Chapter 91

When Su Ning and Shen Mingzheng returned to Haicheng, they took the same flight as Zhu Lan.

Zhu Lan knew exactly what the status of these two people was in the Shen family, it was just that one was in the open and the other in the dark, so she discussed this directly with Su Ning, she knew who had the final say in this family.

"Boss Su, if you still need actors for your project, I have plenty here," Zhu Lan has more than just Shu Miao under his command, "Are there any vacancies?"

Su Ning looked at her and smiled: "This is just a small project, Mr. Zhu is interested in it."

Not only does Zhu Lan like him, but when comparing the two, she still thinks Su Ning is more reliable.

Especially after seeing the turbulent situation on He Fan's side, he said a few more words to Su Ning: "I think it's very chaotic over there. It's better to worry about your side."

Even though that place was her home, Zhu Lan was telling the truth. And her words came true.

The people brought by Hong Kong Island's Stephen Sum were indeed very luxurious. The first movie he was going to shoot, "Zero Degree Space", was a commercial film of futuristic science fiction and exciting battles, and the team was fully staffed.

But perhaps they gave too much. Just a few days after the announcement, when the two teams officially met, problems arose immediately.

The guests from Hong Kong Island were the famous actor Zhang Libing and actress Fu Jing. Both of them were around 40 years old and were leading stars. It was no exaggeration to say that they were well-known both at home and abroad, especially Fu Jing. She had won many awards overseas and had won the Best Actress award at the Thorns Awards twice.

The ones that Shen Anlin hired are younger, but also the top names in the industry, including the leading actress Tan Jiahui, who recently made over 5 billion at the box office, and Cai Tongsheng, who has won many awards in the middle-aged actor circle.

These people are influential in the circle and can be said to be top-level powerful agents.

When the news of their participation first broke on the Internet, many viewers were amazed at the luxurious configuration and their expectations were immediately maxed out. Now, only the Shen family can bring all these great actors together.

These four people are the male and female protagonists of the righteous side, and the male and female protagonists of the villain side. For the sake of balance, the roles of both sides are almost the same. But after the roles in the script were decided, this time they are competing for the ranking in the movie.

Fu Jing is the oldest and has the most experience, so she was originally ranked first, and there was no dispute about this.

But as for the second place, if we talk about seniority, it should be Zhang Libing, if we talk about box office, it should be Tan Jiahui, if we talk about awards, it should be Cai Tongsheng, and this is what they are vying for.

According to internal rules, the second place should be given to Shen Anlin's side, which is more fair.

Cai Tongsheng and Tan Jiahui had worked together before, and he was the top actor. However, at that time, Tan Jiahui had not yet achieved a box office of 5 billion. But now that the roles are being swapped, he is not happy. Even if they are tied for the top roles, Tan Jiahui will naturally be unhappy.

Although she has a lot of roles, as the decent female lead, she feels that her character is too much of a vase and there is no room for her to perform. If she can't even get a high ranking, this movie won't mean much to her.

After all, she has acted in too many commercial films of this kind. They are just the icing on the cake in her development. It would be embarrassing if she were to be relegated to third place or even outside the third place.

If the division is this way, Zhang Libing will be relegated to the third place. He thinks that considering his qualifications, it is impossible for him to be ranked after the third place. And Zhang Libing plays the male lead. Cai Tongsheng chose the villain and partnered with Fu Jing.

The second, third and fourth groups already had conflicts when they met on the spot, and along with Fu Jing's first group, these people began to have some opinions.

She has a high status, but she has appeared less frequently in the past two years, and has not released any works for a while. Her influence is not as strong as others. Moreover, this project is in charge of the Shen family in the capital. Is it a bit too polite to give the first place to the Hong Kong Island side?

The old man had been too nice to Shen Zhaolan during this period, and many people in the Shen family felt that something was not right, and some of them said this and that in front of him.

Shen Mingzheng had reminded Shen Zhaolan about this matter when he was at home. It was like giving him some advice. He told him not to go along with it all the time. At least he had to make Shen Zhaolan feel a little fearful. Otherwise, he would become careless and it would be hard to control him.

Shen Antang did listen to it, and this was his usual method, combining kindness with severity, giving a slap in the face and then giving a sweet date as reward, and he just used this matter of the ranking to give a warning.

The capital has already provided the best arrangements, given so many opportunities, and shown the greatest sincerity to ease relations, and even let Zhang Libing from Hong Kong Island play the male lead with the most scenes. It is a bit unreasonable that he still cannot compete for the first place.

