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

Chapter 508 How to Play the Joker Well, Iger: I Know
When Chen Linfeng received Jiang Wen's call, he was already in Los Angeles.

I have been idle in China for a long time. Although the matter of Ai Da Jin has not been completely concluded, the preparations for Emily Ken's film have been basically completed, and there are many other things to do. It is really not time to wait any longer.

Chen Linfeng made the bottom line clear to Jiang Wen on the phone.

Ai Dajin was only allowed to continue in the music industry, but was not allowed to get involved in film and television dramas or variety shows, which cut off his future path to success.

The rest depends on how the other party responds after Jiang Wen conveys the message.

As soon as Chen Linfeng finished the call, the phone rang again.

"Hey, Chen, I heard you're already in Los Angeles, wanna go out and have some fun?"

"Leo?" Chen Linfeng said helplessly, "Aren't you in seclusion? How do you have time to go out and have fun?"

"I think you've achieved the weight loss you requested before, so I want to show you a bar. I know a good one, and it's also confidential."

"You should just come to my place," Chen Linfeng explained. "You are staying at home to lose weight, which is also a psychological preparation for the Joker. Going to places like bars and nightclubs will have some impact."

"Uh, okay, I'll listen to you."

Leo felt somewhat regretful. Living as an ascetic for two months was quite difficult.

"Wait, I'll be there soon."

Leonardo's residence is in Los Feliz, northeast of the city center, and a little west of Beverly.

But after all, it is within the same city, so it’s not that far away.

More than an hour later, Leonardo arrived at Chen Linfeng's residence.

Chen Linfeng took a quick look and could clearly notice the other party's changes.

I could roughly see the success through emails before, but it’s very different to see it in person now.

Leonardo was also very thin when he was young, but the thinness at that time was completely different from now.

Especially now that he is visibly thinner and has a middle-aged face, he looks very down and out.

Chen Linfeng stroked his chin. If he added a little more haggard feeling through makeup, it would be complete.

"Accepted, Leo, you did a great job."

After a detailed look, Chen Linfeng applauded in approval.

"I think this is terrible, but it's you who asked me to do it."

Leonardo shrugged, "When do we start shooting?"

"About half a month later."

It is now mid-May and the audition process has just begun. Later, Chen Linfeng will need to confirm the filming location and check the preparation of props and set designs.

One of the highlights of "Joker" is the street staircase, and he will definitely find a way to reproduce it.

Leonardo looked around and asked, "Where's CC? She didn't come this time?"

"I'm also filming." Chen Linfeng replied.

The project of "Taken 2" was previously handed over to Cheng Er, who works quite fast and the filming is about to start.

The second film was also filmed in Europe. Sissi even went abroad earlier than Chen Linfeng.

"Oh, like this."

Leonardo was just asking politely; he was more concerned about the next movie he was going to make.

He has high hopes for "Joker".

Leonardo had a strong feeling that whether he could successfully win the prize depended on this time.

Of course, this premonition has appeared several times, but every time it appears, Leonardo still takes it very seriously.

Afterwards, the two began to exchange opinions on the script.

This is also their main purpose today.

"When did Arthur go completely crazy?" Leonardo asked.

"You should think about it from another perspective. When did the clown appear?"

"It should be after the shooting of three white-collar workers in the subway. This is a very obvious sign."

"No," Chen Linfeng shook his head.

Leonardo frowned, "It wasn't when I was kicked and beaten by a few thugs at the beginning."

"No, that's not right," he denied it himself.

"Could it be," Leonardo hesitated, "that it was from the very beginning..."

"That's right," Chen Linfeng clapped his hands, "To be precise, the clown personality appeared in childhood."

"Like this..." Leonardo thought back to the script, and then thought of one thing, "that unstoppable laugh!"

"Yes, that's the symbol of the clown," Chen Linfeng smiled when he saw that he had figured out the key point, "After Arthur completely became a clown, he never laughed uncontrollably again."

"No wonder," Leonardo suddenly realized, "that is a mockery of the world, that is the clown laughing."

"Then the question arises again," Chen Linfeng asked, "What do you think is the relationship between Arthur and the Joker?"

Leonardo was confused. Wasn't it obvious that this was another personality under schizophrenia?

Just as he was about to answer, a thought occurred to him.

"Arthur was a clown from the beginning?"

"I thought Arthur was schizophrenic at first, but that hardly explains the scene with the psychiatrist at the beginning."

"The clock kept freezing at 11:11, and I kept wondering why that was. Was he crazy then?"

The script Leonardo saw only included the Joker part, and some other content was missing.

