1980 My Literary Era.

Chapter 480

"The Last Emperor" began to be screened in France, Italy, Germany, Britain, the United States and other Western countries in November last year. The box office is generally not satisfactory. , this movie can be said to be a loss to grandma's family.

Fortunately, Columbia, the film's distributor in the United States, is strong and has contributed a lot to the Oscar Awards.

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

Later Cheng Kaige brought "Farewell My Concubine" to the United States, and won the Golden Globe Awards. He thought he was sure of winning, and he was not willing to spend public relations fees. As a result, "Farewell My Concubine" won the film festivals all over the world without any suspense. Losing the Oscar is regarded as a pity by many people in the domestic film industry.

After the rise of the Weinstein brothers in Hollywood, the Oscars of later generations quickly deteriorated to a jaw-dropping level.

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

Although the box office of the film in the early stage was not ideal, but with the blessing of Oscar, it is enough to recover the investment by directly selling the copyright, and even make a small profit.

The film does not lose money, but can still make money. The investment, production, and distribution parties are naturally happy.

In addition to these three parties, this time "The Last Emperor" became a blockbuster, and the one who benefited the most was director Bertolucci, who won the Oscar for Best Director in one fell swoop, making him a world-renowned director.

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

The actor Zun Long had previously made his mark in Hollywood because of the image of the black boss in the movie "Year of the Dragon".

There is also the heroine Gong Li, originally just an ordinary student at the Central Academy of Drama, because "Red Sorghum" won the Golden Bear Award and won the attention of many foreign media, and because of the popularity of "Red Sorghum", she successfully starred in "The Last Emperor" "The role of Wanrong in ".

Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear Award for Leading Actress and Academy Award for Best Actress. With these two films alone, even if Gong Li does nothing in the next 20 years, she will be the insurmountable pinnacle of all Chinese actresses. .

What's more, because of the blessing of these two award-winning works, Gong Li's popularity is already at an international level. Now she is only short of one award that can prove her acting skills, and she can completely become a god.

Others, such as Ryuichi Sakamoto of the soundtrack, photographer Bao Haoxin, etc., "The Last Emperor" has achieved too many people, including Lin Weimin, the screenwriter.

Before "The Last Emperor" won the Oscars, Lin Weimin had already gained a lot of fame in the American literary and theater circles, but he was not well-known in Hollywood, a self-contained vanity fair.

Script script, the book of a play.Movies have been called the art of directors since their birth, but no one can deny the importance of scripts.

Because of Teng Jinxian's official status, he was completely 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 many media attention.

Many media knew little about Lin Weimin before reporting, but after checking the information, the Chinese screenwriter turned out to be a "treasure boy".

Tony Award, Best Screenplay at Berlin Film Festival, National Book Critics Association Award, Goncourt Prize for Literature...

Not only has he won various drama and literary awards, but the box office of his drama works on Broadway has exceeded [-] million, and the sales of his novels have also been extremely brilliant. The audience in the United States alone has reached millions of people.

Lin Weimin's rich and wonderful resume immediately aroused the interest of many media, scrambling to search for his various materials and trying to contact him for interviews. At this time, the reporters discovered that this screenwriter did not even attend the Oscar ceremony, and he was a maverick. Full of character.

Not being able to interview Lin Weimin did not hinder these media reports, but instead increased Lin Weimin's sense of mystery.

Lin Weimin obviously didn't do anything, but took advantage of the limelight of "The Last Emperor" to make a face in front of the American people, which no one expected.

The reports of the American media did not affect Lin Weimin, but when he was busy dealing with the directors of those domestic studios, an American filmmaker asked for Lin Weimin's contact information through Bertolucci.

The success of "The Last Emperor" and the in-depth excavation of Lin Weimin by the media in the United States made interested 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 senior Hollywood producer. He and his wife, Julia Phillips, are well-known couples in Hollywood.

Michael Phillips' famous work was the 1974 film "Cheat" directed by George Roy Hill. This film won the best film and best director at the Oscars that year. Michael Phillips Phillips became famous from this battle.

In 1977, Michael Phillips produced "Taxi Driver" directed by Martin Scorsese, which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. So far, Michael Phillips has completely established his status in Hollywood.

