Chapter 481 Hollywood Horror Movies (8,000 words update!)

The Mist?

The first thing that came to Lu Yanhe's mind was an American movie he had seen.

A horror film adapted from Stephen King's novel of the same name.

The movie tells the story of a dense fog that suddenly descends upon a small town, enveloping the entire town and concealing a terrifying and evil supernatural force within it.

Lu Yanhe opened the script, read the first three pages, and was somewhat shocked to find that the beginning of this movie was quite similar to an American movie he had seen.

Of course, the beginning is similar, with a thick fog enveloping the town. After that, both the characters and the plot development are completely different.

Lu Yanhe breathed a sigh of relief.

For a fleeting moment just now, Lu Yanhe felt a vague sense of tension—

At that moment, he worried that there was also someone in America who had traveled through time and brought a script called "The Mist".

This horror movie script, titled "The Mist," tells the story of a lingering spirit seeking revenge on the town that wronged him years ago.

It turns out to be a supernatural horror movie.

Lu Yanhe was extremely surprised.

Horror films have never really taken off in China, for reasons that are difficult to discuss, and this genre has never been able to gain significant traction domestically.

However, in Europe and America, horror films are one of the most successful genres at the box office.

Lu Yanhe did not expect that Muken Sorge would bring him a horror movie script.

However, Lu Yanhe himself has watched quite a few horror movies.

Especially before I traveled here, when I was in junior high and high school, many Saturday nights the teachers would let everyone watch movies in the classroom.

When teachers choose movies, they usually select American animated films so that students can learn English at the same time.

Sometimes, teachers would give students the choice, and at that time, everyone would usually choose horror or thriller movies. It was during this time that Lu Yanhe watched a series of horror and thriller movies such as "The Ring," "The Chainsaw Massacre," and "The Silence of the Lambs"...

In Murken Sorge's "The Mist," the ghost seeking revenge after death comes to find the character played by Lu Yanhe.

This is an Asian American who came to this small town with his parents. Due to discrimination against Asians in the town, his family has always been in a bad situation.

Ultimately, they died from arson deliberately set by several teenagers in the town.

The story begins five years after this incident, starting with the timeline of the teenagers who deliberately set the fire, now that they have grown up.

The Asian ghost played by Lu Yanhe initially appears as an evil villain, harming these people. As the plot progresses, he deliberately causes various accidents to happen to these people and uses various intimidation methods to force them to recall the arson incident from years ago, making them confess their past actions in front of everyone in the town. Only then does his motive become clear.

However, the townspeople had no intention of punishing the murderers; instead, they believed that the Asian family had disrupted the peace of the town. They hired an exorcist to try and cleanse the Asian ghost.

At this point, two-thirds of the movie's story has progressed. The final third, which is the climax of the movie, is when the Asian ghost engages in a fierce battle with the exorcist. In the process, the Asian ghost fights back repeatedly and eventually kills all the people who set fire to his family years ago.

It took Lu Yanhe almost an hour to finish reading the script.

He's quick to read.

The script is almost entirely unintelligible, so there's not much to think about.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable horror film. Especially for Lu Yanhe, once you look at the script, you can tell what kind of role Murken Sorge wanted him to play. After immersing himself in the role of this Asian ghost, Lu Yanhe was completely looking at the script from the perspective of revenge.

In short, after learning why the ghost wanted to take revenge on the people in the story, Lu Yanhe completely understood him.

The theme of revenge transcends national and cultural backgrounds; it is a unified motif. Initially, Lu Yanhe was worried that the role would turn an Asian character into a villain, with a deliberately evil image that made him somewhat concerned. However, by the middle of the film, Lu Yanhe no longer felt that this was a villain.

The further Lu Yanhe read, the more he felt that this Asian ghost was the true protagonist of the story.

After reading it, Lu Yanhe looked at Murken Sorge in surprise and said, "Mr. Sorge, are you looking for me to play the role of the vengeful ghost?"

