Chapter 0931: Harmony Brings Wealth

People always change.

Because from childhood to adulthood, from youth to middle age, from middle age to old age, a person encounters different people and different things. If one could always remain the same as at the very beginning, that would undoubtedly be a joke.

The weight of the word 'growth' is accompanied by the passage of time and the changes in people's hearts.

When Zhao Fusheng first met Jiang Wen, he was still that tough guy who was single-mindedly determined to make good films. But today, Jiang Wen has begun to understand what kind of film works the market needs.

In his previous life, when he realized this problem, it was already the time of 'Let the Bullets Fly'.

Subsequently, 'Gone with the Bullets' and 'Hidden Man' could only be said to be Old Jiang's efforts to blend commercialization with what he wanted to express in his heart. But obviously, he failed.

Perfectly merging personal style with commercialization is not such an easy thing.

Even a top director like Wong Kar-wai, after 'The Grandmaster', made a terrible film like 'The Ferryman', and even dragged down the faces of two handsome guys, Actor Liang and Takeshi Kaneshiro.

As for the so-called 'saving others and saving oneself' and such talk, Wong Kar-wai only posted that Weibo to fool the investors. Poor those celebrities, to suck up to this great director, no matter how much they hated it in their hearts, they had to hypocritically post 'I like it'. It's truly pitiful and laughable.

The entertainment industry is a vanity fair. Anyone who is in it cannot still have any naive thoughts.

Those who think people in the entertainment industry are fools are the real fools.

And the original Jiang Wen would never have realized these things. Most of the time, his thoughts were focused on the films. He was even somewhat stubborn and inflexible, preferring to smash himself bloody again and again.

But in this life, he met Zhao Fusheng, and the two became friends. It has to be said that the saying 'one takes on the color of one's company' is quite reasonable. At the very least, because Jiang Wen interacted with Zhao Fusheng more often, he became much more tactful.

At the very least, he now clearly understands that for a film to succeed, it must first gain market recognition.

Word of mouth and box office are equally important for a film.

For example, Jiang Wen used to think that he could make films however he wanted, as long as he expressed what he liked. Now, while he still wants to make films he likes, he also cares about box office and word of mouth.

In short, Zhao Fusheng has transformed Jiang Wen from a pure literary youth into a pure filmmaker with a literary temperament.

Do not underestimate this transformation. This change is actually very useful for Jiang Wen.

As a director, if he ignores the market, he will eventually be eliminated.

In other words, if Jiang Wen had persisted in his own ways without making any changes, he would inevitably face a dilemma: whether to insist on making what he wants to make, or to give up his ideals and cater to the market.

To be honest, in his previous life, Zhao Fusheng was not clear about how Jiang Wen ultimately chose, because by that time Zhao Fusheng had already passed away. But judging from the current situation in the country, he had actually already begun to try to blend his style with the market; it's just that the results were not very successful.

'You mean, the box office of 'Cell Phone' will definitely be higher than 'The Missing Gun'?' Ye Jing smoked a cigarette and said to Jiang Wen.

Jiang Wen nodded. "I know my own films. 'The Missing Gun' might do well at awards, but box office? Definitely not much. Ten million at most."

Zhao Fusheng shot Jiang Wen a surprised glance, but inwardly he was quite shocked. He had to admit, the guy had a sharp eye for things. As he recalled, in the original timeline, 'The Missing Gun' had indeed never exceeded ten million at the box office.

"Good." Ye Jing nodded emphatically. "Since you say so, I can rest easy."

As the investor, what he cared about most was undoubtedly the returns. Unlike Zhao Fusheng and Jiang Wen, who also had personal grudges against Ma Dajun.

"By the way, I heard that some American film company has already come asking about the rights to 'The Missing Gun.'" Ye Jing finished his cigarette and suddenly remembered something, smiling at Zhao Fusheng and Jiang Wen. "What do you think, is it true or false? Does China Film really value Ma Dajun's work that much?"

"Heh..." Zhao Fusheng and Jiang Wen exchanged a glance but didn't speak immediately.

"I don't think it's necessarily China Film. Could be someone else stirring things up behind the scenes," Jiang Wen said in a low voice.

"You mean Ma Dajun is planning to go independent?" Ye Jing frowned, sounding uncertain.

Jiang Wen gave a sly grin, glancing at Ye Jing and then at Zhao Fusheng. "The Wang brothers have been approaching directors lately."

With that said, there was no need to elaborate further.

After all, from the very beginning, Huayi had been striving to build a star-director, a top male and female lead system. In short, they were taking a boutique route, planning to strike with both TV and film, creating a powerful film and television group.

And Ma Dajun, naturally, was the most favored director at Huayi, which was why they kept greenlighting films for him one after another.

But now, Huayi was approaching other big directors.

So there was only one answer: Ma Dajun might be leaving!

"Looks like the Wang brothers are having a tough time lately," Zhao Fusheng said after a moment of silence, smiling.

"Yeah, my contract was up, but Wang Zhongjun asked me to sign for another year," Jiang Wen said directly, not hiding it from Zhao Fusheng and Ye Jing.

"What do you mean?"

Ye Jing frowned, then looked at Jiang Wen. "He wants to ride on the fame of 'Cell Phone'?"

He was sharp-minded too. The Wang brothers' move seemed random, but in fact, they had already chosen their target—clearly intending to use the buzz from 'Cell Phone's' release to give Huayi a breather, enough time to find a replacement for Ma Dajun.

After all, if Jiang Wen became a big hit with 'Cell Phone,' at least for the next year, Huayi wouldn't show any signs of decline. Even if Ma Dajun left Huayi after finishing 'The Missing Gun,' it wouldn't hurt Huayi too much.

In the end, what Huayi needed now was to stabilize morale.

"It doesn't matter. We can give them that face." Seeing Ye Jing's displeasure, Zhao Fusheng smiled and said, "Don't forget, Huayi once said they wouldn't touch the profits from 'Cell Phone.' Since they've given up real money, we can take a step back and give them a chance."

Going too far is as bad as not going far enough. For Zhao Fusheng, making money peacefully was the most appropriate way to handle things.