Chapter 415: Sharing Rain and Dew Equally: Casting the Film

Shanhe Building, inside the Chairman's office.

"Meng Ying, send out audition invitations to these people."

Wei Jin handed over a piece of paper, which contained the list he had decided on in his mind, consisting of people quite suitable for the lead protagonist and antagonist roles in *Big Shot*.

Honestly, the role of the protagonist police officer is relatively simpler; it is nothing more than a stubborn little person, and the requirements for acting skills are not particularly high.

On the contrary, the villain role of Zhao Tai requires someone young and handsome, with a sinister look in their eyes, which is more demanding on acting skills.

Although the original version's Bao Bei'er contributed his peak acting performance, his peak was unfortunately a bit low, remaining entirely on the surface and giving people the feeling of "being born to be a punching bag."

As for the remaining supporting roles, they were actually very easy to choose; most of the main characters appearing can be copied from the original version.

Coincidentally, Wei Jin also quite likes the two actors Wang Yanhui and Du Yuan.

It is worth mentioning that for the role of Mei Ting in the original version, Li Jie, without knowing the situation, paid a considerable price to speak up for her friend, which makes Wei Jin laugh whenever he thinks about it.

As for the female lead, he won't look for the original one. This character is heroic and spirited, a woman who is no less than a man, the flower of the police force, with a unique skill of being able to kick away a thug with one foot. There is no difficulty in the performance, and since the company has many female artists, there is no need to benefit outsiders.

In addition, to avoid any accidents during the final review of the film, he intends to invite the super tool-man "Teacher Ma" to play one of the roles.

"Understood, Boss Wei."

After dismissing the Assistant, Wei Jin paid some attention to film news.

As an art-house film, *A Simple Life* has been released for over 20 days, and its decline is inevitably showing.

Currently, the box office has crossed the 80 million mark, but the single-day box office is already less than one million; it is estimated that there is no hope of breaking 100 million.

*Ex Machina*, on the other hand, is performing quite well; after one week of release, the box office has actually reached over 46 million, and the single-day box office is still maintaining above 5 million.

According to this data, it might really be possible to break 100 million.

Before long, Huang Mengying, having finished arranging the work, walked back in.

"Boss, the show *Hello Old Times* with Bin Jie is airing tonight. Do you want to watch it together?"

"Hmm?"

Hearing this, Wei Jin looked at Huang Mengying in surprise, and then a playful look appeared on his face, "This, Liu Yan told you to say it, right?"

Exposed to her face by the boss, Huang Mengying stuck out her tongue, "Mm, Sister Liu Yan said she misses you."

"Hehe, alright."

Wei Jin nodded and agreed. After all, Liu Yan is over thirty, and it is understandable that her needs are a bit strong; besides, it has been almost two months, and he feared the rumors might be true.

Beijing, Yanjiao Villa, a game of "fighting the landlord" for three people is underway.

Sitting at the card table, Huang Mengying's face was flushed and her eyes were hazy; it was clear that Wei Jin's every act of "taking responsibility to the end" moved her deeply.

Wei Jin was also very moved at this moment; in front of him, Huang Mengying was moving up and down, "pressing step by step," and behind him, Liu Yan was holding an Innate Spiritual Treasure and giving him a thoughtful massage. He was not only moved, but also dared to move.

In a short while, Huang Mengying was the first to finish the cards in her hand and threw down her cards to concede.

Different from the previous position, Liu Yan chose a posture with a higher degree of difficulty; she knew well that only in this way could Wei Jin be fully satisfied.

Wei Jin was quite satisfied with the thoughtfulness of his first Assistant. While grasping the "big orange," he felt like a tiger descending a mountain; every time he played a card, it was incredibly powerful.

"Boss~~~"

Half an hour passed, and Liu Yan let out a coquettish moan. Wei Jin immediately understood, pulled her hands over, pressed his waist and abdomen against her back, and ended this card game.

After enjoying Huang Mengying's shuffling service, Wei Jin held the two beauties, one big and one small, in his arms, feeling very satisfied.

Taking advantage of the time before the TV show started, Wei Jin stroked the delicate bodies of the two assistants while chatting with Liu Yan about *I Am a Singer*.

From Liu Yan's mouth, Wei Jin learned about many situations.

The recording for the second season of this program has ended, and the ten or so episodes currently aired have maintained an average viewership rating of around 2.5%.

Although this data looks a bit worse than last year's, one must know that as the internet becomes more developed, the viewership ratings of television stations are declining every year.

Mango TV's flagship variety show *Happy Camp* can only barely maintain around 1.8%, and it is only possible to break 2 when a viewership hit occasionally appears.

However, what surprised Wei Jin was that the highest-rated episode of *Singer* this season was actually the one where Liu Yifei appeared on the show for promotion, which actually broke 3.

One has to say, the little girl's popularity is really quite high.

"Who is the champion of this season?"

