Chapter 220 The boss makes the decision, and "Earth" sets sail.
"Meng Bai, is your "Ghost Blowing Light" going to start filming too?"
"Yes, it will start next month, around the Spring Festival."
"I heard that you went to XJ to shoot?"
"Yes, the main plot of the first part of the original work is based on the ancient Jingjue Kingdom in the Western Regions, which is in the Yumen Pass."
"Will you go to our Yili?"
"Not that far, we are mainly in Hami and Dunhuang."
"..."
Tong Liya seemed to be very curious about this "little junior brother" and kept asking various questions.
Meng Bai responded half-perfunctorily and half-courteously, with a polite attitude and a bit of alienation.
As the saying goes, "melon fields and plum trees", he generally does not communicate too much with married women.
It was only because Liu Haoran was here, otherwise he would have found an excuse to leave long ago.
They chatted casually, and fortunately Chen Sicheng came back not long after.
"No problem. Baoqiang said he has no objection to the plot, we can just arrange it."
Chen Sicheng said with a smile, and then looked at the few people: "You should all know each other, right? Yaya, this is the junior brother Meng Bai I told you about, the boss of Arc Light Films. He started from scratch, very impressive."
"Ha, senior brother, you are polite. If you want to talk about impressiveness, you are the same." Meng Bai praised each other in a business way, "When senior sister announced her relationship, we junior brothers were very envious."
"Hey, what's there to envy." Chen Sicheng waved his hand indifferently, "You are just young, it's the same whether you get married or not. Otherwise, you are still free as singles."
"..."
This sounded a little ambiguous.
Meng Bai glanced at Tong Liya beside him calmly, she still maintained a gentle smile, as if she didn't think there was anything wrong.
Tsk, these two couples are more or less weird.
After the opening ceremony, the welcome dinner prepared by the Thai side followed.
Meng Bai exchanged seats with a representative of the investment party and sat next to Chen Zhixi.
"Hello, Mr. Meng." Chen Zhixi said with a smile, "Suddenly I feel that this dinner party is not so boring."
"Mr. Chen is stealing my lines." Meng Bai said with a smile.
Joking aside, Chen Zhixi knew that the other party must have something to say to him.
"What do you want to talk to me about?"
"I want to ask Mr. Chen about someone."
"Oh, who?" Chen Zhixi asked curiously.
"The chairman of China Film, La Peikang."
"Him?" Chen Zhixi looked over in confusion, "Why, does Mr. Meng have any new projects with China Film?"
Meng Bai did not hide the fact: "A friend of mine is a director, and he is going to cooperate with China Film on a science fiction film project, so I want to find out who the new head of China Film is in advance."
Speaking of the big boss of China Film, the first person that most people think of is "Third Master" Han Sanping.
This big boss who has been in charge of film production since the establishment of China Film in 1999 is a figure that cannot be avoided in the entire history of the development of domestic films.
However, in 2014, he retired from his position. He was replaced by the current chairman La Peikang.
Before taking over, he had long been responsible for the external dissemination of domestic films and the exchange of Chinese and foreign films, and also participated in the formulation of the operating methods for introducing American blockbuster
films. Because he lived in Europe and the United States for many years when he was young, he knew the foreign film production system like the back of his hand.
The first major thing he did after taking office was to organize the "Sino-US Young Director Talent Exchange Program" and let Guo Fan and others visit Paramount.
Then, when these people came back, he took out the copyrights of science fiction works acquired by China Film and proposed the idea of domestic science fiction films.
The reason why Meng Bai wanted to inquire about him was mainly because he was going to China Film with Guo Fan in a few days to discuss the preparations for the "Wandering Earth" project.
"Science fiction movie?"
Chen Zhixi thought for a while: "It's the "Wandering Earth" project, right?"
"Mr. Chen, you also know about it?" Meng Bai didn't expect this.
"I heard someone say that this project was specifically mentioned at the project release conference of China Film two years ago."
Chen Zhixi obviously knew a lot about the things behind this movie.
In fact, this is also the reason why Meng Bai asked her - there is a master behind this elder sister.
When Han Sanping was in office, he had a deputy named Zhang Qiang, who was the deputy general manager of China Film.
At the beginning, many people thought that after Han Sanping retired, he and this deputy would take over.
Unexpectedly, it was La Peikang who suddenly emerged.
A year later, Zhang Qiang left China Film and became the president of the newly established Alibaba Pictures.
At the same time, he was also an independent director of Ruyi Pictures.
As the general manager of Ruyi, Chen Zhixi naturally had to deal with her, so it was most convenient to ask her.
"As for Mr. La, I have only heard some news about him occasionally."
Chen Zhixi told Meng Bai. Perhaps because he was mainly responsible for the work of foreign film exchanges, Mr. La Peikang highly praised the Hollywood film industry system and always wanted to combine it with China.
