Huayu: As a child star, I just want to be famous

Chapter 537 2013 is coming (6K monthly ticket request)
This year's Spring Festival period featured films from three major directors. In comparison, the Lunar New Year period was relatively weak.

Wang Jing's "The Great Shanghai" and Liu Weiqiang's "The Guillotines", two films directed by Hong Kong directors.

In mainland China, Zhao Yanzi saw that all the big directors were competing for the Spring Festival period, so she left the Lunar New Year period available.

Therefore, "So Young" was released in January.

"101 Marriage Proposals", a romantic film starring Huang Bo and Lin Zhiling, also set its sights on the vacant Lunar New Year period and was moved to that time for release.

Another thing is that Happy Camp launched a show called "Happy Home".

If that were all, the Lunar New Year holiday would basically be a complete disaster.

Fortunately, there is "Lost in Thailand", which is scheduled to be released on December 12st.

In the previous life, it was the first domestic movie to break the 10 billion mark. Now the situation is different, and Chen Linfeng is very curious whether it can still achieve a box office of over 10 billion.

In addition, Lu Yang worked hard for more than half a year and finally made "The Blade of the Assassin", which is scheduled to be released after New Year's Day.

The casting of this film has some changes compared to the previous version.

The male lead in the previous life, Zhang Zhen, was not favored by Lu Yang, probably because "The Grandmaster" had not yet been released.

He really wanted to ask Chen Linfeng to play the role of Shen Lian, but unfortunately that didn't happen, so he finally had to settle for the second best and chose Chen Kun.

Huang Xiaoming took over Wang Jing's "Great Shanghai" at the same time, so he missed the opportunity.

The third brother, Jin Yichuan, is played by Shi Xiaolong, while the other actors remain basically unchanged.

Chen Linfeng gave three scripts at the beginning, and Lu Yang was the fastest.

Among the four first-generation students, he joined the crew the earliest and received more support from his family. He had already been looking for and forming his own team.

Therefore, as soon as we got the story framework of "The Blade of the Assassin", we immediately adapted it, prepared for the location selection, selected the actors and started work.

The investments are all ready. With Chen Linfeng's ideas and the main investment, there are many people following suit and investing. There is no need to worry about money at all.

As for the other three people, there is no need to talk about Song Yi. If you want to make a mythological special effects film, you have to start with TV series.

Guo Fan is still helping out in Chen Linfeng's crew, and the project will only be launched this year.

Shen Ao also started the project as soon as he got the script of "The Accidental Murderer", and his progress was obviously much slower than Lu Yang. It has just been completed at the end of the year.

It is estimated that it will take until the middle of next year for post-production to be completed to the standard sufficient for release.

On December 12, Chen Linfeng was invited to attend the premiere of "Lost in Thailand".

He was actually quite interested, so he and Xixi took some time out to go to Yanjing to join in the fun.

The two did not walk the red carpet. Time was squeezed out and they had no time to style themselves or choose clothes. They just walked into the theater through the internal passage in casual clothes.

However, inside the theater, the cameras of the reporters on the scene still kept pointing at them from time to time.

It's really rare to see these two people participating in public activities.

Liu Qianqian and Chen Linfeng sat in the chairs in the cinema and talked in low voices, not paying attention to the media cameras.

As the end of the year approached, the crew's filming work had been mostly completed, and both of them felt a sense of relief from the bottom of their hearts.

"Xiaofeng, today is the legendary end of the world!" Liu Qianqian looked very excited.

"Well, then what?"

"What else is there? The world is ending and everyone is dead."

She made an "open" gesture with her hands and made a "bang" sound with her mouth.

It was as if the world had exploded and disappeared.

Chen Linfeng found it funny, "You really believe this."

He had a wonderful feeling because he had experienced a similar scene in 1999.

As someone who has experienced it, he knows very well that the two doomsdays mentioned by the media never happened.

"Not really," Liu Qianqian shook her head, "but it's fun. Don't you think today is a good day to talk about this topic?"

She was very surprised and said, "Lost in Thailand really picked a good day. In the news these past two days, whenever the topic of the end of the world is mentioned, the news of the release of Lost in Thailand is always mentioned."

