Chapter 555: Castrated Version

The total investment for Pineapple TV's 【Suspense Theater】 is not much less than that of Penguin Video's 【Mist Theater】.

And the reason why the total investment for Penguin Video's 【Mist Theater】 is always greater than Pineapple TV's 【Suspense Theater】 is simple—Luo Mo is expensive.

Well, that is a different price point.

Therefore, Pineapple TV attaches extreme importance to 【Suspense Theater】; if not for Luo Mo's interference, the level of importance could likely have been even higher.

Nowadays, Pineapple TV feels that having 【Mist Theater】's new drama air first, and us airing later, is not without its benefits.

Look, we can just imitate their strengths, can't we?

——This wave is stable!

Inside the Review Department, the petite, wood-framed-glasses-wearing straight-A student Li Xiaoli has already begun the review work for "Blood Detective".

Li Xiaoli, because both of her parents are surnamed Li, is called Li Xiaoli by her full name.

Colleagues call her Xiao Li; it could be her surname, or it could be her given name.

Just a few days ago, when their team had a private dinner, they enthusiastically discussed a question.

"Has everyone watched 'Forensic Qin Ming'?"

"I have! It's produced by Luo Mo, and our Section Chief Zhong reviewed it personally."

"Do you guys feel that this drama passing the review is a bit magical?"

"How should I put it? The standards for web dramas are already low, and this drama belongs to the type that could pass or could fail."

"Yeah, the scale is a bit large, and some scenes aren't even pixelated, tsk tsk tsk."

"Then what do you think Section Chief Zhong was thinking?"

Speculating on the leader's thoughts is a topic they often chat about.

The straight-A student Li Xiaoli took the lead in expressing her opinion: "This is a forensic-themed drama, so the content must involve plots like autopsies."

"Just like in the first few episodes, where they were... deboning a chicken foot." Xiao Li swallowed a mouthful of saliva and continued: "Ahem, I mean stripping the finger bones from that human hand."

"This is what demonstrates professionalism."

"If all similar content were completely pixelated or required to be cut, then this drama would actually lose some of its soul."

"Moreover, countries all over the world generally lack forensic doctors, and people don't know much about this scarce profession, and some people even have prejudices against them."

"I think the theme of this drama is quite good, so it's only right to pass it."

After she finished speaking, she pushed up her wood-framed glasses and was immediately debunked by the female colleague beside her.

"Forget it, you fan of Luo Mo, you are not allowed to speak!"

Yes, Li Xiaoli is a member of the 【Mo Sheng Ren】 army.

No celebrity can figure out what professions their fans have. Just as no author can know what their readers do for a living.

As long as the base is large enough, naturally there will be people from all walks of life.

Now, Li Xiaoli looked at the computer and muttered the title of the drama submitted by Pineapple TV: "'Blood Detective', this name is quite off-putting for viewers like me."

"Incompetent at naming," she thought to herself.

In fact, are the names of dramas produced by Luo Mo very attractive?

"Forensic Qin Ming", is it really okay to just use the protagonist's name?

"Nirvana in Fire", there were even a bunch of netizens who didn't even recognize the two characters 'Lang Ya' at first, couldn't even read them correctly, and some even called it "Liangxie List".

Kindness and Evil, amazing.

Clicking on the first episode of "Blood Detective", it starts with a murder scene, with blood covering the floor spreading out through the door crack.

Xiao Li frowned.

This was actually fine, but for some reason, she had an ominous premonition.

Sure enough, the camera cut, and it gave a close-up of the corpse directly.

"Ugh—!" Xiao Li stood up immediately, feeling incredibly nauseated.

There is no need to keep watching this drama; send it back to the furnace to be remade.

"Is the post-production team of this drama brain-damaged!" Xiao Li was puzzled; this was just too disgusting!

………

………

The day after the submission, Pineapple TV received one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.

The bad news is, it didn't pass the review.

The good news is, the money spent on post-production earlier didn't go to waste!

When they submitted it earlier, they had wiped away half of the finished post-production, erasing the pixelated parts and the added special effects, just to learn that realistic vibe of "Forensic Qin Ming"!

Haha, how could I, Pineapple, spend money in vain? Hahahaha, damn.

Pineapple TV held a special meeting.

This matter even alarmed Wang Shisong, who also came to listen in.

The final result was to submit the original version for review; stop trying to learn from Luo Mo!

Time is running out, and everyone has no time to slowly test the bottom line of the Review Department.

However, a few days later...

——It actually failed the review again!

The entire production team of "Blood Detective" was completely clueless!

What's going on, what is going on here!?

Can this even fail to meet the standards?

The reason is simple: this drama was rejected, and it was rejected under extremely severe circumstances.

So, the subsequent review requirements for it will...

"—Make it stricter!"

Furthermore, because Pineapple TV was in a rush, the two submissions were only one day apart.

One day of time, how could that be enough for rectifications?

Then, what would the Review Department think?

