Chapter 958

"Ma Zhiyuan."

Zhou Ping'an looked at him quietly and calmly.

"Regardless of what you do next, I advise you: given the current situation, you'd better think calmly about what you have in your hands and what you are facing. The experiences of the past few years should have made you understand that going crazy and giving up on yourself will only make your situation worse.

"I am willing to maintain a stance of not getting involved, firstly because I am your agent and I won't let my reputation be affected—this is also my professional ethics—and secondly because you are still making money for the company. Even though you are being smeared badly, it doesn't affect your ability to continue making money. For this alone, you should thank me for my tolerance.

"Next, if you want to find me, make an appointment with my assistant first. My time is very precious and I cannot handle your emotional problems over and over again. If you can be a little smarter, you should honestly maintain the posture of standing at attention and taking the beating. Let everyone scold you for a few years; when they get tired of scolding, and you are still here, perhaps the situation can turn around."

Zhou Ping'an's eyes gradually became cold.

Ma Zhiyuan's heart sank along with them—

He rarely had such a feeling.

Rarely.

The National Day slot came to a grand and vigorous end amidst the online crusade against Ma Zhiyuan.

"Scumbag, Stay Away From Me!" took in 314 million at the box office, becoming a true dark horse.

"Corpse Image 2", starring Li Yuefeng, although not as talked about as "Scumbag", also managed to take in nearly 200 million at the box office, thanks to the accumulation of the previous work and good word-of-mouth for this one.

Judging from the box office trend, the long-term performance of "Corpse Image 2" should be better than "Scumbag".

However, it's hard to say who will have the higher total box office in the end.

A gap of 100 million is quite large for the scale of these two films.

Nevertheless, Li Yuefeng was already satisfied.

The film he starred in didn't flop. Linghe, as usual, issued a battle report at the end of the National Day slot, celebrating the box office success of "Corpse Image 2"; the film achieved profitability based solely on its National Day box office results.

Li Yuefeng especially likes working with Linghe. Besides their excellent project quality control, there is actually a very key reason: Linghe never falsely reports costs or exaggerates production, nor do they have to hide real production expenses to deceive investors and then be afraid to admit they achieved profitability—

Some actors have starred in works with over 2 billion in box office, yet the production side still claims they are losing money.

In the media's eyes, it becomes the actor's fault.

"..."

On this point, Yu Jiang's company is the same.

The costs of every one of her films are controlled very low.

Therefore, although her films usually only make 100 to 200 million, and sometimes perform poorly, even only making tens of millions, they have all been profitable.

However, Yu Jiang rarely issues battle reports for her film works, and rarely promotes the fact that her films are profitable.

Including the film "Scumbag, Stay Away From Me!", when Yu Jiang accepted media interviews, she only said: "Hmm, the box office of this film indeed exceeded our expectations, and we are also considering whether to make a second one."

"Will Ma Zhiyuan return to star in it? Have you learned about the recent negative evaluations of Ma Zhiyuan on the internet?"

"I've seen them; it's impossible not to, given the heat," Yu Jiang smiled helplessly. "To be honest, my feelings are very complicated. When we were doing the 'Scumbag' project, we did indeed look for a long time among many male actors before finding Ma Zhiyuan. My cooperation with him was actually quite smooth, and I didn't encounter those problems mentioned online."

"So, do you think these accusations against Ma Zhiyuan on the internet are all fake?"

"How could they be? Didn't he apologize via livestream himself? Don't try to set a trap for me; I don't mean to clarify things for him. I'm just talking about the Ma Zhiyuan I know based on my own cooperation with him," Yu Jiang said. "People have different presentations at different stages, especially their psychology under certain specific situations, which can become distorted due to various reasons, such as jealousy. I myself have experienced similar situations, so I can only say that I am a more tolerant person than I used to be."

"Then will Ma Zhiyuan return for the second one?"

"We haven't entered the stage of discussing the cast yet." In other words, they are still waiting and seeing.

Yu Jiang's statement is also normal.

In the current situation, she cannot give a definite answer.

