Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 322 Solitary Seedling
Meeting room on the west side of the administration building of China Film Group.

The winter sunlight outside shone through the blinds onto the carpet, casting dappled patterns like scattered chess pieces, and the air carried a faint scent of hot tea mixed with the aroma of documents and papers.

"Chairman Han, preliminary statistics show that the strike has caused direct and indirect economic losses to Los Angeles that are approaching three billion US dollars."

The secretary stood at the conference table, her voice steady, "The Film and Television Production Alliance is currently preparing to begin a new round of negotiations with the Writers Guild."

Han Sanping, who was leaning back in his chair, immediately sat up straighter upon hearing this, and his eyes brightened a bit.

"Okay, got it."

He waved his hand, his expression relaxing.

As expected, Wu Chen was right.

Once you've suffered enough losses, negotiations will naturally follow.

These Hollywood producers may be stubborn, but when it comes to the numbers of losses, none of them will back down.

This would greatly increase the likelihood that the Oscars ceremony will be held as scheduled, which is crucial for "Black Peony" to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Han Sanping let out a soft breath, and the tension in his heart finally eased.

After "Black Peony" won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film yesterday, he even started thinking about competing for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

This is the closest that mainland China has come to achieving this in over a decade, since "Farewell My Concubine" in 1994.

Even Zhang Yimou's "Hero" could only lag behind.

That year, Chen Kaige won the Palme d'Or and the Golden Globe Award, enjoying unparalleled fame. However, due to his team's unfamiliarity with the Hollywood system, they failed to even manage basic poster distribution, and were ultimately misunderstood by the Oscar judges as "not intending to participate in the awards."

A single wrong decision can lead to a huge mistake.

But now it's different.

"Black Peony" not only won a Golden Globe Award, but Wu Chen also won several awards and is a top director in Hollywood. Behind him is the strong support of Paramount's global distribution department, with media promotion, screening strategies, audience ratings, and interviews with critics—a complete set of Hollywood "Oscar tactics."

If this still doesn't work, who knows when it will finally happen.

Thinking of this, a hint of ambition appeared in Han Sanping's eyes.

"Chairman Han, Director Zhou is here."

"Please invite Director Zhou in."

"."

Outside the door, Stephen Chow, dressed in a casual jacket, walked in, smiling and nodding with his expression unchanged: "Chairman Han."

"The premiere of 'CJ7'?"

In the afternoon, Wu Chen received an invitation from Han Sanping.

"Yes, it's the 23rd. Stephen Chow was still nagging me this morning, saying he wanted to talk to you about science fiction films, that he doesn't yet have the ability to make a hard science fiction film."

Han Sanping spoke with great satisfaction.

In recent years, only China Film Group has participated in science fiction films. Although Stephen Chow's film is soft science fiction, a science fiction comedy, it is still just a science fiction film in disguise. There is also Wu Chen's hard science fiction film as the foundation.

"By the way, I see that preparations for the Red Cliff Mars Landform Area in Chaidan Town are progressing very quickly. When do you plan to start casting? At least the male lead needs to be chosen, right?"
Regarding that cameo appearance, what are your and Universal's plans, and when will you announce it?

Upon hearing this, Wu Chen smiled.

Han Sanping was still thinking about the second one; as for the casting, that was just an extra question.

"It'll be soon. I'll check on the preparation progress later. As for when to announce it, it'll be hard not to announce it once filming starts."

"We have to wait until filming starts? That's going to be a long time," Han Sanping muttered to himself after hanging up the phone.

The preparation for "The Martian" is indeed progressing a little faster than expected. Both sides have divided the work, and Wu Chen has also gone to the space agency to learn about the current situation.

"Director Wu, this is the outer shell structure diagram of the first Mars module entrance. The landing module and probe arm are already completed."
NASA has finished making the spacesuits; six are movable, and the remaining ones are non-movable.

"good." "."

The following day, the 16th, was the day the nine finalists for the Oscars were announced.

In the entertainment editorial departments of several major portal websites in Beijing, the sounds of typing, mouse clicks, and hushed telephone conversations blended together.

"Refresh, refresh! I've practically worn out the F5 key."

Entertainment editors stared at the Oscars website, muttering to themselves, while several interns huddled together behind them, exchanging gossip in hushed tones.

"Is 'Black Peony' sure to have been accepted? I wrote the manuscript yesterday and saved a draft."

"Hey, you wrote it so early, what if it didn't get in?"

"It's already won the Golden Ball, wouldn't it be an injustice if it didn't score? I even wrote 'Lust, Caution,' if both of them score, then there's no need to revise them at all."

Just as everyone was speculating, Zhao Zhe's eyes suddenly lit up, "It's updated! The list is here!"

Nine films were prominently listed on the screen.

“Exiled” was not selected.

"Lust, Caution was also rejected. Hmm, it seems they said it didn't meet the rules."

"Holy crap, even the top seed for the Palme d'Or, '4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,' didn't make it in?!"

"France didn't make it either, and Persepolis was eliminated."

But no one paid attention to these things; the eyes of the entire editorial office quickly focused on a familiar Chinese title: "Black Peony"—Mainland China.

After a moment of silence, there was an explosion of applause and gasps.

"As expected, Wu Chenwen is still the most reliable."

"Write a breaking news report! Write a breaking news report!!"

"Have the photo editor find some stills, preferably the one from the Cannes premiere, the one with Liu Yifei in a black dress has the best texture."

"Get me a breaking news report! Change the top headline on the entertainment homepage to 'Black Peony Advances to the Nine Finalists for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film; Mainland China's Strongest Sprint in Fourteen Years Officially Begins!'"

Ten minutes later, the portal website's homepage was flooded with posts:

[Black Peony successfully advances to the top nine for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; Lust, Caution and Exiled are eliminated!]

[The Palme d'Or winner "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" is surprisingly eliminated, while "Black Peony" makes it into the final nine!]

[Black Peony is just one step away from a nomination, becoming the only Chinese-language film to represent the film]

[Lust, Caution lost at the Oscars, will now compete for the British Academy Film Awards, with Tom Cruise potentially making the top five nominees for Best Actress]

【.】

The news immediately ignited the Oscar race, but many people still felt sorry for "Lust, Caution".

"It's a pity that 'Lust, Caution' is out of the running. Now we can only hope for the British Oscars. By the way, what exactly are the British Oscars?"

"Who knows? Sigh, if 'Lust, Caution' can also make it into the top nine, maybe this year we can really create a situation where two Chinese directors are competing against each other."

"Li was subdued too quickly, that's no fun. It has to be Wu Chen."

"."

In contrast to the joyous atmosphere on the mainland, the media and fans on Taiwan were much more somber.

Unexpectedly, we actually lost. Although it was because "Lust, Caution" did not comply with the rules, there's no point in saying anything now.

Li An also sighed at this moment.

Tommy's face was filled with deep disappointment. He had no hope for the Golden Globe, and then he suffered a crushing defeat at the Oscars. His only hope was the British Academy Film Awards.

However, the British Academy Film Award for Best Actress is almost certainly going to Keira Knightley for "Atonement," which has received 14 nominations. Her chances of competing against her are slim.
(End of this chapter)