Chapter 158: The Layout of the Light Era, Going to Oscar?

"Hey Daniel, you're finally back.

Outside Los Angeles International Airport, the Mediterranean Sea became even more serious. John, who was already bald, hugged Wu Yuan enthusiastically.

"Come, brother, there are so many things going on in the company, you can't just ignore them all!"

"Hey, John." Wu Yuan laughed and shook his head: "Don't Daisy send me company documents every week? I handle everything that needs to be handled on time."

"I don't care about the company."

Although Wu Yuan has not been to the United States for almost a year, he still pays close attention to the development of the Light Era.

I have to deal with many company documents and reports every week.

Daisy, the assistant, also performs her duties very seriously.

"Boss, but you haven't been back to the company for a long time, and none of the new employees of the company have seen you." Daisy, who was standing aside with a briefcase, also said with a smile: "Even I, my personal assistant, can't see you. ”

"You should be the most mysterious film company boss in the entire Hollywood."

"Okay, my bad." Wu Yuan shrugged and got into the Maybach that the company bought for him.

"Let's go home and rest for a day. If anything happens, we'll deal with it tomorrow."

He does have a lot of work to deal with here in Hollywood.

That’s why we arrived in North America in mid-January.

"Daniel, the global box office of "The Hangover 2" has been released, which is US$420 million. This is simply a crazy result."

"The Hangover 2" was first released in North America in the summer of 2004. At that time, Wu Yuan was filming "Love" and did not have time to come to North America to attend the premiere.

But his presence or absence will not affect the take-off of this movie.

Relying on the good reputation and strong box office performance of "The Hangover 1", "The Hangover 2" topped the North American box office for five weeks as soon as it was released in North America. In the North American market alone, it earned US$250 million in box office.

Although it cost more than 20 million US dollars less than when Wu Yuan Mengzhong was released in 2011, it was still an outstanding result.

More importantly, "The Hangover 2" has opened up the global distribution market, and Fox is responsible for it.

Mainly, the disc of "The Hangover Part 1" sold very well in the global market. Fox, which is responsible for this part of the business, was optimistic about the box office performance of the sequel in the global market, so it worked hard to get global distribution for the film.

Fox's efforts did not disappoint. "The Hangover" was released in more than 50 countries and regions around the world in the second half of last year, and the cumulative global box office has reached 420 million.

And this is not the end, the final global box office may reach 450 million US dollars.

Although it is still far behind Wu Yuan's dream of 582 million global box office, that was the box office in 2011. It is only 2005 and theater construction in many parts of the world is underdeveloped. It is already very good to achieve such results.

After all, this is not the kind of Hollywood blockbuster that is widely promoted around the world, but an R-rated comedy.

By the way, they still failed to pass the review in China. Both "The Hangover 1" and "The Hangover 2" missed the Chinese mainland market and could only be released in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

pity.

""Fake Marriage" is now in preparation, and I plan to invite Ryan Reynolds to star in this movie."

"As for the heroine, how about Anne Hathaway? She is very popular in Hollywood right now."

"Who?" Wu Yuan was a little surprised: "Anne Hathaway?"

"Is she too young?"

"In "Fake Marriage", the heroine is older than the hero, and Anne is not suitable."

John still insisted, "But she is very popular now, and the price is relatively cheap."

"Daniel, it's just a comedy movie."

"NO, NO!" Wu Yuan shook his head firmly. He has always believed in playing roles at any age. He doesn't like actors playing old or young in performances, because this will add another layer of difficulty to the performance.

Unless it's the kind of actor whose acting skills are truly superb beyond his years.

But Anne Hathaway is obviously not this kind of actor.

"Well, John, please contact Gwyneth Paltrow and invite her to star in "Fake Marriage"." Wu Yuan thought for a while and said.

The original heroine of "Fake Marriage" was Sandra Bullock. She was the producer of the film and she also invested in the film.

Now that "Fake Marriage" has become a movie produced by Guang Era, there is no need to forcefully contact her.

Wu Yuan thought of another excellent actress born in the 1970s.

Gwyneth Paltrow, the heroine of "Sawain", won the Oscar for this movie.

But it was Marvel's "Iron Man" series that really made her recognized by global audiences.

She plays Tony Stark's girlfriend Pepper Potts in the series.

