Du Gaoxiang couldn't help but sigh when he thought back to that time.
In 2014, Lemon Entertainment had the opportunity to launch a production plan for a big movie "A Big Story".
There were four film investors attracted at that time, namely Hualong Film and Television, Donghai Pictures and Yinshan Pictures, as well as the largest investor introduced at the last minute, Donghai Xihe Financial Investment Co., Ltd.
Five film studios invested a total of 260 million to develop the blockbuster movie "A Big Story".
But as the movie was being filmed, news continued to surface on the Internet that the director of the film crew kept crying about poverty.
For example, the American actor Richard Dorn, one of the leading actors at that time, took a private plane to Chongqing, but the crew only had less than 20,000 yuan, and the hotel deposit was 100,000 yuan, so the director paid for it out of his own pocket.
In addition, the props such as trucks used in the play were also purchased by the director with advance money.
As for why there is no money, of course it is because no one has approved it.
The employer has a multi-level reporting system. If you want to get money, you must go through layers of review, even without an approval person.
According to what the director later said, the actual filming cost of the crew was less than 70 to 80 million.
So, where did the rest of the money go?
The answer is to invite celebrities.
The entire film's funding is divided into two parts. The film crew is responsible for the funding during the filming process, and Xihe Film and Television is responsible for the money for hiring the main actors and special appearances.
But as the director was filming the film, he realized something was wrong. A steady stream of stars suddenly joined the set. The actors' roles were all added by the scriptwriter, the costumes were made, and the scenes had to be newly built.
The entire team of more than 1,500 people was extremely busy. After the final rough cut, the entire film was over 5 hours long. It was such a good movie that it almost became a series.
Why do we invite so many celebrities to support us?
This involves unspoken rules in the industry. It is said that you can manipulate the salary.
In this way, the money that should have been used as the cost of the film was laundered into his own pocket.
One of the methods of manipulation is the yin and yang contract.
The film studio pays the stars a certain salary, but the actual salary of the stars is only half, and the remaining half is missing.
At that time, Yinshan Pictures was the first to discover something was wrong. The person in charge, Wang Rui, stopped the project less than halfway through the filming and immediately withdrew the investment. However, even so, Yinshan Capital, which had been hunting geese all day long, suffered its first loss.
This made Wang Rui quite angry.
"Dahua Jiang Hu" has a good script, a good filming team, and an excellent cast, coupled with a huge amount of investment, which can show the huge potential of this movie.
But what Wang Rui never expected was that Lemon Entertainment would team up with Xihe Pictures to use this movie to launder money.
Almost all of the money invested by the film's investor, Xihe, came from selling financial management products.
In other words, Xihe earned money from ordinary people by selling financial products, and then invested it in "Dahua Jianghu". Then, he put the money into his own pocket through operational means.
This money laundering model makes Wang Rui quite disdainful, but neither Lemon Entertainment nor other investors turn a blind eye to this phenomenon, because part of the money laundered by Xihe will flow into the pockets of these investors through various methods.
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If Yinshan Pictures is willing to join in the conspiracy, then everything will be easy, and everyone will make money. However, Yinshan Pictures is an outlier. At that time, it even almost exposed the scam. Later, after joint pressure from many parties, the matter slowly faded away.
Go down.
Since then, no one is willing to play with Wang Rui, and many companies have even joined forces to boycott Yinshan Pictures.
However, the golden carp is not a thing in the pond.
In just seven years, through Wang Rui's precise investment, Yinshan Capital has continued to grow and has become a unicorn in the entertainment industry.
The projects invested by Yinshan Capital have formed high-quality brands, and many actors and directors have reduced their salaries to join.
Under such circumstances, companies such as Lemon Entertainment have gradually put aside their past grudges and sent their artists to obtain notices of each other's works and programs with a shy face and a smile.
And Wang Rui doesn't seem to want to have a stalemate. Over the years, they have turned a blind eye and got along well with each other.
After that, whether it was Han Yu or Zhou Tingting, the first lady in the draft, their continued popularity was not unrelated to the projects invested by Wang Rui.
Now, knowing that the person controlling all this behind the scenes is actually Wang Rui, the entire Lemon Entertainment executives instantly thought of what happened seven years ago.
"A Big Story" took five years to produce. After its release, the box office was said to have reached 1.4 billion. However, anyone with a discerning eye would know at a glance that this box office is too false. It is very difficult for the entire movie to recover the cost.
Therefore, the film review website scored as low as 3.5 points and had numerous negative reviews.
If not for the participation of many celebrities at home and abroad, the star effect is obvious, and a large number of fans pay for it, this kind of bad movie may not even have a box office of 100 million.
For the public, this movie is a phenomenal loss of blood.
But for investors, it is a sure profit without loss.
The only ones who lose are the ordinary people who buy and sell financial products.
Just because the transaction amount is huge and the number of people is large, when it is spread out, it will appear to be a painless thing on the accounts of every ordinary person.
Although this matter has been criticized for some time, it did not cause any trouble in the end.
But for Yinshan Capital, this is probably the first time Wang Rui has stumbled on such a project. Although he immediately withdrew his capital at that time, Yinshan Pictures' losses amounted to millions. This account seems to be settled now.
Forget it.
"This was seven years ago. Over the years, we have cooperated with Wang Rui many times. We are mutually beneficial and are good partners. Don't talk nonsense."
Du Gaoxiang scolded the board member who was thumping his chest and feet, and solemnly said: "This time, it's just Han Yu's personal situation that affects the company, and it has nothing to do with Wang Rui..."
Although he said this, Du Gaoxiang knew in his heart that this reason was somewhat untenable.
Not many people in the industry know about the relationship between Wang Rui and Fu Yuntao, but those who are attentive can find that behind all Fu Yuntao's works, there is the shadow of Yinshan Investment.
And Du Gaoxiang also knows that Yinshan Capital's continuous growth in these seven years has a huge relationship with Fu Yuntao, the godfather of variety shows.
For Du Gaoxiang, Han Yu's offending Fu Yuntao is equivalent to offending Wang Rui. Therefore, having Han Yu personally kneel down in front of Fu Yuntao to admit his mistake and apologize is the best result.
But so far, it seems that the effect is not ideal.
Du Gaoxiang looked at the mobile phone on the table and fell into deep thought. What did Wang Rui want to do when he didn't answer the phone?
At this moment, the mobile phone on the table buzzed again.
Everyone in the entire conference room looked over.
Du Gaoxiang quickly answered: "The call has been connected?"
"No, no..."
After a pause, the answerer on the other side of the phone stammered and said in a trembling voice: "But Mr. Du, there is something I must remind you... Something happened to our company! Something big happened! Please go online and take a look.