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

Chapter 93 A Time-Stop Series Movie? (5000 words! Requesting monthly votes!)
The Hundred Flowers Awards ceremony had just concluded when the Golden Rooster Awards ceremony began.

The two are completely different in nature.

The former focuses on commercial films, and the awards place more emphasis on public recognition, box office performance, or popularity.

As for the latter, according to the Golden Rooster Organizing Committee:
"This is the most authoritative, professional, and contemporary film award in China!"

The awards ceremony was hosted by Ni Ping and broadcast live by Princess Liu.

There were quite a few nominated works, but most of them were completely unknown to Lü Rui.

Seeing his puzzled expression, Zhang Yimou explained in a low voice, "Many of these works haven't even been released in theaters."

Can a film that hasn't been released in theaters be nominated for an award?
What kind of international joke are you kidding?
"As long as you win an award, you can receive a generous prize."

Lü Rui: "???"

They talk about benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness, but they're actually trying to get something for nothing.
As expected of the Golden Rooster, it certainly knows how to spend money!

The subsequent award results proved that the Golden Rooster Award is still the same Golden Rooster Award, unchanged.

"Best Art Direction Award, Huo Tingxiao – 'House of Flying Daggers'."

"Best Recording Award, Chi Yung-liang - The Pursuit of Happyness".

Compared to Zhang Yimou, Lü Rui felt he was quite lucky, at least he won a great victory at the Hundred Flowers Awards.

As for losing both Best Director and Best Feature Film at the Golden Rooster Awards to Peng Xiaolian's "Beautiful Shanghai," he wasn't too surprised.

After all, this person is no ordinary person.

Peng Xiaolian, 51 years old this year, was born into a very famous performing arts family.

To put it bluntly, they are "one of our own" at the Golden Rooster Awards.

She was a member of the organizing committee, but she didn't participate in the judging this year to avoid any appearance of impropriety.

Peng Xiaolian: I want to participate in the competition, so I won't vote. I'm abstaining. You guys decide what to do.
In addition, the Best Actress award was split between two winners, Zhang Ziyi for "Jasmine Women" and Zheng Zhenyao for "Beautiful Shanghai".

The Best Actor award went to Liu Ye for "The Foliage," while Wang Zhiwen unfortunately missed out.

It is worth mentioning that Lu Le, the director of "The Beauty Grass", is also a member of the Golden Rooster Awards organizing committee.

The Best Supporting Actor award went to Feng Yuanzheng, a familiar face to Lü Rui, for her role in "Beautiful Shanghai".

The Best Supporting Actress award was left vacant.

Overall, "Beautiful Shanghai" was the biggest winner at this year's Golden Rooster Awards!
The Hundred Flowers Award was dominated by "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty".

As for "The Pursuit of Happyness," it only received a consolation prize for Best Recording.

"Wow, brilliant, truly brilliant..."

Lu Rui glanced at Zhang Yimou beside him out of the corner of his eye.
In his opinion, even though "House of Flying Daggers" has its flaws, it should be able to win the Golden Rooster Award for Best Director or Best Feature Film.

However, he only received the Best Art Direction award.

As for "The Pursuit of Happyness"... that bullshit recording award is better left unclaimed!

Feng Xiaogang's face also looked very unpleasant.

The production team of "Cellphone" nominated Fan Bingbing for the Golden Rooster Award for Best Supporting Actress, but the award was left vacant and not presented, clearly showing that they were not giving him face.

"I won't be coming next time."

Zhang Yimou remained calm; although he had been tricked, he didn't seem to care much.

After all, he has international awards to his name; if things don't work out, he can simply stop participating in the Golden Rooster Awards and let them have their fun.

"This place is really boring."

Lu Rui squinted and glanced at Han Sanping not far away.

The other person's brows were furrowed, showing no sign of joy.

"Senior?" Liu Yifei leaned over and asked in a low voice, "What kind of movie is 'Beautiful Shanghai'? I've never even heard of it before?"

"It stars Wang Zuxian, and it wasn't released in theaters. How could you possibly have heard of it?"

"Then why did it win the award? And since it starred Wang Zuxian, shouldn't the Best Actress award go to her?"

Liu Yifei was somewhat indignant because, in her opinion, Lü Rui should have won the Golden Rooster Award this year.

