Huayu: A Commercial Director

Chapter 41 No poison, no husband

Chen Shou-che's condition was that CTV would be responsible for the production, and they would provide the copyright. In return, Chen Shou-che himself would participate in the production of the TV series as a producer and screenwriter.

The people from CTV were surprised by Chen Shou-che's conditions. They thought it was just about acquiring the copyright, but they didn't expect Chen Shou-che to have so many conditions.

The production rights are sold to them, and once the broadcast is completed, half of the copyright fee is paid to Shouwei Film Studio, along with the online broadcast rights, etc.

They had been preparing for this for a long time, or rather, Chen Shou was very optimistic about the television rights to Journey to the West.

However, they did realize this point: Journey to the West is indeed very suitable for television series, and it is very beneficial for cultural export. The various gods and monsters and religious aspects in Journey to the West are very representative of Chinese culture.

In this era, no religion would naturally jump out to slander them. Monks were busy running companies, and Taoist priests, as long as they didn't imitate great poets and make those kinds of dirty films, wouldn't be bothered by anyone.

"I didn't expect Director Chen to be so well-prepared." The director of CCTV glanced at the other colleagues and said to Chen Shouzhe.

“Actually, CTV wasn’t the first company to come to me to buy the copyright. Many other TV drama production companies also approached me, but I felt they were all too weak. CTV is a production company that I have high hopes for, and I don’t want to pay any attention to the other companies at all,” Chen Shou said, shaking his head.

“We hadn’t considered your terms. We were just here to buy the copyright. We didn’t expect you to make such complicated requests. We need to discuss it with our superiors.”

“No problem. I have faith in CTV’s production capabilities. We can definitely discuss it. Maybe in a few years, when the company is bigger, I’ll produce it myself, who knows?” Chen Shou said with a smile.

People at CTV don't doubt that Chen Shou-zhe is telling the truth. After all, "Journey to the West" is too tempting. Anyone with a little knowledge knows that the novel is not simple. This novel has great potential for adaptation, and as time goes by, it will surely become a classic in the future.

With the novel selling better and better, adapting it into a TV series would definitely give it a head start.

As a state-owned enterprise, CCTV has a large number of outstanding talents and a large and excellent team of screenwriters. They have already started adapting the works and thought that the copyright would be easy to obtain. However, it seems that it will not be so easy to get the rights.

After seeing off the people from CTV, Tao Le returned to the company and asked, "We could have easily kept it under wraps for several years, so why did we choose to cooperate with CTV?"

"You own a gold mine in Africa, and you know you can extract ten tons of gold. Can you go and mine it now?" Chen Shou asked, spreading his hands.

Tao Lak immediately understood: having a gold mine is useless if you don't know how to mine it. Where is the mining equipment? Where are the mining personnel?
What if the mining is outsourced to people with the necessary skills, and the mined gold is then divided among them?
Ultimately, the company started too late and didn't have much money. Of course, if Chen Shouzhe were willing to loosen his grip, someone would be willing to come to his door and give him money, but in the future, Shouzhe Pictures wouldn't be entirely under Chen Shouzhe's control.

Tao Le is just a salaried employee now, while Chen Shouzhe, like his godfather, has no intention of handing over his company to anyone else.

Copyright is something that you can control and retain in your own hands. It's an inexhaustible gold mine in the future. Even after you die, there are still decades of protection, and your descendants can continue to benefit from it.

People from CTV came out to guard the film studio; they arrived in a seven-seater minivan.

"What do you think?" the director asked.

"It's obvious that the copyright won't be sold to us for a flat price," the director laughed.

“Just like Chen Shouzhe said, his Journey to the West has no shortage of buyers, and he can even develop it himself. It’s just that his company is just starting out right now. We’ll wait until the end of this year. If it succeeds by the end of this year, Shouzhe Pictures will become an undeniable force in the film and television industry. At that time, it won’t be easy for us to acquire the copyright again,” said the marketing manager.

After conducting market research, he discovered that many primary and secondary school students liked Journey to the West, and some had even started making short films within the scope permitted by Chen Shouzhe.

It is obvious that the market potential of "Journey to the West" is enormous. It is a mythical world of cultivation and immortality, which can be read as children's literature and also provide adults with different experiences.

The more times you read "Journey to the West," the more you will understand it, and different people will see many different aspects of the monkey.

