Chapter 612 - A Five-Star Talent Has Turned Into An Ox?
Chapter 612: A Five-Star Talent Has Turned Into An Ox?
Wu Feng had also just heard about this from his friend on that day. At the time, his friend had video-chatted with him. There was an indescribable expression on his face. It seemed like ridicule, pity and even a joke. Anyway, it was very complicated.
In the end, his friend told him about the bet between Su Yang and Big Beard Liu in detail. Of course, it was an exaggerated version.
After hearing that, Wu Feng was completely dumbfounded.
‘500 million yuan at the box office?
‘How is that possible?
‘Even though the total cost of the movie he and Su Yang calculated was 150 million yuan, a lot of it was actually an overestimate for the official biddings.
‘Just like how Su Yang’s 70 million yuan for special effects and post-production only costed 40 million yuan in the end, my production cost has also been cut by almost half.
‘Although there were tanks, weapons, venues and so on included in this movie. However, with the help of the Lingnan military, I’ve managed to save these costs.
‘Therefore, the final production cost of this movie is probably less than 100 million yuan.
‘For a production cost of 100 million yuan, I will be able to recover my costs with about 250 million yuan, which is what I’m expecting.
‘In my mind, it would be good enough if I could earn 200 to 300 million yuan at the box office. I’ll be able to earn back my capital, prove himself and accumulate more fans for the sequel. Then, I’ll be able to turn things around.’
Therefore, Wu Feng instantly understood the complicated expression on his friend’s face.
‘500 million yuan is too daring. That’s doubled already!
‘If there’s really 500 million yuan, Su Yang and myself will be making a killing!’
After hanging up the phone with his friend, Wu Feng calmed down. He thought about it carefully and guessed that Su Yang must have been driven into a corner.
Therefore, he did not take it seriously or complain.
‘After all, Su Yang did give me his complete trust when I needed support the most.’
It was also because of this thought that Wu Feng called Su Yang to discuss the matter. Initially, he wanted to tell Su Yang about the unspoken rules of the entertainment industry and see if there was a chance to salvage the situation.
What he did not expect was that Su Yang actually said that he was serious. He even said that the final box office earnings was not just going to be 500 million yuan, but 600 million yuan!
Hence, Wu Feng was truly stunned.
He did not say anything for a long time. He was stunned by Su Yang!
Finally, he came back to his senses and said with a bitter smile, “Brother Su, you’re too optimistic.”
However, Su Yang said confidently, “Brother Wu, I’m not being optimistic. I’m serious. There’s no point in talking about this now. We’ll see after the movie is released.”
Wu Feng did not say anything for a long time. ‘He’s too confident, Brother Su is just too confident.’
Su Yang seemed to be able to read his thoughts and asked, “Brother Wu, don’t tell me you’re not confident?”
Wu Feng was very honest and forthcoming with Su Yang. “Brother Su, to be honest, it’s not that I’m not confident, but I really think that our movie can’t reach 500 million yuan or 600 million yuan. If it’s 200 to 300 million yuan, I’ll be very grateful already.” Wu Feng had lost too much from the previous movie, hence he was not confident at all.
Su Yang, on the other hand, was much more confident than Wu Feng. He said firmly, “Sure. Why don’t we make a bet as well then?”
Wu Feng did not expect that Su Yang would also want to bet with him. He could not help but ask, “What kind of bet?”
Su Yang replied, “If our box office earnings reach 600 million yuan, I’ll take an additional 10% investment for the sequel.”
When Wu Feng heard that, he said nonchalantly, “Sure, no problem.”
He really did not care.
Firstly, he did not think that Su Yang would win.
Secondly, so what if he won? It would be a good thing that Su Yang is willing to invest more!
Would a director be willing to fork out his own money to film a movie? Probably no one would be willing to.
Movies were a lucrative industry, but if they failed, they would lose everything. The risk was too high.
If it were a famous director, they could have just taken a share of the box office earnings without investing a single cent. If they were to lose money, it would be the investor’s money that was lost. On the contrary, if they earned a profit, they would then receive a huge share.
This was the highest level of a director.
On the other hand, those directors who forked out their own money to invest are all failed directors or extremely confident ones.
However, Wu Feng obviously did not have such confidence.
Therefore, he agreed without hesitation and he felt that he did not lose out.
Thus, a small bet regarding “Wolf Warriors 2” was decided…
After hanging up the phone, Su Yang looked at the schedule. ‘There’s still 10 days before the premiere for “Wolf Warriors”. Wu Feng is planning to start the pre-screening next week, so I could go and promote it.’
With that thought in mind, he uploaded several videos of him recording himself previously to TikTok and Findme app.
The Findme app was now officially taken over by Hangcheng’s team. It was in full swing and the number of users had increased further. Needless to say, Su Yang had always been a big VIP.
Once the video was uploaded, Su Yang’s fans started commenting, reposting and liking it.
The implantation of “Wolf Warriors” also successfully attracted everyone’s attention.
‘Wolf Warriors? Warriors?’
‘Wolf?’
‘What’s it about?’
