Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 406 Cutting Off Huayi's Escape Route: Good News from Cannes
……

a few days later.

Huayi.

"Brother, it's still you who has to step in!"

Wang Zhonglei looked at the newspaper in his hand with the headline "Liu Yifei Embroiled in Casting Controversy Over 'Bringing Funds to the Cast'," and his expression was somewhat regretful. "Unfortunately, despite including so much 'insider' information, only the casting of 'Gravity' has generated enough discussion."

"It's okay. The others are too fake. I never expected them to spread widely anyway. But the casting controversy surrounding Gravity is a real black mark!"

Wang Zhongjun said leisurely, "In addition to our solid media resources, the massive online discussions, and the combination of online and offline efforts, we have been able to achieve the current results."

The casting controversy surrounding "Gravity" is nothing new.
Ever since Liu Yifei was chosen as the female lead in Gravity, there have been dissatisfactions with the casting, both among the general public and within the industry.

Previously, there were only minor murmurs, but this time, with Liu Yifei's "Empress Qian" title gaining widespread attention, she has gained a large number of fans, but at the same time, she has also attracted a corresponding number of haters.

Haters have connected Liu Yifei, Rose Pictures, and Gravity in a series of ways.
The huge uproar is a result of Huayi's behind-the-scenes manipulation.

Wang Zhongjun, with a confident expression, glanced at Liu Yifei in the newspaper, a hint of jealousy flashing in his eyes: "What do you care what I think? Well, I'll show you what I think now!"

After a pause, he said to Wang Zhonglei, "And... it's not just us doing this!"

"Brother, you mean... other people are helping too?"

Wang Zhonglei seemed to realize something and asked curiously.

"of course!"

Wang Zhongjun verified Wang Zhonglei's idea.

In fact, Wang Zhongjun could clearly sense that besides Huayi taking the lead, there were others secretly adding fuel to the fire behind the scenes.
After all, nobody wants to see Liu Yifei really become Empress Qian!

In the past two years, since Liu Yifei began to transition to film, she has played supporting roles, supporting roles, and dual leading roles in films such as Whiplash, The Forbidden Kingdom, Forever Enthralled, and The Message. Step by step, she has steadily risen to the same level as the "Four Dan and Two Bing" (referring to four top actresses and two top actresses, Bing Bing, and Bing Bing) in terms of star power.

If Liu Yifei continues to rise in status, she will be on par with Gong Li's generation.

But Gong Li is already 45 years old this year, and the roles she can play are becoming fewer and fewer each year. She will soon have to give up her position to others to fill in. Most of the actresses of her generation are in this situation.

But Liu Yifei is only in her early twenties this year.
Once she reaches the top...
The scripts for all top-tier projects in the next thirty years

They would all be shown to Liu Yifei first, allowing her to choose freely.

And what's particularly crucial is that Liu Yifei, as the owner of Rose Pictures, along with Gu Bei's Linlang Entertainment,
She herself is capital, and she can enjoy her own commercial value entirely without sharing it with any party.

They can't influence Hollywood, but if they destroy Liu Yifei's goodwill in mainland China, they can send her back to Hollywood to become a high-profile version of Yang Ziqiong, which won't affect their interests.

"This time we can finally outmaneuver Gu Bei. Let's see if he dares to be so arrogant again. It would be best if we could drag Gu Bei's reputation down with us!"

Wang Zhonglei said with a sense of pride.

Over the past few years, because of Gu Bei, he has been frequently reprimanded by Wang Zhongjun. It was because of that one time that he couldn't even remember what he had said that had offended Gu Bei.

The more frustrated he felt towards Gu Bei in the past few years, the more satisfied he felt now.

After losing so many times, Huayi is finally able to achieve a victory against Gu Bei!

"Don't even think about bringing Gu Bei down for now!"

Wang Zhongjun said calmly, shaking his head, "After all, Gu Bei is a director. Unless he has some fundamental problems, this little bit of public opinion probably won't affect him."

But this is a good start.
In particular, we need to let Gu Bei know that so many companies in the industry are kicking him when he's down. Given his personality, he might end up making enemies of the entire industry in the future. Then we'll see what happens!

"Haha, I'm looking forward to that day!"

Wang Zhonglei said with some excitement.

Then he saw Wang Zhongjun walking towards the door: "Brother, are you going to another venture capital conference?"

