Chapter 165: Returning to the Country Next Week

For the past few days, a piece of secret news has been circulating within the domestic entertainment circle.

"Seeing Lu Kuan is back in the country!"

"What? Is that for real?"

"Didn't he say last month he'd be back next week? It's been almost a month!"

"This time it's true! Someone saw him at the Beiping airport this morning!"

Boss Lu, who was as elusive as a dragon, dragged his exhausted body back to the Wang Fu in the Ice Cellar.

He had been returning calls and messages since he was in the car, and once he got home, he collapsed onto the lounge chair in the courtyard.

"Boss, shouldn't you shave that beard of yours?"

Hu Zi couldn't help but remind him as he looked at his disheveled appearance.

Boss Lu touched his chin as if he hadn't heard: "Is it very long?"

"Forget it, let's go to the company to handle things first; I'm being urged to death."

These past two months in the United States had truly been a life-risking effort; besides the complicated processes to run and contracts to sign,

he also had to hire and assemble a crew, rent locations, find a special effects director, and communicate the special effects content.

After confirming that they would film on location in Toronto, Canada, he personally and quickly scouted the locations, followed by storyboarding and scripts.

The pre-production work for a film is inherently complex, and such a science fiction masterpiece with a 70-million-dollar investment was even more taxing on his heart and strength.

Boss Lu felt like he had aged ten years!

Fortunately, during this time in the United States, his Yang essence had not been leaked!

After some tidying up, Boss Lu clocked in and handled the backlog of tasks in the office that required his personal attention.

First, he made a phone call to Yao Jia, who was in Beiping on business for the Xiang Station, and asked her to come to Inquiry Realm.

He also instructed her to arrange gifts and a banquet to reward the key people who helped pass the satellite broadcast review this time.

Although the ban on games was only introduced in 2004, it wasn't easy for game-adapted dramas to get on satellite TV these days.

What to do? Find people!

The TV drama review department of the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television was currently a review committee composed of 37 people.

Among them, there were as many as 5 committee members from the Beijing Film Academy system, including the current Vice Dean of the Directing Department, Hou Keming, and Professor Zheng Dongtian.

After asking Zhang Huijun to help greet the other review committee members, plus the connections of Ouyang Changqing from the Xiang Station, it was finally decided that it would premiere on satellite TV in Xiang in August.

With the leader of the local station personally supervising, the image of Zhao Linger played by Liu Yifei in this life would appear before the public even earlier than Wang Yuyan.

In the previous contract signing, Seeing Lu Kuan required both parties to agree on a repurchase clause in the 2002 contract, and he took a small advantage because of it.

Because after entering 2003, cable television and radio stations at all levels across the country completed their merger.

The purchasing entity within an administrative region changed from two to one, and TV drama producers had to accept the price suppression from the buyer's market.

This led to a nearly 40% drop in the overall price of TV dramas in early 2004; the purchase price for an episode of a costume drama on CCTV was about 500,000, and about 200,000 for a modern drama.

Inquiry Realm Culture held a 65% stake in the "Chinese Paladin" project. Since the first round of broadcast rights was digested internally by the Xiang Station, the repurchase price was also returned to Inquiry Realm proportionally.

This part of the revenue, after deducting the promotion fees spent by both companies, was about 16 million.

In addition, there was the purchase of broadcast rights by CTV in the Bay Province, which would start airing one week after the mainland premiere.

This was a deal led by Wu Anguo, the father of An Yixuan. According to the price of 700,000 per episode, Inquiry Realm shared 15.5 million, with promotion fees calculated separately.

Advertising revenue would be settled after the premiere ended.

Because the agreement signed with several advertisers was a flexible advertising fee agreement, it depended on the rise and fall of ratings in the same time slot after the broadcast.

Immediately following that was the distribution of Ning Hao's "Crazy Stone." After the boiling point, the order in Beiping cinemas had just returned to normal in July.

In these three months of July, August, and September, July had the imported film "Finding Nemo," August had "Terminator 3," and September had "Warriors of Heaven and Earth." Seeing Lu Kuan decisively instructed to premiere at the end of June.

Currently, it had basically finished its run nationwide, with a box office of 34 million, about 11 million more than in the original timeline.

