Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 396 It's best to be pretty.

The arrival of June means the start of promotional activities for the summer movie season.

Li Qiutang became even busier because he also had to work on another film, "The Invisible Guest".

In a small group chat, directors Deng Chao, Han Han, and Li Qiutang kept asking each other, "When are you going to set the date?" and "Don't get too close to me!"

Han Han followed behind Deng Chao, begging Li Qiutang not to choose a film too closely related to "The Continent".

相比于《分手大师》《小时代3》2月份就确定档期，《后会无期》5月底宣布定档7月24，《看不见的客人》定档消息确实慢了很多。

This summer, apart from Li Qiutang, all the major Chinese directors are once again absent from the film season!
"The Invisible Guest" is therefore very important, as its release date will more or less affect the film schedule in July, if not the entire summer season.

With so many films in the summer season and such a large market, how much can Li Qiutang's family eat, no matter how much they can consume?
That's what they say, but no production company is willing to directly confront the impact of Li Qiutang.

It wasn't just Deng Chao and Han Han who asked; some bosses and directors I met during this period, especially those with films scheduled for the summer, would also ask Li Qiutang about the release date: "You should set it as soon as possible, so that we can avoid it by a few days."

Li Qiutang thought they were making a big fuss over nothing. No matter how much he could eat in one movie, how much could he possibly eat? Why were they worried about it clashing with his release date?

But "The Invisible Guest" really should be scheduled for release.

It wasn't until the Hollywood blockbuster "Edge of Tomorrow" finished its opening weekend that the official Weibo account of "The Invisible Guest" released the release date announcement trailer and poster, confirming that the film would be released on July 10th!
Deng Chao and Han Han can breathe a sigh of relief, but what's hard to accept is "Old Boys: The Way of the Dragon," which just announced its release date of July 10th last week!
They don't feel like they're being deliberately targeted; they're self-aware enough that "Old Boys: The Way of the Dragon" isn't important enough to warrant using Li Qiutang's film as a sniper.

It can only be attributed to bad luck.

Deng Chao's "The Breakup Guru" was released at the same time as "Transformers 4," but he still gritted his teeth and went ahead with it.

"Tiny Times 3" is a full week behind "The Invisible Guest," which puts some pressure on the director, but Guo Jingming should be very clear that his film and "The Invisible Guest" are not in competition.

With the release date of "The Invisible Guest" set, the summer movie season preview has begun.

This year's summer movie season has been dubbed the strongest summer movie season in history by the media!

"If we follow the usual calculation method and consider late June as the start of the summer movie season, then this year you can see Hollywood blockbusters like *Maleficent*, *Grace of Monaco*, and *Transformers: Age of Extinction* in theaters, as well as highly anticipated films like *The Breakup Guru*, *Tiny Times 3*, and *The Continent*. You can also see fantasy action films like *The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom* and *The Four*. If you prefer traditional action and martial arts films, *Brotherhood of Blades* will satisfy you. Fans of Hong Kong films can also see *Anti-Corruption Storm* released in August. If you're looking forward to a great director's performance, Li Qiutang's *The Invisible Guest*, three years in the making, is a blockbuster you can't miss!"

"This summer's blockbuster season boasts a star-studded cast including Deng Chao, Han Han, Guo Jingming, Li Qiutang, Li Bingbing, Yang Mi, Huang Xiaoming, and Fan Bingbing, making it the most watchable season in recent years!"

Li Qiutang temporarily put aside her work on "Mojin: The Lost Legend" and began promoting "The Invisible Guest".

Li Qiutang's last film to be released was "The Ruffian," which was filmed in 11 and released in 12. Only two or three years have passed since then. This year, Li Qiutang has once again embarked on the road of film promotion and clearly felt a great difference!

Promoting movies 12 years ago and earlier wasn't tiring at all. Before the release, you'd run around to three or four cities, and if you had the money, you could run around to a few more. Then you could just wait for the movie to be released and collect the money. After the release, you just had to do some simple interviews.

But this year, film promotion has become significantly more difficult. There have been many more campus tours and promotional programs before the film's release.

The publicity director told Li Qiutang that all these changes were brought about by the internet: "The internet is becoming more and more important now, and everything we do has to be combined with the internet. The average age of our audience is now only 21.4 years old. This group is the main users of the internet, and we must cater to them."

