Entering the Chinese entertainment industry is like entering a deep sea

Chapter 686 Mr. Li

As soon as CCTV's press conference started, it was settled that Li Chen would be the chief director of the Spring Festival Gala.

Not only that, the two "guardians" on Li Chen's left and right at the press conference were also very influential. One was Zhao Benshan, the king of Spring Festival Gala sketches, and the other was veteran actor Zhang Guoli.

One stone can cause a thousand ripples, the internet is boiling, and the circle is hotly discussed.

"The Spring Festival Gala is like the Chinese national football team. Similarly, no matter who is the director of the Spring Festival Gala, there will be no surprises; just like no matter how good a chef is, he cannot make delicious food without good ingredients."

“My friends and I were stunned!”

"I used to be indifferent to the Spring Festival Gala, but now this lineup is so worth looking forward to. I am interested in the Spring Festival Gala again. Let's go, artistic youth!"

"I have a vague feeling that the 14 Spring Festival Gala will make people laugh to death. I am looking forward to it!"

"Leo is the king of Lunar New Year films and has extensive connections in the entertainment industry. Even gathering the four kings is no problem for him."

"Zhao Zhongxiang: Li Chen is one of the most outstanding young filmmakers in China. He has directed and produced many refreshing comedy films, which are deeply loved by the audience. If Li Chen is invited to direct the Spring Festival Gala, it will definitely bring a new look to the Spring Festival Gala."

"Big names like Jay Chou, Derek Liu, and Manyu Zhang are all very close to Leo. Even the Bazaar theme song sung by Wang Fei was composed by Leo. The Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Horse is going to be very interesting!"

In response to the various voices under his Weibo.

Li Chen posted another Weibo post.

"Thank you all for your enthusiasm and encouragement. Whether it's flowers or rotten eggs, I accept them all."

"I have only one purpose for selecting programs. I will select programs based on the audience's perspective and their likes and dislikes. The audience hates fakeness and emptiness the most, and we will work hard to solve this problem. Joy, sincerity, and warmth, these are my six-word principles."

As soon as a Weibo post is released, flowers and rotten eggs are sent flying.

But probably there are more flowers than rotten eggs.

People born in the 80s and 90s enthusiastically welcomed Li Chen’s statement. After all, Li Chen has never disappointed them.

He set the box office record for comedy films, which has not been surpassed to this day.

Feng Xiaogang was once known as the father of Lunar New Year films, but Li Chen came from behind and was called the King of Lunar New Year films by audiences and fans.

After the press conference, Li Chen began to get into the groove, but he encountered some resistance on the first day.

In the conference room on the third floor of Beijing Media Group, there are ten directors including the chief director Li Chen.

Three directors, five deputy directors, one executive director, plus several veteran artists and Spring Festival Gala consultants.

Among the twenty or so people, Li Chen is the youngest, and even Shen Teng is a few years older than him.

When I sat in the middle, I felt my ears buzzing and my head was about to explode from all the noise.

There was also a lot of media noise outside the conference room.

Inadvertently, Li Chen looked up and caught a glimpse of the playful smile of a CCTV leader, and immediately frowned slightly.

After a while, Li Chen came to his senses.

Yes, judging from the age of these people, except Shen Teng, everyone else is more than qualified to be my father.

In terms of Spring Festival Gala seniority, each of them is a senior. It seems that his seat is the right of all the old guys present, except for him, the new recruit.

But the leader decided to choose him, and even the bidding was just a formality.

Would these seniors listen to me obediently? It was impossible to think about it.

The leader probably also wants to see if he can control the situation. You want power, and I give it to you, but if you can't handle it yourself and don't have drastic measures to calm these old guys, it only shows that you are just a figurehead and a hopeless person.

Li Chen also laughed. He liked such challenges.

Among these people, there is the chairman of the Directors Association, the vice chairman of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and one is also the vice chairman of the Political Consultative Conference. I am the only one without a bachelor’s degree.