Yes—that would mean going against the entire public opinion trend.

No—it would make her look like she's burning bridges, after all, the box office success of "Scumbag" has a lot to do with Ma Zhiyuan.

And on the second day after Yu Jiang accepted this interview, it happened to be the day for the opening ceremony of "Summer Night Villa Thriller 2".

Originally, this film didn't even have an opening ceremony segment.

It was added at the last minute.

And the reason for adding this segment was to take advantage of the current attention to announce to everyone that Xu Qinyin will join "Summer Night Villa Thriller 2" and become the lead for the second installment.

Because communication with Chen Jing is still ongoing, the news that he is also participating will not be announced at this press conference.

When the film is released, it can serve as an Easter egg to surprise everyone.

Commercial genre films like "Summer Night Villa Thriller 2" also need some Easter eggs to stir up some topics.

Just like the version of "Spider-Man" starring Tom Holland, the return of Aunt May became a huge topic. In fact, that wasn't a very important matter for the film's content itself, but for fans of the Spider-Man IP, it clearly had significant meaning.

Lu Yan He attended the opening ceremony of "Summer Night Villa Thriller 2".

He said: "Like 'Corpse Image', 'Summer Night Villa Thriller' is a homegrown film IP, and also two original films launched by Linghe. It wasn't a script I wrote, nor was it an idea I provided; it was completely selected by Chen Yin from hundreds of silent scripts. Starting from a low budget, 'Corpse Image 2' just achieved very good box office results in the National Day slot, and now 'Summer Night Villa Thriller 2' is also about to start filming."

The media on site asked: "Previously, you @Wang Jing on Weibo, saying that a film called 'The Hunger Games' would have her as the lead. What is the situation with this film now?"

Lu Yan He replied: "It is currently in preparation. Because 'The Hunger Games' is a Hollywood film aimed at global release and is also a four-part series, the early preparation requires a lot of work. Please help us promote 'Summer Night Villa Thriller' more for now."

"What are your expectations for 'Summer Night Villa Thriller 2'?" The media immediately asked.

Lu Yan He said: "The first 'Summer Night Villa Thriller' achieved dark horse box office results. For the second one, rather than expectations for the box office, my expectations for it are more about word-of-mouth. I hope it can win the praise of the audience and allow this series to continue to be filmed. After all, there are so many villas in this world, right?"

"Your films have won Best Actor and Best Actress awards for many actors. Wang Jing has always been called a leader in acting among the younger generation. Do you think 'Summer Night Villa Thriller 2' can win her a Best Actress trophy?"

Lu Yan He turned his head and glanced at Wang Jing. Wang Jing gave him a helpless smile.

It seems she often encounters such questions.

Lu Yan He realized and said: "Winning an award requires the right time, the right place, and the right people. With Wang Jing's acting skills and strength, she doesn't need to rely on me or 'Summer Night Villa Thriller' to win an award. She is not an actor who must rely on a certain play to win an award. As long as the timing is right, she can win an award with any work, any character."

Wang Jing showed shock and surprise on the spot.

Lu Yan He's high evaluation made everyone present gasp in admiration.

However, there were also media outlets looking for trouble.

"What is your evaluation of Xu Qinyin? This time, she and Wang Jing are starring in this film together, and it is also Xu Qinyin's first time starring in a film again after several years. From what considerations does Linghe believe that she can still attract audiences to walk into the cinema?"

"Of course, it's the degree of fit with the character," Lu Yan He said. "Xu Qinyin almost collaborated with Li Zhibai before, and I noticed her then. She is a very remarkable woman and also an outstanding actress; these two points are beyond doubt. Therefore, regarding her, I think we don't need to always put her in various competitive contexts to discuss her. This is not fair to her. She is not like me, not like Wang Jing, who can devote themselves entirely to acting work at this stage. In fact, if we look back at Xu Qinyin's work over these years, who dares to say that they could do better than her in the same situation?"

Xu Qinyin's eyes turned red on the spot.

Wang Jing held her hand.

