The entertainment empire began with Liu Yifei's premarital pregnancy.

Lin Bufan's trip to Hong Kong was originally for the "Overheard" project.

As for the acquisition of Golden Harvest, it was just a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Besides this, there was one more important thing: casting for "Lust, Caution".

The original male lead in "Lust, Caution" was Tony Leung, but Lin Bufan didn't have a good impression of him; in short, he didn't like him.

Furthermore, Lin Bufan never thought that Liang Chaowei's acting skills were that good; Liang Jiahui was his first choice.

With Leung Ka-fai's versatile acting skills, he can absolutely capture the essence of the character of Mr. Yi.

"Director Lin!"

In the Peninsula Hotel's tea restaurant, Liang Jiahui stood up and looked at Lin Bufan walking over.

"Mr. Liang!"

After shaking hands, the two sat facing each other, with Bai Bing sitting to one side.

"noob!"

Lin Bufan turned to look at Bai Bing.

Bai Bing took the script of "Lust, Caution" out of her bag and placed it on the table.

"Mr. Liang..."

As Lin Bufan spoke, he pushed the script in front of Tony Leung Ka-fai: "I have a movie here, and I'm going to ask you to play the male lead."

"I plan to submit this film to next year's Venice International Film Festival..."

Upon hearing Lin Bufan's words, Liang Jiahui's eyes lit up instantly, and he picked up the script to study it carefully.

This is Lin Bufan's second art film since "Manchester by the Sea," and if the news gets out, it will definitely cause a sensation.

Since Lin Bufan won an award for "Manchester by the Sea" and then made two commercial films, people have started to speculate that he is no longer planning to make art films.

Unexpectedly, before "2012" was even fully filmed, Lin Bufan already had the idea for his next art film.

Seeing Liang Jiahui intently reading the script, Lin Bufan didn't disturb him, instead looking around with his eyes.

It's said that you can see many Hong Kong celebrities at the restaurants in The Peninsula Hong Kong Hotel.

As expected, Lin Bufan simply looked around and saw many familiar faces.

They are all actors from those classic Hong Kong movies.

"Director Lin, I'll take this film!"

About half an hour later, Liang Jiahui put down the script and looked at Lin Bufan with a serious expression.

He had already read the script, and it was excellent, especially in its portrayal of human nature.

If he performs well, he has a very good chance of winning the Venice Film Festival Best Actor award.

The last Chinese actor to win the Venice Film Festival's Best Actor award was Xia Yu in "In the Heat of the Sun".

Besides Xia Yu, only two other Chinese actors have won Best Actor awards at international competitions: Ge You and Leung Chiu-wai. Ge You won the Cannes Best Actor award in 94 for "To Live," while Leung Chiu-wai also won the Cannes Best Actor award for "In the Mood for Love."

At the Berlin International Film Festival, it wasn't until 14 that Liao Fan won the first Best Actor award for a Chinese actor at the Berlin Film Festival for his role in "Black Coal, Thin Ice".

"His salary was HK$800 million."

Despite Leung Ka-fai's superb acting skills, his salary is actually quite low. Compared to Jackie Chan and Jet Li's salaries of 20 million US dollars, and even Leung Chiu-wai's asking price of 15 million US dollars, Leung Ka-fai's salary is only 8 million US dollars.

"Director Lin, may I ask who the female lead is in this movie?"

After discussing the payment, Liang Jiahui looked at Lin Bufan with some curiosity.

The female lead in this film is arguably very important.

She's so important that almost half the film focuses on her.

Compared to Mr. Yi, the character of Wang Jiazhi offers more room for development, and if she performs well, she could easily win the Best Actress award.

Although Tang Wei, who played Wang Jiazhi in later generations, also performed very well, her performance was only passable.

"The female lead hasn't been decided yet."

Lin Bufan shook his head slightly.

Lin Bufan was aiming for the Golden Lion Award for the film "Lust, Caution," so the choice of actors was extremely important.

Currently, he has only selected Liang Jiahui as the lead actor.

Next, he plans to carefully select the remaining roles after he finishes filming "2012".

……

The news that Lin Bufan and Liang Jiahui were having dim sum at the Peninsula Hotel restaurant spread throughout Hong Kong's entertainment circle in less than half an hour.

"Ah S, you're back just in time. I just heard that Director Lin is having dim sum with Tony Leung at the Peninsula Hotel. Is there something new in Director Lin's movie?"

Ronald Cheng's eyes lit up when he saw Ah S return, and he hurriedly asked her questions.

He and Ah S had already obtained their marriage certificate at the beginning of the year, but they didn't announce it to the public. However, some people in the entertainment industry knew about it.

For example, Ah S's best friends Gillian Chung and Joey Yung both know about this.

Similarly, Ronald Cheng was also well aware that Gillian Chung and Lam Bo-fan's affair was something Ah S had told him.

Last night, Ah S called to tell him that she wouldn't be coming home and would be staying at Ah Jiao's place for the night.

"what?"

When Ah S heard the name "Director Lin," she thought of the absurd things that happened last night, and her mind went blank for a moment.

Fortunately, Ronald Cheng didn't realize it and thought Ah S hadn't heard him clearly, so he asked again.

"I'm not really sure about that either; I haven't heard Gillian mention it."

Ah S shook his head.

Perhaps Lin Bufan told Gillian later, but she passed away early.

There was no other way; she had to leave early. She even went to buy Minting, the kind that's highly effective 24 hours after the event, otherwise she was really worried that she might get pregnant with Lin Bufan's child.

In that case, she would be letting her husband down too much.

Ah S and Ronald Cheng got their marriage certificate because they truly had feelings for each other.

"I guess so, but I don't know if there will be a suitable role for me..." Ronald Cheng said, looking at Ah S: "Ah S, could you ask for me?"

"not good!"

Ah S immediately shook his head in refusal.

Are you kidding me? You want him to contact Lin Bufan?

She knew that if she asked, even if it was just out of a sense of compensation, Lin Bufan would definitely give her husband a role, even if it wasn't in this movie, he would get a role in another movie as compensation.

But this will only make her sink deeper and deeper, until finally...

Ah S kept warning herself that last night was just a misunderstanding and that it absolutely could not happen again.

"Ah S, as you know, the music industry is getting increasingly difficult these days, whether in Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, or even worldwide..."

Over the years, Ronald Cheng has been trying to break into the film industry.

In fact, given Ronald Cheng's background, although he doesn't lack film resources, that only refers to ordinary film resources. Big productions and top-tier resources are simply out of his reach.

"I said no, and that's final..."

As Ah S spoke, she turned around, ran into her room, closed the door, and lay down on the bed, her face full of confusion.