Chapter 436 Pregnancy and Spring Festival

Although "Aftershock" has three plots and three main characters, the most important one is undoubtedly the heroine.

For this role, since the time span of Liu Zhou's version of "Aftershock" is not as long as that of Feng Kuzi's version, there is no need to worry too much about the age issue.

Feng Kuzi invited his wife to play the leading female role because the movie also had a lot of scenes set thirty years later. None of the popular actresses were suitable.

However, Xu Fan's acting skills are indeed very good, and he interprets the role very well.

Now Liu Zhou has no such concerns. His version only tells the story of the year the earthquake occurred, so he doesn't have to worry too much about age issues.

The leading actress must be chosen from among the most popular four actresses and two ice queens in mainland China. However, those who are not under Golden Harvest will be excluded first. It is impossible for Liu Zhou to hand over such an important resource to an outsider.

So the heroine can only be chosen from Fan Xiaopang, Zhou Gongzi and Zeng Li.

In fact, Liu Zhou preferred Zeng Li, who had not taken on any film or television projects since she won the Venice Film Festival Best Actress Award.

Although Zeng Li had a child and planned to move behind the scenes, Liu Zhou knew that she was doing it more for herself.

It is impossible for an actress who has studied hard at the Central Academy of Drama for four years and then became a popular actress in China to leave the stage calmly and give up her beloved career.

Since Zeng Li was able to make such a great sacrifice for him, Liu Zhou couldn't be too selfish and let her stay behind the scenes.

So Liu Zhou also hopes to make up for her. She may not be able to make acting her entire career like Fan Xiaopang, but she can occasionally perform in some works.

Moreover, Liu Zhou hopes that Zeng Li's occasional works in the future can be as classic as possible, and that quality is more important than quantity. This will allow her to satisfy her acting addiction and maintain her good reputation.

When you get older in the future, you will be a true veteran actor, not just a veteran actor like those in later generations who are praised as such simply because of their old age.

"Aftershock" is undoubtedly a very high-quality project, and it is also directed by myself, so it can be said to be very suitable.

At first Zeng Li disagreed, thinking that the child was still young and she didn't want to be away for so long. After all, the filming of this movie would take at least two or three months.

However, after Liu Zhou's persuasion, perhaps because she herself was addicted to acting, she finally nodded in agreement.

In fact, there is an additional benefit to choosing Zeng Li as the heroine, which is that you don't have to worry about whether to choose Fan Xiaopang or Zhou Gongzi, as both of them are quite suitable.

However, things did not always go as planned. Everything was going well, but when Liu Zhou returned to the capital from Tangshan, he was suddenly caught off guard by good news.

Zeng Li is pregnant again!

Liu Zhou didn't know whether he should be happy or not.

Seeing Zeng Li's sweet smile, Liu Zhou's heart was filled with joy.

So forget about everything else, the children are the most important.

This time, Liu Zhou did not delay and directly told his parents and mother-in-law the good news.

The three old men were very happy to hear the news. Just like last time, they excitedly came to the capital the next day.

After being happy for several days, Liu Zhou finally started to think about work.

Now that Zeng Li is pregnant, it is definitely impossible for her to go out to film. Even if he agrees, the three old people will not agree.

In this case, not only the movie "Aftershock", but also another important project of Golden Harvest, "The Legend of Zhen Huan", also needs to change roles.

Zeng Li was originally planned to play the second female lead, the Queen, but now they have to look for a new candidate.

However, Liu Zhou was too lazy to spend time auditioning for this role and directly asked Zhang Zhao to contact Cai Shaofen, who played the original role.

In her original time and space, she contributed many famous scenes in this TV series and also created many memes on the Internet.

Among so many actors in "The Legend of Zhen Huan", she received the most attention except the female lead Sun Li, and she also opened up the mainland market.

If Chen Jianbin hadn't released an album on Bilibili later, perhaps the most famous meme in "The Legend of Zhen Huan" would have been hers.

Moreover, these Internet memes actually made a significant contribution to the popularity of "The Legend of Zhen Huan".

So when Zeng Li was unable to play the role, Liu Zhou directly returned the role of the Queen to Cai Shaofen.

Then the heroine of "Aftershock", Liu Zhou, was given to Master Zhou.

As for why Fan Xiaopang was not chosen, it was because her schedule was too full.

She has just finished filming "Interstellar", and after the Chinese New Year she will start shooting "The Legend of Zhen Huan". This TV series has been in preparation for half a year, and now that the actors have been confirmed, it can't be delayed any longer.

