Chapter 248: Summer Season Pre‑heat

Jiang Heng finished speaking and looked at Jing Tian, "You didn't say you wanted to share your stills from Zhu Zion?"

"Oh dear, I just went to refresh the article views and forgot!" Da Tian Tian wore a vexed expression, looking not very bright.

Jiang Heng, hearing this, was quite speechless, and did not mention it while eating and drinking with everyone.

The next day, the online dissemination incident continued to ferment; the article Jing Tian wrote had already surpassed one million views, drawing over fifty thousand replies.

Moreover, her personal blog's follower count also quickly exceeded thirty thousand.

Even the articles of Liu Yifei, Tang Yan, Yang Mi, and others had read counts in the hundreds of thousands.

Even Zhao Liying, who isn't very popular these days, had articles posted on the blog with over one hundred thousand views.

This April, Jiang Heng became the hottest "traffic" on the Chinese internet, with many people jumping on to ride the hype.

For example, some has-been artists from Xianggang all opened blogs, dug out old photos with Jiang Heng, wrote a short essay, and attracted considerable attention.

Many artists from the mainland who had collaborated also opened blogs to post photos, making Jiang Heng "extremely popular for a time" on the Chinese internet.

As for this matter, Jiang Heng's response had three points.

First, not to respond, and indeed there was no need to respond. Moreover, people have been practicing "reading comprehension" since childhood; who knows what meaning they'll read into it that he never imagined!

Second, have Jing Tian, Liu Yifei, and others quickly post something else—be it their own beautiful photos or drama stills—anyway, the goal is to divert public attention.

Third, order people to register a company named "Ai You Technology," recruit a batch of top computer science graduates, and prepare to develop a "Weibo" product.

The effect showed up quickly; Jing Tian also felt she had "stirred up trouble," so she hurriedly followed Jiang Heng's instructions, posting many Zhu Zion stills on the blog and uploading numerous personal lifestyle photos.

Because she was at the core of the online dissemination incident, her newly posted articles were again placed at the top of the blog's homepage, swiftly drawing a large crowd of netizens; Jing Tian gained many followers, and the hype for the Zhu Zion film was also stirred up.

Moreover, Tang Yan, who played Lu Xueqi, also released many stills and lifestyle photos, increasingly drawing netizens' attention to this matter.

Xianggang—Zhang Jiazhen, who was pondering how to promote Red Cliff, saw the situation and became greatly annoyed.

Because, according to standard film promotion practice, there is concentrated promotion one month before release and pre‑heat promotion two months before.

Zhu Zion still has three months before release, yet you're already acting impatiently—what do you mean?

"I guess they want to challenge us to a showdown!" Wu Yusen frowned slightly, wearing a worried expression.

Zhang Jiazhen heard this and turned pale, "No way?"

Wu Yusen said, "Hard to say, after all, the press releases we issued last year always managed to slip in Zhu Zion!"

Zhang Jiazhen heard this and gave a wry smile; last year's "ambush‑style" marketing merely sought to subtly influence viewers, making them feel that Red Cliff's audiovisual effect was on par with Jiang Heng's big productions.

As for the idea of clashing in the same slot, it's not even something one dares to think about.

The box‑office failure of Wind Speaker was already dire; Wu Yusen urgently needs a hit film to turn things around—how could he dare to truly challenge Jiang Heng?

Even if Zhu Zion's box office is unsatisfactory, Jiang Heng won't be affected in the slightest.

If Red Cliff's box office suffers, Wu Yusen's subsequent filming plans become uncertain.

Upon thinking this, Wu Yusen directly said, "I'll give him a call!"

Zhang Jiazhen nodded; although the possibility of Jiang Heng advancing the premiere of Zhu Zion is small, we still need to guard against it.

"Making a phone call to ask is fine; if that really doesn't work, I'll go in person—we're both from Xianggang, so he wouldn't go too far!"

Wu Yusen nodded, dialed Jiang Heng's number, but the assistant answered, saying Jiang Heng would briefly report to Director Jiang while filming.

Wu Yusen naturally understood; after hanging up, he waited about twenty minutes before receiving Jiang Heng's return call.

"Director Wu, you called?"

"Yes, Director Jiang, I heard you're investing three hundred million US dollars in a 3D mythic epic—amazing, amazing, truly the pride of our Xianggang film world!"

Jiang Heng chuckled, "Nothing much, just wanting to try new technology—also counts as blazing a new trail for the Chinese‑language film world!"

After a while of mutual business‑boosting awkward chatter, Wu Yusen then asked, "You don't have any idea of releasing Zhu Zion early, do you?"

Jiang Heng laughed heartily, indicating no, the online stuff from the past couple of days was just an accident.

Wu Yusen said, "Director Jiang, you're blessed with beauty—I see those girls posting are all young and gorgeous!"

Jiang Heng replied, "Nothing of the sort, they're just work‑related!"

Wu Yusen thought to himself, "I'd believe you only if I were crazy!"

Of course, the words definitely had to follow Jiang Heng's line, so he repeated "it's just work‑related" once more.

After throwing in a couple more compliments, he finally hung up.

"Won't be released early?" Zhang Jiazhen asked.

Wu Yusen said, "No!"

Afterwards he sneered, "I guess it's just those girls being jealous over each other!"

Zhang Jiazhen let out a long sigh, "Good grief, those girls fighting over each other scared us half to death!"

Wu Yusen, hearing this, was displeased—saying that made him lose face as a big director!

After thinking, he said, "Get Lin Zhiling and the others to also do some promotion on the blog!"

Zhang Jiazhen said, "Sure, lately blogs are hot, many celebrities have opened accounts—let them take the chance to promote Red Cliff!"

Saying it is easy, but doing it turns out to be somewhat troublesome.

Because Red Cliff's cast comes from different companies, although contracts usually include clauses about participating in film promotion, if an actor firmly refuses to cooperate, the production crew finds it hard to deal with.

During City of Golden Armor, Zhou Yunfa refused to take part in the film's promotion, infuriating Zhang Weiping to no end.

Fortunately, Wu Yusen's stature is still decent, the actors largely cooperate, most have opened blogs to help promote Red Cliff, but the heat always falls far short of Zhu Zion's.

The most talked‑about Lin Zhiling has only fifty thousand views on her blog articles about Red Cliff.

One reason is that this heat has somewhat faded; another is that the content of those articles lacks the selling points found in Jing Tian's and Zhao Liying's pieces.

On Jiang Heng's side, the combination is a big director and a female actor—he's young and handsome, she's youthful and lovely.

On Wu Yusen's side, well, Lin Zhiling merely offered a few polite remarks to Director Wu, hasn't posted his photo yet, but having this level of heat is already not bad.

Zhang Jiazhen felt somewhat dissatisfied, but there's no point insisting.

In the blink of an eye we entered May; the Red Cliff crew began pre‑heat promotion, and after more than ten days the Zhu Zion crew also started publicity.

The result was that the buzz of Zhu Zion directly overshadowed Red Cliff, and all the media were gossiping about Jiang Heng's scandal.

Some newspapers wrote about who between Jing Tian and Tang Yan was the female lead, while others dug up secrets of the dozen or so actresses who had written articles titled 'In My Eyes, Director Jiang'.

The many young and beautiful female stars provided plenty of material to write about.

(End of chapter)