Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 142: Routines Never Go Out of Style
Cao Yang was a little dazed for a moment as he looked at the reporters who were taking pictures non-stop below the stage.

To be honest, he doesn't want to be in the limelight as an actor, and he doesn't want to show up in public. A director is a director, why should he step into the front stage?

There was another thing that made him give up the idea of ​​acting.

The scenes to be filmed in Zhenbeibao were large-scale war scenes, involving the deployment of thousands of people and thousands of horses at a time. It was much more complicated than he had imagined.

One careless move could cause chaos and casualties, so there is no room for any carelessness.

How could he have the energy to think about acting?

If they don't act, they will have to use some tricks to create a chemistry between Li Xiaoran and Gao Yuanyuan.

At that time, Mr. Han from China Film heard that Cao Yang would not be acting anymore and suggested inviting Li Lianjie or Jackie Chan so that they could make additional investments.

He also said that China now recognizes big directors and big stars.

Just like Zhang Yimou, why did he pile up so many big names in "Hero"? He even spent 100 million to invite Li Lianjie, just to use Li Lianjie's fame to sell more box office in China and abroad.

At that time, I was not afraid of not being able to make a profit in China, but I never thought about making a profit in China at all.

In fact, Li Lianjie was invited to star in "Hero", so Cao Yang knew the inside story better than President Han.

Lao Mouzi is very famous internationally, but that is only true as a director of art films.

For commercial films, it is not easy for Zhang Yimou's films to break into Hollywood.

Lao Mouzi is not like Cao Yang. He is young, can promote people, and has a deeper relationship with Sony Classics and Bellman, and can bring more benefits to Sony Classics and Bellman.

Most of the movies shot by Zhang Yimou in recent years were invested by Zhang Weiping's New Picture, so even if Zhang Yimou wanted to give up more profits, Zhang Weiping would definitely not agree.

Zhang Weiping wanted more profits and wanted to sell more copyrights, so he thought of Li Lianjie.

Li Lianjie is doing well in the United States now and is friends with Harvey Weinstein, the founder of Miramax.

He introduced Harvey Weinstein to Zhang Weiping and Zhang Yimou.

That’s right, it was Harvey Weinstein, the founder of Miramax Films, who jumped out and wanted to take over the crew when Cao Yang was filming "Mean Milk" in Hollywood and was almost kicked out by Cao Yang and Behrman.

At that time, Li Lianjie introduced Harvey Weinstein like this, "This is my big boss, the emperor of Hollywood, Mr. Harvey Weinstein."

For Li Lianjie, this person who was almost kicked out by Cao Yang might be the ultimate boss in Hollywood.

Through Li Lianjie's help, Zhang Weiping and Zhang Yimou sold the North American rights of "Hero" to Harvey Weinstein.

Then, this movie was shelved by Harvey Weinstein and has not been released in North America yet. The copyright fees have not been paid, and only a deposit was given, which was said to be paid off when the movie was released.

Zhang Weiping flew to the United States many times to find Harvey Weinstein, but each time he couldn't even see Harvey. He was in an unfamiliar place, so what could he do?
Call and urge them, but you’ll get the same answer every time: don’t be anxious, the time is not right yet!
Realizing that he might have been cheated, Zhang Weiping quickly contacted Li Lianjie and asked her to find a solution.

Li Lianjie...what could he do? To him, Harvey was known as the Emperor of Hollywood. How could he possibly influence Harvey's thoughts?

So Zhang Weiping cursed Li Lianjie for being a liar and colluding with foreigners to cheat people...

Does this method sound familiar?
The little steel cannon was cheated in this way.

The specific process is to offer a high price to scare away potential buyers and give you a deposit.

They will drag it out for a while, and then say they don’t want it anymore, and don’t want the deposit either, and may even ask you to return the deposit.

At this point you should be anxious and say that he has breached the contract and he doesn’t even want the deposit. There are no other buyers. What should you do?
We can only lower the price.

Even if you lower the price, he still won’t accept it. He is just trying to take advantage of you and you have no way to stop him.

When you become too anxious to bear it anymore, he will offer you a very low price to buy it.

This method has deceived many people, not only in China but also in Europe.

In order to enter the international market, Little Steel Cannon once regarded Harvey Weinstein as his "savior", but was cheated. He once publicly cursed Harvey Weinstein as a liar, a scum of the film industry, and a despicable villain.

However, this time he met Zhang Yimou, who was no small-time talent nor an unknown little director. Before Harvey Weinstein could make his next move, the national level took action.

Disney wanted to develop a project in Hong Kong, but encountered obstacles.

By contacting relevant people, Disney understood the reason.

Well, on the surface it was Jiang Zhiqiang, the boss of Hong Kong's Emperor Entertainment Group, who also invested in "Hero".

Disney is not a fool, he must understand the reason behind it.

Miramax Films was acquired by Disney as early as 93. Under pressure from its parent company Disney, Harvey Weinstein will arrange the release of "Heroes" next year and settle the buyout fee without losing a penny.

This was an unsuccessful scam for Harvey Weinstein.

Therefore, if you want to make it in life, fame, international influence, and background are all essential.

Cao Yang felt that Li Lianjie’s pay of 100 million yuan was a bit inflated.

