Zou Wenhuai worked in the journalism industry in his early years and made considerable achievements. It was in the late 1950s that he entered Shaw Brothers under the introduction of a friend, and was highly appreciated by his boss for his outstanding language talent and intelligence.

At his peak, his influence in Shaw Brothers was higher than that of his boss Shao Liuye. Many Shaw Brothers staff only knew Zou Wenhuai but not Shao Liuye.

This is also one of the two fundamental reasons that caused Zou Wenhuai to leave Shaw Brothers - his great achievements surpassed his master.

Another reason is that Zou Wenhuai was dissatisfied with Shaw's harsh treatment of employees and proposed the idea of ​​dividends to the boss, but he was suppressed by Mr. Shao Liu. In the late 1960s, Miss Fang was introduced to check and balance Zou Wenhuai.

Therefore, Zou Wenhuai's generosity towards celebrities after he founded Jiahe was probably due to his mentality of "I have been caught in the rain, but I still want to hold an umbrella for others."

Of course, in business, as a boss, he is willing to pay dividends to his stars, mostly because these stars can make money for him.

Otherwise, why doesn't he pay dividends to the behind-the-scenes team?

If we make an analogy between the three hegemons in the Hong Kong film industry, Shaw Brothers is that all living beings are equal, regardless of the stars, famous directors, or famous screenwriters, they are all bullshit to me.

As for Jiahe, Zou Wenhuai learned from his experience in Shaw Brothers and regarded stars as the primary productive force.

But his thinking also has limitations. Otherwise, why would New Art City rise in just two or three years?

Because New Art City has captured something that Zou Wenhuai ignored, that is, compared to stars, the behind-the-scenes production team is a more important productivity.

By analogy, it is not difficult to find that the three overlords represent the three development stages of the Hong Kong film industry.

This time Xu Guanwen wanted to transform, so he brought in Lin Chaoyang and Li Hanxiang, and agreed to the dividend and investment requirements of these two people behind the scenes. This was not in line with Jiahe's long-standing style, but was a bit like the approach of his rival New Art City.

The reason why Boss Zou agreed was because it was an attempt.

Entering 1985, Shaw Brothers is already waning. More than half of the first half of the year has passed, and so far, none of the films produced by Shaw Brothers has grossed more than 10 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office.

Not only is the local box office showing a decline, but so is the overseas market.

In March this year, Shao Renmei passed away due to illness. He was the "brother" of "Shaw Brothers". In 1958, he and Run Run Shaw jointly established Shaw Brothers Pictures (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd.

For more than 20 years, the two brothers have worked together sincerely to establish the Shaw Brothers in the Hong Kong film industry, and their influence radiates to Southeast Asia.

After Shao Renmei's death, coupled with the company's declining performance year after year, there have been rumors recently that Shao Liuye has intended to close Shaw Brothers Pictures.

Now that Shaw is old, there is no need to worry anymore.

Jiahe is in its prime and Xinyi City is at its peak. The next few years in the Xiangjiang film industry will surely be a battle between Chu and Han for hegemony.

So at this stage, Boss Zou must unite all the forces that can be united to deal with the challenges of New Art City.

Xu Guanwen wanted to take the lead in Xu Guanwen's transformation work, so he brought in Li Hanxiang and Lin Chaoyang, and Zou Wenhuai was happy to see it come to fruition.

On the one hand, it shares the risk of Jiahe's investment. On the other hand, Boss Zou also wants to try the New Art City approach, increase investment in behind-the-scenes talents, and see what the returns are like and whether it is worth his investment.

Several people talked in detail in Zou Wenhuai's office for more than an hour and finalized some specific details of film investment and production.

The investors of the new film include four parties, including Golden Harvest Films, Xu's Films, New Kunlun Pictures and Lin Chaoyang. The total investment in the film is HK$5.5 million, with an investment ratio of 4:3:2:1 respectively.

Among them, Lin Chaoyang invested HK$550,000 at a discounted price of the script and enjoyed an equal share of dividends.

"As for the choice of director, I plan to let Xu Anhua come. What do you think?"

