Chapter 460 Changing roles
In the past life, many people compared Zhao Yihuan and Jingtian, saying that they have been tepid for many years since their debut, and there is also a title of "Yihuan in the South and Jingtian in the North".

But how can Zhao Yihuan be qualified to be mentioned together with Jing Tian? The gap between them is even greater than that between Murong in the south and Qiao Feng in the north.

Apart from the online movie "Puberty" which made her famous among otakus, there is nothing else worth mentioning about Zhao Yihuan.

Jingtian is not only beautiful, but also has many top resources, but she is still not very popular.

Liu Zhou felt that another sentence said by netizens in the original time and space was more appropriate: Adou who cannot be helped cannot be made famous.

In fact, the main reason is that she took the wrong route, or the management of Star Han Canlan does not understand movies or actors at all.

Therefore, the idea of ​​the management of Xing Han Canlan was very simple and crude. They thought that if they spent money to invite big stars to make movies, the big stars would definitely attract a lot of attention. Once the attention was high, Jing Tian would become popular!
This idea seems reasonable, but it is actually completely wrong. Jing Tian is not someone who is born to be a movie star like Zhang Ziyi. Putting her in a big production not only fails to support the role, but also exposes her lack of acting skills.

Acting skills are afraid of comparison. Liu Ye's acting skills are good enough, but his performance in "All Quiet in Peking" was criticized and was said to be the biggest failure.

The reason is that the opponent is too strong. Compared with many veteran actors, Liu Ye's performance suddenly pales in comparison.

Jing Tian acted opposite Sun Honglei, Cheng Long, Zhou Runfa and other actors with excellent acting skills. Naturally, Jing Tian's acting skills were beaten compared with these people, and his lack of acting skills was quickly magnified.

After watching several dramas, the audience has formed a fixed mindset that Jing Tian’s acting is bad, and even hearing Jing Tian’s reaction means the movie is a bad one.

Therefore, if Jingtian wants to become famous, he cannot take the route of big productions. He should act in more dramas that suit his own temperament and characteristics, act in more TV dramas to accumulate audience appeal and popularity, and then switch to the film industry.

But the Starry Sky management didn't understand these situations at all. They couldn't see Jing Tian's advantages at all, and couldn't make a reasonable career plan for her.

Anyway, Liu Zhou has pointed out the way for them. Whether they will follow the way Liu Zhou points out depends on themselves. He has done his best to justify the 13 million yuan in donations.

Of course, the cooperation between Starry Night and Golden Harvest will continue. After all, it brings great benefits to Golden Harvest and involves almost zero risk.

But if Xing Guang Canlan wanted to cooperate with Golden Harvest on a blockbuster and let Jing Tian play the female lead, Liu Zhou would stop it. He would not let others destroy Golden Harvest's reputation.

"Starry Night" can indeed bring considerable benefits to Golden Harvest, but compared with Golden Harvest's brand image, it is a bit not good enough.

The high-quality brand of Golden Harvest Films was formed through forty years of accumulation, which is a huge invisible wealth.

The appearance of Jing Tian and the meeting with Lu Zheng were just a small episode for Liu Zhou. After parting with Lu Zheng, he also called Zhang Zhao to his office and told him about the cooperation with Xingguang Canlan.

Then Liu Zhou also instructed Zhang Zhao about the acquisition of Chang'an Cinema Line, and the specific work would be handled by him and Gao Jun.

That’s right, Liu Zhou is not planning to let Changan Cinema Line join. Since it is possible to acquire it, it is better to acquire it, even if it will take more time.

Chang'an Cinema Line is not small in scale in the northwest region. Even with Lu Zheng's help, it is not easy to acquire it.

In the afternoon, Teng Huatao also came to Jiahe Group.

Under Liu Zhou's instruction, Zhang Zhao also successfully reached a preliminary investment intention. The production department will first discuss the specific amount and matters with Teng Huatao.

Zhang Zhao asked Teng Huatao to come to Golden Harvest with the script and plan tomorrow, and the production department will evaluate the project.

This is a necessary process for a large film and television group company.

Even if Liu Zhou likes a movie, it is not just him who makes the final decision.

He knows all the movies that will be popular in the next ten years or so. If he makes all the decisions himself, what is the point of having various departments below him?

He is a dictator in everything. The people under him don't have to work at all. They just have to listen to his orders.

