I am a Big Player
Chapter 536 - 530, The New Ultimate Mission (First Update)_1

Chapter 536: 530, The New Ultimate Mission (First Update)_1

Ren He decided to extend an olive branch to Zhang Ming mainly because of a comment Zhou Wumeng made over the phone: Zhang Ming now only wants to pursue making something meaningful; money has become a secondary concern.

In fact, in most jobs in society, the pressure of sales roles is the greatest. Because you can slack off in other work: administrators can get by vaguely, human resources are trickier but still manageable, planners can slack, even technical staff can... But salespeople have a hard time fooling their superiors because it all comes down to hard targets. The amount of money you make is the amount you make; you either meet your targets or you don’t—those are your two options.

Zhang Ming and his colleagues, as directors, are no different. In his past life, Ren He got to know some celebrities because of his job, organized two Jay Chou concerts, met Jay Chou several times, had tea with Xu Ke—but after drinking, Xu Ke probably forgot who he was.

His most vivid memory was at the premiere of "The Flowers of War," where Zhang Yimou’s investors behind him swaggered at the premiere, chastising three popular A-list celebrities as if they were scolding their children. The three celebrities were meek and didn’t dare to retort, and Zhang Yimou did not intervene.

That’s the status of investors in the entertainment industry; that’s the power of money.

Whether a movie is a box office hit is a concern that greatly preoccupies directors today, and it’s common for them to worry about it to the point of insomnia.

Now, Ren He was offering Zhang Ming a choice: Just make a good movie; I’ll worry about the money. Whether it’s a box office success or not has nothing to do with you.

For a director with passion, this situation is pure bliss—just take your paycheck for each movie, don’t get involved in profit sharing, don’t take the blame if it flops, and feel perfectly justified if it succeeds. What a great feeling!

Ren He wouldn’t feel heartbroken at all if he lost money, because he isn’t short of it. Plus, he made it clear that he was doing it purely for interest, for passion, not for profit.

This proposition was incredibly tempting for Zhang Ming!

Moreover, Zhou Wumeng had already made it; the old man now doesn’t have to worry about anything and can peacefully do charity work. He could totally disregard invitations from government departments, living the life of a wealthy tycoon.

Zhou Wumeng used to oppose the power of money, a typical problem of the old literati. But now he understood: the more money he had, the easier things were to handle. Plus, he was not worried about anyone scrutinizing his wealth; he was upright and content—a wonderful feeling!

During this time, the impression Zhang Ming got from Zhou Wumeng was that the old man, in his sixties, seemed to suddenly understand life a little better...

What does it feel like to understand life better? Clarity!

Yet Zhang Ming couldn’t respond right away because he didn’t know if the "good script" Ren He mentioned was actually good enough. While Ren He’s martial arts writings were excellent, what about film scripts? Writing a film script was not as simple as writing a novel.

But the work Ren He had done gave Zhang Ming some confidence and expectation. If Ren He could indeed come up with a good script, what was the harm in working for him like Zhou Wumeng did?

At this very moment, Ren He was pondering which movie scripts to choose?

The films Ren He wanted to make were the ones he loved in his past life, those critically acclaimed and commercially successful classics—there were too many such films in his previous world, and they were so scarce in this one.

Which films should be targeted for the first batch of shooting? The first film shouldn’t be too big, but it had to be interesting, leaving the audience with something to ponder afterward.

There was room for newcomers to shine and for seasoned actors to showcase their talents; small budget but big box office—that’s what Ren He thought for a long time until he suddenly remembered a very suitable movie... "Crazy Stone"!

"Crazy Stone" was a black comedy Chinese film directed by Ning Hao in 2006. It was the only mainland Chinese film in the "New Director’s Fortnight" project invested by Hong Kong celebrity Andy Lau, featuring Guo Tao, Liu Hua, Huang Bo, Lian Jin, and Xu Zheng as the main cast.

The environment back then was favorable; the entire film cost just 3 million yuan to produce, but it went on to become the box office champion on the mainland that year.

The movie wasn’t Ren He’s top choice among those in his mind, but it might be his first collaboration with Zhang Ming, making it a good choice for both parties to adjust to each other.

If they both were satisfied with this collaboration, they could go on to produce even better things in the future.

In fact, "Crazy Stone" wasn’t expected to do well at that time—none of the stars were big names yet, the investment was low, and hence it got few showings at theaters.

If theaters could increase the number of screenings, the film wouldn’t even need any promotional hype; by the time the hype kicked in, pirated copies would already be out...

In this world, the situation was much better. Commanding one-third of the nation’s theaters and able to invest more to improve the film quality, without the threat of piracy...

It’s not that this world had no piracy, but the cost of being caught pirating was too high, which greatly reduced it, even though it didn’t completely eradicate it.

With lower box office figures in 2006, "Crazy Stone" had limited success. But now it was 2007, with anti-piracy measures in place, Ren He felt that the "Crazy Stone" in this world could achieve more.

Indeed, the film was meaningful because it would shine a bright light on the dark world of low-budget Chinese cinema, giving hope to other practitioners, almost like lighting a beacon, letting people know that low-budget films could have a bright future!

In the movie, aside from the protagonist and Dao’s character, the other roles didn’t require exceptional acting skills, so the brothers from the dorm could join in the fun, get familiar with the big screen, and make some pocket change. Of course, for the role played by Huang Bo, Ren He still wanted to find someone more outstanding, someone with the right character.

Ren He began writing the script; he’d been contemplating it for a while, and had even started writing the script for "Crazy Stone" earlier. He had drawn some unmasked character design original drawings and storyboard sketches, so all he needed was the final polish and revisions to finish and then hand it over to Zhang Ming.

Whether they would collaborate ultimately depended on Zhang Ming’s attitude.

The moment the script was completed, the Divine Punishment System followed suit!

"Mission: jump from an altitude above 3600 meters, free fall for 40 seconds before opening the parachute, do not carry ADD automatic activation backup device. Deadline: two months. Failure to complete: punishment will be that the host cannot eat meat for three years; eating it will result in vomiting."

...

My wife is trying out wedding dresses, let me quickly type out a Chapter on my phone...