Although he had already guessed it, Lu Yanhe still wanted to confirm it with him.

Mocken Sorge nodded and said, "Yes, I have seen your performance in 'Three Mountains,' and I was completely blown away by your performance. When I was writing the script, your image was in my mind, and I hope to invite you to star in this movie."

"Three Mountains"——

Well, maybe in Murken Sorge's eyes, "Three Mountains" is also a ghost movie.

After all, it is indeed mysterious and ghostly.

Moreover, Lu Yanhe's performance in "Three Mountains" was abnormal, like someone who was possessed by evil spirits.

Lu Yanhe could roughly guess why Murken Sorge would write such a character in "The Mist".

Speaking of which, the ghost in "The Mist" does have a bit of that fortune teller vibe.

He appears repeatedly at the beginning of the story with bizarre phenomena to frighten others; those scenes all have elements of "Three Mountains".

Lu Yanhe said, "Mr. Sorge, thank you for inviting me to play this role. However, I cannot give you an answer yet. I need to take it back and discuss it with my agent."

Muken Sorge nodded and said, "No problem."

Murken Sorge added, "However, this is still a low-budget film, and we didn't budget much for the actors' salaries. As you know, this film definitely won't be released in mainland China, nor will it be sold to streaming services in mainland China, which will significantly reduce your box office revenue."

Lu Yanhe knew that Murken Sorge was right. The film "The Mist" was destined not to be released in mainland China, which meant that the box office backing he had could not be used as leverage to negotiate his salary.

"Based on our current budget, we can only offer you a salary of six hundred thousand US dollars."

Six hundred thousand US dollars, at the current exchange rate, is approximately four million RMB.

If we disregard the Chinese mainland box office represented by Lu Yanhe, this salary cannot be said to be deliberately low, but it is indeed not high.

After all, Lu Yanhe has a certain level of fame and influence in Asia. Not to mention, he has achieved excellent results on several streaming platforms such as Maxine and HP. Movies starring him will definitely command a relatively higher purchase price from them.

Lu Yanhe did not immediately respond, but said, "I don't know anything about the salary; my agent will have to discuss that with you."

Lu Yanhe doesn't even know if he'll be acting in the movie "The Mist".

It's even less likely that they wouldn't care about their salary just to star in this movie.

Lu Yanhe smiled at Muken Sorge and said, "Mr. Sorge, let me go back and talk to my agent first. I just finished watching this movie and haven't studied it seriously yet. Please give me some time to think about it."

Muken Sorge nodded.

-

“This is a good opportunity.” Chen Ziyan’s reaction exceeded Lu Yanhe’s expectations.

"Hmm?" Lu Yanhe had originally thought that Chen Ziyan would think this project was just so-so.

Chen Ziyan said, "First of all, Murken Sorge is not an unknown. His two previous horror films, Z and Lost, both grossed over $50 million in North America and over $100 million worldwide, which is an excellent achievement. If it weren't for the limitations of the horror genre itself, he would definitely be a famous director based on the results of these two films. In fact, he is not bad now. He will not have trouble finding actors for his new film."

"Secondly, this is a film that Hollywood actively sought out to act in. It's not one of those random, unknown bad movies. It's a legitimate film production company. Your role may not be the lead, but judging from the content, it's definitely a protagonist role."

Lu Yanhe flipped through the script.

"Indeed, there are many scenes involving ghosts, and a lot of room for them to be portrayed."

"You have to understand, although Hollywood is said to be a multi-racial and diverse place, it is actually still xenophobic. Actors from outside who want to get in basically have to start from supporting roles. Look at the foreign actors who have successfully broken in in recent years, who hasn't done that?"

Chen Ziyan tapped her fingers twice on the table.

“Given your current situation, this may be the only lead role you can get,” Chen Ziyan said. “And given Murken Sorge’s performance in his last two films, and the fact that this film continues the horror and thriller genre, the box office results will definitely be good. Your first film in Hollywood will be a great success, which will be very beneficial for you to gain recognition in North America and will be very helpful for you to get roles later.”

