Chapter 294 The project launch of "The Message" and "Lost on Journey"

Throughout mid-to-late May, people across the country were concerned about one place.

All over the country, many people who had spare money donated money and supplies, and even scavengers donated all their savings.

In the face of the disaster, all Chinese people united together unconsciously, and during this period, all kinds of heroes emerged.

It is now the end of May, and although an atmosphere of sadness still hangs over the land of China, all walks of life still have to move forward.

The entertainment industry has become much calmer during this period, and many entertainment activities have been suspended.

Perhaps the only thing that made some splash was that "The Forbidden Kingdom" was taken off the screen because it failed to apply for an extension key and its final box office was only 1.46 million.

It became the third movie this year to break the 100 million yuan box office. The first one was of course "Painted Skin", and the second one was "CJ7", the last movie starring Stephen Chow.

At that time, no one expected that Stephen Chow, who was in his prime, would move behind the scenes without any delay.

Because of its plans to acquire Hollywood film companies and prepare for an IPO, Golden Harvest did not produce many films this year.

Apart from "The Martian", there is also Ning Hao's "No Man's Land".

However, although the script of "No Man's Land" has been approved, no one knows whether the final film will be banned.

As for Xu Ke's "Detective Dee: The Mystery of the Phantom Flame", it is expected to be released during next year's Spring Festival.

Xu Ke already has two films released during the Spring Festival, and both have achieved very good results.

This time, Xu Ke and Zhang Zhao also hope to continue this good luck, so they put "Detective Dee: The Mystery of the Phantom Flame" in the Spring Festival period.

Moreover, the release date was announced at the beginning of the project, which shows full confidence.

This film was historically produced by Huayi, starring Andy Lau and Li Binbin, with Deng Chao as a supporting role.

But now, Golden Harvest no longer needs to invite superstar Andy Lau to boost the box office.

The Golden Harvest version of "Mystery of the Phantom Flame" also brought together the best talents under Golden Harvest. The male lead was played by Huang Xiaoming, who had just proven himself, and the female lead of course fell into the hands of Fan Xiaopang.

As for the role of Deng Chao, Zhu Yawen was chosen.

Zhu Yawen has currently received key training from Golden Harvest. In addition to this film resource, he will also play the leading role in "Going West", the most important project of the TV drama department this year.

"Going West" is a TV series jointly produced by Golden Harvest and Shanying, just like "Crossing the Guandong".

Golden Harvest is responsible for investing money, while the Shanying team is responsible for the script and production.

"Crossing the Guandong" was broadcast on CCTV-1's prime time at the beginning of this year, with Li Youbing in the lead role, and it attracted much attention before it was broadcast.

This TV series did not disappoint everyone and became a hit as soon as it was broadcast.

Zhu Yawen also became famous for his role as Zhu Chuanwu, which marked his official debut in the circle.

Afterwards, he was given the leading male role in big-budget TV series and the supporting male role in big-budget movies, which immediately made other people in the circle jealous.

Many people envy Zhu Yawen for being so lucky to be able to join Golden Harvest.

As for Zhang Yi, another new member of Golden Harvest, he also has a lot of resources.

Because of the pleasant cooperation in "Soldier Assault", Lan Xiaolong and Kang Honglei once again approached Golden Harvest for their second collaboration "My Captain, My Regiment".

Zhang Zhao agreed to invest without hesitation as the two wanted to use the original crew of "Soldier Assault" to produce this TV series.

Zhang Yi will play one of the protagonists in "My Captain, My Regiment", with his role second only to Duan Long.

Although his resources are not as good as Zhu Yawen's, Zhang Yi is already very satisfied.

However, compared with last year, Golden Harvest has a lot fewer projects this year, and it is possible that it will miss both the summer and Lunar New Year seasons for the first time.

But this is just an adjustment made for the company's strategy, and no one in the industry will look down on Golden Harvest because of this.

On June 1st, Liu Zhou came to Jiahe again.

During this period of time, he finally finished writing the script of "The Sound of Wind".

Liu Zhou does not plan to direct this movie himself, but he will be listed as the film's producer, which can be regarded as an explanation to the higher-ups.

When he arrived at the company, Liu Zhou directly called Zhang Zhao and Chen Guofu over, and then handed them the script of "The Sound of Wind".

"This is the script I wrote for the tribute film assigned by my superiors. I will prepare for this project in the second half of the year."

"Mr. Liu, are you directing this movie yourself?" Zhang Zhao asked.

"I'm just putting my name on the list, the director can find someone else."

After saying that, Liu Zhou glanced at Chen Guofu who was reading the script seriously and said:
"Old Chen, are you interested in taking the baton again?"

"Me? Mr. Liu, you want me to direct this movie?"

"Yes, you are an excellent director. I think this film, The Sound of Wind, will not be difficult for you."

Historically, this film was co-directed by Chen Guofu and Gao Qunshu, with Chen Guofu as the main character.

Now that Gao Qunshu has joined Huayi, Liu Zhou is too lazy to invite him. It would be better for him to let Chen Guofu take on all the directing responsibilities.

