Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

United Artists won a huge victory by winning nine trophies at the 64th Academy Awards.

Shay had already booked a bar and was waiting for the award ceremony to end before having a wild party.

The group walked out of the Los Angeles Music Center in high spirits, and saw a huge crowd of protesters outside, surrounding the venue.

They held signs with slogans ranging from "Stop homophobia in Hollywood" to "Hollywood stop censoring our real gay lives."

Yang Ye held Akina Nakamori's hand with his left hand and Gong Li's hand with his right hand, and under the escort of security personnel, they quickly passed through the special passage and got into the car.

The car started and drove to the bar. Gong Li asked with lingering fear: "What are these people doing?"

She had not yet mastered English well enough, and she could not recognize most of the signs held up by the protesters.

Yang Ye explained: "These people are from the LGBT community. They are dissatisfied with the derogatory portrayal of homosexuality in films such as The Silence of the Lambs and JFK, which were nominated for Oscars this year, and they came here to protest."

“What is LGBT?”

“Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.”

Gong Li understood the first three, but not the fourth, and asked, "What is a transgender person?"

"Transgender means that I am a man but I think I am a woman, or vice versa. Or I think I am a human, but I am neither a man nor a woman."

Gong Li couldn't understand, but she was shocked. She stared with big eyes and asked, "Is this possible?"

Yang Ye thought, this is nothing, in thirty years, there will be 97 genders in the United States.

Yang Ye said calmly: "It's nothing strange, there are many different kinds of people."

Soon, they arrived at the bar, where there were already quite a few guests, including many Hollywood celebrities.

The main creative team of "Terminator 3" was also among them, and John Woo, Wu Jing, Angelina Jolie and others were all present.

As soon as the creators of The Geisha and the Lamb entered the venue, they were immediately warmly welcomed.

The sedan chair is carried by everyone, let alone in a world of fame and fortune like Hollywood.

For a moment, Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster, who won the Best Actor and Best Actress awards, became the focus of the event.

People like Yang Ye, who are proficient in both the East and the West, are even more popular.

The entertainment industry is the most snobbish place in the world, because resources are king in this industry. Getting a role or a song may change the destiny of a person's life.

Therefore, those who hold resources can take whatever they want from others.

Yang Ye is not only the king of Kung Fu, but also a master of cake-making. A large number of stars became famous because they were discovered by him and filmed and sang the works he directed.

Although he has been away from Hollywood in recent years, he has directly or indirectly developed the critically acclaimed and commercially successful film series such as the "Alien" series, "First Blood" series, "Shanghai Noon" series, "Predator" series, and "Spider-Man" series.

After the great success of "The Silence of the Lambs", Shea immediately announced that it would be developed into a series of films, which meant that United Artists Pictures had another cash cow.

Who wouldn't want to curry favor with such a thriving company with a bright future?
If Yang Ye or Xie Yi wanted, they could put a red sofa in the office of United Artists right now, and then many Hollywood actresses would strip naked and lie on it.

Ever since Yang Ye entered the bar, people kept coming up to chat with him. Seeing that Yang Ye was busy socializing, Akina Nakamori and Gong Li simply went to play by themselves.

……

"Master, this is my wife Nicole Kidman. Nicole, this is my master, Nick Young!" Tom Cruise introduced enthusiastically.

Nicole cupped her fists towards Yang Ye and said, “Master!”

Yang Ye shook hands with her and praised her, "Nicole, you are very charming."

Then he said to Tom, "Oh, my God, you are such a lucky guy!"

Paula Wagner, who was standing next to the two men, smiled and said, "Nick, congratulations on your big win tonight!"

"Thank you!"

Everyone chatted for a while and ran into the dance floor to dance. Yang Ye danced with Nicole Kidman out of courtesy.

To be honest, Nicole is really beautiful, but Yang Ye is not so crazy as to not even let go of his apprentice's wife.

After dancing with Nicole for a while, Yang Ye returned her to Tom and started dancing with Paula instead.

