The more Xu Musen thought about it, the more he felt that this was a good idea.

First of all, of the reasons why the “Black and White” crew decided on Tao Mu to play the role of Zhou Yuanting. The biggest reason was the publicity channels in Tao Mu’s hands. That was to say, the promotion strategy of the film “Black and White” in the mainland largely relied on FlyNews.com. Secondly, “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” produced by Tao Mu just made a big splash at the Lingxiao Awards ceremony and the honeymoon period with the organizer SARFT had not yet passed. If Tao Mu could come forward to discuss the review of the movie “Black and White” in the mainland, he believed that the big guys from SARFT would definitely not have this attitude.

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But most importantly, Tao Mu’s production and supervision ability was too great. While accurately getting the so-called “political correctness” required by the mainland, he could also take into account the ratings. This was exactly what Hong Kong producers couldn’t do.

In fact, a big reason why Xu Musen strongly opposed the rectification requirements of SARFT was that he didn’t know how to change the script at all. He didn’t know what the “political correctness” required by SARFT actually meant. And this was exactly what Tao Mu was best at.

Although Tao Mu had not produced a movie before, “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” that Tao Mu had previously produced and “Soldier Elite” which was currently under preparation were mainstream military dramas. So Xu Musen was also desperately looking for a solution, and he could only grasp Tao Mu as a life-saving straw.

“…..The premiere of “Black and White” in Hong Kong is scheduled for Christmas Eve. The release time is in about one month to forty days. Our original plan was to release it in the mainland in February after the release in Hong Kong. But now that the SARFT review has not passed, we can’t negotiate with the mainland theaters about the schedule. If we delay it any longer, I’m afraid we won’t be able to catch the New Year holiday slot.”

In fact, it was a bit late to talk about the New Year schedule. If it wasn’t for the “Black and White” crew having gathered too many big names from both sides of the strait, and every one of them was a box office guarantee. The theater distributors were simply too lazy to talk to the “Black and White” crew about the schedule. Even so, the mainland theater chain also gave an ultimatum to the “Black and White” production team. Until December 24th at the latest, that was, before the premiere of “Black and White” in Hong Kong, if the “Black and White” crew still couldn’t pass the SARFT audit, the mainland theaters would hand over the New Year slot in February to other movies.

“The 24th?” Tao Mu was instantly shocked: “Today is the 13th, you know?”

“That’s why!” Xu Musen was so anxious that his hair was turning white: “I also know that time is very short. But we have no other way. Who knows how to change the script to satisfy those big guys? Besides, even if the script is changed, it also takes time to reshoot and edit. How can it be done in ten days?”

In fact, according to the efficiency of Hong Kong’s filming industry, it was not too late to rewrite the script and reshoot within ten days. But Xu Musen had always possessed the habits of some literary and art workers, believing that he was a professional in making movies. The “Black and White” film directed by him, both in terms of film connotation and character depth, was full of very complete and solid characterization. The characters could not be simply described and defined by one-sided words such as “good guy” or “villain”.

The protagonist could do bad things for the needs of the plot. And according to the role of the villain, of course, the villain could also have morals. Therefore, in Xu Musen’s view, the “political correctness” that SARFT required that “villains must be subdued by the law” was simply inexplicable. It was something that only a layman could say.

Therefore, Xu Musen complained a lot in front of Tao Mu, saying that this was too late, and that was too late. In fact, most of them were just excuses. To put it bluntly, Xu Musen just didn’t want to bow his head in front of SARFT. Of course, if we break it down carefully, there likely also involved the issue of arm-wrestling between Hong Kong filmmakers and mainland filmmakers. If put on another level, this was a question of whether “art serves politics” or “art had nothing to do with politics”. Such was a tacit tug o’ war that everyone was aware of.

However, the facts prove that the filmmakers of Hong Kong were definitely not as good as SARFT when it comes to arm wrestling. The more intense the resistance, the longer the stalemate, and in the end, only the “Black and White” crew would suffer. This was the relationship between supply and demand that determines everything——”Black and White” needed the mainland market to contribute to the box office, but the mainland market did not lack movies like “Black and White” to fill in theater slots.

Even without this butcher, we still wouldn’t eat pig meat that still has hair on it. This was the confidence that SARFT had to halt “Black and White”.

