Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 68 No money!
Li Qiutang provided the actors with a new angle to think about the story of "Famous": "Is what Qi Leshan said true?"

In fact, this angle has already been reflected in the script. When everyone escaped from the murder nightclub and came to the suburbs, Li Qiutang said this through Lu Ziye: "What Qi Leshan said may not be accurate."

However, the script did not show Qi Leshan making up the story on the spot by reading the newspaper, so the actors could not tell from the script how Qi Leshan lied.

Li Qiutang also did not write in the script that the figure that Li Jiahui was chasing in the end was Nightingale.

Li Qiutang began to tell the actors stories beyond the script of "To Become Famous".

"Please pay attention to Li Jiahui's previous identity. Li Jiahui used to be a reporter. He stepped down because of exposing military and political corruption. He switched to screenwriting. Qi Leshan was a soldier and an adjutant of the expeditionary army. When his superior died in battle, he was responsible for taking care of his superior's daughter, Nightingale.

"At the same time, the three elders control the three industries of finance, industry and shipping. Lu Ziye dared to bring out the murderer, and he dared to recreate the crime scene to film. But why did he dare not even film when he heard Guan Jingnian say that Qi Leshan was a soldier? Think about it again, why did the Central Government of Jinling send people to deal with a group of moviemakers? Isn't this making a fuss over nothing?"

Yingda thought for a moment and said, "You mean to say that the military and political corruption case exposed by Li Jiahui before was done by the three elders. The three elders embezzled military funds, which led to the defeat of Qi Leshan's army and the death of the commander on the front line, so Qi Leshan and Nightingale came to seek revenge!"

"Yes!" Li Qiutang said, "But it is true that Nightingale is a singer, but she may not want to be on the stage. She did it on purpose. She became a singer just to attract the attention of the three elders, and then kill them together with Qi Leshan."

"So the whole case was done by Qi Leshan and Nightingale together. After killing the person, they wanted to escape through the ventilation duct, but Qi Leshan knew that if the room was empty, the police would definitely search the duct, so he had to stay and create the feeling that this room was a secret room that could only be entered but not exited. He sacrificed himself to save Nightingale."

"Where did the Nightingale go in the end?" asked Zhao Liying, this is her role.

"That's the figure that Li Jiahui chased out at the end." Li Qiutang said, "Okay, this is the story of "Famous", everyone go back and digest it carefully, we will go over the script again in two days and then set off for Hengdian."

Li Qiutang ended the script reading.

But on the very next day, the crew's finance department told Li Qiutang a very unfortunate news: the crew was running out of money and could only last for another week at most.

Li Qiutang really didn't expect that this was his third film and the second one he shot for Huayi, and he still had no money! ?

"Hasn't the budget been submitted long ago? Hasn't it been approved?"

"No." The finance manager shook his head.

"What did the company say?"

"They said they had no money."

"Bullshit." Li Qiutang cursed, "Even if Huayi is broke, can't it come up with 2000 million?"

Li Qiutang directly called Huayi's financial director. He did not call the Wang brothers first. This kind of matter should be resolved at the grassroots level if it can be resolved there.

It turned out that the reasons given by the finance department were very sufficient. Although "Night Banquet" had good box office and recovered the cost, it had not started to make any money. This year, the company successively invested in "The Forbidden Kingdom" and "What Happened to Li Mi", especially "The Forbidden Kingdom", with millions of dollars invested. However, Li Qiutang's "No One" had not been released yet and no money had been seen. The company also invested a lot of money in the TV series. At the same time, "Assembly" will be released next month and the publicity and promotion expenses have been laid out. Director Feng Xiaogang has already started preparing for a new film and he took away another sum of money. The company really has no money to give to Li Qiutang.

The financial director finally complained to Li Qiutang: "It costs money everywhere. I really can't do anything about it."

Of course, "Famous" is a company project after all, and we have to pay for it.

"Why don't you just stop filming and start next year? You've already finished filming 'No One' this year anyway."

Everything was ready in Hengdian, just waiting for him to bring the actors over to start filming. Now he was asked to pause? Li Qiutang hung up the phone without even saying goodbye.

If his guess was correct, the senior management of Huayi should be dissatisfied with him. He signed a one-year contract but did not make a single penny for the company and just spent money.

The speed of releasing new films is very fast, but they are not convinced. They should wait until the performance of "Arrogant" comes out before deciding whether to invest in Li Qiutang.

From the perspective of company management, they are right to think so, but Li Qiutang doesn't care about that!

I'm a director. If I make a movie for your company, you have to pay me!

But now Huayi’s finance department has clearly stated that it has no money, and the crew is about to start filming, so it can be said that the fire is burning to the eyebrows.

There was no other choice, so Li Qiutang had to use his own 200 million yuan director's fee to cover the cost first: "No matter what, the crew can't stop."

The next day, Li Qiutang hosted another script reading. After the reading, Li Qiutang asked all the actors except Gao Yuanyuan to rush to Hengdian in the next two days to prepare for the start of filming.

Gao Yuanyuan also has to catch up with the crew of "Nanjing! Nanjing!", and her scenes will be filmed intensively later.

After arranging all these, Li Qiutang set out on his money-making journey again after a year!

If the company doesn’t give him money, he can only raise money on his own!
As the producer, doesn’t Chen Guofu care?

He is the artistic director of Huayi, and Li Qiutang never placed her hopes on him.

There is still a week left before filming begins, and Li Qiutang needs to raise at least 1000 million in funding to ensure the crew can start filming smoothly and run stably for a long period of time.

He returned to the Northeast, and the familiar environment was conducive to his performance.

Before leaving, he not only kept his own director's fee, but also paid 500 million of his own funds, and told the finance department not to let anyone know that the crew was short of money, especially the crew members, otherwise it would disrupt the morale of the crew and make it difficult for him to lead them later.

The first target was the Liaoning Provincial Film Company. However, except for China Film Group and Shanghai Film Group, who among the state-owned film companies had money? The Liaoning Provincial Film Company had no films to make of its own and was hanging on by the revenue from northern cinema chains. How could it have money to invest in movies?

What about Changchun Film Studio, the cradle of the Republic’s film industry?

In the same situation, Changchun Film Studio has been making losses for many years and stopped making films ten years ago.

Now they rely on Changying Century City and financial grants for their livelihood.

But he did not return to the Northeast without making a penny. There were many mining owners in the Northeast. When Li Qiutang returned home last year, they clamored to invest in a movie. At that time, 20 or 30 million yuan was not a lot of money in their eyes, but now that Li Qiutang really came to them to ask for money, they all kept silent.

Finally, he met with three bosses and took out 700 million yuan.

It had been a week since Li Qiutang left Yanjing, and Hengdian was already ready. In the end, the reason Li Qiutang gave was that he had some personal matters to deal with, so the crew postponed the start of filming for one week. During this period, he asked the producer and Chen Guofu to organize the actors to read the script twice more and rehearse a few more times.

Li Qiutang left the Northeast and headed south!
　No cooperation will be smooth sailing, so let me write this paragraph.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)