Paula worked as an actress when she was young. She was pretty, but she didn't make it big.

Later, he joined the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles and became an agent.

At that time, Tom Cruise also came to Los Angeles to work hard. To be honest, he didn't seem to have any future in this industry.

At that time, what was popular in Hollywood were masculine men, not fair-skinned and pretty boys like Tom Cruise, and he was too small.

However, feminism was on the rise in the United States at that time, and women became the backbone of consumption, which gave idols like Tom Cruise an opportunity.

As soon as Tom Cruise appeared on the big screen, he attracted countless female fans and became a big star after starring in a few movies.

Even so, the old guys in Hollywood still looked down on him and called him a brat.

This is exactly the same as how the "old actors" in the Chinese entertainment industry in later generations look down on young actors.

Basically, late-developing countries have to go through everything that developed countries have gone through, because when the social structure reaches this point, it will give rise to such phenomena.

Paula and Tom, who were still newcomers, hit it off immediately, and Paula signed Tom to CAA.

As Tom became popular, Paula became the undisputed ace agent of CAA.

Yang Ye and Paula returned to their seats, drinking and chatting. Paula finally got down to business. She said, "Tom and I are planning to leave CAA."

Yang Ye was not surprised by this. Even the Hong Kong celebrities under Yang Ye now opened star studios and switched from an employment model to a cooperation model by being affiliated with Yang.

With Tom Cruise starring in "Rain Man" and "Top Gun" in succession, as well as "Shanghai Noon" and the "Spider-Man" series created for him by Yang Ye, he has become a top star in Hollywood, and it is inevitable that he will leave CAA and start his own business.

Yang Ye nodded, without commenting, but asked: "How did you and Tom know each other?"

Paula looked at Tom, who was dancing with Nicole on the dance floor, and recalled the past, smiling and said: "He was only 19 years old at that time and lived in the home of actor Sean Penn.

At the recommendation of Sean Penn, Tom took the initiative to contact CAA, and I was the one who received him at that time.

At that time he was young, handsome and very impressive, and I had a very good impression of him.

I brought him into the office and introduced him to everyone. I liked him so much that everyone said, 'Well, let's try it and see what happens'.

Afterwards, I signed him on behalf of the company and helped him develop in the film and television industry. You know what happened next..." Yang Ye asked, "Are you planning to start your own business?"

Paula said, "Yes, we plan to set up a Cruise/Wagner production company (C/W), and we hope to sign a global distribution agreement with United Artists Pictures."

Yang Ye nodded and asked, "Have you discussed this with Xie Yi and Ajiani?"

Paula shook her head: "I think I should talk to you first. After all, Tom is your student."

Paula Wagner has stepped down as Tom Cruise's agent and has become a partner in his company.

C/W Film Productions was established, with Paula serving as general manager and executive producer.

Tom's agent was replaced by another woman named Pat Kingsley, who was a top agent in Hollywood and had many big names under her, such as Al Pacino, Jodie Foster, Nicole Kidman...

We will talk about the love-hate relationship between Pat Kingsley and Tom Cruise later. In short, Tom's success and failure are all due to Pat. After leaving Pat, he almost died.

Paula Wagner took the initiative to talk to Yang Ye about their plan to leave CAA, naturally wanting to gain leverage and benefits.

After all, Tom Cruise is the hottest movie star in Hollywood right now.

In the 1990s, there were two Toms in Hollywood, Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks.

Hanks has superb acting skills and has won countless awards, but in terms of commercial value, Cruise is the undisputed number one.

Cruise is handsome, good at fighting, and very hardworking, dedicated, and willing to take risks with his life.

He is very versatile, action movies, romance movies, drama movies, almost everything. And he can make them big hits at the box office, rarely failing.

In the arts, he was also nominated for the 62nd Academy Awards for the feature film "Born on the Fourth of July".

Such a great man wants to go solo, and the whole of Hollywood is eyeing him, hoping to recruit him into their own camp.