Unfortunately, Xu Musen understood this too late. The relationship between the two sides was now very rigid. If there was no competent person to mediate, it was likely that even if the Hong Kong producers bow their head and remade the film, SARFT would still not happily pass the review. At that time, just as Tao Mu said, “Black and White” would miss the best schedule for release in the mainland. In the end, only the producers of “Black and White” would suffer.

Taking this into consideration, Xu Musen must enlist Tao Mu’s help.

With the memory of his previous life, Tao Mu also knew that the “Black and White” crew had been halted by SARFT for a year, but in the end, they still had no choice but to bow their heads, admit their mistake and change the script. But as a result, because of missing the best release date, it resulted in the painful experience of only getting 8 million yuan box office after the release.

At that time, Tao Mu was being suppressed by Shen Yu’s admirers. And because Xu Musen supported Shen Yu’s decision to win the Golden Crow Award for Best Newcomer, his relationship with the “Black and White” crew was not good either. Knowing this, he couldn’t even wait to gloat over their misfortune, and of course would not feel any pity.

But in this life, the position had changed, and the angle of view of things would naturally change. Tao Mu really felt that it would be a pity if “Black and White” could not be released in the mainland.

But on the matter of changing the script——Tao Mu was not a professional screenwriter, of course he would not know how to change the script. After thinking about it, he could only give revision opinions based on many movie reviews he had seen in his previous life, combined with his own thoughts.

Speaking of which, the revised mainland re-screening version of “Black and White” in the previous life was really weird. Don’t know what Xu Musen was thinking, but he actually asked the screenwriter to change Zhou Yuanting into a white lotus flower——according to the requirements of SARFT, the villain must be subdued by justice. So in Xu Musen’s revised script, Zhou Yuanting found his conscience after seeing Yan Yu blocking the gunshot for him, and he took the initiative to turn himself in to the police. He also volunteered to be a double-agent for the police, and swindled the mafia boss. In the end, both of them went to jail.

One could imagine that when Tao Mu in his previous life received the adapted script, his inner feelings were more than just a “f**k”, it was literally thousands of “grass mud horses” whizzing past his head. Not to mention that the characters of Zhou Yuanting and the mafia boss have completely collapsed, and thus the whole script was completely untenable. Compared with the ending of the classic Hong Kong version, the modified mainland version could only be described as “idiotic”.

After the mainland version was reviewed and released, die-hard fans who had seen the pirated version of “Black and White” for a long time bought tickets to the cinema, and after watching it, they could only curse angrily. They felt that the mainland remake version of “Black and White” was simply a three thousand feet nose-dive from the original, and the final ending was simply poop. More and more netizens posted comments on the Internet complaining about the film. As a result, the crew of “Black and White” took advantage of the situation and pushed this black pot to SARFT. In fact, it could not be considered a black pot. After all, the “Black and White” crew did modify the script according to the requirements of SARFT and SARFT passed the review in the end. To review a classic work into a shoddy comedy story, this pot had to be carried by SARFT.

But SARFT didn’t want to take the blame. And they felt that the production team of “Black and White” was definitely doing this on purpose. Deliberately creating two works with such a huge disparity in quality in order to put SARFT in an embarrassing situation. This was definitely the display of a cheap person who could not be beaten into being upright.

So for a long time, SARFT did not like Xu Musen. Any film directed by Xu Musen was difficult to pass when it was reviewed in the mainland. And even if it was passed with difficulty, it was not possible to schedule a good slot. And this went on for several years. Up to the mainland film market developing, and the Hong Kong film market completely declining.

To be honest, Xu Musen changed the reworked script that way, partly because he was really angry. He wanted the guys at SARFT to see what the script revised according to their review requirements would be like. He wanted to slap face secretly. But other than that, Xu Musen didn’t understand the SARFT way at all, and he didn’t understand how the so-called political correctness was the root cause.

You ask a Hong Kong screenwriter who grew up in Hong Kong and studied in Hong Kong to revise a classic work that echoes the mainstream of the mainland. This difficulty factor was much higher than the difficulty coefficient of simply asking a Hong Kong screenwriter to create a classic work.

So Xu Musen was pissed off, but he also truly didn’t understand. In the end, it was not all Xu Musen and the screenwriter’s fault.

But Tao Mu was different. In the previous and present life, Tao Mu had seen so many classic works that echo the mainstream theme. To use a common saying to describe, even if you have never seen a pig run, you have eaten pork. After personally producing a Second Sino-Japanese war drama with the mainstream theme, and following a professional screenwriting team to enrich a military drama script with the mainstream theme, Tao Mu also had a little idea on how to revise the script of “Black and White”.

