Huayu: I'm reborn, but you still force me to be a scumbag?

Chapter 347 Real gold is not afraid of fire

"Welcome everyone to ABC's Midday News Focus. I'm Laura Spencer. Next, let's focus on Hollywood."

"A financial document that was exposed online last night has set off a storm of public opinion today."

"This document confirms what we have always suspected. The leading actor of Twilight, 24-year-old Chinese actor Nuo Chen, received a huge salary of $1.2 million from Summit Entertainment just for the first two Twilight movies."

"I believe that everyone who knows this news should be thinking the same thing as I am now."

"That's—why? Why are there so many?"

"Before answering this question, let us first review Nuochen's film career through a video clip.
".Okay, welcome back. Today we have Brian Miller, senior editor of The Hollywood Reporter, to talk to him about this breaking news. Hello, Brian."

"Hello, Laura."

"Brian, tell us first, were you surprised when you heard the news?"

"Of course Laura. Everyone around me is surprised."

"Why? Didn't you expect Chen's pay to be so high?"

"Yes, I didn't expect it. Although everyone knows that he is rich, and there are speculations about his salary in Twilight. But... when the news came out yesterday, everyone wanted to say, wow, the mystery is solved, but what did we see? Is Summit Entertainment crazy?"

"Brian, explain why you senior media people are so surprised."

"Laura, you have to know that although Hollywood is full of billionaires, in fact, almost everyone has reached their current position step by step. The pay in Hollywood is stepped up. Even Tom Cruise only received $21 when he was 7.5 years old and filmed Crazy Boy. He only received $23 million when he was 200 years old and filmed Top Gun. It was not until 92 that he filmed Far From Home, which took nine years, that he only received more than $ million. Although there is inflation, Nuo Chen's income is really too exaggerated."

"If I remember correctly, when No Chen signed the contract for the first Twilight movie, he was only 23 years old?"

"No, Laura, I can tell you clearly that his birthday is February 1986, 2. The first Twilight movie started filming in April 28, which means he was just 2010 years old at the time. This contract signed when he was 4 years old made him earn 22 million in two years. I have to say, this is crazy."

"Brian, can I understand it this way? He is like a sports star in the major leagues or the NBA. He signed a maximum salary contract as soon as he entered the professional league."

"That's right Laura, but even LeBron James, when he first entered the NBA, got a rookie contract worth millions of dollars a year. What did Chen have when he signed the contract for Twilight 1 two years ago?
He has no starring experience and no North American audience base. He has nothing except for proving himself with JOKER and winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. To Hollywood, he is like a rookie player who just emerged from the high school league. No matter how good he is, he needs time to prove himself.

"OK. But Brian, according to the understanding of many of us, both parties reached the terms based on voluntary negotiation. What's the big deal?"

"Of course this is a free choice of some kind. We haven't seen the details of the contract and don't know what Summit Entertainment thinks. But what I can tell you is that any industry insider or movie company owner is very worried right now."

"What are you worried about, Brian?"

“I’m worried about the domino effect. If Nuo Chen can get such a high salary for his first commercial film, what will other actors think?
Do actors like Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt feel they deserve more?
What's even more frightening is that if the dominoes fall one by one, and every young actor who has achieved some success asks the producers for high pay, and this becomes a common phenomenon, then I can tell you that in order to pay the producers, the film companies will be forced to cut the core budgets such as script development and special effects. By then, all we will see in the cinemas will be some shoddy Hollywood garbage."

"Brian, this sounds terrible. So, how do you think Summit Entertainment should deal with this situation now? According to the current information, they have encountered difficulties in renewing the contract with Nuo Chen again. It seems that Chen is still asking for a high salary from them. Do you think Summit Entertainment will succumb to Chen's demands?"

"I don't know. This is indeed a thorny issue. Summit Entertainment's biggest concern right now should be Nuo Chen's huge fan base. His 2400 million fans on Facebook are not just numbers. They are a super capital pool that can generate hundreds of millions of pre-sale box office for Twilight 2 within a week. But if they give in, they may face huge financial risks."

"In fact, judging from the current public opinion, it seems that most Americans think Chen is taking too much. Do you think this sentiment will affect Summit Entertainment's decision?"

"Of course. If the public does not stand on Chen's side, I believe this will give Summit Entertainment more bargaining chips, and even the courage to change the role."

"Change roles?"

"Change the role, although the possibility is not high."

"My niece will be very sad."

“Hahaha, I believe everyone at the table now hopes that it won’t come to that, because that would be a huge loss for either party.”

“Who do you think will give in in the end?”

"I believe that public opinion will put Chen in a passive position and force him to re-evaluate his asking price."

"Thank you very much for your analysis, Brian. Dear viewers, we will connect with the representatives of the Screen Actors Guild later to continue discussing——"

The TV screen flickered and went out.

