High in the Pacific Ocean, Neptune Wei Yang looked at Li Jiahang across from him, but didn't get any hints, so he could only play a card at random.

"East wind."

"bump!"

Shen Teng picked up the cards with a smile and threw out a six-tube. Wang Baoqiang threw out a nine-straight out of boredom. Li Jiahang laughed and pushed the cards away.

"Thank you. Thank you."

"Depend on."

Wang Baoqiang sighed and took a look at the cards. It was just an ordinary chicken-hu, single hanging nine, and he ran into someone else's hand. He could only take out some money and give it to Li Jiahang.

Wei Yang and Shen Teng were evenly matched. It didn't matter that the latter had bad cards, but Boss Wei felt a little regretful. He had already won the game and could have won several of them. What a pity.

"I don't want to play anymore. I don't want to play anymore. My luck is so bad. If anyone wants to play, please take my place for a while."

Wang Baoqiang lost the worst, as he had hardly any winning moves along the way. His mentality was a little unbalanced, so he gave up his seat. Peng Damu, one of the directors of "Detective Chinatown 2", quickly sat down.

Wei Yang was also a little tired. He was not very addicted to mahjong. It was okay if he kept winning or losing, but he would get easily excited or addicted, and would get bored of winning and losing.

Seeing the producer, who had been watching the game eagerly for a long time, also gave up his seat, the latter was overjoyed and started to arrange the cards skillfully.

Wei Yang sat down on the seat in front of him. The flight attendant brought him a drink at the right time. After saying thank you, Wei Yang looked at Wang Baoqiang.

"You seem absent-minded all the way. Is there something wrong?"

"Nothing. I had a quarrel with my wife before leaving."

"Why?"

"It's all a small matter. We're going back to our hometown for the New Year. I have no choice but to come out to film. I wanted her to stay at home with the children for a while so that my mother can see her grandchildren more and return to Beijing after the Lantern Festival. She didn't want to, so we had a few arguments."

"I guess he's not used to living here."

"Maybe. If not, I'll take my mother to Beijing to live with me for a while when I return home."

The two chatted casually. Wang Baoqiang was more depressed about the disharmony in his family, while Wei Yang was obviously thinking more.

If he remembered correctly, Wang Baoqiang's divorce incident should have broken out this year.

Wei Yang had actually given relevant hints and reminders before, but they were all extremely obscure, and the key thing was that he couldn't say it.

In total, he and Ma Jinlian had only met a few times. He had no evidence and the couple lived in harmony. How could he gain Wang Baoqiang's trust and why should they believe him?

Not to mention Jinlian, even Ximen Qing, who is her agent, is one of the people she trusts the most.

Wei Yang is only Wang Baoqiang's friend, partner and half-boss. Even if they have a good relationship, he may not be as good as Wang Baoqiang's trusted confidant.

Judging from Wang Baoqiang’s current reaction, it seems his reminder has had little effect.

And from the information she revealed, there was something wrong with the golden lotus. Wei Yang wondered if she was hinting that she should pay attention to her property.

It is too abrupt to inexplicably sow discord between couples. It is normal for friends to talk about financial management and investment.

Therefore, Wei Yang later decided to talk about property safety.

As a result, Wang Baoqiang was completely unaware of this, and even proudly said that his wife was in charge of his money, and he didn't have to worry about anything and all he had to do was make money.

Wei Yang: “…”

It’s no wonder that Jinlian and Ximen Qing, the two people closest to him, can’t defeat him. Sometimes Wang Baoqiang is so simple and honest that he doesn’t seem like someone from the entertainment industry.

I left Shanghai in the morning, changed flights once, and arrived in New York at noon local time.

After flying for more than ten hours, even though the private plane was extremely comfortable, everyone felt a little tired.

Wei Yang was relatively fine. He had a nap on the plane and was in good spirits. After arriving in New York, he joined a few people who had arrived earlier to go to see the location. "Detective Chinatown 2" required quite a few street scenes and location scenes, and many of them still needed coordination.

However, there is one good thing about capitalism: as long as you have money, you can do most things.

There is a scene in "Detective Chinatown 2" that requires renting New York's Times Square.

Before coming, many people felt that it was too difficult. Not only were the streets closed, but horses had to be galloped. There hadn't been a horse race in Times Square for many years. Not only did the domestic crew members think it was a fantasy, even the American staff they invited were not optimistic.

But it turns out that it couldn't be because the money wasn't enough.

500,000 US dollars is not enough? 1 million US dollars! 1 million US dollars is not enough? 3 million US dollars! In the end, we managed to get the consent of the relevant American units, making everyone realize the power of money in this country.

As long as enough money is paid, it is possible that the Pentagon, or even the White House, can be rented out for a few hours...

