Chapter 133

The movie Cao Yang wanted to film was 'Painted Skin', but he had made some slight changes.

The movie 'Painted Skin' was a film shot by a Hong Kong director against the backdrop of Hong Kong filmmakers collectively moving north.

After its release, the film's reputation wasn't very good, but the box office was quite good, reaching over 200 million, ranking third in the domestic box office list in 2008, second only to 'Red Cliff' and 'If You Are the One'.

The place where everyone criticized the film the most at that time was that the content of the film was almost two different stories from 'Painted Skin' in 'Strange Tales', but the film, both before and after its release, had always been marketed as an adaptation of 'Strange Tales: Painted Skin'.

The story of 'Painted Skin' in 'Strange Tales', simply put, is about a scholar named Wang Sheng, who is married, meets a beautiful concubine on the road, is greedy for her beauty, keeps her in his study, and sings and dances every night.

He happens to meet a Taoist priest, and the priest tells him that he is full of evil energy and might be bewitched by a monster, but Wang Sheng doesn't believe him.

Returning to the study, he sees the door is bolted, so he climbs over the wall to get in, only to see the beautiful concubine taking off her human skin, turning into a wicked ghost, holding a brush in her hand and painting on the human skin. A moment later, she puts on the human skin and turns back into a beautiful concubine.

Wang Sheng is almost scared to death and hurriedly looks for the Taoist priest.

The Taoist priest gives Wang Sheng a whisk, intending to warn the painted-skin ghost.

Unexpectedly, the painted-skin ghost is ashamed and angry, cuts open Wang Sheng's stomach, takes out his heart, and leaves.

The Taoist priest is very angry that someone dared not give him face, so he kills the painted-skin ghost.

To save Wang Sheng, Wang Sheng's wife publicly swallows the phlegm of a hermit expert. After returning, the more she thinks about it, the more disgusted she feels, so she vomits... a heart, and Wang Sheng is saved, and everyone is happy.

The story of 'Painted Skin' in 'Strange Tales' and the story of the movie 'Painted Skin' cannot be said to have no relationship, but it can only be said that the relationship is not great.

The movie 'Painted Skin' is about a four-way love affair, a general, a demon hunter, a lizard demon, a former Wang family army leader...

Two men love one woman, the woman marries one of them, the frustrated one chooses to leave, the married man saves a painted-skin demon, and the painted-skin demon also falls in love with this man...

Except for using the gimmick of 'Painted Skin', both the story and the core are different.

The core of 'Painted Skin' in 'Strange Tales' is about retribution and desire.

The core of the movie 'Painted Skin' is not desire, but love; it's not sinking, but transcendence; it's not the intense and willful cold tone of the demon, but the forbearance and gentleness of the human warm tone.

The movie 'Painted Skin', leaving aside the gimmick of adaptation, is actually quite good as a commercial film.

What is the standard line for a commercial film?

First of all, the story must be told clearly.

On the basis of being able to tell the story clearly, it's best to have big scenes, the fight scenes must be exciting, the actors' performances shouldn't make people lose focus, the costumes, makeup, and props must be well done, the plot shouldn't drag, and it's best to have attractive stars...

These requirements were basically met by 'Painted Skin'.

Since Cao Yang didn't want people to think this film was an absurd adaptation, he simply didn't use the guise of an adaptation from the beginning, and even the film's name was changed to 'Nine-Tailed Fox'.

When writing the script, he added a bit of plot.

At the beginning of the film, it's on a misty mountain, with a little fox and a beautiful woman. The beautiful woman is the little fox's grandmother, an old fox.

It's just that the old fox appears in human form because she knows how to make painted skins, and the painted skin she often uses is the image of a beautiful woman.

The old fox tells the little fox about interesting things in the human world, and the little fox yearns for it, steals a painted skin from the old fox, and secretly goes down the mountain.

Because the little fox has limited magic power and cannot nourish the painted skin with her own magic power, she can only use human heart blood to warm it. This is the reason why she digs out people's hearts from time to time.

The subsequent plot is similar to the original plot, but in the later plot, she takes off the painted skin and is discovered by Wang Sheng's wife, Peirong. What is revealed is not a ghost, but a little fox.

So the film's name was changed to 'Nine-Tailed Fox'. As for why it's called 'Nine-Tailed Fox' instead of just 'Demon Fox' or 'Fox Demon', it's actually very simple: the name 'Nine-Tailed Fox' sounds a bit more high-class.

In fact, to fit the film title, Cao Yang didn't mind giving the little fox nine tails.

With the script changed like this, it seems the little fox has become the film's first protagonist.

Apart from the point of an animal becoming a demon, this film has no scenes or images that are difficult to pass the review.

As for the point of an animal becoming a demon, that's even easier to solve.

The higher-ups now want Cao Yang to quickly film a commercial movie to test the market, so as long as it's not a major matter of principle in the review, basically no one dares to block it.

Besides, at worst, when reporting for review, we can just say it's an adaptation of 'Strange Tales', and no one will make things difficult for us, but we just won't mention this point during the film's release and promotion.

Since we want to film a commercial movie, we definitely need to set up a company or studio.

Cao Yang even specifically went to ask Hou Ke-ming, because he was currently on the payroll of the Youth Film Studio, and he didn't know if there were any relevant regulations.

Hou Ke-ming waved his hand: "Go ahead and register. There are many public officials opening companies outside now; this has no impact."

