I'm just trying to ride the wave of popularity!

Chapter 215 Are Pre-sale Tickets Gone Mad?
"My grass!"

"Can't this person have any shame?"

"Are you out of your mind? Damn it, you're copying everything! They make 'The Lord of the Rings,' and you make 'The Lord of the Rings 2'? Can't you come up with anything original?!"

"Zhou Yang, that bastard, disappeared for so long, I thought he really quit the internet or turned over a new leaf, but I didn't expect him to suddenly pull off such a big surprise at this time!"

I'm going to throw up!

"They've embarrassed themselves internationally! Isn't anyone going to sue that bastard Zhou Yang? He's broken the law! He's shameless!"

"Yeah, this is some serious staged accident scam! It's absolutely outrageous!"

"Depend on!"

"..."

Early in the morning of June 3.

The numbers on the [QuickBet] server monitoring screen were jumping wildly.

The hashtag #ZhouYang'sNewFilmTriesToTakeTheLordoftheRings# suddenly appeared at the top of the trending topics list at 3 a.m., with the number of views surging by thousands per minute!

The topic originated from a video posted by Zhou Yang at 2 a.m. In the video, he was standing on a new Qinzhou G1 car in front of what appeared to be a mountain track, with a hastily drawn poster of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Rings projected behind him, his gaze deep!
Then, pushing up his glasses, he excitedly shouted to the audience outside the screen: "April 14th, the ultimate showdown between speed and magic!"

When I saw this scene...

Everyone was shocked!

Countless netizens saw Zhou Yang and noticed the poster for "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Rings" behind him—something they didn't recognize, but it looked like a very impressive poster…

and many more!

That poster!
It's so stunning it'll leave you speechless!

This poster is in the same style as the posters for "The Lord of the Rings," featuring an old man with a long beard and a group of young people, seemingly blending fantasy and reality in a way that is quite surprising!

The only difference between it and The Lord of the Rings is the characters...

"Damn! They're even copying posters?"

Some people stared wide-eyed and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise!

But then, these people saw a series of comments.

"Zhou Yang's original work, 'The Man Who Traveled Far From Home,' was a rip-off of 'Superman'... I don't know, what's so shocking about that!"

This sentence was instantly screenshotted and went viral.

Immediately afterwards, everyone was shocked when they saw the promotional images of the two posters!
Netizen "Guardian of Middle-earth" compared the two versions of the poster side-by-side:

On the left is a special effects scene from "The Lord of the Rings" with a budget of $2.8 million; on the right is a super low-budget version of "The Lord of the Rings" on Zhou Yang's poster, made with a soda can and what appears to be a soda can handle. It's worth maybe 2.8 yuan, but it's so cheap it's suffocating...

A post cursing "Zhou Yang, I fuck ****" by a fan of the book "Elf Prince" garnered thousands of likes in half an hour...

Immediately afterwards, various attacks were launched against Zhou Yang online. They said that if Zhou Yang dared to ruin the original work, they would unite and kill him!
The media storm reached its climax at 9:00 AM!
When Film Weekly published an article titled "Exposing the Ten Marketing Tactics of 'King of Extortion' Zhou Yang," harshly criticizing Zhou Yang for causing such damage to legitimate Chinese films, it was a shocking moment!
[Huashang Brothers] suddenly dropped a bombshell!
During the interview, Liu Jinghua adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and said, "We have obtained the exclusive agency rights for 'The Lord of the Rings' in China, and we are currently contacting lawyers! We urge Mr. Zhou Yang, the internet is not a lawless place; please stop the promotion and apologize to us!"

After Liu Jinghua of [Huashang Brothers] finished speaking...

Film critic Lao K bluntly stated in an interview: "With over 100 million fans worldwide, for him to dare ruin the original work at this crucial moment is like jumping into a volcano! This isn't how you ride the wave of popularity..."

As soon as his interview ended, even more revelations suddenly appeared on the internet.

The whistleblower is unknown, but claims that Zhou Yang recently established a company called "Xuan Shi Special Effects." The company is spearheaded by Zhang Yunyi, one of Zhou Yang's earliest cinematographers, with a registered capital of only 50 yuan. Furthermore, the employees are reportedly a group of young people recruited from unknown sources. The whistleblower further claims that Zhou Yang's previous films, from "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" to "The Legend of Zhao Zilong," all had their special effects outsourced and heavily invested in. However, for the supposedly "Lord of the Rings 2," they are now handling the special effects themselves!
Not only that, the leak also included photos of employees, and even showed plastic headgear from "Monkey King vs. Superman 2" piled up in a corner.

……

One stone caused a thousand waves!

More and more netizens and fans of the original "Lord of the Rings" books became excited after seeing this scene...

They stormed into [Kuaibo], stormed into [Movie House] and [Zhou Yang's House], and verbally abused Zhou Yang mercilessly...

Early morning of March 27th!
The website 【Kuaibo】is filled with nothing but Zhou Yang's curses and boycotts.

Yang Bo was sweating profusely as he made the phone call!

"Mr. Zhou, there's been too much criticism, are we really not going to do anything about it?!"

Zhou Yang's leisurely voice came from the other end of the phone: "Pin the most abusive comments to the top, and add a trending icon to the hot search."

"Mr. Zhou, you..."

