Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 407 Yesterday we had the advantage, but today the tide has turned!

Gu Bei agreed without hesitation.

This treatment exceeded his previous expectations.
The opening film is arguably the most high-profile part of the film festival.

Whenever news reports about this year's Cannes Film Festival, the list of films in the main competition is always placed at the end of the news article, but the name of the opening film is always placed at the beginning!
Moreover, Gu Bei himself didn't have many choices.

Venice granted him the opening ceremony last year, but it's unlikely they'll grant him the opening ceremony again this year.
The Berlin Film Festival is scheduled for early next year.

The Toronto and New York film festivals have consistently garnered less attention than the Euro 3.

As a film jointly invested by Gu Bei, Rose Pictures, and China Film Group, Gravity faces considerable pressure to recoup its costs. The exposure at Cannes will greatly help Gravity's overseas distribution.

"Bruce, welcome back to Cannes!"

Thierry said with satisfaction.

Actually, his preferred opening film was Ridley Scott's Robin Hood.

Ridley Scott is considered a Cannes enthusiast; his first feature film was nominated for the main competition at Cannes and, like Gu Bei, won the Camera d'Or.

However, compared to gravity, Robin Hood's influence is clearly more pronounced.

This year is especially significant as it is considered the inaugural year of 3D films, with the global film industry paying close attention to them. Cannes previously screened Cameron's 3D Titanic documentary in the non-competitive section, and this year they are also following the world's lead.

"I'm also really looking forward to Cannes in two months!"

Gu Bei said with a smile.

He was about to exchange pleasantries for a moment and then hang up the phone.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck.
Then he asked, "Thirry, a lot of information about Cannes is unfamiliar to Chinese people. Would you be interested in opening a Chinese social media account, something like Twitter in China?"

"I will inform the chairman how many people are on that platform."

Thierry heard Gu Bei's invitation and was a little puzzled as to why Gu Bei would care about such a question. He replied somewhat perfunctorily and casually asked about the number of users on the platform.

"The number of registered users on the Weibo platform is currently around 100 million."

Gu Bei gave Thierry a number that surprised him.

"How many?"

Thierry was somewhat surprised.

Does Twitter have that many registered users right now?
"One hundred million registered users."

Gu Bei said calmly, "Moreover, many Chinese people don't actually know about Cannes. If there were a Cannes social media account, it would greatly enhance Cannes' influence in China."

"We will seriously consider it."

Thierry answered seriously.

No film festival wants to lose its influence, and Cannes is no exception.

After hanging up the phone,

A smile appeared on Gu Bei's face.
Cannes' response came at just the right time.

Getting Gravity into the Cannes Film Festival isn't particularly difficult, but being selected for both the main competition and the opening film makes it much more challenging.

After all, there are nearly twenty films in the main competition each year, but only one film opens the competition.

The controversy surrounding the casting of the female lead in Gravity has gradually subsided from its peak.

Now it's been revealed that Gravity will be the opening film at Cannes.
This is precisely the perfect opportunity for a reversal of public opinion.
It just so happened that everyone was tired of arguing, but hadn't forgotten about the matter yet.

……

a few days later.

Huayi.

Jack Ma once commented on Wang Zhongjun, saying that he was the most relaxed CEO in the world. As the CEO of an entertainment company, he would leisurely arrive at the office around noon every day.

This morning, Wang Zhongjun walked into the office with a livid face.

"Mr. Wang..."

The secretary, who was still slacking off, hurriedly got up to greet him.

But Wang Zhongjun interrupted him, saying, "When Young Master Wang comes later, have him come to my office."

The secretary quickly nodded: "Okay!"

After watching Wang Zhongjun walk into the office...
She patted her chest gently, letting out a sigh of relief: "Phew—that scared me to death! Why is Mr. Wang here so early today?"

Before she could think it through,
Wang Zhonglei appeared in the corridor.

The secretary was about to call out to Wang Zhonglei when she found him already standing in front of her: "Has my brother arrived yet?"

The secretary nodded, about to say that Wang Zhongjun also had something to discuss with Wang Zhonglei, when Wang Zhonglei hurriedly pushed open the office door and went inside.

It seems... something is about to happen!

The secretary saw that both CEO Wang and CEO Wang had livid faces and immediately sensed something was wrong; she would have to be careful today.

In Wang Zhongjun's office,
Wang Zhongjun was looking at the documents when he looked up and saw Wang Zhonglei push the door open and come in.

