Chapter 100 Spring Festival Gala Program and Dust Settled

The movie "My Sassy Girl" made Zeng Li a popular actress in mainland China.

Especially as the movie started to become popular overseas, it also caused a wild storm, especially in South Korea, where it was extremely well received.

Seeing how popular Zeng Li was in Korea, the CJ Group in South Korea specially invited her to promote their product.

Zeng Li stayed in South Korea for more than a week, and a large number of fans flocked to almost every event.

Neither Zeng Li nor Zeng Jia expected that Zeng Li was so popular in South Korea.

Zeng Jia was of course very happy about this. Not only did he help Zeng Li make a fortune in Korea, he also established relationships with CJ Group and some entertainment companies in Korea.

Liu Zhou smiled after understanding the situation. This was within his expectations.

Korean fans sometimes behave in a very contradictory manner. They may be very loyal to some celebrity artists and like them for twenty or thirty years.

But sometimes they can be very ruthless, and may like someone for just a few days and then discard them like a worn out shoe.

The movie "My Sassy Girl" has a very long tail effect in Korea. Because of this movie, Jeon Ji-hyun is not only popular throughout Asia, but she is also a national treasure-level actress in Korea.

Although she has produced many excellent works in her later years, "My Sassy Girl" undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for her national popularity.

She is just like Liu Tianxian in China, with a lot of blood.

Now the lead actress of "My Sassy Girl" has changed to Zeng Li. Although Zeng Li is Chinese, she is also very popular in South Korea and will be popular for a long time.

Not only that, in addition to being a hit in South Korea, Zeng Li's popularity has also begun to rise in other parts of Asia.

Zeng Li became even more famous when her reputation spread back to China.

So this year's Spring Festival Gala program team specially invited Zeng Li and asked her to prepare a separate program to perform on the Spring Festival Gala stage.

The Spring Festival Gala at that time was not like the one in later generations when the ratings plummeted. Only popular individuals or teams were invited.

The invitation to the Spring Festival Gala is undoubtedly a concrete manifestation of her extremely high popularity in the mainland.

Zeng Li was very excited to receive the invitation to the Spring Festival Gala, but after the excitement she became a little nervous and didn't know what to perform.

Because of this, she, Zeng Jia, her classmates, teachers, and other people in the industry discussed it for several days, but they still couldn't finalize the program.

Zeng Li was feeling worried at that time, but when she saw Liu Zhou trying to hold back his laughter, her eyes immediately brightened up.

She wanted to pat her head, she was really blind to what was happening. Wasn't the man next to her a talented person?

He must have had this idea a long time ago, and he has been laughing at himself these past few days.

Under Zeng Li's gentle offensive, Liu Zhou also handed her the program script he had prepared for her.

He was also a little surprised that Zeng Li received an invitation to the Spring Festival Gala.

But this is also a good thing. If she performs well on the Spring Festival Gala stage, it will greatly boost Zeng Li's popularity in mainland China.

So when Liu Zhou learned the news, he had already helped her prepare the program.

Zeng Li got a very rare solo performance stage, and performances such as skits were not suitable for her.

In the end, it was decided to be singing or dancing.

If Liu Zhou's girlfriend was Hu Jing, he would definitely give her a Yunnan-style dance to amaze the audience.

But for Zeng Li, dancing is not very suitable for her, and singing needs to be better, so the choice of songs is very important.

Although Zeng Li's voice is okay, she is not a professional singer after all. However, Liu Zhou knows that there is a type of song that is very suitable for her to sing, that is, ancient style songs mixed with theatrical singing.

Zeng Li in later generations sang "Wujia Po" very well. She had a foundation in Peking Opera, so it was just right for her to sing this type of song.

It just so happened that Liu Zhou’s favorite songs in his previous life were ancient style songs, and he would almost always sing this type of songs when he went to KTV.

However, there are not many songs with dramatic singing styles, and even fewer that are famous. Even fewer can be sung on the Spring Festival Gala stage. Liu Zhou thinks that "The New Drunken Concubine" and "Red Opera" are suitable.

After careful consideration, Liu Zhou chose "Chi Ling", not only because the lyrics of this song were more infectious, but also because he was more familiar with this song and it was one of his favorite songs.

So he wrote the lyrics in one go, but he was powerless in composing the music.

But this did not pose a problem for him. Liu Zhou went to Baihua Hutong and found a well-known recording studio. He asked them to compose music based on his humming, and then gave the arrangement to them.

When they finally heard a song that was similar to what they remembered, Liu Zhou generously gave them the credits for the composition and arrangement.

At that time, Liu Zhou gave Zeng Li the complete lyrics and music of "Chi Ling".

Zeng Li liked the song very much after seeing it. In order to sing it well on the Spring Festival Gala stage, he went to the recording studio in Baihua Hutong to practice and record the song whenever he had time.

God helps those who work hard. After Zeng Li submitted the song she recorded, she passed all the hurdles and was selected into the final Spring Festival Gala program.

After hearing the news, Liu Zhou also breathed a sigh of relief.

Writing songs is too difficult for Liu Zhou. It's okay to do it occasionally, but as for him to produce an album, he would be more comfortable writing novels.

This time, when Liu Zhou met Zhao Benshan at the celebration banquet, he asked him to take care of Zeng Li.

