It's reasonable for me to be a three-time Golden Horse Award-winning director and an all-around

Chapter 230 "Her life was indeed a success, but our love failed..." (Seeking monthly votes)
"Following 'Crossing the Guandong,' the second military-themed TV series produced by Ruishijie, 'Soldiers Sortie,' officially concluded its first run yesterday."

During its broadcast on satellite TV, the show achieved a peak viewership rating of 9% and an average rating of 7%, far surpassing other shows airing at the same time, such as "The Grain and the People" and "Spicy Mother-in-Law."

"The list of nominees for the main competition of the 63rd Venice International Film Festival has been announced: Mainland director Jia Zhangke, Hong Kong director Johnnie To, and Taiwan director Tsai Ming-liang have been nominated for their respective films, 'Still Life,' 'Exiled,' and 'Dark Circles.'"

"The inside story of 'The Forbidden Kingdom' project' revealed... Huayi Brothers Films' overseas expansion plan launched... Casting has begun across Asia..."

...

The film industry hasn't been this lively in a long time!
Following the $2 million investment in "Pacific Rim," another Sino-foreign co-production, "The Forbidden Kingdom," with an investment of $7000 million, has arrived.

The news of these two films being approved one after another immediately brought the entire mainland film market to its peak!
Especially after the casting requirements were announced, celebrities from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and neighboring countries flocked to the event, vying for the opportunity, which kept the hype and buzz going!
At this point, news about these two movies had almost completely taken over the portal websites.

Both being Sino-foreign co-productions and top-tier productions, they created a sense that the mainland film and television industry was fully integrated with the international scene!

Although Han Sanping was somewhat dissatisfied with Huayi's monopolistic approach, he didn't have too many negative feelings because of the success of "Pacific Rim".

He felt incredibly happy, especially when he saw actors from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and neighboring countries flocking to the mainland.

"Back in the day, half of Asia was Hong Kong's entertainment market. The people there were incredibly arrogant. Even though it has declined, they still act like nobody else is there."

Now, things are really messed up. After "Infernal Affairs," the golden age of Hong Kong films has come to a complete end, and a group of people can only reluctantly head to the mainland...

The feeling of being looked down upon in the past but now being a "superior person" made him feel particularly comfortable.

Han Sanping's feelings were the most genuine.

In order for the film and television project to succeed, he had to spend a lot of money to invite professionals from Hong Kong and Taiwan to provide guidance, and he also had to flatter and coax them in every way.

Now things have changed. Those people are now chasing after the mainland market and even have to humbly beg China Film Group for investment.

This feeling of comfort is truly indescribable!
"Mr. Han, you didn't come here today just to talk to me about these feelings, did you?" Lu Rui looked at him, his tone tinged with doubt.

He had just arrived at the company in the morning when Han Sanping came to his door and chatted for a long time, leaving him completely puzzled.

It's neither Chinese New Year nor a holiday, nor is it a weekend, so why is this person suddenly so free?

Han Sanping took a sip of tea and explained cheerfully, "It's nothing, I'm just a little excited and I couldn't find anyone to share it with. I happened to be passing by your company, so I came up to sit for a while."

"..."

Lü Rui was both amused and exasperated.

This was the first time he had ever seen Han Sanping in such an extremely excited state.

But then I thought about it again, and realized that's just the kind of person they are.

Undeniably, this person does have some flaws.

For example, Lü Rui didn't quite agree with some of his ideas about the film market.

Furthermore, his domineering behavior of wanting to meddle in everything has earned him a bad reputation within the industry.

But to be fair, his strong promotion of the development of Chinese films was absolutely genuine and sincere.

In particular, the mainland Chinese film market, despite the bombardment from Hollywood, has not completely cooled down like the European market... The steady development of domestic commercial films is absolutely inseparable from his strategic and macro-level development vision.

In fact, Lü Rui also has to admit that he himself has problems.

Because he habitually uses the result to deduce the process, he often overlooks the fact that everyone has their own historical limitations.

He is currently working hard to correct this problem, but it will take some time.

"How was your trip to Hollywood?"

Han Sanping didn't leave immediately. He changed the subject and asked about Lü Rui's work progress abroad.

