1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 235

"Jiuyi Entertainment may be getting involved in fantasy kung fu films. Zhai Yuan spent tens of thousands of yuan to buy out the copyright to 'Mr. Vampire'..."

After Zhai Yuan became a rising star in the film industry, sometimes he didn’t even have to spend money on publicity and promotion. Any action he took would be reported in gossip newspapers.

Huang Ying reaped the first wave of dividends.

As the screenwriter and novelist of the "Heavenly Silkworm Change" series, he is well-known in the circle, but only behind the scenes.

The news that Zhai Yuan had purchased the copyright of his novel spread like wildfire, immediately pushing Huang Ying to the forefront, and also led to a surge in sales of his previous works.

"Ah Huang, come out and have a chat?"

When Liu Guanwei found Huang Ying, he was discussing the direction of the new script's story with several main creators of the crew.

"I think the plot of Carol, the female ghost, seeking fortune-telling from a fortune teller should be a little more complicated and not too logical..."

Hearing Liu Guanwei's voice, Huang Ying asked the creators to continue crossing the bridge and stood up to greet him: "Brother Guanwei, what's the matter?"

Liu Guanwei stared at him and took a deep breath, then said in a dissatisfied tone: "We have discussed your article "Mr. Zombie" a long time ago, and we want to make a new movie together, but I just found out from the newspaper this morning that you sold it to the boss of Jiuyi. Do we have to be friends like this?"

"That's all?" Huang Ying smiled nonchalantly, "Boss, that novel doesn't even have an ending. I don't know why Jiuyi's boss is so crazy that he's giving me money for nothing."

As he spoke, he pointed to his head proudly and said, "All the really good stories are here. If he likes my incomplete work and is willing to pay for it, then he can take it. In a few days, when I finish this "The Wrong Bone", I will help you come up with a more incisive story. You can choose zombies, female ghosts, or zombies!"

…………

At this time, Huang Ying didn't know that his little greed would cause him to lose his truly representative work.

Zhai Yuan sat at his desk, flipping through another headline in the newspaper with interest:
"Zhai Yuanjiang has run out of ideas, and his new film, Borrowing the Bridge, is about an unknown writer."

He looked up at Ye Zhiming, who had brought the newspaper to him and was looking at him with gloating eyes, and said, "You came ashore on purpose with this kind of gossip tabloid article just to embarrass me?"

Ye Zhiming smiled and said, "Actually, this angle is very unique. You are running out of ideas. You can't really create new works, right?"

Zhai Yuan sneered, "Yes, Jiuyi Entertainment is about to close down. I plan to live on gigolo money in the future. Ye Yuqing said she would steal his boss's money to support me."

"Pick!" Ye Zhiming raised his middle finger to Zhai Yuan and said, "Let's get to the point. The con man I sent to Yuen Long to help you didn't do well. You'll have to wait a while if you want to take over the land in Wan Village."

Zhai Yuan frowned and said, "You claim to be the King of Kings, but you don't even have this little bit of ability?"

If his identity wasn't too conspicuous and he wasn't afraid of being recognized and alerting the enemy, Zhai Yuan wouldn't have asked Ye Zhiming to help him find the con man and go to Xiawan Village.

He asked Ye Zhiming: "Tell me what's going on now."

Ye Zhiming quickly recounted how Hong Bin had set up the trap and how Zhai Xiaosheng had refused to fall into it.

After Ye Zhiming finished speaking, he curiously asked Zhai Yuan: "What exactly do you want to do by doing so many things? You are not really planning to develop a real estate business in the countryside, are you?"

Zhai Yuan shook his head and explained directly without hiding anything from him, "I've set up a factory that makes CDs. I'll soon be building an assembly line, and by then I'll need at least tens of thousands of square meters of land. But I don't want to pay for it right now, but I want the land. The village representative of Xiawan Village is my uncle, and I think he'll fully support me."

Ye Zhiming looked at him in confusion: "Uncle, your father's brother?"

Zhai Yuan smiled and nodded.

Ye Zhiming asked again: "Any grudge?"

Zhai Yuan continued to nod.

Seeing that he didn't intend to say more, Ye Zhiming stopped asking for more details. He stared at Zhai Yuan for a while and grinned.

"Yes, you have the demeanor to accomplish great things."

With Zhai Yuan's current strength, if he simply wanted to seek revenge on Zhai Xiaosheng, he could just find a few Vietnamese guys to kidnap him and throw him into the high seas to feed the fish. That would be a clean and efficient process.

But he obviously didn't want to get rid of the other party so easily. He even wanted to take over the entire Xiawan Village. His style of doing things was very much in line with the appetite of a businessman like Ye Zhiming.

Doing business is about maximizing profits.

