Chapter 687 Co-Production

The "Ghost Blowing Lamp" series should be made into at least three movies!

And because of domestic review requirements - later, they simply issued orders to strictly manage subjects such as 'treasure appraisal, tomb robbing'...

What constitutes strict management?

The most severe cut was done directly!

I heard that it’s because too many crimes have been committed using this thing: There is a fraud gang in BJ that defrauded nearly 30,000 elderly people by charging for the auction of cultural relics.

Directly contributed to the issuance of the ban...

Of course, "Ghost Blowing the Lamp" strictly speaking belongs to the adventure genre. It starts with the ghost eye curse, and the main plot becomes the protagonist's search for the Muchen Bead to lift the curse.

But...it can be foreseen that once "Jingjue Ancient City" succeeds, there will definitely be a bunch of people of the same genre following suit.

There are many works that follow the trend, but the second is shoddy work. I'm afraid they all make money...

Once everyone makes money, it will easily become a mainstream theme...

This type can exist, but it is unlikely to become mainstream.

Once it becomes mainstream, tomb robbers become positive figures...

It’s easy to be criticized!

Therefore, Shen Xudong hopes to use the third film to open up the international market, at least the Asian market.

He has investigated that the "Mummy" trilogy has a high box office in South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia, which shows that "The Ancient City" has prospects in these two markets!

The first movie was a test of the waters. He originally thought of selling it half and giving it half, but CJ offered $3 million and Toei offered $7 million...

That can only be accepted reluctantly!

Too expensive now?

Shen Xudong shook his head: "I actually prefer the agency + share model for overseas copyrights. It was you who offered the price of 3 million US dollars to buy out the copyright! If you regret it, you can give your opinion to Zhong Lifang... I heard that she discussed with Jin Taeyu about creating Two co-productions!”

"...What does Kim Tae-wook know about movies...I mean, if you want to cooperate, you must find someone who knows..."

Kim Tae-wook is a producer under ShowBox, his representative work is "The Flying Taegeuk Flag", and he is also the one who strongly invested in "Red Cliff"...

The Korean film market is very competitive.

The Three Kingdoms series of movies produced by Tianmei Company have performed very well in the Korean market - not to mention setting a movie-watching frenzy, but basically all of them have more than 1.5 million moviegoers. Among them, "Cao Cao" has won 2.1 million moviegoers, and "Zhao Zilong" 2》It is 2.6 million...

Don’t think that having one million moviegoers is easy.

The 80-20 rule in the Korean film market is particularly obvious. Generally, the first place has tens of millions of moviegoers, and the second place is likely to have 5 million moviegoers...

Two million moviegoers, this achievement is already very impressive, enough to trigger competition among major film companies.

Yes, CJ is Tianmei’s partner in South Korea.

However, it does not mean that you have to cooperate with them...

When Shen Xudong mentioned this, Zheng Taicheng understood...

After a brief chat, Shen Xudong talked about his plans for a Hollywood blockbuster, and Zheng Taiguo became interested.

…

What Korean film producers desire most is to let local films go global, especially into the U.S. market.

Due to the political father-son relationship, culturally "counterattacking" is regarded as an honor.

This is also an important reason why they have made good friends with Shen Xudong - to cooperate with him and enter the US market.

In fact, Shen Xudong wanted to work with CJ to produce "The Legend of Evil", but time was tight at the time and he didn't find it troublesome, so he invested directly!

Zheng Taicheng first asked about "The Legend of Evil", and Shen Xudong replied: "The American version of "The Legend of Evil" cost 45 million U.S. dollars, which is a lot when converted into RMB and Korean won, but in Hollywood it is only mid-range... Our box office expectations are 6,000 in North America. Ten thousand, over 100 million worldwide... As long as we can get back our money!"

"you are too humble…"

"No, the genre of "The Bad Guys" is a suspense action movie, and the subject matter is a bit outdated... Looking at the "Die Hard" series, the box office is getting lower and lower..."

Zheng Taicheng shook his head: "There are no outdated themes, only filmmakers who don't understand movies! Can you elaborate on the Hollywood investment plan you mentioned?"

Shen Xudong sat down: "There are three projects, one is a zombie movie with a very mature script..."

"Zombie movie?"

"Well," Shen Xudong explained: "It can be seen from "Dawn of the Dead" and "I Am Legend" that Lost movies have always had a fixed fan audience. As long as the quality is passed, there will definitely be no problem at the box office!"

"Then can you tell me more specifically?"

"The story is very simple. The male protagonist is a successful lawyer. In terms of family, the couple's relationship breaks down and they have a daughter... The male protagonist lives with his daughter in a small town. It happens that a company laboratory in the small town leaks, causing a certain virus. Spread, the symptom of infection is the transformation into zombies... The hero takes a train to send his daughter to the city where his wife is, but is ravaged by zombies and continues to spread to the entire train..."

Hearing this, Zheng Taicheng retorted tactfully: "Americans usually drive cars when going out, right?"

Shen Xudong thought for a while: "It's true that Americans don't like taking trains, so we can change the story to take place in Europe, either Germany or France!"

"If it happened in Germany or France, it wouldn't be called an American movie!"

Shen Xudong was quite surprised...

I underestimated this Korean guy!

That has to be serious: "Then change the story to take place in a supermarket...a confined space anyway..."

Zheng Taicheng had no objection this time: "Then...how much does it cost?"

"$20 million or $60 million!"

Zheng Taicheng was stunned for a moment: "Why is there such a big difference?"

Shen Xudong shrugged: "We are in contact with Leonardo and Johnny Depp. If either of them agrees, the cost will be increased, and it will at least be an A-level production!"

"...Oh, that's understandable."

When a superstar joins the team, the scenes, actors, and production will definitely need to be upgraded...

Zheng Taicheng nodded and then asked: "Isn't there three projects? Are there two more?"

"A science fiction film and an action film in collaboration with Warner Bros....the average cost is around US$60 million!"

"…Can you let me see the plan?"

Shen Xudong shook his head: "It's not impossible, I didn't bring this thing... I came to Cannes specifically to sell films..."

"Does Manager Zhong have a complete plan?"

Shen Xudong still shook his head: "This is a project independently operated by my company in the United States. Zhong Lifang and the others don't understand..."

"Okay, I'll go back and report to Director Li..."

Director Li is Li Meijing, the entire helmsman of CJ Media.

"Well, you can discuss it. By the way, if "Jingjue Ancient City" does well at the box office, CJ is welcome to invest in the following films!"

"...Can we use our actors?"

"no problem!"

…

If the Ghost Blowing Light series wants to be released simultaneously in South Korea, it must attract investment from South Korea, and the same goes for Japan!

Because the two countries have protective policies for movies. In Japan, no matter which country you are from, blockbusters will be delayed for a long time before they can be released. South Korea has targeted policies, except for Hollywood movies...

And it is enforced by the government!

If they were to take advantage of it, it would be very simple to delay the release for half a year, and the box office would be halved.

Piracy is very developed in South Korea.

Therefore, it must become a co-production and an international production.

At the same time, it is also an insurance measure...

You can’t just ban co-productions...

The zombie movie that Shen Xudong is talking about is "Train to Busan". The original time and space, this movie cost 9 million US dollars and won over 100 million in the global box office, setting off a movie-watching frenzy across Asia...

It sold HK$68 million in the Hong Kong market, setting a record for a non-Hollywood film, slightly better than the record for a Chinese-language film at the time, "Cold War 2"...

If you change it to an American film and add a little plasma, I don’t know the probability of it being a hit...

That’s why Shen Xudong wants to raise funds!