Gwyneth Paltrow, who was born in 1972, is just right for playing "Fake Marriage" in terms of image and temperament.

Because she played the role of Little Pepper very well after that, the role of a working woman was not difficult for her at all.

"Gwyneth?" John repeated doubtfully.

"Yes, she is good and cheap, which meets your requirements." Wu Yuan spread his hands: "The prerequisite is that you have to convince her to act in such a comedy movie."

"Okay, you are the boss, I listen to you." John agreed.

Wu Yuan added: "You have to move quickly. It is best to finish filming "Fake Marriage" within this year."

Because Gwyneth will have her second child next year, she has two children in three years, and she only has time to film in 2005, so we have to seize the window of opportunity.

John drove Wu Yuan back to his mansion in Beverly Hills.

Although Wu Yuan has not been here for almost a year, the mansion is still spotlessly clean, and all toiletries are new.

Daisy, the personal assistant, comes to check once a week, which is the most important part of her work.

After a simple rest at home for one night, Wu Yuan showed up at Guangshidai the next day.

The company has expanded a lot and recruited dozens of new employees.

When these employees entered the company, they did not know that the boss behind the company was Wu Yuan, or they learned the news from the old employees after working for a long time.

This really shocked them.

Wu Yuan is quite famous in Hollywood, but most people outside only know that he is an excellent director and do not know that he also has an independent film production company.

This time, Wu Yuan personally came to the company for a tour and showed his face, which gave the employees a fresh look and made the new employees more motivated to work.

It's nothing else, the celebrity effect.

This is the same as the celebrity shareholders that were later introduced in China.

The company has the blessing of celebrities, which can still make the grassroots employees more motivated to work and feel that the company is very powerful.

Wu Yuan's role in the company, in addition to coming up with the script, is more often a mascot. He is only responsible for signing and nodding for matters at the company's operational level.

Coming to the office that he has only been to a few times, Wu Yuan sat in the soft boss chair and talked with John about the focus of the company's next stage of work.

"John, you can wait for The Hangover 3. Two movies in two years is already a bit aesthetically fatigued. Let's wait until 2007 for The Hangover 3."

"The focus of this year and next year will be on the two movies, The Proposal and The Blind Side."

】

"By the way, how is the cooperation on Night at the Museum going?"

After John bought the copyright of the original storybook of Night at the Museum, it didn't take long for someone from Fox to come to him.

Fox also set its sights on the film adaptation rights of this story, but Wu Yuan, with his foresight, bought the IP first.

At first, Fox wanted to buy the film adaptation rights directly from Light Age.

Light Age only spent one million dollars to buy the 10-year film adaptation rights of this story, which was a bargain price.

Fox was willing to spend two million dollars to buy it, which was equivalent to Light Age making one million dollars just by passing it over, which was as easy as picking up money.

But John didn't agree. He talked to Fox about co-production according to Wu Yuan's arrangement.

"We've almost reached a deal. Fox wanted to take control, but I argued and won."

"We will take 70% of the production, and Fox will take 30%. The two companies will take care of it, which is quite convenient."

"The initial budget is $12 million, a very low-cost movie."

John looked puzzled, "Daniel, can such a fairy tale for children really be a big hit if it is made into a movie?"

"Yes." Wu Yuan nodded firmly, "And the box office results will definitely surprise you."

If it weren't for the memory in the dream, Wu Yuan would not have believed that such a low-cost fantasy comedy with an investment of 12 million could sell more than 500 million US dollars worldwide.

This is higher than the profit ratio of "The Hangover".

"Anyway, it's only $12 million investment, and the loss won't be much money." Wu Yuan shook his head and finally comforted John.

Wu Yuan is still very happy to cooperate with Fox. Although Guangshidai can easily come up with 12 million US dollars, to survive in Hollywood, you still need to build a good relationship with at least one of the six major companies.

Now Wu Yuan has a good relationship with Disney, and the company is also strengthening its relationship with Fox. Even if it shares part of the profits of "Night at the Museum", it is OK.

There is no other reason. This kind of relationship based on interests is the most reliable. In the future, Guangshidai will not be boycotted by the six major companies when it does other big-money projects.

As long as one or two companies are willing to continue to cooperate, Wu Yuan can happily take advantage of Hollywood's global channels and North America's largest film market.

He has thought about it. By next year, he can buy the copyright of the novel "Twilight", which is also a cash cow.

