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

Chapter 220 The boss makes the decision and "Earth" sets sail

"Meng Bai, is your movie 'Ghost Blowing Out the Light' going to start filming as well?"

"Well, it will start filming next month, around the Spring Festival."

"I heard you guys went to XJ to shoot?"

"Yes, the main plot of the first part of the original work is based on the ancient country of Jingjue in the Western Regions, which is located at Yumen Pass."

"Will you go to Yili?"

"It's not that far. We are mainly in Hami and Dunhuang."

"..."

Tong Liya seemed very curious about this "junior brother" and kept asking various questions.

Meng Bai responded half perfunctorily and half politely, his attitude was polite yet a little distant.

As the saying goes, "stay in the melon field and under the plum tree", he generally doesn't communicate too much with married women.

It must be that Liu Haoran was here too, otherwise he would have found an excuse to leave long ago.

We chatted idly, and fortunately Chen Sicheng came back not long after.

"No problem. Baoqiang said he has no objection to the plot, so we can just follow his lead and make the arrangements."

Chen Sicheng said with a smile, and then looked at the few people: "You should all know each other, right? Yaya, this is the junior brother Meng Bai I told you about, the boss of Arclight Films. He started from scratch, very impressive."

"Ha, you're too polite, Senior. You're no less amazing." Meng Bai praised her in a commercial way. "When Senior Sister announced her relationship, we Juniors were very envious."

"Hey, what's there to envy?" Chen Sicheng waved his hand nonchalantly, "You are just young, it will be the same after you get married. Otherwise, you are still free as singles."

"..."

This sounds a bit ambiguous.

Meng Bai glanced at Tong Liya beside him calmly. She still maintained her gentle smile, as if she didn't think there was anything wrong.

Tsk, there's something weird about this couple.

After the opening ceremony, there was a welcome dinner prepared by the Thai side.

Meng Bai exchanged seats with a representative of the capital side and sat next to Chen Zhixi.

"Hello, President Meng." Chen Zhixi said with a smile, "Suddenly I feel that this dinner party is not so boring."

"Mr. Chen is stealing my lines." Meng Bai said with a smile.

Jokes aside, Chen Zhixi knew that the other party must have something to say to him.

"What do you want from me?"

"I want to ask Mr. Chen about someone."

"Oh, who is it?" Chen Zhixi asked curiously.

"The chairman of China Film Group, La Peikang."

"Him?" Chen Zhixi looked over in confusion. "Why, does President Meng have any new projects with China Film Group?"

Meng Bai did not deny that: "A friend of mine is a director and is planning to cooperate with China Film Group on a science fiction film project, so I wanted to find out who the new head of China Film Group is in advance."

Speaking of the big boss of China Film Group, the first person that most people think of is "Third Master" Han Sanping.

This big boss, who has been in charge of film production since the founding of China Film Corporation in 1999, is an indispensable figure in the entire history of the development of domestic films.

However, he retired from the position in 14, and was succeeded by the current chairman, La Peikang.

Before taking over, he was in charge of the external dissemination of domestic films and the exchange of Chinese and foreign films for a long time. He also participated in the formulation of operational procedures for introducing American co-production blockbusters.

Because I lived in Europe and the United States for many years when I was young, I am very familiar with foreign film production systems.

The first major thing he did after taking office was to organize the "China-US Young Directors Talent Exchange Program" and invite Guo Fan and others to visit Paramount.

Then when these people came back, they took out the copyrights of science fiction works acquired by China Film and proposed the idea of domestic science fiction films.

The reason why Meng Bai wanted to inquire about him was mainly because he and Guo Fan were going to China Film in a few days to discuss the preparations for the "The Wandering Earth" project.

"A science fiction movie?"

Chen Zhixi thought for a moment and said, "It's the project of The Wandering Earth, right?"

"Mr. Chen, you also know this?" Meng Bai didn't expect this.

"I've heard someone say before that this project was specifically mentioned at the China Film Group's project launch conference two years ago."

Chen Zhixi obviously knows a lot about the behind-the-scenes of this movie.

In fact, this is also the reason why Meng Bai would ask her about it - there is a master behind this elder sister.

When Han Sanping was in office, he had a deputy named Zhang Qiang, who was the deputy general manager of China Film Corporation.

At the beginning, many people thought that after Mr. Han San retired, he and his deputy would take over.

Unexpectedly, it was La Peikang who suddenly appeared and killed him in the end.

A year later, Zhang Qiang left China Film and became the president of the newly established Alibaba Pictures.

At the same time, he is also an independent director of Ruyi Pictures.

As the general manager of Ruyi, Chen Zhixi naturally had to deal with her, so it was most convenient to ask her. "As for Director La, I only heard some news about him occasionally."

Chen Zhixi told Meng Bai that perhaps because he was mainly responsible for the work of international film exchanges, La Peikang highly praised the Hollywood film industry system and always wanted to integrate it into China.