This was mainly due to the improvement of the film's distribution strategy under the guidance of Inquiry Realm, as well as the investment in promotion fees, and of course, the name of Seeing Lu Kuan as the producer could not be left out.

Produced by Director Lu, it must be a boutique, which had gradually become an industry consensus.

Such accumulation of reputation was very important.

Just like when people think of Feng Xiaogang when they talk about New Year films in later generations, the establishment of a director's and film company's reputation is not easy; this is the intangible asset of an enterprise.

The copyright of "Crazy Stone" for Xiangjiang and Southeast Asia was also sold to Jiang Zhiqiang for 3 million, almost a cabbage price.

Because this kind of black humor with dialect color had a screening effect on the audience group.

Just like the films of Feng Kuzi and the sketches of Zhao Benshan, the response in the north was significantly stronger than in the south; it was just a difference in cultural environment.

Also becoming popular were the lead actors such as Huang Bo and Zhang Songwen.

Wang Baoqiang didn't have much screen time in the play, but he himself was arranged for a wave of blog promotion because of "Blind Shaft."

The persona created for him, from an extra to the lead actor of a Silver Bear-winning work at the Berlin Film Festival, also gradually broke out of the circle.

In less than two years, the artists of Inquiry Realm, relying on their unique appearances, acting skills, and the same spirit of dedication, each broke out of the circle in their own small way.

"Chinese Paladin" and "Crazy Stone" from the film and television department of Inquiry Realm were also about to achieve a good start.

In the eyes of other competitors in the domestic entertainment industry, this was even more terrifying than the box office success of Seeing Lu Kuan's own films.

Especially when thinking of Liu Yifei and others who had frequent scandals with Seeing Lu Kuan recently, it showed that Inquiry Realm already had a mature star-making and film and television production system under Seeing Lu Kuan's leadership.

Internally, it could form a process of capturing, processing, and selling entertainment resources, continuously completing capital accumulation and reproduction.

Perhaps what Inquiry Realm lacked now were suitable artists.

For example, the pre-production of "Love is Not Blind," directed by Beijing Film Academy professor and Inquiry Realm contract director Xue Xiaolu, had been completed, and the casting process was about to begin.

Opportunities to be in films were rare these days; being able to be in an Inquiry Realm film was equivalent to being in a Seeing Lu Kuan film, and rounding up, it was equivalent to being with Seeing Lu Kuan.

Actresses: Give it a try! A bicycle turns into a motorcycle!

Sun Wenwen knocked on the door and came in: "Boss Lu, regarding the project initiation of 'The Other Shore,' China Film, Shanghai Film, Huayi, and Bona have all sent letters to greet us many times."

Seeing Lu Kuan was signing the bills submitted by the finance department without raising his head.

"Let them wait."

The copyright of "The Other Shore" was placed in the US company, but his personal investment of 10 million US dollars had to go through the domestic Inquiry Realm Culture to meet the requirements of a co-production.

The investment from these institutions didn't have much impact on him because he was using 10 million US dollars as leverage to pry a 70-million-dollar big production.

Even if it lost money, it would only lose according to these 10 million US dollars, and it could easily wipe out the loss with "Paranormal Activity" from Lionsgate.

He could still afford these 10 million, and those who coveted the share should exchange it with resources.

"Hu Zi!"

Liu Yifei and Yao Jia came out of the elevator together and saw the cold-faced little brother sitting on the sofa in the Inquiry Realm reception room with nothing to do.

Hu Zi stood up politely to answer, knowing that this was someone the boss valued highly; the few of them had spent the Spring Festival together in New York at the beginning of the year.

"Hu Zi, is your boss inside?"

"Yes, he is inside handling official business."

Yao Jia, who was traveling with Liu Yifei, silently observed the attitude of Seeing Lu Kuan's personal bodyguard towards Liu Yifei and asked politely: "Little brother, please inform Director Lu and say that Yao Jia from Xiang Station has arrived."

People who had been in the system for a long time would not be unaware of the key roles of a leader's driver and bodyguard assistant.

Especially looking at their attitude towards different people, for example, his address to Liu Yifei, which explained the problem very well.

Liu Yifei smiled: "No need, let's go in directly."

As she spoke, she pulled Yao Jia in. Hu Zi was originally clumsy with words and couldn't even say a word of refusal.

Forget it, after all, she was one of the boss's two saviors...