"In the future, our Linghe projects will not only do big male lead or big female lead projects, but also dual male leads, dual female leads, and even ensemble cast plays," Lu Yan He said. "Although I know everyone likes to see some leads fighting in a project—catfights are always very exciting—please believe me, most of the time, at least in my projects, most of the time, the actors are very outstanding. This excellence is also reflected in their character and personality. I will not compromise on other aspects of a collaborator just to pursue some traffic or some amazing acting strength. Whether it's acting like a diva or malicious competition, I don't like it. After so many years, everyone knows what I am like and what Linghe's projects are like."

As expected, the opening press conference for "Summer Night Villa Thriller 2" went very smoothly.

The media response was also very good.

It hit several trending searches, and public opinion monitoring showed that everyone's interest in this film is on an upward trend.

Linghe has already made plans for "Summer Night Villa Thriller" to be re-released on New Year's Eve this year.

The box office of the re-release is not the point; the point is that the leads of the first film will use this as a pretext to appear on the Yuehu Station New Year's Eve Gala to promote the sequel—

Even though the two young actors who were very popular in the first film—Zou Xuan and Jiang Ting—did not return for the sequel.

Because in the second one, except for the female lead played by Wang Jing, the others are all brand-new characters.

This year, both Zou Xuan and Jiang Ting passed the college entrance examination and were admitted to art universities.

Both of them also signed with Shihu and are Shihu's contracted artists.

However, according to Shihu's arrangements, they will basically not be given any acting roles during their freshman and sophomore years, but will be allowed to have time to study well at school and build a solid foundation.

Of course, popularity and exposure cannot just be watched as they disappear.

Becoming popular is not easy, and opportunities are fleeting.

Therefore, Shihu will arrange quite a few jobs like the New Year's Eve Gala.

Especially since, a year later, they can reunite as the creative team of "Summer Night Villa Thriller", which can make many audiences remember them again.

Furthermore, who knows if their characters will return for the third one in the future?

These are all uncertain things.

In October, Chen Yin came to find Lu Yan He.

"Lu Zong, which film are we arranging for the Spring Festival slot at the end of the year? Do you have any ideas?"

After the "Home Alone" series ended, Chen Yin had always hoped that there would be a film that could take over this slot.

However, Lu Yan He had not produced a script, and Chen Yin had no way to proceed.

And Linghe had no suitable inventory.

Lu Yan He said: "Forget it. If there really is no work for the Spring Festival slot, we won't release one this year. Why must we occupy this slot?"

Chen Yin said: "Because this is the most important slot of the year."

"What is the situation with the films on hand?" Lu Yan He asked. "Is there anything suitable to release?"

"'Speed of Life and Death' cannot be decided by us regarding the Chinese release date; it has to coordinate with the global release rhythm. 'Summer Night Villa Thriller 2' is not bad, but it just started filming, and the opening ceremony was so grand; even if we could finish post-production, it would give everyone the feeling of being shoddily made, which is an inherent disadvantage. 'The Fault in Our Stars', although it starts filming soon and can be edited, but during the New Year, should we watch a terminal illness film? 'Scarlet' and 'Teenager's Maturity Diary' are both ready for release, but these two are small-budget, small-scale films that cannot hold up the Spring Festival market."

Chen Yin was very depressed.

Logically speaking, Linghe's pace of filming over the years has not slowed down at all, yet when it comes to the Spring Festival slot, there are no films to release, which is simply a joke.

All of Lu Yan He's past film projects were aimed at Hollywood.

Although Linghe also participates in investment and production, it is impossible not to consider the overseas market.

"..." Lu Yan He looked at him speechlessly. "Are you trying to get me to write you a script right now, a film that can be filmed in a month and edited in a month?"

Chen Yin nodded immediately.

"Do you think this is realistic?"

Chen Yin nodded without hesitation.

"Don't you think this is a huge pain for me?"

Chen Yin said: "For Linghe, the Spring Festival slot is a place that must be contested."

"..."

Lu Yan He fell into hesitation and contemplation.