Huayu: When the director changed his major

Chapter 356 Double Ice Cooperation
a few days later.

No. 77, Sheshan Manor, Haidian District.

The 26 billion celebration banquet for "The Mermaid" was in full swing in the villa area.

Li Wentao, Zeng Xiongjie, Deng Jie and others represented Cheng Xi and welcomed the guests at the door.

Cheng Xi was in the villa's living room, chatting and laughing with Stephen Chow and others.

Stephen Chow: "Director Cheng, I heard that your next movie is going to be "Detective Chinatown 2". I also like the first movie. I will support you when the movie is released."

Cheng Xi: "Thank you, Mr. Xing. When your Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back is released, I will also go to support it!"

After they finished talking, they looked at each other and smiled.

"I'm just the producer and screenwriter for Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back. To be honest, what I'm most looking forward to is when 'The Mermaid' can film a 2nd season, and we can collaborate with Zuibai Entertainment again!"

Stephen Chow has worked with so many people and he is very satisfied with Cheng Xi.

Be generous and don't meddle in other people's affairs.

Even when I encounter a creative bottleneck, I can still come up with feasible ideas, so that I don’t feel isolated and helpless when making a movie.

Every time he shoots a movie, it is basically his partners who consume his fame. This time, he also relied on Zuibai's fame to shoot the movie.

He even got to indulge in his long-lost desire to be an actor, which helped him overcome his psychological barriers.

In fact, I still love acting.

Moreover, Stephen Chow also knows his own personality. He has a bad temper on the set, and being with Cheng Xi is just right for him.

One sings the red face, the other sings the white face.

If he hadn't organized the event, I wouldn't have been able to bring myself to work with Uncle Da again.

In fact, there is not much disagreement between the two. It is simply that their status is different and they communicate less.

After filming together again this time, the relationship between the two has eased a little.

Of course, the most important thing is to make a lot of money and make it steadily.

This, more than anything else.

"Even if Stephen Chow doesn't tell me, I will still approach him when I start The Mermaid 2. If I don't continue developing such a great project and IP, I'll be going against the money."

"More importantly, the audience doesn't agree."

After that, the atmosphere in the living room became more harmonious.

Li Yitong took the opportunity to add tea for the two of them.

"Master Xing, who did you cast as the lead actor in 'The Demons Strike Back' this time? Is it Wen Zhang again?"

When Mr. Xing heard this, he hesitated for a moment and said:

"I really like the actor Wen Zhang, but he had some problems. He's okay as a supporting role, but he's not suitable for the lead role anymore."

Indeed, investors would not agree to use a controversial actor as the protagonist in such a large project.

"To be honest with you, this time, Neilu is mainly cooperating with China Film Huayi, so they pushed the new generation actor Wu Yifan to play the leading role."

"However, if Director Cheng is interested in participating, I can definitely arrange some good roles for Zuibai Entertainment."

Stephen Chow asked this because he thought Cheng Xi was interested in the role in this film.

He probably also heard that there were some frictions between Zuibai Entertainment and Huayi, and that they had less cooperation.

But if there really is a need for one or two roles, Stephen Chow would definitely be willing to arrange them, because in this industry, it’s all about exchanging resources.

Zuibai Entertainment has much more resources than me.

Cheng Xi knew that this movie had good box office performance, but since Huayi was the main investor, there was no need for him to contribute.

You should know that Li Wentao has already found a professional trading team and only needs to wait for a market opportunity to liquidate Huayi's stocks.

It is better not to stick to it at this time.

Besides, this movie is starred by Wu Yifan, but he won’t be able to make any money from the follow-up.

"That's not good. The actors have already been confirmed. How can we make it difficult for Stephen Chow? But we can keep in touch if there are any projects in the future."

Stephen Chow has not signed any gambling agreement yet, and he is still quite serious about making movies.

Unlike the later "The New King of Comedy", which really ruined the classic.

It’s not that the quality of this movie is very poor. Compared with ordinary comedies, there are definitely many parts that can make people think and laugh.

But compared with Stephen Chow and Bai Zhi's "The King of Comedy", there is indeed a world of difference.

They continued chatting for a while, and Deng Jie knocked on the door and came in:

"Boss, Mr. Xing, the guests are almost here. Mr. Sanye from China Film Group and Wang Zhongjun from Huayi will be here soon."

Cheng Xi raised his hand and looked at the time. It was exactly 7 o'clock, so he said to Xing Ye:
"Master Xing, it's almost time, let's go greet the guests together!"

"Okay, Director Cheng."

As soon as they came out of the reception room, the guests in the villa's living room were attracted by Cheng Xi and Stephen Chow.

They all came over here and greeted the two great directors.

"Director Cheng!"

"Master Xing!"

"congratulations!"

"Thank you everyone! Thank you for your support!"

