Chapter 372: Preparation

As the most well-rounded idol among the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Xiangjiang, Liu Dehua’s work schedule had long been packed; he could absolutely be considered a "model worker."

In February of this year, the film *Protégé*, in which he starred, was released; the box office was relatively good, reaching nearly 65 million in the mainland.

Of course, although director Er Dongsheng is extremely famous in Xiangjiang, the box office of this *Protégé* that Heavenly King Liu collaborated on certainly cannot compare to *House of Flying Daggers* with Old Mouzi, nor can it compare to *A World Without Thieves* with Little Cannon.

Both of the latter two exceeded 100 million at the box office.

At the end of March, *The Warlords*, co-starring Liu Dehua, Li Lianjie, and Jin Chengwu, wrapped up filming.

At the end of June, the Three Kingdoms... well, the Three Kingdoms-adapted, skin-swapped blockbuster *Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon* wrapped up filming.

On July 18th, he also released the Mandarin music album *The World of a Cow*, which involved themes of love, environmental protection, and life attitudes.

Furthermore, starting from Jinling on September 13th and ending in Quanan on November 2nd, he was set to hold a total of 16 "Wonderful World" concerts in the mainland.

Did you think this was the end of his work for the year?

How could it be.

He still had to immediately release a greatest hits album called *Everyone Is No. 1* in December; the songs were already mostly finalized, just waiting for him to find time to record them.

Although he was busy with concert rehearsals now, which would continue until November, this greatest hits album would definitely be released in December.

Did you think the work for this year ended there?

Wrong!

Starting December 21st, he was also going to hold 16 consecutive "Wonderful World" Xiangjiang New Year’s Eve concerts at the Xiangjiang Red Pavilion!

16+16, uh, Heavenly King Liu would be holding a total of 32 concerts this year.

A large part of Heavenly King Liu’s achievements stemmed from his "model worker" attribute.

However, despite having a full schedule all the way until the New Year, once Liu Dehua learned that Cao Yang wanted a Xiangjiang actor for the male lead, he still inquired about the specific details without hesitation.

Even though he had already held the first concert in Jinling and was preparing for the next concert in Jingcheng.

He also wanted to act in Cao Yang’s film; he also wanted to receive recognition from a world-renowned award; he also had thoughts of breaking into Hollywood.

As for the schedule, as long as he could act in Cao Yang’s film, the concerts... could also be postponed for some reason; at worst, he would just have to pay some damages.

Another one of the "Four Heavenly Kings," Heavenly King Li Ming, also wanted to act in Director Cao’s film, and his desire was extremely strong.

It was a pity that he was currently filming the great poet Chen Kun’s *Forever Enthralled*; this film started production in July.

According to the plan, the film would take at least until the end of the year to wrap up.

However, in the two months or so of filming this time, the crew had constantly encountered issues, and the production manager had repeatedly adjusted the shooting schedule; it seemed it would be very difficult to finish as planned by the end of the year.

Even so, Li Ming still had people scout for information, wanting to know Director Cao’s filming schedule.

If the preparation time were a bit longer and filming took place at the end of the year, he would do whatever it took to try and see if he could collaborate with Director Cao.

As for what to do if *Forever Enthralled* wasn't finished by then?

What else could he do?

Negotiate.

The contract at the time was for a six-month window; if it were delayed, discussing it with the director and concentrating the filming should not be a big problem.

Of course, the prerequisite was still knowing the filming schedule for Director Cao’s new movie.

As for the previously common practice of "splitting schedules" in Xiangjiang, Li Ming didn't even think about it, even though he had come from that era.

Wanting to split schedules with directors of the caliber of Chen Kun or Cao Yang... at least for now, there was no actor with that much face.

If one were to talk about actors with available schedules who met Cao Yang’s requirements, there were only Guo Fucheng and Cheng Long.

Guo Fucheng’s new film, *C+ Detective*, would be released simultaneously in Xiangjiang and the mainland in just a few days, on September 25th.

He was currently busy promoting the film.

This *C+ Detective* was quite interesting; set against the backdrop of Bangkok’s Chinatown, it told the story of how private detective A-Tan investigated a baffling serial murder case.

In other words, the film was Chinese detective + Chinatown + Thai elements; sounds a bit familiar, right?

It was just that this was a thriller crime film, not a comedy.

