Huayu: A Commercial Director

Chapter 237 adds an artist department; script review approved.
It seems Wanda can hold on for now. Chen should ignore the rest for now and just raise the money when the time comes. He has saved a lot over the years and can borrow from the bank if necessary.

Regarding the new movie, Chen Shouzhe didn't dare to make a decision right away. He decided to wait and see, as movies aren't something that can be filmed just because you want to.

First, we were busy with the post-production of the film "Operation Northern Myanmar," because it needed to be released before National Day. We pulled a small team from Xiao Meng to help him with the post-production.

It is expected to take a month, and Huang Bo's promotion is in full swing.

As a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy, Huang Bo's first stop for promotion was naturally the Beijing Film Academy. After returning to the academy, he was already a director. He was very charming and popular at the academy.

The world is realistic. Before Huang Bo became famous, who remembered this student who was in the same class as Liu Yifei?

When it comes to the world of fame and fortune, the current state of the Beijing Film Academy is hard to describe.

Chen Shou felt that people were subtly and overtly hinting to him that if he could improve relations with Beijing Film Academy, he could send someone to the academy.

It's such a blatant hint that the Beijing Film Academy has changed its ways.

Otherwise, how did the "Zhang Yimou Girl" get into the Beijing Film Academy? With her intelligence and abilities, how could she possibly get into the undergraduate program at Beijing Film Academy?

To put it bluntly, it's all about connections. Looking at the entertainment industry now, we can gradually see a pattern: it's rare to see celebrities from humble backgrounds.

They all have some kind of background or status, and their connections are quite significant.

The fact that a single celebrity can generate profits equivalent to those of a listed company demonstrates just how lucrative it is to be a celebrity these days, proving that the path of gaining popularity is incredibly easy and lucrative.

Zhong Lifan's purpose in coming to Xiaoxiao to find him that day was also the same.

“I think our company should set up an artist department. Celebrities are making a lot of money these days. Just give them a little bit of resources and a bit more exposure, and a celebrity can get so many opportunities. You don’t know how much money Yang Mi’s company is making now. They’re almost going public. If we cultivate our own new talent, we can definitely make even more money. Look at Huayi Brothers. They haven’t achieved much in film, but they’ve made a fortune just by partnering with those artist studios,” Zhong Lifan said.

"I have thought about it, but the problem lies in how to find suitable stars to cultivate. The current entertainment industry environment is complicated," Chen Shou sighed.

Even he couldn't understand the entertainment industry these days. How many of those people actually had acting skills? They all relied on their looks. If he had to choose these people to make movies, he might as well not make them at all.

It would be better to choose actors with good acting skills and potential.

“I know you don’t like those popular celebrities, but we can start with the drama troupe. The actors in the drama troupe are all quite good at performing. Besides, the current environment is bad enough, and we have so many projects. It would be better to bring our own people along. Moreover, we have already reached a cooperation agreement with Tencent Video.”

"Last year, the Le family managed to have two consecutive days of limit-up trading with a poorly made, terrible drama. We can totally follow that path, put the actors in Yang Mi's company, and take a stake in Yang Mi's company," Zhong Lifan said.

"It seems you already have a meticulous plan," Chen Shou said with a smile.

“I have to at least be worthy of my tens of millions annual salary,” Zhong Lifan said.

Last year, her annual salary was enough to make people in the same industry as her extremely envious. Countless people envied her and mocked Tao Le, who had already left.

Tao Le has now joined a web drama company and is doing alright, after all, she still has connections. However, she's only getting worse and worse, and has long since become a laughing stock in the industry. Zhong Lifan feels like she's just a housekeeper; the company's business relies entirely on Chen Shouzhe. This can't go on. What will she do if Chen Shouzhe isn't around? How will she keep the company running?

Therefore, we should also think about expanding the company's business scope, instead of just staying on paper.

Almost all other celebrities have side businesses, and Chen Shouzhe is no exception. She doesn't even know how many companies he has invested in. The entire company belongs to Chen Shouzhe, and he can do whatever he wants.

But that would make them seem useless; they need to find something to do, otherwise this money would be a burden.

“Alright, you can go and look around. Once you’ve chosen someone, you can put them in Yang Mi’s company. As long as they have good acting skills, their appearance doesn’t matter. They just need to have real talent. If you think their acting is up to par, the company will give priority to its own people in future movies,” Chen Shou nodded.

"That's enough. I'll go and look around and try to find some good ones for you. Otherwise, it's not right to keep leaving such a huge amount of company resources to outsiders." Zhong Lifan nodded.

Because the film industry has such a good reputation, and because they don't have many artists, resources can be allocated to them. Once the artist department is opened, others will definitely be affected to some extent.

It didn't matter to Chen Shouzhe. He was short of money. It was true that artists could make money, but in his eyes, it was definitely not as much as he made.

A Chinese Ghost Story finished its last day, and still had 120 million in box office revenue on the last day.

The total box office revenue exceeded 12 billion, which is neither too much nor too little. Compared to the previous two films, it is definitely much less. Some of the content has been criticized, and it is indeed different from the previous two films.

Unlike "Goodbye Mr. Loser" during the Spring Festival, "Painted Skin" is an independent production. It is estimated that Chen Shou will receive about 4 million yuan from this project, and the subsequent copyright revenue will be another source of income.

He controls the copyrights of almost all the films produced by the film studio, and the subsequent profits have little to do with other companies; they only take a portion of the money.

May hasn't even arrived yet, but Huang Bo's movie promotion is already going well. He already has a good audience appeal, and many viewers are willing to go to the cinema to watch his movies just because of his name.

While everyone in the industry was waiting for Huang Bo's movie, a piece of news attracted the attention of everyone in the film and television industry.

The script for "Infernal Affairs," submitted by Emperor Motion Pictures, has passed review and is approved for filming. The script was written by director Chan Sau-cheung.

Emperor Motion Pictures is fine, since they will definitely make movies. But few people will care about Hong Kong films, since the Hong Kong film industry has declined.

But the next sentence is different: the script was written by Chen Shou.

In other words, with Chen Shouzhe Films collaborating with Emperor Entertainment again, Stephen Chow's Journey to the West was still in production, and the female lead was forcefully taken away by Chen Shouzhe and given to Dilraba.

I wonder how many people were envious when it was announced. This year, Dilraba has become a top-tier female celebrity.

She already had a huge following, starting with Painted Skin 2, then Mojin: The Lost Legend, then Operation Northern Myanmar, and even got the female lead role in Stephen Chow's film. Her resources were amazing, almost surpassing those of her boss, Yang Mi.

Now that Chen Shouzhe is collaborating with the Hong Kong entertainment circle again, many mainland companies are getting jealous, and several partners have called him one after another.

(End of this chapter)