Chapter 1870 1872 [First villain and then gentleman]

  As for the director, Xiang Nan recommended Xu Ke from Xiangjiang.

  Xu Ke is a technology enthusiast and likes to delve into new film technology.

   "Cosmic Dragon" will use a lot of special effects technology, for him, it is a good learning opportunity. After learning it, you can bring it back to Xiangjiang in the future to promote the development of Xiangjiang film technology.

   Moreover, Xiang Nan believed that with Xu Ke's directorial strength, it would not be a problem to direct this "Cosmic Dragon". The "Huang Feihong" series, "The Legend of Shushan", "Green Snake", and "Di Renjie" series directed by him are all classics in film history.

  He has one problem, that is, he pays too much attention to new technologies and ignores the most basic stories. If it is adapted from someone else's story, if the story does not go too far, the quality of his movie can still be maintained.

For example, "A Chinese Ghost Story" and "New Dragon Inn" are adapted from Hu Jinquan's movie, "The Butterfly Lovers" is adapted from a folk tale that has been passed down for thousands of years, "Green Snake" is based on Li Bihua's original novel, and the "Huang Feihong" series is based on The folk tales of eastern Guangdong... With these stories as the basis, Xu Ke's adaptation has rules to follow, and he will not make up random things.

   On the contrary, once he writes the script independently and trusts the horse freely, it is basically all bad movies with special effects more important than stories. For example, "Black Man 2", "Journey to the West: Fu Yao", "Di Renjie: The Four Heavenly Kings", "Flying Armor of the Dragon Gate" and so on.

   Fortunately, the story of this "Cosmic Dragon" is not bad, and Xiang Nan was watching during the filming, so there shouldn't be any big troubles.

  …

  Xu Ke was very happy to receive Xiang Nan's invitation.

  Last month, he participated in the screenwriting, starred in, and invested heavily in the sci-fi film "Invincible Maria", which had a box office of only 5 million Hong Kong dollars, ranking 77th in the annual box office list.

  Such results directly depressed Xu Ke.

  He didn't expect that the audience would not like the work he shot with such painstaking efforts, which is really sad.

  Therefore, now that he was asked to direct such a drama with a cost of 60 million US dollars, he was naturally very happy, and immediately rushed to the United States by plane.

   "Director Xu, you should think about the script first. If you have any comments, we can discuss them later." Xiang Nan said to Xu Ke, "However, the finalized opinions cannot be changed when the filming is in progress."

  He knew that Xu Ke was domineering and used to being arbitrary. Filming "Swordsman" with Mr. Hu Jinquan almost made Director Hu mad.

  He and Wu Yusen were originally good brothers, but because he was always pointing fingers when filming, the good brothers fell out.

  So Xiang Nan wants to give him a vaccination in advance. Before filming, you can say whatever you want. But once you start shooting, you can't change it.

   Firstly, Hollywood has its own rules. After the script is finalized, not to mention the director, even the producer cannot change it. Because almost every movie project in Hollywood is insured before shooting starts.

   If you change the play without authorization, the progress will not be completed, or if something dangerous happens, the insurance company will not accept it. Even the Screenwriters Union, Screen Actors Union, and Directors Union will come to find fault.

  Secondly, the discussion before shooting starts, the cost is relatively low. It would be too expensive to modify after shooting. "Cosmic Dragon" is a big production, with a high investment of 60 million US dollars, if it is delayed for a day, it may be a loss of hundreds of thousands or millions, and it is simply unaffordable to delay.

   If Xu Ke quarrels with him again at that time and delays the shooting, it will be a big loss. Therefore, he hopes to finalize all opinions before shooting. First the villain and then the gentleman, so as not to have time to change it again and again.

   You know, the movie "Swordsman" was filmed twice because of Xu Ke and Hu Jinquan's disagreements. In the original version, Yue Buqun was starred by Bai Ying, Lin Zhennan was starred by Yue Hua, Ren Yingying was starred by Ye Qianwen...

   Later, because Hu Jinquan and Xu Ke had a falling out, Bai Ying and Yue Hua also quit in anger. After all, they are Hu Jinquan's disciples. And Ye Qianwen was also forced to quit because of her overtime schedule, and was replaced by Zhang Min.

  Because a movie was shot twice, the cost of the movie was high. Although the final box office took 16 million Hong Kong dollars, ranking twelfth in the annual box office rankings, it was still not worth the cost.

  Xu Ke nodded and agreed.

  …

  In May, "Dead Poets Society" starring Robin Williams, Johnny Depp, Keanu Reeves, Brooke Shields, etc. was officially launched.

   This movie tells the story of how an excellent teacher soothes the hearts of students and teaches them to enjoy life and enjoy life.

   This is a very touching movie. It portrays an excellent teacher who is conscientious, responsible, kind-hearted, and truly considerate of his students.

  Teachers, preaching and teaching karma to solve doubts!

  The teacher Keating played by Robin Williams is such an excellent teacher.

  He abandoned rigid dogma, outdated preaching, and rigid rules, and inspired students' enthusiasm and fighting spirit from the bottom of their hearts, making them truly fall in love with learning, life, and themselves.

  Xiang Nan had watched this movie before and was greatly moved.

   However, he doesn't think the movie will be a hit. After all, this is a literary film, and in Hollywood, the box office of literary films is always a bit low.

  Xiang Nan didn't plan to make much money either. He voted for this movie mainly to win an award.

   Unexpectedly, after "Dead Poets Society" was released, the box office was very good.

  The box office on the first day was more than 3 million US dollars, which made Xiang Nan heave a sigh of relief.

  The total cost of this film is 11 million US dollars, as long as the box office can reach 20 million US dollars, it can recover the cost.

   Looking at the box office data on the first day, as long as the box office doesn’t drop too hard in the next few days, it should be no problem to recover the cost.

  But what Xiang Nan didn't expect was that in the next few days, the box office of "Dead Poets Society" actually rose instead of falling, and the single-day box office gradually rose to more than six million US dollars.

  Such results made him dumbfounded.

  He originally thought that young people in the United States would like to watch action movies, comedy movies, and romance movies most. This kind of dull literary and artistic movies should not be to their liking.

   I don't want these people to be so sought after, it really surprised him.

  In the end, the North American box office of "Dead Poets Society" exceeded 95 million U.S. dollars, and the global box office exceeded 140 million U.S. dollars.

   And more importantly, the movie has a great reputation, and the industry, the media, and even the audience have all praised it.

  "Hollywood Weekly" even predicted that Xiang Nan might win the Best Picture Award and the Best Original Screenplay Award next year. This is something that has never happened in Hollywood, and if it does, it will make history.

   Unless, there will be better works coming out this year.

  …

  (end of this chapter)