Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 466 Starring Stephen Chow
Cao Sheng smiled, put down his book, and got up to walk towards the door.

As Cao Sheng opened the door, he saw Fan Jinshuo, who had already taken off her glasses, stride up the steps with a big smile. When she saw him, her eyes lit up, and she quickened her pace, running up to him. "Brother Cao, you saw me? Were you waiting for me?"

Cao Sheng smiled and stepped aside to make way for the doorway. "Come in! Let's talk inside."

Fan Jinshuo gave a crisp reply and strode into the living room.

This was her first time visiting Cao Sheng's villa.

Upon entering, their eyes curiously scanned the surroundings.

Last time she went into the teachers' dormitory that Cao Sheng rented at the school, where the conditions were very basic, but the hall of this villa was much brighter and more beautiful.

The modern Chinese style of decoration has a strong local flavor in Huizhou.

She liked it at first sight.

She looked at Cao Sheng with undisguised envy in her eyes, "Brother Cao! When did you buy this villa? It's so beautiful!"

Cao Sheng walked towards the restaurant, personally brewed tea for her, and casually said, "I bought it a few years ago. If you like, you can buy one too. The housing prices here aren't expensive."

Although she's not very famous now, she's still a celebrity, so earning the money for a villa like this should be quite easy for her.

Fan Jinshuo thought for a moment and sighed, "I would like to buy it, but unfortunately I mainly travel in Beijing and Shanghai and rarely come to Huizhou. Even if I buy it, I won't be able to stay there for more than a few days a year."

After a pause, she said half-jokingly, "How about this, every time I come to Huizhou, I'll stay here with you. Is that alright? You're welcome to stay here with me."

This was a test from her.

Want to know if you have any place in Cao Sheng's heart?
Does she have to make an appointment with him every time she comes here to enter his villa? Or... can she come and stay here anytime?
Cao Sheng glanced at her, smiled, and pushed the freshly brewed Qimen black tea towards her. "Have some tea! I've heard that black tea is good for women, try some!"

After saying that, he answered her question earlier, "If I'm not married, you can come and stay anytime, no problem."

Fan Jinsuo beamed, happily pulled out a chair, sat down at the table, and picked up his teacup with both hands. "Thank you! Brother, you're so kind!"

Her radiant appearance also affected Cao Sheng's mood.

Seeing her take off her fisherman's hat and place it on the table, Cao Sheng sat down as well. "You haven't eaten lunch yet, have you? Want to eat something together?"

The kitchen next to the restaurant was filled with the aroma of food. Aunt Qin Xiyue had been preparing lunch for a while. Cao Sheng knew that Fan Jinshuo was coming, so he asked Qin Xiyue to make a few more dishes. He estimated that they should be almost done by now.

Fan Jinshuo nodded with a big smile, "Yes, that's great! It's my pleasure, I'm really hungry!"

Cao Sheng turned around and called out to the kitchen, "Sister Qin! The dishes are ready to be served."

"Okay, boss!"

Qin Xiyue agreed and quickly served the dishes.

Upon seeing this, Fan Jinshuo couldn't sit still any longer and got up to help serve the dishes.

Cao Sheng did not stop him. He got up, picked up a bottle of red wine from the wine rack next to him, opened it, and poured it into a decanter to let it breathe.

Fan Jinshuo is a master at livening up the atmosphere.

At the dinner table, where it was just her and Cao Sheng, she managed to maintain a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere, even though Cao Sheng didn't say much.

One moment they were toasting Cao Sheng, the next they were serving him food, then they were chatting about his recent situation, then they were praising his movie script... and so on.

After serving the dishes, Qin Xiyue couldn't help but glance at Fan Jinsuo again as she carried the last bowl of staff meal downstairs. She thought to herself: With such a silver tongue, why didn't she play Xiao Yanzi when she acted in "Princess Pearl"?
Qin Xiyue left.

On the second floor, only Cao Sheng and Fan Jinshuo remained.

Fan Jinsuo rolled her eyes and took the initiative to get up and sit in the dining chair next to Cao Sheng. She was originally sitting opposite Cao Sheng.

Now that she had moved to the seat next to Cao Sheng, it was much more convenient for her to pour him wine and serve him food.

