Chapter 241: Method Acting: Sending Jing Tian to the Clouds

Time entered July, and the filming of *Passengers* was proceeding smoothly.

At this point, the plot was already more than halfway through, even faster than Wei Jin had anticipated.

Liang Jiahui's character had also officially come online; this veteran actor was very professional and arrived even earlier than the notified time.

"Brother Jiahui, are you ready?"

"Director Wei, I've been waiting for a long time, don't worry."

Regarding Liang Jiahui's professionalism, Wei Jin had already gained a clear understanding during *Lucy*, so he didn't say anything more at this moment and turned his head to look at the set, where everything was ready.

He walked to the monitor and sat down, letting out a sound from his mouth.

"Action."

On the main camera side, the elevator malfunctioned, and the male lead fell straight down.

On the second camera, the female lead went to get her meal, the machine also malfunctioned, and food sprayed everywhere.

"I am the Deck Supervisor. Which bastard planted trees on the spaceship?"

Next, the three of them began to act intensely, the camera following the lead actors as they moved into the spaceship's control console.

At this moment, the performances of several people looked a bit awkward, because a large number of shots required the support of Post-production Special Effects.

"Cut." Wei Jin, behind the monitor, issued the instruction.

"This take is good, take a half-hour break, the crew get ready for the next scene."

For the next scene, they were going to film the part where the spaceship's gravity system malfunctions; there were many scenes and props to prepare, so Wei Jin simply let the actors take a break.

"Brother Jiahui, your performance was really good."

Wei Jin left the monitor and walked toward Liang Jiahui; this veteran Best Actor's acting skills were truly excellent.

In fact, there were no famous actors who made a name for themselves in Hong Kong in the 80s who had poor acting skills; after all, in such a small place, in that era, to support nearly one billion in box office, one could see how fierce the competition was.

"You flatter me, Director Wei."

Liang Jiahui waved his hand, expressing humility.

"By the way, Brother Jiahui, how is the situation with *Cold War*?"

This project was controlled by Golden Harvest and co-invested by Emperor Group; Wei Jin only provided the script and did not interfere too much, including casting.

But sometimes, heaven has its own mysterious arrangements; after choosing and selecting, they still chose Liang Jiahui, but it also showed that the Hong Kong circle was indeed too small and lacked successors.

"Filming just started not long ago; wait for me to go back and shoot my parts. This time, I'm working under you for everything."

Liang Jiahui also didn't expect that he, a perennial supporting actor, would encounter a situation of running back and forth between two crews, and both were Wei Jin's scripts.

"But the busier one is A Cheng, running between two films back-to-back; you've really made him a lot of money, haha."

For the *Cold War* script, they had invited Guo Tianwang from the beginning, but who would have expected that just as filming started, *Silent Witness* also chose him; fortunately, the time was off by more than a month, so the schedule could be coordinated.

"Haha, then this time I'll have to ask him to help show his support; you have to come to the premiere of *Lucy* as well, *Cold War* can just give you two a break."

In his past life, Wei Jin was born in the early 90s, and his youth was exactly when the Four Heavenly Kings were sweeping across Asia; he had quite a good impression of these four.

Thinking of this, a thought suddenly popped into Wei Jin's mind.

"Brother Jiahui, do you think it's possible to have the Four Heavenly Kings gather at the *Lucy* premiere?"

"Hmm, hard to say, but with the influence of Emperor Group and Golden Harvest, it shouldn't be a big problem. If it really works, the audience and fans at the scene will have to thank you, haha..."

Liang Jiahui wasn't lying; the Four Heavenly Kings had rarely appeared on the same stage since 2000, and the last time was at the Hong Kong tenth-anniversary gala, which had been over two years ago; it was even harder to see them in public.

Hearing this, Wei Jin found it more and more interesting the more he thought about it.

"Alright, I'll arrange it later."

Soon, half an hour passed, all the crew's preparations were in place, and the floor manager came to remind Wei Jin.

Temporarily putting his thoughts aside, Wei Jin began to follow the transition, preparing for the next shot.

This scene was the female lead swimming in the pool; because of the gravity system failure, a large amount of pool water surged into giant waves, floating out of the pool and forming several huge water spheres.

And the female lead was rolled into a water sphere, floating in the air together, unable to swim out no matter what, nearly suffocating to death.

This scene was quite difficult, requiring the female lead to act out struggling desperately in the air, trying to swim out of the water sphere, while accompanied by a state of extreme oxygen deprivation and impending suffocation.

