Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 460 Walking on Two Legs

Although Hong Kong's economy has been in a stage of rapid economic development in the past decade or so and has become one of the "Four Asian Tigers", Hong Kong people still unconsciously feel inferior when facing foreigners.

This lack of self-confidence is essentially due to the shadow left by being oppressed by foreigners for more than half a century.

Therefore, when people suddenly discovered that Hong Kong people had achieved achievements that attracted the attention of foreigners, the pride and pride in their hearts naturally became overwhelming.

Before "The Truman Show", the only Hong Kong films that had won awards at film festivals at the Cannes Film Festival were Li Hanxiang and King Hu.

Moreover, both of them won technical awards. Now "The Truman Show" has won three major awards at the Cannes Film Festival: the Jury Prize, Best Screenplay Award, and Best Actor Award.

Not only did it set a record for Hong Kong films, but more importantly, it swept the Cannes Film Festival, an internationally influential film festival dominated by foreigners, giving Hong Kong people an unprecedented sense of pride.

On May 5, the day when Ming Pao and Ta Kung Pao were published, the sales of Ming Pao jumped from the usual 20 copies to 10 copies, and the sales of Ta Kung Pao also doubled or tripled compared with the previous year.

In this port city with a population of only a few million, newspaper sales doubled in just one day. The power behind this phenomenon is extremely terrifying.

Suddenly, "The Truman Show" and the "Cannes Film Festival" became the focus of discussion among countless Hong Kong citizens. From business celebrities to street vendors, everyone knew about it and it caused a sensation in the whole of Hong Kong.

At this time, other Hong Kong media belatedly followed their reports.

The day after the film festival ended, Shen Xicheng and Wu Song returned to Hong Kong, bringing back first-hand information about "The Truman Show" that they had obtained during their stay in Cannes.

Among them were a large number of video clips, red carpet photos and interview texts of the main creators attending the film festival, enough for their two newspapers to carry out a half-month series of reports.

During this period, other newspapers could only follow their lead and rehash old stories.

In the two or three days after the end of the film festival, Hong Kong's radio and television stations as well as dozens of newspapers and magazines reported extensively on the event.

Not only has "The Truman Show" become the most popular movie in Hong Kong in the past two years, it has also become the hottest news event this year.

Not only the movie is popular, but also the creators of the movie.

On the day Xu Guanwen returned to Hong Kong, he was blocked at the airport by hundreds of reporters and hundreds of fans, which caused considerable chaos at Kai Tak Airport.

Not to mention the countless interview invitations from major Hong Kong media, the boss of a film company even offered a sky-high salary of "300 million Hong Kong dollars" to invite Xu Guanwen to star in his new film.

This number is even enough for many film companies to make a medium-sized movie.

It turns out that Xu Guanwen is a top movie star in the Hong Kong film industry. With the title of "Cannes Best Actor", his status has skyrocketed.

More importantly, after winning the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Xu Guanwen's transformation can be said to be a great success. From now on, no one dares to say that he is just a comedian.

Even Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, who are extremely popular nowadays, are three points shorter than him, the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor.

In addition to the male protagonist Xu Guanwen, almost every participant in "The Truman Show" has become the focus of media attention recently.

Because the media found that as long as they reported news about "The Truman Show" and the crew members, newspaper sales and reader feedback would be much better than usual, which can be called the traffic code.

On May 5, "The Truman Show" was released in Hong Kong with the momentum of sweeping Cannes.

The film was shown in over 30 cinemas across Hong Kong, making it an unrivalled success.

In the 1980s, large theatres were still the main cinemas in Hong Kong, and every time a blockbuster movie was released, it had to win both the show and the momentum.

The premiere of "The Truman Show" was held at Golden Harvest, the leading theater of the Golden Lok Cinema Chain in Kowloon.

The Kowloon Golden Harvest Cinema has more than 1,500 seats and a spacious layout. A giant hand-painted promotional poster of "The Truman Show" is hung on the outer wall of the cinema, which looks magnificent.

On the day of the premiere, Xu Guanwen, Cherie Chung and other main creators were all present. Golden Harvest also specially invited stars such as Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung to support the show.

After returning with honors, Xu Guanwen was warmly welcomed by thousands of audiences when he came on stage. The theater was filled with deafening applause and cheers.

At this moment, Xu Guanwen truly felt the terrifying influence brought by the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award, which was an honor he had never enjoyed in his 20 years of career.

Amid the noisy crowd, Lin Chaoyang was chatting with Zou Wenhuai backstage.

