Entertainment: Who still wants to fall in love when there are cheats?

Chapter 210 Characters Cast
After a period of selection and screening.

The male lead, Zheng Zha, was given to Yan Kuan.

Zhang Jie will be played by Huang Xiaoming.

Zhan Lan then left it to Zhao Liying in her own studio.

Li Xiaoyi gave it to Hu Ge.

Needless to say, Chu Xuan was reserved for Li Boda.

Zero was handed over to Duan Yihong.

The role of the Overlord was chosen to be played by Jason Statham.

Luo Li is played by Shu Chang.

The role of Na'er was given to Liu Shishi.

In "Infinite Terror," these are the main characters, and the cast has been largely finalized.

Those chosen were naturally overjoyed, while those not chosen were understandably disappointed. But there was nothing they could do; the film only had so many roles, and there were countless people in mainland China who wanted to play them—they couldn't just give the roles to whoever wanted them.

In fact, it wasn't just mainlanders; actors from Hong Kong and Taiwan, especially Donnie Yen and others from Hong Kong, also wanted to star in the movie "Infinite Terror." After all, it was a Sino-foreign co-production with an investment of 600 million yuan. If they were lucky, they might actually become famous overseas and then jump straight to Hollywood with "Infinite Terror."

It can be said that when Li Boda released this list, many people in Hong Kong had objections, and some even had strong objections.

Even though the leak of Mr. Chan's photos in 08 implicated most of Hong Kong artists, Hong Kong artists are still very popular in mainland China. It can be said that almost every hit or popular movie has a Hong Kong artist in it, whether male or female, either as the lead or as a supporting character.

As for Li Boda, this time his movie didn't even have a single Taiwanese or Hong Kong artist in it. No wonder they had their own ideas, and they even went to Han Sanye for help.

It's not that they necessarily had to act in the movie "Infinite Terror".

The main issue is that with such a large investment, not inviting any Hong Kong actors to participate is problematic. If this movie becomes a huge hit, it would set a precedent for others to not use Hong Kong actors.

If other movies follow Li Boda's example and stop using Hong Kong artists in their films, what will happen to Hong Kong artists in the future?
So at this point, they went directly to Master Han.

There was nothing he could do but make some compromises when faced with the problems raised by the Hong Kong entertainment circle.

"Boda, this casting list should include at least one Hong Kong artist, and preferably one from Taiwan as well. This will help to unite everyone, you know what I mean," Han Sanye said to Li Boda.

“…Third Master, I understand. There are still some roles that haven’t been finalized yet. I’ll reserve one or two roles for them.” Li Boda nodded.

"That's the right way to think." Master Han chuckled. "Love is Not Blind is about to be released, right? I'll arrange more resources for this movie."

"Thank you, Third Master!"

Li Boda didn't stand on ceremony with Han Sanye, after all, this was essentially a transaction, or rather, a form of compensation.

Moreover, the movie "Love is Not Blind" already had some investment from China Film Group. Allocating more resources to this movie is actually a way of keeping the benefits within the family.

After all, the high box office of "Love is Not Blind" means more money for China Film Group, so it's a win-win situation.

Besides Master Han, people from Hong Kong also came looking for Li Boda.

For example, Hong Kong's Yinghuang Entertainment.

To be honest, Yinghuang did not invest in the "Infinite Terror" project this time.

It's not that Yinghuang is unwilling to invest, but rather that Yinghuang simply hasn't been able to secure an investment quota.

After all, despite it being a massive project worth 600 million, Li Boda himself took half of it. The remaining shares were invested in by Lionsgate and Legendary Pictures, and the rest were roughly divided up among several domestic companies.

By the time Yinghuang received the news and wanted to invest, there were no more shares available.

Yinghuang sought out Li Boda primarily for two reasons.

On one hand, we still hope to get involved in the "Infinite Terror" project. After all, it's such a big project, and if Yinghuang can't get involved, it feels like Yinghuang is inferior to other companies.

After all, everyone else got involved in this big project, but Yinghuang didn't get a chance. It felt like the others didn't want to include Yinghuang.

Moreover, once this project gets started, will they leave Yinghuang no chance for any major projects in the future?
You should know that things are getting worse and worse in the Hong Kong entertainment industry these days.

Yinghuang really wants to break into the mainland entertainment industry and establish a foothold. Now, because of the "Infinite Terror" project, he's in a situation where he feels marginalized, and of course, he wants to change that.

