Chapter 61 Zhou Xingxing and Lu Chuan
Chapter 61 Zhou Xingxing and Lu Chuan
This year is indeed a year of great strides for Huayi Brothers. They invested in Lu Chuan's "Kekexili", won the distribution rights of Zhou Xingxing's "Kung Fu", and also established a relationship with Zhang Jizhong to become one of the investors of "The Return of the Condor Heroes"...
Everyone outside was congratulating them, but only the Wang brothers themselves knew that it was actually a mixed bag.
The good news is that I have successfully established relationships with Zhou Xingxing and Zhang Jizhong, but the bad news is that Feng Xiaogang is leaving.
Feng Xiaogang can be said to be the golden signboard of Huayi Brothers. The two parties have collaborated on five films, including "Never Ending", "See You Tomorrow", "A Place of Chicken Feathers", "Big Shot" and "Cell Phone". Feng Xiaogang has successfully become a well-known Lunar New Year film director, and Huayi Brothers has also become the leading private film and television company.
But all good things must come to an end. Feng Xiaogang didn't want to be under someone else for long. He wanted to be his own boss, so he founded Taihe Minzhong with his good brother Zhang Guoli.
Taihe Minzhong is very powerful. Two shareholders, Feng Xiaogang, are one of the top three directors in China and the king of Lunar New Year films.
Zhang Guoli is an evergreen in the film and television industry. The films he starred in, such as "Golden Wedding" and "Iron Teeth and Bronze Teeth Ji Xiaolan", were all ratings champions in their respective time periods.
The two co-founded Taihe Minzhong, wanting to make efforts in both film and television dramas. "A World Without Thieves" was the first work of Taihe Minzhong after its establishment, but they still remembered the old friendship and allowed Huayi to invest.
However, the Wang brothers also know that although they can still cooperate now, they will definitely become competitors in the future.
Therefore, Huayi Brothers has been looking for the next Feng Xiaogang, and has tried its best to win over any director who might cooperate with them. This is true for Lu Chuan, Zhang Chen, and Zhou Xingxing. The main focus is on emotional investment. Even if they cannot join Huayi, they will seek long-term cooperation.
"Okay, let's stop here."
Zhang Chen got off at Beijing Film Academy and said goodbye to Wang Zhongjun.
He was not looking forward to the cooperation with Huayi.
The Wang brothers are actually businessmen at heart, not filmmakers. They do not value the film and television industry very much, which can be seen from their later de-filming.
But it is not convenient for Zhang Chen to offend the other party too much now.
After all, Huayi is currently the leader in the industry. Apart from anything else, its star resources alone are unmatched by other film and television companies.
Moreover, it is deeply involved with the Beijing circle and holds a lot of resources.
If you offend Huayi, it may not be able to prevent you from success, but it may still be able to cause you trouble.
Zhang Chen decided to continue to pretend to be nice until he grew up.
Zhang Chen is not optimistic about Huayi's cooperation with other directors.
In the previous life, it seemed that the Wang brothers ignored Lu Chuan after the box office failure of "Kekexili".
This is even more true for Stephen Chow.
"Kung Fu" was going relatively smoothly. When "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" was being made, Wang Zhonglei verbally promised Stephen Chow that if the box office exceeded 5 million, he would give him an additional 8000 million in dividends.
But in the end, the box office of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" reached 12 billion, but the Wang brothers refused to pay the 8000 million dividends on the grounds that the verbal agreement was invalid.
The matter even went to court, and ultimately ended with Zhou Xingxing losing the case.
The Wang brothers were so short-sighted that they offended Stephen Chow for a mere 8000 million yuan. However, they did not expect that the box office of "The Mermaid" co-produced by Stephen Chow with Light Media in the second year would reach a staggering 33 billion yuan, making a fortune and making Huayi regret it.
However, this can be said to be the case that Stephen Chow's evil deeds have been punished. His previous movie, "Shaolin Soccer", was invested by Lin Xiaoming of Universe.
In his early years, Zhou Xingxing left Yongsheng to set up his own studio and became enemies with Long Wu.
