Huayu: Starting from Fahrenheit

Chapter 353 The crew of "The Fleeting Years Who Could Boast"
In fact, Wu Zhuo was right.

Strictly speaking, he did not steal Wu Genglin's position.

Wu Genglin brought this upon himself.

If he hadn't been late for the audition because of a minor cold, Ding Xiaoyu would never have given the role to Wu Zhuo.

After all, Wu Zhuo was just a newcomer to the company at the time. Even if he was valued, it was impossible to give him the role of the second male lead right away.

In short, it's all about fate.

Of course, it is undeniable that it was precisely because of his outrageous actions that Wu Zhuo became one of the members of Fahrenheit, a group planned by the company.

"Today is the press conference for 'Fleet of Time.' Please focus on the film, and we can discuss other questions privately later. Thank you."

Wu Zhuo didn't want to discuss Wu Genglin's topic too much here, and directly interrupted the reporter's intention to continue asking about it.

Seeing Wu Zhuo's reaction, the reporter decided not to press the matter further and instead began asking questions related to the film.

“Abel, we’ve discovered that apart from you and Deng Chao, almost everyone else in this film is a newcomer to the film industry.”

Are you confident of box office success?

For a movie, the most attention-grabbing factor is undoubtedly its box office performance.

Wu Zhuo is the person in the music industry who is most often compared to Jay Chou.

The media is also eager to see if Wu Zhuo's achievements in film can rival those of Jay Chou.

I must say, Jay Chou has achieved remarkable success in film in recent years.

Excluding older generation movie stars, he is the one who can carry the box office the most.

If he hadn't encountered the Treasure Hunter later, Jay Chou might have truly followed in the footsteps of Andy Lau and others in the 1990s and become a leading figure in film and television.

"We are very confident in the box office performance of this film. Although most of our actors are newcomers, they are all excellent actors."

We believe the film's final box office results will surprise everyone.

It was Zhang Yibai who said this.

As a member of the Beijing elite circle, Zhang Yibai displayed the flair of a sharp-tongued man, immediately stating:

"Our estimated box office target for this film is no less than 100 million yuan. This is just our first goal."

Abel has a large global fanbase, and if we include global box office revenue, our target is over $50 million.

Good heavens, even Wu Zhuo standing next to him was dumbfounded.

This boast seems a bit exaggerated.

More than 50 million US dollars, which is roughly 350 million yuan.

Among the films that have been released in China, only a handful have achieved this level of success.

Wu Zhuo knows he's popular and has a large following in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and even throughout Asia.

Even so, he didn't dare to hope that "Fleet of Time" would achieve such high box office numbers.

wow...

Sure enough, Zhang Yibai's boast caused quite a stir at the scene.

A reporter asked the question directly on the spot.

"Director Zhang, are you really that confident? You know, the highest-grossing film this year is Stephen Chow's 'CJ7.' Do you think you're better than Stephen Chow?"

This is a very pointed question, and a poor answer could easily lead to a dispute with Stephen Chow.

But this is precisely the question Zhang Yibai most desires.

Upon hearing this, he immediately perked up and said:

"I must first acknowledge that Mr. Stephen Chow is the top director in the industry."

However, there are many factors that contribute to a film's success, the most important of which is the lead actor.

In my opinion, Mr. Wu Zhuo is well worth 300 million in box office revenue. The only difference between him and Stephen Chow is his seniority.

In terms of popularity and influence, Mr. Wu Zhuo is no less than him.

"Should we interrupt him? If he keeps talking like this, things might get out of hand."

Wu Zhuo was sitting next to Zheng Jianfeng.

He is the producer and executive producer of this film.

Upon hearing Zhang Yibai's arrogant remarks, he immediately turned to Wu Zhuo and whispered a question. Zhang Yibai's words were clearly an attempt to piggyback on Stephen Chow's fame and generate buzz for his film.

This is perfectly normal in the industry.

When movies in the industry are first released or filmed, they often try to piggyback on the success of other productions.

Just like with Red Cliff, when filming began, John Woo frequently tried to piggyback on the popularity of "The Warlords," which was showing at the time.

Later, after Wu Zhuo became very popular, it was announced that he might play Zhao Yun.

Zhang Yibai's approach now follows the same principle.

In the past two years, the most popular people in China have undoubtedly been Little Cannon and Stephen Chow.

Both of their films have achieved great box office success.

Although Stephen Chow's "CJ7" was criticized by the media, who said that Stephen Chow had lost his creative talent.

But the film's box office success is undeniable; it currently holds the top spot on this year's box office chart with 2 million RMB in revenue.

Currently, it seems that only "Red Cliff" has the potential to surpass it due to its extensive promotional efforts.

Moreover, and most importantly, Zhang Yibai is a member of the Beijing elite circle, and he has a good relationship with Xiao Gangpao.

As is widely known, Little Cannon and Stephen Chow had a falling out.

The reason is that Xiao Gangpao made a cameo appearance in Stephen Chow's movie "Kung Fu Hustle". It was thought that in return for the favor, Stephen Chow would support his movie "A World Without Thieves".

As a result, Stephen Chow completely ignored him.

This incident greatly angered Little Cannon, who repeatedly said in public that Stephen Chow was immature.

Because of the relationship between Little Cannon and Stephen Chow.

Incidentally, Zhang Yibai naturally had a problem with Stephen Chow.

So, while he was praising "Fleet of Time," he also took a jab at Stephen Chow.

This is nothing unusual; it's standard practice in the industry!
Ironically, Wu Zhuo and Stephen Chow had no conflict whatsoever.

Now that Zhang Yibai has said this, everyone's attention has shifted to him and Stephen Chow.

Wu Zhuo could easily imagine that tomorrow's news would definitely include headlines like "Wu Zhuo compares himself to Stephen Chow, claiming his popularity surpasses Stephen Chow's..."

This kind of news is 100% certain to happen.

Wu Zhuo has experienced firsthand the ability of domestic media to take things out of context.

A few days ago, Wu Zhuo and Wang Leehom's EP album signing event was changed at the last minute, and Wu Zhuo became Wang Leehom's solo artist.

The media immediately asserted that he and Wang Leehom had broken off their friendship, and wrote countless articles about the reasons for the severance of ties.

In comparison, news about Wu Zhuo colliding with Stephen Chow would definitely sell better, so it's certain that the media would take things out of context.

However, after hesitating for a moment, Wu Zhuo did not intend to stop Zhang Yibai.

For a movie to achieve good box office results, it must attract attention.

Although he is quite popular, "Fleet of Time" already generated a lot of buzz because of his lead role.

But if it can increase the buzz, it won't hurt.

As for the possibility of offending Stephen Chow as a result.

At worst, I can just call and let them know later.

So Wu Zhuo just quietly watched Zhang Yibai play the flute.

Perhaps boasting is addictive; Zhang Yibai started to exaggerate, eventually saying:

"Mr. Wu Zhuo is worth 300 million yuan at the box office, and Mr. Deng Chao is also a well-known actor in China. He made a great contribution to "Assembly". I personally think he is worth at least 50 million yuan at the box office."

Then, Miss Liu Shishi…

According to Zhang Yibai's calculations, the box office of "Fleet of Time" reached over 400 million yuan.

This is still his conservative estimate.

According to him, if Wu Zhuo's "Painted Skin" becomes another box office hit, his box office value may increase by 50 million to 100 million.

"Ahem, let's interview one of our actors!"

Finally, Zheng Jianfeng blushed slightly and, not daring to let him continue, interrupted him and asked the reporter to start interviewing the other actors.

(End of this chapter)