Chapter 303

Several films had been fighting since the start of their publicity.

Zhang Ziyi and Fan Bingbing have confronted each other countless times in the circle over these years.

Among the big stars, there are never friends, only competitors and enemies.

This time, the collision of the two people's films was undoubtedly another public opinion focus that the media couldn't miss, full of gimmicks.

"Two great film queens, head-to-head competition, Zhang Ziyi vs Fan Bingbing!"

"*Dangerous Liaisons* vs *Second Exposure*!"

……

Why else would people say the media doesn't mind the chaos? To them, the bigger the better.

The media in the circle actually produced a separate layout, taking the two films out for comparison, and their honor records were also listed on the side.

You wouldn't know without comparing, but looking at this, it seems Fan Bingbing is actually quite strong!

Over these years, Zhang Ziyi has started high and ended low, visibly living off her past achievements.

Her awards were also from a long time ago, mainly domestic, with no awards from internationally renowned A-list film festivals.

On the contrary, Fan Bingbing is simply a role model for actresses to learn from, an inspirational template.

She took it one step at a time, breaking into the film circle from being a TV drama actress; although there were quite a few scandals, isn't that just how this circle is?

In addition, her Chinese-language awards are not much fewer than Zhang Ziyi's, and she has a Tokyo Film Queen title from an international A-list film festival to hold the fort; she is not afraid at all!

Most importantly, in terms of audience popularity, it seems Fan Bingbing is much stronger than Zhang Ziyi and has more box office appeal.

Especially since the former also had Lin Nan's *Thieves*, which is the second-highest-grossing domestic film, 901 million; Fan Bingbing counts as the lead actress!

The media's goal was achieved, and the fans and moviegoers on both sides started a war.

They just pointed at the other side's dark history, exposing them one by one, helping the public recall those "dirty" and "sordid" years.

One had messy affairs domestically and internationally, the other had history and rumors in the Chinese entertainment circle...

"As long as it doesn't involve *Passengers*, I don't care how they mess around."

Lin Nan said indifferently.

With the lineup of producers for *Passengers*, no one dared to casually look for trouble or play dirty; that would be seeking their own death.

"Zhongying has already drafted the list of invitations for the premiere and sent them out; Wanda and Enlight are preparing..."

Yue Jun was telling Lin Nan about the film's business, and suddenly remembered Yang Mi, and couldn't help but mention it.

"Yang Mi's *Tiny Times* has encountered some situation."

"What situation?"

Lin Nan was slightly curious.

After all, Yang Mi was still an artist under Shanhai Media at this moment.

"It was originally said to start filming in early October, but now it seems it's going to be postponed until November."

"Didn't say what the reason was?"

Lin Nan asked with disdain; a film with broken values, and it has so many issues.

Yue Jun also revealed a look of disdain.

"I heard that Guo Jingming sold the TV drama adaptation rights before, and that side is also preparing to start filming.

But just as it was about to start, the male lead was spotted by Guo Jingming, who promised him one of the male lead roles in the film version. The actor then left without saying goodbye and ran off with Guo Jingming."

This was actually quite interesting, Lin Nan subconsciously asked: "And then?"

"The two sides are currently bickering, so the film's start was postponed; Ceng Jia reported it to me."

With only half a year left on the contract, she had become well-behaved; Lin Nan didn't know what to say about Ceng Jia.

"Don't say, the male actors chosen are all pretty boys!"

Yue Jun added with a click of his tongue.

Lin Nan also clicked his tongue twice. "The actresses should be very safe."

"Lin Dao, what did you say?"

"Ah? I didn't say anything, just muttered two sentences casually."

"By the way, it seems they said the first and second parts are being filmed together. Right, that's what Ceng Jia said..."

Yue Jun added to himself.

…………

It spread outside that Director Lou had bowed his head to the General Administration again, and the bureau had also let this film go. The release time remained unchanged.

And the modified film that Director Lou submitted had almost no changes.

Only the scene where the protagonist hammers the wanderer to death, the last two of the 13 hammer strikes, underwent a fade-to-black technical treatment, under the guise of "reducing violent scenes."

This news spread in the circle, and everyone who understood, understood; many people just felt it was funny, too ironic.

Reducing violence, shouldn't that mean cutting the scenes?

Only blurring 3 seconds of the scene, isn't this just going through the motions? This "no silver three hundred taels here" operation was truly funny.

The real problem was solved outside the film; it was an attitude problem!

……

"The film *Kung Fu Jungle* passed the review smoothly today and obtained the public screening permit."

"With this, Lin Nan Film Industry will have two films with unknown release dates. If there are no accidents, they will be released next year."

……

The media news was quite fast; Lin Nan Film Industry had always been their focus, after all, it was a leading company in the industry.

Although *Sleepless in Seattle* had already been discussed to be set for Valentine's Day, it hadn't been reported to Zhongying yet, so the outside world had no way of knowing the release date.

The main reason was still that Lin Nan wanted to maintain a bit of mystery for the outside world and the audience.

Announcing the release date too early was actually not good; it was easy to be targeted by peers.

How did that saying go? If you can't beat you, then beat your little brother.

Lin Nan suddenly thought of an interesting thing.

