Huayu Entertainment 1995 started with hijacking.

Chapter 78 Preparations for "The Comet"

The two didn't talk much during the phone call, mainly about their recent studies and life, deliberately avoiding the topic of Jiang Qinqin.

Overall, Zeng Li's attitude is definitely not as close as before; she won't call him proactively. However, Wu Yuchen isn't disappointed; re-establishing contact is a good start.

Wu Yuchen knew it was impossible to get Zeng Li to accept being with him. Zeng Li was still very innocent and had no experience with the entertainment industry; her bottom line wasn't that low yet.

However, people's thoughts change with their environment. But isn't the relationship between men and women all about push and pull?

If he does nothing and waits for the other person to take the initiative, then there's no chance, and over time they'll truly forget each other.

Wu Yuchen was also prepared for a long battle. As long as he could keep her in her heart and prevent other men from entering it, it would eventually have an effect.

He just wanted to fulfill Zhang Wuji's unfinished dream!

During this period, apart from dealing with some relationship issues, Wu Yuchen devoted most of his energy to "The Night the Comet Came," a low-budget film that could be made for 10 to 15 yuan with the current salary levels in China.

With the filming of "We Two" completed, he had nearly three months of downtime. Now that he has both the time and the money, he naturally wants to take advantage of this time to finish making the movie.

However, when it came time to actually get started, I found that although the filming time might be short, the pre-production preparation stage was quite energy-consuming.

First, he planned to make some minor adjustments to the script. The plot would remain the same, but the beginning of the original film was somewhat rambling, leaving many viewers confused for the first ten minutes or so. Some viewers who couldn't stand it simply cursed the film as a bad movie and left.

Wu Yuchen made this movie with the intention of making money, so while ensuring its sci-fi and suspense elements, he naturally had to re-examine the beginning. Even if it was just foreshadowing, he wanted to make sure the audience could accept and watch it.

Drawing the storyboards took some time, and then there was the issue of casting. Choosing actors wasn't too difficult; most of the eight actors could be current university students from Beijing Film Academy and the Central Academy of Drama, which was also cheaper.

Given his current reputation after winning the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlin International Film Festival, most of these students are willing to accept his invitations, even turning down other jobs.

The problem lay in the actors' comprehension abilities. These actors generally had poor academic performance, especially in science subjects, so they were completely bewildered when they first read the script.

Take Jiang Qinqin for example. Wu Yuchen gave her the script and explained it to her for a long time, but she still didn't fully understand the plot.
Finally, Wu Yuchen gathered all eight selected actors together and spent most of the day explaining the script to them. He then told them to take it home and read it on their own for two weeks. They were to ask him questions about anything they didn't understand during those two weeks and thoroughly understand the script, at least the parts about their own characters.

Therefore, after going through these few things, the preliminary preparation time was almost half a month, which was much longer than the filming time.

As for the eight actors chosen for "The Night the Comet Came," there were four men and four women. Moreover, Wu Yuchen specially gave the characters Chinese names that sounded like English names, making it easier for foreign audiences to remember them.

The female lead, Amy, a dancer, was naturally cast as Jiang Qinqin; she's perfect in both looks and physique. They had already turned her down in the previous project, "Us Two," so it was only natural to cast her this time. The male lead, Luo De, is the most handsome of the four men, and Huang Haibing, a senior at the Central Academy of Drama, was chosen. He happened to be free before graduation and readily agreed.

The male actor, Mike, is played by Fu Dalong. We finally managed to get him available last time, but he was very interested after reading the script.

Mike's girlfriend, Li Na, played by Gong Beibi from the Central Academy of Drama, is a perfect fit for the image of a sophisticated urban woman, and her acting is also quite good. She previously ruined her chance to play the female lead in "Bus 44," but this time she's getting her chance again.

Anna, a huge fan of Chinese Feng Shui culture, is played by Liu Mintao from the Central Academy of Drama. Hmm, this role could be played by the older sister.

Li Wei, Anna's boyfriend, was cast as Sun Honglei. The reason Sun Honglei was chosen instead of Duan Long is simple: the character is a lawyer, and Sun Honglei is older and has a more mature appearance.

Wei Wei, the male lead's ex-girlfriend, works in the education industry. They need to find someone pretty, and Jiang Qinqin recommended Chen Shasha, whose acting skills are decent. Wu Yuchen gave her a try and accepted the role.

The last character is Chamberlain, a computer engineer. Although he is a supporting character, he is quite important. After the comet passes by, he brings back a box from outside. When the box is opened, it triggers "Schrödinger's cat".

Moreover, given the character's profession and personality, they needed to find an actor who appeared mature and composed. Therefore, with the help of his teacher, Wu Yuchen found Jiang Wu, a student from the class of '90, who was the only actor who was not currently a student.

Jiang Wu happened to be in Beijing and had nothing to do. After reading the script, he found it interesting and immediately agreed to take it on.

After news of the "Comet" project spread, Xu Cairen (Xu Jinglei) even took the initiative to approach him, wanting to compete for the role of the female lead. However, Wu Yuchen was definitely giving it to his girlfriend Jiang Qinqin, so how could he possibly give it to Xu Cairen!
As for Wang Shuo and the Beijing circle, he doesn't plan to get involved in that circle. He can make it on his own, so why would he want to associate with them?
The movie was scheduled to start filming on May Day, so we can finish filming during these few days of holiday and the crew won't have to ask the school for leave.

The original film "Comet" was filmed by a new director with eight ordinary child actors in five nights.

Given Wu Yuchen's thorough preparation, it's unlikely that he will take much longer than them.

The pay was 2000 yuan each for the seven students and 8000 yuan for Jiang Wu, who was already somewhat famous, having won the "Spring City Silver Cup Award" and acted in "To Live".

Another noteworthy event was that when he went to the stock market to withdraw money, he discovered that the stock he had bought, Changhong, had suddenly surged in value!

After returning from Berlin and dividing the money, he put 80 yuan into the stock market to buy Changhong shares at a price of about 8.5 yuan. In the meantime, Wu Yuchen went to the exchange to check the stock price two or three times, but the fluctuations were not significant, and the highest price reached was only 9 yuan.

As a result, by the end of April, the stock price soared. Wu Yuchen then discovered that the Chinese stock market in 1996 did not have daily price limits, and the price rose by 15% every day. In just one week, the stock price rose to 14.5 yuan, and his 800,000 yuan investment had grown to 136 million yuan.

Wu Yuchen decisively withdrew 160,000 yuan. Although this 160,000 yuan might have appreciated significantly in the stock market over the next year, the money had to be spent when necessary.

(End of this chapter)