Chapter 140: Racing Casting, Doomsday Prophecy
During the May Day holiday this year, domestic movie box office was dismal because of the release of a giant deep-sea crocodile in "Spider-Man 3".

The movie was released on May Day. Faced with this blockbuster with a production cost of 1.5 million pounds, other domestic movies failed to make any splash and all ended up being a total failure.

The result was no surprise. Within twenty days of its release, the box office had reached 1.2 million yuan, overwhelming the films released during the same period.

On the 16th, Gu Wei and Liu Yifei went to the cinema together to watch this movie.

"It's pretty good. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be released in a few days. Let's go watch it together then."

After leaving the cinema, Liu Yifei said.

"Okay, among the movies scheduled for May, besides Spider-Man 3 and Sniper, the only movie worth watching is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

Gu Wei wanted to watch "Apple", but after seeing the comments online, he immediately lost interest. What's the point of watching it without passion?

After getting in the car, Gu Wei and Liu Yifei went directly to her house. He missed the cooking skills of Liu Yifei's nanny a little.

This year's Cannes Film Festival was held as scheduled on the 16th, with "My Blueberry Nights" directed by Hong Kong Island director Wong Kar-wai as the opening film of this year's film festival.

In the villa, after Gu Wei finished his meal, he looked through the news online and saw this message.

……

The next day, Gu Wei brought Liu Yifei directly to Ning Hao's studio.

As soon as I entered, I heard Ning Hao talking about the film market in May.

"It's getting harder and harder to make domestic films now. Since the first half of the year, China Film Group's film schedule has been terrible, and most of the films that do well at the box office are imported."

Ning Hao was wearing his big gold chain, half lying on the sofa and complaining.

"Everyone is here, what are you talking about?"

Seeing Gu Wei and Liu Yifei coming in, Huang Bo stood up tactfully and gave up his seat.

"Director Gu is here, Yifei, sit over here."

Then he went to the next room, moved a stool and sat down next to it.

"What else can I say? It's about the movie. Everyone in the industry is talking about this now. The screening schedule is too concentrated."

Ning Hao sat up straight and continued the previous topic.

"Be content, it's still good now. I think starting next year, the quota for imported films will increase."

Gu Wei's words were not groundless. Han Sanping had talked to him about this matter. The two countries had even gone to the World Trade Center over the issue of imported films.

"Director Gu, you are a great director and you know a lot. This situation will only get worse in the future."

Huang Bo rolled his eyes and asked. As an actor, he was quite concerned about this aspect.

"Don't worry about others, just focus on making the movie. If the movie is good, why worry about the audience not buying it?"

Gu Wei smiled and didn't intend to continue this topic.

"Director Gu, you criticized those people a few days ago, and you did it very well."

Seeing that Gu Wei didn't want to talk more, Xing Aina changed the subject.

"You deserve it, I tell you."

As they chatted, they talked about Brother Chen Kai's new movie.

I heard that Mei Lanfang gave lectures in the island country and every lecture was packed.

The movie hasn't even started shooting yet, but it's already become popular, and there's been a lot of media coverage of it in the past couple of days.

Afterwards, after returning to China, Brother Chen Kai directly announced the start of filming.

Zhang Ziyi has been confirmed to play the role of Meng Xiaodong, partnering with Li Ming.

"She didn't come back because she couldn't make it in Hollywood."

Ning Hao suddenly said this, and everyone present looked at each other, but no one said anything.

"Senior."

Liu Yifei glanced at Gu Wei, the fire of gossip burning in her eyes.

"That shouldn't be the case. Didn't she say she found a billionaire boyfriend?"

Xing Aina asked somewhat uncertainly.

"That's about right. Stop guessing."

Gu Wei laughed, and the others looked at each other and understood.

There is a lot of gossip in the circle, and the conversation started with the star-chasing incident that caused a lot of controversy a while ago.

"I heard that she pursued him for 13 years and lost everything she had. Her father even sold his kidney to raise money to fulfill his daughter's wish."

When Liu Yifei mentioned this, she shuddered all over.

