China Entertainment: I just want to give my child a home

Chapter 398 The Lao Mouzi who came to me on his own initiative (Please subscribe!)

The next day, after Chen Dong arrived at the company, he went directly to the meeting room of the visual effects department.

When he walked into the conference room, the team members responsible for the post-production of "Detective Chinatown 3" had already sat down inside.

Chen Dong knew what everyone was expecting, so he didn't keep anyone in suspense and directly announced that the second version of the film had passed the acceptance test.

Although there are a few flaws and some work needs to be done, it won't take much effort.

"Team Leader Qiu."

Chen Dong said: "I see that everyone has been working hard during this period. When it comes to work, you still need to pay attention to the combination of work and rest. Your group can organize a team building, or just take a vacation..."

"Director Chen, they are all still young and love their work."

“Paid vacation.”

"Thank you Director Chen for your concern. I think everyone is indeed a little tired during this period and should go out and relax."

"That's right. Keeping in good condition is also for better work."

"Yes, Director Chen is right."

After gaining the favor of some employees, Chen Dong returned to his office.

"What time is the interview?"

After Zhong Lifang's secretary came in with a few documents for Chen Dong to sign, he asked this question.

Because, when he passed by the reception room just now, he seemed to see that an interviewee had arrived.

"10:, still half an hour left, Director Chen."

"Well, do you have the interviewee's information? Give me a copy first."

"Okay, I'll bring it to you right away."

"Thank you."

Shortly after the secretary left, he handed a stack of resumes to Chen Dong.

"Wu Ershan... Cheng Er... He Jianguo..."

Chen Dong was flipping through the resumes when he suddenly heard a knock on the door.

It was his assistant standing at the door.

"Director Chen, Director Zhang Yimou is here..."

"So early!"

Chen Dong sighed, he thought Lao Mouzi would not come until the afternoon.

Or maybe he just didn't come at all, he was just being polite yesterday.

Of course, since he has arrived, given his identity, it is still worth it for Chen Dong to go out and greet him.

Zhang Yimou came to read the script, but he didn't pay much attention that today was the day for the interview with the assistant director.

"It seems I came at the wrong time."

"Nothing, no delay."

Chen Dong brought Zhang Yimou to his office, then called his assistant in to make a cup of tea. He then took out a bound script of "Nuwa Ji" from the drawer and handed it to Zhang Yimou.

The script is a bit thick. If Zhang Yimou doesn't read it in a hurry, he probably won't be able to finish it in a short time. The problem is that the interview for assistant director is about to start, and as the interviewer, Chen Dong has to prepare.

Therefore, after handing the script to Zhang Yimou, he briefly explained the situation before he even opened the first page.

The general idea is that you can take a look at it slowly by yourself first. I have to go busy. I apologize for my poor hospitality.

"I came at an untimely time. Director Chen, go and get busy."

After a few polite words, Chen Dong took the stack of interviewees' resumes and left the office. He went straight to the reception room, greeted most of the interviewees who had almost arrived, and then walked into the interview room that had been temporarily set up next to it.

All the team leaders of Chen Dong's director team were in the room. They were also interviewers today, but they only played a facade role because the main focus was still on Chen Dong's will.

"Director Chen, can we start the interview?"

Chen Dong looked at the time. There were still eight minutes until half past ten, but he still nodded to the assistant in charge of the interview.

"let's start."

All the interviewees who are here today have at least directed a feature film, and some even have experience in directing four or five films. However, they generally have one thing in common, that is, the works they shot basically all failed, which is probably the reason why they are willing to compete with so many people to be his assistant director.

"Hello, Director Chen. I'm Cheng Er. I've directed three films. The first one was my graduation project in 1999. It was just a short film called "Criminals". Then in 2006, I made my first feature film, which was a black thriller called "The Third Man". This film is set against the backdrop of ordinary people's ordinary lives and reveals the intricate inner states of modern urbanites."

"The third movie was released last year, called Border Storm, starring Sun Honglei and Wang Luodan... Although the box office of this movie was not high, only 13 million, it helped me win the Best New Director Award at the 15th Chinese Film Media Awards, the Outstanding Young Playwright Award at the 20th China Film Huabiao Awards, and the Best Screenwriter Award at the th Beijing University Student Film Festival."

When Cheng Er finished the interview and walked out, there was a brief discussion about his performance in the room before the next interviewee came in.

