There are many good directors in Hong Kong, but there are not many directors who are good at emotional dramas and delicate thoughts, the movie "Love Letter" focuses on delicate emotional dramas, and male directors are naturally not as advantageous as female directors in this aspect, otherwise even he Lin Xiaozhi can personally take charge of the filming, so why bother looking for someone else.

There are not many female directors in Hong Kong, and there are only three female directors who are powerful and good at shooting on this kind of theme, including Zhang Aijia, Xu Anhua, and Zhang Wanting. The first two refused to take over the filming of "Love Letter" for one reason or another, and there were not many options left for Lin Xiaozhi.

Zhu Zhishan received the order to contact Zhang Wanting, and Lin Xiaozhi was not idle here, while continuing to write new scripts, he began to think hard about which director in Hong Kong could take the heavy responsibility of directing the filming of "Love Letter". Zhang Aijia and Xu Anhua ran into a wall again and again, which made him worry that Zhang Wanting might not be able to be contacted. After all, at the end of the year and the beginning of the year, many directors in Hong Kong have received jobs, and Chen Baiqiang has already promised to start filming within a month, so naturally he can't delay it any longer.

The new director of "Love Letter" has not yet been confirmed, and Chen Baiqiang gave a reply first. He has also made a few movies over the years, and he can understand a little bit about the quality of the movie, and now the script of "Love Letter" has been starting for some time, at first glance, it seems that the male protagonist does not have many roles, but after watching it carefully, he felt the importance of this role, and the lack of scenes did not affect his preparation for the new album, and he agreed to take over the filming of this movie prepared for him by Lin Xiaozhi early in the morning.

Regarding the choice between the two heroines, Lin Xiaozhi thought about it for a long time. As a youth love movie, the most suitable heroine is undoubtedly the kind of artist who has a certain popularity in Hong Kong and her own image is also a young and beautiful girl. Originally, New Asia did not have such a signed female artist, but after the acquisition of New Yibao Records, there was no shortage, because the most famous girl group in Hong Kong, Happy Girl Group, is New Yibao Records, which is now the signed artist of New Asia Records.

The Happy Girl Group was born in the early 80s, and up to now, there have been eight girls including Luo Meiwei, Chen Jialing, Yuan Jieying, Luo Mingzhu, Bai Annie, Li Lizhen, He Peier, and Lin Yingmei. Of course, some people stay and some leave, Luo Mingzhu was poached by Huaxing Records in 87, Bai Annie also quit the happy girl group because she wanted to go to school, Lin Yingmei changed her name to Lin Yingxian in 87 years and participated in the Hong Kong sister selection and won the third place, and signed a wireless contract that year and left the happy girl group, and now there are only five people left in the group: Luo Meiwei, Chen Jialing, Yuan Jieying, Li Lizhen, He Peier, and among these five people, Chen Jialing, Yuan Jieying, Li Lizhen, and Luo Meiwei's contracts are all due to expire next year, and it is estimated that it will take a lot of effort to sign them.

Among the five girls in the Happy Girl Group, the most famous is undoubtedly Yuan Jieying, with Xinya's "Color is Empty" at the beginning of the year, Yuan Jieying has been popular for a year, and has received five or six large and small movies, with an average salary of about five or six hundred thousand, which shows how popular it is. However, Lin Xiaozhi is not ready to let her star in "Love Letter", on the one hand, he is worried that "Color is Empty" is too deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and on the other hand, he is also ready to knock Yuan Jieying. Xinya Records told him that in recent months, Yuan Jieying's new agent, her father, has more than once expressed to the company that he would improve her treatment, and even threatened to prepare to fly solo, but Yuan Jieying has not expressed his stance from beginning to end, which makes Lin Xiaozhi, who had a good impression of her before, also a little dissatisfied.

Among the other four, He Peier is only sixteen years old, and her stature is also short, and she is more suitable to play one of the two heroines in the middle school version after putting on makeup, and her role is best finalized. Chen Jialing's image is undoubtedly the most suitable for the female version of Yaxi in his heart, and this is also a 'good girl', and has never made any excessive demands with the record company, as 'the most beautiful happy girl, it is no surprise that Lin Xiaozhi is ready to give her the role of the female version of Yaxi in "Love Letter".

As for the other heroine, he hasn't decided yet. Li Lizhen and Luo Meiwei are more suitable for the other heroine of "Love Letter" 'Anna, Li Lizhen is better in terms of beauty, and the future sister-in-law Luo Meiwei is better than Li Lizhen in terms of temperament, so although the senior management of Xinya Records has reflected that Luo Meiwei may not renew her contract with the record company after next year, he is still inclined to the future sister-in-law of Tianwang.

