Chapter 173

After hearing one side of the story, he fired his own crew's casting director in less than a minute.

Either he is a discerning and upright official, or he is a muddled ruler who deserves to die!

Chen Nuo felt he must be the former.

Although he had only looked at Zhao Liying twice, her red, swollen eye sockets were truly obvious, and based on his understanding of Little Zhao, this woman didn't cry easily.

Even on the day she failed the talent show, she was all smiles and even treated him to a bowl of noodles, calling it a "long-awaited liberation."

So, for her eyes to be swollen from crying, it certainly wasn't a small matter.

What Zhang Xinyu said, as relayed by Qi Yuntian, perfectly matched his judgment.

Plus, that casting director named Gu or whatever had been recommended to the crew by Gao Qunshu.

Chen Nuo hadn't really spoken to him much.

But, with his shifty eyes and gold-rimmed glasses, did you think you were Professor Li?

One look and you knew he wasn't a good person.

So he signaled Qi Yuntian to give Gao Qunshu a rough idea.

What kind of person is Director Gao?

Having roamed the industry for many years, he had his fair share of dirty laundry, but he had never crashed because he knew how to read the room; he had done his fair share of cutting losses and selling out teammates.

Even if this Director Gu or whatever actually had some perks, he would never forget to give Director Gao a cut.

But on the phone, Director Gao was stern and severe, sweeping Director Gu out the door in just a few words.

After hanging up, he even wore a look of repentance, performing a harsh self-criticism, claiming he lacked the ability to judge character and was far inferior to Chen Zong.

Chen Nuo certainly knew this fatty was full of it, but water that is too clear has no fish; besides, this was originally the dark ecosystem of the entertainment industry.

Even that Director Gu hadn't committed any major wrong under these unwritten rules.

Big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp. If you don't want to be eaten, you can jump out of this sea, or you can rely on clever maneuvering.

If you have neither, then you deserve it.

The downside of this system is that it is extremely cruel to those at the bottom.

The upside is that as long as a person can stand out after being tempered by these rules, they will certainly be able to forge an extraordinary set of skills.

Unless they commit tax evasion or prostitution, perhaps nothing can stump them.

In the end, Director Gu's only mistake was being possessed by the god of bad luck, being blind, and provoking the wrong person.

Such a trivial matter, of course, could not be the theme of the *Wind Sound* crew's dinner that night.

The theme of the day, besides seeing Chen Zong off and wishing his performance in *The Dark Knight* a good result, was to unite the foreign cinematographers on the crew.

After more than ten days of working together, whether it was Ning Hao, Gao Qunshu, Chen Nuo, or Jiang Wen, they all felt that this Mexican guy and the other cameraman—a Colombian recommended by the Mexican—were truly amazing to work with.

From the fact that even a guy like Jiang Wen, who usually held his nose in the air, went to get Rodrigo Prieto's contact information, one could tell that the hundreds of thousands of dollars Chen Nuo and the others spent were definitely worth it.

The late-night snack ended. Except for Director Gu losing his job and the group leader He Yong acting like he was mourning his parents.

When Wan Tingting and the other girls heard that Zhang Xinyu and Zhao Liying actually had a chance to sign with Huaran Yixin, they were incredulous and consumed by jealousy.

Everyone else had a good time before leaving.

Early the next morning, Chen Nuo pulled himself away from Fan Bingbing's body, and amidst the woman's groans, he hardened his heart, got out of bed, and secretly flew back to Jingcheng alone.

Qi Yuntian didn't go with him because Chen Nuo really didn't feel at ease without one of his own people there.

For the next period, Chen Nuo would temporarily leave the *Wind Sound* crew and travel around Asia within two weeks with the promotional team for *The Dark Knight: Batman 2*.

That's right, not just the Chinese market.

Warner Bros. didn't know what they were thinking; when they notified them for the last time, they said they had handed over the promotional work for Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and all the Southeast Asian countries to him.

They called it "believing in his appeal in the Asian market."

For this, Qi Yuntian bargained with the Warner people on the phone for quite a while, although, in the end, he didn't get any substantial benefits from the mouth of that old fox at Warner Bros.

However, they signed a supplementary agreement to move the payment date forward, which was an unexpected joy.

At this time, neither Chen Nuo nor Qi Yuntian knew that the decision to change the promotional plan had been made directly by Warner Bros. US headquarters and then issued to the Warner Bros. Asia-Pacific President's office in Singapore.

After the head of the Asia-Pacific region saw the news, they didn't quite understand it, so after many repeated discussions via email and phone with the US headquarters, it was finally decided by Warner Bros. President Barry Meyer himself—

Stop arguing and put the focus of the promotion on Nuo Chen.

