Hollywood Hunter

Sung Tae Hee arrived at the shobox headquarters in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam District at around eight o'clock, and it was already busy here.

This start-up film company named by the man himself is basically in charge of the small team that Cheng Tae-hee was in.

Quan Zhengting is the president, and Sung Tae-hee, who has risen with the tide, is the vice president. In addition, except for Quan Zhengting's wife Yuan Xinhui, five of the six people who passed the test at the beginning gathered here. Cui Zaixian of the imperial court, as well as Wen Lingchi and He Mindu.

This was a personal decision made by Quan Zhengting and Chen Qing after a meeting.

Cheng Tae-hee was also present at the time, and Chen Qing gave Quan Zhengting two options. One was to wait for a while and join a consortium as an executive. The position was a little higher than his previous one, but not too much. Or, just manage this start-up film company with Cheng Tae-hee, as long as you do well, you can get stocks.

The pros and cons of both options are pretty obvious.

The former is definitely more stable, but with the age and ability of the power government, and even if it is supported by the Westeros system, it will inevitably be squeezed out by the consortium's internal personnel system, and the room for improvement will not be too high.

The latter is very risky, and it's unfamiliar territory, screwed up, and the future is uncertain. However, if you do well, you will get more stocks in the future, and the return will be even more lucrative, and you will become like a boss, which is much better than being an ordinary executive in a huge consortium system.

Everyone understands the truth that a chicken head is better than a phoenix tail.

The government finally chose the latter.

On the one hand, it is the general environment. The 146-day fixed quota system for Korean films ensures the living space of Korean local films.

On the other hand, even if Quan Zhengting does not believe in Cheng Tae-hee, it is absolutely impossible not to believe in Simon Westeros, the super tycoon who has left all other rich people far behind. Sung Tae-hee can't go wrong if he comes to do this.

As for being unfamiliar with movies, what does it matter?

Many people who have rushed into this industry because of the film quota system in the past two years also don't understand. Just like Li Meijing, the eldest daughter of Li Mengxi, the second-generation head of the Samsung Li family, also jumped into the film and television entertainment industry in recent years without knowing anything, and established cj entertainment.

Although it doesn't have the capital strength like Li Meijing, but in terms of background, shobox is not bad at all.

Quan Zhengting also learned from Cheng Taixi that the Westeros system seems to have reached a cooperation agreement with cj entertainment recently, but the specific situation is unknown.

In any case, everyone is basically on the same starting line.

Quan Zhengting actually left a way out for himself, asking Chen Qing to arrange his wife Yuan Xinhui to enter SK, a very stable job, even if he messes up here, the family will not be reduced to the situation where Kia just went bankrupt The embarrassing situation at that time.

The current shobox headquarters is exactly the five-story office building where the Quanzhengting's small team was stationed at the beginning, and there is no need to change the place.

When Sung Tae Hee came to the company, he first had a meeting with Quan Zhengting and other management, mainly discussing the audition in the morning.

In the next few days, we will mainly conduct auditions for the heroines of the two horror films "Rose Flower and Red Lotus" and "Girls' Tale". On the one hand, they are similar in genre; Between the ages of 16 and 22, the restrictions will be slightly relaxed if the qualifications are particularly good.

Both films are horror films with female protagonists, and there are a lot of young actresses in need. Recently, the audition announcement was issued. Even though shobox requires amateurs who can sign a brokerage contract with the company, they still received as many as 3,000 in a short period of time. a resume.

After preliminary screening, the team selected about 300 people to audition.

Expect at least the next two weeks to be busy with this.

As for the other "The Day the Pig Fell into the Well" and "Kidnapping the Door Dog", they are also in preparation, but because of the subject matter, everyone doesn't pay much attention to these two projects with little commercial potential.

In fact, this is still affected by Hollywood's two consecutive horror films. "Ghost Story" and "The Conjuring 3" have also been released in South Korea. Judging from the current box office trend, although they cannot rank among the top ten or top 20 in South Korea's annual box office. It is more than enough. Therefore, not only shobox, but also many companies in the Korean film industry are looking for horror film projects recently.

Who doesn't like to make a small fortune?

It is almost conceivable that next year's Korean film market will be full of ghosts flying together and demons dancing.

However, compared to a large number of low-quality horror films that many small studios plan to invest hundreds of millions or even tens of millions of won in the production of a large number of low-quality horror films, "Rose Flowers and Red Lotus", which is planned to be the main feature of shobox next year, is not a trivial matter at all.

It is only a preliminary plan. The budget of "Rose Flower and Red Lotus" will reach 3 billion won. According to the general forecast that the won-dollar exchange rate will stabilize at around 1,500 in the future, it is equivalent to 2 million U.S. dollars. It's a small fight, but in Korea, it's already a big production.

