As mentioned last time, the rapidly rising New Art City Film Company, under the proposal of Xu Ke, tried to attract Xu Guanjie, who is a superstar in the film world, to join in the next major play. But Xu Guanjie offered an intolerable remuneration, and it was not an easy task to win over the trump card of the number one competitor Jiahe Film.
Around 1980, 1 million pieces of remuneration was already the top salary, and Xu Guanjie actually doubled it directly.
Originally, Mai Jia planned to make a big production that integrated the "007" elements, and the car chase scene alone would have to invest a lot, how could there be 2 million space?
However, the unfortunate Robinson was able to find luck in the desperate desert island and survive, and McGonaga's difficulty was not inexplicable.
The first good thing is that Lei Juekun, the big boss of the Golden Princess Theater Line, the owner of the New Art City, is not bad for money, plus the previous films are very successful, and he is willing to invest more;
The second good thing is that Xu Guanjie and Jiahe are actually not deeply bound, probably because he still has to develop in the music world, and has a record date with Poly Gold, and the film is just a routine cooperation with his brother Xu Guanwen. It was precisely when Xu Ke heard this that he dared to ask Xu Guanjie.
Another more critical good thing is that Xu Guanwen does not want to continue to cooperate with Xu Guanjie.
What's going on?
Years later, he revealed on Huang Xia's show "No Defense Tonight" that he felt tired of shooting in the same comedy style and wanted to try something new.
New things mean taking risks, and there is a possibility of failure, and he is afraid that if he does not do well, it will affect the reputation of his brothers.
So, he chose to come later on his own.
With "Modern Bodyguard" to break the box office record again, Xu Guanwen was also crowned the first Academy Awards film emperor, he reached an unprecedented peak.
The thing should be that after the new art city invited Xu Guanjie, Xu Guanjie asked Xu Guanwen's opinion. Xu Guanwen took the opportunity to put forward the idea of "flying alone" to seek innovative breakthroughs.
Anyway, Xu Guanjie thus had the opportunity to leave, which also became a turning point for the Xu brothers from the peak to the downhill.
The rest is a matter of money.
Strictly speaking, it is a question of whether it is worth it or not.
Giving up Xu Guanjie is a relatively safe choice.
But at this time, the new art city, is it required to be stable?
If yes, then it is better to continue to make small-cost comedies, so why engage in a big battle of the Hong Kong version of "007"?
Mai Jia wants to win.
Even if Xu Guanjie stole the limelight from him, if he could win the battle against Jiahe, his achievements would be very remarkable.
Lei Juekun must also know that the greater the risk, the greater the return.
Moreover, losing millions of dollars is just tickling for him.
It is rare to have a popular superstar willing to cooperate, and maybe after a while he will not be popular.
Don't dry at this time, let alone when.
With the addition of Xu Guanjie, Mai Jia is not the only protagonist, and the original title of "Skinhead Detective" is not very appropriate.
Since it is two male protagonists, it is better to call it "Best Partner".
Xu Guanjie's 2 million is not in vain, he is integrated into the collective creation mode of "Seven Monsters of New Art City", the performance is very hard, and he also composes and lyrics himself, tailor-made a theme song of the same name for the film, and uses his musical influence to provide a powerful firepower output for the promotion of the film.
In addition to the action scenes, another feature of the "007" movie is "Bang Girl".
Then you have to find an actress to play "Bald Girl".
Among the seven monsters, there is only one woman, Shi Nansheng, but she is only responsible for the administration behind the scenes, and acting is not good. Since the 1970s, Hong Kong movies have been dominated by kung fu action, and male actors are in charge, and it is really difficult to find an actress with enough weight for a while.
There was no way, so I had to look somewhere else.
It just so happened that Xu Ke's "Ghost Horse Wisdom Multi-Star" was nominated for the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards, and everyone had to go to Taipei in October.
It was the Golden Horse Awards in 1981, and Xu Ke won the best director and became famous.
The best actress was won by Zhang Aijia.
So why not just look for Zhang Aijia?
Definitely enough.
Zhang Aijia filmed in Hong Kong in the 1970s and was once an actor under Jiahe.
In 1979, Xu Anhua's new wave masterpiece "Crazy Robbery", the heroine is her.
It turned out to be the old fritters of Hong Kong films, and this cooperation matter is not difficult to do.
With the two strong reinforcements of Xu Guanjie and Zhang Aijia, there are big scenes, and the "007" movie has been very hot in the past few years, proving that this modern action crime is very popular, and the box office prospects of "Best Partner" are very good.
