Chapter 20 Want to Be the Next Ang Lee?

"Yuan'er, don't sleep! Get up quickly!"

Early in the morning, Chen Kun rushed into Wu Yuan's room and shook him out of bed.

Looking at Chen Kun's excited handsome face in front of him, Wu Yuan suppressed his anger and rubbed his face vigorously: "What are you doing, howling in my room so early in the morning!"

"It's a hit! Our movie is a hit!"

“Early this morning, people crowded outside the major cinemas in Sitges, demanding to show our film!”

"Good guy, there must be at least a thousand people!"

"What's going on?" Wu Yuan suddenly woke up and got out of bed to get dressed.

"I heard that the dozen or so local viewers who watched the movie last night promoted our movie after they went home, and many people wanted to watch it today."

Wu Yuan raised his eyebrows and smiled. This was an expected result, but he still became excited. Without washing his face or brushing his teeth, he casually put on a coat and pulled Chen Kun along. Go outside.

"Come on, let's go take a look!"

The hotel where Wu Yuan and the others stayed was in the center of the small town of Sitges. There was a cinema across the street. The two of them arrived at the entrance of the cinema in just a few steps.

Sure enough, just as Chen Kun said, the cinema was crowded with blond local Sitges audiences and some film producers in suits and ties.

People kept shouting to the theater staff, and the voices were very fierce. Unfortunately, Wu Yuan couldn't understand Spanish and didn't know what the audience was talking about.

But the word "Coherence" is still easy to distinguish, and almost every audience member who argued with the theater staff mentioned this word.

This is exactly the English title of the movie "The Night the Comet Came"!

This movie certainly caused quite a stir in Sitges!

Seeing this scene, Wu Yuan's smile became even brighter. Once he became famous, he didn't have to worry about selling the film.

At this moment, Wu Yuan's cell phone rang, and it was from Producer Chen.

"Director Wu, our film has become a hit in Sitges. The film festival officially informed us that our film will be screened at least five times a day in the next few days!"

"Also, many film producers from all over the world are coming to us, wanting to buy the copyright and adaptation rights of our movies. Please go back to the hotel!"

In the hotel, Producer Chen's room has been transformed into a temporary negotiation room.

Chen Yuan and Wu Yuan, wearing suits, were sitting behind office chairs and entertaining a somewhat bald foreign man.

"John, I know that Fox Searchlight is very capable and very powerful in the field of low-cost small film production and distribution."

"But the price you gave is really too low."

Wu Yuan frowned and kept shaking his head, looking like he couldn't reach an agreement.

Fox Searchlight is a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox, one of the six major Hollywood studios.

Twentieth Century Fox will definitely look down on B-type film festivals like Sitges, but their Fox Searchlight subsidiary is an independent production company that focuses on the low-cost film market.

Although Fox Searchlight was only established in 1994, it has a strong background and the support of its parent company. In just seven years, Fox Searchlight has developed very well.

At least in the North American small-budget film market, Fox Searchlight is a very suitable partner.

Wu Yuan needs to be sold at a high price, and Fox Searchlight has money and is in urgent need of good films to capture territory for itself.

Unfortunately, the negotiations reached a deadlock at the beginning.

Fox Searchlight only hopes to buy out the North American rights to "The Night the Comet Came" for US$500,000, including theatrical release and DVD revenue, and also requires that the adaptation rights be packaged together.

Fox Searchlight plans to adapt its own version of "The Night the Comet Comes" starring all white people to be released in North America, and it must also obtain the adaptation rights.

In fact, Chen Yuan is already very satisfied with the package price of US$500,000.

The production cost of this movie was only 300,000 RMB, which is less than 40,000 US dollars when converted into US dollars!

40,000 versus 500,000, which is already more than 12 times the profit!

If Wu Yuan hadn't stopped him, he would have agreed.

"Fifty thousand dollars, this price is too cheap!" Wu Yuan shook his head repeatedly: "Just for the North American copyright, it cannot be less than 1.5 million!"

