SUPERSTAR ASPIRATION

Chapter 70 (Serious people are also very precious)

TL Note: “The Missing City” will be changed to “Maze City”. I will be going back to change the previous chapters for consistency. 
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PART 1

Black Clouds has just been released in less than a month, and the cumulative box office has been close to 10 billion. With this movie, Rong Xu was boosted in both popularity and status, reaching the peak since his debut.

Rong Xu was able to obtain a lead role in his first movie, and even receive such terrifying box office values and reputation. It could be said that Rong Xu is the most popular newcomer in recent years.

After Black Clouds, Luo Zhentao carefully selected four works for Rong Xu, each being commercial dramas with popular themes and excellent scripts. The themes included romantic comedies, large-production fantasy films, and road films[1] which was the recent popular movie trend. But in the end, Rong Xu read all the scripts and chose Maze City.

Maze City is a mystery detective film. Like many commercial criminal investigation films, this one had a dual male protagonist setting, filled with action and plot drama. As long as the script is qualified and the acting skills pass, the box office will not be low.

When Luo Zhentao learned that Rong Xu chose Maze City, he was quite surprised. “Xiao Xu, this movie has dual male leads. Didn’t you tell me before that you wanted to attempt a lead role and choose a commercial film to prove your appeal in the box office?”

 Hearing that, Rong Xu put down the script and asked with a small smile: “Brother Luo, since you know this is a dual male lead film, why do you show me the script?”

Luo Zhentao was struck dumb for a bit, and after a while, he shook his head and said: “It’s because it’s a good script……”

Yes, Maze City’s script was indeed quite good.

In the entertainment industry, there are two forms of cast selection processes for film and TV drama crews. The first is that there is no required audition for the actors. The director or investor would directly decide on the actor for the role. The second is via audition, where several actors with a suitable image are selected to participate in auditions at the same time, and afterwards, it is decided which actor will play the role in the film.

When the Maze City crew sent the script to Luo Zhentao, they straightforwardly gave Luo Zhentao a statement: “We are inviting Rong Xu to play the leading role of Xue Jiazhe.”

Not any other role, let alone a supporting character. Only Xue Jiazhe, it can only be Xue Jiazhe.

If Rong Xu is willing to take on the filming of Maze City, then he will directly act as Xue Jiazhe. If Rong Xu ends up unwilling to take on the filming of Maze City, or if he wants to play another role, the crew wouldn’t accept it and would directly go look for another actor. The spot that the crew of Maze City left for Rong Xu is only Xue Jiazhe. It was decided on by the director based upon Rong Xu’s image, and this time, he didn’t choose the wrong person.

When Rong Xu finished reading the script, he really only wanted to play Xue Jiazhe.

The entirety of Maze City revolves around a serial murder case. In the bustling and luxurious Hai Cheng[2], a perverted serial murderer suddenly appeared. This murderer’s killing method wasn’t original, but the corpses were handled very cleanly, and the victim’s right hand was chopped off every time.