The consequence of doing so is that the production department of Golden Harvest Group will become a tool. When Liu Zhou's golden finger is gone, they will not have the ability to judge the quality of a script or a film and television project.

Therefore, Liu Zhou has never acted arbitrarily. He can start a project against all odds, but he cannot fail to conduct basic project evaluation.

Even for projects that he himself wants to launch, Liu Zhou will ask the production department to do a simple assessment beforehand.

One of the important reasons why the Big Seven have been able to stand firm in Hollywood for so many years is their strong and strict project evaluation and review departments within their companies.

This department is called the Film Evaluation Committee. It has enormous power. Even the company president cannot overturn a project that has been killed by this department.

However, such situations rarely occur. After all, if the president of a giant film and television company cannot even decide on a film project, then he does not have much authority.

Such a president is definitely unable to manage the entire company.

Of course, the presidents of Hollywood giants rarely interfere in the filming of a movie unless it is a core project. They are more focused on leading the entire company forward.

The reason why the Big Seven Hollywood studios have such strict review and evaluation departments is that the risks of their productions are much lower.

Although the Big Seven in Hollywood seem to often report news about failed projects, this is actually not the case very often.

The reason why news is called news is that only very rare things are called news.

It is precisely because the Hollywood Big Seven rarely fail that when they do, it causes a huge uproar.

Therefore, in order to ensure that Golden Harvest will not fall into decline again in the future, Liu Zhou has actually been learning from Hollywood in recent years and slowly establishing a standardized system within the company.

In the next few years, he will gradually separate the evaluation department from the production department and increase its weight.

On the other hand, Teng Huatao was also extremely surprised that Golden Harvest suddenly decided to invest in his movie.

His original intention was to listen to Liu Zhou's advice and try his best to see if he could get some investment. Unexpectedly, as soon as they met, Golden Harvest President Zhang Zhao decided to invest in his film.

Of course, Teng Huatao had no reason to refuse this. He now vaguely understood in his heart that his movie might have caught Liu Zhou's eye.

However, he did not wait for a price. After being rejected by Huayi, he also approached many film and television companies, but none of them was willing to invest.

Even if he has found the male and female protagonists who are willing to act for free, the cost will only be less than 10 million.

Others are not stupid. Huayi itself does not invest, which clearly shows that it is not optimistic, so no one is willing to invest.

If we reject Golden Harvest’s investment, we don’t know when we can find another investor.

And for him now, nothing else matters. The most important thing is that he can successfully make this movie and transform himself into a film director.

So Teng Huatao sorted out the basics overnight and produced a fairly detailed plan. The production department of Golden Harvest did not neglect it either, and within 24 hours, they made a detailed market analysis and evaluation report and production cost estimate.

The next day, the production department gave the two documents to Zhang Zhao for review, and then Zhang Zhao took them to Liu Zhou's office.

At present, the capabilities of Jiahe’s assessment department are still quite good. Not only did they produce an assessment report and budget within one day, but the content was also very good.

In this analysis report, the conclusion given is that the project is too risky.

However, some suggestions were given. The male lead Wen Zhang selected by Teng Huatao has starred in the popular TV series "Struggle" and "Dwelling Narrowness", and the movie "Ocean Paradise" starring him and Jet Li will be released next month.

If this movie is successful, Wen Zhang will be able to successfully enter the big screen and will be a suitable leading actor.

However, Bai Baihe is not very famous, so the evaluation department suggested replacing her.

One more important thing is that the report also mentioned the problem that romance films have a small audience, and suggested increasing the comedy elements to make a romance film with comedy as the main focus.

As for the production cost, the budget given is 900 million, excluding actors' salaries.

Liu Zhou read the entire report carefully and nodded in praise:

"Very good, the assessment is very accurate, but there is one more thing, not only the leading actress needs to be changed, but also the leading actor."

The actors must be replaced. Wen Zhang and Bai Baihe are both Wang Jinghua's people. Even if her company does not have suitable candidates, she will not use them.

Although these two are both representative figures among male and female actors born in the 1980s, their acting skills are also excellent.

But the former has a bad temper and often acts like a big shot. In the original time and space, he was exposed for acting like a big shot many times during the promotion of "Love Is Not Blind".

For both public and private reasons, Liu and Zhou were not planning to use him. The entertainment industry was so big that there was no shortage of actors.

