Chapter 88 Project Establishment
What Liu Zhou thought of was the tear-jerking love movie "Only You" starring So Ji-sub and Han Hyo-joo.

This movie has been seen by over a million people in South Korea, and it has brought tears to countless people's eyes when it was introduced into the country.

The film tells the story of a frustrated boxer Zhemin who accidentally meets a visually impaired girl Jinghua. The boxer fights hard to cure the girl's eyes, but after the girl regains her sight, the two almost miss each other in this life.

The film starts out warm and lighthearted, but later on the heroine is in danger of permanent blindness, which leads to the tragic scenes that follow.

To be honest, this is a very old-fashioned story, but such an old-fashioned story can still be filmed in a very touching way.

We also have to admit that Korean directors are good at this aspect.

In later generations, we always say that there are three treasures in Korean country, whether it is a love movie or a love TV series: car accidents and cancer cannot be cured.

But despite this old routine, the movies and TV series they make are loved by people in China.

So the old routines never go out of style, it just depends on how you shoot it.

What's more, domestic audiences have not yet experienced the baptism of Korean dramas, and their tear threshold for romantic movies is still relatively low.

"Only You", a bitter love film, should move and please domestic audiences.

After selecting the target, Liu Zhou also began to write the script.

The plot of this movie is even simpler than My Sassy Girl, so it was easier to create.

In less than a week, Liu Zhou finished writing the script.

Then Liu Zhou called Director Xie and told him that he had written the script for the new project.

After Director Xie rushed to Beijing overnight, the two of them came to Han Shanping's office with the script the next day.

Han Shanping saw the two people coming over and thought they were here to urge the box office, so he smiled and said:

"The box office settlement won't be that quick. It'll have to wait until next month at least."

"There's no rush to split the box office revenue. The money won't go away anyway. We came here today because Liu Zhou's new script has been written."

"Oh, is it true? Let me see it quickly?" Han Shanping said in surprise.

Liu Zhou handed over the script, and Han Shanping immediately began to read it carefully.

Han Shanping felt relieved after watching just the beginning and seeing that it was a romance movie.

He was worried that Liu Zhou was too young and would be too ambitious because of the huge success of his first film.

He was not against Liu Zhou making other types of films, but he felt that he needed to consolidate his base and lay a solid foundation before trying other types.

If Liu Zhou could gain a foothold in the directing business, Han Shanping would not object even if he went on to make art films.

But now it seems that Liu Zhou is still very sober, which makes him look up to Liu Zhou.

Han Shanping read the script carefully and found nothing illegal, so he immediately felt relieved.

As for the love story in it, he couldn't tell whether it was good or bad, but Liu Zhou was an expert in this field, and since he brought out this story, it should not be bad.

"The script is fine. Liu Zhou, how much investment do you expect?"

“I haven’t done a careful budget, but it might be seven or eight million.”

"Seven or eight million? That much?"

Han Shanping was a little shocked. He didn't expect that a simple romance film would require such a high investment.

Director Xie knew Liu Zhou's tricks and said:

"Liu Zhou, which celebrity do you want to invite next?"

Liu Zhou laughed and said:

"Liu Dehua!"

"No wonder, his pay is really not cheap." Although Zhang Guorong became famous earlier than Andy Lau, he may not be able to compare with Andy in terms of popularity and box office appeal.

In the 1990s, the Four Heavenly Kings were at the peak of their popularity, and no one could match them.

In addition, Andy Lau is a well-known hard worker and he makes several movies a year, making him one of the few Hong Kong actors with box office appeal besides Chow Yun-fat, Chan Chung and Yi Cheng.

As for the mainland, needless to say, his popularity is the highest among the Four Heavenly Kings.

So when Liu Zhou was writing the script, the best candidate for the male lead in his mind was Andy Lau.

Moreover, he had just finished filming his 100th movie "Ahu", so he had a good boxing foundation and didn't need much training.

Han Shanping took a puff of cigarette and said:

"The male lead will be Liu Dehua, who do you want to invite for the female lead?"

"Zeng Li!"

Liu Zhou had no embarrassment at all and chose his girlfriend as the heroine without hesitation.

Zeng Li is no longer an unknown person, but a popular actress in mainland China. She is fully qualified and capable of doing this.

"No problem, then Zeng Li, where are the others?"

"We'll talk about the others later. They don't have many roles either, so we can look for them directly at the Beijing Film Studio and the Pearl River Film Studio."

"Okay, but when I first read the script, I saw that you wanted to set the story in Hong Kong. Wouldn't it be possible to set it in mainland China? It would also save money if we shoot it this way."

“Are there any boxing matches in our mainland now?”

Hearing Liu Zhou's slightly childish words, he smiled and said:

"It seems that you are still young. We have had boxing competitions in the mainland since the 1990s. It's just that it's relatively niche, so it's not known to many people. As long as you don't put the background of fighting in the mainland, it's fine."

"I took it for granted. Since there are already boxing matches in the mainland, that would be even better. Then let's shoot in Guangzhou, where I'm more familiar with."

"can."

Han Shanping doesn't care where the filming takes place, as long as he can save money.

After discussion among the three, the total investment for the film "Only You" was 7 million yuan, with China Film investing 2.45 million yuan, accounting for 3.5% of the share.

Liu Zhou's director's salary was 500,000 yuan, and Zhoushan Cultural Studio invested another 1.95 million yuan, also accounting for 3.5% of the shares.

This time, the Pearl River Factory was also generous, using the equipment, personnel and other resources of the Pearl River Factory for the same price of 500,000 yuan, and investing another 1.5 million yuan in cash to occupy a share of the third floor.

The final distribution work was also handed over to China Film and Pearl River Film Studio, and it was agreed that the distribution fee was still 9%.

After the three of them reached an agreement, they signed the investment contract that afternoon.

The reason why the investment this time is so high is that Liu Zhou is prepared to offer Andy Lau a salary of 5 million.

Even though this is two million more than his brother's, firstly, Andy Lau's pay is indeed higher, and secondly, his brother made concessions on the pay at the beginning.

As for Zeng Li, although she is very famous now, she still cannot command a high salary for the movie and was only given 500,000.

In mainland China, a film salary of 500,000 yuan in the first year of the new century was considered very high, especially for actresses.

"Liu Zhou, when are you going to start filming the movie?"

"Wait until I officially graduate. It also depends on whether Liu Dehua will accept our invitation."

"We, China Film Group, will be responsible for inviting Andy Lau to film. During this period, you can just do the preliminary work for the filming."

Liu Zhou was of course happy about this. When China Film Corporation took action, most people would give face and rarely fail.

(End of this chapter)