Chapter 358 Actor Selection

For a moment, it was really difficult for Liu Zhou to choose between Qin Hao and Liu Ye.

Whether in terms of personal relationships or professional abilities, the two are equally matched. Perhaps the only difference is that Liu Ye is slightly inferior in fame.

It is not an exaggeration to call Qin Hao the number one male actor of the Mesozoic era, and this includes Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Why do you say that?

Because Qin Hao is currently the only actor to have won three major awards, achieving the Grand Slam of Golden Rooster, Golden Horse and Golden Image Awards.

As early as 2001, Qin Hao was crowned the Golden Rooster Award winner for his role in Liu Zhou's "The Piano Tuner", becoming the first person from Class of the Central Academy of Drama to win the award.

The following year, Liu Ye also won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor for his role in "Lan Yu", and he and Qin Hao both shone as stars.

But their subsequent developments were very different.

After Lan Yu, Liu Ye was offered numerous art films and was known as the top art actor in mainland China.

However, art films were a niche genre at the time. Although Liu Ye was well-known in the industry, he was not very well-known in the outside world. Even the popularity he had when he was crowned the best actor at the Golden Horse Awards was slowly fading.

Liu Ye, who had come to his senses, finally withdrew temporarily from art films and started acting in TV dramas.

Then the drama "Blood Romance" made Liu Ye a huge hit.

It can be said that Liu Ye’s ability to rank among the top four young actors is largely due to the contribution of this TV series.

Afterwards, Liu Ye turned to the film industry again and began to star in commercial films, but she always participated as a supporting role.

Although he has maintained his popularity, he has never played the leading male role.

He was originally going to star in a movie called "Hard Man" last year, but he informed Hai Run early on that he would not renew his contract.
Moreover, his intention to join Golden Harvest and join his good brother is not only known to everyone in the circle, but has almost become public.

So naturally, the resource of "Hard Man" would not fall to Liu Ye. Even last year, he didn't have any decent resources. Hai Run kept asking him to perform for money in order to squeeze out his value.

If it weren't for Jiahe and Liu Zhou, Hai Run might not have been so easy to talk to, and Liu Ye might not have been able to get away so easily.

At that time, Liu Zhou had no idea what Liu Ye was thinking. He felt that he had wasted so many years and had not made any progress in the ways of the world.

Under the circumstances last year, it was difficult for Liu Zhou to intervene, after all, it was an internal matter of Hairun Company.

Although I was a little angry at him for being so stupid, he was still my good friend after all, so I couldn't just ignore him.

So this is also one of the reasons why Liu Zhou has been providing resources to Liu Ye after he joined Golden Harvest.

Compared with Liu Ye's high start and low end, Qin Hao, with the support of Liu Zhou, has grown into one of the most famous male actors in the mainland.

After winning the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actor, Qin Hao actually remained silent for two or three years.

At that time, he was either performing in a drama or filming with the sixth generation directors. He collaborated on a movie with Wang Xiaoshuai and Lou Ye, and also visited the three major European cinemas, but did not win any awards.

Then Liu Zhou couldn't stand it anymore, so he pulled him out and gave him the best resource in the industry at the time, the role of Zhuge Liang, the male lead in "Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms".

As the two parts of "Red Cliff" became huge hits in succession, "Red Cliff Part 2" even broke the mainland movie box office record created by "Titanic", causing a sensation.

As one of the leading actors in the movie, Qin Hao certainly benefited a lot and became an instant hit.

After this incident, Qin Hao never went back to making art films and started starring in mainstream commercial productions.

As the most loyal of the Jiahe Group, of course the company’s resources will be used by its own people first.

After "Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms", Qin Hao starred in the war blockbuster "Assembly".

Moreover, "Assembly" was in a close competition with "The Warlords" starring three superstars during the Lunar New Year period.

In the end, the movie even made it onto the news broadcast, and also surpassed "The Warlords" at the box office.

This time, the Lunar New Year box office battle between "Assembly" and "The Warlords" had a significant impact, and was in no way inferior to the box office battle between Feng Kuzi's "A World Without Thieves" and Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu" a few years ago.

The most prominent one among them is Qin Hao.

Although he had the support of the News Broadcast, it is also a fact that he defeated three superstars, Jet Li, Andy Lau and Kim Sung-woo, in this Lunar New Year box office.

What's more, Qin Hao was proud enough to be able to fight against the three of them on his own, not to mention that "Assembly" had a box office of more than 200 million.

There are very few actors in China who can single-handedly carry a box office of over 200 million yuan.

This battle truly established Qin Hao's status as a top male actor in mainland China, and it also fully demonstrated his strong box office appeal.

