Chapter 356: Small Project, Face-Slapping, Big Project

Wei Jin never expected that just by sleeping with Nazha, Zhang Ziyi would become a joke once again.

Before, when she secured *Dangerous Liaisons* and boasted about her 20 million salary, she was so arrogant, mocking Li Bingbing on Weibo for a long time and saying she was nothing more than a female lead number two.

As it turned out, the slap in the face came too quickly; it turned out her role was also a female lead number two, and she had only found out in the last two days.

What was even more critical was that the production team actually wanted her to play a supporting role for Zhang Baizhi? How could that be possible?

Sure enough, Zhang Ziyi started making trouble; at the opening ceremony held by the crew, she stayed directly in the backstage area and refused to attend.

When the crew staff came to persuade her, she flew into a rage.

"My role isn't fleshed out enough. The director must add scenes for me, and they must guarantee there are more than Zhang Baizhi's, otherwise I will absolutely not go on stage."

As it happened, she was unlucky, and this scene was recorded by a reporter who had gone backstage for an interview and posted online.

The result was predictable; the internet was filled with mockery.

"Zhang Ziyi is so domineering, she's only bullying Zhang Baizhi because she's single now. If she hadn't divorced, she would be the Crown Princess of the Hong Kong Circle; I bet she'd have a completely different face then, right?"

"It's hard to say, didn't Fan Bingbing refuse to play a supporting role before?"

"Can that be the same? Zhang Ziyi signed the contract and is now forcing her way to suppress someone else's billing."

To be honest, many big-name actors in the circle have had instances of asking directors to add scenes, but Wei Jin had truly never encountered this.

However, if anyone dared to make this request in front of him, Wei Jin would decisively tell them to get lost.

It's a pity not all directors have Wei Jin's backbone; at least the South Korean director of *Dangerous Liaisons*, Xu Qinhao, did not.

And so, Zhang Ziyi threw a tantrum and played the disappearing act again, becoming completely unreachable. The director had no choice but to cave in and agree to her demands.

Watching the farce online, Wei Jin felt some sympathy for his South Korean colleague; he feared he would be bullied quite a bit in the future. — Shanhe Building, in the Chairman's office.

"President Wei, you were looking for me?"

Guo Fan sat upright in front of Wei Jin and asked with some curiosity.

"Yes, how is the matter of your graduation coming along?"

Guo Fan was a Graduate Student in the 2009 Management Department at Beijing Film Academy and was due to graduate next year.

Unlike the Director Department, the graduation process for the Beijing Film Academy Management School was much more complex, so even though Wei Jin had some ideas, he still had to ask clearly; he couldn't delay someone's graduation, could he?

"It's going well. Before going to North America this time, I made preparations and brought all the relevant materials. Summit Entertainment was also very helpful and took care of all the various procedures that needed stamping for me. Now I'm just waiting for next year's graduation defense."

Guo Fan answered truthfully, feeling very fortunate in his heart. Compared to his classmates at school, his "graduation project" was truly full of substance.

"So, does that mean your schedule is relatively free right now?"

As soon as Wei Jin said this, Guo Fan had a vague guess in his heart but didn't dare to be certain. Although he had been signed for a year, he was still a student in the Management Department who hadn't graduated yet, but what if? In a flash of lightning, countless thoughts surfaced in Guo Fan's mind, finally converging into one sentence.

"Yes, President Wei, I'm basically just attending classes and reading books at school right now."

Wei Jin nodded and stopped beating around the bush.

"Mm, that's perfect. Didn't you say before that you had a director's dream? I have a script here, and I intend to let you practice with it first."

"Really?"

Wei Jin ignored the surprise on Guo Fan's face, extinguished his cigarette butt, and took a bound document out of the drawer.

Guo Fan took it excitedly, flipped through a few pages carefully, then suddenly looked up and asked, "President Wei, is this script science fiction?"

Afterwards, Guo Fan frowned slightly; although he liked science fiction very much, he didn't know if he could handle it at his current level.

"Not quite, this is just a soft science fiction film. You can leave the post-production and the small amount of special effects shots to Shanhe Ink."

Seeming to see through Guo Fan's thoughts, Wei Jin shook his head and explained.

"Just take it to practice. Of course, I won't give you too much in terms of funding; let's cap it at 10 million."

In this instant, Guo Fan's heart was excited, touched, and worried all at once—it was quite complex and contradictory.

He was excited because his dream was about to come true; touched because Wei Jin was so generous; and worried because he was afraid of performing poorly and ruining Wei Jin's reputation.

One had to know that Wei Jin's scripts were famous in the industry for being excellent.

"President Wei, I... am I capable of this?"

