I am a literary giant in Europe

Chapter 435 The Da Vinci Code

January 2nd is Liu Jin's birthday.

That day, he received many blessings, including from Eva, who had just entered the second season of "Meet the Father-in-Law," and Alizee, who almost brushed past Liu Jin.

Sophie Marceau has returned to Los Angeles to join the promotional tour for "About Time".

Emmanuel returned to France before the new year and will soon start a new job.

Heidi won't be back until February, but she still sent him birthday wishes.

There's also Melissa, Lima, Shakira, and Ambrosio who's always by Liu Jin's side.

That felt so exciting!

Liu Jin was also very happy.

……

Before Sunrise ended its run before the new year, grossing $160 million worldwide.

Tom Rothman called Liu Jin and said he wanted to throw a celebration party, but Liu Jin declined!

He knew what Tom was thinking.

This guy wants to start a sequel.

But Liu Jin wasn't in a hurry; he wanted to wait until Isabelle's work was finished before making any decisions.

Isabelle Adjani and Guillaume Lawrence are currently busy with the story of "European Travelogue" and it is estimated that they will not have time in the first half of the year.

Eva also has work to do and was also unavailable in the first half of the year.

As for Liu Jin, he is preparing to create "The Da Vinci Code".

Busy!

Meanwhile, The Hangover's box office began to decline.

However, according to predictions from major cinema chains, the box office will exceed 600 million.

Meanwhile, it has already begun screening in Europe.

The response was positive.

After all, the star power of the three main actors, plus Kate Winslet, is undeniable.

As for Liu Jin...

His role was too small to attract much attention.

Anyway, Liu Jin didn't want the attention.

On January 5th, Ambrosio successfully passed the audition for the first season of "Entourage" and got the role she wanted.

Liu Jin offered no help, nor could he offer any.

After all, he couldn't influence America's theater scene.

Ambrosio left happily; she was going home to rest before joining the film crew in March.

However, before leaving, he squeezed Liu Jin dry before finally departing satisfied.

After she left, Liu Jin also returned to Los Angeles.

But he didn't move into Sophie Marceau's house; instead, he lived alone in Emmanuel's house.

It's quiet because no one lives there.

That's perfect, he needs to make some arrangements.

First up is Finding Nemo.

But Liu Jin didn't plan to use that name; instead, he named it "Nemo".

At the same time, he doesn't plan to draw, it's too much trouble... He plans to write it as a children's novel and then add some illustrations.

The comic is good, but...

He preferred to put it into words.

In America, or rather not just America, the world's best-selling novels are always children's books.

But to be honest, writing children's books is not easy!
In all the years of Chinese history, only Zheng Yuanjie has been called a master.

An excellent children's book has a strong monetization potential.

Tens of millions in sales are just the beginning, and they will be accompanied by all sorts of official promotions.

Coincidentally, Liu Jin met Scholar Publishing House last year, which possessed extraordinary promotional capabilities in children's books.

It's global, not just America.

Besides Nemo, there's also The Hunger Games.

This is also a work that sold over ten million copies in the original timeline.

In addition to these two works, Liu Jin plans to begin writing "Les Misérables" in the second half of the year.

Meanwhile, for his novels about refugees, Liu Jin chose two films, "Illegal Intrusion" and "The Goddesses," and then attempted to combine them.

That's about it, four works.

He's moved past the stage of being a mad plagiarist; he needs to develop at a higher level...

"So, how were the results?"

After returning to Los Angeles, Liu Jin received an email from Mela.

On January 1, "The Man Who Will Disappear" was published in France, selling 320,000 copies in its first week and taking the number one spot on the bestseller list for the first week of 2004.

The third place goes to Notre Dame de Paris.

After last year's 48-hour outburst, Notre Dame sales entered a period of steady growth.

Sales of 100,000 to 150,000 copies per week continued until the New Year.

In the first week of the new year, Notre Dame Cathedral ranked third in sales, with 81,000 copies sold.

Second on the list is "A Secret," published by Hachette Publishing Group, authored by Philip Grenbel, with sales of 110,000 copies.

This book was a key recommendation from the Hachette Group in 2004.

They started promoting and building momentum in the second half of last year.

Without "The Man Who Will Disappear," it would likely have been the top-selling show in its first week.

Who could have imagined that XO Publishing's questionable actions would cause this book, which was a shoo-in for the championship, to suffer such an undeserved disaster?

It's estimated that the Hachette Group must be hating Guillaume to death right now.

Liu Jin scrolled down the list until he found the book "Later..." at number fifteen.

