(Denis Villeneuve and Chen Sicheng. ic photo / picture)
Not long ago, Denis Villeneuve, the director of " Dune 2", had an interesting conversation with Chinese director Chen Sicheng.
In this exchange, Villeneuve mentioned that he has not yet watched Chen Sicheng's movies, but has heard from many people and said that he will take time to appreciate Chen Sicheng's works when he returns home. When Villeneuve expressed this expectation, Chen Sicheng responded in a self-deprecating way: "You don't have to watch them all."
As a director, Chen Sicheng's most famous work is the movie " Chinatown Detective " series (hereinafter referred to as "Tang Detective"), including the 2015 movie "Tang Detective 1", "Tang Detective 2" which was released on the Spring Festival file for the first time in 2018, and "Tang Detective 3" which was released on the Spring Festival file in 2022. Chen Sicheng is committed to creating a "Tang Detective Universe". They share a world view based on "crimaster" (a ranking of world famous detectives), with shared characters, interrelated plots, and connected timelines. The 2020 web drama "Tang Detective 1" and the recently completed web drama "Tang Detective 2" are both expansions of the "Tang Detective Universe".
Although the online drama "Tang Detective 2" was clearly labeled as "Tang Detective Universe" in its announcement, its reputation and popularity are not as good as those of the movie version and the first drama version. The "universe" is still a little less meaningful, as Chen Sicheng said. Say "you don't have to read them all".
Why is Chen Sicheng busy working on the "movie universe"? From the low reputation of the movie "Tang Detective 3" to the Waterloo of the online drama "Tang Detective 2", how can "Tang Detective Universe" break through?
The concept of "movie universe"
Speaking of the "movie universe", many domestic audiences are most familiar with the "Marvel Universe".
The "Marvel Universe" in a broad sense is a fictional universe created by Marvel Comics, covering thousands of characters, story lines and multiple parallel universes, which can be traced back to the 1930s. . The "Marvel Universe" has expanded beyond the realm of comic books to include movies, TV series, animations, video games and other media forms.
"Marvel Universe" in a narrow sense refers to the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" MCU (marvel cinematic universe), which is produced and promoted by Marvel Studios. It started with "Iron Man" in 2008, and gradually introduced and developed more comic characters and stories through multiple subsequent film works, such as "Thor", "Captain America", "Ant-Man", "Guardians of the Galaxy", etc. Plot, plot, characters and events intersperse and influence each other, culminating in the "Avengers" series of movies.
The "DC Universe" is equally matched with the "Marvel Universe". The "DC Universe" in a broad sense is a large and complex fictional world system created by the American DC Comics Company. It originated in the 1930s and includes many famous superheroes, villains and the concept of the multiverse. The "DC Universe" in the narrow sense is the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). Since 2013, it has passed " Superman: Man of Steel ", " Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ", " Wonder Woman " and "". A series of movies such as "Justice League " have gradually established their own movie universe system.
Chen Sicheng's "Tang Detective Universe" draws on the successful experience of Marvel and other movie universes, trying to build a huge fictional world through a unified world view, a coherent story system, and independent but interrelated characters.
(ic photo / picture)
The ambition of the "movie universe"
Why do we want to create a "movie universe"? From an IP perspective, by building a "movie universe", producers can continuously expand a successful IP, more comprehensively display the characters and story background of an IP, and extend the IP life cycle.
For example, in the "Marvel Universe", there is Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Thor, Doctor Strange, and Ant-Man. Each character can be independently filmed into a series, and when combined together, they can also become " The Avengers". Similarly, if "Tangtan Universe" can be successful, the "World's Famous Detectives Ranking" constructed in the movie, the top-ranked detectives can all be independent chapters, and the IP will continue to be extended.
From the perspective of commercial income, creating a "movie universe" can expand the audience base of a single movie into a fan group of series movies, ensure stable box office revenue expectations, and at the same time develop more derivative products, such as TV series, animations, games, Toy peripherals, etc. to expand profit channels.
From an industry perspective, film and television investment risks are very high, especially in a single film project. From production to distribution to final market response, every aspect of a film is full of uncertainty. The
"movie universe" provides a way to spread risks. The audience's loyalty to the series helps ensure that subsequent movies have a certain box office base, and the series effect can reduce the impact of the success or failure of a single movie on the entire investment portfolio. In addition, the derivatives of "Movie Universe" can achieve diversified profits and reduce the risk of a single channel.
The breakthrough of "movie universe"
A successful "movie universe" can bring so many benefits, but not every "movie universe" attempt can succeed. The success of
"Marvel Universe" and "DC Universe" has undoubtedly left a lot of useful experiences for latecomers. First of all, we must have an overall planning vision and careful layout. Marvel Studios has formulated a detailed blueprint for the universe. Each movie is part of the grand narrative of the entire universe, thus building a huge system of multi-layered narratives.
Secondly, excellent character creation. The characters in the "Marvel Universe" are distinct and have their own characteristics. Each character has his own background story, personality traits and growth trajectory. Even the supporting characters have complete character development and independent story lines. The chemical reactions between the characters are also very good. Different combinations and matchings can produce new ones. Sparkle and spectacle.
again, high-quality scripts and high-quality production. At least from "Iron Man" in 2008 to "Avengers 4" in 2019, the "Marvel Universe" generally attaches great importance to script writing, ensuring that most movie plots are compact, interesting and layered.
At the same time, whether it is special effects, scenes, costumes or music, Marvel movies have shown extremely high professionalism and standards in production, especially creating shocking visual effects and enhancing the movie-watching experience.
Although the domestic "Tang Tan Universe" is very different from the "Marvel Universe", for example, "Marvel Universe" has a long time accumulation and cultural heritage (since 1930), while "Tang Tan Universe" only started in 2015 ; Marvel is based on superheroes and combines science fiction, fantasy and adventure elements, while "Tang Detective" focuses on detective reasoning and suspense stories; Marvel has the global advantage of American culture to help, although "Tang Detective" has a relatively high reputation in China It has high popularity, but there is a clear gap in international influence and character diversity compared to the "Marvel Universe".
These difficulties do not mean that "Tang Detective Universe" will fail. You have to eat one bite at a time and walk step by step. It is precisely because "Tang Detective Universe" has just started, so it will have higher requirements for character creation and scripts. .
The low reputation from the movie "Tang Detective 3" to the online drama "Tang Detective 2" reflects the shortcomings of "Tang Detective Universe" in the script. For example, although it is a suspense drama, the plot is not compact enough, lacks novelty and logic, and has flaws in case design and logical reasoning; another example is that the protagonist's behavior is too childish and the reasoning is not mature enough, which does not meet the audience's expectations for the detective role.
It can be seen that in order for "Tang Tan Universe" to succeed, it is necessary to improve the quality of the story and ensure that subsequent works have solid plots, exquisite suspense, and strict logic; dig deep into the existing characters to further strengthen their personality and character arcs; in different Establish closer internal connections between stories, enhance the coherence and wholeness within the universe through the interweaving of clues and interweaving character relationships, and at the same time grasp the independence and integrity of a single story.
Even the "Marvel Universe" after "Avengers 4" has been criticized by the audience for its reliance on IP, lack of innovation, and poor script quality. This does not mean that the "movie universe" has failed, but it just shows that the script is important to the "movie universe". " is very important. There has never been such a thing as "sleeping on your laurels."
The current difficulties of "Marvel Universe" are the worries after success. For "Tangtan Universe", the top priority is to work hard to succeed first.
dramatist
editor-in-chief Liu Yunshan
