Chapter 215: Route Problem

The promotional activities of the *Exotic* crew in Beijing were arranged very tightly. In addition to several interviews and media and fan meetings, there was the "Climbing the Great Wall" activity.

The crew specially opened a Chinese official website and drew enthusiastic audience members from the website to participate in the activities.

Added to the arrival of Mei Yanfang, Zhou Jielun, and others yesterday, the large group set off in a mighty way, which had a very good promotional effect.

In particular, Leonardo also opened his own Chinese blog. The first blog post shared his experience and feelings of living in a courtyard house.

In this era, having a Hollywood superstar appreciate and experience Chinese culture in such a down-to-earth way could provide high emotional value for fans.

It was like the several times Lu Kuan went abroad to participate in the three major European film festivals, the questions Chinese reporters asked foreign stars and directors the most were:

"Which Chinese movies have you seen? Which director and actor do you like the most?"

And all this painstaking marketing would be transformed into the box office figures of *Exotic* next June.

At 6:00 PM, Gongjian Hutong, Ice Cellar Wang Mansion.

The temperature in Beijing in December was already below zero. Lu Kuan arranged a table of Huaiyang cuisine in the restaurant on the south side of the east wing to entertain Mei Yanfang, Zhou Jielun, and others.

"Akuan, Director Hou also called before I came, telling me to persuade you again."

Boss Lu laughed: "How come this Old Hou is like foot-binding cloth? Once he entangles someone, he won't let go!"

Liu Yifei rolled up her sleeves in the courtyard to prepare the barbecue. Su Chang also came today. It was the first time the two best friends had met since the premiere of *Thief*.

Liu Xiaoli pushed open the glass door: "You two come in quickly, stop grilling. There are so many dishes that we can't finish them."

Little did she know that Liu Yifei pulling Su Chang was in the name of barbecue, but in reality, it was to probe for information.

"Has he been at the company these two days?"

"How would I know! I went yesterday when we were talking about *Love in 33 Days* and saw him."

Su Chang also played a supporting role in the movie, the role of Jiao Junyan in later generations.

Being able to play Consort Dong E at the age of ten or so, with makeup, this female supporting role was also very suitable.

Liu Yifei was dissatisfied: "Are you useless? Didn't I tell you to develop more moles? That Sun Wenwen or something, ah?"

"No, I went to work, not to be an undercover agent for you, okay? What artist probes the boss's intelligence all day long?"

The young girl frowned and snatched a meat skewer from Su Chang's hand.

"What are you eating? Incompetent!"

She turned around and pushed the door into the restaurant angrily.

Su Chang really wished she had the martial arts of Tianshan Tonglao, otherwise she wouldn't be able to beat this best friend who had practiced martial arts in *Exotic*.

As soon as Liu Yifei entered the door, she heard Lu Kuan and Mei Yanfang teasing Zhou Jielun.

"Jielun is amazing. He is now the cover person of *Time* magazine!"

Boss Lu laughed: "Fortunately, he wasn't this popular when we filmed *Drummer* last year, otherwise that 500,000 salary wouldn't be enough for him to act for 10 minutes."

In February of the beginning of the year, Zhou Jielun appeared on the cover of the Asian edition of *Time* magazine. This year was also Zhou Jielun's first time on the Spring Festival Gala stage.

Zhou Jielun was still not used to being teased: "I'm very nervous now. The Spring Festival Gala, wow, more than a billion people nationwide, I sweat just thinking about it."

"It's okay, I'll go too."

Liu Yifei teased: "Jielun, Sister Mei, and I are all going to perform. Are you going as an audience member?"

"What audience member? I'm an art consultant, okay!"

Boss Lu knocked on the table dissatisfied.

The general director of the Spring Festival Gala, Yuan Dewang, invited him to participate in the program review as an art consultant, and he would also sit in the front row to participate in the live recording.

It was normal for famous domestic directors to participate in various galas as consultants. Kuzi even served as the general director in 2014.

Mei Yanfang teased: "Little brother, did you use magic? Everyone in your *Drummer* crew is now very popular."

"You are a big Chinese director entering Hollywood, Jielun is a little king of the Asian music scene, and Xixi is the hottest young female star in the mainland."

Liu Xiaoli looked at the few people in front of her and suddenly discovered that they had all risen to this point in the past two years.

Just like her daughter, even if she took one wrong step, it would be impossible to go so smoothly.

Looking at the scene in front of her, she also felt sighing.

Liu Xiaoli remembered bringing her daughter back to the country two years ago, plunging into the deep water of the domestic entertainment industry without knowing the situation.

