Chapter 788: Supporting Director Feng
That afternoon.

Arranged by Huayi Film Company, Feng Xiaogang accepted an interview with media reporters at home and said bluntly: “The popularity of variety shows is actually the suicide of the film industry…”

“It was shot in six days and achieved a high box office. This will lead to the fact that no producer will be willing to continue to invest in a serious film that has put in a lot of effort.”

“This kind of money is very abnormal. Any director with aspirations and ideals will not make it. I have contacted the Directors Guild and the Producers Guild, hoping to reach a consensus with filmmakers in the circle and launch a boycott together…”

As soon as this statement was made, it instantly aroused widespread discussion among netizens. Not long after, the fifth-generation director He Ping also expressed his support for Feng Xiaogang on Weibo.

In the original time and space, even after the release of the variety show “Running Man” invested by Huayi,

Feng Xiaogang still adhered to the attitude of sacrificing personal interests for the greater good and took action against his former employer, Huayi Brothers, one of the investors of the “Running Man” movie, saying that they should be criticized if they did something wrong and that it would be difficult to cooperate in the future if they could not reach a consensus on this matter.

He even directly denounced the directors and actors who took on these roles for “losing face and losing value”, and called on filmmakers to first realize that making such films is speculation and robbery, and is not about cultivating the market and audiences at all. If this continues, it will inevitably confuse investors and discourage filmmakers, and no one will make a good movie in the future, which will bring far-reaching harm to the industry.

In this time and space, Huayi Company has not yet acquired the copyright of “Running Man”.

As a result, Feng Xiaogang spoke and acted even harder, and even Gu Wei, Ning Hao, Lu Yang and others received private text messages from the other party, hoping that everyone would boycott variety shows together.

………

March 3th, early in the morning.

The official Weibo of Xingchen Film and Television Company updated the final notice: “The preliminary training of “Nantianmen War” will begin in two days. The training time is seven weeks. During this period, active military personnel will be invited to conduct several skill trainings including military posture and military appearance…

The training location is at the film and television base under Wanda Films, and no media interviews or visits will be accepted during this period…”

As soon as the news came out, many fans naturally expressed their expectations. Some fans on Weibo even urged Gu Wei to start the movie as soon as possible, looking forward to seeing this Chinese military science fiction film in theaters next year.

You have to know that due to the domestic environment, war movies are generally not easy to make. Not only do they take a long time and require a large investment, and have a limited audience, but the most fatal thing is that the subject matter and ideas may also be restricted.

As a result, apart from “Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy” and “Wolf Warrior”, there have not been any outstanding Chinese-language war movies in recent years.

However, in the 1990s, the “The Decisive Battle” trilogy shot by the August 1st Film Studio was a masterpiece that was difficult to replicate with its grand scenes and long shots.

In comparison, the later “anti-Japanese dramas” and costume wars lacked that kind of momentum and failed to arouse the interest of the viewers.

There are certain reasons for the proliferation of “anti-Japanese dramas” and the lack of costume war films. They are basically the same as the reasons why Huo, Wei, and Yue are no longer national heroes. Therefore, many ancient war stories are difficult to move to the big screen.

Wanda Film and Television Base.

Gu Wei came over in the morning and met with the officers in charge of training.

“Director Gu, these people are from the Jinling Military Region Special Operations Brigade…”

The person who introduced the two parties was the head of Jinling Art Center, who had previously met Gu Wei at the press conference.

“Thank you all for your hard work over the next month or so.” Gu Wei has always respected the soldiers who “defend the country” because they are the most lovely people.

“No…it’s not hard.” The leading soldier was about 1.7 meters tall, with dark skin and rough but strong hands.

Before the three soldiers came, the instructor of the army had conducted ideological mobilization. According to him, this is also a battlefield, a battlefield to publicize China’s strength to the world, and everyone must go all out to carry out training.

The two men held hands, and Gu Wei suddenly had a feeling that for someone like him who had little practice, even more than a dozen people would not be able to get close to him.

After the greetings, Gu Wei directly stated the training fee on the spot, “500,000 per person per month. If it is less than two months, it will be counted as two months. The money will be transferred to your account in advance.”

Hearing this, even though the three soldiers had serious expressions, they were quite happy in their hearts.

Although everyone comes here for the honor, if there are practical benefits, no one will refuse.

“Thank you, Director Gu.” The leading soldier said sincerely.

“Hey, don’t say that. I should be the one thanking you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come here.”

For Gu Wei, three million is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall investment of “Battle of Nantianmen”.

Originally, he wanted to give more. After all, it might cost millions of dollars to hire Hollywood professionals for training.

But Director Chen of Jinling Art Center has heard of direct dissuasion. According to him, some things are better kept low-key. After all, people worry about inequality rather than scarcity.

Afterwards, Gu Wei met the action directors, there were five or six of them in total, led by his old acquaintance Zou Zhaolong, followed by the two brothers Qian Xiaohao and Qian Jiale.

When they heard about Gu Wei’s invitation, they immediately put down their work and came over. In addition to training the “actors”, they also had to do some action design specifically for the “combat mecha”.

