Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 321 Top Player and Spy Girl Liu Yifei

However, for Gu Bei, this can also be considered a form of training.

After all, his ability was thoroughly proven in The Mistakes in Stardom, and theaters and distributors were willing to acknowledge his ability to manage A-list productions. In the future, his Hollywood projects will not be lower than A-list productions.

The three-year hiatus is over, it's time to unleash our full power!
Just as Gu Bei was filming the opening scene of the group dance,
He received a call from Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Gray: "Bruce, your Mission: Impossible 4 script has passed Paramount's greenlight committee."

There are still some details to consider…

"No time!"

Gu Bei flatly refused, "Have you heard? This weekend, the carpool lanes on Highway 105 and the ramps between the popular express lanes on Highway 110 are closed."
The city hall only gave me this weekend to film, and I must finish filming this weekend!

"You're filming during the day, right? Then I'll come over now!" Brad persisted despite being rejected.

Are you working overtime on Friday night?

Gu Bei looked at the actors rehearsing and couldn't help but complain.

"If I want to enjoy the perks of private jets for a few more years, then I shouldn't be thinking about whether I'm working overtime now, since I don't get overtime pay!"

Brad didn't care at all about Gu Bei's complaints, and instead made a self-deprecating remark.

As the chairman of Paramount, his salary consists of a base salary package and incentive bonuses. Working hours do not bring him any extra income; only performance matters.

Brad is under immense pressure right now.

Although Paramount was the highest-grossing studio worldwide last year and the second highest-grossing in North America,

But Paramount's performance is supported by DreamWorks, DreamWorks Animation, and Marvel.

Now Spielberg has taken DreamWorks back to independence.
It's clear that DreamWorks Animation's distribution agreement will not be renewed after it expires.
Even Marvel is flirting with Disney, but its parent company Viacom shows absolutely no interest in Marvel.

With none of the three pillars stable, Brad had no choice but to look for new ones, and his target was Gu Bei, whose creativity had exploded in recent years.

The success of "The Wrong One in the Starry Night" in particular further proved Gu Bei's strength.

Therefore, he needs to finalize a cooperation agreement with Gu Bei as soon as possible.

We cannot allow Paramount's convoluted processes to further undermine their cooperation with Gu Bei.

"Alright, come over here."

Gu Bei thought for a moment.

Los Angeles City Hall gave him time from Friday night to Sunday night.
It's rehearsal time now, and the actual filming won't start until tomorrow morning. I do have time to meet with Brad.

Subsequently,

He then threw himself into rehearsing with the dancers.
The opening of La La Land features a large-scale musical dance performance with a hundred performers.
Moreover, it's a pseudo-one-shot shot with only two editing points in the middle.

In other words, the entire opening scene only has three shots, and all of them must be filmed within two days over the weekend, which is a severe test of director Gu Bei's overall coordination ability.

Gu Bei hadn't waited for Brad yet.

Instead, Joel, an editor from Random House, arrived.

"Bruce, I have a huge surprise for you. I wonder if you can guess it?" Joel said to Gu Bei with a big smile.

Let me guess!

Gu Bei thought for a moment,
He has already submitted the manuscript for The Hunger Games: The Third to Random House, along with a copy of the novel Gravity, so the publishing agreements for these two books are hardly a surprise.

With The Fault in Our Stars currently showing in theaters, he blurted out, "Is it about the Fault in Our Stars?"

"Bruce, you're as smart as ever!"

Joel shook hands with Gu Bei and said with a smile, "The April Star Fortune sold over 600 million copies worldwide, so you now have a book that has sold over 2000 million copies!"

"This is truly a huge surprise!"

Gu Bei was shocked by this number.

Movies truly deserve to be the most influential category in the cultural and entertainment industry.

A movie that doesn't even rank in the top ten at the global box office was able to help Starway sell nearly half of its sales from the past three years.

No wonder they're practically giving away the books in North America, and they're still adapting them into movies.

This is all business!

