"What can I be busy with? I'm just playing around!" Gao Yuanyuan said with a self-deprecating tone.
This girl can be said to have become famous at a young age. She was known as the "Clear Mouth Girl" for a while. Unfortunately, she only has a pretty face but no talent. She is also a scumbag. After graduating from high school, she didn't even take the exam to art school and went straight to an art school. The university called the Labor Movement Institute is actually an adult education program with barely a diploma.
Li Tang has seen many beautiful girls who rely on their beauty to be sugar daddies or mistresses, using their bodies as bargaining chips in exchange for various benefits that satisfy their vanity.
Gao Yuanyuan probably doesn't belong to this category. She can be considered a little rich woman after so many years of advertising. Moreover, she is still a typical Beijing girl, cheerful and open-minded, but a little playful.
"Oh, Brother Li, I haven't congratulated you yet. You won so many awards this year."
"It's not that exaggerated, I just took two."
Li Tang smiled, but it was too noisy here. He asked again: "By the way, where is Director Xiao Teng? Have you seen it?"
"He is chatting with someone in the box. Let me take you there."
It seemed that Gao Yuanyuan was quite familiar with this place. She led Li Tang through the crowd on the dance floor, walked to the door of a private room, knocked twice and pushed the door open.
There were six or seven people sitting around the sofa inside. When Director Xiao Teng saw Gao Yuanyuan and Li Tang coming in, he quickly stood up and apologized: "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry! I got so busy chatting that I forgot to come out to pick you up. Come on, let me introduce you to some good friends."
In fact, Li Tang knew almost everyone without his introduction.
"Hello, Director Zhang!"
The fat black man with thinning hair and glasses sitting next to the door is Zhang Baibai, the director of the hit drama "Love to the End".
"Hello, Teacher Li!"
The two knew each other, but had never interacted with each other. Zhang Baibai quickly stood up and shook hands with him politely.
"Director Zhang, you are welcome to call me Xiao Li or Li Tangducheng."
Then there was another Director Zhang sitting next to Zhang Baibai.
"Director Zhang Yang, we meet again!"
Zhang Yang, the director of "Love Malatang" and "Bath", Li Tang met him at the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival the year before last.
So Zhang Yang was not restrained, smiled and shook hands with him: "Li Tang, long time no see!"
The tall, thin man wearing a peaked cap sitting on the other side of Zhang Yang stood up and opened his arms to hug him before Li Tang could reach out.
"Brother Zhao, when did you come back?"
That person is Zhao Xiaoding, the photographer of "Hero", and the two of them are not familiar with each other.
"I just came back two days ago. I originally wanted to take a good rest, but they dragged me here."
Zhao Xiaoding looked at Zhang Baibai and Zhang Yang beside him with a look of helplessness.
"Teacher Cai! Teacher Liu!"
The other two, one who looks like Maitreya Buddha, is named Cai Shangjun, and the other is a shaven, energetic young man named Liu Fendou. Both of them are screenwriters who graduated from the Chinese Theater Literature Department.
"Teacher Li!"
Because they were not familiar with each other, they stood up and shook hands with Li Tang politely.
Also standing up with them was a tall, handsome man wearing glasses and with an elegant appearance. This Li Tang looked unfamiliar and seemed to have never seen him before.
At this time, Director Xiao Teng finally came into use and introduced from the side: "This is Diao Yinan. He, Lao Cai, Lao Liu, and Zhang Yang are all screenwriters of "Love Malatang"."
"Oh, Teacher Diao, I'm sorry."
"It's okay, it's okay, Teacher Li, hello!"
This handsome guy named Diao Yinan looks obviously more reserved and less sociable than the others.
After sitting down, Li Tang picked up his wine glass and made a toast. Gao Yuanyuan, who came in together, sat next to him and poured wine for him like a little wife.
Director Xiao Teng couldn't help but twitching when he saw this scene. In their circle, Gao Yuanyuan is just like Xu Qing who was in the Beijing circle more than ten years ago. They are both big and beautiful. At first he was very itchy and tried to catch up, but unfortunately he couldn't catch up. In the past two years, there have been many people like him who have come and gone, but unfortunately, I have never seen this young aunt with anyone. But when Li Tang arrived today, she seemed to be a different person, and even a blind person could see what was going on.
