Entertainment: I am the peak

I've gotten you Chapter 541 of "The Three-Body Problem".

A few days before the Lunar New Year, Ye Ning announced her departure from Wanda. On the last day of the month, Huayi's board of directors suddenly announced that Ye Ning had been appointed as the company's vice general manager and CEO, and nominated as a candidate for the company's board of directors, and would be fully responsible for the management and operation of the company's film and cinema-related businesses.

This biggest job-hopping case in the film and television industry has finally come to a complete conclusion.

There is only one speculation about this job-hopping case: Huayi poached a talent from Wanda.

Otherwise, there's no way to explain it!
Ye Ning had just produced a film that topped the box office charts, "Mojin: The Lost Legend"—although the title only lasted a month—making it the most resounding success for Wan Da since entering the cultural industry. Logically, he should have been on a meteoric rise within the Wan Da Group, and indeed he was. Before the new year, Lao Wang personally promised to reward and promote those responsible for "Mojin: The Lost Legend."

But Ye Ning actually resigned at this crucial juncture and joined a competitor, a company she had previously collaborated with on "Mojin: The Lost Legend".

If this isn't poaching, what is?
Moreover, Huayi has a history of poaching; when it collaborated with Columbia, it poached Chen Guofu, who was then Columbia's artistic director for China.

Now it seems quite logical that Huayi Brothers would poach Ye Ning after collaborating with Wanda on "Mojin: The Lost Legend".

Most importantly, the listed company Wanda Cinemas suspended trading this month to announce an asset restructuring. It is obvious to everyone that Wanda Cinemas intends to acquire Wanda Films, allowing Wanda's film production and distribution business to be listed in another way.

It was highly unusual for Ye Ning to switch jobs to Huayi at this time; who would switch jobs when their own company was about to go public?

Unless the competing company offers a price that Ye Ning cannot refuse.

Li Qiutang actually knew some inside information.

No one would believe that Huayi didn't poach talent, but it's not entirely true that Ye Ning was poached.

It's unlikely that a high-level executive like Ye Ning would switch jobs solely because of salary issues; trying to sway Ye Ning with money is practically impossible.

Because Huayi promised Ye Ning that he would become CEO and oversee all aspects of Huayi Films' daily operations, Wang Zhonglei stepped down to work behind the scenes.

Huayi has always faced suspicions of being a "family business" or a "Wang family business." Coupled with the decline in the company's film production and distribution business last year, the Wang brothers chose to make drastic reforms and bring in professional managers to run the company.

Ye Ning was their choice.

Li Qiutang even knew that the Wang brothers had approached Zhang Zhao, but by then the company had already gone public and Zhang Zhao had joined the board of directors, so Huayi basically couldn't poach him.

Following Huayi's announcement of Ye Ning's new appointment, the market reacted strongly. Leaving aside the reaction from the capital market, online commentators were eagerly awaiting Wan Da's response.

"This shovel has dug right into Wan Da's thigh; will the richest man swallow this insult?"

"Young Master Wang, come out and spout nonsense!"

Strangely, after Huayi's announcement, the entire Wanda Group remained unusually silent and did not respond to the matter at all.

They're busy with asset restructuring and preparing for an IPO; they don't have time to respond to this kind of thing.

But that's not the biggest news in the entertainment industry. The biggest news today is that Leonardo DiCaprio has finally ended his 20-year Oscar run without winning any awards and won an Oscar for "The Revenant"!

Leonardo DiCaprio certainly deserves congratulations, but the online community's playful use of internet memes knows no bounds. While celebrating his Oscar win, they relentlessly referenced Haruki Murakami:

"Murakami-san, did you see that? Leon has come ashore."

"Haruki Murakami, when are you going to win the Nobel Prize?"

"Murakami and Katy Perry looked at each other, then embraced and wept."

On this day, Li Qiutang attended the premiere of the film "Adding Flowers to the Police" held in Beijing.

The film was originally titled "The Story of a Female Police Officer," but the company felt that the name was too plain and difficult to promote, so Guo Fan changed it to "Adding Flowers to the Police" using a pun.

Also relevant to the theme, the film stars Shu Chang and Sun Li, two policewomen who play grassroots police officers, adding a touch of romance to everyday life.

