Chapter 119 Youth and New Movie
That’s right, what Liu Zhou thought of was "Youth", the only commendable work of Feng Kuzi’s later years.

When we entered the second half of the second decade of the 21st century, many new directors began to rise, and veteran directors such as Chen Shishi, Zhang Yimou and Feng Kuzi seemed to become outdated all of a sudden.

Poet Chen has only one movie, "Legend of the Demon Cat", in the works, and then he has participated in various variety shows and showcased his character Arthur.

Later, following the trend of "Changjin Lake", a trilogy called "Volunteer Army" was made, but it was criticized by netizens for just a promotional poster.

It’s no wonder that netizens are so angry. Think about it, what kind of movie is this? You actually made a poster that looks like the Joker. Who else should you scold if not you?

It was not like it is now, when there are still a lot of public intellectuals to help you clean up the mess and make up some obscure things to fool people.

Cultural confidence has been promoted for many years, but the public is still being treated as fools.

Although Zhang Yimou has been silent for a few years after "The Great Wall", his love for movies is relatively pure. He still insists on making movies in his seventies and even maintains a high productivity of one movie a year.

Among them, Liu Zhou believes that "Article 20" is the best film Director Zhang has made since the new century.

As for Feng Kuazi, after the remake of "Private Customization", he has rarely produced any works.

The only movie he made, "Youth", can be considered a good movie in his later years, which saved some points for him.

Later I heard that he was going to rehash "If You Are the One" again. Ge You is almost seventy years old. I really don't know what's the point of watching a man in his sixties go on a blind date.

Now if he takes away the movie "Youth" from him, Liu Zhou feels like he's about to pull Feng's pants bald.

But Liu Zhou would not have the slightest bit of reluctance. If it weren't for the fact that these works of his later years were relatively outstanding, he would have planned to increase his efforts.

The movie "Youth" is adapted from a novel of the same name written by writer Yan Geling.

Both Yan Geling and Feng Kuzi had served in art troupes and grew up in similar eras. In 2013, they agreed to create a story about the art troupe that was close to their personal experiences.

In 2016, Yan Geling finished the first draft, and the book was called "You Touched Me" at the time.

Later, Feng Kuzi suggested changing the name. Yan Geling provided several options, and finally he chose "Youth".

Therefore, at this time, when releasing "Youth", there is no need to worry about any collision issues.

The movie "Youth" is really good. Even people like Liu Zhou who have no experience in art troupes enjoyed watching it.

Liu Zhou's family also likes this movie very much, especially his aunt. She was a member of the Yangcheng Military Region Art Troupe when she was young. Later, the art troupe was in decline, and she had to take care of her uncle and two daughters, so she withdrew from the troupe.

So he was most touched when he watched this movie.

With this background, it is not surprising that Liu Zhou wrote a novel describing the art troupe.

This time, Liu Zhou not only wants to write the script for the drama, but also wants to create the novel "Youth" at the same time.

There have always been some writers in the literary world criticizing Liu Zhou's works for being lacking in substance, so he will use this work "Youth" to shut them up.

After all, the novel "Youth" is different from Liu Zhou's previous youth novels and the Ghost Blows Out the Light series, so more attention must be paid to the choice of words and sentence structure.

But Liu Zhou has written so many novels after all, and he has quite a few writing skills and experiences. The only thing he lacks may be some details about the life and work of the art troupe of that era.

This was not difficult to solve. While he was looking for information, he also asked his aunt for advice.

With Liu Zhou fully committed to the creation, it took him nearly two months to finally complete the novel "Youth".

Then Liu Zhou spent another week writing the script for the drama "Youth".

Liu Zhou did not consider sending the novel "Youth" to "Mengya" magazine. They had not even finished serializing the "Ghost Blows Out the Light" series, and it was not in line with their wishes.

This is the first time I write a realistic novel, so I am still a little nervous and anxious about publishing it.

So this time he adopted the approach of casting a wide net and sent the manuscript to well-known industry publications such as "People's Literature", "Harvest", and "Zhongshan".

After dealing with these things, Liu Zhou breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever the final outcome would be, he could only leave it to fate.

Finally, Liu Zhou found Zhang Chen with the drama script of "Youth".

Zhang Chen has some literary appreciation level, and he thought the script was very good after reading it.

The market response of this drama may not be as good as that of "Duds", but its reputation in the industry is definitely not inferior to "Duds", and may even be better.

There are three main characters in "Youth": Liu Feng, who was collectively abandoned due to a touching incident; He Xiaoping, who came from the countryside and was repeatedly discriminated against and excluded by the female soldiers in the art troupe because of her "bad habits"; and Xiao Suizi, who is romantic and full of girlish heart.

Qin Hao is suitable for the role of Liu Feng, while Zeng Li and Zhang Tong can play He Xiaoping and Xiao Suizi.

However, Zeng Li and Zhang Tong need to lose a little weight if they want to fit the image, as they are both plump.

As for Tang Wei, she can play the solo singer Lin Dingding and play supporting roles for the three of them, which is not too unfair to her.