Wei Yang stood in New York's Times Square, discussing with the director and photographer how to shoot, how to set up the camera, and how to allocate the scenery and scene arrangement.

The time we have is limited, so although it is not necessary to get it done in one go, we can only take a few shots in total.

So try to take as good photos as possible during this period.

In addition to New York Plaza, there are several other filming locations that have obtained filming rights, but they are also quite troublesome.

For example, at New York's Grand Central Station, there is a clear rule that filming must be completed before 4 a.m., not even a minute longer is allowed.

This also means that the crew's filming time here every day is extremely limited.

You know, "Detective Chinatown 2" has a lot of large-scale action and chase scenes, which will take some effort to shoot smoothly. If it doesn't go well, the progress of the entire crew may be delayed.

This involves issues such as the actors' and staff's schedules and visas. In short, both on and off the stage, it is much more troublesome than filming in China.

Just thinking about these issues, the producer's previous mood of winning a small victory on the plane disappeared completely, and what was even more uncomfortable was the cost.

"The preliminary budget alone is already over 350 million yuan, and with post-production and publicity, the total cost is likely to be over 500 million yuan."

The cost made the eyelids of several accompanying staff members twitch. Generally speaking, it is difficult for a movie that is not a visual effects blockbuster to reach this investment.

It would be fine if it was a costume blockbuster, but "Detective Chinatown 2" is a comedy suspense film.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the entire Chinese film industry, the only two people who dare to do this are Wei Yang and Cheng Long.

Jackie Chan's "Kung Fu Yoga" movie, which was launched almost at the same time, was filmed in several countries, with quite a lot of scenes and the cost is said to be over 400 million.

Other modern movies that are not special effects blockbusters don’t dare to do this.

After all, the cost is hundreds of millions, which means that the box office must reach at least 1.5 billion to break even.

Even though the current film record is about to break 3 billion, in fact, 1 billion is still an unattainable mountain for 99% of Chinese-language films.

The budget is the budget, and the actual cost is hard to say. Besides box office revenue, there are other ways to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.

For example, product placement! Thanks to the record-breaking first film, the advertising bidding for Detective Chinatown 2 was fiercely sought after.

For example, Xiaomi offered a sky-high price for mobile phones, so naturally, the mobile phones of several leading actors became Xiaomi.

There are also advertisements for travel networks, China Merchants Bank, car rentals, and websites that pay enough money and do not affect the plot, and the crew even arranges gags for them.

It is expected that there will be more than a dozen cooperating brands in total, including four key ones.

The advertising revenue from these alone is as high as more than 200 million RMB. There will also be some related developments in the future, such as pre-movie stickers, peripheral collaborations, and interactions with the main creators, which will bring in another amount of advertising revenue.

Up to now, Chinese-language films have developed rapidly. Although they are not as comprehensive as Hollywood, advertising, as a major source of revenue, has already come up with many tricks.

Taking into account the advertising revenue, the horrific cost expenditure of "Detective Chinatown 2" is not so eye-catching at once.

Compared to the producers and others who were entangled and worried, Wei Yang was relatively calm.

On the one hand, it’s because he has confidence in the movie, and on the other hand, he is also responsible for the high cost.

Read the original text at Liu#9@书/吧!

The two blockbuster movies "Detective Chinatown" and "Operation Mekong" have made Boss Wei the most popular movie actor nowadays.

The film pay naturally also rose, not to mention that Boss Wei always gets a share of the creative income.

As for how much money he actually got, it is difficult to calculate, because he later gave away a portion of the crew's investment share as personal dividends, but the cash that Boss Wei got alone exceeded 80 million.

That’s right, even without taking into account dividends, Wei Yang’s film pay has exceeded 100 million yuan.

Even so, many crews still feel that it is worth the money.

Because most of the stars who earn tens of millions in pay cannot guarantee box office success, and although Wei Yang's pay is a little higher, his box office success is high. If he accepts roles freely, the scripts will pile up to kill him.

It’s a pity that this 100 million yuan salary is just a starting condition for Boss Wei. The rest of the salary is just a small fortune for him. The project itself and the capital operation behind it are Boss Wei’s real benefits.

…

The filming time in the United States is limited, so the crew of "Detective Chinatown 2" did not delay anything. They took a brief break and started filming immediately.

At present, there are relatively few actors, mainly the rivalry between Wei Yang and Wang Baoqiang, plus the important supporting role of Li Jiahang, and part of Shen Teng's role.

The character played by Shen Teng is Lu Guofu, played by Wang Xun in his previous life, a gang leader in Chinatown who does all kinds of shady jobs. He also has two younger brothers, played by Alan Dacongming from Happy Twist.

After all, Wei Yang has never dealt with Wang Xun before, but he has shares in Happy Twist, and many people's agency contracts are in cooperation with Shan Hu, so naturally he will use his own people.

