Chapter 1137: The Protagonist

After teasing Jiang Wen for a while, Zhao Fusheng lowered his head and continued writing the outline of "A World Without Thieves" on the manuscript paper. As time passed, the sun had already slanted westward. Behind the mountains, the sky blazed with crimson and purple, gold and green interwoven, bustling and splendid, like the trademark painting on a cigarette box. The palm and banana trees all over the mountain were baked dry and yellow by the scorching sun. Summer sunsets were swift; dusk was but a moment. Here the sun had not yet set, but there, at the end of the railway, amidst misty trees and hazy green, a sliver of moon had already appeared. The further it went, the whiter and brighter the moon became, like a white phoenix with a plump breast, perched at the bend of the railway, nesting in the fork of a tree.

"You, this story... it's kind of interesting."

Jiang Wen stood behind Zhao Fusheng, hands behind his back, watching him write the outline. After a long while, he nodded and muttered to himself.

Zhao Fusheng paid him no attention at all, writing on his own while recalling the plot he had watched many times.

The film "A World Without Thieves" appeared to be a commercial film, but in fact, it had some humanistic connotations. It was just that when Feng Xiaogang made it in the previous life, he emphasized the commercial nature of the film.

Many segments were filled with the characteristics of Feng's comedy.

Especially the laughs, almost all of them were monopolized by the group of thieves led by Ge You.

Zhao Fusheng also thought this was a good approach. On one hand, Ge You was a natural comedy master, inherently funny. On the other hand, to be honest, whether it was Andy Lau in the previous life or the milk tea actress who later became a director and made films relying on nostalgia to cheat at the box office, their acting skills were really awkward. Especially Andy Lau's Hong Kong-accented Mandarin, which really took people out of the scene.

As for Liu Ruoying's acting skills, it could only be said that she should stick to being a singer—a promising career.

But it must be said that the male and female leads in this film had to be handsome and beautiful, otherwise they would definitely fail to attract the audience's eyes. So Zhao Fusheng was also considering who to cast.

If it were Jiang Wen, his acting skills were fine, but his appearance was still a bit off from the suave and elegant Andy Lau.

Thinking of this, Zhao Fusheng put down his pen, looked up at Jiang Wen, and said, "Old Jiang, who do you think is suitable for the male lead?"

"What do you mean?"

Jiang Wen was a bit baffled. He pointed at himself and said, "Do you have anyone more suitable than me?"

Blinking his eyes, Zhao Fusheng was too lazy to complain about this narcissistic jerk. He said helplessly, "The male lead needs to be handsome and dashing. Are you up for it?"

Jiang Wen said with a perfectly natural expression, "Handsome and dashing—that's me, isn't it?"

When a person is shameless, there is no way to communicate with them.

At this moment, only one thought lingered in Zhao Fusheng's mind: as the saying goes, no matter how loud the alarm clock, it can't wake someone who is pretending to sleep.

"What's with that expression?" Zhao Fusheng's reaction naturally did not escape Jiang Wen. The guy widened his eyes and said to Zhao Fusheng, "I feel like you're cursing me in your heart."

Raising an eyebrow, Zhao Fusheng was quite surprised that Jiang Wen was so perceptive today. Usually, no matter how much he badmouthed him in his mind, this guy never noticed. How did he sense it today?

"Definitely!"

Jiang Wen said to Zhao Fusheng with great certainty, "You must be laughing at me."

Zhao Fusheng decided to ignore him and changed the subject: "Tell me, among male actors in their thirties now, who are both handsome and have box office appeal?"

Jiang Wen thought for a moment, shook his head: "Domestically, it's hard to find. Chen Dao and the others definitely won't act. Honestly, if you don't use me, you'll have to look in Hong Kong and Taiwan."

Zhao Fusheng was taken aback, then realized that in his previous life, Feng Xiaogang must have faced the same dilemma.

Just as Jiang Wen said, the domestic film industry at this time really couldn't produce any representative young male actors.

That's right, representative.

For example, there were actors skilled in performance, like Zhang Hanyu and He Bing, who were all considered skilled and even had good acting chops, far surpassing those artists from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

But the problem was, these people weren't well-known; at best, they were only third-tier artists with no box office appeal.

As for young newcomers like Huang Xiaoming, handsome enough, but the problem was their acting simply couldn't meet the audience's or director's requirements; they'd break immersion in no time.

Feng Xiaogang's choice of Andy Lau and Rene Liu was probably because he really couldn't find any good candidates.

"What, are you planning to look in Hong Kong and Taiwan?"

Seeing Zhao Fusheng silent, Jiang Wen thought he was seriously considering finding actors in Hong Kong, since inviting Hong Kong and Taiwan artists to star in domestic film and TV productions was a decent approach—though the price was higher, at least box office and ratings were guaranteed.

"Not considering it for now." Zhao Fusheng shook his head, denying it. "My main concern now is that if you play the male lead, it'll be hard to find a female lead."

Jiang Wen remained silent.

He naturally understood what Zhao Fusheng meant. After all, whether in terms of status or acting skills, there weren't many actresses in China who could match Jiang Wen.

Generally speaking, unless there was a boss backing someone, the male and female leads in any film were usually of similar status.

Of course, this situation might change ten years later, as sometimes with tight production budgets, investors could only afford one big name and had to make a choice.

Zhao Fusheng remembered a TV series called "The Heart of the Matter" with Hai Qing as the female lead and Wu Xiubo and Zhang Jiayi as male leads. This would be almost impossible in 2016.

The reason was simple: any one of these three could carry a show alone, and correspondingly, their salaries were terrifyingly high.

In an era of soaring production costs, aside from cameos, a show could have at most two big names—that was an unwritten rule.

As for the male and female lead issue, generally, in a film like "A World Without Thieves," even if the female lead's status was lower than the male lead's, her acting skills had to be up to par, not too far behind.

For example, although Andy Lau's acting was average, Rene Liu wasn't much better, but she was also well-known, so they could work together.

With Jiang Wen, the problem arose.

With a Best Actor as the male lead, what level of actress should the female lead be?

This question not only gave Zhao Fusheng a headache but also troubled Jiang Wen himself at that moment.