Chapter 812 So arrogant it'll kill you.
After receiving a satisfactory answer from Yang Zhouli, Zhou Ping'an left in high spirits.
When he returned to his office, his assistant looked troubled and said, "Director Zhou, Meng Li is in your office."
The smile on Zhou Ping'an's face immediately stopped.
"..." He looked at his assistant speechlessly and said, "How could you let her walk right into my office?"
The assistant was about to explain when suddenly, the door to his office was opened from the inside.
Meng Li stood inside and said, "I wanted to come in myself. Do you think your assistant could stop me? Why can't I come into your office? Are you hiding from me?"
Zhou Pingan looked at the imperious Meng Li and sighed softly.
He said, "Why would I hide from you? You can break in today, but what if some paparazzi sneaks in tomorrow and secretly installs recording equipment?"
Mengli rolled her eyes.
"Then go and have someone check if I installed any recording equipment in your office?"
I wasn't talking about you.
"Aren't you talking about me?" Meng Li rolled her eyes again. "I'm too lazy to argue with you. I'm asking you, you promised me back then that if I followed you closely, you would give me the lead role in a big-budget production. Where's the script? Where's the big-budget production? Where's the lead role?"
Zhou Pingan said, "How could it be that fast? Can something just fall from the sky?"
Meng Li said, "Then 'Ten Miles of Fragrance' fell on Yan Lingyu's head?"
“That’s Yan Lingyu!” Zhou Ping’an said helplessly. “The two dramas, ‘You Are the Apple of My Eye’ and ‘Chinese Paladin,’ directly propelled her to the top tier. This wasn’t my decision; it was handpicked by the top management.”
Zhou Ping'an thought to himself, "If you're so capable, why don't you get handpicked by the higher-ups?"
Meng Li: "I don't care, Zhou Ping'an, don't try to fool me. If you promise me something and then fail to do it, I will definitely not be like Ma Zhiyuan, who raised the issue high but then let it go easily."
Zhou Pingan stared at Meng Li in shock.
"What do you mean?"
Mengli: "You know what I mean."
Zhou Ping'an narrowed his eyes and asked, "You know everything Ma Zhiyuan did?"
“I don’t know exactly what he did, but you suddenly got him roles and helped him make a comeback. He must have something on you, right?”
Zhou Pingan remained silent.
Meng Li: "Stop pretending. If it weren't like that, why would you still bother with Ma Zhiyuan?"
After a while, Zhou Pingan said, "I promised you I would have a female lead."
Mengli: "Then you'll keep your word."
Zhou Ping'an: "When have I ever broken my promise?"
Mengli is gone.
Zhou Pingan glared at his assistant and said, "If anyone enters my office without my permission next time, you can pack your things and get out."
The assistant nodded obsequiously and said yes.
Zhou Pingan entered his office and let out a sigh of relief.
One day, he will teach Meng Li and Ma Zhiyuan a lesson they won't forget.
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On October 16, Doomsday was released in North America, and its opening weekend box office was $38.2 million. For a blockbuster with a production cost of nearly $100 million, this is not particularly outstanding, but it is not bad either.
However, "Doomsday" performed exceptionally well at the box office in overseas markets outside the United States. Excluding the Chinese market, which opened two weeks earlier, the film grossed $37.5 million in its opening weekend overseas, almost matching its performance in the North American market.
With "Doomsday" already grossing over $130 million in China, the film's global box office has surpassed $200 million, and its final box office is aiming for $400 million, or even $500 million.
Jiang Jun and Jiang Yuqian traveled all over the world promoting the film, making their faces known to the public.
Parameter had already put the second part on the agenda a long time ago.
It's not just something being "put on the agenda" for publicity purposes; it's a serious sequel being developed.
Zebi Doyle stated this frankly in a media interview.
The film's box office performance was somewhat affected by some negative public opinion in the early stages.
However, once the film is released, everyone will realize that it is an excellent science fiction film.
Besides Sia Wee's "The Window," several other reports have surfaced that Jiang Yuqian is in talks with a Hollywood project.
We are indeed in contact.
Jiang Yuqian is now an outstanding individual, both in terms of her fame and her actual achievements.
In particular, Jiang Yuqian's previous successful works were all commercially successful. This is precisely what film companies value most.
