"Mist"?
The first thing that came to Lu Yanhe's mind was an American movie he had watched.
A horror film adapted from Stephen King's novel of the same name.
This movie tells the story of a small town where a thick fog suddenly came and surrounded the entire town. There was a terrifying and evil supernatural power hidden in the thick fog.
Lu Yanhe opened the script and read the first three pages. He was a little shocked to find that the beginning of this movie was very similar to the American movie he had watched.
Of course, the beginning is similar, with a heavy fog covering the town. After that, both the characters and the plot development are completely different.
Lu Yanhe breathed a sigh of relief.
For a moment just now, Lu Yanhe actually felt a vague sense of tension in his heart——
At that moment, he was worried that there was also a person in the United States who had traveled through time and brought him with him. Here comes a script called "The Mist".
This horror movie script called "The Mist" tells the story of a remnant soul seeking revenge on the town that hurt him back then.
It’s actually a supernatural horror movie.
Lu Yanhe was surprised.
The genre of horror films has never been popular in China. Due to some unspeakable reasons, this genre has not been able to form a big popularity in China.
But in Europe and the United States, horror films are one of the most profitable genres at the box office.
Lu Yanhe did not expect that Muchen Sorge would come to him with a horror movie script.
However, Lu Yanhe himself has watched a lot of thrillers.
Especially before time travel, when I was in junior high school and high school, many Saturday nights, the teacher would let everyone watch movies in the classroom.
When teachers choose, they usually choose some American animated movies, so that they can learn English at the same time.
Sometimes, the teacher will give the choice to the students. At this time, everyone will usually choose horror or thriller movies. It was at this time that Lu Yanhe watched "The Ring" and "Chainsaw Massacre" "Silence of the Lambs" and a series of horror thrillers...
In "The Mist" by Mulken Sorge, the ghost who comes to seek revenge after death comes to the character played by Lu Yanhe.
This is an Asian American. After coming to this small town with his parents, his family has been in a bad situation because of the discrimination against Asians in the town.
In the end, they died from deliberate arson by a few teenagers in the town.
The story begins five years after this incident, starting with the timeline when these teenagers who deliberately set fires grew up.
The Asian ghost played by Lu Yanhe initially appeared as an evil villain, endangering these people. As the plot slowly progressed, he deliberately caused various accidents to happen to these people and used various threats to them. His motives were revealed by forcing them to recall the arson incident and admitting what they had done in front of everyone in the town.
However, the people in the town had no intention of punishing these murderers. Instead, they believed that the Asian family had destroyed the tranquility of the town. They hired an exorcist to purify the Asian ghost.
At this point, the story of the movie has progressed to two-thirds. In the last third, which is the climax of the movie, the Asian ghosts and the exorcists launched a fierce struggle. In the process, the Asian ghosts continued to fight back. , and finally killed all the people who set fire to his family.
It took Lu Yanhe almost an hour to read the script.
He sees quickly.
There is almost nothing confusing about this script, so there is no need to think too much.
Overall, this is a very enjoyable horror film. Especially for Lu Yanhe, one could tell at a glance what role Muken Sorge wanted him to play. After stepping into the role of this Asian ghost, Lu Yanhe read the script completely from the perspective of revenge.
In general, after learning why the ghost wanted to take revenge for killing the people in the story, Lu Yanhe completely understood him.
The theme of revenge is a unified theme regardless of national or cultural background. At first, Lu Yanhe was worried that this character turned an Asian character into a villain. The image of deliberately doing evil made him a little worried. By the middle of the film, Lu Yanhe no longer felt that this was a villain.
The further back, the more Lu Yanhe felt that this Asian ghost was the protagonist of this story.
After Lu Yanhe finished reading, he glanced at Muchen Sorge in surprise and said, "Mr. Sorge, do you want me to play the role of the revengeful ghost?"
Although he had already guessed it, Lu Yanhe still wanted to confirm it with him.
