Chapter 153 Tang Renhe's "Immortal Sword" (14)

The popular team these days is: Hong Kong and Taiwan director + Hong Kong and Taiwan male lead + mainland actress + Hong Kong behind-the-scenes team.

The people of the Tang Dynasty have been doing this in the past few years, such as "The Legend of Heaven and Earth: Lotus Lantern", "The Female General of the Yang Family", "Books and Swords", "Unparalleled in the World"...

And most of them are Taiwanese male actors.

Why is this happening?

Because the competition among Taiwanese TV stations was fierce in those years, they were willing to spend money to buy dramas...

I am also willing to buy mainland dramas!

I have to thank CCTV for this!

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Mansion Gate" and "Yongzheng Dynasty" have caused a lot of discussion after being broadcast in Wanwan, and the ratings are also very high.

There's no way around it. Apart from idol dramas, the most common ones on Taiwanese TV stations are local dramas that are stinky and long.

Local dramas are also called "longevity dramas". Their slogan is probably that they are not the longest, only longer: "Goodbye Alang" 136 episodes, "Mother's Family" 415 episodes, "Night Market Life" 410 episodes, "Love" 386 episodes, "The World" "Parent's Heart" 311 episodes, "Flying Dragon in the Sky" 248 episodes, "The Story of Time" 107 episodes...

By the way, episode 526 of "Unforgettable"...

The key is that these dramas have high ratings!

"Flying Dragon in the Sky" ranked first in the province for 79 consecutive days, beating 15 TV series at the same time. It aired a total of 212 episodes in seven months, setting a record of ranking first in Taiwan Province's ratings for a total of 211 days;

"Unforgettable" has set a record for the longest-running local drama in the history of Taiwan's eight o'clock time slot. Each episode is one and a half hours long, with a total of 526 episodes. It was broadcast in Taiwan for 378 days, of which 369 days it won the ratings championship, with the highest ratings reaching 10.59%...

The most ridiculous thing is that the drama "Unforgettable" was later not only introduced to the mainland, but also sold to Malaysia and Singapore in Southeast Asia. When it was broadcast on CCTV 8, it also set a record for the same time period...

Local dramas are usually broadcast on FTV, so how can other TV stations compete?

Buy mainland dramas!

Of course, priority will be given to purchasing products that involve our own people...

Therefore, Tang Ren's dramas will use many Benwan actors...

Tang Ren's early entrepreneurial idea was very clear: to produce dramas for Taiwan TV stations, Tang Ren would hire a production team, assemble a cast, and then sell the copyright to mainland China and overseas markets.

It was during this period that Tang Ren determined the production idea of ​​focusing on costume legendary dramas, with the historical parts mostly being dramatized; there were many martial arts scenes; the actors covered the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. For example, the protagonists of "Legend of Heaven and Earth: The Fish Beauty" were Guo Jinan from Hong Kong, Xu Huaiyu from Taiwan, and Sun Li from the Mainland.

Cai Yinong previously worked as a co-ordinator for the Academy Awards. He also worked as an agent for celebrities such as Guan Yonghe and Guo Jinan, and worked in the casting department of a production company.

The business logic of overseas distribution determines that Tang Ren mainly produces costume dramas.

In the early years, domestic dramas only sold in costumes overseas.

Tangren Film and Television relied on its ability to produce costume dramas and signed a three-year contract with a Singaporean film company. This is also the reason why "Sword" and "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" have Wang Lujiang...

"Legend of Sword and Fairy" is a work born under this idea.

When he first came into contact with this project, Cai Yinong was actually a little hesitant. But after some investigation, she discovered that the game has a group of serious fans...

This is the case. Every time a Tang Dynasty drama is broadcast, Cai Yinong will watch the discussions among netizens in forums in Taiwan and Mainland China. She found that online viewers would discuss a drama over and over again, provide plot supplements, and have a very in-depth understanding of the drama.

Well, she attaches great importance to the Internet, especially Tianya...

Therefore, in the early days, Tang Ren's navy was really spread all over the world, and Liu Shishi won the title of First Sister!

Including this time I asked Shen Xudong to write the script for "Sword of Immortality". In fact, I also saw netizens discussing "Zhu Xian" and saying that he was the first person to write fairy novels...

Otherwise, just relying on Feng Baiyuan's recommendation would make the two top executives move...

She also talked about casting with Shen Xudong, but the latter was very slippery. He only said that Zhao Ling'er was interested in Liu Yifei, and didn't say anything about the other roles...

