On the way back, Wei Lan saw that Wei Mingjie was serious, noticed her gaze, and forced a smile.
Wei Lan lowered her head and picked up the mobile phone hanging around her neck. This phone was specially bought for her by Ye Luoxue. It was the lightest, thinnest and most compact phone on the market.
Her small, fleshy hands nimbly entered information on her phone, looking up the "Star Trek" that Xia Yangqiu had mentioned earlier.
Press search and a series of negative news will appear:
'The big production "Starship Troopers" that was approved a year ago has been suspended, and Wei's Pictures is facing questions from shareholders.'
Chengguang denied Wei's plagiarism accusation, claiming that the only thing in common between "Star Wars" and the unfilmed "Starship Troopers" is the background space, and the two are completely different stories.
'Wei's appeal against Star Wars plagiarism was rejected by the court due to insufficient evidence.'
Allegations of plagiarism?
Wei Lan also searched for information about the main creators of Star Wars.
Star Wars (Part 1)
Director and screenwriter: Chen Yuanhang
Wei Lan clicked on Chen Yuanhang's encyclopedia entry and a long and dazzling resume appeared.
He entered the industry under Wei’s management, shot his first film at the age of 20, and was selected as one of the outstanding new directors that year.
The second movie started directly with shooting a holographic movie.
Later, he filmed more than ten works over the next ten years, most of which received good responses.
Five years ago, he won the most prestigious federal film award, the Golden Tripod Award for Best Director, for his large-scale tsunami disaster film "Under the Wind God".
In the same year, his total box office reached the master director standard set by the Federal Directors Association, making him a "great director" and joining the billion-dollar club in the director industry.
In the next five years, he only made three films, all of which were big-budget productions.
It is worth mentioning that there is a movie in the list that is in a suspended status, namely "Star Trek", which was prepared a year ago.
Chen Yuanhang’s latest film released is "Star Wars (Part 1)", which is of the same genre.
There is also a "Star Wars (Part 2)" below, which is shown to be in preparation, but the release date is unknown.
Seeing this, Wei Lan's brows were completely furrowed. If "Starship Troopers" had nothing to do with "Star Wars", she would have eaten her phone immediately.
She continued to scroll the web page and found the latest news about Chen Yuanhang at the bottom:
'Famous director Chen Yuanhang terminated his contract with Wei and announced that he would join Chengguang Films. He also said bluntly: A wise bird chooses a good tree to inhabit, implying that he was dissatisfied with his old company.'
This information is enough for Wei Lan to speculate many things.
"Star Trek" was in preparation a year ago and was the film with the largest investment in the entire film industry last year. However, it was tricked by a director named Chen Yuanhang, which caused huge losses to Wei's company. The director also took advantage of the situation and incubated the project in the rival group.
Judging from Xia Qiuyang's attitude today and Wei Mingjie's emotional changes when he mentioned "Star Wars", it is obvious that he was the main force behind this project at the time. Wei Lan also understood why her father reacted that way when she chose to watch "Star Wars" that day.
The failure of this investment also directly led to the limitation of Wei Mingjie's voice in Wei's new film and television projects.
No, maybe it’s not just new film and television projects that are limited…
In a listed group like Wei Group, even if Wei Mingjie is the chairman, Wei Group will not be a one-man show.
Although Wei Lan was an independent film director who invested in and shot her own films in her previous life, it does not mean that she is not involved in capital operations. The fact that she is too lazy to pay attention to many things does not mean that she does not understand them.
She picked up the script she had just received and began to read it carefully.
The script was not long, and this time they planned to shoot only three episodes, just like the first one. When Wei Lan was halfway through reading it, he frowned.
But she still patiently finished reading it.
Wei Mingjie was working on his work nearby. He turned around and saw that Wei Lan had put down the script. "What do you think of this script?"
"It's terrible." Wei Lan was using his phone to look up information about the previous installments of "Swordsman" and at the same time gave an unequivocal evaluation of the script in his hand: "The plot is old-fashioned, with no highlights at all. It's a mess. They should have planned to cancel it after filming this one."
Wei Lan checked and found that Xia Yangqiu was right about one thing: this unit drama was indeed a big IP, but it was a big IP from eight years ago.
This was the first holographic martial arts TV series that year.
At that time, home holographic receivers were popular and holographic channels popped up like mushrooms after a rain. While other TV stations were trying to play it safe and choose modern urban themes, Wei took a unique approach and directly filmed martial arts dramas.
With the right time, right place and right people, "Swordsman" swept the ratings of that year as soon as it was released, and also earned a lot of popularity for Wei's holographic channel. It was indeed a hit.
The higher you praise someone, the harder they fall.
The first part of "Swords and Swords" had a total of three episodes. Due to the popularity of the first part, the second part was lengthened to ten episodes. The consequence of the watering down was a decrease in the density of the plot and a decline in quality.
