Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 463 Behrman's So-Called Junk
After the 59th Berlin International Film Festival ended, and during the three days he stayed in Berlin afterward, his phone was called so frequently that it ran out of battery almost every day.

I received congratulatory calls from acquaintances in China, from small circles of friends in Europe, and from Americans.

Especially among Americans.

Many familiar directors and producers, as well as A-list celebrities with whom he considered himself to have a decent relationship, called him, along with some talent agencies he had previously worked with.

In addition, executives from well-known film companies also called him to congratulate him.

This is just how Americans are at social interactions; it's pretty much the same all over the world.

The main reason is not that Cao Yang won the three gold medals, but because "Joker" was too successful and Cao Yang was too prolific.

A director and producer who has never failed, who is capable of winning awards for his writing, achieving super box office success for his films, and even making an art film gross over $15 billion worldwide.

Who wouldn't want to work with a director like that?
Therefore, after Cao Yang won the Berlin Golden Bear, achieving a three-gold Grand Slam, everyone called to congratulate him, thus maintaining their relationship.

When Cao Yang arrived in Los Angeles, he didn't tell anyone except for the studio's manager, Bellman.

There was no other way; Disney, Warner Bros., Columbia Pictures… even Brad Gray, CEO of Paramount, with whom they hadn’t even collaborated before, repeatedly called to say they wanted to have dinner together after Cao Yang came to Los Angeles.

Cao Yang wanted a few days of peace and quiet before the Oscars, otherwise he would be busy with endless social engagements.

"Cao, congratulations, esteemed director, the only person in the world to have won all three major awards, a great artist on earth."

Upon meeting, Bellman began to flatter Cao Yang in an exaggerated manner.

"What do you mean 'only'? The fourth one? I'm the fourth one, not the only one. It's not a remarkable achievement... Also, you're acting way too much, Bellman."

Cao Yang smiled and hugged Bellman, then corrected him.

"Ha ha……"

Behrman burst out laughing.

He is the head of Cao Yang's studio and is also responsible for the operation of "Cao Yang's Fantastic Journey," so he is very closely associated with Cao Yang.

It could even be said that Bellman was completely dependent on Cao Yang.

Therefore, the more successful Cao Yang is, the higher his status in Hollywood becomes.

"You are the only one, the only one alive. The three who died mean nothing to the world."

Bellman emphasized this point, then handed the documents in his hand to Cao Yang, smiling as he said, "Take a look at this."

"Alright, Bellman, there's no need for this between us."

Cao Yang took the documents from Bellman and flipped through them, casually asking, "How's Oscar doing? Has anything unusual happened?"

Without hesitation, Berman said directly, "If we're talking about something special, we have to mention Mr. Harvey Weinstein. His Weinstein Company's production of 'The Reader' received five nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director."

Apart from Best Actress, the other four nominations are all against Joker.

This famous Hollywood film 'tycoon' has taken a series of unconventional actions in order to help 'The Reader' win a major award.

Before the final voting deadline, for some crucial votes, he reportedly used a private helicopter to quickly transport key judges, and even arranged for celebrities to temporarily revise their promotional strategies to accommodate the judges' schedules...

In short, he set a very bad precedent, which displeased some large companies.

Cao Yang nodded. Since Harvey was ousted from Miramax by Disney in 05, he founded The Weinstein Company and remained silent for several years.

Actually, it wasn't exactly a period of silence. In recent years, he has tried to "make waves" and "strategize" at the Oscars like before, but reality has ruthlessly slapped him in the face.

Without Miramax and the support of Disney, he's just an ordinary small film company owner, a filmmaker with a little money, nothing more.

It seems that Harvey Weinstein found a "good" way starting this year.

This year should also be his first attempt.

If this strategy works this year, he'll have to step up his efforts in the coming years.

"Harvey is very capable, not just in terms of money, but more importantly, he also managed to persuade many celebrities to cooperate with the key judges' schedules..."

Kate Winslet is desperate for an Oscar; such a big star, why would she want to date those old men at the Academy… hehe.”

"I'm laughing," Bellman said.

To be honest, Cao Yang didn't expect that Kate Winslet, who became a top Hollywood star overnight with her role as Rose in "Titanic," would actually cooperate with Harvey Weinstein for the sake of winning an Oscar.

Most of the key judges at the academy are older men, and they are all filmmakers who have long since faded from the limelight.

That is, they still have some "power" when it comes to the annual Oscar selection.

However, since these old men were once famous, they can still be quite effective if they semi-publicly support a person or a movie, or privately contact some people.

That's how the Oscars are; it seems like there are thousands of judges.

However, these thousands of judges are scattered all over the world. When the Oscars need their votes, some of them may not have even seen the nominated films, let alone know which films were nominated.

So when a senior academy member they know steps forward or calls, all these people can do is follow along.

Harvey Weinstein was quite clever, and he finally found the "right" path.

As far as Cao Yang knows, it was with this film, "The Reader," that Harvey Dufresne began to test the waters and helped Winnie Hilary win the Oscar for Best Actress. After that, he tasted success and found the right "shortcut."

Next.

In 2010, The King's Speech won the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay.

In 2011, "The Artist" won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.

In 2012, "Silver Linings Playbook" helped Jennifer Lawrence win the Academy Award for Best Actress.

That same year, another Weinstein Company film, Django Unchained, won Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay.

……

Harvey Weinstein's transgressions finally pushed Hollywood's major studios to their breaking point—he had infringed on the interests of too many people, and the profits from an Oscar-winning film were too great.

In any case, Harvey's fate was disgrace and a long prison sentence.

