Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 626 Producer
Jing Tian got scolded again.

Last year, he finally had a hit drama called "Love O2O," which boosted his popularity and turned his career around. However, the Lunar New Year film "The Great Wall" followed closely behind and was heavily criticized.

Fortunately, the drama "The Glory of Tang Dynasty," which aired in January, achieved passable ratings and received good reviews, which helped her regain some face.

Now another one is coming: Kong: Skull Island.

To be honest, the badness of "The Great Wall" and "Kong: Skull Island" can't really be blamed on Jing Tian alone; anyone else would have done the same.

But since Jing Tian is known for her bad movies and has access to many resources, she's a hot topic, and netizens are targeting her alone to criticize her.

Jing Tian is quite open-minded, once again directly denying the "resource-backed actress" label in an interview: "I just acted in a drama because the company told me to. I don't understand why people call me a 'resource-backed actress'."

That's right. You definitely can't admit to being a "resource-backed" celebrity, even if it's true.

The Starlight Brilliant team is practically defunct now, as their investors have withdrawn. Fortunately, Jing Tian had a hit drama last year; otherwise, with her series of flops and the company's poor performance, she might have really been thinking of starting a relationship.

Thanks to the huge popularity of "Love O2O", she has received many jobs, including variety shows and TV dramas.

No more movie offers came our way.

Since you only made headlines for a TV series, naturally more shows will be coming to you. Everyone knows what kind of movies Jing Tian is in; who would dare to cast her in a film?

"If you ask me, that's true. It would be so much better to just focus on making dramas. Everyone knows that making dramas is lucrative these days." Li Qiutang was dragged to eat hot pot by his wife again. When talking about the release of "Kong: Skull Island" and the criticism Jing Tian received, Liu Yifei felt a little sorry for Jing Tian.

“Look at Shu Chang, she’s so sensible. She only does TV dramas and variety shows, and takes on small to medium-budget movies that she can control. She earns more than you every year.”

"Mmm-hmm-hmm-hmm." Liu Yifei nodded. "Her salary is much higher than mine." She leaned closer, adding, "Do you know how much she makes per drama?"

"How many?"

"I'm making 'The Butterfly Lovers' for 50 or 60 million, and you only give me 2 million, which is less than a fraction of what others make." The last sentence is a bit inhumane.

Li Qiutang laughed in exasperation: "The total cost of my film was only around 30 million, so giving you 2 million is already quite a lot." After saying that, Li Qiutang reached for her chopsticks to pick up the freshly cooked tripe from the pot, but after stirring for a while, she couldn't find it. She saw Liu Yifei across from her eating with relish and exclaimed: "You stole my tripe again! It's all gone, only these two pieces are left."

“If you put it in my bowl, it’s mine,” she said, as if the food she’d snatched was especially delicious. “I’ll give you another serving.” With that, she picked up her phone and started adding food.

The day after they had that hotpot meal, Li Qiutang left Yanjing to work in another city, and Liu Yifei also had various filming and interviews to do, so the couple both became very busy.

Li Qiutang went to Jinling, and "The Indian Medicine God" was delayed for almost half a month, but it is finally about to start filming.

This is a film with a low profile. Li Qiutang was well aware of the sensation it would cause, but he did not intend to raise its profile during the film's preparation and shooting period, thus putting unnecessary pressure on the creators.

With a new director and screenwriter, no big-name stars, and dealing with realistic issues, this film, despite some genre packaging, is still artistic at its core—Wen Muye and Han Jianu are both recent graduates, so it's normal for them to be a bit artistic.

This kind of movie wouldn't get a very high rating from any film company.

When Li Qiutang serves as a producer for other films, he usually just holds a nominal position; he doesn't have much time to actually produce anything. But "Dying to Survive" is different. Li Qiutang would genuinely check on the production team from time to time, fulfilling his responsibilities as a producer.

After Xu Shan's attempt to steal the chicken from Cheng Yong failed, the production team spent some time searching for a new male lead.

We initially wanted Wang Yanhui to play Cheng Yong, but after trying out a few scenes, we found that he was more suitable for Zhang Changlin.

He himself didn't care and continued to play Zhang Changlin.

Later, they wanted to find Deng Chao. Deng Chao was terrible at comedy, but when it came to serious dramas, he was one of the best actors in the country.

But things were rushed. The story of "Dying to Survive" was very good, Cheng Yong was a very worthy actor, Deng Chao liked it very much, and Sun Li also liked it very much. They even said they could play Liu Sihui for free, but both of them were scheduled to star in Zhang Yimou's "Shadow" at the same time, so they unfortunately missed each other.

Duan Yihong is going to film "The Looming Storm", and Zhang Yi is filming "Operation Red Sea".

Almost all the middle-aged actors in the industry who can play Cheng Yong now have film offers.

Zhou Yiwei, who played Cao Bin's brother-in-law, wanted to play Cheng Yong. Wen Muye did give him a chance and let him try out two scenes, but Wen Muye was not satisfied no matter how he looked at them. He felt that Zhou Yiwei's acting was not natural enough. Cheng Yong was just a man who sold aphrodisiacs and wanted to make money by risking his life to go to India for ZS. Zhou Yiwei did not have the temperament that Wen Muye wanted.

Finally, two days before Li Qiutang arrived for the opening ceremony, the production team found Guo Tao to fill in.

Wen Muye and the producer flew to Guo Tao's house. After watching the performance, it turned out to be perfect. Guo Tao wasn't that good-looking, and even looked a bit rustic, but that was exactly the kind of actor Wen Muye wanted. He immediately cast him. Guo Tao didn't hesitate. He packed two pieces of clothing into a bag and came to Jinling with Wen Muye that very day.

A rescue mission is like putting out a fire; no one would come begging for help just two days before filming starts unless there was absolutely no other way. The fact that they thought of you for a rescue mission shows, to some extent, that they value you.

Back when the director of the film "The Ruffian" was beaten up and hospitalized for having an affair, Huang Xiaoming specially came to the United States to ask Li Qiutang to help him out. Li Qiutang had just won a Golden Globe Award and immediately agreed to help him. Isn't that a kind of favor?

Li Qiutang arrived in Jinling and saw that everything on the set of "Dying to Survive" was in good order.

“I came here unnecessarily,” Li Qiutang said.

“You’re not superfluous,” the company producer laughed. “If you didn’t come, would we have reporters to film us when we start shooting?”

A film crew that looks like a low-budget production wouldn't necessarily attract reporters even if they were offered travel expenses, unless there were big stars involved.

But with Li Qiutang's endorsement, the reporter was willing to earn the travel expenses.

So, a reporter asked Li Qiutang: "You just finished filming an art film about family life, and now you've produced a realistic film about medicine. Is this a coincidence, or have you started paying attention to serious subjects in the last two years?"

This is an interesting question. Li Qiutang answered patiently: "I have always been concerned about real-world issues, whether it's family life, medical topics, or other major social issues. It's a coincidence that the two films were released one after the other, but I have always paid attention to the subject matter, so it's not a coincidence."

"Will you continue to film this kind of subject matter in the future?"

“I’m interested in any subject matter, and I’d like to try as many as I can if I have the opportunity.” He then laughed and said, “Today is the start of filming for ‘Dying to Survive.’ Please ask our director and actors more questions. I’m just the producer, providing them with some support. They’re the ones doing the main work.”

(End of this chapter)