Chapter 609 Job-hopping storm and 'Hunting' and 'Super Body'
Chapter 609: Job-hopping incident and "Hunting" and "Superbody"
On April 20, Fanxing held a press conference to officially announce the contract with Lao Mouzi.
This news caused a big sensation in the entertainment industry.
After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Lao Mouzi's status was no longer just that of an ordinary film director. He had a lot of dazzling halo bonuses.
It is no exaggeration to say that although Lao Mouzi is not necessarily the number one director in China now, he is the number two director and no one dares to claim the number one.
As far as Fanxing is concerned, the direct commercial benefits brought by Lao Mouzi may actually be inferior to the increase in other soft power. And sometimes, it is the manifestation of this soft power that is the key to the outside world's evaluation of a company.
The number one director in Hong Kong is Mr. Xu.
Ning Hao, the most promising new generation director in Mainland China.
The most popular new-generation action film director Lin Chaoxian.
Feng Xiaoning, one of the leading directors of the fifth generation.
China's number one director Lao Mouzi.
Coupled with lesser directors such as Cao Bo and Chen Hanzhu, the star-studded lineup of directors is extremely luxurious and further consolidates its leading position in the industry.
Huayi, which had outstanding box office performance last year due to Feng Pants, has been favored by countless people this year, and its stock price has also risen. After Fanxing officially announced that Lao Mouzi has joined, not many people will discuss Huayi, and it may even affect its stock price.
Cao Xuan could already feel the resentment the Wang brothers had for him.
But for now, the one I resent the most is the new boss Zhang.
"Damn you, you are ungrateful, and that guy named Cao, when I made my fortune, he was still farming in Lu Province, and now he is riding on my head."
New Picture Company, after seeing the scene of the press conference broadcast by the entertainment news, Boss Zhang immediately became a master of table cleaning, swept the cups on the coffee table to the ground, and couldn't help but curse.
The secretary next to him didn't dare to reply. He huddled silently in the corner and watched Boss Zhang speak to the air for more than ten minutes before expressing weakly.
"Mr. Zhang, what should we do now?"
"How the hell do I know what to do!"
Boss Zhang was sitting on his desk, breathing heavily. Although he screamed fiercely, he really didn't have any good countermeasures.
No matter how angry he is with Cao Xuan, Boss Cao's strength and connections are beyond his reach.
The only thing that can be done is to throw a few buckets of dirty water, but apart from relieving the anger, it will not damage the foundation of the family at all, and may even lead to crazy revenge.
Lao Mouzi is also quite complicated. They are not his contracted directors, they are just cooperating with each other. There is no legal problem. At most, they are criticizing each other morally.
But in this moral aspect, it’s really hard to say who will win in this war of words.
Boss Zhang was very unwilling. Lao Mouzi had a showdown with him before, and after the two had a big fight, Lao Mouzi stopped answering his phone calls.
This incident made Boss Zhang very angry. Now that he saw Lao Mouzi appearing at the press conference with a smile on his face and praising Fanxing and Cao Xuan, he could no longer hold back the anger in his heart.
Even though he knew he still had "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins" in his hands, Boss Zhang couldn't help but post a weird Weibo post.
[When making friends, never unilaterally show your heart to each other, so that when others abandon you, you will be less hurt]
His strong tone of resentment, coupled with today's news, any fool can see what's going on.
Someone asked if this meant that Lao Mouzi betrayed him, and Boss Zhang replied.
[It’s not a betrayal, it’s just that someone put a friend who has been a friend for more than ten years on the blacklist in order to hold on to his new girlfriend.]
Some people questioned that Boss Zhang's words were too much. Everyone has his own ambitions. Even if the team is disbanded, there is no need to say this. Besides, he has everything he has today, and Lao Mouzi takes the most credit.
In this regard, Boss Zhang cites his support for Lao Mouzi over the years, how much money he lost on a certain movie, and how he didn't take it seriously and then complained.
[Without him, I would indeed not be here today. Without me, Zhang Yimou would have starved to death long ago]
Boss Zhang responded enthusiastically on Weibo and talked about a lot of inside stories. He said that Lao Mouzi was sorry for himself and was an out-and-out villain.
Lao Mouzi ran away, and the two Zhangs openly feuded!
The media rushed after hearing the news, and soon a large number of articles that were unfavorable to Lao Mouzi were produced, and Lao Mouzi suddenly became a treacherous person.
Lao Mouzi, who had not yet recovered from the joy of joining the new club, was like a bolt from the blue. He pointed to relevant reports on the Internet and angrily said the famous saying of Director Chen.
"How can people be so shameless!"
