"But if that's the case, there will be a lot of problems!" Jon Landau shook his head and said, "The first movie has so many plots. I'm afraid the duration of the movie will exceed 150 minutes!"
"That's not enough. Give it 180 minutes. Just like the first Lord of the Rings movie, we'll give it three hours!" Boss Jia said.
"Three hours!" Jon Landau was even more hesitant.
According to the long-term experience of the United States' movie market, two hours was the perfect length for a movie. If the movie was longer than that, it would give rise to a lot of problems.
For example, the audience's attention would drop, they would become impatient, and they would not be able to stand the long plot. Also, the number of screenings would be reduced every day, and the ticket price would be higher, which would lead to a decrease in the willingness to buy tickets.
Therefore, the industry generally set the length of a movie at around 120 minutes. Very few movies would exceed this length.
Either that, or they did not expect the movie to make money, and only wanted to make the movie they wanted to make.
Or they were extremely confident in the movie. Even if it was a three-hour movie, it could still make money.
For example, Titanic, The Lord of the Rings series, and so on. These movies were all longer than three hours.
However, because Titanic had the support of a top international director, and The Lord of the Rings series had the foundation of a world-famous fantasy novel, these movies could be sold for three hours.
Although the Romance of the Three Kingdoms was an epic novel, it was a Hua Xia novel after all. It was not well received in the world market, or rather, it was not famous at all. It was too dangerous for such a movie to be sold for three hours.
"It's just three hours. Even if we lose money, it doesn't matter!" Boss Jia smiled.
To be honest, Boss Jia did not have any confidence in this movie. This was because it was a movie that had no reference in his previous life. It was a completely original movie created by Boss Jia in this era.
Therefore, Boss Jia could not be like Titanic and The Lord of the Rings, who were so sure about the final box office sales of the movie. He even felt that the first movie of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms was very likely to end in failure. After all, Hua Xia movies had always been like this in the United States. This was a cultural problem.
However, Boss Jia still decided to film for three hours. The reason was simple. Boss Jia wanted to make this movie a masterpiece. Even if this movie was going to lose a lot of money, it had to be a masterpiece.
This was because only the best movies could be remembered by the audience. Even after the movie was taken off the screens, it could still be sold on DVD, allowing the movie to appear in the world of the United States.
At the same time, there was a truth in this world. As long as a movie was good enough, it would be valued by people sooner or later.
For example, when Hero was first released, it was scolded badly in China.
But 20 years later, when Hua Xia people saw the movie again, they realized that it might be the most perfect martial arts movie in Hua Xia.
Therefore, many movies needed time and time to develop. Boss Jia could wait until the Romance of the Three Kingdoms movie developed.
Lastly, and most importantly, it was only a few hundred million USD investment. Even if it lost all of it, it did not matter. To Boss Jia, it was nothing!
After that, Jon Landau and Boss Jia talked for a whole day. When the two of them finished talking, they realized that they had not even eaten lunch or dinner. They were starving. Their stomachs kept hurting, but they did not feel hungry at all. It was only after the talk that they felt a strong sense of devouring.
"Let's eat!" Boss Jia laughed. He had been waiting for the secretary to order the dishes to be served. Only then did the dishes, which were already prepared for the tenth time, were served.
Boss Jia had not eaten, so the secretary ordered the kitchen to keep cooking.
Boss Jia could not eat dishes that had gone cold or been reheated. If Boss Jia wanted to eat, it had to be freshly cooked.
Therefore, the kitchen kept cooking dishes. When these dishes went cold, they would throw them away and cook them again. This way, Boss Jia could eat freshly cooked dishes anytime and anywhere.
What a boring life with money!
During this ten-hour-long talk, Boss Jia and Jon Landau confirmed more details of the movie and the shooting of the next five movies.
Originally, Jon Landau had planned to shoot three movies, but after Boss Jia's talk, it became six movies.
The first movie was about the Yellow Turban Rebellion.
The second movie was about the 18 vassals' crusade against Dong Zhuo. It started with Zhang Fei whipping the Inspection Prefect. The climax was the battle between the three heroes and Lu Bu. It ended with the Luoyang Imperial Palace turning into ashes and Sun Jian's tragic death at the hands of Liu Biao.
The third movie was about the Dance of the Flying Generals. This part of the plot was more complicated. The story was divided into many storylines. The first part was about Lu Bu killing Dong Zhuo, Cao Cao bullying the Emperor and ordering the vassals to become evil, and Liu Bei giving up Xuzhou three times.
In the end, the storylines converged. Liu Bei and Lu Bu lived together in Xuzhou. They constantly loved and killed each other. In the end, Liu Bei was defeated and Lu Bu, the hero of the generation, died at White Gate Tower.
The fourth movie was about the Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage. It started with Guan Yu's victory and the Battle of Guandu.
The second half was about Liu Bei living in Xinye and visiting the thatched cottage three times. In the end, Liu Bei and Cao Cao, who used to be like-minded friends, fought a final battle. Liu Bei was defeated all the way to Jiangdong. He met Sun Quan, the son of another good friend, and the two worked together to fight against Cao Cao.
The fourth movie ended with Cao Cao's defeat and his escape to Huarong Dao.
The fifth movie was Liu Bei's home ground. He entered Xichuan, recruited Hanzhong, appointed the Five Tiger Generals, and finally ascended the throne after the death of Emperor Xian of Han. It was the peak period of Shu Han.
As for the sixth movie, it was the end of the epic. Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei died one after another. In the end, Zhuge Liang died at the Wuzhang Plateau. It was the end of the entire movie series.
In fact, Jon Landau was very against the idea of shooting the sixth movie. He felt that the part at Red Cliff could be stretched a little more and be split into two movies. The final movie would end with Liu Bei ascending the throne.
As for the later part of the plot, it was not shot. The reason was very simple. Jon Landau was afraid that the audience would not be able to accept the three perfect heroes dying in the hands of villains. The entire Shu Han would be completely defeated.
It was like watching The Avengers. In the end, almost all of the Avengers died together with Thanos. Not a single hero survived. This would definitely make the audience explode.
However, Boss Jia still insisted on shooting the sixth movie. Only by shooting the sixth movie and giving the entire series a tragic end could the entire movie series be elevated. It would not become a bad movie like Star Wars.
As for the final tragic ending, The Avengers would be scolded if they shot it like that. However, the Daqian would definitely not be scolded if they shot it like that. This was because this was the real history. If the Daqian changed the history, they would really be scolded.
With the real history, this was a golden ticket to avoid death. It was impossible for the audience to scold the Daqian because of this.
Of course, it was obvious that the box office of the sixth movie would be a fiasco. After all, when Boss Jia watched the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he directly jumped to the chaos of the southern barbarians after watching Liu Bei's ascension to the throne.
After Zhuge Liang left Mount Qishan for the seventh time, he directly gave up on the plot and did not watch it at all.
He could not stand this kind of pain. It was better to pretend not to see it.
However, it did not matter. It did not matter if the box office exploded. As long as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms could be promoted to the world, it did not matter even if Boss Jia lost billions of dollars.
Just like that, the next day, under Boss Jia's orders, Jon Landau began the preparation work for The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The first step was to go to Hua Xia to look for actors.
Moreover, the actors were very easy to find because only a few years had passed since the television version of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms was filmed. Those old actors were basically still in their prime. They could be directly recruited according to the characters in the television version. There was no need to change anyone.
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