"The Truman Show" won three awards at the Cannes Film Festival, which is no less valuable than "Life and Death" which won the Palme d'Or.

After the award ceremony, Zou Wenhuai has been busy negotiating overseas copyright transactions with film studios from various countries. Nowadays, unlike in later times, most of the studios that come to the Cannes Film Festival to purchase copyrights are from developed countries in Europe and the United States, and there are not many film producers from Asia, Africa, Latin America and other countries.

After spending two days finalizing the copyright deals with nine economically developed countries including the United States, France, Britain, Italy, Australia and Japan, Zou Wenhuai returned to Hong Kong to host the screening of "The Truman Show" and handed over the remaining tasks to Chua Lam.

Although the box office revenue in Hong Kong could no longer be compared with the overseas copyright revenue after "The Truman Show" won the award, Zou Wenhuai still attached great importance to it.

Because he knew very well that the overseas revenue from "The Truman Show" could only be regarded as quick money, a windfall, and the solidity of Hong Kong, his base camp, was more important.

"The Truman Show" performed very well at the Cannes Film Festival and ignited the enthusiasm of Hong Kong people. If Golden Harvest can operate properly, it will definitely be able to suppress its rival Cinema City without any chance to breathe this year.

"Overseas studios are very positive about The Truman Show. The United States and France are particularly optimistic about it, and there was even a bidding war. Paramount finally offered $240 million. The Americans are really rich!"

"Given the size of the U.S. market, $240 million is not expensive to buy The Truman Show. The revenue from the video alone may pay for itself."

"Yes. But it is definitely a huge income for us. I negotiated 9 deals before I came back, and the final transaction amount reached 640 million US dollars. If art films want to make money, winning awards is indeed the best way."

The current exchange rate of the US dollar to the Hong Kong dollar is 1:8, and US$640 million is equivalent to HK$5120 million. You must know that this is the pre-tax profit.

If a movie wants to achieve such revenue in Hong Kong, the box office would probably have to exceed 100 million.

And this is only a part of the amount of the overseas copyright transaction of "The Truman Show". Cai Lan is currently negotiating with more than a dozen overseas film producers.

In addition to these, there are also Hong Kong, Taiwan Island and Southeast Asian markets.

Whenever Zou Wenhuai thought about the future profits of "The Truman Show", he could not suppress the excitement in his heart.

You have to know that even Jackie Chan, the most popular star under Golden Harvest, only earns about HK$40 to 50 million for a single film, and this is already the peak of the Hong Kong film industry.

But before "The Truman Show", even the revenue of Jackie Chan's movies seemed so insignificant.

"Of course the benefits of winning prizes are huge, but not everyone can do it!" Lin Chaoyang said nonchalantly.

Zou Wenhuai felt that Lin Chaoyang had a hidden meaning when he said this, emphasizing his own contribution to the film.

However, Zou Wenhuai had to admit that Lin Chaoyang made an indispensable contribution to the huge success of "The Truman Show".

For "The Truman Show", Zou Wenhuai stayed in Cannes for more than ten days and never left. He witnessed the popularity of the film at the film festival.

It is also clear that a large part of the reason why foreigners like this movie comes from their high recognition of the plot setting, which of course is all thanks to Lin Chaoyang, the original author and screenwriter.

"Haha, Mr. Lin's script deserves great credit." Zou Wenhuai complimented.

Lin Chaoyang smiled and waved his hand, "It's all the joint efforts of everyone."

Lin Chaoyang's words just now were indeed deliberately said to Zou Wenhuai. The fact that Boss Zou owed his satellite company overseas profits was no longer a new thing in the Hong Kong film industry.

Of course Lin Chaoyang had to remind him not to think of himself as one of those stars under his company who could be manipulated at will.

While we were chatting, the atmosphere in the theater had gradually quieted down and the movie was about to start.

The logos of the four production companies, Golden Harvest, Xu's, Lin's and New Kunlun, appeared on the big screen one after another. The familiar plot was staged again, but for the thousands of audiences present, it was refreshing.

The audience's eyes follow the characters, and their emotions fluctuate with the ups and downs of the plot.

After the premiere, there was thunderous applause in the Golden Harvest Theatre and the audience was very excited.

"The Truman Show" has the halo of winning three awards at the Cannes Film Festival, and the audience has a strong inherent filter for this movie.

What's more, although this movie is an art film, the story is very smooth. Even audiences who are used to watching commercial films do not find it awkward or boring. Instead, they are deeply impressed by the artistry and depth shown in the movie.