He was unwilling to spend 1.5 million to hire Li Lianjie, nor was he willing to spend 20 million plus % of the global box office share to hire Jackie Chan.

For this kind of costume film, it is not cost-effective to hire them, and it will not increase the sales by tens of millions of dollars. Cao Yang's film needs a male lead, and this news is only circulated in a small circle.

Those who were able to know the news were all very excited and tried every possible way to find an opportunity to see if they could impress Cao Yang.

For the current domestic film industry, there are only three and a half top resources, namely, Zhang Yimou, Cao Yang, and Chen Kaige, and the other half is a small cannon.

Currently, Zhang Yimou has turned to commercial films. According to his standards for hiring people, commercial films almost only use big names, and other domestic people have no chance at all.

But from the information we have received, Cao Yang is different. He prefers to use "amateurs", which gives many domestic actors more imagination and opportunities.

"Do you think Kun has a chance with Cao Yang's new movie? Isn't he your junior fellow apprentice? Can you think of a solution?"

Li Xiaowan found Li Shaohong and asked, "Your movie "Baby in Love" has already finished filming. We have delayed Kun for more than a year. Let's see if we can get him to take over Cao Yang's movie."

"Baby in Love" is a movie directed by Li Shaohong. The preparation began at the beginning of last year, and the shooting started in April. It took a year and a half until now, and it has just been completed.

A few days ago, it was sent to the French DUBOI computer special effects production company for post-production. This company is one of the special effects production companies of "The Lord of the Rings" and it is very expensive.

The production cost of "Baby in Love" suddenly increased from 150 million US dollars to 515 million US dollars.

Li Shaohong and Li Xiaowan were under tremendous pressure. If things went wrong, Rong Xinda, which they had jointly established, might lose money.

Now the people with the most potential in the company are Xun Ge'er and Chen Kun, so I'm thinking about whether I can promote Chen Kun.

Li Shaohong smiled bitterly, "Although Cao Yang is my junior brother, do you think that with his current status, he still needs to look at someone else's face? What can I do?"

Li Xiaowan looked at Li Shaohong and suggested hesitantly, "Why don't we look for Teacher Situ?"

Li Shaohong quickly shook his head, "No, no, based on my understanding of the teacher, if I ask him to come forward for this matter, I will only be scolded, it's useless."

Li Xiaowan pondered for a moment, then suddenly smiled and joked, "I got it. Didn't Tian Zhuangzhuang always treat you as a goddess? Why don't you sacrifice yourself and go find Tian Zhuangzhuang tonight?"

Li Shaohong rolled his eyes at Li Xiaowan and counterattacked, "You have been Brother Chen Kai's assistant for so many years. Who knows what your relationship was like in the past? Why don't you go to Brother Chen Kai to ask for help?"

Then, the two of them sighed at the same time. They couldn't think of any good way to deal with Cao Yang.

In the end, it was Li Shaohong who made up his mind.

"I'd better go find Cao Yang in person. This will show more sincerity. After all, we are from the same school. I'll say something soft. If it doesn't work out, I'll let Chen Kun join for free and see if he can give me an audition opportunity."

The start-up media meeting was again hosted by production director Cheng Jianye, who briefly introduced the film and each character.

"'Nine-Tailed Fox' is a movie with two female protagonists, two male protagonists and a special starring role."

"One of our leading actresses, Xiao Wei, is played by Cannes Film Festival winner Gao Yuanyuan."

The reporters below either started recording or taking pictures of Gao Yuanyuan. This will be tomorrow's news hotspot.

"Our other leading lady, Peirong, is played by Berlin Film Festival winner Li Xiaoran."

The reporters started pressing the shutter buttons frantically again, and the flash lights kept flashing, with a sound almost as loud as Gao Yuanyuan's.

"Our special guest star, Xia Bing, is played by Fat Bing."

The reporters took photos, but their momentum was obviously inferior to that of Li Xiaoran and Gao Yuanyuan.

"One of our two male leads, Peng Yong, is played by Duan Yihong."

The reporter took two symbolic photos, put down the camera, and looked at Cheng Jianye eagerly.

Wasn't there another male lead? Who played him? Which international superstar? Why didn't he come?

"Now, please welcome our other leading actor, Chen Kun."

"Appearance?"

what's the situation?
Just when the reporters were confused, Chen Kun came out from the backstage, wearing bright silver armor, with a longbow behind him, a horse crossbow in his right hand, and a horse lance in his left hand.

So majestic!

"This complete set of equipment is called Mingguang Armor, and it is all restored based on historical records."

Cheng Jianye pointed at Chen Kun and said proudly, "We have hired the most authoritative historian in the academic community, and strive to do our best to restore the costumes and props, and set a benchmark for the industry!"

"Hua Hua Hua..."

The reporters began to applaud out of respect.

Having Chen Kun appear fully armed was also part of the hype.

From now on, the crew will release a picture of the main characters' outfits every once in a while.

This will be a very common hype method in the future, but at this moment, it is still a very fresh, fashionable and useful idea.

After the reporters rushed to take pictures of Chen Kun, Cheng Jianye did not give them any time to react and directly announced that the press conference was over.

(End of this chapter)