The roles of other members of the art troupe are all minor supporting roles, so we can just find other people to play the roles.

Zhang Chen had no objection to Liu Zhou's role arrangement. After receiving the script, he immediately gathered several people. They had heard that Liu Zhou had been in seclusion for the past two months, and Zeng Li had not read what he had written because she was afraid of disturbing Liu Zhou.

So she, like several others, was very much looking forward to Liu Zhou's masterpiece.

After reading the script, several people looked at each other with expressions of surprise.

Liu Zhou is still the same Liu Zhou and never disappoints anyone.

Seeing such an excellent script, several people couldn't wait to start rehearsing.

Soon after, a piece of news spread throughout the Zhoushan Drama Troupe:
Written by the big boss, writer and director Liu Zhou, starring popular stars Zeng Li, Qin Hao and Zhang Tong, and with rising star Tang Wei as the voice actor, the new drama will be created with the efforts of the entire drama troupe.

For a moment, there was a commotion in the drama troupe.

Although the main roles have been decided, there are still some minor supporting roles that can be competed for, which is a kind of qualification for these newcomers.

What if I’m lucky enough to be noticed by a big boss in this play, wouldn’t I be able to soar to fame like Tang Wei?
Not only are the actors vying for it, but even the staff behind the scenes are experiencing a certain degree of competition.

However, Zhang Chen had to worry about these things. Liu Zhou completely gave him the power and asked him to find the director of the drama "Youth".

After arranging these things, Liu Zhou finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He could no longer agree to Zhang Chen’s request to write scripts. As time went by, his stock would become less and less, and he almost failed this time.

Time slowly came to the end of September, and the shortlists for the 22nd Golden Rooster Awards and the 25th Hundred Flowers Awards were announced one after another.

Among them, the Golden Rooster Awards, "The Tuner" was nominated for six major awards including Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Supporting Actress, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Feature Film.

It is tied with "Big Feet" as the film with the most nominations.

As soon as this nomination came out, "The Tuner" and Liu Zhou immediately became the focus of the media.

This year's Golden Rooster Awards really supports Liu Zhou!

Each of the six nominated awards is of high importance. As long as their luck is not too bad, Liu Zhou and "The Tuner" will most likely become the winners of this Golden Rooster Awards.

Of course, there is nothing that can be done if none of the six nominations are successful, but Liu Zhou believes that the Golden Rooster Awards Organizing Committee will not play tricks on him like this.

As for the Hundred Flowers Awards, it only has five awards: Best Feature Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor and Actress. Among them, "The Tuner" was only nominated for the Best Actor award.

Because of its special selection method, the Hundred Flowers Awards has a lot of room for maneuver.

In the past two years, the Hundred Flowers Awards has slowly been infiltrated by Huayi.

The awards Feng Kuzi won in the early days were all from the Hundred Flowers Awards and the College Student Film Festival. Because the Golden Rooster Awards didn't like him at all, his "Big Shot" didn't even receive a single nomination at the Golden Rooster Awards this time.

It was not until the release of "Assembly" that the film was featured in the Thirty Minutes News and was recognized by the higher-ups, so the Golden Rooster Awards were willing to give him the award.

Before this, Feng Kuzi had won the Best Film Award at the Hundred Flowers Awards three times.

Huayi’s greed was still a bit better now. Later, when Huayi became the first private film and television stock, it directly changed the Popular Hundred Flowers Award into the Huayi Hundred Flowers Award, causing the credibility of this award to plummet.

On the contrary, the Golden Rooster Award, although criticized for its tendency to produce double yolk eggs, has always been regarded as the most valuable award in the mainland.

As the Golden Horse Awards are courting disaster and the Hong Kong Film Awards are expanding in their own circle, the influence of the Golden Rooster Awards continues to expand, becoming the first choice for Chinese-language filmmakers.

This was just a nomination after all, and the heat faded after a few days.

Having rested long enough, Liu Zhou is also considering what movie to make next.

With the grand release of "Hero" at the end of this year, costume martial arts blockbusters will become the mainstream in the future.

But what is surprising is that the costume blockbusters shot by the three great directors were almost all criticized, and in the end it was discovered that the first one released, "Hero", was the best.

Liu Zhou wondered if he could take advantage of the popularity of "Hero" to make a martial arts film.

But to be honest, there are very few excellent martial arts films after the new century. Compared with the glory of Hong Kong martial arts films in the 1990s, it seems that only the "Sword Rain" and "Xiu Chun Dao" series are worthy of praise.

"Sword Rain" and "Xiu Chun Dao" have quite a few similarities. Both stories take place in the Ming Dynasty. Both are new-style martial arts novels, and the fighting scenes are relatively sharp and realistic.

Of course, there are obvious differences between the two movies. The former focuses more on the rivers and lakes, which is in line with people's imagination of the martial arts world.

The latter is more focused on the court, but the story of the little people struggling to survive is more touching.

However, just when Liu Zhou was lost in thought, Zhong Lifang suddenly came to his office with a happy face, and said with a smile as soon as she came in:

"Mr. Liu, I found a good TV script. I think it's worth investing in."

(End of this chapter)