Right now, he and Huang Xiaoming are recording Hunan TV's "Day Day Up" in Changsha.

"Today, our program is honored to have a very heavyweight director in the Chinese film industry as our guest, the first person in the Chinese film industry to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture and the youngest person to win the Golden Rooster Award for Best Director. Let's welcome Director Li Qiutang!"

Li Qiutang stepped out from behind the scenes to the forefront.

The professional audience members were very supportive, with constant applause and cheers.

Among the members of the "Tian Tian Brothers," Li Qiutang was only somewhat familiar with Wang Han; he hadn't met the other four members much.

When Li Qiutang came on stage, Wang Han greeted him familiarly in Northeastern dialect: "Oh my god, you're here."

Li Qiutang smiled and shook hands with Wang Han, who then explained to the audience: "Director Li is from Northeast China. In Northeastern dialect, 'qie' means 'guest,' so 'lai qie le' means 'guest has arrived.'"

She added, "Director Li and I have been friends for many years. I've invited him to our program several times, but he always said he was too busy. Today, we finally managed to get him here. Qiu Tang, what brings you here this time?"

Li Qiutang laughed and said, "Because 'Happy Camp' is out of schedule."

The audience burst into laughter, saying that Director Li was too honest.

Wang Han didn't mind saying that, but still for the sake of the show, he said, "Don't tell everyone everything."

After the opening remarks, the interview truly began.

Talking about movies.

The big screen played Li Qiutang's performance at the Golden Globe Awards.

Wang Han asked him, "What were you thinking that night at the Golden Globe Awards?"

"Actually, I initially won Best Director, which was already unexpected for everyone. I wasn't prepared, so I went up and talked nonsense. Then our North American distributor said that Best Director usually means Best Picture, so you should be prepared. Then they announced that I won Best Picture, and then I went up and talked nonsense again."

Let's talk about life.

Wang Han knew that Li Qiutang was a seasoned water sports enthusiast, especially fond of swimming, diving, surfing, etc. The production team also asked Li Qiutang for many photos to showcase.

"This is on the Gold Coast of Australia."

"This is Tahiti."

"This is in Hainan Province."

Director Li is quite a jack-of-all-trades.

Since we're talking about life, we'll inevitably touch on relationships.

The production team didn't bring up Liu Yifei, and Wang Han only asked him what his criteria for choosing a partner were: "What kind of girl do you want to find?"

An audience member shouted Liu Yifei's name!
Wang Han interrupted the recording and said to the audience, "I can't say this. Come on, let's record it again."

Li Qiutang smiled and pretended not to hear; he had his own plans and arrangements.

But his description of his partner still followed Liu Yifei's: "She must be a good person, sincere and kind... and preferably pretty."

Wang Han chimed in, "There are plenty of pretty young women in the film and television industry!" He was subtly implying that Liu Yifei was involved.

After chatting about life, we still have plenty of time, so naturally we'll get to today's main topic: "The Unseen Big Guest".

This episode will air on July 11th, and Wang Han said, "Qiu Tang has also brought us his new movie, called 'The Invisible Guest'."

Then Huang Xiaoming came on stage, and the two of them represented the crew to talk about "The Invisible Guest".

Huang Xiaoming expressed his gratitude to Li Qiutang on set, saying without any hesitation, "Director Qiutang saved my acting career."

Aside from Cheng Dongqing, almost all of Huang Xiaoming's most important representative roles in film were created by Li Qiutang. "The Message" even won him his first mainstream performance award, which is no exaggeration.

The group started talking about "The Invisible Guest," discussing what kind of film it was and the interesting behind-the-scenes creative process.

Huang Xiaoming praised Li Qiutang, and Li Qiutang naturally had to praise him in return: "Xiaoming is a very hardworking and dedicated actor. He is very kind-hearted and takes good care of everyone. We often say that if you have any problems, just go to Xiaoming, and he will definitely help you."

As the program came to a close, Wang Han appealed to the audience: "Thank you Qiu Tang and Xiao Ming for being our guests, and please go to the cinema to support our film 'The Invisible Guest'."

(End of this chapter)