Chapter 999: Even Receiving an Award Makes Me Depressed
Zhang Yimou has been very busy recently. First, he has a lot of work to do in the new film shooting, and second, he has a headache about the funding problem. Although Zhang Weiping, who has always had a good cooperative relationship with him, has promised him that even if he can't find new investors, the funds for the film production will not be reduced, but he is always a little worried.
After all, although he has won numerous awards in recent years, he is also very reluctant to make commercial films against his will. But he has to face the reality that he is not a young man in his twenties who has just entered the society. He can't do things with passion and impulse.
Zhang Weiping's money is not blown by the wind, and it is obviously unrealistic for him to always lose money like this. In his opinion, the movie "Hero" has a great chance of becoming a well-received and popular movie, helping his partner to make a profit.
But although he is very optimistic about this movie, there is no such thing as a 100% profit in business. So if more partners can come in to share the risk, his mental pressure will be much less. After all, if he makes money, it's okay, but if he loses money, it's really a huge pit.
So not only his partners are looking for investors, he is also using his own circle and connections to find investors. But if it is a filming, many people give him face. For example, many Hong Kong big names in this movie, such as Jet Li, who has a certain box office appeal internationally, have reduced their salaries to make this movie.
But getting investment is really not what he is good at. Moreover, although many actors have money, they are willing to reduce their salaries to make movies. You still want them to be investors, which is a bit too much.
And there is another disadvantage of letting actors be investors. If the actors only do their own jobs and don't interfere too much, it's fine. But if the actors and his opinions conflict, he is the director, but the actors are one of the investors. When the time comes, it will be unclear who to listen to.
So he prefers to let the company behind the actors invest, so that the actors reduce their salaries to give him face. This is a favor, and he will definitely pay it back if he has the opportunity in the future.
And the company behind the actor invests in his new movie, which is business. Business can naturally be signed in black and white according to the rules of the business field. This is much simpler.
But unfortunately, he has undoubtedly only achieved half of this goal now, so he has been looking for various ways to achieve the other half these days.
"The director is almost here, you can go downstairs." Just when he had smoked so many cigarettes that the whole room was filled with smoke, the assistant knocked on the door to inform him.
"I know, I'll be there soon." Zhang Yimou responded.
However, he did not go out immediately, but opened the window in the room to get rid of the smell, and then changed his clothes. It was a bit impolite to go to a meeting with the smell of smoke all over his body. It was definitely too late to take a shower at this time. After changing clothes and rinsing his mouth and washing his face, he looked less depressed and energetic.
The car that came down from upstairs to pick up the actors also arrived at the door of the hotel. Although the new play was about to start filming, it had not started yet. Today was the day for the leading actors of the crew to get together.
After the roles were determined, the script had been given to these actors a long time ago. When he was preparing for the filming, the actors also thought about the script. The main purpose of getting together today was to let the actors get familiar with each other. After all, they would need to stay together for a long time in the future and could not be too unfamiliar.
Therefore, he organized this play today, gathered these big names together to eat and drink, and then listened to their opinions and views on the roles. If there were no problems, he would choose a suitable day in the near future to hold a start-up ceremony.
The movie "Hero" has four main actors, Jet Li is the protagonist, followed by Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi, the current actress of "Mou Girl". Chen Daoming is very famous in the mainland and plays the role of King Qin, but this is a supporting role. Then there is Donnie Yen, who has a lot of scenes but is not very famous now, but will be very popular in the future.
This cast is very strong, especially Jet Li, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, who are very famous throughout Asia. Jet Li also has box office appeal in Hollywood, and Maggie Cheung is also famous abroad.
Jet Li's box office appeal in Hollywood comes from the fact that although Haina has been co-operating with Hollywood to shoot movies in recent years, it has also been importing its own movies with oriental characteristics to Hollywood.
For example, a movie was just released in Hollywood last month. The two most famous actors in Hollywood are Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
Maggie Cheung's fame abroad is not accumulated by works, but by shooting commercials. As one of the actors who mainly import oriental elements to Hollywood among Haina's contracted artists
Although Maggie Cheung has not found a movie role that suits her and makes a big splash, she has also shot many well-known advertisements with many big stars or stars, and is currently one of the most famous female stars in Hollywood in China.
The remaining few people, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, has a strong box office appeal in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Asia, Chen Daoming is the top male artist in the mainland, and even Donnie Yen, who has not yet become popular, has won many awards and starred in movies.
Therefore, these actors who have acting skills and box office appeal, coupled with their own scripts. Zhang Yimou feels that even if this movie cannot make a lot of money, at least it will be no problem to break even, and then it will be perfect to win a few awards abroad.
