Chapter 222: Giving In, New Project, Release Date Set

"This is too much, simply too much."

In an office at Stellar Megamedia, Lu Chuan was furious to the extreme.

Wei Jin's statement appeared on entertainment headlines that very day.

Shanhe Cinema Line refusing to screen the film, two movies sniping it one after another—this was already blatant targeting.

"How does he dare? Huh? How does he dare? Is he not afraid of chilling the industry and facing a collective counterattack?"

Lu Chuan was now consumed by rage, his eyes bloodshot, his expression ferocious.

"President Qin, what does Orange Sky say?"

This film was invested in by Stellar Megamedia and Orange Sky; Lu Chuan hoped the two companies could join hands and resist together.

"Cough, President Wu's meaning is, perhaps we should change the release date."

Although Qin Hong was also angry, he remained rational, and he agreed with Wu Kebo's decision.

The Shanhe Cinema Alliance occupied over 20% of the market share; their refusal to screen it would have a huge impact on the box office of *Nanjing*, and with two other films sniping it, the cautionary tale of *Curse of the Golden Flower* was not far off.

"I don't agree. This is showing cowardice before the battle. Maybe he's just bluffing?"

Wei Jin's film hadn't even set a release date yet, and *Nanjing* was already changing its own; how would outsiders view him, Lu Chuan?

"Besides, even if we change it, Wei Jin controls the cinema line, so what can we do?"

This was also what Lu Chuan was most furious about. If it were just a film sniping, at worst they could just face off at the box office; he had confidence in his own film.

But Wei Jin controlled the cinema line and ignored the rules of the game; this was a competition destined to be unfair from the start. How could he resist?

"Hmm, what you say does make some sense. Then let's talk to Wei Jin first. If that really doesn't work, we can also work on the other investors of *Painted Skin 2*."

In Qin Hong's view, securing cinema screenings was the top priority; the sniping issue was actually easier to solve, as it wasn't up to Wei Jin alone. —— Wei Jin returned to the country and went to Jing Tian's villa immediately.

The girl was practicing her skills; inside the wooden-floored practice room, she had her legs in a split against the wall, her whole body pressed against the floor.

Jing Tian performed this move with ease; she was indeed from a dance background, and Wei Jin felt a bit distracted.

"What are you looking at? So you finally decided to come back?"

Despite missing the man, Jing Tian had an unhappy expression on her face.

Wei Jin could certainly understand the girl's little mood; anyone would have feelings if they found out their man had been out wandering with other women for a month.

Wei Jin's attitude was very proper; he walked up to the girl, gently pulled her up, and took her into his arms.

"My dear Tian Tian, still jealous? You are the Empress, you must be magnanimous."

The young girl didn't struggle, letting the man hold her, greedily breathing in his scent. Her longing surged like a broken levee, but her words remained very tough.

"Hmph, who wants to be your Empress? If it weren't for the sake of your uncle, I wouldn't even bother with you."

Jing Tian's words made Wei Jin feel a bit ashamed; he hadn't gone home for the Spring Festival this year, and the young girl had gone to visit on his behalf.

Thinking of this, Wei Jin cupped the girl's face and kissed her.

After a long while, their lips parted.

"Tian Tian, I promise you, next Spring Festival, we'll find a place to have a good time."

"Then you aren't allowed to lie to me, just the two of us."

"Mm." —— Walking on the campus of Beijing Film Academy, apart from some teachers, Wei Jin could no longer see many familiar faces. Batch after batch of freshmen had completely replaced his already sparse memories of his alma mater.

"Senior Wei is back at school?"

Many undergraduate students looked at Wei Jin from afar, whispering among themselves.

"Senior Wei is probably here to deliver the Golden Bear trophy to the school. I really want to touch it."

"I heard Senior Wei turned down the opportunity to stay and teach, otherwise we would have had a chance to attend his classes."

Wei Jin was graduating this year, and his connection to Beijing Film Academy would be even less in the future; their classes were destined not to enjoy that privilege.

"That's true, if I had Senior Wei's achievements, who would stay at school?"

"Keep dreaming, you'll have everything in your dreams."

Heading straight to the Graduate Student building, before Wei Jin could even speak, Teacher Jiang looked as if he had seen a peerless beauty and lunged forward:

"Where is the trophy? My Golden Bear."

"Teacher Jiang, don't be anxious. I knew you liked it, so I specifically brought it over for you to play with first."

As he spoke, Wei Jin took the little Golden Bear out of the box.