This left all the Warner employees in the Asia-Pacific region feeling somewhat bewildered.

Because the success or failure of *The Dark Knight* this time was truly crucial for Warner.

*Spider-Man 3*, produced by Columbia Pictures, one of the six major Hollywood studios, had swept the globe some time ago, setting a global box office record of 891 million US dollars.

The continuous success of the *Spider-Man* series had widened the box office gap between it and *Batman*, another superhero movie adapted from comics.

The *Spider-Man* trilogy, starting in 2002, took a total of 5 years from the first to the third film.

Nowadays, the total box office record has reached around 2.5 billion US dollars, the best performance in the history of superhero film series.

And what about *Batman*?

So far, the first film, *Batman Begins*, had a global box office of 373 million, less than half of *Spider-Man 1*.

Although the first film achieved success in terms of word-of-mouth, it also made Warner resolutely continue to use Christopher Nolan as the director for the second *Batman* film, granting him a lot of power.

However, the commercial value demonstrated by *Spider-Man* in the Marvel world made the *Batman* of the DC universe pale in comparison, a fact that was brought to the table from all sides as the release of *The Dark Knight* approached.

The consensus was that, no matter what, they shouldn't lose too miserably this time. Otherwise, it wouldn't just be a matter for Warner and Columbia. The entire DC universe would become a laughingstock for Marvel.

Therefore, Warner Bros. had also gone all out this time.

The production cost of *The Dark Knight* was 180 million US dollars, and the promotional budget was set at the highest ratio of 50%.

A full 90 million US dollars would be poured into the global media world because of *The Dark Knight*.

If calculated according to the Asia-Pacific promotional budget and plan currently set by Warner, at least 20 million US dollars would be tied to the name Nuo Chen.

That's right, the promotional budget for the Asia-Pacific region alone was double the production cost of the entire *Wind Sound*.

This is the power of one of the six major Hollywood studios.

"So, why is this?"

Luo Rui recalled the conversation she had with President James Gibbons in the Asia-Pacific President's office before she set off for China.

As a mid-level executive who had just been transferred from the US headquarters to the Asia-Pacific region, she had just received her Master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism last year. After working at the US headquarters for three months, she was transferred to Warner Bros. Asia-Pacific headquarters early this year. Luo Rui's professional resume was clearly very thin.

In the strictly hierarchical Warner, a small supervisor in charge of film promotional activities shouldn't have been qualified to meet the President before a business trip.

Even if she had been a standard blonde beauty from childhood, with skin whiter than snow and a pair of eyes like emeralds that had captured the hearts of countless young men, it was the same.

However, who told this media elite, who was like an iceberg beauty, to have an unusual uncle?

Therefore, faced with the question raised by Luo Rui, even Asia-Pacific President James Gibbons had to give a response.

He threw a file of artist information to her and said indifferently, "The reason given by headquarters is that after the internal test screening, our senior executives unanimously felt that the role of the Joker is the biggest highlight of this film."

Luo Rui's beautiful green eyes widened, and she asked incredulously, "James, are you telling the truth?"

James Gibbons said irritably, "Of course it's true. Would I joke with you about this? Don't look at me with that expression. Mr. Barry Meyer called me personally. I was more surprised than Jesus' resurrection after listening to it, exactly the same as you are now."

"Alright, you can set off now." James Gibbons threw her a file, "Look at this on the plane. There is still one month until the film is released. Work hard, Miss Eisner."

When Luo Rui was sitting in business class from Singapore to Jingcheng, China, and opened this file.

The first thing she saw was a photo of a Chinese teenager in a suit and leather shoes, looking exceptionally young.

The way he looked at the camera inexplicably reminded Luo Rui of the 5-year-old stallion named "Flame" in her uncle's manor.

Shy, not fond of dealing with strangers, and not having a very good temper, but winning several trophies for her uncle every year.

"This should be the photo from when he auditioned for the Joker."

Even without the two words next to the photo, Luo Rui naturally knew this person.

Nuo Chen.

Since the casting for *Batman 2* ended, the controversy surrounding this person had never disappeared. Even though Luo Rui hadn't been at Warner for long, the talk about the "Joker" reached her ears at every moment.

This was also the reason why Luo Rui opposed putting the focus of the promotion on this man this time.

Because—

A good promotion needs controversy, not controversial figures.

Controversial figures only blur the focus; for promotion, it is a double-edged sword.

Used well, it might get twice the result with half the effort.

Used poorly, it will definitely hurt others and oneself.

This was the first time in her life that Luo Rui had led such a major regional film promotional campaign, and she really didn't like this feeling.