There is only one possibility!

What's the deal? The post-production was already finished, the mosaics were applied, the special effects were done, and everything was already perfectly set up.

Did they just have to deliberately provoke us like this, just to disgust us on purpose?

They aren't taking our Review Department seriously at all!

"—Their hearts are punishable!"

Admittedly, our Review Department also acts according to standards.

But rules are rigid, while people are flexible.

If one really wanted to nitpick, really wanted to find faults in your film, wouldn't that be incredibly easy?

In short, send it back to the furnace to be remade, change it for me, cut it for me!

"Blood Detective" thus saw blood.

Mm, it became a castrated version.

………

………

Luo Mo was temporarily unaware of all the storms brewing within Pineapple TV.

After returning to Shanghai, he began the post-production work for "Dying to Survive".

Xu Chujing also flew back to Shanghai from Beijing, and the young couple resumed their cohabitation mode.

No longer deliberately losing weight for a role, Luo Mo looked a bit more normal during this period.

Although his cheeks were still a little sunken and his cheekbones still a little prominent, he was already much better off than when he went on stage to sing "A Young China".

As for the upcoming work schedule, besides finishing the editing and other tasks, Luo Mo and the Heavenly Queen Xu also had to find time to record the song from "Dying to Survive"—"Only Ordinary".

Therefore, every day was spent in a fulfilling and busy manner.

Now, it was already mid-June.

This meant that the two-month-long Shuji Dang was about to arrive!

This is the longest popular release window, which triggers a "bloody storm" every year, with battle after battle!

It was definitely too late for "Dying to Survive" to be released in July.

Even if it were released in August, the timing would be slightly rushed.

Luo Mo's idea was very simple: if there is time, release it; he would rather shorten the promotional cycle than miss it!

If it really is too late, then wait for the next popular release window; there is no need to rush for a moment.

Making the film well was his original intention.

"If I remember correctly, on Earth, 'Dying to Survive' was also released during the Shuji Dang, in July," Luo Mo thought to himself.

"And the honor it achieved back then was ranking second in total box office among all films released during the Shuji Dang in Huaxia film history."

This was already very terrifying.

However, before this film was released, it went through many twists and turns.

Just the title alone was changed back and forth. At first, they wanted to call it "Path of Life", but later felt it was too empty; they wanted to change it to "India Medicine God", but felt something was wrong, always feeling it carried a bit of eroticism.

When the official release date was announced, the title made public was "China Medicine God".

But the team later believed that the tone of the film was: the radiance of human nature is the true god.

So, it was finally changed to "Dying to Survive".

Before its official release, this film held large-scale 【advance screenings】; the word-of-mouth and response were extremely good, and the box office during the advance screenings was also very high.

During this period, this film sparked large-scale heated discussions, and its popularity soared.

This was originally a good thing, as it meant that after the official release, the box office would likely explode.

However, an accident happened—pirated versions appeared online.

In the end, the publicity team decided to release the film early, making everything somewhat rushed.

If not for the appearance of online piracy, the box office results might have been even higher.

At night, Luo Mo, who had been busy with post-production work all day, picked up his phone and opened his Weibo.

His frequency of posting on Weibo was much lower than that of most traffic stars.

Some people care a lot about data and popularity on Weibo, but Luo Mo couldn't care less.

In fact, he didn't suddenly want to post anything today either; he purely wanted to—advertise on Weibo.

Director Wang Rong's new film was about to be released, so Luo Mo definitely had to shout out for him.

It would be released on June 24th, and many students were actually already on vacation. Moreover, the normal screening cycle of a film is one month, so it effectively counted as a Shuji Dang film as well.

Besides Wang Rong's new film, there were two other directors' films in the 【Hundred Billion Box Office Plan】 being released on the same day as his.

These two directors were Tian Ou and Feng Ji.

By July 16th, three more directors from the 【Hundred Billion Box Office Plan】 would release new films.

It meant that everyone was basically crowding into the Shuji Dang.

This was actually quite normal; after all, the Shuji Dang and the Spring Festival Gala window are the most popular release periods, and the Spring Festival Gala window, in the Gregorian calendar, would count as next year.

The goal of the Huaxia film industry was to challenge for the world's second-largest film market this year!

After helping to promote Wang Rong's new film, Luo Mo took the initiative to also promote Director Feng Ji's film.

He had collaborated very happily with Director Feng Ji at the Spring Festival Gala previously, and he also respected this elderly man of both virtue and art.

As for the remaining one, Tian Ou... who is Tian Ou?

So, what is Director Tian busy with right now?

He is currently giving an interview to the media.

In this interview, he decided to ride on Luo Mo's popularity to get more people to notice his new film.

Tian Ou prepared to reveal a big scoop about Luo Mo to the media!

(PS: Second update, asking for double monthly votes!

Also, thanks to book friend "The Future Is Too Far To Expect" for the Alliance Leader donation.)

(End of this chapter)