468: Chapter 468: Spelling

August 3rd.

During the time Lin Chuyan was dating on the company's dime, the mainland film market didn't stop, and films scheduled for release kept hitting theaters.

Naturally, he had no time to pay attention to it, as all his energy was focused on "la la land," and at most, he would take a couple of glances at "lotus lantern."

If any good friends in the industry had works coming out, Xia Zhi would take the initiative to help him book a few screenings to show support; in short, he didn't need to worry about it.

Wu Yue had initially followed him to Los Angeles to take a look, but after tagging along for a few days, he returned to the country to hold down the fort.

The reason was simple: Lin Chuyan didn't need his help at all; he just spent every day on set filming... Besides, Director Lin was the loudest person on set, shouting orders everywhere, his word was law, and it seemed like he had even trained this bunch of foreigners quite well?

It was truly training in the literal sense; Wu Yue even saw Lin Chuyan cursing someone out once...

Awesome, this kid has the makings of a director.

He asked about this in private, but Lin Chuyan's answer wasn't wrong: the project is the most important thing and cannot afford errors; if cursing a few times could fix things, then it was well worth it. Also, he was really too busy and didn't have time to talk nicely to people, which likely wouldn't achieve the desired effect anyway. In short, he quite understood Director Du Qiyu now.

So, Wu Yue felt reassured and returned to the country.

Today, another piece of news came in: "Director Yu Jin's 'creation of the gods 2' is premiering tomorrow, and the pre-sales don't seem to be doing very well."

"What do you mean by not very well?"

"It hasn't broken 100 million."

"That does seem a bit low. How much did the first one gross again?"

"Forgot, maybe around 2 billion..." Wu Yue laughed on the other end of the phone, "At the time, some people said it was caught in a pincer attack by your 'pegasus 2' and 'black myth: wukong.' This time, you might have to take the blame again; many people are saying the poor pre-sales have something to do with your 'lotus lantern.'"

"...That's purely his own problem. I filmed 'Yang Jian,' he filmed 'Creation of the Gods,' they aren't even the same thing. Besides, the IP fan base accumulated from the first one is probably limited. If the second one flops too... can there even be a third one?"

"I've already bought tickets. I'm taking your sister-in-law and Xiaobao to see it tomorrow."

"The whole family of three heading out..." Lin Chuyan teased, "You're quite brave."

"I do have an ominous feeling, but..." Wu Yue pondered, "The worst it could be is like the Tang family's fourth young master in the trailer, right? It couldn't possibly be worse, could it?"

Lin Chuyan didn't know what to say. Either way, he didn't have any films being released in the same window, so he felt no pressure regarding this: "Brother Yue, good luck. I've got work to do here, I'm going to get busy."

"Go ahead, go ahead."

After hanging up, Xia Zhi asked, "Brother, are we booking a screening for 'creation of the gods 2'?"

"My teacher was taken off the cast list after the first one, right? Is there any actor in it that I know? I remember Qiao Wei mentioned to me that his scenes were cut..."

"Yeah, Qiao Wei isn't in the credits..."

"Then why book a screening? I don't know a single person in it, no booking!"

Lin Chuyan didn't want to waste money.

...

Although pre-sales didn't break 100 million, Director Yu Jin was a bit optimistic—in this summer season, it seemed like none of the other films could compete, right? His film was the largest in scale.

So there was still a chance. After the release, he would see which way the word-of-mouth went and then promote it accordingly; he should be able to boost the box office a bit more.

The next day, "creation of the gods 2" was officially released.

The word-of-mouth exploded, as expected.

Even Lin Chuyan, all the way across the ocean, knew how explosive it was.

"What? The Tang family's fourth young master is already the best part of this film?"

Wu Yue started cursing on the phone: "Damn it, I really want to kill that bastard Ji Fa."

"...Are you that angry?"

"The kids were there while watching the movie, so I forced myself to suppress my anger, but now the more I think about it, the angrier I get. Seriously, you really should go see it once."

"...Brother Yue, after so many years of friendship, can't you be nicer to me?"

"You're right, I shouldn't let more people eat sh*t; can this film just explode on the spot?"

Not to mention, Lin Chuyan was actually getting a bit curious because of him...

"It's hard for me to explain to you just how rotten this film is; it's hard to find any merits, there's something to complain about everywhere. At the very beginning, when the Primeval Lord of Heaven had his magic power drained, I wanted to leave."

Lin Chuyan was stunned: "The Primeval Lord of Heaven can have his magic power drained? Isn't he one of the Three Pure Ones? By whom?"

"Guess, go ahead and guess."

"Tongtian Jiaozhu?"

"Guess again."

"I can't guess it. Isn't 'Creation of the Gods' just the Chan Sect and Jie Sect fighting? Isn't the second one about that?"

Wu Yue laughed in anger: "By the Great Shang Crown Prince Yin Jiao, who died in the first one."

Lin Chuyan felt like his CPU was about to fry.

"Yes, you heard that right! The Primeval Lord of Heaven wanted to revive him, and then this dead mortal drained the Primeval Lord of Heaven's magic power."

