Chapter 301 The Second Collaboration with Zhang Yimou

Zhang Yimou is a relatively pure and sentimental person.

However, Zhang Weiping has always treated Lao Mouzi like a beast of burden in the name of friendship.

Compared with the value created by Zhang Yimou, the compensation Zhang Weiping gave to Zhang Yimou was pitifully little.

However, Zhang Yimou does not attach much importance to these material things, and he has always felt guilty about the tens of millions of losses caused to Zhang Weiping by "If You Are the One".

As long as he can focus on film creation, Zhang Yimou doesn't care much about other aspects.

To be honest, Zhang Weiping did have a very pleasant collaboration with Zhang Yimou in the early stages.

In addition to film creation, Zhang Weiping helps Zhang Yimou take care of almost everything, so that he does not have to be distracted by other trivial matters.

But Zhang Weiping is a businessman after all, and as he shifted the focus of his career to the film industry, his profit-seeking nature began to reveal itself.

Especially after "Hero", Zhang Weiping began to intervene more and more in Zhang Yimou's film creation.

First, Jin Chengwu was arranged for "House of Flying Daggers", and then Jay Chou was insisted on joining the "Curse of the Golden Flower".

When it comes to "Three Shots Surprise", the leading cast was almost entirely determined by Zhang Weiping himself.

Finally, when it came to "The Flowers of War", he directly intervened in the filming of the movie and insisted on giving Christian Bale and Ni Ni an unnecessary passionate scene.

In addition, Zhang Weiping even kept delaying the payment of Zhang Yimou's work on "Three Shots", and the two eventually fell out.

After the two Zhangs parted ways, Zhang Weiping became Zhang Yimou's number one anti-fan and has been smearing him in the outside world.

And because the two of them used to be close friends, he even revealed many of Zhang Yimou's private affairs.

Fortunately, Zhang Yimou is a good person. Apart from not complying with the family planning policy, there is nothing else to criticize about him.

But just because of the issue of having more children than allowed, Zhang Weiping still made a big fuss about it, and in the end, Zhang Weiping paid a huge fine of more than 700,000 yuan.

There is really nothing to hype about things like having more children than allowed. The situation was too common at that time. At most, because this person was Zhang Yimou, everyone would join in the fun.

Soon, the popularity passed, and Zhang Weiping completely disappeared from the film and television industry.

After two years of silence, Zhang Yimou returned and has been active at the forefront of the industry.

Before Liu Zhou's rebirth, Zhang Yimou was already in his seventies, but he still had a lot of creative energy and made almost one movie a year.

In this life, because of the appearance of Liu Zhou, he almost blatantly tried to win over Zhang Weiping, which made Zhang Weiping dare not do anything too excessive to Zhang Weiping.

To be honest, Liu Zhou really hopes to bring Zhang Yimou under his wing. This will not only greatly enhance the momentum of Golden Harvest's listing, but also serve as a kind of protection for Zhang Yimou.

It is really rare for China to have a director like Lao Mouzi.

Now Zhang Yimou's reputation is much better than at the same time in history, and his influence is also greater. Liu Zhou really does not want him to be discredited by public opinion because of Zhang Weiping.

But unfortunately, Liu Zhou had tried to win over Zhang Yimou many times, both formally and informally, but he declined every time.

But even so, just because Liu Zhou and Zhang Yimou have a teacher-student and friend relationship, Liu Zhou doesn't want to see him fail when his reputation is at its peak.

So it’s better not to make “Three Guns”. There’s nothing to explore in the genre of black comedy crime thriller. It’s better to try a different movie genre.

"Director Zhang, are you interested in working together again?" Liu Zhou asked the slightly drunk Zhang Yimou seriously.

"Do you want to act in a movie again?" Zhang Yimou said with a smile.

"No, unless it's a guest appearance, I definitely won't act again in the future."

"Of course I'm interested in working with you. Who in the industry doesn't want to work with you now? Tell me, what new ideas do you have?"

"Director Zhang, are you interested in trying to make a science fiction movie?"

"Science fiction movie? I've never made one!"

“It doesn’t matter if you haven’t done it before, we can start with something simple, and don’t have to shoot the Hollywood-style glamorous ones right away.

I also just finished filming "The Martian", so my team has some experience in shooting science fiction films.

As long as you take the time to learn about the filming techniques of science fiction movies, you should be fine."

