Chapter 849: Registering for Competition; Scheduling Choice!

"Han Zi'ang, senior driver, the Beijing Third District Traffic Committee reminds you: there are thousands of roads, safety is the first one, non-standard driving, relatives shed two lines of tears."

Before filming started in the morning, when the actors were reading the script, they were amused again by this broadcast line with very Chinese characteristics.

Lin Nan was also among them, laughing non-stop. However, while staring at Wu Jing, Zhang Ruoyun, and others performing and reading lines, he was also distracted, thinking about *Blind Way*.

Liu Yifei only called last night to talk about Li Yang's new movie. Because the latter only contacted Red Star Pictures yesterday afternoon and set the time to sign the investment agreement this morning.

To be honest, for Li Yang, Lin Nan admired him from the bottom of his heart.

A director who spent 15 years completing the *Blind Series Trilogy*, this perseverance and persistence are something that few people in the industry can do, especially in the case that this type of movie really doesn't make money.

"Still have to go to Chairman Wang for help! Let him give a cost price, or even a bone-breaking discount?" Lin Nan muttered in his heart, unable to help laughing.

For this kind of movie with small costs and a high probability of not seeing hope of making money, it is difficult to find a distributor.

After all, the cost of film distribution is not low. If you choose to take a box office share, the distributor will lose money; even if you pay the distribution fee separately, compared to the production cost, it is still an astronomical figure!

After more than half an hour of script reading, everyone started preparing for today's scenes:

The "Doomsday Engineering Transport Vehicle" designed and produced by the Aerospace Science and Technology Group is about to debut, and Zhang Ruoyun and Zhao Jinmai will drive this vehicle to sneak out of the underground city and shelter in Beijing.

Of course, these scenes will all be shot in a green screen studio.

And all the exterior scenes and all the shots, without exception, have to rely on the special effects team of Tiangong Color to complete, trying to achieve the greatest degree of reality.

So the bulk of the cost consumption of the entire *The Wandering Earth* naturally fell on special effects production. However, in other words, Tiangong Color can also recover costs for Lin Nan in advance, and then it is the profit part.

Performance without physical objects in the green screen studio always seems so funny and ridiculous when viewed on the scene;

Lin Nan stood behind the monitor, smiling and moving his gaze away from Zhang Ruoyun and Zhao Jinmai. He looked at the script supervisor and made a start gesture.

"All units get ready, April 18th morning, Scene 1, Take 1, action!"

Beijing.

Liu Yifei, who had just signed the contract and left the company, turned around and received a call from Zhou Xun.

One originally wanted to be lazy, and the other was seducing. Well, the two hit it off and made an appointment to go out for coffee.

"*Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace* can wrap up at the end of this month, and I will finally be liberated; from late July last year to now, it has been filmed for a full 9 months!"

"Thank you for your hard work, come, let's have a drink." Liu Yifei pinched the handle of the cartoon ceramic cup, raised it, and touched it with Zhou Xun with a smile.

"Cheers." After taking a sip, Zhou Xun asked about the serious matter: "Yifei, tell me, when are you planning to register?"

"Register? Has it started?"

In just one second, Miss Liu reacted. What Xun Ge was talking about should be the Venice International Film Festival.

"Isn't it? The film solicitation for Asia started the day before yesterday, the 15th." Zhou Xun said speechlessly.

Looking at the other party's expression, Liu Yifei couldn't help but laugh, teasing:

"You have no hope, what are you in a hurry for? Besides, Lin Nan's movie doesn't need to be in such a hurry to register at the beginning. How can he say he has won the Golden Lion Award."

Hearing this, Zhou Xun immediately rolled her eyes:

"No hope for individual awards, what about group ones? It's not bad for me to leave a name. You're getting arrogant, why, want to drag it to the last day, June 30th?"

"Hee hee, not really." Miss Liu laughed and denied it.

Sometimes, some things are really not worth mentioning, say what comes. This is not it, just as Liu Yifei finished speaking, a call came in.

"Yue Jun?"

Zhou Xun glanced at the caller ID and read it out. At the same time, Liu Yifei also answered the phone suspiciously, "Senior Brother Yue Jun, is there anything?"

"Yifei. The selector for the Asian region of the Venice International Film Festival has contacted us, wanting to visit Lin Dao about *Marriage Story*.

Lin Dao is not able to leave the crew, so that side thought it would be the same to see you, the producer. Do you want to see them? Actually, you don't have to see them, just give them the copy film directly."