Li Chen spoke slowly. His voice was not loud, but it was just enough to cover the noisy discussions in the meeting room.

"Everyone, be quiet and listen to me."

As soon as a word was spoken, some people stopped talking, some continued, and some even pretended not to hear it.

Li Chen raised the corner of his mouth and raised his voice twice: "This is a meeting, not a vegetable market!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the conference room gradually returned to calm. Everyone met Li Chen's captivating gaze. Some shrank back, some breathed short, some avoided him, and some refused to give in.

Reporters outside the conference room were scratching their heads anxiously through the transparent glass windows.

Li Chen issued a strict order not to accept any media interviews unless CCTV gave the order.

Secondly, no one’s assistant is allowed into the meeting room.

Even Yang Siwei was excluded.

Many reporters heard Li Chen's words, their eyes sparkled with excitement, but they could not go beyond the line.

Soon, a term emerged on the hot search list: Spring Festival Gala starts, Li Chen gets angry.

The scene in Li Chen’s villa in Shunyi District is almost the same as that in Media.

Tang Yan, Yang Mi, Zhang Hanyun, Reba and others came to the door today without any prior arrangement.

Yang Mi and Tang Yan came straight to the point. They had only one goal: to be on the Spring Festival Gala.

Zhang Hanyun and other young actresses naturally wanted to do so, but they did not have the confidence that Yang Mi and Tang Yan had.

The house was bustling with activity when Yang Mi suddenly screamed, startling everyone.

"What's wrong? You scared me." Tang Yan was closest to Yang Mi and patted his chest.

"Look, look, the senior is going crazy."

This one sentence made Liu Yifei jump up from the sofa nervously and rush to Yang Mi barefoot.

But under that entry, there was only one sentence: "This is a meeting, not a vegetable market", and the rest were speculations from the media and netizens.

Some said that Li Chen made three big moves as a new official, while others said that Li Chen became angry and humiliated after being given a cold shoulder.

With so many different opinions, the women were also confused.

Liu Yifei immediately took out her phone and called Yang Siwei.

"I don't know either. We were all blocked outside. The boss gave the order himself. But just now it seemed that everyone was talking about their own things and left the boss, the chief director, aside. That's why the boss got mad."

"The meeting room has become quiet now. Only the boss is talking, but I can't hear clearly what he is saying." Yang Siwei said with a smile.

Liu Yifei frowned as she heard this: "He is just like this. When he went there, his mother told him to be open-minded and listen to the opinions of the old artists, but he just wouldn't listen!"

Yang Siwei, however, has a different opinion: "Xixi, I think the boss did the right thing."

Yang Mi and others also pricked up their ears and listened attentively. Her "Tiny Times" lacked stamina, and the box office moved at a snail's pace after exceeding 300 million.

The company's movie "Maleficent" was extremely popular. After the box office exceeded 1.2 billion, it still made around 25 million a day.

Industry insiders predict that "Maleficent" is expected to break the box office record held by "Chinese Police".

Zhizhen Art and Disney also announced that "Maleficent 2" will also start production at the end of the year.

At the same time, Disney also announced that the script of "Maleficent" written by Li Chen has been collected by Disney, and Disney will shoot a live-action version of "Maleficent".
As soon as this news came out, it caused an uproar on both sides of the ocean.

Disney makes live-action movies, while Zhizhen Art makes animated films. It seems like putting the cart before the horse no matter how you look at it.

Liu Yifei wondered, "Is that right?"

"Well, the boss is the chief director. If the Spring Festival Gala is directed well, it may not be his credit, but if it is not directed well, then he will definitely be blamed."

"Rather than that, if we can't act according to the boss's ideas, the boss will definitely not do such a thing as taking the blame for others with his wisdom."

Yang Mi nodded and whispered to Liu Yifei: "Siwei is right. I also think that seniors should be like this."