He thought Wang Zhonglei had been summoned by his secretary: "Xiao Lei..."

Wang Zhonglei also spoke at the same time: "Brother..."

The two exchanged a glance and simultaneously asked each other, "Do you also have something to say?"

"Brother, you go first!"

Wang Zhonglei sat down opposite Wang Zhongjun and gestured for Wang Zhongjun to speak first.

“I had met with game companies many times before, and just when I was about to discuss the investment amount and equity distribution with them, Gu Bei turned around and snatched the investment.”

Wang Zhongjun's face showed an extremely uncomfortable expression. "I suspect that Gu Bei might have bribed someone in the company!"

Although he couldn't say he was 100% optimistic about the other party, PalmFun Technology was the most promising and hopeful project among his many investments. However, the other party then reached an investment agreement with Gu Bei.

In particular, when Wang Zhongjun called Yao Wenbing, the founder of Ourpalm, in an attempt to steal the deal.

Yao Wenbing said directly to him, "You guys are being too long-winded, with all this talk about future development plans and investment prospects."

I brought the PPTs you requested to Linlang Entertainment, and Gu Bei didn't even glance at them. He only played our game for ten minutes, and then agreed to invest in us. That's the speed that internet investment should have!

This feeling was no less intense than when he was in a state of flirtation and ambiguity with a girl he really liked.
Two days apart,

When they saw each other again,
It was the scene where the other person got out of Gu Bei's Porsche.
This is an utter disgrace to Huayi and Wang Zhongjun.

Moreover, Gu Beika's timing was simply too good.

They didn't make a move during their first few meetings with Ourpalm.
It just so happened that he was preparing to invest in Ourpalm and started discussing the price.
The sudden and swift move, directly intercepting Huayi's investment in Palmfun Technology, made him suspect that Gu Bei might have sold off an employee within Huayi, and this employee's level was probably not low!

So, he arrived at the company early this morning, ready to join forces with Wang Zhonglei to thoroughly investigate who was most likely the traitor within Huayi. He then looked at Wang Zhonglei: "Xiao Lei, what were you trying to say to me?"

"Spy Chronicles has been banned!"

Wang Zhonglei, looking equally distressed, said to Wang Zhongjun, "We've already obtained the film's co-production license. Originally, I planned to release it at the end of June, when the summer movie season wasn't so competitive."
With Chow Yun-fat and Gong Li's names on the roster, they were bound to rake in some box office revenue.
But just now, news came that this film is not allowed to be released!

Why can't this film be released?

Wang Zhongjun frowned.

Shanghai is a spy film co-produced by them and The Weinstein Company.
It brings together four superstars: John Cusack, the male lead of 2012; Chow Yun-fat; Gong Li; and Ken Watanabe.
This kind of subject matter might only be shown in art-house cinemas abroad, with the main revenue coming from DVD sales and the copyright market.
But in mainland China,

Featuring two major domestic stars, Chow Yun-fat and Gong Li,
In addition, the film market was opened up last year by a host of record-breaking films such as The Message and Avatar.
The mainland will be the biggest box office market for this film, and Huayi Brothers will now lose a lot of revenue because it cannot be released.

"The process is not compliant"

The spy thriller had applied to film in Shanghai, but the application was rejected due to issues with the plot.
However, the production team felt the plot was fine, so they didn't film in Shanghai and moved to a studio in London instead, without changing a single word of the script.

Wang Zhonglei also felt somewhat helpless about this.

In co-productions, they have almost no control over the script.

However, the plot of "Spy in Shanghai" itself is not a big problem. It is much better than the previous movie by Lu Taro. The reason why it was not allowed to be filmed in Shanghai was only because of some trivial romantic scenes.

However, there was a problem with the process, which meant that the production team took advantage of a loophole.

"Who would normally care about such a small problem?"

Wang Zhongjun frowned.

Wang Zhonglei looked at him quietly, the meaning in his eyes was self-evident.

Wang Zhongjun immediately realized that this was clearly a form of retaliation for their attack on Liu Yifei, which had dragged gravity into the mess!

Wang Zhongjun was immediately enraged.

He was already furious because Gu Bei had snatched away the deal for Ourpalm.

Now, hearing the news that "Spy Storm" has been banned, I can't suppress my anger anymore.

"elder brother!"

