Chapter 274: Warner

Beijing, inside a hotel.

"Boss, it's been a few months again; I've missed you so much."

As he spoke, Hunter tried to give Wei Jin a hug, but was mercilessly rejected by the latter.

"Hunter, you really need to lose weight, otherwise you might not even live to see my film compete for an Oscar for Best Film."

"Boss, I thought you would be a bit more subtle; I didn't expect you to be as direct as Feng."

Wei Jin's face twitched upon hearing this; he knew who he was talking about.

Feng Dapao is truly worthy of being called "Little Steel Cannon."

At yesterday's Shanghai Film Festival "Film Industry Summit - Forum on Cooperation between Domestic Films and Hollywood," this guy directly cursed Harvey Weinstein, who had left early to catch a flight, to his face in front of Hollywood film company representatives.

He directly accused Harvey of being a "liar" and a "swindler," often bidding high prices to snatch the North American distribution rights for Chinese-language films from various Hollywood distributors, only to pay a small deposit in advance, and then claiming he wouldn't buy them or offering an extremely low price once the film was finished or released.

But by then, the best time to sell the rights had already passed, and in the end, it could only be taken away by Harvey at an extremely low price.

Many films like The Promise and The Banquet have suffered this loss.

Don't look at Feng Dapao's poor English; his ability to curse people is quite formidable, and he can do it all in one breath without pausing.

Seeing the atmosphere turn awkward, even the president of the IMAX company had to step in to smooth things over, stating that Harvey's reputation in Hollywood was also rotten, in order to protect the reputation of other Hollywood companies.

However, while Feng Dapao felt good after cursing, Huayi was miserable; their collaboration with Weinstein, Empire of Silver, was about to be released, and cursing a partner at this juncture was quite a significant piece of negative news.

Sure enough, Huayi's stock began to dive that very day, which was the reason for Wei Jin's sour expression; after all, he held a large amount of Huayi stock.

This outburst by Feng Dapao cost him at least tens of millions.

"Alright, let's talk about business. How is the promotion for Now You See Me 2 coming along?"

This film is scheduled for release on July 2nd. This time, it cannot be released simultaneously domestically; we can only wait to see if it can be imported later as an imported film or a Flat-fee Film.

"Everything has been arranged. By the way, is Sally participating in the promotion this time?"

Hunter didn't dare to directly assign promotional tasks to the boss's wife, so he could only seek an answer from Wei Jin.

"Hmm, wait until her graduation ceremony is over; it's coming up soon."

After Lucy, the young lady still has some fans in North America. Besides, her role this time is significant; it wouldn't be right if she didn't participate in the promotion.

"By the way, Boss, the profit share for Inception has arrived. There's nothing fishy, but Warner has proposed the idea of collaborating again."

"Oh? What script have they taken a fancy to this time?"

"That's not it; they just said any script of yours will do, but they hope it's a project with a larger investment, like Inception."

Wei Jin understood immediately upon hearing this. Warner had seen the benefits brought by the previous collaboration and the vast potential of the Asian market. However, there are many registered scripts; which one would be more suitable?

After some thought, Wei Jin had the answer.

"Then let's launch Pacific Rim." — Zhen Zidan's methods are very wild; once he found a new path, he took on two films in a row.

They are Guan Yunchang, with an investment of 150 million, and Wu Xia, with a production cost of 140 million.

The former was initiated by Taiwan capital and co-directed by the director and screenwriter of Infernal Affairs, Zhuang Wenqiang and Mai Zhaohui; the latter was led by Star Media and directed by Chen Kexin.

As Wei Jin expected, the boss called again.

"This loser, he's been attending cocktail parties everywhere these days, really thinking he's red-hot in Hong Kong."

"Boss, calm down. How big of a deal is it? As long as it doesn't affect the shooting schedule, why do you care so much? Besides, do you really think these two are high-quality projects?"

"What? You don't think highly of them, President Wei?"

"How could I? The casting is clearly problematic. Zhen Zidan is just over 1.7 meters tall; do you think it's appropriate for him to play Guan Yu?"

Speaking of this, Wei Jin couldn't help but complain; if the Second Master were still alive, he would probably slash these people with a blade.

"Chen Kexin has so many past failures; can the investors make money off him? They are likely two flop films. We need to be prepared for Ip Man 3 to be released first, otherwise, don't get dragged down."

"Hmm, that makes sense. I need to urge them on their progress."