Afterwards, Qin Hao continued his efforts and starred in "The Martian" carefully produced by Liu Zhou.

As the first science fiction film in China and also a film that greatly improved the box office record of mainland films, its influence and sensation needless to say.

As Qin Hao is the absolute core of "The Martian", the entire movie is almost a one-man show. One can imagine how much this has boosted his fame.

Not to mention the awards, just the three movies from "Red Cliff" to "Assembly" and then to "The Martian" directly made Qin Hao's popularity the number one in mainland China.

Even though Huang Xiaoming had the huge hit "Painted Skin", which was a great success both at the box office and in terms of reputation, he is still not as popular as Qin Hao.

As the most outstanding male actor, Qin Hao, with the full support of Golden Harvest Group, has fully unleashed his commercial value.

Not only does she have more than ten endorsement deals in China, she has also accepted a number of endorsements for foreign big-name products, some of which were even snatched from Hong Kong and Taiwan artists.

Before the advent of the traffic era, endorsements for big foreign brands were almost all monopolized by Hong Kong and Taiwan celebrities.

At that time, the general impression was that mainland artists were rather unsophisticated and far less fashionable than artists from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Therefore, many fashion resources are controlled by artists from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and it is difficult for mainland artists to get them.

Mainland female stars are a little better. The Four Dan and Two Bing are still quite famous. It is also difficult to find female stars in Hong Kong and Taiwan who can be compared with them.

Therefore, they are still able to access endorsements and fashion resources from some foreign big brands.

As for male actors, forget about it. They have even been competing openly and secretly for domestic endorsements, and the stabbing incident is the most obvious manifestation of this.

After Yin Xiaotian became discredited, his endorsement of HaiLan Home was snatched away by Du Chun, the great protector of the Stab Cult.

But Qin Hao broke this situation. Even foreign big names could not ignore his huge popularity.

In addition, the Golden Harvest Group also started in Hong Kong and has overseas business resources. Therefore, with the dual boost of Golden Harvest and his own fame, Qin Hao broke the monopoly of Hong Kong and Taiwan artists on overseas brand endorsements.

Exceptions like Qin Hao are definitely a thorn in the eyes of Hong Kong and Taiwan capital, and they must be fought off.

But with Liu Zhou and Jiahe protecting him, ordinary people didn't dare to mess with him on purpose. Even if they dared, they would be suppressed by Jiahe before they could cause any big trouble.

In terms of media resources, Golden Harvest is unique among all film and television companies.

Liu Zhou has been very focused on building good relationships with major media since his debut. After more than ten years of operation, the media that Golden Harvest can influence are no longer limited to the southern media. Many major northern media and even some official media have good relationships with Liu Zhou and Golden Harvest.

As for online media, that is Liu Zhou's private territory. Among the four major portals, Sina belongs to Liu Zhou, and the bosses of the remaining three are all closely related to Liu Zhou.

Everyone competes normally, but if Liu Zhou wants to advertise or settle something, they are all very considerate.

Therefore, Qin Hao has been safe and sound. Even through the door opened by Qin Hao, Golden Harvest also brought Huang Xiaoming in to contact overseas big-name business endorsements and related fashion resources.

In this life, as Golden Harvest has re-emerged under the leadership of Liu Zhou, the influence of Hong Kong and Taiwan capital is far less strong than in history.

Of course, if he is just popular, it would be difficult for him to be called the number one male actor of the Mesozoic era.

But Qin Hao is not only very popular, but also has many awards.

At last year's Academy Awards, Qin Hao unfortunately lost to Jet Li and missed the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor.

However, despite the failure in the Hong Kong Film Awards, Qin Hao successfully won the Best Actor award at the Golden Horse Awards in November last year.

There was some unpleasantness between the Golden Horse Awards and Liu Zhou two years ago. Liu Zhou had originally planned that no filmmakers or films from Golden Harvest would participate in the Golden Horse Awards in the future.

But later Liu Zhou was reminded by his superiors to pay attention to unity, so he did not do so.

I don’t know if it was to ease the relationship with Liu Zhou, but last year’s Golden Horse Awards became the biggest winner.

Not only did Qin Hao win the Best Actor award, "Assembly" also won the Best Picture award, but the Best Director award was still won by Chen Kexin.

Despite this, "Assembly" still won six awards and became the most popular star at last year's Golden Horse Awards.

But no one thinks that the Golden Horse Awards are based on personal connections or behind-the-scenes manipulation. The fact that "Assembly" won those awards is not only due to its own confidence, but also recognized by its competitors.