"What do you think of this Cheng Er?"

"not bad."

“It’s the best so far.”

"..."

Hearing everyone's positive attitude towards Cheng Er's performance and resume, although Chen Dong did not comment, he put a √ behind this person's resume.

"Next person."

As soon as Chen Dong finished speaking, the door lock turned and a person walked in.

He also held a document that looked like a script in his hand.

Chen Dong raised his head and saw that it was Zhang Yimou. Like the other interviewers in the room, he looked puzzled.

"Director Chen, I've finished reading the script."

"..." Chen Dong blinked his eyes, but still felt that Zhang Yimou would not specially run over to him and say "I've finished reading it". After all, he was not a primary school student.

But Zhang Yimou didn't seem to realize that there was anything wrong with his behavior. He was a little excited now. Yes, it was because of reading the script.

As for why he appeared here, it was not to discuss the script with Chen Dong, but——

"Lao Mouzi, oh sorry, Director Zhang, are you coming to be my assistant director?"

Even Chen Dong himself had never thought of this bold idea, so he was so surprised after hearing what Lao Mouzi meant.

Not only him, but other interviewers in the room, including the next interviewee who was about to push the door open, were also shocked by the news.

Even though it came from Zhang Yimou himself, everyone instinctively looked at him in disbelief.

Until, Lao Mouzi nodded firmly to Chen Dong again and said, "Yes, I think there are not many opportunities to helm such an epic blockbuster. I am lucky to come across one in this life. And to be honest, I like your story very much. You have connected Chinese mythology and religious systems very well and created a... a primitive world described in your script. I think it satisfies all our Chinese fantasies about ancient mythology."

'In fact, in a few years, in the online literature world, articles about the prehistoric times will pop up like mushrooms after rain, until they are all written to death.'

Chen Dong added in his heart that he would naturally not say this out loud.

As for the movie about the prehistoric times, it had never been released until Chen Dong was reborn. It was not because the Film Bureau banned such movies, nor because there was no market for them. Rather, movies with this kind of subject matter, without strong capital, simply could not capture the "reality" of the prehistoric times. They would only give the audience the feeling that it was produced in a small workshop or with five-cent special effects. The audience is not stupid, and they naturally would not buy such a fake work.

However, if the investment is too large, the pressure to recoup the investment will be very high. In addition, with the focus on traffic in later generations, naturally few directors dare to try to make movies on prehistoric themes.

Although Chen Dong is still generous in investing in "Nuwa Legend" this time, to be honest, he cannot guarantee that he can make a profit.

It's just because he is worth a lot now, even if it means losses, he can afford it, so he dares to play like this.

Apart from him, there is no other director in China who has such confidence.

In fact, this is also the reason that attracted Zhang Yimou to willingly serve as his assistant director.

Having said that, although Chen Dong was surprised to have a big director like Zhang Yimou come to him, after being surprised, there was naturally no reason for him to turn him away.

If Zhang Yimou takes up one spot, it means that Chen Dong only needs to choose an assistant director from this group of interviewees.

If it was just one, Chen Dong already had a candidate in mind. However, the interview did not stop, but accelerated the progress.

At noon, after the interview, Zhang Yimou did not leave. He followed Chen Dong and others into the cafeteria of Dongcheng Pictures and got a meal.

"I didn't expect your company's food standards are so high."

Chen Dong was not modest about this, "You are not the first person to make such an evaluation."

"Oh, who else?"

“Almost everyone who eats out for the first time.”

Zhang Yimou tasted the food and thought it was delicious, nodding as he chewed.

But this is just a minor episode and not worth discussing all the time.

"How many of the directors who came for the interview this morning do you plan to keep?"

"One."

"So I also took up a spot."

"What do you say?"

Zhang Yimou met Chen Dong's gaze and nodded seriously: "Okay."

Chen Dong explained: "In fact, it doesn't matter if I hire two more directors or even three, four or five more, because my crew can afford it."

At this moment Zhang Yimou did not speak, but just stared at Chen Dong, waiting for what to come.

Chen Dong smiled and continued, "The question is, what's the point of having so many directors for a crew? Three is enough."

"...That's right." Zhang Yimou was stunned for a moment before nodding in agreement.

"Who did you choose?"

"What do you think, Director Zhang?"

"That Wu Ershan has the most experience."

"Yes, but it's not him."

"Oh, that's Cheng Er."

