581: Chapter 581 The New Company!

...

Gunfights, action scenes, a pure commercial blockbuster, and a husband-and-wife duo teaming up... The anticipation is truly off the charts.

Many people rushed over to Douban to check, only to find that the entry had already been created. There was no poster, and the cast and crew list only credited Director Lin Chuyan, with Lin Chuyan and Ruan Xingyu as the leads, but the synopsis was surprisingly detailed!

"Married for over 7 years, life is as bland as plain water... Marriage is like a grave, leaving them living a stagnant life..."

Netizens: "Huh? Are you sure you're talking about your own married life?"

However, reading further:

"John and Jane belong to two different secret assassin agencies, but neither knows the other's professional identity..."

"An inevitable fratricidal conflict ensues..."

Netizens: "What the f*ck? Fratricidal conflict? What does that mean? Who against whom? You two?!"

["Look, this is what marriage brings to people!"]

["Wait, does this count as a public display of affection? Who taught you to show off your love like this?"]

["Hurry, hurry, hurry! I want to see Xingxing beat the hell out of Lin Chuyan!"]

A single Weibo post from Lin Chuyan immediately sent "mr. & mrs. smith" trending.

#mr. & mrs. smith#

That wasn't all; Lin Chuyan's second Weibo post followed.

"Weren't you asking for domestic films? We have them, and they're coming soon."

Director Yang Xiaozhou's "ne zha" finally had some new progress. The final cut wasn't ready yet, of course, so Lin Chuyan had to contain his excitement, but he could still post on Weibo.

["Announcing some good news: The domestic animated film 'ne zha', invested in by Yanyu Film and directed by Yang Xiaozhou, has entered the post-production stage. It will most likely be released this year, though the specific date is TBD. Yeah, this is a good start."]

This was definitely a pleasant surprise.

If Lin Chuyan hadn't mentioned it, netizens would have almost forgotten about this film...

This was also the first time Yang Xiaozhou's name appeared before the public, but unfortunately, it didn't attract anyone's attention; everyone still focused the film on Lin Chuyan.

Good news came one after another. Netizens had originally thought they would have to wait until the release of "mr. & mrs. smith" to see Lin Chuyan's new work, but they didn't expect to see "ne zha" this year.

However, what did "this is a good start" mean? Did it mean there was more to come?

["Does anyone know if there's any other news about this 'ne zha' that we don't know yet? It all feels so mysterious."]

["It's just an animated film... Not interested... Maybe it's similar to 'summer of the little monsters'..."]

["Does that mean there will be more animated films later? I don't get it."]

Naturally, Lin Chuyan wasn't going to reveal too many plans at this stage. Things like the "mythology universe" were fine to talk about in private, but bragging before a single work was even out didn't seem appropriate. No rush; he would wait patiently.

However, once these two Weibo posts went out, one person's reaction was very different from the general public.

Director Yu Jin was genuinely terrified.

It was one thing that "creation of the gods 1" didn't make much money, but "creation of the gods 2" lost over 800 million... Both films had clashed with Lin Chuyan's movies, and now there were two more? "mr. & mrs. smith" was one thing, but what was this "ne zha"? Also, when was that guy's "new police story" coming out? Would "creation of the gods 3" clash with that too?

But Lin Chuyan's plans went far beyond that.

Promoting the rise of domestic films couldn't be done by fighting alone. If it were just verbal appeals, relying solely on Lin Chuyan, when would it ever rise? How long would new directors have to wait to get a chance to make a movie? How many movies could he, Lin Chuyan, make in a year? What would cinemas show the rest of the time?

Yes, Lin Chuyan decided to start a new company.

The positioning of the new company was very clear: to focus on discovering new directors making their first feature film or those with experience in excellent feature films. It would specialize in genre-based, auteur-driven, low-to-mid-budget films, targeting domestic theaters, international film festivals, and streaming platforms.

In terms of director selection, Lin Chuyan adhered to the principle of "quality over quantity." Even without feature film experience, anyone with excellent short film works could submit them for review. Lin Chuyan would comprehensively evaluate them based on narrative ability, visual style, and team collaboration experience. Now, with his experience filming in Hollywood, a quick chat during an interview was enough to tell whether someone had the goods.

Script evaluation was equally crucial. For example, did a suspense film follow a three-act structure? Was the character arc in an art-house film complete?

For this, the company could form a script review group to first filter out the top 20% of high-quality scripts, and then determine the final projects to be greenlit through voting, ensuring that every film had commercial potential or social resonance value.

As long as the script was suitable, Lin Chuyan could even provide funding for 3-5 rounds of script revisions. In his view, these were all worthwhile "small investments."

Most importantly, risk control and long-term development were the top priorities.

Lin Chuyan thought it over, and regarding how to control film costs, no one should know better than a professional producer. Budgets, schedules, team coordination... wouldn't it just be a matter of asking Producer Zhang Man?

After chatting with Sister Man for a long time, the final result was that Lin Chuyan signed Producer Zhang Man into the company and let her lead the entire production department.

Now she was truly one of his own.

After a long and in-depth discussion, the two determined a series of risk control measures.

Producer Zhang Man offered him advice: "Risk control can be approached from several aspects. First is the investment cost of the film; we can divide it into three different tiers. For art-house films, keep it under 5 million or even 3 million; for commercial films, keep it under 15 million; for higher budgets, if the script is really good, then bring in a few more investors to share the risk."

That part was simple; China Film Group, Emperor Group, Lionsgate, or even bosses of other film companies—getting them to invest wouldn't be a problem. Now, he had the connections and the strength to do so.

Producer Zhang Man continued: "Second, the investment for a single project should not exceed 30% of the company's annual budget, so no matter how much the director spends, we won't face excessive risk and can afford it; third, on-set production management will monitor things at all times, and a 10% cost overrun will trigger a warning; fourth, the director will personally bear 10% - 20% of the cost overrun to strengthen the director's sense of responsibility. Well, to put it bluntly, we just need to use money to impose constraints."

Reliable, very reliable.

Producer Zhang Man continued to brainstorm for the company's development.

She proposed that the company should be small and elite in its initial scale, establishing a development department responsible for discovering directors and scripts and incubating projects, while the production department would be responsible for project execution and budget control. Talent for other positions could be drawn from Yanyu Film to serve concurrently.

In addition, after the seminar ended, didn't they have a connection with Beijing Film Academy? They could establish a recommendation channel with Beijing Film Academy and regularly hold script venture capital meetings to discover potential new directors and actors, gradually building a talent pool.

At the same time, they could establish long-term cooperative relationships with several post-production companies, exchanging volume for price to reduce production costs. With the influence of a Best Director at The Oscars, too many companies were willing to cooperate with Lin Chuyan's new company.

With Producer Zhang Man's help, the development strategy for the new company gradually became clear, and its prototype had already emerged.

The question was: what should the new company be named?

One had to know that this name was not just a logo; it carried Lin Chuyan's grand ambition to promote the development of domestic films and cultivate new forces in the film and television industry.