Chen Linfeng said, "They picked a special day. They are good at marketing until the end of the world. They are talented."

This is another difference between this life and this one. In the previous life, "Lost in Thailand" seemed to have been released earlier.

Anyway, there was no such thing as a prophecy of the end of the world in his memory.

"Director Chen, good afternoon, thank you for coming to our premiere."

Chen Linfeng turned his head and found that it was Xu Zheng who came over. The red carpet and promotional activities outside must have ended.

"Good afternoon, Director Xu. Come, sit down and chat." Chen Linfeng patted the seat next to him.

"Hey, good."

Xu Zheng was quite flattered. Although they were both directors, if you really compare them, there was a world of difference between them.

"Xixi and I were just talking about it. The time you chose is very interesting. It's going to be released before the end of the world. That's a good idea."

"Hey, I heard someone say that and it felt like a good time, so I chose this day."

If any big-name movies are released later, Xu Zheng will definitely try to avoid them.

But this year, all the big names are trying to squeeze into the Spring Festival period, so he doesn't have to worry about the issue of scheduling.

The two chatted for a while about filming in Southeast Asia, local policies and conditions, cultural customs and other topics.

Not far away, the media reporters arranged by the production team pointed the camera directly at the two people and filmed their conversation.

The release of this clip is proof that Director Chen is very optimistic about Director Xu Zheng and that the two of them had a very pleasant conversation.

Nowadays, as Chen Linfeng's status becomes higher and higher, the number of times he appears in public is decreasing.

His every move, who he chatted with, who he took photos with, seemed to have some different flavor that could be interpreted by the media and the public.

After a while, Shi Xiaolong and Wang Baoqiang came together.

The two of them have a good relationship. On the one hand, they knew each other when they were children, and "Soldier Assault" further consolidated and developed this friendship.

Wang Baoqiang is one of the leading actors in "Lost in Thailand". As usual, Shi Xiaolong came to support the release of his new movie.

Chen Linfeng said, "Baoqiang, you are really versatile. In the past, you made rural films, then art films, and now you are also good at making comedies. I'm afraid you will become the mainland's 'Liang Jiahui' in the future?"

Wang Baoqiang scratched his head and said with a silly smile, "Director Chen's expectations of me are too high. I'm still far from reaching that standard."

"You have your own style, and you may not be worse than him in the future."

Wang Baoqiang has a distinctive style and good acting skills. If his development is not affected, it is hard to say how high he can go.

I never won the Venice Film Festival Best Actor Award in my previous life.

In addition to the changes in his experiences, he now doesn’t even know Ma Rong and that pair of bitches named Song, so future developments will definitely be different from his previous life.

Chen Linfeng is looking forward to Wang Baoqiang's changes.

The producer of "Lost in Thailand", Chen Xi, was standing by and took note of Director Chen's comments on Wang Baoqiang.

This evaluation is not low and can be used in subsequent marketing.

Nowadays, when Director Chen praises someone, it can be regarded as a kind of qualification or something like an official evaluation.

Later, the movie started.

It’s still the same flavor, the funny style of the combination of brainless and unhappy.

Chen Linfeng had seen it in his previous life, and watching it again now, he still found some of the scenes quite funny.

But in fact, with his current perspective, if he looks closely, he finds that many of the plots are not well arranged.

But that's what comedy is, as long as the actors make it funny, that's enough.

It is obvious that Wang Baoqiang and Xu Zheng have good chemistry.

As long as the actors are right and the script doesn't have any glaring loopholes, the result will be good.

The biggest difference between the current "Lost in Thailand" and its predecessor is that Wang Baoqiang's idol has changed from Fan Binbin to Liu Qianqian.

At the end, Liu Xixi made a cameo appearance in the movie.

Chen Linfeng looked at his wife appearing on the big screen and said jokingly with a smile,

"Idol~"

Liu Qianqian glanced at him and asked, "Can't I be an idol?"

Xixi is not easy to tease now.

Chen Linfeng sighed in his heart, then applauded along with everyone else.