"Ah, look how cute this little bear is."

Taking the trophy, Teacher Jiang began to play with it carefully, then suddenly thought of something: "You're here to submit your graduation project, right?"

"Yes, the teacher said he couldn't wait."

Normally, the submission time for graduation projects was in early to mid-April, and the graduation defense was scheduled for mid-to-late April, but Tian Zhuangzhuang couldn't wait; he was impatient to see his student's Golden Bear-winning work.

"Hehe, let's go, I'll go with you. You kid, you're graduating again."

Naturally, Jiang Wei didn't want to miss the Golden Bear film either, so he pulled Wei Jin along toward the small screening room—although the Beijing Film Academy campus wasn't large, it was small but complete.

Inside a small screening hall, *The Hunt* began to play.

A dozen school teachers and professors, along with some students from the Director Department, stared intently at the images on the screen, with some even taking out notebooks to record something.

The film soon came to an end, and warm applause broke out in the room. The academic teachers and professors liked this type of realistic film very much, and many surrounded Wei Jin, praising him one after another.

"Kid Wei, very good. A film about scandals, lies, hatred, suspicion, public opinion, hearsay... It has some shadows of *Search*, but it's deeper and more cruel. The Golden Bear is well-deserved. It's a pity, though."

An old professor sighed in admiration, then began to express regret. However, everyone present knew what he meant: why did it have to be a foreign film?

"Tian, this student of yours is extraordinary. This time, it was my oversight."

At this moment, the expression on Professor Hou's face was somewhat complex. Wei Jin, in the crowd, was only 26 years old and had already won the Palme d'Or and the Golden Bear. How far could his future go? Why couldn't those people see reality clearly? "Hou, times have changed. That set of seniority-based rules is outdated. You shouldn't get too deeply involved with them."

Tian Zhuangzhuang was seven or eight years older than Professor Hou, and the two had always had a good relationship, so he didn't speak with much reserve.

"Sigh."

Wei Jin was being complimented by a group of teachers and students, which gave him a headache. Fortunately, his mentor waved at him, and he was finally liberated. "Mentor, Professor Hou."

"Wei Jin, I called you over because I want to apologize to you. The review committee's work originally had a cross-review mechanism, but for these past few years, everyone has just been minding their own business, so..."

Professor Hou's meaning was very clear; as a former Vice Dean of the Beijing Film Academy, he stood on Wei Jin's side, even though this student was indeed sometimes disobedient.

To be honest, in Professor Hou's view, this incident was somewhat inexplicable; given Wei Jin's relationship with Han Dong of China Film Group and Director Tong of the Film Bureau, it could have been resolved with just a word.

But Wei Jin seemed to be deliberately trying to blow things up, which Professor Hou found hard to understand. However, this did not affect what he had to say next; after all, these were the promises of those old stubborn men.

"This matter is over now. In the future, your projects won't necessarily have a green light all the way, but as long as they are within the rules, no one will deliberately target you again. This is their promise, and I will keep an eye on it."

"Then thank you, Professor Hou."

Wei Jin knew that this matter had to end here and could not be brought up again in the future. However, he had never intended to rely on this incident to change the review process anyway; letting these people know his attitude was enough to achieve his goal.

Still, he would not let his guard down; one had to know that saying one thing to your face and another behind your back was a specialty of these people.

"By the way, Wei Jin, seeing as you are about to graduate as a Graduate Student, what about joining the Film Association..."

"Professor Hou, to be honest with you, I really have no interest. Just think about it: with their evaluation standards, it's wrong for me to go, and it's wrong for me not to go. Why make it difficult for everyone?"

Back when he won the Palme d'Or, the Film Association had sent an invitation, but Wei Jin had refused.

There was no benefit to joining the Film Association, and there were a ton of annoying things to deal with every day. You had to show up for this event and that event; if you didn't go, you weren't being a team player, and if you did go, you were just helping others climb the ladder. Wei Jin wasn't crazy.

Professor Hou had wanted to persuade him, but he didn't know how to convince Wei Jin. After all, what the latter said were real, existing phenomena that he was powerless to change, so he could only sigh and turn to leave.

"Mentor, I've caused you trouble."

"What are you saying? You are my proudest student. As long as you haven't done anything wrong, no matter how big the trouble is, your teacher will shoulder it."

Tian Zhuangzhuang waved his hand, not caring at all.

"It's just that you need to win the Grand Slam soon, or even an Oscar. I hope that in my lifetime, I will be able to see that day..."

