Chapter 144: Rush Hour 3 Postponed, Entering TV Series
Chapter 144: "Rush Hour 3" postponed, entering the TV drama market?
Wu Yuan talked with Director Han for an afternoon.
In the end, he agreed with Director Han's suggestion that he had to shoot the first part of "Painted Skin" himself.
If he wanted to make a sequel later, he could consider changing the director, and the risk would be lower.
But Wu Yuan really wanted to shoot "Love".
Time waits for no one, and this delay for a year will delay many things.
This time it was delayed for a year, and the next time it was delayed for a year. In a blink of an eye, 2010 had passed. It would be a bit late for Wu Yuan to shoot an art film to win awards.
By that time, the domestic film industry was really the era of commercial films. Jia Kezhang and his people were almost dead, how could they be as prosperous as they are now?
After thinking about it, Wu Yuan felt that he had to postpone "Rush Hour 3".
This movie is really not urgent.
Originally, Rush Hour 3 was filmed in 2007, and the first film in the Kingsman series was not released until 2015.
Wu Yuan has plenty of time to work on this series, so he is not in a hurry.
If he wants to do it, he will do it. Wu Yuan calculated the time difference that night and called John and New Line.
John naturally had no objection. He was busy with the projects he had on hand. The Hangover 2 was already scheduled to be released and should be online this summer. There was also the Proposal to be made later.
John also bought the film adaptation rights of Night at the Museum under Wu Yuan's instruction and is now negotiating cooperation with Fox.
He doesn't care whether the Kingsman series is made now or not.
New Line tried hard to persuade Wu Yuan that New Line was ready, and the schedules of Jackie Chan and Will Smith were almost coordinated, so they could free up the schedule in the second half of this year.
As a result, Wu Yuan didn't want to shoot and couldn't spare the time, and Elad was very reluctant.
But who told them that they couldn't change the director? They couldn't find a better director than Wu Yuan to take over Rush Hour 3.
Helplessly, under Wu Yuan's insistence, Elad could only agree to put Rush Hour 3 on hold in 2006.
There was no other way, Wu Yuan didn't have a schedule in 2005.
Pirates of the Caribbean 2 must be filmed in 2005, and Wu Yuan really couldn't postpone this project. He had signed a contract with Disney, and he had to cooperate with Disney, not Disney cooperating with him.
Unlike Rush Hour 3, the contract has not been signed yet, so Wu Yuan can arrange it at will.
So far, Wu Yuan has arranged the work for the next year and a half.
During the summer vacation, he will shoot the art film Love. This kind of art film is easier to shoot, and it doesn't need to be transferred. It can be shot in about a month.
After finishing Love, he will start working on Painted Skin 1 without stopping, and strive to finish the film before March next year.
Because according to Wu Yuan's memory, "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" will start shooting in March next year and will not be finished until September.
As for after September, he really wants to take a vacation and rest for a while.
Wu Yuan is only 22 years old and can bear the three movies in a row.
This also makes him very impressed with Zhang Yimou. Zhang Yimou can still shoot movies in a row when he is 70 years old. He is very energetic. He is preparing for the Olympics while shooting "The Curse of the Golden Flower". It's really amazing.
Wu Yuan sighed deeply in his heart.
"Your Name" is still being released in Asia.
The Japanese box office is breaking records every day and breaking new highs.
But for Wu Yuan, the work on "Your Name" has come to an end.
In addition to still paying attention to the box office results, he has returned to campus life again.
In a blink of an eye, his second year of doctoral study is almost over, but because this year is too busy, Wu Yuan's academic work has almost stagnated. He has only been in school for less than a month in the whole year.
While the crew of "Love" has not yet been prepared, Wu Yuan went back to school and took classes with Professor Xie.
Although his box office now easily reaches hundreds of millions, he still has a lot to learn.
At least Wu Yuan still has a lot to learn about the "light and shadow aesthetics" that the fourth and fifth generation directors are best at.
He felt it in "Your Name".
Some of the lens language learned from Chen Kaige, used to shoot beautiful scenery, the effect of the shooting is so good!
Now he also wants to shoot art films, so of course he needs to learn from Professor Xie. In terms of shooting art films, the professors of Beijing Film Academy are indeed professional.
In comparison, Wu Yuan is just an entry-level.
He still has a clear self-awareness.
It is really difficult for any director to be both artistic and commercial.
There is only one Zhang Yimou in China who can do it, and there are only a handful of directors in Hollywood who can be both commercial and artistic.