Just from the script I have, I can already see the depth of the entire story framework, and it is exciting enough. After all, it is a one-man show.

Therefore, he decisively accepted the offer.

Judging from the script in his hand, there were some things wrong with it.

He didn't believe that any part of Chen Linfeng's script was written casually.

Chen Linfeng handed him the complete script.

"You can start studying again from now on how to play a clown."

Leonardo quickly took the script and opened it to read.

He had read the previous script many times, so he went straight to find the content he had not seen.

As he read deeper, he found it hard to believe.
"Arthur had mental problems from the beginning. He had to take seven mixed drugs to suppress himself. The plot of the movie is the process of the Joker gradually unblocking himself..."

Chen Linfeng watched Leonardo gradually fall into deep thought, and his expression seemed very satisfied.

It is hard to say which of the two statements about the original "Joker" being schizophrenic or that the Joker is just ugly is correct.

Maybe both are right.

The original work's ambiguous and multi-interpretable temperament is the key factor in its winning recognition from both the judges and the public.

Therefore, Chen Linfeng made some adjustments to the two scripts, which was to let Leonardo have an idea first, and then give another explanation after he was fully prepared.

There is not enough time to adjust, so he can only bring a little bit of both.

The original protagonist Joaquin Phoenix in the previous life was a complete experientialist, the same type as Heath Ledger.

Leonardo is more of an expressionist than an experientialist, and his acting skills are not truly top-notch, with some obvious traces of acting.

Therefore, Chen Linfeng could only use some unconventional methods.

In the movie "Joker", Leonardo DiCaprio has too much role as the protagonist.

As the protagonist, he not only needs to understand what he is going to play, but also needs to understand the internal logic of the entire movie to cooperate with the director's ideas.

Chen Linfeng had asked him to lose weight, watch more Chaplin's videos, and maintain a gloomy and depressed mood.

In terms of understanding the plot, there were not too many requirements. He was even asked not to think too much about it and was forbidden to refer to and observe the images and performances of other clowns.

Plus, there were two understandings of the plot conflicting in my mind.

He can always try his best to get rid of his previous habitual acting style.

Leonardo ignored Chen Linfeng and studied the script almost obsessively.

I was in a daze when I left.

Chen Linfeng was worried, so he sent someone to follow him and send him back.

In the following days, he was busy verifying the preparations of Pitt and Meryl Streep, and also paying attention to the results of the auditions.

I hardly paid attention to Leonardo.

It was his neighbor Tobey Maguire who called to inform him.

"He is like a possessed man now, immersed in the script."

"That's good. This is exactly the effect I want." Chen Linfeng was very satisfied.

Toby complained in his heart, are all big directors really so rude?

"Oh, by the way, Toby, I have a play in the second half of the year. Do you want to try out for a role?"

Toby was so happy that he didn't care whether the director was a human being or not.

"Director Chen, thank you for giving me the opportunity. May I ask what type of role it is?"

"He's a master of magic, I guess."

Chen Linfeng briefly introduced the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in "Now You See Me".

He thought of it on the spur of the moment.

Chen Linfeng plans to have himself and Sissi play the male and female protagonists of the Four Horsemen, but he does not plan to change the other two roles, including the bald hypnotist.

I feel like the last role of the quick-handed young man should be something that Toby can try.

Toby has a young face, so it’s not out of place for him to play a young man.

The key is that the price is not expensive now, and after experiencing the glory of the Spider-Man era, its personality has improved a lot after its decline.

This is also the reason why he is willing to give it a chance.

"I do," Toby nodded repeatedly, "I will definitely prepare it carefully."

If a director of Chen's level personally invites you, as long as you are not too bad, there will generally be no problem.

Although he is now calmer, it doesn't mean he doesn't want to be popular again.

And the opportunity provided by Chen is at least one of the protagonists.

Toby was satisfied and hopeful.

……

In late May, an article titled "How to enable social media platforms to maintain harmonious social development under the new situation" was published in a new issue of domestic internal reference.

Mr. Tie looked at the author of this article and the corners of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

It turns out there is a back-up plan here.

She also heard about the Weibo incident about half a month ago.

Public opinion events of this scale, especially the continuous occurrence of similar events this year, have attracted public attention.

In fact, there has been some discussion on this issue at the official level.

Since entering 2010, it seems like we have entered a new era and many things have changed.

The ratings of Central China Television are declining and its influence continues to decline.

It is no longer possible for the official media to play the role of public opinion propaganda as in the past.

Instead, various Internet platforms.

And these platforms are basically beyond the control of the upper echelons.

