Chapter 677 Just the Historical Process
In the early years, Hong Kong actors did have overseas box office success.
Selling flowers is the best proof!
Selling film flowers was the biggest feature of Hong Kong film financing in the 1990s.
Producers may not even have a script, but can easily get an advance of tens of millions in sales fees just by relying on the names of Stephen Chow, Andy Lau, Chow Yun-fat, Jackie Chan, or a simple cast promotion poster.
Hong Kong-style film sales are more about selling casts, so as to recover costs in advance and ensure a steady profit.
But this approach is also "exploiting" Hong Kong films themselves, so that after a few years, except for those "ageless" Hong Kong stars, everything else in Hong Kong films has "disappeared into dust."
What's worse, many gangsters have joined in!
Fighting for the stars…
To a certain extent, it has accelerated the trend of Hong Kong films following the trend and shoddy production!
More importantly, the proportion of the star protagonist's salary is getting higher and higher, and other members of the production team will inevitably feel unfair.
This is also an important reason why almost all bands will break up once they become popular.
After 1993, Hollywood aggressively attacked the Asian market. Hong Kong movies were no longer as popular as before, so the film and film packages were naturally less valuable!
But... at this stage, Hong Kong movies still have many overseas fans.
Most Hong Kong movies are released simultaneously in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia!
Later, why were mainland actors allowed to play leading roles?
Because the mainland market has risen, we can take advantage of the home star.
Only when there is a market can there be stars. Now that there is a market in the Mainland, there will be a surge of stars from the Mainland.
Going back 20 or 30 years, Jiang Wen and Ge You must be capable. They can't make commercial movies in Hong Kong. No one from Hong Kong companies hires them because their backgrounds don't match and they don't have overseas markets!
Jiang Wen played a supporting role in "Song Dynasty".
By the way, at the beginning of "Song Dynasty", Jiang Wen refused to accept the role and said, "I never play supporting roles." However, Wu Siyuan coaxed him and said that Charlie Song was the father of the three sisters of the Song family and "is the protagonist of the protagonist." In the end, he was convinced Jiang Wencai agreed to act and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, but he didn't come to accept the award...
In the original time and space, at this stage, no one except Feng Xiaogang used mainland actors as protagonists in movies with an investment of over 10 million!
However, Shen Xudong is different.
The male lead in "The Old Man", "Life's Greatest Events", "Embroidered Spring Knife" and "The Tuner" are all played by Deng Chao;
The male lead in "Painted Skin" is Chen Kun;
"Jingjue Ancient City", the male lead Liu Ye;
"The Wind" found Yu Hewei's partner Huang Xiaoming...
Oh, "The Wind" is not produced by Jiahe...
But this time "Zhao Zilong 2" is produced by Jiahe, starring Nie Yuan, and the director is also a mainland director!
It directly changed the so-called pattern of Hong Kong and Taiwan directors + Hong Kong and Taiwan actors + mainland actresses.
The key is, it’s also sold well overseas.
Now, we can no longer fool investors with the idea that using mainland actors means giving up overseas markets!
It’s not over yet. At the Jiahe movie planning press conference at noon on the 11th, there were a lot of mainland actors, including Deng Chao, Chen Xiao, Wang Kai, Yu Hewei, and Hu Ge.
In addition, Chen Daoming, Wang Xueqi, Ge You, Zhang Guoli, Jiang Wen, Jiang Wu, Hu Jun, etc. also assisted.
The Hong Kong star troupe also includes Jackie Chan, Lai Ming, Zhang Xueyou, Donnie Yen, Louis Koo, Liu Qingyun, Zhang Jiahui, etc...
Yang Shoucheng, Jiang Zhiqiang, and Huang Baiming also came.
The directing team includes Chen Musheng, Chen Desen, Chen Jiashang, Yip Weixin, Zheng Baorui, Liang Lok Man, Luk Jianqing...
Chung Lifeng was so high-spirited that she announced more than 20 film shooting plans in one breath.