Muchen Sorge nodded and said: "Yes, I watched your performance in "Three Mountains" and I was completely shocked by your performance. When I was writing this script, you were the one who was in my mind." "I hope I can invite you to act in this movie."
"Three Mountains"——
Well, maybe in the eyes of Muken Sorge, "Three Mountains" It's also a ghost movie.
After all, it is indeed mysterious.
Moreover, Lu Yanhe's performance in "Three Mountains" is not normal, like a man possessed by an evil spirit.
Lu Yanhe probably guessed why Muchen Sorge wrote such a character in "The Mist".
Speaking of which, the ghost in "The Mist" is a bit like the fortune teller.
At the beginning of the story, he keeps appearing with strange phenomena and intimidating others. Those scenes have the shadow of "Three Mountains".
Lu Yanhe said: "Mr. Sorge, thank you for inviting me to play this role. However, I can't give you an answer yet. I need to take it back to discuss with my agent."
< br>Muken Sorge nodded and said: "No problem."
Mulken Sorge added: "However, this is still a low-cost movie, and our budget for actors' remuneration is not high. As you know, this movie will definitely not be released in mainland China, nor will it be sold. To streaming in mainland China, this will greatly weaken your ability to handle the box office.”
Lu Yanhe knows that there is nothing wrong with what Muken Sorge said. The movie "The Fog" is destined not to be released in mainland China, which means that the ticket bank behind him cannot be used as capital for his salary negotiations.
“According to our current budget, we can only give you a salary of US$600,000.”
Six hundred thousand US dollars, according to the current exchange rate, is about four million yuan.
If you don’t take into account the Mainland China ticket sales represented by Lu Yanhe, this salary cannot be said to be deliberately low, but it is indeed not high.
After all, Lu Yanhe still has a certain degree of popularity and influence in Asia. Not to mention, his results on several streaming media such as Maxine and HP are very good. If there are movies starring him, they will definitely give a Relatively higher purchase price.
Lu Yanhe did not express his position immediately, but said: "I don't understand the remuneration thing, so my agent will have to talk to you."
As for "The Mist" Lu Yanhe didn't even know if he wanted to act in the movie.
It is even more impossible to say that in order to star in this movie, I don’t care about the salary.
Lu Yanhe smiled at Muchen Sorge and said, "Mr. Sorge, let me go back and talk to my agent first. I have just watched this movie and haven't studied it seriously yet. , please give me some time to think.”
Muchen Sorge nodded.
-
“This is a good opportunity.” Chen Ziyan’s reaction exceeded Lu Yanhe’s expectations.
"Huh?" Lu Yanhe originally thought that Chen Ziyan would think this project was average.
Chen Ziyan said: "First, Mulken Sorge is not an unknown person. His two previous horror films "Z" and "Trek" both exceeded 50 million in the North American box office and the global box office. Both exceeded 100 million U.S. dollars, and the results are very good. If it were not for the limitations of the genre of horror films, he must have become a famous director with the results of these two films. In fact, he is not bad now. His new film will not worry Actor not found”
"Second, this is Hollywood taking the initiative to come to you to act. It's not the kind of bad movie that you don't know the background of. It's produced by a serious film company. Your role may not be Ichiban, but judging from the content, It’s completely the protagonist’s setting.”
Lu Yanhe flipped through the script.
“Indeed, there are many scenes of ghosts, and there is a lot of room for expression.”
“You have to know that although Hollywood is said to be a multi-racial and diverse place, it is actually still xenophobic. Most of the actors who want to get into it start from supporting roles. If you look at the foreign actors who have successfully got into it in recent years, who is not like this?”
Chen Ziyan tapped her fingers twice on the table. Down.
"Based on your current situation, this may be the only starring role you can get." Chen Ziyan said, "Given the performance of Muken Sorge's past two films, and this film continuing to follow the horror thriller route, the box office performance It’s definitely not bad. Your first film in Hollywood has achieved outstanding results. This will be very beneficial to your reputation in North America and will be very helpful for you to take on future roles.”
Lu Yanhe nodded and said: “ What about the pay?”
