Chapter 310: Public Opinion, Invitation

Gambling addiction, massive debts, domestic violence, marital infidelity, smearing the woman…

Dong Zhou Jie's agent team struck first.

They leaked multiple "misdeeds" of the man to numerous media outlets, successfully inciting netizens and riding the public opinion wave to bury him alive.

The current situation between them is that she is a former "Mou Girl" and he is of lower status than her.

Public opinion always favors the woman's side. Numerous actors, artists, and directors in the industry voiced support for her divorce and condemned the man's vile conduct.

In response to this situation, Pan Yue Ming's side only issued a public rebuttal in the afternoon, along with a lawyer's letter accusing her agent team of defamation and spreading rumors.

Without needing to think twice, his statement was quickly drowned in the tide of public opinion, achieving almost no effect. The entire internet was calling him a scumbag.

"His agent team is kind of weak, isn't it?"

Lin Nan was also browsing gossip and casually asked Yue Jun a question.

Yue Jun knew a lot about these agency matters in the industry.

Because he was the general manager of Lin Nan Film, he frequently interacted with these agencies and agents.

"Lin Dao actually got it wrong—his agent team's contract expired, and they've been negotiating ever since, but haven't renewed yet."

"Right now, he's in the Kong Chuang Qi, so of course he's slow to react and flustered. I expect his agent team will start counterattacking soon."

"Also, the woman's team and connections are very strong," Yue Jun said with implication.

"Where are they strong?"

Lin Nan asked instinctively—he had never been interested in these things and knew little about them.

"When she entered the Hong Kong scene, she signed with Wang Jiawei's Zedong Pictures and had close personal ties with Liang Chaowei, Liu Jialing, and others."

"Her current agent is Liang Chaowei's former agent, and many in her team are seasoned industry veterans…"

Lin Nan nodded, suddenly understanding—her connections and team were far stronger than his.

Not to mention Hong Kong—on the mainland, many big names stood by the woman, foremost among them being top-tier male star Chen Kun.

"She's like my sister; now that she's been hurt, I will unhesitatingly support and protect her…"

Lin Nan also saw an interesting post.

"Marriage, divorce—one is love, one is heartbreak. Teacher Dong, as your friends, we've got your back! —Wang Wang Dazhi."

Soon after this Weibo post appeared, a seasoned industry leaker forwarded it with a veiled implication:

"Since you've so eagerly stepped forward, let's take you out for a walk. You two have been together for so long—if you're a man, just admit it boldly."

The post instantly sparked a wave of uproar, but the public treated it as a joke and didn't believe it for a second.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"This shatters my worldview! It's just too mismatched!"

"She was just comforting Dong Zhou Jie, and now they're calling him the third party? Totally fake—nonsense!"

"Believe the woman. Only an idiot would believe this rumor!"

…………

There were plenty of sensationalist media outlets, each interviewing actors and industry figures who had worked with both the man and the woman.

Some reporters even went to interview Zhang Zhang Yimou—Old Zhang would never care about such trivial matters.

His studio simply replied: "Not concerned," and dismissed them all.

Some netizens also asked Liu Liu Yifei on her Weibo what she thought of the woman, given their past collaboration.

Liu Liu Hanhan, with her simple nature, didn't overthink it and replied honestly with two words: Not familiar.

Lin Nan joined in the trend, commenting on Liu Liu Yifei's post: "I can confirm—truly not familiar."

…………

"Keep an eye on him—maybe we'll collaborate with him later."

Hearing Lin Nan's instruction, Yue Jun paused for a moment, then nodded. "I understand."

"Lin Dao, do you have any concrete information?" Yue Jun probed.

"No," Lin Nan smiled and shook his head.

"But with such a huge scandal, look at those famous studios in the industry—like Fengxing—have they spoken up?"

"Ah, I get it. So they're still watching, uncertain."

At this stage, well-known paparazzi in the industry still had strong professional ethics.

Before obtaining solid evidence, these people would never speak out!

……

October was halfway through, nearing the end of the middle month.

"The Space Passenger" had been in theaters for three full weeks, and its box office had now surpassed 810 million.

The film industry watched this number with envy, yet could only sigh helplessly.

"During the National Day holiday, only 'The Space Passenger' continued to push forward despite the blockade of foreign films. It's expected to earn another 100 million before its final withdrawal at month's end."

"'Dangerous Relations' earned 36.1 million and has already left theaters;

'Tai Chi 1' total box office reached 820 million, but with poor word-of-mouth, it was reluctantly withdrawn."

"'Second Exposure' ended at 744 million, with no further box office growth, and was voluntarily withdrawn…"

……

Originally, everyone had assumed this National Day holiday and October would be a season of flourishing domestic films.

The result, however, was that "The Space Passenger" stood alone—this inevitably left the industry sighing.

Even more tragic was "The Floating City."

As a frontrunner for the Golden Horse Awards and Lou Ye's comeback after his five-year directing ban, its opening day box office was only 920,000.

This performance would likely see it forcibly withdrawn from theaters within a week.

"Theaters won't keep films that don't make money. But the copyright should have already broken even, with a small profit."

Lin Nan and Guo Fan chatted idly.

The filming location for "About Time" was set in the capital, and Lin Nan had come specially to attend the opening ceremony.

Reporters were interviewing several actors, with the most attention on Luo Jin and Especially Especially Reba.