And after finishing filming "The Legend of Zhen Huan", there is another big project waiting for her.

That is the Hollywood art film "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" produced by Fox Searchlight and produced by Wendi Deng herself, in which Fan Xiaopang also plays the leading female role.

The movie "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" originally chose Zhang Ziyi as the leading female role, but recently her image has plummeted due to the donation incident and she has been criticized online.

So Wendi Deng had to give up on her and choose someone else. After all, she made this movie to build good relationships with the mainland entertainment industry.

With the help of Li Bingbing's sisters, Yuan Shikong successfully won the leading female role in "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan", which was also the starting point for her entry into Hollywood.

After that, she did hang around in Hollywood for a few years, but like Zhang Ziyi, she didn't make a name for herself. But at least she made a name for herself in mainland China.

After all, she has been in Hollywood and has played the leading role in a Hollywood movie. She may not be qualified to be an international superstar, but it is not too much to create an international star, right?
So Li Bingbing’s marketing in the mainland was very impressive at that time.

But the situation is very different now. Although the two Ice players are equally famous, Fan Xiaopang is much more popular than Li Bingbing and has a much better reputation.

In terms of relationship, Li Bingbing is backed by Huayi, while Fan Xiaopang is backed by Jiahe. There is not much comparison between Huayi and Jiahe now.

Not to mention, Wendi Deng also hopes to establish a good relationship with Liu Zhou.

So in terms of relationships and fame, Li Bingbing loses to Fan Xiaopang in all aspects. Liu Zhou doesn't even have to step in. Fan Xiaopang could have won the female lead in "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" just by fighting for it on his own.

It’s not that the movie “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” is great, but as a Hollywood movie, and one that allows Asian actresses to play the leading role, it is very attractive to mainland female artists.

So even celebrities like Zhang Ziyi and Fan Xiaopang are trying their best to get it.

In the original time and space, even the Asian-famous Jun Ji-hyun was willing to play the second female lead in this movie.

That’s how appealing Hollywood movies were at that time.

Although Liu Zhou knew that the movie didn't make much of a splash in the end, the gimmick was indeed quite good.

Originally, Golden Harvest was planning to promote Fan Xiaopang overseas. Although Snow Flower and the Secret Fan could not make her famous overseas, at least she could make her a familiar face, and it could also be marketed in China to further enhance her fame. As a big drama, the Legend of Zhen Huan required her to follow the crew throughout the whole process, and it would take at least half a year to complete the filming.

Then, as a Hollywood movie, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan", although it is an art film, it should take two or three months to shoot.

Fan Xiaopang has almost no free time this year. Perhaps the only time he was relatively free was during the Chinese New Year.

So Liu Zhou gave the heroine of "Aftershock" to Master Zhou.

"Aftershock" has high requirements on the acting skills of the heroine, and also requires strong explosive power. In this respect, Zhou Gongzi is indeed better than Fan Xiaopang.

Moreover, Mr. Zhou is relatively thin, which is more in line with the body shape of that era. If Fan Xiaopang were to play the role, she would have to lose weight.

There is only half a month left before the start of surgery, so it may be too late to lose weight, unless you do it drastically in a way that harms your body.

In addition, Fan Xiaopang won the leading female roles in "Interstellar" and "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" in succession. Her resources are so good that Zhou Gongzi is much inferior in comparison.

Although the role of the female lead in "The Hidden Corner" made her famous again, this is a TV series after all. With her current status, she would definitely want to act in a movie.

If the big Golden Harvest project "Aftershock" is given to Fan Xiaopang, it would be a bit too partial.

After deciding to give the female lead of "Aftershock" to Ms. Zhou, Liu Zhou also contacted her personally.

Mr. Zhou was surprised and delighted by this sudden good news, and he agreed immediately.

After hanging up the phone, Mr. Zhou immediately contacted his agent and turned down the offer to work with Liang Chaowei and Liu Qingyun in "The Great Magician".

Although director Derek Yee is also a famous director in Hong Kong, and Leung Chiu-wai and Lau Ching-wan are also big names in Hong Kong, it depends on who you compare them with.

The box office of "The Great Magician" will at most exceed 100 million yuan, and the box office of "Aftershock" is guaranteed to be 300 million yuan. Anyone with a clear mind will understand that the latter should be chosen.