In addition, he was very enterprising and dared to innovate.
"What impressed me most was a sentence he said before - the core of film is creation. If domestic films want to develop, they must be diversified and cannot always be of the same type. It is not appropriate to shoot costume dances and love songs every day."
Meng Bai nodded: "It sounds like he is a very thoughtful and courageous person."
"Without ideas and courage, you would never think of making a science fiction movie." Chen Zhixi smiled.
After chatting for a few more sentences, Meng Bai probably had a preliminary outline of this "Mr. La" and had a better idea in his mind.
"Is this project with Arclight now?"
"No, it was taken by Director Guo Fan."
"Guo Fan? Oh, the director who filmed "My Deskmate" last year."
Chen Zhixi took a breath: "Jumping directly from youth films to science fiction, isn't this a big step?"
"It's hard to say whether it's a big step, but I know..." Meng Bai smiled, "If domestic science fiction films can really succeed, it is most likely to be with him."
"You have a lot of confidence in him."
"Otherwise I wouldn't get on board."
Looking at Meng Bai's confident expression, Chen Zhixi couldn't help but think about it.
Just like many of her peers think she has a good vision, she has always believed that this "President Meng" has a better vision and ability than herself.
In just two years, she has built the company from scratch to the top of the track.
Although Arclight Films has not started financing, its valuation in the capital market is no less than 1 billion.
Such a person cannot be unaware of how difficult it is to make domestic science fiction films.
However, he still firmly believes in Guo Fan, which shows that this "youth film director" obviously has something to say.
Thinking of this, Chen Zhixi's mind moved.
"Mr. Meng, if this project is really going to be approved, we can communicate more. We are also very interested in this kind of innovative project."
Although there is the big tree of China Film, it is impossible for only one company to pay. For such a large project, there must be many investors working together.
"Of course, I am also looking forward to working with Mr. Chen." Meng Bai spread his hands and said, "But we have to wait and see if we can take charge of this project."
——The
New Year's Day holiday is over, and the new year of 2016 begins.
After attending the opening ceremony of "Detective Chinatown", Meng Bai flew back to Beijing North the next day. He
didn't rest after landing, and went directly to Guo Fan.
The two of them, together with Gong Geer, sorted out the 150,000-word script, the century-old chronicle, and 1,000 concept design drawings, and then brought the things to the China Film Building.
They were received by the chairman of China Film, La Peikang, and more than a dozen senior executives of the production department.
Looking at the complicated and detailed information on the screen, everyone was silent because of surprise.
Obviously, no one thought that this young director actually spent a year and spent a million yuan to prepare such a huge project plan.
"In fact, we have to thank our chief screenwriter Mr. Meng Baimeng. He helped us complete the script setting, sorted out the timeline, and invested to support us to complete these tasks."
Guo Fan pushed the credit to Meng Bai, and Meng Bai objectively said that he did not contribute much, and it was mainly Guo Fan and his team.
Looking at the heavy materials in front of him and these serious young people, La Peikang couldn't help but feel emotional.
For the project of "The Wandering Earth", China Film had contacted many big-name directors before, both foreign and domestic, but in the end no one dared to agree.
It is understandable that foreign directors refused, after all, the language and culture are not common, and it is particularly difficult to shoot.
But none of these big directors in China dared to take over. They would rather keep shooting those farces, for fear that they would get stuck in it.
Resources are controlled, honors are earned, and box office is desired, but the movies are made poorly.
In the end, it still depends on these young directors to stand up.
Guo Fan's report lasted more than two hours, and he was interrupted and questioned countless times by the senior executives of China Film Group sitting below.
It can be heard that these people still have doubts about such a huge plan.
In the end, it was still La Peikang who stood up and made the final decision.
"No one has ever filmed a science fiction theme before, and China Film Group has never filmed it before. There are indeed certain risks. But this risk must be taken. This film will be filmed sooner or later. If we don't make it, the market will be snatched away by foreign films."
"China Film Group is a state-owned enterprise and has a responsibility for the development of the film market and the needs of moviegoers. We also have the ability to take risks. After all, it is a listed company with strong financial strength. Even if the investment fails, we can make it back from other films."
After speaking, he looked at Meng Bai and Guo Fan and said, "So, I will definitely not be able to finish talking about the film plan in this moment. In the next period of time, I will have to trouble Director Guo and you to connect with each other. As for the final director candidate... we will seriously consider it."
Meng Bai, Guo Fan and Gong Geer looked at each other and all noticed the excitement and joy hidden in each other's eyes.
La Peikang's words clearly indicated his approval of the plans and programs they had prepared.
Although the director was not directly confirmed in the end, it was almost certain that it was Guo Fan.
With the approval of La Peikang, the big boss of China Film Group, the "The Wandering Earth" project finally officially set sail.
(End of this chapter)
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