Lu Yanhe nodded and then asked, "What about the pay?"

“I’ll negotiate the salary. Six hundred thousand US dollars is definitely low, but we can’t raise it much higher,” Chen Ziyan said. “We need to be prepared for this, since this movie can’t enter the mainland market, and our biggest bargaining chip is directly rendered useless.”

"Um."

Chen Ziyan added, "If you can enter the Hollywood market through this movie, it will greatly help your future career development."

In the world Lu Yanhe transmigrated to, American movies and Hollywood are still the world's largest film market, but their influence is relatively weaker compared to the world Lu Yanhe came from.

This is mainly because the four major international film festivals and film markets are vastly different from the American Oscars and film markets, unlike the world Lu Yanhe was in before.

This difference actually gives many places a chance to breathe and develop their own markets.

This includes South Korean films and television dramas. In the world before Lu Yanhe's arrival, they had almost completely become producers of streaming media. Although they seemed to be doing very well, the South Korean domestic film and television drama market was actually severely impacted, and a large number of production talents flowed to streaming media.

However, South Korea's domestic streaming platform XK is doing just as well here, while American-controlled streaming platforms like Maxine still need to rely on Asians like Jong Bon-seok to drive the Asian market.

This difference actually means the difference between retaining some local strength and vitality and becoming a complete appendage of a large company.

This is especially true in the European film market.

Their combined film market effectively withstood Hollywood's monopoly on the market, and each year they have their own films that achieve excellent box office results.

Including special effects blockbusters, this is no longer the exclusive domain of Hollywood.

This is a world where various markets are constantly evolving.

Chen Ziyan wanted Lu Yanhe to take an international route, hoping to create a truly world-class Chinese superstar by following the Hollywood star-making model.

This means that Lu Yanhe needs to continue his momentum from the past two years at the four major film festivals and maintain his presence at international film festivals. He also needs to look for opportunities in Hollywood, where he has not yet made a name for himself.

The Mist is such an opportunity.

-

After Lu Yanhe and Chen Ziyan reached an agreement, they did not hesitate any longer. Chen Ziyan immediately contacted and negotiated with Murken Sorge and D19, the production company of "The Mist".

Before the negotiations, Chen Ziyan compiled a list of the box office and streaming performance of Lu Yanhe's films in overseas markets, especially the evaluation opinions of the streaming platforms Maxine and HP on Lu Yanhe's films.

Lu Yanhe had no prior achievements in Hollywood, so profit sharing was out of the question; he could only negotiate the most basic salary.

Chen Ziyan is not without experience in this area.

Both Shang Yongzhou and Chen Bige had previously acted in Hollywood films.

Chen Ziyan can usually estimate how much of a movie's budget is allocated to actors based on the movie's production cost. Then, based on the movie's cast and the importance of Lu Yanhe's role, she can roughly determine how much she can ask for.

However, when Chen Ziyan began contract negotiations with D19 Company, something happened.

Although Murken Sorge took the initiative to approach Lu Yanhe and invite him to star in the film, the production company D19 had doubts about Lu Yanhe.

The biggest concern with D19 is that Lu Yanhe's representative works are all art films. Can such an actor really do well in horror films?

Such questions are unlikely to arise in the domestic entertainment industry, because Lu Yanhe's versatility in acting has almost become a consensus.

But this is Hollywood. D19's understanding of Lu Yanhe is that he is an actor who frequently appears at international film festivals and has a very good box office performance in the Chinese mainland market.

This is indeed a good advantage, but it's not enough for D19 to agree that Lu Yanhe is capable of playing the lead role in a movie.

This is obviously a tactic used by D19 to drive down prices.

Chen Ziyan believed that the concerns were real, but certainly not fatal. Otherwise, there would be no point in discussing this matter, and there would be no point in looking for Lu Yanhe. They might as well just find someone else.

Chen Ziyan didn't argue.

