Chapter 414 Donation of props and "Founding of a Nation"

Faced with reporters who enthusiastically raised their hands to ask questions, Liu Zhou couldn't keep pointing to the arranged media.

After answering a few questions and telling the information he wanted to reveal, Liu Zhou called the reporter from the Beijing News, with whom he had always had a love-hate relationship.

The reporter from the Beijing News was obviously a little surprised and also somewhat delighted that Liu Zhou allowed him to ask questions.

He was very clear that the relationship between his own media and Liu Zhou had never been very harmonious.

But what he didn't know was that for a media like the Beijing News, which pursues popularity, there is not so much difference in stance when it comes to a big shot like Liu Zhou who has his own traffic. They all have a tacit understanding with each other.

However, since there was this opportunity, the reporter asked a rather impolite question:
"Director Liu, do you think earthquake-themed movies should avoid recreating real scenes? What do you think of the secondary harm caused to the victims by film and television works?"

In response to this somewhat malicious question, Liu Zhou calmly replied:
"I asked Mr. Liu Heng to write the script for the film "Tangshan Earthquake". Mr. Liu Heng has interviewed many eyewitnesses and he met a person who had experienced the earthquake.

He felt that this person's experience was very consistent with the movie "Aftershock", so he included that person's story in the script, of course with the other party's permission.

In fact, it's not just this one person. Many people interviewed by Professor Liu Heng hope that there can be an excellent movie to commemorate the disaster.

Our country is prone to earthquakes, and last year we witnessed such a major disaster with our own eyes.

If our film can raise people’s awareness of earthquakes, I think it will be very meaningful.”

"Do you think this movie can move those who have survived the earthquake?" the reporter asked.

Liu Zhou pondered for a moment and said:

“There will be touching scenes in our film, but I didn’t make this film to make people cry, I wanted people to laugh.

I think the greatest success of a movie is when everyone can walk out of the theater with a smile on their face. I made this movie in the hope of bringing warmth and hope to the audience!"

Liu Zhou's Q&A session with reporters lasted for more than half an hour. No matter what the questions were, Liu Zhou answered them patiently. After all, he needed them to promote the project and would need their help later.

However, he remained tight-lipped about the plot of the film.

Finally, Liu Zhou asked them for help:

“Our preparations so far have been going smoothly in all other aspects, except for the props.

I hope everyone can help us send a message to collect daily necessities from the 70s, such as enamel cups from that time, bicycles from that era, etc.

Sometimes you need hundreds of bicycles for one shot, which is too expensive to do.

If anyone has bicycles, sewing machines, thermoses or other daily necessities from that era, can you donate some to us? If not, you can sell them to us at a low price.”

The budget for the "Tangshan Earthquake" crew was relatively sufficient, but some items from the 1970s will rarely be used in the future.

Customization is indeed more expensive, and more importantly, the items are more complicated and more troublesome to customize, and some items are no longer produced by manufacturers.

Therefore, Liu Zhou could only learn from Feng Kuazi's method and hope to seek help from the people.

At this time, there should still be many families in China that have old items from the 1970s and 1980s.

The major media outlets were very responsive to Liu Zhou's request. After the press conference, the headlines in the entertainment sections of domestic media were all about this press conference.

Almost all media outlets have highlighted the issue of props, and many articles have even directly stated in their titles “Collecting old items from across the country”.

Coupled with the full publicity of Golden Harvest Group, this related news suddenly became the biggest hot topic at the moment.

Domestic audiences responded positively after seeing the report, and many people called the newspaper's hotline to express their willingness to donate bicycles and other items free of charge.

Many people also left messages on the official Weibo of "Aftershock", expressing their willingness to take out their unused old items and use them for the movie for free.

To express his commemoration and gratitude, Liu Zhou personally designed a certificate of honor in the style of the 70s, attached his signature, and gave it to the successful prop donors.

However, Liu Zhou was not sure whether private donations could fully meet the needs of the crew, so in order to ensure that there would be no accidents, he planned to look for Han Shanping.

China Film Group and several other film studios should also have some daily necessities and props from the 1970s.

At this moment, Liu Zhou suddenly received a strange phone call.

The voice on the other end of the phone was that of a middle-aged man:

"Hello, are you Director Liu Zhou?"

"It's me, I wonder who you are?"