Cao Xuan watched the news on the Internet with great interest: "Director Zhang, he said that you live a luxurious life, like to buy luxury cars, and all the clothes you wear at home are famous brands. Is it true or false?"
Lao Mouzi sighed: "It's not like I don't have money. I will definitely improve my family's life. If this is considered a luxury, then I have nothing to say."
Cao Xuan nodded when he heard this. Whoever makes money can't buy some good things. He, Boss Zhang, lives in a villa. He can't let Lao Mouzi eat chaffy vegetables. It's hard and simple.
Even this is used as black material, which shows that it is inexplicable, or that there is really not much handle on it.
It may also be that he wants to arouse netizens' hatred of Lao Mouzi, but the key question is not that Boss Zhang himself is getting richer...
Cao Xuan didn't quite understand his operation, but his other words were still very obvious. He wanted to ruin Lao Zhang's reputation and earn another wave of sympathy points for himself.
"But……"
Cao Xuan looked at Lao Mouzi: "If I remember correctly, he seems to have voted for "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling" alone."
Lao Mouzi nodded: "The boss of Anlejiang had other investments, and he was not very optimistic about this subject, so he later decided to divest.
Later, he also attracted a few small investors, but he still took the majority of the money himself. According to the public, he even invested in the house. Although the actual investment was not 600 million as advertised, most of the funds were indeed invested in it."
It is precisely because of this that Boss Zhang attaches great importance to movies and interferes unscrupulously in Lao Mouzi's filming, eventually driving Lao Mouzi into a panic.
"In this case, if he keeps throwing dirty water on you, he is not afraid of affecting the box office and will pay for it himself."
"It may be for marketing purposes, but it may also be purely stimulating."
Lao Mouzi spoke sadly of his old partner: "He is a very bad-tempered, self-willed, self-centered person. Most of the time, he often does not consider the overall situation. He will only consider the gains and losses after he is done."
Cao Xuan thought about it. If someone can point at Mr. Han and scold the mountain eagle, how can you expect him to be calm?
Previously, during the filming of "Three Guns", there was a dinner party where Boss Zhang was very disdainful of a certain director and belittled him in various ways. During this period, Zhao, the crew member, did not agree with him or defended him for a few words, which caused Boss Zhang to complain.
Very dissatisfied.
It is said that Boss Zhang pointed fingers at Lao Zhao in public. Although Lao Zhao was not the so-called "King of the Northeast," he was still a respectable figure and left the table angrily on the spot.
Lao Mouzi spent a long time trying to calm down Lao Zhao by coaxing him from left to right.
There are many similar situations, so Boss Zhang’s bad temper cannot be reasoned by ordinary people.
However, Fanxing had already taken various measures against him for his actions, and it was impossible for Cao Xuan to make the big director he had just signed feel bad about him.
Boss Zhang throws dirty water, but he is not innocent either.
Soon, famous newspapers in Beijing published an exclusive interview with Lao Mouzi and his family, which was then officially pushed to the headlines by Penguin Weibo.
In the exclusive interview, Lao Mouzi responded to various claims made by Boss Zhang, saying that he has been wronged over the years.
To call him ungrateful, it’s not like Boss Zhang brought him up.
Long before the cooperation between the two parties, he had become the mainland's leading director with films such as "Qiu Ju's Lawsuit", "Raise the Red Lantern" and "Alive".
Boss Zhang gave Lao Mouzi a lot of support, but without him, Lao Mouzi could still thrive.
On the contrary, if Boss Zhang did not have Lao Mouzi, it would be difficult to say that he would be as successful as he is now.
Therefore, it is indeed unreasonable to say that he is ungrateful. He, Lao Mouzi, does not owe Boss Zhang anything.
On the contrary, Boss Zhang still owes him a lot of remuneration shares and profits.
The benefits paid by movies such as "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" are far less than what Lao Mouzi paid.
That's all. After all, the contract signed at that time also provided a certain amount of remuneration. It's not to say that Boss Zhang is treacherous, but Boss Zhang may be a bit stingy.
If it were Cao Xuan, an additional bonus might be granted as a reward and appeasement to the director.
If this can still be justified legally, but what follows
I really owe money.
The cumulative remuneration of "Three Shots" has not yet been paid, which is 15 million, and the same is true for the remuneration of "The Hawthorn Tree".
The former was told by Boss Zhang to raise funds to film "The Thirteen Hairpins", but it was delayed for a while. The latter was a literary film and did not make much money, so Lao Mouzi was too embarrassed to mention it. However, Boss Zhang pretended not to know at all.
In the past, Lao Mouzi might have dealt with it privately, but now that Boss Zhang is so merciless, he no longer has to keep his face and speak out directly.
