This actor has something

Chapter 464 Waste Project Recycling
He Daqi always felt that he was extremely busy every day.

Unfortunately, this is an illusion, because other people are much busier than him every day.

The most ridiculous thing is that other people also have the same misconception. When others are busy, they always think that He Daqi is idle. No one knows where this misconception comes from. So every day, He Daqi has to answer seven or eight phone calls and refuse to go out.

Liu Ying and the others from the Asian side are clearly looking forward to the second season of "Where Are We Going, Dad?", and it's probably their biggest concern lately.

Whether it's a variety show script, what guests to invite, or finding a variety show director, Liu Ying and her team's first reaction is to call and consult He Daqi, who has experience in this field.

Actually, another person with experience was Lu Yang, the director of the first season of Where Are We Going, Dad? However, Liu Ying and the others knew that Lu Yang was busy filming movies every day, so they called He Daqi, who was free.

"Sister Liu, if it doesn't work out, just stick to the pace of the first season. I really don't have time to work on the second season. We have so many editors, let them do more work. As for the director, what about that assistant director who worked with Lu Yang before, Liu something-or-other? Isn't he suitable?"

"Lu Yang's assistant director is unlikely to be available this year. He has been admitted to the Beijing Film Academy for graduate studies and will start school in September. School is usually quite busy at the beginning of the semester. It just so happens that we are considering officially starting to film the second season of Where Are We Going, Dad? at that time, so we want to find someone else."

Are graduate students busy at the start of the semester?
He Daqi has never been a graduate student, so he doesn't know if this is true or not. But regardless of whether it is true or not, He Daqi doesn't want to think about the second season of Where Are We Going, Dad? He said he wouldn't get involved, and he really won't get involved.

"Sister Liu, you guys figure it out yourselves. If it doesn't work, we can transfer a director from the TV series department. We at Ya Yue have plenty of directors and screenwriters. So, don't worry about the second season of 'Where Are We Going, Dad?'..." At this point, He Daqi suddenly remembered something and stopped abruptly.

"What's wrong, Daqi?" Liu Ying was quite surprised, having only heard half of what he said.

"I actually have a whole bunch of director candidates here. I'll give you a list later, and you can see who's suitable and call them to invite them."

He Daqi's sudden change of attitude left Liu Ying speechless for a long time.

He Daqi didn't care about Liu Ying's reaction and continued to talk to himself: "That's it. Don't come to me about the second season of Where Are We Going, Dad? If you don't understand, you can ask Lu Yang. Also, I will send ten scripts to the company in a while. They are all Hong Kong films. I will give you a list of directors and actors for these ten scripts. You can choose people to act or direct from the list."

He Daqi suddenly remembered that he had wanted to support a group of people in Hong Kong. He had prepared the list when he went to participate in the Hong Kong Film Awards, but he later felt it was useless and forgot about it.

This is perfect timing; it won't delay the plan from continuing. It can help Zhou Huimin regain some public favor and prevent people in Hong Kong from making sarcastic remarks, saying that Zhou Huimin, this daughter of Hong Kong, is now too powerful and doesn't care about the situation there anymore.

This was He Daqi's way of repaying Zhou Huimin for not holding him accountable for his secret antics. He genuinely hadn't expected that after he spent so much money on various things during this period, Zhou Huimin would only make a few sarcastic remarks and then stop arguing with him.

He Daqi hadn't even had a chance to breathe a sigh of relief after hanging up with Liu Ying when Wang Jinghua called again.

"Sister Hua, don't ask me about the second season of 'Where Are We Going, Dad?', you guys handle it yourselves." As soon as the call connected, He Daqi hurriedly said.

"It's not about that. Zhao Benshan came and said that they had previously discussed a collaboration with Xinhua, to make a movie with Zhang Yimou. Now that Xinhua has backed out, he came to ask Zhang Yimou if he is still willing to continue the collaboration. He also wants to get our Yayue investment so that we can also become shareholders."

He Daqi almost thought he had misheard. What the heck? New Talk Noodles? Zhang Weiping has been in reformatory for almost a year, and there's still New Talk Noodles?
This is, to say the least, the strangest news He Daqi has heard this year.

He Daqi didn't rush to respond to Wang Jinghua; he roughly knew why she had made that call.

Old Zhao is a man of pride, and it's not easy to refuse when someone comes to discuss cooperation. Although Wang Jinghua now has Ya Yue as her backer and is not afraid of Zhao Benshan, she doesn't really want to play the bad cop, given her skillful and manipulative nature.

He Daqi is a good fit. He might not have been a good fit before, but he is after attending the Golden Elephant Awards.

Among his many labels, one is definitely arrogance. Coupled with the frequent rumors in the industry that He Daqi loves to act like a big shot, He Daqi is now a master of stirring up trouble in the entertainment industry, which is mired in a cesspool.