Of course Liu Yifei and Cai Yinong know about it, as does Wang Yuyan!

However, at this time, whether Tang Ren or Daewoo's Yao Zhuangxian's first choice is He Meidian!

Famous sweet girl, spokesperson for innocence and innocence...

Yilin in "The Swordsman", Zhong Ling in "Dragon"...

However, He Meidian is at the peak of her career. She works in two or three dramas every year, with popular stars such as Zhang Weijian and Lin Zhiying, and they are all female leads...

Not enough time slot…

As for Li Xiaoyao, he never considered Brother Hu at all in the beginning.

Nowadays, costume dramas emphasize round faces and shaved heads to look good!

Zhou Yimin, Xie Tingfeng, and Lin Zhiying are the first choices, and by the way, including Sun Xiezhi, the captain of 5566 who has worked with them...

"West Street Boy" is produced by Tang Ren, and the cast includes Sun Xiezhi, Huo Jianhua, Liu Pinyan and Cyndi Wang...

Liu Pinyan was first invited to play Lin Yueru...

It’s quite messy anyway, everything is difficult at the beginning!

But these have little to do with Shen Xudong. The script of "Sword and Fairy" has been finalized, the script fee has been paid, and although he was invited to the subsequent casting, he felt there was no need to participate...

The casting for "Sword and Fairy" is pretty good, what's the point of you getting involved?

Besides, we haven’t even started yet, so what’s the point of making random ideas?

You can't wait until they are at their wits' end and come here specifically to ask for advice. If you speak at that time, you can help them in times of need!

…

Shen Xudong is busy with "Outstanding Citizen"...

I was invited to meet with the producers, producers, and, yes, the film selectors from the Venice Film Festival...

Why Venice Film Festival?

The main reason is that it can’t keep up with Berlin, and the probability of winning awards in Cannes is too low, so let’s go to Venice. It happens that they have some friendship with Lao Ma.

Lao Ma is Mark Mueller. In 1986, Lao Ma began to work as the Asian film selector for the Venice Film Festival and had a deep relationship with the fifth generation;

Beginning in 1991, Lao Ma served as chairman of the Locarno Film Festival for ten years. During this period, "I Am Your Dad" directed by Wang Shuo and "Mr. Zhao" directed by Lu Le both sold well at the Locarno Film Festival. Next year At the beginning, Lao Ma took over as the chairman of the Venice Film Festival for four years...

Oh, Director Chen took him there!

It’s Shen Xudong’s fault. He quickly told Director Chen that he wanted to be a producer in the future. Director Chen felt that a producer should understand the entire process of a project from scratch...

So I grabbed him...

To be honest, it's quite awkward. It's okay for others to talk about the script, but it's different when meeting the sponsor...

That attitude is nothing short of contemptuous!

Although the other party talks about Teacher Chen and Teacher Shen, he really doesn’t like them—the sponsorship of 500,000 yuan has been rejected...

There is a plot in "Outstanding Citizen" that promotes drinks. The producer wants to find a beverage company to sponsor it, which can be regarded as product placement!

…

In the car, Shen Xudong took the mineral water handed by Chen Daoming's assistant, took a sip, and then sighed a little: "I always thought that setting up a film team was quite simple. Find a script, get some investment, and then shoot. No. It’s so complicated to think of it!”

"...Is this still complicated?"

“It’s to go to the distribution company, and it’s to contact the film selector...”

Director Chen said: "We have to consider the issue of repayment... After all, this movie only costs 8 million to make!"

The cost is 8 million. If the cost is recovered by the market alone, the box office will be 20 million at least...

So far this year, the highest-grossing movie is "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" with 41 million, followed by "Mouse Falls in Love with Cat" with 22 million, and "Zhou Yu's Train" with 19 million...

The cost of these three movies is more than 10 million, and the cost of "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" is even as high as 80 million!

There are also big stars joining...

By comparison, the cast of "Outstanding Citizen" is certainly good, including Chen Daoming, Fu Biao, Yingda, and Liu Bei was chosen to play the writer's first love...

They are all good actors, but... none of them have the ability to sell movies!

"That's how making a movie is. A good show requires money and people, you have to find investors and distributors, and you have to travel around the country to promote it..."

"…Too much trouble…"

"That's how it is in the initial stage. However, it will be different once you become famous. Those investors are rushing to beg you... Your phone is ringing!"

"…oh."

Shen Xudong took out his mobile phone and was a little surprised. It turned out to be Qi Xiaolei, the assistant producer he met during "Dragon Movie"...