Chen Nuo threw the remote control onto the bed and said, "Let's go, check out."

Liu Yifei said a little worriedly: "You really don't care?"

"do not care."

"But he's not the only one saying this. There are so many people talking about this on Twitter and your Facebook account. If you don't say anything, will you..."

Liu Yifei didn't finish her words, looking as if she wanted to say something but stopped.

Chen Nuo understood what she meant.

After TMZ reported the news, over the past night and morning, two hashtags related to him on Twitter, #1.2 million pay# and #greedy vampire#, topped the Twitter trend list around 9 a.m., one and the other ranked in the top ten.

The news of his 1.2 million yuan salary became a huge storm, not only attracting major North American media to report on it, but also thousands of comments appeared under his Facebook account with 2700 million followers, most of which were malicious.

He could imagine that Vancouver was like a cake dipped in honey. It wouldn't be long before reporters swarming in like ants made every step he took outside extremely difficult.

This level of public opinion storm, doubly wrapped up on the Internet and in reality, is like the end of the world for most people.

After all, humans are social animals. Living in the world, it is impossible not to be exposed to the Internet, to read newspapers, and to not be influenced by others.

Over time, people are exposed to negative news about their family, which can lead to depression or even suicide, which is normal.

So, the word "wait" is easy to say.

There are really not many people who can do it.

Unless there is a wall separating him from this world.

"It's okay, don't think too much. Let's go home."

……

……

2010 5 Month 23 Day.

Chen Nuo officially returned from the other side of the wall to this side of the wall.

The violent storm outside the wall turned into gentle breeze and drizzle, or even no rain at home.

The domestic media waiting for him at the airport asked him a variety of questions.

The question he was asked most often was whether he and Liu Yifei had plans to marry.

As for his film pay, which was making a lot of noise abroad, these reporters, big and small, didn't even mention it. At most, they asked him how he felt about the Forbes rankings lowering his income so much.

Really, these are two different worlds.

Chen Nuo estimated that the current senior executives of Summit Entertainment, such as Will Statham, have had "Hollywood-centrism" in their minds all their lives, which is why they thought they could use public opinion to threaten him and even make him make mistakes in a hurry.

Haha, that’s wishful thinking.

Those racists or rednecks on Twitter have pushed the terms criticizing him to the top of the trending list.

But on domestic Weibo, the number one hot search on Sina yesterday was "US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Shanghai World Expo", the second was "China Pavilion's single-day visitor flow exceeded 50 people", the third was "Ip Man 2 box office exceeded 2 million", and the fourth was "Faye Wong announced her comeback tour."

The topic about his pay ranked eighth.

Of course, there is no need to deny that it was indeed the people from Sina who helped to lower his popularity, otherwise the topic of "Chinese actors' pay ceiling" should at least be in the top five.

This is the benefit of investing in Sina Weibo.

Why drop.

That was naturally due to the Chinese concept of not showing off one's wealth. After internal evaluation, Huanxin felt that it would be better not to attract too much attention.

Under this entry, the reports with the most likes are also positive.

His huge pay has caused quite a bit of controversy abroad, with words like "breaking the Hollywood pay barrier" and "the pride of the Chinese" making people blush.

Besides, no one helped him on Tencent and Sohu Weibo, and no one scolded him. They just said that he made so much money but didn't donate to Hope Primary Schools, which was normal moral kidnapping.

It’s not that he has already dominated the world, but it may be difficult to find the angle to scold him.

He is not like others who cut their pay to make movies in Hollywood in order to raise their domestic value. No matter how much he earns, it is American money. You can criticize him as much as you want.

In comparison, it has actually stimulated the creativity of many people.

"Brother Nuo single-handedly took $1.2 million from Hollywood! Some people are willing to play roles that insult China and brag about being an 'international star'."

I don't know who this was referring to, but it became a rage on Tencent Weibo, which is led by Mr. Li Lianjie and has an international style.

The comments on Wangyi’s Weibo are much more normal. Although the traffic is the lowest, the words are also the most pleasant.

"It's almost 10 billion RMB. Others go to Hollywood to pay tuition, but Brother Nuo goes to Hollywood to collect US dollars!"

“No wonder the former CEO of Summit was forced to resign.”

"Personally, I think no matter how much Brother Nuo takes, it won't be too much."

"It's worth the money. Without Nono, how could a rubbish movie like Twilight sell so much at the box office?"

Such words keep coming out.

Under such circumstances, after returning to Beijing, Chen Nuo went to Ziyu Villa to rest for a day. On the morning of May 2010, 5, he sat in the conference room of Huanxin Company to prepare for a meeting.

Besides the fact that Qi Yuntian was tricked by someone, he also had a bad look on his face after sitting on a flight for more than ten hours and had not adjusted to the time difference yet.

