It's reasonable for me to be a three-time Golden Horse Award-winning director and an all-around

Chapter 255 "Let's suffocate together for our dreams!" (Seeking monthly votes)
"Director Lu, welcome to the Republic of Korea."

Outside Seoul Incheon Airport, Lu Rui was warmly welcomed by CJ Corporation.

Park Bo-sung, who last visited Ruishijie to purchase the film rights, personally led a team to welcome the Pacific Rim crew.

"At home, you rely on your parents; when you're away from home, you rely on your friends"—this is a saying passed down from our ancestors.

When you're on someone else's turf, you definitely have to greet the local tyrant beforehand to avoid any trouble.

So, when Lu Rui came to South Korea, he made a point of contacting CJ and asked if they could provide any help they could.

CJ agreed without hesitation.

Just like in everyday life, people on the Korean side also have an extremely strong admiration for strength.

Especially towards their American fathers, they felt both resentment and respect!
And Lu Rui, a commercial film director who is doing very well in Hollywood, is undoubtedly the person they want to curry favor with.

They've been eyeing the film projects produced by Ruishijie for a long time, in particular.

For example, the distribution and adaptation rights of Lu Yang's recent film "New World" are being fiercely contested by two South Korean companies, CJ and SHOWBOX!
Representatives from both companies have even started conducting auction bidding.

"Mr. Park, it's been a long time."

Lu Rui shook hands with Park Bo-sung, but he still couldn't bear to look at his name.

What was this father thinking? How could he name his son like that?
Just like the people living in the countryside, like Koizumi, Tanaka, Matsushita, Inoue, Yamashita...

Lu Rui remembered reading a popular science article before, which seemed to say that when the couple didn't have a suitable surname in their early years, they simply decided to use the surname of the place where the child was conceived.

For example, if the two shamelessly had sex in Tanaka and had a son, then the name would be "Tanaka Ichipō".

If we interpret it according to this logic, then the meaning of the name Park Bo-sung is that his father failed to "do that" back then.

Thinking of this, Lü Rui's eyes instantly became more and more complicated.

Park Bo-sung didn't notice this. After warmly shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with everyone, he led them onto a pre-arranged minibus.

Lu Rui didn't bring a large group with him this time.

Besides the photography, production crew, and props team, the rest of the crew consisted of him, his assistant, and Zhao Peng, who came to help.

As for the actors, we can just find extras locally, since no key characters are needed to appear later.

Liu Ye, Liu Yifei, and Chen Baoguo have basically finished filming their scenes. The remaining reshoots will only require them to make brief appearances.

Poor Lu Chuan, she wanted to wait for Liu Ye but couldn't, so she had no choice but to go to Rong Xinda and find Chen Kun to play the lead role.

Unexpectedly, just after signing a contract with Chen Kun, Liu Ye's schedule became available again.

The two sides just missed each other perfectly, leaving him so angry he wanted to cry.

The minibus traveled along and soon arrived at the hotel.

"Director Lü, our company has prepared a welcome banquet for you. Please do us the honor of attending, thank you..."

Lu Rui originally wanted to go back to his room to rest, but he couldn't refuse the hospitality, so he took Zhao Peng and went with Park Bo-sung to a welcome dinner.

"There's no need for such a grand gesture; we're only staying for less than three days..."

Lu Rui tried to persuade him, but he couldn't convince him otherwise.

When I arrived, wow, all of CJ's top executives from the production department had come!
"This is Kim Min-woo, General Manager of the Production Department, and Choi Yoon-jin, Vice President..."

After Park Bo-sung gave his introduction, Lü Rui managed to barely remember these somewhat tongue-twisting names.

The guests and hosts took their seats, and the food was served immediately.

Seeing that the production manager, Kim Min-woo, was about to pour himself a drink, Lü Rui quickly stopped him: "Manager Kim, just have a meal, don't drink the wine. You have work to do tomorrow."

"Ok."

