This director lacks vision.

Chapter 316 Turning enemies into friends
That evening, Jiang Yifeng's praise of Wolf Warrior became a trending topic on Weibo.

The Chinese version of Top Gun, the Chinese version of Tom Cruise—many netizens believe that such praise is an exaggeration when applied to Wolf Warrior and Wu Jing.

After all, Wu Jing was a new director at that time, and his fame and status were not big enough. He was just a second-tier star in China.

How did he suddenly become the Chinese version of Tom Cruise?
Jiang Yifeng's assessment is bound to generate a lot of controversy.

The controversy also brought Wolf Warrior exposure, further increasing the film's popularity.

The Wolf Warrior crew knew that the main creators of their film were not very famous, so they still used the old trick of focusing on Jiang Yifeng for publicity.

During the roadshow, Wu Jing kept telling the story of how Jiang Yifeng encouraged him to make military action films, saying that he went to the army for training on Jiang Yifeng's advice.

In addition, Wolf Warrior was indeed well-made, and Fengxing Media's publicity and distribution capabilities were much stronger than those of the Wolf Warrior production team in the previous life.

Therefore, this movie is very popular and its box office performance has surpassed that of its predecessor. It grossed 5800 million yuan on its opening day, which can be described as a great start.

The following week, it grossed 2.6 million yuan, and the final box office should exceed 6 million yuan.

This data sparked a great deal of discussion.

Because of Jiang Yifeng's existence, Wu Jing gained attention earlier than in her previous life, and the movie Wolf Warrior also received greater controversy.

The patriotic netizens' mockery was extremely fierce.

Many media outlets have criticized Wolf Warrior, Wu Jing, and Jiang Yifeng, the "instigator."

Even state-run media outlets like the Huamin Daily News gave it a negative review.

"The movie is called 'Wolf Warrior,' but with the extreme emphasis on individual abilities, the sheer power of the special forces' group attacks seems insignificant."

This is a lazy appropriation of the individualistic heroism of Hollywood blockbusters. (Original quote)

The Huamin Daily's assessment appears to be rational and objective, but it is actually a double standard.

Many of my nephews also used this reason to attack Wolf Warrior, saying that the plot does not conform to reality and that Wolf Warrior is just a product of Chinese people's own wishful thinking.

Faced with such criticism, Wu Jing finally couldn't hold back and uttered his famous statement: "Some people are used to being bullied by foreigners and think that Chinese people cannot be too strong."

Sylvester Stallone could fight an entire division, but a Chinese soldier couldn't fight a dozen or so alone; to do so would be unreasonable individual heroism.

Wu Jing said this to encourage him from the production team.

This was a publicity plan that Jiang Yifeng had arranged in advance.

Since some people want to label Wolf Warriors as exploiting patriotic traffic, then let's just go ahead and do it that way.

There's nothing wrong with labeling Wolf Warriors as patriotic. Despite the loud pronouncements from some online, the majority of the silent majority are normal people who are patriotic.

People don't dislike patriotic movies, they just dislike forced preaching and indoctrination, or patriotic movies that are made to be unpleasant.

Wolf Warrior is a standard military action thriller that audiences thoroughly enjoy.

As for the criticism from the media and the ridicule from certain groups, it can actually increase the popularity of Wolf Warrior and let more people know about the movie.

Therefore, Fengxing Media simply played the patriotism card to intensify the controversy.

Under this marketing strategy, Wolf Warrior's popularity continued to rise, and its box office in the second week still reached 2.2 million yuan, with only a slight decrease.

In just two weeks since its release, Wolf Warrior has grossed 4.8 million yuan. With the key to extend its run, it is very likely that the total box office will exceed 8 million yuan.

At Jiang Yifeng's behest, Wu Jing also posted on Weibo.

"I'm going to make patriotic movies and make money off patriotism! Some sycophants can only rage helplessly, what can you do about it?"

This direct and sarcastic attack led to Wu Jing's Weibo account being besieged.