Liu Yifei hesitated and said, "That seems to make sense. So he has already decided to establish his authority."

"Humph, you didn't even tell me about this in advance!" Yang Siwei said with a smile, "I don't know about that. Even if the boss has any ideas, he won't tell me."

In the conference room on the third floor of Media Center, Zhang Guoli sat in the third seat to the left of Li Chen, with Zhao Benshan in front of him.

The two of them didn't hold him back just now, but now seeing that Li Chen's two words had silenced the place, they all smiled.

Zhao Benshan knows too well how difficult the Spring Festival Gala is.

Zhang Guoli had a smile in his eyes. In fact, someone recommended Feng Xiaogang to be the chief director of this year's Spring Festival Gala, and he also voted for Feng Xiaogang.

But in an unexpected turn of events, CCTV quickly decided on Li Chen and had no more contact with Xiaogang.

Xiaogang might have wanted to put on airs at the beginning and asked CCTV to invite Feng Xiaogang for the third time, but CCTV was unusually decisive this time and directly passed Feng Xiaogang.

He knew that Feng Xiaogang was regretting it to death.

A few days ago, Feng Xiaogang talked to him about the Spring Festival Gala and even boasted: "Let Li Chen go first. Humph, just wait and see. If the Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Horse fails, these people from CCTV will come to find me, Feng Xiaogang."

He asked Feng Xiaogang with a smile: "What if Li Chen succeeds immediately?"

Feng Xiaogang's face darkened: "Is it possible? With his arrogance, I'm afraid someone will flip the table over him on the first day."

I have to say that Feng Xiaogang's prediction was correct. Although Li Chen holds the title of chief director, the team behind the scenes is still Ha Wen's team.

Everyone present here is an old senior over 50 years old. If Feng Xiaogang were here, it would definitely be a great honor for everyone.

He knows Feng Xiaogang too well. When it comes to arguing with netizens, he is like a lone man blocking a thousand enemies. But when facing a tough guy, he is still the same Feng Xiaogang.

"Mr. Li, if you have anything to say, just say it." Zhang Guoli said with a smile.

Li Chen was satisfied. Zhang Guoli's emotional intelligence was very high. The word "Mr. Li" showed his attitude.

In the conference room, there were a lot of directors, and unlike other directors and assistant directors, he, the chief director, was respectfully called Mr. Li by Shen Teng.

I didn't expect Zhang Guoli to call it out on this occasion.

Li Chen did not give in. There was no need for him to be humble now. If he kept giving in, it was possible that the Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Horse would be as weird as the Spring Festival Gala that Feng Xiaogang had hosted in his previous life.

Li Chen smiled and said: "Everyone here is a senior in various industries in the field of art."

"Like Mr. Zhao, the undisputed king of skits."

Zhao Benshan waved his hand and smiled, but didn't say anything.

Li Chen added: "Director Shen is the best dance choreographer in Dongyi. It's not an exaggeration to say that he is the best in the country."

"Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Li." Shen Chen hesitated for a moment, but still said it.

Li Chen's gaze turned to the chairman of the Writers Association, the vice chairman of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and others, and he gave everyone enough face as if he knew them all by heart.

Then he changed the subject and said, "Logically speaking, all of you are more qualified to sit in this seat than me, a newcomer who has never had any connection with the Spring Festival Gala."

"Many people are probably asking in their hearts: Why?"

The calm looks of the many old men clearly convey one message: you are a good kid who still has some self-awareness.

Li Chen took in everyone's expressions and said, "You might as well ask yourself again, why is the ratings of the Spring Festival Gala declining year by year, why is the reputation of the Spring Festival Gala getting worse year by year? You are all seniors of the Spring Festival Gala, who can tell me the answer?"

Li Chen asked two whys, which made the old men present all look unhappy.

Everyone in the conference room looked around, but no one spoke.

Zhang Heping, the president of the Beijing People's Art Theater and chairman of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, said with a smile, "What do you think, Mr. Li?"