The audience then interviewed him and asked him what he thought of the movie.

"It's pretty good, and it's a fairly decent comedy."

"Um, is this a good or average review?"

"Of course it's good," Chen Linfeng gave the reporter a strange look, "There aren't many qualified genre films in China."

"Then could you ..."

"Stop," Chen Linfeng knew what the other party wanted to ask and interrupted him directly, "I won't give any examples. Why offend people for no reason?"

The reporter asked another question, "Since you are optimistic about the performance of Lost in Thailand, what kind of results do you think this movie will achieve?"

Chen Linfeng pretended to think seriously for a while, then said, "At present, as long as it is a mature genre film, the box office will not be bad. I think it should be around 10 billion."

"One billion!?" the reporter confirmed in astonishment, wondering if he had heard it wrong.

"Well, at this point in the domestic market, billion-level movies may appear in large numbers."

Chen Linfeng's judgment is well-founded.

Although his previous films "Your Name" and "Inception" had stirred up the market.

However, there are still too few good domestic films, and domestic audiences are in a relatively hungry state.

Especially this year, domestic films have not had any particularly outstanding performance.

The film "Inception" released in the middle of the year can hardly be called a domestic film.

Therefore, there may be revenge movie-watching during the Lunar New Year holiday.

In later generations, every time "Wolf Warrior 2" and "Nezha" had explosive box office success, there were similar tendencies.

It is really easy to make domestic films. As long as the quality is a little bit good, the audience will appreciate it. If the quality is excellent, the audience will appreciate it.

But filmmakers in the industry still cannot receive such huge wealth.

However, "Cops 2" and "Inception" have somewhat alleviated the audience's hunger, so he can't say whether there will be another crazy explosion like "Lost in Thailand".

Therefore, he only said it was around 10 billion.

……

After the premiere of Lost in Thailand, Chen Linfeng and Liu Qianqian returned to the crew to continue filming, hoping to finish the shoot before the New Year.

As for the media, Chen Linfeng's praise for Wang Baoqiang and the movie "Lost in Thailand" at the premiere became news.

Because the former involved Liang Jiahui, a reporter went to interview him specifically.

"Director Chen said Mr. Wang would become the 'Liang Jiahui of the Mainland'? Thank you so much Director Chen for thinking highly of me."

"Mr. Wang is the mainland's new Venice Film Festival winner. I don't have this honor."

"Of course I believe in Director Chen's vision. In this regard, Director Chen has a great reputation and no one can compare to him."

"..."

The words seemed to be a sign of approval.

When interviewed, Wang Baoqiang was very humble in his remarks, repeatedly stating that Liang Jiahui was a senior and a great actor, and that Director Chen had high expectations of him, and that he should continue to work hard and live up to Director Chen's expectations.

Speaking of the evaluation of "Lost in Thailand".

At the beginning, people in the industry were a little surprised. How could a movie like this make billions?

This is too exaggerated.

However, due to Chen Linfeng's prestige in the industry and his incomprehensible box office results, no one dared to refute him under pressure.

Then, the box office performance of Lost in Thailand on its first weekend also left filmmakers in the industry speechless. On Friday, the first day, the box office was 5300 million, and on the second day, Saturday, the box office suddenly reached 8000 million, and on the third day, it reached 7700 million.

After three days, the box office for the first weekend totaled 2.1 million, creating the best result except for Chen's films.

This time, our competitors were really surprised.

No, you are serious.

Judging from this momentum, it might really reach 10 billion at the box office.

In terms of media reputation, many professional reviews and film critics did not give a good review of "Lost in Thailand".

But what’s strange is that the audiences have a good impression of the movie, and the box office continues to rise.

Netizens highly recognized Chen Linfeng's evaluation that this was a "qualified and mature comedy genre film", which has almost become the public's overall evaluation of "Lost in Thailand".

“It has to be said that in today’s film market, being qualified and mature are both difficult thresholds to reach.”

“Lost in Thailand may not be as exciting as Chen Linfeng’s films, but I enjoyed watching it, and that’s enough.”

