Chapter 419: Human Relationships and the Start of Interstellar

Liu Zhou was a little surprised to see Han Shanping.

"Boss Han, why didn't I see you just now? I thought you didn't have time to come over."

"How is that possible? I can skip the celebration parties of other companies, but you from Golden Harvest must come. I was delayed by something at China Film Group, so I'm late."

"No wonder. I was looking for you just now. I am a little flattered by what you said, Mr. Han." Liu Zhou said with a smile.

"I'm not flattered at all. Besides, China Film Group is still a shareholder of Golden Harvest. What's more, the incident with Founding of a Republic was all thanks to you."

The nationality incident caused by "The Founding of a Republic" was the most passive and had the greatest impact on the producer China Film Group.

At the beginning, no one, including Han Shanping, had expected that such a big disturbance would be caused by the actor's nationality issue.

Han Shanping was the one who regretted it the most, because Liu Zhou had once reminded him to pay attention to the nationality of some actors, but he did not take it too seriously at the time.

Unexpectedly, Liu Zhou's words came true. Originally, "Founding of a Republic" had great box office and reputation, but unexpectedly, it was tripped up by a problem that was initially thought to be insignificant.

It is not easy for China Film Group to speak out regarding the public opinion storm, after all, they were indeed wrong in this matter.

Han Shanping originally wanted to rely on time to calm the matter down. After all, there is too much news in the entertainment industry, and the heat of something is unlikely to last too long.

However, he did not expect that the nationality incident would escalate and the public opinion storm it stirred up would become bigger and bigger, which made Han Shanping hate those who were fanning the flames behind the scenes.

The good political achievement of "The Founding of a Republic" was greatly reduced.

Fortunately, Liu Zhou stood up at this time, not only clarifying the facts and speaking for the movie "Founding of a Republic", but also bringing the artists under Golden Harvest to the scene in person.

Later, he even drove away those media that wanted to gain traffic by distorting the facts, and also took the Beijing News to court.

Now the celebrity nationality incident caused by "Founding of a Republic" has finally been resolved.

So this time Han Shanping was very grateful to Liu Zhou, because if this matter got too serious, the punishment would be directly on him.

"I am also helping myself. Those people with bad intentions deliberately blame me and want to discredit me. I am actually saving myself by doing this."

"No matter what, you have helped our China Film Group. We will remember this favor."

"Mr. Han, it's a bit strange for you to say that. Putting aside the fact that China Film is a shareholder of Golden Harvest, our two companies are also close partners. There is no question of personal favors."

Although Liu Zhou's action this time helped China Film Group out of trouble, it was only a byproduct. The most important thing was for himself.

Moreover, when Liu Zhou was confronting those people, China Film Group also used its connections to contact many media outlets to get him to support it. Otherwise, his popularity and Sina.com alone might not be able to hold up.

Han Shanping did not dwell on this matter, but kept it in mind, and then said to Liu Zhou:

"You have to be careful of those people. They will never let you go, even if you are the richest man in the country. If they find an opportunity, they will attack you again."

"I understand. I've been prepared for this. I'll wait and see who will jump out. I'll make them die in a very embarrassing way."

"As long as you are prepared, by the way, when will Interstellar start filming?"

"I was just about to tell you that we plan to officially start filming on October 20th, and then hold a press conference on the 18th."

"Isn't the time for the press conference too urgent? Today is already the 15th."

"No, Interstellar is so popular that I believe no media outlet would miss it even if it lasts only three days."

At this moment, a sudden commotion broke out in the center of the hall. It turned out that the crews of "No Man's Land" and "The Sound of the Wind" smashed the digital ice sculptures one after another.

Seeing this lively scene, Han Shanping also said with a smile:

"I forgot I haven't congratulated you on the box office success of your two movies. This can be regarded as a restoration of face for our domestic films in this summer season."

"This is all thanks to Ning Hao and Chen Guofu. They are the ones who made the achievements. I hardly intervened."

"Golden Harvest has been making big moves recently. Not only has it bought land in the four major first-tier cities in China to build luxury cinemas, but I heard it is also planning to buy land and build cinemas across the country."

