Not to mention Xinyi City, which is constantly fighting among itself, even Jiahe, which dominated Xinyi City back then, isn't life difficult now?

Thinking of this, Tsui Hark suddenly felt a bit lucky. Fortunately, he chose to cooperate with Lin.

Several consecutive films have been hugely successful, and he has swept away the bad luck of the previous years and returned to the top.

The costume action movie "Once Upon a Time in the Grandmaster" directed by him will be released in August. Tsui Hark is full of confidence in this movie and he will reach a higher level with this movie.

"Hey, what are you thinking about?" A voice interrupted Tsui Hark's mental activities.

John Woo came to his side, and Tsui Hark chuckled, "It's nothing, I thought of the past."

"In the past."

2

John Woo let out a breath, and couldn't help but remember the past, when he and Tsui Hark could be regarded as happy enemies.

When he was in New Arts City, he became a box office poison and had no chance to make movies. It was Tsui Hark and his bosses who strongly recommended him to make "A Better Tomorrow."

At that time, the two of them were as good as one person, but later they fell out over the sequel to "A Better Tomorrow."

As a result, after going round and round, the two met again at Lin's Pictures.

The difference from Xinyi City is that they all have greater autonomy, so there are no conflicts.

"Let's have a drink together tonight!" After thinking about the past for a moment, John Woo suddenly suggested.

"Okay!" After Tsui Hark agreed, he took a quick look at John Woo's expression and felt that his expression was a bit strange.

"What's the good thing?"

John Woo waved his hand, "What's so good about this!"

The more he said this, the more curious Tsui Hark became. The two had known each other for more than ten years and knew each other's personalities very well.

Under Tsui Hark's questioning, John Woo had no choice but to say: "I may have to change the filming location."

"What's the meaning?"

"Mrs. Lin wants to increase investment in the North American branch. The director in the United States, Mrs. Lin, is worried because there is a shortage of directors there, so she plans to let me go over and make a film to test the waters."

When Tsui Hark heard this, his eyes widened and he couldn't hide his inner surprise.

"Are you going to Hollywood?"

Although Hong Kong filmmakers always consider themselves "Oriental Hollywood", there is always a big gap between it and the real Hollywood.

Over the years, I don’t know how many filmmakers have dreamed of breaking into Hollywood, and there are many practitioners among them, but there are few successful examples.

If Bruce Lee had not died young, he might have been a successful example.

John Woo reservedly said: "What kind of entry into Hollywood is this? Mrs. Lin gave me the opportunity. Alas, filming with US dollars,

It’s a lot of pressure!”

Tsui Hark keenly discovered the wrinkles at the corners of his old friend's eyes, as well as the suppressed pride in his tone.

Although he really didn't want to give John Woo a pretentious party, Tsui Hark was really curious.

"What kind of film are you shooting? How much is the investment?"

John Woo looked around, looked mysterious, and lowered his voice and said, "It's still a gunfight movie, with more action scenes. The investment is 18 million US dollars."

After hearing the last number, Tsui Hark's eyes turned red.

Most directors have a "phobia of insufficient funds" and no one would mind investing too much.

How much is an investment of US$18 million converted into Hong Kong dollars?

Tsui Hark calculated in his mind, 140 million Hong Kong dollars!

He was silent and felt complicated.

When he filmed the first part of "Once Upon a Time in the Grandmaster", his investment was also 18 million, but it was only in Hong Kong dollars. The 7.8 times exchange rate difference made Tsui Hark very upset.

"Congratulations!"

Tsui Hark squeezed out this sentence through his teeth. He felt that John Woo in front of him was really hateful and he didn't want to say another word to him.

But John Woo had no plans to let him go, and kept expressing his worries and doubts about going to the United States to film.

"What are you talking about?"

Shi Nansheng's appearance saved Tsui Hark. He smiled and talked about John Woo. Shi Nansheng said: "What a coincidence! Azhen was still talking to me about this matter just now."

Hearing this, John Woo couldn't help but glance in Wu Meizhen's direction, feeling a little dissatisfied. Didn't he say that the news would be kept secret for the time being?

But he didn't dare to trouble Wu Meizhen. Wu Meizhen was Mrs. Lin's personal assistant and the company veteran noticed Wu Yusen's eyes. Wu Meizhen looked at him and nodded with a smile.

Turning her head, she focused her eyes on Tao Yushu, who was socializing with many guests, and then glanced at the time on the electronic display.

