The news that Beijing Film was going to make a big production movie spread quickly. The producer and leading actor were already decided to be Tao Mu, and the director was also finalized as Cheng Baodong. As for the subject matter, this was even easier to decide——just shoot the movie version of “Soldier Elite”. It would be released during the National Day next year. While catering to the mainstream, it could also ride the popularity of “Soldier Elite”.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

Though it was called the movie version of “Soldier Elite”, but in fact the plot had nothing to do with the TV series. At best, it was a side story of the TV series. That was to say, the story was about a male protagonist who had already become an elite special-ops soldier and several other important supporting characters going abroad for missions. This mainly took into account the time limit of the movie and the smoothness of action scenes, as well as the visual effects of various explosive special effects scenes.

Of course, another crucial reason for choosing this theme was that most of Beijing Film students have received military training for several months, and in addition the TV version of “Soldier Elite” had just finished wrapping up. Everyone was still immersed in the shooting atmosphere and yet to come out. The school felt that this situation was very suitable for actors to immerse in the plot. There was also no need to spend time on additional pre-filming training.

In general, Beijing Film wanted to make a big production movie to test the waters, but also wanted to ensure the basics of box office and word-of-mouth, coupled with the confidence in Tao Mu’s ability to supervise the production, so they took the lazy route.

All colleagues in the industry could see how much confidence Beijing Film had in Tao Mu from the actions of the Beijing Film Academy. But in this way, the situation of Cheng Baodong as the director became a bit embarrassing.

As we all know, Cheng Baodong had always been a tyrant on the set, and he was a director who emphasized a director’s power. Even investors and producers could not raise any objections to Cheng Baodong’s filming methods. In other words, even if there were conflicts and objections, Cheng Baodong’s way must be followed in the end.

However, Tao Mu’s methods and attitude at work were also very forceful. “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” and “Fashion Storm” which he supervised, including the mainland version of “Black and White”, all have a strong personal style. Making the saying “Tao Mu’s production means a high-quality product” spread throughout the industry and became a guarantee of box office and ratings. At the same time, it inevitably sacrificed the director’s and other people’s power in the crew.

What was more, the gossip that Tao Mu and Cheng Baodong have a bad relationship had already spread throughout the entertainment circle. Beijing Film brought these two giant Buddhas together, and even made it clear that they trusted Tao Mu more. So all the insiders began to secretly wait for a good show.

Sure enough, Cheng Baodong, who also heard the rumors, quickly expressed his attitude. He proposed to the Beijing Film Academy to hold an audition for all Beijing Film students during the film preparation period. He also strongly advocated that the school choose another script, which should describe the connotation and theme of the film while taking into account the commercial nature, and at least reflect the literary and artistic accomplishment and artistic independence of Beijing Film Academy.

Where did the director’s power in the crew reflect? Casting and changing scenes might not be the most important aspects, but it was definitely the most obvious and intuitive. Generally speaking, the male and female leads of a film or television drama were all stuffed in by the investor, producer or director. As the producer and investor of a big production movie, Tao Mu had already been appointed as the leading actor by Beijing Film. The leading actress of this movie didn’t have a lot of screen time, and was obviously a role that might not increase her popularity even if the film became popular. Cheng Baodong absolutely couldn’t tolerate Tao Mu’s putting all his people into the crew after already taking away the leading actor role.

As for the request to change the script, Cheng Baodong, as the director of the crew, even wanted to suppress Tao Mu’s team, so of course it was even more impossible for him to endure Tao Mu’s personal style coloring the script.

“Soldier Elite” was a mainstream military recruitment promotion drama co-produced by Tao Mu and the military. Although the Beijing Film Academy chose to shoot the movie version of “Soldier Elite” to ensure the film would succeed to the greatest extent. But for Cheng Baodong, these actions made the film heavily branded with Tao Mu’s personal brand. Under the basic situation that the TV series “Soldier Elite” had already been scheduled for National TV’s golden time slot, if the film version had good results then it was just to be expected, but if the film flopped, Cheng Baodong was afraid that it would be he alone to bear all the criticism.

Cheng Baodong had established his reputation over many years, so how was he willing to serve as Tao Mu’s scapegoat and puppet? Moreover, Cheng Baodong made his objection sound plausible. He believed that the Beijing Film Academy was too superstitious about Tao Mu’s personal ability. Although the TV version of “Soldier Elite” was a military-supported mainstream recruitment promotion drama and it seemed to be a good resource at present, after it was actually released, it might not become a big hit. If Beijing Film recklessly rushed to make a movie version, and the reputation of the TV series turned out to be bad after it was released, it might affect the word-of-mouth and box office of the movie version.

Besides, the plot of the movie version had nothing to do with the TV series version. It just used the names of a few main supporting characters. That being the case, why not just make a new movie. Moreover, Cheng Baodong also mentioned that other than Tao Mu as the leading male, they should try to choose the famous Beijing Film graduates in the circle for the rest of the supporting roles. Wasn’t this also to guarantee the film’s success? And it was more reliable than directly shooting the movie version of “Soldier Elite”.

Cheng Baodong’s suggestion also had some merit. But the current situation was that Beijing Film needed Tao Mu to play the three important roles of producer, investor and leading actor. The reason why they chose to shoot the movie version of “Soldier Elite” was not only the above considerations, but also the intention of supporting the students of Beijing Film Academy. In contrast, although Cheng Baodong was the director of the film, his voice was not as powerful as that of Tao Mu, who served as the producer, investor and leading actor, which was naturally understandable.

Of course, as Cheng Baodong said, he was the director after all. Even if he had less power, he still had the right to make suggestions in terms of casting and modifying the script. Moreover, Cheng Baodong’s proposal to let famous graduates in the industry participate in the film did take into account the box office performance. Not to mention that the one Cheng Baodong recommended was an A-list superstar in the industry, Wang Boyuan, who was also hailed as Cheng Baodong’s golden partner in the industry.

Cheng Baodong directly said that with Wang Boyuan joining the film, the basic performance of this film could guarantee at least 500 million yuan. It was just that with Wang Boyuan’s status and influence, if he joined, this movie couldn’t be Tao Mu’s absolute leading man movie——at least it had to have two male leads.

Cheng Baodong’s words sound reasonable. However, Tao Mu, who had the memories of his previous life, knew that in his previous life, when Cheng Baodong supported a third year senior brother as the male lead, he never mentioned making it a double male lead movie. So it was really aimed at him personally!

He didn’t like Cheng Baodong’s person in the first place, not to mention Cheng Baodong made things difficult for Tao Mu on several occasions. It didn’t involve his own interests before, so Tao Mu didn’t bother to care about it. Now that he was the producer and the biggest investor, he actually wanted to take away his main male lead and change it to a double male lead——it was not like Tao Mu had never done this kind of thing like spending money to promote others, but again no matter how he was used to it, Tao Mu had to be willing.

In the current situation, wasn’t Cheng Baodong just treating Tao Mu as a fool?

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

Although Cheng Baodong was currently the most popular director of commercial films in the Beijing circle, Cheng Baodong was not the only director in the entertainment circle who could make good commercial films.

So overnight, the entertainment industry was shocked to find out that someone on the Internet suddenly broke the news that the big director used his authority and voice to cooperate with the film crew to scheme an increase of filming funds from the investors during filming.

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