Huayu: As a child star, I just want to be famous

Chapter 338 A Significant Chapter in Literary History

With the addition of Mark Gordon, the project of "Taken" made rapid progress.

This matter starts with the setting of the movie itself.

Chen Linfeng's original idea was to set the story in Southeast Asia.

The villains are directly set as gangs in northern Myanmar, a criminal group that wants to traffic in people and organs.

To some extent, it is consistent with the realistic impression.

Moreover, the cost will be relatively low if the filming is done in Southeast Asia. Yinghuang has a considerable influence in these places and can also find local connections.

However, Mark persuaded Chen Linfeng to change his mind.

If you want to win the global box office, you can't be too "Asian".

With two important characters of Asian descent, Fang Long and Liu Qianqian, it would be best if the remaining characters were European and American, so that they would not be easily rejected by European and American audiences.

For example, in Van Loong’s past action films, even if they were pure Hong Kong films, they would often have a white female protagonist and some Western villains.

The entire story was filmed at locations all over the world, which makes it more appealing to overseas audiences.

Chen Linfeng also knew this, but he didn't have many connections in Europe before.

I might as well change the settings first, and then decide whether to change it based on the situation during this trip to Hollywood.

Mark is a very qualified producer. He noticed the unreasonableness in the project at the first time and suggested corrections.

Chen Linfeng naturally "followed the advice" and let Mark find a solution.

Mark does have a lot of connections in Hollywood, and Summit Entertainment is now somewhat famous. Chen, as a Golden Lion Award-winning director and Oscar-winning screenwriter, has an incredibly good record.

We soon contacted several European and American companies that were interested in cooperation.

As for Hollywood, Disney has already joined, so the United States no longer needs to cooperate in publicity and distribution.

Therefore, Mark chose European companies.

There are two in total, one is the French Europa Film Company, and the other is M6 Films, a British company.

The reason why I chose these two.

On the one hand, it is conducive to publicity and promotion in Europe, and on the other hand it can also provide convenience for their filming in Europe.

Chen Linfeng took a few days off and, together with Fang Long, met with the two companies that were willing to invest, and they negotiated the terms smoothly.

In the end, Summit Entertainment owned 30% of the movie "Taken", and Kirin Company owned 10%, which means that Chen Linfeng owned a total of 40%.

Huaying holds 20%, Disney holds 15%, Yinghuang, Europa Films and M6 Films hold a total of 20%, and the rest are individual investors.

The total investment was 3500 million US dollars, of which Van Loong's salary alone was 1200 million US dollars, and this was the result after some of his salaries were reduced.

Chen Linfeng received $500 million as director and screenwriter, plus a 10% share.

Liu Xixi's salary was 100 million US dollars. If the box office performance of this movie is good, the price in China can be similar in the future.

However, in the following few years, the pay of domestic first-line actors increased significantly, and the salary that Chen Linfeng managed to increase for her was probably just keeping up with the increase in the mainland.

It's a bit exaggerated indeed.

Other expenses, including production costs and part of the publicity costs, are included.

In fact, the total investment is much higher than the previous version.

But there is no way around it. Van Loon’s pay is definitely much higher than that of the original lead actor Liam Neeson.

Moreover, the director Chen Linfeng is much more famous than the original director in the previous life.

A salary of 500 million US dollars plus a 10% share of the profits, this is a strange model that few directors can get.

However, both Fang Long and Chen Linfeng have a certain fame and appeal around the world.

The level of their pay has clearly reflected their level.

Chen Linfeng hopes that Fang Long’s joining will help the movie’s box office reach even higher levels.

The beginning of a series of movies often determines the subsequent box office performance of the entire series.

In this regard, he is confident that he can surpass the original work of his previous life.

By mid-March, Chen Linfeng had almost completed what he wanted to do in Hollywood.

But he has no intention of leaving. All signs indicate that he seems to have a chance of winning the two American literature awards he was nominated for.

He asked Liu Xixi to go back early as Cheng Er's new movie had already begun preparations and Xixi needed to prepare for the role.

Moreover, the movie "The Chinese Zodiac" in which she participated last year has already started promotion, and as an important character, she will also participate in the promotion.

Naturally, Fang Long also returned to China, and he played the leading role in "The Chinese Zodiac".

Let’s continue talking about the US Literature Award.

Emily Ken Media recently mentioned Chen Linfeng's name when reporting and summarizing last year's outstanding works and writers.

The New York Review of Books recently released its top three outstanding literary works of 2008, with Her topping the list for the first time.

This list is often seen as a preview of the Book Critics Circle Awards.

In addition, "Emiliaken Literature" and "Reader's Digest" gave extremely high praise to Chen Linfeng and his work "She" in their writer recommendations.

Please note that the beautiful country's "Reader's Digest" here is not a certain crooked-butt magazine in China that sounds similar.

The two companies once had a lawsuit because of their similar names.

Emily Kent Literature and Reader's Digest have considerable influence in the United States Publishers Association.

The latter is the awarding association of the Emily Kent National Book Awards.

