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

Chapter 583 The Trend is Already Coming (8K) Asking for tomorrow's monthly ticket

Los Angeles.

Leonardo and Pitt sit and chat in a restaurant.

The two had just received judges from the academy.

The Oscars’ public relations are still very plain and simple, using methods like treating people to dinner and giving gifts, which are old but effective.

They have used this trick a lot recently and have met with many college judges.
"Chen really just left everything to us, and he himself doesn't care at all?" Leonardo sighed.

Pete poured a glass of wine, raised the glass and sipped it slowly.

"Isn't this an agreement? You have to focus on highlighting your contribution first, and then he will join in."

"I know, but he is too calm."

"I heard CC is pregnant," Peter shrugged. "You know, Chinese people value family very much, and the relationship between Chen and CC is..."

"So this is true?" Leonardo said in surprise, "I haven't heard of it at all."

"I also heard from Alex that Chen didn't even participate in the promotion of his new book because of this."

"Speaking of the new book," Leonardo hesitated, "it seems to be doing very well?"

He has been quite busy recently and hasn't paid much attention to the news.

In addition, the Hollywood film and television industry and the physical publishing industry belong to different industries after all, and information is not so interchangeable.

Leonardo just heard someone talk about it at some point, and now that it came up, he decided to ask about it.

"Yeah, the sales are very good, almost as good as Harry Potter."

After all, he used to do this, so Pete is relatively concerned about it.

“That’s really an amazing achievement.”

On the same level as Harry Potter...

Leonardo was amazed, "Doesn't this mean that the industry is going to produce another profitable film series?"

"The Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" are all based on excellent original novels and eventually became big sellers.

"That's right, so Warner's stock price is rising sharply now."

Peter looked around and then whispered, "I heard that Mr. Egg was very angry about this and fired Rowan Gray."

Rowan Gray was the senior manager who had previously expressed his dissatisfaction with Chen Linfeng in person, which gave him the opportunity to find an excuse to cooperate with Warner.
"If it were me, I would fire him, too," Leonardo said. "Billions of dollars just slipped away like that."

He looked regretful, but also somewhat excited.

Disney's reputation in the industry is rather average.

Everyone is still happy to see it fail.

"But if that happens, won't Disney be angry at Chen?"

Pete shook his head, "Of course not. Chen is now the Spielberg of the past. In fact, it is no problem for him to break away from Disney and Warner and go it alone.

After the sales of Lord of Mysteries soared, Summit Entertainment's valuation has reached the first-tier level, just below the Hollywood giants."

Especially with The Hunger Games.

……

the other side of the city,
Rob Friedman is explaining the company's current progress to Chen Linfeng.

The most popular movie nowadays is "The Hunger Games 2" which is about to be released.

Initially, the company planned to release the film worldwide in November.

Then Chen Linfeng asked them to push back a little.

We want to take the domestic market into consideration while releasing the film globally.

December is obviously a better month because it is the Lunar New Year holiday and the market is correspondingly higher.

The same is true in Hollywood. As we enter December and before Christmas, the schedule will be better than before.

Rob prefers to find a time slot where competition is less fierce.

I'm used to the mentality of a small family.

But in fact, the "Hunger Games" series does not need to worry too much about the threat posed by ordinary movies.

As long as you avoid being a super hit, other movies won't be enough to compete with it.

The only big hit left this year is actually the animated film "Frozen".

In the previous life, these two movies were almost released at the same time, with a release time difference of only 5 days.

It’s better to push it back.

"The Pacific Rim series needs to be given more attention. This movie also has great potential."

After listening to the report, Chen Linfeng specifically mentioned Robert.

"I understand that next year the company's resources will be focused on this film."

As an independent film company in Hollywood, it is best not to get involved in distribution, otherwise it will easily be beaten by the Big Six.

But when things develop to a certain extent, who would be completely honest?

Rob is also trying to build some publicity and promotion channels, at least he has put some effort into publicity.