For the sake of the integrity of the script and the depth of the characters, Tao Mu felt that even if the villain was to be subdued in the end, it must not be a change that was difficult to digest, such as “being moved”. Instead, they could delve in on the male lead played by Yan Sheng and the plot point in which Zhou Yuanting slept with the mafia boss’s mistress.

“We can revise like this…..” Tao Mu was silent for a moment, organizing his thoughts, and said slowly: “Change it to after Yan Sheng realize that Zhou Yuanting had gone dark, in order to provoke the relationship between Zhou Yuanting and the boss, he deliberately revealed the news that Zhou Yuanting slept with his mistress. The boss had a grudge against Zhou Yuanting, but he relied heavily on Zhou Yuanting’s ability, so he did not make a move. But he secretly planned to put all the charges on Zhou Yuanting’s head when he escaped and have Zhou Yuanting be the scapegoat. Zhou Yuanting found out the boss’s plan but did not expose it. Instead, he also planned to secretly make use of the boss’s to kill the boss. As a result, due to this infighting, the police led by Yan Sheng profited and the two big villains were wiped out.”

Tao Mu paused and said, “I’m not a professional screenwriter either. I’m only giving a suggestion. How to change it depends on the screenwriter’s opinion. If Director Xu is worried, I can also ask people from my screenwriting team to take a look. It is the screenwriter who modified the script of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” before. Although the Second Sino-Japanese war genre is not the same as the cop vs. crook genre, some core aspects should be common. You can sit down together and discuss it slowly.”

As long as they decided on a solution, he could take the revised script to go to the SARFT review first. While waiting for the SARFT review, the “Black and White” crew could immediately prepare for shooting. They could also take advantage of the time difference, and bring the news of SARFT’s attutude to negotiate with the mainland theaters to finalize the film release schedule first.

Xu Musen was anxious and angry at being blocked by SARFT, and truly had no clue what to do. Hearing Tao Mu’s thoughtful suggestion, he was immediately overjoyed. He didn’t take advantage of Tao Mu, and said directly: “I listen to you. Come to Hong Kong as soon as possible, and we will first finalize the dividends you will have as the producer of the film in the mainland. The rest will be handled by you.”

Tao Mu said: “These are all easy to handle. But one thing is, when we bring the script to SARFT, we have to sit for a meal…..”

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Tao Mu didn’t speak further, but Xu Musen understood and immediately said, “I have to make amends with alcohol, right? Ai!”

Xu Musen sighed and said with a self-deprecating tone: “To tell you the truth, my buddy, I’m really struggling. As long as the review can be resolved as soon as possible and “Back and White” can be released in the mainland as scheduled. I am willing to drink until my stomach bleeds.”

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After Tao Mu won the Best Newcomer Award, “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” won three major awards: Best Director, Best Actor and Best Feature TV Series. Living up to expectations and becoming the biggest winner at the awards ceremony.

The award ceremony of the Lingxiao Award had been broadcast live the whole time on the national channel, 7:30 to 10:30 in the evening, a total of three hours. The audience rating for the Best Newcomer Award soared to 10.2% after the opening, and then fell gradually until he Best Actor, Best Director Award and Best Feature Film Award were awarded to “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” when the ratings slightly picked up. Probably due to the influence of the awards ceremony, at ten o’clock in the evening, the audience rating of the 31st episode of “Fashion Storm”, which was broadcast on Mango Channel’s weekly slot, jumped to 11.2%, breaking the audience record of the same slot period again.

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When the award ceremony of the Lingxiao Award officially ended, it was also the climax of the thirty-second episode of the finale of “Fashion Storm”. The ratings soared to 13%, directly defeating many programs in the golden time slot of 8:00pm and became the runner-up in the ratings rankings in 2009——the champion was also produced by Tao Mu, the critically acclaimed and high ratings drama that also became the biggest winner in the Lingxiao Awards ceremony, “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”.

After the news spread, Tao Mu’s fans were the first to go crazy. Like a flood, it swept across the entire FlyNews.com and even the entertainment section of other domestic social platforms. Under the FlyNews comment that Tao Mu uploaded to congratulate himself for winning the Lingxiao Award for Best Newcomer, the fan comments broke 10 million in just one hour. This figure dumbfounded many media outlets and the number was also mentioned invariably when doing news reports. Indirectly doing a promotional advertisement for FlyNews.com.

