Entertainment: I am the peak

What was he saying in Chapter 504?

Ahri doesn't care at all.

Its vice president, Xu Yuanxiang, publicly responded: "I don't understand where we went wrong. We just delayed the release date. Everyone else is making up for the lost invoices, so we are too."

Regarding the sudden release, Xu Yuanxiang said, "We strive for perfection in post-production, which did take a lot of effort. We only finished everything last week. Setting the release date late puts us at a disadvantage because we don't have much time to promote it. If we wanted to take advantage of the situation, we wouldn't have set it for the National Day holiday in the first place."

"We considered setting a different release date, but the audience was so excited about our film that we decided to take the risk and release it during the National Day holiday."

That makes a lot of sense, but its competitors don't care about that.

You can call it market behavior if you suddenly release a film during a new release period and then use excessive invoices to compensate for it, but what about "The Ghostwriter" piggybacking on "Nobody's Right"?

Although "Nobody's Eyes" isn't very popular now and it's unlikely to become a classic in film history, Li Qiutang is still around and remains a highly influential director in the Chinese film industry.

If you're using his IP address, he's bound to have something to say about it.

No matter how many times you argue that the story of the ghostwriter is an ancient tale and not Li Qiutang's invention, in the industry's eyes you're just piggybacking on the IP of "Arrogant Nobody".

Therefore, many companies are waiting to see how Li Qiutang will mess with "The Ghostwriter".

However, before Li Qiutang could cause any trouble for "The Ghostwriter," Zhao Wenzhuo took the initiative to attack the "The Ghostwriter" production team.

Zhao Wenzhuo was originally slated to play the male lead in "The Ghostwriter," but he was replaced by Li Yifeng due to scheduling conflicts.

In fact, everyone understands that Ah Li just felt that Zhao Wenzhuo didn't have enough traffic and couldn't generate buzz, but the specifics of the situation at the time are unclear to outsiders except for the parties involved.

Zhao Wenzhuo posted a long article on Weibo, recalling his collaboration with the "Ghostwriter" crew last year and some inside stories about his eventual replacement in the role.

"...In January 2014, Ali Pictures contacted me, expressing their desire to collaborate on a martial arts film, which I gladly accepted. At the time, the script was still being written, and I waited patiently. It wasn't until the day before the March press conference that I learned the film's title was 'The Ghostwriter.' That evening, my agent and I told the producer that this might infringe on copyright and hoped the production company would change the name. However, the producer said the press conference was the next day, the posters and other materials were already prepared, and there wasn't time to change the name. I had no choice but to go on stage the next day...After the press conference, I turned down many jobs and trained diligently, hoping to give back to the fans with the best action performance. Until this time last year, I also participated in the film's action design, designing a set of actions for my character, the female lead, and several supporting actors. Before National Day, after signing a letter of intent, I was suddenly informed that the production was forced to halt due to a shortage of funds, the project was canceled, and the production team disbanded. I felt very sorry at the time, after all, so much preparation had gone to waste, but this isn't unusual in the industry. Although it was regrettable, I could only accept reality."

“Until December, while I was working out of town, I suddenly received a call from my agent saying that ‘The Ghostwriter’ had restarted filming, but the male lead had been changed. The next day, I called the original producer, but was told that the restarted ‘The Ghostwriter’ was no longer in his hands. The previous ‘The Ghostwriter’ had indeed been halted. The restarted ‘The Ghostwriter’ was a different version. New funding had saved the project, but the investors demanded a change of actors.”

"I never doubted Ali Pictures until a couple of days ago when 'The Ghostwriter' was officially scheduled for release. Only then did I belatedly realize that I'd been fooled!..."

Zhao Wenzhuo's downfall was like a bombshell, igniting the National Day film season.

There was no mudslinging between the previous films, not even "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe" took the opportunity to criticize "Mojin: The Lost Legend" which hadn't been released yet. It was all pointless.

Autumn Pictures swears that they didn't instigate Zhao Wenzhuo's actions; they were caught off guard by him.

However, now that Zhao Wenzhuo has made his move, the company can remain inactive for the time being.

Actually, Ahri's reaction wasn't hard to guess.

They will not respond.

Because no matter how they respond, it's wrong. The fact is that Zhao Wenzhuo was indeed replaced. He was still the male lead when the press conference was held in March, but he disappeared when filming started in December. The scene of the accident is too clear.