Looking around, everything was indeed ready, and Gao Yuanyuan had also changed into a swimsuit, revealing her perfect and proud figure, which certainly gave the bunch of rascals on set a feast for their eyes.

On his way to the monitor, Wei Jin felt he had lost out, and shouted with a dark face.

"Ready, action." —— *Chinese Paladin 3* was still airing hotly, and after ten days of premiere, the peak viewership rating had already reached over 6.

Miss Cai watched the ratings climb steadily, her face filled with unstoppable smiles, and suddenly thinking of something, she picked up the phone and dialed.

"Shishi, you've worked hard on the promotion these past two days, remember to mention anything you need to the Assistant."

Miss Cai's tone was gentle, not looking like a boss at all; she knew clearly that relying on artist contracts alone couldn't tie down popular stars, she had to play the emotional card, and Hu Ge was the best example.

"Mm, thank you for your concern, K Jie, everything is fine here." Liu Shishi's voice on the phone was a bit tired.

Miss Cai was planning to continue building the relationship, but the secretary knocked on the door and walked in, looking a bit grim.

Seeing this, Miss Cai couldn't continue chatting, so she wished Liu Shishi to take care of her health and hung up the phone in a hurry.

"What is it?"

"President Cai, Rongxinda wants to raise the price."

Miss Cai frowned, "Raising it again? Didn't they already raise it before?"

"They said they misunderstood before, so they quoted the wrong price."

Although she was just relaying the message, the secretary also looked indignant; it was simply too bullying.

"How much did they raise it by?"

Miss Cai asked while suppressing her anger; *Chinese Paladin 3* was still airing, and if Yang Mi, as the female lead, didn't attend the promotion, it would likely bring a huge negative impact to the TV series, so she had to endure her for now.

"Fifty percent..."

"... I know, agree to them."

Miss Cai replied expressionlessly, her heart already filled with raging anger, Yang Mi, you just wait for me!! —— On July 7th, *Bodyguards and Assassins* held its premiere ceremony in Beijing.

As the first work since Wei Jin took control of Golden Harvest, industry insiders were all very curious, and many came to show their support.

China Film Group, Wanda, Emperor Motion Pictures, and Huayi Brothers—a multitude of big shots gathered in one hall, giving Wei Jin plenty of face.

As the helmsman of Golden Harvest, Shi Nansheng was naturally busy greeting everyone everywhere; although she was exhausted, she found it sweet, and this feeling was truly good.

Because the filming schedule was progressing smoothly, Wei Jin also finished today's scenes early and arrived at the venue at the last moment.

Gao Yuanyuan did not come along; she was also worn out from the filming during this period.

"How is it? Is the filming going smoothly?"

Taking advantage of the time before the premiere started, Han Sanping walked over and began chatting with Wei Jin.

"It's alright, I estimate we'll wrap up in about half a month."

"Mm, that's good."

Han Sanping still had a lot of confidence in Wei Jin's efficiency in making films.

"It's still a bit of a pity about *The Hunt*..."

Upon hearing this, Wei Jin nearly choked; *The Hunt* had been pulled from theaters two days ago, with the domestic box office stopping at 168 million, but compared to China Film Group's 30 million buyout price, it was undoubtedly a huge profit. Was Han trying to reach the heavens? "Han Dong, for an art-house film, this result is already quite good; besides, the competition was too strong. Be content."

From late June until now, the entire film market had been the domain of *Transformers 2*.

The film had been released for only two weeks and had already raked in nearly 300 million at the box office, once again staging the astonishing spectacle of tickets being hard to come by. Following this momentum, the box office was certain to break 400 million. How could *The Hunt*, an art-house film, possibly compete with that?

"That's true, that big guy is indeed difficult to deal with."

Han Sanping also understood this logic, but he was just habitually playing the victim, wanting to get some more benefits from Wei Jin.

While the two were chatting and laughing, the premiere officially began—after the premiere, Wei Jin and Li Tianwang finalized the matter of attending the premiere of *Lucy*.

Amidst Yifei's reluctant gaze, Wei Jin left the venue and drove toward Dongshanshu.

It wasn't that he was playing favorites; for one, Yifei still had to follow the crew to run promotions, and for another, he had long since made plans with Jing Tian.

Opening the door, he saw that Jing Tian had already fallen asleep on the sofa.

