Chapter 1332: My Chief and My Regiment

Compared to men, women's interest in certain things comes quickly and fades just as fast.

Mm, I'm talking about curiosity.

Whether you believe it or not, I believe it anyway.

Zhao Fusheng and Zheng Yao had known each other for a long time. Zheng Yao also knew that Zhao Fusheng was not the type to make rash decisions without reason. The guy looked only in his early twenties, but when considering matters, he was more thorough than those middle-aged men in their forties or fifties, even comparable to those old foxes in their sixties.

From initial hesitation and doubt to now calm trust, Zheng Yao had long gotten used to it.

So after Zhao Fusheng finished speaking, although she was a bit suspicious, she still nodded, indicating that she would definitely pass it on to Ye Jing.

Although Jiang Wen would definitely find it baffling, Zhao Fusheng had made up his mind that before he filmed "Let the Bullets Fly," Future Film would never invest in Old Jiang's movies.

It had nothing to do with friendship; his money wasn't blown in by the wind. That Old Jiang was a bottomless pit. Unless Zhao Fusheng was crazy, he would never invest in his films.

Of course, scripts he personally confirmed to be good could be an exception.

After all, a big-name director like Old Jiang still had great uses.

...

...

Fan Baobao had gone out today, apparently to participate in an event at the People's Art Theatre. This was her last performance before leaving, because according to her plan, after marriage, most of her time would be devoted to family, and as for work, she would let fate take its course.

The People's Art Theatre had no objections to this. If it were someone else, they might be accused of putting on airs, but as for Fan Baobao, who at the theatre didn't know that the man behind her was worth billions?

Zhao Fusheng had nothing to do at home and was about to go out when he received a call from Ye Jing.

"There's a script. Come over and take a look," Ye Jing said directly, without beating around the bush.

Generally, he wouldn't call Zhao Fusheng; company matters were basically handled by Ye Jing himself. After all, he was the general manager of Future Film. If he had to consult the boss on everything, what use was he?

But this time, Ye Jing actually called Zhao Fusheng, so Zhao Fusheng naturally took it seriously and immediately agreed.

He called Hu Donghai, who drove him to Future Film.

"Hello, Chairman."

"Chairman, you're here."

Along the way, company management personnel came to greet Zhao Fusheng. He nodded in acknowledgment and finally arrived at Ye Jing's office.

"What's up?" Zhao Fusheng asked Ye Jing as he sat on the sofa.

He was quite interested in seeing a script that would make Ye Jing specifically call him over; it might be one of those legendary dramas he remembered.

"There's a script by Lan Xiaolong. I'm not quite sure about it. Take a look," Ye Jing said without beating around the bush, taking a script from the safe and handing it to Zhao Fusheng. "I've read it; the script is good, but the problem is, the current TV drama market environment isn't great. A good script is useless if the ratings are poor; in the end, we'll lose money."

Zhao Fusheng nodded. Ye Jing's point was valid.

Many people think that as long as the script quality is good, nothing else matters. In fact, that idea is wrong.

Whether it's a movie or a TV drama, while script quality is crucial, whether it can win market favor is also important.

For example, Da Peng's "City of Rock" had a decent script and an acceptable cast, but the timing of its release was off, and the marketing wasn't done well, resulting in a box office flop.

In fact, in Zhao Fusheng's view, the quality of that film was not much worse than the contemporaneous "Never Say Die." It's just that the Happy Mahua team did a great job with marketing positioning, hitting the audience's pulse, and naturally reaped high box office returns.

But as Ye Jing spoke, Zhao Fusheng frowned. His intuition told him that he might have seen this drama before.

The reason was simple: Lan Xiaolong specialized in writing military-themed works.

Picking up the script and glancing at it, Zhao Fusheng knew he was right.

"My Chief and My Regiment" was the name of the script.

It looked a bit strange, but in Zhao Fusheng's mind, he quickly recalled the TV series he had watched.

"Sixty years ago, there was a small town called Chanda on the China-Burma border. A place frequently shelled, it gathered a group of defeated soldiers from all over the country. They were the young master Meng Fanliao, the military doctor Hao Vet, the Northeasterner Milong, Officer Yizhang, the Hunanese Bula, and others.