Chen Linfeng had previously advised him not to always cling to traditional channels, but to spend more money on Internet platforms.

For example, YouTube, this kind of promotional channel must not be missed.

A video anchor account with a large number of fans does not necessarily have less promotional capabilities than traditional media.

Therefore, just like cultivating big Vs in China, Summit Entertainment is also spending effort to cultivate YouTube accounts.

Counting those that Qilin and Longlin are training, the total amount can be considered as some publicity capabilities.

In fact, traditional media will become increasingly weaker in the future.

As the mobile Internet continues to develop in depth, the credibility of authoritative media may sometimes not be as good as that of some professional internet celebrities.

During the two days in Los Angeles, Chen Linfeng first listened to his company's annual report.

Then we will start to get involved in the public relations of the Oscars.

……

In China, the discussion content of the film and television industry symposium a few days ago has gradually spread within the circle.

"Did he really say that?" Wu Yusen asked in surprise.

"Well, that's absolutely true."

"This kid is finally starting to get excited."

Wu Yusen was overjoyed.

He really couldn't deal with Chen Linfeng now, but watching him lose was also a good thing.

"So many people in the industry rely on this to make a living, and he actually dared to ruin everyone's pot. Just wait and see, within two days, there will definitely be movement."

Wu Yusen believes in this kind of dark power.

He didn't believe that Chen Linfeng could stop it.

But a few days passed, everything was calm and nothing happened.

?

"what's the situation?"

Wu Yusen couldn't hold it in any longer, "Are those big guys just going to let it go?"

In fact, there are some undercurrents surging in places that ordinary people cannot see.

However, things that cannot be seen in public are ultimately niche.

When the higher-ups take it seriously, some rumors will no longer affect the overall situation.

Chen Linfeng submitted the report in a timely manner and subsequently published a related article in the internal reference.

Received recognition from higher-level leaders.

The cultural department is analyzing the specific situation and preparing to introduce corresponding policies later.

The domestic situation changed immediately.

Who would offend such a powerful person?

All I can say is that Wu Yusen is old after all and has not understood the operating logic of the mainland at all.

They are also applying the operating rules of Hong Kong and Taiwan to the mainland.

Many people in the mainland are very smart, such as some of our collaborators at Huayi.

We knew from the beginning that since Xiao Chen dared to speak out, he was not afraid of them.

At most, they complained a little, but they didn't take any concrete action.

For that little bit of money, no.

Just as Chen Linfeng thought, at present, the strength of the stakeholders is not strong enough, and the official level has not even felt any obvious obstacles.

People on the dark side see things very clearly. Some of them readily give up their unscrupulous ways of making money and continue to use the old money-laundering methods.

Some try to do things in the spotlight, after all, it is hard to give up good fortune.

But the consequences are hard to predict.

The impact of this incident will gradually become apparent in the future, so there is no need to mention it now.

After Chen Linfeng posted the article, he no longer paid attention to it.

What he was more concerned about was that the domestic Golden Horse Awards and Golden Rooster Awards ceremonies had already passed in late November.

This year's Golden Horse Awards is the 50th and is quite large in scale.

But when it comes to award distribution, the film festival, without the participation of several well-known mainland directors, begins to look a little shabby.

The best award went to Cai Mingliang's "Outing", including the male lead.

This movie won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. Jiang Wen is a very capable judge.

It's just this one movie, plus "The Grandmaster" and "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" to embellish it.

Most of the other films are unknown, low-budget movies, which really seem a bit shabby.

On the other hand, there are many competitors for the Golden Rooster Awards.

"The Battle of Song and Mongolia", "Lost in Thailand", "Knife of the Assassin", "The Accidental Detective" and "Taken 2" are all very famous films this year.

The works that participated in the Golden Horse Awards were also submitted for the Golden Rooster Awards.

After all, they still dare not ignore the potential significance of the Golden Rooster Awards, an official award from the mainland.

Especially after the reform, the official departments' attention has clearly reached a higher level.