At the same time, D19 and Murken Sorge's film company also released the first trailer for Get Out.
The words "Screenwriter Lu Yanhe" were prominently listed.
—Lu Yanhe has quietly produced a new script, and it's even been made into a movie!
It's a horror/thriller movie!
Within a day, the trailer was viewed more than ten million times across the entire network.
Get Out has made its first appearance.
It was only at this point that people discovered that Lu Yanhe had actually written a screenplay that alluded to white people enslaving black people.
This has caused some controversy.
A German white director and a Chinese yellow screenwriter wrote a horror thriller about black people resisting white enslavement.
Putting these two together seems absurd and strange no matter how you look at it.
However, not many people dared to say anything.
After all, making horror and thriller films is Muken's forte.
As for the scripts—Lu Yanhe's scripts cover such a wide range of topics that it's hard to say with certainty that they are definitely not what they seem.
"Why did you write such a story?" In a behind-the-scenes video released by D19, Lu Yanhe was asked this question on set.
Lu Yanhe said in front of the camera, "Because I still have lingering fears."
Lu Yanhe first said the word in Chinese before translating it into English.
A very literal translation.
However, this answer resonated strongly with Black people on social media platforms.
Yes, I'm still shaken.
Even though the era of slavery has passed for over a century, those shadows still linger in their dreams, impossible to shake off.
This is a psychological trauma for their entire race.
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"The numbers for Get Out have completely exceeded expectations. The reach and viewership of the trailer have broken records, and the estimated box office for the film has been significantly revised upward by the forecasting agency."
D19, Scott Harris listened to his subordinate's report with a somewhat serious expression.
What is the projected box office for this movie?
"Currently, the conservative estimate is that it can break $100 million in North America, but according to everyone's data models, everyone believes that this movie has the potential to break $150 million," the subordinate reported.
Horror and thriller movies, although dark horses often emerge.
However, due to the limitations of the subject matter, its potential is actually limited.
Many classic horror films, which are considered legendary in everyone's mind, actually only grossed tens of millions of dollars at the box office—they just had a very high return on investment compared to their production costs, achieving impressive commercial returns.
For example, Saw.
This is why the box office success of the two films "The Mist" brought such a significant boost to Lu Yanhe.
Both Mist films grossed over $100 million at the North American box office, which is a remarkable achievement.
This $150 million box office estimate naturally gave Scott Harris a huge boost.
Because although D19 invested in the film "Get Out," its investment share was very small. The main investors were Lu Yanhe and Moken Sorge's company, and D19 was only responsible for global distribution.
Of course, of course, being able to handle global distribution can also be profitable—but how can you earn as much as investing, which makes the majority of your profits?
Scott felt upset when he thought about the movie Buried that he had missed.
D19 was clearly the one most likely to establish a fixed, long-term partnership with Lu Yanhe.
Lu Yanhe's first starring role in a Hollywood film was also D19.
However, because they didn't extend an olive branch in time, Lu Yanhe was snatched away by someone else.
So frustrating.
Even at this point, Scott was unaware that Lu Yanhe and Murken Sorge's expectations for the film went far beyond just box office success.
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At the end of October, filming for "The Notebook" also began.
Starring Lily Williams.
The male lead was replaced by a young actor chosen by Soren because he was jealous of Arne Bogut's girlfriend. This actor was no less popular than Arne Bogut.
Martin Dylan.
The supporting cast is also impressive.
The actors playing the two main characters in their later years are both Oscar winners and former superstars.
Not to mention, almost all the supporting characters are well-known figures.
Lu Yanhe made it very clear that "The Notebook" is not a story that relies on box office success, and if the production budget is not well controlled, it is easy to mess it up.
However, Soren's vision for The Notebook was that it didn't need to be very profitable, but it needed to be very successful.
This success is not only about the result, but also about the costs incurred during the process.
Their business is large and powerful; what they need in new business segments is not a dark horse, but a natural outcome that meets their expectations.
In this regard, Lu Yanhe has repeatedly emphasized that using this film to create an all-star cast could very well result in a glamorous lineup but fail to achieve the expected results.
After "The Notebook" was successfully launched, Lu Yanhe realized that under Soren's current positioning, "The Notebook" might not achieve the success that Soren would be satisfied with, and "The Fault in Our Stars" had to be launched ahead of schedule.