Last year, Lin Zhixuan won the championship of the first season, which was well-deserved.

And this year's contestants were equally strong, inviting Han Lei, Wei Wei, Zhang Yu, Zhang Jingying, Luo Qi, Cao Ge, Chen Li, as well as substitute singers Zhang Jie, Pin Guan, Man Wenjun, Power Station, and Zhou Chuanxiong.

Wei Jin was also quite curious about who the champion would be.

"It's Han Lei."

Wei Jin nodded; he is also a powerful singer, and that song *Borrowing Another Five Hundred Years from Heaven* was just too explosive.

After some idle chatter, *Hello Old Times* also started airing on the TV.

Speaking of which, the broadcast of this show was quite bumpy. Last year in August, Modu TV and Su Province TV secured the premiere rights, but because the two stations had to coordinate the broadcast time, it was dragged until this year to go online.

"Don't say, Xiaobai's student outfit really has a certain flavor..."

Looking at Bai Bin's school uniform on the screen, Wei Jin rested his chin on his hand and commented. This reminded him of the cosplay on the night of the annual meeting the year before last, so much so that not long after he had just released, he slightly raised his little head.

"Boss, if you like it, I can wear it too..."

Watching the boss start to swell, Huang Mengying gently kneaded while expressing her heart.

Liu Yan on the side was not to be outdone and buried her head deeply.

"Hiss— Little White Tiger, Meng Ying, didn't we agree to watch TV? What are you two doing?"

Huang Mengying pulled Wei Jin's hand and placed it on Liu Yan's proud Dharma Treasure.

"Boss, we just need to pay attention to the viewership ratings of the TV series; the time at night is very precious..."

Looking at Liu Yan, who was still working hard underneath without a word, Wei Jin shook his head; it really isn't easy to share the rain and dew equally.

"Fine, if I don't go to hell, who will? Tonight, let me subdue you two demons."

Just as he was about to deal leniently with the two assistants, the phone rang unexpectedly, and Huang Mengying very tactfully handed the phone over.

"Hello, Hunter?" "Boss, *Happy Death Day 2*..."

Listening to Hunter's report, the corners of Wei Jin's mouth curled into a smile involuntarily.

*Happy Death Day 2* finished its theatrical run in North America a few days ago, with a box office gross of 133 million USD.

The global market box office was a bit delayed, only finishing its summary today, but the results were quite eye-catching, with a cumulative box office of 258 million, surpassing the previous installment.

This film had a production cost of 8 million USD; after deducting marketing costs, the net profit from the box office alone reached as high as 80 million USD. Although a portion had to be shared with James Wan, it was undeniable that this film still made a fortune.

More importantly, there would be significant subsequent DVD copyright revenue; come to think of it, this was the true steady stream of income.

In fact, the massive amount of copyrights accumulated by Summit Entertainment over these years generated hundreds of millions of USD in cash flow annually, which was truly a guaranteed return regardless of the weather.

"By the way, *The Hunger Games* is about to be released. How are the negotiations with the theater chains going?"

Wei Jin held great expectations for this film; it would become Summit Entertainment's biggest cash cow after the *Twilight* series.

"Boss, no problem. The number of opening screens this time will absolutely not be lower than four thousand."

"Good. Report to me once the opening weekend box office figures are out."

Just as Wei Jin hung up the phone, he saw Huang Mengying lift her head from his chest, smiling sweetly, "Boss, congratulations on the big box office success."

"Haha, your mouth is truly sweet. Tonight, Boss will reward you well."

"Mmm~~ Boss~~~ mmm."

Hearing the wanton cries emitted by Huang Mengying, Liu Yan, who had been working hard for a long time, immediately refused to be left out.

"Boss, it should be my turn first this time~~"

Upon hearing this, Wei Jin reached out and pulled Liu Yan over, pressing her down onto the bed, taking hold of the true "big oranges," unable to keep his hands off them.

"Haha, what are you in such a rush for? Let's do it together."

After saying this, Wei Jin looked at Huang Mengying, who immediately understood and followed suit, lying on top of Liu Yan, pressing tightly against her.

Watching the moving scene before him, Wei Jin swelled infinitely, sinking his waist and mounting his horse.

"Oh~~ oh~~"

Throughout the entire night, the two assistants were injected with who knows how many hundreds of millions by their thoughtful boss, their net worth skyrocketing overnight. Wei Jin had to admit that his assistants truly understood his mind so well that when he woke up the next morning, he was eaten by the two vixens several more times.

By the time he arrived at the company, it was already past ten o'clock. Opening his email, he saw the data sent over by the TV drama production department.

*Hello Old Times* had a premiere viewership rating of 1.3%, a market share of 9.2%, and ranked second for the same period.

"Not bad."

After muttering to himself, Wei Jin browsed through some industry news.

He didn't know until he looked, but he was shocked once he did; is the Hong Kong Circle crazy?