However, who was even crazier than Tao Mu’s fans and many media outlets were the fans of various entertainers in the entertainment industry——everyone knew that the TV series that broke the ratings record one after another and ranked first and second in the annual ratings rankings were all produced and supervised by Tao Mu. And both dramas have aroused extensive social discussion in different subject areas. It could be said that it was two classic works with a double harvesting of ratings and word-of-mouth. At the same time, Tao Mu and the military were currently co-producing the special forces military drama “Soldier Elite”, which was also a good resource visible to the naked eye.

Whether it was a star or an actor, no matter how skillful the management team was in packaging and hyping, it was still difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice. Therefore, if artists want to improve their commercial value and industry status, it ultimately relied on their works to speak.

Recently, Tao Mu was the most watched producer in the industry. The works produced by him were definitely classic works with double harvests in word-of-mouth and ratings. The most important thing was that the TV series produced by Tao Mu did not have the embarrassing situation of other productions in which “the work becomes a hit but the actors do not”. On the contrary, the TV series produced by Tao Mu would always be “the work becomes a hit and the actors are even more popular”.

The male lead Zhan Bin of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” was an A-list domestic actor before starring in “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”. But his popularity was not even comparable to some B-list stars. When he acted in “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”, his salary was only 50,000 per episode, which was not even comparable to the salary of some third-rate stars. However, after the broadcast of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”, the popularity of Zhan Bin, who played the male lead in the drama, had soared, directly becoming the most popular actor in the country, and his salary likewise doubled. He even got the endorsement of the famous wine brand Wuliangye.

Coincidentally, before starring in this urban workplace idol drama, the male and female protagonists of “Fashion Storm” were just two young rookies who had just debuted on talent shows. Excluding the fame bonus of talent shows, there was simply no such thing as popularity and influence to their names. However, after starring as the male and female protagonists of “Fashion Storm”, they became popular overnight. Instantly squeezing up among the top B-list stars.

Especially Liu Yunshu, who played the heroine, and Liang Xiao, who played the second female lead, they were directly recognized by the domestic fashion industry because Tao Mu helped to design their makeup and image in the drama. And as aresult, also received two high-luxury cosmetics endorsements and one mobile phone brand endorsement. The smooth road of gaining endorsements simply makes everyone envious.

But the most important thing was that in addition to increasing the popularity of the leads in these two TV series, the important supporting actors who have played well in the dramas have also risen with the tide. In particular, several important supporting actors in “Fashion Storm”, after the TV series aired, because the salaries of the male and female protagonists skyrocketed so much, many idol dramas could not afford Bo Sensen and Liu Yunshu, so they lowered their standards and contacted the other supporting actors. Up to now, it seemed that the second male lead, third male lead, second female lead, and third female lead have all received new scripts. They were all newcomers who have just debuted but now could play the leading role in their second drama. Their resources simply did not seem like the resources of talent show stars at all, and it was estimated that even many actors who graduated from professional schools were not so lucky.

And these lucky halos were all brought by Tao Mu.

It was Tao Mu who was the driving force behind the scenes, the father of star making!

So without Tao Mu himself knowing about it, such a second year middle school nickname was added to the list. He was directly pushed up to the altar by the fans of various stars and actors, wanting nothing more than to burn three incense sticks for Tao Mu in one day, and hope that Tao Mu would favor their idol and make their idol popular overnight.

Even many artists themslves and their management teams couldn’t sit still. Through various channels, people from all walks of life congratulated Tao Mu, and then slip into the conversation, expressing their desire to cooperate with Tao Mu in filming.

Catching up with this wave of popularity, Xu Musen, the director of “Black and White”, also made a phone call. Post-production on “Black and White” had all been completed. The release schedule had also been selected, and without surprise, it was to be released around the New Year holidays. The premiere was on Christmas Eve, December 24th. According to the contract requirements, all the main actors must cooperate with the crew during the promotion period. However, Zhou Yuanting, played by Tao Mu, had only a dozen minutes of appearance in the movie and was not the main actor. Moreover, before Tao Mu played the role of Zhou Yuanting, he was just a pure rookie who did not have a single work to his name that was broadcasted, and had no fame in Hong Kong. Therefore, in the original contract, Tao Mu did not need to participate in the promotional activities in Hong Kong. Only when “Black and White” was released in the mainland did he have to cooperate with the crew to promote it. Then there was FlyNews.com which was required to cooperate with the promotional activities of the crew. But this piece was not free. The specific price needed to be negotiated between the “Black and White” crew and the public relations department of FlyNews.com.

