The Face Genius Actor

Episode 132

But soon I could understand what CEO Jung Yoon-seok was thinking.

Originally, CEO Jung Yoon-seok had a personality that didn’t spare full support for his employees.

Giving autonomy and allowing employees to move on their own based on this.

This was the reason why Festa Entertainment had survived in the jungle-like entertainment industry until now.

And this kind of management philosophy was consistently applied to production and investment as well.

First, I’ll support you as you wish.

Don’t worry too much.

I can overlook one failure.

It felt like he was operating with this mindset.

And thanks to this management philosophy, “I Am Not a Villain” was born.

Now that “I Am Not a Villain” had succeeded beyond expectations,

From CEO Jung Yoon-seok’s perspective, there was no reason not to give me full support.

‘Even if it’s a drama, not a movie…’

Moreover, Festa Entertainment didn’t just earn huge profits from the success of “I Am Not a Villain”.

As “I Am Not a Villain” achieved unexpected success, they were able to stably settle into the production business.

Now, Festa Entertainment could be considered one of the most recognized production companies in Korea recently.

Having earned more than 10 times the profit even before the movie was sold to OTT platforms,

The industry couldn’t help but pay attention to Festa Entertainment’s moves.

‘Also, the recent contract with Director Choi Seo-young for her next work attracted a lot of attention.’

Director Choi Seo-young was the most notable figure in the film industry.

It was natural, as she was invited to the Cannes Film Festival and won an award right after her debut.

And they managed to keep Director Choi Seo-young without any unexpected changes.

This proved that Festa Entertainment’s company management was stable.

In the end, Festa Entertainment could be seen as having laid the foundation for their business with just one work, “I Am Not a Villain”.

In fact, starting with the success of “I Am Not a Villain”, Festa Entertainment was producing three movies and two dramas.

‘Moreover, in the case of Director Choi Seo-young, it’s as good as me discovering her.’

CEO Jung Yoon-seok wouldn’t have forgotten that I personally chose Director Choi Seo-young among several candidates.

So from CEO Jung Yoon-seok’s perspective, he had no choice but to support whatever I did.

Sure enough, CEO Jung Yoon-seok looked at my expression and opened his mouth.

“As you know, from my position, even if I try not to believe in you, I can’t. Honestly, I can’t help but think it would work out even if you tried to make tofu with red beans.”

“I won’t try to make tofu with red beans.”

“Yes. You’re not the type to be unreasonable. I’m already curious about what kind of work it will be. By the way, I think I heard the word drama earlier, isn’t it a movie you’re writing this time?”

“Yes. I wrote a drama called ‘Toema Hwan Ya Dam’.”

“A drama. As I always feel, your choices are surprising. If it were me, I would have written a movie for stability.”

Certainly, writing a movie script could be easier.

I had already achieved results in that area.

‘Probably just the news of the next work could attract a lot of attention.’

This meant that the chances of success for the next work were high.

It was natural, as the starting point would be different from “I Am Not a Villain”.

But after much consideration, I chose a drama as my next work.

“To be honest, I’m not confident that a movie would achieve results beyond ‘I Am Not a Villain’.”

“Certainly, the audience’s expectations have risen to a burdensome level. It’s not like we can win the Palme d’Or just by making a movie right away.”

“Yes. So I thought I’d turn my attention to a different genre without feeling unnecessarily rushed. It seemed that fans were also hoping I would choose a drama as my next work.”

Moreover, given the setting of “Toema Hwan Ya Dam” where the protagonist travels around the country exorcising evil spirits, it was more suitable to make it as a drama.

If made into a movie, only one incident could be resolved during the running time.

But if made into a drama, at least one or more incidents could be dealt with.

“Certainly, dramas have the advantage of being able to meet fans more closely than movies. These days, with the development of OTT, it’s also easier to rewatch dramas than before.”

“That’s why I’m saying this, but I’d like the ‘Toema Hwan Ya Dam’ I wrote this time to go to an OTT platform.”

“Really? There have been many successful works on OTT platforms recently, but still, wouldn’t it be better to go to broadcasting… You could go to OTT after broadcasting too.”

“I’m not saying I haven’t thought about going to broadcasting first. However, in that case, it seems the scheduling would be too late.”

Recently, with the activation of OSMU business, it was frequent to turn webtoons and such into dramas.

As a result, many works were poured out at once, and naturally, it became difficult to secure broadcasting slots.

In the case of tvM, there were rumors that all the schedules for this year were already filled in just the first half of the year.

For this reason, even if I completed the drama now, it would be extremely difficult to air it within this year.

It seemed it would be broadcast around the second half of next year at the earliest.

“But if you say you’re writing a work, wouldn’t the broadcasting station somehow make room?”

“That could be the case. But I didn’t think so optimistically. As far as dramas are concerned, I’m no different from a rookie. Moreover, honestly, ‘I Am Not a Villain’ that I wrote doesn’t have a popular feel.”

“I Am Not a Villain” was able to achieve good results thanks to its tremendous success at the Cannes Film Festival.

It didn’t attract many viewers because the movie itself was popular.