If it weren't for Lu Kuan's appearance, she really didn't know what Xixi would look like now.

His appearance brought Liu Yifei on a broad road impartially, but thinking of the look in her daughter's eyes when she looked at him in the crew...

Liu Xiaoli remembered her failed marriage. She couldn't bear to watch her daughter repeat the same mistakes.

But what should she do...

Su Chang interjected: "Director Lu, the sample film I watched this afternoon, was my performance okay?"

"You? You acted too deliberately."

"However, for this kind of youth movie, being a little pretentious is nothing. Just don't destroy the overall tone of the movie."

Liu Yifei suddenly asked: "Changchang, are you planning to take the exam for the Central Academy of Drama or Beijing Film Academy next year?"

After Su Chang signed with the inquiry realm, Lu Yao of the artist brokerage department tailored a development plan for her.

She would graduate from high school early after she turned 17 next year, and then take the art exam.

In fact, she took the college entrance exam in June, but didn't enroll after being admitted, and later joined the crew of *Lotus Lantern*.

Now she was also filming while preparing for next year's art exam, and wouldn't be like the previous life, muddle-headedly applying for Beijing Foreign Studies University.

"Beijing Film Academy! Be your classmate."

"Junior sister, okay? What classmate!"

Mei Yanfang suddenly said in surprise: "That Professor Huang who is spreading like wildfire on the internet recently, you young girls should pay attention to yourselves."

Liu Xiaoli also cared: "Changchang, just take the exam for Beijing Film Academy. Your Boss Lu is well-connected there, and there won't be teachers doing smoky things at that time."

Huang Dingyu had already been detained today, and was acquitted in later generations.

But he was also expelled from the Central Academy of Drama. It was very likely that he spent money to find someone to settle the matter, and he retreated bravely.

Lu Kuan agreed: "That's right, just take the exam for Beijing Film Academy. There are too many bad people in the entertainment industry, and you are very easy to suffer losses."

He had just picked up a chopstick of food, and when he looked up, he saw everyone, including Mei Yanfang, looking at him with inexplicable expressions.

"What are you looking at me for?"

Liu Yifei laughed out loud, and seeing him continue to eat heartily with an indifferent look, she thought this person's face was really not generally thick.

Perhaps it was because she was young and hadn't seen the ugliness of the entertainment industry, or perhaps it was because she was familiar with Lu Kuan, who was still a small person in the *Gilded Age* crew, Su Chang was far from being as cautious as other artists in the company toward Lu Kuan.

"Director Lu, the development plan the company made for me wrote a key consideration for the direction of the chick-flick role. What does it mean?"

In this day and age, the development of domestic brokerage business was not perfect. It was unique for the inquiry realm to formulate development routes based on artists' personalities, appearance, and comprehensive abilities.

Of course, this was also Lu Kuan's personal teaching, just like the fashion route he told Bingbing in Cannes.

"Chick-flick is a type of movie, with a female perspective, tending to use a humorous and teasing way to discuss some problems of modern women."

"*Breakfast at Tiffany's*, which you have all seen, is the earliest representative of chick-flicks. In Hollywood, it's called chick-flick."

The first domestic chick-flick in later generations was *Perfect* produced by Zhang Ziyi in 2009, but foreign countries already had relevant concepts.

"Combining your conditions in all aspects, there is a possibility of developing in this direction. The company will pay attention to collecting such scripts for you, or even organize screenwriters to specially produce this type of drama."

"Genre films are the most popular, just like kung fu movies have produced so many Chinese martial arts superstars."

"Chick-flicks have developed very rapidly in the West. Vivien Leigh in *Gone with the Wind*, Hepburn in *My Fair Lady*, and more recently, Jun Ji-hyun in the Korean *My Sassy Girl* last year."

Mei Yanfang agreed: "Akuan is right. There are many girls in Hong Kong now who have no characteristics. Directors can use you, or they can not use you."

Zhou Jielun then understood a little: "It's like singing. If you don't have your own style, you can't get out."

"That's right. To be an actor, you must have recognition. If you reach the extreme in this type of chick-flick role, all directors will look for you when they think of this subject in the future."

Liu Xiaoli listened with envy. This is a professional company and a professional plan, much better than the family workshop she had before.

It was just that such a star-making plan couldn't be told to outsiders, otherwise the entire domestic entertainment industry would start to roll again and learn this set of artist cultivation plans.

Look at the actors signed by Boss Lu, almost all of them had certain characteristics and development routes.