Since her breakout roles in "The Journey of Flower" and "The Legend of the Wind" last summer, Shu Chang has been constantly on set. For the past six months, aside from being Liu Yifei's bridesmaid, she hasn't stopped working. She's currently filming "The Legend of Chusen" in Hengdian, and "Adding Flowers to the Police" is her first film to be released after her breakout success. Frankly, the lack of a smooth transition between projects prevents her from fully capitalizing on her popularity.

But considering this was a rare film opportunity, Shu Chang didn't have any other ideas.

"Adding Flowers to the Police" brings together two of the most popular actresses in the TV drama industry, and its premiere has attracted much attention.

Li Qiutang was just a guest tonight. In an interview before entering the venue, he joked, "I also came on behalf of Yifei. She insisted that I come to see this movie and that I write an 800-word review for her after watching it."

After saying that, he went inside.

To be honest, the merchandise development team for Autumn seems to be a bit obsessed. After the consecutive successes of merchandise development for "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" and "Mojin: The Lost Legend", they have now set their sights on "Police Story".

There were some geniuses in the surrounding team. Since the main theme of "Adding Flowers to the Police" is anti-fraud in health products, they made a large number of "Police Flower Anti-Fraud" enamel mugs and mouse pads to sell, printing the cartoon images of the two policewomen and their anti-fraud quotes on the enamel mugs and mouse pads.

Regardless of whether it sells well or not, this action actually received praise from the relevant departments.

But a broken enamel mug actually sells for 35 yuan in the movie theater, with a special price of 30 yuan on the opening day. You can get a custom-made one for 15 yuan on Taobao, and even cheaper if you buy in bulk!
Sure enough, all the money went to the movie theaters.

The premiere went smoothly, and the press releases from the media were very accommodating.

"Policewoman strikes! Laughter and action fly together!"

"Little Bone joins forces with the Empress, adding a touch of brilliance to the March film season!"

"Adding Flowers to the Police" is going to be a very tough battle, because Guo Fan will be facing off against "Ip Man 3" and "Zootopia".

Neither of them are easy to deal with.

While still in Yanjing that evening, Li Qiutang first informed Guo Fan: "The Disney team agreed to meet with you, but they didn't say when. You need to be prepared at any time."

Guo Fan was greatly impressed after hearing this.

Li Qiutang added, "They might interview you two, three, or even four or five times. At that point, it's very difficult for the company to help you. Whether you can secure the Disney contract depends entirely on yourself."

"I know, I've been preparing all along," Guo Fan said, his fighting spirit high.

Li Qiutang patted Guo Fan on the shoulder and comforted him, "Don't worry, if we can't get into Disney, we'll make our own 'Mulan'. After we finish making 'Mulan,' I'll find you a sci-fi movie. If you want to make 'The Three-Body Problem,' I'll get you both."

Guo Fan was really willing to take the bait. Although the copyright of "The Three-Body Problem" was no longer in the hands of Autumn Pictures, Guo Fan believed that since Li Qiutang had brought it up, he could make it happen.

To reassure Guo Fan, Li Qiutang told him, "Didn't they make a movie adaptation of 'The Three-Body Problem'? It's highly unlikely that the movie will be released. I'll get the rights for you sooner or later."

This isn't Li Qiutang bragging. After Zhang Fanfan finished filming "The Three-Body Problem," Mr. Li, who loves science fiction, took the initiative to ask to see a rough cut.

The reaction after watching...

But the film's rejection wasn't solely Mr. Li's fault; Mr. Li wouldn't be so capricious.

"The special effects for this film are still being worked on. We even got Sunglasses Studio to do it, but they didn't dare to take it on because it's too difficult. Zhang Fanfan is a complete novice. He didn't involve the special effects team during the early stages of preparation. They only started working on it after filming was finished, which made it difficult to work on many parts. Very few companies in China dare to take on this project."

"The boss of Yoozoo Pictures also watched the finished film and thought it was terrible. If it were released, it would not only lose money at the box office, but it could also affect the stock price of his listed company. He dared not gamble and wanted to cancel the film. Now the two sides are in a tug-of-war."

"Once they've finished their wrangling, we can find a good opportunity to acquire the adaptation rights to 'The Three-Body Problem'."

Li Qiutang explained the whole story to Guo Fan, which made Guo Fan even more convinced that he could handle "The Three-Body Problem" for him.

The opportunity to realize his grand ambitions is right in front of him. As long as he finishes "Mulan", he can film the "Three-Body Problem" that he has been dreaming of.

(End of this chapter)