In the chairman's office, Sun Wenwen had just finished collecting the signed documents of a batch of financial bills and was about to go out when she saw Yao Jia and Liu Yifei enter uninvited.

"Director Lu, hello, sorry to bother you."

"Little Lu, busy!"

Since parting in New York, Liu Yifei hadn't seen him for several months.

She had just communicated with Yao Jia at Red Star Dock about the promotion of "Chinese Paladin" and knew that Seeing Lu Kuan was looking for her, so she hitched a ride.

Boss Lu looked up and gave the two of them a big scare.

Why are your dark circles so heavy! And you're all scruffy; you don't look like you just flew back from the U. S., you look like you came back from begging for food.

Seeing Lu Kuan looked at their complexions and slapped his forehead!

"You guys wait a moment, I'll go shave my beard."

Hu Zi had reminded him when he went out in the morning, but he was busy handling things at the company and forgot about it.

That's not right, why didn't the group of people at Butian Film remind him?

Thinking about it again, these people had also been busy crazy recently, like the coders of later generations, busy with the special effects production of "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" and "Chinese Paladin," and started to study the basic special effects of "The Other Shore," which was temporarily kept confidential from the outside.

One by one, they didn't look much different from Boss Lu, all disheveled.

Yao Jia covered her mouth and chuckled; it was better not to look in front of the leader, just sit on the sofa and wait quietly.

Liu Yifei followed him into the bedroom, wagging her tail...

That's not right, why is there a bedroom in this office?!

Seeing Lu Kuan faced the mirror in the bathroom, applying foam to his chin while saying righteously: "You should know how dedicated I am, right?"

"I often work overtime in the office, so it's normal to have a bedroom for rest, right?"

The little girl inspected it without any restraint, touching here and looking there, and it seemed there was really nothing suspicious.

"By the way, Little Lu, Harper's Bazaar sent you an invitation, right?"

The movement in Seeing Lu Kuan's hand paused; he just remembered that Sun Wenwen had indeed mentioned it to him, and the letter should be on the desk now.

"You have one too? Does someone invite a little star like you?"

Liu Yifei blushed: "Bullshit! My album has sold nearly 80,000 copies, and "The Story of a Noble Family" also has high ratings. My fans online are even setting up a personal website for me!"

"Do you have one? Do you have one? You tumble washing machine!"

Seeing Lu Kuan finished cleaning his face calmly and glanced at Liu Yifei, who was glaring at him and questioning him.

"I am a tumble washing machine, aren't you still one of the clothes exposed by Zhuo Wei? What are you proud of?"

Liu Yifei's pretty face flushed slightly: "Get lost!"

She didn't take those groundless black materials to heart, but being mentioned unscrupulously by the person involved, she seemed to have some unspeakable shyness.

Yao Jia listened to the two of them inside like they were performing crosstalk, fearing that she would know something, and really wanted to cover her ears.

Seeing Lu Kuan walked out of the small room with a new look, restoring his handsome and elegant appearance.

"Director Yao, how was the warm-up ceremony for the broadcast of "Chinese Paladin" last week?"

"My Fair Princess III" aired in early July, also aiming for the summer vacation file, and currently, it had reached the finale, with an average rating as high as 13%, winning the championship.

"Chinese Paladin" also took advantage of this east wind, seamlessly connecting with "My Fair Princess III," airing in August, catching up with the second half of the summer vacation file.

It was believed that it would undoubtedly become a carnival for game fans, student fans, and costume drama fans.

"Very successful, the response is very good, especially the promotion of the blog network is very powerful, thank you Director Lu for introducing us to Boss Zhuang, he is very cooperative."

Liu Yifei stood by, watching her nose and mouth, without speaking.

Outsiders didn't know, but she knew from the beginning the relationship between Seeing Lu Kuan and Zhuang Xu, or rather, between Seeing Lu Kuan and the blog network.

It was just that Seeing Lu Kuan himself gradually faded out and took the initiative to reduce his connection with the blog network.

"Well, do all the pre-work in place, I believe "Chinese Paladin" will leave its mark in the history of domestic TV dramas."

Boss Lu teased Yao Jia: "Director Yao, you are also one of the great contributors!"

"Don't dare, Boss Lu, it's just my duty."

Yao Jia almost used her future as a guarantee at the beginning, urging the old station manager in the car.