"I'll negotiate the remuneration. Six hundred thousand dollars is definitely low, but it won't get much higher." Chen Ziyan said, "We have to be mentally prepared for this. After all, this movie cannot enter the mainland market. , our biggest negotiating capital is directly ineffective."
"Yes."
Chen Ziyan added: "If you can enter the Hollywood market through this movie, it will be beneficial to your future career development. A great help.”
In the world that Lu Yanhe traveled to, American movies and Hollywood were still the largest film markets in the world, but their influence was relatively weaker than the world before Lu Yanhe traveled to.
This is mainly because the gap between the four major international film festivals and major film markets and the American Oscars and market is not as big as the world Lu Yanhe was in before.
This difference actually gives many places the opportunity to take a breather and develop their own markets.
Including Korean movies and TV dramas. In the world before Lu Yanhe crossed over, they had almost completely become streaming media producers. They seemed to be developing well. In fact, South Korea's local film and television drama market was hit hard, and a large number of production talents went to streaming media. .
But here, South Korea’s local streaming media platform X-K is doing very well, and American-controlled streaming media platforms like Maxine still have to pay attention to Asians like Zhong Benshuo in Asia. to promote the Asian market.
This difference actually means the difference between retaining some local forces and firepower and completely becoming a vassal of a big factory.
This is especially true in the European film market.
The film market they united has effectively resisted the monopoly of Hollywood films on the market, and their films have achieved good box office results every year.
Including special effects blockbusters, this is not a patent of American Hollywood.
This is a world where markets are turbulent.
Chen Ziyan asked Lu Yanhe to take an international route because she wanted to follow the Hollywood star-making path and launch a truly world-class Chinese superstar.
This means that on the four major film festivals, Lu Yanhe must continue the momentum of the past two years and continue to maintain his presence in international film festivals. On the other side of Hollywood, which has not yet opened up, Lu Yanhe also needs to find Chance.
The Mist is one such opportunity.
-
After Lu Yanhe discussed it with Chen Ziyan, he did not hesitate any longer. Chen Ziyan immediately went to contact Muken Sorge and the production company of "The Mist" D19. Negotiated.
Before the negotiation, Chen Ziyan specially compiled a box office and streaming media performance of the movie starring Lu Yanhe in overseas markets, especially the evaluation opinions of the two streaming media platforms Maxine and HP on the movie starring Lu Yanhe.
Lu Yanhe had never made any achievements in Hollywood before, so it was definitely impossible to ask for a share of the profit. He could only negotiate the most basic salary.
Chen Ziyan is not inexperienced in this area.
Both Shang Yongzhou and Chen Bige have made Hollywood films before.
Chen Ziyan can generally calculate how much of the actor's budget is based on the cost of a movie. Based on the movie's lineup and the importance of the role played by Lu Yanhe, she can roughly analyze how much she can drive. mouth.
But when Chen Ziyan started contract negotiations with D19 Company, something happened.
Although Muken Sorge took the initiative to approach Lu Yanhe and invited him to star in the film, the production company D19 had doubts about Lu Yanhe.
The biggest doubt about D19 is that all Lu Yanhe’s masterpieces are art films. Can such an actor act well in a horror movie?
Such a problem will basically not occur in the domestic entertainment industry, because Lu Yanhe has almost reached a consensus because of his wide acting career.
But this is Hollywood. What people in D19 know about Lu Yanhe is that he is an actor who often appears at international film festivals and has a very good box office performance in the mainland Chinese market.
This is indeed a good advantage, but it is not enough for D19 people to recognize that Lu Yanhe is qualified to be the protagonist of a movie.
This is of course D19’s price reduction method.
Chen Ziyan believes that the concerns are real, but they are certainly not fatal concerns. Otherwise, there will be no need to talk about this matter. If there is nothing else to talk to Lu Yanhe, she might as well find someone else.
Chen Ziyan didn’t give in.
Coincidentally, at this time, the Italian magazine cover that Lu Yanhe took when he participated in the Venice International Film Festival came out.