Otherwise, if he wanted to use an all-Asian cast in this movie, he might not have been able to ride the wave of "The Notebook" and gain Soren's support.
Lu Yanhe immediately shared his thoughts with Soren.
Soren's attitude was exactly as Wan Qingqing had said: he was strongly opposed.
They disagreed with making "The Fault in Our Stars" an all-Asian cast.
Soren doesn't believe that "The Fault in Our Stars" would be a big hit if it were made with an all-Asian cast.
In response, Lu Yanhe suggested that the production budget for this film should only be $15 million.
The original film didn't have a high production cost to begin with.
However, Soren remained adamant and disagreed.
They said it wasn't a matter of cost, but rather that they believed it wouldn't succeed. Even if it eventually turned a profit, the numbers wouldn't look good enough, and it would become a joke.
Soren's resolute attitude on this matter was something Lu Yanhe had not expected.
However, Lu Yanhe could understand.
Soren said that if Lu Yanhe could come up with another family comedy script like "Home Alone," he would even be willing to use an all-Asian cast.
Lu Yanhe thought for a moment and proposed that "The Fault in Our Stars" could be replaced with another movie, and this movie with an all-Asian cast could be produced by Linghe himself. However, in exchange, if "Men in Black" grossed more than $500 million worldwide, Soren would have to help "The Fault in Our Stars" with a large-scale global theatrical release.
Soren asked, "How large?"
Lu Yanhe said: "It will be no less than the scale of the first 'Home Alone' movie when it was released in Europe and America."
Soren suggested that if that were the case, then the third film Lu Yanhe would collaborate on with Soren must be the second Men in Black.
Lu Yanhe stated frankly that the premise for collaborating on the second "Men in Black" film was that the first film's global box office exceeded $500 million, and the value of the second film was not that low.
Soren let Lu Yanhe state his own terms.
Lu Yanhe put forward a condition: Soren could not interfere with Lu Yanhe's selection of the main creative personnel for "Men in Black".
Soren hesitated again.
Men in Black is a big production project. Even if the first movie's production budget wasn't over 100 million, it was close to that.
Lu Yanhe further proposed that if Soren agreed to this condition, he would not only serve as producer and screenwriter, but also directly star in the film.
As soon as this offer was made, Soren was immediately tempted.
However, with such a large production, how could Soren be willing to let Lu Yanhe take complete control of the project?
Lu Yanhe said, "Don't think that I'm the one who got the better deal. In fact, I wrote the script. Only I know best how this movie should be made. I have control over the content, which can minimize the chances of some people who don't understand, don't know how, or are unclear about the content adding unnecessary details and ruining the movie."
After much haggling, the two sides finally signed a supplementary agreement for the Men in Black project.
Lu Yanhe has the main control over the content, especially in the selection of key creative personnel such as directors.
Soren can offer suggestions for candidates.
Such cooperation terms would be almost impossible for other film companies in Hollywood.
Including Midoriya, who has collaborated with Lu Yanhe so many times.
This is also why Lu Yanhe did not cooperate with Green Valley on these projects.
Green Valley is already a very mature and large film company. While Lu Yanhe's project is undoubtedly a goldmine, they won't change their long-standing cooperation model, including the conditions for working with top creative talent like Lu Yanhe, just to collaborate with him. Only Soren could break with convention and agree to such conditions.
After obtaining the cooperation agreement from Soren, Lu Yanhe immediately contacted director Fu Kai, who had previously directed "The Road to Glory".
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"The Road to Glory" is an "outlier" in Fu Kai's directing career.
He is a commercial film director. Lu Yanhe met him before filming "The Road to Glory" because he was a newcomer at the time and attended the movie party for "Enjoy Life While You Can," which he directed and starred Shang Yongzhou.
After filming "Road to Glory", Fu Kai returned to his area of expertise, shooting "road trip commercial films", which is his forte.
So-called road movie commercials are those in which the story basically revolves around the protagonist's journey.
Strictly speaking, "Road to Glory" is also a road movie.
Fu Kai’s new film, “The Road Not Ended,” was submitted to the main competition of the Jose Film Festival, but Lu Yanhe did not select it in the end.
At that time, Fu Kai even sent him a message, telling him not to feel pressured because of this.
In fact, setting aside art, Fu Kai is an outstanding commercial film director.
