Chapter 403 Going to the Magic City Together
The most important thing about a movie is the portrayal of characters and telling human stories.

Liu Zhou has high expectations for "Aftershock". He hopes that this will be the second movie to truly go global after "Interstellar".

If the film wants to go global, it must not just tell Chinese stories, but must tell the stories of the Chinese people, and must take the theme of humanity that transcends national boundaries and ideologies!

Feng Kuzi's "Big Shot" was a collaboration with Columbia, and featured American actors, but how much was the box office in North America?
$820, and only about 100 people watched it.

Because the whole movie is a Chinese story and it only works in China. If you let foreigners watch it, they won't be able to understand it.

There is also Zhang Yimou's "Hero". Although this movie has a high box office in the United States and has earned tens of millions of dollars, it is actually difficult for foreigners to understand what story "Hero" tells.

They watched "Hero" for its grand scenes and the exciting fights where they could fly around like superheroes.

However, Zhang Yimou is indeed quite good and his use of colors has reached the master level.

In an interview, Spielberg said that although he didn't understand what story "Hero" told, he was able to understand what the movie wanted to express through the language of the camera and the director's use of color.

Of course, telling the story of the Chinese people does not mean making a movie like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

It is not an exaggeration to say that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is strictly speaking a Western film.

We want to film the story of the Chinese people, but we don't want to use the Chinese people to tell the story of the core of Western thought.

Instead, it uses Chinese people to tell a Chinese story that can resonate with people all over the world.

Natural disasters occur in every country in the world. People's behavior after facing natural disasters reflects human nature. If it can be filmed well, people all over the world can understand it.

After two days of discussion, Jiahe and Tangshan officially signed a cooperation agreement and the project was officially launched.

Even the leaders of the Film Bureau seemed to attach great importance to the project of "Aftershock" and directly stated that any problems during the filming could be communicated directly with them.

After the film project was approved, the most important thing was the script, but Liu Zhou had already entrusted Liu Heng to write it.

The next step was the preparation for the film. The first thing was the city setting of Tangshan in the 1960s and 1970s. Of course, the most we could do was to imitate one or two streets and some factories.

As for the panoramic view of the entire city, it will be produced using special effects.

So in addition to the city sets, special effects work can also be prepared together.

The special effects of "Aftershock" may be more troublesome and complicated than those of "Interstellar", especially the ground cracking effect, which is the highlight of the whole film and the most anticipated movie scene by the audience.

Liu Zhou didn't have time to take care of the specific matters for the time being, so he found two senior producers from Golden Harvest and went to Tangshan first to discuss the set design of Tangshan with the urban construction experts there.

Then we went to Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio and asked them to arrange people to make special effects design plans.

Because Golden Harvest Group is about to go public, there cannot be too much capital flow.

Therefore, Liu Zhou also agreed with Tangshan that the project of "Aftershock" would be announced to the public and more money would be invested after Golden Harvest went public.

This time, Liu Zhou did not think of using this news to raise the stock price. In fact, there was no need for the good news of the "Aftershock" project. The popularity of Golden Harvest was already very high.

First, on August 3.24st, "No Man's Land", which had been released for two months, was closed with a box office of million yuan, becoming another domestic film with a box office of over million yuan.

"No Man's Land" can be said to have achieved great success in both box office and reputation. Not only did it achieve outstanding box office results, but the film's reputation was also very good. To this day, its Douban score is still as high as 8.5 points.

Ning Hao’s popularity and status in the circle have also greatly improved through this movie.

He became the fourth director after Zhang Yimou, Liu Zhou and Xu Ke to have a box office of over 300 million.

Through this movie, Ning Hao can be said to have proved his worth very powerfully.

Jiahe will not mistreat someone who can create huge value for the company, and is already preparing to set up a personal studio for Ning Hao, just like Xu Ke.

If Ning Hao has any new projects in the future, Jiahe will invest in them and Ning Hao will produce them in the name of the studio, and then both parties will share the profits in proportion.

It can be said that Ning Hao has also started to be his own boss.

Ning Hao's studio is the same as Xu Ke's. Although Golden Harvest has no shares in it, it is also affiliated with Golden Harvest.

This is equivalent to them signing a contract with Golden Harvest in the name of the studio rather than in their personal names. However, Golden Harvest had already made a rule when it first cooperated with Xu Ke that the director's studio generally signs a five-year contract.

If they have any new projects in the future, Golden Harvest will have the priority to invest. If Golden Harvest does not invest, they can then look for other film and television companies to cooperate with.

