Chapter 926: Cleaning Up the Mess; Clarifying the Detailed Revenue Split!

"Cao Cao Baoping's directorial film 'She Kill' has officially released its main creative cast list. The film stars Zhou Xun in the lead role, with Tan Zhuo, Huang Dong Xuan, Xin Xin Zhilei, Li Qin, and many other accomplished actors participating."

"It is reported that the industry had previously widely circulated the news that the core female lead of 'She Kill' had gone to Fan Li Bingbing. But the release of this main creative cast list has clearly overturned all the previous rumors and baseless talk."

"Last night, at the ELLE Fashion Gala, Miss Jing Tian appeared in a lake-green fitted long dress, short hair to her shoulders, with an elegant and graceful bearing… chatting animatedly with Ni Ni, Li Li Bingbing and others in the front row…"

From early morning, all sorts of film and television entertainment news had flooded the major portal websites and Weibo hot searches.

But the one that drew the most attention from the film and television circle was undoubtedly the cast announcement for "She Kill."

Because many people in the circle knew that the previous news of Fan Li Bingbing being internally cast for "She Kill" was not a baseless rumor, but the real deal.

Therefore, this morning's cast list seemed very interesting.

It nakedly told the entire circle one fact: Fan Li Bingbing had been replaced by Cao Cao Baoping, and Zhou Xun had successfully snatched the role from her!

"What's going on? She really got out-snatched?"

Feng Feng Xiaogang, who had finished re-editing the final cut of "Fang Hua" last night, came to Huayi first thing in the morning to hand in his work. He had barely arrived when he heard the gossip about Fan Li Bingbing, and for a moment found it a bit hard to believe.

One had to know that in the past it was always Fan Li Bingbing snatching roles from other actresses—when had anyone ever seen her lose resources to someone else?

At most she had lost in direct competition, like when she lost to Li Li Bingbing in the competition for "The Meg." But "She Kill" wasn't direct competition—it had been "internally cast" with Fan Li Bingbing from the very beginning!

"When Cao Cao Baoping considered her the first choice, the lineup of producers hadn't even been announced yet. Who could have guessed back then that a Red Star Factory would pop up among the producers?"

Wang Wang Zhonglei laughed meaningfully. In his view, Feng Feng Xiaogang's all-night movie editing binge these past days must have dulled his reactions a bit.

Sure enough, Feng Feng Xiaogang caught on at once. "Lin Nan? Right, they and Zhou Xun have always had a good relationship, just like with 'The Message' back then. Forget it, let her wait for 'Cell Phone 2'."

After muttering this dismissively, Feng Feng Xiaogang finally took out the copy of "Fang Hua."

"Are you sure everything that needed to be cut has been cut? We can't afford any more drama." Wang Wang Zhonglei questioned very seriously—he was truly afraid, afraid that Feng Feng Xiaogang was still harboring wishful thinking.

"Cut, all cut. But after the film is released, the audience's viewing experience might have some flaws and uncomfortable feelings.

Because the plot will have some subtle jumps and gaps, which is unavoidable—after all, quite a few core shots and scenes were cut.

When re-editing, I already blurred over these flaws as much as possible, but I can only say I did my best. There's no way to achieve the naturalness and fullness of the original version…"

At this point, a hint of resentment had unconsciously crept into Feng Feng Xiaogang's voice, and his expression was even more aggrieved. After all, the content that had been cut was the core plot he valued most—it had been strangled to death.

"Alright, let's not dwell on these mood-killing things. We can think about the positive side, for instance, the New Year slot for 'Fang Hua' is much easier than the Spring Festival slot, haha…"

"Well… that's true, I suppose." Feng Feng Xiaogang did not deny this, because the Spring Festival slot was indeed a dead end.

But the moment he thought of the sorry state of those four films in the National Day slot, he couldn't help but flare up again; because in his eyes, "Fang Hua" could have originally swept the entire National Day slot!

……

In the morning, Zhou Xun came by for a visit.

During this half month before joining the crew, she planned to relax properly to get into good shape. That's right—Cao Cao Baoping had already notified all the actors of the specific start date: the 1st of next month.

"In all my years in the business, I've never been this solemn—it's almost like burning incense, taking a bath, and fasting for three days." When joking about herself, Zhou Xun was equally merciless.

"Stop pretending to be 'nervous.' That arrogant, confident aura of yours and that eager-to-try look… Liu Liu Yifei and I aren't blind yet, we can tell.

Also, from the moment you walked in till now, the corners of your mouth have been turned up—you should hang two weights on them to weigh them down." Miss Liu rolled her eyes and roasted Zhou Xun without mercy—look at her, she's even learned to play the victim!

Hearing this, Lin Nan picked up where his wife left off, continuing to tease in a sarcastic tone:

"In a daze, it seems someone, after many years, has finally turned around of her own accord and taken the golden rice bowl handed to her by the old man behind her; and this time she even made a special request: 'Old man, I want the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival.'"

"Hahaha, it's all because people in the circle exaggerated so much. Heaven won't chase anyone down to feed them. Mm, everything is the result of my own hard work, nothing to do with heaven…"

Good lord, for a moment Lin Nan and Liu Liu Yifei didn't know how to respond to Zhou Xun. How could you say something so "ungrateful" out loud? Have you no shame?

"Tsk tsk tsk, as the old saying goes, lift your head and three feet above there's…"

"Ah pfft pfft pfft, I was just kidding." Miss Liu's swaying-head remark was violently cut off by Zhou Xun.