But this is not entirely decided by them. When stars become famous to a certain extent, they will have their own ideas.

When Fu Jing was at the peak of her fame, Shen Zhaolan was not even born yet. Her face was one of the representatives of Hong Kong Island, and her husband's family was also powerful. Even the young Shen Zhaolan's promotion to the top in the company was due to her support.

She is one of the important forces of the Shen family in Hong Kong Island. It is absolutely impossible to lose her face at this time.

Even if Shen Zhaolan didn't want to haggle over every penny and knew that she had to back off, the situation had come to a point where Fu Jing was among those who didn't want to back off. When she was stirring up the storm in this circle, these people didn't even know where to play, and they dared to question her position!

Moreover, Tan Jiahui and Cai Tongsheng, who were invited by the Shen family, also had big Buddhas behind them, representing different heirs of the family, so these two were unwilling to give in.

This is a matter of both face and substance, and it's all in a mess, the film is about to start, but no one can figure it out, so the film's start-up ceremony has been delayed until now.

The competition for roles is no secret among the audience, and everyone is waiting to see the show, which makes it even more embarrassing.

Su Ning had nothing to do with this matter. He and Shen Mingzheng had no money involved, so no matter how chaotic it was, it had nothing to do with them. They were just sitting on the mountain and watching the fight. Shen Mingzheng mentioned this to him when they were stewing soup at home, just like they were chatting at home.

The weather was getting colder, and they got off work earlier today, so the two of them stewed bone soup at home. When they were about to take the soup out of the pot, Shen Mingzheng scooped a spoonful for him to taste the saltiness and asked him, "Is it okay?"

Su Ning: "It seems that no salt is added."

"It's my fault. I forgot while we were talking." Shen Mingzheng reached out to add a spoonful of salt and said, "They must have been in a commotion for a while. Shen Zhaolan went to the capital again a few days ago. There is no result."

Su Ning hummed.

Fighting for ranking is not uncommon in the industry. After entering this scene, those who originally didn't care about their ranking will be led to compete for the ranking, otherwise they will be at a disadvantage. But it is rare that such a fight lasts for several months without any result. Who makes these people more and more famous? This is not just a movie thing.

Shen Mingzheng put on gloves, then put the stewed soup on the table and took out the dishes from the pot. Su Ning took the bowl and chopsticks and asked him, "Master, do you have any thoughts on this matter?"

Shen Mingzheng smiled: "He has a lot of ideas."

He took the soup that Su Ning had prepared and said, "But this matter cannot be resolved by just one word from him. No one is willing to give in, and the situation is chaotic, so he got very angry."

Before, Shen Antang held great power in the capital and seemed to be living a peaceful life. But now, he has to deal with so many things. He has been running around, tired and worried. He has indeed gotten angry several times. He has broken so many teacups and teabowls in the house.

This is what it's like to have a big family business, there are always conflicts and things that can't be overcome. Even if you are firm and unyielding, it's impossible for everything to go smoothly. The people below all have their own ideas and plans. In the past, he just focused on the big ones and let the small ones go, and just turned a blind eye to it, but now that he really wants to take charge, there are plenty of reasons for him to lose his temper.

Because of this incident, Zhu Lan was called back during this period. According to her and Su Ning, the old man didn't look that good and said he was so angry that his heart and head hurt.

When Shen Mingzheng said this, he put another piece of meat in his bowl and said in surprise, "Zhu Lan still has the energy to talk to you about this?"

She didn't even mention it to me.

This was found out by Shen Mingzheng's people in the capital. He has been to the capital many times and now has useful spies at home.

"I talk about it from time to time," Su Ning said, "maybe because she and I have a lot of cooperation now."

Zhu Lan is a smooth-talking person, but no one can mediate this difficult matter, not even her.

There are not so many problems in Su Ning, and everything is going smoothly for him.

The first crime drama he is going to shoot has already had its roles selected and its script finalized, and filming has already started for half a month. The first part is expected to be twelve episodes, with one case in each episode, just to test the waters first. The small size of the series can also fit into Ji Mowei's current schedule, so he can concentrate on staying in the crew and filming during this time.

The second part of the ghost story started filming two days ago. Shu Miao teamed up with Qu Shoubai because it was a school scene. There were many other young actors and there was no competition for ranking among them. It was good enough for the newcomers to have good roles to play.

Qu Shoubai is indeed more popular than Shu Miao, and it's not an exaggeration to say that the group has the top traffic in the circle. He is also the captain, but he is a new actor after all. At this time, he honestly plays second fiddle to Shu Miao who has works, without any opinion. Even if some fans are dissatisfied, people with a discerning eye know that the role comes first.