The warm applause lasted for more than five minutes, representing the audience's appreciation for the film.

In the Hong Kong film market dominated by commercial films, the appearance of "The Truman Show" is like a breath of fresh air, allowing these audiences to experience a completely different viewing experience from the past.

After the premiere, "The Truman Show" became an instant success among the audience!

In less than half a day, all the theaters under Golden Harvest Cinema Line were packed with audiences who came to see "The Truman Show".

Such momentum has never been seen even in the top three hit movies of the year.

It is not difficult to understand why "The Truman Show" created such a huge sensation in such a short period of time. The previous bombardment of news reports by dozens of media outlets across Hong Kong had already made this film well-known to all levels of Hong Kong society.

These ordinary people can be said to be potential audiences of "The Truman Show". When the movie is released now, as long as the word of mouth is good, it will inevitably convert a considerable number of them into its own audience.

Even citizens who were not originally interested in movies wanted to watch this movie that brought glory to Hong Kong in the eyes of foreigners.

Under such circumstances, the major theaters under the Jiale Theater System became crowded at the opening and closing of the shows, announcing the popular atmosphere of "The Truman Show" all the time.

According to statistics, the attendance rate of "The Truman Show" on the premiere day was as high as 86%, and the box office reached 244 million Hong Kong dollars, successfully breaking the box office record for the opening of a local film in Hong Kong.

It’s in the spotlight!

The next morning, the news of the movie's release made the front-page headlines of major media in Hong Kong.

Previously, all major news media focused on the fact that "The Truman Show" won the award, but except for "Ming Pao" and "Ta Kung Pao", the information people knew about the film festival and the awards was very limited, and they could only follow these two and rehash some old news.

Now that the movie is released, everyone can focus on reporting the movie itself. Citizens are also willing to watch it, and they no longer have to eat other people's leftovers.

"The Truman Show" grossed over 240 million on its first day of release, setting a record for Hong Kong films opening in the territory" "Moviegoers packed the cinema, The Truman Show is a hit" "'Truman' Xu Guanwen appeared at the Nanhua Cinema, causing a riot among the audience"

Most of Hong Kong's newspapers and magazines focus on entertainment reports, and many of them use shocking and unconventional headlines to attract readers, but they are very honest in their reports on "The Truman Show".

It’s not that these media outlets have a change of heart, but the situation after the release of "The Truman Show" is a bit exaggerated.

For example, the article "'Truman' Xu Guanwen appeared at Nanhua Theater, causing audience riot" reported by the "Industrial and Commercial Daily" is basically a true record.

The movie was released yesterday and Xu Guanwen went to the Nanhua Theatre in the evening to promote the film, attracting nearly two thousand fans.

The Nanhua Theater had only 1278 seats in the main hall and balcony, and people poured in at once, making the theater extremely crowded and chaotic. If the police had not arrived in time to maintain order, an accident would have almost occurred.

In addition to these entertaining reports, after the release of "The Truman Show", many media also evaluated the film itself.

Among them, a film review article titled "The Truman Show: Live Broadcast of Life" was published in Wenhui Daily.

The article believes that: "The Truman Show" not only maintains its entertainment value, but also explores important topics such as freedom, truth, privacy and the relationship between individuals and society through Truman's live-streamed life. It is a work with profound social significance.

After the article was published, it received positive reviews from many Hong Kong intellectuals and also added fuel to the popularity of "The Truman Show".

Since "The Truman Show" returned with great success at Cannes, Lin Chaoyang's reputation as a "master screenwriter" has become even more famous than before.

After all, in Hong Kong today, no screenwriter has ever won the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

In the first few days after returning to Hong Kong, actors like Xu Guanwen were busy, and Lin Chaoyang was not relaxed either. Apart from harassment from the media, he received the most invitations from film companies.

After Shaw Brothers closed down, it seemed that only Golden Harvest and Cinema City were left competing for dominance in the Hong Kong film industry, but in fact there were quite a few small and medium-sized film companies.

Behind many well-known film actors, directors and producers is a film company. These film companies may seem small in scale, but they have complex relationships and close ties and connections with several major film companies.

For example, Siyuan Pictures, which was founded with the support of Lo Wei after former Shaw Brothers director Wu Siyuan left the company, produced masterpieces such as "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" and "Drunken Master" in the 1970s and was once very popular.

However, Luo Wei reaped the benefits and took away the newly famous Cheng Long, and Siyuan Pictures fell into a trough since then.

