Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 57 Non-stop
The first thing Li Qiutang did after returning to Yanjing was not to do the post-production of "Arrogant", but to meet the actors.

After Wang Zhonglei brought the script of "Becoming Famous" back to the company, he read it carefully.

I have to say, the young director has a good brain!
It’s not that no one wants to write suspense stories, it’s that very few people in China can write suspense stories of this style.

What is even more valuable is that Li Qiutang combined suspense and comedy, two very difficult elements, very well in the script.

Science fiction, action, and suspense comedy, I didn’t expect Li Qiutang to be such a versatile talent!
In the general category of suspense and mystery, "To Become Famous" should be classified as "Snowstorm Manor", but Li Qiutang made micro-innovations within the traditional Snowstorm Manor framework.

He told the audience and detectives at the beginning that Qi Leshan was the murderer!

The detectives' goal is no longer to find the murderer, but to uncover the truth behind the murderer's crime.

Putting aside whether the story is exciting or not, the important reason why Wang Zhonglei likes this script is that the story of "To Become Famous" takes place in one room, so the filming cost will be very low. The second is that there are as many as 9 main actors with names and surnames in "To Become Famous" (including Nightingale)!
Isn't this used to fill in the actors at Huayi?
Apart from Huayi, which other agency in the country can accommodate so many actors!

So during this month, Wang Zhonglei was very motivated. He looked for actors within the company who he thought were suitable for the role in "Famous". If there were no actors within the company, he would offer them as favors.

Everyone inside Huayi knows about Wang Zhonglei’s actions in the past month.

"Director Xiao Li is going to make a new film!" The news spread like wildfire.

Young people are just full of energy. Even the donkey in the production team is not as energetic as Li Qiutang!

The first person Li Qiutang went to meet was an assistant of Wang Zhongjun, who was not in the country these days.

The assistant took him to meet the actors that Wang Zhongjun wanted to promote.

As an aside, Huayi is not a monolithic organization, but rather a group of factions.

It can even be said that the Wang brothers have obvious differences on many things.

Both brothers realized that they could not rely too much on Feng Xiaogang, so they both advocated investing in new films and signing new directors.

But the difference between the two brothers is that Wang Zhongjun would prefer to cooperate with new directors, whether it is like Li Qiutang, or invest in new movies outside of Huayi such as "Warring States" and "Baby Project".

But Wang Zhonglei would prefer to stabilize Feng Xiaogang and then develop new forces. He has a better personal relationship with Feng Xiaogang. Moreover, Huayi is already seeking to go public, and it needs to stabilize Feng Xiaogang's base in the next two years. Therefore, his motivation to develop new directors and new film contracts is not that strong.

This is also why Li Qiutang’s signing ceremony was hosted by Wang Zhongjun, not Wang Zhonglei.

However, Huayi’s film business has always been under the charge of Wang Zhonglei, so Li Qiutang has the most contact with Wang Zhonglei.

Some senior people within Huayi classified Li Qiutang as belonging to Wang Zhongjun's faction.

The actor Wang Zhongjun wants to recommend this time is Deng Chao.

Deng Chao has confirmed that he has terminated his contract with his former agency and will announce that he will join Huayi later this year. Wang Zhongjun is very optimistic about Deng Chao and is preparing to make him the second Huang Xiaoming. This also shows Huayi's strategy of nurturing poison. Previously, there was a dispute between the two Bings, and then Zhou Xun was introduced. After Fan Bingbing left, Wang Zhongjun introduced Deng Chao, a young actor who has been gaining momentum recently, after signing Huang Xiaoming. In this way, competition was formed within the company.

Deng Chao's career has been going relatively smoothly in the past two years. He has become popular in the TV drama market, but he has not achieved the same success as Huang Xiaoming. He also wants to act in movies, but the problem remains: not many people are looking for him.

"Assembly" is a relatively good resource, but it is still difficult to go further.

When meeting Li Qiutang, Deng Chao wanted to please her and wanted to give her a gift on their first meeting, but he couldn't find out what Li Qiutang liked, so he just bought a box of tea, which shouldn't be a bad idea.

In fact, no one urged Li Qiutang to shoot "Famous", he has already finished shooting "Arrogant" this year and can take a vacation. "Famous" can be left to next year and Huayi will not say anything. Even so, the industry has to praise Li Qiutang for his productivity - is a director who shoots one film a year not productive?

But according to Li Qiutang's style of doing things, since the script is already there, just move forward.

Li Qiutang was taken to a cafe, which happened to be the cafe where Li Qiutang and Jing Tian had discussed the MV shooting before.

"Hello, Director Li." Deng Chao saw Li Qiutang coming and took the initiative to stand up to greet him. Li Qiutang shook hands with him, said hello, and sat down.

Wang Zhongjun's assistant introduced Deng Chao to the company, saying that the company would announce Deng Chao's joining in a few months. "We are all family, so just be casual."

The two had never met each other before, so there was no small talk to share, so they just started talking about movies.

Deng Chao said that he had auditioned to play a blind man before, but unfortunately he was not successful: "Actually, I can fight pretty well." Privately, Deng Chao is a lively and talkative person.

Li Qiutang smiled and said, "Maybe I wasn't there when you auditioned. If I was there... I would have rejected you too."

"Hahahaha!"

"We need professional action actors. Brother Zhuo trained for three months in advance, filmed for three months, and was injured for three months. Ordinary actors really can't bear it." The crew of "No One" spent over a million on medical expenses alone.

Li Qiutang talked about the filming of "No One in My Eyes" and finally said: "No matter how difficult it was, we finished filming in three months."

After that, they talked about "To Become Famous" very smoothly. Li Qiutang said that he had seen the comedy drama performed by Deng Chao. This was true. Deng Chao's stage comedy was quite famous in Yanjing, and he became famous in Yanjing because of this.

Deng Chao's comedies during his student days were very bold and eye-catching. He would dress up as women, deliberately act ugly, dance around in black stockings, and speak in a choked voice and in a sarcastic tone. He relied on this to make the audience laugh.

It can be said that the reason why Deng Chao became famous at that time was entirely due to his bold and risk-taking style.

Li Qiutang didn't say that what he had was nothing.

Don’t say that as long as the audience is amused, it’s fine. Even if ten thousand people came to watch Deng Chao’s comedy, Li Qiutang would still think it was rubbish.

Low-level jokes and low-level performances combine to create a low-level comedy.

Li Qiutang said that his "To Become Famous" is mainly suspense and mystery, mixed with comedy.

“It’s to make it easier for the audience to watch.”

Deng Chao immediately said that he had a talent for comedy and was very willing to act in comedy.

But Li Qiutang has Deng Chao comedy PTSD. He really doesn't want to watch him perform comedy anymore, and he doesn't want to film Deng Chao performing comedy.

But it must be said that Deng Chao's image is indeed very good, and he has no problem playing the role of Li Jiahui.

So Li Qiutang put down the hook: "After all, we haven't officially started casting yet, so let's communicate first. Also, I'll be frank, you have to let me meet a few more actors so I can compare them."

Deng Chao naturally said: "As it should be. When buying things, you should compare prices from three stores, let alone choosing actors."

Before the two parted, Li Qiutang casually asked about his future plans.

Deng Chao said: "I will go to Yunnan Province in a few days to shoot a movie, "The Encounter of Li Mi" directed by Cao Baoping."

"Partnering with Zhou Xun?"

"Ah."

"That was a good show. Everything went well."

"Thank you."

The two shook hands and parted.

(End of this chapter)