"The cinema chain has always been the weak link of Golden Harvest Group. Now that the company has gone public, of course we need to make up for this shortcoming."

"You are planning to build a large number of cinemas and invest 500 million to 600 million yuan to build a film and television industry base. Does Golden Harvest have so much money? Even if you raise funds from the IPO, it won't be that much."

“Don’t worry, although the investment in cinemas and film and television industrial parks is huge, it is not a one-time investment, but rather a phased investment, so funding is not a problem.

Even if there is insufficient capital, can't we continue to raise funds in the stock market? Otherwise, there is not much point in the listing of Jiahe Group."

"It's okay as long as you know what to do. I'm afraid you'll take too big a step and end up in trouble. Many companies have run into problems because they took too big a step."

Han Shanping was really worried that Liu Zhou had become a little too proud because of the successful listing of Jiahe Group.

Although he usually behaves very maturely, he is after all just over 30 years old and has always been in a high position. He should be surrounded by praises usually.

After a long time, let alone young people like Liu Zhou, even people like him in his fifties or sixties cannot guarantee that his mentality will not change.

In particular, the listing of Jiahe Group was a huge success, which once again brought him a lot of honor and wealth.

In fact, it would be normal even if Liu Zhou was drifting, but now it seems that he is still relatively sober.

Han Shanping couldn't help but admire him. No wonder he could achieve such high achievements at such a young age. If nothing unexpected happens this year, he will definitely be crowned the richest man in mainland China.

The 31-year-old richest man is younger than Chen Tianqiao was back then.

If Yang Huiyan didn't have a good father who directly put the wealth under her name, Liu Zhou would be the youngest richest man in the country.

The two chatted for a while, and seeing that the celebration banquet was about to come to an end, they left early.

With the end of the celebration banquet, the two projects "No Man's Land" and "The Sound of the Wind" also came to an end.

Neither of these two films made much box office revenue overseas, so overseas distribution mainly involved buying out the copyrights, and this work had already been completed.

On October 18th, also at the Shangri-La Hotel, "Interstellar" held a grand launch conference.

There were more than two hundred media outlets present, which can be said to have fully maximized the profile of this highly anticipated science fiction film.

Liu Zhou brought Liu Ye, Fan Xiaopang, Liu Yifei, Chen Baoguo and Lv Zhong and other main actors onto the stage.

On stage, Liu Zhou first introduced the movie Interstellar. "Welcome everyone to the launch conference of Interstellar. You should all know that this movie, like The Martian, is still a science fiction theme.

In my opinion, science fiction is scientific fantasy. For example, in the movie "Edge of Tomorrow" that I filmed in Hollywood, some viewers said that the mechas in it were not domineering and high-end enough, but too simple.

In fact, that kind of exoskeleton mecha is the most in line with scientific fantasy.

Compared to the mechas in "Edge of Tomorrow", "The Martian" imagines much further, because so far no country in the world has sent astronauts to Mars.

Our country has not even conducted any Mars exploration yet, but I believe that with the development of science, one day in the future, we will be able to achieve the plot in "The Martian" in reality.

The imagination space of "Interstellar" is even greater. The background of the movie is before the end of the world. The earth is no longer suitable for human habitation. Even many crops cannot be or are no longer suitable for cultivation. Only a few crops such as corn are left.

The film will show the apocalypse I imagine, where humans are actively looking for planets suitable for survival, not just in the solar system, but also in the Milky Way."

Liu Zhou spoke eloquently for nearly ten minutes, and became more and more excited as he spoke, but the reporters below felt a little speechless. After saying so much, he didn't reveal any specific plot of the movie.

After Liu Zhou finished speaking, the actors introduced themselves and talked briefly about their roles and feelings.

After listening to everything, the reporters present put together what Liu Zhou said and what they said, but still couldn't figure out what the story of "Interstellar" was.

The end of the world and immigration to alien planets, this does sound like a strong space science fiction style.

The male and female protagonists are both astronauts. The female protagonist has a father, the male protagonist has children, and his daughter is in three forms: childhood, grown-up, and old.

But what the hell is going on with Lv Zhong playing the daughter of the male protagonist Liu Ye?