He belongs to the type of director who has very little authorial expression, but is very good at making the visuals, characters, and plot interesting.
When Fu Kai received Lu Yanhe's call, he felt a little strange and wondered why Lu Yanhe would suddenly contact him.
Then, Lu Yanhe spoke, completely baffling Fu Kai.
"What did you say?!"
-
"Are you coming?" Lu Yanhe asked.
"Are you serious?" Yan Liang asked Lu Yanhe. "Another role for me?"
Lu Yanhe nodded: "Yes, but it's just a cameo role, not a main role."
“Sure, of course I’m willing to come.” Yan Liang didn’t hesitate at all. “This is a big-budget Hollywood movie that you starred in and wrote. I reckon any role with even two lines would be snapped up.”
“After your next two Hollywood movies are released, you will definitely become a top Hollywood star,” Lu Yanhe said. “When that happens, if we invite you to play a cameo role, the salary will probably start at least one million US dollars.”
“Why are we talking about this? If you ask me, I’ll definitely come,” Yan Liang said. “Besides, you said it yourself, although it’s a cameo role, it’s a perfect opportunity to showcase my action skills. There’s a chase scene with you, right?”
"Yes, that's exactly the scene where I appear, where I'm chasing you."
"Okay," Yan Liang nodded. "That's settled."
-
Lu Yanhe specifically asked Chen Siqi to find him someone who could draw comics.
He mainly needs this person to help him with the script and draw the line art for the shots.
The film *Men in Black* is itself adapted from a comic book. Its style, even within the realm of science fiction films, leans towards a lighthearted and comedic approach.
Lu Yanhe wanted to create this line drawing first in order to explain to Fu Kai, Soren, and others what kind of film he wanted to shoot.
Designing a shooting plan based on the finished film can save a lot of time and production costs.
To ensure the film received enough pre-release attention, Lu Yanhe was personally looking for actors and technical staff. He also compiled a list of people he didn't have suitable candidates in mind and asked Soren to recommend them.
Soren's reaction was that Lu Yanhe was quite good at handling people. Although he had taken over the initiative, he still managed to prevent Soren from being directly "turned away".
What Soren didn't know was that Lu Yanhe genuinely didn't have a suitable candidate, so he simply passed the buck and let Soren do the preliminary work. As for whether the people they found were suitable or not, Lu Yanhe would definitely have to take a look first.
Soren has high hopes for this big-budget production.
Lu Yanhe's ability to directly predict that the first film's global box office would exceed $500 million naturally filled Soren with anticipation.
While this film is now considered a Will Smith-led movie, it should actually be seen as a dual-lead film featuring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Hollywood has been using this "veteran mentoring newcomer" duo for a long time.
Therefore, in order to ensure the box office success of this film in the mainstream European and American audience market, Lu Yanhe, despite starring in the film himself, specifically reserved the role originally intended for Tommy Lee Jones for an Oscar-winning actor whose status in this era was no lower than that of Tommy Lee Jones.
Sean Griffiths.
This actor was specifically recommended by Sandra Vickers at Lu Yanhe's request.
Lu Yanhe has kept in touch with this legendary American actress ever since he met her at the Bicarlo Film Festival.
Every now and then, I'll send someone an email or make a phone call.
Sandra Vickers already had a good impression of Lu Yanhe, so under these circumstances, it goes without saying that she was happy to chat with him.
So when Lu Yanhe approached Sandra Vickers with the script for "Men in Black" and asked her to recommend a suitable actor, Sandra Vickers, a legend who had been in Hollywood for decades, quickly recommended her top choice.
Compared to Darren Wilson, Lu Yanhe actually trusted Sandra Wechs' recommendation more.
This is no minor role; he is one of the "two male leads" who will be involved in the trilogy.
Their reputation and past achievements are easy to understand.
Character, suitability, and cooperation are things that only someone like Sandra Vickers truly knows.
-
The Men in Black project was exposed by the media shortly after The Notebook and Get Out projects.
Lu Yanhe's projects in Hollywood are truly numerous and varied, one after another, making it difficult to keep up with the pace.
More than one media outlet has directly suspected that Lu Yanhe may have hired a gunman.
How could he write a script so quickly?
However, there is a program called "The Days of Youth".
Although Lu Yanhe has rarely recorded a complete season in recent years, he still records a few episodes for each season.
