Chapter 75 Press Conference

To be honest, Liu Zhou was a little surprised by the reason Zhang Guorong explained to him.

At this time, the status of the two people was very different. For him to be able to achieve this, his character was indeed beyond reproach.

"Good things are worth waiting for. As long as we can successfully reach a cooperation now, that will be the best result. As for the process, it is not very important." Liu Zhou said with a smile.

At this time, Zhang Guorong looked at Liu Zhou, pondered for a moment and asked:

"Director Liu, you look familiar to me. Have we met before somewhere?"

Liu Zhou also smiled at this time and said:

"Yes, we met at the Berlin International Film Festival last year, in the hotel lobby."

Zhang Guorong also patted his head at this time, and said suddenly:

"I remember now, you are the young man in the hotel lobby. I remember you invested in a mainland movie."

"Yes, we chatted for a while."

"I remember now, you said you were my fan as well as my movie fan."

"Yes, I was a little too excited when I saw you for the first time, so I rashly went up to you and talked to you."

"Haha, fate is so wonderful. I didn't expect you to become a director."

"In fact, my dream has always been to be a director. Now that I am confident, I have started to shoot my first feature film. My biggest dream is to be able to work with you."

"Now your dream has come true." Zhang Guorong said with a smile.

"Yeah, in fact, not only me, even my girlfriend, Zeng Li, the heroine of this play, is also your fan. She also dreams of working with you once."

Hearing Liu Zhou's words, Zhang Guorong laughed even louder, happily lit a cigarette, took a deep puff, and then slowly said:

"It seems that I am really old, and the younger generations like you have grown up."

"Brother, you are not old, otherwise I would not have invited you to play the role of the leading actor."

The male lead Qianniu is a college graduate. Zhang Guorong doesn't look old at all. With a little makeup, there is no sense of incongruity in him playing a college student.

Regardless of whether it is a man or a woman, they will feel very comfortable when they are praised for their youth. Zhang Guorong couldn't help but smile when he heard Liu Zhou's words:
"Director Liu is still good at talking."

"Brother, you can call me Director Liu when we are on the set, but you can call me Zhou in private."

"no problem."

Just when Liu Zhou and Zhang Guorong were chatting happily, Zhang Guorong's agent Chen Shufen and Director Xie walked in again.

Looking at Director Xie's expression, Liu Zhou felt that the two of them did not seem to be talking harmoniously.

Sure enough, Director Xie whispered to Liu Zhou that his brother's agent Chen Shufen insisted on a salary of 4 million and refused to give in.

On the other side, Zhang Guorong had apparently learned the results of their discussion from his agent. He took a puff of cigarette and said directly:

"Ah Zhou, since we are so destined to be together, and you are also my fan, and this is your first time making a movie, just consider it as my support for you, and the salary will be three million."

"Mr. Rong, three million is too low. It doesn't match your market price." Chen Shufen said on the side.

"It doesn't matter, just three million."

As expected, my brother is well-known in the circle for taking care of newcomers, but since he is so open-minded, Liu Zhou can't just think about taking advantage of him. He said:

"Brother, thank you for your support. Three million may indeed be too little. I was not thoughtful enough. How about this, I will add another half a million."

"No need. If I say three million, then it's three million. I heard that you made all your money by writing novels, which wasn't easy."

In fact, Liu Zhou wanted to say that it was not difficult to earn this money.

Liu Zhou wanted to persuade her further, but Zhang Guorong had already asked Chen Shufen to go and sign the contract with Director Xie.

In response, Director Xie, who had never seen such a unique style of painting, and Chen Shufen, who looked helpless, went next door to sign the final contract.

Looking at the contract in Director Xie's hand, Liu Zhou felt relieved.

"Ah Zhou, when is the plan to start filming?"

"The fifth of next month."

"Okay, I'll come over on the 5th and we'll go back first."

"Is it that urgent? Let's finish dinner first."

"We can have dinner anytime from now on. I have something else to do in Hong Kong and need to go back to take care of it."

"Okay, I'll definitely treat you a good meal next time."

"Haha, okay, I'll remember it."

Liu Zhou and Director Xie sent Zhang Guorong and his group to the gate of Zhujiang Factory and did not go back until their car disappeared.

"Liu Zhou, it's up to you from now on." "Don't worry, Director Xie, I will definitely fulfill my mission."

After saying that, Liu Zhou called the people behind the scenes to a meeting and rechecked the preparations of each department.

Time flies, and it is October 5th in a blink of an eye.

On this day, a business hall in Baiyun Hotel was crowded with people. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that most of them were reporters. A rough count revealed that there were more than a hundred of them.

Entertainment reporters from print media, television stations, and even online media were all here.

Today is the day of the launch conference for Liu Zhou’s new film, “My Sassy Girl”.

In this day and age, even Zhang Yimou won’t hold a press conference for a new film, so this is Liu Zhou’s first in the industry.

