Chapter 81 Reactions from all parties
“Congratulations to Director Zhang for winning Best Horror Film and Best Director. This seems to be the first time a Chinese film has won these two awards at the Saturn Awards.”
Pete behaved very generously. Originally, Zhang Chen thought that New Line would be a little resentful. After all, the two horror films they submitted for selection failed to receive any results. Instead, Zhang Chen, an outsider, won the title of best horror film. He will definitely Somewhat uncomfortable.
But no.
"Thank you, and congratulations to your company for winning multiple awards for "Lord of the Rings 3"."
Zhang Chen also paid a timely compliment.
Personally, he is the biggest winner tonight, but from a company's perspective, the biggest winner is New Line.
New Line's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" tonight won five awards for Best Fantasy Film, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Makeup, and Best Special Effects.
Best Makeup and Best Special Effects are small prizes, but the remaining three are big prizes. New Line is undoubtedly the biggest winner tonight.
"Does Director Zhang know anything about our New Line Company?"
Through Zhang Hongwei's translation, the two chatted word by word.
“Of course, like many small companies, New Line started out as a distributor, with its main targets being European and local low-cost horror films. Later it gradually became involved in production, and began to invest in horror films, and finally Famous for the "Butterfly Effect" and "Death is Coming" series. I remember that your company was acquired by Time Warner? "
"Yes, we were acquired by Time Warner, but we retained our independence in movies. franchise, but one thing I need to correct is that we are now more than just a company that produces horror films."
"I know, you also produced Cheng Long's "Rush Hour" series. br>
“Haha~”
Hearing that Zhang Chen knew this, Pete was very happy: "The "Rush Hour" series is led by me."
Pitt is obviously very proud of this matter, and it is indeed worthy of pride. "Rush Hour" is currently only Two films were made, but both of them were on the global blockbuster list.
The first part cost 30 million, but the box office reached an astonishing 250 million, which really surprised the investors.
In the second part, investment was increased, the cost reached 90 million, and the box office revenue was 350 million. Cheng Long also completely established himself in Hollywood and established a special position in the field of action films.
"Then I have to congratulate you for launching a successful series for the company."
Zhang Chen's compliment made Pitt grin from ear to ear. Back then, he had a unique vision and chose to cooperate with Cheng Long, a non-Hollywood actor, and it turned out to be a great success.
This incident is almost legendary in their company. Pete's status in the company has also increased due to the "Rush Hour" series, so he is very friendly to Chinese actors and directors, and is even thinking about starting a third film. .
But Zhang Chen knew that the third part was a big pit. When the first "Rush Hour" was released, New Line didn't pay much attention to it, so the cost was only 30 million.
But in the end, it created a box office miracle, with an investment of 30 million yuan and a box office of 150 million yuan, which forced New Line to take Cheng Long seriously.
When the second part was launched, Cheng Long's salary increased to 20 million US dollars, which was already the top salary for Hollywood actors, so it was called the 20 million club.
New Line disagreed at first, but considering that the Milestone was the biggest selling point of the film, we finally agreed.
The sequel did not disappoint them, with a box office of 350 million.
When the third part was being prepared, the salary offered by New Line was still US$20 million, but Cheng Long thought it was too low and asked for US$20 million plus 15% of the global box office dividend, in addition to DVD and A share of video sales.
This is definitely the top treatment in Hollywood. Taking a share is equivalent to cutting meat from the production company. Only an actor of Tom Hanks's level can do it.
But in the end New Line agreed.
But the end result was not ideal.
The production cost of "Jiang 3" was 140 million, but the final box office was also 140 million, a huge loss.
And this one has the worst reputation in the entire series.
Then there is no more.
"Point 4" never appeared again, and the series was permanently shelved.
However, Cheng Long made a lot of money from this film, with a total salary + box office share of more than 40 million US dollars, and he can also earn more than 1 million US dollars in subsequent DVD copyright income every year.
But Zhang Chen is also quite confused. What he is confused about is the cost of production in Hollywood.
Cheng Long's salary for "Point 3" was 20 million, and Tucker's salary was higher than Cheng Long's, 25 million US dollars, but there was no share.
The director's salary is 5 million US dollars, and the rental fee for the Eiffel Tower is 5 million US dollars. It is said that the rent was for 10 days in total, and the daily rent was more than 400,000 US dollars.
The total of these is only 55 million US dollars. What did you do with the rest of the money?
This is really confusing. Is it the same as those movies of Louis Koo?
Zhang Chen left early before the party was over. He wanted to break up.
He thought that Pete invited him to the party to discuss the release of "Shark Tank", but that was not the case.
The other party never mentioned "Shark Beach" from beginning to end. Even when Zhang Chen took the initiative to bring it up, the other party avoided it without any trace, as if he didn't want to talk about it.
I was quite interested in the new script that Zhang Chen talked about, and we made an appointment to discuss it in detail, and even exchanged phone numbers.
After Zhang Chen reviewed the movie after returning to the hotel, he felt that Pete didn't care about "Shark Beach". The reason why he invited him was just to express goodwill and to maintain a good relationship.
Maybe "Rush Hour" gave him a taste of the sweetness. He knew that there were capable people among Chinese filmmakers, so he wanted to deliberately make friends with them.
But without sufficient profit motivation, it is impossible for him to make any commitment.
