Treasure Island 1992, starting from the Four Little Heavenly Kings

"Mr. Chen, who do you plan to let play the role of Ma Xiaoling?"

In the ATV TV building, Xu Xiaoming, the then senior vice president of ATV TV, approached Chen Qiming and asked who would be the heroine of "I Have a Date with a Zombie".

Xu Xiaoming was not a manager at the beginning. He studied martial arts in primary school and later became a martial arts instructor. In 1973, he joined Li's and began to work as a director.

Many of the ATV classic TV series that the post-80s generation remember were directed by him, and he is definitely a master director now.

Such as "Chameleon", "Love from the Earth", "Huo Yuanjia", "Chen Zhen", "Huo Dongge", "Travel to the Tiger Mountain Again", "Chinese Man", etc., all are directed by this director.

His status in ATV is equivalent to TVB's Wang Tianlin, and he has a high status in the company.

His wife Li Fengming worked as an administrator in a large organization in Hong Kong in her early days. In order to prevent his wife from giving up her career, he became a dad and gave up her career for many years.

This year, after Chen Qiming became the president of ATV, he reshuffled the top management of ATV. Xu Xiaoming was also invited by Chen Qiming to come back as senior vice president.

Chen Qiming is checking the planning document of "Idol of the Times".

This project, which is the first project launched by Chen Qiming after becoming the president of ATV, has been in preparation for a long time and will soon enter the recording stage.

"I recommend Wan Qiwen, the first lady in the company."

Without thinking, Xu Xiaoming gave his recommendation.

After a pause, he began to explain the reason for his recommendation: "I read the script. The character Ma Xiaoling wears short skirts for a long time and is a standard long-legged goddess.

Wan Qiwen is known as a long-legged hottie, so she is very suitable for this role. "

As the only TV station in Hong Kong, it is not unreasonable for ATV to rival TVB.

TVB has a wireless training class and selects Hong Kong sisters.

ATV also has ATV training classes and Miss Asia.

Wan Qiwen made her debut by participating in ATV Miss Asia.

In 1989, she participated in Miss Asia and won the first runner-up. After signing with Asia Television, she immediately gained popularity.

In the same year, she participated in the successful first work "The Driver", and then starred in dramas such as "Cello and Dot Thirty-Eight", "Winner Takes All", "Blue Blood, Blue Sky and Pearl Flag", etc., and became a first-line actress of ATV, known as "The First Sister of ATV".

During this period, she was basically arranged to perform in important dramas and was regarded as a pillar of ATV. Together with Lu Songxian, another pillar of ATV, she was also called the golden girl of ATV.

Chen Qiming put down the planning book in his hand and couldn't help but smile: "Your idea is actually the same as mine. My plan is to let Wan Qiwen play this role."

"But..." Chen Qiming stood up, "Although I prefer her to play this role, she may need to audition and compete with other people."

"She still needs to audition?" Xu Xiaoming was stunned.

He really felt a little incredible.

Who is Wan Qiwen?

The first sister of ATV! In recent years, he has starred in four or five popular TV series, if not ten.

She is now the queen of ATV.

Such an existence actually requires auditions now.

“Because I will be the male lead of this drama, many female stars outside want to star in this drama.

Vivian Chow and Qiu Shuzhen are both interested in starring.

In addition, another actress of the company, Yang Caini, also plans to compete for this role.

You know, these three all have a lot of work in the film industry and are Hong Kong's top actresses, and I need to consider their feelings. "

Chen Qiming explained loudly.

Chen Qiming's appearance in "I Have a Date with a Zombie" caused a stir in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Among them, it is not only the media that is paying attention to this TV series.

Even the actors are like that.

Smart people all know that Chen Qiming's appearance has already made "My Date with a Zombie" half a success.

Maybe even more than half.

With "A Date with a Zombie" almost certain to be a success, many actors are naturally salivating over roles in the show.

Especially actresses.

After learning that there was a heroine with a very important role in this drama, many actresses submitted their resumes to the crew and volunteered to star in this TV series.

A large number of actresses wanted to star in the film, so it was naturally difficult for Chen Qiming to choose one directly.

At the very least, give these people some face and let them audition.

"Qiu Shuzhen actually wants to star in this TV series? Didn't she fall in love with Shen Jiawei?"

Xu Xiaoming was surprised when he heard that Qiu Shuzhen was on the list of people he wanted to play.

Just last year, Qiu Shuzhen and Wang Jing parted ways.

The two made headlines when they broke up.