Li Chen said calmly, "Director Zhang, I don't deserve your advice."

"But I still understand why the leaders chose me to be the chief director."

"A leader once told me that you don't have any ability, but you dare to offend people. There is nothing you dare not do. You don't join the Writers Association or the Film Association. You dare to offend anyone!"

The atmosphere in the meeting room suddenly became tense, and some people looked surprised. Just now Li Chen praised everyone so highly, but now he stepped on them all. The contrast was outrageous.

"At that moment, I realized that what my boss liked was not my talent, but my unconventional style."

Li Chen looked around, and everyone avoided his gaze: "I know this seat is not easy to sit in, but I still sat down."

"Now that I'm seated, what I need to think about is how to present a wonderful and satisfying Spring Festival Gala to the audience."

"Everyone and all resources must serve this purpose. As for the rest? They are not important!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of everyone present changed.

They are all old foxes who are well versed in the world. The implication of Li Chen's words is, don't talk to me about qualifications, pretend to be a big shot, I have nothing to do with your association or organization, I don't care who you are, everything must serve me as the chief director of the Spring Festival Gala! If you don't listen, then get out as soon as possible.

The CCTV leader who was present had a smile on his face, thinking to himself, "Li Chen is indeed a capable person. CCTV chose him not because of his unconventional style of doing things as he said, but because of his talent."

"Even if he is a little arrogant, it may not be a bad thing for CCTV, which is eager to increase the ratings and reputation of the Spring Festival Gala."

But what Li Chen said was tantamount to a fox taking advantage of the power of the tiger, as if CCTV had tacitly allowed him to have the power of life and death.

Everyone looked at each other, but no one spoke. Many people looked at the leader?

Li Chen continued: "Everyone can give suggestions. I will accept the good ones."

“If you have no objection, then I hope everyone will listen more and do more!”

"If the Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Horse fails, I will bear all the responsibility. If it succeeds, the credit belongs to all of us. I will only say this once."

The first meeting lasted 15 hours, and it was almost dawn when the meeting ended.

After the meeting, everyone scattered like birds and beasts.

Zhang Guoli, Zhao Benshan and Shen Teng stayed until the end. When they saw everyone leave, the three of them gave Li Chen a thumbs up.

Shen Teng's "The Richest Tomato" has just finished filming after more than three months of shooting.

Zhao Benshan's apprentice Xiao Shenyang went to Thailand with the crew of "Detective Chinatown".

"Mr. Li, I admire you so much!" Zhang Guoli said sincerely.

Just now, those old guys hardly said a word at the meeting, and it was Li Chen who was talking alone.

He, Zhao Benshan, Shen Teng and the chief producer were quite supportive.

Everyone thought that they could control Li Chen in this way, but who knew that Li Chen didn't hesitate at all.

The composer is silent, right? I, Li Chen, will compose the music myself.

The planner has no objection, right? Then you do whatever I say.

Not to mention, even Zhang Guoli is looking forward to this year's Spring Festival Gala.

Li Chen waved his hand and smiled modestly: "Teacher Zhang, please stop talking. I don't want to say a word now. I have said too much!"

"Hahaha" Everyone was amused by Li Chen's words.

In addition to Media, there were also media waiting all night.

Li Chen naturally would not accept the interview and hurriedly got into the car that came to pick him up.

As soon as I got in the car, I found my wife was there too.

"Why are you here? It's so late and you're not sleeping at home. Be careful of getting acne tomorrow." Li Chen saw a hint of worry in Miss Liu's eyes, and his heart was touched and warm.

"Why did this meeting take so long?" Liu Yifei answered the question irrelevantly and complained.

Yang Mi and her friends stayed up until eleven o'clock and went home as they couldn't bear it anymore.

After one o'clock, she still couldn't fall asleep.

In the past, whenever my husband was in the capital, he was never away from home before midnight.

(End of this chapter)