335: Chapter 335 "Flying Speed ​​2" Roadshow

On January 22nd, the roadshow for pegasus 2 began.

The production team visited four cities in total.

Qingdao in Shandong Province, Shenyang in Liaoning Province, Chengdu in Sichuan Province, and Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province.

Director Chu Dong wanted to arrange more roadshow cities, but it was impossible because the biggest draws among the creative team, Dong Peng and Lin Chuyan, both had to attend the CCTV Spring Festival Gala and return on the 26th for their final rehearsal.

There was no helping it; absolutely no way around it.

Immediately following that on the 27th—the day before Chinese New Year's Eve—pegasus 2 would hold its premiere in Beijing, and all the key cast and crew would have to spend the day at the cinema.

On the 28th, the creative team would have a day off, except, of course, for Dong Peng and Lin Chuyan—they had to stay at the TV station that day to properly prepare for the Spring Festival Gala on New Year's Eve.

The whole process was tight but reasonable.

The roadshow was primarily for promotion. Its purpose was to attract audience interest and anticipation, and it would not show the full movie. Firstly, it was to maintain the movie's freshness and sense of mystery, and secondly, to avoid issues like piracy—after all, for the Spring Festival Movie Season, Director Chu Dong had to ensure everything was foolproof.

The production team for pegasus 2 played the trailer on-site, along with several exciting clips. These included comedic moments and appearances by Dong Peng and Lin Chuyan; honestly, having these few elements was enough to watch. The audience gained a preliminary understanding and feel for the movie, and it also built up quite a bit of anticipation.

Next, they introduced the movie's creative team to the audience, the group shared some behind-the-scenes stories, and finally, they interacted with the live audience.

Because it was the Spring Festival Movie Season, the entire atmosphere at the venue was very joyful. Every time they arrived in a city, the audience's cheers were incessant.

There was no helping it; Dong Peng and Lin Chuyan were just too popular. It went without saying for Dong Peng; with the natural charm of a comedian, there wasn't a single audience member who didn't love him—his audience appeal was just too good. As for Lin Chuyan, it was because it was so hard for people to see him... This was considered his first public appearance after a moment of romance became an Asia-wide hit, so the media couldn't help but pay attention to him. Plus, half the audience on-site were his fans, which made the atmosphere even better.

Lin Chuyan was indeed low-key, and he was only the second male lead, but he still cooperated properly with the necessary promotional activities, sharing many amusing anecdotes from the filming days with the fans off-stage.

When they talked about Dong Peng.

"When we were on the set of pegasus 2, Brother Peng was the person I feared the most, bar none." Lin Chuyan teased them a bit before continuing, "Because after filming, he would often ask me to go out for late-night snacks. You have to understand that I had other projects after finishing pegasus 2 and I was trying to lose weight at the time, so every time I saw Brother Peng, I wanted to hide and run away."

Dong Peng spoke up from the side: "Got it. Next time I'll invite Teacher Ruan and have her bring you along, so you won't be able to hide."

When they talked about Director Chu Dong.

"My biggest takeaway from the pegasus 2 crew was genuinely feeling Director Chu's passion for racing. I remember he strongly supported me in getting my racing license, so I was essentially taking exams while filming. Honestly, I felt a bit embarrassed at the time; it felt like I was slacking off while collecting my salary."

Director Chu Dong: "So when do you plan to join me on the track? Don't forget, I paid for your racing training fees!"

After sharing stories from the set, Lin Chuyan complied with fans' requests and sang a few lines of "Butterfly" a cappella. There were also fans who passionately confessed their love, and he cooperated by making heart gestures for them.

Besides the roadshow, Lin Chuyan also posted a lot of promotional content for the movie pegasus 2 on Weibo; it could be said that he did everything he could.

Lin Chuyan was still very sensible; after all, Director Chu Dong had been genuinely good to him. During filming, he not only let him get his license but also taught him directing techniques, leaked inside information about the New Year's Eve movie season to him, and was very supportive during the premiere of a moment of romance.

...

After finishing a day of roadshows, the creative team inevitably started talking about the Spring Festival Movie Season again.

There were quite a few movies in this Spring Festival Movie Season. Aside from the annual boonie bears movie, the others were quite a mixed bag. But anyone with a discerning eye could see that there were really only two with a chance to compete for the box office championship.

pegasus 2, directed by Director Chu Dong and starring Dong Peng and Lin Chuyan.

Feng Shen, directed by Director Yu Jin and starring Bi Xiang and Li Mujian.

The former was a comedy with 100% "Dong Peng content," bolstered by the good reputation of the first installment. As for the racing elements and such, Director Chu Dong liked them himself, but the audience didn't really care much... But this one had Lin Chuyan.

Lin Chuyan played a gifted race car driver in it. No, was that playing a role? Netizens all knew that in reality, he had broken the official record at the Shanghai International Circuit. Not to mention that a new song, "drifting," would premiere in the movie; movie fans and music fans alike couldn't wait.

Regarding this point, Director Chu Dong had long since brought it out for massive promotion.

This kid was too popular now; wouldn't it be a waste not to promote him? Thus, the promotional posters that were originally designed with Dong Peng as the sole main visual had now become a dual-star display... Those who didn't know might think it was a dual-male lead movie. However, it couldn't be called false advertising, as Lin Chuyan's role was indeed significant.

As for Director Yu Jin's Feng Shen, the male lead could be considered one of the first generation of "little fresh meat" idols, and back in the day, he was a heartthrob whom Ruan Xingyu's mother, Chen Wanyi, had liked very much. The second male lead, Li Mujian, was an old veteran among veteran actors, and Ruan Shan was his fan... This movie really had Ruan Xingyu's parents nailed down.

Besides the lead actors, the biggest draw was actually the subject matter—Feng Shen was also a huge IP. This kind of fantasy genre involving gods and magical battles was sorely lacking domestically, and there were plenty of people looking forward to it as well.

However, everyone knew how difficult it was to handle special effects for this kind of genre. As the Spring Festival Movie Season drew closer, many things were dug up again by netizens.

For example, the movie invested billions to make a trilogy; if the first installment performed too poorly, who knew if the special effects for the sequels could continue... Being this ambitious was pretty impressive.

Another example was when Lin Chuyan auditioned for a role in Feng Shen years ago and was eliminated... Later, because the incident with Feng Liqian blew up, Director Yu Jin released Lin Chuyan's audition video for unknown reasons, and everyone discovered that the Erlang Shen Lin Chuyan auditioned for actually looked quite decent...

As Lin Chuyan became more and more popular, there was a mocking saying online: I wonder if Director Yu Jin regrets not using Lin Chuyan back then, seeing how popular he is now?

Truth be told, Director Yu Jin really didn't regret it.

Using his own people as much as possible without affecting the quality of the movie was standard procedure for him; there was nothing to discuss.

Moreover, in his view, even if he had kept Lin Chuyan back then, the kid wouldn't necessarily be useful to him now.

This matter wasn't calculated the way netizens said it was.

If Lin Chuyan had passed the audition back then, gotten the role of Yang Jian, and joined the training camp, he might not have become popular today—because he likely would have missed out on Director Du Qiyu's a moment of romance.

Therefore, where would the word "regret" come from?

But it was true that this kid was quite good at causing him trouble—the horseback riding video he posted last time was snatched away by him, so what about next time? What would be next? Would the box office also be snatched away by him?

After all, pegasus 2 was the opposing side, the biggest competitor.

Fortunately, Director Yu Jin had confidence in his own movie: as long as the subject matter didn't clash, there was still a great chance. As for Lin Chuyan and Erlang Shen, he believed they would soon be forgotten.