Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 420 Promotion, Good News
On the afternoon of March 1st, the sky over Beijing was faintly blue. After the fog dissipated, the warmth of early spring began to quietly emerge.

Inside an office on the seventh floor of the China Film Group building, a group of publicity department employees gathered around a monitor, repeatedly playing the trailer for "The Martian," which had been released less than a few hours earlier.

"Take him home"

The final line of dialogue left a brief silence after the final playback.

"Within four hours of its release, it was reposted on over a hundred major portals across the internet."

A manager in charge of new media distribution whispered the data.

"Sohu, NetEase, Tudou, Youku, and 56 all featured it on their homepages."

"The number of comments from Douban users has exceeded 1,000, and the current consensus is positive."

"On the forum front, the number of reposts on Tianya, Xici, and MOP continues to rise, but the Tianya gossip section is still debating who among the five cameo actors had more screen time."

This remark elicited a soft chuckle.

“Ignore those,” the head of PR said, flipping through the printed draft. “We’ll be working more with Universal recently, and try to release our materials as soon as they go online.”

After saying that, he took the data and prepared to report the current publicity situation to Han Sanping.

At this moment, the number of comments on major video platforms across the country is rising at a visible rate.

"Who edited this trailer? It's so captivating. Damn it, come out here and let me beat you up. You're such a great editor. It's really got me all excited."

"It was a bit emotional. After reading the last line, 'Take him home,' I almost stood up and saluted."

"That touch of green on Mars, the editing is kind of romantic. The trailer looks good, but I wonder how the movie will be. There's still over a month to go, hurry up and finish it!"

"."

The fans were excited, but their emotions were also somewhat complicated.

Because in past film experience, China's presence in space has mostly been limited to science and education channels and news images, and is extremely rare in the main narrative perspective of films.

Major media outlets also reported on it in various ways:

The first trailer for "The Martian" has been released, and its space scenes have sparked discussion both in China and abroad!

[Jiang Wen's Martian-themed look garners attention; full cast revealed including Bale, Gong Li, Scarlett Johansson, Liu Yifei, and Boseman.]

The phrase "China National Space Administration" resonated with moviegoers.

The reaction from the other side was also quite enthusiastic; on several forums and blogs frequented by film enthusiasts, fans had already begun leaving comments and discussing the topic.
"It's quite interesting that it's not Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise on Mars."

“I’ve seen Wu’s previous work, ‘Black Peony,’ which had a very unique feel. This one seems to be even more hardcore.”

"Who is that Chinese man standing in the sandstorm? He's quite muscular and cool."

"."

Amidst the initial excitement, the popularity of "Nanjing! Nanjing!" has indeed waned, and it has become merely a casual mention of "films released around the same time" in the few reports that have emerged.

Lu Xun felt particularly depressed as he read the various reports online.

So it turns out he has nothing to do with this.

Why is there such a big difference in the publicity for these two movies, which were both released in April?

Meanwhile, Lu Zheng, who had been silent for a long time, also contacted Wu Chen. Faced with the other party's tentative inquiry, Wu Chen chuckled and politely declined:

"Mr. Lu, this film isn't suitable for Xiaotian for now. I know Xiaotian is hardworking, and I'll ask her to join us when there's a chance in the future."

Jing Tian is definitely not suitable for his next film. Even playing a village girl or a displaced villager would seem a bit too bright and not fit the mood of the film.

Lu Zheng nodded, understanding.

"By the way, Mr. Lu, I noticed you seem to be collecting scripts and stories within the industry." Lu Zheng sounded anxious: "Hey, Xiao Tian is about to finish filming 'The Great Biography of Sun Tzu,' but we still don't have a movie project in mind."
Director Wu, you know a lot of people. If you know any suitable directors, you can recommend them to me. Starlight Entertainment guarantees to give them the most generous compensation.”

"If so, I'll talk to President Lu about it."

Wu Chen smiled and said, "To be honest, the film 'The Warring States' owes a debt to the screenwriter for its star-studded cast, but it owes a debt to the director even more."

Although Lu Zheng is willing to spend money, he really doesn't have many director resources left.

Such a big production was actually handed over to a director with only experience in small-scale productions and who knew absolutely nothing about this subject matter.
The promotion and distribution of "The Martian" is currently experiencing a surge in volume.

March is typically a lull in industry promotions, with few major film releases, which conveniently makes way for big Sino-US co-productions like this.

From portal homepages to video site recommendations, from Douban movie reviews to hot forum posts, and then to professional newspapers and magazines following up with interpretations, "The Martian" was practically everywhere.

And at this time, good news finally arrived for "Lurking".

Inside Xingchen Film Studio at Huixin Building, Zhong Lifang was somewhat excited.

"General Manager Wu, 'Lurking' has been included in the bureau's 'Ideological and Literary Project' program, and it was even highly praised by Director Zhu of the bureau's General Office at a meeting."

Zhong Lifang couldn't help but let out a surprised sigh as she spoke.

She hadn't expected Wu Chen's connections and influence within the bureau to be so great.
Seeing Zhong Liping's strange expression, Wu Chen immediately realized that she had misunderstood.

It's true that "Lurking" received praise, but it wasn't because he used connections.

In fact, in the previous life, "Lurking" was also highly praised by the bureau and was even called "the pride of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television".
"We should be able to get in through CCTV. Let's try to choose a good time."

"Director Wu, I think April is a good time, prime time on CCTV-8, let's talk about it," Zhong Liping quickly added. Since things have come to this point, Xiaoma Benteng will definitely have to put in a lot of effort.

We can't expect Starry Night Pictures to handle everything.

"Ok!"

Wu Chen nodded.

As soon as Zhong Lifang left, before the door was fully closed, the receptionist announced, "Mr. Wu, Director Lu has arrived."

"Let him in."

Wu Chen responded and then got up from his office chair.

Lu Yang, holding a document, greeted him politely, "Director Wu."

"Sit down, you're welcome."

Wu Chen smiled and waved his hand, then looked at the script that Lu Yang was holding.

The two had arranged it in advance.

Wu Chen flipped through the script: "Is it confirmed? Postpone 'Painted Skin 2' and film 'Blind Cinema' first?"

“Yes.” Lu Yang’s tone was straightforward. Looking at the script, his eyes revealed longing. “I’ve been writing this script for several years. It’s always been on my mind. Now that I have some free time, I want to film it.”

Wu Chen naturally understood this feeling, after all, Lu Yang had put a lot of effort into this script over the past few years, and it was considered his debut film script, so he readily agreed.

"Your subsidiary has invested; the cost should be around two or three million. Later, you can ask Guowei to be the producer."

"Thank you, Director Wu." Lu Yang was quite excited.

"Once this news comes out, I'm afraid many people will be looking for you. You're the last director in mainland China to have a film grossing over 100 million yuan without a confirmed next project."

"My film is nowhere near as good as yours, Director Wu. I can just find some people at the school."

Lu Yang chuckled.
(End of this chapter)