However, in the face of Jackie Chan, who represented Jiahe, the Golden Princess felt that it was still not enough.
It's just that the film is no longer strong in all aspects, and it has been produced to the final stage, what else can it do?
After the film is produced, there is still a release stage, and it is at the distribution stage that work hard.
After spending a lot of money to invite Xu Guanjie, the Golden Princess did a rather risky thing.
"Best Partner" will be released.
That is really a no-no-no, in case the box office does not work, Jackie Chan's fresh release occupies the golden time advantage, and the end is a complete fiasco.
"Best Partner" was released on January 16, 5 days earlier than Jiahe's "Young Master Long".
When the audience saw this new Hong Kong film genre, it was indeed the same as "007", which caused a warm response.
Jackie Chan is certainly not a vegetarian either.
In the face of the strong momentum of the opponent, "Dragon Young Master" still got 17.936 million, breaking the best record of Jiahe.
It's just that "Best Partner" has no one to stop.
26.044 million.
For the first time, Hong Kong films broke through 20 million, which greatly refreshed the historical box office record of the Hong Kong market.
Then the summer file, Christmas file, Jiahe was unable to return to heaven, and was terminated by the new art city for two consecutive hegemonies.
There's something worse.
New Art City launched "Difficult Brothers and Difficult Brothers" in the summer file to kill 16.72 million, and in the autumn file in October, there was also a "Little Afraid to Be Afraid" that won 13.92 million.
And Jiahe Hong Jinbao Christmas file's "Scary People" is only in the early 10 million, which is a whole year has been comprehensively compared.
Jiahe, who has suffered a great defeat, how will he turn the situation around in the next year?
New Art City and Golden Princess did not expect that in the Spring Festival of 1983, Jiahe found a helper to fight against the sequel of "Best Partner", and it was actually their comrades-in-arms.
He is Xu Ke.
It is said that Xu Ke won the Golden Horse Award for Best Director with "Ghost Horse Wisdom Multi-Star", perhaps it was this award that inspired his artistic pursuit as a New Wave director, or perhaps he felt that the time had come.
The main purpose of coming to New Art City to shoot comedy is to eat a full meal.
The so-called warm thinking dreams, Xu Ke wants to engage in some of the subjects he wants to shoot.
Like fairy fantasy or something.
"Best Partner" learned "007" to engage in action scenes is not very successful?
Then you can learn the computer stunts of "Star Wars".
However, the market hegemony of New Art City has not yet been secured, trying new themes means taking risks, and computer special effects are not cheaper than asking Xu Guanjie.
Before, in order to defeat Jiahe, he only ventured to try.
Now that victory has been achieved, there is no need to take any more big risks.
The sequel to "Best Partner" is the best choice to continue to compete in the Spring Festival file.
Sure to shoot this one, sorry, then there is no money to do any computer special effects.
Not long after Xu Ke was disappointed, Jiahe smelled the wind.
You can dig us Xu Guanjie, we can't dig you Xu Ke?
This time, it was Jiahe's turn to spend a lot of money and take the risk. For Xu Ke's idea, the big boss Zou Wenhuai accepted everything according to the order, and also personally served as a producer, inviting the special effects team of "Star Wars" to help.
Doing it, Xu Ke's "Shushan: New Shushan Swordsman" has become a super big production.
The main actor is the male number one who broke the Taiwan Provincial ratings record "Chu Liuxiang", and Zheng Shaoqiu, who is very good at martial arts themes;
There are also the main action stars Hong Jinbao and Yuan Biao strongly assisted in the performance;
The total investment is known as 30 million!
Does it still need to be said, it must be on the Spring Festival stall!
I don't know if Xu Ke knew that he was going to go to the Spring Festival file when he was shooting, he returned to the New Art City after filming, and made a cameo appearance in the Spring Festival blockbuster "Best Partner 2: Great Magic" in the New Art City.
According to the old rules of the collective creation of the seven monsters of the new art city, he should also participate in the choreography and directing together.
In any case, the two blockbusters are inevitably going to have a deadly battle.
Jiahe also had to regain his hegemonic position at all costs, and "Shushan: New Shushan Swordsman" was menacing, which was completely inferior to the previous year's "Best Partner".
Even if the original team returns, "Best Partner 2" can't help but feel a lot of pressure.
What will be the result of this great war, and what impact will it have on the fate of Xu Ke and New Art City?
Listen to the next breakdown.