Chen Ziyan sent the magazine to the contact person. "..."
Why do we sometimes find that many actors are closely connected with the fashion industry?
Because these two circles overlap to a large extent.
The most important thing is that the success of a star artist in the fashion circle can best help their further development in the entertainment industry.
Including actors, including acting.
It is difficult to explain clearly how this phenomenon came about. The current situation is that people in the fashion industry recognize box office superstars and award darlings in the film industry, and people in the film industry also recognize muses and celebrities in the fashion industry. people.
Chen Ziyan sent this magazine to explain one thing.
Don’t make a big fuss about Lu Yanhe’s failure to make it in Hollywood. Even if Lu Yanhe has no success in Hollywood, his achievements in movies are even recognized by Italian fashion magazines. This is Recognition accumulated through multiple consecutive works winning awards at international film festivals.
Lu Yanhe's starring role in "The Fog" may not bring you box office success in mainland China, but he is still well-known and influential in the international film industry.
The game between the two parties should be played. On the other hand, creative matters also need to be promoted.
For example, Lu Yanhe provided a DVD of his audition as requested.
In a five-minute DVD, Lu Yanhe sat in front of the camera and spent one minute introducing himself, and then took four minutes to audition with the script.
As for acting, Lu Yanhe is really not afraid at all now.
Even if one person sits in front of the camera and acts like a one-man show.
Compared with the first time he acted three years ago, he now has absolute confidence in himself.
-
After receiving Lu Yanhe’s audition DVD, Muken Sorge excitedly told D19 that the ghost in the drama “The Mist” must be Lu Yanhe.
In the film industry, there is often an argument about horror movies, that is, horror movies do not require acting skills.
But anyone who really knows anything about horror movies knows that this statement is pure fart.
Just look at how many actors have won major awards and nominations for their roles in horror films.
Muken Sorge said: "Only Lu Yanhe can play this role."
D19 Shirley Yang, who was responsible for the film Muken Sorge, had no choice but to say to Muken Sorge said: "Muken, If you had not expressed your choice to Lu Yanhe directly at the beginning, we would have negotiated Lu Yanhe's contract long ago. Every time you express your insistence on him, it will make our negotiations more difficult."
< br>Muken Sorge asked doubtfully: "Has his agent Lion opened his mouth?"
"That's not true." Shirley Yang said, "However, our budget is very tight. , if we can save a little on him, we can hire one or two more well-known actors. For "The Mist", there are many roles in it. If we can find a few more well-known actors to play, it will be better for us. I don’t need to say more about the benefits of the movie, right?”
Muchen Sorge said: "I don't understand these things. That's your business. However, don't let these things lead to the collapse of the negotiation and Lu Yanhe not coming to act."
"Don't worry. , our movie has you as the director. For Asian actors. Said that if they have the opportunity to play a major role in a Hollywood movie, the salary will definitely not be the main consideration for them."
"You should not think about Lu Yanhe with the thinking of an ordinary actor. He is not an ordinary actor. "Muken Sorge said immediately.
Shirley Yang glanced at him in surprise.
"Mu Ken, you have only met Lu Yanhe once, why do you think so highly of him?"
Muchen Sorge said: "Have you seen the movie "Three Mountains" in which he acted?"
Shirley Young shook his head.
Muken Sorge said: "If you go and watch his performance in "Three Mountains", you will know why I must have him play "The Mist"."
-
The relationship between directors and actors is always very delicate.
Some directors never work with actors they have worked with before for a second time.
Some directors have a team of actors that they regularly collaborate with.
There are even some directors who, for a period of time, have the same protagonist in their films.
But generally speaking, the relationship between the director and the actors can be described as "intimate". To a certain extent, actors can stimulate the director's creative desire, and the director can also allow the actors to discover a deeper self.
However, for many people, all of this is a problem only for art films or great directors. As a genre film director, unless you have a preference for a certain type of image, which everyone can understand, otherwise, you, a horror film director, also need a muse? People will just think it's nonsense.