Although Zeng Li is very famous, she still has very little experience, and someone in the program crew might be trying to make things difficult for her.

Zhao Benshan is different. He is a frequent guest of the Spring Festival Gala, has extensive experience and great influence. Like Cao Tianwang, he has an independent dressing room backstage at the Spring Festival Gala.

Whether it is the people from the program team or the artists participating in the Spring Festival Gala, they will give face to Zhao Benshan.

Zeng Li would be able to participate in the Spring Festival Gala smoothly if he took care of her. Of course, Liu Zhou was just in case, it would be better if there were no unexpected problems, but if there were, Zeng Li would not suffer any loss.

Of course Zhao Benshan agreed to Liu Zhou's request immediately. It was just a piece of cake for him.

"No problem, I'll give you a heads up when the time comes and won't let your girlfriend suffer any injustice."

"Thank you, Uncle Benshan."

"Haha, Liu Zhou, you really love your girlfriend." Han Shanping said with a smile.

"Of course you have to take care of your own woman, haha!"

After a few people laughed for a while, Han Shanping continued:

"Since you know Lao Zhao, I won't say much. Let me introduce this person to you. You may not know him, but he is also a colleague in our industry.

His name is Li Ming, the founder and chairman of Xiaoma Pentium, and he has just entered the film and television industry."

After hearing Han Shanping's introduction, Liu Zhou was a little surprised to find out that it was Gou Ge.

Li Ming, like the Wang brothers, was born in a wealthy family and started his career in advertising. Because he was generous and magnanimous, he was affectionately called Big Dog Brother.

Li Ming entered the film and television industry a step later than the Wang brothers. He was slow at every step and his subsequent development was always suppressed by the Wang brothers.

Huayi has always been the top private film and television company in mainland China, and has been unrivaled at the time.

However, under the leadership of Li Ming, Pony.com also developed rapidly and became one of the mainland film and television giants. At its peak, it not only recruited Ning Hao, but also acquired Digital Domain, a special effects company founded by James Cameron.

Unfortunately, in order to get the company listed, Li Ming signed a bet agreement with a capital institution. In order to complete the bet, he became ill from overwork and then died suddenly.

With capital showing its bloody fangs outside and family members fighting over family property inside, the Pony.com that Big Dog had worked so hard to build soon fell apart.

At that time, people in the industry were very sad.

"Hello, Director Liu. My name is Li Ming. I'm a newcomer in the industry. I hope you can give me more guidance in the future."

Li Ming's voice was very loud and he stood straight. As a former soldier, he spoke neither arrogantly nor humbly.

"Hello, Mr. Li. I'm actually a newcomer in the industry, so I can't give you any advice. We can encourage each other in the future." Liu Zhou replied with a smile.

"That's great, we can work together if we have a chance in the future."

"No problem at all."

Then the two of them exchanged business cards, and they officially got to know each other.

Liu Zhou is certainly not opposed to cooperating with Li Ming. At least this person is relatively ethical and will not cheat others, and his influence is also not bad.

After a few people talked for a while, the celebration banquet came to an end.

Although this grand celebration banquet did not make much noise in the outside world, it had a considerable influence in the industry, which also indicated that Liu Zhou had officially established himself in the industry.

Although Liu Zhou has only set up a studio now, with Liu Zhou around, this studio will be no worse than those companies.

A few days after the celebration banquet, Liu Zhou received another good news.

Because of the popularity of "My Sassy Girl" in Asia, it successfully attracted the attention of Hollywood.

Not only did Hollywood's second- and third-tier production companies come, but two or three of the Big Seven in Hollywood also came to inquire about purchasing the adaptation rights.

Liu Zhou was of course very happy about this, as all the profits from the sale of the adaptation rights would be his.

Historically, the adaptation rights of "My Sassy Girl" were sold for US$800,000 plus 4% of the global box office share.

But when Liu Zhou negotiated with them with great expectations, reality poured cold water on him.

Not to mention 800,000, the highest bid was only 300,000 US dollars, and there was no way he could even think about a share of the box office revenue.

Liu Zhou didn't know whether these foreigners treated him differently or whether the Korean production company of "My Sassy Girl" was historically relatively strong, so they were able to negotiate such a high price.

But Liu Zhou really couldn't accept the price of $300,000. The difference was too big.

Finally, after nearly half a month of tug-of-war negotiations, DreamWorks won the adaptation rights of "My Sassy Girl" for $600,000.

Liu Zhou knew that this was their bottom line. Although he felt a little disappointed, he still signed the contract, otherwise he was afraid that everything would be lost.

But even this price is not low.

After the money arrived, Liu Zhou put aside his disappointment and was replaced by joy, as this was another few million in cash.

Time gradually came to the end of December, and Feng Kuzi's "A Sigh" was officially closed when it finally reached the box office of 40 million.

This movie had a box office of 10 million less than Liu Zhou's "Only You".

The box office battle between the two has officially been decided.

It is a bit regrettable for the media. If these two movies were released on the same day, the impact would be more explosive and the outcome would be more convincing.

Now that the two have fallen out, everyone is looking forward to their second fight in the future.

But no matter what, Liu Zhou still won the first round!

(End of this chapter)