We do not rule out using the law to resolve the matter.
In addition, Lao Mouzi also poured out his bitter experience, telling how Boss Zhang interfered with his creation and various unscrupulous marketing these years.
For example, in "The Golden Armor", Xiao Zhou was forced by Boss Zhang, and the number of scenes was greatly increased compared to the original version.
"Three Guns" because it cast Xiao Shen Yang, and because his style didn't match the other actors, he was forced to switch to Lao Zhao's disciple class.
"Jinling Thirteen Hairpins" also wanted to interfere with the heroine, but he stopped it after getting angry.
The promotion is even less particular. "Love at the Hawthorn Tree" is said to be the story of Lao Mouzi and his first love, and "The City of Golden Armor" has always been about his old relationship with Gong Li.
Lao Mouzi is not a celebrity, and he hates the scandals surrounding himself.
In addition, there is another thing that makes him most angry, which is the copyright of "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling".
This movie is adapted from Yan Geling's novel. Considering his own fame, Lao Mouzi was afraid that someone would take advantage of the popularity and make a TV series version, so he intended to buy all the film and television rights.
Yan Geling was very particular and gave the TV series rights to Lao Mouzi at a relatively low price, eliminating his worries.
Lao Mouzi was particularly moved and made an agreement with him to transfer the copyright back to Yan free of charge after the movie is released.
As a result, Boss Zhang privately sold the TV rights at a sky-high price, causing Yan Geling to suffer a huge loss, and Lao Mouzi to lose face in front of his friends, and he also gained the reputation of being a deceitful friend.
Lao Mouzi was very aggrieved and said in an exclusive interview: "I really wanted to buy the copyright back at that time, but it was too late. This made me very sad and felt sorry for my friend."
A eloquent interview reversed Lao Mouzi's reputation. After all, his reputation and popularity were still good.
In fact, some people have said for a long time in recent years that most of the credit for Lao Mouzi's bad movies in recent years is due to Boss Zhang. The two literary films during this period have quite good reputations.
As a result, Boss Zhang made a lot of money, and Lao Mouzi was nicknamed the "King of Bad Movies".
Many fans of Lao Mouzi hate Boss Zhang extremely, and many people in the industry said that if Lao Mouzi does not leave Zhang for a day, his life will be ruined.
Boss Zhang wanted to say again that Fanxing was not joking, and he grabbed a few of his sore spots to build up momentum.
To be honest, Fanxing has had quite a few verbal battles in the past two years, but it is rare to find someone as easy to bully as Boss Zhang.
The main reason is that he has no friends, and not many people in his circle are willing to speak for him. On the contrary, there are many who are willing to add insult to injury.
Lao Zhao publicly stated: "Boss Zhang is not good. If I were him (Lao Mouzi), I would also join Fanxing."
Song Dandan also said: "I said before that I will not act in director Zhang's movies in the future, mainly because of the boss (Boss Zhang). Now that Director Zhang has come out and will not cooperate, I take it back."
Even Gong Li, who claimed to have broken up because of Boss Zhang, rarely spoke out this time. However, she did not target others, but she also said.
"It's good for Yi to leave that (new picture). I wish him all the best in the future."
When the wall fell and everyone pushed him, Boss Zhang suddenly became the target of everyone shouting and beating him.
Lao Mouzi also officially launched a lawsuit against him.
At the same time, there are also artists such as Little Yellow Duck who initiated the lawsuit. They hope to leave New Picture and join Lao Mouzi.
Boss Zhang was so busy fighting lawsuits and calming public opinion that he could only say a few harsh words.
"I have not sorry for him (Lao Mouzi), we will see him in court."
"There is no negotiation over the ownership of New Picture's artists. They are New Picture's children. Zhang Yimou is at best an inducible nurse."
Cao Xuan did not push too hard. After all, there was no mortal enemy between the two parties. As soon as Boss Zhang gave up, Lao Mouzi would take care of the rest.
The right and wrong will be decided by oneself!
But speaking of it, although Lao Mouzi said that he was in trouble this time, he still saved his face, especially for "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling". He was full of resentment and only talked about copyright.
It didn't affect the movie's reputation much, and it left a way for Boss Zhang to survive.
If he really tells the inside story of "The Thirteen Beauties" without any scruples, it will definitely affect the box office.
Regardless of whether he was responsible for his work or he couldn't bear it, Cao Xuan still appreciated this approach.
After all, he is Lao Mouzi's "boss" now, and he still hopes that the new employees will have better character. If they encounter a big devil who wants to kill them all, he will inevitably murmur mentally.