Muchen Sorge is just a horror film director, not an art film director.
Shirley Yang never thought about Muken Sorge's appreciation of Lu Yanhe in this direction.
She always felt that Muken Sorge's favor for Lu Yanhe must be for a reason.
Is Lu Yanhe’s acting skills this good?
After she went back, she watched the movie "Three Mountains" seriously. After watching for a long time and not seeing Lu Yanhe appear, she became a little impatient. Because this movie is really not good to watch. Then, I saw three young people breaking into a temple, and Lu Yanhe appeared.
Lu Yanhe's scene in "Three Mountains" can be said to be Lu Yanhe's first "god-like" moment in a movie.
An actor rose to international fame with a ten-minute scene, stealing the limelight from the protagonists. Later, it became the main publicity point of the movie when it was released. Not to mention Otherwise, this is enough to show how awesome it is.
Shirley Yang, who has been in the film industry for so many years, still has a good sense.
Of course Shirley Young can tell whether an actor knows how to act and to what extent his acting skills are.
Shirley Yang was surprised by Lu Yanhe's performance.
Shirley Yang is a Singaporean whose ancestors were Chinese. Later, she immigrated to the United States and became an American. Although she is of Chinese descent, she does not understand Chinese culture at all. Unlike many people whose parents are Chinese, she has never lived in China, going back two generations. Her family is a family that has lost touch with Chinese culture. This made her never feel that she had anything to do with China. For this reason, most of her Chinese friends would pay attention to certain situations in China, but she did not have this habit.
She also pays almost no attention to China's entertainment industry.
Shirley Yang will pay attention to young actors like Lu Yanhe who emerge at international film festivals, but not much. Hollywood itself is a big enough place. The place with the greatest shortage of talented young people in the world is definitely not those international film festivals, but Hollywood. Because this is the place where the world's top film creators gather most.
Lu Yanhe is very good at acting and has won many awards.
Lu Yanhe's starring roles in China have achieved high box office results, and he is known as the "Box Office Miracle".
Lu Yanhe is also a screenwriter, and even his screenwriting works have been very successful.
But what does this have to do with her, Shirley Yang?
As long as Lu Yanhe does not come to Hollywood to develop, no matter how powerful he is, he will have nothing to do with her, Shirley Yang.
Now, Lu Yanhe is here.
"Lu Yanhe's acting skills are really good. His performance in "Three Mountains" shocked me." Shirley Yang was not stingy in her praise of Lu Yanhe on the phone, "Mu Ken thought I don't think it's strange that he should be cast in "The Mist", but his agent wants a salary of one million, which is a very high figure. Lu Yanhe is not worth this price in Hollywood now."
Shirley Young was on the phone with Fernando Bridge, the owner of D19.
D19 is not a traditional large company.
It made its fortune by making low-cost movies, and the capital behind it was the Bridge family of Fernando Bridge.
The Bridge family comes from Italy and has a history of hundreds of years. Of course, it is not all a glorious history. Originally, the Bridge family was not involved in the film and television industry. For such a large family with a long history, they looked down on new things like the film and television industry at the beginning. They lost the opportunity and it would be more difficult to enter later. .
However, Fernando Bridge has been interested in the film industry since he was a child. He came to the United States to study directing. However, he did not make his own films. Instead, he invested in two films - both with only 100 yuan. He has a unique vision for making low-cost movies of about two million US dollars. Both movies sold a box office of nearly 10 million. Taking into account other income such as home entertainment, it is a huge profit.
He used the money to establish D19, and began to focus on making low-cost track films.
At first, the adults of the Bridge family thought that Fernando was just playing for fun. Every family had some young people who refused to follow the rules, and they didn't care until they discovered a few years later that Fernando had used the D19 It was done well, and the projects it completed were basically profitable, and they were making profits every year. Only then did they take it seriously.
Subsequently, the Bridge family became Fernando's loan bank.
More than half of the funding for the movies produced by D19 comes from the Bridge family business group.
