Chapter 1052 Progress

The next morning, Liu Chengzhang met Li Qian.

The two hadn't seen each other for at least two years. Seeing Liu Chengzhang coming in, Li Qian got up immediately, and the two shook hands again after more than two years.

After sitting down, assistant Fang Shengnan served tea, and Li Qian got straight to the point.

"Yesterday, Lao Fang called me and said that you are back and want to come to Minghu. I have nothing to say here. As long as you come, I will give you the highest treatment. Just hang up your personal studio. The company's new film, you come If you want to make a film, then your studio can enjoy up to 10% of the investment rights. I will respect your creation, but the final editing rights cannot be given to you. The company has a maximum of 49% of the investment rights for the film you want to shoot, and other parts also have The priority investment right, the copyright belongs to the company, the distribution belongs to the company, and you have the right to final cut.”

Fang Baijin was a little taken aback, he didn't expect Li Qian to be so direct, Liu Chengzhang was not surprised at all.

He thought about it for a moment, then nodded, "Success! That's it! You can get the contract out later!"

Fang Baijin was dumbfounded at first, and then laughed again.

This can really be called a hit-and-miss.

He also understood Li Qian's intentions: Although they were good friends and admired each other quite a bit, after all, there were conflicts between them. Of course, there is no need to mention the past at this time, nor can I go into details. Who is right and who is wrong, but to completely expose the matter so that both of them are not embarrassed, of course, it is best to make sure that the current relationship with each other is the best!

Sure enough, five minutes was useless between a few words, and when the matter was over, Li Qian showed a smile on his face, patted Liu Chengzhang on the shoulder, then got up and took out his cigars, there are several kinds, let you choose.

Liu Chengzhang and Fang Baijin each chose one, and then the three of them lit it one by one.

Without speaking, they smoked their own cigars.

For a while, the house was surrounded by clouds and fog.

The exhaust system quickly opened automatically, quickly sucking the smoke out of the room.

Li Qian likes cigars, Fang Baijin has smoked for several years, only Liu Chengzhang, although he occasionally attends a party or something and smokes once or twice, but he usually smokes mainly. In his words, cigars are too time-consuming, how many things can be done if you have the time to smoke a cigar!

So for him, packs of cigarettes on the market are the best, convenient and fast, and just enjoyable.

So, after taking a few puffs, he accidentally choked.

Li Qian laughed out loud, and Fang Baijin also guided with a smile.

Until this time, everyone began to communicate gradually.

First, I heard Liu Chengzhang talk about how he felt when he went to the United States for such a long time. After learning that he was still working as a photography assistant in a film crew invested by Dongfangmeng Film Company, Li Qian asked him by the way, what do you think Dongfang What is the level of dream production and the like.

Then, Li Qian asked naturally: "Come back this time, do you have any ideas about the new movie? What do you want to do?"

Liu Chengzhang hesitated for a moment, but still said: "Do you have any suggestions?"

Although he knew that Liu Chengzhang's question meant that he already had his own plan in mind, but Li Qian got up after hearing the words, and took out a plan from the drawer of his desk.

After handing it to him, Li Qian said, "Last year, Columbia took over the filming rights of Transformers for the next 20 years. They were planning to launch the first film this year and next year, and they even made a plan and sent it to me. oh, here's the translation. They want me to direct it."

Liu Chengzhang had already turned to the first page, but he didn't read it at all. He mainly listened to what Li Qian said. After he finished speaking, he lowered his head and began to read the plan—it was really a very simple plan, just to demonstrate the prospect of the live-action movie of the Transformers cartoon, and it seemed a bit simple.

To put it bluntly, this is just a task assigned by Li Qian after Minghu Culture acquired Columbia Pictures and after Glenshire took office.

Although Glenn Shire seems to value this matter more, it seems that he also thinks that making a live-action Transformers movie is a great idea for adaptation, but he is obviously more willing to leave this matter to Li Qian to take the lead—of course , The right to adapt is in Colombia, Minghu Culture can at best participate in the investment, and the future copyright, distribution rights, etc., still belong to Colombia.

Therefore, there is no story, no setting, no characters, just a planning book.

The planning book is not long, and the translation is only a few thin pages. Liu Chengzhang spent more than ten minutes flipping through it. He raised his head, a little confused, "This...how do we shoot?"

Li Qian smiled, "Of course it is a purely commercial approach, the friendship between robots and humans. Then, to fight against evil forces together, of course it is another school of robots!"

After a pause, he said again: "Don't worry about movies, commercial or artistic. In the final analysis, storytelling is about emotions! Emotions are branches, and everything else, even when the flowers are blooming like brocades, are just attached to the branches. It's just a visual effect."

Liu Chengzhang pursed his lips when he heard the words, then nodded slowly.

After a while, he said seriously: "Yes, all literary and artistic works talk about emotions. In movies, it is even more important to straighten out the emotions of the characters. Special effects are easy to do, but emotions are not something everyone can say. "

Li Qian smiled, "It's a deep feeling!"

