■ Will be responsible for the creative direction of the three films
■ Chairman Li Ruigang first talked about the oriental dream factory talent puzzle
1. Director Xu Chengyi's "To Catch a Demon" set a single box office record in China.
2. Xu Chengyi participated in the production of "Kung Fu Panda 3".
3. Xu Chengyi is known as the "father of monster Shrek".
Xu Chengyi holds the prototype white radish of the goblin Huba in "Catch the Demon".
On December 8, Oriental DreamWorks issued a press release announcing that Xu Chengyi, the director of "To Catch a Demon", who set a single box office record in China, will join Oriental DreamWorks as a film producer and senior creative consultant, responsible for the creative direction of the three films to be produced by Oriental DreamWorks.
Li Ruigang, chairman of Oriental DreamWorks and chairman of the Chinese Cultural Industry Investment Fund, said in an interview with a morning reporter on the same day: "China's animation home entertainment industry is undergoing fission-type development, and Oriental DreamWorks has always focused on using Hollywood's experience to produce world movies with Chinese elements and promote the overall upgrading of China's animation home entertainment industry since its inception. Mr. Xu Chengyi has gained rich professional accumulation through many successful works in the Chinese and Hollywood markets over the years, and has unique experience and rich experience in fully integrating Chinese and Western cultures and producing films loved by global audiences. Mr. Xu's joining is an important step in the systematic improvement of the creative production level of Oriental DreamWorks, and will play a positive role in cultivating local creative talents in China and promoting the overall development of China's animation industry. ”
Xu Chengyi said that "there is a feeling of home"
Xu Chengyi has a deep relationship with DreamWorks and Oriental DreamWorks. In 1989, he joined Pacific Digital Imaging (PDI) as an animator. With DreamWorks acquiring PDI, Xu Chengyi officially joined DreamWorks Animation in 2000. Since 1998, he has been involved in the production of several animated films as an animation director, including Ant Soldier, Shrek, and Shrek 2. Since 2007, Xu Chengyi has been promoted to director, co-directing "Shrek 3", and then directed the production of a number of animation specials and short films, including "The Secret of kung fu panda", "Shrek's Halloween Game", "Cat in Boots: Three Musketeers of Cute Cats" and so on.
Before the establishment of Oriental DreamWorks in 2012, Xu Chengyi came to Shanghai many times to coach the local animation team. In An interview with the Morning Post in June, he said, "I'm still a DreamWorks guy, and I'm theoretically the same, because I haven't terminated my contract." Three years ago, DreamWorks was going to open oriental dream factories in Shanghai, and I also helped bring new people. ”
In early November, the film "Kung Fu Panda 3" launched a huge publicity campaign in Beijing and Shanghai, creating momentum for the film's release in China on January 29 next year. At that time, When DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg was interviewed by a number of media in Beijing and Shanghai, Xu Chengyi accompanied him. Katzenberg told reporters at the time, "I very much hope to have further cooperation opportunities with Raman ." ”
In that press release, Katzenberg said: "Whether from an individual level or a corporate perspective, I would like to welcome Mr. Xu Chengyi back to the DreamWorks family. During his time at DreamWorks Animation, he played a pivotal role in the company's successful development. Now, Mr. Xu has become one of the most innovative people in the world to 'tell stories' with innovative thinking. We are very fortunate to have maintained a good cooperative relationship with Mr. Xu all along, and we look forward to continuing to deepen the cooperation between us through his joining Oriental DreamWorks." ”
Xu Chengyi said: "Oriental DreamWorks has the best film production team and is an ideal place for all animation filmmakers. I am very excited to be a member of Oriental DreamWorks and feel like I am coming home. I look forward to working with my colleagues at Oriental DreamWorks to produce more new and well-meaning works for audiences in China and around the world." ”
Oriental DreamWorks Animation Plan "Ambitious"
Li Ruigang said in an interview with the Morning Post reporter that he had discussed with Katzenberg a long time ago, and invited Xu Chengyi to join oriental dreamworks, "We cooperate with dreamworks, an important part is to enter the field of animation production, and now the first work of oriental dreamworks, "Kung Fu Panda 3", will be released on January 29 next year, which is a Sino-US co-production, after which we will produce original animation, and in terms of original animation, Jeffrey and I both think that Xu Chengyi is very suitable for this job." ”
Recently, Oriental DreamWorks has made a number of big moves in the introduction of talents, on November 10, Oriental DreamWorks appointed Zhou Peiling as the creative director of animation films, before joining Oriental DreamWorks, she served as vice president of the original drama department of Spike TV in the United States, and was responsible for the distribution and promotion of original animation programs as a core member of the start-up team. Previously, Zhou Peiling served as the director of research and development and the head of research and development in the animated film parts of nickelodeon and Disney in the United States. While working at Disney, her team produced classic animated films including Mulan, Toy Story 2, and Hercules.
Li Ruigang said, "Xu Chengyi will be the general manager of the next three films of Oriental DreamWorks, his work is more in terms of creativity and story, while Zhou Peiling is more focused on establishing an animation assembly line and the operation and management of the entire animation production." "We have now introduced twenty or thirty senior overseas talents from all over the world, of course, in terms of creativity, we may pay more attention to talents such as Xu Chengyi and Zhou Peiling, who have a Chinese background and long-term overseas work experience." ”
The reason for such a talent preference is that at the beginning of the establishment of Oriental DreamWorks, it had the ambition of "not only connecting with the international standards, but also facing the Greater China market". In an interview with the Morning Post on November 6, Katzenberg said that everyone who has seen the "Kung Fu Panda 3" sample film can't tell which parts of the film were made in Shanghai and which were done in Los Angeles, "This is undoubtedly a great achievement, this is world-class work, we made a great plan three years ago, and now we are moving in the right direction." ”
Katzenberg revealed the planning of Oriental DreamWorks in film and television production for the next five years, "Our future plan can be described as 'ambitious', it is divided into two parts - the first part is based on Shanghai-based animation, facing the Chinese market and exported to the world, they will be very grand and expensive, in fact, as early as a year and a half ago we have begun to work on one of the projects, should be officially announced to the world early next year, probably in mid-2018; the second part, We're also working on films for China's domestic market, one of which is about Son Goku, which could be released by the end of 2017. ”
Li Ruigang divided the animation production of Oriental DreamWorks into three categories, "the first type is Sino-US co-productions, such as "Kung Fu Panda 3", which is facing the global market; the second type is 'local production, Global Market', this is two of the three films that Xu Chengyi is responsible for, they will all be created in Shanghai, but for the global market, and it is dubbed in English, the future production should be 30 million to 70 million US dollars in cost, the two films have passed the early creative stage, and are expected to be released in 2018 and 2019; the third category is 'local production, Local market', this kind of film is dubbed Chinese, compared to the second category, the investment cost is relatively small, the production cycle will be faster, Xu Chengyi is responsible for one of the three films is this genre. ”
In Katzenberg's words, Oriental DreamWorks' current film production plan is precisely to build Oriental DreamWorks into a world-class home entertainment company in the next 10 to 20 years, so that its global status is "like the impact of Disney in the United States today in the world", and it is clear that Xu Chengyi's joining is a key part of this plan.
Input Editor: Li Qi