Chapter 249 260 [Brother Chen Kai publicly declares war! ]

At the press conference, the four big words “masterpiece” were directly displayed, and it was a movie about the theme of “Red Cliff” in the Three Kingdoms.

The reporters at the scene were all shocked and outraged. What did director Li Yishu want to do?

“Cough cough!”

Li Yishu coughed twice to stop the noise at the scene, and then he said, “The main reason we invited everyone here today is to prepare for the release of the movie Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms. We also hope that through the power of major media and newspapers, we can help promote it so that we can find the most suitable Three Kingdoms “heroes”!”

“Okay, let Director Han Sanping of the Beijing Film Studio introduce the specific details to you in detail.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Han Sanping picked up the microphone on the table and smiled at the reporters in the audience: “I believe everyone has heard what Director Li said just now. Today is the press conference for “Three Kingdoms Red Cliff”. I will give you a detailed introduction to the scale and investment of our film project.”

“This time, Lee Yi-su is the chief director of Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms, with five assistant directors, including Xie Jin, Li Jun, Yang Guangyuan, Wang Fulin, and Shen Haofang, as well as 5 experts from different fields, including experts in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, ancient wars, ancient weapons and armor, etc., as the film shooting director…”

Upon hearing this, the reporters at the scene were all shocked. Not only was Li Yishu the director, but she also brought in five assistant directors who were well-known in the country.

Director Xie Jin, who has directed excellent works such as “Furong Town” and “The Wreath under the Mountain”, is a third-generation director. In 1991, he directed the war film “The Decisive Battle” and became famous overnight. Director Yang Guangyuan directed “The Bloody Battle of Taierzhuang” and participated in directing “The Decisive Battle of Shenyang and Liaodong”. Directors Wang Fulin and Shen Haofang are both directors of the TV series “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”…

There is also a film guidance team composed of 78 experts from different fields. With such a large lineup and complete configuration, it is worthy of being the “pinnacle of domestic production”!
Seeing the exclamations of the reporters below, Han Sanping continued with satisfaction: “Our film project “Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms” is jointly produced by Yanjing Film Studio, Bayi Film Studio, and Japan’s Toho Co., Ltd., with a total investment of more than 6200 million US dollars, equivalent to 5 million RMB!”

500 million RMB!!!
The scene was once again in an uproar.

“Oh my god, 5 million RMB?!”

“This, this is unbelievable. How can we possibly recover the cost?”

“Even if we double the box office, we still need 10 billion RMB to recover the cost. Is there such a big film market in China?”

“The total box office of Shaolin Temple was only 100-200 million yuan. Can such a large investment really pay off?”

“…”

So far, the movie with the largest investment in China is “The Final Battle”. The total investment is 1 million yuan, but the actual cost may be a little higher. After all, it is a military-cooperated film, and many expenses cannot be quantified.

But no matter how much more it is, it will definitely not exceed 2 million RMB. The purchasing power of RMB is still very strong these days. For example, the guns and ammunition used in the filming are all old-fashioned International brands, which were distributed to the militia in the past and can now only be sold as scrap metal.

Therefore, “Red Cliff”, which cost 5 million RMB to produce, caused such a big commotion at the scene. In the eyes of reporters, modern war films must be more expensive than ancient war films.

Therefore, it is a bit shocking to suddenly invest so much money to film a film about the Battle of Red Cliffs in the Three Kingdoms.

“Okay, now it’s time for the question and answer session. We’ll randomly select people to ask questions, and everyone will only have one chance to ask one question.”

After Han Sanping introduced the project in relatively detail, he began to name names. Most of the people present were from official media, so naturally he chose “xx Daily” first.

“Director Han, Director Li, I am Zhang Xiaolong, a reporter from Renmin Daily. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to ask questions.”

Zhang Xiaolong, a reporter from the People’s Daily, paused, sorted out his thoughts, and then asked, “What I want to ask is, does this movie about the Three Kingdoms and Red Cliff really need an investment of 5 million RMB?”

As soon as this was said, many people around nodded. 5 million RMB was more than enough to buy a few large factories, let alone make a movie.

“That’s a good question! Let our Director Li answer it.”

Han Sanping glanced at Li Yishu beside him with a smile.

Hearing this, Li Yishu said, “I believe everyone should know about Jurassic Park, which was released in North America in the middle of last year. Do you know how much the total investment of this movie was?”

A Popular Movies reporter yelled, “I know, $9000 million!”

“To be exact, the production cost was $9300 million!”