"Yes, directors and screenwriters, we don't ask you to reach Director Chen's level. We will be satisfied if you can produce a few films of this level in more than a year."

"What a pity. Even this is difficult."

"Liu Xixi's performance at the end was quite a surprise. Xu Zheng really knows what the audience wants to see."

"..."

"Lost in Thailand" was a huge success, and Xu Zheng became the talk of the town.

He became another successful example of an actor turning director.

This makes many people think of Chen Linfeng. Although he is a professional director, the earliest impression he gave to people in the industry was that of an actor.

Is there some mysterious benefit for an actor turning director?
Wang Baoqiang has also entered everyone's attention. This comedy actor seems to have a good performance.

The media also dug up Chen Linfeng's past investment in "Lost in Thailand".

Public opinion was also in an uproar. Why did every good movie seem to be related to Chen Linfeng?

According to some rumors in the circle, people are more convinced of Chen Linfeng's luck.

……

In Pingshi, during the break in filming, several actors chatted and the main topic was "Lost in Thailand".

Including Woody Harrison and Tobey Maguire.

After all, being in China, it is difficult not to be influenced by Chinese news, and they would ask the translator to read some Chinese entertainment news to them from time to time.

This way, at least when chatting with Director Chen, I will have something to talk about.

Now, they were all a little surprised.

"Has the Chinese domestic market reached this point? Movies that cost hundreds of millions of dollars appear easily."

Harrison said, "That's normal. Director Chen once predicted that one day there will be a movie in China that makes over $10 billion in a single market."

Toby shook his head. "This is incredible. It's hard to imagine. Five years ago, there weren't many movies here that made over $5 million."

Chen Linfeng said, "So now Chinese actors will gradually appear in my movies. China will be a very important voting base in the future, and I need to pay attention to the feelings of Chinese audiences."

Pete covered his face, "Chen, you don't need to explain, we all understand you."

Even if the Chinese market is not so strong, I believe you will not give up this approach.

Liu Qianqian asked curiously, "Does this movie really have a chance to exceed 10 billion?"

"Probably."

However... the box office seems to be worse than in the previous life.

Chen Linfeng pondered in his heart, it seems that there was indeed a factor of revengeful movie watching in his previous life.

Today's audiences are more calm when faced with movies that are above average in quality.

But the market's booming desire is still there, the movie itself is okay, and with the support of its predecessor "Lost on Journey", it should not be far behind.

Yanjing, Huayi headquarters.

The Wang brothers, Feng Xiaogang and Gu Changwei were also chatting.

Chen Guofu, who used to be in this office frequently, is not here now. He has confirmed that he will leave Huayi early next year.

The person who joined in was Gu Changwei.

Originally, Huayi had been collaborating a lot with Stephen Chow recently, but this person was always not sociable.

This made Wang Zhonglei very unhappy.

I'm so rich now, why should I still have to look at your face?

He didn't even want to look at Feng Xiaogang's face now.

The business empire is actually already full of hidden dangers, but now there is money as a lubricant, so the parties involved don't care.

Several people talked about the movie "Lost in Thailand".

Wang Zhonglei lit a cigarette, took two puffs, and said, "Now it seems that comedy films also have great potential."

"Indeed, Xiao Chen is right about this. I heard that he has invested in this film?"

Gu Changwei also lit one. He and Wang Zhonglei had similar interests.

"Yes, Xu Zheng took the initiative to find him. I heard this from Xiao Chen himself." Feng Xiaogang was also puffing away.

Wang Zhongjun seemed to be thinking, "I'm thinking, should we also work on comedy? I think comedy is more suitable for us."

Special effects feature films are too expensive. Huayi has made a lot of efforts in the past few years, but except for "The Phantom Flame", the results have not been very good.

Chen Guofu’s previous film “The Sound of Wind” was pretty good, but it wasn’t so good when it came to special effects.

The Tai Chi series really suffered a huge loss at the box office.

Therefore, Huayi could no longer tolerate Chen Guofu.

You better find another way out.

Feng Xiaogang supports Wang Zhongjun's opinion very much, "Comedy is good, I like this."