Looking at Guo Fan's expression, Wei Jin found it somewhat amusing. This kid was still a bit timid; that fellow Lu Yang would have dared to rush up and ask him for a script and money directly.

"Don't worry, with a budget of 10 million, you can't lose much. Besides, which good director wasn't 'lost' into existence? Ning Hao was about the same back then."

Hearing this, Guo Fan immediately gained some confidence.

"Okay, I will definitely film it with care. When the time comes, I hope President Wei can come over to provide some guidance."

"Mm, go find Chen Xi. First, take the script for review, and for the subsequent crew assembly, consult with her more as well."

Guo Fan nodded. He was quite familiar with Chen Xi, having spent several months with her, and he admired her quite a bit; he had learned a lot from her while on the crew of *Gravity*.

"Alright, President Wei, then I'll be going."

"Mm."

After seeing Guo Fan off, Wei Jin opened the drawer and looked at another script.

He had originally intended to let him film this one, but considering that it was Guo Fan's first time directing, he chose a safer script.

As for this one, he would wait until the results of this time were out before deciding. Time entered mid-October, and in the film market, the performance of *The Thieves* was extremely strong.

As of now, it had been in theaters for 14 days, the box office had broken 900 million, and weekday box office receipts were still firmly maintained above 30 million.

The performance of *Painted Skin* was also not bad; after 21 days in theaters, the box office had crossed the 200 million mark, with daily box office still at three or four million.

The press releases from Enlight Media were being sent out one after another, all of them good news.

In contrast, *The Sorcerer and the White Snake*, after entering 180 million in total box office, almost stopped moving, with daily box office already falling below one million.

From mocking Enlight Media before the release, to crushing *Painted Skin* after the release, to being caught up in the later stages, and now being left far behind.

Juli Pictures' Yang Zi and *The Sorcerer and the White Snake* perfectly staged a good show of "acting arrogant and getting struck by lightning," directly contracting the biggest joke in the circle for the second half of the year. Perhaps due to the box office failure, coupled with the loss of Huang Shengyi's resources, Yang Zi had become somewhat manic and actually announced directly on Weibo: "The sequel to *The Sorcerer and the White Snake* is about to start. We are striving to begin filming by the end of the year and release it next year. This film has already invited Li Lianjie to continue participating... This time for the sequel, we will produce a 3D version, which will definitely bring everyone a brand-new experience. When it comes to making movies, we at Juli Pictures are serious."

Once the news came out, it really did attract quite a bit of attention.

Unfortunately, before Yang Zi could continue to perform, Li Lianjie's Assistant took the initiative to step out and slap him in the face.

"We have not received an invitation, and we will absolutely not participate. It was agreed before that it would be a guest appearance, and for this, we spared no effort to adjust the filming schedule of *Flying Swords of Dragon Gate*, just to give Ms. Cui Baozhu face."

But who would have thought that after arriving at the set, the production team would constantly change the script and add scenes, turning what was originally a three-day shoot into over 20 days. Ultimately, through coordination, we filmed for 10 days, which even delayed the shooting schedule of *Flying Swords of Dragon Gate*. We express our deepest apologies for this and hope the seven production companies will understand.

So this time, we will absolutely not cooperate with Juli Pictures, and in the future, we never will."

The core meaning of Li Lianjie's Assistant, aside from refuting Yang Zi's words, was to apologize to the seven production companies, including Shanhe Media.

It must be said that the timing was chosen quite well, and the wording was sincere; Wei Jin really couldn't find any fault with it.

Netizens were also in an uproar. Juli's Yang Zi was just too shameless; paying a guest star's fee to have someone act as the male lead, and in all action scenes at that.

"No wonder, if not for the interference of the seven production companies, I'm afraid the role of Fahai in *The Sorcerer and the White Snake* would have been even larger, right?"

"So that's why, why did Fahai have some many bizarre, repetitive movements? It turns out they were in the script, but since the person wasn't there, the production team just reused the movements over and over? Tsk tsk."

As for the mockery online, Yang Zi acted as if he couldn't see it at all, even intensifying the hype around the matter as a promotional selling point. He gave Li Lianjie absolutely no face and even mocked him for being high-maintenance, which truly opened the eyes of the industry.

Watching the gossip online, Wang Changtian was overjoyed.

Now, there was no need for Fiber to continue taking action; Yang Zi had directly cut off his own path.

Not only did one have to guard against freeloaders, but one also had to constantly watch out for backstabbing from Yang Zi. One might ask, which big-name star or company would dare to cooperate with him? For a long time, Wei Jin's films had been the target of many production companies or directors in the circle looking to follow the trend.

