Divine Lucky Star
Chapter 623 - 622 Military Theme? Fighting a War?

Chapter 623: Chapter 622 Military Theme? Fighting a War?

"I didn’t just mess up this one script, did I?" Li Bomming snapped angrily, "The films I’ve made before are all fine products! Any film I shoot is guaranteed to be a huge hit!"

It was clear that he was quite popular in this small circle; as soon as he finished speaking, several people beside him chimed in—

"Exactly, our team is all professionals, each one carefully plans to ensure every detail. Like ’The Beacon’ that was hugely popular a few years ago, we poached two of its production staff, and they were also involved in the planning this time!"

"Absolutely, we can almost guarantee that ’Dragon Fire 3’, while it might not match ’The Beacon 3’, will definitely pass two billion at the box office with no problem!"

"To be honest, I think we’re a bit tied up, the investment is still a bit low. Li Bomming is a major domestic director, he’s won who knows how many awards, but there’s nothing we can do, right? You can’t blame us if the audience isn’t up to it!"

Listening to these people making excuses for themselves, Bai Ze slammed his hand on the table hard, "Enough! Stop praising yourselves at this point! Talking about two billion, when the current total box office is only 80 million, it’s hard to say if it can even pass 100 million! And you have the audacity to say that! And you!" Bai Ze pointed at Li Bomming: "You assured me with pats on your chest that this movie would definitely be problem-free, and now all you do is make excuses for yourself!"

Li Bomming, scolded until he was downcast, didn’t dare to retort, and finally turned to Wang Hao, fiercely saying, "Kid, don’t be so smug! With my years of experience, if the films I make don’t work, if it were you directing, I guess you wouldn’t even get eight million in box office!"

"You really got it backwards," Wang Hao said, folding his arms and chuckling coldly, "Do you think your film is artistic, good-looking, with grand scenes and a twisting plot? Still feeling proud of yourself? I don’t mean to look down on you, but you old bones can’t keep up with the times, and you still think highly of yourselves, thinking you are so great. I ask you, do you understand what the ’Hollywood model’ is? Do you understand what ’audience demands’ are?"

"That popcorn movie stuff, I don’t care about making!" Li Bomming huffed, "It’s just Hollywood, what’s so great about that?"

The others present weren’t impressed by this claim, but Bai Ze lit up immediately, "Good, good, good, little brother, tell us. What exactly is this Hollywood model? We’ve been studying Hollywood films forever, but while their plots seem nothing extraordinary, their movies always become bestsellers. Analyze for us, what’s really going on?"

Bai Yaning was also watching Wang Hao.

This guy indeed brought too much magic with him, always seeming to understand everything.

"The Hollywood model, simply put, is the same as the online novel model," Wang Hao directly wrote "online novel" on the whiteboard, then said, "For instance, the model of online novels is fast-paced plot progression, one event smoothly leading to another, and importantly, every link has exciting moments, no torturing the protagonist nor distorting the plot. From the beginning, it has to grab the viewer’s attention, and the pace in the middle cannot stop!"

Then Wang Hao looked around the room and said, "Now, look at the movie you guys made, what is that? Let’s not even talk about the twisted plot for now; where are the exciting moments? Are the viewers coming to the movies to get depressed?! It has to be thrilling! You have to make the viewers feel exhilarated! What do the audience want? Either you give them stunning fight scenes with grand settings, or you sell some nostalgia with a low-budget film that tells a story to reminisce about. If you don’t have either of those, you have to at least add some thrilling moments to make the viewers happy! But your movie has none of these! How can such a movie not flop? Opening the movie without attracting the viewers’ attention but instead featuring a child pestering for a story, saying ’Yueer doesn’t want to hear these, Yueer wants to hear something unheard of...’ acting spoiled. Can your Heavenly Court get married? If not, where did this child come from? From a stone? The one who came from a stone is Sun Wukong!"

As Wang Hao spoke so amusingly, Bai Yaning couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

This guy, his words were just too... straightforward, a bit harsh!

"What’s wrong with a little child?" Li Bomming’s face turned from red to white after being spoken to by Wang Hao, his lips struggling: "I was just planning to introduce the story with that..."

"Bullshit!" Wang Hao bluntly returned his statement with a "bullshit" and said, "The audience wants excitement! They want thrills! Who would care to hear you tell a story to a child? And what identity does this villain have? It’s just because two people in Heaven fell in love and were cast down to the mortal world! Then right after introducing the big villain, this child appears, who bore this child? Isn’t that a contradiction? Starting with such a big BUG will readers buy your story?!"

"That makes sense! A lot of sense!" Bai Ze kept listening and found it increasingly sensible, urgently saying, "So, if you were in charge, or if you did it, how would you handle it?"

