Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 393 One problem solved, another arises

The process of signing the contract with Wang Shuo on the second morning went much more smoothly than Zhang Yan had expected, but it was also more dull than he had anticipated.

Wang Shuo, who usually loves to joke around, didn't say more than five sentences throughout the entire process, and Peng Xiaolin and Feng Xiaogang did most of the work for him.

They were supposed to have lunch after signing the contract, but things went too smoothly and the deal was completed around 10 a.m. Wang Shuo tossed the key to Dingli's office and left with Peng Xiaolin without saying a word.

Feng Xiaogang hesitated for a moment, but ultimately stayed by Zhang Yan's side.

Zhang Yan casually tossed the keys to him: "Brother Feng, you can cancel the rent, and you can do whatever you want with the office supplies inside. Consider this your settling-in allowance for Tianjin."

After saying that, he pulled out a car key from his pocket and tossed it over, saying, "Zhang Guoli's Ford Tianba is yours from today onwards."

Feng Xiaogang was stunned when he heard this and almost dropped the key.

When Zhang Yan gave him the key to the crown, he jokingly said "Thank you, Your Majesty," but it actually had a bit of a testing element in it. He wanted to see how Zhang Yan positioned him and whether he could be compared to Zhang Guoli.

But he never expected that on his first day of "employment", Zhang Yan would give him Zhang Guoli's car.

Holding the car keys, Feng Xiaogang asked in bewilderment, "What does Guoli drive? The company has provided him with a separate car."

“He bought a new Audi, and the company gave him a subsidy of 10 yuan.” Zhang Yan said, patting Feng Xiaogang on the shoulder: “Brother Feng, I’m now hoping that you can get a new car soon too.”

Feng Xiaogang felt a surge of warmth in his heart, realizing that he had voted for the right person this time.

Wang Shuo said he trusted himself, but after a year of hard work, he gained neither fame nor money, so it was basically all for nothing.

As for Zhang Yan, although his reputation hasn't changed, the benefits are obvious: a car worth over 100,000 yuan and a settling-in allowance of 10,000 to 20,000 yuan. For an ordinary person, that would be enough to work hard for half a lifetime.

The treatment Zhang Guoli received further demonstrates Zhang Yan's generosity.

This made Feng Xiaogang somewhat regretful. If he hadn't hesitated and had joined Yuanmeng directly, Zhang Guoli wouldn't have had a chance!
"I won't say anything more."

Feng Xiaogang patted his chest and said, "Give me three days, and I'll go to Tianjin to be your slave for Yuan Meng!"

Feng Xiaogang was left to clean up the mess.

Zhang Yan went to see Zhang Guojun and Pan Hongye again. To be honest, ever since the casting of Liu Luoguo, he had some reservations about Zhang Guojun.

Although he spearheaded the script, it's now clearly Yuanmeng who's in charge of the project, but he still always tries to act unilaterally.

After finalizing the casting of Li Baotian as the male lead, he has also selected candidates for Heshen and the Sixth Prince, hoping that Zhang Yan and Zhang Guoli can jointly review their choices.

That's a bit too much.

…………

A small restaurant.

"Okay, okay, then hurry over there as soon as possible."

Zhang Guojun put down the phone and said to Shi Ling beside him, "Wang Gang and Li Ding should be able to arrive before President Zhang. Shi Ling, the casting of Wang Gang is excellent. If it weren't for your recommendation, I would never have imagined that a host could be so talented."

"It was just a coincidence."

Shi Ling humbly said, "Actually, he entered the industry a long time ago, but he only played minor roles before, so he wasn't very famous in the industry."

"So you really have a keen eye for talent!"

Zhang Guojun excitedly patted Shi Ling on the shoulder. He had previously selected several people, but was not very satisfied with them after auditions. He did not expect that the host Wang Gang would give him a big surprise.

As for Li Ding, Zhang Guojun had already taken a liking to him, and this time he wanted to recommend him to Zhang Yan as well.

"monarch."

At this moment, Pan Hongye said somewhat uneasily, "Is it appropriate for us to do this? The production team is now in charge of fulfilling dreams, and you've ended up taking over the two most important roles, Mr. Zhang..."

He already felt that this matter was inappropriate, and after hearing the rumors about the "insider affairs" recently, he was even more worried that Zhang Guojun's actions would anger Zhang Yan.

"Is this what I wanted?" Zhang Guojun was also displeased upon hearing this, and glared at him, saying, "Do you think Zhang Guoli is available right now? Don't forget that Li Baotian will be unavailable next year. If we keep waiting like this, it will be too late! This crew is something I worked hard to put together. I can't let it go to waste, and I can't let it become a makeshift operation!"

