Chapter 297 Projects Make Money, Projects Spend Money While
Zhao Jinmai continued to review his lessons, Meng Bai, Guo Fan and Gong Geer, the "Three Giants of The Wandering Earth", moved to another place to discuss the current situation of the crew.
"I talked to the newly appointed Mr. Jiang of Wanda again a few days ago."
Gong Geer smiled bitterly and said, "This time he finally told me with certainty that Wanda's withdrawal of investment is a certainty."
Although it was just confirmed, everyone had actually been mentally prepared for this result.
"Then Wanda Film and Television will not invest in film projects this year?" Guo Fan asked casually.
Meng Bai knew this: "I heard them mention it before, because the New Year's Day file "The Love Master" was a big hit at the box office, Wanda got the sequel copyright and has begun to prepare for "The Love Master 2."
This year's New Year's Day and Spring Festival file is very strange. Major works like "The Great Wall" almost all failed, but some small productions performed surprisingly well.
Just like "The Love Master", with a production cost of 40 million and a group of second-tier actors, it won a box office of more than 600 million.
It also brought the Korean actress Clara to fame.
Wanda also made some money back with this movie, but unfortunately they are only the third producer and the investment is not much.
But it doesn’t matter. If they didn’t dare to follow the first one, they can make up for it in the second one.
It is said that Wanda has already started looking for someone to write the script, and the production team is still the original team. As for the leading actors, except for the male lead Xiao Yang, they are also planning to invite Bai Baihe and Wu Xiubo. It just so happens that
the budget funds that have just been withdrawn have been settled.
What projects Wanda wants to invest in has little to do with the crew of "The Wandering Earth".
But in this way, Wanda's 80 million investment is vacant.
With such a big gap, Guo Fan and Gong Geer really have no way out. They even mortgaged their garage.
Now the only one who can be counted on is Meng Bai.
Looking at the expectant eyes of the two elder brothers, Meng Bai said: "I have been running around several cooperating companies during this period, such as Huace, Penguin Pictures, and Taiyang Chuanhe, and I have raised almost 20 million."
"Huguang's funds have already set projects at the beginning of the year, and the current cash flow is mainly for daily operations. But I can probably raise another 20 million here."
After saying that, he also sighed: "The rest of my funds are here. If I want to increase it, I can only sell houses like you."
In addition to the assets of Huguang Pictures, Meng Bai also has a lot of funds personally.
The main sources are the "production pay", "screenwriter pay" and "script copyright fees" of various film and television projects in recent years.
Although he is a producer himself, he has always paid himself "pay" according to the market price.
Like the previous courtyard villa and the large flat for Li Yitong, they are all his personal assets.
It is precisely because of the purchase of such a few large items last year that there is not much money left, and now it is all taken out.
This is the so-called "projects make money, projects spend, and I want to take it home once I part."
Guo Fan and Gong Geer listened to his introduction, and they were happy at first, and then disappointed.
The total amount of the cooperative company plus Meng Bai's personal contribution was 40 million, which was still half short.
Where could they find another victim, uh, a kind investor?
The three of them discussed for a day, but they didn't have any good ideas.
"Forget it, let's not think about it for now. There must be a way out when the car reaches the mountain. There must be a way." Guo Fan said: "At worst, I will compress the story line of the 'space station' and focus on the plot of the 'ground line'."
Although they said so, everyone knew that this was the only way out.
In the first part of "The Wandering Earth", the "space station" plot line and the "ground" plot line are one main and one auxiliary, and they are interrelated.
The lack of either one will greatly reduce the integrity and excitement of the whole story.
It is definitely not a choice until the last resort.
"Think about the investment slowly, and decide on the actors for 'Liu Peiqiang' and 'Han Ziang' first." Guo Fan said.
"Liu Peiqiang", the father of the male protagonist "Liu Qi", is a lieutenant colonel pilot and a ruthless man who dares to drive a space station to blow up Jupiter.
"Han Ziang", the grandfather of the male protagonist "Liu Qi", is the last generation of the post-90s generation. He can watch soft girls with VR and drift with base cars.
For the actors of these two roles, Guo Fan has always wanted to find two big-name actors.
For "Han Ziang", he and Gong Geer had considered Wu Mengda before.
"What did Uncle Da say?"
"I took our script and setting collection. Uncle Da recognized our project and the role very much, and also accepted a salary of 200,000. But..."
Guo Fan asked: "But what?"
Gong Geer frowned and said: "But Uncle Da's physical condition is not very good, especially his heart and breathing. With the intensity of our shooting, I am very worried that he can't hold on." The
shooting intensity of "The Wandering Earth" is still very high. It's not that the time is long, but mainly because the props are too heavy.
As a work describing the future, props and equipment such as mecha, protective clothing, and exoskeleton are naturally indispensable.
These models of the crew were all custom-made at a high price from Weta Digital. A set of "combat protective clothing" in the movie costs 2 million and weighs 40 kilograms.
The "civilian version" is slightly lighter, but it still weighs more than 20 kilograms.
Wearing this suit, shooting for seven or eight hours, you can imagine how much physical energy is consumed.
