Huayu: From charlatan to great entertainer

Chapter 202: Before fighting against the outside world, one must first make peace with the inside
"Xiaolu, what's the rush?"

Liu Xiaoli, her daughter, and Lu Kuan sat in a booth in the southeast corner of the water bar. A Fei stood in the aisle and paced back and forth to prevent anyone from approaching.

Boss Lu sneered inwardly.

What's going on? I'm afraid you'll wake up laughing at night after hearing this.

He turned to Liu Yifei: "Xiao Liu, how do you feel about these twenty days on the set?"

"It's great. It's nice to see handsome guys like Leonardo every day."

Boss Lu's face darkened. "I'm talking about your business capabilities! Are you working hard?"

Concubine Liu Yi stopped joking: "Of course, didn't you see that Grandpa Yuan taught me a few moves when he was fine?"

"He also said that if there's a suitable kung fu film in the future, he'll definitely recommend me as the female lead."

Lu Kuan nodded. This was indeed an unexpected gain. He didn't expect that her martial arts skills had improved so quickly that even Yuan Heping recognized her.

"Hollywood thinks Asian faces are only suitable for kung fu films. Are you secretly proud of this?"

"I'm asking you to learn acting skills, the rules of the crew, how to find the camera, and how to create characters."

Liu Xiaoli smiled and said, "Xiaolu, you're right. I often remind her of this."

Lu Kuan looked at the little girl who rolled her eyes at him and uttered a light-hearted remark, which was no different from a bombshell in their eyes.

"You've been made a regular employee. Get ready to sign a contract with the crew."

Concubine Liu Yi was bewildered: "Transfer... to a regular employee?"

Liu Xiaoli, who was standing beside her, was so excited that her Wuhan dialect burst out: "This kid! What a fool! Why don't you thank Director Lu quickly?"

"You're the heroine!"

The little girl still couldn't believe it.

It seems like there is a university counselor who says he is stupid every day, scolds himself for not being motivated and hardworking, and says he is only worthy of being the last in the class. He has no future if he doesn't work hard.

As a result, before graduating from high school, I told myself that I was admitted to Tsinghua University and there was no need to take the exam, so I could go directly.

"What about Zhang Ziyi?"

"Her work attitude was problematic and she's been fired from the crew. Please don't make this public. The advance notice is just to prepare you."

"In two or three days, or even a week, normal operations on the crew will be restored."

Lu Kuan is still relatively cautious. The news of Zhang Ziyi's injury and withdrawal from the crew will be released only after Harvey is fully prepared.

Liu Xiaoli almost cried for joy.

Her daughter gave up her career as a top actress in the domestic entertainment industry and insisted on following Lu Kuan to Hollywood to be a stand-in and do blue-collar work, which made her very anxious.

Unexpectedly, there was such a sudden turn of events. The ugly duckling turned into a white swan and pushed down Zhang Ziyi, who was used to flattering the powerful and looking down on the weak!

Unexpectedly, the mother and daughter had different thoughts. The sixteen-year-old Liu Yifei did not feel ecstatic at all when she heard the good news.

"Lu Kuan, I... am I any good at acting?"

Boss Lu said without hesitation: "Of course not!"

"The main thing is that you are one of my own. I will pay you $2000 million for the film, and I will keep all the money after I settle the accounts."

Liu Xiaoli covered her mouth and chuckled, thinking he was joking.

Are you kidding? Would my boss Lu joke about money?
Doesn't Tom Cruise have to pay the price for his greed?

You want to take 13% of the profit, so it's not impossible for me to do some accounting, right?
Aren't these the usual tricks you Hollywood people use?

Lu Kuan will discuss this issue with Liu Xiaoli again, and now he needs to stabilize Concubine Liu Yi's confidence.

"Even if you're just a blockhead, I can still help you become a better person. What are you afraid of?"

"Leonardo carries the box office. You don't need to be outstanding. I will modify the script appropriately to highlight your current strengths. You only have one mission."

"Hit me beautifully!"

Boss Lu said this to relieve her stress.

Even if the audience went to the cinema to see the male lead Leonardo DiCaprio, it would be very frustrating if the female lead was a hopeless loser.

The result is that the box office in the first week will be very good, but the word of mouth of the movie will not improve and it will drop sharply before reaching the top of the parabola.

It’s okay to do some frustration education when she is full of ambition and success, but what is needed now is to give her confidence and be her power bank.

Transform the basic skills she has accumulated in the past two years into real improvement in her business capabilities.

Liu Yifei took a deep breath and finally prepared herself mentally.

"Then... then give me more advice. I'm not afraid of hard work, fatigue, or scolding."

