The Fleeting Years of Chinese Entertainment

As the New Year approaches, the students of the 02 class of Beijing Film Academy are practically graduates. Now, very few of them stay on campus, especially those majoring in acting, who are mostly out filming.

Zhu Yawen signed with Wang Jinghua of Huayi, which is considered to be doing relatively well. Luo Jin also signed with some coal mine art troupe, which is not well-known. After all, Lin Mo had never even heard of this company in his previous life.

Zhou Yang left with a company under CCTV, and Jiang Yiyan also got in touch with a director and is now preparing to join a production team.

"It seems like... everyone's suddenly become busy."

Lin Mo never left the chat group for the acting major. Although he rarely participated after transferring to the directing department, he would still occasionally browse the chat content in his spare time.

His film "The Crowd" will not be filmed this year at least, since the pre-production work is a troublesome matter, and he does not intend to rely on students from the Beijing Film Academy to fill his crew indefinitely.

He plans to start training his own filming crew right now, and his studio has already started recruiting, with quite a few people applying.

However, he doesn't need to worry about these things too much now, since the people he recruits for his studio aren't there to freeload.

at the same time…

While recruiting his filming crew, Lin Mo's studio also announced the official project approval and casting criteria for "The Crowd".

"Title: Endless Crowd, Genre: Comedy, Investment Cost: 50 million (exaggerated), Leading Actors: Andy Lau, Huang Bo,..."

"Lead Female Role: Age requirement: around 30 years old; preference given to candidates with prior experience as a leading actress..."

"Second female lead (villain): Age requirement: around 30 years old, actresses with experience in comedy roles preferred..."

"Second Male Lead: Age Requirement..."

……

This news spread like wildfire throughout the entertainment industry.

"Finally, the project has been approved! I thought Director Lin was going to delay it until after the New Year!"

"Who is Huang Bo? Why would Director Lin invite him to play the male lead alongside Andy Lau?"

"Director Lin is finally back in the comedy film market, and I love watching comedies..."

……

While netizens were discussing it, domestic actors, celebrities, and film and television bosses were also busy.

After all, for a director like Lin Mo who has awards, box office success, and is still very young, his official approval of a film project is like a kitten smelling fish to everyone in the film industry.

Not to mention that Lin Mo is collaborating with Andy Lau, who is currently enjoying great fame.

Such great resources... why not hurry up and sign up, find connections, what are you waiting for?

"Hehe... Director Lin, this is Wang Zhonglei. I heard that Director Lin's new project has been finalized? This time you can't make excuses like you did the other day, saying... it's still in preparation, right? Are you short of investment? Actors are fine too! After all, you know our Huayi..."

"Director Lin, hello. This is Wang Changtian. Your new movie has officially been greenlit, right? You told me a couple of days ago that I'd get a piece of the pie, haha... To be honest, I've been wanting to work with you for a long time..."

"President Lin...it's me, Lu Zheng..."

……

Lin Mo, who had received a bunch of "random" phone calls, couldn't help but rub his temples.

Although he was prepared for this situation, he still felt a bit troubled.

Besides the Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC) that had been arranged in advance, almost all the film and television companies that contacted Lin Mo when the script was approved a couple of days ago called to "maintain a good relationship" with him.

However, Lin Mo was prepared to accept only three investors this time: China Film Group, Enlight Media, and Wanda Group. He rejected all others.

After all, when dividing the cake, you have to choose the right partner; at the very least, you can't find someone who will betray you.

After finalizing the investors for his film, Lin Mo also chose a time to sit down with them for a short meeting.

"Hehe... Little Lin! Our China Film Group is contributing seven million, accounting for four million of the investment, and we've also reduced your distribution share to five percent..."

Han Sanping spoke first, getting the "meeting" straight to the point.

"Wanda will also contribute seven million to befriend Director Lin, but... we only need to invest three million of our share."

Wang Changtian and Han Sanping were both a little dumbfounded when Ye Ning said this.

Han Sanping is alright, after all, he managed to keep Lin Mo's film distribution share at the lowest in the market.

If Lin Mo were to negotiate on his own, the success rate would probably be around 7% or 8%.

An investment of 30 million, each percent is 300,000, so if we really take into account the reduction in the issuance percentage for Lin Mo... after careful calculation, Lao Han's offer is not much different from Wanda's.

But Wang Changtian is different. He could turn a blind eye to the issuance percentage offered by Lao Han if Ye Ning didn't "raise the price," but now…

"How am I supposed to do this with such a price?" Ye Ning felt a little annoyed.

"Isn't one million a lot of money? Besides, according to the additional percentage, what you've added is more than one million."

Even Lin Mo was a little surprised when he heard the price.

After all, the minimum issuance percentage offered by Han Sanping was clearly a preferential treatment for Lin Mo. Ye Ning could have simply followed Han's offer, and Lin Mo wouldn't have said anything, but…

"Um... well, we'll contribute six million... for the remaining three million, but we'll go all out in the film's promotion." Wang Changtian's cheeks trembled slightly as he spoke.

Lin Yu smiled slightly as he looked at the three men's different expressions and said, "Alright, it's settled then. We'll go draft the contract later."

……

Not long after, Lin Mo, having signed contracts with Han Sanping, Ye Ning, and Wang Changtian, bid them farewell with satisfaction.

Lin Mo was overjoyed when his ten million investment share doubled immediately.

"Chairman Ye is truly generous with his wealth! You've increased the investment ratio from 1.75 to 2.3. Wanda really has a lot of confidence in Director Lin!"

After Lin Mo left, the three of them did not choose to immediately announce the end of the event.

"Hehe... Mr. Wang, you flatter me. Although Wanda is rich... it depends on who it invests in. I won't talk about other directors for now, but we at Wanda have a very high opinion of Director Lin. Let alone 2.3, even if it's tripled, why not?"

Ye Ning smiled very calmly…

"After all, Mr. Wang, don't forget Director Lin's age. Even if Wanda loses money on this film, I believe he'll make it back for Wanda in the future!"

Hearing Ye Ning's words, Han Sanping wholeheartedly agreed, since that was exactly what he thought.

Wang Changtian remained silent...

Indeed, Lin Mo's age advantage was so great that even he was a little surprised!