In addition, he is very enterprising and dares to innovate.

"What impressed me most was what he said before - the core of film is creation. If domestic films want to develop, they must be diversified and cannot always stick to the same genre. It is inappropriate to shoot costume dances and love songs every day."

Meng Bai nodded: "He sounds like a man with a lot of ideas and courage."

"Without ideas and courage, I would never have thought of making a science fiction movie." Chen Zhixi said with a smile.

After chatting for a few more sentences, Meng Bai had a rough idea of this "La Dong" and had some idea in his mind.

"Is this project in your Arclight now?"

"No, it was Director Guo Fan who took it."

"Guo Fan? Oh, he's the director who filmed "My Deskmate" last year."

Chen Zhixi took a breath and said, "From a youth film to science fiction, isn't this a big step?"

"It's hard to say whether it's big or not, but I know..." Meng Bai smiled, "If domestic science fiction movies can really succeed, it's most likely to be his."

"You have a lot of confidence in him."

"Otherwise I wouldn't have come on board."

Looking at Meng Bai's confident expression, Chen Zhixi couldn't help but start thinking.

Just as many of her peers think that she has a good vision, she has always believed that the vision and ability of "Mr. Meng" are even better than her own.

In just two years, the company was built from scratch to the top of the industry.

Although Arclight Pictures has not started financing, its valuation in the capital market is no less than 10 billion.

Such a person must not be unaware of how difficult it is to make domestic science fiction films.

However, he still firmly believes in Guo Fan, which shows that this "youth film director" obviously has some story.

Thinking of this, Chen Zhixi had an idea.

"Mr. Meng, if this project is really going to be approved, we can communicate more. We at Ruyi are also very interested in this kind of innovative project."

Although there is a big tree like China Film, it is impossible for only one company to pay for it. For such a large project, there must be many investors working together.

"Of course, I am also looking forward to working with Mr. Chen." Meng Bai spread his hands and said, "But we have to wait and talk to see if I can be in charge of this project."
-
The New Year's Day holiday is over and the new year of 2016 begins.

After attending the opening ceremony of "Detective Chinatown", Meng Bai flew back to northern Beijing the next day.

After landing, he didn't rest and went straight to Guo Fan's place.

Together with Gong Geer, the three of them sorted out the 15-word script, a century-long chronicle, and 1000 concept design drawings, and then brought everything to the China Film Building.

They were received by China Film Group Chairman La Peikang himself and more than a dozen senior executives from the production departments.

Looking at the complicated and detailed information on the screen, everyone was silent out of surprise.

Obviously, no one thought that this young director actually spent a year and spent millions of dollars of his own money to prepare such a huge project plan.

"In fact, we have to thank our chief screenwriter Mr. Meng Baimeng mainly for helping us complete the script setting, sorting out the timeline, and investing to support us in completing these tasks."

Guo Fan pushed the credit onto Meng Bai, but Meng Bai objectively stated that he did not contribute much and that the main credit was due to Guo Fan and his team.

Looking at the thick materials and these serious young people in front of him, La Peikang couldn't help but feel emotional.

For the project of "The Wandering Earth", China Film Group had contacted many big-name directors, both foreign and domestic, but in the end no one dared to agree.

It is understandable that foreign directors refused, after all, the language and cultural barriers made filming extremely difficult.

However, none of the big domestic directors dared to take over the project. They would rather keep shooting those farces, fearing that they would get into trouble.

Resources are controlled, honors have to be earned, and box office is desired, but the movies are terrible.

In the end, it still depends on these young directors to step up.

Guo Fan's report lasted more than two hours, during which he was interrupted and questioned countless times by senior executives of China Film Group Corporation who were sitting below.

It can be heard that these people still have doubts about such a huge plan.

In the end, it was La Peikang who stepped forward and made the final decision.

"No one has ever made a science fiction film before, including China Film Group, so there are indeed certain risks. But we have to take this risk, and this film will be made sooner or later. If we don't make it, the market will be taken away by foreign films."

"China Film is a state-owned enterprise and has responsibilities for the development of the film market and the needs of moviegoers. We also have the ability to take risks. After all, we are a listed company with strong financial strength. Even if the investment fails, we can make it back from other films."

After that, he looked at Meng Bai and Guo Fan and said, "Well, I can't finish talking about the film's plan in this moment. In the next period of time, I'll have to trouble Director Guo to keep in touch with us. As for the final director candidate... we will seriously consider it."

Meng Bai, Guo Fan and Gong Geer looked at each other and noticed the excitement and joy hidden in each other's eyes.

La Peikang's words clearly showed his approval of the plans and programs they had prepared.

Although the director was not directly confirmed in the end, it was almost certain to be Guo Fan.

With the approval of La Peikang, the big boss of China Film, the "The Wandering Earth" project has finally officially started.

(End of this chapter)