"Most importantly, half of these are illustrations for the new movie versions. Congratulations on setting a new record for your royalties!" Joel continued with a smile.

Gu Bei did a simple calculation.
This month alone, book sales brought him over $2000 million in revenue.

This income is equivalent to the salary of three of his directorial works.

Of course, this data must exclude box office revenue sharing and investment dividends; otherwise, he would really have the urge to dedicate himself to a career as a writer.

No matter when
His largest component of income,

It's still about investment and dividends; you can't get rich through hard work.

After a pause, Gu Bei looked at Joel and asked, "Tell me, Joel, I don't think you came here today just to tell me a surprise."

After being exposed by Gu Bei, Joel frankly said, "That's right, my purpose today is actually to invite you to write a preface for a book, to increase my chances of getting a publishing deal for it!"

"I need to see what the story is first!"

Gu Bei thought about it.

He was inclined to agree immediately, after all, it was Joel who signed him after he had been rejected many times, and it was also the first time he had made a request to him.

However, just to be on the safe side, he still wanted to see what kind of book it was first.

His fame is too great now; if it were a novel like Fifty Shades of Grey, it would truly be an insult to literature.

"I've brought you a sample chapter, which his book agent sent to various publishers in order to invite us to participate in the bidding for his publishing deals."

Joel took out his laptop, opened it, and showed Gu Bei an encrypted file. "I learned that he is a movie fanatic and once wanted to enter film school through this sample chapter, which is why I wanted to invite you to write a preface for him."

Auctions are one of the methods used by booksellers to inflate publishing deals.

Although Twilight was Stephanie Meyer's first book, the Twilight series was acquired through a bidding war among multiple publishers because she had a book agent.

Gu Bei didn't use this tactic back then because no book brokers were interested in him; otherwise, his income from Star Fortune could have increased by at least one-fifth.

However, the bidding process can take several times longer due to the series of events involved.

For Gu Bei, it might be even less worthwhile.

However, Gu Bei looked at the sample chapter.

He didn't even need to read it; just looking at the title gave him an idea of ​​what the book was about. Because the title was—Ready Player One!
As a gamer, Gu Bei is naturally very familiar with this work, which can be described as a perfect combination of various childhood memories and Easter eggs for those born in the 80s, with a movie crammed inside the Easter eggs.

Actually, this movie was somewhat overlooked back then.
The main problem is that the movie was released a bit late.

The film was released in 2018, which coincided with the peak of the superhero movie era.
Compared to the superhero pinnacles of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, this movie is really not entertaining enough. The Easter eggs and copyrights in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame are no less than those in this movie.

And what's really embarrassing is...

Because this movie was produced by Warner Bros.

Therefore, a large number of DC heroes appeared in it, but not a single Marvel hero.
At that time, Marvel heroes were the hottest stars, and the DCEU was really not up to par with the MCU, so the movie's hype was focused on game and animation Easter eggs.

Even if there are Star Wars Easter eggs,
To avoid giving Warner Bros. an easy time, Disney only allowed a few borderline Easter eggs.
However, the use of Star Wars' most iconic lightsaber is not permitted in the film.

"Did this novel appear so early?"

Gu Bei was a little confused.

He checked the entertainment treasure trove and found that the novel Ready Player One was indeed still in the works. According to Wikipedia, it was published in 2011 and the publishing agreement auction ended in 2010.

Judging by the timing, it's about the same timeframe for book brokers to start their marketing and promotional efforts.

Take it!
Gu Bei immediately had an idea.

This movie would have grossed far more than its predecessor, whether it was released before the heyday of superhero movies or during a period of decline for superheroes.

He scrolled through all the sample chapters with the mouse, then said to Joel, "How much are you willing to invest in this novel?"

Joel's eyes lit up: "You think this novel has a bright future?"

"I don't know!"

Gu Bei shook his head. "The novel's references to popular culture are too repetitive and excessive."

I don't know how many books it will sell, but I really like the story and want to bring it to the big screen.