"It went quite smoothly." Lu Rui nodded, briefly explained the cooperation process with Sony Columbia, and emphasized, "Actually, Hollywood wasn't particularly optimistic about this project."

Han Sanping knew what he meant: "What they really value is you as a person, right?"

Lü Rui did not deny it.

He absolutely deserves this level of prestige!

This is because he built his "invincible" reputation through one successful project after another.

If it were any other director, and they dared to mention an investment of "2 million US dollars," they would probably be kicked out on the spot.

Especially Wu Yu, even if he said he only wanted "2000 million US dollars", the six major Hollywood studios wouldn't dare to continue working with him, this jinx.

"I have faith in you too. Keep up the good work, and let's show those foreigners with Pacific Rim that the Chinese-language market can produce blockbusters too!"

Han Sanping spoke with exceptional confidence.

He was very confident that with the development of the country, the market of 13 billion people would one day be able to surpass Hollywood!
This is precisely what Lu Rui admires about him.

In terms of macro perspective, Han Sanping has a much broader vision and bigger picture than other investors.

If Lü Rui hadn't been reborn, he would never have believed that the future movie's box office could actually reach over 10 billion!

Thinking about it carefully, it's actually quite fantastical.

Around 10 o'clock, after drinking a lot of tea and going to the toilet three times, Han Sanping finally leisurely prepared to leave.

However, before leaving, he also revealed a piece of information to Lü Rui: "The Forbidden Kingdom will most likely use a double action superstar lineup of Jackie Chan and Li Lianjie. Pacific Rim can't let us down."

"No matter how strong the cast is, in the end, it all comes down to the film's critical reception and box office performance."

Lu Rui didn't care about this at all.

With "Pacific Rim," he intended to win with special effects, story, and visuals, and all the actors had to serve the film.

The Forbidden Kingdom may have a lot of hype in the early stages because of the participation of big-name actors, but if it loses money at the box office, it will still be a flop.
Moreover, using big-name actors means that their salaries will definitely take up a large portion of the budget.

In Lü Rui's view, this was definitely not worth it.

What he needs to do right now is to reduce the cost of film salaries as much as possible and put all the money into the visuals and special effects.

This is the key to the success of sci-fi blockbusters!
However, the producers of "The Forbidden Kingdom" clearly don't think so.

Jackie Chan, Li Lianjie, Donnie Yen, Stephen Chow... Zhang Ziyi, Li Bingbing, Zhao Yanzi, Zhang Baizhi, Zhou Xun, Fan Bingbing...

The constant use of big-name actors for publicity gives the impression that the project is highly regarded by everyone in the industry.

In comparison, the casting hype surrounding Pacific Rim was much weaker.

After all, Liu Yifei has already been confirmed to play the female lead, and not everyone has Fan Bingbing's boldness to be a supporting actress to other actresses as one of the "Four Dan and Two Bing" (referring to four top actresses and two top actresses in China).

In the afternoon, Hou Hongliang returned from his business trip, bringing back the revenue report for "Soldiers' Assault".

"To date, the second and third rounds of copyrights have been almost entirely sold. Including revenue sharing with online platforms and some licensing fees, the total revenue is approximately 4500 million yuan..."

This number is actually very similar to that of "Crossing the Guandong".

However, it cannot be ignored that the two dramas have vastly different budgets.

"Crossing the Guandong" had an investment of 3000 million yuan, while "Soldiers Sortie" had an investment of only 1200 million yuan.

Therefore, after deducting costs, the latter's profit is actually higher than the former's.

More importantly, thanks to the popularity of this drama, Tudou.com's total number of registered users successfully exceeded 1000 million!
This is where Lü Rui's real profit lies!
At this stage, the valuation of Tudou.com has skyrocketed from nearly ten million to over one hundred million!
Lu Rui owns 30% of the shares, which undoubtedly increases his net worth significantly once again.

"How are the subsequent projects progressing?" After reviewing the financial statements, he inquired about the status of other projects.

Hou Hongliang replied, "Filming for 'My Chief and My Regiment' will begin within a week, and the plan to acquire the novel's copyright, as you instructed, is also underway."

Next, the television drama department will recruit some screenwriters and gradually begin adaptation writing..."

