Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 291 I am their sugar daddy!
Huayi.

"Brother, I need to talk to you!"

Wang Zhonglei pushed open the door and entered the office, speaking to Wang Zhongjun inside with a somewhat troubled expression.

Wang Zhongjun looked up and saw Wang Zhonglei, as if he remembered something: "Perfect timing, I also have something to discuss with you!"

"whats the matter?"

Wang Zhonglei felt a sense of unease rising within him.

"Bingbing just left my office regarding the gravity issue!"

Wang Zhongjun said with a headache, "You should know that Bingbing has always wanted to break into Hollywood, and this time a Hollywood project came knocking on his door."

She didn't even get a chance to audition.
This is a bit tricky!

Wang Zhongjun noticed that Wang Zhonglei's expression was getting worse and worse as he spoke.

He asked, "By the way, what did you want to see me about?"

Wang Zhonglei gave a wry smile: "It's also a matter of gravity. Zhou Xun came to me, and she also questioned why Huayi couldn't even get an audition."

"Damn, Gu Bei is really ruthless!"

Wang Zhongjun rarely used profanity.

Huayi is Huayi because...

On the one hand, they belong to the Beijing elite circle and can access the best resources.

On the other hand, they have good relationships with foreign investors and have cooperated with foreign companies many times, which is why they were able to operate a project like The King of Kung Fu.

Normally, Hollywood wouldn't directly approach China Film Group for a project like Gravity; they would prefer to collaborate with private companies.

At worst, it's a chance for one of Huayi Brothers' stars to audition; whether they succeed is another matter.

But now,

Gu Bei lacks martial ethics.

They weren't given any chance at all.

They didn't even know that the audition for Gravity had started until the second round of auditions was announced. Their sources of information were even less than those of the actresses who were more interested in the audition.

And the source of everything...

Wang Zhongjun glanced at Wang Zhonglei across from him and sighed, "If only you had been a little more polite to him back then. Young people just have such fiery tempers!"

"I……"

Wang Zhonglei felt like swearing.

But he opened his mouth and didn't say anything.

He'll probably have to suffer this injustice for the rest of his life!
I never believed him in the first place, and even if he eloquently explains things now, I won't change this deep-seated belief. I might even think he's just making excuses.

Wang Zhonglei sighed: "Brother, what do we do now?"
This movie is a key project for China Film Group.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation was involved throughout the entire process.
We can't just smear him, and even if we asked that person to intervene, it probably wouldn't be able to affect this kind of project!

"Let me think about it..."

Wang Zhongjun pondered for a long time but couldn't come up with a good solution.

Previously, he was wary of Han Sanpin's protection, so he planned to wait until Gu Bei returned to China to develop his career before finding an opportunity to give Gu Bei a warning.

Unexpectedly, Gu Bei's Linlang Entertainment, which he founded after returning to China, came with its own resources and funds, leaving him with no room to argue.

It even made him feel very angry when he tried to make peace.

There's nothing we can do about Gu Bei right now.

Wang Zhongjun thought of Liu Yifei again: "Is Liu Yifei on the list for the second round of auditions?"

Wang Zhonglei immediately understood what he meant: "You mean to hype up a scandal between the two of them?"

"No!"

Wang Zhongjun became ruthless, "We'll hype it up as a deal between the director and the actor."
With this negative news, Liu Yifei is destined not to be the leading actress.

"I'm familiar with this routine!"

Wang Zhonglei nodded excitedly.

Last time, they tried to blacklist Liu Yifei, but Chen Kaige took a liking to her, forcing their blacklist attempt to fall through prematurely.

This time, hyping up a sex scandal is practically their old trick.

Wang Zhonglei cheerfully planned, "I'll first find a reporter and, during an interview, subtly reveal that we've implied the audition was unfair."

Then we asked our media friends to follow up, and during this time, we would throw Liu Yifei out as a target, making the public think of their previous scandals and leading them to believe that their relationship was dirty.

At last,
Let's cement this stain on Liu Yifei's reputation!

"Not bad!"

Wang Zhongjun nodded in satisfaction, "As long as public opinion is guided, even if Gu Bei and Liu Yifei officially announce their relationship now, the public will still view their relationship as abnormal."

Wasn't he supposed to be morally upright?

Then I'll make sure he's never truly clean for the rest of his life!

Wang Zhonglei also revealed a slight smile.

This tactic might not be very effective against other directors, since the tricks they use in private are things the general public could never come up with.

