Chapter 966 The Comedy of Stagnation
"..." Lu Yanhe was speechless for a moment.
Li Zhi asked, "But are you sure you really want to build a movie series around me?"
Lu Yanhe nodded, "I've been writing this script for a while now. I just hadn't shown it before because I was hesitating about whether to write the character as a Chinese or an American."
Li Zhi understood Lu Yanhe's concerns perfectly.
Lu Yanhe now has this concern for almost every project.
This is the concern that a local person with resources and a voice, but who is not the focus of film production, will inevitably face.
On the one hand, he wants to tell more stories about his own cultural background and use local filmmakers. On the other hand, you also have to consider the producers, investors, and distributors—including the market, mainly the market's acceptance of these projects.
Lu Yanhe had to ensure the film was a box office success and profitable, ensure that audiences wouldn't get tired of having so many Asian leads, and ensure so many other things.
The higher one's position, the more things need to be balanced.
Li Zhibai said, "If you've thought it through, then come on over. How could I possibly refuse you?"
Lu Yanhe: "OK".
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As September progressed into the latter half, the National Day film season kicked off with fierce competition.
Lu Yanhe does not have any films starring or written by himself scheduled for release during the National Day holiday.
However, the Spirit River exists.
Linghe's "The Corpse 2" will be released domestically first, and then overseas.
The sequel to the thriller starring Li Yuefeng has been highly anticipated.
The sequel not only features Li Yuefeng, but also Jiang Jun.
This sequel was co-funded and produced by HP, and from the beginning, it was intended to be released worldwide—which is why Jiang Jun was cast as the lead actor in the sequel.
In addition to this film, "Scumbag, Stay Away From Me!", a collaboration between Ma Zhiyuan and Yu Jiang, will also be released during the National Day holiday.
The film was actually completed only two months ago.
The post-production was completed in just two months—but it's not fair to immediately call the film poorly made, because given the subject matter, it didn't require much in the way of special effects; all that was needed was editing. It's understandable that they rushed the production to meet a good release date.
Besides these two films, Jia Long, who hadn't released any new works in a long time, collaborated with Wang Dashan on a comedy film called "A Little Bit More Style," a road comedy.
The most anticipated film during the National Day holiday is a war movie called "Lion".
This film also had the best pre-sale results.
Linghe's assessment of the domestic box office performance of "The Corpse 2" is actually not overly ambitious.
The first "Corpse" film grossed 212 million yuan.
Linghe's box office expectation for "The Corpse 2" is that it will be no less than that of the first film.
Because thriller movies are not a mainstream choice in the country.
We'll go down the genre film route.
They still focused their efforts overseas.
"The Corpse 2" is aiming for overseas box office success.
The first "Corpse" film grossed approximately $15 million overseas, primarily in the United States, Malaysia, Japan, and Thailand, where it performed exceptionally well.
Especially after it was launched on HP, its playback data was very good.
Therefore, Linghe wanted to see if "The Corpse 2" could attract some new viewers to the theaters after the first film received decent reviews.
Even if the overseas box office doubles from $15 million to $30 million, that would still be excellent.
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"Yes, the script for 'The Corpse 3' has been completed and filming is about to begin."
At the media screening of "The Corpse 2", Li Yuefeng said happily.
"Not only that, D19 is also going to remake the first 'Corpse' movie. They have already found a Hollywood screenwriter to rewrite the script, and I will still be the lead actor in the rewritten version."
Li Yuefeng had a proud and smug look on his face.
"When I took on the role in the first part of 'The Corpse', even my agent didn't think highly of the project. I just want to say that if you don't think highly of anyone, don't think highly of Lu Yanhe's judgment."
He smiled very brightly.
"It seems that none of the actors signed with Shi Huo have worked with you as much as Lu Yanhe and Ling He. Have you considered signing with Shi Huo in the future?"
Li Yuefeng shook his head.
“I haven’t considered that yet. Although my current agent and I always argue, we’ve supported each other all the way, and that’s more important than anything else. I trust him,” Li Yuefeng said. “Yan He doesn’t need me to sign with Shihuo. Don’t always underestimate his magnanimity, and don’t underestimate me either. I know what you’re trying to say, aren’t you trying to say that I should repay Yan He?”
