What are the advantages of theatrical adaptations? There are still risks in making a cake

In recent years, works have been moved from the drama stage to the big screen, such as "The Master of Breakup" and "Villain Angel" jointly collaborated by Deng Chao and Yu Baimei, and "Gorgeous Office Worker" directed by Du Qifeng. In addition, the drama "Hello, Crazy!" written and directed by Rao Xiaozhi It will also be changed to a movie of the same name. Compared with original works, what are the advantages and difficulties of adapting a movie from a drama? Will films adapted from high-reputation dramas be successful? The reporter interviewed relevant industry insiders on this.

Last year,"Charlotte Worry" grossed 1.4 billion yuan at the box office. Can "Donkey Get Water" achieve another success this year? In this regard, industry insiders are cautious:

the second movie "Donkey Deshui" produced by Kaixin Mahua will be released nationwide on October 28. Yesterday, directors Zhou Shen, Liu Lu and starred Ren Suxi, Liu Shuiliang, Pei Kuishan, Wang Kun and Han Yanbo came to Guangzhou to promote the film. In addition to last year's phenomenal movie "Charlotte Worries", works that have been moved from the drama stage to the big screen in recent years are common, such as "The Master of Breakup" and "Villain Angel" co-authored by Deng Chao and Yu Baimei, such as "Gorgeous Office Workers" directed by Du Qifeng, and "Hidden Married Men and Women" directed by Ye Nianchen. In addition, the drama "Hello, Crazy!" written and directed by Rao Xiaozhi It will also be changed to a movie of the same name, starring Wan Qian, Wang Zijian, Jin Shijie and others, and will be released on December 2.

Compared with original works, what are the advantages and difficulties of adapting films from dramas? Will films adapted from high-reputation dramas be successful? The reporter interviewed relevant industry insiders on this.

The box office may not be guaranteed when a drama is transformed into a movie

. Last year, Happy Mahua's movie "Charlotte Worry" earned 1.438 billion yuan in box office, and the success was no accident. Before the movie was released, the drama "Charlotte Worries" had toured more than 500 times in more than 40 cities across the country. Happy Mahua also appeared on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala many times in a row, further increasing its popularity. "Ma Hua's thirteen years of dramas have accumulated an audience of one million, but one movie has made our audience reach 40 million. After the movie was released, it also reversed the box office of all Ma Hua's dramas." Zhu Xiaochen, director of marketing department of Kaixin Mahua Pictures, said. Similar examples of box office success include "The Master of Breakups" and "The Villain Angel" created by Yu Baimei and Deng Chao's team. Both works were brought to the big screen after the successful performance of the drama of the same name, with the help of Deng Chao's high popularity. Although the reputation is average, the two films ultimately achieved a total box office success of more than 1.3 billion yuan.

However, not all popular dramas can be converted into movies and have good reputation and high box office. Counterexamples include Du Qifeng's "Gorgeous Office Workers" and Ye Nianchen's "Hidden Married Men and Women". "Gorgeous Office Workers" was originally a stage play written by Zhang Aijia and directed by Lin Yihua. It was later adapted and starred by Zhang Aijia. It was directed by Du Qifeng and invested more than 100 million yuan. Chow Yun-fat, Zhang Aijia, Tang Wei, and Eason Chan formed an all-star lineup. However, the film was released for six days and had a box office of less than 50 million yuan, and finally ended dismal. Many viewers commented that this movie was "not like a movie" and "a live video of a stage play." However, director Ye Nianchen's "Hidden Married Men and Women" did not receive much attention after its release, and its final results were quite bleak.

Wang Pengfei, head of Century Huapeng Company, which has produced many IP stage dramas, believes that a good drama script provides a good foundation for the film, but in addition to the script, there are many links that may have an impact on the final result of the film,"For example," Gorgeous Office Workers "still retains its niche characteristics after being changed to a movie." Hidden Marriage Men and Women "only performs more in small theaters, but the effect of putting it in large theaters is hard to say. These two films were not successful, probably because they did not meet the expectations of popularization and commercialization of films during the adaptation process."

Young dramatists and

directors of "Donkey Deshui" Zhou Shen and Liu Lu revealed that in 2010 they wrote the outline of "Donkey Deshui" and had been "sitting back and relax" after applying for copyright. Unexpectedly, the second year, they found that someone had already taken the lead in making a short film on the Internet. Zhou Shen said: "When we saw that the other party had indeed infringed rights, we must definitely sue him. However, just suing others for the copyright of written works seems to have little force. I wanted to set up my work first, but the film cycle was very long, so I made it into a drama first. During that time, Zhilehui just happened to be looking for me to perform, and then we signed a contract and started rehearsing the drama "Donkey Deshui" in 2012."