Although it caused some turmoil, fortunately the transition was smooth and the stars were not harmed.
But it can be expected that the grudge between Lao Mouzi and Boss Zhang has not been settled yet, and there will probably be a few more lawsuits and "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins" in the future.
However, Cao Xuan didn't care too much. As long as Lao Mouzi took an opportunity to expose the problem of having more children in advance and eliminate the remaining poison, he would be completely invincible.
Cao Xuan even thought about seeing what big news there was inside Fanxing, and then release it to help Lao Mouzi share the firepower.
If he was willing to sacrifice a little and give birth to a son, a daughter, or something like that, Lao Mou would probably have half of his children left unattended.
It's a pity that Boss Cao is not a self-sacrificial character...
………
Fanxing Building,Office
Cao Xuan gave Lao Mouzi a glass of water. Lao Mouzi stood up and took it, politely declined, and Cao Xuan asked.
"Director Zhang, what are your plans for the next new movie?"
Lao Mouzi covered his tea cup with his hand and shook his head: "For the time being, I have to focus on the later stage of "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling". There are currently no plans for a new movie."
"The company still has a few good notebooks, which I have been keeping. If you are willing, you might as well take a look."
"OK."
Lao Mouzi's eyes lit up. The quality of Fanxing's scripts has always been unparalleled in the industry. He may not care much about scripts saved by other companies, but Lao Mouzi is still somewhat interested in Fanxing's scripts.
Cao Xuan nodded, went to the bedroom next door, and took out a few scripts from the safe on the dark wall.
Lao Mouzi was stunned: "The script is just left in the office. Is it safe?"
Cao Xuan smiled: "This is not a top-secret document. Let the FBI blow it up with explosives. Don't worry, the safety index is still quite high."
It's not that Cao Xuan is too big. His office is definitely the first level of protection in the company. The monitors at the door and corridor are on duty 24 hours a day, and someone comes to patrol every half hour.
The doors and windows are made of security materials, the lock is the most difficult password lock to crack at this stage, and the safe in the house is more theft-proof than some banks.
It is no exaggeration to say that even if the FBI came, they would still have to scratch their heads. Ordinary thieves simply do not have this ability.
If you really have this ability, you won't steal a few scripts. After all, the value of this thing is difficult to estimate, and there is no way to sell the key if you steal it.
If anyone dares to take pictures, why don't they wait for Cao Xuan to catch them?
Lao Mouzi thought the same thing, who would steal the script when they have nothing to do? As long as they keep it secret, there will basically be no theft accidents.
He shook his head and looked through the several scripts in front of him. They all had different themes, including literary films and commercial films.
"Dear", "Hunting", "Superbody", "Maze of the Heart" and "Man Jiang Hong"
The first thing Lao Mouzi watched was "Super Body", one of the two commercial movies, and he put down the book after five or six minutes.
I picked up the historical-themed "Man Jiang Hong" again and read it more carefully this time, but I frowned slightly.
"Yue Fei is not easy to photograph."
Cao Xuan smiled and said nothing. Lao Mouzi finished reading the notebook without saying a word and picked up three other notebooks. As a result, he read slower and slower.
Especially the book "Hunting", I almost held it in my hand and said, "This book is not from China, right?"
"Director Zhang has really good eyesight."
Cao Xuan gave a thumbs up: "I have been keeping the foreign books in my hand since I bought them. I don't dare to take them out easily to take pictures."
"I remember there was a similar case in China, and he was wrongly accused."
"Old man Wang Kangfu has been complaining for half a century, but his case is more of a judicial aspect, and no conclusion has been reached yet. If it is adapted, it will be too sensitive and violate the entire concept of the movie."
Lao Mouzi nodded. The town or small mountain village where the story is set can be fictionalized. You can even blur the time and set it to the background of the Republic of China to facilitate review.
But if there are prototype characters, many things cannot be explained clearly, and it would be troublesome to adapt such an inconclusive case.
Lao Mouzi looked at the notebook in his hand. The more he looked at it, the more he liked it. He bluntly said to take it back and study it. Cao Xuan readily agreed.
He actually hopes that Lao Mouzi will make commercial films, but good commercial film scripts are indeed too rare. It would be good to let Lao Mouzi use his old skills, and win honor for Fanxing.
After putting away the remaining scripts and thinking about it, Cao Xuan left "Super Body" again.
This book was taken from Hollywood, and he deliberately tried to hit Hollywood.
The only hesitation now is who in the company can support this book.
He personally prefers Fan Xiaopang, but the latter's time at Fanxing is running out. From the company's perspective, Liu Tianxian and Damimi are the best candidates.