Wu Yuan believes that he should be a qualified or even excellent commercial film director, because he has 20 years of practical experience, plus the memory of future excellent commercial films, it is not difficult to make a good commercial film.
But the art film "Departures" took advantage of the plot, and it was purely based on the plot and the differences in Eastern and Western cultural concepts that impressed the Berlin jury.
This time, "Love" tells a love story, which is a common and unchanging topic in movies all over the world.
If Wu Yuan wants to make this movie well, he really has to work hard and learn the use of lens language, composition, lighting, and color language.
On April 20, the fourth day after returning to China, Wu Yuan, who had dealt with the trivial matters of the company, returned to school.
Liu Yifei and Hu Ge also returned to school for classes.
The filming of "Legend of Sword and Fairy" has been completed, and it was completed in March.
At that time, Wu Yuan took the two to promote for half a month. When they learned that they would go to Japan for promotion in April, they returned to the crew to concentrate on filming the remaining scenes of the two people, and the filming was completed within half a month.
The filming of "Legend of Sword and Fairy" this time was much faster than Wu Yuan remembered, because there was no problem of actor selection. It started in December and was completed in April.
Cai Yinong has already contacted some TV stations to sell the film.
Thanks to the box office success of "Your Name", the sales of "Legend of Sword and Fairy" this time are much better than Wu Yuan dreamed.
In Wu Yuan's memory, after the filming of "Legend of Sword and Fairy" was completed, no TV station was willing to buy it.
The TV series adapted from the game, the male lead is a junior student, without any representative works, and the female lead has only played two supporting roles.
Such a TV series will not have good ratings no matter how you look at it.
In addition, the investment in "Chinese Paladin" is high, and it cannot be sold at a low price, which makes most TV stations unwilling to buy it. It was not broadcast on Taiwan's CTS until 2005.
After that, it was first broadcast in the mainland on the lower-level video channels of Chongqing and Shanghai TV.
Such lower-level video channels only cover a local city, and only local TV viewers can see it.
It was not until 2008 that "Chinese Paladin 1" was finally broadcast on satellite TV and met with audiences across the country. It became a hit and truly became a popular TV series.
This drama was produced early, but it became popular very late, but it just happened to be the two-year window period after Liu Yifei's "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" in 2006, which established her status as a "celestial fairy" in one fell swoop.
This is why the production of "Chinese Paladin 1" was completed in 2004, but the project of "Chinese Paladin 3" was not launched until 2008.
In the intervening years, Tangren failed to sell the TV series and felt that the project was losing money, so they had no intention of making a sequel.
But now it is different.
Liu Yifei and Hu Ge have already become popular because of "Your Name".
The influence of a commercial blockbuster is different from that of an art film.
After Sun Li starred in "Departures", her fame did not increase much, and she still looked tepid, and Chen Hong even retired.
But Liu Yifei and Hu Ge are really hot now.
Liu Xiaoli, who said before that she had not received any acting invitations, now has various film invitations.
Tangren even equipped Hu Ge with a complete agent team, and he also had a special agent to handle the notice.
With the male and female protagonists becoming popular overnight, the TV series "Chinese Paladin" has also become the focus of many TV stations in the mainland.
Everyone knows that when the popularity of "Your Name" has not yet subsided, the ratings of the TV series starring the two male and female protagonists will be guaranteed.
Game adaptation?
It's nothing at all!
Liu Yifei and Hu Ge are enough.
When "Legend of Sword and Fairy" was just finished and Wu Yuan took the two leading actors to Japan, the film purchasing departments of major domestic TV stations rushed to Shanghai.
Cai Yinong negotiated a good price with almost no effort.
Mango TV is willing to buy the first round of exclusive broadcast rights of "Legend of Sword and Fairy" at a price of 2 million per episode!
2 million per episode, based on the 33 episodes of the rough cut, is 66 million. Just the first broadcast right alone will pay for itself.
And TV series are not just sold for the first round of broadcasts!
Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Oriental TV stations bought the second round of broadcast rights at a price of 1 million per episode.
This is another 99 million!
That's why Dragon TV was so angry when it left Tangren.
They had prepared a maximum price of 1.8 million per episode to buy the first round of exclusive broadcast of "Legend of Sword and Fairy".
Unexpectedly, Hunan TV came out halfway!
After entering the 21st century, Hunan TV vigorously reformed and shouted the slogan of youth and entertainment, especially this year it officially implemented the transformation policy!
Coincidentally, "Legend of Sword and Fairy", a TV series completely prepared for young people, appeared.