Shen Teng's popularity has skyrocketed after "Charlotte's Troubles" and "Running Man", which is also beneficial for the promotion of the movie.

Although the original plot of "Detective Chinatown 2" cannot be said to be extremely exciting, it is above the passing line.

So Wei Yang did not change the plot of the entire movie, but still spent some money to buy the copyright of "Double Vision".

There is a lot of controversy online about whether "Detective Chinatown 2" plagiarized "Double Vision".

Some people think it is plagiarism, for example, there are many similarities, such as Taoist elements, the five elements killing people, the purpose is to become an immortal, the reason is that he has a terminal illness and finally seeks death.

However, some people believe that it does not constitute plagiarism. Only some settings are similar, and the main plot and related themes are not the same, so it is a bit far-fetched to determine that it is plagiarism.

Wei Yang personally prefers the latter, but it must be admitted that Chen Sicheng was definitely greatly influenced by "Double Vision" in his creation.

So Wei Yang simply bought the copyright of "Double Pupils" and waited until the movie was released before explaining that he got the inspiration from it.

This kind of half-borrowing and half-tribute is quite common in the film industry. If it is displayed openly, it will at most be criticized and ridiculed by the haters, but it will not cause controversy over plagiarism.

In addition, Wei Yang made some changes to the murderer's ending based on some later views and discussions with the screenwriter and others.

A big reason for judging that "Detective Chinatown 2" is plagiarism is that there are too many similarities, and some of the imitations even ignore logic.

For example, the setting and details of "Double Vision" are different from those of "Detective Chinatown 2", so that the altar in the later part appears a bit abrupt.

After all, the altar in "Double Vision" was secretly built by a secret organization, so it is reasonable.

However, "Detective Chinatown 2" only revealed that the doctor was the murderer, and no accomplices were seen. So for a person to set up such a Taoist temple in a city hospital, isn't it obvious that he is up to something?

At the same time, "Double Vision" has a corpse-anatomy setting, which makes the murderer's desire to die a bit mysterious, while "Detective Chinatown 2" does not have this explanation, and the doctor's suicide seems more like being killed by trash talk.

Not to mention, a foreign doctor who can’t even speak Chinese clearly will not be sure of the “Tao” even if he despairs of science and pursues metaphysics.

Of course this is understandable. After all, Taoism is a Chinese element and will interfere with the audience's judgment. In the end, a foreign murderer pops up, which is even more unexpected.

Therefore, in Wei Yang's opinion, letting the doctor get a terminal illness in the end is actually a bit superfluous and a forced "copying" of "Double Vision".

It would be better to follow the clues given before. He had a Chinese wife who died of a serious illness. The doctor loved her deeply and hated the injustice of God. He saved so many people, but his wife died in his arms, so he turned evil.

At the same time, because of his wife's death, he despaired of science and began to pursue metaphysics in a somewhat obsessive way. Considering his wife's identity, he naturally extended the idea to the killing of people by the five elements.

The advantage of this is that the logic is relatively better and the villains are flesh and blood, but the disadvantage is that it is a bit old-fashioned.

In Wei Yang's personal opinion, this kind of affectionate villain is more cold-blooded and shocking than a selfish one.

So Wei Yang added another layer, letting the protagonist Qin Feng finally expose him through analysis.

The doctor initially wanted to revive his wife, but as he delved deeper into the Tao, his purpose changed.

The death of his wife made him fear death, so later the doctor pretended to use the Five Elements to kill people and resurrect his wife, but in fact he was sacrificing the resurrected wife to gain his own immortality.

It doesn't matter even if it fails. The price is just a dead wife and a few unlucky cannon fodder.

In this way, with twists and turns again and again, the audience is moved by the murderer's infatuation, but his wolfish ambitions are exposed in the end. This not only distinguishes him from the terminally ill murderer in "Double Vision", but also makes the murderer more vicious by killing innocent people without any purpose of survival.

For this reason, Wei Yang once wanted to invite a Hollywood superstar to play the villain, the doctor, but then he thought that this would expose the murderer.

So, in the end, they found a less famous second- or third-tier actor, and deliberately chose his image to make him look particularly honest and simple.

To be honest, the doctor villain in the original version looked too evil, and it was almost clear as soon as he appeared that I was not a good person.

Although viewers who like reasoning can guess who the murderer is as long as they see the doctor appear and combine some plot points, it is always better to have an extra layer of interference.

After all, most of the audience is not that sensitive and tends to pay more attention to appearance.

If you were to choose between Wang Baoqiang in Xu Sanduo’s form and Wang Baoqiang in Tang Ren’s form as the murderer, 90% of the people would choose the latter…

(End of this chapter)