She also said firmly that if this drama was taken by the ambitious and wealthy Jiang Zhehu Station, it would endanger the current position of Xiang Station, which was under one person and above ten thousand people.

"Chinese Paladin," which aired in August, was also a big test for her.

If she did well, she would go further, and it would not be difficult to become the deputy director of the film purchasing department.

If she didn't do well, she might become a target of public criticism in the station surrounded by wolves.

Because Xiang Station gave up the copyright competition in the contract signing with Inquiry Realm, which was also the bottom line of negotiation set by Seeing Lu Kuan for Lu Yao.

Yao Jia rarely saw this young director who was worthy of praise in the circle for his vision, pattern, and development trend of the industry, and hesitated to bring up another question.

"Director Lu, do you know about "Jewel in the Palace" currently airing in Korea?"

Liu Yifei answered first: "I've seen it, many people are discussing it online now."

Seeing Lu Kuan was expressionless: "Heard of it, Xiang Station intends to introduce it?"

Yao Jia nodded: "The station manager asked me to study this project."

"Jewel in the Palace" was the first banner of the Korean wave entering the mainland, premiering locally in 2003, and Xiang Station premiered it in 2005, with a huge response.

In all fairness, the quality of the drama was indeed quite good, and the "negative" Korean wave cultural input brought by it was not small.

As mentioned earlier, this was also a major decision made by Ouyang Changqing in the first few years of his tenure. Xiang Station, relying on its own public opinion and hype ability, successfully pushed this Korean drama into a blockbuster.

They united with media such as "Sanlian Life Weekly" to publish various soft articles.

For example, housewives were addicted to "Jewel in the Palace" and quarreled with their husbands, causing family conflicts;

For example, Korean cuisine, delicious kimchi entered the land of China, setting off a food storm;

For example, the annual blockbuster template for wedding photography, newlyweds chose to dress up as Jewel in the Palace to take pictures;

Even from the perspective of a reborn person like Seeing Lu Kuan, these hype methods could not be said to be not high, and in the domestic entertainment industry in 2005, it was almost like a dimensionality reduction strike.

It wasn't until the Korean ban was introduced due to cultural input, geopolitics, and other reasons that this trend was slightly curbed.

But it was subsequently hijacked by internet capital to hype topics such as "four sons returning to the country," girl groups, and trainees, changing their appearance and continuing to harvest the wallets of domestic entertainment fans.

Standing from the perspective of national development and resisting cultural invasion, the Korean wave was a fierce tiger about to knock on the door.

Considering Seeing Lu Kuan's own personal interests, the artists he cultivated, Huang Bo, Wang Baoqiang, Zhang Songwen, and even the newly signed Hu Ge, all took a relatively strength-based route.

Liu Yifei didn't need to be mentioned, she had been insisting on morning practice for almost 2 years.

At the age of fifteen or sixteen, everything was in time, and there was room for growth, and Seeing Lu Kuan had never dared to give her any very important film roles.

And the invasion of the Korean wave would inevitably change the aesthetics of a generation and affect the star-making model of the domestic entertainment industry.

Unless he also opened his arms and actively embraced the Korean wave and the assembly-line artist model of the SM company, otherwise the two would sooner or later have conflicts.

Because the channels and resources of the entertainment circle were limited.

A very direct example, "Chinese Paladin" and "Jewel in the Palace" were scheduled at the same time on Xiang Station. If the Korean wave was too big to fail and swept the country at this time, the position of the summer golden file would inevitably be "Jewel in the Palace."

The resulting influence of Korean artists in the domestic entertainment industry doubled, and the ability to harvest fan wallets doubled.

Domestic entertainment artists were originally suppressed by Hong Kong and Taiwan stars, plus the imported goods from Korea and Japan, when would they have a day to stand out?

Top works, endorsements, especially fashion circle resources would be occupied by others, which was not what Seeing Lu Kuan wanted to see.

"Jewel in the Palace, right? I'll pay attention to it, and we'll talk about this when we have time."

"Okay, thank you Director Lu!"

Yao Jia was very excited. She actually had her own ideas, but in front of superiors, she must not be comprehensive.

If you said everything, what would the leader say? How would the leader supplement?

