Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 482 A Smile That Captivates the City
The next day, Li Qiutang and Han Jianu successfully persuaded Wen Muye to suspend his screenwriting work and take over "Indian Medicine God" (tentative title) with a hot pot meal.

At the dinner table, Li Qiutang only made one request regarding their subsequent scriptwriting: "This subject matter is already quite heavy, so please don't make it any heavier or make it too heavy in filming. Just add some genre elements to package it. The core is serious and heavy, but the outer packaging must be made to look nice."

This undoubtedly placed high demands on Wen Muye and Han Jianu. Everyone wants to use a genre to package a serious core, but it's not that easy.

"If Lu Yong's case were easy, we wouldn't have had the chance to handle it."

After handing over "The Indian Medicine God" to Wen Muye, Li Qiutang felt relieved.

In the following period, Li Qiutang devoted herself to the work on "The Butterfly Lovers", "The Wandering Earth" and "Mojin: The Lost Legend".

Fortunately, two of the three films were in pre-production and one was in post-production. Li Qiutang's main job was overall coordination and supervision, which was not too demanding and she could manage.

The first creative meeting for "The Wandering Earth" lasted three days, with at least 10 hours each day. After each meeting, the screenwriters would go back and write down their ideas and thoughts, which would then be shared the next day.

After two meetings, Chen Zhixi understood why Li Qiutang wanted her, the producer, to join the screenwriting team. For such a big project, the producer had to join the screenwriting team; otherwise, she would have no control over where to write big parts that cost money and where to write small parts that save money.

It's understandable that there was no progress in the creative process on the first day. By the end of the third day, Li Qiutang had chosen the direction for the script: to write about the moment when Earth flies past Jupiter.

Unlike novels, movies must focus on a specific time period or plot and be fully developed; therefore, movies are not as large in scope.

"Just write this section. Everyone go back and think it over carefully. Each person should write an outline of about 1 words. We'll discuss it again next week."

"Any other questions? If not, we can all leave now. Zhixi, you can stay for a bit."

Chen Zhixi said, "I also have something to tell you."

After everyone had left, Li Qiutang asked Chen Zhixi to tell her story first.

"Didn't we sign a cooperation agreement with Huace a while ago? It was agreed that we would cooperate on TV series, but Huace decided to set its sights on our movies instead."

"That's normal," Li Qiutang said with a smile. No domestic film and television company is immune to her interest. "How do they want to collaborate?"

"They want to co-invest in Bao Qiang's 'Lost in India'."

Huace rarely invests in or controls the main production of films; it mostly co-invests, co-produces, and co-distributes them.

"They've got quite the appetite." "Lost in India" received a very high rating within the company, with a projected box office of 10 billion yuan from the outset. "What will they offer in return?"

"They hold the film and television rights to 'Love O2O,' and they're offering the investment rights to two projects in exchange for one of ours." Huace also knew that they couldn't get "Lost in India" in exchange for a regular project.

Li Qiutang knew very little about this kind of youth literature, but she did know that the TV series "Love O2O" was a huge hit.

Li Qiutang frowned and thought for a moment, then said, "They disagreed before when we said we would invest a sum of money in them. If they had invested, we would have naturally included them in the business. Now they are trying to bleed us dry by exchanging two projects for one of ours."

“Shares are shares, and projects are projects. They’re shrewd,” Chen Zhixi said.

Li Qiutang asked, "What did Cao Ping say?" "Sister Cao wants to change it. Gu Man's novels are all bestsellers, and whoever gets the rights can sell them secondhand for a small profit. But movies and TV series are two different things, but our internal assessment thinks it's feasible."

Although Li Qiutang has decided that the company will withdraw from the youth film market in the next two years, the company has made so much money in youth films in the autumn and has such a strong momentum that it is not something that Li Qiutang can just stop doing with a single sentence. Many people in the company still want to continue making youth films - why not do it if it can make money? Let's talk about it when it stops making money!
Li Qiutang said, "Since you think you can do it, then go ahead and do it."

Century Autumn wanted to make a change, and Autumn Pictures also thought it was feasible. What did they say to Li Qiutang?
But Li Qiutang quickly realized that Huace was offering two projects in exchange for a film by Qiutian, but the ceiling for youth films wasn't high. "Love O2O" was estimated to gross 300 million yuan at most, while "Lost in India" was estimated to gross 1 billion yuan. Even if Qiutian thought it could do it, why would it trade with Huace? Huace was trading for a film, and Qiutian would get a Gu Man IP for free without contributing anything, so of course they were willing.

It is evident that subsidiaries within a group are not entirely monolithic; each has its own agenda.

But Chen Zhixi already has her own plan: "I plan to have Huace pay another sum of money to make up the price difference, otherwise he will try to exchange a youth film for our 'Lost in India', we will not give him such a bargain."

Isn't this something you've clearly thought about?

Chen Zhixi specifically said this to let Li Qiutang know that the film department would not easily be used as a pawn by Century Autumn.

Li Qiutang agreed to Chen Zhixi's plan, and then said that he had asked her about something: "Take some time to go to the Naval Political Department Art Center and ask them if they will do a film adaptation of the evacuation incident in March of this year." Film adaptations of such national events cannot be done without the approval of relevant departments.

Li Qiutang still remembers the failure to adapt the Mekong River case last year.

“Our film ‘Wolf Warrior’ grossed 5 million yuan, and we have successful experience with military films,” Li Qiutang said. “This time, we’re acting early, so we can gain an advantage.”

"I haven't heard anything about changing it." Last year, the Mekong River case was revised because there was definite news from the ministry, so many companies tried to get it.

“We’ll take the initiative and say we want to make changes, and ask the Navy for support.” Then Li Qiutang said his judgment on the future market: “In the next 5-10 years, it will definitely be the world of mainstream commercial blockbusters and comedies. In terms of comedy, we have laid out Mahua FunAge, and we need to accelerate our deployment in the mainstream genre.”

Li Qiutang had made a successful bet on youth films before, and Chen Zhixi trusted his judgment, but mainstream films were a special case, and she wasn't sure.

“Listen to me,” Li Qiutang said without further explanation. “Go ask around. If we can do it, we will; if we can’t, there’s nothing we can do. When has my prediction ever been wrong?”

In fact, Chen Zhixi has her own market sensitivity. She has roughly judged that youth films will not be profitable for many more years, but she has not yet seen what the market will eat in the future. Now that the boss said that the future will be dominated by patriotic blockbusters, she will also try to do it. Trying different types is never a mistake: "Okay, I'll go."

Chen Zhixi had already stepped out when she came back and said, "Should we give Yang Mi some resources to support her? I saw that she's been working really hard since she signed the performance-based agreement with us, and I heard that her relationship with her husband is not good."

"How did you find out about their family affairs?" Li Qiutang asked curiously.

"If Yifei spent 360 out of 365 days a year on set, wouldn't you be angry?" Chen Zhixi asked him back.

Li Qiutang thought about it and realized that it made perfect sense.

"You can handle the resources yourself. I hope she can fulfill that bet; it's better for everyone that way."

"Okay, I understand." He then left.

(End of this chapter)