Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 432 Overspending
"Yifei, my movie 'Outcast' is going to be released during the National Day holiday. Can you help me post a message on Weibo?" Yang Mi sent a voice message to Liu Yifei.

This is a small matter, no problem at all. Liu Yifei didn't refuse and replied, "Okay, no problem."

Liu Yifei opened Weibo and saw that Yang Mi had posted a promotional Weibo post for the release of "Outcast" ten minutes earlier. Liu Yifei promptly reposted it with the comment: "Looking forward to Mi Mi and Cage."

This film has some pedigree. It's a co-production project of Yunnan Film Group, originally titled "The Last War," but officially renamed "Deadly Escape" for its release. Filming began last September, and it will be released on September 26th this year during the National Day holiday, which is quite reasonable in terms of timing.

This project has attracted a lot of attention and involves a substantial investment. The combination of Cage and Yang Mi is certainly worth watching.

This is also Yang Mi's first co-production film, and playing such an important role as the female lead has filled her with enthusiasm.

Yang Mi was very proactive in promoting her films. She had almost no success in the film market. "Tiny Times" won at the box office but lost in terms of reputation, but fortunately, the audience criticized the director. "The Breakup Guru" managed to steal more than 6 million yuan from "Transformers 4", but the credit went to Deng Chao, the director and male lead, while her performance in the film was still highly questioned.

Cage is amazing, but Yang Mi knows that Cage is a foreign actor in China who has passion but no real appeal. The domestic market needs her to step up.

This made her feel that her role in "Outcast" was like Liu Yifei's role in "Pacific Rim" last year—no matter how you say I'm a supporting actress or a mere accessory, the domestic box office depends on me, and I have a heavy responsibility on my shoulders.

This sense of mission filled Yang Mi with a sense of pride.

This sense of pride lasted until late on the 25th, when the production company, Yunnan Film Group, announced the film's withdrawal from theaters the day before its scheduled release.

Yang Mi was completely stunned.

As the female lead, she received no prior notice. When the official Weibo account of "Outcast" released the announcement, she was still discussing the promotional schedule for the next few days with her staff.

Yang Mi really wanted to curse.

Moreover, when she demanded an explanation from the production company, the response she received was extremely perfunctory: "I don't know why either. The company wanted to withdraw, and I just complied."

The losses from withdrawing the film's release are enormous. Not only are all the copies rendered useless, but all the pre-release publicity and follow-up arrangements are rendered futile. If the film is to be released later, the schedules of the main cast and crew will all have to be rescheduled and readjusted. Since the production company breached the contract, they will have to pay a huge price, as the production company may not be available.

The fact that "Dearest" was released at the same time as "Outcast" unexpectedly meant it had one less competitor, which was a pleasant surprise.

There aren't many films scheduled for release during this year's National Day holiday, but they should be able to keep the holiday going for seven days.

The most anticipated films are Ning Hao's "Breakup Buddies" and Chen Kexin's "Dearest," both of which feature Huang Bo—no, all three. He also appears in "Black & White 2."

Huang Bo became the busiest person during this year's National Day Golden Week holiday.

Even he himself laughed: "Can we just declare myself the champion of the National Day film season?"

"Dearest" focuses on social issues and grossed 1200 million on its opening day, which is not bad. It is a realistic film with a heavy theme, and a box office of 1200 million on the first day is already acceptable.

On the weekend that "Dearest" was released, the "Mojin: The Lost Legend" crew discovered a problem: the production was going to go over budget.

There's still money in the account, but the estimated expenditure will be overspending.

The actors' salaries didn't exceed the budget; it was the actual filming and production costs that went over budget.

There had been no similar projects to "Mojin: The Lost Legend" in Chinese cinema before. The production team's budget was based on Li Qiutang's "In Time" and Wu Ershan's "Painted Skin 2"—1.8 million yuan for production (6000 million yuan of which was used for post-production) + 7000 million yuan for marketing and distribution.

However, the actual filming process still cost money faster than the production team had anticipated. One reason for the overspending was the cost of setting up the sound stages. The production team hadn't expected to rent 13 out of 16 sound stages in Huairou—and they hadn't anticipated the expenses would increase so quickly when they did rent them.

Moreover, the ancient tomb set was too large, and the 13 film studios could only be built and dismantled in rotation, which resulted in huge costs.

When the report of the overspending was handed to Ye Ning, Wan Da actually suspected that Li Qiutang had done it on purpose.

Because Li Qiutang's director's fee has not yet been finalized, Qiu Tian still insists that Li Qiutang should receive a high share, but Wan Da insists on signing a 10 billion yuan performance-based profit-sharing agreement with Li Qiutang.

Li Qiutang is still only working with a 300 million yuan director's deposit.

Wan Da felt that Li Qiutang had deliberately overspent to force Wan Da to pay more money, so that Wan Da's 10 billion betting agreement would be fairer.

So, Ye Ning came to the film crew.

Bringing an auditor would have been awkward for both sides.

The problem is actually quite clear: the overspending mainly occurred in the construction of the set. The underground palace is so large, it's obvious where the money went.

"We've been filming in Studio 1 for the past few days, then we'll move to Studio 10 in a few days, and then to Studio 6 in a few days after that," the production manager reported to Ye Ning. "We're constantly taking apart and rebuilding, and the costs of labor, materials, and vehicle rentals are all there. The largest studio in Huairou is only 5000 square meters. If we could have a 10,000-square-meter studio, the costs would definitely come down."

Li Qiutang didn't attend the meeting, so Ye Ning asked some questions about the director, meaning whether she felt that Li Qiutang was wasting money in certain areas.

But several producers and the finance manager said they didn't notice: "He doesn't concern himself with money. We didn't even tell him about this overspending. Only a few of us producers and Mr. Chen Guofu knew about it."

One producer also spoke up for Li Qiutang, saying, "It was right for him to do a full-length dynamic preview. He rarely came up with shooting plans on set; he basically shot according to the dynamic preview. He also didn't shoot extra footage just to make editing easier. In this light, the money spent on the dynamic preview in the early stages actually saved a lot of costs for the later shooting."

"The collaboration with Toronto was made possible thanks to the director's team. The Toronto co-production company has already started preparations. We will finish filming in China in November and be able to start filming as soon as we land in December. If another company were to do this, it might not even be possible to start filming until February or March next year."

Ultimately, it's because Wan Da has too little production experience. He's made some low-budget films, but a mega-production like "Mojin: The Lost Legend," which involves international collaboration, would be very difficult for Wan Da to handle without a mature team.

Wan Da wasn't stingy, and Ye Ning wasn't stingy either; she just wanted to find out the truth.

How much of a budget overrun are you expecting?

"2000 million, mainly..."

After listening for the time it takes to smoke a cigarette, Ye Ning said, "Alright, it's only 2000 million, not much. I'll transfer it to you in a few days."

Li Qiutang, who was filming on set, was wondering why the production manager and several producers were not there today.

"Cut. Fear isn't just about staring and screaming. Extras can act like that, but the lead actor can't. Bring something more sophisticated, don't give me these slapstick performances."

"Shirley, I'm talking about you."

Liu Yifei was taken aback for a moment, then called out, "Okay, director, let's do it again."

(End of this chapter)