"I can offer him a million dollars in advance royalties!"

Upon hearing this, Joel gritted his teeth and immediately committed his largest resource investment.

"We eliminated the need for his book agent to hold an auction; we joined forces and directly secured his publishing and adaptation agreements."

Gu Bei said lightly.

Even if he didn't know how many copies of Ready Player One had sold, as long as the movie was released, the one million dollar advance payment would be 100% recouped, and Joel's gamble was risk-free.

After a pause, Gu Bei added, "I'll add one more condition: I can get the original author involved in the screenwriting process."

Is the original author not a movie buff, and does he hope to attend film school?

So, an opportunity to enter Hollywood.
It is clearly a more tempting option than money.

With this combination of moves, Gu Bei didn't believe the other party could refuse!

After seeing off the ambitious Joel,
Gu Bei continued rehearsing with the troupe.
Until Brad arrived.

"What a spectacular dance!"

Brad had been watching from the outside for a while, and he commented, "I can already imagine what it will look like here when we're filming tomorrow. Blue skies, white clouds, and this kind of dance—this scene is so representative of Los Angeles!"

"The movie is called City of Angels (La La Land). What I want to film is Los Angeles itself. Dreams are the one thing this city has in abundance!"

Gu Bei said lightly.

"You should have brought the script with you to Paramount!"

Brad said with a hint of regret.

"And then you get rejected by your greenlight committee?"

Gu Bei said with a smile, "If you put the musical film genre on your chopping board, it will be stamped with 'not approved' in the next second. It can only be born in a production studio like Rose Pictures."

Brad opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing.

Unless it's an artist or a rising star like Gu Bei, this project will definitely be rejected. The bloated nature of the Big Six makes them inherently lacking in adventurous spirit.

He shook his head helplessly and changed the subject to Mission: Impossible: "We have no objections to your script or even the new trilogy."

My question is, who is 'Jueyi' in the script? Why is this name used in Chinese?

"There's a plot connection to Mission: Impossible 3. Remember how they got the rabbit feet from China in Mission: Impossible 3? FineArt is related to rabbit feet!"

Gu Bei answered, deliberately avoiding the use of the word 'person'.

"Then why did Jueyi say he wasn't Chinese when Ethan was talking to him on the dark web? Was he lying to Ethan?" Brad asked curiously.

"of course not."

Gu Bei shook his head with absolute certainty, because it was not human.

“We need to know this character’s backstory and how it develops so we can assess whether this storyline is necessary,” Brad requested.

"That's a different price. As long as you pay me the screenwriting fee for the trilogy, I can provide it to you," Gu Bei said calmly.

"Bruce, you are a tough opponent."

Brad was somewhat helpless.

This proposal obviously wouldn't pass at Paramount now; Gu Bei's screenwriting fees are not cheap, with a million dollars plus backend revenue sharing being the bare minimum.

"I don't have an agent, so naturally I need to protect my own interests!"

Gu Beichun took Brad's words as a compliment.

"Then let's talk about the issue of female secret agents."

Brad didn't dwell on it; it was only a few minutes of screen time, so it wouldn't matter if the sequel retconned the events—that's a tradition of the Mission: Impossible series.

He stopped and turned to look at Gu Bei on the overpass highway in La La Land: "Are you planning to use Liu as a female agent?"
According to your script, this is a crucial character who appears throughout the trilogy!

Gu Bei nodded and agreed without hesitation: "That's right, I want Liu Yifei to play this role."

Brad gazed at the twinkling lights along the Los Angeles freeway and asked, "Would you be willing to switch to a white person, or a black person?"

"I can't accept it!"

Gu Bei shook his head. "This role wasn't created because Liu Yifei is Asian and needed to play it, but because I felt that Liu Yifei could do these actions."

She's the only one in the world who can pull off the moves in the script.
As for the other actresses, regardless of ethnicity, I'm not sure if they could pull off the actions in the script.

(End of this chapter)