Wang Baoqiang, honest type, suitable for all kinds of funny, upright male supporting roles;

Huang Bo, humorous and funny type, with high acting potential, strong plasticity, and can also take on variety shows;

Zhang Songwen, all-around type, jack-of-all-trades, move wherever needed;

Hu Ge, the first male lead of ancient idols. The company would feed him enough costume dramas in the first few years of his debut;

Zhu Yawen just signed over, he hadn't graduated yet, and hadn't been finalized, but Wang Xiaojian in *Love in 33 Days* was not bad.

"Little Lu, look at our Xixi, what route is she suitable for?"

Liu Yifei, who was gnawing on a pig's trotter, heard everyone mention her, wiped her oily mouth, and looked at Lu Kuan expectantly.

Goddess type? Cute type? Jade girl type?

"Her? Let's talk about it after eighteen."

Liu Xiaoli asked suspiciously: "Little Lu, why is this?"

"Your acting skills are basically finalized between 18 and 20. If there is no great progress, you will just pretend to be cute and play beauties for the rest of your life, at most just fight in co-productions."

"Just like Wang Yuyan and Zhao Linger, they were brought to fire by *Sword* and *Dragon* in the past two years. There are many follow-up projects, and you won't be short of such roles in the future."

The young girl was unconvinced: "What if I have great progress?"

Lu Kuan laughed: "Then you can find one or two roles that break your image first, just like the *The Revenant* script Leonardo looked at that day."

"From a handsome young man to a 200-pound savage, gaining dozens of pounds."

"There is another very important point. Your current fan base is mostly between 15 and 20 years old, with limited consumption power and no habit of going to the cinema."

"If you are still revolving around these few fixed role types, then it will take at least 5-8 years for these people to have consumption power."

"During this period, the movies you participate in have no box office appeal, and directors who make commercial films won't consider you first."

Everyone chewed on Lu Kuan's analysis and nodded secretly. This was a judgment made from the age composition of the fan base, which had to be said to be very foresighted.

Now Liu Yifei's fans are mostly teenagers who watch TV. To wait for them to truly have the consumption power to pay for her, they must at least be in college and working.

Why did she have three consecutive hit dramas since her comeback in 2021 in later generations? Her first generation of fans were all over 30, which was the main force of consumption.

Zhou Jielun laughed: "If Akuan doesn't become a director, he must also be a top-notch manager."

Everyone nodded in agreement with this point of view, only Liu Yifei secretly guessed the purpose of his saying this.

Is he still trying to lure her to the inquiry realm, so he can have his spring and autumn dreams?

It can be said that measuring a gentleman's belly with a villain's heart.

Little Liu, your judgment of people is really accurate!

In the TV in the restaurant, the opening song of *Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils* sounded, and another work of Liu Yifei was born.

In 2003, there were still more than ten days left to become the past.

The next day, Lu Kuan accompanied Mei Yanfang, Zhou Jielun, and Liu Yifei to the 1,000-square-meter Spring Festival Gala studio of CCTV.

Of course, he wouldn't be bored enough to accompany the young girl and the big sister to rehearse.

He wouldn't go to the Three Treasures Hall without anything to do. He came to poach people.

"Old Zhang, here!"

Boss Lu saw the bearded man chatting with several friends from afar.

At this time and place, the little Daoist who had asked Zhang Jizhong for a role could already wave his hand and call Old Zhang over like summoning an old horse.

"How is it, where is Director Kang?"

The direct purpose of Boss Lu's trip was to poach Kang Honglei.

Kang Honglei was the director of last year's Spring Festival Gala, and this year he was also an art consultant like Lu Kuan.

The bearded man filmed *Laughing in the Wind* in 2001, and Kang Honglei was his assistant director, so he specially called him to be a middleman today.

"He arrived long ago, waiting for you in the small room. Let's go."

The bearded man negotiated the salary of *The Return of the Condor Heroes* with Yang Siwei, 180,000 per episode, and thought he had successfully moved closer to Boss Lu again.

This time Lu Kuan took the initiative to call him to help with things, which was a positive signal for Zhang Jizhong, so he naturally flocked to it.

There were several small dressing rooms in the studio, which were reserved for top stars to use alone. They were still empty now and were temporarily used as the conference room for Lu Kuan's poaching.

He took the initiative to reach out to the Inner Mongolian man in front of him, showing respect for the virtuous.

"Director Kang, I've heard of you for a long time!"

Kang Honglei still didn't know what this movie director, who had never had any intersection, was looking for him for.

"President Lu is polite. I am the one who has admired you for a long time."