However, what everyone did not expect was that Tao Mu’s acting skills were so good. Especially when playing against many big names, not only was their chemistry they complemented each other, even able to act against each other without restraint. So much so that director Xu Musen was reluctant to delete Tao Mu’s clips when he was doing post-editing. So adding more and more, Tao Mu’s scene was cut to about 20 minutes. For a movie with a duration of around 110 minutes, it could be said to be an important supporting role.

Generally, a big director of Xu Musen’s age and position liked to support newcomers. What was more, Tao Mu himself had a high EQ, and he maintained a very good relationship with the big names during the shooting. And after the shooting, he did not forget to maintain these personal relationships. Tao Mu himself had a notepad, which was full of the schedules of all his friends in the industry. When everyone had a new work on the market or a new endorsement was released, Tao Mu would log in to his FlyNews account to help promote it. With FlyNews.com’s strong publicity capabilities and strong user resources, those bigwigs could clearly feel the rise in popularity and attention.

Therefore, Xu Musen was even more willing to befriend a young man like Tao Mu, mainly because when he planned to make films in the future, he could also use Tao Mu as an investor and producer. One must know that Tao Mu’s strong production ability had been recognized by the industry. Capable people were respected everywhere. Even Hong Kong, which faces the mainland across the sea, was no exception.

Therefore, under various factors, Xu Musen simply signed up Tao Mu for the Golden Crow Award for Best Newcomer and Best Supporting Actor nominations in the name of the crew. So in this situation, Tao Mu himself needed to follow the crew to do promotion and appropriatly do public relations with the jury.

“…..With your acting skills, connections, and capital operation, I’m not worried. But I need to remind you that Shen Yu is now under the management of the Lin family. The Lin family’s network background is very deep in Hong Kong and the Lin family nominated Shen Yu for the Best Newcomer Award. If the Lin family throw in all efforts to compete for this award, it is estimated that your chances of winning are not large. So I suggest you focus more on the award of Best Supporting Actor. Firstly, the Golden Crow Awards have always had a tradition of dividing pork, and would not allow the same nominees win too many awards. This is very different from the Lingxiao Award. Secondly, the weight of the Best Supporting Actor is greater than that of the Best Newcomer Award.”

Tao Mu hadn’t heard of Shen Yu for some time. At this moment, he was a little surprised to hear Director Xu mention that Shen Yu actually signed with the Lin family’s brokerage company. However, Tao Mu had too many things going on recently, so he didn’t pay much attention to it. He just thanked Director Xu for his kind cultivation and thoughtful suggestions. And also expressed that if there was need of him or FlyNews.com, to just directly let him know.

Director Xu sighed and said, “Originally, it is not easy for our kind of Hong Kong police vs. crook films to pass the review in the mainland, but now Shen Yu is banned in the mainland. I plan to reduce Shen Yu’s role and remake the relevant plot scenes with someone else so that it could be released in the mainland. Yan Sheng will also come back from the US in two days to help with the promotion. I will discuss this matter with him. If we really decide to remake it, since the two of you have the most scenes with the character Yan Yu. At that time we will have to trouble you to help make up the scenes.”

Tao Mu’s heart jumped. In fact, before Director Xu made this call, Tao Mu never thought that Xu Musen would cut his scene to 20 minutes, and even signed him up for the Golden Crow Award for Best Supporting Actor. After all, in his last life, Xu Musen’s perception of him was not very good. Later, when he competed with Shen Yu for the Best Newcomer Award, Xu Musen also stood on Shen Yu’s side. With the crew coming forward to run for Shen Yu, adding to the fact that his network background in Hong Kong was lacking and the Shen family did not support him, of course he lost in the end.

After being reborn, Tao Mu was now considered to have a small success in his career. The most important thing was that he had both a good family and lover. So a lot of grievances from the previous life have slowly dissipated.

