"Teacher Li Tang, thank you very much for accepting our exclusive interview this time."
"Reporter Meng, I hope you and your weekly magazine will have more nice words to say about our movie when the time comes."
At the entrance of a teahouse in the Asian Games Village, Li Tang shook hands and said goodbye to Meng Jing, a reporter from Sanlian Life Weekly who came to interview.
"Sanlian Life Weekly" is a very high-quality media in Beijing, and its target readers are intellectuals and the middle class.
And this group of people is precisely the main contributor to movie box office these days.
Entering the 21st century, the mainland movie box office market has become increasingly corrupt. Last year, the total national box office revenue was only 800 million. This was based on the anti-corruption film "Life and Death" which grossed 120 million.
At the beginning of this year, Brother Cheng Long's "Secret Agent" and the Hollywood blockbuster "Charlie's Angels" successively won 40 million and 75 million box office, which once gave hope to the mainland movie box office market, but then whether it was the May Day Golden Week or the summer vacation At the same time, "Operation Swordfish", "The Legend of Shushan", "At the Gate", including "Rush Hour 2" starring Brother Cheng Long and Zhang Ziyi, all encountered waterloo, and the highest box office did not exceed 20 million.
Think about it, compared to a movie ticket that costs more than ten or twenty yuan, it is better to buy a pirated DVD that costs five yuan and the whole family can watch it together.
To be honest, the piracy of film and television cultural products in China has reached an extreme level these days. According to rumors, if a pirated optical disc production line worth 50 million yuan is put into full production somewhere along the East China Sea, the investment may be recovered in a month, and how much money can be earned in a year. One hundred million is like playing.
It is in this environment that "The Third Man" has been scheduled to be released on October 11th. Originally, "The Third Man" premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 4th, and the film festival closed on September 8th. After fermentation by the media, it was released in mid-to-late September, ideally with the National Day Golden Week sandwiched in between. of.
But there is no way, in order to stagger the release date of "The Escort Story", another movie starring Li Tang, the release date of "The Third Man" can only be postponed. What's even more terrible is that on October 11th, a Hollywood blockbuster "The Mummy 2" will be released on the same day.
The current situation is that Li Tang has spent more than one million. Currently, "The Third Man" really doesn't have much money except for printing some posters. In addition, it costs money to go to Venice, so Li Tang can only accept as many interviews as possible to build more momentum for the film.
There are four Chinese films shortlisted for this year's Venice Film Festival. Except for the Hong Kong film "Hollywood in Hong Kong" which was shortlisted for the main competition, the other three films were all shortlisted for the Against the Current section.
The film "Hollywood in Hong Kong", Li Tang heard Zhou Xun describe it before, is roughly similar to director Cheng Guo's previous film "Durian", which looks at Hong Kong's lower society through the perspective of a woman who has fallen into disgrace.
As for the fact that the women who lost their feet due to hair loss are all from mainland China, and they are played by mainland actresses, Li Tang thinks that whether it is subjectively intentional or not, it is more of a reality. This is like going to a karaoke bar to find a girl. It is reasonable for most of the girls to come from economically underdeveloped areas.
In addition to "The Third Man", shortlisted for the Upstream competition section, there are also Zhang Yang's "Yesterday" and Zhu Wen's "Seafood", both of which are films from mainland China.
Zhang Yang and Zhu Wen are also old acquaintances of Marco Muller. The year before last, Zhang Yang's film "The Bath" was shortlisted for the San Sebastian International Film Festival, the Rotterdam International Film Festival, the Seattle International Film Festival and many other world-famous film festivals. Well-known film festival.
Although Zhu Wen is a newcomer in the field of directing, he is a senior screenwriter in China. "Yunyu in Wushan" and "Going Home for the New Year" written by him have won international awards. In particular, "Going Home for the New Year" won the Silver Lion Award for Best Director at the last Venice Film Festival. This alone is enough for his director's new film to be shortlisted for the Upstream Unit that encourages new directors.
To put it bluntly, being shortlisted for an influential overseas film festival is almost like a job interview. In addition to your own work ability, you must first have connections, and then you must have performance.
From this point of view, "The Third Man" was not only lucky to be shortlisted this time, but more importantly, Naian helped a lot.
Among the four films shortlisted for this year's Venice Film Festival, "Hong Kong is Hollywood" is a Hong Kong film, so the mainland media naturally focused their attention on Zhou Xun. Zhou Xun was originally a popular idol, but this time she was shortlisted for the main competition unit. The media were hyping that she was expected to be crowned queen this time, which annoyed Xiao Zhou a lot.
Not to mention that there are as many as 20 films shortlisted for the main competition unit of this film festival, so the chances are very small. Moreover, in a world dominated by white people, discrimination against people of color will always exist, but in the current social environment, it is hidden under the guise. Unless you perform particularly well, it will be difficult to obtain this kind of An award representing personal honor.
In this regard, Xiao Zhou is still very clear-headed and responds frequently that she does not expect to win the Best Actress award this time.