Although Huayi's IPO raised less than expected, it was still a significant amount of capital they had never had before.

However, to Wang Zhonglei's dismay, Wang Zhongjun seemed more enthusiastic about attending various venture capital conferences and investing in the next Huayi Brothers, only allocating a portion of the funds to his production department.

"Ok!"

Wang Zhongjun nodded. "Xiao Ye is coming with me this time. He doesn't want to come to Huayi after he graduates next year. I plan to let him study investment banking. This trip will be a good opportunity for him to broaden his horizons."

After a pause, Wang Zhongjun said with some pride, "This online and offline collaboration was inspired by Xiao Ye. Young people are so quick-witted."

Xiao, also known as Wang Zhongjun's son, Wang Fuye, is currently pursuing a master's degree in digital and statistical science at UCL.

Wang Zhonglei was somewhat disappointed when he heard that Wang Fuye didn't plan to join Huayi after graduating next year: "I was hoping that Xiaoye would come and help me!"

"It's normal for young people to have their own ideas, and besides, making movies is nowhere near as profitable as investing!"

After finishing his sentence, Wang Zhongjun waved casually and left the office.

……

Linlang Entertainment.

Gu Bei flipped through the documents in his hand and looked at Han Ya, the executive agent of Liu Yifei's studio: "So, everyone's focus is still on the casting of Gravity, and other rumors haven't spread widely, right?"

"Yes!"

Han Ya looked at Gu Bei cautiously, unsure of his thoughts, so she subtly reminded him, "This is according to your request, mainly to control other rumors, while the casting of Gravity is open for discussion, and so far the results are good."

"Ok, I know."

Gu Bei nodded.

Compared to other rumors, the casting controversy surrounding Gravity is actually the best one.

Moreover, even if Gu Bei controls Weibo, he can only control the spread of rumors to prevent them from spreading on a large scale. As for controversial content, the more he tries to cover it up, the easier it is for people to believe it.

Fortunately, once the gravity field is fully established,

This controversy can be reversed to the greatest extent possible.

"Um, Mr. Gu, yesterday Qianqian specifically asked me if your sudden flight change was because of her." Han Ya, holding the documents, was about to leave when she suddenly remembered something and reminded Gu Bei.

"Well, I see."

Gu Bei was slightly stunned when he heard this.

He hadn't expected Liu Yifei to have such a misunderstanding.
Although his staying was indeed related to her, it was definitely not to help her quell public opinion.

After Han Ya left the office
Gu Bei dialed Liu Yifei's number directly.

"Hello?" Liu Yifei asked tentatively, "Are you still in Kyoto?"

Gu Bei said with a smile, "What's wrong? Are we having to be so careful when checking up on people now?"

"Sister Han is a traitor!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Yifei immediately understood that Han Ya had complained to Gu Bei.

Then, she pouted and said somewhat shyly, "I just don't want to delay your planned schedule because of me."
It's not a big deal.

Everyone can argue it out and it will pass.
Anyway, I'll just stay offline for the next few days.

"It's nothing. I changed my itinerary because some things changed, so I need to stay in Kyoto to deal with them."

Gu Bei said calmly, "I have two companies I want to invest in located in Kyoto, which is why I changed my itinerary and will stay in Kyoto for a few more days."

"Oh!"

Liu Yifei's tone immediately became much lighter.

She had initially worried that Gu Bei would have to stay in Kyoto because of her, but now that she found it was different from what she had imagined, her mental burden was immediately relieved.

“One of them is a mobile game company, and you should have met the founder of the other one before. He’s Wang Xing, the founder of Fanfou.com, whom we met last time,” Gu Bei reminded him.

"Him? I remember him. Wasn't Fanfou (Fanfou.com) banned?"

Liu Yifei suddenly remembered that the time Fanfou was suddenly banned had caused a great reaction from Gu Bei. She didn't expect that he would suddenly contact Wang Xing, the founder of Fanfou, again this time.

"Fanfou can't be unbanned, so Wang Xing has started another business. I'm quite optimistic about his new venture."

Gu Bei casually chatted with Liu Yifei about Wang Xing's entrepreneurial history.

Although Liu Yifei didn't understand much, she seemed very impressed.