"Go back and discuss it, and secure the copyright as soon as possible," the director said.

"It's best not to wait until December, otherwise it will be very difficult to negotiate, and there will even be a bunch of people vying for our services," the director said.

"Meeting this afternoon."

Chen Shou has had nothing much to do these past few days. He even had time to go to the bookstore to talk about books, and then returned to the horse farm. The number of paparazzi following him has also decreased. Yang Mi landing the female lead role in "Kung Fu" surprised many people. The company that dislikes Yang Mi the most is Sugar Man.

Originally, it was thought that after Yang Mi was blacklisted, she would not be able to access the big screen, while their leading lady had already filmed a movie and had suppressed Yang Mi in press releases several times. Unexpectedly, she was directly defeated, and those fanatical fans started to take advantage of her.

"I thought she would be permanently banned from the big screen, but I never expected that she would hook up with Chen Shouzhe."

Cai Yinong, the owner of Tangren, was angry, while several senior executives sat in front of him with helpless expressions.

The people from Sugar Man have always wanted to get on the big screen, but they have failed. Now they are even losing their basic base of TV drama production. They have no way out but to promote their leading lady to movies. Getting two movie roles should have been a happy thing, but Cai Yinong deliberately provoked Yang Mi for it.

After all, Yang Mi and Tangren have an irreconcilable feud, having mocked each other online several times. Now, with Chen Shou backing Yang Mi and a role in Stephen Chow's movie, when they released their announcement today, Yang Mi directly retaliated, suppressing their trending topics.

Cai Yinong is not a magnanimous person, otherwise so many people wouldn't have taken her to court and started online feuds after leaving her company.

"What do we do now? We can't keep pressuring her. We offended Chen Shouzhe once before because of Nazha's matter. Are we going to offend him again? The last time Nazha's relationship was exposed, it was his warning to us," a senior executive said.

"Why didn't we know that Nazha was in a relationship? What is she thinking? Is being in a relationship that important? All she thinks about is dating. I should have known better than to sign her. We have to give her resources after signing her. What does she have besides her face? Is she love-obsessed?" Cai Yinong was furious.

They originally wanted to cultivate a future top star, but now everyone knows she's a slut who slept with Chen Shouzhe once and was then brought down by him. She'll never have any public goodwill left.

Cai Yinong was filled with regret, wishing he hadn't tried to take advantage of the situation.

If Naza doesn't have a boyfriend, that's fine. She won't have any leverage over Chen Shouzhe, and he can just explain it away later.

The problem is that she's in a relationship and is even hyping up their connection, so Chen Shou isn't going to be polite.

You have a boyfriend but you're still flirting with other directors. Unsatisfied women are directly targeting the female artists in your company.

The last person to be hit like this was a "Star Girl" (actress discovered by Stephen Chow), whose career was ruined by the phrase "Heaven on Earth" (a euphemism for a nightclub). This shows how powerful the words "sexually provocative woman" can be.

And you're only a freshman, how dare you do this? Won't you become a public bus in the future?

It's easy to ruin an artist. Cai Yinong had to remove the role originally given to Nazha, hide her away, and wait for the storm to pass before dealing with her.

Now that Yang Mi has allied herself with Chen Shouzhe, Cai Yinong really doesn't dare to provoke Chen Shouzhe anymore, considering his methods. Their current top male star is doing well, with good relationships in the industry and no major flaws. The same goes for their top female star, except for her acting skills, which are criticized.

But they're riding high right now, and even Director Chen and his wife haven't said anything, so what can she do?
Should I jump out and keep getting beaten up?

Whether she'll be the top male or female artist is uncertain, as she herself doesn't know.

Once bitten by a snake, twice shy; she was completely terrified of Chen Shouzhe.

Besides, she was the one who provoked us last time, so there was nothing we could do and we didn't even dare to beg for peace.

"Have you gotten in touch with President Tao? We absolutely must get the copyright to Journey to the West," Cai Yinong said.

“It seems we’re not the only company competing right now,” a senior executive said.

"Let's give it a try; it might be our only chance to turn things around."

The senior executives of Sugar Man present looked at each other, all feeling that success was impossible. Anyone with eyes could see the potential of this novel, and besides, given the relationship between the two companies, the possibility was extremely low.

(End of this chapter)