So when he felt Xu Musen’s kindness, Tao Mu didn’t want to let Xu Musen’s hard work die because of failing SARFT’s review, getting stuck in limbo for a year and then finally, due to the helpless reasons of the proliferation of piracy, the box office only reached eight million after release. Although it could not be a complete loss but it also really didn’t make much money.

Tao Mu pondered for a moment, quickly organized his thoughts, and asked, “Where is the review process of the movie up to?”

When Director Xu heard Tao Mu’s question, he sighed again, with a particular headache: “SARFT said that the ending of the movie is not good. It does not show goodness and beauty. The villain escaped justice, but the decent characters died or became casualties. They insist on changing the ending. Isn’t that ridiculous? The reason why I made the movie this way was of course because I had my own thinking. This is an artistic creation. How could those officials in the mainland know how to make a movie? If I follow their instructions, the meaning of the whole movie would be completely changed. How could I change it? Besides, there is also the problem of Shen Yu being banned…..”

All in all, it was deadlocked now. SARFT asked them to change the ending and delete all of Shen Yu’s scenes. The producers were of course unwilling to compromise. And to be honest, after the development of Hong King film for so many years, such big directors as Xu Musen really did looked down on the production quality of mainland filmmakers. They didn’t even think that mainland filmmakers know how to make movies, they just didn’t want to miss out on the huge mainland movie market.

Xu Musen complained to Tao Mu, and the main idea of the complaints was that the SARFT masters don’t know anything and just pretend to understand, completely not knowing how to make movies at all. Yet they sit there directing the country and uttering nonsense. He felt that the reason why mainland movies couldn’t develop was because there were too many laymen who like to do the instructing.

Tao Mu listened quietly for a while, then pointed to the core of the matter: “But if you don’t change the ending, the movie will definitely not be reviewed. The rules in the mainland are like this. If the SARFT review fails, there is no way for your movie to be released in the mainland. “Black and White” is going to premiere in Hong Kong on December 24th, and pirated dealers are rampant now. Have you ever thought that if you halt here for too long, pirated discs will flow into the mainland. By then, mainland audiences would have already watched the pirated discs, so even if you compromise in the end, how long would it take to change the script? How long would it take to re-shoot? How long would it take to schedule the release date? And you have also offended SARFT, what if they schedule a bad time slot for you?”

Xu Musen fell silent. After a long while, he asked huffily, “Then what do you say?”

“Change the ending.” Tao Mu said decisively, “Hurry and change it. Take advantage of this reshoot of Yan Yu’s scene, change the ending directly and get it to SARFT for review.”

Xu Musen was a little afraid of the style and habit of those big masters of SARFT: “What if they still don’t agree after changing it?”

“We can do the script first and hand it over to SARFT for review.” Tao Mu had two experiences as a producer. Combined with his knowledge of the review process of later years, he suggested: “After obtaining the approval of SARFT, we will then do the re-shoot. As long as the operation on our side is faster, it will not delay much time.”

Xu Musen smiled bitterly. The key was that they couldn’t operate fast here. Before, the two sides had already argued to the point of stiffness because of the filming concept. Now SARFT simply didn’t want to pay attention to them at all. Procrastinating as long as they can, clearly planning on halting them in place.

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With a flash of inspiration, Xu Musen suddenly remembered that Tao Mu had just won the Lingxiao Award for Best Newcomer, and “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” drama he produced was the biggest winner at the Lingxiao Awards. In addition, the entertainment media in the mainland also reported that Tao Mu was now working with the military to shoot a mainstream promotional drama. Then he must have some speaking power in the mainland.

Xu Musen suddenly had a thought: “Would you like to be the producer of the mainland version of “Black and White”?”

Tao Mu: “…..Ah?”

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Cheng Baodong snorted again, and said with a half-smile, “Oh, not really. Compared with Mr. Tao, it really is the case of the back waves of the Yangtze River pushing the front waves, and the front waves dying on the shore.”

Tao Mu smiled and said, “Director Cheng really likes to joke.”

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The production team of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” noticed Tao Mu as early as when Tao Mu entered the hall. Only that there were too many people chatting around Tao Mu, so they didn’t come over. Hearing Cheng Baodong’s remarks, Director Zhou Hong immediately laughed: “Director Cheng made one movie and one TV series last year. The box office of the movie exceeded 700 million yuan, and the TV series was also successfully shortlisted for the Lingxiao Award for Best Director and Best Feature TV Series. If the front waves died on the shore, how could anyone else live?”