Here's the thing: He Daqi and Lao Zhao are also on good terms. They talk on the phone from time to time and get along quite well. Whenever they meet on the Spring Festival Gala, they often chat for half an hour, talking about everything under the sun.

Zhao Benshan came to discuss cooperation, which was definitely to give He Daqi face. Wang Jinghua didn't know about this, so what He Daqi wanted to figure out was why Wang Jinghua didn't want to cooperate with Zhao Benshan.

He Daqi has his own exclusive information channels.

He casually said, "Sister Hua, wait a moment, I have something to do, don't hang up yet."

After saying that, He Daqi entered the film library and began to search for any collaborations between Zhang Yimou and Zhao Benshan.

Not long after, he came out of the film library, twitched the corners of his mouth, and didn't know what to say. He had seen that lousy movie that Zhang Yimou and Zhao Benshan made before when he was exposing the new face, and had forgotten about it. He had only watched the beginning, and some bad memories started attacking him.

No need to ask, he already knew why Wang Jinghua didn't want to work with Zhao Benshan anymore. Wang Jinghua had the ability to piece together projects; her vision was truly exceptional. She probably only flipped through a few pages of the script and chatted with Zhao for a bit before figuring out whether the project could succeed.

He Daqi even guessed that Zhang Yimou himself must have vehemently rejected the project. He estimated that Zhao Benshan had contacted Zhang Yimou privately many times. Zhang Yimou had mentioned this matter to Wang Jinghua in a veiled manner, otherwise Wang Jinghua would not have called He Daqi. This was to make He Daqi take the blame.

Thinking of this, He Daqi raised an eyebrow and asked, "Sister Hua, are you still there?"

"Yes." Wang Jinghua's tone was flat, revealing little emotion.

"Don't worry about this. Let Director Zhang focus on Painted Skin 2. I'm heading to the company to meet with Zhao Benshan right now."

Unexpectedly, He Daqi came to meet Zhao Benshan. Wang Jinghua quickly realized that the two had a relationship, so she didn't say much, just nodded and hung up the phone.

……

An hour later, in a private room at a mutton restaurant, He Daqi and Zhao Benshan were laughing quite happily.

With a clink of the small wine cups, a slurp of wine is taken.

Take another big bite of the hand-held lamb chop, chew it a couple of times, and then add some onions to cleanse your palate – it's absolutely delicious.

"Daqi, when you go to the Northeast again, I will personally cook for you to try my iron pot stew. I guarantee you'll want to eat it again after the first time."

After taking another sip of wine, Zhao Benshan grinned and said, "That's great! I'll definitely pay you a visit next time I go to the Northeast. By the way, Uncle Zhao, what's the situation with your cooperation with Zhang Yimou?"

When He Daqi brought up the matter, Zhao Benshan became unhappy, sighed, and began to explain the cause and effect.

"It's quite a coincidence. Back when Xinhua Noodles hadn't gone bankrupt, Zhang Weiping was using Zhang Yimou's name to solicit investment."
My uncle has made some money in the last two years, and even produced a few TV series himself. He was thinking of collaborating with a big-name director to learn from his skills. When he heard about working with Zhang Yimou, he thought it was an incredible opportunity and immediately wanted to invest.
And then, to make matters worse, Xinhuamian only gave them a script to study first, saying they'd film it after Zhang Yimou finished preparing for the Olympics. But before the Olympics even started, Xinhuamian went bankrupt, and Zhang Weiping got arrested. What a mess!
Although my uncle didn't invest much money initially, the matter is there, and Zhang Yimou knows about it. Now that I can't find Zhang Weiping, I have to go to Zhang Yimou.

To everyone's surprise, Zhang Yimou kept making excuses. He contacted him several times, but couldn't give a definite answer. He genuinely didn't care about the money; he was willing to continue investing. But the agreed-upon collaboration on the film couldn't just be dropped, could it?

When Zhao Benshan was halfway through his speech, he glanced at He Daqi with a hint of reproach.

Everyone in the industry knows who got Zhang Weiping involved. In fact, quite a few people have been fooled by Zhang Weiping, and Zhao Benshan wasn't the only one who lost money.

However, no one could afford to offend He Daqi, and the compensation was not much. Those who really wanted a lot of money had already received compensation from Xin Huamian, since Xin Huamian still held a lot of copyrights at the time. So, the matter was considered closed, and those who had grievances could only wait for Zhang Weiping to come out and take action against him.

But Zhao Benshan is different from other investors. He's been hooked and really wants to work with Zhang Yimou to learn from the great director.

So even though Zhao Benshan knew that Zhang Yimou was in Asia and Vietnam, he endured it for a long time, but he couldn't stand it anymore. He felt that he had a good relationship with He Daqi, so he shamelessly went to his door. He didn't even call He Daqi. He just wanted to try his luck and see if he could reach a cooperation agreement directly.