Thinking of the sensation caused by "Your Name" among young people, and considering the young lineup of "Legend of Sword and Fairy" with handsome men and beautiful women, with an average age of only 21 years old.
The executive deputy director who was in charge of the film purchase work in the station gritted his teeth and stamped his feet, almost drained the station's working capital, and bet on "Legend of Sword and Fairy"!
66 million to buy a TV series, this was definitely a sky-high price in 2004.
Even the second round broadcast price of 33 million is a price that makes countless TV production companies in the circle drool with envy.
And this is not the end of the profit of "Chinese Paladin".
TV series of this era can at least sell broadcast rights for more than ten rounds, and it is normal for a TV series to be broadcast for three to five years.
After all, there are not so many TV series produced in the market now, and there are even fewer excellent works.
"My Fair Princess" is still rebroadcast on many TV stations every summer vacation more than ten years later.
TVB's Hong Kong dramas and various Korean and Japanese dramas are often rebroadcast for an entire afternoon.
"Chinese Paladin" cannot be compared with "My Fair Princess", but it can at least be sold for three to five years.
Even if the subsequent broadcast rights are not valuable, and only 300,000 or 500,000 per episode, the accumulated profit will still be 100 million.
This is the case with TV drama income. The first and second rounds together only account for half of the total income.
If it's a long-lasting TV series, it won't even be half.
It is expected that "Sword and Fairy" can bring about 300 million yuan in revenue to the producer.
Of which 160 million is certain and will be available in the next two months.
The remaining 140 million will continue to be earned in the next three to five years, which may be more than this number, or it may be less.
It depends on how long this TV series can be popular.
Wu Yuan was also very happy when he learned the news.
Although his "Your Name" can earn a small 500 million in one breath, it is a one-time deal after all.
He doesn't even want to make genuine CDs. Genuine CDs really can't be sold these days.
The genuine disc of "Hero" sold only tens of thousands of copies in China, but the pirated disc sold millions of copies.
Therefore, when making domestic movies, after the box office is earned, there is basically no subsequent income. Only after the online video platform is launched later can there be some income from streaming media.
TV series are different. Holding a hit TV series is equivalent to holding a cash flow, which can last for several years or more than ten years to obtain stable income.
This is very important to the startup company Light and Shadow Times.
Just by doing nothing every year, he can get 10, 20, 30 million, or 20, 30 million. This amount of money is enough for Wu Yuan to support one or two small and medium-cost movies every year!
And with such cash flow, Wu Yuan can still control four more movies.
This made him a little interested in the TV drama market.
This thing is really profitable!
In the past, he had no connections or resources, so there was no way he could enter the field of TV dramas to grab food.
It's different now. Wu Yuan is now in China. It can't be said that he can cover the sky with one hand, but if he stomps his feet, the entire domestic entertainment industry can tremble.
Huayi Brothers looked down on the TV drama market and only wanted to make movies.
But the era of light and shadow is worth watching!
Hire a few excellent TV drama producers, hire two crews from Hengdian, and Wu Yuan writes a few scripts himself, and the company's TV drama department will be up and running!
Fortunately, the 160 million for "Sword and Fairy" will be available soon.
Reserve 350 million for Tang Dynasty's next TV series and Wu Yuan's own "Love". The remaining money can be used to produce two TV series by himself!
The premise is that Wu Yuan has to find a reliable TV series producer to help the company.
This problem bothered him.
Who are the outstanding domestic producers at this stage?
The bearded Zhang Jizhong runs his own company and has no shortage of connections and money. It is impossible for him to come to Wu Yuan's company.
Li Xiaowan, the partner of the famous director Li Shaohong and a rare senior female producer in the television industry, later founded Rongxingda with Li Shaohong, and Wu Yuan could not poach her.
Liu Heping, the producer of TV series such as "Yongzheng Dynasty", "A Hundred Years of Change", "Li Wei Becomes an Official", "Ming Dynasty 1566" and other TV series, is definitely not good at it, but he specializes in such historical dramas.
What Wu Yuan wants to do is idol dramas. After all, this is the era when idol dramas are on the rise. After "Meteor Garden", doing idol dramas is as easy as picking up money.
As for other well-known mainland producers, they all follow the route of serious dramas. Even if he could recruit them, Wu Yuan would not trust them to produce idol dramas.
"correct."
In the school library, Wu Yuan held a copy of "On the Development of Chinese Films" and while flipping through the book unconsciously, he murmured: "Who is the producer of "The Eighteen-Year-Old Sky"?"