Some groups have discovered that the more they criticize Wolf Warrior, the higher its box office returns, which has indeed broken their defenses.

Once the defenses are broken, all that's left is to keep criticizing, and the more they criticize Wolf Warrior, the higher its popularity becomes, creating a true closed loop.

It's worth mentioning that after being withdrawn from the Lunar New Year release schedule, Lu Taijun's "The Last Supper" was re-released in April.

As a result, he was attacked by the "Wolf Warrior" and ended up as a roadside weed.

Lu Chuan also completely broke down, raging incompetence on Weibo, which drew ridicule from many netizens.

The first Wolf Warrior movie was a huge success, and Fengxing Media took the opportunity to announce the "Real Men" program, which will be used as a reality show to select the main actors for Wolf Warrior 2, including the second male lead and the female lead.

This news has attracted considerable attention.

The first Wolf Warrior movie did very well at the box office, so the second one is just a pipe dream.

After all, Wu Jing was now a contracted director with Fengxing Media, a situation quite different from her previous life.

People have different perspectives on Wolf Warrior 2.

For a time, quite a few celebrities wanted to sign up for Real Men.

Perhaps it was fate, but among the female celebrities who signed up, Yang Mi and Tong Liya were the two most enthusiastic.

Mu Di was quite interested in them.

Jiang Yifeng didn't pay much attention to the selection of the program, but based on his memories from his previous life, he recommended Qiu Ya (Wang Zhi) to Mu Di.

After May, the popularity of Wolf Warrior cooled down.

On May 1st, taking advantage of the popularity of the rerun of "Youth With You", Fengxing Media officially announced "Produce 101 Season 5".

Jiang Yifeng also posted a Weibo post.

"Three years have passed in a flash, and the girls who once chased their dreams are now standing in the center of the stage."

The 101 girl group grew from inexperienced amateurs to become a top girl group in Asia.

In the past three years, they have released three albums, with total sales exceeding 3000 million copies and their songs accumulating over 60 billion plays, making their music a global phenomenon!
They became an idol group in the hearts of a generation, achieved numerous honors, and fulfilled their dreams.

Today, the torch is passed on, and the dream continues.

Produce 101 Season 2 will kick off this summer!
We welcome more girls with dreams to apply.

Let's shout out that fervent slogan together: #Produce101, we're waiting for you to form a group! #

In less than an hour, Jiang Yifeng's Weibo post received over a million likes!
The topic was so popular that Weibo's servers crashed.

In many people's minds, Produce 101 is the most successful talent show in China. The 101 girl group selected is now a top girl group in Asia, and every member of the group is very popular.

Whether it's the popularity of their works or their real influence, the 101 girl group can easily outperform the 05 Super Girl group.

The show "Produce 101" naturally carries a huge amount of traffic and popularity.

After the second season was officially announced, it didn't need much promotion at all; it had already gone viral across the internet.

Moreover, Jiang Yifeng has built up a good reputation over the years.

When it comes to fairness in talent shows and actor selection, Jiang Yifeng is unique in the entertainment industry; he is a truly great director who is willing to give ordinary people a chance.

For many girls, Produce 101 was a life-changing opportunity.

The number of people signing up was very high.

However, Jiang Yifeng only posted on Weibo and has not paid attention to the follow-up work of Produce 101 for the time being.

The program requires auditions in seven major cities across the country, and finally selects 101 contestants to participate in a 58-day closed training program.

The earliest it will be after the preliminary selection is over and the training camp is established is the end of June.

Jiang Yifeng's current focus is still on filming the Pacific Rim movie.

By May 22, two and a half months after filming began, Pacific Rim was nearly 70% complete, and it was expected to take about another month to finish.

Jiang Yifeng adopted a "start with the easy parts and then move on to the difficult ones" approach when filming this movie, so the beginning was faster and the pace slowed down towards the end.

Of all the works Jiang Yifeng has directed, Pacific Rim is the one that took the longest to complete.

At 3:30 p.m., after Jiang Yifeng finished filming a scene, he gave Guo Fan a few more instructions, asking him to set up the next scene and give the crew another day off.

