Chapter 150: Assistant Integration and the Trip to South Korea

"Boss, you say they held such a massive talent search, only to end up replacing the director. What are the investors thinking?"

Liu Yan scrolled through the news on her computer and asked with some confusion, turning a blind eye to the mischievous large hand; she was already used to it.

The *Dream of the Red Chamber* production crew, which had been in turmoil for many days, finally released news: the originally scheduled head director, Hu Mei, was confirmed to no longer be serving as the director of the new version of *Dream of the Red Chamber*.

"Hu Mei was a bit unappreciative. She thought that at this stage, her position was already secure and she could turn around and manipulate the investors. Naturally, there was no good ending for her."

Wei Jin actually felt it was quite normal. Hu Mei's personality was too rigid; she felt the people selected through the open auditions didn't fit the temperament, and she didn't look favorably upon the people the investors inserted. Wanting to do things entirely according to her own ideas—how could it be that simple? Since the director wouldn't listen, then just replace her. The one replacing her should be Li Shaohong from Rongxinda. It is estimated that the investors will continue to arrange their own people into the crew one after another. This is the standard operation in the entertainment industry; one can only say Hu Mei has wasted her time in the industry all these years.

"What about those artists who were selected? Haven't they been training for a long time? Wouldn't that be too unfair?"

The previous casting for *Dream of the Red Chamber* was done with great fanfare, requiring the selected artists to study poetry, songs, music, chess, calligraphy, and painting to cultivate a classical temperament. A significant amount of time had already passed, and now that this kind of thing had happened, it was unknown whether there would even be a show. Liu Yan felt it was a bit of a waste.

"They are all newcomers; just give them any role. Have you seen too little of this kind of operation in the circle?"

Hearing this, Liu Yan pondered for a moment and nodded.

What Wei Jin said was the truth. Many talent shows have such dark secrets. They rely on a group of people to attract heat first, with audiences going crazy calling for their favorite contestants, only to find out in the end that the ones selected are completely not what they expected.

"Don't just focus on the news; it's time to do some real work now."

It was a rare opportunity, and Wei Jin wanted to inject more capital into Liu Yan to ensure her cash flow was abundant.

"Boss, I'm not your Assistant anymore. You should go find Xiaobai, hee hee."

Liu Yan had also grasped Wei Jin's pulse; this man liked this style.

"I'm just afraid that certain people will hear the sound later and won't be able to resist joining in."

For the past few days, Wei Jin had been cultivating the rapport between the two women. The "Assistant Legion" was gradually taking shape, and he couldn't let Liu Yan slack off. He turned over and pressed her underneath him: "Xiaobai, come in quickly. How your Sister Liu Yan bullied you last night, now is the time to take revenge."

Bai Bin, who was preparing breakfast in the kitchen, heard this and quickly rushed to the battlefield, cooperating with Wei Jin to point at Liu Yan with a look of deep-seated bitterness.

Xiaobai could not forget how this senior sister before her had teased her last night, and her coordination with Wei Jin was what one would call seamless and flawless.

Before long, the sounds in the room wove together into a beautiful song—after the morning exercise, Wei Jin also lay on the bed, holding his laptop to browse the news.

*Twilight* had already finished its run in North America, with a cumulative box office of 215 million, and currently, the overseas box office was 193 million, with some regions yet to be released.

Fan films still lacked staying power, and word-of-mouth wasn't considered too good, but it didn't matter. The target demographic was different to begin with; there was no need to try to please all audiences.

After five months of filming, the 70-million-USD *The Forbidden Kingdom* finally wrapped up. Cheng Long and Li Lianjie also left the crew one after another to head to North America to promote *Rush Hour 3* and *The Forbidden Kingdom*.

However, thinking about it, Cheng Long should be a bit depressed. *Rush Hour 3* was confirmed unable to be imported into the country. The reason given by China Film was that there were too many imported films this year, and they were not very optimistic about the prospects of this film.

When interviewed, Li Lianjie stated: "Please don't hold too high expectations for *The Forbidden Kingdom*. This is just an ordinary co-production film. It is more about the sentiment that director Ming Kefu, myself, and Cheng Long wanted to collaborate once. We are all getting old, and the fighting is definitely not as exciting as when we were young." When Wei Jin saw the news, he couldn't help but sigh. The creative team still understood the quality of the film itself, so those directors who refuse to admit their films are trash until they die are either stupid or bad. —— *Scarlet Heart* had already completed post-production. A few days ago, the company organized a screening, and over a dozen television stations scrambled for it. The final result was unexpected: it was actually Anhui Satellite TV and Modu TV that joined forces to secure the premiere rights, with a price per episode as high as 1.8 million.

This result made Mango TV a bit unhappy. Their previous cooperation with Modu TV had been quite good; why betray an ally this time?

In fact, the reason was simple. Previously, Modu TV's ratings and market share were not high, and cooperating with Mango TV was equivalent to clinging to a powerful thigh, so naturally, there were benefits.

Now it was different. Modu TV's ratings had risen, and it had already formed competition with Mango TV. Naturally, they didn't want a hit drama to fall into the hands of the enemy again, so they chose to cooperate with Anhui Satellite TV, which had been performing poorly in ratings recently.

Wei Jin didn't know about the infighting between the TV stations; he only knew that this drama had made a huge profit again. The production cost was only 20 million, with a total of 35 episodes. The revenue from selling the drama in the first round reached as high as 63 million, with a net profit of 43 million. Subsequent second and third rounds could still bring in tens of millions; it was simply exorbitant profit. The competition in the television drama market this year was also very fierce, and he didn't know if everyone had discussed it, but they all rushed to this year.