Don’t you want to pity this delicate flower of mine?
Seeing that her thoughts were beginning to clear, Lu Kuan also started joking.

"I'm so glad I used a digital camera to shoot this science fiction film. If I used a film camera, you'd have to shoot every take dozens of times. Wouldn't I lose money?"

"Go to hell! Scrooge!"

On October 2003, 10, Buena Vista Pictures, Disney's subsidiary responsible for distribution, suddenly released a statement on its official website.

Recently, due to disagreements with Lu Kuan, the director of the mainland Chinese co-production "Alien Land," on creative concepts, as well as concerns about the film's quality and prospects, our company has decided to abandon the collaboration and forgo the $1200 million pre-sale fee paid.

Meanwhile, Rondo of Disney's publishing subsidiary, Buena Vista, also criticized Lu Kuan in an interview with the Los Angeles Times:
My impression of "Alien Land" is similar to that of two other Chinese directors: "Killing Me Softly" by Chen Kaige and "Windtalkers" by Wu Yusen. The entire film is filled with Chinese directors' unfamiliarity with Hollywood and their arrogance towards Hollywood audiences. They seem more accustomed to peddling their own traditional culture. Perhaps it's time for these filmmakers to cut off their braids and truly see the world of Hollywood.

If Lu Kuan had not anticipated the enemy's moves, this interview clip alone would have been enough to discourage countless film producers.

Because the performance of the two films directed by Chinese directors that he used for comparison was so explosive.

Chen Kaige's "Killing Me Softly" had a total investment of 3000 million US dollars and grossed around 15 euros in France after two weeks of release.

It was hastily withdrawn from the screen in Japan after being shown for less than a month. What's even more ironic is that the box office performance of this movie was not even as good as Jiang Wen's "The Devils".

This is the devil's territory!

As a result, the producer MGM didn't even have the courage to release the film in theaters in North America, and just released it on DVD, and was completely cheated out of it.

Another film, "Windtalkers" by Rain Wu, only grossed $4000 million worldwide, resulting in a huge loss of $8000 million, and MGM was the one that suffered the loss.

From then on, MGM cast a shadow over Asian directors, and Director Chen's first Hollywood film suffered a Waterloo, and he basically had no chance to appear in Hollywood since then.

The news spread like wildfire on the Internet.

It not only caused a huge stir in the North American film market, but also quickly swept and spread to the mainland public opinion field.

Coincidentally, mainland China's new generation screen actress Zhang Ziyi also issued a statement:

Due to personal health reasons, she terminated her contract with the crew of "Alien Land" and director Lu Kuan in a friendly manner and will no longer serve as the female lead.

The internet was instantly flooded with criticism of Lu Kuan and "Foreign Land".

"Even a great actress like Zhang Ziyi can't catch your eye, Lu Kuan? Are you even more impressive than Zhang Yimou? Are you angry because you were rejected when you tried to take advantage of her?"

"I've said it before, Lu Kuan is indeed a top figure in the mainland film industry, but the total cost of his actual film production is no more than $400 million. Now he wants to do a $7500 million project? You might as well dream on."

"I've been fed up with this dragon knight and washing machine for a long time. He even tricked my Sissi into being a stunt double. Go to hell!"

"My name is Zhang Zhi. I previously predicted the ending of 'Alien Land' under my real name, and it turned out just as expected. You can go to the homepage of Ask the World to see my comment, which is currently at the top of the likes list."

It’s a pity that “Jiang Yiyan” who had angrily criticized him before has now “successfully usurped the throne” and started intensive preparations on the crew.

The people from Huayi learned their lesson this time and were no longer in a hurry to turn against others and get slapped in the face. It was true that they had been slapped in the face too many times before and had psychological trauma.

Who knows if this is a fucking trap?
On the other hand, it was also because Fan Bingbing played a supporting female role in "Foreign Land" with fewer scenes, which temporarily put an end to the discord between the two families.

Lu Kuan didn't mind fighting all the time, but the Wang brothers seemed to be holding back, trying to show their weakness to the enemy.

Only a few chatterboxes like Lu Tailang and Ai Da Jin have shown some presence on the Internet, and regard themselves as the noble status of industry opinion leaders.

At the same time, in addition to partners such as Dong Shuangqiang, Zhou Xun, Fan Bingbing and the company's direct artists, including Ouyang Changqing from Hunan TV, all called to inquire and offer condolences.

What Ranglu Boss didn't expect the most was that Huang Xiaoming also called. It's no exaggeration to say that he has a very high EQ.

There are not many opportunities left for these domestic entertainment artists to help Lu Kuan in his time of need, and Xiaoming decisively seized this opportunity.

