Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 652 Matchmaking and Foot-licking
The release date for "Ex Machina" has been set for July 15, and the premiere will be held on the 10th.
In addition to the two major production companies, Starry Night Pictures and Wanda Pictures, making final preparations for the film's release, Gewara.com, an online ticketing platform, also needs to fully launch its services.

Its founder, Liu Yong, personally flew from Shanghai to Beijing.

Wu Chen hosted a dinner for Zhang Lin and Ye Ning at a private kitchen with excellent privacy.
"This is Liu Yong, the founder of Gewara.com."

Wu Chen first introduced the two parties, and then pointed to the two people next to him and said to Liu Yong, "This is Mr. Zhang from Wanda Film Media."
This is Mr. Ye, General Manager of Wanda Cinemas.

These two are both top-tier figures in the domestic film and television industry.

Zhang Lin and Ye Ning initially smiled as they listened to Wu Chen's introduction, but upon hearing the word "Big Brother," they immediately felt uneasy and couldn't help but exchange a knowing smile.
"Director Wu, you really know how to joke. How could we dare to call ourselves big brothers in front of you?"

"Hello, Mr. Zhang, hello, Mr. Ye." Liu Yong quickly stepped forward, adopting a very humble posture, and respectfully shook hands with the two of them one by one.

During the dinner, Wu Chen got straight to the point: "For this 'Ex Machina' movie, the exclusive online pre-sale will be held on the Gewara platform."

"no problem!"

As a co-producer, Zhang Lin naturally had no objections.

He then glanced at Ye Ning beside him, his mind perfectly clear.

He could tell that, apart from finalizing the pre-sale platform, Wu Chen's real purpose at this dinner was to help Gewara connect with Wanda Cinemas.
“Mr. Liu, we’ll have to have a good talk later.” Ye Ning smiled and took the initiative to speak. “Speaking of which, Mr. Liu and I are not strangers. We’ve met several times before.”

He was certainly familiar with Liu Yong; in fact, one could say he was familiar with the CEOs of all the online ticketing platforms on the market today.

Over the past year or two, almost all of these people had visited him, hoping to reach a cooperation agreement with Wanda Cinemas on the ticketing interface.

"Okay, okay, then I'll leave the rest to you, Mr. Ye."

Upon hearing this, Liu Yong finally felt a huge weight lifted from his shoulders.

He knew that with Ye Ning's words, the connection with Wanda Cinemas was unlikely to encounter any major problems.

He recalled that he had visited Ye Ning several times last year, but apart from polite greetings, Ye Ning had not discussed any possibility of cooperation with him in any way.

The reason is simple: at that time, Gewara was just a regional ticketing platform that had just left Shanghai and had a shallow foundation.

Now, with Wu Chen and Xingchen Pictures backing them up, everything becomes much easier to discuss.

"It's true what they say, it's good to have a big tree to lean on."

Liu Yong couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

The announcement that Ex Machina would be exclusively pre-sold on the Gewara platform caused quite a stir in the nascent online ticketing world.

At that time, in addition to Gewara, there were also ticketing websites such as Wangpiao.com, Meituan Movies, and some local ticketing websites, all fiercely competing for market share.

"When did Guevara get involved with Starry Night Pictures?"

"Someone's sneaked away! Tsk tsk, how could Wu Chen have taken a liking to Guevara? How am I any better than Guevara?"

"This is troublesome! The exclusive pre-sale of one film, Ex Machina, is not a big deal, but the key question is whether Wu Chen's subsequent films, such as 'The Warmest Thirty Days of My Life,' 'Interstellar,' and even all the films produced by Starry Night Pictures in the future, will be handled by Gewara?"

That's the biggest problem!

For a time, the entire online ticketing industry was in a state of panic.
After dealing with the revisions to Che Guevara and Ning Hao's "No Man's Land," Wu Chen finally returned to a state of peace for the time being.

He was finally able to fully immerse himself in the post-production of "The Warmest Thirty Days of My Life".

The post-production work for this film was not complicated. There were no dazzling special effects; the focus was more on editing, color grading, and the soundtrack.

Wu Chen glanced at the current progress, roughly calculated the time in his mind, and confirmed that he would have more than enough time to make it to the Venice Film Festival, which opens at the end of August, so he relaxed a lot.