‘I don’t know…’
Right now, regardless of whether Wu Feng was a director or an actor, he did not have much influence or charisma, so it was normal that no one knew about it. However, Su Yang had tens of millions of fans now, hence with such a push, the publicity’s effect was pretty good. Instantly, many people started to pay attention to Wu Feng and “Wolf Warriors”.
This was especially so since Su Yang was not pushing it raw. Instead, he had added “Wolf Warriors” in his lyrics. Sometimes, he would blatantly add the words, “Wolf Warriors”, at the end of a verse.
“Battle song entering the throat, rust entering the wine, a bowl of hot blood spilling the army’s love. Hey, Wolf Warriors!”
“Familiar with my previous life and looking back to this life, I can smile at the sky above the fiery yellow. Ah, Wolf Warriors!”
Just this random implant had blinded the fans’ eyes. Similarly, it had perfectly avoided the platform’s detection. In fact, the platform probably did not even know what “Wolf Warriors” was.
As a result, the search rate for “Wolf Warriors” began to soar.
After doing all that, Su Yang returned home and went to the [Burning Reincarnation Circus] to check out the results of the competition.
During that round of competition, Zhao Licheng finally broke through the encirclement and became No. 1. He could now be enlisted as a permanent actor.
Sitting on his “throne” in the circus, Su Yang flipped open his notebook and clicked on the actors’ options.
The second page silently opened and it showed Zhao Licheng’s portrait photo. He looked like he had been beaten up. His clothes were tattered and there was blood on his face.
Regardless, the result was good. He had finally won.
Hence, Su Yang clicked [Enlist As Permanent Actor] without hesitation.
Following his confirmation, a notification popped up before him.
[To make a renamed actor a permanent actor requires 200 pounds of raw meat. Do you agree to pay?]
[Agree]
As Su Yang agreed, an emotionless voice rang in his mind. “Reverse Reincarnation.”
After a while, the second page of the notebook spontaneously combusted into ashes, and the notebook automatically flipped to the first page of the [List Of Actors]. Zhao Licheng’s ranking came first and a red seal appeared on his profile picture, [Permanent Actor].
Su Yang was not in a hurry to revive Zhao Licheng. He first took a look at Zhao Licheng’s loyalty evaluation. [Anticipation].
‘A very strange evaluation.
‘But at least it’s positive.’
As for what Zhao Licheng was looking forward to, Su Yang knew that it was nothing more than reviving and seeing his family…
Su Yang clicked on his profile picture again.
[Do you wish to revive this permanent actor?]
[Yes]
Then, Zhao Licheng’s revival conditions appeared before Su Yang.
[The price for this actor’s revival is, 100 pounds of raw meat, 10 pounds of bones, 1 piece of animal skin, 15,000 coins.]
‘15,000 coins?!’
When Su Yang saw the amount of coins, he almost went crazy. ‘That’s too much!
‘3000 coins per star?
‘System, you can’t cheat your father like this!’
However, this was a monopoly business. No matter how expensive it was, Su Yang could only accept it.
Therefore, he left the [Burning Reincarnation Circus] and called Janet to give him the list of items to buy.
Three hours later, Janet returned to the virtual space with a large bag.
Su Yang counted the items. There was a lot of pork meat, over ten large bones and finally a piece of calf skin. ‘Yes, everything’s ready.’
After ensuring that he did not miss anything, Su Yang stood in front of the circus and said silently, [Pay].’
With his payment, the items inside the bag disappeared, leaving behind an empty bag.
At the same time, a yellow teleportation circle appeared in front of Su Yang. The teleportation circle was formed by a few patterns. On the outside was a circle, and inside was a hexagram. On the point where the circle and hexagram intersected, there were some strange-looking symbols.
The hexagram flashed and the teleportation circle slowly activated. A moment later, a figure appeared on the teleportation circle. It was about one meter tall, but it looked very… Long.
‘Long?’
Su Yang was stunned!
Rubbing his eyes, he took a closer look and realized that a willing ox had appeared in the teleportation circle!
It had yellow fur all over its body, a pair of large bull eyes and an oxtail. It looked exactly like a willing ox that could be seen everywhere in the village!
Su Yang was stunned.
‘What the hell is this?
‘I was clearly summoning Zhao Licheng! Why has an ox showed up instead?
‘Where is my five-star talent?
‘Has he become an ox?’
Su Yang was shocked, and so was the willing ox. It raised its head to look at Su Yang, then lowered its head to look at its… Hooves. The ox’s eyes widened and it blurted out a sentence in Mandarin, “F*ck!”
Su Yang’s eyes lit up. “Zhao Licheng, is that you?”
The willing ox looked at Su Yang and nodded. “It’s me, Mr. Su. No, I’m not sure if this is me. What happened to me?”
When Su Yang saw that he was also a little shocked, he quickly pressed down on its head and said, “Don’t be anxious. Calm down. Let me think about this, give me a moment.”
Su Yang thought about it. ‘I’ve never “exchanged” humans before, but I’ve revived Little Monster Beans before.
‘I remember that the [Burning Reincarnation Circus] did tell me before in the guidelines, it stated that after an actor is revived, their race would no longer be the original race and would automatically become a monster. However, they would retain 80% of their appearance and 20% of their compatible items with the appearance of a living being.