Global Film Emperor

Chapter 300 Casting
The release of the first promotional video signaled the official start of the pre-release publicity campaign. In the following days, Lu Ze traveled to the capital and other provinces to cooperate with the production team in promotional activities.

Thanks to the fame of the three directors and the strong cast, the film achieved remarkable publicity results even before its release. Whether online or offline, as long as "Find You" is mentioned, a large number of people will instantly remember it and nod in recognition.

"You're talking about that movie about human trafficking, right? I know it."

However, this type of film will definitely not be a blockbuster, because the heavy storyline and the illegal activities that people find most abhorrent are all taboo for ordinary moviegoers.

Not many people who only occasionally watch movies to pass the time will go to the cinema to make themselves uncomfortable. Those who are willing to pay for this movie are basically loyal movie lovers and fans of the actors.

However, apart from Lu Ze and the three directors' fans, the average age of these veteran actors' fans is around 40 or 50 years old. People in this age group have basically been excluded from the film market's profit-making group. Unless their children buy tickets, these uncles and aunts will basically not buy tickets to go to the cinema on their own.

Therefore, some people predict that the box office performance of "Find You" and "To Live" should be on the same level, with no significant difference, and that they are films that are critically acclaimed but not commercially successful.

However, this has little to do with Lu Ze, since he doesn't receive a share of the film's box office revenue. The film's profits are really not as important as its reputation.

After participating in several promotional events, Lu Ze returned to Shanghai and refocused his work on Qian Shijia's new film project. After signing a filming contract with the company, the film's title was officially decided.

Rise of Mankind: The Wasteland

This film is not a complete story, but the first part of an epic war, telling the story of humanity's tenacious rise under the oppression of alien races in a fictional world.

As the beginning of the film, the start of suffering, the first part is the darkest and most oppressive part of the entire war, where the living conditions of human beings are so miserable that it is hard to breathe.

In an era devoid of sunlight and rainfall, where the earth collapsed and people served as food for foreign tribes, demons devoured humans from the outside, and internal wars raged. People even used their own children as sustenance, and the world was utterly dark.

With the birth of the divine child, he will lead the tribe to resolve internal conflicts, defeat external enemies, and help humanity gain a foothold in a world overrun by demons, establishing a city that belongs to humankind. This concludes the first part of the story.

Whether or not the sequel will be made depends on the success of the first film. However, if a sequel is made, the investment for the second film should be more than double that of the first film.

As the world-building expands, the scale of the wars will become increasingly larger. In fact, according to the five writers' plans, in the final battle, humans should be like the Zerg, with women constantly giving birth and using magic to accelerate the maturation of offspring. The next generation of men will enter the battlefield, and the next generation of women will continue to give birth. In this cycle, each newborn will only take about half an hour.

The final battle will be a massive war involving hundreds of millions of humans and demons, employing a ton of special effects. The money spent on this film will be no slower than that of a crematorium or a human-burning furnace. It's estimated that Qian Shijia alone won't be able to afford this movie and will need to collaborate with other companies for co-production. But that's a matter for the future; whether it will even be made is still uncertain. I'm getting ahead of myself.

On August 1st, Lu Ze arrived at the company to prepare for the auditions of artists who had signed contracts with external film companies to come to Qian Shijia. There were more than 170 people to be interviewed, and the auditions were conducted in batches over three days.

"That's all for now. Thank you for your participation. Please go back and wait for further news."

Bai Xiqun glanced at Lu Ze's expression, folded up the artist's information in his hand, tapped it on the table, handed it to the actor who came for the audition, and asked him to leave.

After the young man, with a pained expression, put his resume into his bag and left, closing the door behind him, Bai Xiqun glanced at Lu Ze and tentatively asked a question.

"I thought that person was pretty good. What did you think was wrong with him?"

"His delivery of lines is good, and his movements are strong and powerful. His micro-expression control is slightly lacking, but it's not a big problem. His biggest problem is that he likes to hook his finger. This should be a subconscious action that he will unconsciously show when he speaks, just like some people like to nod when they speak. Even academics can't get rid of their subconscious actions. I don't know which teacher taught him this. In short, I think he is not qualified."

Lu Ze casually pointed out the flaws of the young man who had just auditioned, which earned him only wry smiles from Bai Xiqun, Feng Changhao, and He Guohui.

In their view, Lu Ze had rejected quite a few promising talents, which was a bit too strict. To put it bluntly, Lu Ze was always nitpicking.

What they didn't know was that Lu Ze had actually relaxed his requirements for actors. If Lu Ze really wanted to nitpick, he could have found fault with the young man's line, even the weak pause in the second half. He could have found a dozen or twenty flaws in him without any problem.