"The Pursuit of Happyness" won the Best Director Award at Cannes and grossed over 8000 million yuan at the box office. How could it possibly lose to a completely unknown film like "Shanghai Story"?
Lu Rui reached out and gently pushed her head back, saying, "Don't ask too many questions, just sit quietly."

"Hmph, it's just not fair!" she muttered indignantly, her voice rising slightly and attracting the attention of many people around her.

Lu Rui, who was leaning back in his chair, immediately sat up straight and shielded Liu Yifei from scrutinizing gazes.

Those gazes fell upon him, instantly transforming into expressions of three parts friendliness, three parts embarrassment, and four parts avoidance.

Their bullying of the weak and fear of the strong is on full display at this moment!

"Hey, this little girl has quite the nerve." Zhang Yimou turned to the side, his smiling gaze falling on Liu Yifei.

"Hello, Director Zhang." Liu Yifei quickly and politely greeted him.

Lü Rui smiled and said, "My junior is a bit too straightforward, Director Zhang, please excuse her."

"It's alright." Zhang Yimou seemed to be in a good mood and even offered, "Let's exchange contact information. I'll contact you if I find a suitable role in the future, how about that?"

Liu Yifei was taken aback and quickly gave her phone number.

She was still a little dazed.

All I did was complain about "unfairness," so why did Zhang Yimou ask for my contact information?
After the awards ceremony ended, everyone got up and left without lingering.

Just then, a young woman dressed as a staff member ran over and called out, "Director Zhang, Director Lü, Director Feng, there's still the Golden Rooster Gala banquet and art symposium coming up..."

"No time." Feng Xiaogang shook his hand and turned to leave.

He was seething with anger tonight and had nowhere to vent it.

Zhang Yimou smiled and said, "Excuse me, I have other things to do."

"I have to catch my flight." Lü Rui also found an excuse to lead Liu Yifei and Wang Zhiwen out.

Golden Rooster Banquet?

Let those who have the "golden rooster" eat it; he has no interest in it.

If it were a banquet for flowers, he might give me some face.

Upon arriving outside the venue, Lü Rui said goodbye to Wang Zhiwen, who had to rush back to the film crew, and then took Liu Yifei to return to the hotel.

Liu Xiaoli is still waiting at the hotel; she needs to get her daughter back safely. What if she gets lost...?

Huh? My daughter is missing?!
A flash of inspiration crossed his mind, but before Lü Rui could catch it, a voice suddenly greeted him: "Hello, Director Lü, I'm Huang Xiaoming."

Yang Guo?

Lu Rui turned to the side and saw Huang Xiaoming grinning at him.

It's quite interesting, really. This guy seems to have a particular fondness for women with big eyes and full lips.

His rumored girlfriend Zhao Yanzi, several ex-girlfriends, his model wife, his socialite girlfriend... they're all in the same category.

"Hello, is there something you need?" Lu Rui asked, puzzled.

"It's nothing," Huang Xiaoming said with a bright smile. "I just happened to see Yifei from a distance and thought I'd come over and say hello. I didn't expect to run into you. Today is truly my lucky day. I especially love the movie you directed, 'Mystic River'..."

It must be admitted that some people are born social butterflies.

For example, Wang Jinghua, and Huang Xiaoming in front of me... their compliments were just right, not deliberate, but rather seemed genuine.

This is actually a unique skill.

"When is Yifei going back to the 'Condor Heroes' set? My flight is tomorrow morning, do you want to come together?"

After praising Lü Rui a few times, Huang Xiaoming turned to Liu Yifei with a gentle smile, truly resembling an uncle looking after his niece.

"Okay, my flight is tomorrow too."

Liu Yifei had a good impression of him, but he always called her "aunt" on set, which made her feel a little awkward.

She's only 17 years old, where did she get such a big nephew?

And that girl who played Guo Xiang, even though she was a year older than me, I always addressed her as "elder sister" whenever we met.

"I'm going back to the hotel too, how about we go together?" Huang Xiaoming chimed in.

This opportunity is too good to pass up. Even if his destination is not actually the hotel, it wouldn't hurt to go back on the way.

Liu Yifei didn't say anything, but turned to look at Lü Rui.

She needs to get her senior's permission first. She's not familiar with Huang Xiaoming; they only met while filming.

"Since we're going the same way, let's go together."

The organizer's car happened to drive up, so Lü Rui didn't refuse.

He had a pretty good impression of Huang Xiaoming; aside from feeling he was a bit greasy, his personality was quite nice.

"I'll sit in the front row, you guys sit in the back."

