Chapter 897: Mutual Appreciation, Silent Support

Lu Yan He has already prepared no fewer than five movie scripts for Yan Liang, all written and saved on his computer.

Those are scripts that neither he nor Li Zhibai could play.

Of course, this doesn't mean these scripts couldn't be played by others, but they are definitely reserved for Yan Liang first.

Besides Yan Liang, who else would start learning martial arts just because Lu Yan He said, "You can try action movies in the future"?

At the time, in order to accumulate experience in filming action movies, he was even willing to play a supporting role in *Dragon Inn*.

These scripts of Lu Yan He's are definitely reserved for him first.

Of course, Lu Yan He has also prepared scripts for Li Zhibai.

A single tree cannot make a forest.

In Hollywood, Lu Yan He can now be considered to have gained a firm foothold, with one foot already inside the core circle of Hollywood.

Yan Liang is somewhat well-known thanks to a few films like *Flypaper*, and is waiting for *Speed of Life and Death* to be released, gathering momentum.

As for Li Zhibai, he made a name for himself with *Buried*, but his subsequent films, while receiving attention, have not yet become a significant force; to truly become a force, he still needs one or two works with explosive global box office results.

To be honest, Lu Yan He has never thought about "planning" the so-called acting careers of Wen Shengming, Jiang Jun, Chen Bige, and the others.

Although they are also very close friends, it is ultimately different.

Lu Yan He also doesn't feel he has the qualifications to help them "plan" their careers. They are all very mature actors who have been working hard in this industry for many years.

Even if Jiang Jun wasn't famous before *Squid Game*, he still held the title of "uncrowned king" within the industry.

For Lu Yan He, it has always been about reserving suitable roles for them after a project comes up.

Even without Lu Yan He, they would have long since achieved their own results and honors in this industry.

It's not that Li Zhibai and Yan Liang are dependent on Lu Yan He.

That's not what it means.

However, Li Zhibai and Yan Liang are different.

In Lu Yan He's heart, he carries the career development of these two people on his own shoulders.

For them—he unconditionally hopes they will be better. This kind of friendship is truly unique to just the two of them. People who meet when they are at their lowest are always different; the order in which people appear in one's life is too important.

After the *Men in Black* series, Lu Yan He's second major production series in Hollywood is *The Matrix*.

This film series is reserved by Lu Yan He for Yan Liang.

He hasn't told anyone about this yet, including Yan Liang himself.

Because only after *Men in Black* achieves success can starting this series allow him to secure better conditions for both himself and Yan Liang.

Lu Yan He firmly believes that *Men in Black* will definitely succeed, and will definitely achieve the same success as it did in the parallel universe.

When Yan Liang wrapped up and left the crew, Lu Yan He also took leave and returned to the country with Yan Liang.

This vacation had been requested long ago.

*The Boat* is being released in the domestic Qingming Festival slot, and Lu Yan He needs to rush back to participate in several promotional activities.

This is his responsibility as a lead actor.

This film did not adopt the promotional style of a blockbuster, but instead took the "art film" route.

The film had already started a small-scale preview mode at the end of March—

Including campus tours.

This time it wasn't suggested by Lu Yan He, but proposed by Yu Mengling. As the initiator of this film project, Yu Mengling clearly has a sharp judgment for this film.

Although the film could also use such a cast to do blockbuster-style promotion, touting a top-tier cast, and relying on the first day or two to harvest pre-sale box office, it could absolutely sell hundreds of millions in box office during the pre-sale and the first few days of release—

However, doing so would absolutely destroy the film's word-of-mouth among the audience.

Because art films must face a realistic situation: their threshold for viewing is high, and for most audiences who walk into a cinema just looking for "sensory stimulation," it cannot meet their threshold.

Yu Mengling did not shy away from the obscurity of the film's theme, the slow pace, or the artistic nature of the overall style during the promotional phase. Doing so would undoubtedly make many viewers hesitate and choose not to watch this film with a "very top-tier" cast, but it would also filter out many "non-target audiences," thereby preserving the film's own reputation in the public opinion sphere.

Many films are actually of decent quality, but collapse miserably during the release phase; often, it's because major problems occurred during the promotional phase.

Currently, most domestic films have this problem.

It's not that they aren't aware of it, but they don't dare to give up the "instant box office" brought by "false promotion" or "misaligned promotion."

Although it will collapse, if they don't do it, maybe they won't even have "instant box office."

Lu Yan He's return to the country mainly involves four itineraries.

The first itinerary is interviews with eight media outlets—

This itinerary is spread across various tasks over two days in the country.

For a top-tier artist of Lu Yan He's level, generally speaking, the interview time reserved for the media is fifteen to thirty minutes.