Less than four months later, Qin Hao won the Best Actor award at this year's Academy Awards for his role in "The Martian", beating the favorite Zhang Jiahui.

This time he finally got his wish and was successfully crowned the Best Actor at the Academy Awards.

At this point, Qin Hao has finally collected the three most influential actor trophies in the Chinese film industry: Golden Rooster, Golden Horse, and Golden Image.

If he wins the Huabiao and Hundred Flowers Best Actor awards in the future, Qin Hao will become the Grand Slam Best Actor.

Compared with the three major awards, the Huabiao and Hundred Flowers Best Actor awards are relatively easier to win.

Qin Hao is only in his early thirties now, which is the time when a male actor begins to enter his golden age. There will be plenty of opportunities in the future, and it should only be a matter of time before he becomes a Grand Slam actor.

A while ago, when Qin Hao won the triple-award winning actor award, it caused quite a stir.

With the promotion of Golden Harvest, Qin Hao was directly hyped as the number one male actor of the Mesozoic era.

However, everyone still agrees with this statement.

Whether in terms of popularity, works or awards, Qin Hao is the undisputed number one among male actors of the same age group.

So now, Liu Ye has a big gap with Qin Hao in popularity and influence.

However, after careful consideration, Liu Zhou decided to give the male lead of "Interstellar" to Liu Ye.

Both of them are quite suitable for the male lead of "Interstellar" in terms of image and professional ability.

But putting all that aside, both of them are good friends of Liu Zhou.

But now that Qin Hao is already so famous, giving him "Interstellar Rescue" would just be icing on the cake.

However, if the male lead role of "Interstellar Rescue" is given to Liu Ye, it would be a timely help and could quickly narrow the gap between the two.

And to be honest, relatively speaking, Liu Ye is more in line with Western aesthetics.

The two men are about the same height, both are quite tall, but Liu Ye has broader shoulders and is more sturdy. Look at those Hollywood stars, they are either tall or strong.

For example, the movie "Balzac and the Little Tailor" is a French movie, and Liu Ye was chosen to play one of the male protagonists.

Not only that, Liu Ye also co-starred in "Dark Matter" with Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep.

In fact, Liu Ye is quite well-known in the European and American literary and art circles, and his title of the mainland's No. 1 literary young man is no joke.

Liu Zhou's "Interstellar" this time is not like the previous "The Martian", which is just to explore the way overseas.

He has great expectations for the overseas release of "Interstellar" this time, so he will focus on its publicity and promotion.

If "Interstellar" becomes a hit overseas, then if Liu Ye plays the lead role, it may gain higher popularity overseas and bring in more dividends.

Although Golden Harvest has acquired Summit Entertainment, it has opened up a channel to Hollywood.

It is certainly much easier for artists under the company to act in Hollywood movies, but it is not so easy if you want to become famous in Hollywood or even overseas.

Just as we are somewhat face-blind when looking at foreigners, they are also somewhat face-blind when looking at us Chinese.

However, Hollywood movies have an absolute advantage over Chinese films, so overseas audiences are not very enthusiastic about Chinese films.

At most, I am a little interested in the works of some well-known Chinese directors or actors, but it's just for a change of taste.

Unlike us in mainland China, we have always been very fond of Hollywood movies and know all the Hollywood stars well.

Therefore, it is not easy to create an internationally famous star.

Even for Jiahe at that time, it was not easy. It would be more likely to succeed if it concentrated resources on one person.

Relatively speaking, Liu Ye is more suitable.

So in Liu Zhou's mind, he wanted to promote Liu Ye first, as the first international superstar of Golden Harvest.

After Liu Ye has established his foothold and gained a stable reputation, he will then concentrate resources to promote Qin Hao.

Moreover, in a few years, Golden Harvest Group has become even stronger, and it will be easier to promote people overseas.

If Liu Zhou chose Liu Ye as the first male actor to be promoted overseas, then the first female actor he chose was Fan Xiaopang.

Although Zhou Gongzi is no less famous than Fan Xiaopang in mainland China, women of Fan Xiaopang's type are more recognizable overseas.

As for the squinty eyes that were created in later generations to cater to European and American aesthetics, only a fool would believe them. Do you see European and American women with squinty eyes?

Most of them have thick eyebrows and big eyes!
So Liu Zhou directly decided to give the heroine of "Interstellar" to Fan Xiaopang.

Besides having a more suitable image, she is also a veteran of the company, not to mention she has a closer relationship with Liu Zhou.

Liu Zhou also plans to promote Fan Xiaopang internationally starting with "Interstellar".

(End of this chapter)