Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 471 Don't let success go to your head

Chinese director makes history again, becoming the first person to win an Oscar for Best Picture.

This is the headline from the state news agency Xinhua News Agency.

"On February 23, Beijing time, the Hollywood film 'Joker,' directed by Chinese director Cao Yang, swept five awards at the 81st Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Makeup."

This is not the first time director Cao Yang has won both Best Picture and Best Director, but it is the first time he has won both awards simultaneously. Furthermore, this is Cao Yang's fourth Best Picture award, setting a new record for the most Best Picture wins in Oscar history.

This is a historic breakthrough. The White House Cultural Affairs Office issued a congratulatory statement, calling it a model of cross-cultural cooperation and a new chapter in global integration.

The film's core narrative is set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, depicting the vicissitudes and helplessness of individuals in such an environment... It has grossed over $15 billion worldwide, becoming the second highest-grossing film in history.

Analysts point out that this achievement marks a leap forward in the ability of Chinese filmmakers to participate in mainstream international creative endeavors, injecting new momentum into the development of my country's cultural soft power...

"The Oscars Witness the Influence of Chinese Culture: Director Cao Yang Conquers the World with Eastern Wisdom"

This is the headline of the People's Daily.

"Director Cao Yang's latest award is a milestone in the 'going global' of Chinese culture. In his acceptance speech, he emphasized that the soul of a film originates from a thorough reflection on the education he received from childhood..."

The film uses the tragic fate of an individual to profoundly depict the existential predicament of individuals being crushed by the social system during an era of economic depression.

When the economic system collapses, society both creates 'clowns' and is devoured by them. This mutually destructive cycle is the director's sharp critique of the crisis of capitalism...

Expert interpretation (quoting the views of a professor of international relations at Peking University): This achievement breaks the one-way cultural export model of Hollywood and proves the practical value of the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind in the field of arts and literature.

The company stated that it will optimize its co-production policy to support more Chinese creators in participating in global film and television collaborations.

CCTV featured the segment in its evening news broadcast, again using the headline "This is the most moving cultural export," and included a one-minute clip.

Among them, Cao Yang's twenty-second acceptance speech in Chinese after winning Best Picture was edited into the final segment.

The Beijing Film Academy then appeared on CCTV.

Decoding "Joker" with Technology: How Chinese Directors Are Reconstructing Hollywood Industry Standards

This is the headline of the China Film News.

They took a different approach, focusing on the technical analysis of "Joker," particularly its makeup and unconventional color palette, which they dissected in detail.

Not only traditional media, but also the internet is almost "dominated" by Cao Yang and "Joker" and "Like Father, Like Son".

In short, the media gave full coverage to Cao Yang's achievements at the 81st Academy Awards, even as much as they did to his triple gold medal grand slam a week earlier.

From a domestic perspective, the fact that "Joker" grossed over $15 billion worldwide and won awards at the Oscars, especially the record for the most Best Picture wins by Cao Yang, is something that deserves extensive coverage and celebration.

in the country, Cao Yang has helped produce two Chinese actors who won the Berlin Film Festival Best Actor award.

One is Jackie Chan, who won the Best Actor award at the Berlin International Film Festival for his role in "Seaside Town".

Another is Wu Qihua, who won the Best Actor award at the Berlin International Film Festival for his role in "Like Father, Like Son".

Although both of them are from Hong Kong, they don't get along with the Hong Kong media, especially Wu Qihua, who can be said to have been promoted by Cao Yang.

Before Wu Qihua won the Berlin Film Festival Best Actor award, he had already been elevated to a very high position by Cao Yang.

He is the second highest-paid Chinese actor in Hollywood after Jackie Chan. Although his salary is not as high as Jackie Chan's, it is comparable to that of Jet Li and higher than that of another Chinese actor in Hollywood, Chow Yun-fat.

Now that he has won the Berlin Film Festival's Best Actor award, he should be receiving extensive media coverage, but he has encountered a situation similar to that of Jackie Chan last year.

When Jackie Chan won Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival last year, Cao Yang won Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival, becoming the first person in history to achieve a grand slam of the three major European Best Director awards, which, if we consider the Golden Globes and the Oscars in the United States, would be a grand slam of five major awards.

So, naturally, his fame completely overshadowed Jackie Chan's Best Actor award, and he received extensive media coverage for a long time. Jackie Chan's Best Actor award was only mentioned in passing.

Of course, although he wasn't the subject of much media coverage, it certainly didn't affect Cheng Long's rise in status.

On the contrary, the Hong Kong media, who were not on good terms with Jackie Chan before, all reluctantly published extensive and continuous reports.

