Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 610 We'll Help You with Your Homework
Almost everyone thought that "The Love Saint" was just a filler film for the fall season. After all, as the top private film company, it had to release at least one film during the December holiday season.

Previously, everyone thought that Bao Qiang's "Lost in India" would be released in the fall, but now it has been renamed "Havoc in India".

After all, this film was widely expected to reach 10 billion yuan, but unexpectedly, "Buddies in India" was pulled from the screen in the fall and replaced with a little-known film called "The Saint of Love".

It's not that "The Saint of Love" is bad, but it's just that the film's presentation wasn't as good as "Buddies in India".

However, it's always good to have some, regardless of whether the autumn exams are just for show or if they genuinely want to achieve good results.

Another reason why "The Love Saint" was not well received before its release was the small cast and crew and the sensitive subject matter.

Both directors are making their feature film debut, so their storytelling abilities remain to be seen, and the main cast doesn't include any big names.

The main storyline of "The Love Saint" is about middle-aged men having affairs, which was criticized as "morally incorrect" and "vulgar" before its preview screenings.

But the team behind "The Love Saint" is very confident about this film. First, the cost of "The Love Saint" is controllable. With a budget of 40 million, it will reach a little over 100 million, so the team's efforts will not have been in vain. Second, the Lunar New Year film season, and even this year, lacks high-quality comedy content. It's not just lacking in quality, there hasn't been a single comedy in the Lunar New Year film season so far! This was unthinkable in previous years!

With the support of the two major production and distribution companies, Qiutian and Wanda, both companies believed that "The Love Saint," as a low-budget comedy, might just be able to achieve great success with a small budget.

Since "Mojin: The Lost Legend," the collaboration between Qiu Tian and Wan Da has entered a honeymoon period, and they have worked together on four or five films in the past two years.

In the fall, Wan Da has unparalleled nationwide cinema resources, while Wan Da has the fall's solid production capabilities and excellent marketing skills. It can be said that both sides have the best of both worlds.

Of course, Li Qiutang will still not direct "Mojin: The Lost Legend 2".

The actual situation proved that autumn's judgment was correct.

While "The Love Saint" didn't perform particularly well at the box office with 34 million yuan on its opening day, it jumped to 62 million yuan on Saturday, successfully breaking the 100 million yuan mark.

What's not satisfying about this?
To be honest, some scenes are a bit vulgar, but skirting the line has always been a tried-and-true comedic tactic. Besides, the production team was quite restrained in their use of such lines, so it didn't really reach the level of being lowbrow or vulgar.

"The Love Saint" grossed 1.72 million yuan in its opening weekend and 47 million yuan on the last day of the New Year's Day holiday, topping the New Year's Day box office with a total of 1.71 million yuan.

It was also after the New Year's Day holiday that Li Qiutang met Zhao Jinmai for the second time in a photography studio in Huairou.

The casting assistant director said, "I really didn't know at first. I just cast Han Duoduo as usual. I looked at more than a dozen girls. When Zhao Jinmai auditioned, her mother said she knew you, director, and that your two families knew each other. I think what she said was true, including that your father was the dean of students at No. 2 Middle School and her father was a chemistry teacher. All of these match up. That's why I brought her here to show you."

Zhao Jinmai came with her mother today.

When the two first met, her parents said that Mai Mai was too withdrawn and didn't like to talk when she was a child. They made her a child actress in order to change her personality. At that time, they did not intend to pursue a professional career.

However, it seems that her family is very supportive of her acting career, otherwise they wouldn't have taken her to film sets in Beijing on non-holidays.

“I told you before, I really am a director, now you see.” Li Qiutang still harbors resentment towards Zhao Jinmai for saying he didn’t know him and hadn’t seen his movies.

Zhao Jinmai said, "Can you please stop treating me like a three or four-year-old? I'm 14 years old."

Her words made the adults around her laugh.

"Even at 14, you're still a child in my eyes."

Zhao Jinmai retorted, "I don't think you're that old either, you can't have a child as big as me."

"Who taught you to talk like that?" Li Qiutang was speechless after being pouted. "You keep talking." Her mother said from the side, "Mai Mai just finished filming a TV series in November. She chatted with Zhang Jiayi every day on set and learned from him." Her mother was happy for her daughter to talk more.

That's not surprising. Zhang Jiayi loves to joke around with others in private and is a very talkative and funny person. It's normal to learn this from acting with him.

Because of their fathers' relationship, the conversation was relatively easy. Her mother also said, "With Mai Mai here, her father and I feel at ease." The two families' fathers had been colleagues for more than ten years, and having Mai Mai in Li Qiutang's film crew was more reassuring than having her in other film crews.

Li Qiutang asked the assistant director, "Has Duoduo's contract been signed?"

"No, I've selected a few, you decide in the end."

"I'm not looking at anything else, let's just sign Mai Mai."

"it is good."

Zhao Jinmai knew nothing about science fiction movies or what "The Wandering Earth" was. Her mother didn't even know that people in the industry didn't think highly of the film.

Child actors don't really need to care about reputation, because nobody cares, and nobody will attribute success or failure to child actors. Two "Balala the Fairies" movies and one TV series flopped without making a splash. Does anyone blame Zhao Jinmai?
Therefore, child actors can actually take on any role.

Signing the contract smoothly is certainly a good thing, but Zhao's mother also expressed her concerns:
"When will your production team start filming? Mai Mai is taking the high school entrance exam this year, so the schedule might be very tight."

"We'll probably start filming in May."

“Oh dear, it’s too late.” Her mother hesitated and almost gave up, because in her eyes, “The Wandering Earth” was just an ordinary movie. Her daughter could make it if she wanted, and she wouldn’t if she couldn’t.

Li Qiutang didn't insist. To be honest, Han Duoduo didn't have to be Zhao Jinmai. There were many options for this role. If Zhao Jinmai wasn't suitable, they could just replace her with Zhang Zifeng.

But Zhao Jinmai herself said, "Mom, I can act."

"You don't have enough time for your homework."

“I can study while filming on set.” She had a solution. “Isn’t that what we always did?”

Since Zhao Jinmai had said so, Director Li couldn't be ambiguous. He said, "Our crew are all college graduates, and our script consultant is a university professor." It's amazing that he thought of bringing up Professor Wang Hongwei. "After filming, we can even tutor Mai Mai with her homework. What's so difficult about junior high school homework?"

He turned to his assistant director and asked, "What's your educational background?"

"I have a Master of Arts degree in Modern and Contemporary Literature."

“Look,” Li Qiutang said to Zhao Jinmai’s mother, “Don’t worry. If you leave Maimai in my film crew and she doesn’t get into high school because of filming, my dad won’t let me off the hook either.”

To put it bluntly, no matter how well Zhao Jinmai did on the exam, her father could still get her into the No. 2 Middle School. The children of teachers are still different after all.

"Alright," Zhao's mother relented, "Let's do it, it's just a bit tiring."

"Alright, take them to sign the contract," Li Qiutang said to his assistant director. He wouldn't concern himself with the payment anymore. "I have other projects to work on here, so I won't see you off."

The Zhao family mother and daughter left with the assistant director, while Li Qiutang continued filming, which goes without saying.

(End of this chapter)