Chapter 337 Is this what you came here to tell me?
It was quite strange that Zhou Ping'an suddenly invited him to dinner.
Lu Yanhe thought about it for a moment, and combined it with what Chen Ziyan had told him before, he came up with a possibility.
Perhaps Ma Zhongquan wanted to have a talk with him?
Now, he's become a hot commodity, and everyone wants to get a taste of Tang Sanzang's flesh from him.
Lu Yanhe replied: I just came back from Jose. I have a lot of homework to catch up on at school, so I don't have time.
You kicked me out back then, and today I'll ignore you completely.
Lu Yanhe felt a vengeful pleasure—though he shouldn't have, it was simply exhilarating.
-
Zhou Pingan said helplessly to Ma Zhongquan, "He refuses to come out, Mr. Ma. I told you long ago that he doesn't take me seriously at all. How could I possibly get him to come out?"
Ma Zhongquan glared at him and said, "Don't you know how to think of a solution?"
Zhou Ping'an looked dejected and said, "What can I do about this?"
"Didn't he say he wrote a movie for Li Zhibai and Yan Liang? You're their agent. If they want to act in a movie, can't they do it without your approval?" Ma Zhongquan glared at Zhou Ping'an with a look of disappointment, as if to say that he couldn't even think of or handle such a small matter.
Zhou Ping'an looked enlightened and said, "Okay, then I'll try asking him again."
Only after leaving Ma Zhongquan's office did Zhou Ping'an's expression of sudden realization disappear.
He cursed, "Go ahead and do it if you dare!"
He certainly had a way to get Lu Yanhe to come out, but the difficulty wasn't in getting Lu Yanhe to come out, but in getting Lu Yanhe to agree to what followed.
Zhou Ping'an didn't even want to make an appointment with Lu Yanhe because he had no other choice about what would happen later.
Lu Yanhe refused to come out, which was exactly what he wanted, and he thought he could use this as an excuse to back down.
In the end, Ma Zhongquan still forced him to go find Lu Yanhe.
Zhou Ping'an was also speechless.
-
After Lu Yanhe returned to school, besides attending classes, he also prepared for the upcoming dramas.
One is "Lost in Thailand," which now has funding and only needs to build the production team.
Although Lu Yanhe and Chen Ziyan's Linghe Production Company is one of the producers, they are mainly responsible for providing the script and have decision-making power over some important personnel selections.
The film stars Jia Long, but he doesn't want to direct, so we had to find a director.
For projects with mature scripts, lead actors, and production companies, finding a director is easy, but finding a capable and talented one is very difficult.
The latter type of director typically gets involved in a project before the script is even finished.
Regarding the matter of finding a director, Lu Yanhe has made it very clear that he will not be involved.
He knows nothing about comedy films; Jia Long is the expert. Instead of offering opinions while pretending to know what he's talking about, it's better to let Jia Long do the research.
Besides "Lost in Thailand," there's also "Rouge," directed by Wang Zhong and starring Chen Bige. The investment was basically handled by these three companies, with Aurora Studio also contributing a portion.
The main problem was that it was difficult to find investment for "Rouge". It was an art film, but the salaries of Wang Zhong, Chen Bige and Lu Yanhe were not low. If you calculate it that way, it will become a high-cost art film, which will increase the risk, because everyone's box office expectation for this film is only between 100 million and 200 million.
So, after discussing it, the three of them decided that since the copyright was in Lu Yanhe's hands, he would not take the screenwriter's salary and would instead convert it into profit sharing. Wang Zhong and Chen Bige also reduced their salaries and converted them into profit sharing.
This arrangement kept the total salaries of the three actors under ten million. Since everyone receives a share of the profits, no one loses out, primarily to reduce the film's financial burden. After all, besides Chen Bige, there are three other lead actors in this film.
The same approach definitely doesn't apply to the other three main actors.
In the end, it was decided that, apart from the role of Twelfth Master, the other two couples who took Ru Hua to find Twelfth Master would be played by actors with low pay.
Wang Zhong immediately recommended Chen Jiang and Sui Fangran, who had just worked with him on "Three Mountains".
"Aren't they too young? After all, they are a young couple who are already working. They look like they just graduated from high school," Chen Bige said directly.
Lu Yanhe actually thought so too.
Wang Zhong asked, "So what are your thoughts?"
Lu Yanhe said, "How about we hold a public audition?"
In fact, in Lu Yanhe's memory, the presence of the second male and female leads in the movie was not very strong.
The presence of Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui almost filled the entire film, making the audience completely oblivious to everyone else.
Wang Zhong said, "Is it really necessary to hold public auditions for these two roles? I personally think these two roles aren't very difficult to play; any reasonably good actor could do them."
Wang Zhong put it very directly.
Lu Yanhe laughed and scratched his head.
Wang Zhong: "However, open auditions are fine too. It would be a good opportunity to audition all the other roles in the movie, select all the actors at once, and start filming as soon as possible."
Lu Yanhe agreed.
Chen Bige said, "I recently got a Republic of China-era hairstyle done myself to try it out, and I really like it. Take a look."
She opened her phone and showed the two of them the photos she had taken.
The moment Lu Yanhe saw the photo, he felt as if he had been struck by lightning, and his hair stood on end.
The woman in the photo, Chen Bige, bears a striking resemblance to Anita Mui's character, Ru Hua. This resemblance gives Lu Yanhe a sense of irreversible fate.