"Well, to put it this way, I am very grateful to Yan He, but on the other hand, I don't think I deserve all of this. To be honest, the movie 'Corpse' was neither starred by Yan He nor written by him. How many people are like me, who immediately agreed to star in it as soon as they heard that Yan He thought the script was good? I am a top-tier actor, right?"
"Deep down, I don't like to turn these things into something secular or profit-driven, but I'm always entangled in these kinds of questions. All I can say is that, given the great help I received from Yan He, I reciprocated with what I could. Why have I been able to collaborate with Ling He so many times? Because I didn't care about billing order and played the second male lead in 'You Are the Apple of My Eye,' I didn't care about production costs and acted in the low-budget 'The Corpse,' and I could dedicate all my resources to promoting these projects—I'm not saying Ling He needs to thank me, I have to emphasize this point, otherwise some marketing accounts will write nonsense—what I want to say is, how many people can cherish, care about, and even go all out to do every collaboration with Yan He as much as I do?"
Lu Yanhe forwarded Li Yuefeng's video statement and said: "Yes, I understand everything you've done, my friend."
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“I really enjoy working with Li Yuefeng, why not?” Even when having dinner and chatting with Wang Xiao, Lu Yanhe took the initiative to recommend Li Yuefeng to him. “Although the media says that he likes to stir things up during the publicity period to highlight himself, that’s not wrong. He is indeed a competitive and ambitious actor in all aspects. However, on the other hand, he is very cooperative. Moreover, as long as your project can bring him what he wants, such as a good role, a good performance, or good commercial prospects, he will definitely work hard to help the project be better.”
Wang Xiao is now in charge of Aurora Films, where he has nurtured and supported a group of new directors, starting with low- to medium-budget genre films and art films.
He also has many projects that require actors.
Movies are different from TV series. In TV series, as long as you can find an actor who can handle commercial deals, you can get the green light. So most of the time, popular A-list actors like Li Yuefeng are in the position of choosing rather than being chosen.
But movies are not like that. Apart from top stars like Lu Yanhe and Li Zhibai, whose box office performance has been fully proven by the market, even Li Yuefeng can't just sit at home and pick out all sorts of movie scripts.
For example, Li Yuefeng might not necessarily be interested in the Northern Lights movie project, but it's definitely not something that can be given the green light and put into production just because Li Yuefeng is willing to act in it.
The risks of making movies are too high.
You must find a good match in every aspect and find the right selling point.
Lu Yanhe recommended Li Yuefeng to Wang Xiao not only to help Li Yuefeng, but also to help Wang Xiao.
“He has accumulated a lot of reputation and fans in the film market over the past few years. He has a group of fans who will support his new work in theaters just for him,” Lu Yanhe said to Wang Xiao. “For your type of film, if there is a suitable lead actor for him, you should really consider him.”
Wang Xiao nodded, "Okay, I've got it."
Lu Yanhe asked, "Did you, Northern Lights Media, invest in any of the films scheduled for the National Day holiday?"
Wang Xiao said, "We invested in Jia Long and Wang Dashan's novel, 'A Little Bit of Elegance,' but we didn't invest much."
Have you seen this movie? What did you think of it?
"It's alright, with the two leads, enough laughs, and overall it's passable, so the box office performance should be guaranteed," Wang Xiao said. "However, the box office of the movies Jia Long starred in these past two years is not as good as it was four or five years ago. His previous movies would easily start at 1 billion yuan, but his recent works have only maintained around 400 to 500 million yuan."
Why is that?
“People are getting a bit tired of the same style, it’s always the same old thing,” Wang Xiao said. “Of course, Jia Long’s popularity is still there, and his movies are still very popular.”
“Yes.” Lu Yanhe nodded. “When I worked with him on ‘Lost in Thailand,’ it was at the peak of his career.”
"I heard that he seems to have been thinking about how to continue developing the 'Lost in Thailand' series."
"Huh?" Lu Yanhe was surprised.
"Don't you know?"