Seemingly to make it easier to pick up food, she rolled up both sleeves to her elbows, revealing her two pale forearms.

Whether pouring wine or picking up food, those two pale forearms were constantly waving in front of Cao Sheng's eyes.

This reminded Cao Sheng of the phrase "a feast for the eyes".

It also reminded him of the regret he felt when she left the domestic entertainment industry in the original timeline.

He always felt that there weren't many great beauties in the mainland entertainment industry, and after Fan Jinshuo retired, the industry lost much of its charm.

"Brother! I heard that Tsui Hark is filming 'The Legend of the Demon Lord of the Tomb of the Gods,' which you wrote, in Emei Mountain. Did you invest in this movie? I also heard that you invested in 'Infernal Affairs,' right?"

Fan Jinshuo then brought up the topic here.

This brought Cao Sheng back to his senses, which had been wandering off.

Seeing the curiosity in her eyes, Cao Sheng nodded and said, "I participated a little."

"The Legend of the Demon Lord of the Tomb of the Gods" is an original script he wrote.

This is an excerpt from the novel "The Tomb of the Gods".

Unlike the other scripts he sold before, which were basically movies from the original timeline that he adapted into screenplays.

"The Legend of the Demon Lord of the Tomb of the Gods" is his original work.

This script was previously bought by Hong Jinbao.

When he bought the film, Hung Chun-po said that after Tsui Hark finished filming "The Legend of Zu," they could continue filming this one.

Therefore, Hung Chun-po tried to persuade Tsui Hark to take on the director's position for this film as early as possible.

but……

After the box office failure of "The Legend of Zu" at the beginning of the year, Hung Chun-po was hesitant to film "The Legend of the Demon Lord of the Tomb of the Gods".

Because of "The Legend of Zu Mountain", Hong Jinbao was also one of the main actors, playing the role of Bai Mei Zhenren, and had a lot of screen time.

Therefore, he was well aware of how much effort Tsui Hark had put into the film "The Legend of Zu".

In his view, Tsui Hark had done his best in making "The Legend of Zu Mountain".

Not only did it boast an extremely strong cast of stars, but its investment in computer-generated special effects was also the highest among Hong Kong films.

The plot... is also adapted from the famous fantasy masterpiece "The Legend of the Swordsmen of Shushan".

It's fair to say that this film is a work of sincerity no matter how you look at it.

The movie had a strong fantasy/martial arts feel to it. But unfortunately, it flopped at the box office.

Let alone making money, we're far from even breaking even.

How could Hung Chin-pao dare to film "The Legend of the Demon Lord of the Tomb of the Gods"?
When "The Legend of Zu" flopped at the box office, causing Tsui Hark to be afraid to return to Hong Kong, he wanted to stay in the mainland and directly film "The Legend of the Demon Lord of the Tomb of the Gods". He took the initiative to call Hung Chun-po. At that time, Hung Chun-po hesitated on the phone and said that there were some problems with the investment of the film. Three film companies withdrew their investment and it was probably impossible to film it in the near future.

Old Master Xu was very depressed.

The key issue is that he doesn't dare to return to Hong Kong.

Fearing that the investors of "The Legend of Shushan" would hire someone to frame him, he thought long and hard and then called Cao Sheng, saying that he really wanted to make "The Legend of the Demon Lord of the Tomb of the Gods" to wash away the shame of "The Legend of Shushan", but Hong Jinbao did not want to make the movie anymore. He hoped that Cao Sheng could persuade Hong Jinbao.

Cao Sheng pondered all night and called Hong Jinbao the next day.

On the phone, Cao Sheng asked, "Brother Hong, I heard that some investors in 'The Legend of the Demon Lord of the Tomb of the Gods' have withdrawn? Is that true?"

Hong Jinbao gave a wry smile and said, "Yes, we've already withdrawn our investment from three companies. As you know, these kinds of fantasy movies require a lot of computer-generated special effects, which already demands a lot of funding. Now that we've withdrawn our investment from three companies, this project is really impossible to proceed with."

Hong Jinbao apologized to Cao Sheng over the phone.

Because it was he who persuaded Cao Sheng to sell him the script, promising that he would invest heavily and make a good film.