After discussing the investment share, Zou Wenhuai asked everyone for their opinions on the director selection.

Xu Anhua is one of the new directors emerging from the new wave of Hong Kong films. In recent years, he has directed such masterpieces as "The Story of Hu Yue" and "Journey to the Angry Sea".

Not only did it gain a good reputation, but it also performed surprisingly well at the box office, giving her an excellent reputation in the industry.

Xu Anhua is not tied to any film and television company. In recent years, he has cooperated with major film and television companies in Hong Kong. For example, he worked with Shaw Brothers on "Love in a Fallen City" last year, and he participated in "The Five Lucky Stars" the year before last.

Cooperated with Jiahe.

This choice was obviously discussed between Zou Wenhuai and Xu Guanwen. Lin Chaoyang had no objections. In his impression, Xu Anhua had always been the kind of director with stable output.

Except for the two movies she made after her old age, which were a bit ridiculous and cliche, most of the time the quality of the movies she created was quite high.

"Wen Huai, actually I..."

As soon as Li Hanxiang opened his mouth, Lin Chaoyang knew that he was still evil and coveted the right to direct the movie.

Zou Wenhuai frowned as he listened to Li Hanxiang's thoughts, "Have you not been tinkering with historical films? You have never been exposed to such modern themes, so don't force yourself."

Zou Wenhuai almost pointed at Li Hanxiang's nose and said, "You must have a bit of a bad conscience." Being looked down upon by his old friend, Lao Li couldn't help but feel resentful.

"Anna Hsu's photos may not be as good as mine!"

He made a sour remark, and his psychology at this time was probably somewhat similar to Ah Q's, but no one paid him any attention.

Zou Wenhuai added: "I am just trying to get angry with Xu Anhua. In the end, whether she will accept the movie or not depends on the script."

At this point, his eyes fell on Lin Chaoyang, and Lin Chaoyang immediately understood what he meant, "The script will be out within a week."

Zou Wenhuai nodded with satisfaction, while Li Hanxiang muttered: "She was picky and picky."

"After the script is finalized, we can invite her out for a formal discussion."

"good."

Everyone was chatting, but it was almost noon. Zou Wenhuai planned to invite a few people out for a meal, but by chance, a smart fat man walked into his office.

"Zou Sheng!"

"Sanmao!"

Sanmao is Sammo Hung’s nickname. Zou Wenhuai took Sammo Hung and introduced him enthusiastically to Lin Chaoyang and others.

Sammo Hung said hello to several people one by one, but there was a bit of worry on his face, as if he had something important to talk to Zou Wenhuai, and had no intention of talking to Lin Chaoyang and others. Lin Chaoyang and the others said goodbye upon seeing this.

After a few people left Zou Wenhuai's office, Li Hanxiang asked Xu Guanwen with a smile: "Sanmao is probably about the dividends from other places, right?"

In the Hong Kong film industry, people say that Boss Zou is generous to his stars, but this generosity has certain conditions.

Golden Harvest has always been happy to pay the local box office share in Xiangjiang, but when it comes to out-of-town box office share and copyright buyout share, the efficiency is very low.

Of course, there are restrictions from the external environment, but in the final analysis, we still can’t let go of this big piece of meat. These days, the overseas revenue of Hong Kong films is much greater than that of the local film industry.

"I hope Boss Zou won't play such tricks with us." Li Hanxiang said quietly.

Xu Guanwen said with an embarrassed look on his face: "The overseas income is a bit slow, but at any rate, it is always paid."

Li Hanxiang smiled. With his status in the world, he was not afraid of Zou Wenhuai's delay in not paying him.

Xu Guanwen looked at Lin Chaoyang, fearing that the conversation between the two just now would arouse Lin Chaoyang's concern, but Lin Chaoyang's expression remained as usual, making it difficult to guess what he was thinking.

A few days later, Lin Chaoyang finished writing the script and called Xu Guanwen to make an appointment.

The venue for this meeting was not the office building in Golden Harvest, but a coffee shop called Hoi On Coffee Shop in Sheung Wan.

It is said to be a coffee shop, but in fact it also operates a tea restaurant business. This is also the business habit of coffee shops opened in the 1960s and 1970s.