"John, in your eyes, is the value of "Coherence" not as good as that of Thailand's "Silent Fire"?"

"Just by releasing this movie on DVD in North America, Fox can make tens of millions of dollars from the DVD rental business, right?"

The DVD industry in North America is very developed, and many movies can earn more than 10 million US dollars annually in the DVD market.

Especially cult films, even those who are slightly famous can earn millions of dollars from DVDs.

Horror movies like "Blair Witch" and "Saw" can earn tens of millions of dollars a year from DVD alone.

But John would not let Wu Yuan raise the price. He also kept shaking his head and retorted: "No, no, no, this is different. Director Wu, this is a Chinese movie!"

"North American audiences don't understand Chinese movies, and they may not necessarily pay for a Chinese movie. This is a very risky thing!"

"What happened to Chinese movies?" Wu Yuan raised his eyebrows: "We have many excellent directors in China, such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige. They are all directors who have won the European Film Festival Award."

"Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, are all internationally renowned Chinese faces!"

"And the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" directed by Li An will be released in North America next week. I believe this film will achieve good box office."

"Our Chinese films are also very popular in North America!"

"But this is Ang Lee plus Chinese Kung Fu!" John interrupted Wu Yuan and said disappointedly: "Director Wu, this joke is not funny at all."

"Coherence is not a Chinese Kung Fu film. You know, only Kung Fu films of Chinese films have a market in North America!"

"No." Wu Yuan stretched out a finger and shook it: "John, you know in your heart that North American audiences like films like "Coherence."

"Coherence" is different from other Chinese films. It is a brain-burning science fiction suspense film, and there are many audiences in North America who like this kind of film, right?"

The two were tit-for-tat, and neither of them was willing to give in, and they were all using various reasons to add to their own stakes.

Chen Yuan sat aside, opening his mouth again and again, not knowing what to say.

Who is the producer?

Who is the person in charge of China Film Group?

Why does it feel like Wu Yuan understands the foreign film market better than him?

John also felt that this super young director in front of him was not only good at making movies, but also very smart and difficult to deal with beyond imagination.

"Huh" sighed, John looked at Wu Yuan and said slowly: "Let's take a step back. One million US dollars is the highest offer I can give within my authority."

"I believe no North American film company can offer a higher price."

"After all, this is just a movie made with a very low budget. I think the cost is not even 500,000 RMB, right?"

Chen Yuan pulled Wu Yuan's arm under the table. He was really very satisfied with this price.

Wu Yuan also knew that this was probably the limit John could offer.

After a few seconds of silence, he nodded, but before John could smile, Wu Yuan added: "It's just North American copyright, not including adaptation rights."

"If you want adaptation rights, talk about it separately!"

This old guy wants to package the adaptation rights together. He is dreaming!

The adaptation rights of "Infernal Affairs" alone were sold for $1.75 million. Even if the box office of "The Night the Comet Came" could not be as high as that of "Infernal Affairs", it cannot be given away for free!

The adaptation rights of "The Night the Comet Came" must be sold for at least $200,000 or $300,000, right?

John's smile froze immediately after he failed to get the adaptation rights for free. He took a deep look at Wu Yuan and pronounced Wu Yuan's name in full for the first time.

"Director Wu Yuan? Sorry, your Chinese name is a little hard to pronounce."

John smiled, looked into Wu Yuan's bright eyes seriously, and asked meaningfully: "Do you want to be the next Ang Lee?"

"Come to Hollywood!"

"Your film style and subject matter are very suitable for Hollywood and the North American film market."

"The Chinese film market is not worthy of your film, at least not now."

"You will have a better future in Hollywood!"

"What do you think? We at Fox Searchlight welcome excellent directors like you and are willing to invest in your films."

"And you are very smart, a smart person."

"Smart people should understand that Hollywood is the place where you can show your talents!"

This is indeed a Chinese entertainment novel, not an American entertainment novel.