What makes Director Xiao Teng even more unconvinced is that it is no longer news that Li Tang and Fan Binbin are together. Gao Yuanyuan will not know about it, but...
Why?
In fact, Li Tang was also wondering. Logically speaking, Director Xiao Teng, a director from the Nortel Department, was unlikely to be mixed up with this group of people from the drama, because they were completely in two circles.
Even Zhao Xiaoding, director Zhang Yimou's royal photographer, appeared here today. It seems that he has a good relationship with Zhang Yibai, Zhang Yang and others.
The only possibility is that these people are getting together to create a movie or TV series.
Just when Li Tang looked at Director Xiao Teng with questioning eyes, he happened to see this guy looking at him and Gao Yuanyuan with his resentful eyes.
Dare to be affectionate but still have evil intentions!
When their eyes met, Director Xiao Teng suddenly looked unnatural. Even though this guy is just playing around outside, he is actually a very thin-skinned person. In order to cover up the embarrassment, this guy took out a notebook and handed it over and said: "Li Tang, I'm here to see you today. In addition to getting together for the Chinese New Year, Lao Zhang and Lao Liu also made a notebook and wanted you to read it. look."
When Li Tang entered the door just now, he knew it was not just a New Year's party when he saw this posture.
No need to ask Lao Liu, it must be Liu Fendou. As for Lao Zhang, there are two Lao Zhangs here - Zhang Yang and Zhang Baibai. When Li Tang took the script and looked at it with questioning eyes, Zhang Baibai hurriedly said: " This book was mainly written by Lao Liu, I just helped with some suggestions."
Among the screenwriters who graduated from the Chinese Theater Literature Department, Liu Fendou is undoubtedly Liu Fendou. In addition to the "Love Malatang" and "Bathing" that they collaborated on, Liu Fendou also collaborated with another famous screenwriter. Screenwriter Wang Yao co-wrote the movie "Brave New World".
This film directed by Shi Runjiu and starring Xiao Taohong and Jiang Wu was also shortlisted for the Youth Forum section of the Berlin Film Festival. Chief Jia's famous work "Xiao Wu" was shortlisted for this unit.
After Li Tang nodded to express his understanding, he lowered his head and looked at the script in his hand. The title was quite poetic, "Subway to Spring." The only signature is Liu Fendou.
The script was quite thick. It had to be 20,000 to 30,000 words no matter what. He would not finish it in a while. He just skimmed the outline of the story first.
It tells the story of a young couple from Beijing who had been struggling in the capital for seven years. They first faced a career crisis, and at the same time, their relationship developed a seven-year itch. Although the outline of the story is only briefly mentioned, Li Tang probably tells the story of a poor and humble couple who suffered from everything and then both had an affair.
Through this young couple in Beipiao, the love of several other couples was brought out.
Just like the previous creative styles of "Love Malatang" and "Brave New World", they both focus on the emotional world of little people.
In any case, Liu Fendou's name and works are there, and this subject matter is quite new to Li Tang. After he read the summary of the story, he looked up at Liu Fendou and said, "Teacher Liu, is it okay if I take the notebook back?"
In this kind of environment, there is no way to calm down and read the script. Li Tang asked this out of respect for the script.
Liu Fendou hurriedly said: "Of course there is no problem."
Then he turned around and asked Xiao Teng, "How do you say it?"
Since the two groups came together, he instinctively thought that Director Xiao Teng was the director.
As a result, Director Xiao Teng shook his head and said, "Don't ask me about this, you have to ask Lao Zhang."
As he spoke, he nuzzled his lips towards Zhang Baibai.
After working on it for a long time, it turned out that this guy was just a matchmaker.
Originally, it was easy for him to talk to Director Xiao Teng about anything, but facing Zhang Baibai... well, it was a bit hard to talk.
On the one hand, he hasn't read the script yet; on the other hand, this is a movie, and he has an instinctive distrust of Zhang Baibai, a TV drama director with a non-professional background.
For a moment, he didn't know what to say, but fortunately Zhang Baibai spoke first: "Li... uh, I'm sorry, I'll call you Li Tang."
