Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 857 I Want to Thank Someone
Lao Mouzi said this in front of everyone, and it represents his true thoughts.

Zhou Mo didn't expect Lao Mouzi to be so serious, and for a moment he didn't know what to say in response.

Da Tiantian quickly spoke up: "Director Zhang, you are too polite. We have worked together so many times and have always had a tacit understanding. As long as Director Zhang is still willing to make movies in the future, our company will always hope to be Director Zhang's partner."

Lao Mouzi laughed, then sighed with some regret:
"In fact, if I hadn't known that your Shanhe Company only has one director, Zhou Mo, I would have thought of working for your company. It would save me trouble, be convenient, and I could win awards. It would be better than my own..."

Zhou Mo shook his head and said, "Director Zhang is exaggerating. Your current freelance model is pretty good, isn't it? You can work with whoever you want, and you don't have to be too controlled by the company."

The last company that Lao Mouzi cooperated with was Yueshi, which was owned by Mr. Jia who went to America. After Mr. Jia left, Lao Mouzi signed a new contract, but he was no longer cooperating with only one company. Instead, he chose to cooperate with different companies, whichever one was suitable and convenient.

Lao Mouzi waved his hand and said, "I am leading the filming myself, and there are many things I need to worry about. I am almost 70 years old this year, and I often feel that I don't have enough energy...

Director Zhou, you are welcome. I know very well that if I hadn’t worked with you, I would have basically no chance of returning to Cannes, let alone winning an award. So when I said that I wanted to continue working with Sunward Company forever, it was not only a thank you, but also a realistic choice.”

Zhou Mo said to himself, "So that's what is happening."

“The cooperation is easy to discuss. Director Zhang, you are very capable. Your ability to control the picture is unique in China. In the future, whenever Shanhe Company needs something, you will definitely be the first person they look for.

Of course, the premise is that you, the winner of three European gold medals, still have the energy and motivation to continue making movies, rather than completely retiring and enjoying your old age after achieving your goal."

"Then don't worry. I plan to make filming my lifelong career. I will keep doing it until the day I can no longer make movies. If the last movie is not finished by then, I will let you take over and help me film the rest of the plot."

"So carefree? Aren't you afraid that I will completely change your script?"

“That means I made money…”

……

Three days later, Zhou Mo and his group packed their luggage and prepared to return home.

These past few days, Zhang Yimou has been meeting with some colleagues in the industry, having meals, communicating, taking photos, and being interviewed, and he is having a great time.

Chen Daoming and others also have their own things to do every day and run around every day.

Especially for the international star Zhang Ziyi, there are people asking her to meet up early every morning, either to endorse luxury goods or to be invited by a new film crew.

When we had dinner together in the evening, I could always see an irrepressible smile on her face, as if her career was about to enjoy a second spring.

The night before leaving, Da Tiantian asked Zhou Mo about the international chapter.

"Do you think there's still a chance for International Zhang to go international again?"

"No way."

Zhou Mo said confidently: "Even though Hollywood has declined a lot in recent years, it is still arrogant and will not give people a second chance. Since Zhang Ziyi has returned, if she wants to go again, she must form a team and achieve good results, just like Ben Affleck did.

It’s just that Zhang Ziyi is not Da Ben, so she won’t end up well. She will probably come back angry tonight.”

Da Tiantian blinked her eyes and said, "When you said that, it sounded like an old fortune teller on the street."

Zhou Mo's lips curled up slightly, his face looking mysterious.

"Just wait and see."

That night, as expected, Zhang Ziyi came back with a frosty face and her lips tightly pursed.

Seeing this, the others didn't ask much, but just talked about what to do after returning home.

It was just that Zhang Ziyi ate for a while and then took the initiative to talk about her experience today.

"She sounded so nice before, but in the end it was revealed that she was just a female lead, and she had less than 20 lines..."

After the introduction, Da Tiantian frowned slightly.

Female lead number three, twenty lines.

This is too confusing.

After all, he is the leading actor who just won the Palme d'Or. This positioning is too bad.

Zhou Mo's expression remained calm throughout, and it was obvious that he had expected this result.

After dinner, Da Tiantian and Zhou Mo returned to the room.

Da Tiantian didn't even change her clothes and started complaining to Zhou Mo.