As a result, not long after she broke up with Wang Jing, Qiu Shuzhen was rumored to be with Shen Jiawei, the boss of a Hong Kong fashion company.

Who is Shen Jiawei?

He is Hong Kong's clothing boss second only to Chen Qiming.

His IT company currently has a market value of HK$400 million and is a well-known fashion clothing company in Hong Kong.

Because of her relationship with a billionaire, there were rumors that Qiu Shuzhen was about to retire.

"I don't know, maybe I like acting!"

Chen Qiming said nonchalantly.

In fact, he probably knows the reason.

Although the outside world has been rumoring that Shen Jiawei doesn't like Qiu Shuzhen's public appearance, the actual situation is that Qiu Shuzhen and Shen Jiawei are currently in a relationship.

Qiu Shuzhen is not a fool, how could she retire before she has a destination.

What if Shen Jiawei quits and doesn't want her?

Therefore, any smart woman will not retire immediately at this time, but will continue to be active in the entertainment industry to maintain her fame.

Don't decide whether to really retire until after you get married.

"Please make arrangements here and send invitations to all the actors who are interested in starring in "My Date with a Zombie". We will hold an audition this Sunday."

This time, Chen Qiming does not plan to directly appoint actors for the TV series, but plans to invite outstanding actors to audition through auditions.

At the end, Chen Qiming suddenly said: "By the way, I plan to increase the wages of ATV actors. What do you think?"

"Salary increase?" Xu Xiaoming was stunned, "Boss, are you kidding me?"

rise salary!

No one would be surprised to hear this from anyone, but it would be unbelievable for a TV station boss like Chen Qiming to say it.

People say TVB’s Sir Shao is stingy.

In fact, ATV's former boss, Lin Baixin, is no less impressive than him.

Why do many Hong Kong TV actors go to Taiwan to star in TV series after becoming famous in Hong Kong?

The big reason is that the two TV stations in Hong Kong are the same and never raise wages.

In order to make money but not get the chance to act in movies, these people have to go to the treasure island where the film financing is higher.

In Xu Xiaoming's thoughts.

After Chen Qiming becomes the boss of ATV, in order to save money, he will probably continue to pay low wages to actors as usual.

Unexpectedly, he did not expect that Chen Qiming would now take the initiative to raise the wages of actors. He found it incredible when he thought about it.

"Yes, raise the salary!" Chen Qiming nodded: "I have basically understood the company's operating model recently.

The company's structure is indeed huge. From the filming team to the actor team, to the martial arts to the logistics support, the company has everything.

This large-scale factory model is indeed very economical, but in my opinion, it tends to make the company rest on its laurels.

Take a look at the TV stations in Baodao. They basically adopt the outsourcing system and outsource TV series to professional TV production companies.

The emergence of a large number of TV drama production companies has not only intensified competition in the industry, but also led to an endless supply of good works.

My idea is that in the future, ATV can also choose to outsource projects to other TV drama production companies, and we will only be responsible for broadcasting.

Of course, this does not mean giving up independent production completely.

But relatively speaking, more opportunities should be given to those TV series production companies, which can better stimulate the industry and make the series more exciting.

As for actors' remuneration, what I think is that if you want a horse to run, you have to feed it grass.

We can't compare to TVB when it comes to cultivating new talents.

But we can increase the remuneration and recruit talents from TVB. "

In fact, Lin Baixin has done it before by poaching people by increasing the pay.

In the early 1990s, Lin Baixin had just acquired ATV.

At that time, ATV had been suppressed by TVB for several years.

In order to fight against TVB, but also to make myself stronger.

At that time, ATV launched a wave of poaching frenzy, directly poaching a large number of talents from TVB.

Among them were many popular TVB actors at the time.

Speaking of poaching, Chen Qiming couldn't help but ask: "Which actors are the most popular in the TV industry in the past two years?"

"A lot." Xu Xiaoming pondered for a moment and said: "As for TVB, Louis Koo is very popular in the entire Chinese-speaking region with his role as Yang Guo. He is one of TVB's trump cards.

Then there is Huang Rihua who has just re-signed with TVB.

The other one is Nick Cheung, who became famous with "The Monkey King", but it is said that he failed to reach a contract with TVB and was banned again by TVB.

Then there is Chen Haoming. His role as Duan Yu was well received. Recently, he replaced Zhang Weijian as the Monkey King and received high ratings. "

"Zhang Weijian?" Chen Qiming's eyes lit up, "Send someone to contact him."