Liu Chengzhang smiled wryly when he heard the words.

Seeing him handing back the proposal, Li Qian took it, threw it on the coffee table, and asked, "How are you doing, are you interested?"

Then without waiting for Liu Chengzhang to answer, he said seriously: "Although I am not completely out of time at this time, I want to devote 100% of my energy to making a new movie. It is still a commercial movie with a lot of investment. It is not allowed, I must first ensure that the post-production of this film in my hand is safe. Therefore, this must be a film that particularly pursues visual effects, and the investment can be made according to your requirements. In addition, I plan to make this film It was also shot according to 3D-IMAX specifications. Do you want to play this game?"

As we all know, before the rise of Li Qian's films, Liu Chengzhang has always been the most famous technical director in China. He liked to use some new technologies that had just begun to emerge in Hollywood at that time, and predicted ten years ago that the future would definitely be films. The world of special effects.

As for the trials of "Sword Immortal" and "Flying Apsaras", although it is difficult to say that they were successful, in today's China, if you want to talk about commercial blockbusters and special effects, he is indeed the best candidate besides Li Qian.

Just need to give him a little restraint, let him finish the story first!

And to be honest, Li Qian still really hopes that Liu Chengzhang can take over this movie when he has no time to do it himself. Liu Chengzhang's "ghost talent" is by no means just talking. , Let Liu Chengzhang play on the basis of a qualified business story, and then with the support of various technologies from Minghu Culture, this will be a good way to follow the path opened by "Avatar" and continue to expand 3D movies An influential commercial giant.

Of course, Li Qian hopes to entrust a Chinese director to make such a global commercial giant production. On the one hand, it can help him become famous, and on the other hand, he also hopes that through his hands, he can bring more Chinese filmmakers. thinking and examples of success.

But at this time, Liu Chengzhang shook his head without thinking too long.

"I...forget it, I'm not very interested in this kind of film."

After a pause, he seemed to feel that it was a little too soft for him to directly reject Li Qian's invitation, and then added a little embarrassingly, "The investment is too big, I am a little afraid to play now, not to mention you have to shoot 3D If not, I am completely unfamiliar with this technique....I'll forget it!"

Li Qian opened his mouth, but finally nodded slowly, "That's fine! Let's talk!"

He could feel that Liu Chengzhang was really resisting this movie.

That's right, although Liu Chengzhang is a director of the modern technology school, he doesn't seem to like things like modern cities and mechanical senses. He prefers to use advanced technology to show some traditional oriental aesthetics.

So, to sum it up carefully, he is probably the kind of director who likes to "use world technology to tell Chinese stories" - of course, Li Qian appreciates and likes it very much, but he just didn't know that Liu Chengzhang would hate the story of this robot.

So he asked, "Then what do you want to shoot?"

Liu Chengzhang was silent for a while, carefully choosing his words, and finally said: "I want to change your "Painted Skin" article. I don't know if it will work?"

Li Qian was taken aback when he heard this, and then laughed.

Sure enough, this is Liu Chengzhang.

Swordsman, monk, sword fairy.

monster.

This is his style, this is his way.

He just likes to shoot Chinese things, especially classical things.

Li Qian nodded decisively and asked him, "Have you thought about how to change it?"

Liu Chengzhang hesitated for a long time before slowly saying: "My current thinking is that your original story is too simple, and the whole scale is a bit small, which is not convenient for filming. So, my current thinking is , make the story more specific, and then expand it a little bit. For example, I think the background of the story can be set in the south, it can be Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, whatever. I prefer Song Dynasty, a literati Dynasty. Then, I am currently thinking about the big boss of the villain..."

Li Qian didn't interrupt, and listened carefully to his rambling about his thoughts on "Painted Skin".

It can be heard that he should have been thinking about this story for a long time. It was not just a sudden whim that he wanted to shoot this story, but after two failures, he began to seriously consider the balance of a new story. ——Of course, he probably hasn’t fully decided how to tell this story, because many of his ideas are even contradictory, and his speech is a bit confusing.

His focus is: the misty rain painting boats in the south of the Yangtze River, the tide of the Qiantang River, a seductive monster who is good at confusing people's hearts, and a righteous scholar.

A lot of very emotional pictures.

This is what he has always been particularly good at.

However, he said that this monster cannot be the last big villain, but should use this monster who "doesn't know that people are good, but only knows that people are extremely evil" to introduce some human factors, and treat people and monsters with some human feelings. and emotional torture. And use this to lead to the turning point of the story.

He hesitated whether to introduce the factor of a married lady, but he was afraid that it would become a story about a big woman and a mistress, and he hesitated whether to set this painted skin demon as a demon who was hurt by love, And the male protagonist, the scholar, happened to be the reincarnation of the man who hurt her in the previous life.

In short, he himself is already in various entanglements.

But Li Qian was extremely happy.

