Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 116 Solving hidden dangers
7 p.m.

Xu Zheng is here.

There was also someone beside him whom Zhou Mo had not expected.

Ning Hao.

"Brother Hao, I didn't expect to see you again after just a few hours." Zhou Mo greeted Ning Hao.

Ning Hao had already gotten over his afternoon mood and said with a smile, "This is fate."

Xu Zheng looked very formal in a suit.

"Mr. Wang, Director Zhou."

"You're welcome, sit down."

Wang Changtian introduced: "I called you here this time because Director Zhou is very optimistic about your script and wants to invest in it."

Xu Zheng's eyes widened and he looked at Zhou Mo.

"Director Zhou is also optimistic about my script?"

He had been so worried about finding investment recently that his hair was almost growing out. Now, when he suddenly heard that someone wanted to invest and was very optimistic about the script he wrote, he was a little bit incredulous for a moment.

"Well, Brother Zheng, this script is very well written. The script alone has reached the level of comedy in my mind. The filming effect will definitely be good, so I also want to invest in part of it. What do you think, Brother Zheng?"

When Xu Zheng heard this, he was very excited.

Everyone in the world knows that director Zhou Mo has an excellent vision.

All the movies he disliked ended up being failures.

Similarly, any script he likes ends up performing very well.

"No objection, I have no objection at all."

Xu Zheng waved his hands repeatedly.

Ning Hao saw this and nudged Xu Zheng's shoulder: "I was saying that your script is good, and someone will definitely invest in it in the end."

Xu Zheng wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked, "Then I wonder how much Mr. Wang and Director Zhou plan to invest?"

Zhou Mo and Wang Changtian looked at each other and spread out their palms.

"Fifty million, Boss Wang and I will split it 40% and 60% respectively. We will discuss the subsequent publicity separately."

The number of 50 million was derived by Zhou Mo based on his memories from his previous life.

At the beginning, Wang Changtian told Zhou Mo that Xu Zheng only asked for an investment of 30 million yuan, saying that he would be able to make a good movie.

But Zhou Mo knew very well that Xu Zheng was fooling people.

Thirty million is definitely not enough.

He vaguely remembered that in the later stages of filming of the previous version of "Lost in Thailand", additional funds were added several times.

"Fifty million, fifty million is great." Xu Zheng was overjoyed.

In fact, he had always been thinking about 50 million.

I told Wang Changtian the number was 30 million before, but I deliberately lowered it just to prevent him from refusing.

In fact, he had no idea whether 30 million was enough to make a complete movie.

But directors have always been good at investing.

Let the investors invest their money first. If there is not enough money in the later stage, just let the investors continue to add funds.

Anyway, the movie has already been half shot, and it will definitely not be completed without additional investment.

If the movie starts off well but ends badly, the company will definitely be the one that suffers the loss.

Buy the ticket when you get on the bus.

It’s the same old routine.

Although Xu Zheng has never been a serious director at this moment, as a veteran who has been in the entertainment industry for more than ten years, he is familiar with these skills.

After talking about investment, Xu Zheng began to talk incessantly to the two financiers in front of him about his next plans.

"In fact, I have already contacted Huang Bo and Wang Baobao, and both of them are..."

In fact, Xu Zheng has told these words to different people many times. He brought them up again today just to show Wang Changtian and Zhou Mo that he will make the movie well and will never let down the investors.

In this industry, no matter what your actual level is, at least you have to be good at talking.

Many times, investors don’t actually know whether a movie can make money. When faced with an unfamiliar script, they tend to pay more attention to the director’s fame, the cast, and so on.

Therefore, a new director wants to stand out and wants to get support from investors.

This really tests the director’s storytelling ability.

Of course, the above situations are all done by bosses who are not professionally trained and do not have strong abilities in judging scripts.

Faced with a business director like Zhou Mo who can tell whether a script is good or bad at a glance.

Xu Zheng's idea was to tell Zhou Mo that he would definitely film the script in its original form.

It’s a pity that Xu Zheng threw all his careful thoughts to the blind man.

From beginning to end, Zhou Mo did not listen to what Xu Zheng said.

He was thinking of something else—

The lawsuit of "Lost in Thailand".

In the previous life, after the great success of Lost in Thailand, Huaqi, the company that produced the first film in the Lost series, Lost on Journey, sued Xu Zheng for unfair competition and copyright infringement. Huaqi believed that Xu Zheng named his new film Lost in Thailand to deliberately mislead the audience into thinking that Lost in Thailand was a sequel to the first film in the Lost series, Lost on Journey, which constituted false advertising, and demanded compensation from him.

As a result, Guangxian and Xu Zheng jointly compensated Huaqi 5 million yuan.

"Brother Zheng, I remember you filmed a movie called "Lost on Journey" before, right? And it did pretty well." Zhou Mo asked.