Kim Min-woo was somewhat disappointed and had no choice but to put away the bottle.

After all, Lu Rui doesn't drink, so he can't just force him to drink, can he?
However, we still need to include some exciting programs.

If you don't smoke or drink, you must be interested in beautiful women, right?
"Clap clap clap!"

He raised his hand and patted it. The next second, the door was suddenly pushed open, and a group of beautiful women filed in.

"Director Lü, Director Zhao, these are all members of our company's girl group. They're all excellent singers and dancers. Which one do you like? Pick whichever you prefer..."

The social hierarchy in the South Korean entertainment industry is much clearer and more rigid than in China.

Below the level of capital, the highest-ranking are the talented directors and screenwriters, while at the very bottom are undoubtedly these girl group idols.

As it happens, Lü Rui is a capital tycoon, as well as a director and screenwriter, undoubtedly belonging to the highest-ranking group.

Just pick one?
Lu Rui paused, his chopsticks still.

Is this how bad influences get in?
He turned his head and looked at the people in front of him with great interest.

The aesthetic sense of the chaebols is absolutely commendable.

The dozen or so girls in front of me each had their own unique features, some were sexy, some were cute, and some were mature and sophisticated. The only thing that remained constant was their long, slender legs.

There were even several people among them that he recognized quite well.

Kim Tae-yeon, Lim Yoon-a, Choi Soo-young... are none other than members of the future wildly popular girl group Girls' Generation.

Just use this to test the cadres, right?

Which cadre can withstand such a test?

"Forget about choosing, since you're here, let's liven things up. Show us some talent!"

Lu Rui suddenly wanted to challenge his weakness.

"Okay." Park Bo-sung smiled brightly, waving his hand at a group of girls like a madam, "Show us your best skills."

"Yes!"

For a moment, the private room was filled with the atmosphere of "listening to music in a brothel".

It was almost ten o'clock when the banquet ended.

Just as Lü Rui got up to leave, Park Bo-sung quickly came over and said, "Director Lü, the hotel room is a bit cold. Which one do you like? You can take it back to warm up the blankets."

In such a place, guests may refuse, but the host absolutely cannot refuse to give.

This is CJ's way of treating guests, and it's also the reason why they've been able to grow so rapidly.

"No need," Lü Rui waved his hand, showing no interest.

He was full and sleepy, and all he wanted to do was sleep, but he wasn't used to sleeping with a strange woman in his arms, especially not on someone else's turf.

"I'll take you back to your hotel."

Park Bo-sung thought Lu Rui was embarrassed, so he secretly waved his hand behind him.

But to his surprise, more than a dozen girls took turns knocking on the door that night, but they couldn't get Lü Rui to open it even once.

On Zhao Peng's side, the girls also failed to get the door opened.

This was, of course, because Lü Rui had given prior instructions.

The Koreans are great in every way, and their women are stunning, but they have just too many questionable actions.

There's no need to risk being secretly photographed and ruining your image for a moment of pleasure.

It's worth noting that the term "Tanhua" (探花), meaning third-place scholar in the imperial examinations, actually originated from South Korea and was introduced to China later.

Seeing that neither cigarettes, alcohol, nor women could sway Lü Rui, and that he wouldn't accept gold bars, CJ had no choice but to do his best to cooperate with the filming of "Pacific Rim" in order to leave a good impression.

It took Lü Rui a day to complete the location scouting work.

On the third day, before setting off, he was invited to visit CJ Entertainment and watch the horror sci-fi film "The Host," which they invested in and produced.

It must be said that the South Korean government is ahead of its domestic counterpart in terms of support for the film and television industry.

Just like this movie, "The Host," it successfully went global and reached Hollywood after CJ invested in DreamWorks, with the government even helping with its promotion.

Of course, this may also be because there are no pillar industries here, so they have no choice but to develop the entertainment industry.

At the same time, he also discovered that the news circulating online in later generations was indeed true!