For example.

After *Brotherhood of Blades*, Li Rengang followed the trend with *Blades*; after *The Martian*, Wang Pangzi followed the trend with *Future Police*; after *Painted Skin*, Chen Jiashang followed the trend with *Painted Skin II*. It's just that no one in the circle expected the efficiency of following the trend to be this high.

*Thieves* was still in theaters, and yet a treasure-hunting ensemble film had already announced its project launch and was about to start filming.

"Spearheaded by Pegasus, with investments from China Film Group, Movie Channel, Media Asia, and others, the 3D treasure-hunting action blockbuster with a production budget as high as 220 million, *Tianji: Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains*, has officially launched!"

"This film will be headlined by Liu Tianwang, with the participation of well-known actors from across the strait and three regions, including Tong Dawei, Zhang Jingchu, Lin Chi-ling, and Siqin Gaowa, and will officially start filming at the end of October."

It must be said that the production companies chose a good time.

Taking advantage of the momentum of *Thieves* being a hit, this film attracted huge attention before it even started filming, and there was much discussion online.

"Wow, so looking forward to it! Liu Tianwang missed out on *Thieves*, but this film has a larger investment scale, a better production team, and it's a 3D blockbuster. A ten-year fan kneeling and waiting for the release!"

"A trend-following work, undoubtedly a trash film. Not everyone can handle the treasure-hunting ensemble theme."

"Seconded. This director, Sun Jianjun, is the boss of the production company Pegasus. He has no works to his name; is he just playing around?"

"Not necessarily. With several major companies participating jointly, if the production team is good enough, it doesn't matter who the director is; even a dog would do."

Looking at the information online, Wei Jin shook his head and gave a bitter smile.

The position of director—it is important if you say it is, and it is not important if you say it isn't; it all depends on the specific situation.

But what is the deal with this Sun Jianjun? The boss of Pegasus, stepping in to be the director himself? Another one with pursuits and dreams?

Wei Jin had a very deep impression of this work; it had a Douban rating of 3, which could be said to have set a new historical low. It is estimated that it will be difficult for any film to break this record for many years to come.

Thinking of this, Wei Jin couldn't help but mourn for Liu Tianwang and Han Sanping.

"It really is: getting fooled every single time, and every time it's something different."

Just as he was sighing, the phone rang.

"Damn, you really can't talk about people from Shudi."

Just as he was thinking about Han Sanping, his call came.

As soon as Wei Jin picked up, Han Sanping's hearty laughter came from the other end of the line.

"Wei Jin, you saw the news, right? Let me tell you, this time I personally made the final decision, a 75 million investment..."

Listening to Han Sanping's rambling, which was not without pride, Wei Jin didn't know what to say anymore.

And what was this about "after expert verification, the box office definitely won't be bad"? Doesn't this guy know that experts are all pitfalls?

"Hello? Is the kid still listening?"

"Oh, oh, I'm here, Han Dong, please continue."

"It's like this, the special effects part hasn't been decided yet. I suggest Shanhe Ink do it. The other production companies have no objections. What do you say?"

Hearing this, Wei Jin was actually a bit touched. For a project like this, there was at least a profit of ten million. This old man Han Sanping was still worth dealing with.

However, after the *The Sorcerer and the White Snake* incident, he had to carefully screen the special effects clients who came knocking. For something like *Switch*, a super trash film that would go down in history, he didn't intend to take it.

But he still had to tactfully refuse this good intention.

"Han Dong, thank you, but recently Shanhe Ink is busy with the special effects for *Dixing Yinxing* and *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons*. Both our equipment and staff are running at their limit, so we can't take on other work. So, I appreciate the kind gesture."

"Is that so? Then forget it. But there are many supporting actresses in this film. If you have any ideas, remember to let me know."

"Sure, if I have a need, I won't stand on ceremony with you."

Hanging up the phone, Wei Jin looked down at his new Assistant who had been serving him for some time, and nodded with satisfaction.

In just half a month, Huang Mengying had adapted very well to her identity. She was no longer resistant to office play and even seemed a bit addicted to it.

"Meng Ying, you've worked hard, get up now."

Hearing this, Huang Mengying didn't rush. Instead, she cleaned up gently, then slowly stood up and took the initiative to pull up the hem of her tight-fitting skirt.

Wei Jin noticed that perhaps to facilitate office games, Huang Mengying wasn't wearing one-piece black silk stockings today, but a pair of long stockings that only reached the base of her thighs, making her fair, perky buttocks look even more beautiful.

……

Wei Jin didn't hesitate anymore; he reached out, pulled her close, and began today's workout. (End of chapter)