Chapter 239 Minghua Entertainment Company
Facing the doubtful looks of the crowd, King Liu seemed confident: "There is a character in our movie that fits Mr. Lu's personality very well. If Mr. Lu plays the role, it can definitely be regarded as a true performance."
Then, he joked, "Besides, Mr. Lu has such a good image and temperament, we can edit the content later and use it as a promotional video. Mr. Lu, for the sake of the movie's box office, you have to make some sacrifices."
King Liu made his meaning very clear. He actually wanted to use Lu Yiming's identity and fame to advertise and promote the film.
Lu Yiming didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Good fellow, you ambushed me here."
Although he said so, Lu Yiming still felt the experience of filming was very fresh, so he agreed.
The next day, in order to take care of Lu Yiming and Lin Yuzhen's studies, Wang Jing simply postponed all other shots of the movie and concentrated on filming Lu Yiming and their scenes.
They don't have many scenes and basically no lines, it's purely an experience project.
Taking advantage of the break in filming, Lu Yiming also privately found King Liu and asked him, "What do you think of my previous proposal?"
King Liu frowned and looked serious, still unable to make a decision in his heart: "I have been thinking about this matter, but I still can't figure it out."
Lu Yiming knew exactly what King Liu was thinking, so he suggested, "How about this, you can continue to be based in Hong Kong, and then go to the mainland to test the waters in your spare time. This way you can walk on two legs instead of putting all your eggs in one basket."
When King Liu heard this, the wrinkles on his brows suddenly disappeared a lot, and he approved of it very much: "This is worth a try."
He felt a lot more relaxed as he didn't have to abandon the resources, connections and fame he had worked so hard to accumulate in the Hong Kong entertainment industry.
But Lu Yiming also reminded him: "Although we are based in Hong Kong, some filming resources and opportunities should start to tilt towards the mainland. For example, when casting, it is very important to give more opportunities to mainland actors."
Hong Kong stars often have great regional limitations. Apart from the group that became famous in the early 1980s and 1990s, there has been basically a lack of successors. Over the next decade or so, there has been no new star who can take on the leading role.
On the contrary, the mainland is full of bright stars and talented people, and many of them have even gone beyond Asia and gone global.
This is almost an inevitable result. After all, as the mainland's economy develops, people are naturally more willing to support actors from the mainland. There is nothing wrong with this.
King Liu naturally did not dare to ignore or reject the advice of Lu Yiming, the big boss behind the scenes. In fact, he knew the current predicament of the Hong Kong entertainment industry better than Lu Yiming.
"I will seriously consider Mr. Lu's opinions."
Lu Yiming then mentioned another thing: "I have actually been thinking about this for the past few days. After all, a person's power is limited. There are too many good stories in this world that cannot be filmed. The main reason is that there is no money, no fame, no opportunities, and in the end they can only be buried by time and years. "
Regarding this matter, Lu Yiming sighed from the bottom of his heart: "You know, the golden age of creation is so short, life is short, and if you waste it, you will have no choice but to give up. So I plan to launch a venture capital plan, not only to give more opportunities to mainland actors, but also to vigorously support new directors from the mainland, collect good scripts, and directly film those interesting stories!"
After listening to this, King Liu felt quite sad, because what Lu Yiming said was not only a reflection of reality, but also another little-known side of the film and television industry. It was a microcosm of the life tragedy of many frustrated filmmakers.
After all, there are many people who give everything for movies, but not everyone can win their whole life by betting everything on one shot. Most people, after failing once, never recover from it and are buried in the embers of time.
Lu Yiming directly extended an olive branch to King Liu: "How about cooperation?"
King Liu was quite excited and looking forward to it: "How do we want to cooperate?"
Lu Yiming immediately expressed his idea: "I will invest 100 million yuan, and we will jointly establish a film and television company, focusing on investing in and shooting movies in the mainland. We will set up a venture capital program for emerging directors. You don't have to pay, I will hire you as CEO, responsible for the daily management and operation of the company, and I will give you 7% of the shares."
"One hundred million?"
When King Liu heard this number, he couldn't help but be shocked. This was a huge sum of money that he could not take out no matter what. But to Lu Yiming, it was just a small amount of money that he could easily spend for fun, and it didn't matter even if he lost it.
But he was very confused, after all, there must be something wrong when things are abnormal.
"Mr. Lu, please forgive my recklessness. I have always had a question in my heart: why did you choose me?"