Then we took a car to the airport and flew to Nice to attend the 66th Cannes Film Festival.

Jiang Yifeng took a direct flight, which took about 10 hours.

At 9:30 p.m. local time in France, Jiang Yifeng's plane landed at Nice-Côte d'Azur Airport.

Two stunning beauties, Yan Danchen and Fan Bingbing, came to pick her up at the airport. After finishing filming "Youth," Yan Danchen took some time to recover, and now her skin has regained its fair complexion. She looks even more radiant than before, exuding the charm of a classic beauty.

Fan Bingbing, on the other hand, was as radiant as ever.

The temperature today is around 15 degrees Celsius, but it's still a bit chilly at night.

But women can withstand the cold for the sake of beauty.

Yan Danchen wore a white deep-V dress, revealing her curves and cleavage, exuding a graceful yet sexy charm.

After all, she had been married before, and she had the air of a married woman about her.

Fan Bingbing wore a dark blue shirt with a pencil skirt, looking very capable. However, two buttons on her shirt were undone, inviting people to look down.

Judging from their outfits and positions, it's obvious they're vying for attention.

Jiang Yifeng was all too familiar with this kind of occasion.

Upon seeing Jiang Yifeng, Fan Bingbing took the initiative, walked up to him, and took his arm, saying affectionately, "I've been looking forward to your arrival. I didn't expect you to be so late."

Yan Danchen also wanted to act more intimately, but couldn't find a reason, so she could only greet him normally: "Director Jiang, now that you're here, our crew will have a pillar of support."

Jiang Yifeng didn't stop walking and got into the car directly.

The drive from Nice Airport to the hotel in Cannes takes about an hour.

After getting in the car, Fan Bingbing leaned on Jiang Yifeng's shoulder and deliberately complained, "For you, I turned down an offer from LeTV and a role in a Huayi Brothers production."

I wasn't in Pacific Rim, and I didn't have a role in the spin-off movie, The Witch. You're so cruel!

Jiang Yifeng smiled and said calmly, "The popularity of the new Legend of Wu Zetian is enough to sustain you for two or three years."

Our company's film and television productions will definitely prioritize the work of our contracted artists.

Fan Bingbing had anticipated Jiang Yifeng's response. She then revealed her goal: "I heard that after 'Youth With You,' Fengxing Media has launched two more idol dramas. Are there any suitable roles for me?"

Fan Bingbing is very well-informed. After "Youth With You," Fengxing Media has launched two more idol dramas.

One is My Sunshine, and the other is My Love from the Star.

But the female leads for both dramas have already been cast.

The female lead in My Sunshine is Yang Caiyu, and the female lead in My Love from the Star is Zhang Tianai.

The reason why.

On the one hand, other female artists in the company, such as Gao Yuanyuan and Very Sweet, are not interested in this kind of idol drama unless it is directed or starred by Jiang Yifeng.

On the other hand, considering their image and acting skills, Yang Caiyu and Zhang Tianai are both more suitable.

Yang Caiyu looks a lot like Liu Xiaoli, and has a stubborn quality, which fits well with the character of Zhao Mosheng, who is reserved and mature. She won't sing a naive and sweet song like Tang Yan.
Zhang Tianai is beautiful and has a great figure. She's a stunning beauty with a Hong Kong vibe, so she could easily play a big star.

Moreover, she has a talent for comedy; her performance as the Crown Princess was particularly impressive.

She is very suitable to play the role of Cheon Song-yi.

Of course, the script for "My Love from the Star" will be translated and adapted into Chinese.

The drama "Past Life" only started filming in Korea this December. It's a mini-series with a newly written script, filmed and broadcast simultaneously.

Jiang Yifeng wasn't afraid of a car accident.

Even if there's a collision, it's the Koreans who copied it.

"The roles for both idol dramas have been cast," Jiang Yifeng said. "Besides, you don't need to film these kinds of dramas anymore."

Don't forget what I told you before: everything in excess is bad, and you need to learn to be appropriately low-key.