Especially in the genre of horror films, the budget of 3 billion won is not unprecedented, it must be unprecedented.

Because the story is worth the investment.

In analogy, "Rose Flower and Red Lotus" is to South Korea, just like "A Chinese Ghost Story" is to China.

This Korean classic ghost story roughly tells the story of a pair of sisters who were overwhelmed by their stepmother and threw themselves into a lake to die. With the help of an official, they not only redressed their grievances, severely punished their stepmother, but also resurrected and lived a happy life.

As early as 1924, "Rose Flower and Red Lotus" was put on the big screen by Koreans, and it was remade many times in the past half a century. It can be described as a well-known horror IP in Korea. in addition

, the latest "Rose Flower and Red Lotus" story, the background is changed to modern times, and it has been quite wonderfully adapted.

This is also the basis for shobox to receive an investment of 3 billion won.

In comparison, the budgets of the other three projects, "Girls' Tales", "The Day a Pig Fell into a Well" and "Kidnapping a Door Dog" did not exceed 1 billion won. 600 million won.

The investment of 3 billion won, according to the current ticket price in South Korea, does not include the publicity investment, and it needs 1.7 million moviegoers to recover the production cost.

Calculated according to the data standard in 1996, it is equivalent to the third place in South Korea's annual box office list. This is obviously not an easy task, so we can only look forward to some more gains overseas. Overseas channels happen to be a major advantage of shobox, which is backed by the Westeros system.

The meeting ended, and it was past nine o'clock.

Auditions on the third floor have already begun.

Cheng Tae-hee didn't go to the audition scene immediately, but first came to his office on the fifth floor, and had another meeting.

Entering his office on the fifth floor, Cui Zaixian's wife Yu Meihe greeted him immediately, indicating that the guests had arrived.

Chen Qing was able to help Kwon Jung-jung's wife Won Shin-hye arrange a job. Others did not have this kind of treatment. It happened that there was a shortage of people at shobox. Choi Jae-hyun, who was also frightened by unemployment after Kia's bankruptcy, asked Kwon Jung-jung and Sung Tae-hee to take his wife who used to be a full-time housewife Placement into the company. It can be regarded as sharing weal and woe, so Cheng Taixi accepted the other party as an assistant.

Yu Meihe used to be Yuan Xinhui's college classmate, even if she has been a housewife for many years, she can still handle such a job with a little practice.

The key is reliability.

Moreover, Sung Tae-hee did not completely rely on human favors. In addition to Woo Mi-ha, he also hired two other college students who just graduated this year, 23-year-old Lim Gyu-ri from Seoul National University and Gong Ji-yeon who graduated from Dankook University's film and television content major to form a group together. Own secretarial team.

Greeting Yu Meihe, Cheng Taixi nodded to the two assistants who greeted him outside, and opened the door to enter his office.

A woman who was originally sitting on the sofa in the reception area got up immediately when she saw Cheng Taixi enter the door.

Another greeting.

The woman's name is Li Meishu, 37 years old, one of the famous Korean actresses in the 1980s, she retired after getting married. A few years ago, she divorced her husband and began to seek a comeback. Unfortunately, it has not been smooth. It was not until South Korea implemented the film quota system last year, and the production of domestic films increased greatly, that Lee Mi-sook began to get some acting opportunities.

Today is already the third meeting between Lee Mi-sook and Sung Tae-hee, mainly discussing about participating in "Rose Flower and Red Lotus" and joining shobox.

Although she is 37 years old, Lee Mi-sook is no less caring than Sung Tae-hee, and some people believe that she is 30 years old.

In previous auditions, for the role of stepmother in "Rose Flower and Red Lotus", from Kwon Jung-jung to Sung Tae-hee to the film's director and screenwriter Kim Ji-woon at shobox, they all felt that Lee Mi-sook was very suitable for the role in the film, both in appearance, temperament and image acting skills. stepmother role.

Even if the role of stepmother is not decent, Li Meishu, who is well aware of the popularity of the story of "Rose Flower and Red Lotus" in Korea, also understands that this role is crucial for her to regain her foothold in the Korean film industry.

The main difference between the two sides is the brokerage contract.

Just as Sung Tae Hee's sister-in-law Han Yunxiu is in charge of the artist management department of jy entertainment, Chen Qing also appointed Cheng Tae Hee to take care of the artist department at shobox.

There was an audition going on downstairs, and Sung Tae Hee didn't exchange too many pleasantries with the other party. After Lin Guili gave her a cup of coffee and left, he asked Li Meishu, "Senior, have you considered it?"