On the other hand, Liu Zhou also breathed a sigh of relief after hanging up the phone. He believed that with Mr. Zhou's professional ability, he should be able to prepare for the role within half a month.

After confirming the heroine, another important female character is the heroine's sister-in-law.

According to the plot setting, this character has just gotten married and is around 23 or 24 years old, so the range of choices is wide.

However, Liu Zhou did not hesitate for too long and directly chose Liu Yifei.

Among the new generation of actors, no one is as famous as her.

Moreover, as Liu Yifei is the person that Golden Harvest is promoting, some high-quality resources certainly cannot be handed over to outsiders.

There was no surprise about her playing this role. After filming her scenes in Interstellar, she had been preparing for the role in Aftershock.

Her role in "Aftershock" is much larger than that in "Interstellar". Her acting skills are not very outstanding, so she needs more preparation.

Then the last important role was the heroine’s brother-in-law, and the first person in Liu Zhou’s mind was Zhang Yi.

This character is a PLA soldier, and Zhang Yi happens to be a military man and is of the right age.

Finally, there is the role of the truck driver, who is in his thirties and has quite a few scenes. Liu Zhou thinks Hu Jun is quite suitable for the role.

Although he was the second male lead and had to play supporting role to his junior Zhang Yi, Hu Jun did not care much about the ranking and accepted Liu Zhou's invitation immediately.

These important characters are easy to deal with, but the really troublesome character is the heroine's daughter. In addition to being cute, it is more important to show stubbornness and tenacity in the little girl and she should look very sensible.

If Liu Zhou had no memory of his past life, that would be troublesome indeed. He might also need to hold a nationwide audition like Feng Kuzi did, and it would take two or three months to select Zhang Zifeng.

So Liu Zhou didn't need to go through so much trouble and directly sent a notice to Zhang Zifeng's parents.

Liu Zhou had just worked with her on "Interstellar", so her parents readily agreed.

In fact, the casting for these roles had already begun after Liu Heng finalized the script.

By the time Liu Zhou finished filming "Interstellar", the cast of "Aftershock" had almost been confirmed, leaving only a few insignificant minor roles.

Of course, it was impossible for Liu Zhou to do all the casting by himself. He only decided on the most important roles and handed the rest to the production team.

Just now, because of Zeng Li's pregnancy, the most important female lead in the movie has been replaced.

But with Master Zhou taking charge, there shouldn't be any major problems.

After all this busy schedule, by the time I had finished arranging everything for "Aftershock", it was already February 10th.

This year’s New Year’s Eve is on February 13th of the Gregorian calendar, which is only three days away from the Chinese New Year.

At this time, most of the employees of several companies under Liu Zhou had already gone on holiday, but he, the boss, was busy until the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month before he took a break.

Now the atmosphere of the Spring Festival has become increasingly strong, and everyone's focus has shifted from "Avatar" to the Spring Festival Gala.

"Avatar" has been released in mainland China for 7.1 days, and its box office has officially surpassed the million yuan of "The Martian", becoming the box office champion in mainland China's film history.

Although they had known that this day would come, when it really happened, mainland filmmakers still felt heavy in their hearts.

This also attracted some entertainment media coverage and heated discussions online. Fortunately, the Spring Festival is approaching, which has masked a lot of the heat of this matter.

After achieving super high box office for nearly twenty consecutive days, the single-day box office of "Avatar" finally showed signs of decline.

By now, the single-day box office of "Avatar" has dropped to around 10 million.

However, this result still makes people feel a little incredible. After all, some domestic blockbusters may not even be able to reach tens of millions on the first day of box office.

Now there is no doubt that the total box office of "Avatar" can exceed 1 billion. It just depends on when that day will come.

As the Spring Festival approaches, in addition to the highly anticipated Spring Festival Gala, the Spring Festival period has also become a focus of many people.

After several years of unremitting development by Golden Harvest Group, the Spring Festival period has now become a very important period for domestic film releases.

Unlike previous years when Xu Ke dominated the market, this year's Spring Festival period is particularly lively.

There is not only the martial arts film "Sword Rain" produced by Xu Ke, but also "Moon", the first science fiction film directed by Zhang Yimou after the Olympics.

In addition to these two blockbusters, "Little Big Soldier" co-starred by Cheng Long and Taiwan's little superstar Wang Lihong has also joined the competition for this year's Spring Festival.

These three movies will undoubtedly be the biggest highlights of this year's Spring Festival.

(End of this chapter)