"Seafood" is said to be a shady operation without a license, and official reports have deliberately avoided the film. Zhang Yang's "Yesterday" is also very controversial because it tells the story of a former big star who became addicted to drugs and then successfully quit with the help of family and friends.
As a result, "The Third Man", which had no sensitive controversy, stood out, and I don't know if the relevant departments intentionally or unintentionally encouraged "normal" films like "The Third Man" to participate in overseas film festivals. In short, Li Tang's paragraph During this period, I received many interview invitations from powerful and influential media.
In order to promote the movie, Li Tang certainly enjoyed it, but the expenses were also quite high.
"How much did you give this time?"
After seeing off Reporter Meng and his party, Li Tang turned around and asked Zeng Jia.
"Two thousand for Meng Ji and one thousand for photographers," Zeng Jia said.
In name, the media took the initiative to invite interviews, but as Li Tang, he had to be sensible, and the transportation fee had to be paid. This was an unspoken rule in the industry. Whether it's good or bad depends entirely on the reporter's pen, not to mention it's for movie promotion, so it's impossible to be stingy.
Don't look at the expense of thousands or thousands each time. If it happens more often, it will be a big expense, and there are also dinner parties and other arrangements. During this period, another hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent.
"The Third Man" was released in China. In addition to the initial publicity expenses, because Nai'an's company does not currently have the qualifications to distribute films, it can only entrust Shanghai Film Studio to distribute it. The issuance fee is a large amount.
After getting in the car, Li Tang looked tired and calculated, and it was inevitable that he was full of resentment. It's not that he is reluctant to spend money, but it's just that things are too complicated. But that guy Cheng Er is a social terror. He stays in the Shanghai Film Studio without showing his face, and everything falls on him alone. That means Zeng Jia can do it, otherwise he might really give up and quit.
"Jiajia, you have worked hard during this period. Let's go back to Venice to have a good rest and relax."
"It's okay, brother, I'm not tired."
Zeng Jia looked back from the passenger seat and smiled.
The relationship between people can often be seen from their names. For example, Li Tang calls Zeng Jia "Miss Zeng" from the beginning to "Zeng Jia" and now "Jia Jia". On the one hand, it is recognition of her work ability, and on the other hand, it also shows that the personal relationship between the two has also changed. Approaching further.
Similarly, Zeng Jia's name for him has also changed little by little, from Mr. Li to Brother Li, and now he omits the word "Li" and calls him brother directly. The same is true.
But she had only heard the second half of Li Tang's words. Going to Venice can really help you have a good rest and have some fun, right? As a person pursuing a career, she would definitely not think so. Going to overseas film festivals, studying with Nai An, and making connections is a very rare opportunity.
…
Venice is no stranger to Li Tang. He had traveled here twice in his previous life, certainly not during the film festival, because his experience in Cannes told him that the annual film festival is undoubtedly the best time to cut leeks for a tourist city. In the past, room rates of 50 or 100 euros would at least triple or four times increase.
Since there is no direct flight from Beijing to Venice, the group needed to fly to Rome first and then transfer to Venice's Marco Polo Airport. This trip took nearly 20 hours, and it was already August 2 when they arrived in Venice. Early morning on the 18th.
"Sister An, I'm tired."
Nai'an had arrived in Europe a week in advance. On the one hand, he represented Lou Ye to discuss investment proposals for new films with French film producers. On the other hand, of course, as one of the producers of "The Third Man", I give everyone a front-row seat.
"Why are you so polite to me!"
After giving birth to a child, Nai'an still looks vigorous and resolute, although her body is slightly richer. For example, a business bus similar to Iveco was prepared in advance, which is enough to hold seven people and ten large suitcases.
There was no way, Xiaopang alone brought three big boxes, which contained three customized evening dresses and a dark green cheongsam that represented Chinese elements.
The little fat girl is tall and fair-skinned. She looks very charming in the dark green short-sleeved cheongsam tailor-made for her by a master in Shanghai, paired with her retro wavy hair. But Li Tang always felt that this image looked very familiar, much like a certain film and television image he had seen in his previous life, but he just couldn't remember it for a moment.
Venice is not open to traffic, and you have to change boats to reach the Roman Forum. Fortunately, there is a reception station for the organizer in the square. As long as the shortlisted film shows its invitation, a staff member will contact the boat and escort it all the way to the official venue. The hotel arranged by the crew.
"It's small and shabby. It feels like a guest house in China."
Xiaopang walked into the room and looked around, with a look of disgust on his face.
The entire city of Venice is focused on the so-called sense of history. Even the best hotels on the island were created centuries ago. Even a room like this, Li Tang just noticed at the front desk, actually costs three hundred dollars a room. night. The four rooms for the seven of them were simply provided by the organizer. Otherwise, if the entire film festival lasted for nearly half a month, the room fee alone would have cost hundreds of thousands.
First update!
(End of chapter)