Actually, saying he had an open schedule, Guo Fucheng just didn't have any film plans for the second half of the year.

But he also had concert plans.

He was preparing to hold 11 shows of the "Guo Fucheng Dance Forest Legend World Tour Concert" at the Xiangjiang Hong Kong Coliseum in November.

In December, he would go to the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, USA, to hold 2 tour concerts.

Of course, if he could act in Cao Yang’s film, the concerts in these two places would very likely be postponed.

Guo Fucheng was also taking the opportunity of promoting the film in the mainland to very actively have people inquire about Cao Yang’s film information.

If one were to talk about who truly had an open schedule, that would be Cheng Long.

After *The Forbidden Kingdom*, which he collaborated on with Li Lianjie, wrapped up at the beginning of the month, he had neither film plans nor concert plans for the second half of the year.

Because of this, Cheng Long was the most attentive regarding Cao Yang’s upcoming film plans.

Although he didn't get specific information about the film from Han Zong, he did get a piece of news that could be considered quite useful—Director Cao was considering filming a large part of this new movie in Xiangjiang.

It was also based on this reason that Cheng Long, who had returned to Xiangjiang to rest for a while after finishing *The Forbidden Kingdom*, took a flight to Jingcheng again.

After arriving in Jingcheng, he called Cao Yang, but didn't say anything about wanting to act in Cao Yang’s new film.

Instead, he said that it hadn't been many days since his *The Forbidden Kingdom* wrapped up, he happened to be in Jingcheng, had heard that Director Cao’s new film might be filmed in Xiangjiang, and he had nothing to do for the next half a year.

To thank him for attending the premiere of *Rush Hour 3* last time, he could take care of a series of things Director Cao’s new film might need, such as scenes, props, extras, professional personnel, and so on.

He still had some face in Xiangjiang.

That’s why they say Cheng Long knows how to conduct himself; his emotional intelligence was decent, otherwise he wouldn't have reached his current status.

Subsequently, he chatted with Cao Yang for a while about things in the film circle.

At the end, he said with a very casual tone and a smile that he was getting old, couldn't fight anymore, and it was time to consider a transition.

He also said that he had worked his life away for half a lifetime and had earned enough money to spend, so he didn't have that many material requirements for the art-house films he was transitioning to.

He added in a joking tone that as long as he was paid, even one dollar would do.

After hanging up on Cheng Long, Cao Yang was thoughtful.

Cheng Long’s words contained several meanings.

One was to indicate that he was in Jingcheng and could audition at any time, and it could also be seen as having an open schedule for the second half of the year, ready to join the crew and film at any time.

The second meaning was that he was a "local snake" in Xiangjiang; if the crew needed anything in Xiangjiang, he could help.

The final layer of meaning was that although he might be very expensive for commercial films, for art-house films, um, especially Director Cao’s art-house films, he just needed a symbolic payment.

Although he didn't mention wanting to act in Cao Yang’s film in the call, every sentence implied the idea of wanting to act in the film.

Cao Yang took out a piece of paper and wrote down the four names: Cheng Long, Liu Dehua, Li Ming, and Guo Fucheng; these were also the four people he felt were suitable.

Well, it was mainly because the impression these four people currently left on everyone was that they didn't have too much or too good acting skills.

Cao Yang had already had people check the schedules of several people; he first crossed out Li Ming’s name.

Actually, at first, Cao Yang felt that Li Ming was the most suitable candidate—a "little fresh meat" who debuted with his looks, sweeping across Asia with his appearance, especially in Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia.

Furthermore, Li Ming’s reputation was also very good; he had always presented himself as a patriot and had silently done quite a few good deeds.

As for acting, the feeling he always gave people was... that he had no acting skills, even though he was the first of the "Four Heavenly Kings" to win the Golden Horse Best Actor award.

However, the film he won the award for was a horror film, which few people watched, and on top of that, winning Best Actor for a horror film always gave people a feeling of lacking persuasiveness.

Therefore, Li Ming was the most suitable candidate among these people. The helpless part was that Li Ming was currently filming Chen Kun’s *Forever Enthralled*, which would most likely be filmed until next year, while Cao Yang’s new film might start production in October, so the schedule could not be adjusted.

Combining the information he had obtained, Cao Yang hesitated for a moment and then crossed out Liu Dehua’s name.

Liu Dehua’s schedule was simply too full.

