Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 639 Tighter Regulation, Crisis Erupts

The casting for "Mulan" generated a lot of buzz after the press conference at last year's Shanghai International Film Festival. However, due to the long casting process, Guo Fan will not create a buzz for each actor he casts, unlike he did with the bearded actor more than a decade ago.

After half a year of selection, the audience gradually lost interest and just waited for the final selection to be announced.

Many actors from both China and abroad have come here. It's no exaggeration to say that all the famous and unknown actresses born in the 80s in China have come here.

Those women in their 70s, probably knowing that Mulan was meant for young girls, didn't bother to approach Guo Fan.

The auditions for "Mulan" were open to all qualified actors, but the production team did not hold auditions publicly or in a centralized manner, so the auditioning actors were unaware that each other was a competitor unless they communicated privately.

However, these actresses in China all tacitly acknowledge that they have a potential biggest rival – Liu Yifei.

Liu Yifei's action skills, her star power, and her international fame—except that she is already 30 years old and a bit over the age limit—many of the actors who auditioned were over the age limit, but no one cared—it seems that all the casting requirements for Mulan were written for Liu Yifei.

However, they didn't know whether Liu Yifei had come to audition.

Many actors didn't consider Liu Yifei before auditioning, but after auditioning, when they thought of her, they would have this question in their minds: "If Liu Yifei auditioned for Mulan, would I have a chance?"

Many people would answer no.

You think you can win against Liu Yifei for the same role?

Do you want to find out which company discovered director Guo Fan?

Take another look at who is the vice president of Chen Zhixi, the domestic executive producer of "Mulan".

Although Disney is the organizer and head referee of this match, the linesmen, co-organizers, and executive committee members are all Li Qiutang's people. Do you still think you can beat Liu Yifei?
Even putting all that aside, if we're just talking about acting quality, how many domestic actresses can rival Liu Yifei in the role of Mulan?

So many actors eventually realized that it was best if Liu Yifei didn't come; if she did, the casting process could be considered over.

But apart from the Mulan production team, no one knows whether Liu Yifei went to the audition.

Starting around the beginning of the year, Liu Yifei would receive greetings from friends in the industry every few days, asking her if she was interested in "Mulan" and if she had auditioned.

Liu Yifei knew that others were testing her, but at the time she really wasn't interested in "Mulan".

But now that her agent has already submitted her information, she's willing to give it a try.

Auditions aside, based on her understanding of Hollywood studios, it's unlikely that "Mulan" will start filming this year, but that doesn't stop her from resting at home and picking her toes.

Liu Yifei's audition for "Mulan" is not a big deal and not worth mentioning.

Speaking of the pre-release hype for the upcoming summer movie season in June, it was very successful. With "Wonder Woman," "The Mummy," and "Alien: Covenant"—one Hollywood blockbuster every week—each one performed quite well.

This week, the ultimate blockbuster, "Transformers: The Last Knight," is set to be released. In fact, the summer movie season, in a narrow sense, has already begun by late June.

During the week that "Transformers 5" was released, a major event occurred that was enough to change the domestic film and television industry and even the entire business environment. The China Banking Regulatory Commission required all banks to investigate the overseas financing situation and risk analysis of several well-known multinational companies in China, including Wanda Group and Fosun Group, and to pay special attention to the risks of cross-border business such as merger and acquisition loans and domestic guarantees for foreign investment.

It sounds a bit convoluted, but to put it simply, the government suspects these companies of doing something wrong by taking out loans from domestic banks. If it were normal overseas investment, there would be no problem, but the government now suspects that someone is secretly transferring assets, keeping profits overseas and keeping debts in the country. If something goes wrong, they can just walk away, and what will happen to the banks?
Film and television investors interpreted this regulatory measure as being aimed at Wan Da.

Vantone has been aggressively pursuing overseas acquisitions in recent years. Just in the film and television sector alone, Vantone has acquired a staggering number of overseas assets in the last two years: Legendary Pictures, AMC Theatres in North America, Hoyts Theatres in Australia, Carmike Theatres in North America, Odeon & UCI Theatres in Europe, and the Nordic Cinema Group…

Not to mention Vantone's original businesses of hotels, cultural tourism and real estate. In the past three to five years, Vantone has been expanding wildly overseas. "Small goals", "medium-sized goals" and "I can spend my own money however I want" have made Lao Wang very proud!

As the policy was implemented, Wanda's stock price plummeted!

Of course, Wanda will openly claim that it can withstand supervision and is not afraid of it.

But why is the fall also affected by this regulatory policy?
The day after the policy was introduced, the stock price in the fall fell as soon as the market opened.

Autumn Pictures is not on the regulatory list!

Who told Li Qiutang to have another company in the United States? At the beginning of its listing, Qiutian Pictures and Lantern Entertainment repeatedly stated that they were two independent companies and that there was no so-called transfer of benefits between the two companies.

However, this decline did not cause any unease within the company, as everyone knew they were innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.

Mr. Li wasn't worried at all; what impact could such a small matter have?

The only things that can worry him now are the filming of "The Wandering Earth," the post-production of "The Butterfly Lovers," and another matter concerning his company.

Today, Boss Li personally fired a director from the strategic investment department, demoted three managers, and Zhang Zhao fired his assistant who had been with him for five years.

This was all for the sake of the 70 billion yuan investment plan made at the beginning of the year in LeEco.

At the time, neither Zhang Zhao nor the vice president of strategic investment could suppress the strong investment desire of the staff. Li Qiutang came out and gave them a severe scolding before they gave up the investment.

Even a fool would know this isn't that simple; Jia Yueting must have colluded with senior executives within the company to try and push this investment through.

But since it involves senior executives, we have to be careful in everything we do, which is why we're only taking these actions now.

Li Qiutang dared not say that his company was absolutely clean, and he also knew that the idea that "too much purity leaves no fish" was very difficult to put into practice.

But in Mr. Li's view, investing in LeEco was tantamount to betraying his own people.

Li Qiutang once again criticized the vice presidents of finance and strategic investment in the executive group, and posted LeEco's financial report data from last year:

"Last year, LeEco repaid 30.36 billion yuan of loans to Jia Yueting and his siblings. The annual report stated that Jia Yueting's remaining loans to LeEco were only 260 million yuan. Instead of repaying small amounts of money like millions or tens of millions to suppliers, he prioritized repaying the 30 billion yuan loan to the boss. He was simultaneously diverting his own funds and seeking investment. If he didn't want to run away, what else could he be doing? You are professionals in analyzing financial statements; you can't be worse than me, can you?"

“Now that banks are scrutinizing overseas investments, he must be panicking. I reckon he’s already set up trusts and segregation mechanisms, just waiting for his green card to come through so he can run away.”

Most outsiders now believe that LeEco is only facing a debt crisis and is not beyond saving. Sunac stepped in and provided 150 billion yuan, which should be enough. However, Li Qiutang has always said that LeEco is doomed and that Jia Yueting wants to run away.

This puzzled many people in the company. Why did Director Li have such a strong opinion about LeEco?
However, just a few days later, a branch of a bank in Shanghai applied to the court for property preservation, requesting the freezing of 12.36 billion yuan in deposits under the names of LeEco-related companies and Jia Yueting and Gan Wei, or the seizure and detention of other assets of equivalent value.

LeEco's crisis began from this point.

(End of this chapter)