But the official departments dare not intervene too much. They say that if someone is caught, they will be killed. This is no joke. We have experienced many lessons from this.

"Now, this article is timely and well-timed."

Mr. Tie couldn't help but sigh, "We can no longer underestimate him."

"It's just that this person is really narrow-minded." Even she couldn't tell whether this article was written out of revenge or just happened to be written at the right time.

Chen Linfeng, who was in Hollywood, also heard that relevant domestic departments were planning to convene various platforms to discuss the issue of public opinion control.

But he didn't care anymore. Whether it was good or bad, he had already done his best.

Chen Linfeng has recently finalized many of the actors for "Joker".

It goes without saying that Leonardo is the absolute protagonist.

Among the other roles, the ones that are slightly more important.

For example, Batman’s father, Thomas Wayne.

There is also a black girl, a talk show star, etc.

Chen Linfeng had originally thought about asking Halle Berry to play the role of Hei Mei.

This Black Pearl was born in 66 and is now in her forties, but she seems to have taken good care of herself and her looks are still online. These are the last few years for her to maintain her beauty.

But he asked someone and found out the price was really high, over 1000 million US dollars.

Chen Linfeng declined the offer as it was too expensive.

In the end, I chose a black girl with good looks.

The same is true for other roles, with supporting roles receiving around 10 to 20 yuan in pay.

Needless to say, the extras are cheaper.

The only person who contributed the most to the cost of the entire film was Leonardo.

Chen Linfeng did not deliberately reduce his pay.

Normally, top Hollywood stars would reduce their pay when starring in low-budget art films.

However, it is difficult for Chen Linfeng to say whether "Joker" can be considered an art film. After all, it is a superhero movie, which has its own traffic. Its box office in the previous life even exceeded 10 billion. It is really inappropriate to suppress the film's pay.

Therefore, he gave a maximum salary of 2000 million US dollars, but the bonus was cancelled.

In his previous life, Leo starred in "The Great Gatsby" and was paid $1500 million, so it is not considered a bad pay for him now.

Judging from Leonardo's expression at the time and the readiness with which his agent agreed to it, this is indeed a very reasonable price.

Apart from Leonardo's salary, there are not many other expenses.

The overall cost of the film is approximately $5000 million.

It’s even cheaper than the cost in the previous life.

A lot of this is a premium for the times, and inflation in the United States is really serious.

Also, Chen Linfeng’s team is more conscientious.

Having experienced a lot in Hollywood, he has a deeper understanding of this place and knows how many crews operate.

All I can say is that everything is reasonable and legal, but it is immoral.

Fortunately, we have Sister Mei as the producer, so we don’t have to learn the Americans’ unspoken rules.

You can't just bring a group of people over to learn, and end up learning not the technology but a set of rules.

At the end of May, just before the filming of the movie started, Chen Linfeng was still very busy.

He, together with Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt and others, attended a film viewing event jointly organized by the theater and the production company.

"Inception" is scheduled to be released during the summer vacation this year, and now is the time to determine the rating and lock in the screening schedule.

Marketing promotion comes even before that.

Since last Christmas, the film's post-production has made some progress, and when it was confirmed that it would be released during this summer's schedule, a series of operations began.

Chen Linfeng's films now have a lot of followers around the world.

Therefore, promotional posters and some behind-the-scenes footage targeting many fans were circulated on various social platforms.

Here, Chen Linfeng adopted the viral marketing style of promotional techniques used in the previous film "Inception".

First, through the opening of the official website, the non-stop spinning top aroused the curiosity of movie fans.

Then we continued to add small tasks like maze games to the website. Every time you solve one, you can unlock new things, such as posters, trailers, etc.

At this time, settings such as "dream machine technology" and "conscious crime" are gradually unlocked.

Movie fans will have a general idea of ​​the theme of the movie.

It's just that they are still in a relatively hazy state.

The marketing team has started releasing videos in which Chen Linfeng interviews dream scientists to discuss dream science and the principles of conscious crime.

The media also took the opportunity to popularize science and hype up related concepts.

Here, Chen Linfeng couldn't help but sigh at the sophisticated viral marketing methods used by those people.

Viral marketing for movies sounds simple.

But the difficulty lies in how to generate interest and curiosity among the general public in the beginning;

After that, we must always be careful to maintain the emotions of the fans.

In the process of viral marketing, you can neither hide it nor be unreserved.

While ensuring that fans are familiar with the film in advance, they should not lose their sense of freshness.

Disney's marketing team did a perfect job on this point.

After the relevant concepts have become popular, in order to prevent the public from becoming disgusted with long-term and frequent marketing.

Marketers promptly changed their approach and began moving promotions offline.

