Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 214 Films Prepared for Film Festival

Li Xiaoran lay in Cao Yang's arms, watching the highest-rated news program on TV, reporting the record-breaking news of "District 9". She couldn't help but look up and kiss Cao Yang.

Then, he reached out and groped again, grabbed a small thing, and gently pulled it when Cao Yang was off guard.

Cao Yang was thinking about something, and his attention was definitely drawn back.

"What do you want to do?"

Cao Yang looked down at Li Xiaoran and asked softly.

Li Xiaoran was stunned for a moment, it seemed like a double entendre?
He quickly shook his head and said with a smile, "I'm congratulating you, my great Director Cao. You broke the record, and even CCTV reported it. Isn't this a great event?"

"Congratulations? I can understand if you kiss me once, but the second time, it doesn't feel like congratulations, it feels like revenge."

Li Xiaoran did not deny it, but just said with a smile: "Who made your "District 1.5" so popular? My "A World Without Thieves" has not even made million yuan yet. The outside world expected it to make million yuan at that time."

"Hasn't "A World Without Thieves" broken the 100 million mark yet?" Cao Yang hadn't cared about this before, but he didn't expect that "A World Without Thieves" would be affected so much.

He remembered that in the original history, "A World Without Thieves" was also affected by "Kung Fu" which was released two weeks later, but it also earned more than 1.2 million yuan at the box office.

It’s just that this time, the impact of “District 9” was even greater.

Logically speaking, if the female lead was changed from Milk Tea Liu to Li Xiaoran, the box office should have been higher.

It can be seen that with the huge success of "District 9", other movies have no chance of survival.

What it boils down to is that there are too few cinemas and screens in the country, and the market is so small, there is nothing that can be done about it.

"We still need nearly 300 million. Right now, the daily box office is only about yuan. I don't think it will exceed million."

Li Xiaoran felt a little depressed when she mentioned this. She is the leading actress and she certainly hopes that she can star in another movie that can gross over 100 million yuan.

However, it seems impossible at the moment.

Cao Yang guessed what Li Xiaoran was thinking. He pinched Li Xiaoran's nose with his hand, smiled and comforted her, "Don't worry, let alone less than 300 million, even if it's 500 million or 600 million, A World Without Thieves will still make over million."

Huayi definitely wants to have a movie invested by its own company that grosses over 100 million yuan.

The little steel cannon definitely wants to enter the "billion-yuan club".

The box office gap of 300 million is easy for Huayi and Xiao Gangpao to handle.

Cao Yang's train of thought was interrupted by Li Xiaoran just now. He was actually thinking about his next movie plan.

Tom Rothman, executive director of Columbia Pictures, flew over from the United States specifically to discuss with Cao Yang and start the filming plan for the movie "2012".

Yes, after Cao Yang's "District 2012" sold well, Columbia gave up filming "The Hunger Games" after internal discussions and wanted to film "".

This is also related to the huge sales of the movie "The Day After Tomorrow".

The huge sales of "The Day After Tomorrow" proves that disaster movies still have certain market prospects.

Moreover, Colombia's sincerity this time is quite sufficient.

Last time on "District 9", Tom Rothman almost broke his lips because of Cao Yang's 10% share of the total box office. This time, Tom Rothman promised % share of the total box office as soon as he opened his mouth.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that Columbia did not believe Cao Yang last time and came up with a 1+1 film project.

They thought that even if the first film with Cao Yang was a success and could earn hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, Cao Yang would not be able to leave Columbia, and the "+1" would definitely give Columbia more initiative. Who would have thought that "District 1" would be a big hit in North America, with a box office of over $ million, and the "+" clause, which was not very binding, put Columbia in a passive position.

A director who can gross over 200 million in North American box office is definitely a super director. Which company wouldn’t want to work with him?

There is no way. The only thing Colombia can do to impress Cao Yang is sincerity.

So Tom Rothman rushed over before District 9 was released in North America, for fear that other Hollywood film companies would get there first.

Cao Yang has fully demonstrated his status as a great director through "Despicable Milk" and "District 9".

However, even though Colombia seemed sincere, Cao Yang did not agree easily.

He still remembered the request from Venice Film Festival chairman Ma.

Lao Ma asked Cao Yang to attend the Venice Film Festival this year. Cao Yang had agreed last time and he must not go back on his word.

It is now late January 2005, and it is time to think about the films that will be entered into the Venice Film Festival.

This time the film is aiming for the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, so at least in terms of artistry, it has to be acceptable and not just a slap in the face.

Cao Yang initially thought of three movies and wanted to choose one from them.

The first one is the Korean film "Decision to Part", which won Tang Wei numerous awards, but unfortunately she did not win the Best Actress award in the three major European awards.

However, if Cao Yang were to shoot the film, the leading actress would most likely win the Best Actress award at one of the three major European film awards.

However, this movie can actually be seen as a show of the director's skills, full of the director's camera language, and the director spent all his time on it.

The movie's script was a bit mediocre. It was easy to win the Best Director award, but the highest award was a bit of a stretch.

The second one is also a Korean movie, called "Pieta", which is another perverted work by King Kong, and it can be said to be facing the "evil of life" directly.

This movie is well-made and has religious implications, so it is more reasonable for it to win the highest award than "Decision to Die". Of course, it's just that.

The third one is the American film "Black Swan", which is not only a movie about dance, but also a psychological drama reflecting human nature, dreams and self-salvation.

Generally speaking, as long as a movie discusses human nature a little more in-depth, it will have no problem winning an award, even the highest award.

If he were to make this movie, Cao Yang wanted to change the background, make it into a Chinese-language movie, and also feature two female protagonists.

Cao Yang's original candidate was the Korean film "Parasite", but although this film is also a good movie, it is a bit far-fetched to win a big award at this time.

This movie would be more relevant to the theme and more likely to win awards only if it were set in the context of an era where immigration caused chaos. It is a movie that requires a certain period background.

Therefore, he was not included in Cao Yang's list of options.

Of the three films, Cao Yang prefers Black Swan. If this film is well made, while striving for the highest award, it may also produce a Best Actress.

This movie had dancing requirements for the actors, and among the people Cao Yang knew, there happened to be several who had learned dancing and were quite good at it.

Like Li Xiaoran and Dong Xuan, Cao Yang also personally instructed them on their postures...

Thinking of this, Cao Yang couldn't help but look at Li Xiaoran in his arms.

Okay, we can discuss the issue of dance posture in depth later.

(End of this chapter)