Zhao Wenzhuo is a victim.

Netizens started a frenzy of gossip.

Zhao Wenzhuo has criticized Zhen Zidan before, and now he's criticizing Ahri. In the eyes of netizens, he's a true hero who isn't afraid of power.

"Support Brother Zhuo! We must fight this fraudulent production crew to the end!"

"Support Brother Zhuo in protecting his rights!"

"I really can't understand why they wouldn't use someone as skilled as Brother Zhuo."

"I won't be watching 'The Ghostwriter'." "No wonder so many film companies are targeting Ali. Doing something like this, it's no wonder that the whole industry is targeting him."

Of course, some rational people say that we shouldn't believe Zhao Wenzhuo's one-sided story; the matter is complicated, and we should see how Ah Li responds.

But Ahri's silence makes Zhao Wenzhuo's statement more credible.

After the incident escalated for a few days, some passionate insiders began to get involved.

Producer Fang Li first criticized Ali Pictures for not following industry rules: "If you don't want to sign a contract, you can talk it out openly. There's no need to resort to such tactics."

Director Li Yang also said, "If this is true, then it is quite serious and should be condemned."

Ah Li remained silent, and the male lead, Li Yifeng, who took over, also didn't say a word.

This really had nothing to do with him; how could he know that Zhao Wenzhuo was originally slated to be the male lead in this film?

But since he was at the center of the storm, and he himself remained silent, his agent had to respond on his behalf: "The way we obtained the role was reasonable, legal, and compliant. We hope everyone will focus on the film itself and not concern themselves with other matters."

But Ahri can dodge the first day of the month, but not the fifteenth.

You might not show up at other times, but how could you not come to a movie premiere?
On Thursday the 24th, the premiere of "The Ghostwriter" was held at a cinema in Shijingshan District.

In addition to the film's creators, Yang Lei, vice president of Ali Pictures, attended the premiere. This vice president is in charge of brand marketing and public relations and internet platform strategy at Ali Pictures. His presence seemed to be a response to the questions that would be raised tonight.

The premiere was packed, if not overflowing with people.

Li Yifeng and Zhao Liying have many fans, and there were quite a few celebrity guests present, but there were even more reporters and self-media bloggers on site, taking up almost half of the seats.

At the premiere, the main cast and crew talked about filming trivia, anecdotes from the shoot, and their passion for martial arts.

Zhao Liying's film career seems to be going well, with two movies scheduled for release during the National Day holiday. She also said that she was flattered to receive such recognition from the production team and would definitely work hard to live up to her fans' expectations.

Today's premiere did not screen the film; instead, it showed clips and behind-the-scenes footage.

But the most exciting part came in the interview after the premiere, where director Ma Yucheng refused to answer questions about the details of the casting change: "I'm not at liberty to answer that."

Producer Xu Ke didn't come at all.

The microphone was handed to Yang Lei, vice president of Ali Pictures, who seemed ready.

"Why was the role of the ghostwriter changed in 'The Ghostwriter'? Can you tell us?"

Yang Lei said, "Since the inception of the 'Ghostwriter' project, we have always adhered to the core methodology of putting users first, data-driven approach, and content as king, and are committed to delivering a phenomenal work with industry-leading significance to the audience. In this process, every decision is based on the meticulous operation and dynamic optimization of the overall health and long-term value of the project."

"Through our rigorous internal competition mechanism and multi-dimensional ability model evaluation, we found that Li Yifeng has excellent performance granularity, strong user mind penetration and perfect coupling with the core of the character, which is why he successfully stood out."

"Li Yifeng's addition will inject new momentum into the project. His unique personal energy field will create a powerful chemical reaction with the film's worldview, accurately penetrating the target audience and achieving a dual-engine drive of box office and word-of-mouth. This is a scientific decision we made based on the deep empowerment of big data and intelligent casting systems."

"Li Yifeng is the inevitable choice for us to seek certainty in uncertainty and pursue the optimal solution in dynamic change."

"Ali Pictures will continue to go all in on content, cultivate user value, and meticulously refine every detail to live up to expectations!"

What is he saying?!

The media were dumbfounded. They understood each word individually, but couldn't understand a single sentence when they put them together.

(End of this chapter)