Locals almost always avoid the American soldiers patrolling the streets, not daring to even look them in the eye.

Only tourists from outside the area dare to take pictures in various ways, and their expressions are relatively more relaxed.

Unfortunately, you can't get into the north side, and even if you did get in, you're not allowed to take pictures anywhere; the management is very strict.

The father of the sun is currently the person in charge there. Although he has been encouraging and developing the North Korean film industry, the works he produces still clearly have a closed-off attitude.

So Lü Rui simply went straight to Thailand, and then traveled to Russia, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan...

After visiting several Asian countries, he moved on to Oceania, visiting Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and other destinations.

The Sydney Opera House, in particular, underwent comprehensive filming to capture spectacular footage of the monster destroying the landmark building.

As for South America, they only visited Colombia and Chile, which is famous for its cherries.

In North America, they visited Canada, Mexico, and Panama.

The final stop was Los Angeles, USA.

In the story, this is the first major city to be destroyed.

He originally planned to have Washington fall first, but Sony Columbia advised against it.

Although in Hollywood movies, criticizing the president is also considered politically correct.

But even if you're going to criticize, you can't kill the person!

Therefore, Los Angeles became the best option as the second choice.

Almost all the people appearing in the video are white, while the black guys seem to have become saviors and shouldn't be used as cannon fodder.

Time flew by and it was already late January. With the location scouting trip over, everyone immediately prepared to return to China.

"Brother Rui? Aren't you coming back with us?"

At Los Angeles Airport, Zhao Peng, who was carrying a suitcase, turned his head curiously to look at Lü Rui.

"Well, I still have some things to take care of here. You guys go back first, I'll be back at the beginning of next month."

There wasn't much snow this winter, especially in the capital; there was only a light snowfall a while ago.

Harbin did have a heavy snowfall, but it wasn't enough. After checking the weather forecast, Lü Rui decided to wait a little longer.

The final scene of Pacific Rim had to be filmed spectacularly, requiring a confluence of favorable timing, location, and personnel. He didn't want to use artificial sets, hoping for something more realistic.

In addition, he has a new movie coming out in Hollywood, and he has to attend the premiere.

"alright."

Zhao Peng nodded, then turned and led his men into the airport.

"Remember to throw away Vanity Fair magazine before you go back, or Tang Yan might cause you trouble."

Lu Rui noticed a rolled-up magazine tucked next to Zhao Peng's backpack and gave him a special reminder.

Scarlett Johansson is undoubtedly a ruthless person. After being threatened by the nude photo scandal, she actually collaborated with Vanity Fair to release a magazine with her nude image on the cover.

At 23, she was at the peak of her beauty, which led to the magazine becoming an instant hit in North America as soon as it was released!
With such courage and the reputation of being the "Elevator Goddess," who else but her would become famous?

"Don't worry, I know. I just use this magazine to pass the time on the plane, I definitely won't take it back."

Zhao Peng waved his hand and disappeared gracefully at the entrance.

Lu Rui ignored him, turned around, left the airport, and got into his car.

However, on the way, as he thought of Scarlett, one of her representative works suddenly popped into his mind, and it was the kind that would be very suitable for translation into Chinese...

After pondering for a while, he took out his laptop and began to record some inspirations and fragments of memory.

……

On the way back to Ruixing Film Studio, as soon as Lü Rui entered, he saw Peter sitting in the boss's chair, intently reading a newspaper in his hands.
"What are you looking at so intently?"

“Lv, you’re back.” Peter put down his newspaper, smiled at him, and said, “The nominations for the 79th Academy Awards have been announced. I was just taking a look.”

"Oh? Which works have been nominated?"

"So far, 'The Departed' has received the most nominations and has the highest success rate in winning awards," Peter said, handing over the newspaper.

Lu Rui knew about this movie, which was adapted from the Hong Kong film "Infernal Affairs" and starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, making it a very strong cast.

However, what he really wanted to focus on was not this movie, but another one.

