Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 215 Nini
The competition for the role of Hu Bayi was no less fierce than that for "Shirley Yang".

After all, the film and television industry has entered the "traffic era" in recent years, and the male protagonists of big IPs are basically occupied by a few young traffic stars.

It’s okay for a male actor of the Mesozoic era to be able to make it in the film industry.

Those who can't make it can only have room to perform in various family dramas, rural dramas or anti-Japanese dramas.

The main audience of these dramas are basically people over 40.

Although the ratings are good, the commercial value and popularity of the actors are not high.

Don’t be fooled by these middle-aged actors who say they “don’t care about traffic” and “like to be a quiet actor”, most of them are just trying to find a way out for their lack of popularity.

Although the "Ghost Blows Out the Light" series is a web drama, it is very popular.

What's more, online dramas also have their own advantages. At least there is no need to worry about those first-tier big names snatching resources.

Meng Bai treats all those who come to him for help equally.

If you want a role, audition and choose whoever is suitable.

For several days in a row, Meng Bai, Li Muge and the main creative team spent their time selecting people.

In the end, there were only three candidates left who were quite conflicted.

The first one is Jin Dong, who was also Meng Bai’s initial “number one candidate”.

He has a suitable image, good acting skills, and he has become very popular after the hit drama "The Disguiser". It can be said that he is very suitable for the role of Hu Bayi in all aspects.

Of course, he does have shortcomings, the main one being that he's a little too dignified in temperament, lacking the "stable but tough" character of the original novel.

But this is not a big problem, it can be adjusted based on the plot and lines during filming.

It was only after the audition that he proposed to bring some of his own team to join the crew.

And it’s not just an assistant team, it’s involved in some crew productions.

In other words, he wants some say in the project.

But Meng Bai could not accept this request.

It doesn’t matter for collaborative projects, but in his independent projects, others can only have the right to make suggestions but not the right to speak.

Jin Dong is also quite tough. After all, with his current popularity, he has no shortage of roles to play.

Since the two parties failed to reach an agreement, there was naturally no way they could cooperate.

Apart from Jin Dong, the second candidate is Qin Hao.

That’s right, it’s Qin Hao, who is known as “the sixth generation director’s favorite male lead in art films.”

When Meng Bai first saw this name, he thought it was a homonym.

After asking, I found out that it was really him.

Now Meng Bai was a little surprised.

Although Qin Hao's status and fame are not high, he is a serious leading actor in art films.

The first film he made went to Cannes, and he was nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Horse Awards a few years ago.

Even Yu Qianer's father, Mr. Wang, knew that commercial films should not be made because they were very vulgar, and that if one wanted to make a film, one should make an art film.

Definitely at the top of the "contempt chain" in the film and television industry.

But suddenly they came and said they wanted to shoot a web drama. This is simply "degeneration"!

Meng Bai did not keep this question to himself and asked it directly after the audition.

Different from the "gloomy" and "literary" personality that Meng Bai had initially imagined, Qin Hao was actually a relatively silent person of the Northeast.

"Filming a web series..." Qin Hao said with a faint smile: "I don't think there's anything wrong with web series. I've watched some before and I think the stories are quite exciting, much better than some of the crappy movie scripts nowadays."

What he said was very blunt, but it was indeed the truth.

However, this is certainly not the whole reason.

Qin Hao was honest: "Another thing is that it's easy to become popular by filming online dramas."

The two most important labels for art films are "high-end" and "poor".

Especially for the "sixth generation" directors, except for Jia Zhangke's films which can generate stable returns from the overseas market, the rest are basically hovering at the level of "losing money to gain publicity".

Qin Hao is from the famous "96 Star Class" of the Central Academy of Drama. His classmates include Zhang Ziyi, Liu Huohua, Yuan Quan, Qin Hailu, Zeng Li, and Hu Jing.

When he was in school, he was a well-known test-taker. At one point, he made Liu Huohua and Hu Jing want to drop out of school.

But now, all my classmates have won best actor and actress awards, and they receive millions in film pay.

As for myself, I am still stuck in those miserable art films.

In particular, he just got married last year and married his "young goddess" Yi Nengjing, who is now pregnant.

He didn't want his wife to go out to work while pregnant, but he also didn't want to spend her money, so he had to find a way to earn money on his own.

At a time like this, talking about "class" and "vulgarity" and so on is just nonsense. Nothing is more important than money.

If an actor wants to make money, he must first become famous.

TV dramas have their own circle, and it is not easy for outsiders to enter, so it is better to act in online dramas directly. Meng Bai is also very conflicted about Qin Hao. His acting skills are naturally impeccable, but his image and temperament are indeed a bit worse.