“I’d heard of it before, but I didn’t know about it recently,” Lu Yanhe said. “After I wrote the script for ‘Lost in Thailand’ for them, I stopped participating in the series. However, I did authorize them to continue filming the series.”
Wang Xiao nodded.
"The 'Lost in Thailand' series has always had a good reputation. I heard that they had asked screenwriters to write several versions of the script before, and one version was even about to start filming, but in the end, for some reason, it didn't happen."
"I don't know," Lu Yanhe said.
Come to think of it, he hadn't been in contact with Jia Long for quite some time.
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"Teacher Jia was indeed not very satisfied with the script. He always felt that the script he received was not good enough. However, the investors kept urging us to start filming. So, there were two times when we almost started filming due to the pressure of production funds."
Wang Dashan explained to Lu Yanhe over the phone.
Jia Long had never told Lu Yanhe about these things before.
Lu Yanhe couldn't help but wonder if it was because he had been too adamant in refusing to participate in the production of the sequel to "Lost in Thailand" that Jia Long hadn't contacted him after encountering these problems.
That is indeed a possibility.
"Then why didn't it turn on afterwards?"
"Once, the actress who was originally favored by the investors dropped us at the last minute because she got the lead role for another director. The investors themselves were a bit hesitant, and Teacher Jia didn't want to start filming in the first place, so we didn't film. Another time, the day before filming was to start, the director was in a car accident and had to stay in the hospital for three months... After that, we couldn't coordinate the schedule."
Both Jia Long and Wang Dashan have very tight schedules.
It's not so easy to bring them together.
Lu Yanhe asked, "So what's the situation now?"
"Teacher Jia has found another screenwriter to rewrite the script," Wang Dashan said. "Because everyone really wants to make a third installment."
As the third installment of the "Lost in Hong Kong" series, "Lost in Hong Kong" actually performed quite well at the box office, but its reputation collapsed.
Even the fourth installment was affected by the pandemic and was broadcast online.
As a result, this comedy series, which could have been developed indefinitely, has yet to catch its breath.
Lu Yanhe fully understands Jia Long's high standards and strict requirements for good scripts as a comedy master.
Actually, if Lu Yanhe himself hadn't been so dismissive of "Lost in Hong Kong," he wouldn't have been unwilling to write the script for the third installment.
Lu Yanhe was aware of his own limitations.
His only talent lies in acting; all his other so-called talents are merely a bonus from time travel.
Lu Yanhe dared not presume to take on the main responsibility and "re-create" the script for the third part.
Lu Yanhe thought for a moment and then made a phone call to Jia Long.
Now that he knows, he can't pretend he doesn't know anything and turn a blind eye.
"Teacher Jia."
"Hey Yan He, how have you been lately? Are you especially busy?"
"I'm doing alright lately, mostly just busy answering phone calls," Lu Yanhe laughed. "I heard they're looking for someone to write the script for 'Lost in Thailand 3' again?"
“Yes,” Jia Long said. “Alas, with such excellent precedents, the script for the third installment has been slow to satisfy.”
Lu Yanhe said, "I've heard about it, but I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do. If I have a new and better idea for this series, I won't insist on quitting."
Jia Long: "If every screenwriter could be as responsible as you, that would be great. I talked to a few screenwriters before, and they were all very confident that they could produce a good script, but in the end, the things they produced were unbearable to read. They were all awkward and forced jokes."
Lu Yanhe: "You're right. With such excellent predecessors, everyone creating a third installment will definitely feel constrained and unable to fully unleash their potential. However, there are many talented people out there. For road comedy like this, perhaps we could solicit good ideas and materials from the public? We can buy any useful ones and hand them over to professional screenwriters to write the script."
Upon hearing this, Jia Long said, "Isn't this a bit inappropriate? Comedy itself is very easy to fall into accusations of plagiarism and imitation."
Comedy certainly is.
"Moreover, getting credit for screenwriting is also very difficult."
“But we can’t find any usable scripts, can we?” Lu Yanhe said. “Let’s try everything. Even if we can contribute a joke that can be used in the movie, we can still credit him as the screenwriter.”
(End of this chapter)
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