These people only sought food to stay alive, like living corpses. Then, Division Commander Yu Xiaoqing appeared. He wanted to use these scattered soldiers to reorganize the Sichuan Regiment and airdrop into Burma to join the war. But the small detachment that arrived on the battlefield faced a foregone defeat. The last remaining, led by Meng Fanliao, were forced back into a besieged hut. Outside, Japanese soldiers were closing in. At the critical moment, they were saved by a man calling himself the Chief, Long Wenzhang.

Long Wenzhang's origins were unknown, and he didn't play by the rules, but miraculously, he led Meng Fanliao and his group across the Nu River back to Chanda. What awaited them was not commendation but confinement. And Long Wenzhang was discovered not to be a chief at all, but a lieutenant who had removed his rank insignia and appointed himself. Just as everyone guessed that Long Wenzhang was in deep trouble, not only did he not die, but Yu Xiaoqing appointed him as the chief of the Sichuan Regiment. But what awaited them was a deeper vortex..."

Zhao Fusheng read the script softly, his expression calm.

Ye Jing was a bit surprised; he rarely saw Zhao Fusheng with such an expression, meaning that at this moment, Zhao Fusheng was truly reading the story in the script seriously.

Frowning, Ye Jing opened his mouth to say something, but in the end, he didn't speak.

Compared to Wang Zhonglei, as the head of a film company, Ye Jing, due to his experience, was more knowledgeable. He could also tell that Zhao Fusheng seemed to have a different feeling about this script.

He couldn't explain why; it was purely intuition.

After a long time, Zhao Fusheng put down the script, looked up, and turned to Ye Jing.

"What do you think?" Ye Jing asked Zhao Fusheng.

Obviously, he was asking about Zhao Fusheng's thoughts on this drama.

Zhao Fusheng chuckled: "The script is good, but to be honest, if it's made, it will definitely lose money."

Hearing this, Ye Jing breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Zhao Fusheng hadn't lost his mind and still retained his judgment.

He was really afraid that Zhao Fusheng would suddenly say: This drama must be made even at a loss.

If that happened, he wouldn't know how to stop Zhao Fusheng.

This was no joke. Tens of millions of yuan would be invested for profit. If they couldn't even recoup the costs, good reputation alone was useless.

Having been in business for so long, Ye Jing had long understood a most true principle: reputation can often be manufactured through marketing. Even if a person's private life is utterly chaotic, as long as they put on a facade of a gentleman, they can become a beloved suave uncle through marketing tactics.

So, although he himself really liked Lan Xiaolong's script, Ye Jing still felt that Future Film had better not invest in producing this TV series.

Seeing Ye Jing's relieved expression, Zhao Fusheng suddenly laughed: "What, you think this drama will lose money?"

Ye Jing smiled bitterly: "It's not just losing money; the staff did an assessment. If this drama is made, it will most likely lose a lot."

Any film company has a dedicated department to evaluate scripts, because whether a TV series or movie can be produced and profitable is a quite complex process.

This is an era of market economy, not the old days when a film or TV series was greenlit on a whim. Especially for private enterprises like Future Film, which are responsible for their own profits and losses, if they don't choose carefully, a single drama could bring down the company.

This is no joke. Back in the day, Wong Kar-wai's "Days of Being Wild" cost Deng Guangrong 30 million Hong Kong dollars. When Old Deng gave him the money, they agreed to make two parts. But Director Wong took nearly a year to shoot one film, the budget kept overrunning, and when the movie finally hit theaters, the box office was a disaster, directly causing Deng Guangrong to have a heart attack and be hospitalized.

That was the heyday of Hong Kong cinema. Fat guys like Wang Jing, known as "quick shooters," could make a film in a week. But Wong Kar-wai took nearly a year, and while others could make a blockbuster with eight or ten million, his films, apart from winning awards, basically had no box office.

So much so that when Deng Guangrong accepted an award at the Hong Kong Film Awards, he directly said: "I bought this award for over 30 million Hong Kong dollars..."

MDZZ!

In Ye Jing's view, Lan Xiaolong's "My Chief and My Regiment" was similar. Although the actors in the drama came from "Soldiers Sortie" and their fees weren't high, and the overall production cost shouldn't be too much, the problem was twofold. On one hand, the script dealt with the little-known history of the Expeditionary Force, a sensitive subject. On the other hand, because military-themed TV dramas were not currently favored, such works were hardly likely to find TV stations willing to buy broadcast rights.

In short, making this drama now would be like throwing a meat bun at a dog—never to return.

As the helmsman of Future Film, Ye Jing naturally didn't want to see such a situation arise.