"They came directly?" Liu Yifei said in surprise.

"A theme film was opened last year, and the outside world knows it. We didn't go to Berlin, and we also declined Cannes, so Venice must understand what it means." Yue Jun explained with a chuckle.

Liu Yifei nodded, silently starting to consider whether to meet the person in charge of selection, after all, others came to invite personally.

And Zhou Xun on the side was winking, constantly making eye contact with Miss Liu, and making mouth shapes: "Go."

"Then okay, what time?"

"Naturally, it's according to your time." Yue Jun replied quite confidently.

"Then in the afternoon at Lin Nan Pictures, how about it?"

"Of course, I will reply to that side later."

After the phone hung up, Zhou Xun laughed first: "Okay, now I can arrange the schedule in advance. Flying to Lido Island, Venice at the end of August, work and vacation are not delayed, thinking about it is beautiful!"

"Look at your appearance, go with me in the afternoon?" Liu Yifei invited teasingly, and then beckoned to the waiter, she wanted another small cake.

"No problem, accompany Producer Liu for a trip."

In a blink of an eye, four days passed in a hurry. The most lively news online was the fact that Heavenly King Aaron Kwok married an internet celebrity.

Many old Hong Kong stars who had already retired from the circle came out in full force because of this, appearing in front of media lenses again; that kind of sense of time given to people was simply maxed out.

At the same time, the tense atmosphere of the May Day season was also fully revealed, and the previous pessimism in the industry was swept away.

Because as of yesterday, the 20th, several Hollywood blockbusters had successively appeared phenomena of withdrawal and cooling down.

First of all, *Kong: Skull Island*, where Jing Tian served as the second female lead and had many scenes, ended its screening in the mainland film market with a box office of 1.2 billion.

Secondly, *The Fate of the Furious*, released for 7 days, with a total box office of 2.35 billion, and the daily box office dropped to just over 20 million...

At this point, all domestic films in the May Day season can take a big breath, right?!

"All morning, it's all news about the opening of the Houston International Film Festival. Is this film festival preparing to expand its influence in the Chinese film circle?"

Facing Zhang Ruoyun's teasing while holding a rice bowl, everyone in the crew laughed and nodded in agreement.

"There is traffic, there is a press release; you only need to stay up late tonight to watch the news, look at which domestic high-popularity, high-traffic artists are on the red carpet, and you will understand.

North American film festivals are bored to death to do these things, and domestic media are not fools, how can they inexplicably report on an unknown film festival?"

Wu Jing was blunt, and one sentence pierced the appearance: this is someone sending out press releases on a large scale.

"Then let's look at it tomorrow, haha... Hey, by the way, Lin Dao, when will the two big stars arrive? We are still waiting for autographs and group photos"

Seeing Lin Nan coming in from outside the studio from afar, Zhang Ruoyun asked immediately. Immediately, Zhao Jinmai also nodded busily, she was also waiting for a group photo!

"Ma Te Damon arrives on the 26th; as for the other one, it will be later, because he has fewer scenes." Lin Nan smiled and didn't hide it.

Since knowing a few days ago that Ma Te Damon and Leonardo would come to cameo in *The Wandering Earth*, the group of people in the crew had been very restless and very much looking forward to it.

If it weren't for Lin Nan, they would basically never have any intersection with those two in their lifetime!

"Lin Dao, your lunch, hurry up." After getting an affirmative answer, a group of people remembered to remind the director to eat lunch.

Lin Nan went out just now to return a call. He temporarily decided not to go back to attend the premiere of *Ip Man 4*; because running around was really too troublesome, so let Yue Jun do it for him when the time comes.

"I heard that the Venice selector went to Lin Nan Pictures to see Yifei and has already taken away the copy film? It seems that there is something to look forward to in September. After all, being shortlisted is definitely no problem. When are you planning to show your cards to Lin Nan?"

"Of course it's when registration starts. He is filming *The Wandering Earth* right now; it will be when post-production for *Dying to Survive* starts in the second half of the year. It doesn't make much sense to talk about this in advance, it just adds burden to him."

Hearing Han Sanping's question, Ren Zhonglun answered without thinking.

Although the big directors in China look down on the Shanghai International Film Festival, it is the biggest stage *Dying to Survive* can go to.

Plus the human favor account in Shanghai, Ren Zhonglun is confident in his heart that Lin Nan will never have any resistance, because it is all for the good of the movie.