Wei Jin shook his head, walked over on tiptoe, and covered the young girl with a summer quilt; even though it was midsummer, one could still catch a cold if not careful.

Wei Jin knew the young girl was worn out from being busy with the promotion for *Lucy*. This film was Jing Tian's solo performance, and since Wei Jin, as the director, was busy shooting a new film, the domestic promotion could only be completed by her alone before the premiere.

He had originally thought it would be a simple matter, but Wei Jin hadn't expected the young girl to be so driven.

These days, she had been taking her Assistant out alone, appearing on shows, recording variety programs, doing interviews, or giving interviews to web portals, almost working around the clock.

It was clear that Jing Tian was very serious about her first film as a lead actress.

Although the promotional effect was very good, after more than a week in a row, Jing Tian herself was somewhat thin from exhaustion.

Looking at the young girl's somewhat weary, pretty face, Wei Jin reached out and gently stroked it, feeling a bit heartbroken and also a bit amused.

In fact, his films didn't really need such desperate promotion in the country.

"Mm... Brother, you're here~~"

Seemingly disturbed by Wei Jin's movements, Jing Tian woke up, looking somewhat bleary-eyed at the moment.

"Mm, Tian Tian, let's stop the promotion before the premiere here; it's about enough."

"But Brother, will it affect the box office?"

Jing Tian asked with some worry.

When they were filming, she had acted with great care, and now that the film was about to be released, Jing Tian naturally hoped for a perfect ending.

"It won't, Tian Tian. You have to trust my drawing power in the country; as for the overseas box office, leave it to me."

Over these years, the distribution capability of Summit Entertainment had grown stronger day by day, but promotion and distribution were two different concepts. Otherwise, why would films need promotion in the early stages? It was just to let more people know the film was about to be released; in this regard, the creative team still needed to put in the effort.

However, this film was neither a Hollywood film, nor did it have Hollywood stars joining, nor did it have the gimmick of a large-scale sci-fi blockbuster like *The Martian*.

The Japan and South Korea regions were easier to handle; Abe Hiroshi and Cui Minzhi had already done quite a bit of promotion, but the world's largest box office market—North America—was beyond his reach. Despite having the name of Wei Jin as director, he ultimately couldn't go there to promote it in person.

This time, Wei Jin intended to use his connections to add a boost to the overseas box office of *Lucy* and send Jing Tian to the clouds.

"Mm, I'll listen to you, Brother."

"Tian Tian, are you still tired? Let's take a hot shower and relax."

"Mm~~"

Jing Tian nodded shyly upon hearing this; having run promotions for several days in a row, she also wanted it.

That night, Wei Jin gave the hardworking Jing Tian a full-body massage, not missing the key areas, and the young girl was soon refreshed—*Bodyguards and Assassins* was released.

Benefiting from the gimmick of being the first work of Golden Harvest, the powerful cast, and the fact that it was a tribute film being promoted, the cinema chains were very supportive with scheduling, generally giving it over 50%.

Shanhe Cinema Line even gave 60%; it wasn't that they didn't want to give more, it was just that *Transformers 2* was too profitable.

With such high scheduling, *Bodyguards and Assassins* did not disappoint everyone's expectations.

On the first day of release, it raked in 27 million at the box office, and after three days of release, the box office reached 82 million; the data was quite magnificent.

The media predicted that this would be another 300 million box office film.

Yifei couldn't help but call to share the good news while promoting; after all, it was possible to break her box office record, making the many injuries she sustained during filming worthwhile.

"Brother, if it really passes 300 million, that would be great."

"It's definitely no problem; there's almost no competition in this time slot."

Wei Jin wasn't just comforting the young girl; as of now, *Transformers 2* had been released for 20 days, the box office had broken 400 million, and its potential was basically exhausted, posing no major threat.

Another competitor—*Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*—wouldn't be released for a few more days, and plus, the domestic box office ceiling for this series was generally around 100 million, so the level of threat wasn't too high.

In other words, almost until *Lucy* was released, *Bodyguards and Assassins* could sweep the box office, dominate alone, and breaking 300 million was absolutely no problem.

"However, Yifei, with such a high box office, don't you plan to thank me?"

"Brother, wait until I come back, I'll do whatever you want"—at the China Film Digital Production Base, the filming process of *Passengers* had reached the final third.

"Action."

Following Wei Jin's order, the new scene began.

