Chapter 398 The Wolf of Wall Street
The next day, Wang Shu and Matt Damon met at a coffee shop and took out the script he had prepared, "The Wolf of Wall Street."
In the original timeline, the film started shooting in August 2012 and premiered in New York on December 17, 2013.
This is 2008, long before 2012.
"The Wolf of Wall Street, adapted from the autobiography of stockbroker Jordan Belfort?"
Matt Damon took the script and saw the mark on it, and looked at Wang Shu with bright eyes.
Wang Shu shrugged, looking like he was in a biographical movie.
Matt Damon felt excited and continued to read the script.
As we all know, biographical films have always been the most popular at the Academy Awards.
Although there are other types of films that have won awards, in most cases the awards are won by traditional films.
It is precisely because of this that Matt Damon has waves in his heart.
As an actor who has been in Hollywood for many years, he clearly knows that biographical films have a higher probability of winning awards than other types of films.
If Wang Shu comes up with other types of movies, he may feel that Wang Shu doesn’t understand Oscar and be disappointed.
Now that I saw it was a biographical movie, I was immediately happy.
He feels that if "The Tuner" is well shot, it will be quite competitive for Oscar awards.
If there is another biographical movie, the probability of winning an award will be even greater!
But Matt Damon didn’t know that even though the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Actor at the 86th Academy Awards (2014), It won multiple awards such as leading actor, best director, and best picture, but it was all in vain.
Of course, although it didn’t win anything at the Academy Awards, it did win some awards at the Golden Globe Awards, the National Board of Review Awards and other awards.
As for such a nominated running film, Wang Shu chose to make it even though he knew that he would probably not win the award. This was because of multiple considerations.
Firstly, "The Tuner" will be registered for next year's Oscars. Wang Shu has certain expectations as to whether this movie can win the award.
Secondly, looking at the previous Academy Awards, the films that won the two awards of Best Director and Best Picture, nine out of ten were adaptations of biographies of European and American historical figures and politically correct films.
These two types of movies are simply not suitable for a director like Wang Shu who first arrived in Hollywood from the Eastern Continent.
If Wang Shu stayed in Hollywood for five, six, seven or eight years, and then made this kind of movie again, it would be okay.
At this stage, it would be unbelievable for anyone that he is young and has just come to Hollywood from China, a country with a different culture, but he is adapting biopics of European and American historical figures and politically correct films.
In short, these types of movies are not something he can make at this stage.
Excluding these movies, only a few award-winning movies such as "Life of Pi", "Birdman" and "La La Land" are left that he can make at this stage.
Even "Birdman" is not suitable.
Although the movie "Birdman" is not a biography or a politically correct movie, it is full of American native culture, satire of superhero movie actors, etc.
Wang Shu came to Hollywood for the first time, so under normal circumstances he would not know much about local American culture, so the nature of this movie did not suit him.
In addition, this is another movie full of satire. It not only satirizes superhero movie actors, but also satirizes many things.
The satirical movie offends people and is also not suitable for a "newcomer director" who has just arrived in Hollywood.
As for "Life of Pi", it has a lot of special effects and cannot be produced in a short period of time to make it in time for next year's Academy Awards.
In "La La Land", the actors need to take dance classes first to get the desired effect, which cannot be achieved in a short time.
Both "Life of Pi" and "La La Land" are award-winning movies.
It’s a pity that it won the same Academy Award as “The Tuner”. Thirdly, this is Wang Shu’s first Academy Award since he first came to Hollywood. He does not think that a young director from the East can win the Academy Award for Best Director for his first Oscar.
This has nothing to do with the quality of the movie, but other factors.
Therefore, if he takes out "Life of Pi" and "La La Land" but fails to win the award due to these factors, it will be a big loss.
Furthermore, there is already a "Tuner".
So, his primary goal at this stage is to be nominated for an Academy Award.
If you get nominated, you may win the next Academy Awards.
He is only in his early 20s, he is a Chinese director, and he is new to Hollywood.
Add these together, the old men in the American Academy will most likely not award the grand prize to him.
Even if the film he made has the potential to win an award, it will not be the first time a young Chinese director comes to the Oscars to award him the award.
Therefore, the primary goal at this stage is to secure nomination.
Being nominated is already a success.
Of course, it would be better if you can win a prize.
Under such factors, Wang Shu must not take out the award-winning film and give it away.
So, nominating movies is a better choice.
Although "The Wolf of Wall Street" is also a biographical film, this film is different from many conventional biographical award-winning films at the Academy Awards.
Those award-winning biographical films are basically biographies of people in another field. The Wolf of Wall Street is a biography of the "stock god".
This kind of biography involves knowledge about stock trading and is a movie that can be made by foreign directors who are new to Hollywood.
Fourth, the subprime mortgage crisis broke out in the United States in 2008 and evolved into a global financial crisis.
During this period, "The Wolf of Wall Street" happened to be released, which really suited the occasion.
Precisely because of the occasion, Wang Shu may be able to take advantage of this wave of global financial crisis and use this occasion film to quickly become known to the European and American public.
As the saying goes, times make heroes.
The outbreak of the global financial crisis is the current situation, and the appearance of "The Wolf of Wall Street" in response to the situation is the "hero".
Many people in Europe and the United States who have been affected by the global financial crisis will definitely take a look at "The Wolf of Wall Street" which is appropriate for the occasion.
Under this current situation, Wang Shu had the opportunity to quickly become known to the European and American public.
In short, it is precisely because of these considerations that Wang Shu decided to take out "The Wolf of Wall Street" as a work that meets the circumstances.
In the original timeline, "The Wolf of Wall Street" was released in 2013. By this time, both the United States and the world had emerged from the quagmire of the financial crisis.
It came out at this time. Although it is attractive, it is not suitable for the occasion.
It is even said that it was precisely because of the financial crisis a few years ago that "The Wolf of Wall Street" came out.
It’s 2008 now, but it’s different.
At the time when the subprime mortgage crisis broke out in the United States, "The Wolf of Wall Street" was released, and the shock to people was beyond the comparison of "an afterthought".
Then the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis evolved into a global financial crisis, and the "Wolf of Wall Street" that responded to the situation will once again increase the "shock" it brings to the European and American public.
(End of this chapter)