The time is really long!

I think back then, she had just graduated from college and accidentally got into Lin's Pictures.

At that time, the company was still on the seventh floor of the Prince's Building, with two or three cats and kittens, and the boss didn't look like he was rich. Wu Meizhen thought about changing jobs more than once.

But whenever she had this idea, her boss would always give her a salary increase at the right time, easily giving up her idea.

Wu Meizhen is not very greedy, but she thinks it is hard to work with Mrs. Lin. Why should she increase her salary?

Compared with the celebrities and famous directors present, she attaches more importance to the company's listing. Those people make hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars per movie.

And she is just a miserable wage earner. Her salary is good compared with ordinary white-collar workers, but it is far from her ideal.

For internal subscription, she has 100,000 shares. Whether she can exchange that small apartment for a thousand-year-old mansion depends on today.

With something in mind, Wu Meizhen's eyes watched Tao Yushu walk up to the stage to deliver a speech, full of anticipation.

The person in charge of the company takes the stage to deliver a speech, which is the last step before listing.

Because it was very close to the bell-ringing ceremony, I only had five minutes to speak.

For the bosses of many companies, the day of listing is definitely considered a big day in their lives, and it goes without saying that they feel proud.

In contrast, Tao Yushu's performance was much more calm and majestic, and the guests, reporters and staff in the audience also understood it very well.

Counting Lin's Pictures, which went public today, Mrs. Lin standing on the stage already owns three listed companies.

Moreover, he has been ringing the bell at the Stock Exchange for two consecutive years. Such an achievement has never been achieved before, and I am afraid that there may not be anyone else in the future. What’s more, Tao Yushu still has the title of “Hong Kong’s richest woman” on her head.

"——Thank you again for your continued support of Lam Films."

There were still two minutes left before the bell was rung, and Tao Yushu reached this point. Everyone thought she seemed to be concluding the story.

Unexpectedly, Tao Yushu changed the subject and continued:

"Today, Lin's Pictures went public. It was originally a happy day, but I personally have a few words to say -

When many guests and reporters heard this, they were a little curious and didn't know what she was going to say.

"Friends who have been paying attention to the news recently should know that since May, there have been heavy rains in East China.

So far, many places have been hit by floods. The situation is so serious that it has not been seen in a century.

Compatriots are connected by flesh and blood, and blood is thicker than water. At this time of crisis————

In the past half month, major media outlets have reported on flooding in the Mainland from time to time. Everyone is aware of the situation, and since this week, enthusiastic people in the society have begun small-scale fundraising activities.

It's not surprising that Tao Yushu mentioned this topic.

She paused, attracting expectant looks from everyone.

"We, Lin's Pictures, will shoot the movie "The Banquet" in three days, and all the box office proceeds will be donated to the mainland to help our compatriots in the mainland tide over the difficulties.

We will use an all-star cast to star in this movie, and the actors who have been confirmed so far include--"

Hearing the words "all-star lineup", the curiosity of everyone present was piqued by Tao Yushu.

"Xu Guanwen, Stephen Chow, Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Jet Li, Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung——..."

Every time Tao Yushu read a name, everyone present could not help but exclaim.

One movie almost captured most of the first-line stars in the Hong Kong film industry.

In recent years, the Xiangjiang Film Market has occasionally produced family-friendly movies with big casts during the Double Dancing Festival and Chinese New Year. They also use a star cast, and any actor who appears in the movie has a name.

But compared to the lineup announced by Tao Yushu today, the casts of these movies are completely insignificant and not on the same level.

When Tao Yushu was reading these names, reporters were already calculating the salaries of these stars. With so many people added together, the salary would probably be 30 to 40 million Hong Kong dollars, right?

But everyone also understands that since it is a charity, of course these celebrities cannot ask for pay.

With the current influence of Lam Films in the Hong Kong film industry, it is not unusual to have such a strong star lineup.

Just when everyone was still marveling at the cast of "The Rich Man's Night Banquet", Tao Yushu made another big move.

"In addition to the project of the charity movie "The Rich Man's Night Banquet", we, Lin's Pictures, have also joined hands with TVB.

A large-scale charity performance will be held this weekend at Happy Valley Racecourse.

The currently confirmed performance lineup includes all the actors confirmed to participate in "The Banquet" as well as all the artists of TVB.

We also strongly appeal to our colleagues in the Hong Kong performing arts community to contact us and actively participate in this art show.
To be continued...