Although Ning Hao and Xu Ke are still under Golden Harvest, they are no longer employees but partners.

In fact, in addition to these two directors, starting from next year, for any contracted artists who are famous enough and want to set up a studio, Golden Harvest will also help them set it up.

However, the actors' studios are not as free as the director studios of Ning Hao and Xu Ke. Golden Harvest will hold a certain share in their studios.

If they want to upgrade to an independent film and television company in the future, that’s no problem. Golden Harvest will not interfere with the company’s operations and will just act as an investor.

These are all Golden Harvest's future cooperation plans with big directors and big stars. Liu Zhou never thought of suppressing them, and it is impossible to suppress them.

Instead of alienating people because of interests, it is better to open up the situation and cooperate together. This way, you can earn more profits.

Of course, all of this is arranged after Golden Harvest goes public.

Now, in addition to the good news that "No Man's Land" has broken the 300 million box office, another good news is that "The Sound of the Wind", which has been released for 25 days, also broke the 300 million box office when "No Man's Land" was taken off the screen.

Although the outside world was mentally prepared for this, when the box office of "The Whistleblower" really exceeded 300 million, it still caused quite a stir.

"The Whistleblower" can be said to be the highest-grossing tribute film so far, and also the most popular main theme movie.

However, compared to the heated discussion about the movie "The Sound of Wind", what people are more talking about or shocked about is the strong strength of Golden Harvest.

Although this year's summer season has not ended yet, it has come to an end now.

According to the above statistics, including Hollywood blockbusters, the box office revenue of this summer season has reached 20.4 billion so far, setting a historical record.

Compared to last year's summer box office of only 5.6 million, this year's box office has nearly quadrupled. Historically, this year's summer box office also had a big explosion, but the results were not as good as the current 20.4 billion, with a total box office of only 16.7 billion.

This year, there are two more 300 million-level movies, "No Man's Land" and "The Sound of the Wind", which have brought the performance of this summer's season to nearly 400 million.

The reason why everyone is shocked by Golden Harvest's strength is that Golden Harvest accounted for one-third of the 20.4 billion box office during the summer season.

The combined box office of "No Man's Land" and "The Message" is over 600 million, and "Overheard" produced by the Hong Kong branch also grossed nearly 70 million.

In total, the three films grossed a total of 700 million yuan.

This does not include "Twilight", a Hollywood movie with a box office of over 100 million yuan, otherwise Golden Harvest's performance would be even more dazzling.

However, despite this, Golden Harvest's achievements are far beyond the reach of 90% of the companies in the industry.

This summer, apart from "No Man's Land" and "The Message", no domestic film had a box office of over 100 million yuan.

If it weren't for these two films, domestic films would have lost face again.

Therefore, with the help of Golden Harvest, its excellent performance in this summer season soon spread all over the Internet.

Not only did the media report extensively on it, netizens were also discussing it with great interest.

Coupled with the news that Golden Harvest was about to go public, it was like adding fuel to the fire, making Golden Harvest, a film and television company, the focus of news.

Therefore, the popularity of Golden Harvest is very high now, and there is no need to use the big project like "Aftershock" to hype it up.

Just when Golden Harvest was gaining popularity, Liu Zhou, along with Zeng Li, his parents, Zhang Zhao and other Golden Harvest executives, headed to Shanghai in a mighty procession.

At the same time, artists under Golden Harvest and two contracted directors also began to deal with the matters at hand and prepared to go to Shanghai.

It was also the first time that Liu Zhou moved into the luxury mansion in Shanghai that he had bought several years ago, the old villa Yan Family Garden.

In 2006, Liu Zhou spent 200 million to buy the old villa in Yanjia Garden.

Historically, this old villa belonged to Chen Tianqiao, who bought it for 2009 million yuan in 2.28. Only seven years later, in 2016, the value of this old villa reached 12 billion yuan.

Yan Family Garden is relatively famous among all the old houses preserved in Shanghai. It is one of the few old houses with considerable cultural research value and can be legally traded.

However, when Liu Zhou first bought Yan's Garden, it was in a dilapidated state.

This old house was built by a German doctor, but the doctor suddenly committed suicide after living in it for more than ten years, and then the house became a haunted house.

No one was interested in it at first, but later it was bought at a high price by Yan's father and son.

The reason why the father and son of the Yan family were not afraid of the reputation of the haunted house was because the land under the house was the old residence of the Yan family, who were forced to move because of the construction of roads across the border in the concession.