Yan Lu spent quite a long time writing the script for "Hometown God". She was very efficient and had revised many drafts during this period. Su Ning thought there was no problem with it and the filming would start in two days.

The male lead chose a young actor who is famous for his acting skills, named Wen Zijing. This actor has a fairly high traffic and is considered a second-tier actor among the younger generation. He has a lot of works and he got the job by submitting his resume himself.

According to him, the reason for submitting his resume was because he heard that the female lead was Ji Xue and he really wanted to act with her, so he came. He is not signed to any company and is considered a self-employed person in the circle. Although he has no background and can only rely on his own resources and his resources are not good, he is very free.

Su Ning went there when the filming of this film started.

The two leading actors are young, but many of the other supporting roles are senior actors. There are also a few actors from Hong Kong Island who were inserted by Shen Zhaolan. Su Ning watched their auditions and found their acting skills to be good, so he let them come.

The filming location for this drama is not in the film and television city, but basically real scenes. The crew really went to the south to select a few rural villages with some old buildings still preserved. It is a bit far away, but it is indeed very suitable for filming folk stories.

As soon as the scene was filmed, the atmosphere was immediately filled with the old house, old tiles, faded pillars and gates.

The first story filmed was "Lady Willow".

The story is based on the fact that in order to pray for protection for sick children, the villagers would let the children worship the oldest tree in the village as their godmother. This happened when the male protagonist was born.

The oldest tree in Liujia Village is the several hundred-year-old willow tree at the entrance of the village. A temple was built next to it, called the Willow Goddess. When the male protagonist was sick, he worshipped his godmother. Many children in the village also worshipped her.

The hero returns to the village after he becomes an adult because his grandmother has passed away. When he passes by the village entrance, he finds that a new road has been planned here. The willow trees are going to be cut down, and the dilapidated Willow Goddess Temple is also going to be demolished after the New Year.

But after that, strange things kept happening in the village.

The only witch in the village, the hero's grandmother, died suddenly, leaving behind a young apprentice, a girl she adopted. She has only learned half of what the witch taught her, and cannot hold ceremonies as before. The village is blocked by heavy snow, and outsiders cannot enter. The heir of the witch, who is said to be psychic, can only figure out that Lady Willow is angry, and she needs to calm down.

The hero doesn't believe in such weird things. He thinks some things are just coincidences or simply someone's meddling. That's how the story begins.

——The drama has a fixed team of three main characters: the male protagonist who is a staunch scientist, the female protagonist who is a half-witch and is said to be able to communicate with spirits and is a descendant of folk knowledge, and the male protagonist's friend, a comedy character who is responsible for regulating the atmosphere in an overly scary and tense environment, and whose character setting is a likable little fat man.

The first few days of filming went pretty well.

This kind of Chinese folk story is not easy to film, as it is easy to accidentally go down the path of feudal superstition. Yan Lu set the tone in the script. This kind of "faith" in the countryside is different from the religious beliefs abroad. In essence, it is a kind of simple value of "good is rewarded with good, and evil is rewarded with evil" with pragmatism.

To shoot this kind of folk "horror", it is not enough to just shoot the horror itself. It is easy to go astray and fall into clichés. The focus is on the rural culture itself.

So Su Ning stayed here for a while, watching the crew filming and observing the style and effect of the actual filming of the story.

This is a real scene. In this season, there was really heavy snow in the village. Although it was not to the extent of closing the mountain, it was indeed very cold, and the conditions in the village were not very good. There was no hotel to stay in. During the filming, the actors lived in the courtyards of the villagers. It was a bit hard, but this is how filming works. Actors have to act well, and there is no such thing as a comfortable place.

Even the screenwriter Yan Lu, who didn't have to follow the crew, came over to monitor the effect.

But during the filming, one of the actors expressed an opinion.

Wen Zijing and Jixue certainly wouldn't, as this little bit of hardship was nothing to them. They knew the environment before coming and were mentally prepared. Other experienced actors wouldn't say anything, even if they were just extras. Su Ning paid them enough, so they were happy even if the weather was a little cold.

But the little fat guy in the main cast is an actor from Hong Kong Island. His background is not simple. He is the nephew of film queen Fu Jing, and his name is Fu Yongzhi.

The fact that he was able to become one of the leading actors was not simply due to his connections. He had acted in several dramas and movies in Hong Kong Island and had also participated in variety shows. He was a familiar face nationwide and was not unknown, so he was suitable for this role.

His acting skills are suitable, but his character may not be.