Pan Hongye opened his mouth, but in the end, it only turned into a sigh.

This is also an old problem of Zhang Guojun's; otherwise, he wouldn't have been ostracized at the Beijing Film Studio and had to take the lead in starting his own business.

Seeing that Pan Hongye had given up, Zhang Guojun took the initiative to change the subject: "Have you seen Li Shaohong recently? She seems to be driven crazy by the effort to raise money to make a movie."

"Is it still that 'Pink' movie?"

Pan Hongye asked in bewilderment, "Hasn't she already secured investment in Hong Kong?"

"It was originally settled, but the copyright issues in mainland China are quite troublesome. In addition, with the excellent 'New Dragon and Phoenix' preceding it, they broke the contract and plan to invest in the TV series instead."

At this point, Zhang Guojun looked regretful. If he had known earlier that Hong Kong capital also wanted to enter the mainland small screen market, he would have sided with Hong Kong capital.

By then, the people of Hong Kong Island will be too far away to do anything, and in the end, won't the production team be under the control of Mr. Zhang?

Unfortunately, it's too late to regret now.

As they were talking, Li Ding arrived first to join them, followed shortly by Wang Gang.

Li Ding is a very humorous person. When talking about director Zhang Guoli, he was quite emotional. They had worked together on "My September" in 88, and at that time he felt that Zhang Guoli was no ordinary person.

"Back then, when we were filming all night, he was the only one who got more and more energetic the longer we filmed..."

In contrast, Wang Gang was more low-key. Apart from serving tea and water to the others, he would only speak up when the topic of the script came up.

About ten minutes later, Zhang Yan lifted the curtain and came in from outside. He greeted everyone with a fist and palm salute and said with a smile, "I'm sorry, everyone. I've never been to this place before, so it took me a while."

Everyone quickly stood up and exchanged pleasantries.

After everyone was seated, Zhang Guojun pointed to Wang Gang and said, "This is Wang Gang from the Liaoshen Cultural Troupe, who enjoys the rank of deputy minister..."

"It's all fake, it's all fake."

Before he could finish his introduction, Wang Gang quickly said modestly, "Besides, I'm about to leave the army, so this is even less reliable."

Zhang Yan's first impression of Wang Gang was quite good. This fair-skinned, chubby man with a friendly demeanor certainly fit the character of Heshen.

After chatting for a while, Zhang Yan realized that he was also listening to Wang Gang's storytelling performance, "Harbin Under the Night".

That was in 83. At that time, Zhang Yan was still a young man who was determined to become a poet.

Wang Gang also claimed that he had been following Zhang Yan for a long time, saying that Zhang Yan brought new ideas and opportunities to hosts like him, allowing everyone to break free from the stereotypical hosting style.

"boss Zhang."

Seeing that the topic had gone astray, Zhang Guojun couldn't wait to say, "Why don't you give me a test to measure Mr. Wang Gang's acting skills?"

He has absolute confidence in Wang Gang's acting skills and his fit with the role, which is also the reason why he dares to act first and ask for permission later - no one understands "Prime Minister Liu Luo Guo" better than him, no one!
Sure enough, after watching Wang Gang's portrayal of Heshen, Zhang Yan praised him repeatedly, saying that he and Li Baotian were a perfect match and neither could be missing.

Hearing this, Zhang Guojun felt even more confident. He glanced triumphantly at Pan Hongye, thinking to himself, "What did I say? Even if Yuanmeng is the one in charge, as long as I pick out the most suitable person, Zhang Yan will have no choice but to accept it."

Then Zhang Yan suddenly changed the subject and began to praise Zhang Guojun loudly: "Brother Zhang, you really have a knack for casting after all these years of hard work at the Beijing Film Studio. No one can match your eye for casting. I think this is good. You don't need to worry about anything else. Just focus on choosing the right actors. As long as the actors you choose can satisfy Director Guoli, our drama will be half successful!"

Zhang Guojun was laughing halfway through the story, but gradually stopped laughing as he listened.

What do you mean by "apart from casting, you don't have to worry about anything else"?
He had originally agreed to be the primary producer, on equal footing with Zhang Guoli in the production team, or even slightly superior.

But now that Zhang Yan is saying this, he is clearly positioning himself as a pure casting director, with a status even lower than Zhang Guoli's!

How could Zhang Guojun possibly accept this?!

(End of this chapter)