In 1998, Zhang Yimou participated in the Cannes Film Festival with "No One Less". However, at the Cannes Film Festival, this film about out-of-school children was criticized for being a positive propaganda for the government.

Zhang Yimou was so angry that he withdrew from the Cannes Film Festival and issued an open letter to express his dissatisfaction, believing that this was a prejudice against Chinese films.

Because of this withdrawal incident, the relationship between Zhang Yimou and Cannes fell to a freezing point. Fortunately, he had won the Palme d'Or before and had no regrets about the Cannes Film Festival. Therefore, Zhang Yimou has never been to the Cannes Film Festival since then.

Of course, this is a story for later.

After withdrawing from the Cannes Film Festival, Zhang Yimou took "No One Less" to the Venice Film Festival, where he won many awards including the Golden Lion Award, the UNICEF Award, the Magic Moment Award, the Sergio Terrassati Award, etc. awards.

In addition, "No One Left Behind" has also received strong support from the government because it complies with the government's policy of popularizing compulsory education and saving out-of-school children.

The National Copyright Administration issued a special copyright protection notice. This is the first time that China has implemented copyright protection for domestic films. Although the effect is not necessarily great, it is of great significance.

In addition, this film is also an educational film for teenagers and has entered campuses with unprecedented influence. This is undoubtedly a good thing for Zhang Yimou and even Kirin Pictures.

Xiang Nan also returned the favor. Not only did he donate all the box office of "No One Less" to Project Hope. He also invested 1 million yuan to build a Hope Primary School at the filming location of "No One Less" to help children achieve their dreams. School dream.

After the news spread, it greatly benefited Xiang Nan's reputation.

…

In 1998, Feng Xiaogang and Zhang Yimou each came up with new scripts and prepared for filming.

What Feng Xiaogang showed was "Endless", which was a script he came up with while chatting with his friends. It tells the story of a bus driver, Han Dong, who asks his boss for a debt. It quite reflects reality.

In fact, he originally wanted to film "In Embarrassment" by Wang Tie, which tells the story of a middle-aged man having an extramarital affair.

But at that time, Wang Tie aroused the resentment of many people in the literary world because he was too high-profile. His novels were criticized as ruffian literature, and he himself was also criticized as a rogue writer.

Wang Tie was not a boss who was willing to suffer losses, so he started scolding others. The two sides started to argue in newspapers and magazines, and even talked to the media, which caused a very bad impact.

In addition, Wang Tie has been controversial since the beginning of his career. Now that something like this has happened again, he has been banned in disguise. Even if his novels, essays, and scripts are written, no one dares to publish them. use.

Feng Xiaogang's script was adapted from his novel, so naturally it couldn't be used. It couldn't pass the review and couldn't get a license. So Feng Xiaogang did the next best thing and came up with this "Endless".

What Zhang Yimou came up with was "My Father and Mother". This script was adapted from the novel "In Memory" by writer Bao Shi. After the novel was released in 1998, Zhang Yimou noticed it.

He was still filming "No One Left Behind" at the time, so he called Bao Shi to a mountain village to discuss writing the script with him. The environment of the mountain village was quiet and quiet, and the two of them wrote the script just in time.

…

After Xiang Nan read these two scripts, he thought they were well written, so he directly approved the filming.

However, he still gave some suggestions on the selection of actors.

The original version of "My Father and Mother" starred Zheng Hao as the leading actor. Xiang Nan recommended Xu Zheng and Duan Yihong to Zhang Yimou because they had more potential to become popular and deserved to be cultivated with great efforts.

As for the female lead, Xiang Nan still proposed that Zhang Ziyi should play the role. This is also a good opportunity for her.

In "Endless", Feng Xiaogang planned to use Hong Kong and Taiwanese actress Wu Qianlian to play the heroine. Because at that time, domestic directors did not believe in the box office and ratings appeal of mainland actors, and they were more willing to use Hong Kong and Taiwanese artists as the leading actors.

For example, the heroine Guan Zhilin of "Big Shot", the starring Andy Lau and Liu Ruoxiao of "A World Without Thieves", the male protagonist Wu Yanzu of "The Banquet", the heroine Shu Qi of "If You Are the One", the starring actors of "Hero" are Liang Chaowei, Zhang Manyu, Donnie Yen, Jet Li, " Starring Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro of "House of Flying Daggers", Starring Zhou Runfa and Jay Chou of "The Golden Armor"...

Xiang Nan disagrees with this.

To be honest, the entertainment industry in Hong Kong and Taiwan has been in sharp decline since the late 1990s. Regardless of the actors, directors, or behind the scenes, it cannot be said that the talent has been exhausted and the glory is no longer there, but they are still far from their golden period. Far.

Rather than believing in their abilities, it would be better to invest these resources in young mainland actors, which would make it easier to cultivate new box office stars.

Therefore, Xiang Nan stopped Feng Xiaogang's approach and cast Chen Hao as the star instead.

Chen Hao is much more beautiful than Wu Qianlian, and her acting skills are also good. She is quite suitable to play the heroine.

In the end, both Zhang Yimou and Feng Xiaogang accepted Xiang Nan's suggestion.

Zhang Yimou finally chose Duan Yihong and Zhang Ziyi, while Feng Xiaogang chose Ge You, Chen Hao and Fu Biao.

…

At the end of 1998, various TV series were scheduled again.

Zhao Baogang is preparing to film the TV series "Like Fog, Like Rain and Like Wind" adapted from Zhang Yongchen's novel of the same name; Gao Xixi is preparing to film "Li Wei Becomes an Official", a spin-off of "Yongzheng Dynasty"; Kong Sheng is preparing to film "The Chinese New Year", which is also about life. ; Kang Honglei started filming "The Sky of History"; Zhang Guoli started filming "Kangxi Private Interview 2"; Ouyang Fenqiang started filming "The Intern"...each has its own thing to do.

Xiang Nan didn't interfere too much. On the one hand, several directors were already experienced, and they couldn't afford to keep staring at him every day and giving him advice. On the other hand, after getting along for a long time, everyone knew his character and hobbies, and they couldn't afford to continue to give him advice. .

Therefore, Xiang Nan just cast Xu Zheng in "Li Wei as an Official" and also cast Jiang Qinqin as the heroine.

This made Xu Zheng very happy. After he signed a contract with Kirin Pictures in 1997, he filmed "The Years of Passion" that year, playing the eldest son Shi Lin; in 1998, he played Li Wei in "Yongzheng Dynasty" and also He played a supporting role in "The God of Wealth". Now he is officially the protagonist, which naturally makes him very happy.

Xiang Nan is also happy that Ouyang Fenqiang's "The Intern" actually selected Gao Yuanyuan as the heroine, which added a new blood to the company.

Zhao Baogang's "Like Fog, Like Rain and Like Wind" discovered two artists, Lu Yi and Li Xiaoran, who also contributed to the company.

Xiang Nan originally didn't want to sign too many artists. Because there are too many people, there is chaos, there is drought, and too many chickens can't lay eggs. If there are too many artists, it will be difficult to achieve a balance, and it will inevitably favor one over the other, and it will be easy to become alienated from the company.

However, these talents were so good that he was reluctant to let them go, so he signed them all in the end.
Chapter completed!