After the two chatted for a while,

Gu Bei hung up the phone.
Actually, there's no rush for Gu Bei to invest in Wang Xing. After all, Wang Xing has only been running Meituan for less than a month, so getting involved sooner or later doesn't matter.

The reason why Gu Bei's change of itinerary is said to be related to Liu Yifei is because of another company he did not elaborate on, Ourpalm.

This can be seen as Gu Bei cutting off Huayi's future path!
The entertainment industry is a very special industry. Unless he takes administrative measures, it is basically impossible for Gu Bei to directly eliminate Huayi.

Similarly, it would be virtually impossible for Huayi to take down Gu Bei's Linlang Entertainment unless they directly get their backers involved.

What Gu Bei was doing before,
It means taking a stance of absolute opposition to Huayi.
Then, by showing Huayi his success, he would subtly lead Huayi astray.

This tactic seems to be showing initial results. Huayi was supposed to have a peak before its listing in the last two years, but Gu Bei has made them look rather humiliated.

Even after Huayi went public and raised funds, it attempted to follow Gu Bei's example and enter the Hollywood market.

They've already made good progress on this path, and it's clear that Gu Bei won't be able to take it any further in the short term.

then,

Gu Bei then thought of the reason why Huayi had declined, which was said to be because Huayi had moved away from filmmaking.

In reality, it's because Huayi Films is already failing that they've started the process of moving away from film production, offering empty promises to shareholders in an attempt to maintain Huayi's stock price and valuation.

In the first few years after Huayi Brothers went public, Huayi Films, with its abundant funds, was doing better and better each year, with box office revenue increasing year by year.

However, compared to the pace of progress in the Chinese film market, Huayi Brothers' progress was not fast enough, and it was gradually overtaken by other film companies.

It wasn't until Huayi lost its leading position among private film companies and couldn't even produce a single film a year that they announced their goal of moving away from filmmaking.

In fact, Huayi had already died a long time ago, but because it had a lot of money, it managed to survive year after year.

Gu Bei once heard a joke,
That is, whenever Huayi's profits are insufficient,
He would then sell the stocks of the companies he had previously invested in, and then he would have money.

The biggest gain for Huayi, and his most successful investment, came from Ourpalm.

Ourpalm is a mobile game company. It may be a little smaller than mobile game giants like Tencent and NetEase, but it was once a company with a market value of nearly 100 billion yuan.

In the second half of this year,
Huayi used the money raised from its IPO to...
They invested less than 1.5 million yuan in the cash-strapped Ourpalm, acquiring a 22% stake.
Two years later, Ourpalm went public. Huayi received at least several billion yuan in returns from this investment, which helped Huayi survive for many years after its decline.

Gu Bei changed his itinerary this time to cut off Huayi's escape route.

Otherwise, even if he leads Huayi into a ditch, as long as Huayi invests in PalmFun Technology, it can remain stagnant and survive for many, many years.

"Jingle Bell!"

As Gu Bei was thinking this, his phone suddenly rang.

He picked up his phone and saw that it was a number from France.

Could it be a call from my father-in-law?

Gu Bei instinctively felt uneasy, thinking it was a call to interrogate him.

But upon closer reflection, Liu Yifei's personality is very much like that of An's father, so it's clear that An's father would never do such a thing.

After thinking for a moment, he answered the phone: "Hello, who is this?"

"Bruce, I didn't expect you to not even remember my number. That makes me a little sad!"

The voice of Thierry, the director of the Cannes Film Festival, came through the phone, his tone carrying a hint of lighthearted banter.

Good news!

Gu Bei heard Thierry's tone and immediately understood that Thierry must have good news to tell him, otherwise he wouldn't have spoken to him in such a teasing tone.

He smiled and said to Thierry, "It seems I'm going to hear some good news today!"

"of course!"

Thierry responded with a smile, "Bruce, let me ask you a question: if Gravity were to be the opening film of Cannes, would you choose Cannes?"

After a pause, fearing that Gu Bei might not understand, he added, "They are also shortlisted for the main competition."

The opening film plus the main competition section,

Gu Bei suddenly thought of Wong Kar-wai, who participated in the Whiplash competition that year and received the same treatment.
But Wong Kar-wai is already a world-renowned film master, so only he can enjoy such treatment. I never expected Cannes to be so bold as to give him this opportunity.

"I don't think I have any reason to refuse the opening film of Cannes!"

(End of this chapter)