A domineering boss character is rewarded!
In order not to affect the reputation of the movie this time, Boss Lu decided to resolve the matter as quickly as possible and not give public opinion a chance to ferment further.

October 2003, 10, Beijing Xiaoxitian Temple, China Film Studio. Today was a truly packed with big names.

Eagle King boss Li Shoucheng and China Film Han Shanping have already reached a cooperation agreement with Lu Kuan on the distribution of "Foreign Land" in mainland China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

Jason of Hollywood independent film company Lionsgate and Bob Weinstein of Miramax.

This is Harvey Weinstein's brother.

CJ, the largest film distribution company in South Korea, and Toho Co., Ltd., the largest film distribution company in Japan.

Luc Besson of France's Europa Films.

At this point, representatives from film distribution companies in the world's most mainstream film markets, North America, Europe, and Asia, have gathered.

Of course, the insurance company that had previously provided completion guarantee also returned to China with Lu Kuan.

Boss Lu first used the many zeros in his company's account to stabilize them, so that the insurance company no longer had to worry about the generation of large compensation.

Immediately afterwards, I was invited to come to China, to Boss Lu’s home turf, to participate in this pre-sale event.

With the ready-made filming funds, if a few more pre-sales can be achieved on the spot today, the completion of the filming will be 100% guaranteed.

Previously, at the pre-sale promotion conference in Beverly Hills, Lu Kuan played a fifteen-minute highlight clip. Now this version has been cut to thirty minutes due to subsequent filming.

There is no doubt that "Alien Land", which shocked North American buyers, won everyone's applause after the 30-minute feast!
All the participating distribution companies, including representatives from Korean and Japanese film producers, unanimously proposed to negotiate the distribution contracts on the spot.

Even if we don't reach an agreement on the details at today's pre-sale site, we still have to sign a memorandum of understanding and report back.

Miramax and Lionsgate are "old friends" and the cooperation has been finalized. They were invited to come and show their support today.

Both parties are independent film companies that only control more than 1000 screens, and together they can barely compete with the six major film companies of the same period.

In addition, bringing in Lionsgate as a co-distributor was also a way for the cautious Lu Kuan to find an opponent for Harvey to prevent him from cheating again in the future.

CJ and Toho Co., Ltd. have been briefly introduced in the previous article.

In the global film market in 2003, Xiao Ri Zi ranked second in size and Bang Zi ranked sixth.

Considering that last year's "Hero" sold for $800 million in Japan and $300 million in South Korea, the numbers for this S-level production starring top Hollywood stars can only be higher.

Everything went according to plan. When Lu Kuan had finalized the preliminary distribution intention with representatives from Europe, Asia and other regions in the China Film Office, Harvey, who was waiting for instructions in the United States, also teamed up with the "two-surname slave" Tom Cruise to launch a backstab.

Tom Cruise, Harvey, Leonardo, and Lionsgate boss Gustavo attended the press conference together.

Almost all authoritative film media in Hollywood were invited to the press conference, and a domestic blogging team was sent out to clarify the rumors that have been circulating in the past two days.

From producer Tom Cruise, to starring Leonardo DiCaprio, to co-distribution representatives Harvey and Gusta, they all expressed their high recognition of the movie "Alien Land" and Lu Kuan himself.

At the same time, he claimed that Disney and Rondo were bullying customers and discriminating against outstanding Chinese directors.

Everyone in Hollywood watched in amazement as Harvey confidently criticized Eisner and Disney under his leadership on the stage.

But what was very strange was that the "tyrant" they had been looking forward to seeing did not appear as expected, and they were unable to start a verbal battle.

Because Eisner was busy dealing with the vehement resignation letter from Enzo, Disney's vice chairman and grandson of the original co-founder Disney!

On October 10, Lu Kuan and Dong Shuangqiang participated in the public bidding process for the share reform of Xi'an Film Studio.

Relying on the film resources of Wenjie and Lu Kuan himself, the new advertising resources of Focus Media, and the professional capabilities demonstrated in the distribution of "The Drummer" and "The Thief".

Wenjie and the former Shaanxi Sino-Western Film and Television Culture Communication Co., Ltd. officially issued a joint statement, formally accepting the investment of private capital Wenjie Culture Media. The new company will carry out operations under the name of Wenjie Xiying.

Industry insiders are all paying attention, as this is another major layout in the industry chain after Wenjie entered the travel satellite TV.

The blog website Wenjie published a video of the interview, in which Mr. Lu made a statement:

The establishment of Wenjie Xiying will further promote the restructuring of China's film industry, marking the in-depth cooperation between state-owned and private capital in the domestic film distribution industry. By combining the distribution resource advantages of state-owned companies with the flexible mechanisms of private companies, this fully demonstrates the complementary nature of resources.