He and Li Muge discussed it for a long time and decided to wait until the last person to make a decision.

As for the last candidate, it was recommended by the producer of "Detective Chinatown 3", Chen Zhixi, her long-time friend, Pan Yueming.

Meng Bai had naturally heard of this name before, and his impression of him was still the young master in "Moment in Peking" and Xu Xian in "The Legend of White Snake".

In short, he has the image of a pale-faced scholar.

So Meng Bai directly rejected the offer without even meeting him at the beginning.

It wasn't until a few days ago when I went to talk to Guo Fan and others about the script of "The Wandering Earth" that I mentioned this matter. Unexpectedly, Gong Geer also recommended it to him.

After asking, I found out that these two people are also friends.

Gong Geer told us that Pan Yueming’s image style is different now.

Only then did Meng Bai agree to meet him.

Only after taking a look did I realize that they were indeed different.

The "young scholar" has now turned into a plump middle-aged uncle.

And he looks like he has experienced a lot.

After asking Chen Zhixi, I found out that a few years ago, his wife Dong Jie was photographed cheating with Wang Dazhi. In order to seize the high ground of public opinion, the other party issued a lot of rumor-mongering press releases, and both parties were very unhappy.

Although the final result was a divorce, Pan Yueming's relationship was frustrated, his son was awarded to his ex-wife, and his career was interrupted.

Otherwise, what’s the big deal about VC angel round? Marriage is the riskiest investment.

But then again, if you look at his experience in the abstract, it is somewhat similar to Hu Bayi's.

They are all young and full of vigor and vitality, then experience twists and turns, go through vicissitudes, and then pick themselves up again.

There is no problem with his acting skills. Although it is still a little worse than Qin Hao, it is already acceptable.

The key point is, except for being a little shorter, he is more suitable than Qin Hao in other aspects.

Arc Light discussed it for a long time and finally chose Pan Yueming.

One is that he meets the requirements, and the other is to give face to Chen Zhixi.

This woman is not just an ordinary producer, she is also the CEO of Ruyi Pictures and has some influence in the film industry.

However, Meng Bai also had some requirements. In addition to requiring Pan Yueming to join the crew in advance to participate in action training, another requirement was that he had to lose 20 kilograms before filming began.

Hu Bayi can be decadent and rough, but he certainly can't be round.

Pan Yueming was straightforward and agreed immediately.

This is natural. For such a large-scale project and such a rare opportunity, just losing weight is no big deal.

But there is still a problem, that is, he also played a cameo role in "Detective Chinatown", and was an apparent "little boss".

Meng Bai discussed it with Chen Sicheng and Chen Zhixi and decided to move his scenes to the front as much as possible after filming started, since there were only two or three shots anyway.

Speaking of "Detective Chinatown", Chen Sicheng also reminded that the film will start shooting after New Year's Day, and he can attend the opening ceremony if he has time.

Compared to the fierce competition of Hu Bayi, the other male protagonist of the "Three Giants of Tomb Raiders", Fatty Wang, is much quieter.

He needs to be strong, agile, able to make jokes, and ruthless when he gets the job done.

The first person Meng Bai thought of was the young Sammo Hung.

Of course, this is just thinking about it.

A similar candidate was chosen for the online drama "Grave Robbers' Chronicles", Liu Tianzuo, who fits the bill in terms of appearance.

Wuershan’s choice of actor for “Mojin: The Lost Tomb” is Huang Bo, which is a bit ridiculous.

Meng Bai looked around and was finally "inspired" by Qin Hao and found Chen Minghao, who was in the same class with him.

This person is not very popular. His most famous role in the past should be the Bull Demon King in "Magic Phone".

But he is very capable and is from the National Theatre.

You know, in terms of status in the drama world, the National Theatre of China is half a level higher than the People’s Art Theatre of China.

The two male protagonists have been chosen, and the only one left is the female protagonist "Shirley Yang".

In fact, if Hu Bayi chose Jin Dong at the beginning, Meng Bai really wanted to give the female lead to Wang Ou.

Not to mention anything else, just relying on the gimmick of the second collaboration of "Ming Lou X Wang Manchun" can save a lot of publicity costs.

Unfortunately, after Jin Dong was excluded, the combination could no longer be completed.

However, Wang Ou’s audition performance was also good. Apart from the problems mentioned before, there were no other shortcomings.

But Meng Bai always felt that something was missing.

It wasn't until the last day of the audition that another candidate appeared who caught his eye.

In the audition meeting room of Arclight Films, a woman in a jacket and jeans looked at Meng Bai and said with a smile: "Hello, Mr. Meng, I am Ni Ni."

(End of this chapter)