Huayu: The Big Players Behind the Scenes

At the victory celebration banquet, Zhuang Huai'an told a lie.

The investment solicitation was real, but the audition was fake; it was just a publicity stunt.

Are you kidding me? Why would you leave your own artists at Madou Media to benefit outsiders?

Of course, investors should still give one or two roles as appropriate.

That's what they said, but they still had to put on a show. Zhuang Huai'an instructed Du Hua to send the short biographies of the roles that needed to be auditioned to the 91 Company's official website.

As for when the audition will be held, we'll have to wait for further notice!

He needs to hurry up and finish the post-production of "Detachment" so he can prepare for the Berlin Film Festival.

July was also a lively month for television.

Actually, the term "summer season" originated from the time slot when TV dramas were broadcast.

Strictly speaking, it started with Hunan TV broadcasting "My Fair Princess".

The spy thriller "The Disguiser," which doesn't resemble a typical spy film, unsurprisingly became a hit during this period.

The average viewership rating for the same time slot was 5.9%, with the finale even surpassing 8%.

This popularity continued into the second round of broadcasts, with Beijing TV, Tianjin TV, and Shanghai TV joining forces to secure the rights. The three TV stations worked together to schedule the broadcasts at 10:00 AM, 2:00 PM, and 4:00 PM, three prime-time daytime slots.

For a time, everyone in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai was watching "The Disguiser".

The three brothers from the vocational high school lost their real names and are now simply referred to as the "Ming Family Three Brothers".

Meanwhile, Dong Xuan, an artist also under Madou Media, starred in "Snowflake Goddess Dragon," which aired on Shancheng TV and achieved a viewership rating of over 5%, making it a hit.

Thanks to the investment from 91 Company, this TV series is no longer as poorly made as before. The costumes, props, and special effects have all been improved. Chung Lai-Fang also insisted on giving the role of the protagonist, Sima Changfeng, to Yan Kuan.

Interestingly, the profit from selling these two TV series, after deducting costs, was actually higher than the box office profit of "Hunting" and "Seaside Town" in mainland China.

TV dramas are great! We should make TV dramas!

While it was a huge hit in China, Yang Chen on the other side of the ocean was going crazy.

The film "Insidious" grossed $1.6 million in North America. Note that this refers to North America, specifically the United States and Canada.

MGM acquired the DVD rights and overseas distribution rights, and paid Sugar Pictures $3500 million in copyright fees for this.

The film cost only $600 million, of which $300 million was the director's fee for the James Wan brothers.

In light of this, Yang Chen urged James Wan to start filming the third installment of "Happy Death Day" without delay.

Horror movies are great! We should make horror movies!

With such a profit margin, if it weren't for maintaining a high-class image, Zhuang Huai'an would have preferred to get involved himself; why would he bother making a movie like "The Martian"?

At the end of October,

The editing of "Detachment" is complete, and the adapted version of "Undersea" sung by Phoenix Legend will be used as the end credits song.

Zhuang Huai'an, however, acted like a scoundrel. He approached Wang Zhengliang and brought in a female student from the Sichuan Conservatory of Music named Zhang Liangying to record the original version of "Under the Sea" as a movie theme song.

Just in case, the original underwater version will only be used in the movie and is not intended to be released to the market.

After recording the song, Du Hua casually signed Zhang Liangying, and Zhuang Huai'an also gave her a song called "My Dream" to test the waters. This kind of inspirational song is very popular at the time.

If Huawei still wants to use this song as a promotional track in the future, Zhuang Huai'an's pension insurance will be in place.

Company 91

Han Sanping arrived at the door in a great hurry.

"What's wrong, bro?" Zhuang Huai'an looked at him in confusion.

"The application to import 'Parasite' has been approved."

"Really?"

Zhuang Huai'an was somewhat surprised. Although "Parasite" depicted the American underclass, given the widening gap between the rich and poor globally, his family shouldn't have agreed to import such a film for the sake of stability.

"real!"

