Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 34 Big News

Li Qiutang's visit to the Busan Film Festival is definitely mainly to promote the movie and to expand his network.

From the activities in the past few days, it can be seen that his goal has been roughly achieved. Some Korean investors even expressed their willingness to invest in his new film.

In addition to the premiere of "The Night the Comet Came" at the film festival, there was also a screening event. Both events were very successful and the film received positive reviews from Korean critics. This also made CJ more determined to push "The Night the Comet Came" to theaters, but they still said that they needed to do more research.

Li Qiutang came here to socialize, but "The Night the Comet Came" unexpectedly won an Audience Choice Award two days before the closing. He didn't know how valuable this award was, but since it was given to him, he just accepted it.

After receiving the award, Li Qiutang finished an exclusive interview with Fox Studio in the evening, and returned to China with the crew of "The Night the Comet Came" the next day.

The mission has been completed, why stay here?

Andy Lau, Zhou Xun and others left two days ago.

The first thing Li Qiutang did after returning to China was to attend the DVD launch of "The Night the Comet Came".

"Comet" has been released for 23 days and the total box office has reached 3000 million, with almost no growth. Although it has not been taken off the screen yet, it does not hinder the sale of the DVD.

The distributor China Film Group has no objection to this. China Film Group has spent a lot of effort on preventing piracy of "Comet". Currently, there are no pirated resources or discs of "Comet" on the market. Now is a very appropriate time to release genuine DVDs.

The disc of Comet was released by Zhongkai Culture. At the launch event, the general manager of Zhongkai Culture said that the release of high-quality DVD products before the movie was released not only satisfied the viewing and collection needs of movie fans, but also made it impossible for pirates to take advantage of the situation. Shortening the release schedule of genuine DVDs has largely curbed the invasion of pirated products into the market.

In terms of pricing, Zhongkai Culture is also relatively generous. This time, it launched two versions of DVDs. The hardcover version is 15 yuan with exquisite packaging, and the simple version is 10 yuan. Each version is a set of two discs. In addition to the main film, the other disc contains 120 minutes of shooting highlights and interviews with the main creators. It can be said to be very cost-effective.

At the press conference, 100 sets of the director's signed edition were also sold in limited quantities without any price increase, which is really a great deal.

Li Qiutang looked at her DVD and thought, "I wonder if my mom will sell my movie."

Then I thought again: "Probably not, she doesn't sell genuine products."

Then I thought: "Authentic ones are not expensive, only 10 or 15 yuan, and ordinary people can afford it."

The next week, Li Qiutang received a call from her mother: "Your film is selling very well."

Li Qiutang was quite happy and asked about the price and sales. His mother said, "Five or six people come to rent your tape every day. Sometimes there are seven or eight people who come to rent your tape. They don't even know that this film was shot by my son."

Li Qiutang asked his mother with a hopeful mentality: "Is that the original?" He knew that after the original DVD was released, pirated discs would be out within three days at most.

"The genuine disc is 10 yuan, which is too expensive."

"You think 10 bucks is too much! That's your son's movie!"

"Okay, okay," my mother said impatiently, "If you make more movies, my business will be better. That's it, I'm hanging up."

Only now has Li Qiutang's surroundings calmed down a little. He has been too busy in the past month, although he still receives many invitations every day.

On the second Friday of the following month, Huayi suddenly invited the media and said it would hold a press conference.

The reporters were all confused. They hadn’t heard of any recent developments at Huayi, and the promotion period for “The Warring States” hadn’t arrived yet.

Although they didn't know what Huayi was going to do, the reporters still rushed to the press conference. From the materials arranged at the press conference site, they couldn't tell what the theme of today's press conference was.

The staff of Huayi just politely invited the media to come in, and when reporters asked about the theme of today's press conference, the staff said they didn't know.

At 3 pm, the press conference officially began. The host first invited the guests to enjoy a song and dance performance, and then invited Wang Zhongjun to come out. The reporters were puzzled. Why was it Wang Zhongjun? He rarely hosted such events. Wang Zhongjun first said a few polite words, which were nothing more than thanking the media for coming, and then quickly got to the topic of today:

"Please come and bear witness today. Today, Huayi will welcome a very important guest, who is also our friend. I declare that Huayi will..." Wang Zhongjun deliberately dragged his feet for a while, "sign a contract with our young and promising director Li Qiutang!"

Everyone in the audience was shocked!

This is really big news!
The strongest new director of the year, signed with Huayi!

The reporters' cameras never stopped clicking.

"Please welcome Director Li Qiutang!" Wang Zhongjun invited Li Qiutang out.

Li Qiutang walked out from the backstage, first shook hands with Wang Zhongjun who was on the same stage, and then took the microphone.

Wang Zhongjun went on to say: "I don't need to introduce Director Li Qiutang any further.

"The joining of director Li Qiutang has made Huayi's film genres more diverse and more competitive in the market." Guess who Huayi Films was referring to when it was said that it was not diverse before signing Li Qiutang?
A signing ceremony was held on the spot. Li Qiutang received the letter of appointment from Wang Zhongjun. The reporters in the audience couldn't wait to ask questions.

"Boss Wang, what is the salary offered for signing Director Li Qiutang this time?"

Wang Zhongjun smiled and said, "It is not convenient to disclose the specific treatment here, but I can say that Huayi's treatment of Director Qiu Tang is the best in the industry! Although he is very young, we in our company are very optimistic about Director Qiu Tang's ability and potential, and the top treatment I proposed was unanimously approved within the company."

"Director Qiu Tang, may I ask why you chose Huayi?"

Li Qiutang said: "Because the timing is right. Huayi is the most powerful film company in China, so it's not surprising that they chose Huayi."

"What is the first work after signing the contract? Can you reveal it to everyone?" Generally, this kind of press conference will be held together with the release of the new work, so that the popularity will be the highest.

Wang Zhongjun smiled and waved his hand: "Don't worry, this is behind."

The audience has already started laughing.

A reporter asked Wang Zhongjun directly: "Will Director Qiu Tang's joining have any impact on Director Xiaogang?"

Wang Zhongjun said: "How can two directors have any impact? Huayi Company can support two directors at the same time, you can rest assured."

At the end of the press conference, Wang Zhongjun and Li Qiutang unveiled Li Qiutang's first new film after joining Huayi:
"Three-two-one!"

The two men pressed a button, and a line of words appeared on the big screen behind them - Arrogant, directed by Li Qiutang, 2007, so stay tuned!

The whole audience burst into applause and the flash lights kept flashing.

The news of the press conference spread throughout the entire entertainment industry immediately!

First, Li Qiutang signed a contract with Huayi; second, the title of Li Qiutang’s new film is "Arrogant".

The circle is paying close attention to it.

But sorry, Li Qiutang has gone into seclusion to write the script.

(End of this chapter)