She seemed to be humbly asking for advice in front of Seeing Lu Kuan, but in fact, she was also establishing a bond between the two, just to have an extra topic besides "Chinese Paladin."

After all, this anecdote of "returning to the country next week" had already spread throughout the domestic entertainment industry, and it was really not easy to contact and make friends.

Because of the cooperation of "Chinese Paladin," she was close to the water and got the moon first. I don't know how many people in the station were jealous!

The goal was achieved, Yao Jia was bright-eyed and clear-hearted, looking at the cheerful Liu Yifei, she didn't get in the way here.

"Director Lu, I will be in Beiping this week, if you have anything you need me to do, just order."

This was treating Seeing Lu Kuan like Ouyang Changqing. The mouths of people in the system could always say such warm and traceless words to superiors.

"Okay, Wenwen, you send Director Yao off."

Liu Yifei saw the two go out and also collapsed on the sofa without any sitting posture.

"So tired recently, there are too many announcements!"

Capitalist Seeing Lu Kuan reprimanded his subordinates: "Isn't it good to be popular? Other actresses can't even get announcements if they want to?"

As he spoke, he pointed to the invitation on the table: "If you weren't popular, could this thing be sent to Red Star Dock? They are all people who look at people and serve dishes."

Liu Yifei suddenly remembered: "Where is the DVD of "Paranormal Activity"? Did you bring it back for me?"

At the beginning of the year at Sundance, she cooperated with Seeing Lu Kuan to fool Emil into the trap, so naturally, she knew about this low-budget horror film.

"I really don't know you have this hobby, do you dare to watch it alone."

"It's in the car, let Hu Zi give it to you later."

Liu Yifei was noncommittal: "You cheated Lionsgate out of a lot of money with this thing again, right?"

Boss Lu was furious: "What do you mean by cheating? Things done by cultural people, can that be called cheating? That's a win-win!"

"Cut!"

"My birthday is coming next month, you are a big tycoon now, aren't you going to show something?"

Seeing Lu Kuan glanced at her suspiciously. Growing from 15 to 16, how did this face grow so thick.

"You haven't paid back the 100-plus yuan for breakfast you owed me in "The Story of a Noble Family," are you embarrassed?"

"Why am I embarrassed! When it's your birthday, I even give you..."

Liu Yifei felt a little embarrassed halfway through her words, and then glared at him fiercely: "It was agreed that I would help you send Dong Jie away and it would be written off, are you a rascal?"

Seeing Lu Kuan changed the subject: "Where is Auntie Liu? Why didn't she follow you."

"She... she went to do things with her godfather. Besides, with Siwei following me, she is very relieved."

Liu Yifei thought her mind turned quickly and changed her words quickly, but how could she hide it from Seeing Lu Kuan, who saw the subtle and knew the obvious.

It was just that the little girl really didn't want him to know that Liu Xiaoli and Cheng Jingfei were called away by Liu Zeyu.

Seeing Lu Kuan didn't expose her. If it involved interests, like the two times she tipped off before, Liu Yifei would tell the truth.

Liu Yifei bounced to the table and picked up his invitation, flipping through the content, which was about the same as hers.

She picked up the invitation and signaled to Seeing Lu Kuan: "Are you going?"

"No money, not going."

It wasn't that Boss Lu didn't have a kind heart and was afraid of spending money on charity, because this group of people wasn't aiming for charity.

"Go, otherwise I won't know anyone there, so embarrassing!"

"Zhou Xun, Fan Bingbing, don't you know them? Don't care who you sit at a table with, just chat and you'll be familiar!"

The invitation was sent to the crew of "Shoplifters," which won the Jury Prize and Best Director at Cannes. Several actresses also called to ask if he would attend.

"No, it's my first time in such an occasion, I'm really scared!"

Seeing Lu Kuan looked at her pulling his arm and shaking it hard, amused.

What are you doing, putting intensity on me?

"Little Liu! You are no longer a fourteen or fifteen-year-old little girl, you have to be confident!"

"Although you have a bun face, your legs are thicker than theirs!"

Liu Yifei was originally shaking him, but hearing Seeing Lu Kuan maliciously teasing her again, evil came to the side of her courage, and she pinched him hard.

"Fee fee fee!"

Boss Lu hurriedly pulled his arm out, and before he could say a word, he was interrupted by the ringing of the phone.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 166 =====