Huang Xiaoming stepped forward and helped open the car door.

They chatted happily along the way.

Just before getting off the bus, Huang Xiaoming successfully obtained Lü Rui's contact information.

"My junior is young. Please take good care of her after filming of 'The Return of the Condor Heroes' begins."

Lu Rui recalled that it was during the filming of this drama that Liu Yifei developed many minor health problems.

In his past life, he filmed commercials for her, and he would always see her rubbing her lower back.

I happened to run into Huang Xiaoming today, so I casually asked him for a favor.

"Don't worry, Director Lü. Yifei is also my junior. How can a senior not take care of her? With me here, no one in the crew will dare to bully her." Huang Xiaoming quickly made his promise. Regardless of whether Lü Rui and Liu Yifei were just senior and junior, it was always the right thing to do to show loyalty at this time.

"Okay, thank you."

"You're welcome."

Listening to their conversation, Liu Yifei blinked, her big, watery eyes filled with undisguised joy.

"This senior is such a nice guy!"

Huang Xiaoming: ? ? ?

……

After safely handing Liu Yifei over to Liu Xiaoli, Lü Rui didn't linger and headed straight to the airport after packing his luggage.

Time was tight, and he didn't have time to return to the capital; he had to go straight back to Hollywood.

On the way, he opened his laptop and logged onto a portal website.

As expected, the headlines of major websites were filled with news about the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival:

Congratulations to Wang Zhiwen on winning the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actor!

"Warmest congratulations to Lü Rui for winning the Best Feature Film award at the Hundred Flowers Awards for 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'!"

"Zhang Yimou, Lü Rui, and Feng Xiaogang all achieved great success..."

"The Pursuit of Happyness narrowly lost to Shanghai Beauty, sparking heated discussion."

Han Sanping's phone call came in at that moment.

As soon as Lü Rui pressed the call button, he heard an angry roar from the other end: "What kind of bullshit judges are they! They said that 'The Pursuit of Happyness' had too high box office numbers and didn't meet the Golden Rooster Award selection criteria!"

Lü Rui: "???"

Is it my fault that the box office is too high?
"It's alright, I've made an agreement with Director Yimou that I won't get involved anymore."

"Huh?" Han Sanping was taken aback.

Lu Rui emphasized, "From now on, movies co-produced by Rui Vision will no longer need to be nominated for the Golden Rooster Award."

"Row!"

Han Sanping was holding his breath and agreed without thinking.

Upon arriving at the airport and while waiting for his flight, Lü Rui called Zhao Peng, Hou Hongliang, and Tian Xiaopeng to inquire about the progress of their work.

"Everything is ready, we're just waiting for the film to be released!" Zhao Peng was full of confidence.

"We just got the filming permit for 'Crossing the Guandong,' and we'll issue a public notice tomorrow to invite actors to audition." Hou Hongliang is quite efficient.

"We've secured the license for 'Qin's Moon'," Tian Xiaopeng announced first, then turned to Lü Rui for help, "Chairman Lü, some 3D animation production equipment needs to be imported from abroad..."

"Send me a list to my email, and I'll take care of it."

"Ok."

……

When I landed in Los Angeles again, it was already late September.

Lu Rui didn't rush to Warner Bros., but went straight to the set of "Lurking".

After ensuring that filming went smoothly, he prepared to move on to the post-production work of "The Prestige".

Just as they were about to leave, Peter suddenly leaned closer and reminded them, "Lv, should we start negotiations with the distributor now, or wait until the finished film is released before looking for one?"

Whether in China or Hollywood, "distribution" is a crucial element.

The videotape market, television broadcasts, and cinema screenings all rely on distribution support.

However, unlike in China, in Hollywood, the distributors are even more powerful than the production companies! They firmly dominate the very top of the entire industry chain!

The distributor can not only take a cut from the production company's various businesses, but the overall commission rate can be as high as 40%!

This ratio may seem exaggerated, but it is quite common in Hollywood.

Almost all six parties do this.

After the production studios under its umbrella finish making a film, they hand it over to their own distribution label at the highest possible rate.

As a result, the commission rate for the issuance surges, costs naturally increase, profits drop significantly, and the income of the profit-sharing party decreases accordingly.

The main reason for this is that a significant portion of the investment in Hollywood films comes from financing, and well-known directors or actors often enjoy a share of the profits.

