Chapter 486

Accompanied by Gong Ying, Gong Xue ran to the Qingniao Film Company again and met director Yan Hao.

Director Yan Hao was only in his early 30s, but he was small and had a young face, looking just like a college student.

At first glance, Gong Xue felt that the director might not be reliable. Yan Hao was also worried about whether Gong Xue, an actress born and raised in the mainland, could handle the role of Shanshan. He actually hoped to find a Hong Kong actress with charm, such as Zhong Chuhong.

But Zhong Chuhong couldn't risk going to the mainland; her momentum was just right.

However, after meeting, Yan Hao could hardly feel the mainland atmosphere in Gong Xue, as long as she didn't open her mouth.

After opening her mouth, her Mandarin was too standard, and her tone was too serious, which exposed her. Fortunately, they would do dubbing.

Gong Xue put a lot of effort into her image, and even lived with the single mother from the Langning toy factory for a period of time.

In addition, there was Gong Ying's credit in styling. Now her second sister looked like a Hong Kong woman who had seen everything and had a story, very charming.

Finally, Yan Hao tested two scenes. Xia Meng, who hadn't acted for a long time, personally acted with her, acting as Siqin Gaowa's role.

Gong Xue completed these two scenes very perfectly, even in the face of an old senior like Xia Meng, she did not show any timidity.

Yan Hao shook hands with Gong Xue: "I have no problem here. Welcome to join."

Gong Xue hurriedly asked: "Then when will it start filming?"

Xia Meng said: "Director Yan hopes to create a desolate feeling, so he suggests starting filming in the autumn. During this period, you can stay in Hong Kong to maintain the feeling, or return to the mainland first."

Gong Xue asked: "Is Siqin Gaowa still in Chaoshan?"

"Yes."

Gong Xue: "Then I'll go see her first, and then return to Beijing to tell the unit before coming over."

This film will be jointly produced by Qingniao and the mainland's Pearl River Film Studio. It is also a co-production, so Gong Xue and Siqin Gaowa still follow the process of domestic film studio actors, without salary, but with wages and subsidies.

There is no actor salary, and no big scenes, so the investment in this film will be much smaller, which is the smallest investment Qingniao has made so far.

After leaving Qingniao, Gong Xue said to her sister reluctantly: "Then I will leave in two days. Let Mom take care of you."

Gong Ying laughed: "My stomach isn't even big yet, don't worry, it's fine."

"And this," Gong Xue handed a bunch of keys to her sister, "If Wei Ming comes to Hong Kong before me, give this to him, or maybe we will come together."

Before preparing to leave Hong Kong, Gong Xue suddenly received a call from Zhou Huimin.

"Sister Xue, haven't forgotten me, right? We said we would have a chance to eat together."

"Of course, I remember." Gong Xue maintained her smile.

"Then do you have time tomorrow? I have an urgent matter to ask for advice."

Gong Xue paused slightly, and finally said: "Okay."

Before Wei Ming and the others left San Francisco, Great-Aunt launched a formal acquisition of AMC, with the acquisition price set at 30 million US dollars.

In addition, about 100 million dollars may need to be invested later. One is to acquire other small cinema chains, and the other is to build multi-functional cinema halls by themselves, creating a cinema chain system covering North America, and becoming the first cinema chain giant, so as to increase bargaining power with the Big Eight film companies in Hollywood.

Although this cinema chain has nothing to do with Wei Ming, it is absolutely trustworthy and is a solid foundation for Wei Ming to break into Hollywood.

Before leaving, Wei Ming also made a suggestion.

"The Chinatown bookstore seems to be selling records too, so can it also sell videotapes?" Wei Ming pointed out, "Mastering movie videotapes, if you can also win the television network, that is truly mastering the terminal of the film and television industry."

Great-Aunt and Gong Biyang, who was responsible for the bookstore business beside her, were thoughtful.

And Ah Chao, the bodyguard and driver beside Great-Aunt, suddenly took a newspaper and handed it to her. Obviously, there was an urgent matter.

After Great-Aunt finished reading, she sighed: "Another old friend is gone."

Seeing Wei Ming and the others puzzled, she handed this traditional Chinese newspaper to Wei Ming. I saw an obituary on the front page, which was Liao Gong's.

Liao Gong has long been responsible for the work of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, and his friends are all over the world. Even people with extreme personalities like Great-Aunt regard him as a friend, which shows that his work is indeed well done, uniting all people who can be united.

Wei Ming was very sorry. Last year, Liao Gong just sent an open letter to Xiao Jiang, and the response from the global Chinese circle was enthusiastic. It seemed that cross-strait relations were expected to move forward. Now that the bridge between the two sides is gone, a lot of work has to be redone. Once time is delayed, the window may be gone.

After reading the obituary, Wei Ming and others boarded the plane. During this week in San Francisco, Wei Ming also successfully settled the University of California, Berkeley. The Humanities Division of the College of Letters and Science of the school very much welcomed Mr. Wei to join the school, and also gave scholarships and other loose treatment that ordinary students could not reach.

After all, Wei Ming is a Palme d'Or winner at Cannes, a famous best-selling author and musician, and is considered a genius author with the potential to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. If he can add a Nobel Prize-winning alumnus to the school, why wouldn't Berkeley do it?

Wei Ming plans to return to Beijing to make up for domestic procedures after he is busy, and officially start his study abroad life with his sister in the second half of the year.

Now they still have to fly to Los Angeles.

During this time, Wei Lingling has been in contact with Atari, and next she is going to talk to the parent company Warner.

And Wei Ming also found the contact information of New Line Cinema boss Robert Shaye, and they agreed to meet in Los Angeles.

On the plane, Wei Ming learned about Atari and video games from Wei Lingling.

"Atari is the first company to produce arcade machines. There are many patents in this regard. They have a game called Breakout. I don't know if you have played it?"

Wei Ming nodded, he had played it, but it was in his previous life, and it is estimated that it was not the original version.

Wei Lingling said: "This classic game is Atari's, and it can also be played on arcade machines in Hong Kong. One of the developers later came out to start his own company and founded a computer company called Apple, and it has already gone public."

This is a new knowledge point. Wei Ming knew that Jobs had worked at Atari, but he didn't know that this classic game actually came from his hands.

And Steve Gary Wozniak, who developed Breakout with Jobs and founded Apple, is also an alumnus of Berkeley.

"Atari's hottest product is the Atari 2600 home game console. When I was studying abroad, it was very popular in the United States. Many male classmates had one set. It is said that there is an Atari 2600 in every three households in the United States," Wei Lingling said, "It is also because the R&D cost of this game console is too high, so in 1976, Atari was acquired by Warner for 28 million US dollars in cash."

Seven years ago, it was worth 28 million.

Wei Ming asked cautiously: "Then how much did the R&D of this game console finally cost?"

Wei Lingling: "More than 100 million US dollars, but Warner bet right. Atari 2600 brought Warner more than 2 billion US dollars in profit, but it is a pity that the glory ends at this moment."

She carried a copy of the *Alamogordo Daily News* with her. The newspaper was news about Atari destroying 3.5 million *E. T. * game cartridges.

Each Atari game disc sells for 25 US dollars. This is not only a loss of tens of millions of US dollars, but also a loss of Atari's goodwill, leading to the downturn of Atari and even the entire American home game industry, until a few years later when Japanese companies like Nintendo made a comeback and ate up this 100 billion US dollar home game console industry.

Wei Ming: "This Atari was once so brilliant, it feels like even Langning would be difficult to swallow."

Wei Lingling: "Let's try it. When I went to Atari, the company was laying off employees. Now Atari is also a not-small burden for Warner."