This was completely different from the last time Chen Linfeng was shortlisted, so he decided to wait and see.

Mei's friend in the United States also told her that Chen had a great chance of winning the award this year when exchanging information with her. Sure enough, within two days, the Book Critics Association and the Publishers Association of the United States called Mei separately.

They all invited Chen Linfeng to participate in their award ceremonies.

"Xiao Feng, you are going to win an award. You have been invited to attend the award ceremony for both awards."

Sister Mei came to congratulate inexplicably and informed us of the time and place for the award ceremony.

"Really? That's a good relationship, and it's also an extra award."

Chen Linfeng seems a little dull. So far, "She" has won quite a few awards.

However, Emily Ken's influence in literature is far less than that of old Europe, and even its literary awards are not as famous as those in Japan in China.

Only the Pulitzer Prize is a little famous, but this is generally a journalism award. In terms of literature, one must be a citizen of the United States to win the award.

Apart from this, few people pay attention to other awards in the country.

So he really didn't care too much.

However, Mei doesn't think so. So far, Chinese people still attach the most importance to Emily Ken.

Winning an award here is different from winning an award in other places. Although people don’t know the value of the Book Critics Circle Award and the Book Award, they have always heard of the Pulitzer Prize.

At this time, just mention it and promote it in comparison with the Pulitzer Prize.

Descriptions like "the three major literary awards in the United States" and "a more professional literary award than the Pulitzer Prize" can immediately popularize these awards in the country.

This is all reputation.

When Sister Mei explained the operation method, Chen Linfeng suddenly thought of Liu Cixin's "The Three-Body Problem".

Indeed, before "The Three-Body Problem" won the award, few people in China knew about the Hugo Award.

I guess even in the future, there will still be people who don’t know who Hugo, the winner of the Hugo Award, is.

Chen Linfeng thought about this, so when Sister Mei later said that she wanted to try operating and issuing press releases in China, he did not comment and did not refuse.

That evening, Liu Qianqian called to congratulate, and it seemed that she had received the news from Sister Mei.

In the following days, Chen Linfeng's phone kept ringing, with all the calls from relatives and friends sending their best wishes.

Even Chen Kaige rarely called to say congratulations, but there was a hint of sourness in his words.

It seems that Director Chen’s literary dream is still lingering in his heart.

As a result, Chen Linfeng also started to take it seriously.

He also specifically checked the specific awards included in these two awards.

Book reviewers include awards for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, autobiography, biography, reviews and more.

The book awards include fiction, non-fiction, poetry, young adult and children's literature, etc.

Chen Linfeng's "She" was shortlisted in the fiction and non-fiction translation categories.

He won the former award, while he and the translator won the latter award together.

In terms of value, it is definitely the most realistic to win the novel award directly.

In late March, Chen Linfeng attended the Book Critics Association Awards ceremony.

Anita Feliceli, chair of the jury, awarded the translation prize to him and translator Docro.

"Chen, your work is very well written. We just think that Doklo has done a good job of interpreting your thoughts in the original work during the translation process. I hope you don't mind sharing the honor with others."

Chen Linfeng chuckled and replied, "Mr. Chairman, Doklo's translation is very good. I approve of his translation."

Domestic media began to report extensively on Chen Linfeng's award and popularized the value of the Book Reviewers Association Award.

Soon, many people learned about the three major literary awards in the United States, among which the Book Critics Circle Award was prominently listed.

People suddenly have a much better understanding of this award, which is as famous as the Pulitzer Prize.

A week later, Chen Linfeng received the bronze statue trophy of the United States National Book Award and a prize of $10,000 from Thomas Allen.

What was different this time was that he won the novel award and no one shared it with him.

Although Chen Linfeng had said before that he recognized the translator's contribution, he was obviously much happier this time.

Facing Thomas Allen who presented him the award, Chen Linfeng rarely said thank you twice.

Regarding the award-winning comments, the book award gave Chen Linfeng a high evaluation:

“Her” reflects the author’s deep thinking on the eternal human proposition of ‘love’, and it shows the big picture from the small details, and the author’s imagination of the future world is fully contained in it.

The article only describes the daily life of an ordinary person in the future society, but the shock it brings to people is profound and lasting.

In "Her", Chen expresses her vigilance against technological progress and changes in social thoughts, as well as her thoughts on many dimensions such as gender, emotion, and morality, which are worth every reader's careful appreciation.

This is undoubtedly an extremely excellent and even classic work, and it is expected to become a significant contribution to the history of literature.”

Such a high evaluation has directly risen to the level of a classic in the award comments, which is rare in previous comments.

Moreover, she won two heavyweight literary awards in a row, and many media outlets in Emily reported on her.

These include major newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.

The domestic media was even more excited. The day after Chen Linfeng won the award, all official media newspapers reported it.

It was the second year after the Olympic Games, and the Chinese people were in high spirits and desperately needed good news like this to suit the occasion.

People's Daily even did a special report on this to comment on the significance of this matter.

At this time, a news report from City N by Southern Weekend attracted public attention.

(End of this chapter)