Nowadays, Fernando Bridge is only in his early thirties and is the target of many actresses in Hollywood.
To the butterflies in the colorful world, a man who comes from a big family, has a lot of money, and owns his own company is no different than a flower that exudes a fatal and alluring fragrance.
As a result, Fernando Bridge married Shirley Young before the Hollywood actresses tried their best to win him over.
"Honey, if Mu Ken must choose that Chinese actor to play the role, we should support Mu Ken." Fernando Bridge said to Shirley Young.
Muken Sorge’s previous two horror films were both made at D19, and he is also a representative director of D19. Fernando Bridge is very supportive of Mulken Sorge, a director who has proven himself through two successful films that any film company will support.
Shirley Yang: "Of course we will support Mu Ken. Alas, Mu Ken really shouldn't have gone to Lu Yanhe first. This gave his agent an advantage, knowing that Mu Ken's top priority was The choice is him, otherwise, maybe we can sign him for only four hundred thousand dollars.”
Fernando Bridge said: "One million is just one million, and Lu Yanhe is not an unknown newcomer."
"There has never been such a precedent in Hollywood." Shirley Yang said , "The production cost of our movie is only 8 million, so for a An Asian actor who has never appeared in a Hollywood movie has been paid one million dollars. This breaks industry practice. If this movie could be released in mainland China, I would be willing to pay him two million dollars, but what about this movie? It is impossible to introduce it into mainland China.”
Fernando Bridge said: "If Mu Ken had not chosen Lu Yanhe to play the role, I wouldn't care who played the role. Shirley, the key to this movie is not the actor, but Mu Ken. Since Mu Ken I think I must find Lu Yanhe, as long as it’s not a lion’s mouth. It doesn’t matter if we agree to the conditions. As for Hollywood conventions, we at D19 have never been a traditional mainstream Hollywood film company, have we?”
Shirley Young also followed Fernando Bridge’s brisk tone. He smiled and raised the corners of his mouth.
“Okay.”
-
Chen Ziyan got out of the car with a smile on her face, holding a rectangular box in her hand, went upstairs, and rang the doorbell.
After a while, Lu Yanhe opened the door and looked at her in surprise.
“Sister Ziyan, what did you bring here?”
“The latest MH retro mechanical keyboard.” Chen Ziyan said, “After I saw it, I thought you would like it. So I bought it, congratulations on successfully accepting the movie "The Mist" with a salary of one million dollars."
Lu Yanhe looked surprised.
“Oh——” Lu Yanhe took the rectangular box from Chen Ziyan’s hand and opened it on the spot in surprise, “I have been looking for a suitable keyboard. The keyboard I used before always used the space bar. It’s a malfunction. Your gift was too timely.”
Chen Ziyan: "Is this the point? The point is the movie "The Mist". I've negotiated a salary of one million US dollars for you!"
Lu Yanhe stared at the keyboard in his hand, "Ziyan Sister is awesome!”
Chen Ziyan: “…”
I have never seen Lu Yanhe be so perfunctory before.
Lu Yanhe also suddenly started paying attention to various keyboards in the past two years.
Probably because he has to type almost every day, Lu Yanhe often goes to look at the new keyboards that are launched. Of course, he doesn’t buy any of them.
Even though the space bar was malfunctioning, he never thought about replacing it.
He felt that he had saved money.
Li Zhibai and Yan Liang were both filming outside. Lu Yanhe asked Chen Ziyan if she had any plans for lunch, but Chen Ziyan said no.
Lu Yanhe said, then they can prepare some food at home.
Chen Ziyan asked in surprise: "You often cook by yourself now?"
-
Six thousand words guaranteed, eight thousand words updated.
You have restricted my performance. I still have a manuscript of 4,000 words in hand.
Everyone’s enthusiasm for voting for monthly votes is not strong enough. The campaign to increase monthly votes will continue.
Vote vigorously... Well, for those who don’t have a monthly ticket, I would recommend my old book "I Became a Scandalous Heroine Overnight". It is quite good, so go and read it. . (End of this chapter)