The man introduced himself:
"My name is Fan Jianchuan. I'm a collector and the curator of Jianchuan Museum. We have 500 million collections from the 70s. I heard you're in need of props from the 70s. Maybe we can provide some help for Director Liu's new film."

Hearing what the other party said, Liu Zhouyi pressed his forehead and said with a smile:

"Mr. Fan, I have long heard of your name.

I am such a fool, how could I forget you, the most famous collector in China? If you can lend us a hand, it will really solve our biggest problem!"

"Haha, I agree with what you said at the press conference. Movies like Aftershock are indeed very meaningful.

You see what props your crew needs, make a list for me, and I'll have someone prepare them for you, and you can just arrange for someone to come and get them."

"Thank you so much, Mr. Fan. I'll have someone contact you right away."

After hanging up the phone, Liu Zhou couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

With the support of Jianchuan Museum, it can be said that a major problem of Liu Zhou was solved.

Jianchuan Museum was founded by private entrepreneur Fan Jianchuan and is located in Anren Ancient Town, Chengdu. It has a collection of more than 1000 million pieces, including more than national first-class cultural relics.

Compared to most collectors who collect cultural relics before the Ming and Qing dynasties, Fan Jianchuan is very different.

Jianchuan Museum is themed "Collecting wars for peace, collecting lessons for the future, collecting disasters for tranquility, and collecting folk customs for inheritance". It has more than 30 branches in four major series: the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Folk Customs, the Red Era, and Earthquake Relief.

It can be said to be the private museum with the largest private capital investment, the largest construction scale and exhibition area, and the richest collection content in China.

Mr. Fan Jianchuan can also be said to be very patriotic, and once said in public:
The shrine of a certain country is my biggest competitor, and my Anti-Japanese War Museum must counter its moves. I collect various historical materials in order to verify the evidence of the crimes committed by the Japanese invaders in China.

In order to build the Jianchuan Museum and realize his dream of collecting "modern history", Mr. Fan Jianchuan spent all his family fortune. You should know that he was once on the rich list with a net worth of two or three billion.

But later, some people tried to blackmail people morally, saying that the Jianchuan Museum should be free and that Fan Jianchuan had given up his reputation for money.

It can only be said that there are all kinds of birds in a big forest. The ticket money collected by Jianchuan Museum can only maintain the operation of the museum. The subsequent money for purchasing collections is still paid by Fan Jianchuan himself. Thinking of this, Liu Zhou suddenly wanted to meet this patriotic entrepreneur.

So two days later, after sorting out the necessary props, Liu Zhou personally led people to Chengdu to visit Mr. Fan Jianchuan and also visited the Jianchuan Museum.

At the Jianchuan Museum, Liu Zhou was really enlightened. There were all kinds of items from the 1970s, including enamel tea trays, enamel cups, picture frames, pencil cases, wallets, etc. The scope of the items was so wide that it almost covered every aspect of people's lives at that time.

The props selected by Liu Zhou filled two containers and were then transported to the film studio base in Tangshan.

The most difficult aspects of the movie, such as the various daily props, were successfully solved. As for the various vehicles, such as the Volga, buses, sprinkler trucks, fire trucks, etc., which the museum did not have, we had to find other ways.

These vehicles are relatively simple and don’t require too many, so you can just customize them.

After finishing his business, Liu Zhou, led by Fan Jianchuan, visited the Jianchuan Museum, where Fan Jianchuan had put all his efforts.

The exhibition halls currently open to the public include the Mainstay Hall of Anti-Japanese War Relics, the Frontal Battlefield Hall, the Flying Tigers Hall, and the Unyielding Prisoners of War Hall.

Liu Zhou feels that Jianchuan Museum is much more awesome and meaningful than Ma Weiduo’s Guanfu Museum.

Although Ma Weidu pretends to be a scholar, he is actually a businessman through and through.

Although they consider themselves collectors, it was they who created the craze for antiques, calligraphy and paintings, which led to seriously inflated prices.

He also took this opportunity to make a fortune. Later, after the mask incident, the domestic economy was somewhat sluggish, money was not so easy to make, and the antique market was inevitably sluggish.

The antique business is not doing well, and Ma Weidu has even started live streaming to sell goods.

Liu Zhou stayed in Chengdu for two days, and then personally donated 10 million yuan to the Jianchuan Museum before returning to Beijing.