In addition, films from Greater China also participated in the competition.

In addition, some overseas works, such as "Joker", "The Hunt" and "A Page in Life" and other good films, also participated in the Golden Rooster Awards selection.

Obviously, the influence of the Golden Rooster Awards is gradually spreading outward. Of course, Chen Linfeng has played a big role in this.

If he comes forward to invite someone, few people will refuse to give him face.

It's just a matter of signing up one more name, it's not a big deal.

But authority is established step by step.

Well-known films and celebrities all participate, and if a certain degree of fairness is guaranteed, the awards will appear to be more valuable.

He was ultimately unable to attend this year's Golden Rooster Awards.

However, the celebrity guests present were not much different from last year.

The final grand prize was won by "Song-Mongol War", and the best director award was given to Wang Jiawei of "The Grandmaster".

The Best Actor award went to Xiao Yang for "Accidental Murder", while the Best Actress award went to Zhang Ziyi for "The Grandmaster".

"The Battle of Song and Mongolia" and "Private Tailor" won the Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards respectively.

Overall, it seems to be relatively fair. At least in public opinion, no one says that any movie is unworthy.

What’s funnier is that Van Loon won the Best Action Design Award, continuing his tradition of always winning this kind of award but never winning the Best Actor Award.

As expected, "Joker" won the Best Foreign Language Film Award.

This movie is so famous in China that most judges are familiar with it. I guess many of them voted for it without thinking.

Chen Linfeng did not go to the award ceremony because he wanted to see what the film festival would be like without him.

Now that everything was going well and things were progressing as normal, he felt less worried.

From now on, as long as we pay close attention to the award judging process and avoid any unruly practices, this award will be completely alive.

It is obvious to the naked eye that the Golden Rooster Awards will replace the Golden Horse Awards and become the highest award in Chinese entertainment.

In fact, we can see signs of this this year.

After the award ceremony, many media outlets were discussing this issue.

In fact, there is a visible gap between the two in size.

The number of celebrity guests alone is on a different level.

As if to show their support, everyone attended the award ceremony in the past two years.

There is also a huge gap in the volume of discussion in the media.

In the past, the Golden Rooster Awards were not popular, so the mainland media could only promote the Golden Horse Awards in order to attract attention.

But now that their own awards have come up, of course they will focus on boasting about their own things.

Perhaps the reason why stars are so active is also related to the size of the spotlight.

The more media publicity there is, the more celebrities will like to come. The more celebrities come, the media will also increase their publicity efforts.

The left foot steps on the right foot, and the spiral rises to heaven.

Of course, the fact that the award ceremonies for the Golden Rooster Awards and the Golden Horse Awards are held very close to each other is also a very important reason.

It can only be said that the many regulations originally set by Chen Linfeng and other members of the award committee are gradually taking effect.

While following the two major domestic awards through the Internet, Chen Linfeng also began to meet and communicate with the judges of the college regularly.

As a foreigner, I shouldn't be very welcome in such occasions.

But the college judges were quite friendly towards Chen Linfeng.

This is closely related to his great fame in the literary world.

Especially during this period, various media are still discussing whether "Her" is the best work since the new century.

These old white men in the film and television industry actually like to pretend to be cultured.

When Chen Linfeng communicated with them, many of the topics discussed were related to literature.

At first he didn't quite understand what these people who made the movie were trying to do.

But then I thought, these people in the college are all quite old.

In their past, the status of literature was much higher than it is now.

It is an elegant and beautiful thing to sit down and discuss literature with Chen Linfeng, a person who can be called a literary writer.

The public relations manager noticed this and immediately adjusted his strategy.

When contacting these academic judges, Chen Linfeng's literary identity is always mentioned more.

And ask him to be a little more reserved during the communication and not give them too much face.

On the contrary, the effect is better.

Ok?
The Oscar strategy of "Joker" is certainly not just about public relations.

There is also a change in the propaganda tone.

In the past six months, the media has continued to maintain the popularity of "Joker", mostly reporting on the influence of the film and the audience's love for it.