Before a movie starts shooting, if the director doesn't worry about the story, what should he worry about?

For a technical school like Liu Chengzhang, and a director who has always been known for being good at shooting Jiangnan charm, when he puts the key points and entanglements at the beginning of a movie on the story, in Li Qian's opinion , which to a large extent means that the movie is halfway through.

Therefore, Li Qian happily accompanied him in brainstorming.

In another time and space, he had seen "Painted Skin". In all conscience, the filming was quite good, but there were still many places that Li Qian didn't like.

In contrast, he even prefers the story of Liu Chengzhang, which is only in its infancy.

However, everyone was still discussing, but Liu Chengzhang suddenly stopped and asked Li Qian: "Can you say hello to the actors in advance and ask them to reserve a schedule for me?"

Li Qian asked: "Who do you want?"

Liu Chengzhang hesitated again, but in the end, he was cruel and said, "Qin Jingjing, He Yingyu."

Li Qian laughed out loud, Fang Baijin also shook his head with a smile.

After two box office failures, Liu Chengzhang seemed to be a lot more low-key, and he didn't seem to be so stubborn in speaking and doing things. Compared with the previous him, he now feels a little timid. However, his style of liking big investments and big stars obviously hasn't changed.

This opening is the two most popular actresses in China today.

Hearing him say these two names, Li Qian had vaguely understood his intentions.

Although Qin Jingjing is pretty enough, her career has always been biased towards Tsing Yi these years, with a dignified air, and He Yingyu is by far the most popular little actress in China, but in fact her acting is very complicated, modern and ancient sci-fi can take all , a pure beating girl can stand up, and a "Dragon Inn", a piece of gold inlaid with jade, let her step into the palace of acting with one foot.

Therefore, in Liu Chengzhang's mind, probably Qin Jingjing could play the role of a doctor, and He Yingyu would be the painted skin demon? ——Well, the picture must be beautiful.

Li Qian took out his mobile phone to make a call on the spot, but hesitated for a moment, then put the phone down again, "That's right, I made the rules myself, the film and television department and the brokerage department are run separately, I can't break the rules myself. So , how about you submit the script and planning book first, and then we can discuss the next step?"

Liu Chengzhang understood immediately.

You can ask for people, at least no matter who you want to play, they are all negotiable, but Minghu Culture has a large scale at present. Occupy someone else's schedule ahead of time—perhaps only Li Qian is eligible for this privilege.

So he hesitated for a moment, he got up happily, and said, "No problem. Then I will find some old buddies in the past few days and start to collect stories. When I finish it later, I will talk to you again."

Li Qian nodded, "Okay!" Then he said: "In addition, I would like to recommend that there is a screenwriting team from our Minghu Film and Television Department on the ninth floor. Fang is very familiar, if you let him take you up and let those guys give you advice, you shouldn't be disappointed."

Liu Chengzhang nodded, "OK!"

…………

After he left, Fang Shengnan came in to clear the coffee table, but Li Qian slumped on the sofa, looking up at the chandelier on the ceiling, thinking about messy things.

Liu Chengzhang wants to shoot "Painted Skin", this can be supported.

This kind of story is suitable for him to shoot.

But what about Transformers?

At present, it has been negotiated that Columbia will allow Minghu Culture to participate in the investment of 30%, but the premise is that Li Qian will be the director of this film, and if Li Qian insists on using 3D technology to shoot, the additional expenses of 3D technology will be borne by the crew, both parties Additional investment in proportion.

In addition, after considering changing the name of the Sino-foreign joint venture, Minghu Culture will be responsible for distributing the film in China, and can get the treatment of domestic films. Therefore, Colombia agrees that the distribution rights in China can be handed over to Minghu Culture. But all other distributions belong to Colombia.

Although Columbia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Minghu Culture, both parties are operating independently. The professional managers at Columbia will certainly not allow the dominance of this film to fall into the hands of Minghu Culture.

They just hope that their boss, who is an international director, will not be so partial and come to lead a few successful projects for Columbia.

But Li Qian really didn't have time.

If you want him to direct "Transformers", at least you have to postpone the schedule for more than a year.

What's more, after more than a year, he may not be able to direct this movie. Because after "Avatar", he has his next work goal.

Although "Transformers" is very good, it is worth trying, and it is also a super-selling series that is worth looking forward to on the road of 3D movie promotion, but this series is not like "Avatar" or his next goal. You can't do it yourself.

Not to mention Hollywood, there are already quite a few directors of commercial blockbuster films with good quality and good quality. Even in China, especially within Minghu Culture, there are now two who are qualified.

It's just that both of them refused one after another.

So, if you still want to find a Chinese director to lead this series, who should you look for?

Li Qian was slumped on the sofa and was distracted. Without paying attention, Fang Shengnan had already cleared away the tea set and coffee table, and poured Li Qian another glass of boiled water, and everyone had already left.

Li Qian held the plan book on the coffee table in his hand, and couldn't help but fell into deep thought.