The audience dare not say it, but American film companies know a lot about Shao Shuaijun. "Buried Alive" and "Source Code" are both excellent works. They did not make a lot of money but did not lose money, and they have accumulated a little reputation for him. Therefore, they have feelings for "Painted Skin"
There are quite a few interested distribution companies, the most interested of which are Miramax Pictures and Lionsgate Pictures.
Needless to say, Lionsgate has worked with Shao Shuaijun twice and is very optimistic about "Painted Skin". Especially after Rob watched the director's cut, he praised it more than ever. Miramax Pictures is also actively in contact with Wang Zhonglei and Yang Hongtao.
The release of "Hero" last year made them a lot of money, and they naturally don't want to miss "Painted Skin", which is also from China.
In addition, several other companies are interested, but are a little daunted. If "Hero" and "Source Code" made American film companies start to pay attention to Chinese movies, Chen Kaige's "The Promise" undoubtedly poured a bucket on this momentum.
Water. First, the box office at the screenings was not satisfactory, the Weinstein Company terminated the North American distribution contract with "The Promise", and then the American media gave "The Promise" negative reviews.
""The Promise" does not use characters to impress movie audiences like Chen Kaige's previous classics "Farewell My Concubine" and "Feng Yue". This time Chen Kaige abandoned the movie itself to pursue special effects in the digital field, which made the movie
It gets so bad that, from a technical level, the movie feels more like a video game."
"Fundamentally speaking, movies are entertainment. However, the characters in Chen Kaige's movies are too pale, the plot design is a bit childish, and they rely too much on 'magic', which makes the audience feel too far away from reality."
After such an evaluation came out, there is no doubt that the road for "The Promise" to be released in North America has become slim. Even the impression score of Chinese films in North America has been greatly reduced. Just after it made some improvement in business, it was immediately beaten back.
"Chinese films are only suitable for screening at film festivals".
Fortunately, Li Yu's "Brokeback Mountain" has become a life-saving pill and has slightly restored the image of Chinese movies. Unfortunately, "Brokeback Mountain" is essentially an American film and cannot have a fundamental effect. This is why American film companies have
"Painted Skin" is hesitant to talk about, he is afraid of becoming the second "The Promise".
In order to have more theaters and a better way to share the revenue, six investors including Huayi Brothers, Poly Bona, China Film Warner Hengdian, China Film, Media Asia Variety Pictures and One World Films. After the director’s cut was released, they immediately sent
People went to major theaters in the United States to lobby. Shao Shuaijun and others, Lionsgate Pictures held a small meeting near Hollywood. It was finally determined that Miramax Pictures and Lionsgate Pictures would compete for "Painted Skin"
North American distribution rights.
Miramax Pictures is a company owned by Disney. It can influence more theaters. Lionsgate has good cooperation and is willing to increase its share in the form of box office revenue returns based on the original 17% share.
Both sides have pros and cons.
Shao Shuaijun prefers to cooperate with Lionsgate Pictures, but in "Painted Skin", he is only the director and does not have any say in commercial operations. In the end, six investors negotiated and reached an agreement with Miramax Pictures
unanimously, and handed over the North American distribution rights to Mira Company in a 17% share.
They value more theaters for screenings, believing that the release cycle of Chinese films in the United States is usually short, and a larger number of theaters means higher box office.
Rob, who was having coffee with Shao Shuaijun, had disappointment written all over his face: "Shao, it's such a pity. "Painted Skin" is very good, but we can't work together anymore."
"Rob, I'm sorry too, but it doesn't matter what I said."
"I know, by the way, Shao, are you coming to the United States this time just for the release of "Painted Skin"? I know that a new movie of yours has just won the highest box office in mainland China. Do you have any new movie plans? If
If not, we at Lionsgate would like to ask you to direct a movie, would you be interested?"
"Ask me to direct a movie. What kind of movie will it be?"
"A horror movie. Do you remember the last time we chatted privately about James Wan, the director of "Saw"? You talked a lot about your ideas about horror movies, and I found that you have a lot of ideas about horror movies. We happened to have a lot of ideas recently.
I collected a book, which is a script adapted from Clive Barker's novel, called "The Midnight Man-Eating Train."
Rob briefly talked about the content of the script.
Shao Shuaijun listened patiently and finally declined politely. He is not very good at horror movies. Maybe he will delve into this area in the future, but he has no time to waste on himself now: "Rob, I am not sure about horror movies. Thank you for the invitation."
, I think I’m not suitable.”
"Oh, that's a shame."
"Actually, we still have the opportunity to cooperate. I am coming to the United States this time to shoot a movie, which is to adapt the currently popular "The Twilight Saga: Twilight". I think you will be interested, Rob? If Lionsgate Film
If the industry can help us gain a foothold in the United States, we can jointly invest in Twilight."
It is very simple to open an agency company in the United States, such as Twilight Entertainment. But to open a film company, it is not a simple matter to obtain a filming license, a film production license, a screening license, etc. Li Xiuxiu came from the Jiahe School
A team of professional operators came over to operate the new company, but they had not yet sorted out their clues.
The United States is a country that claims to be democratic, but in fact it is very xenophobic towards the Chinese, and many places deliberately create difficulties for them.
Shao Shuaijun hopes to gain a foothold with the help of Lionsgate Pictures.
Whether to acquire a company or open a company has not yet been decided.
Rob was very interested in "Twilight". After introducing Li Xiuxiu to Rob, Shao Shuaijun stopped caring about the matter. Now another troublesome matter was before him.
"What, Miramax Pictures is going to cut "Painted Skin" shorter again?"
Wang Zhonglei shrugged his shoulders: "Junzi, I can't do anything about it. Mira Company thinks the movie is too long, a full 145 minutes. They hope to cut it to 120 minutes."
"120 minutes, Brother Lei, this means that I have to cut out 25 minutes of footage. We spent a lot of effort to capture the content! After cutting it once before, I felt that many good shots were
I gave up, and now I have to cut it again. After cutting it back and forth, is "Painted Skin" still "Painted Skin"!"
Although "Painted Skin" brags about a production cost of 500 million, the actual cost of 200 million cannot be covered. It cost more than 50 million just to shoot. Not counting the special effects shots, "Painted Skin" has a total of 3,200 sets of shots, which is equivalent to saying that every
A lens set costs at least tens of thousands of yuan.
Mira's one sentence would mean giving up millions or even more than 10 million shots. Shao Shuaijun felt that it was no different than poaching. Moreover, the movie was cut short, could he still clearly explain what Shao Shuaijun wanted to express?
"There is no way, Mira Company is very firm in this regard, it must be cut. Junzi, if you can't do it, we can ask a professional editor to cut it?"
Shao Shuaijun gritted his teeth: "Forget it, I'll cut it!" (To be continued, please search Piao Tian Literature, the novel is better and updated faster!
ps: It’s finally on the shelves. No matter what the score is, I wrote this book with all my heart. I hope that friends who subscribe can vote for it with a monthly vote to support it. Thank you! Thank you for accompanying "The Director's Legend" to grow all the way!