"Why him?"

"He and you both graduated from Beijing Film Academy, and the movie Border Storm that was released last year was pretty good."

Chen Dong nodded, agreeing with the two conditions stated by Zhang Yimou.

However, he didn't expect that after Lao Mouzi stopped to think for two seconds, he actually added another point.

"He is still very young. You seem to prefer to train young directors. This is true for Lu Yang and Wen Muye."

"maybe."

Chen Dong himself didn't pay much attention to this, but he didn't deny it, because this might be a decision he made unconsciously, and he didn't even know it, or he didn't pay close attention to it.

That afternoon, after discussing with Zhang Yimou, Chen Dong improved the script again. There were still few changes, but it could barely be called the third version.

The next day, Cheng Er received a call from Dong Cheng, officially informing him that he had passed the interview.

"Thank you."

Although Cheng Er had a strong premonition last night that he could pass the interview, he was not truly relieved until he actually received the call.

At the same time, he was also curious about who the other person who passed the interview was, and he couldn't help but ask at the end of the call.

The girl on the other end of the phone was silent for three seconds, but still spoke to him.

"It's Director Zhang Yimou."

"Oh, it's Director Zhang Yimou..." The next second, Cheng Er's voice suddenly rose several times on the phone: "Who is it? Can you say it again?"

"Director Cheng, don't get excited. This is the director Zhang Yimou that you understand."

After Cheng Er hung up the phone, he stood there for several seconds, still unable to digest this unbelievable news.

At the same time, the official website of Dongcheng Pictures also announced the results of the interview. Everyone who saw it fell into self-doubt like Cheng Er.

"Excuse me, is this Zhang Yimou the Zhang Yimou I understand?"

"Has our national master fallen to the point where he has to work for Director Chen's crew?"

"Although, I want to say that Director Chen is awesome."

"It's normal, actually. Didn't Jiang Wen serve as the assistant director of Director Chen's last film, Detective Chinatown? I don't think there's anything to be surprised about."

"..."

As this "news" fermented, more and more people knew that Chen Dong had tricked Zhang Yimou into working on his next film.

So, calls from acquaintances came in one after another.

"Hello, I'm Jiang Wen."

"I know you are Jiang Wen, if you have something to say, please speak quickly."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, that's great, they even kidnapped Lao Mouzi."

"If I say that Lao Mouzi wanted to come here on his own, would you believe me?"

"It doesn't matter whether I believe it or not. The key point is that what is being spread online now is that you tricked Lao Mouzi into it."

Chen Dong actually knew that the news on the Internet was becoming less and less reliable, but he didn't need to take the initiative to clarify anything because of such a small matter. The same was true for Lao Mouzi, who chose to remain silent. Of course, he cursed those media outlets for traffic in his heart, and then said to Jiang Wen: "... Are you okay? If not, I'm hanging up."

"Hey, hey, hey. Don't worry. I'll come over to read the script someday when I'm free." Jiang Wen said, "I want to see what kind of story you, Chen Dong, have come up with this time to make Lao Mouzi take the initiative to work for you."

"not welcome."

"It's okay. I know where the door of your company opens."

……

The box office performance of "The Four 2" is indeed not as ideal as the first one.

Many old fans complained that this film is just a new take on the old stuff, and is just "Four Famous Shops 1" in a new coat.

Squeeze the money, shameless...

In this regard, Chen Dong heard Wang Changtian complain on the phone: "We originally prepared a script for the third part, but looking at the current situation, it seems that it can no longer be used."

Chen Dong suppressed his smile and consoled him, "Don't worry about Mr. Wang. My company's embarrassing series is so profitable that we don't have any follow-up plans. Wouldn't that make you happier?"

"No, but is your company really not planning to make any more Lost in Hong Kong series? Although I've seen a lot of criticisms about Lost in Hong Kong online, such a profitable series should still be a profitable project even if it reaches the fifth or sixth part, right?"

"That's true, but what's the point of making so much money?"

"I always feel like you're hinting at me."

"I do not have."

"But I think you're right. How about selling the囧 series to me? I don't mind making some lousy money."

"... Mr. Wang, I didn't expect you to be such an honest person."

"I have always been honest because I firmly believe that honesty is a good quality for a businessman. So, are you going to sell it or not?"

"No, if I sell it to you, I'll make a lot of money. My conscience will hurt."

"grass!"

(End of this chapter)