Become famous another day.

Schmidt Lawley looked at Lu Yanhe in surprise.

He didn't know why Lu Yanhe was so confident that he could handle an Oscar-nominated actor who was just in the limelight during the awards season.

For a quasi-A-list actor like Uber Clark, there are many factors to consider before taking on a project.

Does Lu Yanhe think that "Red Eye", a commercial thriller that obviously has no chance of winning any awards, can achieve very good box office performance?
Schmidt Lawley asked: "Lu, what kind of box office do you think Red Eye Flight will achieve?"

Lu Yanhe: "I don't know about North America, but the box office in Asia should be at least 50 million US dollars."

Schmidt Lawley widened his eyes in surprise and looked at Lu Yanhe.

This number Lu Yanhe made up was not something he made up casually.

Linghe now has a team specialized in market box office analysis. They will regularly conduct research and forecasts on Lu Yanhe's projects, and compare them with the subsequent results to correct any deficiencies in their grasp of the market.

Lu Yanhe really likes some of the analysis reports submitted by this department, which often give him surprises.

The film market is risky, which is well known and unquestionable. High-quality films are everything, but they are too broad and have no practical value.

In particular, if you don’t have enough understanding of the market, problems will easily arise in the marketing direction.

This is just like some serious dramas that are wildly promoted to gain good reputation - what is promoted is all right and true, but it is useless.
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There are so many companies producing serious dramas, why is it that only Noon has produced one?

Because they didn’t gain popularity by promoting their dramas and getting them praised by everyone.

The so-called "brand effect" is something that happens after the situation is established.

In fact, the Noon brand became well-known in the popular sense after several dramas with different themes and audience groups, such as "The Disguiser", "Nirvana in Fire" and "Ode to Joy", became hits one after another and gained widespread recognition. If you say that these three dramas are serious dramas, there will probably be a lot of controversy.

But if you say they are idol dramas, then their quality is too different from what everyone knows as idol dramas.

To be precise, this is a group of people who can shoot serious dramas with extremely high skills. With such a level, they shot several "mainstream products" (not derogatory, but compared with the serious dramas these directors had shot before, they are more commercial between commerciality and seriousness) with stories, characters, and production levels at the first-class level. Then, in that era when traffic was dominant and shoddy products were constantly eye-catching, they were refreshing.

I wonder how many people remember what was so popular about "The Disguiser" when it was on the air? In fact, when it was on the air, there were quite a few people who criticized it, not to mention the leading actress. The famous scene where Hu Ge and Song Yi drew their guns in the corridor was also criticized as a "godly drama" at the time. But later, due to the high overall quality of the drama, and the fact that "Nirvana in Fire" with the same cast became a big hit almost two or three months later, and the solid ratings during the "hot" period, the reputation of the drama also reversed.

Although Nirvana in Fire had a good reputation at the time, and some people even analyzed its production from a technical perspective (even analyzing the proportions of each of its frames), its ratings were actually very poor when it was first aired.

It really was a group of drama fans who did all kinds of promotion on the Internet every day, and then, relying on the CP of Mei Changsu and Prince Jing, they opened up the market of female audiences, and found a precise promotional point of "real political intrigue drama" to open up the market of male audiences. This prevented the series from becoming a boutique drama with mediocre results, but instead became a huge hit in the middle and late stages of the first round of hits.

Lu Yanhe feels that Noon has developed a production model that is most worthy of reference for all companies.

The leading actor must have both fame and acting skills, neither of which can be missing. Looking at their projects, this is true for all of them. There will never be a starring cast with superb acting skills but little fame, or a cast with a lot of traffic but poor acting skills.

The importance of dramas is not taken lightly just because of the size of the company. In the years when IPs were popular, many film and television companies actually bought an IP and changed it beyond recognition. However, Noon has truly followed the original works as much as possible and invited the original authors to be the screenwriters as much as possible.

From what Qigong, the author of "The Beginning", said, we can see how much Noon attaches importance to screenwriters. A favorable creative environment, hands-on script writing guidance, and targeted discussions and revisions. The situation of domestic drama screenwriters described by other screenwriters seems to be in a different country compared to the description of the screenwriters who cooperated with Noon.

