Chapter 448: Stars gather and public opinion stirs

Hangzhou has always been a relatively active and culturally rich city.

Apart from the rich historical and cultural heritage, modern Hangzhou is also relatively open and inclusive, accepting new things with a more open attitude.

Hangzhou not only attaches importance to the emerging Internet, but also provides relatively large support to the cultural and entertainment industry.

In later generations, Hangzhou became the most famous e-commerce city in China and a city where internet celebrities gathered. Although this was largely due to Ali, the support from Hangzhou was also indispensable.

And perhaps few people know that Hangzhou not only has well-known film and television companies in the industry such as Ali Pictures, Huace, and Huanrui Century, but Hangzhou is also the city with the second largest number of domestic film and television media companies after Beijing and Horgos.

Beijing has always been the cultural and entertainment center of the mainland. Most of the early film and television companies were concentrated in Beijing, which is incomparable.

Because of its favorable tax policies, Horgos attracted nearly 10,000 companies in just a few years. However, after a thorough investigation, it was found that many of them were shell companies, most of which were used to avoid or evade taxes.

Therefore, Hangzhou can be said to be the domestic entertainment sub-center in later generations.

At this time, the country was vigorously supporting the cultural and entertainment industry, and Hangzhou was the first to respond positively.

Therefore, Hangzhou was the most proactive city in responding to Jiahe's plan to build a large-scale film and television industry base.

Moreover, Hangzhou has done the work in advance, and its leaders are quite courageous. In order to attract the Jiahe Film and Television Industry Base to settle down, as a first-tier city after Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, it has offered preferential conditions that are no less than those of Zhanjiang.

They were even able to provide real financial support, such as a 1 billion yuan interest-free loan over three years, which was a huge help to Jiahe. Otherwise, Jiahe would not have thought of expanding its business.

What impressed Liu Zhou the most was that Hangzhou had already planned a film and television industry demonstration zone when Jiahe had not yet fully agreed to locate the Jiahe Film and Television Industry Base in Hangzhou.

The total planned area of ​​the demonstration zone is 100 square kilometers, and it is planned to be built into the largest film and television cultural industry cluster in the country.

In the center of this 100-square-kilometer film and television industry demonstration zone, a -square-kilometer piece of land is specially designated for the Jiahe Film and Television Industry Base.

Even though the application for the Jiahe Theme Park has not been approved yet, the city of Hangzhou will still reserve the land for Jiahe.

Moreover, there are many talented people in the film and television industry in Hangzhou, and the support they provide is the greatest, so Jiahe no longer hesitated and decided to establish its film and television industry base in Hangzhou.

Although East Guangdong is Liu Zhou's hometown, there is no way Liu Zhou would insist on choosing Zhanjiang because of personal feelings.

……

At 10 a.m. on April 5, 2010, Jiahe Group and the provincial and municipal governments held a grand signing ceremony at Zhijiang Hotel.

The large-scale film and television industry base "Golden Harvest Film City" project has officially settled in Fuyang District of Hangzhou.

The conference hall on the third floor of Zhijiang Hotel was extremely lively and was packed with distinguished guests. Not only were all the main leaders from the province and city present, but all the leaders from the district were also present.

Of course, reporters are indispensable for occasions like this. In the past, signing ceremonies like this would often invite a large number of reporters to the scene, and the entire scene would be filled with cameras.

However, this time it was a little different. There were not many reporters at the signing ceremony today. There were only a few reporters from local TV stations and newspapers in Hangzhou. There were no reporters from places like Beijing and Shanghai.

It’s not that they don’t want to come, but they don’t even know there is such a signing ceremony.

This is not Liu Zhou and Hangzhou City deliberately keeping a low profile. Putting aside the fact that Jiahe Group has received much media attention, a large-scale investment project like this cannot be silent, and Hangzhou City will also report it extensively.

The reason why the signing ceremony remained unknown was mainly because the Golden Harvest Group was preparing to hold a grand launching ceremony for the Golden Harvest Film and Television Industry Base.

Therefore, there is no need to make the signing ceremony too high-profile now. Wait until a month later when the launch ceremony is held and then make a stunning appearance in front of the whole world.

Therefore, for the purpose of subsequent publicity, only some official media from Zhejiang Province and Hangzhou City were notified to attend the signing ceremony.