"There won't be many people in the circle thinking about taking a knife to *Lost in Thailand*, right?"

*Bad Genius* getting 1.43 billion didn't just bring Lin Nan honor, but also jealous opponents in the industry, and the number was not small.

As long as they could step on him once at the box office, they could instantly gain fame and fortune.

Even if they couldn't beat Lin Nan's film, they could take a knife to a film produced by Lin Nan Film Industry; if they won, they could still hype it up or vent their anger.

……

The domestic entertainment and film circle was becoming more and more profitable.

Huayi chose this time to announce a "good piece of news" to the outside world.

In the South Korean film and television circle, several top male stars and female artists would come to China to establish studios, hanging under Huayi's name.

Once the news came out, Huayi was simply unrivaled in the limelight, because the current Korean Wave was very strong, beating this group of domestic peers into retreat.

Quite a few entertainment companies in the circle were very dissatisfied with Huayi's behavior of inviting wolves into the house, but they were helpless.

No way, this was a "cultural exchange" supported by policy and the trend of the times.

Different from the sighing in the industry, netizens and fans were happy, as if it were the New Year.

Lin Nan was refining the script, purely in English.

Don't know when it started, but he liked to handwrite scripts because there was room for thought, and he felt at ease in his heart.

At this time, a call from Wanda came over. Lin Nan put down his pen and answered the phone.

"The premiere for *Passengers* hasn't been set yet, just waiting for that day, right?"

"Lin Dao, it's not about this matter."

On the other end of the phone, Ye Ning said with a chuckle.

Only then did Lin Nan react. "About *New Police Story*?"

"Right, does Lin Dao have anyone to arrange on your side?"

"So fast?" Lin Nan asked back.

"The efficiency is quite good, the budget will go according to 100 million, we'll talk if it's insufficient later.

We have now selected everyone; if Lin Dao has roles you want, you can change them now."

Hearing this, Lin Nan glanced at the script Wanda sent to the table; he had only flipped through it casually.

"I don't have anyone to arrange here, you guys decide."

"Alright, the start time for the crew is roughly in November, because Jackie Chan's schedule is arranged until then. Everyone else has lowered their salaries, so in terms of time, we must definitely accommodate him."

"That's the logic, no problem."

Lin Nan nodded and said with a smile: "President Ye making this call, there should also be the matter of investment shares, right?"

"Haha, Lin Dao is indeed wise. Our two companies don't need to be so polite, we are old partners. Giving Lin Dao 30%, how about that?"

"No problem, 30% is 30%, that's already quite a lot." Lin Nan said politely.

"That's being too polite; it can't compare to the projects Lin Dao brings us to do. Then you send someone over to sign the contract."

"Fine, I'll let Yue Jun go."

……

That afternoon, Yue Jun represented Lin Nan Film Industry and went to Wanda.

The joint production contract for *New Police Story 2013* was signed just like that.

Wanda Film Industry controlled it, accounting for 40%;

Starlight Shining invested 30 million, accounting for 30%;

Lin Nan Film Industry invested 30 million, also accounting for 30%.

In addition, the film's post-production and special effects were the responsibility of Tiangong Color.

Wanda and Starlight Shining clearly didn't want to hide anything.

After signing the contract yesterday, this morning, the two companies were clamoring for Lin Nan's side to announce this news to the outside world together.

"The film *New Police Story 2013*, jointly invested and produced by Wanda Film Industry, Starlight Shining, and Lin Nan Film Industry, has been officially approved."

"This film is a continuation of the *Police Story* series, but it is a brand-new story, a brand-new police and bandit genre..."

"Starring lineup: Jackie Chan, Jing Tian, Liu Ye..."

……

The film and television circle was startled by this sudden news, only because Wanda had kept it too well-hidden beforehand.

Industry insiders were already analyzing: with Lin Nan Film Industry participating, there was basically a quality guarantee, while Wanda could ensure screening slots...

Actresses in the circle were paying attention to Jing Tian.

Because anyone with a discerning eye could see that this film was definitely a top-tier resource!

And Jing Tian, once again without suspense, became the lead actress; after all, there hadn't been any news of auditions for this film, so it was naturally without suspense!

The actresses could only look on with envy, with no other way.

……

Lin Nan received a call from Han Sanping, with words implying that Lin Nan and Ye Ning were not being decent.

But once he heard it was a project initiated by Wanda and Starlight Shining, he had nothing more to say; after all, he wasn't familiar with Starlight Shining.

Besides, with only that much cost, and too many people, it really wasn't very interesting.

Wang Changtian had even less opinion; the cooperation between Enlight and Wanda, Lin Nan was the middleman, who Wanda invited for the project was someone else's freedom.

The eyes of the circle were all on *New Police Story 2013*.

At this time, news from the Golden Horse side came out.

"The list of nominated films for the 49th Golden Horse Awards is revealed today."

Mainland film companies all looked over, only because every year there were quite a few mainland films going there.

Especially this year, there was also *Bad Genius* with a box office as high as 1.43 billion, the champion of the Chinese-language film box office list!

Everyone, at the first moment, couldn't help but care about the nomination list.

"Best Picture Award, nomination list:

......"

……

(End of chapter)