"What's wrong, Yan He?" Chen Bige noticed Lu Yan He's pale face and asked.
Lu Yanhe came to his senses and said, "Very good, Sister Bige, I am stunned. This is almost exactly the same as the image that came to mind when I was writing the script."
Chen Bige's eyes widened in surprise, and she asked, "Really?"
Wang Zhong: "It's really good, especially those eyes. Did you put yourself in the role of Ru Hua when you took this photo? They look both angry and resentful."
Chen Bige nodded, "I had a photoshoot that day, and I happened to see that they had prepared Republic of China-era costumes, so I asked them to dress me up and take a set of photos for me. I wanted to see what the photos would look like."
In the photo, Chen Bige is not wearing lipstick and has washed off her modern makeup, only making the simplest touches. In the photo, she has a sense of purity that comes from washing away all artifice, which complements the loneliness and sorrow that the movie ends with.
Lu Yanhe was bewildered and at a loss.
At that moment, his mind was buzzing.
Why would there be such a coincidence?
-
Lu Yanhe got off the bus and prepared to return to school.
Cars are not allowed on campus.
He said to Zou Dong, "Brother Dong, I won't be leaving the school today. You can go back and rest. You don't need to wait for me here."
Zou Dong nodded and watched Lu Yanhe enter the school before driving away.
"What are you spacing out about?" Wang Xiao, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, suddenly appeared from behind and patted him on the shoulder.
Lu Yanhe suddenly came to his senses and called out, "Senior!"
"I need to talk to you about something. Shall we go to a coffee shop together?" Wang Xiao asked.
Lu Yanhe nodded and said, "Okay."
Wang Xiao asked Lu Yanhe if he had been busy lately.
Lu Yanhe said it was alright.
"It's busy, but unlike before when I was filming, I wasn't tied to the set and could manage things myself."
Wang Xiao said, "That's fine. A leader at the school asked us to arrange a lecture. The speaker is a senior professor from the Film Academy, who is said to be very influential. So I was thinking of asking you to be the guest host."
Lu Yanhe nodded and said, "Tell me your time in advance, and I'll make sure to make time for it."
Seeing that Lu Yanhe readily agreed, Wang Xiao patted him on the shoulder and said, "Great job!"
-
After talking with Wang Xiao, Lu Yanhe headed back to his dormitory.
To Lu Yanhe's surprise, he ran into Zhou Ping'an downstairs in his dormitory.
He almost thought he was seeing things.
Zhou Ping'an, dressed in a suit, stood downstairs at the dormitory building, looking quite respectable, which made him stand out from the surrounding students.
Lu Yanhe looked at him, and for a moment, he wanted to turn around and leave.
I held back.
Zhou Ping'an smiled so brightly that it sent chills down Lu Yanhe's spine.
"Why did you suddenly have time to come here to see me, Brother Ping An?" Lu Yanhe heard himself speak in a sarcastic tone.
Zhou Pingan said, "I wanted to meet you before, but you said you were too busy, so I came to your school to find you."
Lu Yanhe glanced at the coffee in his hand. He hadn't finished it yet, so he decided not to take Zhou Ping'an to the coffee shop.
He said, "Then let's go sit in the cafeteria next door."
The cafeteria is only used for eating during mealtimes; at other times, it is used by students for group discussions and club exchanges.
Lu Yanhe led Zhou Pingan to a seat in the cafeteria and they sat down.
Zhou Pingan looked at the crowd around him.
The noisy environment made Zhou Ping'an's lips twitch twice.
Lu Yanhe: "Brother Ping An, just say what you want to say."
Zhou Pingan then calmed himself down.
"You said before that you wrote a movie script for Li Zhibai and Yan Liang, is that right?"
Lu Yanhe nodded. "That's right."
Zhou Pingan said, "But I haven't read the script yet."
"It's not finished yet."
Zhou Pingan sighed, "What you're doing puts us in a difficult position. After all, we haven't even read the script yet, and it's not even close to being finalized. You've already made it official to the outside world. Won't that leave us in a bind?"
Lu Yanhe nodded and said, "Li Zhibai and Yan Liang both said they were willing to act. If you don't want them to act, that's fine. We can just wait until their contracts with the company expire before filming. I'm not in a hurry."
Zhou Pingan almost couldn't catch his breath.
What the hell?!
This was a response that Zhou Ping'an never expected.
Originally, Zhou Ping'an thought that Lu Yanhe was in the wrong for announcing the project without communicating with the company beforehand.
Li Zhibai and Yan Liang have no autonomy in choosing roles, so under these circumstances, he could actually stand up and slap Lu Yanhe in the face.
Of course, Zhou Ping'an wouldn't do that. He just wanted to remind Lu Yanhe of this matter—
Lu Yanhe, on the other hand, simply said, "If you don't want them to act, that's fine. We can just wait until their contracts with the company expire before filming. I'm not in a hurry."
What else could he say?!
Zhou Ping'an stared at Lu Yanhe, his mouth twitching for a long time before he could recover.
"Hehe, hehe." In the end, Zhou Ping'an just laughed awkwardly twice.
Lu Yanhe said to Zhou Pingan, "Brother Pingan, is this what you came to tell me?"
-
Since it's the last day of March and also a Sunday, I'll add an extra chapter.
There are still shows at the same time in the evening.
There will also be a short drama about Zhou Ping'an on the official WeChat account in the evening; those who are interested can check it out.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
