Chapter 332 - Finalization of the Script for Tomorrow is Beautiful (2/2)

Pei Qian praised Zhu Xiaoce and his script-writing team highly.

Zhu Xiaoce could not help but grin. “You’re too kind, Boss Pei. Your story outline was good. We only added in some minor details.”

They were both chatting happily when Pei Qian’s cell phone rang.

He glanced at it and saw that it was Chang You.

“Hello? Boss Pei, I just wanted to tell you that we’re more or less done with the preparations. We’ve selected a suitable office, and I’ve recruited all my brothers.

“We want to set a general direction for the first cell phone model today and come up with a plan for the initial stages of production. Could you come over and offer some guidance if you have spare time on your hands?”

Offer some guidance? This was a bad time.

Pei Qian was still discussing the script with Zhu Xiaoce at Fei Huang Workspace; he was afraid he would not have time to spare for the rest of the day.

Should he ‘guide’ the successful Fei Huang Workspace or the dream team that had experienced failure many times before?

The choice was obvious.

Of course, Pei Qian could also arrange to meet Chang You and the rest the next day. However, on further thought, it seemed meaningless to make everyone waste one entire day waiting. Pei Qian also felt like he could not meddle in Otto Technologies’ business. On one hand, he could affect the dream team’s performance. On the other hand, if he offered help and the first cell phone model failed, Boss Pei would be taking the blame in place of Lin Wan. It would hinder Lin Wan from leaving the industry, going home, and taking over her family business.

“You can go ahead with the discussions. I am quite busy today, and so I won’t be able to come down.

“Don’t ask me to give instructions for everything. I’m letting you call the shots.”

Chang You answered, “Alright, Boss Pei! Don’t worry, we’ll finish the task!”

After hanging up, Pei Qian continued discussing the script with Zhu Xiaoce. Zhu Xiaoce hesitated and said, “Boss Pei, there’s one more problem.

“You should have noticed by now that the characters’ names have not been set. That’s because we can’t decide if the main characters should be Eastern or Western.

“You seem to hint that these people are from a future age. However, you haven’t given us any hints on their nationality.”

Pei Qian nodded. That was indeed a problem.

“Since the movie is to be set in the future, the concept of nations has to remain blurry. Furthermore, this story cannot happen in our country.

“The characters and scenes should be in English. The lines should be in English as well.

“Look for foreigners to play the main characters. If you can’t find any, look for locals who can speak good English. You don’t have to explain their identities. The audience would understand that the characters are only ethnically Chinese.”

Pei Qian figured that hiring foreign actors would probably cost more than hiring local ones! He could not forego any chance to spend more money. Zhu Xiaoce quickly nodded. “Yes, Boss Pei, that’s what I thought as well.

“However, there might be one difficulty… we’ll probably not be able to hire famous foreign actors. We might not even be able to hire moderately-famous foreign actors.

“After all, this is Fei Huang Workspace’s first time filming a movie. We are practically unknown overseas. Even if we offer a lot of money, we might not be able to convince them to travel all the way to Jingzhou.

“It’ll be easy for us to hire the calefares but much more difficult for us to find the main actors-especially the male protagonist and judge. Those two have many more lines than the others. That means we need to have higher requirements for their acting.

“For that reason, should we try looking for local actors to play those parts?”

After some thought, Pei Qian replied, “Alright.

“However… if we can’t hire famous foreign actors, do you think we’ll be able to hire famous local ones?”

Zhu Xiaoce smiled helplessly. “It won’t be easy either. However, it would at least be easier for us to communicate with local actors. That would increase our chances of hiring them.”

Pei Qian had wanted to suggest hiring a few newbie actors from various schools to fill the roles. However, he subsequently realized that they would cost too little. Fei Huang Workspace would not be able to spend much on remuneration.

No matter what, they had to find an actor or two who would request for higher pay. Otherwise, Fei Huang Workspace would not be able to finish spending their budget for remuneration.

Yet, who could they look for? That was another problem.

All of a sudden, a person’s name popped into Pei Qian’s mind.

I know a local actor, and I’ve even worked with him before!

Zha Zhuti!

Zhang Zuting had been severely criticized after acting as the spokesperson for Bloody Battle Song back then. However, he also gained a significant following through that episode. Many people started to pay attention to him, so that even he began to accept being referred to as ‘Zha Zhuti’.

Of course, Pei Qian still remembered this old friend of his.

old Zhang was a good friend of Tengda. Thus, Tengda could not treat him badly. As the saying went, one could not allow benefits created by one’s own work to accrue to others. Since Fei Huang Workspace was ready to offer a high salary, they had to offer the role to Zhang Zuting first.

Even if the movie failed later on, people would only curse at the scriptwriters and not the actors.

Old Zhang just had to act well in the movie to avoid being scolded by the audience. What’s more, one particular character in the script suited Old Zhang well—the incorrigible judge.

The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more appropriate the plan seemed. He said, “I’ll help to look for actors as well.

“I’ll contact Zhang Zuting later and ask him for his availability for filming. If he agrees to star in the movie, we will cast him as the judge.

“As for the male protagonist… We can continue looking around and inform each other if we find suitable actors.”

Zhu Xiaoce looked surprised. “Zhang Zuting? It’ll be great if we can hire him. He’s an old actor, whose acting skills are guaranteed to be good! What’s more, his English is not bad. He can probably speak English during the entire filming process.

“Boss Pei, you have a wide network indeed!”