"Don't worry, even the traffic from haters is still traffic. Let them curse, let them curse as much as they want! If necessary, remember to add fuel to the fire..." The voice on the other end of the phone seemed to be smiling: "Remember, you are a website owner, and what you need to consider now is website traffic! I estimate that before long, more and more websites similar to 'Kuaibo' will appear on the Internet. The first thing we need to do now is to increase the website's traffic, get netizens used to us, and then make sure that their new websites can't catch up in the short term!"

"I see!"

..............................

Yanjing CBD office building

Liu Jinghua stared intently at Zhou Yang's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Rings" on the screen.

"He's even abandoned all pretense of decency!" The marketing director took a deep breath. "The filming period for this movie is probably only a month at most, and the special effects budget is probably less than a fraction of 'The Lord of the Rings'! No, a fraction? Damn it, it's probably all five-cent special effects, just to rake in money. Zhou Yang has truly gone completely mad..."

The projector suddenly switched its screen to display major Chinese movie websites, including the latest voting section of [Movie Home].

Data shows that 52% of viewers believe Zhou Yang is the most shameless "plagiarist"!
Liu Jinghua was silent for a moment, his expression cold: "Contact Hollywood and post comparison pictures of Zhou Yang's knock-off on the internet. Also, contact Paramount Pictures, the studio behind 'The Lord of the Rings'...hope they can get their legal department to come over..." Just then, the phone rang.

She answered the phone.

The call was from Xu Haibo of Tianyu Media.

On the phone, Xu Haibo only said one sentence.

"Let's take down this bastard first! Otherwise, the entire film industry will be a mess!"

"We've already bought a lot of marketing accounts to add fuel to the fire, focusing on his 'The Man Who Came From the Sky' plagiarizing 'Superman'."

"..."

After finishing the call, Liu Jinghua squinted and did not give a formal response, but instead sat down in a chair.

A few minutes later, the secretary hurriedly pushed the door open and came in.

"Film Weekly says it will launch a joint boycott!"

"Not only Film Weekly, but also other physical websites are joining in..."

"At the China Film Association, someone reported Zhou Yang's egregious behavior to the authorities, and the directors jointly submitted a letter to the authorities..."

"The authorities held a meeting overnight, but it seems there haven't been any results yet..."

"..."

....................................

Late March to early April!

[Xuan Shi Entertainment] The building is surrounded by protesters almost every day, with some using laser pointers to project the words "Shame on Cinema" onto the exterior wall...

On the internet, the boycotts and insults against Zhou Yang have never stopped.

Almost every section related to movies was filled with criticism of Zhou Yang, using the most offensive and nasty language possible...

Zhou Yang seemed to have become the target of everyone's criticism!
Strangely, [XuanShi Entertainment] has never responded to this barrage of criticism...

Even after Zhou Yang released the video news of "The Lord of the Rings: The Second Ring", he seemed to have disappeared again, and no one knew where he went!

Some online sources claim that Zhou Yang is not in China, but has apparently obtained a visa and gone abroad to avoid the limelight, accompanied by a large group of bodyguards. However, his exact whereabouts are unknown.

Some sources claim that Zhou Yang is still filming a movie in China...

Some people are just saying that Zhou Yang is preparing some new movie again...

……

The internet seems to be rife with accusations against Zhou Yang, this "shameless scoundrel."

However, none of the revelations were convincing, and there were no traces or photos of Zhou Yang. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to describe him as having 'disappeared without a trace'...

What's even weirder is...

Zhou Yang blatantly used the words "The Lord of the Rings," but it seems Hollywood hasn't filed any lawsuits. Insider sources say that legally, Zhou Yang isn't infringing on any rights, just like "the same as 'Superman'..."

Moreover, it seems that all five generations of Chinese directors are vehemently condemning and boycotting Zhou Yang's plagiarism...

It seems like the official team at China Film Group has been in meetings all along!
However, half a month has passed, and no real "ban on guidance" has been issued against Zhou Yang.

Finally, on April 10th, someone seemingly from a relevant organization said something like, "It's unacceptable to ride the wave of popularity; Zhou Yang should be severely criticized."

However, the criticism seems to be merely verbal; there isn't even any official document or corresponding "warning"...

……

Time flew by and it was April 11th!
4 Month 11 Day!
Four cinema chains, led by Feihe Cinemas, announced the pre-sale tickets for "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Rings" amidst a wave of public opinion!
The online criticism instantly intensified!
but……

What's shocking is!

The more criticism they receive, the faster the pre-sale tickets for "The Lord of the Rings: The Second Ring" sell out!

In just one hour!
All the pre-sale tickets for The Lord of the Rings: The Second Ring were snapped up!

Even tickets for the 14th and beyond were completely sold out!

"Damn it, who on earth bought these pre-sale tickets?!"

On the internet, someone posted a picture of a pre-sale ticket and then launched into a tirade of abuse...

then……

[Um, sorry, I actually bought it, but I bought it with a critical eye. After all, Zhou Yang is such a shameless bastard, I need to go see the movie and then I'll curse him out...]

[I bought it too, and of course, I'm going to criticize it... Zhou Yang, that bastard, is a disgrace to the Chinese film industry! I'll only buy one copy, so please don't buy it. I'll tell you all about the plot after I buy it... Don't waste your money!]

Me too... I also bought it to criticize Zhou Yang...

【…】

(End of this chapter)