Huayu Entertainment 1995 started with hijacking.

Chapter 67 The Best New Year's Gift
The seven major Hollywood studios themselves aren't very interested in film festivals, but their subsidiaries are.

In fact, many independent film companies in Hollywood are subsidiaries of the Big Seven. For example, Harvey Weinstein's Miramax is owned by Disney, Focus Features is owned by Universal, and New Line Cinema's parent company is Warner Bros.

After acquiring Columbia Pictures, Sony also established Sony Classics to handle art films and independent films. A few years later, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was entirely driven by Sony Classics, including distribution strategy and Oscar public relations.

Wu Yuchen did not lie to Havertz before; Sony Classics was interested in his "Car 44".

“Mr. George, there has always been a group of loyal fans in the American West. If you change the setting of ‘Car 44’ to that place, making the style even more absurd and savage, and add more blood and violence, I think you will make a good profit.”

George, the person in charge from Sony Classics who came to make contact, remained silent, pondering as he sized up Wu Yuchen.

Wu Yuchen remained calm and added:

“Miramax did contact me and offered a higher price. But to be honest, I have more faith in the reputation of Sony Classics.”

George raised an eyebrow, then smiled: "Choosing Sony Classics was the right decision. $30 for the adaptation rights, deal!"

In the past two years, Miramax's Harvey Weinstein has gained a strong reputation in the independent film scene, and George didn't want to delay any longer. $30 is not a high price for Sony Classics, and there is no need to hesitate for a few tens of thousands of dollars.

Just like this young Chinese director said, if you buy the property, find a few screenwriters to adapt it, flesh out the male and female protagonists, add some more story elements, and create more entanglements for the robbers on the car, there is still a fairly high probability of making a profit.

Wu Yuchen smiled and shook hands with George. He was already satisfied with the $30 price. Even if Miramax had offered him $50, he wouldn't have believed it, let alone if they hadn't contacted him.

Harvey Weinstein has fooled many people. He lures you in with high prices, gives you a deposit of tens of thousands of dollars, and then reneges on the deal once other studios have left, cutting the price to a third or even less, leaving you helpless. Feng Xiaogang fell for this trick and angrily denounced Harvey as a fraud.

Two days later, Wu Yuchen received all the money, a total of $42, which was sitting in his account.

To be honest, if he didn't take that money back to China, he could probably evade taxes without anyone knowing. Of course, he doesn't intend to default; paying taxes is a citizen's duty!
However, he also has his own plans. This money is currently considered his personal income. As anyone who has paid taxes knows, the tax season for money earned this year is from April to June of the following year.

So he plans to leave $30 in a foreign bank account and invest it after Yahoo goes public this year, bringing $12 back to China. The main reason is that while it's easy to exchange US dollars for Chinese yuan if he takes it all back, it would be troublesome to exchange it back later, requiring him to pay at least 10% in exchange. He simply doesn't want the hassle.

The taxes on this $42 income will be paid next year. By then, thanks to the stock, it will have multiplied several times over, so paying another $8 in taxes won't be a big deal. The income from film copyrights is subject to a 20% copyright tax.

Unfortunately, the subject matter of "Car 44" was not quite right. By the time of "We Two," films that met the policy support criteria and won major awards could apply for special funds for cultural industry development or tax incentives, which could basically offset a large portion of the taxes.

Jiang Qinqin touched the stylish coat Wu Yuchen had just bought for her, feeling as if the past few days had been a dream. She had traveled abroad with Wu Yuchen, first sightseeing in Berlin, then seeing their short film receive acclaim at the film festival, even winning the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the closing ceremony!

She had a wonderful impression of Berlin, a truly magical experience. But now, as the plane took off and the city below shrank, it was time to say goodbye.

At this moment, not only Jiang Qinqin and Wu Yuchen were in high spirits, but also the crew of "The Sun Has Ears" who flew back to China with them. Zhang Yu, the female lead and producer, was in high spirits.

This woman is quite generous. A few days ago, she specially invited Wu Yuchen and his group to dinner and arranged to go back together. Moreover, she didn't shy away from mentioning that she sold the film rights for $85, and spoke about it openly.

But Wu Yuchen felt that even so, the movie would probably still lose money. He remembered that "The Sun Has Ears" had a terrible box office performance in China.

Zhang Yu was quite bold back then. She single-handedly invested 1000 million yuan, bought a studio label from Changchun Film Studio, hired a director from Hong Kong, a Japanese composer, and a group of talented domestic filmmakers. She utilized her production experience learned in America to make this film. Although she won a directing award, the director is from Hong Kong—who in the domestic media would promote it?
They managed to recoup some of their costs thanks to the copyright, but ultimately still lost several million.

However, he wasn't worried about this rich woman. They had both spent a few years in America, but her business acumen far surpassed Tu Honggang's. She owned a company in America, a fertilizer plant in Shandong Province, and a mine in Vietnam—she was using business to support her acting career.

After spending more than half a month in Berlin, Wu Yuchen and his group returned to Beijing just in time for the Lantern Festival.

After getting off the plane, Wu Yuchen first took Jiang Qinqin home. Instead of going home, he called Hou Keming.

"Happy Lantern Festival, Teacher Hou!"

"Happy, Happy, you're back? What happened?" Hou Keming asked immediately upon hearing Wu Yuchen's voice.

"Golden Bear for Best Short Film"

"You really took it?!"

"Really? I happen to be near the school. Shall I take you to see it now?"

"Hahaha, good, good, come over here quickly!" You could clearly hear the immense joy in Hou Keming's voice.

When Wu Yuchen arrived at Hou Keming's house, he also met Xie Xiaojing, who had rushed over.

When Hou Keming saw the gifts Wu Yuchen brought, he didn't stand on ceremony: "Put them aside, where's the medal?"

Seeing that the two of them were looking at him expectantly, Wu Yuchen smiled and took out the medal.

After examining the medal closely for a while, Hou Keming handed it back to Wu Yuchen and then said with a smile:
"This Golden Bear for Best Short Film that you won is the best New Year's gift I've ever received!"

Then Hou Keming remembered something and said, "Wait a moment, I'll go make a phone call."

A moment later, Hou Keming returned with a smile:

"I just spoke with Lao He. You can go over there after Da Jiandao starts work tomorrow. He won't make things difficult for you."

"Thank you, Teacher Hou!"

After Wu Yuchen came out, he made a phone call to several people who were concerned about his situation, and also wished them a Happy New Year. The Lantern Festival hadn't passed yet, so it was still considered part of the New Year period.

After hanging up the phone, Wu Yuchen touched his pager and sighed that it was time to get a new phone.

Thank you all for your votes!
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(End of this chapter)