As time approaches the end of September, the film market begins to heat up again.

This year's National Day holiday coincides with the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival, forming an 8-day golden holiday. Coupled with the special day of the th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the film market was very hot throughout the National Day period.

There are more than ten new and old films in total, including "The Founding of a Republic", "Earth-shaking", "Wolf Totem" and other eye-catching movies.

There was originally another movie called "The Whistleblower", but in order to avoid clashing with "The Founding of a Republic", Golden Harvest chose to release the movie in the summer.

So although there were more than ten tribute films during the National Day holiday, the most anticipated one was of course "Founding of a Republic".

"Founding of a Republic" has nearly 250 stars co-starring, and after editing, there are still 164 stars, which is unprecedented in the history of Chinese cinema. Even many viewers who are not interested in the main theme have their appetites whetted.

At 6 p.m. on September 24, "The Founding of a Republic" held a grand premiere ceremony at the National Olympic Sports Center.

The reason why Liu Zhou came back from Chengdu in such a hurry was to attend the premiere of "The Founding of a Republic".

A "Walk of Fame" was paved outside the venue, and the roadside was lined with billboards with movie posters and the stars who starred in the movies.

The crowds of people outside the scene were so huge that it was hard to describe it. The sky was beginning to darken, but dozens of high-power lights were temporarily added outside, which were enough to illuminate the scene like day.

Almost all the famous artists in the circle came, including those from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong. All major companies also came to show their support. The star-studded atmosphere was even more than that of an award ceremony.

Hundreds of celebrities and industry insiders walked past, and the cheers from both sides never stopped.

Liu Zhou didn't want to walk on the "Avenue of Stars" at first, but in order to help promote the movie, he stepped onto the red carpet.

The atmosphere at the scene became noticeably more heated, and Liu Zhou walked into the inner field while waving his hand.

The media reporters also felt Liu Zhou's extremely high popularity and their shutter click frequency increased.

The stage has been set up inside the venue, and it is much more luxurious than the average movie premiere, giving the feeling of a large-scale concert.

Liu Zhou first went to see Han Shanping, who was talking to two people who looked like leaders at the moment.

Han Shanping also saw Liu Zhou's arrival, and then he called two people to invite the leader to sit down first.

Liu Zhou stepped forward and said with a smile:

"Boss Han, this premiere is really grand."

Han Shanping was not modest either, and replied with a smile:

"I've been busy for nearly a year, just waiting for this day to come."

"It seems that President Han is very confident about the box office of the movie."

“It’s all thanks to you that there are more than a hundred stars in The Founding of a Republic. I can’t imagine any possibility that this movie will flop at the box office.

There will also be private screenings, so I expect the box office to be conservatively around 400 million.”

"Four hundred million is definitely available, and I think five hundred million is almost certain to be available as well."

In the original time and space, "Founding of a Republic" earned more than 400 million yuan. Now the domestic film market is much larger than the same period, so there is no problem in breaking the 500 million yuan box office.

"You are more confident than me. By the way, I heard that you are worried about the props for the filming of Aftershock. We at China Film Corporation should have some. You can go and have a look when you have time."

"No need for that anymore, everything has been solved." Liu Zhou said with a smile.

"Weren't you seeking help from everyone and asking them to donate just a few days ago?"

"Originally it wasn't enough, but I went to Chengdu these past two days. You should have heard of the Jianchuan Museum. The museum lent us everything we needed."

"No wonder you didn't seem anxious at all. It turns out you solved the problem long ago."

"It's all thanks to Mr. Fan. If he hadn't called me, I might still be worried."

"The preparatory work for Interstellar has been completed. When are you going to start filming?"

"Wait until the National Day holiday is over."

The two chatted for a while, and then Liu Zhou went to sit down, while Han Shanping went to greet other guests.

The premiere officially begins at 7:30 in the evening, but there will be some performances on stage before that.

There were about a thousand seats in the inner field, and other spectators and media without tickets were sitting in the stands on three sides, and Han Shanping did not prohibit onlookers.

The main tribute film is different. The bands on both sides of the stage are sent by the Beijing Military Region Art Troupe. Although it is not as good as the General Political Department Song and Dance Troupe, it is also a second-level art troupe.

(End of this chapter)