Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 332: Finalizing the Script — A Better Tomorrow
November 17.
Pei Qian received a call from Huang Sibo, asking him to come to Feihuang Studio to finalize the script and, incidentally, to settle some other matters related to the film's production.
More than two weeks had already passed since Pei Qian finished writing the script.
During these two-plus weeks, Zhu Xiaoce and the screenwriters at Feihuang Studio had been continuously refining the script provided by President Pei, while also carrying out pre-production preparations.
Now that the script was finally finalized, Pei Qian, as the film's investor, naturally had to go and give his final approval. It was a matter of attitude, after all.
Of course, if Pei Qian discovered that Zhu Xiaoce had altered the script too drastically or significantly weakened its "toxic" nature, he would definitely have a few words to say about it.
When it came to coming up with ideas and making final decisions, President Pei had become increasingly Zen-like.
Because he had realized that no matter what he chose, betrayal would always arrive right on schedule!
When making Ocean Fortress, he had only provided the general direction and let the employees freely handle the details—and the game became a hit.
When making Game Producer, he had painstakingly scrutinized every word, turning Lu Mingliang into nothing more than a tool—yet the game still became a hit.
When investing in Ma Yang, Pei Qian had barely imposed any requirements on the investment direction at all, placing absolutely no restrictions on Old Ma's creativity, and yet…
In short, it was all tears.
Pei Qian realized that, whether he managed a project or not, and no matter how deeply he involved himself, the final outcome always seemed to be the same.
Since that was the case, why bother expending so much effort?
Asking President Pei to once again nitpick every word like he did during Game Producer would be utterly exhausting.
So Pei Qian planned to go to Feihuang Studio, take a casual look around, go through the motions, and try to offer a few "opinions" here and there—just a token act of resistance, and that would be that.
After all, "man proposes, heaven disposes." These things cannot be forced.
Pei Qian arrived at Feihuang Studio's office, where Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce welcomed him into the reception room.
After such a long period of development, Feihuang Studio's staffing was already quite complete, including directors, screenwriters, production assistants, post-production staff, editors, visual effects artists, and more. The entire office area looked lively, with everyone energetically preparing for new productions.
Once inside the reception room, Pei Qian took a sip of tea. The first thing he did was to remind Huang Sibo:
"Although Feihuang Studio is currently thriving, you must never forget the Tengda spirit. High enthusiasm for work is certainly a good thing, but you absolutely must not turn a blind eye to overtime issues, understood?"
Huang Sibo hurriedly nodded. "President Pei, rest assured. All of Feihuang Studio's rules, regulations, and benefits are aligned with Tengda's standards. How could we possibly do something so rebellious?"
Pei Qian nodded, very satisfied with Huang Sibo's stance.
Zhu Xiaoce handed over a thick stack of scripts. "President Pei, this is the completed script. Please have a look. If there's anything in it that doesn't match your original intentions, feel free to point it out, we can revise it repeatedly."
Pei Qian took the thick script, and at first glance, his eyes fell on the title of the film.
Previously, Pei Qian had only written a simple story outline and had not given the film a name.
However, Zhu Xiaoce and the Feihuang Studio screenwriting team had not only filled in the detailed content of the script, but also given the film a title.
A Better Tomorrow.
It also had an English title: "Tomorrow Is Beautiful."
Seeing this title, Pei Qian could not help but secretly give a thumbs-up.
Excellent!
Beautifully done!
This was a script that embodied ultimate toxicity. After watching it, audiences would definitely be plunged into depression.
Yet the film's title did not reflect its poisonous nature at all. On the contrary, it was extremely misleading.
A Better Tomorrow—just hearing the name made it sound like a warm, artsy film. It would definitely lure in a large number of unsuspecting onlookers, perhaps even sweet honeymoon-phase couples.
Wouldn't it get cursed to hell and back?
The word of mouth would absolutely collapse!
Pei Qian nodded slightly and continued reading.
Seeing President Pei nod, Zhu Xiaoce, who was sitting across from him, could not help but feel a surge of excitement.
My script has been approved by President Pei!
My interpretation of this script was completely correct!
Clearly, President Pei also understood the deeper meaning of the film's title. As expected, this was the mutual appreciation that only geniuses could share!
Pei Qian, of course, had no idea about Zhu Xiaoce's excitement. He casually flipped through the thick script, picking out several key plot points to read more carefully.
The originally simple story outline had been expanded into a very detailed script, including set design, dialogue, actions, and more—enough for one to roughly visualize the film's scenes.
Pei Qian had only one feeling:
Poison upon poison!
The previous outline had been toxic enough, but after all, it was just an outline with very brief plot points. Now, however, the dialogues, expressions, and interactions between the female and male leads were all written out in detail. If one imagined the background music on top of that, the toxicity…
It was off the charts.
Pei Qian almost could not bear to read it, it was too miserable!
After flipping through it briefly, Pei Qian confirmed that Zhu Xiaoce and the screenwriting team had not made any changes to the story outline at all. They had simply, faithfully, fleshed out the story and expanded it into a full script.
Not only had the toxicity not been reduced in the slightest, it had actually been greatly amplified by the added details!
At this point, Pei Qian felt largely reassured.
If filmed faithfully, this would absolutely be a script of ultimate, all-encompassing toxicity!
"This script is absolutely perfect!"
"You all did a wonderful job, I'm very satisfied."