Just then, the Italian magazine cover that Lu Yanhe shot while attending the Venice International Film Festival was released.

Chen Ziyan sent the magazine to the contact person.

"..."

Why do we sometimes find that many actors have close ties with the fashion industry?

Because these two circles largely overlap.

Most importantly, a celebrity's success in the fashion industry is the best way to help them further their development in the entertainment industry.

Including actors, including acting.

It's hard to say exactly how this phenomenon came about, but the current situation is that people in the fashion industry recognize box office stars and award darlings from the film industry, while people in the film industry also recognize muses and celebrities from the fashion industry.

Chen Ziyan sent this magazine to explain one thing.

Don't make a big deal out of the fact that Lu Yanhe has never worked in Hollywood. Even if Lu Yanhe didn't achieve anything in Hollywood, his achievements in film are recognized even by Italian fashion magazines. This recognition is built up by his numerous works winning awards at international film festivals.

Even if Lu Yanhe's starring role in "The Mist" doesn't bring you box office success in the Chinese mainland market, he still enjoys international recognition and influence.

Both sides need to engage in the necessary negotiation, and on the other hand, creative endeavors also need to be advanced.

For example, Lu Yanhe provided a DVD of his audition as required.

In a five-minute DVD clip, Lu Yanhe spent one minute introducing himself in front of the camera, and then four minutes auditioning with the script.

When it comes to acting, Lu Yanhe is now completely fearless.

Even if it's just one person sitting in front of the camera, performing a monologue.

Compared to his first acting experience three years ago, he now has absolute confidence in himself.

-

After receiving Lu Yanhe's audition DVD, Murken Sorge excitedly told D19 that Lu Yanhe was the perfect choice for the ghost in the film "The Mist".

In the film industry, there is a common argument about horror films that they don't require acting skills.

But anyone who really knows a little about horror movies knows that this claim is pure nonsense.

Just look at how many actors have won major awards and nominations for starring in horror films.

"Only Lu Yanhe can play this role," said Muken Sorge.

Shirley Young, who was in charge of the film by D19 for Mulken Sorge, said to Mulken Sorge with a sense of helplessness: "Mulken, if you hadn't directly expressed your choice to Lu Yanhe from the beginning, we would have already negotiated Lu Yanhe's contract. Every time you expressed your attitude to Lu Yanhe that you couldn't do without him, you were increasing the difficulty of our negotiations."

"Did his agent ask for an exorbitant price?" Murken Sorge asked doubtfully.

“No, not at all,” Shirley Young said. “However, our budget is very tight. If we can save a little money from him, we can hire one or two more well-known actors. There are many roles in ‘The Mist,’ and I don’t need to elaborate on the benefits to the film if we can get more well-known actors to play the roles.”

Muken Sorge said, "I don't understand these things, that's your business, but don't let these things cause the negotiations to fall apart and Lu Yanhe to not come to perform."

"Don't worry, you're the director of this movie. For Asian actors, if they have the opportunity to play a major role in a Hollywood movie, the salary will definitely not be the main consideration."

“Don’t think of Lu Yanhe like an ordinary actor; he’s not an ordinary actor,” Muken Sorge immediately said.

Shirley Young looked at him in surprise.

"Muken, you've only met Lu Yanhe once, why do you speak so highly of him?"

"Have you seen his movie 'Three Mountains'?" asked Murken Sorge.

Shirley Young shook her head.

"Go watch him in 'Three Mountains,' and you'll understand why I insisted on casting him in 'The Mist,'" said Murken Sorge.

-

The relationship between directors and actors is always very delicate.

Some directors never work with the same actor twice.

Some directors have a fixed group of actors they regularly work with.

Some directors even feature the same person as the protagonist in all their films for a period of time.

Generally speaking, the relationship between directors and actors can be described as "close." To some extent, actors can inspire directors' creative desires, and directors can also help actors discover a deeper side of themselves.