"My planned shooting schedule is two months, wrapping by the end of December at the latest. We'll adjust the scenes in the middle to leave time for Luo Jin to attend the Golden Horse Awards."

"That's fine. As for Especially Especially Reba, she won't be brought to this film festival."

Lin Nan looked at the crew in the distance and said, nodding.

That same noon, the news of "About Time" officially starting production appeared online, its popularity second only to the "Dong Zhou Jie, Pan Yue" incident.

If Lu Zheng hadn't been making a fuss, Lin Nan wouldn't have noticed that another Starlight Brilliant film was about to be released.

It was the previously filmed "New Mom, Love Me Again," scheduled for early November, targeting Singles' Day.

The film market was bustling.

Fan Li Bingbing could probably be considered the most prolific A-list film actress in the mainland.

While "Dangerous Liaisons" was finishing its run here, a new film was holding a press conference over there — one after another these past two years, a true workhorse.

As usual, Tang Ren's promotional releases were plentiful.

Only because Cai Yinan had stuffed their newly signed talent Jiang Jiang Jinfu, who hadn't even been with them two years, into the "One Night Surprise" crew to pair with Fan Li Bingbing.

The promotional slogan was bold: "He will surpass Hu Ge, go further on the big screen, and become Tang Ren's second A-list male star."

Once this slogan was shouted out, it sounded grand, but one wonders what Yuan Hong, Lin Gengxin, and the others thought — always playing supporting roles?

Now, back to November's films.

Nowadays, it's rare for a pure Hong Kong film to attract much attention in the mainland film market.

Hong Kong's film companies were mostly conservative in their promotion, but this "Cold War" was an exception.

Not only was the promotional scale large, but they also invited a large number of mainland film industry figures to attend screenings.

Their confident demeanor made mainland production companies dismiss them to some extent — no matter how good, how much box office could there be? The ceiling for Hong Kong films was right there.

……

Jiang Jiang Xuerou had returned from visiting the set in Hengdian.

"The Four Great Constables 2 is already mostly shot. The Four Great Constables 3 will start production in a few days."

This was, so far, the longest-running project for the Tiangong Color team.

Four months had passed in the blink of an eye, yet the workload had barely reached half.

"Is Zhao Zhao Liying doing alright?"

"Not bad."

Jiang Jiang Xuerou said with a light laugh, clearly in a good mood.

Lin Nan saw a different meaning in her smile.

Yue Jun valued Yang Mi, while Jiang Jiang Xuerou preferred Zhao Zhao Liying, believing the latter would eventually catch up to and surpass the former.

Now that Yang Mi was leaving, in Jiang Jiang Xuerou's view, some resources would belong to Zhao Zhao Liying exclusively.

"Director Lin, you didn't let this slip to Chief Jiang, did you?"

"Director Lin is joking again. At most I said one sentence: focus on acting well, don't overthink the resources."

Jiang Jiang Xuerou said teasingly.

The matter of Yang Mi not renewing her contract — besides those two, only Lin Nan, Yue Jun, and Jiang Jiang Xuerou in the company knew.

"Future film and TV drama resources will all prioritize her."

Lin Nan thought for a moment, then said it openly.

"I think she's more down-to-earth than Yang Mi."

Jiang Jiang Xuerou said with a smile, nodding as she offered her assessment.

…………

Media predicted that "Passengers" would earn around a hundred million yuan in the remaining ten-plus days; in reality, it only took half that time.

"As of yesterday, 'Passengers' has a total box office of 910 million, surpassing 'Thieves' Alliance' to take second place on the Chinese-language film box office chart, with daily box office still at seven million…"

"'Fucheng Mystery' has been in theaters for a week, box office 4.95 million, forced to be pulled…"

Han Han Sanping was very excited at this moment.

The box office of "Passengers" would allow China Film to firmly suppress all other state-owned enterprises at the year-end General Administration meeting.

Combined with "Pacific Rim" at the start of the year, he could already imagine the expressions on Ren Ren Zhonglun and the others when he made his report — it would be quite a sight!

"Now another big film has come charging in?"

The production industry was abuzz with discussion, full of resistance.

As early as the Cannes Film Festival, Lin Nan knew that Ang Lee's film was under review, but the result had been delayed for a long time.

At this point, the Film Bureau finally issued a notice — a bona fide Hollywood import blockbuster had been placed into the New Year season.

Lin Nan certainly didn't have much of a reaction, but other film companies were different — all voices of opposition and resistance.

"Director Lin, there's a banquet invitation from Alibaba, specifically addressed to you."

"What's going on?"

Lin Nan was a bit baffled — what did they want him for?

"It seems many film companies in the industry have received invitations."

The assistant handed the invitation to Lin Nan, then withdrew.

Lin Nan looked at the contents and couldn't help but chuckle.

"'Internet Era + Film and Television Cultural Industry Summit'…"

An internet company invited people from the film and television industry to a meeting, where they were the main speakers, and the summit's content was to discuss the future development and direction of the film and television industry.

This sounds, frankly, a bit absurd and unreasonable. It's like a science student trying to tell a liberal arts student how to write an essay!

Lin Nan didn't even know how to evaluate this person—coming right out and flexing, acting so aggressively…

"Is this paving the way for what's coming later?"

……

(End of this chapter)