Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 474 Zero Pay

The Cannes Film Festival opens on the 13th, and the crew of "Mojin: The Lost Legend" arrived in Nice on the 12th.

While the film crew awaited the opening of Cannes, the crew of "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe" held its first press conference in Shanghai, announcing its release date for the National Day holiday in October and releasing its first "going to war" poster.

With the film announcing its release during the National Day holiday, comparisons with "Mojin: The Lost Legend," which was previously scheduled for the Lunar New Year holiday, became inevitable. Director Lu Chuan didn't shy away from the competition, describing the rivalry as a "national derby."

"China's strongest novel IP has been adapted for the big screen twice in one year, which is a carnival for 100 million fans of 'Ghost Blows Out the Light' across the country. Barcelona is lonely without Real Madrid, and Ronaldo is lonely without Messi. For both of our films, we are fighting to defend the honor of the 'Ghost Blows Out the Light' super IP! It's like a football match, you have to watch Barcelona's home game and you have to watch Real Madrid's home game."

The words sounded nice, but the reporter wasn't satisfied with his answer. What the reporter wanted was for the two films to fight each other, and for the two directors to clash.

The things said at the press conference were mostly dry and dry.

For example, Lu Chuan said that in order to increase Wang Pangzi's presence, he specially added a love line for him; he said that he chose Li Guangjie and Zhao Liying because they are good-looking.

Therefore, some unscrupulous reporters deliberately steered Lu Chuan's speech during the group interview after the press conference:

"The 'Mojin: The Lost Legend' crew received an invitation from the Cannes Film Festival and is currently preparing in Cannes. Why didn't 'Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe' go?"

Lu Chuan really caught a fish on his first try. He said, "Going to Cannes for promotion is easy. We want to save the money and put it into post-production special effects."

OK, here comes the manuscript!

Zhao Liying is very popular in the drama industry, but she is a newcomer to film. The reporter obviously did not believe that she was selected for such a large-scale film shoot just because of her good looks, so the reporter wanted to know the real reason why Zhao Liying participated in the film.

A reporter asked Zhao Liying, "What preparations did you make to win the role of Cao Weiwei?"

Zhao Liying said that things are seven parts true and three parts false: "At that time, I heard that the director was casting for a role like Cao Weiwei, so I took the initiative to contact the director and talk about 'Ghost Blows Out the Light,' the role, and my understanding of it."

Only the first half of Zhao Liying's statement is true; she did indeed take the initiative to contact Lu Chuan. As for how she secured the role after taking the initiative to contact him, no one knows.

As for Lu Chuan, he was outspoken and immediately "betrayed" Zhao Liying, saying that she had taken the initiative to contact him to try and get the role. However, when asked, "What particularly touching things have happened to you as an actor on set?", he revealed some inside information about Zhao Liying:

"Xiao Zhao is a really hardworking and dedicated actress. She is very sincere." This can be taken as the director praising the actress as usual. The key point is what comes next: "She knew that our crew was on a tight schedule and had a heavy workload, so she took the initiative to return her salary to the crew, saying that if we invested more money in post-production, we could do a better job. I was really touched."

Lu Chuan said this with a hint of smugness, as if he were so charming that he could make actors give up their pay.

"That's why I say, an actress like Liying is bound to become a huge star."

After the press conference, the reporters' articles were published, and two headlines deserve special attention.

"Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe Set for National Day Release; Zhao Liying's Zero-Payment Performance Touches Lu Chuan's Heart."

"Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe Set for Release; Lu Chuan: Going to Cannes is Nothing, Every Penny of Budget Was Invested in Special Effects"

In particular, Zhao Liying's zero-pay performance was widely publicized, and her fans portrayed her as a compassionate and benevolent saint who valued the director above all else.

"It's Liying's first time acting in a big-budget film, and she's so considerate of the crew's hardships. I'm so touched."

"It's really unreasonable for such a sensible actor not to be popular."

Zhao Liying's team hadn't originally planned to market this, but now that they see fans seem to have a particularly good impression of her acting for free, her team is going with the flow and starting to emphasize her heroic act of acting for free out of consideration for the greater good.

But to some people, this matter appears quite differently. Tang Yan, that fool, only realized where she went wrong a year later!
You believed him when he said he would voluntarily return the payment?
The reality is that she probably didn't receive any payment from beginning to end; the production crew provided her with food, accommodation, and transportation, so she went.

This is only what happened before the money was received; who knows what else was paid in return?

Cao Weiwei didn't have many scenes to begin with, and her lines were only a few pages long, yet she was so ruthless as to act for free.

On the one hand, one has to admire Zhao Liying's ruthlessness, but after Tang Yan's team learned how their member was poached, it was impossible for them not to retaliate.

So Tang Yan attended an event the next day. When promoting her upcoming web series "The Lost Tomb" which was set to air next month, she said, "Our production team has a very sufficient budget, so we don't need to skimp on actors' salaries for post-production."

It's that blatant!

Tang Yan's statement makes sense.

Previously, web dramas were usually synonymous with shoddy production, but "The Lost Tomb" is different. It had a total investment of 6000 million yuan and was full of big names both in front of and behind the camera.

iQiyi has also launched the concept of "super web series," emphasizing its ability to be rich and capricious.

Zhao Liying said she was willing to give up her salary to the production team for post-production, and Tang Yan immediately said that her production team had sufficient funds and specifically emphasized that there was no need to save on actors' salaries for post-production. Anyone with eyes could see that the two were at odds.

But many people still don't know why the two started fighting.

Some people have already tried to find clues in last year's media reports.

When he arrived in Cannes, he was unfamiliar with many things. Li Qiutang had only served as a jury member once before, so he was practically a complete novice in Cannes.

"Have you all forgotten that my wife is from Nice?" Liu Ye laughed. "I'm practically a local here."

However, Cannes is more than an hour's drive from Nice, and Liu Ye is the host of Nice, so his influence in Cannes is negligible.

Fortunately, the official guidelines of the film festival were very clear, and the crew of "Mojin: The Lost Legend" quickly found their hotel. The festival organizers were generous and booked the crew the Martinez, the official hotel of the film festival, which is probably the most luxurious hotel in Europe.

During the film festival, the town of Cannes was packed with people.

Many people on the street held up signs asking for media passes or invitations—only a very few events at the Cannes Film Festival are open to the public, and screenings inside the Palais des Festivals are not sold to the general public.

You won't know until you stay, and then you'll be shocked!
The room for Li Qiutang and Liu Yifei cost a five-figure sum each night, and it wasn't particularly luxurious; it was just a larger, ordinary suite.

Liu Yifei thought it was expensive.

"That's the business that film festivals do."

After packing his things, Li Qiutang was about to take a nap with his wife to adjust to the time difference when Jing Tian knocked on the door and invited Liu Yifei to go shopping.

This was Jing Tian's first time in Cannes, and she was incredibly curious about this highest temple of world cinema.

Of course, it was also Liu Yifei's first time there, and she was very curious, so she accepted Jing Tian's invitation and the two went out shopping.

"Be careful, the security situation in Cannes isn't necessarily that good during the film festival."

(End of this chapter)