Wu Siyuan found Lin Chaoyang through Li Hanxiang and offered to ask Lin Chaoyang to write a script for Siyuan Pictures for a remuneration of 80 Hong Kong dollars. The money could also be used as investment, and the profit sharing ratio would be determined according to the film investment.

The conditions were quite generous, but it was difficult to impress Lin Chaoyang.

Whether he cooperated with Golden Harvest or Cinema City, it was not simply for the script fees, but to take advantage of the situation and help the film company run by Tao Yushu gain a foothold in Hong Kong.

As it turned out, his goal was achieved after the great success of "The Truman Show".

Zou Wenhuai is now trying his best to win over Lam Films. Cinema City directly added an investment of HK$200 million for "A Better Tomorrow" and at the same time maintained the investment proportion of Lam Films in the film unchanged, showing full sincerity.

Therefore, Lin Chaoyang ruthlessly rejected the invitations from a number of film companies including Siyuan Pictures, but sometimes not all invitations can be rejected, like now.

"Chaoyang, the news that you won the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival has spread back to China, causing a huge stir in the film industry. Not to mention the people in the public, who are all very proud and praise you for bringing glory to the country!"

"Old Hu, forget about the polite words. Winning the award is just a coincidence."

The person who was talking to Lin Chaoyang at this time was Hu Qiming, the director of Yanying Studio.

These days, the channels for reporting overseas news in China are very narrow. After "The Truman Show" won great success in Cannes, the news did not make it back to the mainland.

It was only after public opinion in Hong Kong was thoroughly ignited that the news was passed back to the mainland by the Hong Kong branch of the New H Agency, and appeared on the pages of many authoritative media. It spread across the country in just a few days.

Since the release of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, Hong Kong's return to the embrace of the motherland has been a foregone conclusion. Hong Kong films winning the Cannes Golden Globes is basically equivalent to Chinese films winning the Golden Globes Golden Globes.

The domestic film industry and the general public were excited, especially because there was a name that everyone was familiar with.

Lin Chaoyang is one of us, and he won the "Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival", so naturally he will be promoted prominently.

As the news continued to spread, a voice emerged in the film industry, hoping that China Film Corporation could introduce "The Truman Show" to China.

There are good reasons for this voice. Every year, China imports a number of foreign films for reference and learning. There is no reason not to import films made by our own people that have won awards.

This is also a rare learning opportunity for domestic film studios.

You should know that in recent years, domestic film studios have been trying to launch excellent films that can win awards at some international film festivals in order to achieve the purpose of cultural propaganda.

But after years of attempts, the results have not been ideal, and most of the films have failed to make a splash when they went abroad.

Two years ago, Chen Kaige shot "Yellow Earth" with the support of Guangxi Film Studio. It traveled around Europe and won many awards.

Although these awards have limited international influence, they are still “foreigners”.

And it did win a lot of awards, including nine awards of various sizes. Let’s not talk about the quality for now, but just this number is not something that an ordinary movie can achieve.

After all, in order to participate in the exhibition, Chen Kaige traveled across most of Europe.

With the blessing of these awards, "Yellow Earth" has become a milestone work in the history of Chinese film in the eyes of many domestic academic filmmakers.

Chen Kaige was even more crowned and became the first of China's new generation of directors, and was the talk of the town.

In the eyes of knowledgeable people in the domestic film industry, all the awards won by "Yellow Earth" combined are not as good as a Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize.

"The Truman Show" won three major awards at the film festival, so there must be something worth learning from it.

Especially since this movie was adapted from a domestic literary work, the domestic film studios feel even more aggrieved when they think about this.

This kind of situation where flowers bloom inside the wall but are not as popular outside the wall is really depressing.

Hu Qiming came to Hong Kong this time to volunteer to explore the way for China Film Group and talk to Lin Chaoyang about introducing "The Truman Show".

Of course, this was only one of the purposes of his trip.

"The Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Hehe, this is unique to the Chinese film industry!"

Hu Qiming did not stop complimenting Lin Chaoyang because of his modesty. He held Lin Chaoyang's hand and talked for a long time, and mentioned the issue of film introduction again.

This matter was not something Lin Chaoyang could decide. He said, "I'll take you to Jiahe tomorrow. I believe they will be happy to do so."

"Okay, okay, I'll feel relieved if you can help me make the connection, Chaoyang."

After talking about the introduction of movies, Hu Qiming started chatting about family matters.