Other people in the company seemed quite relaxed and there was no pressure.

The first topic of the meeting, without a doubt, was the follow-up negotiations with Summit Entertainment.

"…Just now, Mr. Chen told us to 'wait a while'. It was like a revelation to me. This idea is really great. It makes me feel that my sleepless night last night was completely wasted. Next, I will write a report based on this, so that everyone in the company can learn and understand Mr. Chen's spirit, so that we can work together as one..."

The person who presided over the meeting today was not Qi Yuntian, but Li Jing.

Having served as the general manager for more than a year, Li Jing sat in the main seat in the bright and clean conference room on the 21st floor of Chaowai Soho, with a serious face and talking eloquently, showing the demeanor of a very strong woman.

Chen Nuo coughed lightly. Li Jing immediately changed the subject, "I said we should wait a while. I'm not talking nonsense, but from a short-term perspective, this incident has no substantial impact on us. As long as we avoid those public opinion storms and paparazzi during this period, we can even completely treat this incident as if it didn't exist. Wait for the wave to pass."

"From the company's internal public opinion monitoring, although there are a lot of discussions in the comment section of Mr. Chen's Facebook account, the core group of fans still stand on Mr. Chen's side, and there has not been any large-scale loss of fans."

"On the contrary, fans are worried that the just-completed Twilight 3 will be affected by this incident and the release date will be delayed."

"In addition, the sponsors have not wavered in this storm. Please see this early this morning, after the public opinion erupted, the latest poster released by Harry Winston."

As she spoke, she asked her secretary to distribute a color-printed A4 document to everyone in the meeting room.

This is a screenshot of Harry Winston's official website.

Most of the picture is occupied by a photo of a man. The main colors of the picture are black, white and gray, creating a low-key and mysterious texture.

The man was wearing a neat suit, with an upright posture. His face was hidden in the shadows, his outline vaguely visible, giving him a deep and unfathomable temperament.

Only the huge diamond brooch on her chest broke the overall dullness, sparkling brightly in the dim light.

In the lower right corner of the photo, a line of white text on a black background was printed in a low-key and eye-catching manner:

True value withstands all pressure.
Liu Xiaoli stared at this line of English for a long time.
By the time she came to her senses, Li Jing had already continued speaking.

"…2000 million dollars plus 15% share, is that a lot?"

Li Jingtiao pressed the remote control in her hand, and the PPT screen on the wall flashed, and a red laser pen circled the numbers on the table.

"Before the release of Twilight 2, Mr. Chen posted a set photo on Facebook, and within 48 hours, the North American pre-sales of Twilight 2 soared by more than 1100 million US dollars. What does this mean?"

"I really don't understand what the people at Summit Entertainment are thinking. If they are any expert, they will never do such a stupid thing. Will Statham thinks we are begging them? In fact, the entire Twilight City is just trying to take advantage of Mr. Chen's traffic..."

Chen Nuo coughed again and said, "Sister Jing, let's stick to the facts and don't talk about traffic."

Li Jing said, "Okay, Mr. Chen. Since Dingfeng Entertainment is not willing to accept our toast and has created such a situation, we will accompany them to the end."

"We are now, on the one hand, following Mr. Chen's guidance, waiting for the wind to change. On the other hand, I think we should also be prepared for a counterattack."

"Next, my idea is that Mr. Chen and Mr. Qi, you guys stay in China. I will take people to the United States to communicate with the legal team and deal with Warner and the others."

"As far as I know, according to Section 7 of the U.S. Uniform Trade Secrets Act, if the source of the contract disclosure can be traced back to the other party, the confidentiality clause will automatically become invalid."

"The best case scenario is that we find the first-hand source of information from TMZ through Warner and trace it back to someone related to Summit Entertainment. Once that happens, we can not only legally display the contract and clear Mr. Chen of the dirty water, but also counter-sue Summit for infringing on trade secrets."

"Even if there is no way to directly trace the source, as long as it can be proved that the contract was leaked, I think I can apply to the court to disclose part of the contract content to ease the pressure of public opinion..."

"No matter how long it takes to do this, whether it's one month, two months, or one or two years..."

"In short, facing the evil forces that use such crooked means to force us to bow our heads, under the leadership of General Chen, we will never compromise!"

Before Liu Xiaoli came, she actually wanted to persuade Chen Nuo, or to just make a big deal out of a small matter.

We have made so much money already, so it doesn't matter if we give up a little and suffer a little loss in the last one. If we really push them too hard and they don't make the fourth one, then it will be a loss.

So, when she heard Li Jing's strong statement, she subconsciously wanted to speak.

But immediately, she saw the English sentence on the A4 paper out of the corner of her eye.

That sentence, like a spell, stuck to her mouth and stopped the words she was about to say.

"True value withstands all pressure".

Directly translated into Chinese: True value can withstand all pressure.

