Chapter 506: Black-Hearted
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Chairman Yao had never once handled the meeting seriously. Since the beginning, he had been mouthing off at them with sarcastic remarks.
If Chairman Yao had not instructed Manager Zhang and the others in advance, they would not have been obstructive and treated Tan Jinqi with disdain tacitly in unison.
Apart from mentioning exorbitant investment capital, they did not discuss anything of importance.
Chairman Yao regarded Tan Mo like his sworn enemies.
If it weren’t for Tan Mo, he wouldn’t have misjudged and disinvested from “Legend of Wei and Jin” and nearly lose his relations.h.i.+p with Director Liu.
If Tan Mo were to explain herself sincerely during the filming of “Legend of Wei and Jin,” whether public or private, he might have reconsidered his decision. At least, that was what he believed.
Chairman Yao did not know that Tan Mo was still underaged back then.
Even if Tan Mo really gave him an explanation, would he have bought whatever she said?
With his personality, he would have looked down on her anyway. In the end, things would have still ended up with either Tan Mo leaving the film project or Journey Films disinvesting its funds.
Chairman Yao would never think that it was his fault.
If someone were to be in the wrong, it would be Tan Mo.
“I presume you’re Tan Mo.” Although Chairman Yao was sitting while Tan Mo was standing, he had a condescending att.i.tude like he could deign to listen to her.
“Yes.” Tan Mo nodded.
Since he behaved that way, she did not have to be courteous to him.
After all, respect went both ways.
Chairman Yao curled his lips into a smirk full of mockery and disdain.
He shook his head and mocked, “You did well in writing ‘Legend of Wei and Jin.’ At first, I was looking forward to seeing the release of your new script. After waiting for so long, there’s no sign of you working on a new series. I thought that perhaps you had no plans to pursue this career altogether.
“On second thought, it’s actually not a bad idea. Otherwise, you might risk dethroning your t.i.tle as the best scriptwriter from its top spot if you produced mediocre work. With your existing series, you’ll remain as one of the greatest of all time,” Chairman Yao continued. “But who would’ve thought that you’d decide to write a new one now? After browsing through the script, it’s nothing but a total disappointment.”
“Your script this time is too unworkable. It doesn’t have any real substance. People will just watch it once and forget about it. It’d be fine as it is if it were a low-budget web series. You might even earn some profit from it. But if you were to film it as Director Tan said, this series would be a flop.” Chairman Yao shook his head.
“Journey Films is not a charitable organization. We won’t fund your project knowing that you’ll steer it into the red,” Chairman Yao scoffed. “Besides, don’t you do market research before scriptwriting? Didn’t you know that there’s no demand for mythology stories currently?”
“Who do you think will watch this nonsense?” Chairman Yao threw the doc.u.ments in his hand on the table and ignored them as if they were trash.
“What? Don’t tell me that you thought we’d fund your project for the sake of Director Hou and Director Liu?” Chairman chided. “If so, you should at least show me a decent script! Stop taking us for a fool!”
“Will Journey Films fund our film project even if we show you a suitable script? Will you not look for a different excuse to reject us?” Tan Jinqi remarked with a stern look.
It was evident to everyone that Chairman Yao had something against Tan Mo.
“What did you say?” Chairman Yao shot Tan Jinqi a dark look. He jumped to his feet as if the latter stabbed his Achilles heel.
“You said that we didn’t do market research,” Tan Jinqi snickered, “but you didn’t even discuss its potentials and possibilities, nor did you instruct someone to list out your budget. You rejected my offer even before I finished my pitch. It just goes to show that you never had the intention to invest in our film project in the first place. So, it doesn’t matter whether I continue my patter or not since you won’t agree to any of them anyway.
“The only reason you called me here today was so that you could get even with us by humiliating us, right?” Tan Jinqi sneered.
Chairman Yao snorted in displeasure. “Young man, don’t be ashamed of admitting that your script is terrible. Don’t blame us just because you were rejected. It’s not our fault your work isn’t up to par. You can’t be thinking that we’re thoughtless for not acknowledging a script you thought was phenomenal to make yourself feel better. That’s narcissistic.
“Regardless of your opinion, nothing will change the fact that it was substandard,” Chairman Yao added. “The success of ‘Legend of Wei and Jin’ was ascribed to Tan Mo’s understanding of history. Once she goes beyond her forte, her shortcoming of being an amateur will be revealed—lack of knowledge of market demands and unrealistic story settings. Besides, your estimated production budget has surpa.s.sed the average range of a drama series. A professional scriptwriter will take film budgeting into account when they are working on it. Why do you think so many novels with good plots aren’t adapted into live-action movies? The show won’t be as great on the big screen, so ma.s.sive changes have to be made.”
“The fact that you wrote this script like it was a novel exploited your inexpertise. The success of ‘Legend of Wei and Jin’ was credited to its faithfulness toward real history. It had nothing to do with your skill as a scriptwriter.”
Tan Jinqi would not allow Tan Mo to be slandered by Chairman Yao like this.
As a director, he could tell the potentials and possibilities of this film project.
However, the narrow-minded Chairman Yao ignored that and went his way to strike Tan Mo with verbal attacks.
He must have hoped to destroy her self-confidence, which would cause her to doubt her abilities and lose the courage to write another piece of script ever again.
What a black-hearted person he was.
“Chairman Yao, I heard news saying that Journey Films obtained the rights to adapt an urban fantasy web novel into a live-action series,” Tan Jinqi noted in a deep voice.
“You’re right.” Chairman Yao nodded and said, “You should check it out when you’re free. A good story should be something like that.”
Tan Jinqi bowed his head. “Well, I shall look forward to it.”
“Eldest Brother,” Tan Mo uttered.
“Yes?” Tan Jinqi turned to stare at Tan Mo.
“We should release our series at the same time as Journey films,” Tan Mo replied with a smile on her face.
Didn’t Chairman Yao despise them?
Didn’t he belittle her script and regard it as worthless?
If so, she would like to see for herself which would receive higher viewers.h.i.+p—Chairman Yao’s urban fantasy series or their mythology series.
Upon hearing that, Chairman Yao stopped putting on his act and chuckled. “What? You wanna have a compet.i.tion? Are you telling me that you thought you could give us a run for our money?”
Chairman Yao’s words caused everyone to burst into laughter.
“Young lady,” Manager Zhang commented with a sn.i.g.g.e.r, “we obtained a best-selling intellect property that was the trend-setter of urban fantasy stories. It has been regarded as a cla.s.sic work for many years and has more than a hundred million readers. Just the novel fans alone are enough to start us off for high viewers.h.i.+p. It’s not something you can hope to defeat with a mythology story you just came up with, which still has no reader even as we speak.”
“I know that novel. It’s truly a great work. There are many fans of it in my university as well.” Tan Mo ignored Manager Zhang’s att.i.tude and added, “But you’ll need a lot of high-quality visual effects for those fictional scenes. It’s definitely not something you can pull off with a low budget.. Furthermore, its plots belonged to the type Chairman Yao mentioned earlier—a show that won’t be as great on the screen.”