"Brother Hua also suffered an unprovoked disaster. It would be hard for anyone to feel good if they encountered such a thing."

Ning Hao and Liu Dehua have a good relationship and said something.

“You don’t have fans like this.”

Gu Wei glanced at Liu Yifei. She had the most fans present.

"Probably not." Liu Yifei shook her head violently.

As for Huang Bo, he probably doesn’t have many fans because of his looks.

Time passed quickly and the auditionees arrived at the scene one after another.

Ning Hao and Xing Aina went to the next room to start the audition, while Gu Wei and Liu Yifei sat on the sofa and continued to eat fruit.

"Don't you have to audition?"

Seeing that Huang Bo didn't go over, Gu Wei asked casually.

"It was approved yesterday and it's basically settled."

Huang Bo was very happy when talking about this, as this was his first time playing the leading actor.

There were a lot of people coming to audition on site, and it was definitely impossible to finish them all in one day.

At noon, Gu Wei brought a few people to the restaurant next door to have a meal, and Huang Bo shamelessly followed them.

According to him, we are all family.

No one at the table drank alcohol as they had other important things to do in the afternoon.

"Senior, please watch the news. There is a report about you."

After dinner, Liu Yifei and Gu Wei rested for a while at Ning Hao's place.

"Let me see."

Taking the phone, Gu Wei took a look at it.

"'Crazy Racing' starts auditions today, and Director Gu is here in person."

I don’t know if it was the media reports, but Gu Wei noticed that there were obviously a lot more people auditioning in the afternoon.

"Director Gu, Yifei, long time no see."

After Xu Zheng arrived at the scene, he went straight to the office and greeted Gu Wei.

"Long time no see, are you here for an audition as well?"

"Well, I have an appointment with Director Ning. When I saw you, Director Gu, I thought I'd come and say hello."

Xu Zheng explained with a sincere smile.

"Okay, go ahead." "Okay, I won't bother Director Gu anymore."

After a few pleasantries, he went to the next room.

The actors that Ning Hao auditioned were almost all familiar faces in the circle, and there were no so-called handsome men or beautiful women.

Gu Wei stayed here until the afternoon and went back early with Liu Yifei. He just came to fill up the place and didn't need to stay here all the time.

...

In Hollywood, Gong Li was unfortunately not chosen in the end. After consideration, Spielberg finally decided that Cate Blanchett would play the role.

At this time, Gong Li was immediately deflated after receiving the reply from the crew. She gave up many projects for this role, but she didn't expect that she couldn't even get a villain role.

In the hotel room, Gong Li showed a bitter smile.

Then I saw an invitation for another movie, "Young Hannibal", a black horror movie, playing a mysterious island woman.

In late May, Gu Wei was already on a plane to Los Angeles. Interstellar had been in post-production for more than a month, and he wanted to go there to see the latest progress.

By the way, they also had to deal with some other things. The reshoots for "Interstellar" also had to be done, and the corn planted by the crew in Alberta, Canada was already ripe.

Before leaving, Gu Wei also paid special attention to the Cannes Film Awards Ceremony.

In the end, the Romanian film "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" won the Palme d'Or.

American director Julian Schnabel won the Best Director Award.

Russian actor Constantine Larannicu and South Korean actress Jeon Do-yeon won the Best Actor and Best Actress awards respectively, and the island country's "The Forest of Logs" won the Jury Grand Prix.

At the Warner headquarters, Gu Wei looked at the completed special effects shots and nodded slowly.

"How long will it take to get everything done?"

Warner is responsible for 70% of the post-production, and Gu Wei wants to confirm the time.

"Gu, it will take at least four to five months."

The head of the special effects department gave a reply.

After Director Gu got the answer, he didn't stay long and left directly back to the company.

The next morning, at the Tomorrow's Star Film and Television Company, Gu Wei looked at the information that Reid brought over.

The Twitter website has been launched, the company's name has been changed, and the first tweet has been posted.

"The other party was only willing to release 20% of the equity in the first round of financing. Our company has already contacted them and they agreed to our participation in the investment."