For example, on the imdb website, if a movie enters the top 20, it is an important part of its promotion.

Let people know that in the eyes of the public, this movie is comparable to those classic works of the past.

As we enter the awards season, the media's perspective begins to change.

A fusion of superhero movies and serious topics.

How original scripts incorporate superhero themes.

The highest-grossing art film. "Joker" is the first work in history that may be welcomed by the professional field as a superhero movie.

and many more.

This is what shapes the style and groundbreaking nature of "Joker".

If a work has some unique meaning, it may even have a special place in film history in the future.

Then the judges will most likely look at it differently.

For example, "The Lord of the Rings" is a typical example.

A movie that was a super high-grossing movie at the time, it was ultimately nominated for 11 Oscars.

So much so that the first sentence of the Best Foreign Language Film winner's acceptance speech was, "Thank you for not submitting The Lord of the Rings 3 for the Best Foreign Language Film."

Their marketing strategy is to emphasize the significance of the film itself.

In this case, high box office becomes a good thing.

Of course, high box office is a good thing, but it may not be the case in front of the academy judges.

These old white men generally don't like high-grossing movies.

In early December, Pitt's preparations for the college screening of "Joker" were finally made possible.

In attendance were not only many of the academy judges, but also academy president Cheryl Isaacs.

After the movie screening, almost all the judges gave positive reviews, which seemed to be a trend.

This year's other two Oscar favorites, "12 Years a Slave" and "Dallas Buyers Club", are currently much less popular than "Joker".

Many judges began to show tendencies.

When facing Cheryl, Chen Linfeng mentioned the benefits of "Joker" winning the award from another perspective.

"The Oscars also need marketing. In recent years, most of the award-winning films are low-budget and excellent films, which is not conducive to the promotion of the Oscars themselves and the expansion of their influence."

"No, the Oscars are the most famous awards in the world. People all over the world know about the Oscars. We don't need to worry about this issue."

"But knowing the Oscar is a different thing from knowing who the Oscar is awarded to, isn't it?"

Chen Linfeng blinked his eyes and said, "Popular movies need the honor of the Oscars, and the Oscars also need good enough movies to continue their glory.

In the past, the Oscars awarded "Titanic" and "The Lord of the Rings", which to a great extent expanded the influence of the Oscars and consolidated its dominance.

The Oscars need these classic films to decorate themselves.”

In fact, it can be said that the Oscars have made these films even more classic.

But since it was just sophistry, Chen Linfeng certainly wouldn't be able to express it clearly.

Obviously, this set of rhetoric convinced Cheryl to some extent.

She looked a little moved.

Indeed, if the Oscars give rewards to movies with super high box office every few years, it would be great if these movies themselves can guarantee their quality.

This is actually a win-win situation.

It is not a good thing if Oscar keeps dwelling on his past glory.

You never know when it will suddenly decline.

In fact, in the past two years, the ratings of the Oscars have been significantly lower than before, which may be a sign of something.

This is something she must consider as the president of the college.

"Well, what you said makes some sense. I will try to convince the judges."

Chen Linfeng showed a look of surprise, "Ms. Cheryl, you are really a wise college president."

"Don't be too happy yet," Cheryl took a deep breath, "I alone am not enough, you still have to find a way to convince the other old guys in the academy."

"of course."

Leonardo is already working on it.

"Joker" is still targeting the Best Actor award, but only after seeing the current good public opinion situation, they thought of trying other awards.

Friday, January 12th.

The Hunger Games 2 premiere.

Chen Linfeng and Xixi attended the premiere in Los Angeles together.

He wasn't very interested in the movie itself, and Sissi felt similarly.

But the people of Emily Ken, especially the teenage audience, are very enthusiastic.

The movie grossed $1.61 million in North American box office in its first three days of release.

As a fan movie, its subsequent performance is much better than that of "Twilight".

During this period of time, Summit Entertainment has become the most popular player in the industry.