Putting aside the troubled thoughts in his heart, Zhang Yimou tried to smile on his face, and then welcomed the actors who arrived into the box one by one. In particular, he thanked Jet Li very much.
The reason why I am grateful to Jet Li is not because he is the most famous and the leading actor of this drama and has had the largest salary reduction, but because during this period Jet Li was filming the movie "Cosmic Wanted" in the United States.
When he found the partner, Jet Li agreed and even reduced his salary. He held an actor's party here, and the partner took the trouble to fly back from the United States. This was not an ordinary support for him.
"Without further ado, I would like to propose a toast to you all. Thank you for your love for Mr. Zhang and your support for this drama." Everyone walked into the box and took their seats. When the food was served, Zhang Yimou was the first to raise his glass.
Whether he is an actor or a director these years, it can be said that he has had smooth sailing without any major obstacles. It can be said that he has almost won international awards.
But he has always had a problem, that is, his movies are always popular but not popular. Although not every one of them is a loss, at least they don't make much money.
So this time Hero invited so many actors to come over, and he wanted to make a comeback. After all, there are only a few well-known directors in China. Their films are box office hits, but I am not famous. More importantly, the film has received rave reviews, but it is really frustrating that it has no box office.
"You're very polite, director, it's our honor to make your movie." Several actors stood up quickly, picked up their wine glasses and drank down the wine in one gulp.
It can be said that directors and actors compliment each other, especially Zhang Yimou, a great director who can win international awards and is very popular with actors.
After all, when money reaches a certain level, reputation becomes very important. No one likes to be scolded all the time. It is the dream of all actors to win several international awards and Zhang Yimou is undoubtedly the person who can help them realize their dreams.
"You're welcome to sit down and sit down. I'm going to trouble you all not to get so angry in the future." Zhang Yimou pressed his hand and motioned for everyone to sit down.
"The director said not to get angry, but you are so polite. Isn't this because you are trying to get angry with us?" Maggie Cheung said with a smile.
Because she signed in Haina earlier, she can speak Mandarin quite well. In other words, since the rise of Haina, many Hong Kong and Taiwan actors have been working hard to practice their Mandarin.
"Haha, my fault, my fault, mainly because I was a little too excited to see all the big names." Zhang Yimou sat down with a smile and asked everyone to eat.
We all sat down to find a topic and everyone started chatting together. It was at this time that the actor’s character became apparent. Although Chen Daoming, who has an aristocratic temperament, doesn't speak much, he always gets to the point.
Donnie Yen seems a bit reserved, while Tony Leung is really a bit introverted, without the free-spirited handsomeness and humor he had when he played the role in the movie.
Zhang Ziyi is the Mou girl of this generation, so naturally she has to help Zhang Yimou greet the guests, so she behaves very actively. Jet Li is very relaxed. After all, coming to Yanjing is like returning to his hometown.
Maggie Cheung's performance surprised everyone except those who are familiar with her, because she is very open-minded and knows a lot about things in the mainland. She feels like she is not a Hong Kong star, but a mainland star, and she is still the kind of news that is very popular. A wide range of mainland stars.
This is undoubtedly related to her signing with Heiner. Although she has not shot many movies in recent years, she mainly focuses on shooting commercials in the United States.
But every year she would take one or two months to travel to the mainland, especially since she had to stay in Yanjing for about a month. Among the big names in Haina Company, who visits the company the most often, Zhang Manyu is definitely on the list. So sitting at the banquet table, she felt as comfortable as Jet Li, a native of Yanjing, as if she was home.
After three rounds of wine and five delicious dishes, even Tony Leung, who has a somewhat introverted personality, started talking more. Several people also talked about the domestic film environment, the development trend of international films, etc. from film shooting.
"Now everyone wants to break into Hollywood, and I also want to break into Hollywood. This is not only a question of box office, but also a question of influence in the world film industry.
But even if you want to break into Hollywood, Hollywood is much stronger than the current mainland film industry. I still want to say something to the mainland film industry.
Even though we have various shortcomings now, the environment is immature and the policies are not relaxed enough. But we are developing very fast. One day, I don’t say that the Chinese film industry will definitely be better than Hollywood, but there will definitely be a large number of Hollywood films that want to be released in China. Profit is the most direct motivation. "Zhang Yimou's face has begun to turn red.
The previous movies that were always well-received but not well-received made him obviously have a deep reflection during this period, although he could not change the kind of literature and art in his heart and the things he wanted to shoot.
But this does not mean that he will not study how to make movies profitable, and the pressure of such a large production of "Hero" also forced him to understand and study how to make movies profitable.