Chapter 264 Warm-Up

"Today, the host country that has treated me well for 30 years is encountering serious difficulties. The rich have fled and the poor have to stay. They don't know where to go. They have no money to escape. Are they facing being collectively Is there a danger of massacre? Shouldn’t we try to help them? At least save some people?”

"It was a time of endless horror, no matter what one imagines. In the rain, my fellow refugees huddled in the courtyard, leaning on each other, gazing wordlessly at the terrifyingly beautiful blazing fire. What if When the flames reach us, these poorest people have no way out, and I am their last hope."

On the plane, Wu Yuchen closed the "Rabe Diary" in his hand again. Although he had read it many times, he still felt a lot of emotion every time he read it, and at the same time, he felt some regret in his heart.

Schindler and Rabe, two Germans, one in Poland and the other in China, were under the bayonets of the German and Japanese armies respectively. They tried their best to pass the factory in need of skilled workers, and the latter established an international safety zone. , saved the Jews and Chinese who had nowhere to escape under the iron heel.

If we simply look at the number of people rescued, Schindler rescued 1,200 people, while Rabe rescued 200,000 people. From this perspective, Schindler was at most a little Rabe. Of course, it cannot be compared like this. The actions of Schindler and Rabe are worthy of praise, praise and remembering.

Because of Schindler's List, the whole world knew about Schindler, and the impression of the Passion of the Jews was further promoted in everyone's mind. But many people don't know Rabe, even in China. If you pull ten passers-by on the streets of big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, it would be good if one of them knows about him, let alone the vast rural areas. .

It's easy to imagine how big the difference in influence between the two movies is.

Since Wu Yuchen already knows the biggest focus of next year's Oscars based on his past life experience, he will naturally not miss this opportunity. In the second half of the year, Wu Yuchen's focus will be to return to China to shoot another film that will compete for the Olympics, and it will be an anti-war film with local Chinese themes.

Unfortunately, he lamented that "Rabe's Diary" was not a good choice for him now!

The biggest reason is that before "Rabe's Diary", there was already a "Schindler's List". One thing you can't deny is that if "Rabe's Diary" is made, the first impression everyone will have is that this movie is imitating "Schindler's List". This is a very, very disadvantageous point for the Olympics.

Although many reasons for "Schindler's List" to win the award are the fact that Jews have a strong voice, the high quality of the film is not controversial. With "Schindler's List" at the forefront, it is difficult for the Oscars to give a major award to a film with a similar story and structure. And Wu Yuchen is not confident to find a new angle to shoot "Rabe's Diary" more superbly than "Schindler's List".

Before returning to China this time, Wu Yuchen also met with many Hollywood and Spielberg himself to discuss some issues. In the current perception of Hollywood and even the United States, the massacre of Jews is a "disaster for mankind", while the massacre of Chinese people during the war of aggression against China, such as the Nanjing Massacre, is only "a problem in the relationship between the two countries."

The discourse struggle during this period, the right of Jewish discourse, and the position of Western discourse in the Chinese context are all huge issues. But these are the current objective conditions, and this is generally recognized abroad.

From Wu Yuchen's current point of view, a high-grossing commercial film in an international context may be more effective than ten academic books on China's suffering during the war of aggression against China, provided that it can receive sufficient publicity and Promotion, and what could be more effective than the Oscar stage?

Therefore, whether from a personal or national perspective, Wu Yuchen wanted to make an anti-invasion war film that was of high quality and universal, and that even people in other countries could empathize with and be moved after watching it.

Now that he had given up on "Rabe's Diary", he made up his mind to choose another one. Although it does not have the reference to the original work like "Rabe's Diary", it gives him more room to play and will not be trapped in the shadow of "Schindler's List".

…

Jiang Qinqin, whom she hadn't seen for a long time, threw herself into Wu Yuchen's arms, but the next moment:

"Hey? What are you doing?" Wu Yuchen said, gently patting Jiang Qinqin's butt.

He bit Wu Yuchen lightly at the junction of his neck and shoulder, leaving a circle of red marks. Jiang Qinqin grunted and said with a bit of resentment, "I made you go out for so long and not come back!"