Li Meishu did not answer, but instead asked: "Miss Tae Hee, I heard that you were working at Daenerys Entertainment's Korean headquarters in Hannam-dong a while ago, why did you suddenly move here?"

"Because I established my own company," Cheng Tae-hee was straightforward, but he also understood what the other party cared about, and added: "Our project, Daenerys will also participate in the investment, and will also assist in overseas distribution."

What Li Meishu cares about is indeed Daenerys Entertainment, the hidden backer of Daenerys Entertainment behind the scenes of Sung Tae Hee. Hearing what she said, although it is impossible to prove the authenticity of Daenerys' participation in the investment, it is impossible to ask and dig deeper. She nodded. , turning to the main topic: "Miss Tae Hee, you know my age, the 7-year contract is too long, I don't even know if my career can last for 7 years, I prefer to only sign for 3 years, is that okay? "

Cheng Tae-hee also knew that what the other party said was the truth, but he shook his head: "Senior, our company will have a good development in the future, and every actor who is currently signed has the hope of getting enough resources, just like this time" Hua Honglian". We have considered your specific situation in the 7-year contract. Newcomers are all 10 years. Moreover, if you want to take a break or even take a break during the contract period, we will not force you to perform. Shobox just hopes Make sure the actors we develop don't switch to competitors."

"How about five years?" Li Meishu still bargained: "I can guarantee that, as long as I continue this business, I will give priority to renewing the contract with your company after the five-year period expires."

Cheng Taixi shook his head: "Senior, it seems that you haven't considered it well. In this case, please go back. I still have a lot of work to do."

Cheng Tae-hee was about to get up as he said that, Li Mei-sook hurriedly raised her hand and made a blocking gesture. She knew that there would be no follow-up for this 'please come back', including the characters in "Rose Flowers and Red Lotus": "Miss Tae-hee, okay , I am willing to sign for 7 years, but is the commission of 30 too high? You have worked for Daenerys, you should know that Hollywood is very important to actors

The salary is only 10. "

The two sides met three times in total, the first time was an audition, and an invitation was sent out by the way. The second time was a preliminary discussion on joining, and Li Meishu also took away a draft agreement from here. This time, the other party was still bargaining. Sung Tae Hee really didn't intend to quarrel with the other party. Korea has many actresses of Lee Mi Sook's age who are waiting for opportunities all the year round. She is willing to spend more time because the other party is suitable.

Cheng Taixi finally said: "Senior, the 7-year agreement, 30 commission, this cannot be changed. As for the commission, you, as a senior, can only get 70. In addition, in the draft agreement you took away before, we have promised , the opportunity to participate in film and television dramas at least once a year is a guarantee. Regarding the priority of future contract renewal, this is already in the agreement, maybe you haven’t seen it. What I mean is, if you are willing to sign the contract, I can immediately Let the legal team come over to discuss a formal agreement with you, including the actor contract of "Rose Flower and Red Lotus". If you still want to bargain, then please go back."

When Cheng Tae-hee mentioned this point, he knew very well that Li Mei-sook, who missed this village and would not have this store, could only nod even if she was still reluctant.

She also knows how many older actresses like her are waiting for such an opportunity in the circle.

However, after nodding, she still struggled: "Miss Taixi, regarding at least one chance a year, I think that even if it can't be the protagonist, it should at least be a key supporting role, isn't it?"

The terms of the agreement are too general.

If in the future shobox uses any character that is too small to fool her, it is considered an opportunity, and there is no reason at all.

Cheng Tae-hee shook his head: "Senior, I understand what you are worried about, but as long as we cooperate happily, shobox will not use insignificant characters to deal with you."

Li Meishu smiled bitterly in her heart.

The subtext of these words is that if she is unhappy, she will be hidden in disguise.

I have to admit that if she sat in Sung Tae Hee's position, she would indeed do the same, because now she has no bargaining chip at all.

"The last question, Miss Taixi." Li Meishu gave up struggling, and continued: "After I join, who will be my manager?"

Cheng Tae-hee said: "For the time being, I will take charge personally."

Li Meishu was a little worried again.

Even though it is very lively here, it is obviously a grass-roots team.

Li Meishu also found that recently Hyundai, Samsung and other chaebols have established entertainment companies with great fanfare and started recruiting. She has also contacted, but unfortunately there is no suitable opportunity for her there, otherwise, signing under those big chaebols will definitely be better than here The grass-roots team is more secure.

However, after all, if you miss this village, there will be no store.

After all, this is the well-known "Rose Flower and Red Lotus", and she has also read the script, which is very good, and to some extent even has the feeling of "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality", which was a big hit in Hollywood back then. Cheng Tae-hee once worked at Daenerys's Korean headquarters, and she also confirmed 100% that this relationship is definitely not fake, and she finally nodded again.