"If you just want to get the land, I would advise you to find someone else. The village representative of Tai Sang Wai is stupid. It will be much easier to deal with him than your uncle."

Ye Zhiming stroked his chin and said, "But since you have other plans, I can only ask Hong Bin to cooperate as much as possible. I can't help much else."

Zhai Yuan smiled and said, "Don't bother. Just ask that old con man named Hong Bin to come see me. Bring all the information I have collected and I will tell him what to do next."

Ye Zhiming nodded and did not bother to ask Zhai Yuan how to turn the agricultural land in Xiawan Village into industrial land for building factories.

If he can get tens of thousands of square meters of land without getting into trouble, these subsequent qualification procedures will not be a problem and there will be plenty of room for operation.

"Recently, there is a new gambling ship on the high seas. The boss behind it is the grain and oil magnate of Singapore. I estimate that there will be another gambling ship war on the high seas this year, with more and more people joining in to share this pie. So you need to speed up the production of God of Gamblers 2, give more shots to Natural Selection, and continue to increase its popularity, so that you can compete in the next gambling ship competition."

Before Ye Zhiming left, he briefly spoke to Zhai Yuan about the current situation on the high seas.

Zhai Yuan was not surprised at all to see gambling ships following suit appear on the high seas.

Half a year has passed since the Natural Selection set sail last year. The gambling ship has demonstrated its terrifying ability to make money, ranging from millions to tens of millions every day. It would be strange if no competitors emerged.

"After all, gambling boats are an industry with no barriers to entry. You can only earn an initial bonus, and then anyone can follow suit and share a thin slice of the pie."

After sending Ye Zhiming out the door, Zhai Yuan was thinking about the development of the Natural Selection.

Once the vacuum period of monopoly is over, it won’t be long before the company enters the stage of competing for customers with others.

We must hurry up to develop CDs and VCDs and establish a technological monopoly!

Half an hour later.

Hong Bin appeared in Zhai Yuan's office.

He did not show any of the arrogance he had when he played the role of a Malaysian Datuk in front of Zhai Xiaosheng. He smiled respectfully at Zhai Yuan and said, "Mr. Zhai, Boss Ye asked me to follow your instructions from now on. What should I do next?"

…………

After the news of "Mr. Zombie" buying out the copyright of the novel fermented on a small scale, the publicity and promotion department of Jiuyi Entertainment began to secretly exert its efforts to continue to hype the incident into a news topic.

Shi Nansheng, the company's spokesperson, was interviewed by reporters downstairs at Jiuyi Building. "Ms. Shi, is Jiuyi Entertainment's acquisition of 'Mr. Vampire' a move to explore new genres?"

"91 Entertainment has signed director Liu Zhenwei. Will the new film be like his previous film, The Murderer, which uses horror and thriller as a selling point?"

"Mr. Zhai Yuan has not appeared in public for a long time. Could you please tell us about the development direction of Jiuyi Entertainment this year?"

Facing the reporters' cameras and cannons, Shi Nansheng answered them one by one with a smile on his face.

"Mr. Zombie is an unfinished short story. If you have read the original work, you will know that this novel has only drafted an opening. In fact, Mr. Zhai had already created a completely different story from the original work last year, but he really liked the name Mr. Zhai. People who know Mr. Zhai know that he has always been a creator who attaches great importance to copyright. This time, it is better to say that he spent money to buy out the novel than to buy out the four-character title of the film."

Shi Nansheng spoke freely in front of the camera, establishing Zhai Yuan's character before getting down to business: "As for confidentiality, I can't reveal much about Mr. Vampire at the moment, but it's definitely not a simple horror film. I have to find references and benchmarks. I think it fits more closely into the category of a fantasy kung fu film."

"A fantasy Kung Fu movie? Is it imitating Hong Xinbao's previous "Ghost Fighting Ghost" series?"

"Who will be the main character in this movie? Will he be a vampire zombie?"

"It seems that Jiuyi does not have its own martial arts team. Now that it has entered the field of kung fu films, has it already started cooperation with the four major troupes?"

…………

In a luxury mansion facing the sea in Kowloon Tong.

The creative team including Hong Xinbao and Liu Guanwei were watching the reporter interviewing Shi Nansheng on TV.

When people heard that Jiuyi Entertainment was preparing to shoot the supernatural kung fu film "Mr. Vampire", many of them set their sights on Liu Guanwei.

Yuan Kui asked, "Didn't you discuss with Huang Ying before that you wanted to film his story?"

Liu Guanwei said helplessly, "Huang Ying, the punk, was blinded by money and sold the beginning of the novel for 10,000 yuan. I am asking Situ and Huang Bingyao to help me come up with a new story and then show it to Big Brother."

"Don't worry, crashing into a bridge is normal. Jiahe and I have already discussed it. This time, we will provide you with a starting fund of 3 million for filming. Take your time."