At the same time, the themes of TV dramas withdrawn by other channels began to diversify, and "Swordsman 2", which cost a lot of investment, failed miserably.
Two years later, the project was restarted for the third part, which was shortened to five episodes. However, at that time, there were already a wide variety of TV series on the market. The third part only attracted a wave of audiences by relying on the nostalgia of the first work, but the ratings were mediocre and it did not generate any response.
The fourth part now is just a rehash of this IP.
Upon hearing this, Wei Mingjie nodded without surprise. He didn't need to look through the script to know that Xia Yangqiu would not throw any good resources at him.
"Lanlan, you write the script and shoot what you want. I have a lot of friends in the entertainment industry, so it's no problem for you to rent an empty studio." At this point, Wei Mingjie looked a little sarcastic. He didn't expect that he clearly held the title of chairman of the Wei Group, but one day he couldn't even use his own studio and had to borrow one from outside.
But Wei Lan said, "No, just shoot this one."
Wei Mingjie frowned: "Didn't you say this script is terrible?"
After a pause, he thought of something and comforted her, "Don't worry about me being embarrassed. The current situation is only temporary."
"Really." Wei Lan shook his head and said, "Just like what Manager Xia said, it's just a sequel. If I can't make it well, doesn't it mean that I'm not capable? There's no need for you to invest in me making a movie."
Wei Mingjie hesitated: "But you don't have to pick a bad movie..."
Wei Lan raised her lips and smiled.
Wei Mingjie saw a special temperament in her chubby little face. He had seen it in many top people in the industry. It was the calmness that only comes from people who are extremely confident in their field.
"There are good ways to play good things, and there are bad ways to play bad things."
Wei Mingjie showed a curious look: "Bad trick?"
Wei Lan: "That's right, let it rot more thoroughly, rot with characteristics and texture."
…
After returning to the villa that day, Wei Lan watched the first three works of "Swordsman".
For directors, shooting a sequel has always been a thankless task, and usually there are only two kinds of reputations: very good or very bad.
It is not enough to just do a satisfactory job. Others will say that it is the influence of the halo of the previous work. If it is not filmed well, then a good IP is ruined in your hands. Moreover, the IP of Sword and Fairy has been almost ruined so far.
Under normal circumstances, it is difficult to make a sequel, and it is even more difficult to make this one.
You have to know that Wei Lan's standard for filming is not to just follow the script and call it a day. Once she starts, she must do her best within the current conditions.
As a result, after watching the first three parts of "Swordsman", Wei Lan began to have some doubts about the development of film and television in this world.
In Wei Lan's opinion, both the form of expression and the cultural trends reflected in the works are very old-fashioned.
The good guys are good guys and the villains are villains. The characters are still very flat and the narrative structure is straightforward. Even though the first Sword and Fairy was produced eight years ago, in Wei Lan's opinion, it is almost at the level of her time 20 or 30 years ago.
The two subsequent sequels were even more mediocre and terrible. Wei Lan couldn't help but skip the scenes even when he sped up the playback. Only the first one told the story normally, but the problems still existed.
The entire "Swordsman" tells the story of a righteous hero defeating the evil villain. The main features are ancient costumes and martial arts scenes. In the environment of holographic technology, some realistic visual stimulation is added.
Perhaps because holographic technology has overtaken other technologies, the world is lagging behind in the development of lens language.
There is no slow motion, no rendering of the perspective environment... In Wei Lan's opinion, the visual stimulation of "Swordsman" is still mediocre. At least she is not satisfied with the director's perspective, so she chooses to switch to a free perspective, which is equivalent to "moving the camera" by herself, to get a better viewing experience.
The second and third parts were also the same story, except for the villains and the general background, which were even forcefully watered down. No wonder they failed to attract audiences.
The script of "Swordsman 4" is now in Wei Lan's hands. She picked up the tablet, opened the electronic version of the script, and typed quickly on it:
'Act 1, Character: Lu Anning...'
This unit drama is tentatively scheduled to have three episodes, with each episode being 30-40 minutes long, which is just the right length for a three-act movie structure.
The script continues the previous work, and the protagonist is the righteous hero Lu An Ning. This time the main plot revolves around the struggle among the people in the martial arts world for a peerless secret book.
In response to this, Wei Mingjie told Wei Lan to change the script as he pleased and not to worry about Xia Yangqiu. The script was made by Wei's screenwriter team, which was equivalent to a buyout, and there would be no situation where the screenwriters would compete for the right to speak.
However, Wei Lan does not intend to make major changes to the actors, background settings, or even the main plot line.
One reason is that the current conditions are limited. Xia Yangqiu is clearly throwing a mess over. Making major changes will cause the other party to argue, which is just a disguised way of increasing the time cost of shooting.
Another reason is that Wei Lan likes challenges. She doesn't mind dancing in shackles. It was her first time shooting a holographic movie, and she had a lot of new inspiration.
Wei Lan intends to turn this TV series into a stage for him to show off his skills.
Announce to the world that she is here.
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