While Zhou Xun was laughing and slapping her own mouth, Lin Nan's phone suddenly rang. He stood up and walked aside, answering: "What is it?"

"Lin Dao, Director Lu Yang and his team are back, they just arrived at the company. Do you have time right now? Could you come back to the company for a bit…"

Hearing this, Lin Nan finally remembered—as if he'd forgotten something today. "Wait for me, I'll be at the company shortly."

After hanging up, Lin Dao Da headed straight for the garage. Without looking back, he instructed Liu Liu Yifei and the other:

"You can call Watching Shu Chang, and the three of you go have a big meal at noon. Don't worry about me, I need to go to the company—the 'Detective Chinatown 2' crew is back."

"Okay, drive slowly."

"You drive so fast yourself, yet you still know to tell your Lin Dao Da to drive slowly? How rare."

……

The Film Bureau.

The secretary, holding an audit application form in his hand, knocked on the leader's office door with a playful smile.

"Director Zhang, Huayi sent over the latest edited cut of 'Fang Hua,' hoping to get the public screening permit as soon as possible. The audit department passed it to me and asked me to seek your instructions."

"Has everything been cut clean?" Zhang Zhang Hongsen immediately set aside his work upon hearing this. He looked at the secretary and asked with great interest.

"We just did a quick run-through of this cut. The shots and plot that had been flagged before are all gone."

"Only learned after the fourth time—where were you earlier?" After a cold laugh, the secretary finally heard the leader's definitive reply: "Where do they get the nerve to say 'as soon as possible'? Pass it down—follow the normal timeline."

"Understood, Director Zhang."

"Oh right, that film 'Sky Hunter'—no more movement from the Air Force side?"

Zhang Zhang Hongsen suddenly thought of this "renowned" mainstream commercial blockbuster. It had even been called out by name at the bureau's meeting this morning.

Of course, the tone was completely different from—and indeed the opposite of—what the "mainstream media" had reported. The film was indeed terrible, but the bureau couldn't just leave it alone; it had to help clean up the mess.

Hearing this question, the secretary couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Director Zhang, what movement could there be? From the moment the film's reputation collapsed across the board after release, that side has been extremely low-key, as if they had never made this film at all.

And even though leaders from the Naval side occasionally drag them out for cold mockery, saying that if everyone picked people this way during special periods, they'd have been done for long ago… that side still hasn't made a peep, playing deaf and dumb…"

"Special period?" In an instant, Zhang Zhang Hongsen understood what this meant.

"Notify the media division—clean up all news about 'Sky Hunter' as soon as possible, especially the negative. Since it's already been pulled from theaters, don't let it keep hogging public resources."

The secretary's expression instantly turned serious, and he asked tentatively: "Director Zhang, this morning?"

"Mm, go ahead."

……

When Lin Nan arrived at the company, Director Lu Yang and Especially Reba were sitting at Tiangong Color having coffee and chatting with Guo Fan. As for the other actors, they had already gone back to rest and would attend the wrap party on time the following morning.

"Lin Dao." The moment she caught sight of Lin Nan, Especially Reba immediately stood up.

"Sit, sit." Lin Nan first gestured for her to stay seated with a press of his hand, then took his own seat and asked Lu Yang, "When does post-production start? The day after tomorrow?"

"Lin Dao, even an ox and a horse can't be driven this hard, can they? Fine, fine, the day after tomorrow it is. But there's one thing I need to confirm with you."

Lu Yang looked at Lin Nan quite seriously, and Guo Fan also turned his gaze over. Clearly the two of them had compared notes in advance.

"Go ahead, I'm listening."

"Before, neither Guo Fan nor I really paid it any attention, nor did we think much of it. It was only in the last couple of days that it hit us.

The thing is, Operation Red Sea isn't a project our company is leading, so doesn't that mean the profit-sharing contract Guo Fan and I signed earlier doesn't apply to this film? After all, it's a project the Naval Political Department is leading…"

Good lord, Lin Nan finally understood what they were getting at — these two were asking him for a reassurance pill!

"Strictly speaking, it doesn't apply. The reason is exactly what you said — this film isn't the kind of project our company leads as defined in the contract.

But don't you two worry, this won't affect your getting a share, because the company will take its own share and set aside that portion to pass on to you two.

However, the two of you can only split 5% of the distributor's share evenly. Because you co-directed, each of you only put in half the effort!"

"No problem then. With that word from you, we're good." Hearing that, Lu Yang and Guo Fan both broke into beaming smiles.

The company held a 20% investment stake in Operation Red Sea, and the two of them would take a quarter of the company's box-office returns — evenly split, of course!

Of course, ad revenue and the like had nothing to do with them, because under their profit-sharing contract with the company, the two of them were only entitled to their fees plus a box-office cut.

"If this pulls in three billion at the box office, wouldn't Guo Fan and I be looking at nearly sixty million in profit-sharing?

Good lord, I just realized — Lu Yang is getting the better end of the deal here! He's still got Detective Chinatown 2… on what grounds should I, after single-handedly finishing post-production on Operation Red Sea, have to split evenly with him…"

"Hey, hey, hey, Lin Dao already helped shoulder your post-production work for you. What do you mean, 'single-handedly finished'? Worst case, I'll treat you guys to a few big meals — counting every little thing all day long…"

……