With two TV series projects achieving success in succession, and the team brought in from Shandong Film and Television having completed the initial integration process.

Next, Ruishijie's TV drama production business can naturally be expanded significantly.

However, a good script is essential for making a good drama series; it is a crucial element.

So, relying on his memory, Lü Rui specially selected some novels and asked Hou Hongliang to buy them for adaptation and filming.

However, while "adaptation" is easy to say, it is not so simple to do.

Lü Rui's current proficiency in translating and adapting scripts is inseparable from his memories of those finished films from his previous life, as well as the assistance of the system.

But for other screenwriters to reach this level, it would be almost impossible without decades of experience.

"The team that wrote the Zhouyi script is very capable..."

When Hou Hongliang said this, Lü Rui was surprised and asked, "You really poached them?" Hou Hongliang was not embarrassed at all and said frankly, "We didn't poach them all, only a few people, but these few are all very capable."

You could tell from his tone that the poaching operation would definitely not stop.

After all, the screenwriting teams of large film and television companies usually consist of at least dozens of people.

Although there are only a few core editors, there are a large number of people assisting with editing, layout, and research!

Simply poaching a few key members from Zhou Yi's team is enough to significantly enhance the strength of Ruishijie's screenwriting team.

Now that they've enjoyed the benefits, they naturally can't stop their talent poaching plans.

But at that moment, Lü Rui suddenly remembered his previous plan to "Sinicize" Korean dramas.

After pondering for a moment, he instructed, "When you have some free time, help me assemble a team of screenwriters who are good at romance/love dramas. I have a story I want to write, but I don't have time to refine it. I will organize the outline later and let them be responsible for perfecting it."

"it is good."

Hou Hongliang's eyes lit up, and he immediately accepted the order and left.

He wasn't as confident about scripts written or adapted by others.

However, given his past track record, the success rate of the projects proposed by Lü Rui is absolutely super high!

……

In the following days, Lü Rui devoted almost all of his time to the pre-production work of "Pacific Rim".

He has to personally oversee things like props and filming locations.

The success of this film is absolutely inseparable from its stunning visuals.

The "giant" representation of mechs and monsters, in particular, is extremely important and cannot tolerate any flaws.

The teams from China Film Group, Xi'an Film Group, Shanghai Film Group, and Huayi Brothers were very helpful, and with the addition of experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the design of the mecha, the modeling of the monsters, and the construction of the filming sets were all progressing smoothly and systematically.

Meanwhile, team members from Sony Columbia also joined in, contributing to the preparations.

At this time, most of the post-production teams in domestic film and television production crews have their own "dreams".

Besides making money, they are more focused on fulfilling their own wishes and goals, such as striving and giving their all for breakthroughs in domestic science fiction films!
This often results in a very contrasting phenomenon in the photography studio.

The team members from abroad almost always arrive on time and leave on time, without wasting a single moment.

In contrast, domestic teams often voluntarily work overtime.

The team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in particular, worked tirelessly, even neglecting to eat or sleep, when faced with some difficulties, wishing they could stay on set with food and lodging.

This scenario left the team members abroad quite perplexed.

Why are Chinese people so strange?
They don't leave work when it's time to leave. They not only voluntarily work overtime, but they also work hard without complaint. Don't they have any labor laws here?

They couldn't understand this behavior of the entire team working together to fight a "battle" for a single goal.

Of course, Lü Rui is not the kind of exploitative person who oppresses his employees. He paid all the overtime pay and subsidies due to employees without missing a single penny.

You can't expect people to do all the work without getting the corresponding rewards, can you? That's just too inhumane.

He had once heard a lame joke.

A manager at a German company said, "We definitely can't compete with Chinese companies, because they dare not even pay wages."

At first glance, this joke seems quite funny.

But the more I thought about it, the more uneasy I felt.

Putting aside the double pay for working overtime during National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival, just the fact that you can't get paid even if you do the work makes anyone lose the motivation to continue shining in their job.
Looking at the entire film and television industry, Ruishijie may not be the best in terms of the welfare and treatment of behind-the-scenes personnel, but it is definitely one of the best!
When the compensation is adequate, everyone naturally works with more energy, creating a wonderful positive feedback loop.