What he meant was that there are still many talented people in the Hong Kong entertainment industry. Apart from him, there are three more of the Four Heavenly Kings.
King Liu is a very pragmatic person after all. Although he really wants to cooperate with Lu Yiming to make money, when Lu Yiming really chooses him and pours money and resources into him, he has a feeling of unreality.
It was like a pie suddenly fell from the sky, but it was a golden pie, which completely stunned him.
"Why is it you..."
Speaking of this matter, Lu Yiming had a lot of memories in his mind.
Around 2004, King Liu himself turned his attention to the mainland, and "A World Without Thieves" was the first mainland film in which he invested and personally starred.
After the film became a huge success, he turned his attention to new talents in mainland China. For this purpose, he set up a special "Asian Rising Star Director" program through his company. King Liu personally invested 25 million Hong Kong dollars to select six young directors across Asia and fund them to make films.
In the end, Ning Jie, the only young director from the mainland who got a spot, stood out among a group of newcomers, and this is how the story unfolds.
King Liu made Ning Jie successful, and Ning Jie, who successfully entered the film industry, made Xu Zheng, Huang Bo, Lu Yang, Guo Fan, Wen Muye and others successful, thus giving birth to first-class domestic films such as "Knife of the Assassin 2", "Dying to Survive" and even "The Wandering Earth".
The initial passing of the torch finally had an impact sixteen years later.
King Liu has made great contributions to the development of the mainland film industry.
There are actors in Hong Kong who have more money and fame than him, but in the end, he was the only one who did such a thing.
Thinking back, Lu Yiming smiled slightly, his eyes were full of affirmation: "Because you are King Liu."
He is not a fan, but if he has to choose one among the Four Heavenly Kings, he will definitely choose King Liu.
In fact, judging from the follow-up, the one who did the best among the Four Heavenly Kings was King Liu.
In the eyes of people today, Lu Yiming is making forward-looking arrangements, but in fact, he is just participating in it step by step according to the trajectory of history, and there is even a suspicion of him usurping the throne.
But does it matter?
It doesn't matter.
As long as the result is that everyone is happy, it doesn’t really matter who does it.
In response to Lu Yiming's answer, King Liu could only smile bitterly.
He was not sure whether Lu Yiming was joking or just being polite, but at least he knew Lu Yiming's attitude and determination, and that was enough.
"Thank you Mr. Lu for your appreciation. After I go back today, I will think carefully about the details of the cooperation and then prepare the company."
Seeing that King Liu agreed to cooperate, Lu Yiming smiled and asked, "What do you think about calling the company Minghua Entertainment Company?"
Liu Tianwang had no objection to this: "It's a very good name."
At the end, Lu Yiming did not forget to remind them: "As an investor, we must make it clear from the beginning that we will not put pressure on these young directors. All risks are borne by us investors. I am not afraid of losing money. The only requirement is that all the films they invest in must focus on the plot and cannot make the audience feel too boring and incomprehensible."
What Lu Yiming hates the most are those crappy domestic films that are labeled as art films. The plots are lame and confusing. What kind of art is this?
Good art can tell a complex story clearly with a simple structure, and the content is thought-provoking.
What some people call art is making simple things confusing and ultimately causing people headaches.
In Lu Yiming's opinion, those directors who cannot "tell stories" well to the audience should leave as soon as possible and make way for other newcomers with better ideas and greater execution capabilities.
That is why Lu Yiming launched the Asian Emerging Directors Venture Capital Plan, which aims to bring together aspiring young filmmakers, discover new forces in the film industry, and provide a development platform with leadership, planning, structure, and a future for young filmmakers who are creative, have attitudes, personalities, and ideals.
At the same time, he was also making plans in the entertainment industry and began his fight for the right to speak.
Lu Yiming's philosophy coincides with that of King Liu.
After listening to Lu Yiming's plan for the future of Chinese-language films, King Liu gave him a thumbs up and even got a little emotional: "Mr. Lu, you are an investor who truly understands movies."
He has come into contact with too many investors, and almost none of them understand movies.
However, these investors are often inexperienced and playful, always like to "show off" their talents, and act like laymen guiding professionals. As a result, the movies they invest in often have all kinds of bugs, all kinds of bloody plots and character settings, which mess up the originally good movies.
"Excuse me, can I join?"
At some point, Wang Jing appeared behind the two people.
After listening to the conversation between the two, he was also very excited about the collaboration between Lu Yiming and King Liu.