“I won’t say more. I’ll join the group later. The company has arranged a dinner party tomorrow night. If you are free, come and join in the fun.”

After the greetings, Gu Wei spoke directly.

“No problem, Director.” Zou Zhaolong nodded with a smile, while Qian Xiaohao just smiled and said nothing. It seems that the situation of being banned for many years has made him a little taciturn. After staying at the film and television base until after ten o’clock, Gu Wei went back to the company directly after meeting people.

When he is abroad, he feels free and at ease, but once he returns home, all kinds of things come together and he is very busy.

“The Battle of Nantianmen” is about to begin, and there is only about a month left in the training for “The Great Wall”. Before filming starts, the script and various designs must also be “delivered”.

………

The remarks made by the two major domestic directors suddenly made the industry lively.

After Gu Wei returned to the company, he found that Wang Changtian was also there. He knew very well the purpose of Wang’s visit.

The two of them, together with Song Ge, had lunch in the company cafeteria.

During the meal, Wang Changtian did not mention “Mojin: The Lost Tomb”, but instead talked about the hottest topic on the Internet.

“Director Gu, is your company’s Running Man going to be made into a movie?

Look at Mango TV’s “Where Are We Going, Dad? 2″, which was filmed in a week and has already grossed million yuan, pure profit.”

Hearing this, Song Ge curled his lips slightly and picked up the cup to drink a sip of tea. He didn’t like this kind of movie at all.

In other words, this type of variety show movie cannot be considered a movie, but only a “farce.”

After taking a bite of rice, Gu Wei looked up at Big Boss Wang and said, “Mr. Wang is interested. Guangguang has a lot of variety shows. You can give it a try.”

“Hey, Guangguang’s shows are not good, they are not popular enough, but Running Man is good, the ratings are amazing, and if it is made into a big movie, the box office is guaranteed.”

Nowadays, in the eyes of many film and television companies in the circle, variety shows and movies are simply a powerful tool for making money.

After all, the cost is extremely low, the time is extremely short, and the benefits are extremely high, because there is no such thing as post-production.

Just think about it, a movie can be produced in less than a week.

If it is released in theaters, it will easily make hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, especially during the Spring Festival, the probability will be even higher.

How can the industry not be jealous? It’s so envious!

“‘Running Man’ won’t do that. Xingchen Films is a show that makes movies, not a place for others to laugh at.” Before Gu Wei could say anything, Song Ge spoke directly, his tone rather unfriendly.

“Didn’t Director Feng Xiaogang just post a Weibo post yesterday criticizing domestic variety shows and movies?

They said this was the suicide of the film industry! Director He Ping also seemed to be speaking out, saying that if this continued, the mainland film industry would be a laughing stock if it didn’t die.

I don’t want to be scolded, and I don’t need to. I don’t need that little money.” After drinking a mouthful of chicken soup in the earthenware pot, Gu Wei said slowly.

From yesterday till now, the mainland film industry has been in chaos because of this incident.

Following Feng Xiaogang and He Ping, many big directors directly confronted the daily newspaper, because the daily newspaper said that variety shows are the market’s choice and the film industry should respect the choice of the audience and the people.

As a result, Feng Xiaogang and others directly criticized the newspaper, saying that the newspaper knew nothing about movies. The newspaper was not respecting the people, but respecting the renminbi!

After several rounds of back and forth, even the Directors Association stood up to support Feng Xiaogang and He Ping and challenged the daily newspaper, and the two sides began to confront each other.

“Having said that, the strength of Xingchen Film and Television Company is there, and it is definitely impossible for them to make a film as bad as Where Are We Going, Dad? As long as the quality is guaranteed, I don’t think the impact will be significant.”

Wang Changtian is a smart man. The smarter a person is, the more he can see the huge profits involved. Now he is still persuading Gu Wei to give it a try.

Hearing this, Gu Wei stared at Wang Changtian with a forced smile, making the other person sweat.

Afterwards, Gu Wei picked up his phone and fiddled with it for a while. After putting it down, he said to Wang Changtian, “Boss Wang, check Weibo.”

Big Lao Wang was a little confused, but he did as he was told. He took out his phone and opened Weibo. Gu Wei had just updated his status, which read: “Director Feng is right. Variety shows are not movies at all. They can only be called farces. Xingchen Film and Television Company will not shoot this type of film now or in the future, and will not pollute the audience’s eyes with “bad movies.”

“Director Gu, you…” Wang Changtian smiled bitterly, completely speechless.

“Director Wang, forget about Mojin: The Last Dragon. I’m discussing cooperation with the theater chain. We’ll talk about it later when I have a new movie.”

As for Wang Changtian, Gu Wei could only speak firmly, otherwise the other party would keep sticking to him.

Wang Changtian understood instantly, thought for a while, and whispered: “Director Gu, I heard that Ali Pictures has been in contact with Feng Xiaogang recently. I want to watch the movie “The Ferryman”!”

The other party didn’t finish his words, but Gu Wei reacted instantly and muttered to himself: “Tsk tsk, it’s a lot of money, but it’s good this way, if you have the ability to invest 10 or 800 million, let’s make a huge gamble.”

………

(End of this chapter)