However, soon a phone call helped Lin Xiaozhi finalize his attention, so that he finally gave the role of 'Anna, to Li Lizhen.

"Ah Le, how do you have time to call me? What, what's the matter? ”

On this day, Lin Xiaozhi was in his villa in East Lake, typing a new script on the newly bought computer, and a sudden phone call made him stop typing on the keyboard. After connecting the phone, he was already surprised when he heard that it was Qian Jiale calling, but after chatting with him around the corner, Qian Jiale poured out his intention: "Lin Sheng, I heard that you have a new script in your hand, and you are going to invite Chen Baiqiang to be the leading actor...... Can I ask you, is the heroine of the movie not played yet, hehe, I want to recommend you a candidate, can you see if it is suitable ......"

His words made Lin Xiaozhi smile, "Your news is quite well-informed, so soon I know that I have a new movie in my hand?" Tell me, I'm curious, which girl can you recommend to me? ”

Qian Jiale is the first male artist to sign a contract with New Asia, and Lin Xiaozhi has a good impression of him, so he never puts up a fight in front of him in private, and the two have some personal relationships.

He likes Qian Jiale's personality very much, and the contract signed by Xinya with him before, the salary given for several movies is not high compared to first- and second-tier stars, but Qian Jiale has not complained once. In the past year, Xinya has arranged three movies for him, "Color is Empty", "Water Margin Laughter", and "Idiot Birthday" to him, and in each movie, Qian Jiale thinks that he is the leading actor, and now he is one of the male stars between the second line and the first line in Hong Kong, and the minimum salary for him to take on other film companies is six or seven hundred thousand, and the previous "Frozen Wonder Man" of Golden Harvest asked for a salary of nearly 800,000 yuan, and it was still paid there. Fame has caught up with his brother Qian Xiaohao.

Qian Jiale laughed embarrassedly for a while, and then said: "Lin Sheng, you are now the most famous director and screenwriter in Hong Kong, where can you hide your new movie, the record company has spread it."

When a word slipped through his mouth, he seemed to notice it immediately, so he had to bite the bullet and say, "...... I'm dating Ah Zhen right now, and it's Li Lizhen from the Happy Girls group. She is an artist on Lin Sheng's newly acquired record label...... Well, she wanted me to help ask for a role in the new movie......"

"What are you talking about, Ah Le, you are dating Li Lizhen now......"

Lin Xiaozhi was taken aback, he was not against the company's artists. In fact, in Xinya Film Company, Jiang Hua is pursuing Qiu Yueqing, Sun Xing and Qiu Yuru seem to be procrastinating this kind of thing recently, Lin Xiaozhi is turning a blind eye, and the company does not encourage its artists to socialize but will not be involved. It's just that Lin Xiaozhi couldn't be clearer about who Li Lizhen is in the Happy Girl Group. That is a well-known star in Hong Kong in the future, and he is also one of the confidants of the music king Zhang Guorong.

She is now dating Qian Jiale

Qian Jiale heard his voice a lot higher, thinking that Lin Xiaozhi did not approve of his relationship with Li Lizhen. But the words have already been opened, and I can only admit it stubbornly, "Yes...... Yes......"

After a pause, he continued: "I didn't come to New Asia last year, so I started dating Ah Zhen. I took on a movie called "Uncle Zombie" at the time, because of this movie, I met Ah Zhen, and then I started filming with her."

Seeing that Lin Xiaozhi still didn't reply, he asked again: "Lin Sheng, doesn't the company allow artists to socialize?" ”

His words woke up Lin Xiaozhi, and then he replied: "No, the company does not involve its artists, but it needs to report to the company in advance, so as not to be exposed by the media, and the company is not well prepared."

Although he was surprised how Qian Jiale caught up with Li Lizhen, he was not prepared to get involved in this matter. After thinking about it, I was hesitating, I don't know if the other heroine in "Love Letter" is for Li Lizhen or Luo Meiwei, since the company's current popular actor Qian Jiale has opened his mouth, he is also happy to give this face. Anyway, the two of them can choose whoever they want, and Luo Meiwei's new agent also expressed his unwillingness to continue to renew the contract with the record company, so it should be beaten.

agreed openly, "Okay, it just so happens that there is a character in the movie, and Li Lizhen is quite in line." I'll promise you first, hurry up and tell her to get ready, the movie will start at the end of the month without accident, and the day after tomorrow let her come to the film company to get the script and sign the contract."

