Chapter 338 A major stroke in the history of literature
With the addition of Mark Gordon, the project "Hurricane Rescue" quickly made progress.
This starts with the setting of the movie itself.
Originally Chen Linfeng’s idea was to place the story in Southeast Asia.
The villain is directly set as a gang in northern Myanmar, a group of criminal groups who want to traffic in people and organs.
To a certain extent, it is consistent with the realistic impression.
Moreover, the filming location is in Southeast Asia, so the cost will be relatively low. Yinghuang has great influence in these places and can also find local connections.
However, Mark persuaded Chen Linfeng to change this idea.
If you want to win global box office, you can’t be too “Asian”.
Since two important characters, Fang Long and Liu Qianqian, are already Asian, it is best for the remaining characters to be European and American characters, so that they will not be easily rejected by European and American audiences.
For example, Fang Long's past action films, even if they were purely Hong Kong films, often included a white heroine and some Western villains.
The entire story was filmed in locations all over the world, which makes it more attractive to overseas audiences.
Chen Linfeng also knew this, but he did not have many contacts in Europe before.
Simply change the settings first, and then decide whether to change them based on the situation during this trip to Hollywood.
Mark is a very qualified producer. He immediately noticed the unreasonableness of the project and suggested corrections.
Chen Linfeng naturally "followed the good" and asked Mark to find a solution.
Mark's connections in Hollywood are really good, and Summit Entertainment is now quite famous. Chen, as a Golden Lion Award-winning director and Oscar-winning screenwriter, has an exaggerated record.
Several European and American companies that were interested in cooperation were soon contacted.
As for Hollywood, Disney has already joined, and the promotion and distribution of Beautiful Country no longer requires cooperation.
So Mark chose European companies.
There are two companies in total, one is French Europa Film Company, and the other is M6 Film, which is a British company.
The reason why I chose these two.
On the one hand, it is conducive to publicity in Europe, and it can also provide convenience for their filming in Europe.
Chen Linfeng took a few days to meet with Fanglong and the two companies that were willing to invest, and then negotiated the terms smoothly.
In the end, for the movie "Taken", Summit Entertainment accounted for 30% and Qilin Company 10%, which means that Chen Linfeng accounted for 40% in total.
China Film 20%, Disney 15%, Yinghuang, Europa Films, and M6 Films total 20%, and the rest are scattered investors.
The total investment is US$35 million, of which Fanglong’s salary alone is US$12 million, which is the result of a partial salary reduction.
Director and screenwriter Chen Linfeng’s fee is US$5 million, plus a 10% share.
Liu Qianqian’s salary is US$1 million. If the movie does well at the box office this time, the domestic price will be the same in the future.
Only in the next few years, the salaries of domestic first-line actors increased significantly. Chen Linfeng found a way to add these to her, which would probably keep up with the increase in the mainland.
It's actually a bit exaggerated.
Others, including production costs and some publicity costs, are included.
In fact, the total investment is much higher than the previous version.
But there is nothing we can do about it. Fang Lung’s salary is definitely much higher than that of the original protagonist Liam Neeson.
And director Chen Linfeng is much more famous than the original director in his previous life.
A salary of US$5 million plus 10% share is a weird model that few directors can get.
However, both Fang Long and Chen Linfeng have a certain degree of fame and appeal around the world.
The level of remuneration has clearly reflected their level.
Chen Linfeng hopes that Fang Long’s joining will bring the movie’s box office to a higher level.
The beginning of a movie series can often determine the subsequent box office trend of the entire series.
In this regard, he is confident that it can surpass the original work in his previous life.
In mid-March, Chen Linfeng had almost finished everything he had to do in Hollywood.
But he has no intention of leaving. There are various signs that the two shortlisted Chinese Literature Awards this time seem to be promising.
He asked Liu Qianqian to go back early. Cheng Er's new movie has begun preparations, and Qianqian needs to prepare for the role.
Moreover, the promotion of "Twelve Zodiac Signs" that she participated in last year has already started. As an important role, she also has to participate in the promotion.
Naturally, Fang Long also returned to China, and he is the protagonist of "Twelve Zodiac Signs".
Continue to talk about the beautiful Chinese Literature Award.
America Media has recently reported and summarized the outstanding works and writers of last year, and often mentioned Chen Linfeng’s name.
The New York Review of Books recently released the top three outstanding literary works of 2008, and "Her" topped the list for the first time.
This list is often regarded as a preview of the Book Critics Circle Awards.
In addition, "America Literature" and "Reader's Digest" gave Chen Linfeng and the work "Her" very high praise in the writer recommendations.
Note that the "Reader's Digest" in the beautiful country here is not a crooked magazine with similar pronunciation in China.
The two families once had a lawsuit because of their similar names.
"America Literature" and "Reader's Digest" have considerable influence in the United States Publishers Association.
The latter is the award-winning association for the Emily Kendall National Book Award.
This was completely different from the last time Chen Linfeng was shortlisted, so he was prepared to wait and see.