But for someone like Gu Bei who believes in love...
The public's fantasies about the relationship between the director and the actress are as unsettling as Liu Zi drinking several bowls of noodles.
If you're so capable, then spend your whole life proving that the public's imagination is false.
Even so, the best years of one's life are still in a state of doubt.

This is what they call killing someone by destroying their spirit!

Wang Zhonglei suddenly remembered something: "Oh right, it seems that 'Mei Lanfang' is scheduled to be released during this year's Lunar New Year season. It's an art film that's going to compete with our commercial films for box office revenue, so maybe..."

"Then let's pit Director Gao's 'Wind Blast' against it, a Western gangster film versus an art film, and see which one the audience will choose!"

Wang Zhongjun also agreed with Wang Zhonglei's idea.

It just so happens that they have two movies to be released during this Lunar New Year season, which originally meant their release dates would be staggered.

Now there's also the added gimmick of a junior director taking on the challenge of director Chen Kaige.

……

9 month 22 day.

Weibo has officially launched its public beta test.

On that day, the number of registered users on Weibo surged from over 100,000 to over 200,000, with more than 100,000 new users registering in a single day.

What is this concept?

Currently, the microblogging website with the most registered users is Fanfou, which is the current startup project of Wang Xing, who will later found Meituan.

Fanfou.com currently has fewer than 300,000 registered users, and it was founded in 2007.

Weibo in one day
That's half of Fanfou's workload in a year!
Some of these guests were celebrities invited by Peng Shaobing and others; they were all prominent figures from the blogosphere.
But the main reason is that Gu Bei spent a lot of money on advertising, advertising frantically both online and offline, attracting a group of young people who love to have fun.

"Mr. Gu, can we cut our advertising budget?"

Looking at the 30 million yuan advertising fee approved by Gu Bei, which he was to spend within a month, Peng Shaobing felt his scalp tingle. For the first time, he felt that spending money could be a painful experience.

"No, we must remain silent until we make a stunning statement!"

Gu Bei said lightly.

This type of platform, which has some social attributes, has a siphon effect.

If it weren't for the terrible performance of Wang Xing and his cohort of entrepreneurs, a platform with millions of users would probably have already emerged long ago, before the giants even entered the market.

He flipped through the list of celebrities submitted by Peng Shaobing.

Xue Manzi, Fang Zhouzi, and a whole host of other public intellectuals

However, every era has its own characteristics, and this era simply prefers this kind of approach. These people are selected by the public from among a group of speakers.

Gu Bei put down the list and then said to Peng Shaobing, "Starting tomorrow, the official Weibo account will post a Weibo every day announcing the celebrities who have joined Weibo today."
I don't care what methods you use, you must invite at least ten celebrities from all walks of life to join every day.
Regardless of whether they release more information later, the point is to ensure users feel a continuous stream of celebrities joining every day.

As for National Day
"I'll get you a big one!" Peng Shaobing couldn't help but feel a headache coming on when Gu Bei emphasized the task of inviting celebrities again.

Celebrity effect

Gu Bei had been emphasizing this to him repeatedly during the beta testing phase.

This task had been assigned to Peng Shaobing a long time ago, but from the time he was invited to the closed beta until now, he has almost exhausted all his personal connections.

Upon hearing Gu Bei's last words...

Peng Shaobing couldn't help but show his curiosity: "President Gu, which big director or big star is it?"

Because Gu Bei was in the entertainment industry, Peng Shaobing naturally assumed he was a big star or director.

"Top star, all I can tell him is that he's absolutely a top star!"

Gu Bei said lightly.

"Top influencer..."

Peng Shaobing pondered these two words carefully.

The more I think about it, the more interesting it becomes.

the next day,
With large sums of money spent on advertising,

Han Han, a top figure from the blog era, also joined Weibo.
Weibo users have surpassed 300,000, successfully overtaking Fanfou, which currently has the most users.

However, Gu Bei's goal is not just the small Fanfou; he needs to consider the giants in the Weibo field that he is about to pay attention to.

And at this time,
Gu Bei had not heard from Hua Yi for a long time.
But then a news story suddenly broke, which dealt him a blow.

"Director Gu, please take a look!"

Han Sanpin handed the newspaper to Gu Bei, who had just arrived at the China Film Group office.

Gu Bei glanced down.

"Huayi CEO alludes to shady dealings in the Gravity audition!"

Gu Bei continued to look at it carefully. The reporter inside had attended the press conference for the start of filming of Feng Xiaogang's new movie "1942" yesterday and noticed that Feng Xiaogang's new movie would be released during the National Day holiday next year, which happened to be the same time as Gu Bei's news.