Li Yishu looked at everyone and said, “How much is it in RMB? It’s 7.44 million RMB! A dinosaur-themed movie costs 9300 million US dollars, which is a very high production cost. However, our total investment in Red Cliff is only over 6200 million US dollars, which is 3000 million US dollars less than Jurassic Park, so the production cost is actually not high.”

“The reason why everyone thinks it’s high is that the current mainland box office market is not enough to support large-scale productions to recover their costs, but this time we have reached an investment cooperation with Japan’s Toho Co., Ltd. for “Three Kingdoms Red Cliff”.”

“Romance of the Three Kingdoms is one of the four great classics of the Chinese people and is well-known in East Asia and even around the world. We will release the subsequent films around the world and there will be no problem in recovering the costs and even making a profit.”

“Secondly, and most importantly, the reason for such a large-scale investment in Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms is that we are going to restore the real ancient war. This time we are cooperating with Bayi Film Studio, and we will mobilize about one million people to participate in the filming of the movie.”

“We will try our best to restore some of the familiar war scenes. For this purpose, we also invested in the construction of the Han Dynasty-style Bronze Sparrow Tower in Hengdian, Zhejiang. Considering the length of the film, the plan is to divide it into two parts.”

“…”

After these well-reasoned words, the reporters on the scene realized that there is a way to make a profit for such a huge investment. But think about it, ancient war movies are all about grand scenes with great momentum, and there is no need to consider the relationship between the two sides like modern war movies.

To put it bluntly, in the eyes of overseas audiences, ancient war movies are just for fun and do not need to consider any political factors.

“Director Li, have you chosen the actors for this movie?”

“There is no casting yet, but one of the purposes of this press conference is to promote it through journalists and the media. Our Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff crew will start a nationwide audition of actors at the Beijing Film Studio and the Bayi Film Studio. We also welcome compatriots from both sides of the Taiwan Strait to audition…”

“Director Li, may I ask…”

The press conference lasted for more than an hour.

All the reporters’ questions focused on “Red Cliff: Three Kingdoms”, a big production with an investment of 5 million RMB.

Compared to the “Three Gold Grand Slam” news that has been fermenting for a few days, this one is obviously more topical and can provide more sales for the newspaper.

As the press conference ended, the reporters left one after another, and Li Yishu also bid farewell to the leaders one by one.

Director Xie Jin asked curiously, “Director Li, are we going to start casting for the movie?”

“Well, we can start.”

Li Yishu nodded and said, “Choose the cast in advance, and then have unified training in half a year next year, and then we can start shooting some scenes.”

The filming period of a movie is long, so as the chief director, Li Yishu naturally needs to plan it well, so according to the plan, the movie is divided into three stages.

The first stage is the horse battle scene, which mainly focuses on Cao Cao’s expedition against Wuhuan, Liu Xuande and others abandoning Xinye, burning Bowangpo, and the Battle of Changbanpo with Zhao Yun.

The second stage is the literary drama, which mainly includes filming scenes such as the debate among scholars, Huang Gai’s false surrender, and Jiang Gan stealing the book.

The third stage is the drama of the water army war.

The filming will not start this year, but the actors must be selected and the related costumes and props must be prepared in advance. Next year, we will spend half a year on unified training. The actors of civil officials are fine, as long as they can ride horses, but those who have to fight on horseback, such as Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, etc., must be skilled in swordsmanship and horsemanship to achieve the desired effect.

“Half a year of training is still necessary.”

Wang Fulin nodded in agreement: “When I was filming Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I trained for half a year.”

“Then I’ll have to trouble Director Wang with this matter.”

Li Yishu smiled and said, “You have experience in this area of ​​training, and both are about the Three Kingdoms.”

“Haha, no problem, just leave it to me. Once the actors are selected, I will train them!”

Wang Fulin laughed and agreed readily. For him, training actors was a piece of cake. Cao, Liu and Sun from the Three Kingdoms crew had all trained under him.

After chatting with Xie Jin and Wang Fulin, Li Yishu sent them off and then said to Han Sanping, “Uncle San, I’m going to the United States to film in a few days. I’ll leave the casting for the crew to you.”

Han Sanping smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I will take care of the rest. Just go to the United States and make a movie with peace of mind.”

“Yeah! When I get back from America, we’ll go to the Cannes Film Festival!”

Li Yishu nodded. He had to go to the United States and Canada to shoot “Rumble in the Bronx” next. He would probably not be back until mid-April. When he came back, he would check the progress of the casting and then take Zhang Manyu directly to Cannes.