After all, he's a young man, and unlike Lu Ze when he was young, he didn't have a system to help him. Lu Ze could understand that he might lack some abilities, but Lu Ze couldn't accept the inclusion of personal signature gestures that didn't fit the script. This was a young actor trained in academia. If he had paid attention in class during his four years of university, his teachers would have pointed this out and corrected him. But he still maintained this habit. What did that mean?
This suggests that the young man is very talented, but he probably didn't enjoy attending classes during his university years, didn't take his major courses seriously, and was the kind of student who always tried to get away with things.

Lu Ze already has more than a dozen burdens on him. He is powerless to mentor young actors with a history of cheating and shirking, so he simply finds one who doesn't require his guidance, thus lightening his own burden.

Although the young man's furrowed brows and the clothes he was wearing that Lu Ze had rented out from a private styling studio two or three years ago suggested that his career wasn't going well and that he was probably having a tough time lately.

But casting isn't about who's more miserable. Lu Ze can't be given a role just because he's pitiful, otherwise he'll only drag himself down in the end. Besides, Lu Ze got the role through his own abilities during his most difficult period, and no one ever pitied him. That's how this industry is: if you're good, you get the role; if you're not, you get out. That has never changed from beginning to end.

For three consecutive days, Lu Ze interviewed more than 150 actors. It was indeed a physically demanding job. He felt like he was going to get hemorrhoids from sitting so long. He rubbed his face, took the cigarette that Feng Changhao offered, and reached out to turn on the exhaust fan on the wall. He was about to call in the next auditioning actor when he was interrupted by Li Shanjun's secretary, who suddenly knocked on the door and walked in.

"Secretary Wang, what is it?"

"This is the list that General Manager Liu gave to the four of you. Brother Lu, please take a look. I'll be going now. Thank you all for your hard work."

The black high heels clicked on the marble floor. Lu Ze frowned as he took the folder, gesturing for the three of them to look at it first. However, they waved their hands in refusal, so he had to open the folder himself, look at the text and pictures on it, and read them aloud.

"Pei Yuanhui, an artist under Zixin Studio, a studio affiliated with Tiancheng Media Co., Ltd., isn't she the leader of that girl group?"

Lu Ze was too embarrassed to say the words "can't do anything," so he just mumbled something and turned the folder to show the other three the one-inch photo on the file.

"This"

Bai Xiqun was also in a dilemma. He held a cigarette in his hand, flicked the ash into the disposable paper cup on the table, looked at Feng Changhao and He Guohui. The two of them didn't say anything, just sat there silently, deliberately taking out their phones and fiddling with them.

Lu Ze stood the document upright, shook it vigorously twice, and a small piece of paper fell out. He glanced at it and saw the three words "Guo Mingde" written on it.

Helpless, he picked up a lighter, lit the small piece of paper, threw it into the ashtray and watched it burn out. He then poured some water into a disposable paper cup, opened the folder, stapled Pei Yuanhui's resume together, and handed it to Bai Xiqun. He watched as Bai Xiqun stuffed the resume into the middle of a stack of resumes, shook his head, got up, opened the door, waved to the three of them, and then shouted outside.

"Alright, there's only one left this time. Xiaofei, let all the actresses who auditioned for Zhu Lan leave and call in the next one."

Lu Ze had also used the back door, though of course, not that particular back door.

At first, Lu Ze was happy to have connections, but now he feels increasingly troubled. The company had selected nine artists, and there were originally fourteen vacancies, but Li Shanjun squeezed in five more, leaving only nine to be chosen. The newest one even came through Guo Mingde's connections. What is Lu Ze supposed to do? If others won't give him face, can you expect Lu Ze to refuse to give Guo Mingde face as well?
Pei Yuanhui was alright. Lu Ze had heard that this girl was Guo Mingde's niece. In terms of seniority, she had to call Lu Ze "uncle." The key was the one He Ruikuan had sent in. Lu Ze didn't know how to look at her directly after meeting her on set. He could only curse He Ruikuan, that shameless old man, behind his back.

Approaching sixty, not only does he have a twenty-eight-year-old wife at home, but he also keeps a nineteen-year-old girl on the side. Lu Ze feels that even though he is only thirty, he is not as addicted to this kind of mess as He Ruikuan. He has the nerve to push this bastard into other people's film crews. He is really shameless.

The interviews went on until after 3 p.m., and when there were still more than a dozen actors left to audition, the last role was finally cast, and Lu Ze breathed a sigh of relief.

I originally thought that the last one would have to be chosen from among the short actors being auditioned, but I didn't expect that there would be no need to choose, the tall one came on his own, which saved the four of us from having to discuss it again. Now we can go home.

"Lu Ze, you're flying to the capital tomorrow, right? I wish 'Find You' top reviews."

The three men knew that it would be difficult for "Find You" to be a box office hit, so they offered their blessings in a different way. Lu Ze appreciated their kindness, shook hands with the three men, turned around and left the company, heading to the underground parking lot.

Sitting in the driver's seat, I closed my eyes, sighed deeply, opened them, fastened my seatbelt, started the engine, shifted gears, accelerated, and headed home.

"."

(End of this chapter)