Is the time span longer?
From around 10 years old to 70 years old, with such a long span, wouldn’t the male protagonist have died a long time ago?

But soon, Liu Zhou answered everyone's questions:

“The movie involves space wormholes and time travel. The spacecraft goes through the wormhole to another galaxy. The speed of time passing in other galaxies is different from that in the solar system.

Just like our ancient mythology says, one day in heaven is one year on earth.”

After listening to Liu Zhou's explanation, everyone finally understood that the male protagonist went to another galaxy, where the flow of time was slower, while time on Earth passed relatively faster.

Therefore, it happens that children are the same age as their father, or even that children grow old first while their father is still very young.

The reporters in the audience couldn't help but admire Liu Zhou's imagination. It sounds a bit complicated, but this kind of plot setting feels more attractive.

As a result, reporters became more and more interested and asked questions enthusiastically. The launch conference lasted for more than two hours.

The next day, the news about the start of filming of "Interstellar" indeed occupied the front page headlines of domestic entertainment media.

Netizens immediately became active again. Rumors about the movie "Interstellar" had been circulating for several months, which had whetted their appetite.

Now that the film has finally started shooting, they can finally put their minds at ease.

What they fear most is that this is fake news, in which case their excitement would be in vain.

Therefore, various film and television communities or forums on the Internet have been occupied by "Interstellar" again.

Just as the movie was causing heated discussions online, on October 20, Liu Zhou and his crew members flew to Iceland.

The first filming location was Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland. He planned to shoot the overseas scenes first, and the time had already been arranged.

After finishing the filming, we went to Mohe in Northeast China, leaving the indoor scenes for last.

The custom-made spacecraft model used for filming had been disassembled a week in advance, shipped to Iceland using a large transport aircraft, and then transported to the glacier by truck for assembly on site.

Many behind-the-scenes staff of the crew have already arrived in Iceland to carry out preliminary preparations, and now Liu Zhou is mainly taking the actors there.

In fact, "Interstellar" could have started filming earlier. The reason it was postponed until now is because of the schedule issue of the male lead Liu Ye.

He finished filming Zhang Yimou's "Moon" only after the National Day holiday.

Because this was Zhang Yimou's first time shooting a science fiction film, it took a longer time. The original plan was to wrap it up in early September, but it was delayed for more than a month.

As for the other two main creators, Fan Xiaopang had already finished filming "Sword Rain" in September, and she has been preparing for her role during this period.

Because Liu Zhou told her that the film will be released globally and will also be promoted overseas.

So this is also the first step for Golden Harvest to promote Fan Xiaopang to the international stage.

Upon hearing about the international expansion, Fan Xiaopang's eyes lit up and he had been trying to figure out the role early on, wanting to bring out the best in this female lead.

For this reason, during this period of time, Fan Xiaopang even rejected all commercial performances. She was very reluctant to give up these money-making opportunities in the past.

And now, she has turned down all work and concentrates on preparing for "Interstellar".

The same goes for supporting actress Liu Yifei. Her previous film, "Those Years", was even earlier and was completed in August.

Although it was Giddens' first time as a director, he had previously learned how to be a director in order to be able to film this story himself.

In addition, with Chen Guofu in charge, "Those Years" is a youth film and is relatively easy to shoot. Therefore, although "Those Years" started shooting later than "Sword Rain", it was completed earlier.

Liu Yifei also cherishes this opportunity very much. Although she is a supporting actress, she has been preparing carefully.

Now, it is Liu Ye, the male lead, who may be the least prepared for the role.

But Liu Zhou no longer had time to wait for him. He needed to figure out how to make the adjustments himself. If his requirements were not met during the filming, he would not be polite to him.

As we felt a chill, the plane began to descend in Iceland.

Led by the producer who came to pick them up at the airport, everyone came to the town of Hofn in the southeast of Iceland. The Vatnajökull Glacier is near the town of Hofn, and this small town is also the base of the crew.

Liu Zhou adjusted to the jet lag and went to check on the preparations for the filming the next day.

The staff from various departments of the crew were all old men who followed Liu Zhou, so even though he was not present in person, they were well prepared.

Seeing that there was nothing for him to worry about, Liu Zhou went to check out the location himself.

(End of this chapter)