Qian Jiale originally didn't have any hope, the reason why he took the initiative to call Lin Xiaozhi was that he couldn't bear his girlfriend Li Lizhen's soft grinding and hard bubbles, and secondly, he had a good impression of his boss Lin Xiaozhi and felt that he was a good talker

Unexpectedly, he opened his mouth, and really asked for a role for his girlfriend from Lin Xiaozhi. Immediately overjoyed, "Lin Sheng, is this true?" ”

"Well, don't worry. You are also an old man in the company, and the company has new dramas to shoot, so naturally we will give priority to our own contracted artists. You just have to coax your little lover, I'll prepare for this, tell her to get ready as soon as possible."

"Good Lin Sheng, I'll let her report to the company tomorrow"

Zhang Wanting's Zhu Zhishan didn't contact her for a long time, according to her studio, she and her husband Luo Qirui, who is also a well-known director, went to Japan for a trip, although Zhu Zhishan entrusted her studio to contact her, but Lin Xiaozhi and they waited for a week, and they didn't wait for Zhang Wanting's reply, but Cheng Xiaodong was led to the door by Zhang Yimou first.

"With a box office of 150,000 in the first week of release, "God of Gamblers" set a new record for Hong Kong films, becoming the first Hong Kong film to exceed 15 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office in the first week."

Cheng Xiaodong flipped through the newspaper boringly, and felt a little bored after reading it for a while, and his eyes wandered around.

"The strength of Xinya Film Company is afraid that it has surpassed our company by a large margin"

Cheng Xiaodong secretly estimated in his heart that he had been in Xu Ke Studio Company for many years, and he had watched the company grow and develop under the leadership of Xu Ke little by little, so he couldn't be clearer about how many families Xu Ke Studio Company had.

When they came in before, Cheng Xiaodong took a rough look around, and there was a full floor of the office of New Asia Film Company. The connection room is so large, and the scale of New Asia's new office has to make him feel emotional, purely in terms of scale, it is nearly twice as large as their own company. I heard that there is another floor up that also belongs to the office of Xinya Film Company, and he will not forget the rumors that some time ago, the young boss of this film company, the wealthy man Kuoshao spent a huge amount of money to acquire two record companies.

It turns out that unconsciously, there is another giant in the Hong Kong film industry.

“…… Maintain the current momentum and develop for two or three years. New Asia will take Debao and replace it......"

I don't know what to do in my head, and suddenly a sentence that Xu Ke sighed at during a casual chat suddenly appeared. No one can deny that the development momentum of New Asia Film Company last year attracted the attention of the entire Hong Kong film industry.

Cheng Xiaodong glanced at the time, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon. Ten minutes ago, they came to Xinya Film Company and were told that the wealthy man had filmed a visit to the crew. Although the secretary's office hung up the phone to Lin Xiaozhi, he said that he would arrive as soon as possible, but after calculating the time and distance, I am afraid that they will have to wait for twenty or thirty minutes.

More than ten minutes have passed in a flash, and he should have come.

Today, they came to New Asia Film Company to sign a contract on the investment of "Qin Warriors". The reason why he didn't come to New Asia until Cheng Xiaodong was because he didn't believe that Zhang Yimou could contact New Asia before, and he was also worried that the money invested by New Asia was too small, the salary was too low, and Yu involved his control over the crew, etc., so he has been taking the initiative to contact other investors to see if he can find anyone interested in this movie.

As a result, Cheng Xiaodong was a little disappointed.

A storm in the northern mainland this year has made many people in the Hong Kong film industry have a certain degree of guilt about cooperating with the mainland. As soon as many people heard that he was going to the mainland to shoot, Yu Crisp directly refused to invest, and some others who were originally interested also postponed the allocation for investment in filming because the company was about to carry out annual liquidation at the end of the year.

For example, the new art city and Golden Harvest he contacted, both of them were willing to invest in him to shoot "Qin Warriors", but the money promised by one family could not be given until February, and the other even said that it would wait until about April next year. Zhang Yimou was constantly urging in his ears, and Cheng Xiaodong was also urged by him after being the most embarrassed, so Yu Crisp didn't think about anything, he directly prepared the investment plan, and came to New Asia with him to talk about this matter specifically.

Lin Xiaozhi's speed was a little faster than they imagined. Just when Cheng Xiaodong and the two looked through a few newspapers in the reception room, he rushed back to the company, and the whole process only took more than 20 minutes.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting......"

Although Cheng Xiaodong asked Lin Xiaozhi to wait a few more days, he was not dissatisfied in his heart. On the contrary, because of the expectation of being able to open up the mainland, I was quite impatient.

"Lin Dong ......"

"Lin Dong is a good ......"

