director of the millennium

Chapter 158: The layout of the light era, going to the Oscars?

"Hey Daniel, you're finally back."

Outside the Los Angeles International Airport, the Mediterranean Sea became more serious. John, who was already bald, hugged Wu Yuan enthusiastically.

"Come, bro, there are so many things going on in the company, you can't leave them all alone!"

"Hey, John." Wu Yuan laughed and shook his head: "Don't Daisy send me company documents every week? I handle everything that needs to be handled on time."

"I don't care about the company."

Although Wu Yuan has not been to the United States for almost a year, he still pays close attention to the development of the Light Era.

I have to deal with many company documents and reports every week.

Daisy, the assistant, also performs her duties very seriously.

"Boss, but you haven't been back to the company for a long time, and none of the new employees of the company have seen you." Daisy, who was standing aside with a briefcase, also said with a smile: "Even I, my personal assistant, can't see you. .”

"You should be the most mysterious film company boss in the entire Hollywood."

"Okay, my bad." Wu Yuan shrugged and got into the Maybach that the company bought for him.

"Let's go home and have a day's rest. If anything happens, we'll deal with it tomorrow."

He does have a lot of work to deal with here in Hollywood.

So this came to North America in mid-January.

"Daniel, the global box office of "The Hangover 2" has been released, which is US$4.2 million. This is simply a crazy result."

"The Hangover 2" was first released in North America in the summer of 2004. At that time, Wu Yuan was filming "Love" and did not have time to come to North America to attend the premiere.

But his presence or absence will not affect the take-off of this movie.

Relying on the good reputation and strong box office performance of "The Hangover 1", "The Hangover 2" topped the North American box office for five weeks as soon as it was released in North America. In the North American market alone, it earned US$2.5 million in box office.

Although it was more than 2011 million US dollars less than when Wu Yuan Mengzhong was released in 2000, it was still an outstanding result.

More importantly, "The Hangover 2" has opened up the global distribution market, and Fox is responsible for it.

Mainly, the disc of "The Hangover Part 1" sold well in the global market. Fox, which is responsible for this part of the business, was optimistic about the box office performance of the sequel in the global market, so it worked hard to get global distribution for the film.

Fox's efforts did not disappoint. "The Hangover" was released in more than 50 countries and regions around the world in the second half of last year, and the cumulative global box office has reached 4.2 million.

And this is not the end, the final global box office may reach 4.5 million US dollars.

Although it is still far behind Wu Yuan's dream of 5.82 million global box office, that was the box office in 2011. It is only 2005, and theater construction in many parts of the world is underdeveloped. It is already very good to achieve such results.

After all, this is not the kind of Hollywood blockbuster that is widely promoted around the world, but an R-rated comedy.

By the way, they still failed to pass the review in China. Both "The Hangover 1" and "The Hangover 2" missed the Chinese mainland market and could only be released in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

pity.

""Fake Marriage" is now in preparation, and I plan to invite Ryan Reynolds to star in this movie."

"As for the heroine, how about Anne Hathaway? She is very popular in Hollywood right now."

"Who?" Wu Yuan was a little surprised: "Anne Hathaway?"

"Is she too young?"

"In "Fake Marriage", the heroine is older than the hero, and Anne is not suitable."

John still insisted, "But she is very popular now, and the price is still relatively cheap."

"Daniel, it's just a comedy movie."

"NO, NO!" Wu Yuan shook his head firmly. He has always believed in playing roles at any age. He doesn't like actors playing old or young in performances, because this will add another layer of difficulty to the performance.

Unless it's the kind of actor whose acting skills are truly superb beyond his years.

But Anne Hathaway is obviously not this kind of actor.

"Well, John, please contact Gwyneth Paltrow and invite her to play "Fake Marriage"." Wu Yuan thought for a while and said.

The original heroine of "Fake Marriage" was Sandra Bullock. She was the producer of the film and she also invested in the film.

Now that "Fake Marriage" has become a movie produced by Guang Era, there is no need to forcefully contact her.

Wu Yuan thought of another outstanding post-70s actress.

Gwyneth Paltrow, the heroine of "Sauen in Love", she won the Oscar for Best Actress for this movie.

But it was Marvel's "Iron Man" series that really made her recognized by global audiences.

She plays Tony Stark's girlfriend Pepper Potts in the series.

Gwyneth Paltrow, who was born in 1972, is just right for "Fake Marriage" in terms of image and temperament.