But Lu Yan He reserved about an hour for each media outlet.

In Lu Yan He's heart, if the time is not enough, what comes out of the interview is only "superficial."

"Superficial" things can only gain exposure, but cannot convert that exposure into the driving force for everyone to watch this film.

In fact, why is Lu Yan He's public image so good?

Is it just because he himself is good? Celebrity artists aren't all monsters; many people are only reported on in-depth after they reach old age or pass away, and the public discovers, "Oh, so he/she was such a good person."

Why did no one know before? Is it because they weren't famous enough? Perhaps there are various reasons, but it absolutely cannot bypass the media link. The media rarely has the opportunity to interview, or rarely has the opportunity to understand such things, or perhaps lacks the resources to tell these stories to the point of being "known to everyone."

The relationship between Lu Yan He's team and the media is absolutely second to none in the domestic entertainment industry.

Artists like Lu Yan He, who consistently accept that if the interview time is insufficient to complete a draft, they can continue to schedule phone follow-up interviews or in-person follow-up interviews, are few and far between.

Even Li Zhibai and Yan Liang can almost never do this. This is not their problem; it is a combination of various reasons. The artists' own schedules are very busy, and they don't have such time. Plus, sometimes, people are bullied for being kind, and the media aren't all good—some media will also take advantage of an artist's cooperation and good nature to push their luck. Lu Yan He can release goodwill 100% because even if he releases goodwill, no one dares to push their luck; he entered the ranks of capital and producers early on, while Li Zhibai and Yan Liang cannot.

Being a bit more "difficult" yourself makes others "dare not mess with you" as much.

But the final result presented is that the domestic media's evaluation of Lu Yan He definitely has the highest average value.

Basically, there will be no large-scale negative attacks on Lu Yan He at the media level—

Unless black PR is bought.

However, on the other hand, it is actually not easy for the media to get an exclusive interview opportunity with Lu Yan He now.

Eight media outlets.

It looks like there are eight at once.

In reality, three of them are traditional print media, one is a podcast program hosted by a host, two are very popular self-media accounts, and the other two, one is his own *Jump Up*, and the other is Ye Mai Net.

They are all different types.

To get an exclusive interview opportunity, they have to "compete for the draft" in advance.

Lu Yan He's team will send a questionnaire to the media who want an exclusive interview, including "What aspects of Lu Yan He do you most want to understand this time?" "If you only have three opportunities to ask questions about the film *The Boat*, what would you ask Lu Yan He?" etc.

The team and Lu Yan He himself then select eight media outlets based on this information.

By doing this, they can avoid answering repetitive questions as much as possible during the concentrated interview period, ensuring the uniqueness and readability of the interview content.

In addition to media interviews, Lu Yan He will return to Zhenhua University with the *The Boat* crew to hold a youth forum—

Lu Yan He hasn't been back for a long time.

His alma mater.

They will have a dialogue with the teachers of the Wenxue Academy.

In addition, there is the interview program on the Movie Channel.

Finally, there is a film screening ceremony.

Everyone is dressed up to attend.

Friends in the industry, media, etc...

Lu Yan He only has two days to do so many things.

But to build momentum for the release of *The Boat*, this must be done.

The box office pre-sales for *The Boat* have so far been consistently lower than another suspense-crime type film.

The latter stars Liu Zefan, along with other movie stars.

Nowadays, Liu Zefan's popularity is very high and he has many fans, but this is not the main reason for the high pre-sales of this film.

The most important thing is that after the trailer came out, the film's "counter-kill" theme attracted the attention of many audiences of this type, who are very much looking forward to this film.

Lu Yan He was also asked this question in an interview with a self-media outlet.

Lu Yan He said: "We must accept one thing: most audiences walk into a cinema not to see a specific actor. We actors must accept this, and everyone else must accept it too. Everyone should not simultaneously crave the need for a movie story while pinning the number of moviegoers on who the actor is."

"Liu Zefan has collaborated with you many times in recent years. Will this affect the relationship between you?"

Lu Yan He laughed uncontrollably.

"What do you think?"

Lu Yan He finally said very seriously: "I sincerely hope that everyone who works seriously can get good results. In the future, if one day Liu Zefan acts in an art film, he can get recognition from the critics; if I act in a commercial film, I can also get feedback at the box office. We are all practitioners in this industry. Practitioners don't just have a competitive relationship; cooperation is also a relationship. Even, whether it's competition or cooperation, it doesn't affect the mutual appreciation and silent support between excellent creators."

When the interview draft came out, Liu Zefan forwarded this draft without saying a word.

Everything that needed to be said was already in Lu Yan He's draft. ===== CHAPTER 898 =====