The literal translation is: True gold is not afraid of fire.

……

……

Since Liu Xiaoli didn't speak, after General Manager Chen's words, Li Jing decided to wait and see what would happen and secretly prepare a strategy.
The meeting proceeded to the next topic without any hindrance.

Casting for the role of the dancer in No Man’s Land, a movie co-invested by the company and China Film.

The story of No Man's Land tells the story of a greedy lawyer who went to Hoh Xil to help the leader of a poaching gang to fight a lawsuit. Later, on his way back, he was first blackmailed by a black shop, and then hunted by the poaching gang. He encountered many dangers along the way and finally died.

Among them, "Jiaojiao" is a dancer who was abducted and sold to an uninhabited area by two brothers from a black shop. Her daily job is to dance and serve wine in a simple RV.

In the end, she and her lawyer embarked on the run and were hunted down, becoming the only major character in the movie to survive.

This character doesn't have too many scenes in the movie, but he is very important.

Originally, Fan Binbing was a perfect candidate, but after Fan Binbing suddenly took leave, Huanxin Company was a little panicked.

A team was urgently formed this month, and we selected people in the country who had schedules available, and finally made a list.

Chen Nuo took a look and saw Zhang Xinyu, Yu Nan, and a few other familiar names.

He knew about this before, and couldn't help asking, "Let Ning Hao decide this himself, what does it have to do with us?"

Li Jing smiled bitterly and said, "Director Ning is currently filming in Gansu and is too busy to fly back to BJ. I don't dare let the casting director decide on such an important matter."

Chen Nuo said, "Then what are you going to do?"

"Mr. Chen, can you help me?"

Chen Nuo now felt annoyed when he heard the name Fan Binbing and was about to refuse.

But before I could reply, the phone in my pocket suddenly rang.

When he picked up the phone and looked at the name on the screen, he was stunned for a moment, then smiled.

Everyone fell silent at once.

Liu Xiaoli's heart began to tighten.

Alarm bells suddenly rang in my mind.

who is it?

Now she is more careful than before about women who might appear around Chen Nuo.

Liu Yifei is sleeping at home today to adjust to the jet lag, but when she was helping to pack last night, she saw everything she should and shouldn't have seen.

The small pieces of clothing in the suitcase included more than the one she had bought in Berlin.

When she helped to put them into the closet, she took them out one by one. Even though Aunt Liu was a worldly person, she was still a little frightened.

But in some ways, I feel relieved and think that this is normal.

She was really shocked at first. She thought she understood why Chen Nuo wanted to cheat.

So for the sake of Xixi's lifelong happiness, she put aside her pride and found a nearby lingerie store and picked out a set with Liu Yifei.

At the same time taught a little bit.

Moreover, she did not go with Liu Yifei when she went to Canada this time.

Why?

Isn't it just to give young people some room for debauchery?
Now it seems that the effect is not bad.

So, who is this person calling now?

She's smiling so coquettishly, she must be some vixen.

She doesn't even try to hide it, which shows how important she is in the man's mind.

Liu Xiaoli was pricking up her ears for Xixi, wanting to hear exactly what was going on.

But Chen Nuo suddenly greeted me in Korean: "yeo bo se yo."

After that, Chen Nuo listened more and spoke less.

However, the speaker sound of the iPhone 3GS was too loud, and the woman on the other end of the phone was too excited, so half of the conference room could hear what she was saying in a tone that mixed crying and laughing.

Chen Nuo answered intermittently for a long time before hanging up the phone.

Afterwards, no one in the meeting room asked, and he did not take the initiative to say who it was.

However, everyone, including Liu Xiaoli, could see that Chen Nuo was in a much better mood than he was a moment ago.

Even when Li Jing asked him to help select people and try out the play, he agreed immediately.

The high-level shareholders meeting of Huanxin Company ended at about 11:12. When Liu Xiaoli returned home, it was already noon.

But Liu Yifei's bedroom door was still closed. She thought about it and didn't knock on the door.

After resting for a while, Liu Xiaoli turned on the computer and prepared to see what people were saying on Twitter.

She had forgotten about the phone call now, and her mind was full of Twilight's contract.

After all, it involves hundreds of millions of company profits, and even accounts for more than 80% of Huanxin’s annual total revenue.

She is not a heartless person, so how can she just let it go?

Turn on your computer and open your browser.

I saw a half-width news item with a picture on the navigation page.

The photo shows a woman in her 30s, smiling, holding a paper scroll and a prize box, facing the camera.

The following caption is:

The 63rd Cannes Film Festival closed at 7: am Beijing time. South Korean actress Jeon Do-yeon won the new Cannes Best Actress Award for "The Housemaid". In her acceptance speech, she specifically mentioned Chinese actor Chen Nuo... <Click for details>.

(End of this chapter)