dramas that may create relatively high ratings during the year, the ratings are falling most of the time.
Today, on New Year's Day, the ratings of "My College Days" once exceeded 30%. However, after the broadcast of this TV series, CCTV's ratings entered a period of rapid decline. For three consecutive TV series, the ratings did not even reach 10%.
"Holding Hands" was broadcast during the May Day holiday, which finally stabilized CCTV's ratings and made CCTV increasingly feel its reliance on Wencheng Film and Television.
"Holding Hands" does not have any grand plot. The main storyline revolves around the marriage life of Zhong Rui, played by Wu Ruofu, and Xia Xiaoxue, played by Jiang Wenli.
Yang Yang is a female director. She handled the plot and characters in a delicate and moving way. The TV series received good reviews after it was broadcast.
In later generations, this TV series not only became CCTV's annual ratings champion, but was also most praised for contributing the beauty Yu Feihong to the domestic entertainment industry.
During the May Day holiday, in addition to the TV series broadcast by Wencheng Film and Television, movies invested by Wenhua Film and Television were also released.
"Tell Your Secrets" is the ninth film directed by Huang Jianxin. Since starting his directorial career in the mid-1980s, Huang Jianxin has successively contributed excellent works such as "Black Cannon Incident", "Stand Up Straight and Don't Lie Down" and "Wu Kui" to the Chinese film industry. He is a director with a very good reputation in the industry and among movie lovers.
Apart from a few fifth-generation directors who became famous by participating in film festivals, he is considered a rare middle-aged and talented director in China today.
During the May Day holiday, there were no imported blockbusters released in domestic theaters. The nearest blockbuster was "The Opium War", which was released on June 9. This was also a tribute film to celebrate the return of Hong Kong. The director was Xie Jin and it looked very marketable.
During this period, there are only a bunch of small and medium-sized domestic films being released in theaters. "Tell Your Secret" is directed by Huang Jianxin and stars Wang Zhiwen and Jiang Shan, and it actually looks the best among them.
This sales momentum was reflected in the market, and the feedback was extremely clear and accurate. "Tell Your Secret" grossed 2.6 million in the first week, and there was no need to worry about whether the investment could be recovered. It seemed to be another profitable movie.
Before May Day became the Golden Week, it was just an ordinary schedule. "Tell Your Secret" actually showed the momentum of "China D Little Bully" among a bunch of domestic films. After a lot of punches and kicks, it easily won 3.5 million yuan in the second week.
The film had an investment of less than 2 million yuan and grossed 6.1 million yuan in two weeks after its release. It was declared profitable and the subsequent box office is expected to even exceed 10 million yuan.
Compared with the success of "Tell Your Secret" in the market, "The Mountain, the Man and the Dog", which was also invested by Wenhua Film and Television, was not so lucky.
This movie didn't require a large investment, but it took a long time to make, almost two years. The filming of "Tell Me Your Secret" was half a year later than it.
At the internal screening after the film was completed, everyone gave the film high praise, but at the screening for the distribution company, the film was rejected by this group of people.
Nowadays, the domestic film market is influenced by imported blockbusters, and the audience's taste in watching movies has become increasingly impetuous. "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" is a typical art film, and its style is different from previous art films that reflect rural China or old China. It is very fresh and simple.
If it had been released 20 years later, this movie might have gained a small but loyal group of fans, but at this time, it is difficult for it to capture the masses.
At the screening organized by Mandarin Films, almost no distribution companies and theaters showed interest in the film.
Yu Dong had previously predicted that "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" might not be popular, but he never expected that it would be stuck at the hurdle of the distribution company and the theaters.
He invited managers of several publishing companies to dinner individually and had heart-to-heart talks with everyone in private.
The reality is cruel. Now distribution companies and cinemas are all about money. For an art film like "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" which has no marketability at all, even if the cinemas show it, they will still lose money on the copies, so no one would even touch it.
In fact, Wenhua Films had already decided on the distribution strategy for "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog". It never intended to release it in China first, but to participate in film festivals abroad, then screen it overseas, and finally screen it in China.
This was decided when Lin Weimin decided to invest in Huo Jianqi and his work. The reason why Yu Dong held the screening was actually mainly to test the attitude of the current distribution companies towards art films.
If Wenhua Films wants to be the leading company in the Chinese film industry, it needs to walk on two legs. Both commercial films that can take in box office revenue and art films that can win awards are indispensable. However, judging from the attitudes of current distribution companies and theaters, it will have to be more cautious in investing in art films in the future.
In the middle of the month, Yu Dong came to the Guowen Society.
Zhang Yimou called him yesterday and said that after more than two months of intensive production, the post-production of "Hero" has been completed for the most part and is expected to be completed in early June.
The release date of "Hero" was determined at the beginning of the project, July 1, 1997, as a tribute film!
There is still a month and a half left before the movie is released, so the promotion work has to start.
When he arrived at Lin Weimin's office, Yu Dong first reported to Lin Weimin about Wenhua's recent developments.
In addition to investment projects, Wenhua has been recruiting graduates from Yanying and Central Academy of Drama in the past year, not as actors, but as screenwriters.
After this group of new screenwriters joined the company, their daily work, apart from going to the set, was to review films and write scripts.
Tong Zhonggui, the literary director, finally no longer has Mo Yan as his only subordinate. However, Mo Yan's situation is rather miserable. He is only given the title of chief screenwriter, but is hanging out with a bunch of green hands who have just graduated from college. His Mediterranean hairstyle becomes even more prominent.
"It's just talk to let these green hands make movies and write scripts every day. After the release of Hero, you can organize an internal script selection. The top two winning scripts can be made into movies, and the cost can be controlled within 3 million."
Yu Dong asked: "Even if we have the script, it may not be easy to find a director."
“We have money and a script, so why should we worry about not being able to find a director?
Wenhua Films has been established for three years and has laid a solid foundation. This time, by investing in "Hero", we want to give a loud slap in the face to those domestic filmmakers who are still immersed in small-scale peasant consciousness and workshop thinking.
The film industry has changed a long time ago, but they are still immersed in the beautiful dreams of the past.
The industrialization of the film industry is inevitable, and it is also a general trend for commercial films to dominate the mainstream. We at Wenhua Films must follow the trend and stand firm! "
Lin Weimin spoke in a calm but determined tone.
"Yes!" Yu Dong responded solemnly.
(End of this chapter)
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