After decades of the era of big studios in Hollywood, the 80s began to gradually enter the era of "producer-centered system". Michael Phillips and his wife have been famous in Hollywood for many years, dealing with the six major companies in Hollywood , Columbia Pictures is one of the companies that their husband and wife have cooperated with all the year round.

Phillips and his wife went to Hollywood, relying on not only outstanding ability, but also a keen sense of smell.

"The Last Emperor" made Bertolucci a favorite in Hollywood, but the Phillips and his wife knew that Bertolucci and Thomas' long-term cooperative relationship could not be easily interfered by outsiders.

When they saw the report about Lin Weimin in the newspaper, they immediately fell in love with it. After collecting some information, they immediately fell in love with "Untouchable", which has been on Broadway for four years and just stopped a while ago. and the script of ".

After being polished on the Broadway stage, this script has reached perfection. In addition, it has accumulated millions of audiences in four years. The audience base is solid, and the adaptation has its own box office.

In addition, Lin Weimin, the screenwriter who won the Oscar for the best original screenplay, had the right time and place, and the husband and wife couldn't wait to contact Lin Weimin.

The two parties communicated on the phone for more than half an hour, with little success. A Hollywood movie often costs several million dollars, or even tens of millions of dollars. It is difficult to obtain a satisfactory result for both parties just by talking on the phone.

"If you really want to adapt "Untouchable", I hope we can have a face-to-face meeting, so that things may be much simpler." Lin Weimin suggested on 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.

The meeting between the two parties was arranged by Lin Weimin at the Yanjing Hotel. Over the years, all the foreign guests he has received for cooperation have basically met here. It is convenient and convenient.

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

"The Last Emperor", a movie that China participated in the production of, just won the Oscar award some time ago, and the government department is honored. I heard that Michael Phillips is coming to China to discuss the film adaptation with Lin Weimin. He is a well-known Hollywood star. The producer, when he applied for the visa, the Museum of History had already understood the purpose of his trip, and enthusiastically provided help.

"Mr. Phillips, welcome to China!"

In the coffee shop of Yanjing Hotel, Lin Weimin met Michael Phillips.

Michael Phillips is the quintessential elite white guy, in suits and haircuts.

Seeing Lin Weimin, he was a little surprised. Although he already knew Lin Weimin's age and appearance from the information collected before, Michael Phillips couldn't help but exclaim when he saw him with his own eyes: "Lin, you are so young!"

"Oriental baby face, according to our Chinese saying, after this year, I will be 30 years old!"

Michael Phillips didn't know for a moment whether Lin Weimin was showing off or sincerely feeling.

After exchanging pleasantries, Michael Phillips got straight to the point and chatted with Lin Weimin about the adaptation of "Untouchable".

"Lin, this time "The Last Emperor" has become the biggest winner of the Academy Awards, and Hollywood's biggest achievement is that it discovered you, a talented playwright. This movie is really amazing.

Of course, not only "The Last Emperor", "Untouchable" and "The Kite Runner" are also excellent, I am a loyal audience of Ni's works..."

As soon as he came up, Michael Phillips poured ecstasy soup on Lin Weimin with ease.

"Mr. Phillips..."

Lin Weimin was naturally not interested in his rainbow fart. After listening to Phillips' long speech, he was about to speak, but Michael Phillips said, "Call me Mike, so I can get used to it."

"Okay, Mike!" Lin Weimin followed suit and continued: "Mike, I don't know if you have talked with Mr. Bertolucci, but I have strict requirements on my collaborators for my scripts.

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

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

"Lin, film production is not the same as drama. Screenwriting is of course very important, but the role of other departments is also indispensable. You can't limit the requirements so rigidly." Michael Phillips said.

"Of course I know this. I think our original intention is the same, and we both want to make an outstanding movie. But we are in different positions. As the original creator of this work, I still hope more It stays in its original state.”

Michael Phillips nodded when he heard Lin Weimin's words, "There is a consensus between us. Lin, the direction of the production of "Untouchable" must be a feature film. With years of running-in on Broadway performances, we will not go in vain. You don't have to worry about that power going to great lengths in the script."

"That's for the best, of course, but I still want to be able to put some of my demands on paper."

Michael Phillips hesitated: "I'm afraid this will need to be negotiated carefully."

(End of this chapter)