"Twitter has been very popular recently and has been growing very fast, which has attracted the attention of many investment companies," Reid explained.

"Well, keep an eye on them and buy as many shares as possible at a premium if necessary."

Reid had great trust in Gu Wei's vision and nodded vigorously in agreement.

"How are the people from China who came here to study? How is it going?"

Gu Wei leaned back on the sofa and asked about this matter.

"They are very serious and mastered the machines and theoretical knowledge very quickly. Several of them stood out and were praised by their instructors."

Gu Wei nodded and then showed a satisfied smile. The Chinese are still very outstanding in this regard. As long as they have the opportunity, they will be no worse than anyone else.

"Another group of personnel will arrive next month. You will be responsible for making the arrangements then."

"no problem."

"Boss, recently other companies have been inquiring about the scripts we registered and are planning to purchase the copyright."

"which company?"

"Columbia Company, they inquired several times and were willing to pay a high price for it."

“Is it the movie ‘2012’?”

“Yes, boss, are we selling it?”

Ryder inquired.

"No, turn them down and say we're going to make the film ourselves."

Gu Wei registered this script a long time ago, but considering the investment cost, it has not been launched yet.

He plans to make a 3D version of this movie, which will be released in late 09 or early 10, so that the movie can be released in 12, which is a gimmick.

There is no need to rush the filming of the movie, but the promotion can start in advance.

“You go and reply to Columbia and post this news online.

Then find an Internet company to publicize the Mayan civilization's prediction of the end of the world in 2012."

"Understood. I'll arrange it right away."

Reid immediately understood Gu Wei's idea and set about doing it.

...

Ryder acted quickly, and the next day the Hollywood media reported that the company had refused Columbia's request to purchase the script rights.

"Director Gu Wei's next new film is expected to cost 3 million US dollars."

"The Mayan civilization predicted that the world would end in 2012."

"Reject the high-paying acquisition from Columbia Company."

"What kind of script is it that makes several big companies fight for it?"

...

Various discussions began to appear on the Internet, and many people began to inquire about the content of the script.

At this time, the Hollywood Writers Association announced that it would not disclose the specific content of the script. Once the report came out, it attracted the attention of a large number of people.

Invisibly, it added a lot of popularity to Gu Wei and the movie "Interstellar".

"Who told you that? That's not true. What 300 million US dollars? I'd rather make more movies with that money. I'm done."

As the news from Hollywood spread back to China, Gu Wei was the first to receive a call from China, asking about the news of the movie, and he had to explain a lot.

In addition to domestic companies, many other companies in Hollywood also asked him about this matter. Warner and Universal called him one after another, hoping to cooperate.

Later, Gu Wei received calls from Leonardo, Will Smith and Matt Damon, and it took him a lot of effort to explain everything.

The popularity of any news in Hollywood is only temporary. Gu Wei arranged for Reid to make some doomsday predictions from time to time to attract attention, but he did not have to focus all his energy on this.

The special effects production of "Interstellar" is proceeding smoothly and orderly.

In China, the new movie "Contract Lover" directed by Zhang Jianting started shooting in the capital. This is also Fan Binbin's first movie after leaving Huayi Company. He partnered with Richie Jen and attracted the attention of many netizens.

Gu Wei only remembered that the songs in the movie were pretty good and nice to listen to.

Director Chen Kexin, who had just finished filming "The Warlords", didn't know if this was a sudden move or for the promotion of the movie.

He criticized the extravagant style of costume films online and directly mentioned "The Promise" and "Curse of the Golden Flower".

Some people say that these films only focus on luxurious scenes and ignore the content of the story itself, but his new film goes the other way. Both the set and the actors' props and costumes are shabby and full of age.

My goodness, the investment in this movie is so huge, but it is made like a refugee camp. I guess they took a lot of kickbacks.

When Gu Wei saw this news, he thought silently in his heart.

Poor director Chen Kai, he just made netizens forget about this movie, and now it’s being brought up again.

...

(End of this chapter)