Mr. Bald Zhongzheng said that before we can resist foreign aggression, we must first stabilize the country, and Boss Lu happily agreed.

After resolving the domestic disturbances, the atmosphere in the media immediately became solemn, and netizens slapped those who deserved to be slapped in the face and dug up those who deserved to be dug up.

It’s just that this time the grave was too new, so new that many black fans hadn’t reacted and posted yet, and the situation was reversed in an instant!
On October 2003, 10, "Thief" was officially taken off the screen.

Lu Kuan, who resumed filming in Vancouver the next day, was reviewing box office data from China.

The box office of "Thief" in mainland China finally settled at 7123 million, winning the domestic box office championship in 2003.

Although it is temporary, perhaps no director or film company dares to say that it can break this box office record.

In 2003, this number would be more than 1600 million more than the Lunar New Year champion "Cell Phone".

But obviously, after all the twists and turns, this time's "Cell Phone" is lucky to be able to be released normally during the Lunar New Year holiday.

The $750 million sold out in North America and Europe was supplemented by another $200 million, which was used to pay for the full rights to next year's blockbuster "Fahrenheit 911/."

Then came the sale of the Taiwan and Southeast Asian copyrights to Jiang Zhiqiang for 2500 million;

There is also a guaranteed release of NT$4000 million agreed with Eagle King for Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea, with the excess box office revenue to be shared proportionally.

Calculated in RMB, the box office in Hong Kong was 3500 million and the box office in South Korea was 2200 million.

What surprised Li Shoucheng the most was that the box office of the film astonishingly exceeded 4000 million!
In fact, in Lu Kuan's eyes, this is nothing to be surprised about.

In addition to the fact that the core of the film originated in Xiaorizi, it is also related to the main audience in the Japanese film market.

The film and television market of Xiao Rizi is different from that of many countries. The audience of movies is mainly women between 30 and 60 years old.

Most Japanese women do not work after marriage and become full-time housewives. After their children go to school, these full-time housewives have more free time.

On weekday afternoons, you can often see groups of housewives at tennis courts, cafes, etc., and watching movies is also an important entertainment activity for them.

The total cost of "Thief" was 1200 million yuan, of which China Film Group invested 400 million yuan, and the revenue from embedded advertising and patch advertising totaled 500 million yuan.

Count the copyright fees, box office revenue and advertising revenue from all over the world, excluding production costs and advertising expenses.

In the end, the actual profit obtained by Wenjie was about 7200 million.

The sale of film festival copyrights still accounts for the absolute profit share.

For a film like this that has a good balance between literary and commercial attributes, we can only say that it still has to take the approach of winning awards overseas and combining it with high-cost marketing domestically.

Of course, Boss Lu still feels that such a figure is too shabby, but the following purely commercial top-level production "Alien Land" will give him great satisfaction in terms of profit.

But apart from the minor awards like Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, etc., he should not expect to win any film awards.

The figure of 7200 million for "Thief" is not much higher than the 5300 million for "The Drummer".

The main reason is that they gave China Film Group one-third of the share, and they can also earn some distribution fees in the mainland.

On November 11, Singles’ Day, Lu Kuan directed the first scene on the set after the crew changed roles.

After just a few takes, assistant director Justin Lin came over to tell him that Tom Cruise was waiting for him in the crew's lounge.

Boss Lu didn't agree with it. When he saw Tom Cruise again an hour later, there was still no trace of anger or impatience on the latter's face.

This reminded him of an interview with Jet Li in later generations.

After he finished filming "Kiss of the Dragon", he and producer Chasman went to the Big Six to discuss copyrights, but was deliberately left out for an hour by Paramount's manager.

Two years later, Jet Li had become famous in Hollywood. When the manager came to visit again to seek cooperation, Jet Li left him alone for two hours.

Jet Li asked him if he was angry?
The manager said with a smile that he was willing to wait another ten hours.

All I can say is that being able to swallow one's pride is a necessary quality for anyone who wants to do great things.

"Tom, I'm so sorry. There was a scene just now that was too difficult for our new heroine. We had to do more than a dozen takes, which wasted time."

Lu Kuan decisively put the blame on Liu Yifei, but Tom Cruise didn't care at all.

"It's okay. Work comes first. I came here today to explain to you what Harvey said to me..."

He was interrupted before he could finish his words.

"Tom, let bygones be bygones. At least we're partners now, right?"

"Of course, everything goes well, Lu. Please feel free to contact me if you need anything."

A brief meeting, a tacit conversation, and a happy ending.

It's just like a middle-aged couple who have no feelings but have to continue living together. This is the world of adults wearing masks.

(End of this chapter)