After hearing Liu Zhou's words, Zhang Yimou couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

To be honest, he was really tempted by Liu Zhou's proposal.

Although he has been busy with the Olympics some time ago, he also knows something about "The Martian".

The popularity of the movie is indeed undeniable, not only high but also long-lasting.

This also allowed him to truly understand the expectations of domestic audiences for domestic science fiction films.

Moreover, science fiction movies are a type of movie he has never made before, so Zhang Yimou couldn't help but want to give it a try.

"Do you have any good books?"

Seeing Zhang Yimou ask this, Liu Zhou couldn't help but reveal a hint of joy on his face. It was obvious that he was interested in making science fiction films.

"That's right. If you are really interested, Director Zhang, we can discuss it in detail then."

"Okay, I'll think about it. After all, I've never made a science fiction movie, so I don't understand a lot of things."

"Understood. If you have thought it over, you can contact me at any time."

Afterwards, the two of them drank for a while, and when they both felt a little tipsy, they ended the drinking party and left.

Liu Zhou originally thought that Zhang Yimou would consider it for a while, or wait until he had a break before considering this matter.

So after Liu Zhou returned home, he temporarily put this matter aside and prepared to deal with work matters.

It is now the end of August and the preliminary promotion for "The Martian" is about to begin.

The film was completely completed before the Olympics ended.

Liu Zhou, Han Shanping and some of the film's main creators watched the finished film.

Liu Zhou was quite satisfied. Looking at Han Shanping's somewhat excited look, he was obviously very satisfied as well.

After watching the movie, he immediately arranged for the publicity department to prepare a publicity plan for the movie, and he planned it on a large scale.

For Han Shanping, it doesn’t matter if the movie "The Martian" loses money. The most important thing is to spread the influence of this movie.

So Han Shanping directly approved 50 million yuan in publicity funds for the film. If Liu Zhou had not dissuaded him, he would have wanted to increase the publicity budget further.

It’s not that Golden Harvest can’t afford it. Although most of the funds were used to acquire Summit Entertainment, Golden Harvest can still come up with tens of millions.

Liu Zhou felt that as a movie that has always attracted much attention, The Martian has already been popular enough, and it would be a bit too much to promote it in such a big way. Not only would it cause a waste of funds, but excessive promotion might also cause disgust among passers-by.

People originally wanted to watch this movie, but you kept nagging in their ears and annoyed them, so they didn't want to watch it anymore.

Therefore, under Liu Zhou's persuasion and suggestion, the publicity plan for "The Martian" should be formulated according to the scale of a large-scale production.

In fact, a publicity budget of 50 million is already a lot, not much less than the previous publicity funds for "Red Cliff".

Originally, Liu Zhou felt that 50 million was a bit too much, but although Han Shanping listened to Liu Zhou's advice, he still insisted on this point.

Liu Zhou couldn't continue to object. After all, the two of them had different situations to consider. So in addition to the remaining funds for filming, China Film and Golden Harvest each added an additional 10 million.

Originally, Liu Zhou was planning to focus his main energy on "The Martian", but what he didn't expect was that just two days after he last had a drink with Zhang Yimou, he and Zhang Weiping actually came to see him together.

As soon as he sat down, Zhang Weiping spoke first:

"Boss Liu, I heard that you want to work with Yimou again?"

Liu Zhou couldn't help but glance at Zhang Yimou, and met his helpless yet apologetic look.

Liu Zhou could probably guess what happened. It must be that Lao Mouzi accidentally mentioned to Zhang Weiping what he and Liu Zhou had discussed before, and then he was pulled here by Zhang Weiping.

It seems that Zhang Weiping is very interested in Liu Zhou and Zhang Yimou's collaboration again.

"I do have this idea, but Director Zhang needs to think about it, and he just finished his work for the Olympics, so he needs a break."

Zhang Weiping didn't care about the second half of his words at all. He waved his hand and said:

"Yimou has already thought about it. He and I are both looking forward to working with you, Mr. Liu, again."

Liu Zhou ignored Zhang Weiping and turned to ask Zhang Yimou:

"Director Zhang, have you really thought it over?"

"I've thought about it. I also want to try my hand at science fiction movies."

"OK, no problem."

Liu Zhou was too lazy to care about how the two of them communicated in detail. As long as Zhang Yimou agreed, it would be fine. In this way, at least they would not make the same mistake as "Three Shots Surprise" again.