When "Shaolin Soccer" was in the early stages of filming, there was a lack of funds. Long Wu once spread the word to people in the circle that anyone who dared to invest in Stephen Chow's new film would have a problem with him.
The Xiang family is a well-known family. Not only is it all-powerful in the Hong Kong circle, but its influence is also very large. At one point, it was difficult to find anyone to invest in "Shaolin Soccer".
Finally, Lin Xiaoming of Universe invested in "Shaolin Soccer" despite the pressure from China Star.
From this perspective, Lin Xiaoming is definitely indebted to Zhou Xingxing.
But what did Zhou Xingxing do later?
At the Academy Awards, "Shaolin Soccer" won six trophies, but Lin Xiaoming couldn't touch any of them, as if it had nothing to do with him.
Zhou Xingxing also developed "Shaolin Soccer" into animation, games, and a series of derivative products, and took all the profits for himself, not giving a penny to Lin Xiaoming, forcing the latter to sue him. Please, what is this?
Not to mention the kindness of helping in time of need, just the fact that Lin Xiaoming paid real money, so legally speaking, he can be named as the producer.
If people are still greedy for that money, it can no longer be described as greed for money, it is a moral issue.
Let's talk about him and Feng Xiaogang. The two of them agreed to make guest appearances in each other's movies. Feng Xiaogang fulfilled his promise and made a guest appearance as the leader of a small gang in "Kung Fu". He also left behind the famous quote "Who else?" But he broke the promise when it came to him.
What's going on? So your time is so precious that you can't even spare one day?
It's nothing more than a competition between the two films.
Anyway, Zhang Chen knew that many people in later generations stopped being fans of Zhou Xingxing because of this incident. What can we say about him? He is indeed talented, but his character is really not that good.
At least you can't escape selfishness.
Later, an article titled "Why do so many people criticize Stephen Chow?" went viral online. The article said that Stephen Chow had used the contract to threaten Cecilia Cheung to shave her head, otherwise she would have to pay 300 million yuan in compensation.
Although he didn't know whether it was true or not, Zhang Chen felt that Zhou was capable of doing such a thing.
His conflict with the Xiang family in later generations was well known to everyone, and voices calling for the overthrow of Zhou were heard everywhere. This might be due to the power of the Xiang family, but it was also true that Zhou did not have any friends at all.
He has achieved such great success in the Hong Kong film industry, but he doesn't have any friends. None of the actors who have worked with him say anything good about him, which shows his character.
Don’t say these are just details and are not important.
Artists are human beings too.
When the whole Internet was scolding Zhou, although many people stood on Zhou's side, they probably couldn't tell whether they liked Zhou the person or the role played by Zhou.
After dropping Zhang Chen off, the car returned to Huayi. Along the way, Wang Zhonglei and Lu Chuan didn't talk much.
Both of them have their own little plans in mind.
Wang Zhonglei really wanted to ask if there was any conflict between you and Zhang Chen.
Why offend him for no reason?
But Lu Chuan is also a director that Huayi is optimistic about, so it is not easy to say anything too harsh.
Wang Zhongjun had two chances just now to ease the relationship between the two, but the latter avoided him without leaving a trace.
Zhang Chen only chatted with Wang Zhonglei along the way and never said a word to Lu Chuan, and Lu Chuan had no intention of talking either.
Logically speaking, since both of them are from Beijing Film Academy, they should have known each other before. Even if they didn't know each other, they should have addressed each other as senior or junior when they met.
but no.
So Wang Zhonglei suspected that there was something dirty going on between the two.
Lu Chuan also sensed that Zhang Chen didn't like her, so she didn't try to get close to him.
In addition, he still had some resentment towards Zhang Chen.
Whether it was Han Sanping or Wang Zhonglei, their attitudes towards him and Zhang Chen were completely different.
This made him feel a little unhappy.
Why?
Just because his first movie made 6000 million?
He has seen the movie "Darkness", which has no artistic value at all and is garbage in his opinion.
Not to mention "Kekexili", it's not even as good as "Looking for the Gun".
What qualifications does he have to put on airs in front of me?
(End of this chapter)