These past two days happened to be the time of the Hong Kong International Film Festival, and a group of Hong Kong filmmakers were actually shamelessly discussing the future of Chinese-language cinema at the festival, critiquing Mainland China films and the market.

If they had truly hit the nail on the head and provided deep insights, that would be one thing, but this group was peddling far too much of their own private agendas.

The famous "pit-father" director Chen Kexin spoke quite directly.

"With the implementation of the China-US agreement, the Chinese-language film market is facing great challenges. Only by investing in more co-productions between the two regions can we compete with Hollywood blockbusters. However, the film industry in Mainland China started late and lacks high-end industry talent; this aspect happens to be Hong Kong's strength."

Hong Kong Film Awards chairman Wen Jun was even more naked: "Cooperation between the two regions is the general trend. Hong Kong is responsible for creativity and production teams, while Mainland China is responsible for investment and providing the target market. Only in this way can Chinese-language films go international and compete with Hollywood."

It sounded very high-end, but summarized in one sentence: Mainland investors are responsible for putting up the money, Mainland audiences are responsible for buying tickets, and everything else can be left to the Hong Kong filmmakers.

This is purely treating people like fools, or perhaps they've been bluffing so much they've bluffed themselves?

Wei Jin couldn't hold back and posted a Weibo status directly; the entire post was only one sentence.

"Damn idiots! Do you really take people for suckers?"

As expected, although Wei Jin's Weibo post was sent out without rhyme or reason, many media outlets still guessed the meaning behind it.

For a time, the media went crazy with excitement! One must know that the "Zhen-Zhao Dispute" had only passed a few days ago; was Boss Wei going to open fire again? Within just a single day, all sorts of fermentation began on the internet.

Many companies in Mainland China that had been harmed stood up to speak, counting the many pitfalls that had appeared in co-productions over the years, such as unclear capital flows, perfunctory creation, and poor film word-of-mouth. Many Mainland filmmakers also expressed that the current market share of Mainland films is getting higher and higher, while co-productions are actually on the decline, indicating that Mainland China also has many excellent filmmakers, and they highlighted Wei Jin, Wu Ershan, Lu Yang, Ning Hao, Guo Fan, and others, calling on investors to consider Mainland teams more. If the statements from the media and the industry were relatively restrained, then the netizens were nakedly mocking them.

"Hong Kong films have been so rotten these years that they're unwatchable; are they still out here trying to fool people?"

"Chen Kexin's straw hat costs 6,000 USD; how the hell does he have the nerve to call himself a professional?"

At this moment, the Hong Kong Circle appeared very displeased, sarcastically implying that this was affecting the unity between filmmakers of the two regions.

Regarding all this nagging, Wei Jin couldn't be bothered to pay attention. I didn't name names, so if you're willing to jump out and act like an idiot, what does it have to do with me?

After composing his mood, Wei Jin arrived at the small conference room on the 8th floor; the auditions for *Big Shot* had begun.

Because it was by invitation, there weren't many people who came to audition this time, and the audition process was also very simple.

In just one afternoon, Wei Jin determined the final cast.

For the male lead, Sun Dasheng, he ultimately chose between Sun Honglei and Hu Jun, opting for the latter.

As a graduate of the Central Academy of Drama, Hu Jun's acting skills need not be mentioned, and his appearance was full of a sense of justice. Plus, having collaborated on *Brotherhood of Blades*, Wei Jin naturally had a sense of favor toward him, so he quickly finalized him.

It is worth mentioning that Hu Jun originally had a TV drama contract on hand, but Wang Jinhua made the decision on the spot to drop it directly, ensuring it would absolutely not affect the start date here.

Are you kidding? Between a TV drama and the male lead in a Wei Jin film, how could Wang Jinhua not distinguish which was more important? For the male villain, Wei Jin was originally very keen on Qin Hao; in terms of evil aura, this guy could handle it perfectly. It was just that after the on-site screen test, he found that his look was a bit too old, and he was also a bit rough, not looking like a pampered rich second generation.

Ultimately, Wei Jin chose Huang Xuan, who came from the Beijing Dance Academy.

The 27-year-old Huang Xuan had a very good physique and temperament, looking a bit like a pampered wealthy second generation from a conglomerate. Although he was not a professionally trained actor, his performance had a lot of spirit, and he performed the small audition segment very well.

As for the potential rumors between him and Jiang Wenli, that was not something Wei Jin needed to consider.

The remaining roles were basically settled by the Casting Director over these days. The policewoman was given to company artist Zhang Li; this girl was beautiful with long legs, and playing a police beauty was not out of place at all.

It is worth mentioning that Wei Jin specifically invited Fan Bingbing to play another female celebrity who was subjected to "hidden rules."

Since he is a top-tier rich second generation, he should have both Bingbing and Meng Ying; only then would it have impact!

(End of this chapter)