"Yes."

Xu Zheng nodded, not knowing why Zhou Mo suddenly asked this.

Zhou Mo guided him, "Then the name of your film is now Lost in Thailand. Is it possible that it will cause some disputes when it is released in the future?"

Xu Zheng thought Zhou Mo was accusing him of plagiarism again, so he quickly defended himself, "Director Zhou, I wrote this script myself, and it's not plagiarized at all."

Zhou Mo waved his hand: "I didn't say that you plagiarized... What I meant is that since you used the name "Lost in Thailand", you must want to continue the style of the previous "Lost on Journey", but the copyright of "Lost on Journey" should not be in your hands."

"Yes."

Xu Zheng confirmed: "The copyright of Lost on Journey is in the hands of Huaqi, the production company of Lost on Journey. Having said that, I actually did a lot of work on this drama, including directing, revising the script, arranging actors, and supervising the performances. It was just that when I later proposed to shoot the second part of the Lost on Journey series, Huaqi had already applied for Lost on Journey 2, and they didn't discuss it with me much, they just reminded me and sent me an email..."

After a long and eloquent explanation, he was actually still explaining that "Lost in Thailand" was Xu Zheng's own idea and had little to do with Huaqi Company.

In fact, Zhou Mo didn’t quite understand the grudges between Xu Zheng and Hua Qi, and he didn’t care much about it.

In his opinion, this matter is ultimately just a dispute over interests.

As long as it's about money, everything is fine.

"But if you promote Lost in Thailand in the future, you will most likely promote the relationship between the movie and Lost on Journey, which could lead to disputes."

Xu Zheng nodded helplessly.

Seeing this, Zhou Mo suggested: "If that's the case, then let's communicate with Huaqi again and resolve any potential hidden dangers that may arise in the future."

He felt that this matter was not a big deal.

In the past, the dispute over "Lost in Thailand" caused such a big stir. It all came down to the fact that "Lost in Thailand" was too popular. The box office of over one billion yuan was something that would make everyone drool.

Huaqi's subsequent behavior of being humble everywhere was more for the sake of making a profit rather than being suppressed or betrayed as they said.

After all, although they applied for "Lost on Journey 2", they never thought about filming it.

However, all of the above happened after the release of "Lost in Thailand".

But it is only the beginning of 2012, and only the script of Lost in Thailand has been released, and nothing else has been released.

At this moment, except Zhou Mo, no one in the world probably knows how popular "Lost in Thailand" will be.

It doesn’t cost much to ask someone to contact Huaqi and buy the authorization now.

Xu Zheng was actually a little reluctant.

Of course, this reluctance was not directed towards Zhou Mo.

But I don’t want to contact Huaqi.

In his opinion, he worked hard to bring out Lost on Journey. Although the two companies separated later, as half a director and screenwriter, there was no problem for him to use the IP he wrote.

Right now, to film "Lost in Thailand", we still have to deal with Huaqi.

It's really uncomfortable.

Seeing that Xu Zheng didn't say anything, Ning Hao patted him on the back.

Xu Zheng reacted and said quickly, "I'm sorry. I was just thinking about how to contact Huaqi later. Director Zhou, don't worry. I'll take care of it."

Wang Changtian also chimed in: "I'll send someone to work with Xu Zheng on this."

He is still very optimistic about Xu Zheng and is willing to help him a few more times.

After solving the follow-up problems, Zhou Mo prepared to leave.

Wang Changtian had already ordered the power generation and forced Zhou Mo to have dinner with him. Xu Zheng also kept inviting him, saying that he could learn from Zhou Mo and gain more experience.

Seeing that it was getting late, Zhou Mo agreed.

After several drinks, the atmosphere gradually became harmonious.

"Director Zhou, why don't you come to "Lost in Thailand" as a producer?" Xu Zheng suddenly invited.

Zhou Mo thought about it for a moment and felt that it was not impossible.

In this life, after his reminder, the hidden dangers of "Lost in Thailand" in the future will most likely no longer exist.

In this case, if he becomes a producer, he can get more money in the future and improve his fame.

Why not?
"That's fine, but I may not be able to go to the crew often. I also have my own movie to shoot."

"It doesn't matter, as long as Director Zhou agrees."

Xu Zheng didn't really care whether Zhou Mo would really go there.

After all, he invited Zhou Mo not only because he really admired Zhou Mo's abilities, but also because he wanted to take advantage of Zhou Mo's fame when the movie was released in the future.

At this stage, Xu Zheng has no reputation in the field of directing.

　ps1: The thoughts of the characters in this chapter are just the characters' thoughts and do not represent the author's thoughts.

　　Something happened today, so I'm late.

　　Sorry, we'll have more in a moment.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)