Wang Zhonglei looked at Wang Zhongjun with some excitement, feeling that Wang Zhongjun was definitely about to make a move.

result,

After Wang Zhongjun got angry, he only got angry for a moment.

He suppressed his anger and said to Wang Zhonglei, "We don't have any solutions for Han Sanpin right now, so let's leave this matter here for now. I'll try to work on it later, and there's still a chance that 'Spy Storm' will be released."

Actually,
He faced these two acts of retaliation from Gu Bei and Han Sanpin.

There was no way to respond to even a single act of retaliation.

Because one of them involves the financial investment field,

One of them was Han Sanpin, who, carrying the power of China Film Group, intervened to obstruct them.
Huayi still has some influence in the private media sector. Once it steps out of this comfort zone, it will only become a mole among moles.

After a pause, Wang Zhongjun said to Wang Zhonglei, "Let's first investigate those within our organization who might have been bribed by Gu Bei!"

but,

He noticed that Wang Zhonglei was looking at his phone and asked, "What are you looking at?"

"An editor from a newspaper just called me, but I didn't answer. He sent me a text message saying, 'Sorry, the article about the controversy surrounding Liu Yifei's casting cannot be published.'"

Wang Zhonglei sounded somewhat puzzled, not understanding why his friend had suddenly changed his mind.

"Could it be because their newspaper has a partnership with Gu Bei?" Wang Zhongjun asked.

"No... He told me to look at Weibo, Gu Bei's and Liu Yifei's are both fine."

Wang Zhonglei looked up at Wang Zhongjun.

Wang Zhongjun actually didn't really want to use Weibo.

But in order to find out the truth of the matter

He could only helplessly open Weibo, type in Gu Bei's name, and immediately saw that Gu Bei had retweeted a Weibo post.

The first paragraph of the original blog post is in French, and the second paragraph seems to be a translation of the first: "We are very honored to have Gu Bei and his film 'Gravity' as the opening film and a film in the main competition of the 63rd Cannes International Film Festival. We hope that Gu Bei can enjoy the pleasure of returning to Cannes!"

After Gu Bei reposted it, he added, "This is also my honor!"

The top-rated comment on this blog post,
Liu Yifei's repost and comment only contained three simple Emjoi: "[Happy][Happy][Happy]".

really!
Wang Zhongjun had never thought about this before.
Because the synopsis of Gravity, as registered with the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, is clearly a disaster film, and at the same time, it is science fiction and 3D, so it is obviously heading in the direction of a commercial film.

But this film actually got nominated for Cannes.

Moreover, it was both the main competition film and the opening film.
Therefore, the previous casting controversy surrounding Gravity is untenable.

Given Cannes's discerning tastes, Gravity must be a good story, and Liu Yifei's performance must be excellent; otherwise, it wouldn't have been selected by Cannes.

but,

Weibo is Gu Bei's platform, and Gu Bei is a close associate of Cannes.

A fake account might fool other people, but it could never fool Gu Bei.

Moreover, the other party posted the Weibo message at exactly 2 AM.
Given that France is six hours behind China, it was just 8 p.m.

Gu Bei retweeted this Cannes account in less than a minute.

Liu Yifei also retweeted Gu Bei's Weibo post in less than a minute.
At 2 a.m., three accounts coordinated their actions within three minutes, clearly a pre-arranged publicity tactic.

And at this moment,
Everyone gradually woke up.

The tone of the comments below has begun to shift.

"Where are the people who criticized Director Gu and Liu Yifei before? Now that they've been selected as the opening film for Cannes, I knew Director Gu must have had his reasons for choosing Liu Yifei."

"I hope that on the day of the Cannes closing ceremony, I will see Empress Elizabeth post a message saying 'A very happy day!'"

"For those who don't understand gravity, here's a quick explanation: according to current information, this film features a lot of monologues by Sissi. The fact that this film was nominated for Cannes means that the film's quality is not bad, and it also means that Sissi's performance was not bad."

Yesterday, the advantage was still in my hands.

Today, the tide has already turned!
Wang Zhongjun felt a sense of powerlessness rising within him.

He was merely using the same old tactics he used to employ to smear his opponents.
Then came Gu Bei's three-pronged attack.

They snatched his investment projects, suppressed his films, and manipulated public opinion to reverse course.
None of these three attacks were something Huayi could retaliate against.
Moreover, it seems that there is an employee within Huayi who Gu Bei has bribed, and he wants to find him, but he has no clue whatsoever!
(End of this chapter)