In this reality show, there are many scenes of Lu Yanhe holding a laptop and writing a script.
Although there aren't many in the main episodes, in many behind-the-scenes clips, there are almost always shots of Lu Yanhe's fingers flying across the keyboard in every season.
The production team will also add a note: from time XX to time XX.
I created a playback speed adjustment effect.
Many of the scripts for Friends were written here.
Many movie scripts have also appeared on this program.
Even some of the dialogue was devised by Lu Yanhe and his friends during the recording of the show.
All of these were included in the program.
These clips were edited together by Lu Yanhe's fans and pushed to the top of the trending searches, all to show everyone that Lu Yanhe could not possibly have hired a gunman.
Lu Yanhe thought to himself that he didn't need to hire ghostwriters; he had a whole universe of screenwriters to act as his ghostwriters.
-
Previously, Lu Yanhe's Hollywood scripts were all given to other actors for leading roles.
This time, Lu Yanhe finally starred in the film himself.
A big-budget production with a production cost of nearly $100 million.
When this news spread, those who wanted to smear Lu Yanhe could naturally find something to criticize.
For example, here, someone said:
—Lu Yanhe gave his two brothers all low-budget projects to act in. Now that he has made a name for himself and has big projects, he is acting in them all by himself. He has really made a clever move.
As a result, Li Zhibai appeared in the comments section and retorted: "No one can match your loud chatter."
Anyone with a basic understanding of the market would dismiss such talk as utter nonsense.
Someone asked Li Zhibai: After you acted in "Buried," why did you disappear from Hollywood? Was the hype about it being a box office dark horse too much, and Hollywood didn't actually buy it?
Li Zhibai: Yes, Hollywood, which didn't buy into "Buried," insisted on making a sequel and dragged me into it. What could I do if I didn't act? I had exaggerated too much before, and they believed me. Why don't you go and tell them the truth?
When it comes to roasting people, to be honest, none of the three of them are worse than the others right now.
They just have different styles.
Li Zhibai's style is that kind of arrogant and swaggering kind of person.
-
“However, you’ve slowed down in the past year. Shouldn’t we take a look at the script?” Lin Suyang said to Li Zhibai.
“Didn’t I just take on a movie adaptation of a game? And didn’t you say before that last year’s ‘Buried Alive,’ ‘You Are the Apple of My Eye,’ and ‘Chinese Paladin’ practically paved the way for the next ten years of my life? I can retire early now,” Li Zhibai said. “Although I’ve picked up my pace again, even if I hadn’t, would that be okay?”
No matter how much capital Yan Lingyu had accumulated, Li Zhibai's capital would only be even greater.
The true top stars are so powerful that they leave all other celebrities in the dust, their popularity is unstoppable, and even the most powerful figures can't escape their grasp. They can burn down half the sky.
This is Li Zhibai now.
Lin Suyang said, "What I mean is, we can definitely take on another overseas project to solidify your international reputation. The movie adapted from the game was a Chinese film, so it probably won't really help boost your international profile."
The success of "Buried" is truly remarkable.
The solid foundation laid by "You Are the Apple of My Eye" and "Chinese Paladin" in China is not effective abroad.
Li Zhibai said, "Of course I'll take them. I never said I wouldn't. The problem is there aren't any good projects."
“You were offered a role in an American TV series before, but you declined.”
“They want to sign three projects at once, but I won’t act in them,” Li Zhibai said. “I can’t be tied to one project. I’ll focus on acting in movies overseas from now on.”
"You look down on TV dramas?"
“Linghe mainly works on movies overseas. I need to be able to help Lu Yanhe at crucial moments. Acting in TV dramas won’t be of any use to him,” Li Zhibai said. “If there are good projects in Europe and America, it doesn’t matter if I’m not the male lead or the main character. I can just use it as an opportunity to build connections.”
Lin Suyang nodded.
“Flypaper is about to be released.” Li Zhibai suddenly said, “This movie is Linghe’s first Hollywood film. The box office performance is very important. We can’t let Yan He’s script be successful in other people’s hands but fail to be successful in his own. What do you think I can do to help promote this movie?”
Lin Suyang said, "Will you show up at a promotional event to support us? That's hard to say. I'll go and talk to Linghe and see what they need."
(End of this chapter)
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