Then, don't underestimate the market, don't have the mentality of an artist who is not popular with the public. Some people say that Noon can shoot any subject matter and can shoot it well. Hou Hongliang directly said, no, our idol drama is a shortcoming. We have always wanted to do it well, but we have not done it well.

Moreover, they are really exploring idol dramas with great care, whether it is "Knowing or Not" or "The Beginning". In fact, these two IPs are of this type, but they have been filmed with high-quality texture, and no one has classified them as idol dramas.

Look at them, and then look at those other big guys, when they talk about idol dramas, their eyebrows droop, their mouths twitch, and they are full of disdain: "We are artists."
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After Schmidt Laurie finished talking with Lu Yanhe about the movie "Red Eye", he asked about other projects Lu Yanhe was working on.

Lu Yanhe said: "Except for a youth romance film, I have already found companies to work with for my other projects. However, there are a few films that I am not writing or starring in. If you are interested, you can take a look."

Schmidt-Lawley was not interested.

However, when he thought of Lu Yanhe's achievements over the years, he hesitated for a moment and nodded.

"Oh, by the way, that youth romance movie is starring Li Zhibai." Lu Yanhe said, "If Lugu wants to distribute it in North America, it will still be the same. There must be at least a two-week window in 500 theaters."

Schmidt Lawley: "..."

Lu Yanhe smiled and said, "Schmidt, both Glory Road and Love Letter have made you a lot of money. If you can provide better conditions, we will always give priority to Midoriya in the North American distribution of Linghe's films, just like Home Alone. So far, the films produced by Linghe should not have made you lose money, right?"

Schmidt Lawley had nothing to say.
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In the evening, Lu Yanhe had dinner with Li Zhibai and Jiang Yuqian. Chinese actress Wang Jiaqi, who had worked with Lu Yanhe in "The Mist 2", was also there.

Last November, Li Zhibai and Jiang Yuqian filmed a Hollywood independent film, a film telling the story of Chinese Americans. Wang Jiaqi was also one of the leading actors, so they knew each other.

Lu Yanhe asked them curiously who was making the movie, and then he heard from them about an independent film company called Farat that he had never heard of before.

Jiang Yuqian said: "It seems that we are also planning to submit this film to the Sundance Film Festival early next year."

Lu Yanhe nodded.

For American films, the Sundance Film Festival is no less important than the four major international film festivals, and is even higher than the other three except the Cincinnati International Film Festival.

Jiang Yuqian made this independent film with a very simple purpose, which was to improve her resume and to show the film industry that she still wanted to be a good actor and not just shoot those big commercial films.

This is of course also important.

This is an impression point.

As for Li Zhibai... Lu Yanhe didn't expect that Li Zhibai would suddenly take on such a film.

Of course, this is a good thing for the film, because within two months of Li Zhibai's filming, many people knew him because of "Buried". Maybe they would get an actor who became famous in North America for free.

In fact, from Lu Yanhe's perspective, this movie is definitely not a B-level movie in North America. After all, the leading actors such as Li Zhibai, Jiang Yuqian and Wang Jiaqi are all well-known around the world, especially the former two in Asia.

As long as the film producers are not stupid and do not sell the movies at a low price, the Asian region alone will be enough for them to make back their investment.

"I'm going to Asia next month, and Death Stranding will be filmed in several locations in Southeast Asia." Wang Jiaqi said, "If I have time, I'd like to go to China. Can I find you then?"

"Okay." Lu Yanhe nodded, "I'll be there next month."

Wang Jiaqi has been working in Hollywood for a long time.

She is not a very popular actress in the United States. She was able to get the project of "Death Stranding" because of her qualifications (acting experience).

What surprised Lu Yanhe was that she, who had been wondering why Lu Yanhe did not shift the focus of his acting career to Hollywood, had been intentionally or unintentionally inquiring about the situation in the domestic entertainment industry tonight.

She seems to be a little attracted to the domestic entertainment industry.