Unfortunately, he encountered Wang Jinghua.

He Daqi finally understood Zhao Benshan's specific thoughts. He just wanted to collaborate with a famous director, not necessarily Zhang Yimou. However, he didn't have the connections with other well-known directors, but he had a good chat with Zhang Yimou before, so he focused his efforts on Zhang Yimou.

"Uncle, to be honest with you, Director Zhang probably won't be available for the next few years. He already has three scripts waiting for him, and next year he might even be making two and a half movies. You can't possibly get in on that list. But I can introduce you to other people. There are quite a few in Hong Kong, and if you find it inconvenient to communicate, there are others in mainland China as well."

He Daqi spoke as if it were the truth. Zhang Yimou currently only has two scripts, Painted Skin 2 and The Flowers of War, and they are almost ready to be prepared. Judging from Zhang Yimou's energy, he can probably start filming The Flowers of War while doing post-production on Painted Skin 2. As long as Ya Yue doesn't arrange other projects, he will definitely have time next year.

As for He Daqi's claim of introducing Zhao Benshan to other directors, that's even more far-fetched. The so-called Hong Kong directors are just a gimmick. He Daqi only really wants to introduce one director; the others are just fancy smokescreens.

The actor used all his acting skills in real life. He Daqi was unusually sincere, and Zhao Benshan didn't see anything wrong with it. He asked excitedly, "Who can you introduce from the mainland?"

"Chen Kaige!"

After fast-forwarding through "A Simple Noodle Story," He Daqi genuinely felt that Chen Kaige was the right choice. Both films were half-baked and inaccurate. He guessed that when Zhang Yimou originally made "A Simple Noodle Story," he made the same mistake as Chen Kaige, forgetting to tell a good story and only playing with messy techniques.

Not necessarily. Maybe Old Zhang personally taught Zhao Benshan how to make movies, which is why he went through all sorts of procedures.

We can't let people pay their tuition for nothing, can we?
He Daqi had previously dealt with the Coen brothers because of winning an international Best Actor award, and he had carefully watched the Coen brothers' Blood Simple.

The movie that made the film "A Simple Noodle Story" is this one.

He Daqi didn't believe it. He thought Zhang Yimou had produced a mess, probably because his mind wasn't on set when filming, which is why it turned out like this.

It's alright, fight fire with fire. Anyway, no one is investing in Chen Kaige right now. He even called He Daqi a while ago to ask, but He Daqi just brushed him off.

At this moment, He Daqi just wanted to see how Chen Kaige could turn "A Simple Noodle Story" into a film.

He Daqi believed that as long as he stepped in, Chen Kaige would definitely take on the project.

Upon hearing He Daqi mention Chen Kaige's name, Zhao Benshan completely lost his appetite.

They started rambling on and on, practically telling He Daqi to make a phone call right now to discuss things.

This was exactly what He Daqi wanted. He and Zhao Benshan were from different generations, so what difference would they make when they drank together? He knew Zhao Benshan's temperament, which was why He Daqi took him to a small restaurant to talk business.

If it were to be a grand affair, taken to a high-end hotel, Zhao Benshan would probably lose face and wouldn't be able to bring it up. In that case, the matter would have to be suppressed, which would ultimately make people uncomfortable.

"Director Chen, my darling!"

"Daqi, have you read my script for 'The Orphan of Zhao'? Are you planning to invest in it?"

Asking He Daqi to invest in Zhao's Orphan? That's outrageous! If it weren't for serious business, He Daqi would really like to call the police. Stop joking, everyone here is a reasonable person.

The phone was on speakerphone, so Zhao Benshan could hear it too. As soon as he heard that Chen Kaige had a project, he immediately frowned.

He Daqi noticed this scene, pursed his lips, and quickly clarified, "No, no, I just read a good script and think it's quite suitable for Director Chen. You know Blood Simple, right? This script has remake rights and also has major investors, so I wanted to ask Director Chen if he's interested."

Chen Kaige remained silent for a while before saying dryly, "I am quite interested. Let's meet and talk face to face."

Become!

He Daqi proudly tilted his head up at Zhao Benshan, then told Chen Kaige the name of the restaurant.

The script that He Daqi just described has all the advantages and seems quite reliable. Besides, Chen Kaige might not necessarily make it like Zhang Yimou, so He Daqi's pieced-together approach to this project is completely convincing.

"Uncle, before Director Chen comes, I have something else to tell you. When you perform Errenzhuan (a traditional Chinese folk art form), could you add a joke to describe someone as handsome? You could use me as an example. For instance, when two people are arguing, one of them could say, 'No matter how handsome you are, can you be more handsome than He Daqi?' Or, 'Do you think everyone would be attracted to you just because you look like He Daqi?'"

“It’s no big deal,” Zhao Benshan agreed without hesitation.

(End of this chapter)