"Holy sh*t, on what grounds?"

"Who should I ask? I really don't know what is going on in Director Yu Jin's little brain. Maybe he just doesn't care; he didn't intend to film it properly." Wu Yue didn't complain about other points to Lin Chuyan, mainly because the other party hadn't seen it yet and it was hard to describe, "Do you know what I'm doing right now?"

"What?"

Wu Yue laughed again: "I'm chatting with Director Du Qiyu! His film 'the mission' is actually already done. I'm thinking, Director Yu Jin probably thinks there's no one competing for the box office in this window, heh heh, but since his film is made like this, we might be able to profit from their dispute and sell it to the platform for an unexpectedly good price!"

After hanging up, Lin Chuyan curiously scrolled through the film reviews for "creation of the gods 2."

[Primeval Lord of Heaven's magic power was drained by Yin Jiao? A power bank drained a nuclear power plant, right?]

[Why are the Four Generals of the Mo family so weird! Why did they become four brainless giants who can't speak? It cracked me up; in the middle, there was a place where the hallway was too narrow, and two brothers squeezed together and couldn't get through, so they started arguing. They just wrote them as low-IQ animals.]

[You didn't want to give Deng Chanyu a Tu Xingsun, but then you had her date Ji Fa? Will you die if you don't have a romance?]

[It's not that romance isn't allowed, but revolutionary love is exceptionally romantic. Don't turn it into brainless little puppy love, okay?!]

[This Wen Zhong is also stupid. Grand Preceptor Wen is such an awesome character in the original work, yet he's being sh*t on by King Zhou?!]

[Who isn't stupid in this film? Isn't Shen Gongbao stupid? Why do these Gu soldiers have to ruin their own side? Are you sick!]

[And Yang Jian has really just become a tool, right? The number one disciple of the third generation of the Chan Sect, and Director Yu Jin, you film him getting his cheek kissed by a village girl? Is it interesting? Is it necessary? You have no conscience! Open your dog eyes and see what Lin Chuyan's Erlang Shen is like next door.]

[You don't know until you compare; once you compare, this Erlang Shen is truly worlds apart.]

Lin Chuyan scrolled through his phone for a long time, and he still saw people comparing him.

He glanced over, and something that hurt his eyes suddenly popped up—is this Smurf also in "Creation of the Gods"?

Looking at the text description again:

[Primeval Lord of Heaven was drained of magic power and ended up becoming this thing? Who can tell me how much money was spent on these special effects? I feel like I could do it too, maybe even better.]

[My husband wanted to turn on the stove to cook today, but he forced himself to hold back, just afraid that if he turned on the gas stove, he would release Yin Jiao.]

It's over, this time it's really over.

Lin Chuyan scrolled through Weibo again and found that the film and television content creator Gao Jun had also posted a review.

Everyone else was just complaining, only Gao Jun was analyzing it seriously.

[Finished watching "creation of the gods 2," and I won't complain about the points everyone else has already complained about. I'll say something different, which is also what I think is the film's biggest failure, and I hope it can bring everyone a little bit of inspiration.]

[My view is that the film's biggest failure is actually the screenwriter.]

[And the failure of failures is that the character Ji Fa was written by the screenwriter to be detested by everyone.]

[Many people are complaining that Ji Fa is indecisive, either running off to surrender alone while the people of Xiqi are fighting bravely, or disregarding the lives of the whole city's people when he needs to make a decision.]

[Well then, my question is: in "creation of the gods 2," can the character Ji Fa be allowed to have such so-called "human choice" moments?]

[Answer: Anyone else can, but only Ji Fa cannot. And it's not because he is a leader or a ruler, but because this is "creation of the gods 2," this is the second part!]

[What is the screenwriters' biggest problem? It's that they seem to have forgotten that "Creation of the Gods 1" had already completed the character development of Ji Fa!]

[At the end of "Creation of the Gods 1," Ji Fa ran away! He has a deep hatred for King Zhou, and he is determined to rebel! Because he knows—King Zhou is lawless!]

[Given this premise, the audience who finished the first one definitely felt that Ji Fa would become awesome in the second one! This is also one of our biggest expectations for the second part!]

[And the result? Everyone knows what happened next...]

[Yes, in the second part, this character is still continuing to be wishy-washy, struggling back and forth...]

[No, what are you struggling with? You're surrendering? Don't you know what kind of person King Zhou is? No, you clearly already knew in the first part!]

[Repeat again: King Zhou is lawless!]

[And the creators of the second part collectively got amnesia...]

[I want to ask the screenwriter: are you filming a "Creation of the Gods" trilogy, or a "Ji Fa" trilogy? You've used two parts' worth of space to develop the character Ji Fa and still haven't finished?]

[Is this reasonable? This is very unreasonable!]

[This is the true fatal flaw of "creation of the gods 2"!]

...

Being criticized and attacked on the very first day of release, Director Yu Jin was really a bit panicked.

But it wasn't over yet; another "rumor" suddenly came, and this time Director Yu Jin really couldn't sit still—

"What did you say? 'the mission' is dropping out of nowhere? How is that possible!"