"To be honest, when Zhang Gangci talked about the third female role, I even thought she was deceived, but then I thought about how she was the one who filmed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon after all."

Zhou Mo asked her, "Have you not studied the development of International Zhang in recent years?"

"No, what's wrong?"

"The third female lead is her normal position. Look at her roles in Godzilla 2: King of the Demonic Hand and The Cloverfield Paradox a few years ago. She was originally ranked lower than the third female lead. This is because of her past achievements and her Chinese face, which can add buffs.

As for more roles, they will definitely use local actresses, or those who have withstood the test of historical achievements, such as those who have won the annual box office champion. How could she get her turn?

The reason why Zhang Ziyi was angry was not because she was regarded as the third female lead, but because she thought she had won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and had a more dazzling halo, but in fact it had no actual impact on her position, and she was still the third female lead.

Da Tiantian suddenly realized, and finally understood what Zhang Ziyi was thinking.

She said that she felt something was not right when she heard Zhang Yimou complain.

It doesn't seem like she's complaining about the third female lead.

It turns out that I was just complaining about no changes.

"Since this is the case with Zhang Ziyi, wouldn't it be even worse for other Chinese female stars in Hollywood?"

Zhou Mo glanced at her and then looked away.

"You, this other female star, are you yourself?"

Da Tiantian coughed lightly: "Well... actually it also includes Sister Bingbing and her people."

These questions of hers did not mean that she wanted to go to Hollywood.

Her Hollywood dream was thrown out of her mind a few years ago.

But she was indeed a little curious about her current position.

"They're not much different. The two Bingbings are actually not as good as Zhang Ziyi... It's just that you're different from them. You can't be judged by the status of an actor, and those people in Hollywood won't invite you to act now."

"Huh? Why?"

"Because I don't allow it." Zhou Mo said casually.

Da Tiantian was stunned for a moment, then she realized that there seemed to be nothing wrong with this statement.

Of course, Hollywood knows that Zhou Mo and Da Tiantian are tied together.

Wherever Zhou Mo appears, Da Tiantian must be there. If Hollywood crews really see the commercial value of Da Tiantian, they will definitely invite Zhou Mo.

But unfortunately, Zhou Mo only knows how to form his own team when making movies, and at the very least he will cooperate, and he will never be an employee of another company.

So, they would never invite Da Tiantian to make a movie.

After figuring out this, Da Tiantian completely understood some of the jokes Zhou Mo had said before:

“It’s easier to break into Hollywood than to act in Hollywood.”

What does that mean?

That is, Zhou Mo and Da Tiantian make their own movies and then impact the Hollywood film market, which is much easier than waiting for acting opportunities in Hollywood.

"So Zhou Mo, do you have any idea of ​​using domestic films to impact Hollywood now?"

Zhou Mo thought about it for a while.

"In fact, you can try the Three Kingdoms series."

Da Tiantian frowned slightly and suddenly felt a little flustered.

If the "Three Kingdoms" series really tries to impact Hollywood, then does its layout count as her impacting Hollywood?

"The Three Kingdoms is already very complicated, and you added the worldview of 'immortals and mortals' to it. Can these foreigners understand it?"

"We don't sell content, we only sell special effects." Zhou Mo said without hesitation.

He never thought of trying to impact Hollywood with content from the beginning.

It's unrealistic and even impossible.

American audiences will not understand what happened during the Three Kingdoms period, and most of them don’t even know Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei.

Under such circumstances, it would undoubtedly be a dream to expect them to explore the content of the "Three Kingdoms" series.

It would be better to be like the "John Wick" series, where good and evil are clearly distinguished, black and white are clearly distinguished, and it's done with sparks and lightning all the way.

"I've already thought about it. For the same story, there must be two versions, domestic and foreign. The domestic version needs to control the rhythm and tell the story clearly; the foreign version should make the confrontation between immortals and mortals more obvious, and then let the two sides fight." Zhou Mo explained his ideas to Da Tiantian.

Da Tiantian nodded slightly.

Anyway, she didn't know what style to use to face the Hollywood audience, so at this time she just listened to Zhou Mo and nodded.

……

The next day, Zhou Mo and others flew back to China.