Not to mention other people, Deng Chao and Zhu Yawen are good substitutes, and it is not at all inappropriate for them to play sissy roles.

Of course, what Liu Zhou found most difficult to accept was that Wen Zhang only took a share of the profits. In order to reduce costs, Teng Huatao negotiated a share of the profits not only with Wen Zhang but also with the photographers.

Liu Zhou would never allow this. Not to mention them, even Fan Xiaopang and Qin Hao had never received any share. Only the signed directors received any share.

But the directors under Golden Harvest are all well-known directors in the country, and Wen Zhang is not comparable to them at all.

Moreover, it was a low-budget movie, which could earn at most a few thousand yuan. Who would have thought that it could get a box office of 3.5 million yuan.

Yuan Shikong Wen Zhang received a 10% share of the profits, and received a total salary of more than 10 million yuan from "Love Is Not Blind", which was much higher than the salary of first-line stars like Chen Kun, who was the most popular at the time.

It’s not that Liu Zhou was reluctant to do so, but this should have been the profit of the production company.

As for Bai Baihe, her performance in "Love Is Not Blind" was indeed outstanding, but her fame is really too low now, and she is still only in the Beijing circle.

Bai Baihe is indeed a ruthless person. In order to break into the Beijing circle, she even married the guy in the Yu Quan band.

"Boss Liu, who would be the most suitable person to play the leading role?"

Liu Zhou hesitated for a moment and replied:
"Let Zhu Yawen play the male lead, and Yang Mi play the female lead."

Deng Chao may be more suitable. His fame and acting skills are better than Zhu Yawen, but he is still an artist under Huayi and the face of Huayi's male stars.

In this life, because there was no "Assembly", he and Feng Kuzi did not fall out. At the same time, without Huang Xiaoming, there was no one competing with him for the top position in the company.

So now he is very comfortable staying at Huayi and has not jumped to Guangguang.

Therefore, it is impossible for Liu Zhou to choose an artist under Huayi to play the leading male role, not to mention that Zhu Yawen is an artist of Golden Harvest, and he is not particularly bad.

As for Yang Mi, she would not be bad in a chick flick. Now she is not Boss Yang whose acting is a bit rigid. She is very malleable at this moment.

"Okay, Mr. Liu, do you have any other suggestions? If not, have someone call Teng Huatao over this afternoon to discuss the investment."

Although Zhang Zhao didn't know why Liu Zhou was so concerned about such a small project, since his boss was interested in it, he of course had to handle the project himself.

And out of mysterious trust in Liu Zhou's vision, Zhang Zhao felt that this low-budget romance movie should not be simple.

"Another point is to get Teng Huatao to finish filming before October and then release it in November."

"Isn't this too hasty? It's only been three months since October."

"This film is relatively simple, and Teng Huatao has already assembled a filming team. We at Golden Harvest can help him with other matters. It should be no problem to finish filming and editing in three months."

"Okay, I'll mention it to him then."

In the afternoon, Teng Huatao came to Jiahe Group with excitement. After waiting for a whole day, he finally confirmed the investment.

As long as this movie is successful, he will be able to smoothly switch from being a TV director to a film director.

Everything else in the subsequent negotiations went smoothly. When Teng Huatao suggested that Zhu Yawen and Yang Mi star in "Love Is Not Blind", he agreed after putting the characters into his mind.

Zhu Yawen and Yang Mi are also quite suitable for these two roles, but some details need to be modified to make the actors better fit the roles.

However, he was troubled by the requirement that the film be released on November 11 this year, and he also felt that it was too rushed.

Even for a modern urban drama, the time is too tight and he is not a quick shooter.

However, as Golden Harvest guaranteed to provide full-scale support in terms of location shooting, studio, review, publicity and distribution, Teng Huatao gritted his teeth and agreed.

Anyway, the crew is ready, and they are a team that we have been working together for many years, so there is no problem of running-in.

The most important thing now is the male and female protagonists, who need to learn the lines and the script as soon as possible, but the scenes other than theirs can also be filmed first to give them some time to figure out the script.

After the discussion, the contract was signed quickly. Director Teng Huatao was paid one million yuan for the film. After all, he was just a TV director and it was his first time making a movie.

Zhu Yawen received 200 million yuan for the film, Yang Mi received million yuan for the film, and the production cost was around million yuan.

(End of this chapter)