As soon as Lin Xiaozhi arrived, the silent atmosphere in the reception room was finally broken, Cheng Xiaodong and Zhang Yimou were full of smiles on their faces, and they greeted the high-spirited boss of the hottest New Asia Film Company in Hong Kong today.

"I've talked to Mr. Zhang before, so there's no need to gossip, Director Cheng, let's talk directly about the investment in the movie "Qin Warriors"."

Lin Xiaozhi's Yu Lian made Cheng Xiaodong prepare a lot of polite words in his stomach, but he is not the kind of person who likes to chat with others, Lin Xiaozhi's Yu Lian secretly met his appetite and readily agreed.

Li Bihua, who Cheng Xiaodong took the initiative to contact, paid 300,000 yuan to buy the adaptation rights of the novel into a script, of course, he didn't want the director of the film to lose power, so he wanted to take the initiative in the negotiation in his own hands, and took the initiative to say at the moment: "Then let me talk about it first"

gave Zhang Yimou a look, and after seeing Zhang Yimou nodding, Cheng Xiaodong breathed a sigh of relief, took out the agreement he was ready from the bag he was carrying and handed it over. He wanted to lead the negotiation, and he was worried that Zhang Yimou, who was not familiar with this matter, would say the wrong thing and disrupt his arrangement, so he talked to him before, hoping that when they negotiated, Zhang Yimou could honestly stay aside and not answer.

For his request, Zhang Yimou, who had almost spent all his savings in Hong Kong for a few months, could resist and bowed his head and admitted it.

The little tricks of the two of them are all in sight, but Lin Xiaozhi is also quiet. In order to tie up with the mainland, he doesn't mind giving up some profits, provided that Cheng Xiaodong doesn't go too far. Otherwise, he wouldn't mind bypassing Cheng Xiaodong directly and pulling Zhang Yimou over to get another co-production script to co-produce with the mainland.

"Lin Dong, although it is not in line with me to say this, the adaptation rights of Ms. Li Bihua's novel are the scripts that I bought and adapted, so I don't want you Xinya to be too involved in the filming of me and the crew when investing. Here's an agreement I've drafted, so you might as well take a look at it first, and if there's anything you're not satisfied with, we can talk about it again."

His tone was not too tough, so Lin Xiaozhi nodded slightly, took a copy of the agreement and looked at it.

Cheng Xiaodong is not a professional businessman in the end, the draft agreement is not long, Lin Xiaozhi watched and thought, and it only took five or six minutes, with his heavy breathing, Cheng Xiaodong and Zhang Yimou's hearts sank, and they knew that the real negotiation was coming.

Fortunately, the conditions are basically acceptable

Putting the agreement on the table, Lin Xiaozhi lit a cigarette for himself and smoked quietly for a while, as if he was thinking. It wasn't until a cigarette fell into his stomach that he extinguished the cigarette butt and raised his head and spoke, "Director Cheng, if this agreement is not modified, it is impossible for us in Xinya to accept it."

When his words fell, Cheng Xiaodong and Zhang Yimou changed color together. The four eyes all fell on him in an instant, and he didn't notice an arc at the corner of Lin Xiaozhi's mouth, and unconsciously he had broken the momentum that Cheng Xiaodong had painstakingly created and took the initiative in his own hands.

"Director Cheng" Lin Xiaozhi didn't give him a chance to speak, so he took the initiative to attack, "Don't be nervous, let's talk about the inappropriate places, in the business field, I have never seen a deal that can be finalized without negotiation." ”

Cheng Xiaodong couldn't hold back, but Zhang Yimou couldn't hold back, he was the one who couldn't wait the most, this time he completely forgot the silent agreement with Cheng Xiaodong before and didn't take the initiative to speak, Lin Xiaozhi's words just fell, he couldn't help but open his mouth: "Lin Dong, where do you say there are differences, we can talk"

Lin Xiaozhi smiled at him and nodded, "Most of our Xinya can accept this contract, but there are a few things that must be modified. Director Cheng, we Xinya have no intention of interfering in the management of the crew, but it is a rule in the industry to send a producer and finance, and you are not allowed to send a person to Xinya in the treaty, which is not in accordance with the rules. Second, you said that the investment scale of the film will reach more than 6 million, so we are ready to contact other investors, as long as we invest four or five million in New Asia, we can't accept this. If Director Cheng is interested, you can inquire yourself, our investment in New Asia has never allowed others to interfere, although the investment of four or five million accounts for the majority, but it does not meet the rules of New Asia, if we want to invest, we must invest all, and there can be no other investors. Third, when we go to the mainland for filming, we in Xinya also have to send a few people to accompany the team, don't get me wrong, this is just to investigate the filming resources of the mainland, and we have long had the intention of cooperating with the mainland to make films. ”