Lu Yanhe thought about it and decided to tell Chen Ziyan the news.

After so many interactions with Wang Jiaqi, apart from some differences in living habits and views on things, Lu Yanhe was still able to reach an agreement with her on some principled issues. This was why they were sitting here to have dinner together tonight.

Since Wang Jiaqi is interested, of course “the benefits should be kept within the family”.

Jiang Yuqian will return to China next to film a movie for Ruyi Pictures.

Li Zhibai decided to stay here. In addition to cooperating in the promotion of the movie "Buried", he also took a guest role in a popular American sitcom arranged by his agent here, which will start filming in March.

Everyone's career is booming.

very nice.
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Apart from meeting and having meals with them, Lu Yanhe basically spent the whole day replying to messages and returning phone calls.

So many people sent me messages of congratulations.

They are all people I have worked with before, know each other, and have had friendships with.

Lu Yanhe also doesn't add as friends those people he has only met once. In his address book, those who can contact him must generally be people with whom he has a serious relationship.

The next day, Lu Yanhe talked with the people from D19 about the follow-up cooperation.

The people at D19 are still obsessed with it and want to develop a third part. Especially the lead actor Lu Yanhe, who is now even more popular.

Lu Yanhe said: "In fact, I was not very satisfied with the script of the second part. It's not that I don't want to shoot the third part, but I don't want to be in the situation of the second part again. The contract was signed, the release date was set, and the production process was reversed. Obviously, I was not very satisfied with the script, but there was no time to make changes, so I had to bite the bullet and shoot it."

When the people in D19 heard Lu Yanhe say this, they felt relieved.

At least Lu Yanhe didn’t say that he would not film the “Misty Mist” series anymore.

From what he said, it seems that he was mainly dissatisfied with the script.

That’s easy, let’s continue developing the script.

The D19 people asked: "If you are given a script that satisfies you, would you be willing to return to the "Mist" series?"

"As long as the script is good enough, of course." Lu Yanhe nodded.

The people at D19 breathed a sigh of relief.

In addition to the "Misty" series, D19 also tried to contact Lu Yanhe to see if he had any scripts that they could work on together.

"Home Alone" made everyone in the film company interested in the script in Lu Yanhe's hands.

Especially the script of the movie "Buried Alive", which Lu Yanhe had previously sent to D19.

But D19 missed it.

result--

It was a big hit at Sundance.

Lu Yanhe was not surprised by D19's attitude.

Heads of Hollywood film companies, producers, and directors, both those he had worked with and those he had not, all sent him emails or called him one after another. Among these people, no less than ten had industry status and influence no less than that of Muken Sorge.

Lu Yanhe said: "All the scripts I have on hand have already been partnered with by companies, so there is nothing available for the time being."

The D19 people were a little disappointed when they heard this, but they still said enthusiastically: "I hope you can give us priority for your new script. Although we are an independent film company, you can see that we are developing very fast. The box office of the movies we release is not inferior to those big companies like Parameter. Moreover, we will definitely give more favorable conditions."

Lu Yanhe smiled slightly.

"of course."

In fact, in Hollywood, there are many companies like Northern Lights Video that have invested huge sums of money in Lu Yanhe, with cooperation terms such as producing two movies for them within the next five years.

Lu Yanhe has actually seen such cooperation terms. For example, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the screenwriter of "Fleabag" and "Killing Eve", signed a three-year contract with Amazon in 2019, earning a total of nearly 6000 million US dollars. However, she did not produce any content for Amazon during the three years. As a result, Amazon renewed her contract after the contract ended...

Lu Yanhe did not get such terms now, but it’s not bad either.

For example, Parameter proposed to sign a five-year non-exclusive agreement with Lu Yanhe. Within five years, Lu Yanhe can get a remuneration of 2 million US dollars if he writes two movie scripts for Parameter. This is just the remuneration for the movie script. At the same time, if Lu Yanhe serves as a producer or a leading actor, the remuneration will be calculated separately. Moreover, as a screenwriter, Lu Yanhe can also enjoy 1500% of the global box office of the two scripts.

Lu Yanhe refused.