However, for many people, this is a flaw that only exists in art films or by big-name directors. If you're a genre film director, unless you have a particular preference for a certain type of image, people can understand. Otherwise, why would a horror film director need a muse? People will just think it's nonsense.

Murken Sorge is a horror film director, not an art film director.

Shirley Young never considered that Mocken Sorge's appreciation for Lu Yanhe was in this direction.

She always felt that there must be a reason why Muken Sorge favored Lu Yanhe.

Is Lu Yanhe's acting really that good?

After she got back, she watched the movie "Three Mountains" carefully. She watched for a long time without seeing Lu Yanhe appear, and she started to get impatient. The movie wasn't very good. Then, she saw three young men break into a temple, and Lu Yanhe appeared.

Lu Yanhe's performance in this scene in "Three Mountains" can be considered his first "god-like" moment in film.

An actor rose to international fame with just a ten-minute scene, stealing the spotlight from the main actors and becoming the main selling point when the film was released. This alone is enough to demonstrate its brilliance.

Shirley Young, who has been in the film industry for so many years, has a good eye for talent.

Shirley Young can certainly tell whether an actor can act or not, and to what extent their acting skills are up to.

Shirley Yang was surprised by Lu Yanhe's performance.

Shirley Yang is a Singaporean of Chinese descent who later immigrated to the United States and became an American citizen. Despite her Chinese heritage, she knows nothing about Chinese culture. Unlike many people whose parents are of Chinese descent, none of her ancestors, spanning two generations, lived in China; her family was disconnected from Chinese culture. This has led her to never feel connected to China. Consequently, while most of her Chinese-American friends follow news and events in China, she doesn't.

She also pays almost no attention to the Chinese entertainment industry.

Shirley Yang might pay attention to young actors like Lu Yanhe who emerge from international film festivals, but not much. Hollywood itself is a large enough place; the place in the world with the most talented young people is definitely not those international film festivals, but Hollywood. Because it's where the world's top filmmakers gather most.

Lu Yanhe is a very good actor and has won many awards.

Lu Yanhe's films have consistently achieved high box office returns in China, earning him the title of "box office miracle."

Lu Yanhe is also a screenwriter, and his screenwriting works have been very successful.

But what does all this have to do with Shirley Young?

As long as Lu Yanhe doesn't develop his career in Hollywood, no matter how powerful he is, it has nothing to do with Shirley Yang.

Now, Lu Yanhe has arrived.

“Lu Yanhe’s acting skills are indeed good. His performance in ‘Three Mountains’ shocked me.” Shirley Yang did not hold back her praise for Lu Yanhe on the phone. “I’m not surprised that Muken wanted him to act in ‘The Mist’. However, his agent asked for a million dollars, which is a very high number. Lu Yanhe is not worth that price in Hollywood now.”

Shirley Young was on the phone with Fernando Bridge, the owner of D19.

D19 is not a traditional large company.

It made its fortune by making low-budget films, and the investors behind it are the Bridge family, to which Fernando Bridge belongs.

The Bridge family, originating from Italy, boasts a history spanning hundreds of years, though not all of it is glorious. Originally, the Bridge family had no involvement in the film industry. For such a long-established family, the film industry was a novelty; they initially looked down on it, missing an opportunity, and later found it difficult to enter the market.

However, Fernando Bridge had been interested in the film industry since childhood. He came to the United States to study directing, but instead of making his own films, he invested in two films—both low-budget films with only one to two million dollars. With his keen eye, both films grossed nearly ten million dollars at the box office. Including other income such as family entertainment, he made a fortune.

He used the money to establish D19, and began to focus on making low-budget films.

At first, the adults in the Bridge family thought Fernando was just dabbling in it. Every family has some young people who are unwilling to follow the rules, and they didn't care. It wasn't until a few years later that they discovered Fernando had made D19 a success, and that almost all of his projects were profitable, with profits every year. Only then did they start to take him seriously.

Subsequently, the Bridge family became Fernando's loan bank.