"That's right, post-production hasn't been done yet, suddenly telling him to go for an award, and it's the Shanghai International Film Festival. It's inevitable to have distracting thoughts, distraction, or even slack during filming and post-production? After all, those who understand understand, it will definitely be shortlisted, and even..."

Han Sanping nodded and affirmed. He and Ren Zhonglun had a meeting at the bureau this morning, so they could sit together and talk and laugh.

"To be honest, I am quite surprised by Zhang Yimou's decision to give up voluntarily. Is he cowardly or afraid, or is he lacking energy?"

Ren Zhonglun was talking about Zhang Yimou's voluntary refusal of Disney's invitation for him to compete for the director of the movie *Mulan* yesterday, which was also heard from Zhang Hongsen today.

"Who knows, anyway, he refused. But didn't Chen Kaige and the others take it? There will be something to see when the time comes, just don't be brushed off by outsiders."

Han City Film and Television Base, *Shadow* crew.

Regarding her own father's refusal of Disney, although Zhang Mo was a bit surprised and regretful at first, she had already figured it out and accepted it by now.

Especially when Zhang Yimou said the reason himself, she understood it even more, but she felt even more uncomfortable and stuffy.

"... It's not because of the scolding of *The Great Wall*... In my opinion, a Disney movie is not as important as my cooperation with Huanxi...

How much time will the former delay? And how much profit can it bring to our family? With this time and energy, Huanxi can cover me and ensure I earn more...

And there is the directing work of the flag-handover ceremony at the end of the year to be busy with... Disney's project is undoubtedly a matter of gain not worth the loss for me.

I have enough fame and honor, I don't need it! Now, I only think about two things, that is, to earn as much family business as possible in the later time, and to pave the way for you..."

In less than a year, Zhang Yimou's changes made Zhang Mo feel scared.

Especially during this period, the rapid change and firmness in the former's attitude and concepts made her, as a daughter, feel somewhat terrified, fearing that Zhang Yimou's psychological and mental state might have developed some issues!

Time flew, and the Beijing International Film Festival closed as soon as it said it would.

And that so-called large-scale costume power drama *The Rise of Phoenixes* also announced the list of all main creators at the same time.

Indeed, as it was promoted, it was indeed gathered with big names and star-studded. At a glance, they were all familiar faces on the screen, completely giving people the feeling that this big drama would definitely be a top-notch boutique.

And the partnership between Chen Kun and Ni Ni also undoubtedly sparked huge heated discussion online again. The topic volume and popularity under the stars were rising high...

Enlight.

"Chairman Wang, Su Lun said that other roles can be completely set by the beginning of next month at the latest. She also invited Xu Zheng to cameo, and the latter agreed."

"Then wait until it is completely set before announcing it to the outside world. You can also confirm their schedules with Jing Tian Studio and Lei Jiayin Studio, and then set the specific start time with Su Lun..."

While Enlight was calculating the specific start date, Happy Mahua also successfully completed the script draft—*Hello, Mrs. Money*.

"Song Yang called back from the crew, and he can wrap up in a few days. He is asking, should we start preparing for *Hello, Mrs. Money* immediately or wait a bit?"

"Wait until they wrap up and come back. At least during the location scouting, he and Allen have to adjust first, and he has to help with casting later...

I also have to go to Lin Dao, no, Lin Dao is filming a movie... You and Yan Fei go to discuss with Director Yue, see what Lin Nan Pictures means, whether that side wants to participate."

Zhang Chen flipped through the script while instructing Peng Damo.

"Hmm, okay. In addition, there is the matter of the schedule. *Never Say Die* only needs about a month to complete post-production. Should we set it for the National Day season? Or go directly to the New Year season?"

"National Day season, or New Year season? This is really hard to choose."

Zhang Chen muttered, really unable to decide for a while, but *Never Say Die* must go to one of these two seasons.

However, these two seasons already have big directors, the National Day season has Feng Xiaogang, and the New Year season is Chen Kaige!

"How about this, you can also consult Director Yue, see what their suggestions are, after all, they are much more experienced than us.

See whether we are competing with Feng Xiaogang in the end, or playing against the big Director Chen in the same season? One is *Youth*, one is *Legend of the Demon Cat*."

Zhang Chen nodded and affirmed. Don't say it, he is a bit hot-blooded right now.

Because what if *Never Say Die* really kills a big director's movie work? That would be too interesting!

... ===== CHAPTER 850 =====