Chapter 227: Again Extorted

During the tense filming of Accursed Immortal, Wu Yansen's directed Red Cliff had undergone more than half a year of shooting and wrapped up in November 2005.

The crew held the global premiere press conference in Jingcheng, with director Wu Yansen leading main actors Liang Chaowei, Jin Chengwu, Zhang Fengyi, Zhang Zhen, Lin Zhiling, and Hu Jun in a collective appearance.

Producer Zhang Jiazhen lamented the difficulties of filming, including last-minute casting changes before shooting, continuous heavy rain collapsing parts of the outdoor sets, and the film going over budget and over schedule. Fortunately, director Wu Yansen's outstanding ability and firm will led the crew of over a thousand to complete the shooting task.

He also said that Red Cliff would be released in two parts, with the upper part premiering in early July 2006 and the lower part released in December 2006.

Currently, director Wu Yansen is hastily proceeding with post-production; the film will feature over a thousand special-effects shots to create a stunning visual impact, and it will become the pinnacle of Chinese-language historical films.

At the event, a reporter asked, indicating that Jiang Heng would have a new film, Accursed Immortal, released in the summer of 2006.

Following his usual filming pace, a big film will also be released in the 2006 winter season.

The two parts of Red Cliff, scheduled for the summer and winter seasons of 2006, will go up against Jiang Heng's films—aren't you worried about the box office?

Producer Zhang Jiazhen said that Jiang Heng's earlier special-effects blockbusters achieved extraordinarily high box office returns domestically and internationally mainly because there were no competing films of equal quality and genre.

Moreover, Jiang Heng is skilled at marketing—organizing midnight screenings, premieres, advance showings, and roadshow promotions—so it can be said that the domestic commercial film publicity teams and strategies are all modeled after him.

As for the international market, it is due to European and American audiences' particular preference for special-effects blockbusters that meet Hollywood standards and feature mysterious Eastern elements.

Jiang Heng's films are good, but his prior continued success was ultimately due to a lack of rivals.

In a classical phrase: "When there are no heroes, even a nobody can become famous!"

But starting in 2006, this situation will change, because with a total investment of eighty million US dollars, gathering stars from both sides of the strait and three regions, adapting the Four Great Classics, the first-ever Three Kingdoms-themed film to hit the big screen—Red Cliff—is about to be released worldwide.

Zhang Jiazhen rather domineeringly told the reporters: "Red Cliff has never regarded other films as opponents, nor does it fear any opponent."

Upon hearing this, all the entertainment reporters present were stunned.

Although we don't know how Jiang Heng's Accursed Immortal will turn out next summer, based on his director's past performance, it will surely gross at least five or six hundred million.

You're taking the upper part of Red Cliff to compete against him in the same season—really, you're not afraid?

However, after the event ended, the media reporters hurried back to write their reports without mentioning it.

Zhang Jiazhen, Wu Yansen, and the other main creators, together with representatives of several major investors, had a meal together.

However, this time China Film Group did not participate in the production, while Beijing Film Factory was one of the twenty production companies involved.

Of course, the amount invested was not large, merely a token gesture.

As for this film, although the investment reaches six hundred million, only 150 million came from a few domestic companies; the rest mainly came from Japan's Avex, Korea's Showbox, Treasure Island's Zhonghuan International, and Xianggang's Standard Chartered Bank.

This time Wu Yansen also brought over the Hollywood model in which the producer, distributor, bank, and insurance company form an integrated guarantee for film financing; his own American company first secured completion insurance from a completion guarantor, and then Xianggang Standard Chartered Bank provided part of the loan for the film's shooting.

Therefore, regarding publicity and distribution, neither Wu Yansen nor Zhang Jiazhen will speak recklessly on impulse.

Because these publicity strategies and methods were negotiated with the representatives of the Japanese and Korean companies as well as Standard Chartered Bank, after all, the film's main investment comes from them.

And the publicity strategy of the Red Cliff publicity team is to extort Jiang Heng.

They don't explicitly say they will challenge Jiang Heng to a showdown, but merely mentioning it at the press conference is enough for reporters to imagine and write about it themselves.

Quite the contrary, with such pervasive publicity, audiences will know that Red Cliff will be released next summer, in the same slot and at the same level as Jiang Heng's Accursed Immortal.

At the banquet, the Korean company representative suddenly said: "Could we promote abroad that Red Cliff's visual effects will far surpass those of Jiang Heng's new film in the making, making it the pinnacle of Chinese-language cinema?"

Wu Yansen gave an embarrassed smile: "Putting it that way, the audience would probably find it hard to believe, and it might backfire!"

Zhang Jiazhen also said: "We shouldn't promote it that way; Jiang Heng has many fans, and overly exaggerated publicity could easily invite smears."

The Korean representative said rather regretfully: "I had thought this film could surpass Jiang Heng's previous works!"

The Japanese representative said: "We are merely using Jiang Heng's fame for publicity; we don't really intend to compete with him, so there's no need to do those things."

Zhang Jiazhen said: "Yes, Accursed Immortal should be released in mid-July; we only need to put ours out in early August to avoid its viewing peak."

The Japanese representative smiled with narrowed eyes: "This idea is really good—it saves a large publicity expense, not to mention, and the effect is still quite good!"

Zhang Jiazhen laughed and said: "Who let Jiang Heng be the domestic number one? Being number one naturally invites all kinds of 'challenges'; once our Red Cliff tops the domestic box office, others will surely try to extort us!"

"Hahaha!"

Everyone at the table burst out laughing, and they generally agreed with Zhang Jiazhen's words.

Mainly, Jiang Heng's domestic film box office has raised some filmmakers' box office expectations.

They would think Jiang Heng's films could gross seven or eight hundred million domestically; I, applying a 20% discount, still get five hundred million!

Zhang Jiazhen and his group's calculation is: Red Cliff released in two parts; even if each part only earns four or five hundred million, together they'd total ten to eight hundred million—surely enough.

By then, counting the two parts as a single film for external publicity, they would claim Red Cliff's total box office refreshes the domestic record, and surely someone would be pleased; the media especially loves reporting such record‑breaking, heart‑stirring stories.

As long as the publicity frequency is high enough and the coverage broad enough, audiences will gradually come to accept this.

And if Wu Yansen can secure the laurel of top domestic commercial film box office, later matters will be easier.

That would be to film China's own Titanic—the "Taiping".

Just like the Titanic, the Taiping incident also really happened; back then it belonged to the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, and its boss Cai Tiande was the father of Taiwan host Cai Kangyong.

Wu Yansen was naturally inspired by the Titanic, which gave him the idea to film the Taiping.

Old friend Zhang Jiazhen also views this project very favorably, believing that after Wu Yansen returns to domestic fame and profit with a Red Cliff, it would be better to raise funds to film the Taiping.

Because, according to their expectation, the film requires massive investment to achieve stunning effects and attain impressive results like those of the Titanic.

At this very moment, Red Cliff's box office and reputation are extremely important; extorting Jiang Heng is also unavoidable!

(End of chapter)