In the evening, we returned to the villa.

Because it was summer, Liu Yifei dressed very lightly at home.

A large white T-shirt hung loosely over her body, and she wore extremely short home shorts on her lower body. Her long, slender, and fair legs were casually crossed and placed on the sofa.

Her cute, pink little feet swayed gently in the air, drawing alluring arcs, just like her mood while watching TV.

Wu Chen walked over and, seeing this delightful scene, couldn't resist reaching out to grasp her delicate ankle and gently stroke it. The smooth, tender touch was simply irresistible.

However, to Wu Chen's surprise, this time, Liu Yifei did not make a coquettish sound with a nasal tone as usual.
Instead, she turned her head and looked him up and down with an extremely strange gaze.

Something is wrong!
Wu Chen immediately realized something was wrong.

Liu Yifei seemed to notice Wu Chen's confusion. She didn't say anything, but simply raised her chin and pointed to her phone, which was placed to the side.

Wu Chen picked it up with a puzzled look, and lo and behold, the screen displayed a newly popped-up entertainment gossip news article.

The headline is explosive: [Quentin Tarantino embroiled in party scandal; female screenwriter angrily denounces his unusual fetishes!]

The news content is even more detailed.

Quentin Tarantino was exposed for flirting with Indian-American screenwriter Brigham and Women at a party, and she revealed his unusual fetishes, including a foot fetish.
Love to suck toes
"cough cough"

As Wu Chen looked at the report with pictures and text, his expression turned strange.

Good grief, he thought Quentin just liked to film feet in movies;
Surprisingly, in real life, I enjoy sucking my feet.
"Junior brother," Liu Yifei's bright, cheerful voice drifted over, her gaze lingering meaningfully on Wu Chen's large hand still holding her ankle, "You wouldn't... also..."

"Nonsense! This is slander!" Wu Chen retorted righteously. "He's a pervert! I'm just appreciating him!"

As he spoke, instead of letting go, he intensified his actions, gently sliding his fingers upwards along her calf.

"Ouch! That hurts! Be gentle!" Liu Yifei was immediately tickled and numb from his touch, and couldn't help but scold him playfully, "I was just kidding!"

"Hey, you know what," Wu Chen suddenly remembered something, "Quentin and Jiang Wen are actually quite close. Those two really like to film feet in their movies."

He recalled the close-up shots of Zhou Yun's feet taken by Jiang Wen in "The Sun Also Rises," which were incredibly meticulous and artistic.

Even a simple shot of feet can be made into a spectacular scene by Jiang Wen.

Liu Yifei's eyes widened at this moment, clearly also attracted by Wu Chen's surprising statement.

"No, I have to make a call and verify it." Wu Chen chuckled, unable to suppress the smile on his lips.

"Oh? Isn't that inappropriate?" Liu Yifei said, but her body language betrayed her, and she leaned closer to Wu Chen, looking like she was ready to listen to the gossip together.

The call was answered quickly.

"What?" Jiang Wen's loud and energetic voice came from the phone.

"Oh, it's nothing serious. I just wanted to ask if you're free. The premiere of 'Ex Machina' is in Beijing on the 10th," Wu Chen said, getting down to business first.

"The 10th, right? Okay, that should be fine. I watched the trailer, it looks alright, kind of interesting. I'll go check it out later!"

Jiang Wen nodded readily.

"By the way," Wu Chen suddenly changed the subject, asking, "Do you know about Quentin's matter?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

After a long silence, Jiang Wen's wary voice finally came: "What do you want to say?"

"I was just asking, I didn't mean anything by it."

"Damn it!" Jiang Wen's voice suddenly rose. "Don't give me that crap! Let me tell you, you're slandering me! Seriously slandering me!"

"Look, look, you're getting anxious, aren't you? I didn't say anything!"

Wu Chen had just finished speaking when he heard the phone being abruptly hung up, leaving only a busy tone.

"Look, you've angered Director Jiang."

Liu Yifei had been holding it in for a long time, but she finally couldn't hold back anymore and burst into laughter, collapsing into Wu Chen's arms.

"This isn't my fault, it's his own problem." Wu Chen shrugged, looking completely innocent. "I really didn't say anything!"

(End of this chapter)