"Twilight" and "The Hunger Games", two popular series in a row, are really enviable.

In a short period of time, its fame even surpassed Lionsgate.

If the momentum can be sustained, it may replace Lionsgate and become the giant gatekeeper of Hollywood.

Domestically, the public's views on the film are similar to those of Chen Linfeng and others, and they are unable to empathize with the film's content.

Dystopian themes are indeed not very popular.

But at least Bruce Lee was there, which boosted the box office somewhat.

It should be no problem to exceed 200 million in the end.

More than 3 million US dollars is not bad.

This is also the reason why Hollywood currently attaches importance to the Chinese market.

Even less popular movies can still gross tens of millions of dollars.

As long as it can slightly appeal to domestic audiences, it wouldn't be difficult to exceed $1 million.

It is indeed the most important market besides North America.

At this time, the awards season before the Oscars has officially begun.

It still starts with the various film critics associations.

With the experience of "Sunset" last time, "Joker", as a big hit this year, has attracted the attention of many domestic fans from the beginning.

Starting with the earliest Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, the country began to pursue related news reports.

Joker is undoubtedly one of the most watched movies.

"Joker" received many nominations for these three association awards.

In terms of specific awards, Leonardo won two Best Actor awards, while Chen Linfeng won two Best Films and one Best Director.

In the domestic Baidu Film and Television Forum, people are constantly updating the progress of "Joker" winning the award.

On December 12, at the National Board of Review Awards, "Joker" won Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay.

On December 12, at the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards, "8 Years a Slave" won Best Picture, and "Joker" won Best Director and Best Actor.

On December 12, at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards, "Joker" won Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay, and "Dallas Buyers Club" won Best Supporting Actor.

On December 12, at the Las Vegas Film Critics Association Awards, Joker won Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, and Best Visual Effects. 18 Years a Slave won Best Director and Best Art Direction.

Kansas City, Dallas-Fort Worth, Florida...

Throughout the December awards season, "Joker" won almost all the awards.

"12 Years a Slave" and "Dallas Buyers Club" received some minor honors.

This time, the black theme and Nantong elements don’t work.

Because "Joker" contains broader elements.

It has almost become a representative film that speaks for the lower classes.

No one knows how this impression was formed, but now a large number of viewers think so.

Film critics' love for "Joker" focuses on the artistic sense of the film and the male lead's interpretation of the Joker.

And the literary and artistic expression of superhero movies.

This is the one that film critics like the most, as they have been waiting for a long time for Super English movies.

At the Film Critics Association Awards held in December, the movie "Joker" was not excluded once.

At this point, Joker has become a big success.

In China, as "Joker" continues to gain ground, filmmakers in the industry are talking about it.

"Isn't he going to win another Oscar?"

"It's very likely. Judging from the current situation, it will be even worse than Sunset."

"Maybe Americans prefer this kind of movie? Anyway, I don't think it's better than Sunset."

"They were all shot by the same director, how can they be compared?"

"Apart from anything else, Leonardo has won an award after all these years."

"How can I not say this? Director Chen might have something big this year. If he wins Best Director, it will be his second time winning the award. If he wins Best Film, it will be his first time ever."

"What if you don't get anything?"

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"..."

It seems that the domestic confidence in Chen Linfeng is greater than that in himself.

When several people were discussing follow-up plans, Leonardo also mentioned this issue.

"Chen, I think your chances of winning the prize are pretty good. Can we increase the resources you put into it?"

This "resource" is, of course, the US dollar.

Chen Linfeng shook his head, "It's almost enough now, too much is as bad as too little.

After all, I am a Chinese. If I stand out too much, I will be disliked by others."

In fact, he felt that it was a bit too much now.

He has been given awards several times in a row. Are Americans so unrestrained now?
Peter couldn't help but say, "Chen, you are also a member of Hollywood now, don't be so formal."

For several years, the films produced by Chen Linfeng have been conquering the world under the guise of Hollywood.

Nowadays, I have several large series in my hands.