At the beginning of the year, there was *Ming Dynasty 1566*. Although the film's ratings were not high, its online word-of-mouth was explosive, and it would still be a classic ten years later;

In the middle of the year, there was Zhao Baogang's *Struggle*. It was clearly a group of rich second-generation kids acting recklessly, yet it had to be called "Struggle," but the ratings were truly high; at the end of June, Mango TV also aired *Dreams Link*, adapted from the novel of the same name by the Taiwan auntie. Although the plot was melodramatic, it couldn't stop the audience from liking it, and it had many market supporters;

Next, there was *Golden Marriage*, starring Zhang Guoli and Jiang Wenli, and the supporting cast were also powerful actors. Wei Jin remembered that this TV drama had very good word-of-mouth and ratings.

At the end of the year, there was Gao Xixi's *New Shanghai Bund*, the green years of Huang Xiaoming and Sun Li. It was said that when they were in the crew, Brother Xiaoming wanted to pursue Sun Li, but it was Deng Chao who appeared in time to protect the flower, which interrupted Huang Xiaoming's thoughts. Wei Jin was also a bit curious and planned to find time to ask the parties involved. —— On August 10th, *Transformers* officially ended its run, with a box office as high as 315 million, equivalent to 41.5 million USD, which also made the global film circle truly start to value the Huaxia film market.

At the same time, *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix* was officially released. The cinema chains gave it 45% of the screenings. Inevitably, the screenings for *Brotherhood of Blades* were compressed to 40%, but Wei Jin was not worried.

Seven days after release, the box office of *Brotherhood of Blades* reached as high as 165 million. The box office trend had already surpassed *Painted Skin*, and many media outlets speculated whether it would continue to set a box office record.

But Wei Jin knew in his heart that the box office was so high mainly because the screenings were good, and it also benefited from the expansion of cinema chains. The number of screens had increased by at least fifty percent compared to when *Painted Skin* was released. Plus, with the appearance of competitors, it would be difficult to break the record if it wasn't extended.

Sure enough, with the release of *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*, the competitive situation between the two was very obvious. But *Harry Potter* was a fan film after all, and its early advantage was too strong. In the first three days of the weekend, it took 64 million, while *Brotherhood of Blades* had a box office of 33 million in the three days of the second weekend. After 10 days of release, the cumulative box office was 198 million.

It is worth mentioning that seeing the box office trends of the two films so strong, *The Detective*, which was originally scheduled to be released on the 16th, was directly withdrawn from the schedule. The public announcement was technical issues, but those in the circle all knew that it was fear.

Just as the domestic film market was filled with the smoke of war, a piece of news from across the ocean was sent back to the country, causing a sensation.

"Hollywood's Summit Entertainment recently announced a new film plan, which will collaborate with famous director and screenwriter Wei Jin on the magic crime film *Now You See Me*. Oscar Director Wei Jin will personally direct the film. The initial project budget is 75 million USD. It is reported that the announced cast list includes..."

The news on the portal website was too attractive to people in the circle. For a 75-million-USD Hollywood film, companies in the industry were thinking about how to get a piece of the pie, and artists in the circle were yearning to break into the international market.

For a time, whether it was companies in the industry or star artists, anyone who had Wei Jin's phone number called him, but all were prompted that he was out of the service area. —— South Korea, Incheon International Airport.

Wei Jin walked out of the VIP channel, followed by two bodyguards, one in front and one behind.

This trip to South Korea was, on one hand, in response to an invitation from KBS—*My Love from the Star* was simply incredibly popular in South Korea, and they were interested in purchasing *Temptation of Wife*—and on the other hand, CJ Entertainment was preparing to remake *New World* and hoped to get Wei Jin's guidance.

The so-called "take money, do the work"—the other party was full of sincerity, and Wei Jin couldn't refuse.

Plus, the project preparation in North America still needed some time, and some layouts in South Korea could also be started. Wei Jin agreed, and by the way, he could experience the aesthetics of South Korean chaebols. He believed this journey would not be lonely.

Most importantly, his birthday was coming up. There were too many women around him, and each one wanted to celebrate his birthday. Unless everyone lived in harmony and slept in the same bed, he really couldn't split himself up, so he simply came out to hide.

After walking no more than two steps forward, Wei Jin saw the reception staff holding a sign in Chinese.

"Mr. Wei, hello. I am Jin Zhixun from CJ Entertainment. I will be responsible for your entire itinerary this time."

A middle-aged man of about forty years old walked up quickly. Upon meeting, he bowed 90 degrees, which opened Wei Jin's eyes.

"Hello, thank you for your trouble."

Wei Jin used Korean. Now, whenever he went to an unfamiliar country, he would learn some of the local language. Anyway, with his powerful learning ability, it didn't take much effort.

"Mr. Wei, I didn't expect your Korean to be so standard. It is truly amazing..."

Ignoring Jin Zhixun's flattery, Wei Jin signaled that he could lead the way.

Under the enthusiastic reception of several staff members, Wei Jin boarded the business car that had been waiting for a long time and officially started his first trip to South Korea. Today's first update, I implore all book friends to reward a subscription, follow-up, and collection. You must turn to the last page for the follow-up, thank you everyone! Finally, I wish everyone a happy new year, may all your wishes come true, everything goes well, and do big things in 2024! (End of chapter)