Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 47: New Year's Eve

On the fifth day, Li Qiutang returned to Beijing.

"This bag contains dumplings, stuffed with sauerkraut, pork, leeks and eggs, 100 each. You can freeze them when you get home and make them when you want to eat them. The dumplings in restaurants outside are not as good as the ones at home."

"Take this jar of pickled cabbage with you, too. You always say you want to eat the pickled cabbage at home. And this jar of spicy cabbage, made by your grandma."

"Take these two chickens with you too."

"Mom, there won't be a shortage of chickens in Yanjing, right?" Li Qiutang said with a smile.

"Can the food you buy outside be as delicious as the food at home? This is a free-range chicken raised in the countryside. You can freeze it when you get home and thaw it out when you want to eat it."

"This is……"

"Mom, why don't you come with me to Yanjing?"

"I'm not going. I want to open a shop." The couple bustled around stuffing things into their son's car.

A neighbor passed by and said hello: "Qiutang is leaving."

"Yes, I have to go back to work."

“This is a really nice car.”

"Just fooling around." Li Qiutang said with a smile.

Li Qiutang packed up his things and started the car. Before leaving, he told his father, "Take my mom to see places when you have time. Now that we have a car, it will be convenient for us to go anywhere."

"I don't need your teaching, let's go."

Li Qiutang's car slowly drove away and headed towards Yanjing.

There was no traffic jam when I went home, but there was traffic jam when I returned to Beijing.

It's only the fifth day of the New Year, are so many people leaving?

Stuck in traffic, Li Qiutang asked the driver in the car next to her for a cup of hot water to make instant noodles.

After a long delay, it was almost dark when Li Qiutang finally arrived in Yanjing.

The next day, the crew of "No One" resumed work and continued to prepare for the start of filming.

After leaving the crew, Li Qiutang went to Huayi headquarters and knocked on the door of Wang Zhonglei's office.

Huayi has the first choice right for film shooting during Li Qiutang's five-year contract period. Li Qiutang is naturally happy to have someone invest in his film, which is why he came to Wang Zhonglei today.

While at home during the Chinese New Year, he came up with another idea.

"It tells the story of a group of various people, including screenwriters, film critics, out-of-date actors, and a director, who were called together by the big boss to a meeting and told to make a movie based on a real murder case. A group of people were brainstorming in the room, analyzing the murder case while writing the movie." Li Qiutang told Wang Zhonglei the general idea and took out a demo he had written in advance.

Wang Zhonglei took a quick look and said with a smile, "Another movie of that kind with just one room and one table." "The Night the Comet Came" is such a movie.

Nothing can be seen from the sample, but Wang Zhonglei chose to believe Li Qiutang. Such a subject matter would not cost much money, and it was something Li Qiutang was good at, so there was no reason not to support him.

"What's the name of this movie?"

"'Fame and Fame', everyone in this movie wants to become famous through this movie." Li Qiutang said.

"You can shoot it," Wang Zhonglei said. Which company would complain that they don't have enough films? "But you still have 'No One' to shoot'. Can you handle it?"

"Not bad." Li Qiutang really didn't feel tired.

"Okay, I'll find a few people first, you guys start working." The director didn't feel tired, and he, the one paying the bill, felt even less tired. He gave Li Qiutang enough emotional value and praised him, "Cooperating with you is simply the most wise decision Huayi made last year."

Half a year after signing the contract, Li Qiutang has already produced two films. This is like a fighter among roosters. It is normal for a director to push two or three projects at the same time. Li Qiutang's current energy and creative vitality can support his high-intensity work.

The current focus is naturally still "No One in Contempt".

Zhao Wenzhuo didn't have a good year either. He was always training his movements and trying to figure out the feeling of a blind person.

Because Ni Yan will be dancing at her own wedding, Huo Siyan has been practicing dancing hard recently.

Qin Niang is a singer, so Fan Bingbing also practices dancing.

Huang Xiaoming doesn't practice martial arts because he doesn't have many action scenes and the crew doesn't require him to train.

Yanjing was gradually becoming lively, and when everyone gathered, something bad was about to happen.

After returning to work, the first big thing in the entertainment industry was who would be the leading actress in "The Forbidden Kingdom" (formerly "Double J Project"), a collaboration between Huayi and Lionsgate?
This movie is currently Huayi’s most important project, and Huayi has been hyping up the candidate for the leading actress since the project was exposed at the end of last year.

News was revealed after the new year that "The Forbidden Kingdom" had two female protagonists, and three actresses from Huayi were competing for one of them: Li Bingbing, Lin Xinru, and Fan Wenfang.

Wang Zhonglei said in an interview after the Chinese New Year: "All three of them have tried makeup, and the director was satisfied. As for who was finally selected, in addition to the suitability of the role, the ability to speak English is also a very important factor. After all, this is a film with English dialogue."

Among Li, Lin and Fan, only Fan had studied in the United States, while the other two were not good at English.

When talking about the second female lead, Wang Zhonglei was less talkative. He said: "Neither of the two female leads is just a vase. They are both very important characters and will run through the entire plot."

When it comes to the selection, Wang Zhonglei said: "Liu Yifei came to try out the makeup."

This leaves plenty of room for outside speculation.

From this we can see that Huayi should only have the final say over the female lead that Li Bingbing and the others are competing for.

In fact, if you think about it a little more, you will understand that according to the arrogance of Hollywood film companies, it is good enough to give one of the two female protagonists to the Chinese partner. Would Lionsgate give the casting rights to Huayi so easily?
This is the first collaboration between the two Js, and it has attracted a lot of attention in the international film industry.

But many netizens believe that the several million dollars invested by Huayi can get two female lead actors from Lionsgate.

Perhaps in order to grab the first spot in the entertainment industry news after the New Year, Huayi announced the cast of "No One" a few days later.

Zhao Wenzhuo, Huo Siyan, Fan Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming.

What a divine lineup!
Netizens had a lot of discussions about this lineup, and it immediately dominated the entertainment headlines.

Each of these four people is considered popular, but anyone who knows the rules of the industry can see at a glance that these four are not wanted by the film industry.

"It seems that Huayi is not very supportive of Li Qiutang and gave him these money-losing guys." This is what many people in the circle thought when they saw this list of actors.

According to the current rules, if you want to make money, the male lead has to be from Hong Kong or Taiwan, and it doesn't matter if the female lead, female supporting roles, and male supporting roles are all from mainland China.

The current lineup is hotly discussed, but none of them can sell tickets, and none of the four people are good at acting. Is the movie that can be starred in worth watching?

So, after this lineup was revealed, netizens were very enthusiastic, but the industry was very pessimistic.

Newcomers are newcomers after all, and they may not understand the rules of the industry even if they switch to a big company.

As the cast of leading actors was revealed, the synopsis of "No One" was also leaked.

Martial arts film.

That's possible. Costume films are very popular right now and there is a huge market demand. It is a very wise choice for Li Qiutang to shoot a martial arts film.

But the previous one was science fiction, and this one is a martial arts, the gap is a bit big, I don’t know if this newcomer can do it.

(End of this chapter)