During this period, Cannes was extremely bustling, with a large amount of news being transmitted abroad every day.

The domestic entertainment industry is equally bustling.

Countless media professionals were eagerly waiting for the return of Zhou Mo and others, and they put the microphones to their faces as soon as possible.

The only difference from abroad is that in Cannes, Zhang Yimou is the only one who stands out, while in China, Zhou Mo and Zhang Yimou are on par with each other.

On the night of the Cannes Awards ceremony, the moment the presenter announced the winner as "Parasite", the hot searches in China for "Zhou Mo's "Win Cannes Again" immediately appeared, even faster than the hot searches for Zhang Yimou's "European Three Gold Grand Slam".

Although Zhou Mo stayed in his room writing scripts during his stay in Cannes, and neither accepted interviews nor attended any banquets, the hot searches about him in China were like fireworks during the Chinese New Year, one a day, and they never stopped.

Before getting off the plane, Da Tiantian deliberately teased Zhou Mo.

"Double gold medal winner, are you ready to face the reporters' cameras?"

During the past few days in Cannes, Zhou Mo has been calling Zhang Yimou "the European triple gold medal winner", and Da Tiantian has been refraining from calling Zhou Mo "the double gold medal winner". Now that she has returned to China, she can finally call him a few times to satisfy her desire.

Zhou Mo held his head high and chest out, and slowly walked out of the cabin.

"Just kidding, it's just a matter of time. Just wait and see how I handle the interview later..."

After a moment, Zhou Mo slightly pushed away the microphone that was almost stuffed into his mouth, feeling a little helpless.

It has been a while since I was asked questions by reporters, and when we met again, the questioning was still the same.

Zhou Mo originally thought that these people would ask something related to the creation of "Parasite" in a while, but he miscalculated this time.

People didn’t care about the creation of “Parasite” at all. The only gossip throughout the whole process was about the “conflict” between him and Zhang Yimou.

"Director Zhou, we noticed that you did not attend the award ceremony that night. Can you tell me why?"

"Director Zhou, some people say that you and Director Zhang had conflicts several times during the filming process, so you did not attend the banquet after the award ceremony this time. What do you think about this issue?"

"Director Zhou, during the promotion of Parasite in Cannes, you were never promoted from beginning to end. Did you have a conflict with Director Zhang?"

Zhou Mo took a deep breath and moved the microphone aside again.

"We had discussed in advance not to promote it, in order to increase the chances of Parasite winning the award."

The first sentence is in response to these rumors.

"Director Zhang and I are very good friends. If everything goes well, the Three Kingdoms trilogy will start filming in August. Director Zhang and I will be together at that time. During this trip to Cannes, Director Zhang also gave me some suggestions on the writing of the Three Kingdoms script, which helped me a lot."

The second sentence is to guide public opinion to "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

"If all goes well, Parasite will be released in two months, and the first part of Three Kingdoms will hit the Spring Festival next year. During the filming process, we will select some time to open up opportunities for visitors. Shanhe Company will announce the time of the developer later, so please stay tuned."

The third sentence is purely an advertisement for the movie.

After these three sentences, as expected, many reporters' attention was drawn to "The Three Kingdoms".

This week, they have been continuously reporting news about "Parasite". They have already discovered everything they could, so it is really difficult for them to make up some news.

Now that Zhou Mo has mentioned "The Three Kingdoms", instead of wasting time arguing with others about "Parasite", it would be better to write more news about "The Three Kingdoms".

Soon, the questions Zhou Mo heard changed from the conflict between him and Zhang Yimou to the disclosure of the content of the "Three Kingdoms" series and the arrangements for filming.

At the same time, Lao Mouzi was surrounded by a large group of people.

Under each microphone, the problem is similar to Zhou Mo's.

Zhang Yimou had been on the plane for a long time and his head was fuzzy. After he finally heard the reporters' questions clearly, his expression quickly became serious.

"The news that Director Zhou and I have a conflict is completely false.

In fact, I want to explain one thing to my friends in the media. I have always wanted to thank one person for the filming of "Parasite", and that person is Director Zhou. Without him, I would not have returned to the Cannes Film Festival, nor would I have won this Grand Slam honor. "

Lao Mouzi said this with great force.

(End of this chapter)