As a newcomer, his performance was quite good. First-week sales reached 13,000 copies, much better than when Liu Jin published "Amélie."

only……

After being compared with Liu Jin, "Later..." appears somewhat lacking in quality.

Same style, same type of story.

How can "Later...", which is still in the beginner's village, be compared with "The One Who Will Disappear", which was created by Guillaume at his peak?
Many people have compared his disappearance to what happened later.

The conclusion drawn was that "Later..." is a good novel, but compared to "The One Who Will Disappear," it is far too immature. Both the plot and the writing style are vastly different, like the difference between the writing of a middle school student and a graduate student.

Liu Jin called Mela to inquire about the specific situation.

Mela kept laughing on the phone.

Clay cut out all the reviews about "Later..." and "The Man Who Will Disappear" and sent them to Guillaume.

I reckon that guy's about to go crazy with anger!

"Not that much."

"How could it not be? If he hadn't caused trouble, why would I have crashed my car and then spent over a thousand euros on repairs?"

Chloe spoke up angrily from the side.

Liu Jin couldn't help but laugh too!

"When will you come back?"

"Around the end of the month, then I'll be staying in Paris for a week."

"Is something the matter? Do you need my help?"

"No, I'm just gathering some materials for the new book and then returning to Toulouse."

"Okay... the car keys are in the closet in your front door, and the car is parked in the community parking lot. I paid the parking fee."

"I see!"

After finishing his call with Mela and the others, Liu Jin breathed a sigh of relief.

Actually, he was somewhat unwilling to be dragged into the conflict between Irene and Guillaume.

What is his status? What is Guillaume's status?
However, Liu Jin was very satisfied with the result!

……

Time flies, and half a month has passed in the blink of an eye.

Liu Jin has been working almost non-stop for the past two weeks.

I accompanied Sophie Marceau to two talk shows, The Jimmy Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

He had just participated in Oprah Winfrey's talk show last month, so much so that Oprah said Liu Jin was the busiest person in the past month.

Liu Jin could only manage a wry smile at this.

Jimmy Show is a program that ABC radio launched last year.

good results!

There's also the Ellen Show, a new CBS program that was launched last September.

The host, Ellen DeGeneres, is an openly gay lesbian and a staunch supporter of LGBT rights, and is well-known in America.

However, Sophie Marceau did not allow Liu Jin to participate in this program.

The show did invite Liu Jin, but Sophie Marceau declined.

"Although Jimmy Show is sharp in its language, most of Jimmy's questions are still quite normal."

"Ellen... I'm worried she might say something unfriendly, so you'd better not go."

Liu Jin didn't know much about Ellen DeGeneres.

In his previous life, he only learned about stand-up comedy 10 years later. He followed The Fallon Show and The Jimmy Show, but never watched The Ellen Show.

All he knew was that The Ellen Show didn't end until 22.

A program that has been running for nearly twenty years must have an extraordinary host.

Therefore, Liu Jin, who was known for his obedience, did not participate.

After watching the broadcast, he found Ellen DeGeneres's words to be sharp and full of traps.

Fortunately, Sophie Marceau is a seasoned veteran and resolved the issues one by one.

The heated exchange made Liu Jin's heart pound.

……

When the film left America, The Hangover's box office was approaching 400 million.

According to the North American theatrical window system, a film will be shown in theaters for three to six months.

Therefore, exceeding 600 million is a foregone conclusion.

In comparison, "Pirates of the Caribbean" was slightly less successful. With an investment of 180 million, it only grossed 80 million in its opening week, failing to break 100 million.

After three weeks in theaters, the total box office reached 180 million yuan, which disappointed the investors.

But losing money is out of the question!
Moreover, it has an outstanding reputation.

According to ComScore's predictions, Pirates of the Caribbean's North American box office is expected to be between $430 million and $450 million.

Based on this box office performance, Warner Bros. is not losing money.

Moreover, there's also the box office revenue from outside North America...

Both DreamWorks and Bluheimer's film company have expressed interest in a sequel.

However, the project will not be approved in the short term.

In DreamWorks' words, it needs time to settle and ferment before proceeding with the second installment.

Liu Jin had no objection to this.

And he's preparing to leave!

Although Xiao Li and the others never understood why Liu Jin was unwilling to develop his career in America, they still respected his decision.

Before leaving, Liu Jin had a conversation with Sofia Coppola.

The two eventually agreed that "Beautiful Life" would officially start filming in Shanghai at the end of March, and Liu Jin would fly directly from France to Shanghai to join the crew.

……

(End of this chapter)