As soon as these words came out, the people around immediately burst out laughing. They all teased Cheng Baodong for deliberately saying these words to sour others.

Cheng Baodong was flattered by everyone, and his expression instantly softened. He waved his hand with a smile, and said very reservedly: “No, really. Compared with CEO Tao’s momentum, I could only be regarded as struggling with a lingering breath, just trying my best to maintain.”

Before he finished speaking, he heard someone behind him say, “Young people today are indeed really amazing.”

Everyone turned around and saw the SARFT leader and several judges of the jury standing not far away. The crowd greeted each other.

The leader from SARFT nodded and continued: “There has always been a voice in our Chinese entertainment circle, that SARFT does not encourage young people, does not encourage creation, and imposes too many restrictions on everyone. Some people joke that creating film and television dramas in China is just like dancing with shackles. There are too many rules and regulations, making it impossible for everyone to give full play to their talents and abilities. We at SARFT listen to all voices. Therefore, this time, the Lingxiao Award would be reformed and the award for the best newcomer was launched. This is to encourage more young people, so that they can put more energy on the work itself. At the same time, it also encourages entertainment practitioners to focus on the works themselves. Just like the shortlisted “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” this time, even if the Second Sino-Japanese War is an old theme, as long as you spend your time on the script, you can make a unique classic. Rather than always thinking about grandstanding and shooting some cutting-edge themes to please the international film festival. In a word, although we SARFT do not encourage old wine filling new bottles, but the use of old bottles holding new wines is definitely encouraged.”

After this long talk, don’t know how many people have been slapped in the face. Cheng Baodong’s expression also changed slightly. Because he had complained in previous interviews that SARFT limited the subject matter of shooting. Just because another director sent an unreviewed film to a foreign film festival for exhibition without the permission of SARFT. SARFT did not allow the award-winning film to be released in China. And the director of the film was also given a severe punishment of being banned from directing films.

Cheng Baodong sympathized with the other’s plight and he couldn’t help complaining a few words during an interview. But he didn’t expect that at this moment, someone would use such a way to respond back.

Tao Mu, who was standing on the side, did not speak. In fact, this situation involving the power struggle between the two sides was not something that he, a young rookie who had debuted for less than two years, could get involved.

Zhou Hong, the director of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”, was also an old veteran of the circle, well-informed and experienced. For fear that Tao Mu was young and impetuous, getting a big head after being praised by the leaders. Not knowing the severity, unable to distinguish the situation, and then say something rashly to offend people who shouldn’t be offended. He quickly changed the topic with a smile: “Speaking of which, Tao Mu, you have endured hardship in the army this time. Look at this darkened skin and lpss of weight, those fans of yours must feeling quite distressed?”

“Old Zhou, you say this because you don’t understand those little girls at all.” Zhan Bin, the hero of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”, said with a smile: “You didn’t see those little girls shouting from both sides when he walked the red carpet, I nearly went deaf.”

“It’s called sex appeal now! Handsome!” Zhan Bin patted Tao Mu on the shoulder. Feeling Tao Mu’s tight muscles, he couldn’t help squeezing: “You trained well.”

Tao Mu smiled awkwardly, which fit the image of a fresh face 20-year-old young man, and said reservedly: “It’s okay. Compared with those special forces, it’s far worse.”

The crowd laughed when they heard the words. The chairman of the jury of the Lingxiao Award pointed at Tao Mu and said with a smile: “The young man has high ambitions. What’s the matter, do you really want to compare with our special forces?”

Tao Mu said: “All our crew members are experiencing life in the army. The last month is to train with the soldiers of the special forces. Although our physical fitness is limited, and we are definitely not comparable to the professional special forces. But we will try our best to persevere, at least be able to display the spirit of the special forces.”

The leader from SARFT also patted Tao Mu on the shoulder and said with a smile: “If our actors can prepare to this level before filming, I believe we will be able to shoot more classic works.”

The topic then turned to the current atmosphere of the entertainment industry. Most of the directors and actors who could be shortlisted for the Lingxiao Award were ptofessional actors with ability and background. Otherwise, it was impossible or them to be able to participate in mainstream TV series. For these actors, the right way was to be low-key as a person and high-profile when acting roles. Therefore, they all couldn’t get used to some newcomers who don’t polish their acting skills when they were filming, and instead keep buying articles and hyping themselves outside the film set, which caused the atmosphere of the entertainment circle to be smoggy. Later, the subject turned to the hype route of some gossip stars. Criticizing some management teams for being too willing to kill chickens to get the eggs, shortsightedly, draining the value of their artists. Some stars were also thick-skinned, they didn’t even have a single work to their name, yet they could even blow rainbow farts at themselves into international superstars through the articles they buy online. In the end, they even felt that marketing hype was not desirable.