There is a huge poster on a building on the street in New York.

The poster has a strong three-dimensional effect and a realistic texture. It is still very shocking at first glance.

It once again sparked considerable discussion.

This was compounded by the controversy caused by Chen Linfeng's refusal to accept the Nobel Prize.

"Inception" has never left the public's sight.

In this way, the emotions have been dragging on until now, and movie fans are still very interested in the movie.

The marketing effect is very good, which can be seen from the number of theater buyers, film buyers, and agents at all levels who attended the film screening.

"Chen, long time no see."

Chen Linfeng turned his head and looked with a surprised expression.

"Mr. Egg, why are you here?"

The visitor was none other than Disney’s president, Robert Iger.

He said with a smile, "The next most important project for Disney is Inception, so of course I have to pay attention to it."

"Besides," he looked at Chen Linfeng, "I need to clear up some misunderstandings with you. I think these misunderstandings shouldn't have happened."

Chen Linfeng understood that this was a formal attempt to reconcile.

Previously, due to the interest issues of "Infinite World", some senior executives of Disney did some unpleasant things.

He doesn't believe that there is no Robert Iger's consent in this.

However, Chen Linfeng is strong enough and confident enough.

He turned directly to Warner for cooperation.

They also came up with "Lord of Mysteries", a series that looks better than "Infinite World".

Therefore, Disney as a whole is a bit overwhelmed, and those senior executives who stood up to fight for interests have been suppressed.

The other faction, which "disapproved" at first but "could not stop" it, gained the upper hand.

Pitt's original statement was to show goodwill.

But as the president, Robert Iger still feels a little embarrassed.

Mainly, Chen Linfeng demonstrated the importance through actions, but Disney did not have a good way to do it.

Even though "Infinity Worlds" was seen as Disney's best emerging series, Robert Iger found it a bit difficult to make.

So, he never showed up.

Even though Chen Linfeng had actually been to Hollywood several times for the viral marketing of "Inception".

Robert Iger pretended to know nothing.

But now things are different.

In early May, "The Avengers" was released and grossed $5 billion.

This is a new series, and a much stronger series than "Infinite World".

Robert was emboldened by this once again, so he was able to step forward to ease the atmosphere and clear up misunderstandings.

Chen Linfeng pretended not to know the subtleties here, and just said "I am flattered".

"How can we resolve the misunderstanding? Pete has told me before, it's just that a small number of people didn't think it through at the moment."

He turned to look at Pete, "Yeah, I remember, that was last month?"

Pete nodded quickly, "Yes, I've already talked about it."

Robert laughed, "Yeah, that's right."

"However, I still want to formally apologize to you for the wrong actions of those fools. I hope you don't mind it. They have already received the punishment they deserve."

Robert Iger's expression was serious.

As the man at the helm of Disney, he shouldn't have to do that.

But Chen is indeed a talent that he is very optimistic about, and is the "Spielberg" of the new era.

Universal was prosperous for more than ten years because of its cooperation with Spielberg, and now Disney also needs to be bound to Chen to some extent.

Chen Linfeng also became serious, "I have received your sincerity, and I no longer have any grudges in my heart."

Binding?

It's not you who is binding me, from now on I will bind you and Warner.

Once cracks have appeared, it is impossible to completely eliminate them.

It is true that he has no grudges, but it is impossible for him to completely not care. Having another fixed partner is his response.

But it's not the time to talk about something so disappointing.

The two smiled at each other, as if they had returned to the days when they were close partners in the past.

"I haven't watched Inception since it was finished, but I wanted to find a time to enjoy it, and now is a good opportunity."

Robert pointed to a place and said, "Let's sit over there."

Chen Linfeng readily agreed, "Okay, Mr. Egger."

Pete and Sister Mei looked at each other and followed behind in tacit understanding.

After sitting down, Robert casually asked about Chen Linfeng's new movie.

"I heard that your next collaboration with Warner is a superhero movie. Is it similar to the MCU universe?"

Chen Linfeng shook his head. "It's not the same thing. It's a completely different Joker origin story from the comics."

“Why did you think of taking this photo?”

Chen Linfeng then talked about his experience of chatting with Leonardo at home after filming "Inception".

When Robert Egger heard this, he realized it was an art film made for the purpose of winning awards.

He was immediately relieved. Even if it was a collaboration with Warner, this movie shouldn't cause too much of a stir.

That's good, otherwise he would be really heartbroken.

Robert Egger has a feeling that "Lord of Mysteries" may be an eternal pain in his heart.

So, the clown is good, and I can feel relieved about the clown.

(End of this chapter)