In a blink of an eye it was the next morning.

March 1st.

Brother Chen Kai got up very early because he had to hold a press conference this afternoon and go to the auditorium of the Beijing Film Studio in advance.

But before Brother Chen Kai could leave, Gu Changwei came running to him in a hurry.

Gu Changwei said anxiously, “It’s bad, Brother Kai!”

“what happened?”

Brother Chen Kai was confused: “Is there a problem with the preparation of the auditorium?”

“No, the auditorium has already been decorated, but…”

Gu Changwei gritted his teeth and handed the newspaper to the other party: “Take a look for yourself!”

Brother Chen Kai took the newspaper in confusion, and when he saw the headline on the front page, he suddenly felt his blood rushing up and he felt dizzy.

‘Director Lee Yi-su, who won three Golden Globes awards, is making another new film, investing 500 million RMB to shoot the Three Kingdoms-themed blockbuster Red Cliff, striving to create a top domestic production! ‘

Brother Chen Kai quickly glanced at the article and saw that Han Sanping was also present. He guessed that it must be Han Sanping who told Li Yishu when he would hold the press conference, so not only did he hold it in advance, but he also took the lead in conducting a nationwide audition for actors.

“This Li Yishu is really going too far!”

Brother Chen Kai roared angrily: “No, I have to go ask Han Sanping!”

“Brother Kai, don’t be in a hurry!”

Gu Changwei stopped him and said, “If you go find Han Sanping now, he will also say that Li Yishu had already planned to hold a press conference yesterday. It’s useless to find him now.”

“But we can’t let them steal our limelight!” Brother Chen Kai was furious. He had never seen such shameless people.

“The limelight is only temporary. In our industry, the work speaks for itself. As long as our film is better than Lee Yi-su’s, and our 2 million production fee produces better results than her 5 million, then public opinion will be on your side.”

Gu Changwei’s words also calmed Chen Kaige down: “You are right. It is meaningless to compete for the limelight now. When the movie is released, we will see which one is the real pinnacle of domestic production!”

“Which one…Kaige, how about Wen Li playing Zhao Ji?”

“Wenli~~”

Brother Chen Kai was a little hesitant. The role of Zhao Ji was still very important, and he wanted to audition to see who was more suitable.

Gu Changwei nodded: “Yes, Wen Li has been talking to me about this for a while, and you know her acting skills very well, there is absolutely no problem at all, she is definitely more than capable of playing Zhao Ji.”

Brother Chen Kai thought about it and agreed: “Of course you can, but you also know that I am going to hold a national audition and let Wen Li sign up. She will definitely win in the end.”

“That’s great. Wenli will be so happy when she knows this.” Gu Changwei’s face lit up with joy.

That afternoon.

Brother Chen Kai held a press conference, which was no smaller in scale than Li Yishu’s, mainly because he had prepared for it many days in advance.

“Although the investment budget for The Emperor and the Assassin was only 2 million, I believe the effect of the film will be a hundred times better than any so-called top domestic productions!”

Chen Kai said to the reporters in the audience with great enthusiasm: “After the movie is released, you will know the difference between directors. No one understands “Qin Shi Huang” better than me, and no one can make an epic blockbuster that can rival Hollywood!”

wow——

The reporters on the scene were very excited!

Is Brother Chen Kai openly declaring war on Li Yishu?

Exciting!
It has been a long time since we have seen news of such open declarations of war or even mutual attacks in the mainland.

The most recent one was two years ago when Teng Wenji from Xi’an Film Studio accused Li Yishu in an interview, which caused a newspaper war in the literary and art circles.

But the gap between the two sides was actually quite large, and in the end Teng Wenzhi left the Xi’an Film Studio in embarrassment.

Now Brother Chen Kai has come out, and although he didn’t mention anyone by name, his words were all directed at Li Yishu’s new work.

In fact, Brother Chen Kai did it on purpose. He knew that Li Yishu now had three golden awards in her hands, so she couldn’t compete with her in terms of awards, but she could compete in terms of box office, and it was much simpler.

Moreover, Brother Chen Kai is very satisfied with his new script. He feels that he has captured the atmosphere and sense of drama of an epic blockbuster. He believes that as long as the movie is made and released, it will definitely crush Li Yishu at the box office.

But which one is better, “The Emperor and the Assassin” or “Red Cliff”, we probably have to wait until the movie is released to find out.

(End of this chapter)