Chapter 474

In original history, Splendid Arts Company was once the leader among privately owned film and television companies in Neidi.

However, after going public it implemented a 'de-moviefication' strategy, shifting the company's business focus to other fields such as talent management and entertainment platforms.

This decision was undoubtedly wrong; film is the foundation and advantage of Splendid Arts, and abandoning this core business caused the company to lose its core competitiveness.

And with the arrival of the Internet era, the rapid rise of emerging entertainment forms such as short videos caused Splendid Arts' business empire to start wobbling, gradually falling behind in the era's wave of booming Chinese-language cinema.

Ultimately, it was caused by the company's strategic mistake.

This is still due to the person at the helm.

Although the Wang brothers are first-generation rich, in many aspects of their style and habits they resemble second-generation rich.

For example, Wang Zhonglei's current scheming appears somewhat rash.

They only thought that making a similar film and releasing it early would earn a lot of box office, never considering that angering Jiang Heng would bring what consequences!

……

After returning to Outstanding Rising Film Company, Jiang Heng summoned Du Huan, Li Xiaoping, and others, and told them of Wang Zhonglei's scheming.

Hearing this, both were very indignant.

Du Huan snorted coldly: 'We have always been kind-hearted and never engaged in exclusion and suppression; after a long time, they don't even take us seriously!'

Li Xiaoping said: 'Since Boss Wang wants to play petty tricks, we'll just play along with him!'

Jiang Heng laughed and said: 'Oh, what specific ideas do you have? Lay them out!'

Du Huan and Li Xiaoping exchanged a glance, and Li Xiaoping spoke first.

The general idea is to directly target the box office of Splendid Arts' upcoming new film, making him lose a few pictures and thus become honest.

For example, by influencing relevant theater companies, we can manipulate the screening slots.

This move looks simple, but it is the most effective.

In the previous life, Director Feng's film 'I Am Not Pan Jinlian' was released, with only 6% screening slots; Director Feng immediately posted a piece playing the victim, hinting that Ten Thousand Achievements was giving him 'small shoes'.

Wang, the richest, naturally couldn't be bothered with such matters, but Principal Wang couldn't stand it, directly rebutting Feng Xiaogang: 'You're allowed to poach people, but we're not allowed to lower the screening slots for films we don't like?' Director Feng had no way to respond.

In the previous life, the Ten Thousand Achievements theater chain was very dominant; in this life, Outstanding Rising Film Company is not to be outdone.

Besides holding shares in multiple theater companies such as China Film Red and Shanghai Film Red, they also built a brand-new Outstanding Rising Film Company theater line, which, thanks to its golden location, brand-new renovation, and advanced facilities, is very popular with the market.

It can be said that Outstanding Rising Film Company wanting to tamper with the screening slots of hot films is truly easy as pie.

Just as Principal Wang said, 'reducing the screening slots for films we don't like' really isn't a problem at all!

After all, the box office of many domestic films is driven by marketing, and their actual quality is just that!

Besides that, we can also arrange some films to 'snipe' Splendid Arts' new film; in short, there are still many methods.

After discussing this, they moved on to talk about the preparation of the new film.

Jiang Heng gave a stack of sketches, had Du Huan arrange personnel to make props and build indoor sets according to the content on the sketches.

He also had Li Xiaoping contact actors and coordinate schedules.

The new film tells a war story between Earth civilization and other interstellar civilizations, and for the audience it needs a suitable point of identification.

Like 'The Peace Vessel' telling three couples' love stories, which constantly shifts the audience's point of identification, that is really not advisable.

Therefore Jiang Heng's choice is to take a special forces soldier as the protagonist, with a character setup similar to the male lead He Chen Guang from 'I Am a Special Forces Soldier: The Blade Drawn', and set the timeline one hundred years later. At that time, Earth, due to fierce competition among nations, had already reached the eve of world war, with local conflicts escalating and nuclear war imminent.

People of insight are all urging the major powers to exercise restraint, because a nuclear war cannot destroy the Earth, it can only destroy contemporary human civilization on Earth.

But because the contradictions are irreconcilable, the outbreak of war is only a matter of within one month.

Just then, aliens suddenly appeared in the Dragon State piloting wooden interstellar spacecraft, and were captured by the special forces team led by the male protagonist.

After a round of interrogation, the male protagonist, his superiors, and even higher-level leaders were all stunned, unable to believe what they saw.

After going through layers of reporting, the state learned the true situation and decided to dispatch a reconnaissance team, via 'space jump technology', to the nearest planet with a 'human' civilization, to verify the truth of this matter.

Ultimately selected were precisely the male protagonist who first made contact with the aliens and his special forces team.

The subsequent plot naturally involves the male protagonist and company deviating during the space jump, ending up on a planet of low-level magical civilization.

However, faced with the most advanced individual weapons, low-level magic is obviously not enough to withstand.

When the male protagonist and company returned, they still experienced twists and rebirths, but fortunately the time limit finally brought them back to Earth.

The 'space jump technology' was proven correct, and it is true that Earth civilization had mispointed its tech tree.

The Dragon State announced this technological achievement to the world, and the atmosphere that had been tense and on the brink of nuclear war instantly eased.

In its place came the excitement and fervor of all nations' leaders, officials, and peoples, since the whole universe has infinite resources, why fight over Earth's meager resources to the point of mutual destruction? ……

Therefore, although the film features many characters, the most important is still the male protagonist with the identity of a special forces soldier.

Jiang Heng didn't think much and simply chose Wu Jing to play this role.

First, their relationship is indeed good; second, in the filming of the 'Journey to the West' series, Wu Jing, because of makeup, prevented the audience from seeing his true appearance, so he didn't actually gain much benefit.

Having Wu Jing play the role also carries some thought of compensation.

After Du Huan and Li Xiaoping left, Jiang Heng called Wu Jing.

"What are you busy with?"

"I'm pondering the script for Wolf Warrior 2; Director Jiang called me—is there some good news?" Wu Jing laughed.

As for Jiang Heng's plan to shoot a sci-fi new film, Wu Jing had already heard about it.

However, regarding the male lead role, he truly dared not hope for it.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Heng actually called him at this sensitive time point, which inevitably stirred hope in his heart.

He couldn't help wondering, 'Is he going to have me play the lead? This time no makeup?'

"Of course there is good news; for this new film I intend to have you play the male lead—do you have availability?"

Upon hearing this, Wu Jing was stunned for a few seconds, then overjoyed, quickly saying he had availability, and then asked about the male lead's character setup and story background.

Jiang Heng laughed heartily and gave a brief explanation.

Upon hearing this, Wu Jing was overjoyed, because this was practically tailor-made for him!

For a moment, the excitement was uncontrollable! "Director Jiang, I won't say more; I'm so grateful. Rest assured, I will definitely play this role well!"

Jiang Heng chuckled, "Having said that, I definitely chose you because I was confident!" (End of chapter)