When Lin Chaoyang arrived, Xu Guanwen had already arrived, and Li Hanxiang was busy with the later stages of "Fire Dragon" and did not come today.

The two sat in the cafe, sipping coffee and chatting for a while, before Xu Anhua arrived.

Among the directors, Xu Anhua is very young. She has a mushroom head with ears and plain cloth shoes. Even wearing glasses cannot hide the dark circles under her eyes.

After saying hello, Xu Anhua's eyes fell on Lin Chaoyang, with curiosity flashing in his eyes.

When Zou Wenhuai contacted her a few days ago, he had already talked about the general situation of this movie. The comedy king wanted to change his career and found a mainland screenwriter. He also wanted to hire her, a female director who specializes in literary films. It was interesting to think about it.

After a few pleasantries, Xu Guanwen handed the script to Xu Anhua, "Anhua, please read the script first."

Xu Anhua received the script without any packaging, just ordinary manuscript paper. Even the text was in simplified Chinese characters. His writing habits were completely different from those in Xiangjiang.

She didn't care about these details, her eyes were fixed on the name of the script

——"The Truman Show".

Lin Chaoyang still insisted on the domestic translation of later movies, rather than the literal English translation of "The Truman Show" or "Reality Show".

Xu Anhua had already heard Xu Guanwen describe the general plot of the movie before, and now that she could finally see the complete script, she was full of expectations.

She opened the script and lit a cigarette for herself out of habit. Her eyes on the script followed the words, and her brows knitted together from time to time.

Today is the first time that Xu Guanwen and Xu Anhua have seen the complete script. It is estimated that they will have to read it for a while. Lin Chaoyang drank coffee leisurely and got up from time to time to move around.

After waiting for almost two hours, the two finally finished reading the script one after another.

Although he had known the outline of the script for a long time and was very confident in the finished product, Xu Guanwen was still full of surprises after actually reading the script.

"Lin Sheng, the character Truman was written so well!"

Unlike Xu Guanwen's surprise, Xu Anhua's brows furrowed even more after watching the movie. She sat there thinking for a long time.

"Lin Sheng, when you were writing this script, what was your preset style for it?"

Xu Anhua's question got to the point. She is a director. Unlike Xu Guanwen, who is an actor and focuses more on the characters, she must consider the integrity and style of the story.

A man with a sound and mature mind has lived in a reality show for thirty or forty years without realizing it. The core of "The Truman Show" is undoubtedly very sci-fi and thriller.

But when Xu Anhua read the script, he also discovered that Lin Chaoyang completely abandoned the science fiction color when writing it, and did not deliberately amplify the horror at the core of the story.

He replaced the darkness and depression that the script should have shown with a sunny atmosphere and brisk pace, making the overall atmosphere of the story relaxed.

It should be said that what the current script presents is more comedy than plot, and it maintains relative restraint, which does not diminish the seriousness and ideological nature of the script itself.

"In terms of style, I'd say light comedy. The core of this script is already heavy enough. If it were written too deeply, it would be too heavy from the perspective of the audience, which would also be detrimental to the release of our film."

Xu Anhua nodded slightly after listening to Lin Chaoyang's words, but she did not fully agree with Lin Chaoyang's words.

If Xu Anhua was asked to write this script, she would definitely keep digging along the original horror core and explore human nature in depth.

She also doesn't believe that as a creator, Lin Chaoyang would voluntarily give up the original plot tension that has extremely strong malleability.

Thinking that this was Xu Guanwen's transformational work, Xu Anhua guessed that he must have put a lot of pressure on Lin Chaoyang, which made Lin Chaoyang compromise on the script.

What a pity...

If Lin Chaoyang had created it according to his own ideas and the original core and context of the script, how amazing this script would have been!

She thought this in her mind, sighed imperceptibly, and even shook her head unconsciously.

This made Xu Guanwen, who had been paying attention to her, feel uncertain. Could it be that such a script could not satisfy her?

As everyone knows, Xu Anhua was not dissatisfied with the script, but with him as the leading actor!
Chapter completed!