He knew that Parameter's offer was generous, but he also knew that his script had higher value and did not need to be bought out by $1500 million and 1% of the global box office.

To put it bluntly, the global box office of the movie "Home Alone" alone, plus the salary and share he enjoyed as the screenwriter, plus the income he received from the production company Linghe as the boss, and his personal income as an investor, all added up to at least 1 million US dollars.

Not to mention the derivative income generated by this movie.

With a global box office of over 5 million US dollars, roughly speaking, the producers will get less than 2 million in revenue, and Lu Yanhe will account for half of it... This is even without Lu Yanhe as the lead actor.

However, Lu Yanhe felt at ease with the money. He did not raise funds from outside to make this film. Linghe contributed part of the production cost of this film, and he contributed part.

So, those conditions for cooperation may make many people excited, but they are not enough to make Lu Yanhe excited.
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Before leaving the United States, Lu Yanhe finally made an appointment with Uber Clark.

He was trying to give the script for Red Eye to Uber Clark.

"Uber, this is a movie script I wrote. Midoriya is developing it. The heroine is Jiang Yuqian, the heroine of Squidward." Lu Yanhe explained the situation to Uber Clark straight away. "This is not a movie that can win an Oscar, but it can definitely show your acting skills. In short, this is a thriller, but not the traditional horror-oriented thriller. The entire movie is almost entirely about you and Jiang Yuqian acting opposite each other."

Uber Clark looked at Lu Yanhe with some surprise and was stunned for a moment.

He didn't expect that Lu Yanhe actually sent him a script.

However, judging from the information Lu Yanhe said, even if Lu Yanhe, as a screenwriter, came up with a box office hit like "Home Alone", this script was not attractive enough to him.

In fact, Lu Yanhe himself knew that the project "Red Eye Flight" had its shortcomings.

The shortcoming is that this movie is a pure genre film, the ceiling is not high enough, and there is no well-known director and no other big-name actors joining. It can be said that if Uber Clark participates, he will be the only big star in this movie.

Of course, Lu Yanhe had other cards in mind.

"This movie, Midoriya, will be released in at least 3,000 theaters in North America." Lu Yanhe threw out this number.

Sure enough, after the number of cinemas was announced, Uber Clark became interested.

This number shows that Midoriya will distribute this movie on a large scale.

This also indirectly shows Midoriya's confidence in this film.

Lu Yanhe continued, "Similarly, the reason why Jiang Yuqian is chosen as the heroine of this movie is because this movie is going to be released on a large scale around the world. The box office goal of this movie is to break 100 million worldwide."

When Uber Clark heard this, he became even more excited.

As Lu Yanhe said when introducing this movie just now, the production budget of this movie is no more than 20 million US dollars. If this is the case, this movie will be another box office hit.

In Hollywood, the concept of box office hit has both absolute and relative values. For a movie that costs only one million U.S. dollars to produce, a box office of ten million U.S. dollars is also a hit.

And this means a lot to an actor in Hollywood.

In order to win an Oscar, Uber Clark has been mainly shooting biographies or feature films in recent years, and has not made many commercial films. Therefore, there has not been a film with a global box office of over 100 million for many years.

He is the leading actor in the movie "Red Eye".

This box office performance will definitely benefit him.

Lu Yanhe continued, "As for this character, You Bo, after you go back and read it carefully, you will definitely understand what I am going to say next—"

Uber Clark was stunned.

"This is a film that will give many Academy members a new understanding of your acting skills." Lu Yanhe said, "There are very few actors who can play this role well, and those who do well will be supported by the critics. Huang Feng lost a lot of awards for the Best Actor Oscar this year, but at the last minute, because Home Alone was a big hit at the box office, his performance in the movie was very popular, so the situation changed."

Lu Yanhe smiled at Uber Clark.

“This character in Red Eye has the same function.”

Uber Clark was really moved at this time.

Lu Yanhe thought to himself that he was really getting better and better at making promises.

He is too lazy to eat the pie others paint for him, but he keeps painting pie for others.

Tsk, I have a connection with cakes. (End of this chapter)