Wu Yuchen chuckled and said, "Am I busy? Besides, I asked you to come to America to see me, why don't you come?"

Jiang Qinqin patted Wu Yuchen: "You think you are just busy! My daily schedule is also full!"

At the beginning of this year, Zhang Bearded's version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" was broadcast. Because of the comparison with the 83-year-old version, Liu Ye and Jiang Qinqin, Guo Jing and Huang Rong, still received a lot of criticism after they came out. There is no way, people I always prefer the beauty of my youth, let alone the first time.

However, compared to Li Yapeng and Zhou Xunban in their previous lives, Liu Ye and Jiang Qinqin are much better. Not only because of their performances, they were already a classic couple in "If Love Has God's Will", and they have a CP fan base. , so there is also a large group of people applauding them.

In short, after "The Condor Shooting", Jiang Qinqin, as the actor of Huang Rong, was firstly promoted everywhere, interviewed by various media and magazines, and filmed various advertisements, which made her very busy.

After Jiang Qinqin finished speaking, she saw Wu Yuchen caressing his neck, then stretched out his hand to gently rub Wu Yuchen's neck: "Does it hurt?"

"Of course it hurts!" Wu Yuchen shouted immediately.

"Then let me blow it for you~" As she said that, Jiang Qinqin blew gently on the red mark left behind.

"What's the use of blowing!"

"Then what do you think we should do?" Jiang Qinqin asked, raising her chin.

Wu Yuchen chuckled: "When I was a kid, I had to lick all the cuts and bruises~"

"You are so beautiful!" Jiang Qinqin said arrogantly, but the next moment she kissed Wu Yuchen's neck a few more times, her little tongue sticking out to lick his neck and heart, making it tickle.

"You said you're not a dog keeper, so why would you bite someone?" Wu Yuchen joked with a smile.

"Humph, the rabbit bites people when it's anxious!" Jiang Qinqin pouted her little mouth cutely. She is a rabbit.

Wu Yuchen immediately put his arms around Jiang Qinqin's waist, leaned into her ear and smiled evilly: "If you say so, rabbits also like to eat big carrots!"

Jiang Qinqin's face turned red and she said in a slightly soft voice: "Who knows whether that carrot has been eaten before, maybe it was bitten into pieces in one go!"

When Wu Yuchen heard this, he was so angry that he immediately lowered his head and bit it!

…

"Director Wu, why did you choose to shoot a martial arts movie this time? Was it influenced by last year's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"?"

"The influence is a little bit, but this is not the main reason. Like most Chinese people, I actually had a martial arts dream when I was a child. When I was still a freshman, I participated in the production of a movie called "Wu Zhi Wu" documentary, but I have actually already had the idea for "Xiu Chun Knife".

Now, after shooting Hollywood movies and being exposed to the most cutting-edge special effects technology, I feel that the time has come to shoot a martial arts movie, so I moved this story to the big screen! "

At this time, Wu Yuchen was being interviewed on a Yangma program. This is Wu Yuchen's first return to China after his bumper harvest at this year's Oscars, so he will naturally receive interview invitations from many media.

Since he won the Oscar for Best Picture, the domestic media has praised Wu Yuchen to the sky. After all, this is the biggest award among the most watched film awards in the world. Although "Beautiful Mind" is not a Chinese-language film, director Wu Yuchen is from China!

Now there is no longer any debate in China about who is the best director in China, Chen Kaizi or Lao Mouzi. There is no doubt that the leader of Chinese films has become Wu Yuchen, and he has become a benchmark and a banner.

In fact, Wu Yuchen wanted to prepare for the film as soon as possible after he came back, but he was not able to recommend some interviews, such as Yang Ma's. Moreover, "Xiuchundao" will be released in half a month's time. It just so happened that he was talking about "Xiuchundao" in the interview, which can be regarded as cooperating with the promotion.

Speaking of which, this time "Xiu Chun Knife" has the international director Wu Yuchen, and it also follows a large-scale production process that is in line with international standards. It also tried various operations and methods of Hollywood blockbusters, which is equivalent to providing China with Commercial movies set a template.

