Huayu: Starting with mentoring female stars

"My strengths aren't just limited to directing and screenwriting," Chen Zhou boasted.

"Oh? What else is there?" Liu Yifei asked curiously.

"It's no fun saying it outright. You'll understand later," Chen Zhou said.

"Alright, then I'll look forward to seeing your little-known strengths as my junior brother." Liu Yifei was amused.

That naughty junior brother is still keeping her in suspense!

"Speaking of which, I'll be busy filming commercials for the next few months, and the contracts are all from before. Otherwise, I really would like to continue being your leading lady." Liu Yifei said with a look of regret.

"It's alright, there will be plenty of opportunities, and we can cooperate again anytime," Chen Zhou said.

"Really?" Liu Yifei asked.

"Of course," Chen Zhou promised.

For no other reason than that Liu Yifei was willing to be his leading lady even when he had nothing.

For this reason alone, Chen Zhou would not betray his benefactor.

"Good junior brother, I knew I hadn't misjudged you!" Liu Yifei said with a beaming smile.

Chen Zhou smiled slightly, "By the way, senior sister, there's a dragon and lion dance in town tonight. Would you like to come with me? We can also bring Tian Mei along; she always loves lively events."

"Okay, no problem," Liu Yifei happily agreed.

In the evening, Chen Zhou took Liu Yifei and Tian Xiwei to experience the local folk activities.

After that, Liu Yifei stayed at Chen Zhou's house for a few more days.

When Liu Yifei's mother finally pressed her for an answer, Liu Yifei reluctantly left.

Not long after, Chen Zhou saw Liu Yifei's post on QQ Space.

Liu Yifei created a nine-grid layout, with all the pictures being photos of the two of them together.

The caption read: "Thank you so much for taking care of me during this time, junior. I had a great time in your hometown. You're the best!"

Someone commented below:

"You didn't even call me when you went to see a handsome guy. Didn't I tell you before? Director Chen is my type."

"You startled me. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought you made an official announcement on QQ Space."

"I almost thought they had officially announced their relationship, and I almost commented on '99' (a popular online commenter)."

According to the current rules of QQ Space, although Chen Zhou can see comments from strangers, he can't tell who they are because everyone uses screen names.

As for Zhu Yilong, he is a mutual friend of Chen Zhou and Liu Yifei, and Chen Zhou also has a note about him.

The kid commented, "My senior brother is handsome, like the sun in the sky; my senior sister is beautiful, like the clouds on the horizon."

Chen Zhou and Liu Yifei simultaneously replied, "Stop flattering me!"

With the end of the Lunar New Year holiday, most of the young people in the village have already left.

The village, which had been bustling just moments before, suddenly became much quieter.

Chen Zhou didn't rush back to Kyoto and continued to stay in his hometown.

As agreed with the district officials, Chen Zhou helped TL District shoot a cultural and tourism promotional video.

As for the compensation, it was really just a small red envelope, just a token gesture.

2 month 15 number.

The film "The Unknown" was pulled from theaters after about a month and a half.

Total box office reached 1.5 million!

After this data was released, the relevant platforms quickly created a list of cumulative box office figures for a single domestic film.

The top-ranked film is Zhang Yimou's "Curse of the Golden Flower," which grossed 2.91 million yuan.

The second one is "Assembly".

The third is "The Warlords".

The fourth one is "CJ7," which is still showing in theaters.

Fifth place: Kung Fu Hustle.

The sixth is "The Promise".

The seventh is "House of Flying Daggers".

Chen Zhou's "The Nameless" is ranked eighth.

However, what the media was more eager to report on than this ranking was the abnormally high return on investment of "The Unknown".

It reached nearly 2000%!

This would be a dream come true for any investor.

Therefore, this data is absolutely unprecedented and holds a record.

Take "Curse of the Golden Flower" as an example. Although it achieved the highest box office in history, the investment was as high as 3.6 million yuan, and the return on investment was completely negative.

For investors, that means a serious loss.

It's worth mentioning that Chen Zhou has actually been contacted by investors for the past few days.

They asked Chen Zhou if he had any plans to shoot a next film.

They also stated that they were willing to invest the full amount, no matter how much investment was needed for the new film.

Some people suggested to Chen Zhou that he should direct their company's own movie.

The highest price offered was 300 million for a single film.

This is already ridiculously high for a new director.

However, Chen Zhou declined all of these cooperation offers.

He knew that these people all saw him as a cash cow.

The problem is, Chen Zhou himself also wants to be a cash cow!

Otherwise, he wouldn't have told Liu Dehua a while ago that he wanted Liu Dehua to split the profits with him in advance.

What he was really thinking at the time was to wait until his next movie started filming, then use the money to invest in his new movie and earn a larger share of the profits.

In fact, he had already made his next plan, which was to open his own film and television production company.

To do this, he had to buy a floor in Kyoto and divide it into multiple departments, such as the directing department, the photography department, the lighting department, etc., and train a group of his own people.

This requires a lot of money.

If he were just working for someone else, he might need to make a lot of movies just to barely get this kind of team up.

Therefore, Chen Zhou must take a gamble!

A week later, Chen Zhou returned to Kyoto.

Liu Dehua was very generous; following the previous verbal promise, after calculation, he directly gave Chen Zhou more than 840 million yuan.

The profits that Liu Dehua made as a result were many times greater than his own.

This is why Liu Dehua is easy to talk to.

Everyone is happy as long as they make money.

After receiving his share, Chen Zhou first gave 20 yuan to his parents back home, telling them to take it and spend it as they pleased.

The two elders were overjoyed when they received the money, saying that they had never fought such a rich battle in their lives!

In addition, Chen Zhou has also started registering his own film and television studio, with business scope including artist signing, film and television production, etc.

There are many procedures involved, and it can take several months to complete.

Chen Zhou wasn't in a hurry; he would just wait.

On the morning of March 13th, the script for "No Man's Land" passed the review.

With no worries about the future, Chen Zhou was able to start assembling the film crew.

Regarding the investment, he did a preliminary calculation and felt that 1300 million was about right.

The main point is that the filming equipment must be completely upgraded, which will be a huge boost for the director.

Other costs, such as advertising costs, also need to be increased; we can't rely solely on word-of-mouth advertising forever.

Chen Zhou himself still has 800 million yuan, which he plans to gamble all his money on. He can also find someone to fill the remaining gap at any time.

The primary concern now is still the selection of actors.

The female protagonist, Jiao Jiao, is an entertainer who was trafficked to a no-man's-land and forced to work as a prostitute.

Therefore, he needs to choose an actress who evokes pity and sympathy, so that the character will have more tension and the audience will feel more connected and sympathetic.

The male protagonist, Pan Xiao, is a lawyer who travels from a metropolis to the Northwest to defend a poaching gang.

The supporting character, Zhan Tiejun, is the ruthless boss of a group that specializes in selling falcons.

There's also the assassin character, who was sent by the poaching gang leader to intercept and kill the male protagonist.

This includes characters like the gas station owner.

First of all, the characters Zhan Tiejun and the assassin must have an imposing and ruthless appearance.

Chen Zhou already has someone in mind for this!