Because she played the role of Little Pepper very well after that, the role of a working woman was not difficult for her at all.

"Gwyneth?" John repeated suspiciously.

"Yes, she is good and cheap, which meets your requirements." Wu Yuan spread his hands: "The prerequisite is that you have to convince her to act in such a comedy movie."

"Okay, you are the boss, I listen to you." John agreed.

Wu Yuan added: "You have to move quickly. It is best to finish filming "Fake Marriage" within this year."

Because Gwyneth will be pregnant with a second child next year, she will have two children for three years, and only the middle year of 2005 has time to film, so she has to seize the window period.

John drove Wu Yuan back to his mansion in Beverly Hills in person.

Although Wu Yuan has not been here for a year, the mansion is still kept spotless and all the toiletries are new.

Daisy, a personal assistant, comes to check in once a week, which is the most important part of her job.

After a simple night's rest at home, Wu Yuan went to Guangshi Times the next day to show up.

The company has expanded a lot, recruiting dozens of new employees.

When these employees entered the company, they did not know that Wu Yuan was the boss behind the company, or they only learned the news from the old employees after working for a long time.

This startled them.

Wu Yuan's reputation in Hollywood is not low, but most people in the outside world only know that he is an excellent director and do not know that he also has an independent film production company.

This time Wu Yuan came to the company in person and showed his face, which gave the employees a fresh look and made the new employees more motivated to work.

Nothing else but celebrity effect.

This is the same as the set of star shareholders that were later developed in China.

When a company has the support of celebrities, it can still make lower-level employees more motivated to work and feel that the company is great.

Wu Yuan's role in the company, in addition to coming up with scripts, is more often than not a mascot. He is only responsible for signing and nodding on matters at the company's operational level.Arriving at the office, which he had only visited a few times in total, Wu Yuan sat on the soft boss chair and chatted with John about the focus of the company's next phase of work.

"John, "The Hangover 3" can wait a little longer. Two movies in two years have already caused some aesthetic fatigue. Let's wait until 3 to make "The Hangover 2007."

"The focus of our work this year and next will be on the two movies "Fake Marriage" and "Weakness"."

"By the way, how are the cooperation talks for "Night at the Museum" going?"

After the original storybook copyright of "Night at the Museum" was bought by John, it didn't take long for people from Fox to come to visit.

Fox was also eyeing the film adaptation rights of this story, but Wu Yuan took advantage of his foresight to buy this IP first.

In the beginning, Fox wanted to directly buy the film adaptation rights from Light Era.

Light Times only spent US$100 million to buy the 10-year film adaptation rights to this story, which was considered a bargain price.

Fox is willing to spend 200 million US dollars to buy it, which is equivalent to making 100 million US dollars in just one hand. It is almost as easy as picking up money.

But John didn't agree. According to Wu Yuan's arrangement, he talked with Fox about co-production.

"The discussion was almost over. Fox wanted to take control, but I argued hard and won the control."

"We at Light Times will be responsible for 70% of the production, and Fox will be responsible for 30%. The two companies will directly cover it, which is a lot more convenient."

"The initial budget is US$1200 million, which is a very small-budget movie."

John looked a little puzzled, "Daniel, can such a fairy tale written for children really be a hit when made into a movie?"

"Yes." Wu Yuan nodded firmly: "And the box office results will definitely shock you."

If it weren't for the memory of the dream, Wu Yuan would not have believed that such a small-budget fantasy comedy with an investment of 1200 million could sell more than [-] million US dollars worldwide.

That's a higher profit ratio than The Hangover.
"Anyway, there is only an investment of 1200 million US dollars, so you can't lose a lot of money." Wu Yuan shook his head, and finally comforted John.

Wu Yuan is still happy to cooperate with Fox. Although Light Times can easily come up with 1200 million US dollars, he still needs to have a good relationship with at least one of the six major companies to get involved in Hollywood.

Now Wu Yuan has a good personal relationship with Disney, and the company and Fox are also strengthening their relationship. Even part of the profits from "Night at the Museum" is OK.

Without him, it is in this way that the relationship between interests is the most reliable, and in the future, other projects that make a lot of money in Guangshi will not be boycotted by the six big ones.

As long as one or two companies are willing to continue to cooperate, Wu Yuan can take advantage of Hollywood's global channels and the largest film market in North America to happily make money.

He has already thought about it. By next year, he can buy the copyright of the "Twilight" novel. This is also a cash cow.