The signing ceremony was conducted by a deputy leader of Zhejiang Province and Liu Zhou, who represented both parties. As the terms of the contract had been negotiated in advance and both parties had no objections, the signing was just a formality and the entire signing ceremony went smoothly.

After the signing was completed, Liu Zhou and Zhang Zhao took a group photo with the leaders who were present. Liu Zhou and the leaders stood in the middle of the front row.

This signing ceremony was actually organized by Hangzhou City, so the process was more official.

After the group photo, it was time for speeches. The leader gave a speech first, and then it was Liu Zhou's turn.

Amidst warm applause, Liu Zhou walked onto the stage and said with a smile:
“Although Mr. Zhang Zhao has always been solely responsible for the site selection of the Golden Harvest Film and Television Industrial Base, this is the largest investment of the Golden Harvest Group and I have always been paying close attention to it.

We visited many cities and accepted invitations from many cities, but in my heart, Hangzhou has always been the first choice.

This is not a deliberate compliment from a wise man after the event, but what I really think.

Because to support a world-class film and television base, you need enough high-end talents and a sufficiently developed film and television industry foundation, so that a film industry cluster can be formed. Only Hangzhou can meet this requirement!
We built Golden Harvest Film City to gather the best film and television talents in China and provide the best full-process film and television equipment.

Create a world-class film and television base with professional functions integrating film and television creativity, shooting, post-production, film and television product trading, and film and television tourism.

I believe that with the strong support of the leaders of Zhejiang Province and Hangzhou, the center of Huaxia Film and Television will definitely be in Hangzhou in the future.”

After Liu Zhou finished his speech, the signing ceremony was about to end. It could be said to be very brief. It was not even half past eleven.

The Zhejiang Provincial Satellite TV news reported the signing ceremony in the evening, but it was rather brief and did not reveal any specific information or the investment amount for the project. It was like reporting an ordinary film and television news story.

The next day, newspapers across Zhejiang Province also reported the news in a very brief manner.

Therefore, this did not attract much attention from the outside world. However, Golden Harvest Group later announced this information on its official Weibo, which immediately attracted attention within the industry.

Although Golden Harvest only announced that it had reached an agreement with Hangzhou and would soon invest in building a film and television base in Hangzhou, as a company that attracted attention from the media and fans, Golden Harvest still caused some waves.

However, the outside world is more puzzled by Golden Harvest's decision. Because the investment and specific planning of the film and television industry base have not been announced to the public, many media and fans subconsciously think that it is just an ordinary film and television city.

However, in the past two years, too many film and television bases have been built in the country, and the competition is so fierce that even many netizens have heard about it. Many film and television cities have been making losses.

Therefore, many people think that Golden Harvest is a little too arrogant, thinking that it has enough money to join this red ocean industry.

But a few days later, just as the outside world was discussing Golden Harvest's entry into the film and television city industry, a piece of news instantly set off the entire public opinion. On April 10, Golden Harvest published a piece of news on its official website and official Weibo, and at the same time, major media in Zhejiang Province published the following:
Golden Harvest Group plans to invest 8 billion yuan to build a world-class film and television industry base that is the most advanced in China and integrates film and television creativity, shooting, post-production, film and television product trading, and film and television tourism.

On May 1st, Golden Harvest Film and Television Industry Base will hold a grand launching ceremony.

By then, senior leaders and distinguished guests from the seven major global production companies, including the Film Bureau, Hangzhou City leaders, the China Film Association, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, and Summit Entertainment, will be present.

International superstars Tom Cruise, Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio, Keanu Reeves, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Scarlett Johansson and others were also invited to attend.

At the same time, more than 30 first-line Chinese movie stars including Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Sammo Hung, Andy Lau, Gong Li, Qin Hao, Huang Xiaoming, Fan Xiaopang, Zhang Ziyi and others were also present.

CCTV will broadcast the event live, and global superstars will come to Hangzhou to meet you!
After seeing this news, major domestic media, fans and netizens, and even some celebrities and film and television company bosses in the circle were all stunned by this news.

The long list of superstar names was blinding, as were several Hollywood giants. Almost everyone had the same thought in mind:

Jiahe is a great pen!

If it was any other domestic company, even China Film, everyone would think the news might be fake.