On the phone, the boss pondered for a moment and agreed with Wei Jin's view, then immediately brought up another matter.

"By the way, President Wei, are you really not attending the premiere of Silent Witness?"

"Forget it, my presence or absence won't change anything. The publicity and distribution are already well in place."

There will be more and more films under the group in the future, and it's impossible for Wei Jin to attend them all. Plus, the progress on Thieves is going well, and it will wrap up in at most a week; he doesn't want to delay it.

Hanging up the phone, Wei Jin began his new shooting task — on June 18th, Silent Witness was released, reporting 14 million on the first day, which is considered a decent result.

Wei Jin was not surprised by this. The production cost of this film was 40 million, but 20 million was invested in publicity and distribution alone. With such concentrated resources, the film's early promotion could be described as overwhelming.

Coupled with the fact that after securing the share for Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, major theater chains like China Film Group, Shanghai Film Group, and Poly cooperated tacitly, giving it decent screen allocations.

With all these factors added together, it is only natural for Silent Witness to have this result.

It is worth mentioning that Decision at Chamazhen, also starring Sun Honglei, was released during the same period, and the audience joked that Brother Huaqiang was fighting himself.

Withdrawing his thoughts, Wei Jin focused his attention on the filming of Thieves.

The current filming has entered the final stage, with scenes mainly concentrated on Zhang Hanyu, Li Tianwang, Clara, and Wang Ou and others.

The final climax scene is Zhang Hanyu's action sequence.

This dark-skinned, steady-natured actor is quite professional; he refused a stunt double and performed it himself.

A long string of chase and fight scenes, smooth and flowing, done in one go.

"Cut, very good, this take is a pass."

Wei Jin got up from the monitor and stretched.

"Everyone can take a break; the action scenes are completely finished."

The people on set understood what Wei Jin meant as soon as they heard it; the film would wrap up in these next few days. — In the film market, Silent Witness performed quite brilliantly.

The next day, the box office reached 24 million, and on the third day, Father's Day, the box office soared to 29 million.

In the first three days of the weekend, the film's cumulative box office reached 67 million.

It basically announced that this medium-budget film had succeeded again. Not only that, the film's word-of-mouth was also exceptionally good; many audience members came out of the theater with red eyes, turning around to recommend it to their friends and family, and the reviews online were almost unanimously positive.

Zu Renxing: "Although Lin Tai is a bad person, his love for his daughter is truly indescribable. The so-called fatherly love is as heavy as a mountain; it is nothing more than this."

Sushi Roll Otaku: "I watched the second half almost in tears; I miss my dad."

Don't Want to Say Goodbye 0802: "From an objective perspective, the script still has some minor flaws, but the suspense, plot twists, and montage editing techniques turned a mundane story into something gripping and heart-wrenching."

The media has already made predictions; there is almost no suspense that this film's box office will exceed 200 million.

Sometimes the capital market is truly unreasonable; in just these two or three days, the stock price of Golden Harvest has risen by over 20%. It is truly too easy to earn money from retail investors. —— After entering the filming phase, Wei Jin's life became very regular.

Regardless of whether he socialized with actresses the night before, he would browse relevant industry news every morning upon waking up.

Early in the morning, Wei Jin saw information about the Shanghai International Film Festival online.

Without surprise, the Shanghai International Film Festival continued to uphold its tradition, awarding its biggest prize to an obscure Italian art-house film.

They even went so far as to award the Golden Goblet Award for Outstanding Contribution to a great French director just to add prestige to the film festival.

Unfortunately, the person didn't care for it at all and didn't even show up to the scene; it was a case of offering a hot face to a cold butt.

Seeing this news, Wei Jin was speechless. It is, after all, the only international A-list film festival in the country, yet it doesn't even want basic dignity; I fear it will become increasingly irrelevant in the future.

What's even more ridiculous is that a novice film directed by Jiang Wenli directly took home the Asian Film Unit and Best Picture awards.

This is simply a farce. Wei Jin felt that his decision not to participate in the Shanghai International Film Festival was extremely wise.

In the film market, several movies set for release in July began large-scale promotions. The one receiving the most attention is "Aftershock," as it has inherent topicality and the support of state media.

It is worth mentioning that Feng Dapao's outburst at the film festival a few days ago did indeed have a significant impact on Huayi Brothers.

After the stock price fell for two consecutive days, Huayi Brothers could no longer sit still and discussed a countermeasure with Feng Dapao.