Xu Xiaoming hesitated, "Weijian Zhang has a bad reputation. It is said that the reason why he was banned by TVB was because "The Monkey King" was a big hit. He took the opportunity to raise the price, so he was banned by TVB.

Moreover, you should have heard of his previous incidents. Fat Mao was also considered his benefactor, but because the company was in debt and could not pay the film, he was sued by him. We..."

Before he could finish speaking, Chen Qiming interrupted him directly.

"Let's not talk about his character issues. What I value is his ability. As long as his dramas are watched, what's the point of raising his salary?

Moreover, people have to be paid for acting. This is a matter of course. The case with Sha Mao was that what he did was unethical.

The company's debts are the company's business. What does it have to do with him as an actor? He actually used other people's film proceeds without permission. "

Nick Cheung's reputation in Hong Kong circles is not very good.

This is mainly because he fell out with his boss twice over money.

The first time was in 93 when he sued Sha Mao for wage arrears. This incident made a big fuss and became big news for a time.

Although the outside world has been criticizing Zhang Weijian for this matter, in fact, in Chen Qiming's view, there is really nothing wrong with this matter.

Back then, fat cat Zheng Zeshi saw others making a lot of money investing in film and television companies, and he was inspired to open a company in partnership with his friends.

But the film company was not so easy to run, and within a few years he lost all his money due to investment failure.

What's even worse is that when his friend saw that the situation was not good, he secretly took the money and absconded, leaving Zheng Zeshi with a debt of 8000 million.

Because there was so much debt, Zheng Zeshi was unable to repay it for a while.

In order to pay off the debt, he secretly used up the two million remuneration of Zhang Weijian's acting and withheld it from Zhang Weijian for various reasons.

In the end, after Zhang Weijian asked for money several times to no avail, he had no choice but to take Zheng Zeshi to court.

Subsequently, Zheng Zeshi publicly accused Zhang Weijian of repaying kindness with enmity, exaggerating, and misinterpreted Zhang Weijian's lawsuit to mean that Zhang Weijian did not know how to repay kindness and repaid kindness with hatred.

This incident once caused Zhang Weijian's reputation to fall to the bottom.

The second time Zhang Weijian fell out with his old club because of money was last year.

In 1996, Zhang Weijian became famous due to the release of records in Baodao, and was selected into the top ten idols of Baodao. Later, he was invited back by TVB to film the TV series "The Monkey King".

After this TV series was aired, the ratings reached an astonishing 40%, making it a hit.

After a TV series becomes popular, as an actor, you will naturally hope that your salary will increase.

All actors do this kind of thing. After the first movie they star in becomes a hit, they will inevitably ask for a salary increase for the second movie. This is something that is not surprising in the industry.

As we all know, it is very difficult for TVB actors to add a chicken leg.

Not to mention a salary increase.

Therefore, Zhang Weijian's move was inevitably rejected.

Moreover, he was directly pointed at the head by TVB executives and yelled, "If you have no hair on your face, then you are worthless."

This sentence really broke Zhang Weijian's heart.

Because at that time, Nick Cheung played Sun Wukong in The Monkey King, and his face was covered with monkey hair.

From the perspective of TVB executives, they probably felt that he was just a monkey and anyone with monkey hair on him was acting, so he pointed at Nicky Cheung and cursed him like this.

Because of this scolding, Zhang Weijian directly shaved his head, determined to become a hairless and valuable Zhang Weijian.

"I understand." Xu Xiaoming nodded, "Cheung Weijian's contract with TVB ended in the second half of last year, and he seems to have gone to Treasure Island recently.

However, it is said that the development is not very good.

I'll contact him here to see if he will come back. "

"Forget it, you don't need to contact me, I'll contact him." Chen Qiming thought for a while and said.

Zhang Weijian had quite a lot of contact with him.

The first movie played by Chen Qiming, "The Story of Truancy", starred Cheung Weijian.

At that time, the two of them got along quite well on the set.

Later, the two also kept in touch frequently.

Moreover, Chen Qiming felt that if he made the call in person, it would be easier for Zhang Weijian to believe that ATV is willing to give him a chance.

"Go handle the matter of "I Have a Date with a Zombie"! Remember to tell Wan Qiwen and ask her to come for the interview too.

You can tell her in a subtle way that the role is still hers, but you can just let her go through the motions. "Chen Qiming explained.

After Xu Xiaoming left, Chen Qiming thought about it and called Zhang Weijian directly.

(End of this chapter)