I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 308 - 308 307. Picked up on the road _1

Chapter 308: 307. Picked up on the road _1 Chapter 308: 307. Picked up on the road _1 “Magic Tide”‘s trailer had just been released, and it immediately sparked discussions all over the internet.

It was well-known that for a long time domestic films lacked such high-budget, big-investment epic movies, especially in recent years when various sorts of capital injections led to the rise of romance idol films, making the production of epic movies even more difficult and thankless.

But every movie lover could not refuse such an epic blockbuster.

Many kept their admiration to themselves, afraid to voice it out loud for fear of being reminded of the high costs, low profits, inadequate domestic technology, insufficient manpower, and that domestic audiences didn’t like such big films.

If it were any other director releasing these trailers, people might say that all the best parts were in the trailer, they might criticize the cheap special effects, or claim it’s just another “big film” that’s all bark and no bite.

But this was a Lu Ban film.

Lu Ban had created a horror thriller genre from scratch and set a domestic box office record, and his last two movies were both massive hits. Now, Lu Ban’s name was a guarantee for box office success.

Under the trailer posted on the old-day video website, besides the serious comments, there were also some characters of dubious origin making their appearance.

[Can I really watch this trailer for free? The lighting, the special effects, the texture of the imagery, unbeatable!]

[Although I’m a bit disappointed it’s not a horror movie this time, there’s no doubt the subject of this film is more popular. I guess the box office will be even better, but I personally hope that Lu Ban continues to make horror films!]

[Just watching the trailer gets me excited, the apocalyptic Demonic Tide, the fortress, the unyielding warriors, it’s so much higher level than that romance-fortress thing from before.]

[Isn’t Lu Ban’s pace too terrifying? Didn’t he just release a new movie in May? It’s only been three months, and he’s already coming out with another one? Not even a farm donkey is that efficient!]

[This big production movie seems to have mobilized a lot of people, but somehow there hasn’t been much media coverage. Could it be that, as the rumors on the internet say, Lu Ban has really been raising a bunch of exclusive actors?]

[I saw a report a few months ago that Lu Ban was hiring. I can’t believe it was completed in such a short time. Could it be that he has sacrificed these people’s hair and lifespan to produce it?]

[Am I the only one who feels that, with both Chinese and foreign actors in this trailer, it looks strange and not at all in keeping with a national style?]

[Lu Ban’s movie seems to be linked with a previous interactive video, both mentioning Night Country. It looks like he’s really trying to create a Silent Universe.]

[Why are there only male actors in this movie? Is it because of gender discrimination? I’ve wanted to say for a long time that in Lu Ban’s movies, women are either the bad guys, ghosts, or dead. Is he trying to promote gender inequality?]

[Having said so much, when is this movie coming out? I’m going to die without “Magic Tide”!]

Lu Ban didn’t have the habit of manipulating comments, but lately, he noticed there were always some strange accounts appearing under his own account.

Especially this one time when he posted a status asking for recommendations for underrated movies.

Several comments immediately popped up under the post, trashing Lu Ban’s movies or saying they didn’t like watching Lu Ban’s movies.

What was even more ridiculous was that when other directors or promotional teams mentioned movies or similar keywords, these accounts would also spam comments declaring Lu Ban’s movies bad and not worth watching.

It was as if robots were spamming posts.

“You’ve got trolls,” said Qin Tiantian when she heard Lu Ban’s puzzlement.

“It’s a common tactic in our circle. Some people, jealous of others’ success, hire trolls to stir up trouble under popular streamers’ posts, ruining their public image. You have to be careful!” she said with all the gravity of an adult coming into her own in this field.

“I don’t think I have much of a public image to begin with,” Lu Ban said frankly.

As a horror filmmaker, public adoration was hard to come by; most just cursed him after watching his movies. Recommending Lu Ban’s films could even potentially lead to getting beaten up.

“No, you can’t go on like this. Some people do nothing wrong, yet get constantly slandered for no reason and suffer unfairly. You’re grown up now; you can’t be this naive anymore,” Qin Tiantian said earnestly, and at the same time, she picked up a lobster from the basin, cracked open its head, sucked something out, and then started to peel the shell.

“Speaking of which, what is that stuff inside the lobster’s head, is it lobster poop?” Lu Ban asked, watching Qin Tiantian’s method of eating.

“How could it be!”

Qin Tiantian immediately denied it, but then she felt somewhat guilty.

“It shouldn’t be poop, right? Who has ever heard of anything with poop inside its head? And even if, even if this were lobster poop, it’s still delicious!”

“Oh.”

Lu Ban was just asking casually.

This year, the spicy crawfish was very cheap. Lu Ban remembered it became popular only when he was in college. As a child, he could buy a pound of crawfish for just a few yuan and casually eat until he was sick. Now, the crawfish are so expensive he can hardly afford them.

However, because of the expensive prices in the past two years and mass farming, there was an oversupply this year, making them much cheaper.

He and Qin Tiantian had bought several pounds to take home today to watch TV and eat.

“You need to promote this movie a lot. Without promotion, no one will know about it. It’s best to be on various websites, all kinds of headlines; otherwise, you might lose money.”

Qin Tiantian gestured and then dropped another crawfish onto the plate on the floor.

As the crawfish landed in the plate, Laika came over, sniffed it with her nose, then swallowed it in one gulp, making a crunching noise as she chewed.

“I did do some promotion, but I have to wait for the international release dates to align.”

Lu Ban answered.

“When the time comes, I’m planning to buy advertising space in Times Square directly, and I can buy billboard space on the buildings at the edge of Lingjiang in Jiangcheng as well.”

“?”

Qin Tiantian didn’t quite understand how much these advertisements cost, but based on her previous impression, the spots in these locations were definitely not cheap.

Laika put her front paws on the table, looking at the crawfish in the bowl and sticking out her tongue.

“Don’t rush, don’t get on the table, I’ll give it to you.”

Qin Tiantian, treating Laika like one’s own pet, put several crawfish on the plate on the floor.

“But you can really handle spicy food. Could it be that you grew up eating spicy food like me?”

She had been particularly nice to Laika lately, being only a step away from holding her to sleep at Lu Ban’s house. Recalling that Qin Tiantian’s virtual image also had a red scarf and dog ears, perhaps she did indeed like dogs quite a lot.

Sometimes, when Qin Tiantian was slacking on the couch holding Laika, Lu Ban found the image of the young girl embracing a mass of flesh and tentacles a bit unsettling.

“Where did you pick it up from?”

Qin Tiantian couldn’t help but ask.

“Just randomly picked it up on the street.”

Lu Ban told the truth.

Indeed, it was on the street, and it was picked up randomly.

As for whether it was a dog, that was another question.

“I wish I could pick up a dog on the street too.”

Qin Tiantian said enviously.

After finishing the crawfish and cleaning up, Lu Ban saw that he had an unread message on his phone from a few minutes ago.

It was a message from Thomas Lee.

[Thomas Lee]: Director Lu, there’s no issue with the cinema side now. We can officially start our publicity and distribution work over there.

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