"The last time we met was when The Chess Master was being made. By the way, The Chess Master was such a success back then! Oh, come on, how long has it been since we last met?"

"Yes, it's been more than a year." Lin Chaoyang agreed with Hu Qiming casually. Looking at his expression, he knew that he must have something to ask for.

Sure enough, after chatting for a while, Hu Qiming asked casually, "Chaoyang, I heard from Comrade Zhang from New H Society that Yu Shu has opened a film company in Hong Kong?"

"Yes. She stopped working because she had a baby, so she found something to do."

Hu Qiming smiled and said, "Yushu is a good choice. It happens to be a good match for our Yanying Film Studio. If there is a chance, you can make a co-production with us. Hong Kong will return to the embrace of the motherland in a few years, so we can promote cultural exchanges between the two places."

Having said that, Hu Qiming's purpose has become clear.

Lin Chaoyang hesitated for a moment. There are indeed advantages to co-producing a film with Yan Film Studio, such as being able to shoot in the beautiful mountains and rivers of the motherland and the low cost of filming.

Lin Chaoyang chuckled and said, "The film company has just been established, and it has not invested in any movies independently. With the support of the big brother Yanying Studio, Yushu and I are of course more than happy to have it."

Hearing his words, Hu Qiming couldn't help but be overjoyed. "Well, I don't deserve your support. Our Yan Film Studio has also been seeking reforms in the past two years. With your support, it will definitely inject new vitality into our Yan Film Studio."

The two of them sang the same tune and became more and more excited as they talked. They agreed to go to Lam Pictures to discuss in detail after visiting Golden Harvest tomorrow.

When Tao Yushu returned home in the evening, Lin Chaoyang told her about Hu Qiming's idea of ​​seeking cooperation on behalf of Yanying Studio.

Tao Yushu thought for a moment and said:
“Of course this is a win-win cooperation, but there is a problem. If we co-produce a film with Yan Film Studio, Taiwan Island might ban us, right?
I'm not afraid of anything else, I'm just worried that people in Hong Kong will be hesitant and unwilling to cooperate with us."

Lin Chaoyang said calmly: "This is not a big problem. However, the ban on the island is nothing more than a threat of interests. As long as you can make money by following us, are you afraid that no one will come?"

Tao Yushu nodded slightly, agreeing with what he said.

"So do you have any specific ideas? How can we cooperate with Yanying Studio?"

"I think we can continue down the art film path."

Tao Yushu was a little surprised when he heard this, "Art film?"

She frowned and thought for a moment, then said, "Art films require little investment, and there is the success of The Truman Show, so it's a good idea."

Lin Chaoyang nodded.

"I'm afraid that we won't win any awards and the box office won't be good." Tao Yushu said worriedly.

“I try to keep my investment as low as possible. As long as I can be shortlisted for one or two influential film festivals, I can make a profit. If I can win an award, I will definitely make money.

If it can be like The Truman Show, it will be a huge hit.”

Lin Chaoyang's words made Tao Yushu very excited. The money-making ability of "The Truman Show" in recent days completely broke Tao Yushu's cognition.

Less than two weeks have passed since the end of the film festival, and Golden Harvest has already negotiated copyright deals with 21 countries and regions. Copyright transactions alone have generated US$915 million in revenue, equivalent to HK$7320 million.

There are still several countries whose copyright contracts have not been signed. It is conservatively estimated that the final overseas copyright revenue of "The Truman Show" may exceed 1000 million US dollars.

This does not include Southeast Asia, the backyard of Hong Kong films.

In addition, "The Truman Show" has been released in Hong Kong for more than a week, and the box office has been very high. It is estimated that it will not be able to stop at 3000 million Hong Kong dollars.

A rough estimate shows that the net profit generated by a movie is probably more than HK$1.2 million.

Even the knowledgeable Zou Wenhuai was stunned by such exaggeration, not to mention Tao Yushu, a fledgling film company owner.

Tao Yushu pondered and said, "We can stick to the path of art films, but we can't ignore commercial films either. We have to walk on both legs."

Lin Chaoyang's expression showed approval. Encouraged by him, Tao Yushu continued, "Commercial films require large investments. We can continue to try to cooperate with Golden Harvest and Cinema City. Art films can win awards and cultivate talents while strengthening ourselves."

Lin Chaoyang said with a bright smile: "Not bad, not bad, Boss Tao is becoming more and more proficient in business."

Tao Yushu asked, "Do you have any idea about what kind of film we should make together?"

(End of this chapter)