"Love Call Transfer" was released on the first day of the Lunar New Year and was not officially released until the end of February.
The total box office was 63 million yuan, which was a good start for the mainland film market in 2004.
The successive success of films such as "Waiting Alone", "Crazy Stone", and "Love Call Transfer" have also made Youth Pictures famous and become a leader in the industry.
Seeing Huang Bo, Guo Tao, Qiao Zhenyu, Shu Chang, Yan Wei, Tang Wei, Gao Yuanyuan and others prospering, for a while, a large number of artists wanted to join the youth show.
Among them are artists such as Zuo Xiaoqing, Chen Shu, Ning Jing, Fu Dalong, Zu Feng, Wang Jingyan, etc. who are very qualified and have a certain reputation.
However, Xiang Nan did not accept it blindly.
First of all, Zhichun Studio has developed very well in recent years, but after all, its foundation is too weak and it lacks enough management talents. Now with so many people under our banner, we are almost overwhelmed.
Blind expansion will not only fail to improve the company's efficiency, but may actually mess it up.
Secondly, at this stage, the mainland’s film and television consumer market is not developed enough. Only a small number of movies are able to sell well and recoup their costs every year.
The acquisition price of TV series by TV stations is not high, and there are only so many TV stations, and the number of broadcasts each year is limited.
In 2003, the mainland produced more than 13,000 TV dramas per year, but only over 5,000 episodes were broadcast. Most of them were forced to backlog and could not be sold at all.
Therefore, even if Xiang Nan takes over all these artists, he probably won't make any money.
Thirdly, the studio already has multiple artists, and each one has his or her own position.
For example, Qiao Zhenyu has a good image and good acting skills. He will take over Xiang Nan's class in the future and is the best candidate to be a niche student; Huang Bo has an ordinary appearance and a grassroots temperament, so he is absolutely suitable for playing a small character; Guo Tao has good features and a simple temperament, and is not suitable for acting in serious dramas. Two choices...
Tang Wei is the intellectual goddess, Gao Yuanyuan is the pure goddess, Shu Chang is suitable for young actors, and Yan Fan is suitable for young girls and comedy lines... So when recruiting people, try not to repeat them. Otherwise, when internal fighting breaks out, it will be troublesome.
Therefore, in the end, Xiang Nan only accepted Zeng Ling, who took the sex route, and Zu Feng, who was low-key, restrained, powerful in acting, and versatile.
…
In the spring of 2004, Zhichun Pictures officially started filming two TV series and one movie.
The two TV series are "Sweet Honey", starring Deng Sui and Sun Li in 2007, which had very good ratings that year; and the hit TV series "Wulin Gaiden".
The movie is "A World Without Thieves". This movie starred Andy Lau, Liu Ruoxiao, Ge You, etc. and achieved amazing box office success. Moreover, the unknown Wang Baoqiang was promoted to a popular star in one fell swoop.
Xiang Nan knows that if Youth Studio wants to achieve rapid development, it is far from enough to rely on small efforts alone. It must have big investment and big production to really boost morale, train the team, and develop Youth into a domestic entertainment giant.
Therefore, this film "A World Without Thieves" must be invested, and it must be shot as soon as possible. Otherwise, if you miss this village, you won’t have this shop.
As for this movie, Xiang Nan is not planning to invite Andy Lau and Liu Ruoxiao to star.
To be honest, he is very dissatisfied with the current style of exclusively using Hong Kong stars for domestic entertainment.
Zhang Yimou shot "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers", Chen Kaige shot "The Promise", Feng Xiaogang shot "A World Without Thieves"... all of them are Hong Kong and Taiwan artists as the protagonists, and mainland artists can only serve as foils. This approach is really too short-sighted. .
These famous directors do not reuse mainland actors, but give opportunities to Hong Kong and Taiwan artists. As a result, mainland actors cannot prove their own strength and can only act as supporting actors for Hong Kong and Taiwan artists for a long time. It is a pity that many mainland artists with acting skills, good looks, and talents did not become famous in time.