The relevant investors, companies and filmmakers will not allow others to randomly stir up confrontation and cause damage to so many projects.

The series of life-saving plans he had formulated had already begun to show results.

The situation was so good that Leonardo was so excited that his hands were shaking.

"Do you think I really have hope this time?"

He wanted to gain a little more confidence.

"of course."

“Very hopeful.”

Chen Linfeng patted his shoulder and said, "Even if there are twists and turns later, when the voting is approaching, we still have one last trick up our sleeve."

"what?"

"Playing the victim, the Oscars owe Leo a Best Actor award."

"Ah?" Pete and Leonardo looked at him with wide eyes.

"Don't be surprised," Chen Linfeng said calmly, "Leo has won nothing in the Oscars many times in the past, and the judges are not completely indifferent.

If we do this kind of publicity at this critical moment, we can at least win back a lot of votes.”

This is the same as the phrase “I owe Stephen Chow a movie ticket” used in Stephen Chow’s movie 10 years later.

Although it may be annoying if used too much, it is really useful the first time.

The same goes for Leonardo.

He didn't even need to use it a second time, because he had already gotten it, so there was no question of whether he owed it or not.

Even the subsequent backlash is gone.

Leonardo blinked, "That seems to make sense."

He rubbed his hands together and said, "So when do we use it? The nomination vote will start in January, so can we build momentum this way?"

Leonardo couldn't sit still.

"I'll contact the media right away."

"Don't," Chen Linfeng quickly pulled him back, "This is not a critical moment."

Pete couldn't help but complain, "That's right, at least we have to wait for the second round of voting."

Chen Linfeng explained, "We have done very well so far. You will definitely have no problem with the nomination."

Leonardo thought about it and realized that it was true.

He scratched his head, "Sorry, I was a little too nervous."

Starting from "Titanic", the movie won 11 awards.

Kate Winslet at least got a nomination for Best Actress, he got nothing.

At this point, he had a knot in his heart.

It has been 16 years now.

Now that it seems to be the most promising time, he is indeed a little agitated.

Chen Linfeng comforted him, “Don’t worry, your clown performance is very good, almost everyone is optimistic about you, and it won’t be in vain.”

This is really not an exaggeration.

Joaquin Phoenix, the star of the previous film "Joker", won the Oscar for Best Actor.

The situation then was very similar to today.

Also before the Oscars, many precursor and bellwether awards were swept.

It was a natural thing for Joaquin to win the Best Actor award in the end, and it was not difficult at all.

Competitors in the same period have little competitiveness.

Oh, it’s worth mentioning that Leonardo DiCaprio’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” was also on the nomination list for Best Actor.

It's a wonderful fate.

Overall, if it weren’t for the release of “Parasite”, a movie with such an unethical style that came out that year, this would have been a great success.

Maybe the movie that swept the Oscars that year would be "Joker".

In fact, there are indeed quite a few film critics and film and television review articles predicting that "Joker" has the potential to be a big hit.

Many media have begun to compare "Joker" with "Titanic" and "The Lord of the Rings".

They both had high box office, good reviews, groundbreaking status and significant industry significance, so there are some similarities.

In Chen Linfeng's opinion, the current public opinion momentum is a bit overheated, which does not seem to be a good thing.

But from another perspective, this can be regarded as what everyone expects, and the qualities of a great emperor are already apparent.

Any interpretation makes sense.

It depends on what the judges think.

As for the Best Actor award, not only the movie itself highlights the male lead.

Leonardo himself is indeed a huge plus.

His repeated attempts to win an Oscar have in themselves proved his loyalty.

It is really unconscionable that the college leaders still don’t give me any awards despite all the circumstances.

Therefore, Chen Linfeng is very confident about this award and is not even afraid to set a goal in advance.

A bystander sees more clearly. Even though Pete didn't know the situation in the other life, he felt it was almost certain.

Only Leonardo, because he cares too much, would worry about gains and losses.

(End of this chapter)