They publicly announced that "If You Are The One 2" would begin preparations ahead of schedule this month and released information on the main cast: Ge You, Shu Qi, Sun Honglei, and Yao Chen. One must know that "If You Are The One" was extremely profitable, and the sequel is highly likely to maintain that standard. The capital market is quite realistic, and Huayi's stock price immediately turned around and rose.

Wei Jin is also quite looking forward to this; the two priority investment rights he secured back then for "Taken" were meant to be used on this series.

Among the various film news, Wei Jin saw "Flirting Scholar 2" and couldn't help but think of Huang Xiaoming's situation.

A few days ago, the "Cult Leader" was photographed meeting Yang Ying at night and feeding each other; this can be considered a confirmed rumor.

Wei Jin felt that with Huang Xiaoming's shrewdness, he would probably observe a bit more before choosing to go public. —— The "Thieves" crew, after nearly forty days of filming, also reached its final scenes.

Clara, in a swimsuit, was chatting insincerely with Wang Ou by the hotel's outdoor pool.

One was sexy and hot, with a curvaceous figure; the other had long, slender legs and a heroic, spirited air.

In another shot, Zhang Hanyu, after disguising himself, became the final winner in the film.

"Cut."

Watching the footage in the monitor, Wei Jin nodded with satisfaction, then picked up the megaphone.

"I announce, 'The Thieves' has officially wrapped!"

"Yay!"

The crew members began to cheer.

"Director Wei, is this ending meant to lead to a second part?"

Li Tianwang asked with some curiosity, and the others also pricked up their ears to show their interest.

By logic, in this type of crime film, the villain should either die to atone for their sins or be caught and repent; that is what conforms to values. However, the ending for Zhang Hanyu and Wang Ou's characters left some room for interpretation, which couldn't help but make them speculate about a sequel.

"It's just planting a seed; the specific situation depends on the performance of this one. If we really want to do it, who knows how long it will take."

When adapting the script, Wei Jin habitually left foreshadowing, but he didn't have a mature idea for the subsequent plot. Perhaps one day when he thinks of it, he will let the screenwriting department perfect it.

"Haha, our film's box office definitely won't be bad. If there really is a sequel, no matter when it is, I'll be waiting for Director Wei's call."

Zhang Hanyu and Wang Ou were the most concerned about a sequel; after all, if there were one, they would likely be the leads.

"Mm, if there's an opportunity, I won't forget you."

This time there were many characters, and everyone's wrap-up times were not the same. Wei Jin did not intend to hold a wrap-up banquet; as he spoke, he hugged the actors one by one.

The film "Thieves" had been receiving attention since it started filming, and now that it had wrapped, the media was naturally scrambling to report it.

"'The Thieves' wraps up today."

"Oscar Director Wei Jin's new film finishes shooting smoothly."

"【Fast Gunner】 Wei Jin lives up to his name, completing an ensemble crime film in 40 days." —— Although the filming tasks had ended, Wang Ou and Clara still pestered the director to discuss acting; after all, the opportunity was rare.

It's just that Wang Ou didn't expect this time's scenes to be so difficult.

"Director, why don't we shoot other scenes first?"

Hearing this, Wei Jin shook his head and put down the slender leg in his hand.

"Wang Ou, improving your acting is a good thing, but don't let your dance foundation slip. Look at you, it's only been a short while, and you can't hold on? Forget it, adjust your state; I'll shoot Clara's scenes first."

Wei Jin moved away from Wang Ou's body and began filming Clara's scenes.

At this moment, the South Korean actress was already prepared and cooperated with the director very easily; it was quite smooth.

Wang Ou, having gained a chance to catch her breath, seized the time to recover her strength while also observing Clara's performance.

She saw that this South Korean actress with an explosive figure truly had incredibly superb acting skills.

Just as she was fantasizing about when she would be able to reach such a realm, the director's instructions suddenly rang in Wang Ou's ears.

"If you've rested enough, help me bring the things in the drawer. Our South Korean friend is returning home tomorrow, and I plan to take a different path tonight..."

Turning her head to look at Wang Ou, Wei Jin continued:

"You should prepare yourself too. Don't be afraid; you'll have to experience it sooner or later. Once you break through this path, you will find that your acting skills will instantly rise to a new level."

That night, with the director's help, the two actors broke through their bottlenecks and felt the joy of another world. First update of the day.

(End of chapter)