In the past, calling him Teacher Li was just a formal title. Zhang Baibai wanted to close the distance, so it was definitely inappropriate to call him Teacher Li. And he was almost ten years older than Li Tang, so calling him Brother Li was even more inappropriate. He could only follow the younger brother. Director Teng called Li Tang.
"It's okay, Director Zhang, just tell me."
"First of all, I think you are quite suitable for the role of Jianbin in the book. I want you to take a look and think about it..."
Since it was the first step, Li Tang was still waiting for the second step. As a result, Zhang Baibai stopped talking halfway through his words and looked at Director Xiao Teng with a nonchalant expression.
Director Xiao Teng was helpless and had to say: "Okay, let me do it. It's just Lao Zhang who wants to film this movie, but the money is not enough, and he wants you to help with the investment."
Li Tang was speechless. He spent a long time looking for him to invest money.
They say good things don’t go out, but bad things spread thousands of miles. The domestic film industry is so big. Even though Li Tang and Nai An tried their best to keep the overseas profits of "The Third Man" a secret, the news would always leak out. Now everyone in the industry basically knows that his investment in "The Third Man" has made a lot of money.
Moreover, the fact that he rented a house in 798 was originally quite low-key, but after all, it was a place where top-notch artists gathered, and he had rented such a large venue, so the news spread quickly. Even the entertainment news also published news that he was setting up his own business and preparing to set up a personal studio in 798.
The biggest shortage in making movies these days is money, and these news about him will naturally attract bees and butterflies.
The key thing that makes him unhappy is that he has never been in contact with Zhang Baibai and his circle. If they were not short of money, they would definitely not ask him to play the role of Jianbin, the leading male lead.
Obviously, Jianbin is probably Cheng Jianbin. They are both Chinese actors and actresses. Li Yapeng and Cheng Jianbin, the male lead in the first TV series "Love to the End" directed by Zhang Baibai, are classmates, and they are both from Northwest Xinjiang Province.
In addition, the name of the character in the script is that the person with whom Jianbin's wife Xiaohui cheated was named Tiger, which was Zhang Yang's nickname; and the chef was named Wang Yao, one of the screenwriters of "Brave New World".
To be honest, if I had known that today was going to be this round, I wouldn't have come even if I beat him to death. He even complained a little about Director Xiao Teng. You said you have nothing to do, why do you do this kind of thing? It's not like you are the director yourself.
But looking at the earnest eyes of Zhang Baibai and Liu Fendou, even Zhao Xiaoding glanced at them intentionally or unintentionally. Li Tang naturally couldn't speak too harshly, and the people in front of him were all up-and-coming figures in the field of screenwriting. I’m not sure when we will collaborate again.
So he could only ask: "Has this book been reported?"
There are reasons why the General Administration and the so-called underground directors reconciled last year, including Lou Ye, who also lifted the ban early. New regulations were just introduced at the end of the year and will come into effect on New Year's Day 2002.
Those underground films made in the past basically turned a blind eye except that they could not be released. Unless the film was too influential or too public, punitive measures would be taken, and the director would be banned.
But now the new regulations are different. If there is no reporting and no factory label, and if it is really made into an underground film, not only will the director be banned, but the investor will also be held liable and fined up to fifty times. For example, if you invest one million, you will be fined up to 50 million. Who can bear such a large amount of money? If it falls on Li Tang, then he will have no choice but to run away and join my mother.
"Reported." Zhang Baibai said quickly, and then added: "As for the factory logo, we plan to use the one from Qingying Factory."
Qingying Film Studio is Beijing Youth Film Studio, a subsidiary of Nortel, which is used for film homework and production internships of middle school students in the final teaching session. There is a target of three to four feature films every year, as well as several short films. For example, the short film "Criminals" shot by Cheng Er the year before last used the Qingying Film Studio's logo.
"So how far is your current investment?"
Finally, the conversation came to drama. Zhang Baibai's eyes suddenly lit up. He hesitated for a moment, stretched out a finger with an embarrassed look on his face and said, "We are still short of one million."
As he spoke, he explained: "We planned to invest three million in this drama, but Tiger brought in an investor who invested two million, so it's not even close."
Hearing that there was only one million, Li Tang secretly breathed a sigh of relief. After all, things are different now. There are still more than 20 million lying on the account, which is a drop in the bucket. Although most of the figures from the director are unreliable, the total investment is only three million, and even if it exceeds it, it will not be much higher.