For example, pre-roll advertising, before the filming of the movie, we had already reached cooperation with many advertisers. Dozens of large companies such as Procter & Gamble, Toyota, China Mobile, etc. had pre-roll advertisements that brought more than 40 million yuan in revenue to "Xiu Chun Knife" .

It may be converted into US dollars, which is only 5 million US dollars, which is incomparable to many major Hollywood productions, but for China at this time, this is already very amazing! You must know that at present, there are only a few Chinese movies with a cost of 40 million yuan each year.

A lot of development has also been carried out around "Xiu Chun Dao". Hong Kong cartoonist Ma Wing Cheng personally wrote and illustrated "Xiu Chun Dao" to accompany the film. A novel of the same name adapted from "Xiu Chun Dao" has also been released. It was launched in early April 2002.

No one else was found for this novel. It was Wu Yuchen's father Wu Jianping who came in person to help him polish and improve it. More plots that were not filmed in the "Xiu Chun Knife" movie were added to the novel, such as filling in the roles of the eldest brother Lu Jianxing and the third brother Jin Yichuan. story line. In the movie, due to length and market considerations, for example, it revolves around the male protagonist Shen Lianlai, but there is more room for development in the novel, and some of Jiang Wen's ideas were also realized in the novel.

At this time, it happened to be the time when Wu Yuchen won the Oscar for Best Picture. Taking advantage of this momentum, "Xiu Chun Knife" launched a comprehensive promotion. The first printing quantity of the novel is 500,000 copies, priced at 20 yuan. The first printing has already been sold out, and an additional 1 million copies have been printed. The current sales are pretty good.

At the same time, in order to cooperate with the promotion of the film "Embroidered Spring Knife", 3,000 sets of "Embroidered Spring Knife" stamps will also be released in limited quantities one week before the movie is released. And it is released in batches in order to continue the popularity of "Xiu Chun Knife" after it is released.

So even though Wu Yuchen is not in China, the publicity started several months in advance has already made the movie "Xiuchungdao" very popular. In addition to the traditional actor promotion, this series of supporting combination boxing operations has never been seen before in China. People across the country have aroused the attention and desire to watch the movie.

This dazzling set of operations led by Miracle Film and Television has also calmed all the people in the industry. Now they are all looking forward to what kind of results this posture of "Embroidered Spring Knife" can create?

Not to mention the others, Han Sanping was all looking forward to it and praised Wu Yuchen:

"Brother Wu, if you can make the model of "Xiu Chun Knife" this time, it will make a huge contribution to our entire Chinese film industry. Future films and film companies can learn from it!"

Wu Yuchen laughed and said: "Haha, I have been going to Hollywood for several years to gain experience, so I have to pass on some advanced experience! This time "Xiuchungdao" can be regarded as crossing the river by following the path of Hollywood. Regardless of whether it succeeds or not, it will be good for our Chinese film industry. It’s all a meaningful attempt, and from this aspect I feel it’s worth it!”

Han Sanping gave a thumbs up and said: "Brother Wu, you are so righteous! But brother Wu, you are too humble. I don't believe that "Xiu Chun Dao" would be possible if you were here!"

Wu Yuchen smiled when he heard this. If we look at the economy alone, the movie "Xiu Chun Knife" has actually been successful.

With Wu Yuchen's name in the movie, the movie's cast also includes Leslie Cheung, Jiang Wen, and Jiang Qinqin. Even before it has been released in China, overseas film companies have already asked for high prices to acquire it. For example, Bangguo sold it for US$5 million, and Neon was even willing to give a high price of US$10 million.

As for Europe and the United States, Wu Yuchen chose Sony as the distribution agent this time. With the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and the reputation of John Woo, Sony in North America and other regions outside Asia directly paid US$40 million to package and acquire the full rights, while the North American box office chose Miracle Pictures In the form of normal account sharing, you can also sell the copyrights of discs and video tapes, and you will still have some income.

It's just that Wu Yuchen has reached the current stage. His requirements for his movies are not only box office success. He also hopes that "Xiu Chun Dao", which he has upgraded and improved in various aspects, can gain public recognition.

Although the failure of a movie did not have much impact on him, Lao Mouzi was still the most influential director despite the overwhelming infamy he faced after the release of "Hero" in his previous life. But who wants to accept being scolded when you can receive praise!