Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 200: Venice's Invitation

As the chairman of the Venice Film Festival, Marco Muller was actually busier in the next few days even though the festival had closed.

It was not until the day before Cao Yang returned to China that he had time to meet with Cao Yang alone.

They had seen each other quite often at cocktail parties these past two days, but those occasions were not suitable for detailed conversations.

"Old Ma, to be honest, your actions this time really caught me off guard."

As Lao Ma was the promoter of this "experimental film", Cao Yang definitely didn't need to hide anything from him and could just speak directly to him.

"Ha, it was just a coincidence. I didn't think of doing it this way at first. When watching the movie, someone asked: Why is this movie a bit like a commercial film, but it also explores human nature..."

Lao Ma smiled proudly and continued, "I understand what he meant. He just wanted to say, how can a commercial film explore human nature? This gave me inspiration."

After saying that, Lao Ma took out a box of cigars with beautiful packaging, handed it to Cao Yang, and gave Cao Yang some scientific knowledge.

"This is called Romeo and Juliet, and it is the favorite of the British man Winston Churchill. It represents passion and infinite power. This is their Juliet No. 2, also known as Churchill cigar, a century-old boutique."

Cao Yang didn’t understand this and didn’t smoke it, so he just took a look at it and put it on the table.

"If you don't want to smoke, take this back to Lao Tian and tell him it's a gift from me."

Old Ma said, and took out two more boxes, "These two boxes are for Teacher Situ. He is old, so let him smoke less and just read it every day, haha..."

"Then I thank you on behalf of the teacher."

Cao Yang smiled bitterly and shook his head. Teacher Situ loved smoking and would occasionally smoke a cigar. He just had to watch. Could he resist?
Lao Ma is well aware of the social practices in China. He played the interest card for the previous best director award, and now he is playing the emotional card. It seems that this matter is of great importance.

"Would you like to be the chairman of the jury next year?"

Old Ma looked at Cao Yang and suddenly asked.

Cao Yang thought about it, then shook his head, "Forget it."

Old Ma sighed, smiled bitterly and said, "I knew it would be like this. I was thinking that we could join forces next year, which would relieve a lot of pressure on me, but you didn't want to."

"You haven't secured this position yet? Did the chairman of the film festival board, David Krof, go against you?"

Cao Yang couldn't help but ask. In his opinion, Lao Ma was considered a veteran in the Venice Film Festival and had even served as the artistic director of the film festival. Apart from the chairman of the board of directors, who else could cause him trouble?

Marco Muller shook his head.

"No, David. Although he sometimes contradicts me, I have ways to deal with him."

Lao Ma cut a cigar, lit it, and signaled to Cao Yang.

Cao Yang shook his head.

Lao Ma took a puff and then continued, "What causes me the most trouble is Hollywood."

Then, he looked at Cao Yang and said, “You know I made a lot of promises to those Hollywood superstars this year, but in the end, I didn’t get a single Hollywood movie into the final awards ceremony.

There is no way around it. Many people in Venice are traditionalists. They oppose Hollywood and are unwilling to compromise with it. This has also led to Venice performing worse and worse in recent years and being left behind by Cannes.

In fact, I will compromise next year and give the Best Director, Best Actor, and even the Golden Lion to Hollywood films in exchange for Hollywood's attention to Venice."

Cao Yang frowned, "How could this happen? Is the situation so serious?" Lao Ma spread his hands, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "You only think it's more serious. The main sources of income for the film festival are film market transaction registration fees, sponsorship and donations, tickets, brand promotion and advertising, and broadcasting fees."

He looked at Cao Yang and said in a very serious tone: "Everything here, I mean everything, has been absorbed by Cannes. As one thing goes up, another goes down. Cannes' influence is increasing. Many directors prefer to go to Cannes rather than Venice."

Lao Ma waved his hand vigorously, "So I want to learn from Cannes and embrace Hollywood, big directors, and big stars, which will bring more attention. More attention means greater influence, and everything will follow..."

Cao Yang could see that Lao Ma had great ambitions. He wanted to stop the decline of Venice and compete with Cannes.

"What do you want me to do?"

“Since you don’t want to be the jury president, then bring a film to the main competition unit next year. As an Italian, I don’t want to give the Golden Lion to Hollywood.

Of course, this is one of the reasons, but the main reason is that if I give so much to Hollywood, the pressure on me will be very great, so great that I can hardly bear it. "

Cao Yang's mind moved, and he couldn't help but say: "I have finished filming a movie called "District 9", which reflects racial discrimination..."

Before Cao Yang finished speaking, Lao Ma shook his head and said, "Cao Yang, even if this kind of commercial film has a deeper meaning, even if it can be attributed to experimental film, winning the Best Director award is the limit."

"You want me to make an art film?"

"It's an art film that has no problem winning the Golden Lion. In other words, there can't be any controversy about this film winning the Golden Lion."

Lao Ma put out his cigar and looked straight at Cao Yang.

Cao Yang is now doing very well in Hollywood. The money he makes from making a commercial film is definitely not comparable to that from an art film.

Lao Ma knew that if Cao Yang were to make another purely art film, he would suffer a lot of losses.

That's why he does so much.

“I will tell Hollywood that I wanted to give the Golden Lion to you, but Cao Yang’s film is so good, and he is also a Hollywood director with great influence, so I can’t do anything about it.

But in the eyes of those in Venice, you are a direct descendant of Venice, and giving you the Golden Lion is much better than giving it to Hollywood. At least it saves the face of Venice and does not count as a complete surrender.

From the outside world’s perspective, even in Hollywood, you are the most famous one, with more influence than most Hollywood directors. Giving you the Golden Lion will only enhance Venice’s influence.”

……

On September 9, Cao Yang and Mr. Han returned to China together. The next step was to promote "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox" and prepare for its release on National Day.

President Han is now full of confidence. "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox" not only won a big prize in Venice, but also gained the reputation of an experimental film.

Even Xiao Gangpao stood up to support such experimental films, and in order to show his support, he personally shot an experimental film of the same type.

During this period, the audiovisual copyright of "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox" was finally negotiated and was bought by Zhongkai Culture in Guangdong Province for 1780 million yuan.

This price is equal to the price that "Hero" was sold for.

As early as 2002, the audiovisual copyright of "Hero" was auctioned for 1780 million yuan and was jointly bought by three companies in Guangdong Province.

Cao Yang remembers that later, the audio and video copyright of "The Promise" was also bought by Zhongkai Culture in Guangdong Province at almost the same price.

In terms of audio-visual distribution, Guangdong Province is relatively developed, and many well-known audio-visual production companies are located in Guangdong Province.

(End of this chapter)