Rhino Entertainment Original
Text|Xiaofu Editor|Park Fang
An unexpected new film was finalized, which attracted the attention of netizens.
A few days ago, the reality movie "More than Endless" directed by Wang Jing and produced by Jia Zhangke announced that it will be released on March 24. The film, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival as early as September 2020, finally waited for the opportunity to be released in the mainland after two and a half years.
The reason for the backlog of this film is nothing more than two factors: one is the epidemic, and the other is censorship. Now, with the relaxation of controls, the impact of the former has almost zeroed, so the return of "More than Endless" is even more important in terms of symbolism at the censorship level.
Similar news has actually been circulating on the Internet for a while. The first part of "Fengshen " passed the review, "Rock Solid" and "Super Family" are expected to return... These key projects, which have become backlogs for one reason or another, have a tendency to freeze and thaw.
Now, with "More Than Endless" being the first to be finalized, people inside and outside the industry have once again picked up their vision for the backlog. Under the best circumstances, there will be many backlogs that have encountered similar problems that are expected to be released this year.
In this article, Rhino Jun sorted out six key inventory films that have been attracting much attention, on the one hand, compared to some projects that are far away, these six films have considerable hope of regaining the opportunity to be released; On the other hand, as a high-quality project with well-known creators, if these films can be released within this year, it will inevitably bring a significant boost to this year's market.
"Fengshen trilogy"
The "Fengsheng" trilogy may be the largest and the largest market potential among the existing backlogs, but it is also the most regrettable.
This series of films with a huge investment started as early as 2018, and it is planned to shoot the trilogy in one go in the form of a set shot, which will be released in 2020, 2021 and 2022 for three consecutive years. At that time, the producer of the "Fengsheng" trilogy was in the limelight in Beijing, and director Wuershan, who held "Painted Skin 2" and "Dragon Hunting", was also ambitious, the project was star-studded, and a large-scale starring audition was held - it was not an exaggeration to claim to benchmark the "Lord of the Rings" series.
But reality always does not develop as expected, from the outbreak of the new crown epidemic to the thunderstorm of Beijing culture, "Fengsheng" encountered gray swan events one after another. While the funds were tight in the later stage and the project production cycle was greatly lengthened, part of the revenue share of the film of the "Fengshen " trilogy was also sold by Beijing Culture in advance. The project has not progressed for a long time, and the film party has to become a "solar term blogger" to stay active as much as possible.
Now, Spring Yi has returned to the film market, and the "Fengsheng" trilogy has finally waited for a turnaround. A few days ago, some people related to the film hinted that the first part of "Fengshen " has successfully passed the review and is expected to enter this summer. Despite being dusted for three years, "Feng Shen" is still the most anticipated domestic fantasy blockbuster. The market needs "Fengshen "Fengshen ", and "Fengshen also needs the market".
"Rock Solid"
Director Zhang Yimou, who swept the market with "Manjiang Red" during this year's Spring Festival, has continued to be prolific in recent years, and during the epidemic period alone, four films have been released: "One Second", "Above the Cliff", "Sniper" and "Manjiang Red". But the only exception is "Rock Solid".
"Rock Solid" is the first police and bandit film directed by Zhang Yimou, which was completed as early as 2019 and was originally planned to be released in 2020, but it was actually only later than "One Second" in terms of shooting order. But three years have passed, Zhang Yimou has already made three new films, and "Rock Solid" still has no movement.
The reason behind this is actually not difficult to understand, from the trailer that has been released, it can be seen that the content of "Rock Solid" involves many sensitive contents such as official business, crime, corruption, and underworld forces. The content control of black-related projects has always been strict, and in the environment of tightening the approval threshold in previous years, "Rock Solid" was naturally shelved.
But the environment is likely to change a lot this year.
The same realistic theme "More than Endless" has already started the sentinel battle, and more projects with sensitive content but not stepping on the line in the follow-up will definitely have hope to wait for a turnaround. Through this year's Spring Festival, director Zhang Yimou has fully verified his commercial film strength, and "Rock Solid", which gathers a group of familiar faces such as Lei Jiayin, Zhang Guoli, Yu Hewei, Zhou Dongyu, etc., has considerable box office potential.