Cheng Xi glanced to both sides and clearly found that there were more people and higher-profile guests at this celebration banquet.

Many artists and industry insiders who were able to get in before can no longer do so.

They are either top artists, important figures in various entertainment companies, or Zuibai’s own people.

Artists such as Fan Binbin, Li Binbin, Wang Baoqiang, Yang Mi, Zhou Xun, Huang Xiaoming, Hu Ge, Liu Yifei, and Zhu Zhu all came to support the event.

Noon Sunshine, Guangguang, Tangren, TELEVISION, etc., as well as major cooperating TV stations also sent people to participate.

Except for those who had special occasions, all the artists from the Zuibai group came back to attend the celebration banquet.

Reba, Nazha, Zhang Tianai, Jin Chen, Zhou Ye, Tian Xiwei, Cheng Xiao and others were all present.

This is a movie with a box office of 26 billion, the first movie in China to break the 20 billion box office mark, and a celebration banquet for the box office champion of Chinese movies.

Regardless of whether people in the circle are familiar with Zuibai Entertainment or not, they all want to get close to Cheng Xi and Star Master.

See if there are any opportunities for cooperation.

Especially recently, Zuibai Entertainment is preparing for many film and television dramas, which makes everyone excited.

Of course, because of Stephen Chow, many Hong Kong artists and directors also came.

Tsui Hark, Andy Lau, Louis Koo, Karen Mok, Peter Chan, etc. are also well-known figures in the entertainment industry.

"The Mermaid" was also released simultaneously in Hong Kong and achieved the second best box office result.

I believe that this box office of 26 billion really shocked Hong Kong, which is just a small city.

The golden age of Hong Kong films is truly gone forever.

The highest-grossing comedy of 2014, "Golden Chicken SSS," starring Sandra Ng, Nick Cheung, and Louis Koo, had Sandra Ng playing a prostitute and only grossed HK$4130 million.

It’s less than one-fifth of the daily box office of “The Mermaid.”

You can imagine how disillusioned Hong Kong filmmakers are now.

There is no choice but to go north.

The current situation in the mainland is either Huayi China Film or Zuibai Entertainment on Cheng Xi's side.

So many people took the initiative to express to Stephen Chow and Cheng Xi that they wanted to attend the celebration banquet.

Moreover, Cheng Xi has already established a new video website, which is operating well.

For the industry, this is another level of identity change, Cheng Xi has changed from Party B to Party A.

After hearing everyone's congratulations, Cheng Xi looked at the people on both sides and nodded slowly.

It was only a distance of more than ten meters, but Cheng Xi and Xing Ye took almost five minutes to walk.

At this time, Han Sanping and Wang Zhongjun also arrived at the door.

Cheng Xi first extended his hand to shake hands with Han Sanping, and then shook hands with Wang Zhongjun.

"Thank you, Brother and Mr. Wang, for coming."

Han Sanping of China Film Group delayed his retirement for a few years due to his outstanding performance in recent years. However, Huayi Film Group has not had a good time lately.

The movie box office was a flop, but Cheng Xi took over several of the more successful projects.

Apart from the fact that the stock price is still in a bull market, the business is indeed not going well.

Fortunately, they managed to come up with "Old Cannon", which attracted a lot of attention.

Han San commented: "Congratulations, Junior Brother. Ever since "Life Events", I knew you would become a leading director of the new generation in China."

Wang Zhongjun: "Congratulations, Director Cheng! You've made great strides. No one can match you at the box office now."

Cheng Xi naturally showed his gratitude to the two seniors.

Then the two of them congratulated Stephen Chow and exchanged greetings at the door.

Most of the guests are already in place, so it’s time to start the first activity of the celebration banquet – smashing ice sculptures.

At this time, the staff brought the opened red wine to Cheng Xi and the others.

Cheng Xi, Stephen Chow, Han Sanping, Li Wentao and Li Yitong represent the main creators and investors respectively.

Pour all the red wine on the celebratory ice sculpture of "2600000000".

The dark red liquid flows on the translucent ice sculpture, symbolizing prosperity and longevity.

Then Cheng Xi and his group picked up hammers, and at the host's command of "321", they shouted and laughed as they smashed the ice sculpture together.

For a moment, there was warm applause all around.

The difference between this celebration banquet and previous ones is that because there are many important guests attending, no journalists were invited for privacy reasons.

It can be considered a closed-door party.

Looking at the guests present, it was even more star-studded than some heavyweight award ceremonies.

After knocking on the ice sculpture, Cheng Xi took the red wine handed to him by the staff and signaled everyone to toast together.

Then, as usual, Cheng Xi and Stephen Chow each gave a few words of welcome and thanks.

After a few brief words, everyone started their own social activities.

The beautiful actresses also flit around like butterflies.

And Cheng Xi is the most popular one.

But now you definitely have to queue up to talk to Cheng Xi, and basically everyone comes one by one according to their status.

