Chapter 480 Hollywood's Hot Pot

"The Last Emperor" began to be released in France, Italy, Germany, Britain, the United States and other Western countries in November last year. The box office was generally not ideal, with a total box office of only more than 40 million US dollars. Compared with the huge investment of 25 million US dollars, this movie can be said to have lost a lot of money.

Fortunately, the film's distributor in the United States, Columbia, was very supportive and made great contributions to the judging of the Academy Awards.

In the American film industry, Oscar award public relations has long been an open secret.

Later, Cheng Kaige took "Farewell My Concubine" to the United States and won a big victory at the Golden Globe Awards. He thought he had a sure win and was reluctant to spend any public relations fees. As a result, "Farewell My Concubine", which had conquered film festivals all over the world, unsurprisingly failed to win the Oscars, which was regretted by many people in the domestic film industry.

The Oscars in later generations quickly degenerated to an astonishing degree after the rise of the Weinstein brothers in Hollywood.

"The Last Emperor" swept the Oscars. The best news for producers and distributors is that they don't have to worry about losing money.

Although the film's early box office performance was not ideal, with the support of the Oscars, it was enough to recoup the investment by directly selling the copyright, and even make a small profit.

The movie not only does not lose money, but also makes money, so the three parties of investment, production and distribution are naturally happy.

In addition to these three parties, the person who benefited the most from the stunning success of "The Last Emperor" was director Bertolucci, who won the Oscar for Best Director, making him a world-renowned director.

Then other front-stage and backstage staff of the film also benefited from it.

Lead actor John Lone previously made his mark in Hollywood with his role as a gangster boss in the movie "Year of the Dragon". This time he impressed everyone at the Oscars with "The Last Emperor", and his future star journey is bright.

There is also the female lead Gong Li, who was originally just an ordinary student at the Central Academy of Drama. Because "Red Sorghum" won the Golden Bear Award, she attracted the attention of many foreign media. Also because of the popularity gained by "Red Sorghum", she successfully played the role of Wanrong in "The Last Emperor".

Gong Li won the Golden Bear Award for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Actress for Best Picture. Just based on these two films, even if Gong Li does nothing else for the next 20 years, it will be an insurmountable peak for all Chinese actresses.

What's more, Gong Li's fame has reached international level now because of these two award-winning works. All she needs now is a big award that can prove her acting skills, and then she will be completely deified.

Others include Ryuichi Sakamoto, who composed the film's music, photographer Bao Haoxin, etc. "The Last Emperor" made too many people successful, including the screenwriter Lin Weimin.

Before "The Last Emperor" won the Academy Awards, Lin Weimin had already gained considerable fame in the American literary and theater circles, but he was not well-known in Hollywood, a world of fame and fortune that has become its own kingdom.

Script The script is the foundation of a play. Film has been called the art of director since its birth, but no one can deny the importance of the script.

Because of his official status, Teng Jinxian was completely deliberately ignored in the promotion of "The Last Emperor". Even his signature was a pseudonym. The only real screenwriter Lin Weimin naturally became the focus of attention of many media.

Many media knew very little about Lin Weimin before reporting on him, but after checking the information, they found out that this Chinese screenwriter was actually a "treasure boy."

Tony Award, Best Screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival, National Book Critics Circle Award, Prix Goncourt...

Not only has he won numerous drama and literary awards, his plays have grossed over 100 million on Broadway, and his novels have also sold extremely well, with an audience of millions in the United States alone.

Lin Weimin's rich and brilliant resume immediately aroused the interest of many media, who scrambled to search for various information about him and tried to contact him for interviews. It was only then that reporters discovered that this screenwriter had not even attended the Oscars ceremony. He was unique and full of personality.

The inability to interview Lin Weimin did not hinder these media reports, but instead increased the mystery surrounding Lin Weimin.

Lin Weimin clearly did nothing, but he used the popularity of "The Last Emperor" to gain publicity in front of the American people, which no one expected.

The reports from the American media had no impact on Lin Weimin, but just when he was busy dealing with directors from domestic film studios, an American filmmaker got Lin Weimin's contact information through Bertolucci.

The success of "The Last Emperor" and the in-depth exploration of Lin Weimin by the American media made some people pay attention to Lin Weimin and his works.

With the success of "The Last Emperor", Lin Weimin's works have become popular.

The person who contacted Lin Weimin through Bertolucci was Michael Phillips, a veteran Hollywood producer. He and his wife Julia Phillips are a well-known Hollywood producing couple.

Michael Phillips's famous work is "The Sting" directed by George Roy Hill in 1974. The film won the Best Picture and Best Director at the Academy Awards that year, and Michael Phillips became famous overnight.

In 1977, Michael Phillips produced "Taxi Driver" directed by Martin Scorsese. The film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. From then on, Michael Phillips completely established his status in Hollywood.