"That’s simple," Wang Hao directly said, "Start with a big fight scene to catch the viewers’ eyes! Once their attention is caught, what follows is one event after another in a fast-paced manner, from start to finish, never stopping! And this kind of film, you can’t focus on all those boring themes of love and romance, at least not make it the main storyline! You need to give the protagonist issues to resolve!"

"Fast pace... pace..." Bai Ze murmured as he rubbed his chin, then suddenly said, "Little brother, the matter of this film is already past; let’s not study it for now. I want to ask you, we are indeed preparing our next film now, a military-themed one. Do you have any good advice?" He handed over a small notebook, "Here is the screenplay."

"Military-themed?" Wang Hao paused for a moment, then took the screenplay: "About war?"

"Yes, about war," Bai Ze nodded, "A war film, grand scenes, various military equipment, a team going to eliminate mercenaries... What do you think?"

"I don’t feel great about this," Wang Hao flipped through the screenplay and then threw it onto the table, decisively shaking his head, "This isn’t how you do it. I can’t see any thrilling points in this story. Our country’s military isn’t allowed to engage in combat just like that—it violates United Nations treaties. Just that alone would get us crucified by the audience, and it’d be tough to get approval too!"

"What should we do then?" Bai Ze furrowed his brows, "You mean, this movie is still going to flop?"

"Absolutely," Wang Hao nodded firmly, "Is that even a question?"

As soon as Wang Hao criticized the screenplay again, several people present couldn’t sit still—this was their next movie, and if it was rejected, what the hell were they supposed to do! They didn’t care if it would be a hit, just shoot it first and talk later. After all, they were earning a salary, not a share!

"This kid doesn’t know jack shit, yet he critiques our screenplay."

"Exactly, he doesn’t even know what an outline is. He might as well go write a primary school essay!"

"How artistic this movie is, if this isn’t good, what is?"

"Right, he was just blowing smoke just now. Do you have any works?"

Everyone bombarded him with comments, all glaring at Wang Hao.

Keep going! Let’s see how far you can blow this!

I don’t believe this at all. We were part of the scriptwriting team for "The Beacon 3," how could this young punk outdo us?

"Actually, if it’s a military theme, I do have one," Wang Hao stroked his chin, suddenly smiling, "The protagonist is a retired special forces soldier, swept up in a warzone... fighting alone, infiltrating behind enemy lines, without any support from his country’s embassy, rescues his fellow citizens. It highlights individual heroism and promotes the spirit of our nation and military, as well as showing the friendly relations between our country and its allies..."

Hearing Wang Hao’s words, a group sneered in unison, "Nationalism too? Why don’t you just fly to the sky?"

"Hmm?" The group’s buzzing chatter stopped suddenly as Bai Ze widened his eyes, staring at Wang Hao, "Wait a moment!"

Hmm?

Everyone looked puzzled.

"This theme sounds good! This period needs such fiery and impassioned scripts," Bai Ze urgently said, "Brother, can you elaborate on the process of this theme? If you were to direct it, how would you narrate this story? Could you discuss it in detail?"

"Sure," Wang Hao began to explain to Bai Ze, "First, we definitely need to grab the audience’s attention right from the beginning! How? Start with a thrilling fight sequence. Imagine this: it’s on the ocean, a cargo ship heading to Africa when suddenly, it encounters pirates! The pirates are brutal, killing people with guns! Just then, the protagonist appears, he jumps into the sea, engaging in a stunning underwater fight, capturing five or six pirates! He then picks up a sniper rifle, fires a bullet, and kills the last pirate!"

"Underwater fight, ocean, pirates..." Bai Ze muttered to himself, tasting the idea more and more, "Not bad at all, the pirates are brutal, it’s great when the protagonist decisively intervenes, the audience would love it!"

"Exactly," Wang Hao said with a smile, "Next, we simply narrate the protagonist’s story. Actually, he’s a recon soldier, returning his comrade’s ashes to his hometown, and he encounters a forced demolition. Forced demolition is wicked, totally disregards human life! At first, the demolition leader sees the protagonist interfering with his plans and immediately calls a bunch of thugs over, but they get beaten up badly by the protagonist. Then the police arrive, and the demolition leader is in cahoots with them, all smug and arrogant! He even drops a line ’You can fight, huh? You might protect them temporarily, but can you protect them forever? Once you leave, I will kill them!’ Mr. Bai, what do you think he should do then?"

Bai Ze slapped his thigh fiercely, "That’s a no-brainer, he must kill him!"

"Exactly," Wang Hao laughed out loud, "That’s what satisfies the audience’s desire! The hatred is fueled, and naturally, the next step is to kill him!"