Cheng Xi first chatted with Stephen Chow and several other CEOs about some romantic matters and some subsequent film projects, and exchanged some resources.

Of course, we just set the tone and let the people below discuss the specific follow-up.

Then Cheng Xi followed Stephen Chow and Han Sanping to get to know the artists and directors in Hong Kong.

Andy Lau, Louis Koo, Karen Mok, Tsui Hark.
We had met each other more or less before, but we had never had an in-depth conversation or collaborated.

"Director Cheng, please collaborate more with our Hong Kong artists in the future."

"Of course. I've always been a fan of directors like Xiang Jiang. I can say I grew up watching their films."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone laughed.

While communicating with them, Cheng Xi also lamented the gap between Hong Kong actors and directors.

The people who come out to support the scene now are still the same people as before, including Uncle Long, Stephen Chow, Andy Lau and others.

The younger generation has basically no iconic figures.

It can be seen that Mr. Chen’s Yanzhao Sect has a destructive effect on the ecology of Hong Kong.

Thinking of this, Cheng Xi couldn't help but think of the videos he had shot. If they were all exposed, these top female stars would probably be exposed one by one.

Will Zuibai Entertainment also collapse?

At that time, the happiest people will probably be the Huayi brothers.

Thinking of this, Cheng Xi looked in the direction of Wang Zhongjun, and a smile appeared on his face.

While they were chatting, Fan Binbin and Li Binbin came to find Cheng Xi again.

Li Binbin: "Director Cheng, you said you'd look for me last time, why haven't you kept your promise yet? I've been saving my schedule for you."

If Cheng Xi believed this, he wouldn't have to stay in the entertainment industry.

Fan Binbin: "Of course he doesn't want you. He likes young people like me. By the way, I'm going to join the cast of "Detective Chinatown 2" again."

Well, we pinched each other twice again.

However, this time Cheng Xi really wants to invite Li Binbin to join the cast of "Detective Chinatown 2".

Because among the current Chinese actresses, Li Binbin is one of the more famous ones.

Their previous collaboration on "Transformers 4" and later collaboration with Jess Statham on "The Meg" are both clear evidence.

Li Binbin: "I heard that the female lead became a supporting actress. I think Director Cheng gave him face."

Fan Binbin: "Then you don't even have a female supporting role."

Cheng Xi held his forehead, clinked glasses with the two of them, and said:

"My two sisters Binbin, if you really want to fight like this, why not come to my new play and let the audience across the country come and see it."

When Fan Binbin heard this, he was a little confused and said "Huh?"

Li Binbin said excitedly:

"Director Cheng, you said it first, you can't go back on your word!"

Cheng Xi nodded and said to Li Binbin:
"Sister Binbin, I know you have some resources in the United States. The main filming location for my movie this time is New York, and I'll need you to show me the way."

Cheng Xi did have such an idea.

One is that it is easier to get things done if you have acquaintances.

The second one is the combination of two ice players, which is also a big gimmick in the country.

This film is going to be released in North America, so it needs some actors that are familiar to North American audiences.

Subsequent casting will also tend to this point.

Of course, the role is about the same as Fan Binbin's, each lasting two minutes.

It would be best to find a way to arrange a rivalry between the two, which would be even more exciting.

As for the other important characters, Cheng Xi already has a rough idea in mind.

When Fan Binbin heard this, he felt a little uneasy:
You are so good, Cheng Xi. I played with you for such a long time last time, but you actually gave the heroine to this woman.

Why, you played with her too?
Thinking of this, Fan Binbin's eyes couldn't help but look back and forth between the two of them, trying to catch any clues.

She subconsciously thought that Cheng Xi was going to give the female lead to Li Binbin.

So he slowly approached Cheng Xi and twisted Cheng Xi's arm hard with his hand.

Cheng Xi suddenly felt pain and his eyes widened.

Li Binbin is also a veteran in social occasions and immediately saw the clues.

"Why, Director Cheng, I always knew you were a talented and romantic man, but I didn't expect your family education to be so strict."

"But it's no use being strict. After all, she can't help you with your career. If Director Cheng comes to New York this time, I will definitely work with our crew."

Wow, Li Binbin came directly to our crew.

The pattern opens.

When Cheng Xi saw this, he guessed that they had misunderstood.

So he said:

"Uh, Sister Binbin, your roles are similar, and you only have about two minutes of screen time each, but I believe you will definitely leave a deep impression on the audience."

"How about it, Sister Binbin, are you willing to join?"

Before Li Binbin could speak, Fan Binbin spoke first:
"I disagree."

When Li Binbin saw Fan Binbin's anxious and angry look, she felt as if she had won a game. She originally wanted to think about it.

Suddenly, she smiled, as if deliberately saying it to Fan Binbin:

"Director Cheng, I do."

(End of this chapter)