Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 669 Little-known Facts

The project "The Story of Nanyanzhai" has been relatively low-key in the industry. They had been in contact with actors for some time, and the main actors were almost all cast except for the female lead.

Previously, the production team had contacted actresses from the 80s-85s generation, including Shi Tangmi and Nini. Before Liu Yifei, the production team focused on choosing between Yang Mi and Nini.

The former has popularity and generates buzz, while the latter has acting skills. Nini doesn't usually take on TV dramas, but this year she surprisingly accepted the role in "The Rise of Phoenixes," opening a new door for her, and many TV dramas have started approaching her since.

It's strange, ever since Yang Mi fulfilled her bet at the beginning of the year, she has become much more agreeable in communicating with various film crews this year.

Sometimes, she would even cancel her schedule to meet with the producer.

It seems she really wants to act seriously and salvage her reputation.

The production crew may be low-key, but they're incredibly wealthy!
The production team has already started building the Nanyanzhai set in Hengdian, which is quite expensive.

However, to say that the production team of "The Story of Nanyanzhai" absolutely had to cast Liu Yifei is not an exaggeration. The production team did not even consider her during the preparation period.

Please, that's Liu Yifei!

Ask her to act in a TV series? Are you alright? Why don't you just ask Zhang Ziyi to act in it!

The production team originally planned to meet with Yang Mi and Nini again to finalize the casting and sign contracts this month, and then start filming once the buildings in Hengdian were completed.

The director favors Nini because the dramas she's currently filming, "The Rise of Phoenixes" and "The Story of Nanyanzhai," are directed by the same person.

But since the investors were willing to add more money for Liu Yifei, and even more money, the production team decided to give it a try.

Making a phone call and handing over a script doesn't take much effort.

"Hello, this is the production team of 'The Story of Nanyanzhai,' I'm director Liu Haibo." The director called Liu Yifei's agent, "I'd like to meet with Ms. Liu Yifei to discuss our film."

Of course, the more acting offers the better. Agents will definitely contact people first and then select them; they won't kick someone out as soon as they show up.

"Okay, could you please send the script to my email? I need the complete script." Unless it's a production that Liu Yifei is personally involved in preparing, she will only consider a project if it has the full script. Trying to trick her into signing a contract with just an outline or a third of the script is a pipe dream.

"Okay, I'll send it to you right away."

"You can tell me the story over the phone first." Liu Yifei's agent was quite patient, willing to give her time even with such a busy schedule.

However, before telling his story, Liu Haibo cautiously probed, "This is a TV series. Would you consider it?"

Liu Yifei's agent decisively refused: "Sorry, we are not considering filming any dramas at the moment." She then tried to hang up.

Liu Haibo immediately pleaded, "Wait, wait, wait, we are very sincere in inviting Liu Yifei. Really, we can raise the fee to 1.2 million." He had to go all in on Liu Yifei.

Sure enough, Liu Yifei's agent hesitated upon hearing the number.

This number is enormous! Enough to shatter any agent's psychological defenses.

It's common knowledge that those who make movies don't earn as much as those who make TV series.

Zhou Xun earns a maximum of 2000 million yuan for a movie, and that's only for big-budget films. A regular production crew wouldn't pay her that much. But she earned 5300 million yuan for "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace".

Liu Yifei's highest film salary was over 3000 million yuan, for "Mojin: The Lost Legend." Her overseas salary was even lower, only 360 million US dollars for "Pacific Rim 2." Now that 1.2 million yuan is in front of her, it would be a lie to say that her agent doesn't want it.

Upon hearing that the other party had fallen silent, Liu Haibo felt that there was still room for discussion, so he began to introduce the qualifications of his production team and company, how luxurious and powerful they were.

However, Liu Yifei's agent seemed to have made up her mind and said, "Sorry, we don't accept TV dramas."

"Are you not satisfied with the pay? We can discuss it." Adding another ten or twenty million shouldn't be a problem.

"It's not about the pay. We're not considering TV dramas for the time being, sorry." They just said they wouldn't act in TV dramas, no matter how much money was offered.

For most artists, their agents would present them with film contracts and scripts and force them to accept, whether they wanted to or not. Why not make money if it's there? But not for Liu Yifei. Her agent was only there to do the initial screening and negotiate her fees; the real decision was made by her.

It's obvious even to a fool that Liu Yifei wouldn't accept a TV drama role, no matter how much money she'd get.

To put it bluntly, 30-year-old Liu Yifei chooses roles entirely based on her acting ideals. She'll take roles she wants even if she's not paid, and she won't take roles she doesn't want no matter how much money is offered.

However, Director Liu still sent the script of "The Story of Nanyanzhai" to his agent's email address, leaving a message that the salary was negotiable and that he could contact him anytime if he changed his mind.

But then he immediately texted Nini, wanting to talk to her again about "Nanyanzhai Notes".

Only a fool would place all their hopes on one person.

"Cut!" Li Qiutang, sitting in front of the monitor, called a halt to the scene. "Wu Jing, come here for a moment."

Wu Jing had surgery on his leg in September, and he said he had recovered, but after a week of filming, he still frequently had problems.

Li Qiutang couldn't say anything to him. He was just there for a cameo, he didn't get paid, he was injured, and he still filmed for so long. What right did Li Qiutang have to criticize him?

We could only film it bit by bit.

"So how did Gagarin manage to take alcohol into space?" Wu Jing could roughly guess that the ban on taking alcohol into space was for safety and health reasons, but he couldn't figure out how to cheat and bring alcohol up there.

The script didn't answer this question, but Li Qiutang knew the answer.

"The first time alcohol was taken into space was in 1971. A bottle of Armenian brandy was hidden inside a blood pressure monitor and taken into space. Blood pressure monitors were different back then. The ring on the arm of the blood pressure monitor could be used to hide things."

"But this ring only allows one bottle, which is not enough to drink and is easy to be detected. So they came up with another way: to hide it close to their bodies in their spacesuits. You can't exactly search the astronauts, can you? But the weight of the spacecraft is carefully calculated, and suddenly increasing the weight of the alcohol could cause problems. So the astronauts lost weight in advance, losing 4 pounds a week, just enough to bring two bottles of brandy and some pickles."

"There's something even more ingenious: hollow out the middle of a thick stack of documents, then stuff a bottle of liquor inside, just like hiding a small chisel in 'The Shawshank Redemption'."

"These are all terrible ideas that the Russians came up with."

Wu Jing added, "So even though MOSS had planned everything, he never expected that Liu Peiqiang had hidden a bottle of wine, and neither did the top brass of the coalition government."

“That’s right,” Li Qiutang said with a smile. “Without this bottle of wine, you and Lao Ma wouldn’t be able to save the world.”

"Moss shouldn't be destroyed by a bottle of wine, right? Can't it put out the fire itself?" Judging from the script, Moss is basically omnipotent.

"MOSS wasn't extinguished. Liu Peiqiang shut down the fire suppression system, but then another fire broke out, so control was transferred to manual personnel. This is common sense regarding fire suppression systems." Was Li Qiutang's two years of preparation all for nothing?
Li Qiutang countered Wu Jing's question: "Do you know why your Russian comrade-in-arms is named Makarov?"
"Makarov was the director of the Soviet Blackfish Shipyard. The last ship he oversaw the construction of was called the Varyag. You know what its fate was without me telling you."

(End of this chapter)