Including the six Three Kingdoms series after "Zhao Zilong 2", and each one has disclosed the exact release date: "Dingjun Mountain" on January 27, 2009, "Guan Yunchang", "Zhang Yide", "Zhao Zilong 3", "Zhuge Liang" ” and “Emperor Zhaolie of the Han Dynasty—Liu Bei”…
The last one was released during the Lunar New Year in 2010, and the others were basically released during the Spring Festival, summer and even April...
Shen Xudong said with some regret: "Actually, for the Three Kingdoms series, we initially planned to shoot 18 movies in three stages to form a Three Kingdoms movie universe. But everyone knows what happened. After the success of the first movie , the actors and directors have all left... Then we had to change our plans... Fortunately, "Cao Cao" and "Zhao Zilong 2" have good box office and reputation, which gave us enough confidence to continue making series..."
Well, let's continue with "Seeing the Dragon and Disarming"...
Of course, this is Hong Kong, and there must be many media outlets stirring up trouble.
Ask him directly if he is suppressing Hong Kong actors.
"Are you kidding? I almost paid them. You have to know that the total salary of the actors in "Zhao Zilong 2" is less than 3 million Hong Kong dollars. The salary paid to Andy Lau for the first "Zhao Zilong" alone was 12 million Hong Kong dollars! "
"Besides, are you blind? We are going to work with Jackie Chan, Lai Ming, and Donnie Yen in three movies each... Aren't they Hong Kong actors?"
…
"They treated me pretty well. They didn't take many ugly photos, and they didn't criticize me for being stupid..."
At the cocktail party in the evening, Huang Baiming comforted Shen Xudong and told him not to care about the Hong Kong media. Shen Xudong was very free and easy...
It is also true that Hong Kong media is so hostile to Zhang Ziyi and Zhao Yanzi that they are a thorn in their side. There are all kinds of messy reports, such as Zhang Ziyi's love affair with Jackie Chan and his son, ugly photos of Zhao Yanzi chewing gum...
In contrast, his attitude towards Shen Xudong is indeed good.
In the beginning, he was introduced as a "talented man from the mainland", but now he is introduced as "the new leader of Jiahe"...
"Then you can't hold grudges, it won't be easy for them either..."
"There is nothing to hold grudges. You see, Hong Kong is integrating with the mainland. There will be friction in the integration process. It is normal... But I think friction is not a bad thing. It is like sawing wood. Sometimes it will go to the left, and sometimes it will go to the left. It will go to the right, but in the end it will all go down! Wait another twenty years, and when you look back at these things, they are just dust in the historical process."
Hearing this, Huang Baiming couldn't help but said in surprise: "Tsk, tsk, you are worthy of being a writer, your thinking is really good!"
"...No." Shen Xudong suddenly remembered something: "Where did Uncle Huang plan to take me to eat tonight?"
"Taiwanlou, I've already thought about what to take you to eat, but I didn't expect there would be a party today."
"It's okay, I will have time tomorrow..."
Taipanlou, Shen Xudong has long heard of it, Asia's 50 best restaurants, the Hong Kong restaurant that best represents Cantonese cuisine...
Shen Xudong really didn't want to miss it.
Huang Baiming smiled bitterly: "But I don't have time tomorrow, I have to fly to Singapore..."
Shen Xudong felt a little regretful, thought for a moment and said, "Then... give me the contact information of the main class building, and I'll go by myself!"
Huang Baiming glanced at him, thought about it, and then suggested: "...Let's do this, I'll introduce a friend to take you with me!"
Shen Xudong shook his head: "Forget it, I'm not used to eating with unfamiliar men..."
Huang Baiming raised his eyebrows: "It just so happens that the person I introduced is a little girl who aspires to be in the film industry!"
"I...I'm not that kind of person...What do you look like? How old are you?"
"...Hong Kong's number one nen model, what do you think?"
When Shen Xudong heard this, he lost interest: "Fu Ying?"
"…no…"
Just as Huang Baiming was about to give a detailed introduction, Chung Lifeng, Donnie Yen and Chen Desen came over. Shen Xudong politely said goodbye to Huang Baiming, tapped his mobile phone, and asked him to contact him, and then walked away...
After all, the full name of the cocktail party in the evening is Jiahe Movie Night, and it is not a private communication occasion between Shen Xudong and Huang Baiming!