Hong Xinbao comforted Liu Guanwei and then laughed, "But it's unexpected that Jiuyi would make a fantasy Kung Fu movie. I don't even dare to make a new genre that I created. They don't even have a martial arts team, but they follow the trend. Young people are young people after all."

Shi Nansheng's simple words "a supernatural kung fu film" made the founder of the genre feel proud, but at the same time he had already begun to criticize the new film in his heart.

Ultimately, supernatural kung fu films are still too niche and cannot even constitute a separate genre. This can be seen from the box office trends of the "Ghost in the Shell" series.

The path of fighting and comedy is too narrow, and the elements it can accommodate are limited, which can easily cause aesthetic fatigue to the audience.

On TV, Shi Nansheng's voice continued to be heard: "Although Jiuyi currently does not have its own martial arts team, we have already contacted the Yuan family of the Big Four, hoping to start cooperation. In addition, the company will launch two kung fu movies this year, one of which is based on Huang Feihong, and the other is a fashion kung fu movie. Mr. Zhai hopes to create a different type from the past and use an all-female team of action stars to expand the market..."

Huang Feihong did not bring any reaction to the people in front of the TV.

But when the all-female action star said this, all eyes that were looking at Liu Guanwei the previous second were focused on Yuan Kui's face.

Just recently, Yuan Kui just proposed this idea at the end-of-year party, and Zeng Zhiwei also named his new film "Royal Sister".

The main martial arts directors, including Hong Xinbao, looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Brother, were there people from 91 Entertainment present at our last gathering?"

…………

The two consecutive bridge crashes could no longer be attributed to coincidence, and the Hong Clan was inexplicably stuck in the hunt for a traitor.

Zhai Yuan, who was far away in Ngau Tau Kok, was still unaware of all this.

Xu Qi, along with Jet Li, has gone to discuss action design matters with several martial artists from the Yuan Clan.

Shi Nansheng invited two women from Zhao's family.

One is the female action star Kara Hui, the winner of the first Academy Award.

The appearance of another person made Zhai Yuan's eyes light up.

"Hello Mr. Zhai, my name is Yang Qingqing. I once trained in the Guangfu Wushu Team and won the mainland Wushu age group championship. I have previously acted in several movies, including "Hong Wending Defeats the White Lotus Sect Three Times", "Dragon and Tiger Young Master", and "Shaolin and Wudang". Currently, I mainly serve as a stunt double in movies."

Yang Qingqing, who was only 25 years old at the time, had only played a few small roles in Zhao's films and spent most of his time working as a martial artist.

Compared to the film queen Kara Hui who has seen big scenes, Yang Qingqing inevitably showed some embarrassment and nervousness when facing Zhai Yuan.

He quickly repeated his resume to Zhai Yuan as if reporting his work.

Yang Qingqing looked at Zhai Yuan with some anticipation, hoping to get the job of martial arts instructor.

"I know you, Dugu Feng from "Heavenly Silkworm Transformation."

Zhai Yuan noticed Yang Qingqing's reservedness and nodded at her with a smile.

In fact, what we know about her on the screen is more from the later movie "God of Gamblers" directed by Stephen Chow, in which Yang Qingqing played the supporting role Xiaojing.

Although this woman is not very famous on the big screen, she has a considerable influence in the history of Hong Kong films.

The first female martial arts instructor in Hong Kong film history, she was later known as the world's number one female martial arts director!
When a female martial arts director was urgently needed to choreograph the action, Zhai Yuan valued Yang Qingqing more than the film queen Kara Hui.

It is worth mentioning that both of them are Liu Jialiang’s apprentices. Although Zhai Yuan’s "Huang Feihong" did not intersect with him, he still established a connection through his two female apprentices.

"Sister Nan, I have a list of actresses here. Could you please invite these actresses to the company for an interview?"

After securing a martial arts instructor, Zhai Yuan wasted no time and quickly put the plan of filming "Police Story" on the agenda. Huang Boming's "Happy Ghost" had already made a name for himself with its all-female cast, and although Yang Ziqiong was missing, they still had to speed up the process to seize the female action market.

Shi Nansheng took the list and glanced at it briefly, then asked with a smile, "Boss, are you choosing actors or concubines?"

Shi Nansheng was most impressed by the first female star on the list, who was Ruolan Moon Lee, the second female lead in Xu Kui's money-losing blockbuster "New Shushan Swordsman".

Looking further down, the names of the captain of the female team, Hu Huizhong, who just finished starring in "Summer Lucky Stars", and her team member, Annie Bai, are listed side by side.

The last female star is Ah Zhen, who is Li Lizhen, who has to wait for the peaches to ripen if she wants to eat fresh peaches.

(End of this chapter)