Between the 32 concerts and releasing a greatest hits album, even if he could make appropriate adjustments for the film, how could there be no impact?

It was impossible for all the concerts and album releases to be postponed, and they weren't that easy to postpone either.

Looking at the list on the paper, only Guo Fucheng and Cheng Long were left.

Guo Fucheng, the inherent impression he left on people might just be his looks and dancing, but as long as one had seen *After This Our Exile* which he starred in last year and *Divergence* which he starred in the year before, one would change their view of him.

*Divergence* was a breakthrough in his acting; through subtle expressions and body language, he displayed the character’s inner struggle and emotional fluctuations, making the character more three-dimensional and real.

Especially the broken mental state when he learned the truth about his girlfriend’s death completely overturned the outside world’s perception of him.

If he still retained some idol qualities during *Divergence*, then in the film *After This Our Exile*, he completely overturned his previous sunny and handsome image.

He dressed sloppily, acted rudely, and would burst into profanity at every turn, transforming into the muddled, unemployed drifter A-Sheng; such an unkempt, "ugly" image completely overturned people’s previous perception of him.

The seamless performance also made the audience and the industry truly look at him with new eyes.

Cao Yang believed that he had won the Golden Horse Best Actor award for two consecutive years for these two films last year and the year before, which was actually more persuasive than Li Ming’s Golden Horse Best Actor award.

It could not be denied that Li Ming acted very well in that horror film *Three... Extremes: Dumplings*, but it was inseparable from the good script and the decadent, eerie lens rendering under the coordination of cinematographer Christopher Doyle.

A deeply moving script, a character setting of a lovesick pervert, plus the addition of a top cinematographer’s special lens work—this was already half the success.

Therefore, someone who won the Golden Horse Best Actor in '05, won it again in '06, was nominated for the Hong Kong Film Award Best Actor in '07, and would most likely be nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Horse for the third consecutive year this year.

Choosing such an actor, even if he were to win the Berlin Best Actor award in '08, it didn't seem to have much sense of achievement or persuasiveness.

Of course, that was the case for Cao Yang.

But for Guo Fucheng, if he were to win the Berlin Best Actor award in '08, the Xiangjiang media would dare to let him "become a god"—at least the achievement of the award plus his status, especially for Xiangjiang, was enough to "become a god."

Cao Yang drew a circle around the names of Guo Fucheng and Cheng Long, and would consider who was better to choose.

Having narrowed down the scope for the male lead, he began to consider the other candidates in the film.

For the role of the male lead’s ex-wife, Cao Yang initially wanted to invite Zhang Manyu, but after thinking about it, Zhang Manyu had already publicly announced she was retiring from acting; the most critical thing was that Old Tian’s *Pieta* had once invited her and was rejected.

Cao Yang had a very high degree of certainty that he could get Zhang Manyu to join, but that would be a bit of a slap in the face to Old Tian.

After all, with the relationship with Old Tian being what it was, he couldn't make Old Tian embarrassed.

Don't look at the fact that this role didn't have many scenes, but there were a few scenes that really required explosive power, which was a test of acting; if played well, it was still possible to win Best Supporting Actress at other film festivals.

How about giving it to... Sister-in-law Hong?

Ptooey, ptooey, Cao Yang hurriedly suppressed this thought that shouldn't have existed.

However, thinking about it carefully, Sister Hong is still very suitable, so how about it?

Cao Yang didn't want to go to the trouble of looking for the role of the male lead's older brother, so he simply decided to let Old Tian do it.

As for the role of the "sister-in-law," Sister Hong is also very suitable...

Forget it, no need to rack my brain; let's just have Hui Yinghong from Xiangjiang do it. Her age is more appropriate, she is very obedient when working with Old Tian, and she even admires Old Tian quite a bit; the look in her eyes when she watches Old Tian reveals... cough.

The "nephew" has a lot of screen time and is one of the most important roles.

Cao Yang decided to choose one from the current students at the Beijing Film Academy; he called the head of the acting department and asked him to compile a list of current students.

This list is actually easy to check from the school's academic affairs office; with one phone call, the director of the academic affairs office would personally send the list to Cao Yang, or might even deliver it in person.

However, calling the head of the acting department also contained another layer of meaning: that is, my new film is prepared to use students from the Beijing Film Academy's acting department.

