Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 613 Reply to Uncle's Visit
The minimum guarantee release trend started two years ago and peaked last year, but only two films, "The Mermaid" and "The Lost Tomb," successfully achieved their minimum guarantee last year, with the latter still losing money.

Autumn Pictures, as the film company with the strongest production capabilities in China, has never taken the plunge into the low-price guarantee distribution trend.

Li Qiutang, Zhang Zhao, and others felt that the method of guaranteeing returns and locking in profits in advance "made the market very abnormal."

If the production company starts splitting the profits before the film is even released, who will bother making good films in the long run?

Therefore, despite having a number of good films in hand, Autumn Pictures has never touched the minimum guarantee distribution.

However, an unexpected event occurred during this year's Spring Festival film season.

Yanjing Culture has its sights set on Autumn Pictures' big-budget film "Buddies in India" for this year's Spring Festival and has offered a guaranteed contract of 8 million yuan.

Yanjing Culture bet that "Buddies in India" would gross over 800 million yuan, agreeing that all profits from the film's grossing 800 million to 13 billion yuan would go to Yanjing Culture, while profits exceeding 13 billion yuan would be split 60/40 between Yanjing Culture and the production company (mainly Autumn Pictures and Baoqiang's own Lekaihua).

Autumn Pictures internally estimated "Buddies in India" at 10 billion yuan, but without guaranteeing a minimum profit, they had to leave some profit margin for the audience. 8 million yuan would be a good figure.

Qiu Tian didn't actually want to sign, as she always believed that a guaranteed minimum issuance was not a good thing, but she couldn't resist Bao Qiang's insistence on signing.

He was very unhappy in the past year because of his divorce and wanted to earn more money.

Baoqiang was well-liked within the company in the autumn, so the company did him a favor by allowing Yanjing Culture to join the project for "Buddies in India".

Despite my reluctance, I have to admit that it feels really good to have the profits in my pocket ahead of time.

After the film was handed over, there was much less work in the fall, and I can have a relaxed year.

Li Qiutang didn't stop it after learning about it; it wasn't a big deal, so he figured it was fine if he did it.

His immediate priorities are still filming "The Butterfly Lovers" and preparing for "The Wandering Earth".

I'll definitely be spending the Lunar New Year on set this year, but it's become a habit.

On the afternoon of the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, Li Qiutang met Wu Mengda, who had come from afar, at the Huairou film crew.

During the scriptwriting stage of "The Wandering Earth", the screenwriters had already decided to cast Wu Mengda as Han Ziang.

But when the production team started casting and actually sent an invitation to Wu Mengda, he was surprised to be rejected.

He didn't believe the script was written by a Chinese person and suspected it was bought from Hollywood.

As for director Li Qiutang, he also suspected that the production team was using Li Qiutang's name to swindle and deceive.

Another reason is distrust of domestically produced hard science fiction.

The production team had no choice but to invite him to come and visit in person, to meet Li Qiutang in person and find out if it was true or not.

After arriving in Yanjing, Wu Mengda, accompanied by staff from the "The Wandering Earth" crew, first visited the preparatory studio to see the design drafts, exoskeleton equipment, protective suits, and pre-production special effects.

Wu Mengda then realized that "The Wandering Earth" was not a shoddy production.

Li Qiutang happened to be in the shed that day, so he brought Wu Mengda to meet him.

As soon as the staff and Wu Mengda entered the studio and took a few steps closer, they heard Li Qiutang throwing a tantrum at the lights.

The light bulbs need to be replaced, but we couldn't find any in stock. Now we have to find an equipment company to arrange for them. The Huairou base has all the necessary equipment, but arranging for light bulbs from outside will take up a lot of time.

The root of the problem was inadequate lighting preparation. The lighting director and the assistant who was in charge of the lighting were both scolded by Li Qiutang.

Li Qiutang also got emotional and rambled on: "Two and a half months to shoot this little bit, how am I supposed to film? And Venice? Go to hell!" "After more than ten years in the industry, you still make such a basic mistake as not having enough light bulbs. You don't even do an inventory check after filming every day." Li Qiutang also scolded the production manager of the crew.

The staff also have something to say: the light bulbs are going out of stock too quickly because the director is cutting too many shots and the filming is too slow.

But whoever says that will die.

The lighting wasn't up to standard, so Li Qiutang couldn't continue filming and had to order the crew to take a break. However, the actors rehearsed on the spot, practicing the later scenes several times on their own.

Liu Yifei could certainly offer advice, but she chose to remain silent at this point.

"Director," the staff member finally dared to call him softly, "Teacher Wu Mengda has arrived."

Li Qiutang got up again as soon as her butt touched the director's chair.

Like a face-changing act, Li Qiutang, who had a stern face one second, shook hands with Wu Mengda with a beaming smile the next: "Welcome, welcome."

He knew in advance that the production team would invite Wu Mengda to visit, but he didn't know it would be today, and that his own production team would come.

Wu Mengda was unaware that Li Qiutang was simultaneously preparing for such a large-scale production as "The Wandering Earth" and filming another project.

They praised Li Qiutang for her boundless energy and tireless nature.

He wouldn't mention Li Qiutang's outburst about the lighting earlier. Having spent his entire life on film sets, he knew exactly what to say and what not to say!
To be a veteran artist, one must be old, possess artistic talent, and have moral integrity. It's not that simply getting old automatically makes one a veteran artist.

Wu Meng replied that he only possesses one and a half of these three qualities at most. He is old enough, his character was a scoundrel when he was young but is still acceptable now, and as for art, he acts very well, but in recent years he has made a lot of bad movies and doesn't cherish his reputation. But this is to pay back the debts he owed when he was young.

Overall, from the audience's perspective, Wu Mengda is still worthy of respect, after all, he contributed so many classic roles.

The production of "The Butterfly Lovers" has temporarily stopped, so Li Qiutang talked to Wu Mengda about "The Wandering Earth". Wu Mengda admitted that he did not trust the production team when he first received the script, but after seeing the production team's preparations today, he is very confident about the filming.

However, Li Qiutang was very worried about Wu Mengda's health. If possible, he would like to find an older actor who was in better health.

"I'm in good health, don't worry," Wu Meng replied with a smile. "Just let the crew know if they have any requests, I'll be fine with it."

Since the person in question had already said so, Li Qiutang didn't say anything more. Wu Meng replied that this was what the screenwriters wanted, and as the director, he had no say in the matter.

Li Qiutang told Wu Mengda, "Our film will be shot in two phases. One is the ground phase, which you will be in. The second is the space phase, which you will not be in."

Wu Meng listened carefully to Li Qiutang's explanation of "The Wandering Earth," and combined this with what he had seen in the preparation studio before, he suddenly said: "Hong Kong can't make this kind of movie."

Li Qiutang was taken aback; he hadn't expected Wu Mengda to suddenly say this.

"No director in Hong Kong could have come up with this kind of story, and no company would dare to invest in it."

Is this a compliment to Li Qiutang?

Wu Meng replied that he did not expect a response from Li Qiutang, and then asked him, "How much box office do you think 'The Wandering Earth' will make?"

Two years into the formation of the "Wandering Earth" team, this was the first time someone had asked him this kind of question. Li Qiutang laughed and said, "If I'm bragging, it's 100 billion; if I'm not bragging, it's 50 billion."

The staff around him were stunned; it all sounded like he was bragging.

"You don't believe me?" Li Qiutang saw a "you think I'm kidding you?" look on her colleague's face. "50 billion is really possible, I'm not bragging."

The assistant director also said of him: "Northeasterners never tell the truth when they brag."

(End of this chapter)