In the past decade, Tom Cruise has collaborated most with United Artists Pictures, and has also collaborated a lot with Paramount. "Top Gun" was produced by Paramount.

In the commercial world, it is the most shameless to use the master-disciple relationship to kidnap others. The so-called deep relationship is nothing more than making money.

It was obvious that if United Artists didn't offer enough benefits, Tom and Paula would turn around and run to Paramount.

Yang Ye said, "Of course I warmly welcome you. You can discuss the specific details with Shay! When the time comes, I will personally produce an action movie tailor-made for Tom to help you get off to a good start."

"That's great!"

Yang Ye's promise made Paula very satisfied, as this was exactly what she hoped for.

Every time Yang Ye makes a move, it's like a god farting, so extraordinary.

C/W Company's first work could be directed by Yang Ye himself, and it was action movies, which he was best at, so it was bound to be a hit.

……

Needless to say, the action movie that Yang Ye personally created for Tom Cruise was "Mission Impossible".

"Mission Impossible" is the spy war series second only to "007", and Yang Ye hopes to hold the copyright in his own hands.

A super series IP is the dream of every top Hollywood actor, because it is a stable job that can last for a long time.

For example, Johnny Depp, no matter how unlucky he is, can make up for it and become popular again with "Pirates of the Caribbean".

For example, Robert Downey Jr.’s greatest achievement in his life is Iron Man.

But the film company will not tolerate an actor always being the leading actor in a series of movies.

Because, as the movie series becomes more popular, the actors' pay will become higher and higher, and the production costs will also rise accordingly.

For example, Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, at the end of the filming, he personally took most of the profits.

The film companies will definitely be unhappy, so the final fate of the series of movies is mostly to replace the main character, or restart, or even shelve it.

There are N generations of James Bond in the "007" series, and a new actor is replaced every time the pay is too high.

One of the reasons why Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man was killed was that his salary was too expensive and Disney could no longer afford it.

When Tobey Maguire's "Spider-Man" reached the third film, Tobey's salary was too high and he could not reach an agreement with the company, so they replaced him and restarted the project.

And then there was Andrew Garfield's The Amazing Spider-Man.

There is also Chen Long's "Rush Hour" series, which was so successful, but only three films were made.

I can't afford to shoot it anymore. The pay is too high. And it's a double lead role, so I have to pay two salaries.

Moreover, this film would not be good without Chen Long, and there was no way to replace him, so it had to be shelved.

Although the "Mission Impossible" in the original time and space was produced by Paramount, in fact, Paramount was just working for Tom Cruise.

Because Tom Cruise holds the copyright to the "Mission Impossible" series, the role of Ethan Hunt is tied to him and only he can play it, and Paramount cannot change actor.

In order to obtain the copyright of "Mission Impossible", Paramount once secretly exposed a lot of negative information about Tom Cruise in an attempt to force him to submit.

At that time, Tom Cruise was obsessed with winning the Oscar for Best Actor, so he took on a lot of weird movies.

But winning awards isn't easy, and Pat Kingsley couldn't do it.

Tom Cruise complained that Pat Kingsley was not putting in enough effort on this matter, so he fired her.

Without Pat's protection, Tom Cruise's reputation collapsed, and he had problems with his private life, marriage, religion...all kinds of negative news almost killed him.

But…he owns the rights to Mission: Impossible, and he’s Ethan Hunt.

Thanks to this ace series, he became popular again and returned to the front line.

As the boss of a film company, Yang Ye, like the big companies in Hollywood, cannot tolerate a situation like this where the trump card series is in the hands of actors.

So Yang Ye took the initiative to propose to personally create a new film for Tom Cruise. It seemed like a master's care for his apprentice, but in fact he was taking advantage of him and taking the super IP of "Mission Impossible" for himself.

Tom Cruise can only work for United Artists, and Paramount cannot work for Tom Cruise like in the original time and space.

……

PS: I'm too sleepy, I'll take a rest first. I'll make up for the chapters I owed yesterday tomorrow morning. Sorry! (End of this chapter)