Chapter 436 Empathy
After solving the housing problem, Xu Kun focused his main energy on promoting "Assembly".
In the early stage, I mainly participated in talk shows on major satellite TV stations, or accepted exclusive interviews from newspapers and magazines.
Originally, it was planned that Feng Xiaogang would bring Xu Kun, Deng Chao and Huang Xiaoming to the show. These three people had the most important roles and were also the most famous.
As a result, when the day came, Wang Zhonglei came to plead for Deng Chao, saying that Deng Chao was currently filming a TV series produced by Huayi Investment, and the crew was working overtime, so he really couldn't spare the time.
Feng Xiaogang was somewhat unhappy at the time, but Deng Chao had just starred in "Struggle", and his popularity even overshadowed Huang Xiaoming who starred in "The Bund".
If Xu Kun hadn't recently come up with the gimmick of "entertainment industry economist", the popularity might have been overshadowed by him.
In addition, with Xu Kun and Wang Zhonglei helping to speak up for him, Feng Xiaogang didn't say anything in the end, but just replaced Deng Chao with Zhang Hanyu.
Afterwards, Xu Kun called Deng Chao and complained, "What you did was not honest. Director Feng was very unhappy because of the overlapping filming. If it weren't for Mr. Wang and Mr. Liu Heng [Liu Heng is the screenwriter], he would have quarreled with you a long time ago. Now you are doing this again..."
"There's nothing I can do!"
Deng Chao, however, also had his own complaints: "The company took advantage of the popularity of Struggle and gave me several dramas and a lot of advertisements at once. I am so busy now that I don't even have time to call Sun Li. I have to rack my brains to think of how to comfort her..."
Huayi does bear more than half of the responsibility for this matter, but Xu Kun doesn't believe that it is all Huayi's fault. After all, at Deng Chao's level, he already has room for bargaining with the company.
Not to mention that this was originally a movie to promote the company.
If he had taken the promotion of "Assembly" seriously, he would definitely have made time for it in advance - he wouldn't have to set aside nearly two months like Xu Kun did, he could have just attended a few events.
"I don't care about your stuff. Anyway, I have informed everyone who should be informed. If Director Feng is really offended later, don't point to me as a biased person."
After Xu Kun finished speaking, he hung up the phone.
Is there something poisonous about this drama “Struggle”? Why are the leading and second male characters so arrogant?
"Director Xu~"
Xu Kun hung up the phone and was about to go back to review the interview process, but was intercepted by Wang Zhonglei halfway.
Wang Zhonglei smiled and handed over a piece of paper: "Excuse me, if anyone asks about Deng Chao, just say what's written here."
Xu Kun glanced at it and found that what was written on it was: Deng Chao is very regretful. He always calls to say that he and his brothers in the 9th Company were not able to suffer together, and were not able to sacrifice together in the play. Now he cannot follow the large group to promote "Assembly", and he feels very embarrassed.
After reading it, Xu Kun shook the note and asked, "Second brother, has Director Feng seen this?"
"Well, show it to Director Feng later."
Wang Zhonglei said awkwardly, "I won't get into trouble."
Xu Kun didn't say anything else. He nodded and entered the meeting room of the publicity department.
As soon as Feng Xiaogang sat down next to him, the assistant wearing the first generation of leg-exposing artifact diligently placed the process and script in front of him, and showed off her deep cleavage.
hmm~
This girl's center of gravity is too forward, so she definitely can't do action scenes.
While flipping through the script, Xu Kun handed the note to Feng Xiaogang.
Feng Xiaogang glanced at her and sneered, "She's a whore and she still wants to be a saint."
"Then should we build this memorial archway for him?"
"Li, I don't care about anything right now, I just hope the movie can be released safely and smoothly!"
Feng Xiaogang pushed the note back.
So in the subsequent interview programs, Xu Kun helped Deng Chao to "build a memorial archway" - there was no other way, because he and Deng Chao were the only friends among the four people. After participating in the first few interviews, Huang Xiaoming also quietly left the stage, and was replaced by the heroine Qin Lan - Bao Qiang and Ren Xiao also replaced Zhang Hanyu in the middle, but in general, Zhang Hanyu still appeared the longest.
After traveling all over the country for half a month, the premiere of "Assembly" finally arrived.
Huayi spared no expense this time, and held a large-scale celebration ceremony at the BJ Workers' Stadium - this premiere cost a full 1000 million yuan, and the momentum was much greater than the premiere of "Lost on Journey".
But things are sometimes so strange. Originally, the Wang brothers had decided to lose money to gain publicity, and regarded it all as part of the publicity expenses.
Who knew that after the film became famous, sponsors flocked in. Of the 1000 million cost, the sponsors paid 850 million, and the box office revenue of the premiere was 350 million.
After doing the math, I actually made a small profit.
Wang Zhonglei was so proud that he shouted that when "Operation Kunpeng" was released, he must organize a bigger and more lively one.
The premiere was naturally attended by many stars.
With such a big scene, the pressure was naturally great. The leading actor Xu Kun was fine, but Feng Xiaogang was said to have been unable to sleep for two days and could only close his eyes with the help of sleeping pills.
So Xu Fan followed him closely since early morning, and prepared a large bag of antihypertensive drugs, quick-acting heart pills and so on - he also hired two doctors backstage, one Chinese and one Western.
Deng Chao finally showed up, and when he saw Feng Xiaogang, he bent down and apologized.
Feng Xiaogang didn't want to pay attention to him at first, but was pinched by Xu Fan, and asked Wang Zhonglei to mediate, and in the end he just laughed it off and said a few perfunctory words.
This can only be considered a small episode.
What really made Feng Xiaogang unhappy was that he specially attended the premiere of "The Warlords" a while ago and sang praises to Chen Kexin on the spot.
As a result, when it came to the premiere of "Assembly", Chen Kexin did not show up at all, which made Feng Xiaogang so angry that he scolded the people of Hong Kong Island for not following the rules. It was not until Xu Ke arrived that his expression improved a little.
Xu Kun saw clearly from the side that Feng Xiaogang had a certain inferiority complex towards Hong Kong directors, otherwise he would not have taken the initiative to support them and cared so much about whether they responded or not.
This is also a common problem among many mainland film and television professionals today.
Fortunately, the time when the Hong Kong film and television industry truly declines is not far away.
As for the big directors from the mainland, although Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige did not come either, they sent their wives to show their support on their behalf.
Here, Xu Kun paid special attention to Chen Ting, this girl from Beijing Film Academy who is one year younger than him. Although she has not yet obtained a marriage certificate with Zhang Yimou, she has already given birth to two sons and a daughter for Zhang Yimou.
It is said that Zhang Yimou is still strong even at old age. He is almost 60 years old, but he still has three children in five years.
This look obviously caused some misunderstanding.
Chen Hong leaned close to Xu Fan and Jiang Wenli's ears and said with disdain, "Look, look, it's true that young people are still loved. The rest of us have become yellow-faced women that no one likes."
Jiang Wenli didn't say anything, but just secretly took a deep breath and tightened her abdomen.
Xu Fan glanced at Chen Hong in confusion. Although it was not very obvious, she could faintly hear some jealousy in her voice - could it be that Xu Kun lied, and that the two of them really had some secret connection?
However, she could empathize with Chen Hong's self-pity. After all, Feng Xiaogang had just gained a "close female friend" recently.
Originally, Xu Fan didn't care so much about this kind of thing, but the other party could barely be considered her junior. Although they were not related by blood, she still felt a little uncomfortable.
This rabbit doesn't even eat the grass near its nest!
(End of this chapter)