"Super Family"
The pity of "Super Family" may be second only to "Fengshen Trilogy". This explosive comedy blockbuster was supposed to be the top two seeds in last year's Spring Festival, but it suddenly announced its withdrawal less than a month before its release.
In this regard, the official version is that the post-production workload is huge and cannot be completed on schedule. However, for a happy twist comedy that has been promoted for a long time, what is the probability that it will not be finished until it is close to release? Netizens had different opinions for a while, and made various speculations, including that the content did not pass the approval.
Of course, it obviously doesn't make much sense to dwell on the reasons for leaving this film now, even according to the post-production reasons given by the photo side, "Super Family" should return this year.
"Flames on the Plain"
The film is adapted from Northeast writer Shuang Xuetao's novel "Moses on the Plain", produced by Diao Yinan, gathering Liu Haoran, Zhou Dongyu, Mei Ting, Yuan Hong, Lv Yulai and many other outstanding actors, is also a reality crime film that has attracted much attention.
The film first used the name of the original "Moses on the Plain" and was originally scheduled to be released on December 24, 2021. However, on the eve of its release, the film suddenly announced that it would be renamed "Flame on the Plain" and withdrawn five days before the original release schedule. After the withdrawal, "Flame on the Plain" has not been heard from so far, so most netizens speculate that it may be related to the content scale of the film.
However, interestingly, some time ago, another online drama of the same name adapted from "Moses on the Plain" has been successfully launched and has received a good Douban score of 7.7. Behind the release of this series, does it mean that "Flames on the Plain" may also be seen again?
"Wading Through the Sea of Rage"
Because the problem of scale is also buried deep in "Wading Through the Sea of Anger".
As the third film in Cao Baoping's "Burning Heart Series" series, the film is adapted from the novel of the same name written by writer Lao Huang, and is dominated by two well-known powerful actors, Huang Bo and Zhou Xun.
According to the synopsis, the film tells the story of fisherman Lao Jin's daughter Jin Lina studying in Japan, and then seeking revenge alone after her daughter's accidental death. The film once released a trailer in 2020 and announced that it would be released in the summer of 2021, but there has been no new action since then, and it is almost certain that the film failed to pass the approval because of the content.
Objectively speaking, the scale problem involved in "Wading in the Sea of Rage" is not a dead end, and the probability of getting the dragon standard re-set this year is not low. And considering that the film gathers the three major blockbuster elements of the director, famous actors and good stories, it belongs to the standard head suspense film team, if it can be successfully released this year, it will definitely stimulate the market recovery to a certain extent.
"749 Bureau"
Although the themes are different, "749 Bureau", which is also produced by Beijing Culture Main, is planted in the same pit as "Fengsheng".
"749 Bureau" is an action-adventure film shot by director Lu Chuan, which was inspired by his work experience in 749 Bureau after graduating from military school. In Lu Chuan's own words, "749 Bureau" is a teenager's growth adventure movie wrapped in a commercial film, and you can feel an eternal romance and hope under the "Hi Shuang Sugar Coating".
However, it is a pity that this film, which was completed as early as 2019, has only leaked a few posters so far, leaving the audience with the idea that Wang Junkai will lead the starring. Among the few rumors, "749 Bureau" seems to have suffered the same funding problems as "Fengshen ", which led to the delay in the completion of the film's later stage. To this end, the film's director Lu Chuan even did not hesitate to fill the project out of his own pocket.
But now, the larger and more dangerous "Fengshen " has new news, and perhaps the turning point of "749 Bureau" is not far away.
summary
There are many projects that have been finalized recently, so many that this traditional film market off-season has a feeling of being full. And the return of "More than Endless" has ignited our deeper expectations for this industry.
In this year of full recovery of the film market, we look forward to meeting more good films and looking forward to Chinese films returning to the top.