Lu Yiming didn't dislike Wang Jing. On the contrary, Wang Jing's filming techniques and understanding of movies were always what Lu Yiming liked.
One thing Wang Jing made very clear was that movies were never something preachy. He never wanted to educate the audience. He has always been using content to bring happiness to the audience.
This is superficial and commercial, but it also coincides with Lu Yiming's ideas.
Most of the audience are ordinary working class people who have experienced 996 or even 007 in their lives, and have been exhausted physically and mentally in exchange for a meager salary. They want to go to the cinema to relax, but as soon as the movie starts, it is a psychological or even physical PUA output to the audience. Who can withstand this ?
Customers are the masters. They spend money to go to the cinema to have fun. Isn’t it enough for you to make them happy?
Whether it is a tragedy or a drama, a horror film or a war film, the ultimate goal should be to satisfy the audience's spiritual desires and demands.
As a result, when I go to the cinema, I have to be taught a lesson by a stupid director like you. Isn't this just asking for trouble?
Can't I just spend the tens of dollars on food and drinks? Why do I have to eat shit in the cinema?
There is no such thing in this world.
Lu Yiming and Andy Lau looked at Wang Jing.
Wang Jing was startled and quickly took out the mineral water in his hand: "I came here to give you mineral water, but I didn't deliberately eavesdrop on your conversation."
Lu Yiming smiled and said jokingly, "This is not a business secret. If you want to join, I have no objection. After all, Director Wang is an experienced director, and you can help promote newcomers."
In fact, it’s not just King Liu and Wang Jing. Some outstanding film talents in Hong Kong are the ones that Lu Yiming wants to cooperate with.
By attracting their participation, not only can one enhance one's own momentum, but also gain strong box office appeal.
Although Hong Kong films are declining, after all, a lean camel is bigger than a horse, and there is still a lot of surplus value to be tapped. No matter how small a mosquito leg is, it is still meat.
The three of them were chatting when they suddenly felt a fragrant breeze blowing, followed by the sound of sweet voices.
It turned out that Lin Yuzhen and others had finished filming.
"Are you done filming? How do you feel?"
Lu Yiming was all smiles. Having just finished talking about some important matters, he was in a very good mood. Seeing the lively and excited figures of Lin Yuzhen and the others, he felt even better.
Wu Qiuya's face flushed, and she chattered excitedly, "This is really a new experience. I think I like this feeling."
Lv Jiajia also smiled and nodded vigorously: "It is indeed a very interesting experience. I feel like I am experiencing another life."
Lin Yuzhen smiled brightly, and even the sweat on her forehead looked crystal clear. When she spoke, her eyelashes were raised high, just like her mood at the moment: "Filming is so much fun. You don't know, when I was shooting the first shot just now, I didn't know where to look. It was so embarrassing... By the way, are we also actors now?"
Lu Yiming took out a tissue to wipe her sweat, then teased: "You guys are just extras now, and you bring money into the group, don't think too much."
Lin Yuzhen was very dissatisfied after hearing this: "Nonsense, Fairy Zixia just praised us for our beauty, we must be photogenic."
Lu Yiming curled his lips and ruthlessly exposed the truth: "That's what people say about high emotional intelligence. Otherwise, why don't they praise your acting skills?"
Lin Yuzhen pouted immediately, and was so angry that her ponytail almost hit Lu Yiming's face: "You, you only know how to attack others, you really deserve a beating."
But then, she put Lu Yiming's criticism of her out of her mind and asked curiously, "I see you and King Liu are chatting so well, what are you talking about?"
Lu Yiming casually replied: "Nothing, I took out 100 million and invested in an entertainment company to support new directors and actors in the mainland."
"One... one hundred million?"
Lin Yuzhen's eyes popped out: "So much money, you can just take it out as you say?"
Lu Yiming was puzzled: "What else? Leave it in the bank and wait for it to give birth? That's too risky. Maybe next time I go to withdraw the money, the bank will tell me that my money has run away on its own. It's better to take it out now and do something to make the investment a reality."
Wu Qiuya was also shocked and couldn't help but worry about Lu Yiming: "That's 100 million, aren't you afraid of losing money?"
Lu Yiming was quite indifferent to this: "It's only 100 million. I can afford to lose it. The key is that I can't miss this new track of mainland movies."
Wu Qiuya was stunned by Lu Yiming's "domineering" response, and she couldn't help but be deeply fascinated by the man in front of her. After all, these days, there are very few people in the country who can afford to lose 100 million.