Sister Mei’s friends in Pretty Country also told her when exchanging news with her that Chen has a high chance of winning this year. Sure enough, within two days, the American Book Critics Association and the Publishers Association called Sister Mei respectively.
They all invited Chen Linfeng to participate in their awards activities.
"Xiao Feng, you are going to win an award. You have been invited to participate in the awards for both awards."
Sister Mei unexpectedly came to congratulate her and conveyed the time and place of the award.
"Well, if you have a good relationship, it's an extra award."
Chen Linfeng seems a little plain. "Her" has received quite a few awards so far.
The literary influence of Emily Ken is far less than that of old Europe, and even the reputation of its literary awards in the country is not as great as that of Neon.
The Pulitzer Prize is a little more famous, but this is generally a journalism award. In literature, you must be a citizen of the United States to win the award.
Apart from this, not many people pay attention to other awards in the country.
So he really didn’t care too much.
However, Sister Mei doesn’t think so. So far, Chinese people still value Emily Ken the most.
Winning awards here is still different from other places. Although people don’t know the value of the Book Critics Circle Award and the Book Award, they have always heard of the Pulitzer Prize.
At this time, all you have to do is take it along and compare it with the Pulitzer Prize for publicity.
Descriptions such as "the most beautiful three major literary awards in the country" and "a more professional literary award than the Pulitzer Prize" will immediately popularize these awards in the country.
This is all about reputation.
When Sister Mei talked about the operating techniques, Chen Linfeng suddenly thought of Da Liu's "The Three-Body Problem".
Indeed, before "The Three-Body Problem" won the award, how many people in China knew the name of the Hugo Award.
It is estimated that in future generations, there will still be people who don’t know who the Hugo winner of the Hugo Award is.
Chen Linfeng thought of this, so when Sister Mei said that she wanted to try to operate and publish a press release in China, he was non-committal and did not refuse.
That night, Liu Qianqian called to congratulate her. It seemed that she received the news from Sister Mei.
In the following days, Chen Linfeng’s phone kept ringing with calls from relatives and friends from all walks of life.
Even Chen Kaige rarely called to say congratulations, but his words were a little sour.
It seems that the literary dream in Director Chen’s heart is still lingering in his mind.
This made Chen Linfeng pay more attention to it.
He also specifically checked the specific awards included in these two awards.
Book reviewers include awards for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, autobiography, biography, criticism, and more.
Book awards include novels, non-fiction, poetry, youth and childhood literature, etc.
"She" by Chen Linfeng, the shortlisted projects are in the translation category of novels and non-fiction.
He won the award for the former, and he and the translator won the award for the latter.
In terms of gold content, it is definitely most practical to win the Novel Award directly.
In late March, Chen Linfeng participated in the Book Critics Association Award presentation event.
The chairman of the jury, Anita Felicelli, awarded the Translation Award to him and the translator Docero.
“Chen, your work is very well written, but we think that Doklo has done a good job in interpreting your thoughts in the original work during the translation process. We hope you don’t mind sharing the honor with others. .”
Chen Linfeng chuckled and replied, "Mr. Chairman, Docero's translation is very good, and I recognize his translation."
Domestic media began to report a lot on Chen Linfeng's award. And the gold content of the Popular Science Book Critics Circle Award.
Soon, many people learned about the country’s three major literary awards, among which the Book Critics Association Award was prominently included.
People suddenly have a lot more understanding of this award, which is as famous as the Pulitzer Prize.
A week later, Chen Linfeng received the bronze trophy of the National Book Award from Thomas Allen, as well as a bonus of US$10,000.
What was very different this time was that he won the novel award and no one shared it with him.
Although Chen Linfeng said before that he recognized the translator's contribution, this time he was obviously much happier.
Facing Thomas Allen who presented him with the award, Chen Linfeng rarely said thank you twice.
Regarding the award-winning comments, the Book Award gave Chen Linfeng a high evaluation:
“Her” reflects the author’s in-depth thinking on the eternal proposition of ‘love’, and sees the big from the small. , the author's imagination about the future world is all in it
The article describes only the daily life of an ordinary person in the future society, but the shock it brings to people is profound and long-lasting.
In "She", Chen expresses his vigilance towards technological progress and changes in social trends of thought, as well as his thoughts on gender, emotion, morality and many other dimensions, which are worthy of every reader's careful consideration.
This is undoubtedly an excellent and even classic work, and is expected to become an important chapter in the history of literature. ”
Such a high evaluation, which directly rises to the level of a classic in the award comments, is rare in previous comments.
And it has won two heavyweight literary awards in a row, Ai Many media outlets in Milicon have reported on it.
These include major newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.
The domestic media was even more excited. The day after Chen Linfeng won the award, various official media and newspapers reported on it.
It was the second year after the Olympic Games. The Chinese people were very excited and needed such good news to cope with the situation.
People's Daily even did a special report on this to comment on the significance of the matter.
At this time, a news report in N City by Southern Weekly attracted public attention.
(End of this chapter)