Chinese Entertainment: Directors Start with the Fairy Sister

Chapter 103 Mr. Wang's Impotent Rage, Another Submission to "Lurking"

"Mr. Wang~"

Fan Bingbing approached gracefully, looking exceptionally radiant and beautiful today. A form-fitting red dress accentuated her curves perfectly, and her eyes exuded the allure of a mature woman.

Looking at her like this, a resolute glint flashed in Wang Zhonglei's eyes.

"Here comes the cangue, sit down quickly." He warmly stood up, gently placing his hand on her back, and led her to the sofa to sit down side by side.

Fan Tao leaned slightly towards him, a perfectly timed smile blooming on her face as a fragrant breeze wafted by: "Mr. Wang called me, how could I dare to delay?"

Feeling the increasingly intense gaze of the man beside her, she lowered her eyes to hide the mockery in them.

There are very few men in the entire circle who don't fall for her act. No matter how noble and righteous he may appear on the surface, he still calls her "baby" behind her back.

Thinking of this, the smile on her lips became even more radiant, like a rose dipped in honey.

"Haha, how have you been lately?" Wang Zhonglei asked with a smile.

"I'm busy~" Fan Lin said coquettishly, "It's filming 'Apple' again, and promoting 'A Battle of Wits'. There are also various endorsements at the end of the year. I specially asked the crew for leave to come back to the company today."

"Look at what you're saying, you're even blaming me now~" Wang Zhonglei laughed and said, "I came today to tell you something good."

"The company spent a lot of money to get you a role in the movie starring Jackie Chan and Li Lianjie."

Fan's eyes lit up: "Really? The female lead or the second female lead?"

"The female lead!" Wang Zhonglei said through gritted teeth.

At the same time, Wang Zhonglei took a contract from his desk and placed it in front of Fan.

Fan curiously took it and his pupils suddenly dilated—a three-year contract with a signing fee of 30000000!

Despite the presence of the Chinese numeral "僄仟万" (three million), the string of zeros still made her dizzy.

(I'm not entirely sure about the signing fee in 2007. Signing fees that often exceed 100 million yuan are mostly from 2010 onwards, so I'll tentatively set the 2007 fee at 30 million yuan, after all, it's one of the "Four Dan and Two Bing" actresses.)

"Hey, how about it? I guarantee you'll be the first in the country to pay this price!"

"Once you sign, the character and the money are all yours!"

"call...

"6

Fan Lin took a deep breath and reluctantly put the contract down.

"Mr. Wang, this offer is indeed very tempting. Can I consider it some more?"

Wang Zhonglei's confident smile froze. Consider it? Wasn't that just a polite way of declining?!

His face immediately darkened, and his tone became sinister: "Xiao Fan, what else do you need to consider regarding these conditions?"

"I will definitely get back to you next month!"

Wang Zhonglei's expression brightened slightly, and he forced a smile, saying, "Alright, I hope you'll consider it carefully."

Bang—crash!

After Fan Taotao left, Wang Zhonglei angrily overturned the contracts and teacups on the table, scattering them all over the floor.

"hateful!"

Liu Yifei has some connections, yet Fan, this mere maid and actress, dares to act so arrogantly in front of her!

With bloodshot eyes, Wang Zhonglei picked up the phone and dialed: "Cut off all of Fan's current resources!"

Since we're going to consider it, let's show her that she's nothing without Huayi!

Paul reports that Paramount's promotional efforts for "Ghost II: Ghost Rush" have been very effective.

Currently, more than 2,000 cinemas have confirmed that the film will be released on Halloween, and Lionsgate is already urging the project to be approved.

"Then let's set it up."

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Yanxi called Paul directly.

How much money is left in the company's account?

"Boss, 'Shutter 1' earned about $3000 million in overseas box office revenue, and 'Juno' earned about $6000 million in North America. Add in all the copyright fees, streaming fees... and after deducting the $3000 million you mentioned, you're left with about $5000 million!"

The company originally had a considerable amount of money in its accounts. After all, the DVD, streaming, and TV on-demand fees for "Shutter" and "Juno" would account for about 10% to 20% of the box office revenue, easily amounting to 20 to 30 million.

However, it's too expensive for Zhao Yanxi to withdraw money from the company; it's much more expensive than withdrawing royalties.

The royalties are taxed in various ways, with a maximum tax rate of 30%. However, when the company withdraws the money and transfers it to Zhao Yanxi's private account in China, the various taxes and handling fees become shockingly high.

Zhao Yanxi received $3000 million, and Crystal Pictures will likely contribute $6000 million to $7500 million.

You can't escape this tax. The IRS will show you what a special forces unit in the US is that's even more powerful than the Navy SEALs!

No matter how high the taxes are, Zhao Yanxi will still transfer the money.

He has a bit of a petty-bourgeois mentality and doesn't understand things like capital operation or multinational corporations. He thinks money is just a string of numbers if it doesn't actually go anywhere.

Only when it's in your own account is it real money!

"Then let's just invest. The production cost of 'Insidious 1' is 200 million, the script fee is 200 million, a total of 400 million US dollars. Once Lionsgate's funding arrives, let James start production immediately!"

"OK!"

No one would question the $200 million script fee; its value is built up from one success after another.

If "Shutter" had been a success and "Juno" had failed, Zhao Yanxi's script wouldn't have been so valuable.

The success of "Juno" also caused Zhao Yanxi's script fee to soar to $200 million.

If *Ghost Shadow I* continues to be successful, it will push up Zhao Yanxi's script fees with each film, to 200 million, 500 million, 1000 million...

Tens of thousands of dollars, etc., are not a problem!

On the afternoon of October 24th, the day before the opening of the Hundred Flowers Festival, Zhao Yanxi finally landed in Hangzhou.

Liu Xiaoli and her daughter Liu Yifei, along with supporting actors Luo Jin, Zhou Yang, and Zhu Yawen, also arrived at noon that day.

There are many opportunities to attend film festivals, but few opportunities to walk the red carpet openly and legitimately. Luo Jin and his team were very excited.

We had dinner together that evening and even made plans to take a stroll around West Lake the next morning.

"It seems like not many people are coming to the Hundred Flowers Awards this year!" Zhu Yawen thought about the reports she had recently read. "It seems like Fan Yong is the only one who is confirmed to be coming."

The previous winner of the Hundred Flowers Awards would be really disrespectful if she didn't come this year.

"Li will also be there. There's also a Best Supporting Actress award for 'A World Without Thieves,' but she probably won't be able to attend the opening ceremony."

"Oh, so we're the biggest star production team at the opening ceremony?" Liu Yifei said with a smile, seemingly a little smug.

"I wonder if I have a chance to win Best Actress. Quite a few people are voting for me online~"

Little Liu was extremely proud, and everyone applauded and congratulated him.

Zhao Yanxi smiled and did not participate in the discussion.

Since it's the first time, I have to go all out and not give anyone any reason to criticize me.

The only slightly troubling thing is that Liu Yifei seems to be quite looking forward to this award, after all, the results of the online voting are there for all to see.

As long as the judging panel selected by the organizing committee doesn't mess things up and doesn't have too much weight, she's basically guaranteed to win Best Actress!

However, even "Zhang Side" ranked first.

The chances of the judging panel not making any mistakes are extremely low!

Who won this year's award? Zhao Yanxi hadn't really paid attention. She needed to think carefully about how to comfort Xiao Liu!