Today's filming was about the damage to the spaceship's core components; the artificial intelligence Nazha told everyone the specific situation, and the spaceship was very likely about to crash.

The three humans were discussing how to repair the spaceship; as the deck captain, Liang Jiahui should have played a major role, but he suddenly collapsed to the ground.

In this scene, Liang Jiahui contributed an award-winning performance.

The way he fell to the ground gave one the feeling of his entire body being limp and powerless, which was very natural.

"Cut!"

Watching the footage on the monitor, Wei Jin expressed his admiration.

"Brother Jiahui, that was a fantastic performance."

As soon as Wei Jin finished speaking, several of the production team's key creators applauded; one had to admit, the strength of the "thousand-faced film emperor" was truly no joke.

"Haha, Director Wei is too kind, but at this pace, am I almost finished filming? It's a bit unsatisfying."

Liang Jiahui and Wei Jin had collaborated twice, both times in supporting roles, and he felt as though his strength hadn't even been fully unleashed yet.

"Brother Jiahui, the screen time is a bit short this time, but this role is very crucial."

Wei Jin seemed to truly feel a bit apologetic, and after pondering for a moment, he said: "Next time we collaborate, I will definitely arrange a role for Brother Jiahui with outstanding screen time and explosive acting potential."

"Haha, good, then I will wait for Director Wei's notification."

The two reached a gentleman's agreement, and the subsequent filming was very simple.

Through the scan of the Medical Pod, Nazha produced the deck captain's physical examination results: necrosis of all active tissues, organ failure, and life hanging by a thread.

In the final moments of his life, Liang Jiahui handed the bracelet representing his identity clearance to Qiao Zhenyu, so that he could obtain higher clearance and enter various areas of the spaceship.

"Congratulations to Brother Jiahui on wrapping up; we'll see each other at the end of the month for the premiere of Lucy."

Wei Jin did not try to make him stay, as Cold War was waiting for Liang Jiahui to start work.

"Alright, Director Wei, everyone, goodbye."

"Goodbye, Brother Jiahui." — Since the filming of Passengers began, they had welcomed their first actor to wrap up, and the media was also quite attentive.

That same evening, related news had already appeared on major web portals.

"Film Emperor Liang wraps up today, Passengers suspected to have entered its final stage."

"Liang Jiahui leaves Digital Base, the entire cast and crew of Passengers see him off."

At the same time, Wei Jin received a call from North America.

Twilight 3 had officially finished its theatrical run, with a North American box office of 313 million USD and a global box office of 711 million.

Compared to the previous installment, it was slightly lacking, but this was normal; the box office of every film is the result of favorable timing and circumstances, and cannot be replicated.

Although he had already raised the salaries of the creative team, the cost of Twilight 3 was only 55 million USD; in terms of box office alone, it brought at least 200 million USD in net profit to Summit Entertainment.

Wei Jin couldn't help but sigh that fan films are truly terrifying; he pondered over the few copyrights he still held and when to launch them.

However, Hunter's call also reminded him of the promotion for Lucy; with only ten days left until the release, this was the perfect time for promotion.

The first call Wei Jin made was to Matt Damon; after all, he was a film emperor he had cultivated himself, and this karmic connection was significant.

After Wei Jin stated his purpose, Matt agreed without a second thought, and at the same time, very generously indicated that if there were any events, he could spare a day to help stand on stage.

For this, Wei Jin was naturally eager and thanked him repeatedly.

The second call was made to Leonardo; although they hadn't collaborated, they had known each other for many years, and their relationship wasn't bad.

Leonardo was indeed as philandering as ever; Wei Jin could even hear a woman's voice over the phone.

After stating his purpose, Leonardo also agreed very readily, only making an agreement with Wei Jin that if there were any award-contending films in the future, he must be considered first.

To this, Wei Jin naturally agreed; one has to say, Leonardo's acting skills were still very impressive.

Subsequently, Wei Jin made several more calls in succession to Taylor Swift, Kristen, Theron, and other women he had relationships with, as well as many actors he had single-handedly made famous, including all the key creators of Now You See Me, the actors who became red-hot from the Twilight series, and so on.

After a dozen or so calls, he finally settled the promotional matters in North America, and Wei Jin felt much more at ease; he believed that with such a luxurious lineup of stars promoting it, the heat for Lucy would be ignited instantly.

The remaining matters could be left to Hunter and Summit Entertainment.

Happy New Year.

(End of this chapter)