The drama "Donkey Deshui" became popular in 2012, and Zhou Shen and Liu Lu began preparing for a movie version in 2013. Zhou Shen said: "We have revised more than half of the plot. The film is mainly realistic and life-oriented. All the passages with a strong stage feel have been deleted and paragraphs depicting the hearts of the characters have been added." In his view, the transformation of drama into film has both advantages and disadvantages: "The advantage mainly lies in the story. You don't have to think about whether the story is established or not, it must have been established. The disadvantage may be that the assumptions of the stage and the screen are different, and the measure may not be well grasped. Many people will think that the main audience of the movie is the original drama audience, but I am very worried because there are no exaggeration in the drama. The road show of "Donkey Deshui" also proved that many audiences who had not seen the drama before found it exciting, but those who had seen the drama felt a little lost: Why are there no more baggage in the drama?"

Shi Hang, a well-known screenwriter and planner, said that he liked "Donkey Deshui" very much: "In one sentence," Donkey Deshui "is a 'siege' made by young people that you didn't expect." Nowadays, there are still many young directors in the drama industry who are joining the team of film adaptations, such as the drama "Hello, Crazy!" written and directed by Rao Xiaozhi. His adaptation of the movie of the same name will be released nationwide on December 2. Rao Xiaozhi has been involved in TV series shooting very early. Many years ago, when there was no "IP craze", every time he signed a contract for filming a new series, he would insist on adding a sentence to the contract: "The film and television adaptation rights of the series belong to the director." Regarding the trend of theatrical adaptations, Liu Lu thinks this is normal: "Domestic films have only embarked on the path of healthy development in recent years. Everyone seems to think that the transformation of theatrical films is very new, but it has a long history in Hollywood. It's just good stories being presented through different media."

Big theater directors are more cautious about testing films

. At the just-concluded Wuzhen Theater Festival, famous contemporary theater directors such as Lai Shengchuan and Meng Jinghui all brought new works, and they have also tried to test the film market, but their current attitude towards theatrical adaptations is more cautious. In this regard, screenwriter Shi Hang said: "Movies are afraid that the audience will not understand them, but drama has a threshold. Let's not rush to turn it into a cake. It's a cake with a fire burning underneath. It's good for us to make some snacks now."

As early as 2002, the film "Flying Like a Chicken Feather" directed by Meng Jinghui and written by Liao Yimei was released. The film invited Chen Jianbin and Qin Hailu to star, but the box office ended up poor. Shi Hang said: "This movie was not commercially successful. Although Lao Meng liked it very much, there were definitely not so many people who liked it. Even I had reservations. Later, Meng Jinghui wanted to make a second movie, but Liao Yimei and I kept blocking left and right, and he forcefully pulled him back." Meng Jinghui also answered this question in a sideways interview with reporters. He said: "In the past ten years, film aesthetics has been declining, but if you do serious drama, you will still have food to eat next."

Director Lai Shengchuan, who founded the performance workshop, filmed the film "Secret Love for Peach Blossom Land" starring Lin Qingxia and Jin Shijie as early as 1992, and won the Silver Award for Youth Film Cherry Blossom at the 5th Tokyo International Film Festival. In addition to adopting non-linear narrative unlike ordinary movies, the movie "Secret Love for Peach Blossom Land" also retains a large number of expressions that originally belonged to stage plays in terms of composition. Last year, the drama "He and Her Two Wives" produced by the Performance Workshop was adapted into the movie "Love Schedule". Both the drama and the film were directed by Ding Naizheng, the sister of Lai Shengchuan's wife Ding Naizhu. The film invited Xu Qing and Hua Shao to star in it, but both its reputation and box office were poor. In the end, the box office was only 850,000 yuan. Perhaps they are aware of the high risks of adapting dramas to films, these well-known drama directors have no plans to enter the film market at present. Earlier, it was reported that Lai Shengchuan's classic drama "Treasure Island and One Village" would be made into a movie version, but Wang Keran, the mainland producer of the performance workshop, told reporters yesterday that there was no further discussion on this matter and there were no plans to adapt other plays.

Editor: yvette