"Are there no non-compete restrictions?" Cao Yang asked. This had to be clarified so as not to cause trouble in the future.

Hou Ke-ming shook his head like a rattle: "It's not a high-tech industry with confidentiality obligations. Don't worry, there are no non-compete restrictions."

After pondering for a moment, Hou Ke-ming continued: "If you're worried, you can set up a personal studio, or open a company in the name of a relative."

"However, opening a personal studio is an open and aboveboard thing, so it's fine. Opening a company in the name of a relative, if exposed, always gives people a feeling of being sneaky, which is criticized and is not the best choice."

Cao Yang thought for a moment. Although many public officials and big stars in later generations opened many companies in the name of relatives, it did indeed give people a feeling of being sneaky and left a bad impression. Then let's set up a personal studio first. At worst, we can use that American company to invest later and turn it into a Sino-US co-produced blockbuster.

In the following days, Cao Yang began to gather personnel, and Hou Ke-ming also brought people to participate. Moreover, Boss Han of China Film Group definitely wanted to invest, so he also brought people over. For this kind of task-oriented film, he was the one pushing it on the surface.

Because everyone was on the same team, after breaking down the script, the calculations based on scenes and props didn't have much discrepancy.

Finally, the conclusion was reached: without calculating the actors' salaries, and leaving aside promotion and distribution, because some special effects needed to be done, the investment amount for this film would fluctuate around 40 million.

This 40 million included the staff's wages, as well as various expenses for the following six months or so.

As for promotion and distribution, let's tentatively set it at 20 million.

In terms of actors' salaries, keep it within 15 million.

Adding these up, it's 75 million.

The former 'Painted Skin' claimed an investment of 15 million US dollars, which, according to the 2007 exchange rate, was about 115 million, spending 40 million more than Cao Yang's version.

In fact, it spent more than 40 million more. Cao Yang's director salary was much higher than the Hong Kong director at that time, and in terms of actors' salaries, it was impossible to reach 15 million.

Don't look at the fact that China Film Group might invest the bulk of the money for this film; the one in control was still Cao Yang, or rather, Cao Yang's studio.

!

The film's copyright also remained with Cao Yang's studio.

Regarding this point, the Youth Film Studio had no opinion; they invested 15 million and wanted a 20% share.

China Film Group originally wanted to raise an opinion, but this was a task film, the kind that had to be invested in, so they had no opinion.

China Film Group invested 30 million, occupying a 40% share.

Cao Yang invested 20 million, and his director salary and script salary were converted into 10 million, totaling 30 million, occupying a 40% share and owning all copyrights.

Cao Yang's 10 million director and screenwriter salary was actually already a very friendly price. Before he won the Cannes Palme d'Or, he could get a director salary of 2 million US dollars in Hollywood.

Now it would only be higher. If he filmed a movie in Hollywood, quoting 3 million US dollars, many companies would definitely be willing to pay this money.

The exchange rate in 2003 was about 8.27, which converts to nearly 25 million.

Of course, generally, it definitely couldn't be calculated according to Hollywood standards in China, but halving it was still possible.

So Cao Yang converting it into 10 million was already very conscientious, and this was still because everyone was on the same team.

If private or foreign capital entered, Cao Yang's quote definitely wouldn't be just this.

With the funds in place, the next step was to prepare while selecting actors.

Regarding the choice for Wang Sheng, Cao Yang once had an impulse to try it himself. The purpose was to add an immersive experience for himself to see what it felt like.

He had always been quite curious about the trash system and didn't know if it could add an immersive experience for him.

This wasn't urgent either; he'd see if he had time later and talk about it then.

Cao Yang opened the system to see how much fame had increased during this period.

Host: Cao Yang

Current Fame: 1,816,785

Available Fame: 516,785

Immersive Experience: +0

Film being filmed: 'Nine-Tailed Fox'

Previously, there was a little over 100,000 available fame. The Cannes Palme d'Or added 300,000, the three Golden Rooster awards added 60,000, and there was the addition after 'Secret Sunshine' was released, totaling over 400,000.

Adding an immersive experience to a commercial film always feels like it's not worth it. You can't win awards, and relying solely on the box office, the fame added is really limited.

According to the experience of these few films, Cao Yang had a rough understanding: a box office of over 10 million to 50 million should add 50,000 fame. He didn't know if this upper limit was 50 million or 100 million.

After this 'Nine-Tailed Fox' is released, he'll probably know.

It seems that if it's a commercial film, adding an immersive experience and not winning an award means you can only rely on a particularly high box office to break even.

During this period, the school held a grand press conference, and many reporters came, including those from CCTV.

At first, it was still a press conference after Cao Yang won the Cannes Palme d'Or. In the second half, the school took the lead and gave the distinguished professor's appointment letter to Cao Yang in front of the reporters.

Several major school leaders spoke one after another, showing the teaching achievements of the Beijing Film Academy. The general meaning was: we cultivated a student who won the Golden Lion and the Palme d'Or while in school; our school is very awesome, and you can't find a second one in the whole world.

Cao Yang was a bit embarrassed; they were bragging too hard in front of so many reporters.

Hmm, bragging about the Beijing Film Academy at the three major European film festivals seems to have paid off.

If there's a chance next time, I'll continue to brag; everyone achieves each other.

(End of chapter)