The two sat down at the tea table, and Han Sanping smiled and handed them a cigarette. "Some leaders in the bureau have seen the sample footage and think it's very educational, so they've given special permission to leave it uncut."

Zhuang Huai'an thought about it and it made a lot of sense. For years, they've been showing outdated domestic films from overseas. This opportunity to let his children see the realities of life outside the country is definitely educational.

As expected of a mother, anything related to education is acceptable.

"Okay, is the schedule set?"

"I heard from Yang Chen that MGM plans to release it globally on August 16th. I figured China Film Group can't fall behind in this, so I came to ask you."

Han Sanping exhaled a puff of smoke and tentatively suggested, "How about we bring a few actors over to Beijing and hold a premiere ceremony?"

"Forget it," Zhuang Huai'an waved his hand in refusal, feigning nonchalance, "Those actors are only second or third-tier in Hollywood, and their domestic fame isn't even as high as mine."

"That's true, but foreign monks are always better at chanting sutras," Han Sanping persisted, trying to persuade him. "Think about it, a Chinese director made an English film and won the Palme d'Or. If they were to speak a few words of Chinese at the ceremony, the box office..."

Han Sanping stopped there.

To be honest, this approach is indeed quite good, but Zhuang Huai'an is still unwilling.

"Forget it, to be honest, I don't even want to do a premiere."

Seeing Han Sanping's disappointment, he explained, "No matter how good this film is, it's still an English film after all. Besides, China Film Group didn't invest in it, they just imported it. There's no need to make such a big fuss about it. Brother, you might as well put this idea into 'The Martian'."

Han Sanping thought about it again and realized that it made sense, so he stopped worrying about it.

Zhuang Huai'an shook his head and chuckled, handing over a cup of tea.

"It will be released domestically on August 16th as well. We won't have a premiere ceremony. The buzz from the last celebration party hasn't died down yet, and we don't need to worry about publicity since it won the Palme d'Or. Also, I'll give Enlight Media a heads-up later and ask them to buy some of their media channels to release more press releases."

"It's fine once you've made your decision."

Han Sanping took a sip of tea and asked with interest, "You're not planning to hold a public audition for the role in 'The Martian,' are you?"

"Brother, you have a keen eye," Zhuang Huai'an gave a thumbs up. "Actually, the supporting actors have all been arranged. The Chinese roles will be played by artists from my company, and the American roles will be played by actors from Parasite. Now we're just waiting for Boss Yang to get Jackie Chan on board."

Han Sanping laughed and said, "I guessed it. No one would give away such resources for nothing."

Zhuang Huai'an smiled and did not deny it.

After lighting another cigarette, Han Sanping continued to discuss official assistance matters for "The Martian" with Zhuang Huai'an.

Asking the China National Aviation Administration for help was essential, but Lao Han was simply not up to their standards. Fortunately, the leaders of the Film Bureau were self-aware and directly submitted the script to the relevant department.

When the relevant leaders saw this as a good thing, they approached the bigwigs at the Civil Aviation Administration of China. They were very interested after reading the script, but unfortunately, a certain project was at a critical juncture and the researchers simply couldn't spare the time.

Since this involves such a major national matter, the central government department did not dare to urge them, so they passed a message to the Film Bureau to postpone the matter of the consultant.

It was early August 2003. Zhuang Huai'an knew exactly what the China National Aviation Administration was up to. To put it bluntly, he made these dumplings just for this dish of vinegar!

Without the guidance of top scientific researchers, "The Martian" really wouldn't have amounted to anything. Anyway, there's no rush to film, so we'll just have to wait and see.

"Oh, by the way, bro, I've saved you a role. Come and act in it when you have some free time."

"You gave me a role?"

Han Sanping was somewhat surprised. He had read the scripts, but didn't feel there was a suitable role for him.

"Yes," Zhuang Huai'an winked at him, "the head of AVIC is more powerful than you, the vice chairman of China Film Group."

Zhuang Huai'an couldn't help but laugh when he thought of Han Sanping speaking in official jargon with a serious expression in the movie.