Sure enough, the head of the acting department understood Cao Yang's meaning; not only did he deliver the list in person, but he also attached information such as each student's photos, academic grades, and college entrance examination data.

Furthermore, he specifically noted which students in each grade and class had good talent and performance, and which students had acted in any films or television dramas.

These tasks look tedious, but in reality, it was just notifying the counselors and head teachers of each class, and it could be compiled in a short time.

Cao Yang wanted this list not only to select the role of the "nephew," but he also planned to find the "nephew's" two girlfriends from among the current students.

In this list, Cao Yang saw many familiar names, as well as some unexpected ones.

For example, in the class of '05, he saw the name Chen Xiao.

Originally thinking it was just a name coincidence, Cao Yang looked at his information: in 2005, the 18-year-old Chen Xiao applied for the Beijing Film Academy, the Central Academy of Drama, and the Nanjing University of the Arts at the same time, and was admitted to all of them.

Looking at his photo again, that's right, it is that Chen Xiao who later played Lin Pingzhi in "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer" and Yang Guo in "The Return of the Condor Heroes."

Cao Yang remembered that he seemed to have graduated from the Central Academy of Drama.

But this time, he chose the Beijing Film Academy.

In fact, given the current status and influence of the Beijing Film Academy, setting aside special factors, if one is admitted to both the Beijing Film Academy and the Central Academy of Drama through the art entrance exams, choosing which school is no longer a multiple-choice question.

This guy looks quite young in the photo and wouldn't look out of place playing a high school student; he can be called over to check his image.

Besides Chen Xiao, Cao Yang also circled four others, including Zhu Yilong and Peng Guanying from the class of '06.

There were more options for the actresses.

Cao Yang randomly circled a few: Yuan Shanshan, Zhang Xiaofei, and Yang Mi from the class of '05; Gao Ye from the class of '06; and Jing Tian and Kan Qingzi from the class of '07.

There is also the role of the male lead's brother's good friend, who becomes the "nephew's" guardian after the male lead leaves.

Cao Yang made a change and set this role as a "cousin," which makes it more reasonable for him to become the "nephew's" guardian.

For this role, the first person Cao Yang thought of was Wang Jinsong from the acting department; he has now been promoted to deputy head of the acting department and is also an old partner with whom Cao Yang has collaborated many times.

As for the role of his wife, Cao Yang immediately thought of Sister Hong... pfft, why is it that for any role of a wife, I think of Sister Hong first?

Cao Yang couldn't help but reflect, and finally concluded that the feng shui of the directing department is indeed not good.

There is also the role of the nephew's girlfriend's mother; the screen time is not much, so Cao Yang thought about it and decided to just have Jiang Wenli make a cameo; she had mentioned many times that she wanted to make a cameo in a role.

However, Cao Yang felt that Jiang Wenli making a cameo was a pretense, and keeping an eye on Gu Changwei—the number one photographer in China and someone who could also rank in the top tier in Hollywood—was the real reason.

Don't look at the fact that Gu Changwei hasn't been a director in this life; his status in the film and television circle is no lower than in his previous life, and two Oscars for Best Cinematography are not something to joke about.

Plus, he is Cao Yang's go-to crew member, having followed Cao Yang to film movies that won countless major awards; he has the awards and the box office, so his status is truly solid.

As usual, this film of Cao Yang's is still invested in by the Youth Film Studio and China Film Group, with a tentative budget of 30 million; such a "small" budget determined that it was impossible to pay the actors too high a salary, especially the male lead.

According to custom, a series of Cao Yang's expenses are converted into a share of the profits, and he gets about one-third.

Of course, this 30 million budget is real money and does not include the calculation of Cao Yang's "value."

The publicly announced budget is definitely not 30 million, but 50 million.

However, these are not the final figures, just an estimate; they will be calculated specifically after the male lead and the required exterior locations are determined.

As for the staff, the photographer is still Gu Changwei, the two assistant directors are still Liu Shan and Li Mingyi, the art director is Ye Jintian, and the stylist is Huang Liqi.

As for the others, most are still staff members Cao Yang has collaborated with before.

Liu Shan has already taken the location manager and other staff to Xiangjiang and the UK to look for exterior locations according to Cao Yang's requirements.

Now that the staff is in place and most of the actors have been found, all that's left is the male lead, his "nephew," and the "nephew's" two girlfriends.

(End of this chapter)