To put it bluntly, although Zhang Chen has been recognized by the Saturn Award, he has not yet proven his ability in the North American market.
So the other party is waiting and watching.
After thinking about this, Zhang Chen decided to leave the matter to Diane for follow-up. There was no need to spend too much energy on things that were uncertain.
Early the next morning, Diane had just turned on the TV, which was full of news about last night's Saturn Awards ceremony.
"The Lord of the Rings", "Kill Bill" and "Into the Dark" took most of the awards last night...
Only then did Diane know that Zhang Chen actually won two Saturns in a row After winning the grand prize, looking at Zhang Chen's high-spirited look in the photo, Diane unconsciously murmured to herself: "I didn't expect that my new boss is quite powerful."
Then she received a message from Zhang Chen. Telephone. "Boss? What are your orders?"
“I met Pete Crawford from New Line last night. I told him about the script we had and he was more interested. You can try contacting him later. His phone number is ..."
After hanging up the phone, Diane suddenly felt a sense of crisis. It seemed that his new boss was not helpless in the United States. He seemed to be doing well without him. It seemed that his efforts had paid off. , you must let your boss see your value.
After explaining Diane, Zhang Chen was about to find a place to have some breakfast when a domestic call came.
There is a 15-hour time difference between Beijing and Los Angeles. As soon as the winners of the Saturn Awards were announced last night, Zhang Xiaobei sent back the press release.
It happens to be the morning of a new day in the capital.
The Beijing News finally got the first-hand news this time, how could it not make a big deal about it.
However, print media is ultimately not as timely as Internet media.
Print media requires typesetting and printing, while Internet media only needs to click a button in the background.
Sohu Entertainment published the news immediately. In the past two years, Sohu has been making efforts in the entertainment sector. Not only does it follow up entertainment news quickly, it is also engaged in introducing genuine American dramas.
[The emerging director won two trophies in a row at the Saturn Awards for "Dark Invasion"]
Other media also followed suit, reprinting and publishing, or simply changing the name and directly stealing it.
[Saturn Award - Best Director from China]
[Shocked! "Dark Invasion" swept the American Saturn Awards】
The shocking body has begun to emerge, and reporters seem to have found the traffic password.
The news was sent out, but it didn't cause any splash.
At this time, probably only the student group paid more attention to entertainment news, and ordinary people did not care too much about what happened in the entertainment industry.
The real influence will only increase after the print media publishes it.
After a day of fermentation, things finally gained some heat.
But at most people know that there is a Chinese director who won two trophies in a row at last night's Saturn Awards. As for which two trophies they were, the name of the winner, etc., I'm sorry, not at all. focus on.
But people in the circle are paying attention.
People who are familiar with Zhang Chen, such as Guangwang Wang Changtian, Huayi President Xiao Wang, Wang Jinghua, the first domestic entertainment manager, Teacher Fu from Nortel College, etc. all called or sent text messages to express their congratulations.
Zhang Chen replied one by one.
Then Zhang Chen received a call from Zhang’s father: “Well, Dad, I won two awards, Best Horror Film and Best Director. Yes, Uncle Li and I are together, but he He's in his room now, oh, mom, I'm used to eating, everything is fine, don't worry, I'll go back tomorrow..."
After dealing with his parents' concern, Zhang Chen had time to feel at ease. Have a hearty breakfast.
......
Domestic, Huayi Brothers
In the office, Wang Jinghua was reading the newspaper. What was published in the newspaper was the news that Zhang Chen won the Saturn Award. In order to prevent anyone from not knowing what the Saturn Award is , the article made popular science about what the Saturn Award is.
While watching, there were footsteps outside the door, and then a knock on the door.
"Please come in~"
After getting the reply, the door was pushed open from the outside, and Zeng Li's figure appeared at the door.
"Sister Hua, are you looking for me?"
Wang Jinghua put down the newspaper and waved: "Zeng Li, come in, close the door."
Wait for Zeng Li to be there After sitting across from him, Wang Jinghua pushed the newspaper in his hand over: "Have you read it?"
Zeng Li nodded when she saw the title.
She usually pays attention to Zhang Chen's affairs.
"By the way, Zeng Li, do you usually have much contact with Director Zhang?"
Zeng Li thought for a while and shook her head: "There has been basically nothing since the completion of "Dark Invasion" "
Wang Jinghua asked again: "Did he say when the sequel to "Dark Invasion" will be filmed? "
Zeng Li shook her head again: "He didn't say, but he did. He once roughly told me this story, but later Che Xiao Xiying disrupted his plan and the project was shelved.”
Speaking of this, Zeng Li was also very anxious.
In the second plot told by Zhang Chen, the character Juno actually survived, and his importance was almost upgraded from a supporting role in the previous one to one of the two protagonists.
This was a great opportunity for her, but she decided not to take the photo.
In the past two days, she felt that she had returned to the state she was in after "The Talented Man and the Beautiful Woman", and her huge popularity was dissipating little by little.
But I have never followed up with better works.
"If you have nothing to do, please contact Director Zhang. You and Director Zhang have known each other since Wei Mo. This is a good thing that many people can't hope for. When you have nothing to do, think about how to get closer to Director Zhang. Okay, that's it. Let’s do it.”
Coming out of Wang Jinghua’s office, Zeng Li also fell into deep thought, how to get closer to Zhang Chen.
Is it possible to unlock a few more postures?
(End of this chapter)