In order to generate more profit for the company and give less money to others, the practice of transferring money from one hand to the other has emerged.

Unfortunately, Ruixing Pictures currently lacks distribution capabilities and channels, and must find partners.

Lu Rui had actually considered developing his own company, but after learning more about it, he found that it was too time-consuming and labor-intensive.

For example, DreamWorks was founded in 94, but its distribution channels were not fully developed until the end of 97, when it released "Broken Chains".

Another option is to do what Lionsgate, founded in 97, did: spend tens of millions of dollars to directly buy a publishing company.

This is only within North America.

To establish a global distribution network, at least hundreds of millions of dollars would be required!
With that in mind, Lü Rui temporarily suppressed the thought: "Let's wait until the final cut is released before making a decision."

“Okay,” Peter nodded in agreement.

Lu Rui added, "If you have time, you could also inquire about suitable publishing companies that are willing to sell."

Not having the ability now doesn't mean you won't be able to in the future.

If "Lurking" is profitable, perhaps the profits can be used to buy a small publishing company and then gradually expand...

After leaving the film set, Lü Rui went straight to Warner Bros.

With the current work finished, it's time to speed up the post-production of "The Prestige".

……

On September 23, a notice appeared on the front page of major domestic portal websites and print media.

"The first TV series project of Ruishijie, 'Crossing the Guandong,' has been officially approved!"

The news immediately attracted the attention of the entire film and television industry.

Huayi.

Wang Zhonglei looked at the newspaper and raised an eyebrow slightly: "You've moved pretty fast, haven't you?"

Some time ago, news broke that Ruishijie was going to get involved in the TV series production field.

At the time, almost everyone, including Wang Zhonglei, didn't take it seriously, regarding it as just a rumor.

But now, seeing the media announcement, everyone finally realized what had happened.

It turns out that Ruishijie really is going to try and get a piece of the TV drama market!
I just don't know if it will be a fierce tiger or a weakling.

Wang Zhonglei pondered for a moment, looked at his secretary, and instructed, "Notify the artist management department to have everyone who's free sign up for auditions. A modern historical drama is a good place to hone acting skills."

"Okay, Mr. Wang."

The secretary responded and left.

Other brokerage firms were having similar conversations at this time.

Hairun, Tangren, Xitian, Huanrui, Rongxinda... almost all of them have made new moves.

Actually, they weren't particularly optimistic about the "Crossing the Guandong" project, since it didn't seem to have anything special about it based on publicly available information.

But the "Smart Vision" brand is different!
If we could take this opportunity to get to know Lü Rui, or even get a chance to collaborate on his film projects, that would be a real win.

On the 24th, the action film "New Police Story", starring Jackie Chan, Nicholas Tse, Charlie Yeung, and Charlene Choi, was officially released.

Jackie Chan's box office appeal is undeniable, and he enjoys immense popularity.

Meanwhile, the promotion of "Hitch" and "Kekexili" has also entered its final stage.

The former features Li Ming as the lead actor and also boasts the novel concept of a "love master".

The latter focuses on the exploration of humanity in the context of law, life, and uninhabited areas.

Thanks to Huayi Brothers' support, Lu Chuan's frequent tearful outbursts in front of the media, and the assistance from official media outlets facilitated by her grandfather, the film has maintained high popularity.

Meanwhile, at Warner Bros., Lu Rui's "The Prestige" is progressing very smoothly in its later stages.

He did the editing himself, only using the equipment here.

Producer Lauren Megan and Denise Smith from the copyright department would visit him from time to time.

Especially the latter.

Every time he saw Lv Rui skillfully operating Warner's editing machines and software, he would exclaim in amazement, "Lv, I remember when we first met three years ago, you were still a greenhorn. I never imagined that you would grow up so quickly in just a few years..."

Without turning his head, Lü Rui smiled and replied, "Dennis, this is the 16th time you've said that."

"Haha, I'm truly amazed by your growth, unlike me, who's gotten older but hasn't gotten a promotion."

"Keep up the good work, I believe you will definitely get promoted."

"Sigh." Dennis touched his receding hairline and sighed, "If only there were a time-stopping machine to freeze my age..."

Lu Rui raised an eyebrow and joked, "Are you talking about the time-stopping series in Japanese movies?"

"Hahahaha! I love that series."

Amidst the laughter, a sudden inspiration struck Lü Rui!
He's figured out what script to write for the Australian bid!

Just write "Time paused!"

(End of this chapter)