Moreover, when "Twilight" was adapted into a movie, no company in Hollywood was optimistic about the success of this movie. They all thought that this kind of fan-oriented movie was useless.

Similar to the views of ordinary domestic movie fans when it was reported that "Tiny Times" was going to be made into a movie, I really don't think such a naive youth idol novel will be adapted into a movie.

Finally, Summit Entertainment, a third-rate independent film production company in North America, picked up the opportunity.

Then "Twilight" became the most popular youth idol movie in history, which shocked countless people.

Wu Yuan must seize such an opportunity to pick up the opportunity.

If Summit Entertainment can make it, there is no reason why he can't make it.

Wu Yuan has only one requirement for Guangshidai, to make some movies with low cost and big money. He doesn't care about awards and reputation.

"Twilight" was criticized a lot, but it doesn't matter, as long as it makes money!

Foreigners clearly distinguish between companies and individuals.

Wu Yuan's company only cares about the box office, not the reputation and awards, and it does not affect his personal reputation.

As long as his own movies have a good reputation, he will still be the excellent genius director.

After talking about work and determining the focus of the next stage of Guangshidai's work, John and Wu Yuan talked about some personal matters.

"Daniel, are you going to compete for the Oscar this year?" John poured Wu Yuan a cup of coffee and asked casually.

The news of the movie "Love" has spread to North America.

Although the public's impression of Wu Yuan is more of a commercial film director and the father of "Pirates of the Caribbean".

After all, his "Departures" was not released in the United States, nor did it receive the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

However, Hollywood professionals and film critics have not forgotten that Wu Yuan's "Departures" won the Best Director Award in Berlin.

Wu Yuan announced the news of his new film's award at the China Golden Rooster Awards, and the next day it was also on the Hollywood Entertainment Daily.

Many senior North American movie fans and art film enthusiasts are now also paying attention to Wu Yuan's new movie.

John also wanted to help his boss build momentum.

"Daniel, if you want to compete for this year's Oscars, then "Love" should be screened on a small scale in North America first."

If you want to compete for the main competition award of the Oscar, you must have a movie that has been screened on a large scale in North America to be eligible.

John gave professional advice: "Start a small-scale screening in October, and expand the scale to the entire North America in December, and start to build momentum for the movie and publicize the review."

"All kinds of receptions and parties must be held, and gifts for the judges must be prepared in advance."

In North America, Oscar award public relations are no longer a secret.

In order to make their films win the favor of Oscar judges, every year during the selection period, film companies will spend huge sums of money to launch a massive public relations and publicity campaign.

Large companies like the Big Six invest at least $100 million in Oscar public relations activities every year.

The basic cost to participate in the selection is at least $200,000, and in order to be nominated for key awards, the basic cost is more than $1 million.

There are even special public relations companies that handle related matters, and there is a complete Oscar public relations industry chain.

Directors like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige tried desperately to win an Oscar in the following years, but they didn't understand the tricks of the Oscars at all. They didn't do any public relations and didn't give money, so of course they couldn't win.

If a movie like "Love" wanted to win an Oscar, it would have to spend at least several million dollars to hold several large screenings to invite judges to participate, and then give gifts to these judges at the screenings.

The gifts usually include an authentic DVD disc, plus some "carefully prepared" small gifts, usually worth tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Even the judges who didn't attend the event would receive gifts sent to them.

It is worth mentioning that during the Oscars season, Chinese audiences can often search for pirated resources of all Oscar-nominated movies on the Internet. These resources are leaked from the DVDs sent by the producers to the Oscar judges.

In short, the public relations, momentum and scale of the Oscars are almost the same as those of the North American elections, and they are fair, aboveboard, legal and compliant.

If "Love" has a goal of winning an Oscar, it should prepare at least 20 million US dollars for one award, otherwise, no matter how good your movie is, it will be difficult to win an award.

Wu Yuan certainly didn't want to waste this money.

He shook his head, "No, "Love" will go to Cannes. When the Oscar comes, China will submit the Oscar's Best Foreign Language Film Award, so we will just participate in the selection of this award."

"John, I'll leave the public relations in this regard to you. I'm still very interested in the Best Foreign Language Film Award."

John raised his eyebrows. He rarely saw a Hollywood director who was so rational about the Oscar.

"No problem, Boss."