After saying that, Liu Zhou took out a script from the drawer and handed it to Zhang Yimou.

"Director Zhang, this is the script. You can take a look at it first."

Zhang Weiping couldn't help but curiously lean over to take a look, and said with a smile:

"The Moon? Mr. Liu, you are now shooting the Moon after shooting Mars!"

That’s right, the movie Liu Zhou planned to collaborate with Zhang Yimou on was “Moon”.

Historically, "Moon" is a classic science fiction suspense film.

The film mainly tells the story of the future world. With the rapid advancement of science and technology, the pollution of the earth is becoming more and more serious.

In order to curb this situation, a company called Moon Energy Industries Co., Ltd. came into being. The company is committed to the development of lunar energy and meeting the earth's energy needs by collecting helium-3.

They have built a base on the moon and will hire a miner to mine on the moon, with a rotation every three years.

Until one day an accident happened and an absentee worker discovered some secrets of the company. He took the opportunity to escape, but found another self at the scene of the accident.

After further investigation, he found out that he was actually a clone, and these rotating absentee workers were all mass-produced clones.

This movie is not just science fiction, it also explores human nature under the guise of science fiction.

At the same time, it also tells the story of the alienated relationship between humans and machines. On the one hand, the movie gives us visual shock, and on the other hand, the plot in the movie where humans are fooled by machines also gives people a great spiritual shock.

This film is the debut work of British director Duncan Jones, who also became famous with this film.

Two years later, he brought another movie "Source Code", which allowed him to gain a firm foothold in Hollywood.

Duncan Jones later became the director of the movie "Warcraft", which was adapted from the online game "World of Warcraft".

But this time he suffered a Waterloo, as "Warcraft" had poor reputation and box office.

Historically, the movie "Moon" will be officially released next year, which means that the filming project was already launched in 2008.

However, Liu Zhou had already written the script of "Moon" and filed it when he was filming "Source Code".

After Liu Zhou finished filming "Source Code", many Hollywood companies took a fancy to "Moon" and wanted to work with Liu Zhou to produce it.

But this did not fit in with Liu Zhou's plan to shoot a movie in Hollywood. He filed the script of "Moon" just to take up a spot.

So Liu Zhou rejected all the invitations.

Of course, Liu Zhou didn't think of letting Zhang Yimou shoot "Moon" at that time, but he just happened to catch up this time, so he thought of cooperating with Zhang Yimou on this movie.

"Moon" does not use many special effects, so it is relatively easy to get started, and the theme of exposing human nature in the film is something that Zhang Yimou can handle with ease.

The movie "Moon" is really very suitable for Zhang Yimou.

By then, with "The Martian" in front and Zhang Yimou's huge reputation shooting a science fiction movie in the future, the domestic science fiction atmosphere will definitely be completely hyped up.

And if "The Martian" becomes a big hit, the effect will be even better.

"Mr. Zhang, are you also interested in investing in science fiction films? Aren't you afraid of losing money?"

"If it were anyone else, I would still be a little worried, but if it were you, Mr. Liu, I would not be worried at all. And if you add a plan, then I would be fully confident."

What a joke, who would refuse to cooperate with Liu Zhou now?
Even though it was a science fiction movie, they had confidence in Liu Zhou.

To be honest, when the project of "The Martian" was first launched, they were a little pessimistic about it.

But who could have thought that domestic fans and audiences would be so excited?
As long as the quality of the movie is not too bad, it will definitely make a lot of money with the gimmick of being the first domestic science fiction blockbuster.

In fact, seeing this, people in the industry also wanted to try to make a science fiction movie, but they found that no one in China could do it.

This also made them realize that the threshold for science fiction movies is higher than they imagined.

So this time Liu Zhou asked Zhang Yimou to collaborate on a science fiction movie. After learning the news, he immediately persuaded Zhang Yimou and rushed to Liu Zhou to finalize the collaboration.

At this time Zhang Weiping also discovered or realized that Liu Zhou had great respect for Zhang Yimou.

As long as he can keep Zhang Yimou firmly on his side, he may be able to continue cooperating with Liu Zhou in the future.

Zhang Weiping knows Zhang Yimou very well. He is a man who values ​​friendship. As long as you talk about friendship with him, he will not leave easily, and he will be able to continue to cooperate with Liu Zhou to make money.

(End of this chapter)