It took 5 hours to fly from Singapore to Jingcheng. Luo Rui flipped through that file more than a dozen times and even took notes on it.

At this time, she still believed that although Nuo Chen was indeed very newsworthy overall, he was indeed a hot A-list star in mainland China at present.

Having him promote in mainland China should be able to draw many of his fans into the theater.

But in the Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian markets, his influence was still limited.

What effect would it have if he went on a roadshow?

Luo Rui even felt that those executives at Warner headquarters had been high and mighty in Hollywood for too long and didn't understand the relationships between the people of various Asian countries at all.

It was hard for Luo Rui to imagine a Korean or a Japanese person walking into a cinema because of a Chinese actor.

Would such a thing happen?

Would it?

After the plane landed in Jingcheng, Luo Rui immediately threw herself into the intensive promotional work.

After China came Korea, after Korea came Japan, and after Japan, she returned to China to listen to the promotional reports from various Southeast Asian countries.

Luo Rui was astonished to find that the Chinese boy hadn't even met with the team once!

This guy was actually still in such a remote place, filming his own low-budget movie!

Luo Rui was almost going crazy and gave a tough order to her assistants. No matter what, get this bastard to roll back to BJ as soon as possible.

As a result, once, twice, three times... she urged him on the phone I don't know how many times, until the day before the premiere, she finally saw Chen Nuo for the first time at the Capital International Airport.

"Hello, Luo Rui, very happy to meet you."

Luo Rui looked into Chen Nuo's eyes and had to admit that this damn Chinese boy indeed had the potential to become an Eastern heartthrob, just as the file said.

But this person was clearly more concerned about his own movie, actually waiting until the day before the film's release to return to Jingcheng.

Clearly, he didn't care about the box office of *The Dark Knight*.

Luo Rui greeted him politely, "Hello, Chen."

After the two shook hands, Luo Rui couldn't help but reveal a hint of complaint: "Chen, you returned really too late this time. Alright, get in the car quickly. Time is really too tight; we need to talk about our upcoming work immediately."

According to the promotional plan arranged by Luo Rui, from this afternoon to tomorrow morning, Chen Nuo had to accept two text interviews and two interviews from television stations—one was an old friend, CCTV6 Movie Channel, and the other was Jingcheng TV.

At the same time, he had to attend the premiere of *The Dark Knight* tomorrow night and accept media interviews after the screening.

However, this was not the end, but just a beginning.

Starting the day after tomorrow, he would travel non-stop to Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing, and other places to attend various promotional activities for *The Dark Knight*.

Afterward, he would fly to Hancheng. In addition to roadshow promotions, Luo Rui had already arranged a popular variety show on KBS for him there in advance.

Around July 20, he would fly from Hancheng to Tokyo, where he also needed to participate in two or three television programs.

Then, he would set off from Tokyo to Malaysia, transiting through Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and other Southeast Asian countries.

Finally, he would return to China around July 30 to complete this promotional plan for *The Dark Knight*.

After listening, even though Chen Nuo had some mental preparation beforehand, he was still somewhat dumbfounded.

Seeing his appearance, Luo Rui comforted him very understandingly: "Chen, your schedule for these two weeks is indeed a bit busy. If you have any requests, feel free to bring them up now, and our team will try our best to satisfy you."

Not to mention anything else, although Chen Nuo knew he would be carrying the load alone this time, he really wanted to avoid this situation where he had to face numerous flashbulbs all by himself, with all the questions thrown at him, and not even having anyone to help him out if his brain went blank.

He thought about it with a numb scalp and asked, "Did you not invite any other stars to stand for us? For this half month, it's just me alone. Wouldn't that be not so good? Do you not know any mainland stars? As it happens, I have friends in Japan, Korea, the mainland, and Hong Kong. Do you want me to introduce a couple to you?"

Luo Rui smiled and said, "Chen, with our good relationship with the China Film Group, we can invite many stars to attend our premiere in mainland China, and we can also hold a long red carpet show for them to make an appearance. Not just China; with the power of our Asia-Pacific region, we can do this everywhere in Asia. Like the Japan and Korea you mentioned, those have been our key operating areas since the 80s."

"But I won't do that, and Warner will never do that. If I did that, what would be waiting for me would be a termination email from LA."

"Mr. Chen, I don't know if you understand Hollywood, but I can tell you clearly: whether it's Disney or 21st Century Fox, whether it's Columbia or Warner Bros., when we go from Los Angeles, USA, to all parts of the world, we are never lacking in aura."

The niece of Michael Eisner, who ruled Disney for thirty years and was known as the tyrant of Disney—Luo Rui Eisner—smiled proudly: "It's the stars who need us, not us who need the stars."

(End of chapter)