Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 406 My Little Zhao
The power of Transformers 4 is certainly not to be underestimated, but The Invisible Guest bites it very hard.

The following Friday, "The Invisible Guest" grossed $4200 million, while "Transformers 4" grossed $4185 million, almost identical.

On Saturday, the third day, The Invisible Guest's revenue climbed to $5000 million, while Transformers 4 jumped to $6000 million.

On Sunday, the fourth day, "The Invisible Guest" grossed 4377 million, while "Transformers 4" still earned 5000 million.

In terms of combined revenue for the opening weekend, "The Invisible Guest" earned 1.76 million yuan, while "Transformers 4" maintained its position as the top-grossing film of the week with over 2 million yuan in revenue.

But the success of "The Invisible Guest" is already something to be proud of.

On Sunday, the crew of "The Invisible Guest" was promoting the show in Jiangcheng, which was the last stop on Li Qiutang's promotional tour.

Li Qiutang will finish all work on "The Invisible Guest" and head to Ulanqab to start filming "Mojin: The Lost Legend". All the cast and crew members are already waiting for him on the grassland.

Meanwhile, the other main creators of "The Invisible Guest" will continue to promote the show.

On the same day, "The Invisible Guest" opened online ratings, and Douban users gave it an extremely high score of 8.9.

"No need to watch anymore, this is the best movie of the year."

"That's why I like Li Qiutang. His stories and techniques are completely different from those of older generation directors like Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and Feng Xiaogang. His imagination isn't about how wildly imaginative it is, but about how ingenious and exquisite it is. These qualities are the most valuable."

"It's not hard to guess that the lawyer was an imposter, and it's not difficult to guess the twist either. What's difficult is that the director made the whole story coherent."

CCTV-6's film reporting program devoted 10 minutes to a special report on "The Invisible Guest," calling it "the most worthwhile film to see in theaters this summer."

He also mentioned that many viewers watched the film two or three times, "just to explore the truth behind the case in the film."

The program also interviewed Professor Yi Hong, a professional film scholar, who praised "The Invisible Guest" highly: "This is a film with a completely different temperament, and it is a major step forward in the narrative of domestic films. ... This year, two surprising works of domestic suspense films have emerged. One is "The Great Hypnotist" and the other is "The Invisible Guest." Its current box office performance also proves the success of Li Qiutang in terms of narrative.

The audience also praised the actors' performances, especially Huang Xiaoming: "Huang Xiaoming is so strange. When he's bad, you wish he would quit the industry, but when he's good, you feel like he's a top-notch actor."

"Xiaoming, promise me you'll play a domineering CEO like in 'The Invisible Guest,' okay?!"

As for Jing Tian, ​​who had a minor role in "The Invisible Guest," the audience showed unprecedented leniency: "Although she had very few scenes, her performance was actually quite good."

"What? Jing Tian is in this show? I'll go watch it again."

During a promotional event after Li Qiutang left the group, Huang Xiaoming admitted that he "shamelessly begged" for the role in "The Invisible Guest".

"The director said the protagonist is the boss of a high-tech company, and I said I have played many domineering CEOs and have rich experience in playing such roles."

Xiao Ming's self-deprecating humor received a warm response from the audience.

At 3 p.m. on Monday, Li Qiutang appeared on time at the Huanghuagou Grassland in Ulanqab.

When Li Qiutang arrived at the film set, Liu Yifei was just riding around aimlessly on horseback.

Upon seeing Li Qiutang arrive, Liu Yifei rode over and said with a smile, "I told them, why can't I ride a horse? I'm a very good rider."

Li Qiutang said, "I know you ride well, but I just won't let you ride. Okay, get off now, we're about to start filming, did you get the lines right?" Li Qiutang reached out a hand to help Liu Yifei off the horse.

The two walked into the crew's tent, where all the cast and crew members had already arrived.

"Director." "Hello, Director."

"Yes," Li Qiutang replied, "Have the preparations been completed?"

"It can be turned on at any time."

"Mojin: The Lost Legend" was filmed in 3D, and on set, people could see the 3D effects on the monitor simply by wearing 3D glasses.

Li Qiutang first watched a 3D effect test video shot by the assistant director a few days ago, and found no problems, so he announced that work would begin.

Filming will begin on the grasslands, with Liu Yifei's scenes shot first, so that she can have time to promote "Lucy" in China later.

Fortunately, Liu Yifei doesn't have many scenes on the grassland, so it shouldn't take up too much time.

The weather was great today, a sunny day. When the crew officially started filming, it was sunset, so they didn't need any special lighting to shoot.

Liu Yifei's first scene is when Hu Bayi borrows a herdsman's horse to leave, leaving Shirley alone at the herdsman's house to wait for her. Then she steals the herdsman's motorcycle.

"Can you ride a motorcycle?" Li Qiutang asked Liu Yifei on set.

"Yes, what do you think I've been training for months to do?" Actors' training is managed by specialists, and Li Qiutang generally doesn't get involved.

Li Qiutang explains scenes to the actors on set and communicates shooting plans with the cinematographer.

"Yifei, Ye-ge, let's take a position and check the lighting."

Li Qiutang returned to the director's tent, reviewed the results, and then went back to make adjustments. After making these adjustments for more than half an hour, the assistant director finally called "action."

On Monday, Yang Mi reposted the official announcement from the production team of "The Third Way of Love," confirming her role as Zou Yu.

Losing a role isn't a big deal, but what's frustrating for Zhao Liying is that even though she offered to act as a guest (for free), the other party still didn't choose her.

This left me with a deep sense of frustration.

Yang Mi's movies have flopped so badly, why choose her? What do I lack compared to her?
But later she learned that Yang Mi knew a powerful official. Zhao Liying couldn't find out who he was, what his position was, or what power he had. She only knew that such a person existed and that it was this person who helped her get the role in "The Third Way of Love".

It turns out that it wasn't that she couldn't act as well as Yang Mi, but rather that her background wasn't as strong or her connections as wide as Yang Mi's!
Zhao Liying's agent, He Ru, quickly called to comfort her. It was indeed a bit heartbreaking to lose two roles in a row, but that's the norm for actors.

He Ru promised Zhao Liying that she would continue to help her find scripts, and then asked, "Are you still in contact with director Li Qiutang?"

During her time at Huayi, she played the Nightingale in Li Qiutang's "Making a Name for Oneself," but she had long since lost contact with Li Qiutang: "At most, I would send him a New Year's greeting text message, and sometimes he would reply, but most of the time he wouldn't."

It's not that Li Qiutang is being arrogant; he's just too busy, so it's normal that he can't reply to these greeting text messages.

Zhao Liying was relatively unknown before, so it's not surprising that she couldn't connect with Qiu Tian.

After finishing her conversation with He Ru, Zhao Liying thought about it and realized that she still had to rely on herself and couldn't depend too much on her agent. She could also take the initiative to recommend herself for roles.

Filming for "Mojin: The Lost Legend" had started, and she thought of another movie. She happened to have the director's contact information, so she decisively dialed the number.
"Hey, Director Lu, this is Xiao Zhao, from Huayi Brothers, yes, yes. Are you in Yanjing? I'd like to invite you to dinner. I just got back and know you're busy preparing for your new film, so I thought I'd treat you. Sure, sure, Bulgari Hotel, just me."

(End of this chapter)