My gaze lingers on which category of Best Foreign Language Film...

Didn't you see it?!

After looking through it again carefully, he finally saw the name of "Curse of the Golden Flower" in the Best Costume Design nomination column.

"Hahaha!"

He finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.

This time, Zhang Weiping really lost face!

They boasted so much before, saying they were determined to win the Oscar, but reality has slapped them in the face.

……

"Due to the exhaustion of its box office potential, the crime film 'Confession of Pain,' created by the original team behind the 'Infernal Affairs' series, stopped at 6053 million at the box office."

"Zhang Yimou's new film 'Curse of the Golden Flower' ultimately stopped at 2.73 million yuan at the box office, and only grossed $613 million in Hollywood, failing to meet expectations."

"Revised Vision's new works, 'The Equation of Love and Death' and 'Crazy Racer,' have successfully started filming in Kunming, Yunnan and Xiamen, Fujian, respectively..."

Huayi Brothers announced that filming for "The Forbidden Kingdom" will begin after the Lunar New Year, vowing to create a classic action blockbuster and help traditional culture break into Hollywood!

"Reprinted from The Hollywood Reporter: The nominations for the 79th Academy Awards have been announced. 'Curse of the Golden Flower' was only nominated for Best Costume Design, failing to make it into the grand prize category..."

Zhang Weiping's arrogant personality alone destined him to offend many people.

Sure enough, "Curse of the Golden Flower" failed to win an Oscar, and karma struck.

"Still aiming for the Olympics? With what? With steamed buns?"

Yu Dong: "I was deeply gratified to hear that someone failed the exam today. I hope that this person will do good deeds and not be overly ambitious."

"Tsk tsk, didn't you say you were going to punch 'New World' and kick 'Taken'? Why aren't you kicking it anymore? Did your leg break? Are you in a wheelchair now?"

"Those who are arrogant will surely be punished by Heaven!"

"Money lost, prize gone, someone's going to cry their eyes out in the bathroom again~"

Most of the voices online are not from netizens, but from colleagues who have been criticized and belittled by Zhang Weiping.

Even Section Chief Jia posted an article saying, "Those who do many unrighteous deeds will surely perish!"

Clearly, he still harbors resentment towards Zhang Weiping for his previous mockery.

Upon receiving the news, Lü Rui learned that in order to retaliate, Jia Zhangke was already traveling around lobbying to establish a special art cinema, hoping to contribute to the future of art films and to refute Zhang Weiping's claims.

At this moment, a new scene appears.

Zhang Weiping's feelings had evolved from initial bewilderment to resentment, incomprehension, and disbelief...

Ever since "Curse of the Golden Flower" left theaters, he has been waiting for Harvey's feedback.

Because the other party made a solemn promise to him before the film's release that they would definitely help "Curse of the Golden Flower" win an Oscar, otherwise he would not have felt comfortable handing over the distribution rights to The Weinstein Company.

But now, things are all messed up. The results are out, and it's all ruined!

He didn't get the nomination he wanted, and everyone is mocking him. How can he show off now? How can he soar?
He made call after call, and after a while, Harvey finally answered.

"What about the awards? What's with the Oscars?!" Zhang Weiping demanded angrily.

However, on the other end of the phone, Harvey calmly retorted, "The film's box office performance is terrible, and its quality is completely substandard. How can it compete for awards? What qualifications does it have to compete for awards? Do you think the Oscar judges are all idiots?"

These words left Zhang Weiping speechless.

For a film, low box office and poor quality are its original sins.

All subsequent problems can be explained by this "original sin".

What he didn't know was that Harvey was even angrier, more upset, and more frustrated than he was!
From "The Sun Also Rises," to distributing "The Banquet," and now this "Curse of the Golden Flower"...

The failure of several films in a row caused him to lose a large amount of distribution costs.

If we hadn't stopped the losses in time, quickly removed these half-dead movies from the shelves, and tried to recover the losses through other channels, the company might have been dragged down!

