Chapter 804: Premiere of "The Great Sage" (Part 1)

The reason why Zhang Guorong took the script to Wu Yuan was that he hoped to get affirmation from him.

After all, although Wu Yuan has focused on the field of commercial films in recent years, his achievements in art films in his early years were second only to Zhang Yimou in China, and he also won the three best films in Europe.

Even his achievements in the Oscars are still the first in China. After all, Oscars can be publicized. When he was in Hollywood, Disney publicized a lot of technical awards for him when he was filming the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, and later he succeeded in the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

If we talk about the people who know the European Film Festival best, there are only Zhang Yimou and Wu Yuan in China. If we talk about the Chinese who know the North American awards best, there is only Wu Yuan.

Let Wu Yuan read the script first, at least you can ensure that your movie can at least reach the stage of being nominated, so that you don’t have to work hard for several years to not even be nominated in the end.

If Wu Yuan makes any suggestions, he will make changes as soon as possible, and naturally the hope of winning the award will be higher than those who do not have the guidance of the same level of director.

There are not many "film masters" who can guide other directors to win awards in Asia.

As for money, he has never worried about it. After all, neither he nor Guangying Times lacks the 18 million yuan, and it is not for the money.

Yes, although the mainland film industry is very hot now, the cost of making movies is also rising, but these are all dividends in the field of commercial films.

In the field of art films, the development of the mainland commercial film market in recent years has not only failed to bring development dividends to art films, but has accelerated the decline of Chinese art films.

There are really not many directors who still insist on making art films, and the level is indeed worse than the previous generation.

The booming development of commercial films has not affected art films. Now making art films is something that grandma doesn't love and uncles don't love. Directors can't get much investment, and actors can't get much money.

Investing 10 million to make an art film can already make a very good art film. After all, even "superstars" in the field of art films such as Tan Zhuo and Liao Fan only offer a salary of one or two million for making an art film.

It's not that they don't want more, but the investors can't afford it if they ask for too much.

Liao Fan made a lot of money when he went to shoot Jiang Wen's "Evil Never Dies", after all, Emperor Entertainment Group has money!

Zhang Guorong gave himself a budget of 12 million for the shooting of "Glass Love". He originally planned to pay for it himself, but Wu Yuan waved his hand and the company took it.

Wu Yuan didn't expect this movie to make money, but he was optimistic about this script adapted from Zhang Guorong's own emotional experience and felt that there was indeed hope to win an international award or something, so he just spent money to buy the award.

After all, Light and Shadow Times does need this kind of international award to increase the company's foundation.

This money is much cheaper than the public relations Oscar.

After getting Wu Yuan's affirmative answer, Zhang Guorong didn't say that he was like a chicken blood, but at least he was very confident and was full of energy to officially start the movie.

Of course, it had to be after attending the premiere of "The Monkey King".

The next day was the day when the premiere of "The Monkey King" was held.

As the domestic commercial film market matures, ceremonies such as premieres have long been mature, and both media reporters and invited guests are familiar with this set.

Of course, holding a premiere when a new movie is released is no longer a new thing. What is new now is to hold a preview before the movie is released!

Preview, also known as pilot release. It refers to the selection of a specific local theater to screen a designated film, usually a preview of a movie that has not yet been officially released.

This thing has been done in Hollywood for decades, and it is not uncommon in China. In 2002, "Hero" was the first movie to hold a preview.

However, the circle only tried it briefly at that time.

In the past five or six years, the trend of holding previews has swept the film industry in an instant. Almost every commercial film must be previewed before its official release, and then premiered, and finally released on a large scale.

"The Monkey King" has also held previews in advance. There are 3-5 previews in seven or eight major cities in China, and many movie tickets are released for lottery.

However, the audience who participated in the preview have signed a confidentiality contract and are not allowed to reveal the specific details of the movie, that is, they cannot spoil the film.

But they can comment.

After all, the purpose of the preview is to warm up the reputation!

In the early years, those who held previews were full of confidence in their movies, and they believed that their movies would definitely be popular and liked, so they dared to hold previews.

Now, if you hold previews, you have to pay money. There are many Internet users who help to improve the reputation. Even if the quality of your movie is average, you are not afraid that the audience of the preview will "talk nonsense" on the Internet and affect the reputation.

After all, the previews have only a few thousand or tens of thousands of viewers at most, and the Internet users raised by major film and television companies can suppress their negative comments in minutes.

In fact, Guangying Times is also doing this. Even though the preview reputation of "The Monkey King" is actually quite good, and more than 20 previews have basically achieved good or even excellent reviews on the Internet, the company still has many Internet users cheering for it on the Internet to expand its influence.

Wu Yuan did not stop this, but just asked not to exaggerate the publicity, and to expand the publicity according to the real preview word-of-mouth evaluation.

There is no way. As the saying goes, now is an era where good wine needs to be hidden in a remote alley. Some necessary publicity work must be done, even for big directors like Wu Yuan and Zhang Yimou.

Because if you don't do it, others will do it, then you will be at a disadvantage in public opinion. I don't know how many directors and film and television companies want to use the two as stepping stones to become famous.

On December 20, 2018, the weather was clear.

Outside the largest cinema in Chaoyang, Beijing, the Guangying Times Cinema Line has already been hung with posters for "The Monkey King".

Self-media from all over the country, invited film bloggers, Douyin big V and other influential Internet celebrities on the Internet, all entered the cinema under the enthusiastic guidance of the on-site waiters, and stopped from time to time to take a few photos or record a few videos, and then reluctantly handed in all the electronic devices they carried.

In the No. 1 theater inside the cinema, the insiders who arrived first had already surrounded Wu Yuan.

Even several domestic directors who had not appeared in public for a long time, such as Jiang Wen, Chen Kaige, and Feng Xiaogang, came to the scene and talked with Wu Yuan very skillfully.

"Director Wu, it is becoming more and more difficult to shoot commercial films." Jiang Wen said with a depressed expression, slapping his thigh with his left hand. (End of this chapter)