Jiang Yifeng meant what he said.

Fan Bingbing has been heavily promoting herself in the past two years, and after the hit drama "The Legend of Wu Zetian", her popularity and online traffic have reached a new level.

Making more idol dramas like "My Love from the Star" would only be icing on the cake and wouldn't have much of an effect.

Jun Ji-hyun played Cheon Song-yi, but the effect was just so-so.

Kim Soo-hyun was the one who truly became a sensation.

After all, women who watch idol dramas like the character of Professor Do.

Besides making money from the dramas themselves, Fengxing Media's main purpose in producing idol dramas is to promote male stars and elevate the "Fengxing Seven" to compete with the "Four Returning Sons" who are about to return to China.

Fan Bingbing really needs to tone it down a bit right now.

When someone becomes too famous, not only will they become arrogant, but they will also become a target for other competitors, which can easily lead to problems.

Fan Bingbing got into trouble later because she was too arrogant and was taught a lesson.

Hearing Jiang Yifeng's words, Fan Bingbing said mournfully, "I also want to keep a low profile. If I could become Gao Yuanyuan, I wouldn't want to act anymore. Being a boss's wife is so comfortable."

Gao Yuanyuan's shares in Fengxing Media alone are worth nearly 10 billion yuan, making her a true millionaire.

She really doesn't want to act anymore, and only occasionally attends some endorsement events.

For Gao Yuanyuan, her biggest wish now is to have a child with Jiang Yifeng as soon as possible.

Seeing that Jiang Yifeng didn't respond, Fan Bingbing asked again, "The New Third Board is quite popular lately. Do you think I should get involved?"

Starting this year, the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ) system has been promoted nationwide and has quickly become popular, becoming the first choice for many small and medium-sized entertainment companies to go public.

Within a few years, dozens of entertainment companies in the entertainment industry have been listed on the New Third Board, including Yang Mi's company, Jiaxing.

Jiang Yifeng looked at Yan Danchen and said, "If you really want to make money, you can buy some LeEco shares on the secondary market."

Don't buy too much, a few million is enough. Don't be too greedy, just make ten times your money and leave.

Fan Bingbing and Yan Danchen: "..."

Jiang Yifeng's act was too convincing. He made 10 times his initial investment and tens of millions without even considering it greed.

Fan Bingbing asked, "Should I go for an internal subscription?"

"No need. There are sales restrictions on internal subscriptions, so you'll have to buy on the secondary market. I'm only telling you this, so keep it a secret. Otherwise, don't blame me if you don't make any money."

LeEco's peak market value was 150 billion yuan, and it has now just surpassed 10 billion yuan, meaning it still has nearly 15 times the potential value.

Jiang Yifeng's suggestion could indeed allow Fan Bingbing and Yan Danchen to earn tens of millions.

Moreover, his words were touching, such as saying that he was only saying this to them, which sounded very considerate, as if they were special.

Fan Bingbing hugged Jiang Yifeng's arm tightly, letting him press against her heart.

Yan Danchen sincerely said thank you.

That's what it's like to follow a big shot; you can make a fortune just from a piece of news.

Yan Danchen also wanted to repay Jiang Yifeng properly, but seeing Fan Bingbing slumped on Jiang Yifeng's body, she felt that there would be no chance tonight.

Fan Bingbing came to Cannes at the invitation of a brand to walk the red carpet and participate in their events.

Yan Danchen is the female lead in the film in the main competition section.

This made Fan Bingbing very jealous.

The two had some minor conflicts and rivalries, and their relationship was rather hostile.

After the car arrived at the hotel, Yan Danchen wanted to leave.

Fan Bingbing, however, pulled her back.

"Don't go! President Jiang gave us information on how to make money. It would be so unwise of you to just leave like this."

Yan Danchen hesitated for a moment, but decided to stay anyway.

There are no permanent enemies, only incompetent men.

On his first night in Cannes, Jiang Yifeng managed to turn two beautiful women from enemies into friends.

(End of this chapter)