Now that they can move back in, how could the wealthy Yan family be lenient?

Who are the Yan father and son?

Yan Yutang, a century-old Chinese business tycoon and founder of the Shanghai Dalong Machinery Factory, and his son Yan Qingxiang!
The father and son of the Yan family built Dalon into a rare large-scale private enterprise group in the country. They have donated hundreds of millions of yuan to cultural and sports undertakings and to help the poor on many occasions. They were especially enthusiastic in sponsoring the democratic revolution and were still donating to the country until their death in the 80s. They are truly role models in the business world!
Therefore, the ownership of Yan Family Garden can always be retained in the hands of the Yan family.

However, most of the descendants of the Yan family immigrated overseas. Although the Yan Family Garden is still the Yan Family Garden, it has fallen into disrepair due to neglect and poor management. The walls are moldy and rotten, and the doors, windows and stairs creak. The garden is overgrown with weeds, and the gray and old building looks gloomy and dilapidated in the messy jungle.

In fact, according to the last wishes left by Yan's father and son, the descendants of the Yan family should sell their real estate and invest in starting a business to revive the Yan family business.

However, the 16 heirs had discussed for more than ten years but still failed to reach a consensus, so a lawsuit involving the grievances of the "Grand Mansion" was brought to court, and it was finally decided that the court would assist the large family in selling the house.

In the end, Yan's Garden was bought by Liu Zhou.

Liu Zhou spent 200 million yuan to buy the house, and the subsequent repairs and renovations also cost nearly 100 million yuan.

A house with cultural research value like Yan Family Garden, like some well-known courtyard houses, cannot be renovated casually and requires a dedicated team to be responsible for it.

The reason why renovating Yan's Garden is so expensive is that this old house is so large.

Yan Family Garden covers an area of ​​8.5 acres. The main building is a three-story brick-and-wood English-style garden house with a construction area of ​​about 1570 square meters and a garden area of ​​nearly 5000 square meters.

If it were a little bigger, it would be the size of a football field!
The renovated Yan Family Courtyard has preserved the original appearance of the old building to the greatest extent possible. The interior hardwood floors, wooden handrail stairs, stone, glass and ironwork have been retained, giving it an original texture and beauty.

Yan Family Garden is located at No. 699 Yuyuan Road, CN District. When Liu Zhou and his family arrived at the gate, they were all surprised.

The shade of trees within the long wall blocked out the sun, and the villa buildings inside were so obscured that it was difficult to make out their true appearance. To describe it as "holding the pipa half-covered" seemed too subtle.

The gate and the courtyard wall are quite plain. An uninformed person passing by would never imagine that inside is a top luxury house in Shanghai. But for Liu Zhou and others who know the inside story, this plainness is a reflection of its profound heritage.

Afterwards, Liu Zhou and his party, led by the housekeeper, visited this famous old villa.

If he was surprised at the door, then when he came inside, even Liu Zhou, who never showed his emotions, couldn't help but be shocked.

The main building has an upright layout, faces south and has a brick-and-wood structure, a sloping roof, red flat tiles, a fireplace chimney, and cobblestone walls. It is simple yet elegant.

The long balcony on the south side, the floor-to-ceiling windows, the living room with large high windows, the outer wooden shutters and the inner glass windows are elegant and exquisite without losing direct sunlight.

The hardwood floors, wooden staircases and Nordic style that combine elegance, simplicity and splendor make the interior decoration unconventional.

The fireplace-style chimney and the crimson roof tiles are particularly eye-catching under the sunlight, and paired with the two century-old towering camphor trees in the courtyard, they are truly a moving sight.

Yan Family Garden is full of Nordic style. The building exterior is simple and neat, the cobblestone walls are generous and simple, the machine-made flat tiles and steep roofs are natural and simple, which complement the towering trees in the yard.
There are rockeries, pavilions and nurseries scattered throughout the garden, and the scenery is no worse than that of a park.

There are many century-old trees in the garden. Walking into the garden is like walking into a primeval forest.

With a rare location in Shanghai, a luxurious land area, rich history, and cultural heritage, the Yan Family Courtyard exudes the unique charm of old Shanghai. It is truly extraordinary!
After visiting the house, Liu Zhou seemed to have found the meaning of working hard to make money, a feeling he had not had before when he bought a private jet.

PS: I went back to my hometown to burn paper these two days. I will start paying off my debt tomorrow. I owe nine chapters. One chapter has 4,000 words, and eight chapters have 3,000 words.

(End of this chapter)