Without much polite talk, Lu Kuan took out a script directly.

It was the military drama adaptation he had bought from Lan Xiaolong before.

"This?..."

Boss Lu laughed: "Director Kang, you are a straightforward Northern man, so I won't beat around the bush."

"The company is now recruiting troops and horses, and there is a shortage of talent in the TV drama sector. Currently, there is only Teacher Jiang from Beijing Film Academy."

"This is a military-themed work bought by the inquiry realm last year. I thought about it, and only you have this level and dispatch ability. You might as well take a look first."

Kang Honglei was a straightforward person, but today he seemed to have met someone who spoke more directly than him, and he was speechless for a while.

Since he was speechless, he didn't say anything, and simply opened the script without being polite.

*Soldiers Sortie*.

Kang Honglei was a soldier by origin, fighting all the way from Inner Mongolia to Beijing, having suffered and endured.

He truly emerged in 1995, serving as the assistant director of *Water Margin*, followed by *Swallow Li San* in 1997 and *Laughing in the Wind* in 2001.

But what he longed for most in his heart was undoubtedly military dramas.

It was also because of his deep relationship with the bearded man that the former strongly supported him to serve as the director of *Burning Years* in 1999, which made him famous in one battle.

Ironically, this year he had already hung the director position at Inner Mongolia TV Station for 8 years and had never been on the establishment.

The script Lu Kuan gave him was just the first five episodes he had simplified. The project truly implemented still needed to find Lan Xiaolong and the screenwriter team to further refine it.

It was just that these short five episodes of plot had already made this man who was obsessed with military themes love it.

He closed the script: "Director Lu, what do you mean?"

"Come to the inquiry realm. I asked Old Zhang. Your position is still hung at Inner Mongolia TV Station. It's a waste of talent."

It stands to reason that with the pain of seeking establishment for eight years, Kang Honglei should be unceremonious.

But it was a coincidence that Zhang Guoli of the Beijing circle was preparing to build a film and television company recently and had also thrown an olive branch to him.

In this day and age, Zhang Jizhong and Zhang Guoli were two big shots in the domestic TV drama industry, both of whom were figures with intertwined interpersonal relationships and unfathomable depths.

Zhang Jizhong laughed: "Da Lei, just say what you have to say. Director Lu is my old friend. We are all our own people."

Aren't we our own people? Old Liu had already been dual-tracked. Zhang Jizhong thought of the rumors on the rivers and lakes now and felt a little cold.

It is said that the video handed to the sea was first discovered on the blog site, and Lu Kuan's relationship with the blog site had always been close.

This could be seen from many of his movie promotions.

Kang Honglei saw this and said the truth: "It's Zhang Laoshi Guoli. He has communicated with me a lot recently and wants me to go over to help him, so I..."

"Did you promise him?"

"No."

Boss Lu laughed: "That's easy to handle."

He took out his cell phone and dialed directly, turning on the speakerphone.

"Zhang Laoshi, it's me, Lu Kuan."

"Oh my, Director Lu, I saw you doing *Exotic* promotion on TV a few days ago. Are you back in Beijing?"

"Thank you for your help with my son's matter. If you are free tonight, why don't we get together?"

The bearded man looked at Boss Lu with a strange expression.

He considered himself a big shot in TV drama resources among those who were on good terms with Lu Kuan.

How did another Zhang Guoli pop up?

Sigh, this jealousy is like Little Liu.

Boss Lu smiled lightly: "Don't be busy with dinner. I'm not going anywhere recently. There are plenty of opportunities."

"It's like this, Zhang Laoshi. I am with Director Honglei now. I have a project here and want to ask him to give me a hand."

"Look..."

Zhang Guoli understood in seconds.

A TV drama director was not particularly important to him, not to mention whether this company could be opened or not.

The major shareholder said that the first phase of 5 million investment had been implemented for months and there was no news.

Isn't it just a favor? Cheap and affordable.

"Director Lu, if it's convenient, give the phone to Honglei, and I'll chat with him for a few words?"

Lu Kuan followed the trend. Kang Honglei took the phone and returned it after saying a few words.

"Director Lu, I am very happy. I have always wanted to find an opportunity to thank you. Look, isn't this opportunity here?"

"I told Honglei to prioritize Director Lu's urgency. Anything is fine here, haha."

Boss Lu was also tired of him asking for favors for himself, so he hung up the phone without saying a few words.

Looking at Da Lei Zi again, he was already holding the script and gnawing on it again.

Use good works to nest, never empty-handed every time.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 216 =====