So he asked Wang Zhongjun, who was attending the press conference, whether he had any conflict with Gu Bei.

After being rejected by Wang Zhongjun, they inquired about the results of Li Bingbing's audition for Gravity.

Then he received a shocking answer: Li Bingbing, a top-tier actor, hadn't even received an audition invitation for "Gravity".

He also quoted Wang Zhongjun as saying, "Director Gu may have his own considerations. The fact that Gong Li and Liu Yifei, two actresses of different ages, were selected in the second round of auditions may be because Director Gu saw a different quality in them."

There is further analysis that is interrupted.
Gu Bei lost interest in reading further and looked up at Han Sanpin: "Chairman Han, why did you call me over so urgently because of this kind of news?"

Han Sanpin shook his head: "You don't understand, this is just the beginning."

He got up and walked over to Gu Bei, pointing to the beginning of the newspaper: "Did you notice? This reporter went to the press conference for Feng Xiaogang's new movie, but ended up writing this kind of news."

There are still these last few items!

"Are they trying to mislead the public into speculating about the relationship between me and Sissi?"

Gu Bei thought for a moment and quickly figured out the reporter's intention. Although the article didn't seem to be very long, all the conclusions were leading the reader in that direction.

"That's right!"

Han Sanpin nodded. "I contacted some media outlets that Huayi is on good terms with and asked them not to get involved in what happened later, but they just tried to smooth things over with me indirectly."

Do you know what this means? "

"They have already agreed to Huayi's request, and there will be a steady stream of reports coming out in the next few days."

Gu Bei's expression also turned serious.

Han Sanpin was ultimately just the chairman of China Film Group, and he couldn't control what the media said. As long as they claimed that the articles were published by other colleagues, there was nothing Han Sanpin could do.

He looked at Han Sanpin: "Which media outlets does Huayi have good relationships with?"

Han Sanpin named a few people, then said helplessly, "There's nothing you can do. These media outlets range from the four major portal websites to offline print media. Even if you've been in contact with a few, none of them have as deep a connection as Huayi."

"That's not necessarily true!"

Gu Bei heard these names.

The more I listen, the more familiar it becomes.

Isn't this all part of his promotional plan on Weibo?

Peng Shaobing has good taste; he's chosen high-quality media outlets. It seems the promise I made to him of a five-year Nasdaq listing is tempting enough!

"Are you friends with them?"

Seeing Gu Bei's smile, Han Sanpin asked in confusion.

"Chairman Han, media friends, this kind of friendship is still too distant!"

Gu Bei smiled.
Han Sanpin, being a member of the system, was completely unaware of the power of money.
He said calmly, "I'm not friends with them, I don't even know them, but I know their editor-in-chief, and I'm their sugar daddy!"

When filmmakers contact the media, the most they might do is offer a red envelope in exchange for some kind words in their reports.

Who puts up such a large amount of advertising in the newspaper?

If we're going to invest, we should invest in TV stations.

After all, newspapers are written words.
Movies and television are both visuals.

However, Weibo initially focused on text-based information.

Therefore, Han Sanpin and his media friends are friends.

Gu Bei's relationship with the media, however, is purely based on money.

It was cold, but it really worked!

……

Huayi.

"Jingle Bell!"

Wang Zhongjun answered the phone.
A helpless voice came from the other end of the phone: "I'm sorry, Mr. Wang, I can't publish the news you asked me to."

Wang Zhongjun asked in confusion, "What's wrong with sending it? Isn't this how it's always been sent before?"

"The editor-in-chief won't allow me to write it like that!" the other person said bluntly.

"Okay, let's work together again next time."

Wang Zhongjun couldn't afford to offend the other party.

The other party had helped him several times before, so he had to maintain this relationship.

It's just a media outlet; it doesn't affect the overall situation.

But what he didn't expect was that...

This is just the beginning.
Next,
He kept receiving phone calls,
Basically, the rule is that previous articles cannot be published.

The answer is that the editor-in-chief disagrees.

If you ask them again, they won't know either.

"elder brother!"

Wang Zhonglei hurriedly pushed the door open and came in.

"Still so rough and fussy!"

Wang Zhongjun looked up in displeasure, "You said you..."

He was in a bad mood when Wang Zhonglei walked in, prompting him to scold him for a full ten minutes.

Finally, he asked, "Speak, what is it?"

"The editors from those portal websites called..."

(End of this chapter)