CEO Jung Yoon-seok nodded as if he understood my words.

“Now that I hear it, that’s true. So you thought of OTT because of the scheduling issue?”

“It’s one of several reasons. My thought is that I want to meet the fans as soon as possible somehow. But there’s another reason.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s the fact that the scale of the drama I wrote is bigger than I thought. ‘Toema Hwan Ya Dam’ will probably need a lot of CGI.”

The fact that a lot of CGI is involved meant that production costs would increase exponentially.

To make this point understood, I explained the drama’s plot to CEO Jung Yoon-seok.

Then CEO Jung Yoon-seok realized why I brought up the CGI talk.

“Certainly, with that kind of content, the production costs would be considerable. But what does the production cost have to do with OTT?”

“I heard that in the OTT market, they’re investing a lot in production costs to attract original works. I thought we could take advantage of that.”

“If you’re worried about the production costs, you don’t have to. Thanks to ‘I Am Not a Villain’, we’ve acquired quite a lot of cash.”

“I’m aware of that part. But if there’s an opportunity to save money, is there any need to miss it?”

“That’s true. I understand that putting the drama on OTT could save production costs. But my opinion hasn’t changed. Are those two reasons enough to necessarily go with OTT?”

Certainly, as CEO Jung Yoon-seok said, choosing OTT for just two reasons didn’t make sense.

So I started to talk about the final reason.

“Actually, I want to show this work to many people overseas.”

“Don’t tell me… Is it because of China’s recent cultural appropriation issues? Is that why you’ve been studying history so diligently?”

“That’s right. I’ve always been uncomfortable with China encroaching on our unique culture like hanbok, kimchi, and so on.”

“It’s something that would make any Korean uncomfortable.”

“And I thought, as a public figure, it’s one of my duties to protect our unique culture… It’s a way to repay the unconditional love I’ve received from fans so far…”

“Ah.”

“I think the best platform for that is global OTT.”

CEO Jung Yoon-seok closed his mouth for a moment and looked at me silently.

Then, after a while, he nodded.

“Alright. If that’s the reason, the company can’t help but step in. I’ll set up a meeting with Netflix as soon as possible.”

* * *

A few weeks later.

I had a meeting with Netflix Korea employees.

Three Netflix Korea employees entered Festa Entertainment’s conference room, and

All three of them exclaimed in admiration as soon as they saw my face.

“Wow! Actor Lee Si-joon!”

“You’re so handsome!”

“Amazing!”

Their surprise was so loud that I felt embarrassed for the first time in a while.

But what was even more embarrassing was that Kim Bo-mi, Yeo Kyung-chan, and Song Jin-ah, who accompanied me, accepted the three people’s reactions as natural.

I had to feel even more embarrassed because of that fact.

After a while.

The three Netflix Korea employees regained their composure, and finally, the meeting began in earnest.

The script for Part 1 of “Toema Hwan Ya Dam” had already been delivered to Netflix Korea for today’s meeting.

Fortunately, the three people’s reactions to the Part 1 script were positive.

All three didn’t spare their praise for the work.

In this good atmosphere, one of the Netflix Korea employees, who introduced herself as ‘Yoo Ji-hye’, asked a question.

Yoo Ji-hye seemed to be the final decision-maker for Netflix Korea.

“You’ll be taking on the main role, right, Actor Lee Si-joon?”

I nodded without thinking twice.

“Of course.”

It was natural since “Toema Hwan Ya Dam” itself was written for my next acting role.

Then the expressions of all three employees brightened simultaneously.

Yoo Ji-hye nodded as if satisfied and continued.

“If it’s a work featuring you, there’s no reason for Netflix to refuse. We’re rather grateful that you proposed such a work to us first.”

After saying this, Yoo Ji-hye took out a file folder containing several sheets of the same paper from her bag.

It contained the investment amount that Netflix Korea was considering.

The amount proposed by the employee was 50 billion won.

“…50 billion won.”

Song Jin-ah murmured this, seemingly surprised by the unexpected amount.

However, this amount wasn’t invested as production costs for just one work, “Toema Hwan Ya Dam”.

The proposal stated that 50 billion won would be invested on the condition that Festa Entertainment would service three works to Netflix within two years.

‘Even so…’

It was a considerable amount.

Kim Bo-mi nodded as if she liked Netflix Korea’s proposal and asked me a question.

“We’ve received a proposal for the company, is it okay to proceed with this, Actor?”

From my perspective, there was nothing to lose.

All I needed was to get the production costs and have “Toema Hwan Ya Dam” serviced on Netflix.

“Yes, it’s fine.”

So I could answer immediately like this, and

Thanks to that, the meeting with Netflix Korea ended on a good note, with plans to meet again soon to proceed with the contract.

As the meeting was about to conclude with greetings of how nice it was to meet today,

Yoo Ji-hye suddenly asked a question as if something occurred to her.

“By the way, has it been decided which director will be in charge of “Toema Hwan Ya Dam”?”

I nodded and answered towards Yoo Ji-hye.

“Yes, it’s been decided. One is Director Kang Han-sung… and the other one is me.”