Wu Qihua's situation this time is similar to Cheng Long's last year.

Or perhaps even worse off than Jackie Chan.

Last year, Cao Yang only won the Best Director Grand Slam, but this year, he won the three major European awards and the only living three-time winner of the Grand Slam.

With such a high level of honor, coupled with the country's efforts to improve its international image, it's easy to see why Wu Qihua's Berlin Film Festival Best Actor award couldn't possibly steal the spotlight from the three major European film awards.

The reason why Wu Qihua is said to be even worse off than Cheng Long is because just one week later, before the buzz of his three-time Oscar grand slam had died down, Cao Yang won a series of major awards at the Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Furthermore, Cao Yang became the producer with the most Best Picture awards in Oscar history, and also tied the record for Best Screenplay.

Wu Qihua's Best Actor award at the Berlin Film Festival, however, seemed to go largely unnoticed.

Of course, as I said before, although there are fewer reports, it certainly won't affect the rise in status that the Berlin Film Festival Best Actor award brings to Wu Qihua.

Some Hong Kong media outlets even made a fuss about this, deliberately asking Wu Qihua this question during an interview and stirring up controversy by saying that some media outlets were being too hypocritical.

Wu Qihua immediately refuted this, saying that he was already extremely excited to win the Best Actor award. As for not being the focus of media reports, he said that this was a very normal and correct thing to do, and he especially supported the actions of the domestic media.

He also told some media outlets not to spread rumors, not to be narrow-minded, and not to stir up trouble...

In short, it all boils down to this: I, the emperor, am not in a hurry, so why are you damn eunuchs so anxious?

As the celebrity party was drawing to a close, Jason Simmons, president of Fox Searchlight, couldn't resist approaching Cao Yang to test the waters.

Although rationally he knew that Cao Yang would never agree to Deng Wendi’s request, after all, given Cao Yang’s status, how could he possibly find a woman who knew nothing about film and television to be his producer and “ride on his head”?

From any perspective, Cao Yang had no reason to accommodate a woman who brought him no benefit whatsoever.

But what if Cao Yang becomes interested in this woman?
Jason Simmons also knew some of this woman's experiences. He didn't believe that she didn't have some extraordinary skills, which made so many men willing to divorce their husbands and marry her.

right?

Anyway, it doesn't cost much to test the waters, and if it works out, wouldn't that be an unexpected bonus?
What? What if Cao Yang is really interested in that woman and gets involved with the wife of the boss of his own parent company?
What else can I do?
Of course, we should provide them with the best rooms...

As long as Cao Yang is willing, and as long as Cao Yang is willing to cooperate with Fox Searchlights, Jason Simmons would absolutely not mind standing outside as a goalkeeper.

To hell with Murdoch! So what if he's the chairman of News Corporation? What does that have to do with me, the president of Fox Searchlight? All I care about is performance; who cares about the rest?
However, Jason Simmons was ultimately disappointed.

Just as he had predicted, Cao Yang had absolutely no interest in the film "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan." Nevertheless, Jason Simmons was greatly disappointed.

He decided to go back and study "Cao Yang's Fantastic Journey" carefully. If the novel were adapted into a movie, he believed that Cao Yang would be willing to serve as producer and screenwriter, even if he didn't direct it himself, as long as the price was right.

After returning from the celebrity party, Fat Bing felt angry whenever she thought about Anne Hathaway's hesitant and reluctant look at her at the end.

So, that night, he used every trick in the book, employing all sorts of methods, including his hands, mouth, and feet, to punish Cao Yang three times in one night.

Fat Bing was quite satisfied with the result. She made Cao Yang, who had been punished, sleep until 11 a.m.

She herself slept until one o'clock in the afternoon.

It's not like she injured the enemy by 800 while losing 1000 of her own; how could this have happened? The main reason is that she's prone to sleepiness, that's exactly it.

When Cao Yang woke up, he didn't wake up Pang Bing, who was sleeping soundly and drooling a little. There was a Warner Music celebration party that evening, which he also had to attend. He decided to let the overworked Pang Bing sleep a little longer.

He took out his phone and checked it. As he expected, there were quite a few missed calls, but none of them were from China.

Because of the time difference, it's 3 a.m. in China at this time. People usually call after 4 p.m. when something happens in China, which is around 8 a.m. in China.

After unsilencing his phone, Cao Yang went to the living room on the first floor and called Bellman first.

Bellman first offered his congratulations before getting down to business.

He said that Isaac Perlmutter, the chairman of Marvel Entertainment, contacted him again, with one intention: to meet Cao Yang, mainly to sell more shares to Cao Yang.