Zhang Weiping even had the nerve to question him about why he couldn't win an Oscar.
He also wanted to ask why Zhang Yimou, who made "Hero," would make such a bad film.
"So be it."

Harvey hung up the phone immediately, and the two parted on bad terms.

"Brother, why don't we completely cut off our cooperation with Chinese-language films... and focus on the European market? That way we can avoid continuous losses..."

His younger brother Bob grumbled beside him, expressing his dissatisfaction with Harvey's move to target the Chinese-speaking market.

"What do you know? Europeans aren't as easy to fool as those yellow-skinned bastards."

Harvey scolded his younger brother, but couldn't help thinking of Lü Rui again.

This kid may be as slippery as an eel, but I have to say, the movies he makes are really profitable!

He has been keeping a close eye on Lü Rui lately.

The Pacific Rim project is no longer possible because Sony Columbia is involved.

But he received news that this guy also had an art film called "Dying to Survive," which was probably being prepared to compete for awards.

If we can acquire the rights to this movie and release it in the North American market or remake it, the chances of success would be very high!

He also had his eye on Li An's "Lust, Caution".

Unfortunately, the other party was collaborating with Focus Features, a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, so he had no chance to intervene.

"We need to think of another way to regain this kid's trust..."

Harvey muttered to himself, lost in thought.

At this moment, Lü Rui had no idea that he had been targeted by that mangy dog ​​again.

He's currently busy with the post-production work for "Pacific Rim".

Regarding this part of the work, especially the visual effects and special effects, he divided it into three parts.

The most difficult part was handled by the Sony Columbia team, the medium-difficulty part was handled by the technical team at Ruixing Pictures, and the simplest part was left to the domestic team.

This was a last resort, as the technology and equipment of domestic teams simply cannot compare with those of Hollywood.

This arrangement was necessary to ensure the film's progress and quality.

However, in addition to this, Lü Rui will also regularly arrange for people to come to Hollywood for further study and training.

He believes that given time, once the technology here is "learned" and improved, the domestic team will one day be able to rival Hollywood!

Meanwhile, during his free time, he also went to Sony Columbia and met with Hans Zimmer, the Hollywood composer Sony had hired for him.

Hans Zimmer, who is 50 years old this year, was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and is known as the spokesperson for Hollywood blockbuster soundtracks!
The score for "The Last Emperor," which won the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1986, was composed by him.

He was also responsible for films such as Thelma & Louise, The Lion King, Gladiator, and Pearl Harbor, creating countless classics.

Lü Rui paid a considerable price to invite this person, as the appearance fee was not low.

This time, however, he wasn't as impulsive as Jiang Wen had been before, immediately demanding that the other party write a piece of music no less than a Mozart symphony.

He first showed Hans Zimmer some film clips, and then made a few general requests:

"I need an epic feel, to create a magnificent atmosphere of mechs fighting monsters, and to enhance the sci-fi mechanical feel. I need the melody to be tragic yet passionate, precisely matching the grand narrative of 'humanity uniting to fight against giant beasts'."

These requests were not excessive, and Hans Zimmer readily agreed.

As for Mozart's "Symphony of Jupiter," we can let him hear it later. Let's first get him in line... no, let's stabilize him first.

We also need to stabilize Xu Jingqing's situation first.

Let him try it first, and then make demands that are no less than "Cloud Palace Melody", so that he can be mentally prepared, right?
This is not an intentional attempt to scam people.

Which composer doesn't want to write a classic piece?
This is all for a dream, how can it be called deliberately ripping people off?
Let's suffocate together for our dreams!

Lu Rui held Hans Zimmer's hand, speaking sincerely.

The latter didn't quite understand what he meant, but just nodded blankly and started thinking about how to compose the music.

He had learned from Lü Rui that there was also a master composer in China who was in charge of the music for another part of Pacific Rim.

Therefore, he has to give it his all; he can't afford to be outdone...

(End of this chapter)