But if it was Golden Harvest, they would really believe it, because Golden Harvest really has the ability to invite so many Hollywood giants and international superstars.

Liu Zhou and Golden Harvest Group both have huge influence in Hollywood.

In the past, everyone only knew that Golden Harvest was the number one film and television company in China, but how strong Golden Harvest was, not only netizens but even its competitors in the industry were not necessarily clear.

From the long list of names unveiled at the launch ceremony, it can be seen that Golden Harvest’s strength is no longer limited to the domestic market; it has become a world-class film and television group.

There is not even a single company in China that has broken out of the country. Although some companies have distribution capabilities in Asia and even in the United States, not to mention the strength of their distribution capabilities, they cannot even distribute movies on a regular basis.

So no one would consider them to be international companies.

Only Golden Harvest can distribute domestic films in large quantities to Asia and even North America, and it also has strong production capabilities in Hollywood.

Now that Golden Harvest Group has shown some connections and strength, it is unmatched by any domestic company, not even China Film.

This can be said to be the first time that so many international stars have participated in an event in the mainland at the same time.

Almost at the same time, reporters from major domestic newspapers rushed into the editor-in-chief's office, all saying the same thing:

"Editor-in-chief, send me to Hangzhou on May Day!"

At the same time, netizens were in an uproar, and everyone was discussing this red carpet list and the Hollywood stars on the list.

Among them, the most eye-catching are undoubtedly Tom Cruise and Leonardo, who are among the most popular and top stars in Hollywood.

Now they will appear at the launch ceremony of Golden Harvest. The star-studded red carpet this time is simply amazing!
"As expected of Jiahe, this list is really high-end and classy!"

“This star lineup simply blows away the three major domestic film festivals!”

"This list is too fake. There is no way Jiahe can invite some of them!"

"This was announced by the official website of Golden Harvest and the official media of Zhejiang Province. You say you can't invite them? Let me tell you, as long as Liu Zhou wants to invite them, there is no Hollywood star that can't be invited!"

"The standards this time are quite high. I feel like even those who are not from the first-tier domestic companies may not be eligible to participate."

"Oh my god, all six major Hollywood companies are coming? This is not just a personal commercial event of Golden Harvest, but also officially supported by the Film Bureau. It has been turned into a high-level exchange meeting for Chinese and American film projects. It's amazing!"

“I don’t know if spectators will be allowed to attend the event, but if possible, I will definitely go and see it.”

"It should be possible. With so many celebrities coming, you will definitely have a red carpet segment."

"Are you planning to meet up on May Day? We can go sightseeing in Hangzhou after watching the opening ceremony of the Jiahe Film and Television Industrial Park."

……

Netizens guessed correctly that the launch ceremony will indeed be a red carpet show, and there will be two shows, one at the construction site during the day and one in the city at night.

This launch ceremony is Golden Harvest Film City’s appearance to the whole world, and global media will gather there.

Therefore, there cannot be any mistakes in this launch ceremony, otherwise it would be tantamount to embarrassing ourselves in front of the whole world.

For this reason, Liu Zhou did not leave immediately after the signing ceremony, but also prepared for the launch ceremony.

Although the work of inviting those Hollywood companies and Hollywood stars has been prepared long ago, there is still a lot of follow-up work that needs to be prepared.

The exhibition center at the launch ceremony is a special-shaped building of tens of thousands of square meters, and the technology is very complex. There are also many aspects of work such as hotel reception and domestic guest invitations, and no single task can go wrong.

To be honest, even with Liu Zhou's reputation, it was not easy to invite so many people at once, and he also spent a lot of effort.

Therefore, this launch ceremony cannot fail.

What's more, this time it is not just Jiahe's family's business, Hangzhou City has also been mobilized.

This launch ceremony was so grand, which is also of great benefit to Hangzhou’s city promotion.

Therefore, Hangzhou and even Beijing attached great importance to this event and arranged leaders of high status to coordinate the work.

However, Liu Zhou could not stay in Hangzhou for too long, after all, the filming of "Aftershock" had not been completed yet.

The production crew has been suspended for nearly half a month now. The crew members are not urging him, but Zhao, the leader of the media in Tangshan, calls him from time to time every day and asks him to go back indirectly.

So after arranging some things, Liu Zhou returned to Tangshan to continue filming.

(End of this chapter)