So Xiang Nan plans to star in the film himself and let these mainland filmmakers see that the box office appeal of mainland artists is no worse than those of Hong Kong and Taiwan stars.
…
"Sweet Honey", Xiang Nan is planning to ask Yang Anzhou to direct it; he is very good at filming this kind of emotional drama. "Family with Nine Phoenixes", "The Empty Mirror", "Eight Brothers", and "Hey, Old Man" were all directed by him.
The starring roles are Qiao Zhenyu and Tang Wei. Qiao Zhenyu filmed "Jade Guanyin" and "The Young Emperor" last year.
Among them, "Jade Guanyin" received astonishing ratings after its release in October, making Sun Li and Tong Dawei popular, and also making Qiao Zhenyu, who plays Mao Jie, famous.
The drama "The Young Emperor" was released during the Chinese New Year, and the ratings were equally good. Because Xiang Nan has played emperors several times (Emperor of the Han Dynasty, Emperor of the Young Emperor, Emperor Kangxi, Emperor Jianwen), he has been called an "Emperor Professional". Qiao Zhenyu plays the second male lead, who is equally impressive because of his infatuation.
As for Tang Wei, she first filmed "Waiting Alone" and then "Love Call Transfer". The two films were huge hits and made her a smash hit.
The two of them are now qualified enough to star.
In "Wulin Gaiden", Xiang Nan's first choice is naturally Shang Shuo. After all, he is the director of the original version, and at this stage he has also directed sitcoms such as "The Story of the Cooking Class" and "City Guys", so he is quite experienced in this aspect.
As for the starring role, Xiang Nan is not planning to make any big changes. Because the original cast and crew have collaborated many times before. Yan Fan, Sha Yi, Jiang Chao, Yao Chen, Fan Wei, and Hong Jiantao have collaborated on "The Story of the Cooking Class" before.
Sha Yi, Yao Chen, and Yu Enzhen have collaborated on "City Man and Woman" before, so they have such a good understanding with each other. If it were anyone else, they might not be able to cooperate so well.
Therefore, Xiang Nan is not prepared to adjust unless necessary.
As for "A World Without Thieves", Xiang Nan plans to ask Ning Hao to direct it. He is very good at directing crime films, and his "No Man's Land" is definitely a classic of domestic crime films.
In addition to him, the starring roles include Zhou Xun, Zeng Lai and Ge You. Zhou Xun's acting skills are extremely good, and it shouldn't be a problem to play a female thief who has reformed and turned good. Zeng is so beautiful, so it shouldn't be a problem to play a beautiful female thief.
As for Uncle Ge, there is no problem.
…
Therefore, the three crews immediately began preparations.
The preparations for "Sweet Honey" and "Wulin Gaiden" went smoothly.
Directors Yang Anzhou and Shang Shuo happily accepted the invitation. As for Sha Yi, Yao Chen, Jiang Yao, Yu Enzhu, etc., most of them are not well-known at the moment, so it is still easy to invite them.
So the two crews quickly made preparations and started filming soon.
Only "A World Without Thieves" was more troublesome because Ge You refused the crew's invitation, saying there was no schedule.
Xiang Nan then inquired again and found that Ge You had not taken the role at all.
So Xiang Nan didn't give up and asked his friends to invite him. Later, news came that it was Feng Xiaogang who didn't want Ge You to help Xiang Nan film.
At the beginning of the year, Xiang Nan invested in and starred in "Love Call Transfer", which crushed his "Mobile" at the box office, which made him feel very unhappy, and naturally he didn't want his friends to help him.
Ge You values love, so he doesn't want to transfer the money he got. Xiang Nan had no choice but to think about it and decided to invite Zhao Benshan to perform.
In terms of acting skills and fame, Zhao Benshan is definitely not worse than Ge You, and his comedy talent is also top-notch, so Xiang Nan believes that he can replace Ge You.