Pei Qian gave high praise to Zhu Xiaoce and the screenwriting team for their work.
A smile also appeared on Zhu Xiaoce's face. "Not at all, not at all. President Pei's script was excellent to begin with, we only did some insignificant work."
As the two were talking, Pei Qian's phone rang.
Pei Qian glanced at it—it was Chang You calling.
"Hello? President Pei, I wanted to let you know that the preliminary preparations are basically complete. The office space is set up, and all my brothers have already joined."
"Today we'd like to roughly finalize the phone's product form, including some early-stage task planning. If you have time, could you come over and give us some guidance?"
Guidance?
That was a bit unfortunate.
Pei Qian still needed to stay at Feihuang Studio to discuss the script with Zhu Xiaoce and the others, so he probably wouldn't have time today.
So the question was—
Should he go "guide" the experienced, often-successful Feihuang Studio…
Or go "guide" the dream team, rich in failure experience?
The choice was obvious.
Of course, Pei Qian could have asked Chang You and the others to hold the meeting the next day. But after thinking it over, making everyone wait an extra day just because of this didn't seem to have much point.
Pei Qian felt that he shouldn't interfere too much in OTTO Technology's affairs. On one hand, it might affect the dream team's performance; on the other hand, if he actively stepped in and the phone ended up failing, it would mean President Pei had helped Lin Wan shoulder part of the blame, hardly conducive to Lin Wan having an epiphany and returning home to inherit the family business.
"You go ahead and discuss it among yourselves. I still have some matters on my side, so I won't be coming over."
"There's no need to report everything to me. Just go ahead and do it boldly."
Chang You replied, "Understood, President Pei! Please rest assured, we will definitely complete the task!"
After hanging up, Pei Qian and Zhu Xiaoce continued discussing the script.
Zhu Xiaoce hesitated before saying, "President Pei, there's still one issue that hasn't been settled."
"You've probably noticed as well, the characters in this script don't have finalized names yet. That's because we've been unable to decide whether the protagonist of this story should be Eastern or Western."
"In your story outline, you only vaguely mentioned that this takes place in a future world, but you didn't emphasize nationality or anything like that."
Pei Qian nodded. Yes, this was indeed an issue.
"Since this story happens in a future world, the element of nationality should definitely be blurred."
"Cast foreign actors for the main roles. If suitable ones can't be found, then use domestic actors who speak good English. There's no need to explicitly state their identities in the story, audiences will naturally understand that they're ethnic Chinese."
Pei Qian thought that foreign extras would definitely be more expensive than domestic ones!
Since there was a chance to spend more money, he definitely couldn't let it slip.
Zhu Xiaoce hurriedly nodded. "Right, President Pei, that's exactly what I was thinking."
"However, there may be one problem, namely, it will be very difficult for us to hire major foreign actors, or even actors with average name recognition."
"After all, this is Feihuang Studio's first theatrical film. Overseas, we basically have no reputation at all. Even if we're willing to pay, it would still be hard to get well-known actors to travel all the way to Jingzhou…"
"So the issue of extras is easy to solve. But these few lead roles—especially the male lead and this judge—are tricky."
"These two characters have a lot of screen time and relatively high demands on acting ability."
"So what do you think, could these two roles be played by domestic actors instead?"
Pei Qian thought for a moment. "Sure."
"But… if we can't hire well-known foreign actors, do you really think we'll be able to hire well-known domestic ones?"
Zhu Xiaoce smiled a little helplessly. "They're not easy to hire either."
"But domestic actors, at least, are easier to communicate with, so the chances of securing them are higher."
Pei Qian had originally wanted to say that they could just find a few newcomers from film schools to play the leads. But on second thought, newcomers would demand very low fees, and it wouldn't be easy to spend much on salaries that way.
They really needed to find one or two actors with higher status; otherwise, the budget allocated for actor compensation probably wouldn't get fully used.
But who should they choose? That was another problem.
Suddenly, Pei Qian thought of a candidate.
Domestic actors? I actually know one, and we've even worked together before!
"Exploding Pig Trotter"!
Ever since Zhang Zuting endorsed Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition, he'd been mocked endlessly online. But at some point, the ridicule had gone so far that it turned into fandom instead, bringing him a lot of traffic. By now, even he himself no longer resisted the nickname "Exploding Pig Trotter."
Of course, Pei Qian still remembered this old friend.
Old Zhang was a good friend of Tengda, he couldn't be treated poorly. As the saying goes, "fertilizer water shouldn't flow into outsiders' fields." With such a high-paying acting opportunity, of course it should go to him first.
Even if the movie ended up flopping and getting trashed, the people being cursed would definitely be the screenwriters.
As long as Old Zhang's acting in the film was up to standard, audiences absolutely wouldn't go after him.
Moreover, there was a role in the script that suited Old Zhang perfectly—the utterly despicable judge.
The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more appropriate it seemed. He said, "I'll help out on the casting side as well."
"In a bit, I'll contact Zhang Zuting and ask about his schedule. If we can get him, we can have him play the judge."
"As for the lead roles… you look around, I'll look around too. If we find suitable candidates, we can discuss them again."
Zhu Xiaoce was pleasantly surprised. "Zhang Zuting? If we can get him, that would be fantastic. He's a seasoned veteran actor, his acting is absolutely beyond reproach! And his English is quite good; he could perform entirely in English during filming."
"President Pei really does have an impressive network!"
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