In later generations, press conferences for the launch of filming became very common, as this was also part of the promotion of the film.

In later generations, there is already a very complete system for film promotion, starting from the start of filming, to some behind-the-scenes news during the filming process, to the wrap-up, to large-scale material promotion before the release, and finally to the roadshow, everything is planned in an orderly manner.

So after Liu Zhou confirmed that Zhang Guorong had officially joined the film, he began preparing for the launch conference and revealed the news.

The collaboration between a popular mainland writer who is directing for the first time and an Asian superstar is obviously very attractive.

So after hearing the news, all major media outlets took action, and even the newly emerging portal websites arranged people to join in the fun.

At this time, Zeng Li was very nervous backstage. Although she was not nervous when performing a drama in front of two thousand audiences, she became nervous this time when facing more than a hundred reporters.

Liu Zhou also noticed Zeng Li's expression, held her hand and said:
"Don't be nervous, I'm here."

"This is the first time I've seen so many reporters. I can't calm down now because I have no such experience." Zeng Li forced a smile and said without any confidence.

"Relax, the reporters' attention may not be on you in a moment. My brother and I are the focus of these reporters' attention."

"That's good. To be honest, I'm afraid that they will focus their attention on me. It would be bad if something funny happened." Zeng Li said with relief.

"You'll get used to it in the future. And don't be afraid even if you make a fool of yourself, I'll take care of everything."

After hearing what Liu Zhou said, Zeng Li's accelerated heartbeat slowly returned to normal. Having someone to rely on makes one feel safe.

After a while, the press conference was about to start, and Liu Zhou took Zhang Guorong and Zeng Li to the stage.

The flash lights kept flashing. After Liu Zhou and his friends entered the venue, the long-awaited media reporters took a lot of photos of them, almost blinding Liu Zhou who was unprepared.

To be honest, it was also the first time for Liu Zhou to face so many reporters, but he was confident and not panicked at all.

"Welcome everyone to the launch conference of my new movie. I believe everyone must have a lot of questions to ask, but before that, please take a seat. We will have plenty of time to answer your questions. Thank you!"

Liu Zhou saw that the reporters were asking questions one after another, making the scene very noisy. He could hardly hear anything, so he could only pick up the microphone and ask them to be quiet.

"Let me first introduce the two people next to me. I don't need to introduce this one, everyone knows him, Asian superstar brother Zhang Guorong. And the one on my right is Zeng Li, she is my classmate at the Central Academy of Drama, and she is also the heroine of my new movie."

The reporters were almost going crazy with excitement, so they raised their hands frantically, wanting to be the first to ask a question.

It is not yet time for questions, so Liu Zhou certainly won't answer their questions. The host also doesn't give them the chance to ask questions, but follows the press conference process step by step.

The reporters in the audience were quite anxious at first, but this time Liu Zhou arranged the relevant links very well, and the distribution of information was relatively even. Information could not only be obtained through the question-and-answer session.

So after a while, many reporters had already started to lower their heads and record information.

After going through the whole series of steps, a lot of information was obtained, and the name of the movie was also remembered by everyone. Although it was a bit strange, it was unforgettable. This unique press conference was very impressive.

Finally, it was time for questions. The reporters in the audience raised their hands enthusiastically again. Liu Zhou was blatantly biased and pointed to a reporter from Southern Weekend.

"Hello Liu Zhou, you chose to shoot a romance film as your first movie. Is it because you are good at this type of subject matter?"

"Yes, youth romance is indeed what I am better at now. Because I am good at it, I will definitely be able to bring you a different but equally good love movie this time."

After answering this question, Liu Zhou called a reporter from the China Youth Daily, who stood up excitedly and asked several questions in one breath:

"Hello Liu Zhou, you became a director before you even graduated from college. Do you think you are ready? How did you invite Zhang Guorong to be your leading actor? What are your box office expectations for your film?"

Liu Zhou answered his questions one by one:

“Although I haven’t graduated from university yet, I feel I am ready, so I even made a short film and accidentally won an award at Cannes.

As for the box office of this movie, I certainly hope that it will be as high as possible. As for how to invite Zhang Guorong, you can ask him yourself. "

Everyone couldn't help but laugh at Liu Zhou's last little joke.

At this time, a reporter finally asked questions to brother Zhang Guorong.

But Zhang Guorong is a veteran and is accustomed to such scenes. He knows very well how to deal with reporters.

Besides, today's mainland reporters are relatively simple, far from being as unscrupulous as the entertainment reporters in Hong Kong, so it is very easy for him to deal with them.

It is impossible to answer all reporters' questions at a press conference. After answering a few questions, the host promptly took control of the situation and announced the end of the press conference.

Liu, Zhou and others ignored the questions that were still being loudly asked by the reporters in the audience and walked straight to the backstage.

(End of this chapter)