After decades of the big studio era, Hollywood gradually entered the era of "producer-centered system" in the 1980s. Michael Phillips and his wife have been famous in Hollywood for many years, dealing with the six major Hollywood companies. Columbia Pictures is one of the companies they have cooperated with for many years.

The Phillips couple has made their way in Hollywood not only by relying on their outstanding abilities but also their keen sense of smell.

"The Last Emperor" made Bertolucci famous and made him a hot commodity in Hollywood, but the Phillipses knew that the many years of cooperation between Bertolucci and Thomas could not be easily interfered with by outsiders.

When they saw the report about Lin Weimin in the newspaper, they were immediately interested. After collecting some information, they immediately fell in love with the script of "The Intouchables", which had been performed on Broadway for four years and had just stopped performing some time ago.

This script has been polished to perfection after being performed on the Broadway stage. In addition, with over one million viewers accumulated over four years, the script has a strong audience base and the adaptation will naturally bring in box office revenue.

Coupled with the fact that Lin Weimin was the screenwriter who won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, everything was right at the right time and place, and the couple couldn't wait to contact Lin Weimin.

The two sides communicated on the phone for more than half an hour, but achieved little results. A Hollywood movie can easily cost millions or even tens of millions of dollars, and it is difficult to achieve a result that satisfies both parties just by communicating on the phone.

"If you really want to adapt 'The Intouchables', I hope we can have a face-to-face meeting. This way things may be much simpler," Lin Weimin suggested over the phone.

Michael Phillips readily agreed to Lin Weimin's request, hung up the phone and immediately went to apply for a visa.

Half a month later, he flew to Yanjing.

Lin Weimin arranged for the meeting between the two parties to be held at the Yanjing Hotel. Over the years, he had basically arranged to meet all foreign guests for cooperation here because he was familiar with the place and it was convenient.

At today's meeting, Michael Phillips was accompanied by comrades from the WS Department and the Film Bureau.

"The Last Emperor", a movie produced with Chinese participation, just won an Oscar award some time ago. The government is proud of it. When they heard that Michael Phillips, a famous Hollywood producer, was coming to China to discuss film adaptation with Lin Weimin, the government had already understood the purpose of his visit when he was applying for a visa, and offered help enthusiastically.

"Mr. Phillips, welcome to China!"

Lin Weimin met Michael Phillips in the cafe of Yanjing Hotel.

Michael Phillips is a typical elite white man, wearing a suit and with a meticulous hairstyle.

He was a little surprised to see Lin Weimin. Although he already knew Lin Weimin's age and appearance from the information he had collected before, Michael Phillips couldn't help but exclaimed when he saw him in person: "Lin, you are so young!"

"I have an oriental baby face. According to what we say in China, after this year, I will be thirty years old!"

Michael Phillips didn't know for a moment whether Lin Weimin was showing off or expressing his sincere emotion.

After a few pleasantries, Michael Phillips went straight to the point and talked to Lin Weimin about the adaptation of "The Intouchables".

“Lin, this time, The Last Emperor has become the biggest winner of the Academy Awards. The biggest gain for Hollywood is the discovery of a talented playwright like you. This movie is truly amazing.

Of course, not only The Last Emperor, but also The Intouchables and The Kite Runner are equally outstanding. I am a loyal audience of your works..."

As soon as he came on stage, Michael Phillips started to feed Lin Weimin some sweet talk with ease.

"Mr. Phillips..."

Lin Weimin was naturally not impressed by his flattery. After listening to Phillips's lengthy explanation, he was about to speak when Michael Phillips said, "Call me Mike. I'm more used to it."

"Okay, Mike!" Lin Weimin followed suit and continued, "Mike, I don't know if you have talked to Mr. Bertolucci, but I have very strict requirements for my collaborators when it comes to my own scripts.

You know, coming from a drama background, we are all screenwriter-centered and very sensitive to script changes. I know that producers have a lot of say in Hollywood..."

Michael Phillips listened carefully when Lin Weimin spoke, but he couldn't help frowning when he heard some of his requests about film production.

"Lin, film production is different from drama. Screenwriting is of course important, but the roles of other departments are equally indispensable. You can't limit the requirements so strictly," said Michael Phillips.

"Of course I know this. I think our original intentions are the same, and we all want to make an outstanding movie. But we are in different positions. As the original creator of this work, I still hope that it can remain authentic."

Michael Phillips nodded after hearing what Lin Weimin said. "We have a consensus. Lin, the direction of the production of The Intouchables is definitely a feature film. With years of experience in Broadway performances, we will not waste our energy on the script. You don't have to worry so much."

"That would be great, but I still want to put some of my requests on paper."

Michael Phillips hesitated and said, "I'm afraid this needs to be negotiated in detail."

(End of this chapter)