Like Zhao Jinmai now, in addition to reviewing homework and rehearsing roles every day, he also has to get up early every day to run and exercise. In order to avoid not being able to hold on after the start of filming due to poor physical strength.
Young people are like this, not to mention Wu Mengda who is in his sixties and is not in good health.
"Let Uncle Da try it first." Meng Bai suggested: "He must be sure of his physical condition, let him try the intensity and see if he can bear it."
"Okay, then I'll contact him." Gong Geer responded, "And what about Liu Peiqiang? We haven't decided on a candidate yet."
"We still have to find a big name." Guo Fan touched the stubble on his chin, "We approached Andy Lau before, but unfortunately he didn't have time."
Meng Bai glanced at him and said, "You guys are really bold."
With the current salary budget for "The Wandering Earth", they dared to go for Andy Lau, which really took some courage.
Guo Fan smiled and said, "Actually, I wanted to take the opportunity to talk to him at first, to see if he agreed to act, and if he could also invest."
Although many people complain about Andy Lau's acting skills that have remained the same for ten years, his contribution to the development of domestic films is still very large.
For example, more than ten years ago, a new director funding fund was established to support new directors and lower their pay for new directors' films.
People like Ning Hao and Wuershan have all received his help.
Including Ning Hao's "Bad Monkey 72 Transformations Plan" that he has been working on in recent years, it is also related to him.
So if Guo Fan can really fool him, maybe he can really solve the remaining investment gap.
Unfortunately, he failed.
However, Guo Fan's words gave Meng Bai inspiration.
"I have thought of a suitable candidate, but he will have a movie to be released in a while, and I don't know if his time is convenient."
"Who?"
"Wu Jing."
Guo Fan suddenly realized that although this person is not as big as Andy Lau, he is also a first-line actor.
"I remember that his movie Wolf Warrior 2 will be released in the summer. Will he have time?"
"So I have to ask, and it hasn't been released yet."
Meng Bai looked at Guo Fan: "Brother Guo, how can you drink?"
"I'm from Jining."
"That's it." Meng Bai said: "Let me arrange a party in two days and have a meal together. I'll bring two boxes of Moutai over. Whether you can get it depends on you two, Brother Guo."
"Don't you drink?"
"I'm from Landao, so of course I support local specialties."
"Fuck!" Guo and Gong laughed and cursed.
Meng Bai didn't care. After thinking for a while, he said: "By the way, I remember that his wife Xie Nan seems to have always been interested in science fiction themes. We can try to start from there."
"Okay, try your best."
There was not much time left before the scheduled start date, so they had to hurry.
Guo Fan was in Landao, watching the final work of the studio setting up while waiting for Qu Chuxiao to come and try makeup.
Meng Bai went back to Beijing North first.
Because of the investment in "Wolf Warrior 2", he had contacted Wu Jing before, so he called directly to ask when he was free.
Wu Jing was a little surprised that Meng Bai contacted him suddenly, but he still told him about his schedule and set a free time.
Because the distance was not very far, Meng Bai did not run out again, and he stayed in Beijing North these days.
I wanted to find Li Yitong, but unfortunately the remake of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" that this girl filmed last year was about to be released, and she was promoting it recently, so she was not in Beijing North.
Naturally, Jin Chen, as a best friend, also went back.
As for Li Qin and Song Zhi, they also had their own schedules and were not there.
Even Qin Lan was still filming "Peace Hotel" in Harbin.
Meng Bai suddenly became a lonely person.
That's not right, his "eldest niece" should be rehearsing her graduation drama at school.
But if it comes to finding Meng Ziyi, Meng Bai would rather be alone.
It's rare to have such a period of time alone, and it feels good.
Especially since the beginning of this year, I have been almost busy, and it can be regarded as a two-day break.
However, after staying in his own courtyard villa for only one day, Meng Bai was still restless and prepared to go to the company.
"Good morning, President Meng!"
As soon as he entered the company building, a somewhat unfamiliar greeting sounded.
Meng Bai looked at the front desk and found that the person standing here was the clerk girl from the administration department.
"Where is Xiao Yang?" Meng Bai asked casually.
"Chaoyue has asked for leave during this period."
"Is she sick?"
"Uh, no. That, didn't President Liu tell you?"
Seeing that her boss looked confused, the clerk girl hurriedly explained: "There was a cooperative web drama project before, and we auditioned here. Then the director thought Chaoyue had a good image and invited her to guest star in a small role."
As she spoke, the clerk girl looked envious.
No wonder people say that good looks are the biggest advantage.
Arc Light has had so many directors in the past few years and auditioned so many times, but Yang Chaoyue is still the first employee to be chosen.
On the other hand, Meng Bai had a "black question mark" expression on his face.
As a person in the film and television industry, I have heard of this kind of "completely unrelated passers-by suddenly being selected by the crew" but have never seen it.
I never expected that the first time I saw it in real life was on Yang Chaoyue.
This girl's luck is a bit surprising.
But then again, Meng Bai really can't see her acting talent.
It is estimated that the guest role is also an unimportant minor supporting role.
By the way, if I am not here, Liu Jun must know about this, and he has the complete details of "eating melons".
(End of this chapter)
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