As the founder of FlyNews.com and a well-known publicist in the industry, Tao Mu, who was reborn from the later years, did not reject publicity and hype. It could even be said that one of the reason “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” and “Fashion Storm” could break the ratings records one after another and create social hot spots was because of FlyNews.com’s publicity and hype credit.

However, at such a time, Tao Mu would obviously not dampen the mood and disagree with everyone. He had no choice but to keep silent and maintain his image as a low-key little rookie to the end. In fact, Tao Mu felt that the directors and actors who agreed with SARFT did not necessarily agree with this opinion in their hearts. It was just that in this kind of social situation, everyone upheld the truth that more was worse than less and didn’t bother to argue with the leaders.

Although it was very popular for the protagonist, in order to show his uniqueness, utter nonsense in front of the leader in TV series. But in real life, such tactless and low EQ young people were obviously not welcome.

Cheng Baodong disliked Tao Mu’s fakeness. In his opinion, young people should speak freely and dare to stand up for their own opinions. Now that was called being young and lively. It was a pity that Tao Mu had never had this kind of vigor. This dude was more like an old fritter than an old fritter, and an older fox than an old fox. He was just so socially smooth and ease that people were unaccustomed to it.

If it was said that the world hated people who “got advantages and then say some cute words”. Then in Cheng Baodong’s eyes, Tao Mu was a typical person who “pretend to be cute to take advantage and then doesn’t bother saying any cute words afterwards”. His scheming shrewdness was even more annoying than cheap-cute people.

Fortunately, the awards show started soon after. Everyone took their places, and Tao Mu sat with “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” crew.

The hosts of the Lingxiao Award were two famous hosts of the National Channel, who often host the Spring Festival Gala. After the usual opening remarks, the first award given out was the Best Newcomer Award.

The guest of honor was a nearly 70-year-old actor named Tian Xingjian. At the same time, he was also the only grand slam actor in the country. He had just received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lingxiao Award last year. That the Lingxiao Award invited this old artist to award the Best Newcomer Award just launched this year also had a kind of passing on the torch meaning.

“The organizer asked me to be the presenter. I am very pleased. At the same time, I am grateful for the jury’s recognition of me.” The 70-year-old artist, with white hair like frost, stood on the stage and said slowly: “I am a person who is useless at everything else except for acting. But my life is rich and colorful because of this profession. I hope that young people who have just entered the profession can also appreciate the charm of being an actor. Feel and live more kinds of life, and at the same time also bring more and more exciting works to the audience.”

Mr. Tian didn’t say much. After saying this, he gestured everyone to watch the screen. Video clips of the five nominees appeared one after another on the big screen. The final shot of Su Dingbang, played by Tao Mu, was of him committing suicide by swallowing opium.

The other four nominees shortlisted were also newcomers who have just debuted for a year or two. But for various reasons, whether it was popularity or acting skills, they were obviously incomparable to Tao Mu, a rebirth person who charged out from the siege with his acting skills and even won a best actor award in his previous life. When the Lingxiao Award launched the Best Newcomer Award, it also showed the organizer’s favor for Tao Mu himself.

So the end result was predictable.

Mr. Tian didn’t tease like the other presenters. He opened the envelope and announced directly: “…..The winner of the Best Newcomer Award is Su Dingbang, “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”. Congratulations to Tao Mu who played Su Dingbang.”

The camera in the studio hall turned to Tao Mu at the same time, and a close-up of Tao Mu also appeared on the big screen. Tao Mu stood up and hugged the director and actors of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” then went to the stage.

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

Tao Mu reached out and took the trophy that Tian Xingjian gave him, and bowed to Mr. Tian with the trophy. Then he stood in front of the microphone and delivered his acceptance speech.

“I would like to thank the Lingxiao Award for its encouragement to newcomers and the jury for their recognition of me. At the same time, I would also like to thank all the members of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”. It was the joint efforts of all of us that made this work. I hope this award is just the beginning. In the future, we will try our best to create more and better works.”

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