As the supervisor, Niu Le often told Lü Rui that the people sent by Huayi said that the treatment at Ruishijie was too good and they were reluctant to leave.

This was exactly what Lü Rui wanted.

Meanwhile, with the support of Sony Pictures Entertainment, the casting process for foreign actors is also underway.

As for the domestic situation, Lü Rui would take advantage of his spare time to audition for some minor supporting roles.

For example, the character "Hannibal Chow," the black market monster dealer in the original version, is portrayed as Asia's largest black market monster dealer, a pure hedonist with some cunning and worldly-wise traits...

After localization, the role was ultimately won by Tian Yu, a graduate of the Central Academy of Drama.

Although he is not old, his temperament is a perfect match for the role.

Especially after the makeup and styling were done, the cunning and worldly-wise demeanor in the lines and performance perfectly matched the character, successfully defeating other actors recommended by the Beijing Film Academy in the same period.

Lu Rui increasingly felt that, whether viewed as a whole or analyzed in individual cases, actors from the Central Academy of Drama were undoubtedly of much higher quality than those from the Beijing Film Academy!

Especially in recent years, the gap has become increasingly apparent...

If the Beijing Film Academy doesn't reform and continues down the path of "producing stars," it will likely make a fool of itself in the future.

After taking some free time and agreeing on the fee with Tian Yu, Lü Rui arranged for his legal counsel to sign an actor contract with him, and gave him the script for his role, while also giving him some special instructions.

"You need to think about this character carefully when you get back, especially the complexity and cunning aspects. You must bring out the highlights in your performance..."

Tian Yu nodded silently.

However, after putting away the contract and script, he didn't leave immediately.

After hesitating for a moment, he asked, "Director Lü, may I ask you something?"

"What is it?" Lu Rui stopped what he was doing and looked at him curiously.

"Well..." Tian Yu hesitated for a while before frowning and asking, "Is fame really that important for actresses? Is it even worth paying such a huge price for it?"

"you are right?"

"The newly cast female lead for 'Lust, Caution' is my girlfriend..."

Once he started talking, Tian Yu chose to tell the whole story.

Lu Rui opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know how to comfort him.

The male and female leads for "Lust, Caution" were officially confirmed yesterday.

Unsurprisingly, the male lead is Tony Leung, while the female lead is Tang Wei, a graduate of the Central Academy of Drama.

On the day the casting was officially announced, the media conducted special interviews.

Li An reiterated that the filming will adhere to the original novel as closely as possible, especially the emotional scenes between the male and female leads, which will be portrayed in a more in-depth and thorough manner.

Tony Leung said he would seriously experience the role and dedicate himself to art.

Although Tang Wei didn't say much, her presence alone indicated that she agreed with the opinion.

From a man's perspective, Lü Rui could particularly understand Tian Yu's feelings.

For a man, his girlfriend's decision to act in Category III films in order to gain fame is a devastating blow!

"You two...didn't you sit down and have a proper talk?"

She said she wanted to give it her all, so she resolutely signed up for the training, and then we had a huge fight!
After she flew to Hong Kong, she stopped answering my calls. Five days ago, she called to say she wanted to break up with me, and then she became the new 'An Girl' after Wu Qianlian and Zhang Ziyi. Her life has indeed been a success..."

Tian Yu didn't say the words, "But our love failed."

Because he is a man, he doesn't want to show his weak or defeated side.

Lu Rui didn't try to persuade him much, after all, he himself hadn't figured out matters of the heart.

Including the girls he met in his previous life, most of them were just casual flings for mutual benefit; he never really understood what "love" was.

However, there was one thing he was absolutely certain of!

He stepped forward and patted Tian Yu on the shoulder, saying very seriously, "In my opinion, when a person has a higher peak in their heart that they want to climb, they will not care about the mud under their feet."

Right now, you have no choice but to succeed! Why not work hard, strive, and give it a try? She was willing to risk everything for her future and choose to abandon you, so why can't you?
Once you succeed, and once her proud youth has faded, the mountain will naturally come to you.

Tian Yu stood there, stunned, staring blankly at Lü Rui, repeatedly pondering those words.

After a long silence, a new light gradually appeared in his eyes...

(End of this chapter)