Li Tang pondered for a moment and said sincerely: "In this case, let me read the script first and then talk about it. It won't take long, two or three days at most."
Zhang Baibai and Liu Fendou were most afraid of being told that they would wait until I read the script first, and then they would wait for a while. They would give various excuses at first, and in the end there would be no reply at all. They had encountered this kind of thing not once or twice. Fortunately, Li Tang was from Shanghai and was not the kind of person who brags after drinking. He gave them a reassurance in just two or three days.
Zhang Baibai said quickly: "Of course. This time I really bother you."
As he said that, he and Liu Fendou picked up the wine glasses.
Li Tang bumped into them and said with a smile: "Hey, Director Xiao Teng put up such a big battle today, which shows that everyone is on his own. Besides, I have long admired Director Zhang, Teacher Liu, and all the teachers. , I wish I could have the opportunity to cooperate.”
Having said that, everything depends on the script. If the script is not good, there is nothing we can do. But if the script is really well written, even if Zhang Baibai is a rookie film director, he still has some directing experience, and the amount is not large, so it is worth taking the risk.
Of course, since it was Director Xiao Teng who organized the meeting today, he naturally wanted to give Director Xiao Teng enough face. Just to tell them that today I did it entirely for the sake of Director Xiao Teng.
After the serious talk, everyone started chatting while drinking. In addition to Director Xiao Teng and Zhao Xiaoding, Li Tang was familiar with them, Zhang Yang had barely interacted with them, and Zhang Baibai, Liu Fendou, Cai Shangjun and the taciturn Diao Yinan , he is really unfamiliar with it. After chatting for a while, he found that the level of Liu Fendou and Cai Shangjun was quite high, especially Cai Shangjun, who often spoke shockingly.
As for Gao Yuanyuan, she had been sitting obediently next to Li Tang and helping to pour the wine. Even if someone took the initiative to propose a toast to her, she would only taste it briefly and occasionally say a few words to make the scene, but would never take the initiative to interrupt.
It didn't take long. According to the agreement Li Tang made with the driver Shen Lin when he walked in, his cell phone rang an hour later.
He answered with a few "Uh-huh, ah-ah" sounds, then stood up and apologized: "Director Xiao Teng, teachers, I'm really sorry, I have to say goodbye in advance."
Others didn't know, but they still politely asked to stay. Director Xiao Teng noticed something. To be honest, he felt a little bit sorry for Li Tang today, but there was nothing he could do about it. Who said he owed someone a favor? If he owed a favor, he would have to pay it back. He had no choice but to pull Li Tang out to block the gun. Fortunately, Li Tang gave him enough face today, so he stood up cooperatively and said: "Okay, you go and do your work, I will take you out."
Zhang Baibai, Liu Fendou and others also stood up and wanted to see him off together.
Li Tang quickly said: "Stay, teachers, please stay."
At the same time, he specifically said to Zhang Baibai: "Director Zhang, in two or three days, no more than three days, I will definitely give you news."
"Okay, please, thank you, thank you very much."
"Don't be too busy thanking me now. It's better to wait until I finish reading the script. Stay and see you later!"
Li Tang shook hands with everyone and said goodbye with a smile.
Several people stood at the door to see Li Tang, Director Xiao Teng, and Gao Yuanyuan out with clothes and bags, and then watched them go down the stairs. Diao Yinan, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said: "Is there hope this time? ?”
Zhang Bai changed his enthusiastic expression just now, rubbed his sour face from smiling, sighed and said quietly: "Anyway, there will be news in three days at most."
Zhao Xiaoding, who was the most familiar with Li Tang among the few, said at this time: "Li Tang is quite reliable. As long as he agrees and really likes the book, I think it won't be a big problem."
Several people looked at each other, maybe they had eaten hollow glutinous rice balls too many times before, and no one dared to hold out much hope. Zhang Baibai waved his hands a little irritably and said: "If it doesn't work this time, forget it. Anyway, we have two million now. Let's start shooting first. I don't believe it..."
But before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Zhang Yang: "Don't forget, the original promise to invest two million was conditional!"
"Well……"
Zhang Baibai suddenly stopped like a duck with its neck strangled.
(End of chapter)