Although Wei Jin had shouted the slogan, Tian Zhuangzhuang knew that many things were not as simple as imagined; the resistance was too great.

"Teacher, don't worry, that day won't be far off." — Leaving the school, Wei Jin stopped by China Film Group. Since he had said he would snipe Lu Chuan, he had to crush him. Besides, he still had to talk to Han Sanping about Passengers.

Familiar with the path, he arrived at Han Sanping's office; the old man was on the phone.

Wei Jin didn't stand on ceremony; he instructed the secretary to make a cup of tea and helped himself to the film schedule on the table to look it over.

There were basically no blockbusters in April or May this year; The City of Life and Death counted as one, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine counted as another.

Just as he was pondering the release dates of the two films, Han Sanping finished his call.

"Is this visit about a new project? I've been waiting for you for a long time."

"The old rules: let's look at the script first, then we'll talk about the rest."

Wei Jin stood up and handed over the script, saying nothing more, continuing to think about the scheduling issue.

Ten minutes later, Han Sanping closed the script, feeling somewhat moved: "Hmm, space opera. Your script is as consistent as ever."

Although Wei Jin didn't pick up the conversation, he was actually feeling a bit proud inside. This could be considered his first heavily localized script; it showed that his scriptwriting skills had been gradually improving over these years.

The original script had been written a long time ago, but Wei Jin always felt there were some unsatisfactory parts, so he made significant adaptations to the original plot, adding many settings that aligned with the values of his countrymen, making the script more logically perfect.

"What's the approximate investment?"

"No less than 200 million. The detailed budget is still being worked on, just giving you a heads-up. Please report the script for me while you're at it."

For this type of sci-fi film, Wei Jin believed that passing the review wouldn't be difficult. After all, Director Tong was the Department Head of the review committee, and he had personally said that Wei Jin's sci-fi films would be given special care.

"By the way, Han Dong, keep that largest studio at the Digital Base for me."

"That largest studio? Are you sure you can use that one?"

Han Sanping had an incredulous expression on his face. One had to know that it was a super-large 5,000-square-meter studio; since it was built, no one had used it yet, and the rent wasn't cheap either.

"Yes, that's the one. I'll need it this time."

Seeing Han Sanping's skeptical expression, Wei Jin sat up a little straighter.

"For this film, over 90% of the shots have to be completed inside the studio. I'll also have to contact Aerospace Science and Industry later to have them help design the Space ship."

Speaking of this, Wei Jin began to explain with gestures; the script wouldn't detail what the props looked like.

"It's the kind of interstellar ship that can house over five thousand people. Everyone needs an independent living and activity space, equivalent to an independent living circle. This dictates that the studio cannot be small."

"Alright, I'll keep that studio for you. Get the budget done as soon as possible."

Han Sanping was also a veteran filmmaker; seeing Wei Jin's demeanor, he knew he already had a rough final film in his mind, and he was even more optimistic about the project.

"Hmm, by the way, about the matter with The City of Life and Death, do you really have to do this? People in the industry will say you're too overbearing."

China Film Group hadn't invested in The City of Life and Death, and Han Sanping wasn't speaking for Lu Chuan, he was just afraid that Wei Jin would make too many enemies; besides, it was internal friction after all.

"Han Dong, this pair of After This Our father and son certainly didn't lack in jumping around behind the scenes during the review process. I'm a small-minded person..."

Wei Jin didn't shy away from it; he just wanted revenge. As for the industry's opinion, did it matter?

"Besides, if a film with such a crooked stance as his actually gets high box office, do you believe he'll do it again next time?"

"Fine, consider it unsaid. Do whatever you want. Have you chosen the release dates?"

"Eye for an Eye on April 17th, Painted Skin 2 on May 1st. If that guy dares to postpone, I have Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame and Bodyguards and Assassins ready for him too."

The post-production for the latter two would be finished before May 1st no matter what. Wei Jin didn't intend to let Lu Chuan off; he just wanted to take him down.

"Alright, to be treated like this by you, he can consider himself lucky in three lifetimes. By the way, how is Inception coming along?"

Han Sanping knew that Wei Jin's trip to North America this time was to represent the Chinese side in confirming the progress.

"Post-production has only just begun. It's estimated that the final film won't be ready until around September. As for the release date, it's still under consideration."

Because of the 3D filming technique used, the post-production for this film was quite complex, and Nolan could only give a rough range based on the segments already completed.

"Good, keep in touch. Remember to tell me once the release date is set so I can coordinate things here in the country."

"No problem."

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