Cao Yang suddenly realized something. He himself frequently won Oscars; he didn't want to end up like Harvey.

But after thinking about it again, I realized it probably wouldn't be that bad.

I am different from Harvey.

Harvey's actions were selfish and encroached on the interests of other large companies, essentially taking food from the Big Six. If we don't deal with him, who will?

Although I often win Oscars, it's all in collaboration with the six major studios. How much money do I actually make? Do tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars even count?
At least compared to the revenue that the films they produce bring to these companies, this is nothing.

Cao Yang couldn't help but feel somewhat fortunate.

He remained clear-headed throughout and had a clear understanding of American capital.

He wasn't blinded by immediate gains, nor did he think that just because he was a reborn person, he could be invincible in Hollywood.

It's nothing like the protagonist in those childish novels—a Chinese person coming to Hollywood to start a film company? And even reaching the level of the Big Six or even better?
What are you thinking!

Even Spielberg couldn't do it, so how could a Chinese person do it?

How is this different from "The American President Falls in Love with Me During Menopause"?
He committed suicide by being shot six times in the back as soon as he started to compete with others for food.

"Berman, who do you think is Joker's biggest competitor?"

Cao Yang looked at the documents in his hand and asked with a smile.

Looking at the contents of the document, Cao Yang was still very happy.

Bellman has excellent execution skills and took advantage of the global economic crisis to complete his previous instructions very well.

After thinking for a moment, Berman said, "I think it's 'Slumdog Millionaire,' which has the same major awards as 'Joker.'"

From what I understand, Fox has focused its efforts on this film this year, and began targeted promotion and operations as early as six months ago.

You should know Fox Searchlight Pictures; they're very good at winning awards.

Cao Yang nodded. In Hollywood, apart from "heretical" figures like Harvey Weinstein, legitimate film companies all have their own award-winning processes.

These companies are competing on who has the best publicity, whose film is more in line with this year's Oscars, and who has the best luck.

Fox Searchlight Pictures, a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox and backed by News Corporation, specializes in producing and distributing independent and art films.

Relatively speaking, they are professionals when it comes to winning prizes.

Cao Yang has collaborated with Fox Searchlight Pictures before; the film "Juno" was a co-production with Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Under the management of Fox Searchlight Pictures, "Juno" was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing.

It won two major awards: Best Picture and Best Editing.

This also shows the strength of Fox Searchlight Pictures; they specialize in independent and art films, so they are definitely more adept at winning awards.

Why not "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," which also received thirteen nominations?

Cao Yang asked with a smile.

Bellman smiled and said, "Because The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was co-produced and distributed by Paramount and Warner, but Paramount owns the North American rights, while Warner only receives overseas rights revenue."

If the film wins an award, Paramount, which holds the North American rights, will benefit the most.

Most importantly, with Joker and Batman in hand, Warner Bros. wants to achieve something at the Oscars, so they need to 'suppress' their competitors.

Therefore, Warner Bros. will not only not help promote "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," but will also hinder Paramount's efforts.

At that moment, Cao Yang finally finished reading the materials that Bellman had brought.

"well done!"

He put the documents aside, pondered for a moment, and asked, "Can't you reach an agreement on Thor and Captain America?"

Berman shook his head and explained, "At present, Marvel Studios only has one movie, Iron Man, that is profitable, so they are very vulnerable and have a low ability to resist economic crises."

They're eager for someone to buy the film adaptation rights to some second-tier 'heroes,' such as Hawkeye, Black Widow, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Guardians of the Galaxy. I've negotiated with them all.

However, *Thor* and *Captain America* were projects that Marvel Studios had already agreed upon with Paramount, and Paramount held the priority right. This means that unless Paramount relinquished the rights, Marvel Studios couldn't acquire the adaptation rights.

Then, Behrman sighed and said, "It's a pity that Marvel Studios has been on the verge of bankruptcy for years, and has only been able to survive by selling the adaptation rights to its 'heroes'."

The rights to the most popular films, *The Hulk*, are held by Universal Pictures; the rights to *Spider-Man* are held by Sony Pictures; the rights to all the heroes in *X-Men*, as well as *Fantastic Four*, are held by 20th Century Fox; and *Deadpool* is also held by 20th Century Fox.

Then, Bellman shook his head and continued, "If all these most popular 'heroes' were here, we wouldn't need to pick up those second-tier or even non-second-tier players that others don't want."

After Bellman began acquiring some Marvel stock, he soon discovered that Marvel only had some "junk" left with the full copyrights to its superheroes.

Among them, Thor and Captain America, who are still somewhat popular, have their copyrights still held by Marvel, but the priority production rights belong to Paramount.

This made Bellman extremely frustrated.

He felt he hadn't done his job properly.

If he had known earlier that Marvel Entertainment was left with these "junk" things, and that Paramount held the priority production rights to "Thor," "Captain America," and the upcoming "Iron Man 2," he would have stopped Cao Yang's plan no matter what.

But it's too late to say anything now.

Having already bought so many shares of Amazing, are we going to sell them now?
It's worth noting that the stock price has fallen from a high of 37 last year to 22 now, and if sold off, it will only go lower.

"I told you, you've done a great job."

Cao Yang looked at Behrman, whose face was filled with regret and resentment, and offered words of comfort.

"By the way, Isaac Perlmutter, chairman of Marvel Entertainment, and Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, both want to find an opportunity to talk to you."

I think Isaac Perlmutter probably wants you to acquire more shares of Amazing.

Cao Yang thought for a moment, shook his head, and said, "Let's talk about it after the Oscars."

The 81st Academy Awards are coming soon.

(End of this chapter)