But now, he's going to break his promise.

Cao Sheng remained silent for a moment, then asked, "Brother Hong, could you please get Stephen Chow to star in this film? If you can, I'll cover the funding shortfall for the movie."

Before making the call, Cao Sheng had looked up information about Stephen Chow online.

He remembered that Stephen Chow released "Shaolin Soccer" last year.

I also remember that this movie was Stephen Chow's first film after leaving the Heung family's film company.

Therefore, Stephen Chow should have already gone solo.

In this case, perhaps we could get Stephen Chow to star in "The Legend of the Demon Lord of the Tomb of the Gods".

But just to be on the safe side, he still went online to look up information about Stephen Chow.

The reason he wanted to invite Stephen Chow to star in this movie was naturally because of Chow's box office appeal.

Cao Sheng knew that in Hong Kong's film box office, there was a saying that "two Chows and one Jackie Chan" (referring to Chow Yun-fat, Chow Sun-chung, and Jackie Chan) were the top two box office stars.

Stephen Chow is one of the "two Chows and one Jackie Chan".

The other two are Chow Yun-fat and Cheng Long.

In comparison, Cao Sheng felt that Stephen Chow was the most suitable actor to play the demon lord Yang Mingxiu.

Although Chow Yun-fat's image can enhance the appeal of the Demon Lord, the box office performance and critical acclaim of Chow Yun-fat's films are very unstable.

Jackie Chan's global box office appeal surpasses that of Stephen Chow, but his image and action style are quite incompatible with fantasy films.

And what about Stephen Chow?
Cao Sheng, who has seen all of Stephen Chow's movies, has long discovered that Chow has a magical ability—he can portray ordinary people with great realism, and he can also portray the highlights of characters such as martial arts masters, gambling saints, and immortals with domineering presence.

Moreover, Stephen Chow's period drama look is quite handsome.

Cao Sheng doesn't expect overseas box office success for a fantasy film like "The Legend of the Demon Lord of the Tomb of the Gods," so he feels that Jackie Chan's global box office appeal is unnecessary.

Stephen Chow's box office appeal in China is enough for this movie.

If Hung Chun-po can get Stephen Chow to star in the film, Tsao Sheng is willing to invest and take a gamble.

result?

Hong Jinbao actually managed to persuade Stephen Chow to come.

Therefore, the movie "Legend of the Demon Lord of the Tomb of the Gods" has been highly anticipated by movie fans since the beginning of its filming.

Only some fans of "The Tomb of the Gods" felt that Stephen Chow did not fit the image of the Demon Lord Yang Mingxiu.

Yang Mingxiu in the book is not a comedic character.

And what about Stephen Chow?

It's not just a comedic style, it's a nonsensical comedic style.

Many fans of "The Tomb of the Gods" expressed their inability to accept the demon lord Yang Mingxiu as he is portrayed.

but……

Cao Sheng didn't think it was a big deal.

Movies are, by their very nature, creative works based on the original work.

Although there are many readers who have read "The Tomb of the Gods".

But he believes that there are many more people who haven't read the original book.

As a novel, the Demon Lord Yang Mingxiu should strive to conform to the image of the Demon Lord in the minds of the majority of readers.

However, as a film, the demon lord Yang Mingxiu should try its best to be liked by the majority of movie fans.

He believes that Stephen Chow's portrayal of the demon lord Yang Mingxiu will not disappoint movie fans.

This is enough!

The key is that the box office doesn't flop.

The box office failure of "The Legend of Zu" has proven that the box office appeal of Zheng Yijian and others is not enough to support a fantasy film like "The Legend of Zu".

Therefore, in order to boost the box office of "The Legend of the Demon Lord", he had no choice but to choose Stephen Chow, who had a stronger box office appeal.

For Cao Sheng, this is more than just a movie.

It also relates to the future of Chinese fantasy films.

The failure of "The Legend of Zu" will scare away all directors and investors who want to make fantasy films in this style.

But if "The Legend of the Demon Lord" becomes a box office hit, there is still hope for Chinese fantasy films.

It won't turn into a romance story disguised as a fantasy novel, like in the original timeline.

(End of this chapter)