Back to 17, My Brother is the Cult Leader

Fang Yuan is a bit busy.

After reaching an agreement with President Han, the matter of the three novels was handed over to Sister Hua.

Tell her that if you know of any suitable actors, you can recommend them.

He didn't worry about anything else.

Besides having a lot of coursework recently, he was also busy because Teacher Chang had drafted him.

It's all the fault of "Red Actress".

I thought I had completed my task after submitting the script.

Unexpectedly, Teacher Chang found the script very interesting and suggested that the innovative approach could be given a try.

They even forced Fang Yuan to sing the song again.

Fang Yuan doesn't know how to sing Peking Opera, so he can only recommend Zeng Li or Yuan Quan, or both of them together.

Teacher Chang glanced at him and said meaningfully, "It really is tailor-made for you!"

Fang Yuan was both amused and exasperated.

After negotiations, Teacher Chang asked Fang Yuan to participate in the arrangement and be responsible for the rehearsal of the song.

There was no other way, so after discussing it with Director Shen, I asked my two classmates to work together.

Jiang Yang and Liu Yi became very famous later on, but they are still blank slates now.

Upon hearing the news, they excitedly ran over to help.

After all, Fang Yuan is now famous, and I have the opportunity to participate in the rehearsal of his work. Moreover, it is also my own acting and directing assignment, which is a rare opportunity.

After the script was given to them, the casting and rehearsals were left to them.

Fang Yuan took Zeng Li and Yuan Quan to find a music professor to arrange and practice music.

The two sang a duet, and one of them also sang the part of the short play "The Peach Blossom Fan".

After explaining the overall concept and choreography, Fang Yuan was also asked by the music teacher to study it together.

Okay, I'm a newbie myself, there's so much to learn.

Ellie emailed him to tell him that Buried had been taken off the screens and that the box office was doing very well, at $4500 million.

The unexpected success of the rights to "Comet" and "That Man" suggests that the market will accept them very well.

The number of copies of "Flying Colors" book published has reached nearly 8, which is basically in line with the publisher's expectations.

The sales performance of "Edge of Tomorrow" in its first month was mediocre, with only more than 4000 copies sold.

Amidst skepticism from some mainstream science fiction critics and a cold reception from pundits, this is considered a highly forward-thinking "cult" work—while it enjoys immense popularity within a small but fervent fanbase, hailed as a "masterpiece" by some science fiction enthusiasts. The magazine is confident, given the current lack of genuine competitors and its promising reputation and future market prospects.

Fang Yuan had anticipated this situation. In his previous life, this novel and the movie suffered the same fate: high critical acclaim but the market performance fell short of expectations.

"Ellie, you've done a great job."

That's it for this year. Get the rest done, and then you can go on vacation.

"Okay, boss, I'll handle the final profit sharing."

The rehearsals went smoothly.

There was a problem with the song. Yuan Quan had just signed with a record company in October, and singing "Chi Ling" involved copyright issues. So, it was finally decided that Zeng Li would sing it alone, while Yuan Quan would perform and sing "The Peach Blossom Fan".

Although Red Star Production Company hoped to acquire the copyright to "Red Cliff", Fang Yuan did not agree.

December 1998, Shanghai Television.

No one expected that a youth campus drama with an investment of less than three million would carve out a path to success in the year-end ratings.

In its first week of airing, "Eighteen-Year-Old Sky" achieved a local viewership rating of over 15% in Shanghai.

It surged to 22% in the second week.

Bao Jianfeng, 24 years old, graduated from Shanghai Theatre Academy two years ago. Before this drama, the biggest role he played was the fourth male lead in a TV series, with no more than 30 lines of dialogue.

Three days after "Eighteen-Year-Old Sky" aired, he was walking on Huaihai Road when a woman in her forties chased him for half a block. She grabbed his arm, breathless, and exclaimed, "Teacher Gu! Teacher Gu! You look so much like him! You look just like our homeroom teacher!"

Bao Jianfeng later said in an interview: "I wanted to say, 'Sister, if your homeroom teacher taught like me, would your class's average score in Chinese on the college entrance exam even pass?' But I held back."

What truly cemented this drama's legendary status was not Bao Jianfeng's acting skills, but the seamless casting of the entire cast.

Zeng Li plays Pei Pei, a teacher with a straightforward personality who dares to love and hate.

Although she can sometimes "lose her temper at the drop of a hat," keeping her students and teacher Gu completely under her thumb, it also reflects her resilient and hardworking attitude towards life. Her "bickering couple" relationship with Gu Yuetao is also a major highlight of the drama.

Lan Feilin, played by Yan Danchen, is the white moonlight of the entire series.

She is recognized as the school beauty, gentle and kind, excellent in both character and academics, and possesses a tranquil temperament that emanates from within.

Huang Xiaoming plays Shi Yanfeng, a top student, handsome, but tongue-tied, perfectly embodying the image of a school heartthrob with a "good family background, an arrogant face, and a swaggering walk."

He seems aloof but likes Lan Feilin, yet he refuses to admit it directly. Instead, he tries to get her attention by "bullying" her.

As a student leader, he occasionally takes the lead in challenging authority, but he is kind and innocent by nature.

During its broadcast on Shanghai Television, the highest viewership rating for "Eighteen-Year-Old Sky" occurred in episode 18—the evening when Lan Feilin and Shi Yanfeng confessed their feelings for each other on the rooftop.

What does it mean that the episode achieved a viewership rating of 27.6% in Shanghai?

In 1998, the Spring Festival Gala ranked first in viewership ratings in Shanghai, with 41%;

The second place goes to this one, at 27.6%. A youth campus drama with an investment of less than three million yuan beat out all the costume dramas, period dramas, and imported Hong Kong dramas of the same period, becoming a phenomenal hit of the year.

Major media outlets went crazy reporting on it.

Xinmin Evening News published three reviews of the drama, titled "Youth Doesn't Need Filters," "Teacher Gu Yuetao, Please Teach Me," and "Zeng Li: The Birth of a Star Actor."

Yan Danchen was voted "the girl I most want to sit next to" by countless middle school boys because of her role as Lan Feilin.

Contemporary Music magazine conducted a reader survey, asking, "Who is the actress you most wanted to see in 1998?" Yan Danchen ranked third, while Zhao Wei and Xu Jinglei ranked first and second.

For a newcomer to stand side-by-side with two already incredibly famous female celebrities—everyone in the industry understands the significance of that.

Chen Hao has also been targeted by the media.

An entertainment reporter wrote a long article titled "Who will be the next girl to be loved and hated in 'Eighteen-Year-Old Sky'?" Years later, someone dug up this report and said that the reporter may have been the first person in China to predict that Chen Hao would become famous.

In the third week after the broadcast of "Eighteen-Year-Old Sky", purchasing directors from TV stations across the country flocked to Shanghai TV station to compete for the second-run broadcast rights.

Beijing Television acquired the first-run rebroadcast rights in northern China for 120,000 yuan per episode, and CCTV-8 subsequently joined the bidding war.

For a drama series that had already aired on a local TV station to sell for such a high price was nothing short of a miracle at the time.