Chapter 1436: Wishful Thinking

Zhao Fusheng could understand Ye Jing's current state of mind.

Sometimes people are like this—it's common to let a single leaf block one's view of Mount Tai.

We often like to mock those who, blinded by immediate gains, fail to see the truth of things. But in fact, that's just the bystander seeing clearly while the participant is confused.

If you were truly placed in that situation, your own performance might not be much better.

Just like now, Zhao Fusheng also realized that if he didn't have foreknowledge, who would refuse to cooperate with a great director like John Woo and a top Hollywood company like MGM?

Actually, Zhao Fusheng also found it a bit strange. According to reason, "Windtalkers" should have been released long ago, but in this life, it was delayed until now for filming.

The reason he knew so much was that in his previous life, while reading a book by chance, he had come across an introduction to this film. This movie, originally scheduled for release in 2002, had an investment of over 120 million US dollars, not including marketing and other expenses.

And the result?

Global box office was over 70 million US dollars. Because of this film, Windtalkers, not only did the renowned Chinese director John Woo's status in Hollywood plummet, never to recover, but the distributor MGM also suffered a severe blow. After top executives resigned in disgrace, the company struggled on for three years before being acquired by Sony at a high price.

This large-scale war film, with its "big investment, big scenes, and big cast," was indeed spectacular, depicting the complexity and cruelty of war and reflections on humanity. Yet, despite being a war film with "violent aesthetics," it attracted almost no audience.

So, when he saw that report, Zhao Fusheng was nearly scared out of his wits.

Are you kidding me? If that fifty million were invested, wouldn't it mean that Future Film and Television would face the same fate as MGM?

"John Woo may look good now, but look at his previous works, especially those in Hollywood. Did he really rely on his own talent?" Zhao Fusheng glanced at Ye Jing. "How did Mission: Impossible succeed? Others may not know, but don't we? What does it have to do with John Woo? All that talk about violent aesthetics—if he's really that good, why didn't he continue making spy films?"

His words, though somewhat biased, were indeed the truth.

The Mission: Impossible franchise itself was built on Tom Cruise's star power. Even if not John Woo, but someone else directed it, it would still gross over a hundred million at the box office.

In Zhao Fusheng's view, this big shot White Dove had long since run out of steam, as could be seen from his works after returning to the Chinese-language film circle.

Many people always think that if a film has big production, big director, and big stars, it must have good box office; if it doesn't, then the audience lacks appreciation.

In fact, this kind of thinking is a pretty shitty logic.

Why should works by big directors and big stars never be bad films?

Actor Leung would go make a bad film like Europe Raiders, and Wong Kar-wai also made that piece of shit The Ferryman. Self-deception is useless; even if you post a hundred Weibo posts about ferrying others and yourself, and a thousand stars kiss ass saying they like it, a bad film is a bad film, undeniable.

In an era where fundamentals reign supreme and content is suppressed, some things everyone knows in their hearts, they just don't want to expose them.

Upon hearing Zhao Fusheng's words, Ye Jing was silent for a while, then gave a bitter smile: "It's my fault. I only thought about the benefits of this matter, but didn't consider that there might be other reasons."

Obviously, he had now come around.

Just as Zhao Fusheng said, if John Woo and MGM were really that confident, why would they seek cooperation with Future Films?

As one of the big shots in the Beijing circle, Ye Jing knew better than Zhao Fusheng what status China held in the eyes of those Hollywood filmmakers.

Talking about valuing the Chinese market, talking about Sino-American friendship, hah, that's all bullshit.

In the face of real money and benefits, those Americans would even sell out their own fathers, let alone us.

So after thinking it over, there was only one possibility: the Americans themselves were actually a bit unsure about Windtalkers, or they were short on funds and planned to screw us over.

But regardless of the reason, Ye Jing knew that this collaboration could not continue.

"Don't think about the situation in the States anymore."

Seeing Ye Jing's disappointment, Zhao Fusheng smiled and said, "Given the current state of the mainland, do you think they care about our opinions?"

Ye Jing paused, then nodded. "I understand."

He naturally understood what Zhao Fusheng meant. The domestic film market was still small; a box office of a hundred million was something to boast about. Hollywood simply didn't care.

In other words, weakness was the original sin.

If you wanted them to cooperate with you as equals, you first had to become strong yourself.

"By the way, how's the collaboration with the Korean branch going?" After finishing that topic, Zhao Fusheng was about to leave when he suddenly remembered something and casually asked Ye Jing.

Earlier, Future Group's Korean branch and Future Films had set up a collaboration. Liang Jingyu and Ye Jing planned to create a cross-border cooperation project. Zhao Fusheng was quite in favor of it, given that relations between China and South Korea were still relatively good before 2016.

"Overall, it's going well," Ye Jing explained in response to Zhao Fusheng's question. "We recruited some trainees domestically and sent them to Korea for training. We've also started investing in Korean films. The few projects you helped select earlier have been greenlit and are now in production."

Zhao Fusheng nodded. "Cooperate as needed. Korea is different from our domestic market. Tell Liang Jingyu I have only two requirements. First, no shady business. Our trainees sent to Korea must be guaranteed safety. If I find out anyone bullies our people or if any agency forces trainees to do bad things, they'll be waiting in prison. Second, we have to yield some profits to them. Harmony brings wealth; there's no need to lose long-term gains over a little money. Understand?"

"Don't worry, I'll definitely tell him," Ye Jing quickly replied upon hearing Zhao Fusheng's words.

Although he didn't know much about the Korean entertainment industry, he had gathered some information and knew that so-called idols in Korea had very low status, and trainees were even worse off.

But now, judging by Zhao Fusheng's attitude, it was clear he intended to stand up for those Chinese trainees.

In fact, he didn't understand that Zhao Fusheng considered this approach necessary. After all, in the future internet age, there were no secrets. If they didn't take a firm stance now, when everything eventually came to light, Future Group would become a target of public criticism.

Rather than that, it was better to be tough now and protect those trainees.

Of course, all Zhao Fusheng could do was ensure they weren't harmed by those inexplicable unspoken rules. If they lacked the ability to debut, that was beyond his concern.

He wasn't a naive do-gooder, just a businessman with principles.

……

……

Leaving the company, Zhao Fusheng went straight home.

His wife was pregnant, so he didn't linger outside unless necessary.

When he got home, Fan Baobao was chatting with Yang Panpan, whispering about something.

Seeing Zhao Fusheng return, Yang Panpan stood up and was about to speak when Zhao Fusheng waved his hand and said first, "I have something to tell you."

"Me?"

Yang Panpan was taken aback, somewhat surprised.

In fact, she rarely worked as Fan Baobao's assistant anymore. Future Films had assigned a dedicated assistant; Yang Panpan was more like Fan Baobao's bodyguard, accompanying her when she went out to shoot. When she had nothing to do, Yang Panpan stayed at Future Security.

Whether this was Zhang Qian's arrangement, Zhao Fusheng didn't know, but he didn't mind such trivial matters—after all, it was harmless.

In fact, Zhao Fusheng was quite happy to see Zhang Qian find a stable emotional归宿.