When it comes to comedy films, Feng Xiaogang has to be the one.

Wang Zhonglei said hurriedly, "No hurry, Zhou Xingxing's Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons has not been released yet, and the company's strategy cannot be changed at will."

He looked around at everyone, "Have you forgotten the time when Xiao Chen ate meat so hard?"

"This……"

Wang Zhongjun remained silent.

Indeed, who wouldn’t be jealous of Xiao Chen who eats meat with big mouthfuls and fills the sack with money?

"We have to make a big movie, create special effects, and fight him to the death!" Wang Zhongjun was jealous and slammed the table.

"It depends on the Spring Festival this year. With Stephen Chow's comedy story and the special effects of the new Shenshou Company, I don't believe it..."

"Cough cough~" The coughing sound in the middle of his passionate speech ruined the mood.

He managed to finish, "I don't believe that anyone can compete with us in this year's Spring Festival!"

Then, Wang Zhongjun, who was choking, waved his hands to disperse the smoke in front of him, and the conference room seemed to be turning into a fairyland.

"The smell of smoke is too strong. Take it easy."

……

Yindu and Bona are also discussing the marketing plan for "The Grandmaster" during the Spring Festival by taking advantage of "Lost in Thailand".

Yu Dong felt a little regretful, "Oh, we should have arranged it during the Lunar New Year period. Actually, the Lunar New Year period is not bad either."

Song Dai, chairman of Yindu, waved his hand and said, "Xiao Chen has been developing the Spring Festival period for two years. Everyone in the industry knows that the upper limit of the Spring Festival period is the highest."

"But just because the upper limit is high doesn't mean we can reach it."

As a typical businessman, Yu Dong still wanted to lock in his profits.

Wang Jiawei thinks it takes too much time to make a movie, so he is optimistic about "The Grandmaster" this time, and maybe he can make some money.

It would be bad if it was delayed due to schedule issues.

But in fact, Song Dai also thought so, it was just because the cycle was long that he wanted to take a gamble.

If you don't make that little money, it's almost the same as not making any money.

"Besides, what we want is not only money, but also status in the circle."

"Now people in the industry say that companies that don't compete in the Spring Festival period are not considered strong big companies."

"Tell me, can we bear this injustice?"

Even if you earn less money, you have to fight for it.

Yu Dong nodded and said, "You are right."

……

New picture.

Zhang Weiping watched Zhang Yimou's new film "The Song-Mongol War" for the last time, and he felt a little excited.

This is the blockbuster he has been looking forward to.

As for this year's Spring Festival period, he looks down on everyone and feels that he has already won.

No one can fight.

What a pity that Xiao Chen was not there. He was smart enough to have avoided it. Otherwise, he would have been beheaded.

……

At the end of December, "Now You See Me" was finally completed.

Fortunately, he managed to finish the scenes of several foreign actors early before Christmas.

Otherwise these people would probably go on strike.

The remaining few days are actually just some finishing chores.

When the filming was wrapped, the cheers from the entire crew were much louder than ever before.

There were few times in the past when we could take photos continuously like this.

Although I know that Director Chen’s films are definitely good and will bring in a lot of money.

But after being so tense for such a long time, I knew that I would have some free time later, so I naturally felt relaxed.

Chen Linfeng also breathed a sigh of relief. He had been too busy in the second half of this year and had little free time.

By next year...

Um, by the year after next, I must not be so busy anymore.

This is his true inner thought.

At this stage, there is really no need to be as aggressive as in the past.

If you make too many movies, it’s easy for them to fail.

It is not easy for him to accumulate such a good reputation today, so he still needs to be cautious.

"Starting from the year after next, many sequels will slowly be laid."

When Chen Linfeng thought about the many series he had started, he felt a genuine sense of satisfaction, just like a little hamster that had stored enough fruits for the winter.

After returning to Yanjing from Pingshi, he first lay at home for a day, then met with Liu Qianqian, his parents, and Liu Xiaoli.

After all these routine interactions among relatives are over, it is New Year's Day.

Another year has passed.

The time has come to 2013.

(End of this chapter)