Cao Yang was a little curious. Although Amazing Entertainment wasn't making much money right now, the success of "Iron Man" and the fact that he had acquired the adaptation rights to so many "hero" movies should have made Isaac Perlmutter feel relieved.

Why are you still in such a hurry?

Bellman was very competent; he had already investigated the general cause.

Although Iron Man was a box office hit, Paramount holds the priority production rights for Iron Man 2, as well as the priority production rights for Thor and Captain America, which have already been greenlit.

In other words, unless Amazing produces it itself, it will have to collaborate with Paramount.

However, whether they produce it themselves or collaborate with Paramount, they face a problem: no money!
Almost all of the box office revenue from "Iron Man" was used to pay off previous debts; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to redeem the film adaptation rights for Hawkeye, Black Widow, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy, and others and sell them to Cao Yang.

Because when Amazing borrowed money, it used the copyrights of many "heroes" as collateral.

Cao Yang once gave Behrman a list, which included "heroes" whose copyrights were not owned by Marvel, such as Spider-Man, Hulk, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Deadpool. The list also included those with film adaptation rights, which were the ones mentioned above.

To acquire the adaptation rights to these "heroes," the "heroes" had to be redeemed from the bank first. Thus, the box office revenue from "Iron Man" was used for this purpose.

Although the film adaptation rights to these "heroes" also sold for a large sum of money, Berman was talking about installment payments.

In other words, the studio bought the film adaptation rights to these "heroes" using installment payments: an initial payment, another payment when the first film adaptation started shooting, and yet another payment upon the release of the first film adaptation...

It wasn't that Isaac Perlmutter wanted to pay in installments, but rather that the lump-sum payment offered by Bellman was too low, while the installment plan would be significantly more expensive.

So Isaac Perlmutter opted for installments, and the contract included a condition: the first adaptation had to be filmed within two years, or Marvel could reclaim the rights unconditionally.

The first payment made earlier does not need to be refunded.

However, this resulted in Surprisingly, there wasn't enough money to invest in Iron Man 2, as the initial budget for Iron Man 2 reached a staggering $2 million.

Isaac Perlmutter certainly didn't want Iron Man 2 to fall into the hands of Paramount, which had the priority production rights, but the problem remained: Marvel didn't have the money.

So he set his sights on Cao Yang.

Isaac Perlmutter wants to sell more of his Amazing shares to Cao Yang, which is definitely beneficial to him, at least he thinks it's much better than selling the shares to someone else.

Isaac Perlmutter believes that if Cao Yang had a significant stake in Marvel, he certainly wouldn't want Marvel to continue "declining" and would definitely prioritize and place great importance on making "hero" movies.

This is because it also relates to Cao Yang's own vital interests.

Currently, who in Hollywood is best at making superhero movies?

Isaac Perlmutter believes that, without a doubt, that person must be Cao Yang.

This can be seen from the phenomenal box office success of "The Dark Knight" and "Joker".

Isaac Perlmutter certainly doesn't want Cao Yang to start a "hero" movie project almost two years later, only to neglect it and hand it over to another director instead.

Selling a portion of the shares to Cao Yang would allow him to focus more on Amazing superhero movies, and the money from the sale could be invested in Iron Man 2.

Most importantly, now that Cao Yang has a significant stake in the company, wouldn't he want Iron Man 2 to be a huge success?

After all, Cao Yang will be a shareholder by then.

If you want it to be a big hit, could you hire Cao Yang as producer and screenwriter? Or perhaps as director?

Isaac Perlmutter's plan was quite shrewd.

After listening to Bellman's words, Cao Yang fell into deep thought.

His primary goal was to acquire more film copyrights, which was his capital for establishing himself in Hollywood.

To be honest, he didn't want to get involved with film companies in Hollywood. He was already making a lot of money, and because he didn't have a production or distribution company, he was the kind of person every film company wanted to work with.

If they had a film company, they might immediately become enemies of the Hollywood Big Six.

Most people in Hollywood, especially the Big Six studios, believe that if Cao Yang's company isn't stopped, it will one day reach the level of the Big Six, and even be more threatening than Spielberg's DreamWorks.

As for Spielberg, due to his status, all the Big Six could do was dismantle DreamWorks.

As for Cao Yang... it's not just the dismantling of the company, but the dismantling of his body.

Have you ever heard of someone dying by suicide after being shot six times in the back?
Therefore, it is possible to acquire some shares in Amazing Entertainment, but it is essential to carefully manage the "degree" of acquisition.

If we go beyond this "limit," and are perceived as potential enemies, we're doomed.

After all, Marvel Entertainment has its own film production company, Marvel Pictures.

(End of this chapter)