However, Li Boda refused Yinghuang's offer to get involved.

"I'm so sorry, all the shares of [Infinite Terror] have already been distributed. You're a little late coming here now," Li Boda said, seemingly embarrassed.

"Well, I heard that Director Li himself invested 300 million to take half of the [Infinite Terror] project. How about you share some with me? Let me get a piece of the pie too?"

"I'm really sorry, the contract has already been signed. Besides, the reason these people in China are willing to invest in the movie 'Infinite Terror' is most likely because I personally put in half the money. My actions gave them confidence, which is why they were willing to invest. If I back out now, they might think I lack confidence in this project. If they also withdraw their funds and abandon their investment, my project will be finished." Li Boda shook his head and declined politely.

"Director Li, it's their loss if they give up. How about this: if they really do withdraw because of this, then Yinghuang will take all the shares they leave behind."

“You can’t say that. Investing in movies is also a business, and the most important thing in business is reputation. I can’t just break my promise, right? How about we work together again next time? This time, there really isn’t a chance.” Li Boda shook his head.

"Sigh, alright then, next time. We've got a deal, next time, we can't exclude Yinghuang like we did this time, otherwise I'll really go and cry to Master Han. After all, we're family from both places, and it's not good for us to be excluded, right?" Yinghuang actually knew that it was almost impossible to rejoin the [Infinite Terror] project at this point.

His visit this time was merely to make a statement and also to reserve an investment in Li Boda's next film.

Although Yinghuang is not sure whether Li Boda's current work, "Infinite Terror," will be successful, or whether there will be a sequel.

But what if "Infinite Terror" succeeds? What if there's a sequel? Yinghuang is just taking precautions in advance.

Besides discussing investment, the reason for approaching Li Boda was also to ask him to reserve one or two roles for the actors from Yinghuang in the movie "Infinite Terror".

She came at just the right time this time.

Well, just a moment ago, Master Han approached Li Boda, saying that it wasn't appropriate for Li Boda's movies not to have any Hong Kong or Taiwanese artists in them, as it would make the relationship seem disharmonious. He wanted Li Boda to include one or two Hong Kong or Taiwanese artists in "Infinite Terror".

They came knocking on his door right away, so Li Boda gave Yinghuang a role.

“The main roles have already been decided, and contracts have even been signed, so I’m really sorry, but we can’t give these main roles to Yinghuang’s artists. However, I have one more role with more screen time, and the actor hasn’t been decided yet. You can see if Yinghuang has any suitable actors,” Li Boda said with a smile.

Hearing Li Boda say that, she wasn't angry. As long as Li Boda was willing to agree, that was fine.

Therefore, Li Boda came up with the character of Li Shuaixi.

The character Li Shuaixi doesn't have many scenes, nor can he be considered particularly outstanding.

However, the conflict between Li Shuaixi and Chu Xuan also gave Li Shuaixi a bit more brilliance. Overall, he is a character with a lot of screen time who can leave a deep impression on people.

After seeing the role of Li Shuaixi, he pondered for a moment, went through the list of artists in Yinghuang in his mind, and quickly came up with a candidate.

Chen Weiting!
A rather handsome young man.

In fact, Yinghuang was greatly affected after Teacher Chen's photo incident. Therefore, Yinghuang began to work hard to cultivate new actors, trying to replace Teacher Chen, who had already retired from the industry, and even Xie Tingfeng, whose reputation was greatly damaged. Chen Weiting is one of the more outstanding ones.

Now, Li Boda is bringing out the character Li Shuaixi from "Infinite Terror." This character doesn't have many scenes, but he still has some memorable moments. Plus, this movie will also be a chance to try his luck in Hollywood. For Chen Weiting, this is definitely a very good project.

So they made the decision right away and gave the role of Li Shuaixi to Chen Weiting.

When Chen Weiting heard the news, he was very excited. He took a plane overnight to Shanghai and signed the contract that Li Boda presented.

His hands trembled slightly with excitement as he signed the document.

After all, Chen Weiting is nothing now. Although he debuted in 2003 and has been in the industry for so many years, he still has no fame. Now that he has suddenly been able to participate in a big production like "Infinite Terror" with an investment of 600 million, it would be strange if he wasn't excited.

The moment Chen Weiting signed his name, he could almost see his life about to take off. He was about to transform from a worthless nobody in the entertainment industry into a winner in life.

(End of this chapter)