The majority of funding for D19's films came from the Bridge family's business conglomerate.

Fernando Bridge is only in his early thirties and is the target of many actresses in Hollywood.

A man from a wealthy family who owns his own company is like a flower exuding a deadly and alluring fragrance to the butterflies of this glamorous world.

As a result, before Hollywood actresses could even use all their charms to win him over, Fernando Bridge married Shirley Young.

“Honey, if Muken insists on casting that Chinese actor, we should support Muken,” Fernando Bridge said to Shirley Young.

Moken Sorge's first two horror films were both made at D19, and he is considered a representative director of D19. Fernando Bridge is very supportive of Moken Sorge; any film company would support a director who has already proven himself with two successes.

Shirley Young: "Of course we will support Muken. Alas, Muken really shouldn't have gone to Lu Yanhe first. This gave his agent an advantage, knowing that Muken's first choice was him. Otherwise, we might have been able to sign him for just $400,000."

Fernando Bridge said, "One million it is. Lu Yanhe is not an unknown newcomer."

“There has never been such a precedent in Hollywood,” Shirley Young said. “Our film only cost eight million to produce, and we’re paying an Asian actor who has never acted in a Hollywood film a million dollars. That breaks industry norms. If this film could be released in mainland China, I would be willing to pay him two million dollars, but there’s no way this film will be imported to mainland China.”

Fernando Bridge said, "If Muken hadn't chosen Lu Yanhe for the role, I wouldn't care who played it, Shirley. The key to this movie isn't the actor, it's Muken. Since Muken insisted on casting Lu Yanhe, we're fine with it as long as the conditions aren't outrageous. As for Hollywood conventions, D19 has never been a traditional mainstream Hollywood film company, has it?"

Shirley Young laughed along with Fernando Bridge's lighthearted tone, a smile playing on her lips.

"All right."

-

Chen Ziyan got out of the car with a big smile on her face, carrying a rectangular box in her hands. She went upstairs and rang the doorbell.

After a while, Lu Yanhe opened the door and looked at her with surprise.

"Sister Ziyan, what did you bring with you?"

“The latest MH retro mechanical keyboard,” Chen Ziyan said. “I knew you would like it after I saw it, so I bought it. Congratulations on successfully landing the role in ‘The Mist’ for a million-dollar salary.”

Lu Yanhe's face lit up with surprise.

"Wow—" Lu Yanhe took the rectangular box from Chen Ziyan's hand and immediately opened it with delight. "I've been looking for a suitable keyboard. The space bar on the keyboard I used before always stopped working. This gift of yours is so timely."

Chen Ziyan: "Is that the point? The point is the movie 'The Mist,' a million-dollar salary for you, I've negotiated it down!"

Lu Yanhe stared at the keyboard in his hands, "Sister Ziyan is awesome!"

Chen Ziyan: "..."

I've never seen Lu Yanhe be so perfunctory before.

Lu Yanhe has only recently started paying attention to various keyboards, within the last year or two.

Perhaps because he types almost every day now, Lu Yanhe often checks out the new keyboards that are released, but of course, he hasn't bought any of them.

Even though the space bar was malfunctioning, he didn't think about replacing it.

He felt he had still saved money.

Li Zhibai and Yan Liang were both filming outside. Lu Yanhe asked Chen Ziyan if she had any plans for lunch, and Chen Ziyan said no.

Lu Yanhe said that they could just make something to eat at home.

Chen Ziyan asked in surprise, "You often cook for yourself now?"

-

A minimum of 6,000 words will be guaranteed, with an update of 8,000 words.

You've limited my scope; I still have four thousand words of draft saved up.

The enthusiasm for voting for monthly tickets isn't strong enough, so the bonus chapter event for monthly ticket votes will continue.

Go ahead and vote! ... Hmm, for those who don't have monthly passes, I recommend my old book, "I Became the Scandalous Heroine Overnight," it's quite good, give it a try.

(End of this chapter)