Golden Harvest currently has too few directors in reserve, and this is also an area that Golden Harvest needs to focus on improving in the future. "Mr. Liu, I am currently the producer of "The Empire Strikes Back", so I am afraid I can't spare any time."

"It doesn't matter. You can leave the main work to Shi Nansheng, and then arrange two more executive producers to look after the crew."

Shi Nansheng has always been Xu Ke's logistical manager, even after their divorce.

But she did not join Golden Harvest, so she cannot be considered an insider. A big project like "The Imperial Empire" certainly cannot be completely handed over to an outsider.

However, Nansun Shi and Golden Harvest had previously worked together on "The Blade of the Immortal" and "Painted Skin", so they had some understanding of each other. They no longer had to be as formal as before and could have some trust in each other.

"no problem."

"I won't interfere with the choice of actors. You can decide for yourself, but try to use actors from the company as much as possible."

"I understand, Mr. Liu."

At this moment Liu Zhou suddenly thought of something and continued:

"There is a role of an officer in the movie. Let's give this role directly to Liu Ye."

Historically, the role of Takeda was played by Huang Xiaoming, but he is obviously not suitable for the role now.

It’s not that he can’t act well, but his current status is not suitable for playing a supporting role.

Although Huang Xiaoming was very famous in the original time and space, he did not have many film resources at all, and he had to fight hard to get the role of Takeda.

But now, unless there are special circumstances, Golden Harvest will not allow him to play a role that is not the male lead.

To be honest, although Huang Xiaoming’s performance as Takeda was good in history, Liu Ye or Chen Kun would be more suitable.

Takeda has several scenes about laughing, which may be unfathomable, calm, crazy, or arrogant, but when Huang Xiaoming smiles, he always gives people a devilish feeling.

But now Huang Xiaoming is not acting in those idol dramas, so his acting skills are not so greasy.

In addition to personal feelings, Liu Zhou chose Liu Ye because he was quite suitable.

Liu Ye and Hai Run’s contract will expire next year, and Liu Zhou doesn’t even need to ask, as this guy has already been clamoring to come to Jiahe.

Once Liu Ye joins Golden Harvest, Liu Zhou will also officially launch the live-action movie of "Ghost Blows Out the Light".

Liu Zhouke has never forgotten the promise he made to Liu Ye ten years ago to create a play tailor-made for him.

"I asked you to come here for this. There's no need to rush this movie. We just need to make it in time for next year's summer season. Is there anything else you want to do?"

China Film Group’s “Founding of a Republic” will definitely be released during the National Day holiday. During next year’s National Day holiday, all domestic films must give way to this film.

It would not be appropriate to release it after National Day, so it would be most appropriate to release it during the summer vacation.

"Mr. Liu, a friend of Ning Hao, the actor Xu Zheng, brought a script and wants to work with us."

"What script?"

“It’s called Lost on Journey, and it’s mainly about the Spring Festival travel rush.”

When Liu Zhou heard that it was this movie, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

I didn't expect it to be this movie, it's a gold mine.

If we talk about the most successful film series in mainland China, there are probably two: one is Chen Sicheng's "Detective Chinatown 3", and the other is Xu Zheng's "囧" series.

Of course, the predecessor series produced by the same studio as "Lost on Journey" is also okay, but it is still inferior to the previous two.

Although there is no connection between "Lost in Journey" and the later "Lost in Thailand", "Lost in Hong Kong" and "Lost in Russia", but because they are closely related to the word "囧", people still regard them as a series.

And this "囧" was undoubtedly brought up by Xu Zheng.

Xu Zheng's comedy is different from Feng Kuzi's and Ning Hao's. The more seriously he acts, the funnier people find it, and this is the essence of囧.

Perhaps it was destined that when Xu Zheng was filming in Wuhan, he happened to learn about the script of "Lost on Journey" at an industry gathering and fell in love with it at first sight.

However, as soon as the script was created by the Temple Studio, it was entrusted to Huaqi Film and Television for agency.

Xu Zheng didn't care about this and still used the script to solicit investments everywhere.

In fact, due to this year's Spring Festival travel rush, some companies were still interested in "Lost on Journey", but they could not accept one of Xu Zheng's conditions, which was that he wanted to be the director of this film.

This is also the reason why Xu Zheng cares so much about this script that has nothing to do with him.

However, the identity of a director now still has a certain threshold and status, unlike in later generations where anyone can be a director.

So no company agreed to Xu Zheng's request.

This dragged on for nearly two years. Xu Zheng realized that nothing could be done and had to settle for the next best thing. He no longer asked to be the director. Finally, Light Media invested in this film.

But it is said that most of this film was shot by Xu Zheng, and the nominal director Ye Weiming did not have much room to play.

This should be credible. After all, "Lost on Journey" is quite suitable for the tastes of mainlanders. Otherwise, what would a Hong Konger know about the Spring Festival travel rush?
In this life, Xu Zheng had a very pleasant collaboration with Golden Harvest last time on "Nightclub", so when he got the script for "Lost on Journey", he came to Golden Harvest for collaboration again.

However, because there was an additional request this time, Xu Zheng couldn't help feeling a little nervous, wondering whether Jiahe would agree.

(End of this chapter)