Moreover, when "Twilight" was turned into a movie, no company in Hollywood was optimistic that the movie would be a hit, and they all felt that this kind of fan-oriented movie was not going anywhere.

Similar to the opinions of ordinary domestic movie fans when it was announced that "Tiny Times" was going to be made into a movie, I really didn't think that anyone would watch such a childish youth idol novel adapted into a movie.

In the end, it was Summit Entertainment, a third-rate independent film production company in North America, who missed it.

Then "Twilight" became the highest-grossing teen idol movie in history, shocking countless people's jaws.

Wu Yuan definitely wanted to seize such a missed opportunity.

Summit Entertainment can film it, but there’s no reason why he can’t film it in his time.

Wu Yuan only has one request for Guang Era, which is to make a movie with a small cost and make a lot of money. He doesn't care about any awards or reputation.

"Twilight" has been criticized a lot, but it doesn't matter, as long as it makes money!
Foreigners make a clear distinction between companies and individuals.

Wu Yuan's company makes some movies that only care about box office, not reputation and awards, and it does not affect his personal reputation.

As long as his own movies have a good reputation, he will still be the outstanding and talented director.

After chatting about work matters and determining the focus of the next stage of Light Times, John and Wu Yuan chatted about some personal matters.

"Daniel, are you going to compete for Oscars this year?" John poured Wu Yuan a cup of coffee and asked while chatting.

News of the movie "Love" has reached North America.

Although the current public impression of Wu Yuan is more of a commercial film director and the father of "Pirates of the Caribbean".

After all, his "The Embalmer" was not released in the United States, and it did not win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

However, Hollywood professionals and film critics have not forgotten that Wu Yuan won the best director in Berlin for "The Embalmer".

Wu Yuan announced the news that his new film was competing for awards at the China Golden Rooster Awards, and the next day it was featured in the Hollywood Entertainment Daily.

Many North American senior movie fans and lovers of artistic films are also paying attention to Wu Yuan's new movie.

John also wants to help his boss build momentum.

"Daniel, if you want to compete for this year's Oscars, then "Love" should be screened on a small scale in North America."

To compete for Oscar's main competition awards, films must be screened on a large scale in North America to be eligible.

John gave very professional advice: "We will start small-scale screenings in October, and expand to the entire North America in December. We will start to build momentum for the film and conduct public relations reviews."

"All kinds of banquets and parties must be held, and gifts for the judges must be prepared in advance."

In North America, Oscar awards PR is no longer a secret.

In order to win the favor of Oscar judges for their films, film companies will spend huge sums of money to launch a massive public relations campaign during the selection period every year.

Large companies like Big Six invest at least US$1 million in Oscar public relations activities every year.

The basic fee to participate in the selection is at least 20 US dollars. In order to be nominated for key awards, the basic cost is more than 100 million US dollars.

There is even a dedicated public relations company to handle related matters, and there is a complete Oscar public relations industry chain.

Directors like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige desperately wanted to win the Oscars in the following years, but they did not understand the Oscar routines at all, did not do any public relations at all, and did not stuff money. Of course, they would not win.

If "Love" wants to compete for the Oscars, it will have to spend at least several million dollars to hold several large-scale screenings that invite judges to participate, and then give gifts to these judges at the screenings.

Gifts usually include a genuine DVD disc, plus some "well-prepared" small gifts, usually worth tens of thousands to 10,000+ US dollars.

Even the judges who are not present will still receive specially sent gifts.

It is worth mentioning that during the Oscar awards season, Chinese audiences can often search the Internet for pirated resources of all Oscar-nominated movies. These resources are leaked from the DVDs sent by the producers to the Oscar judges.

All in all, the public relations, momentum and scale of the Oscar awards are almost the same as those of the North American elections, and they are fair, legal and compliant.

If "Love" has a target for Oscar awards, you must prepare at least 2000 million US dollars for one award. Otherwise, no matter how good your movie is, it will be difficult to win.

Of course Wu Yuan was not willing to waste this money.

He shook his head, "No, just go to Cannes for "Love". When it comes to the Oscars, China will submit the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Just participate in the selection of this award."

"John, I'll leave it to you to handle the public relations in this area. I'm quite interested in the Best Foreign Language Film Award."

John raised his eyebrows. He rarely saw Hollywood directors who were so sensible about Oscars.

"No problem, Boss."

(End of this chapter)