The King of Directors 2000

Chapter 664: Word of mouth explodes
"Clap! Clap! Clap!"

Applause rang out, and almost everyone in the theater stood up.

Including Diane, Alfonso, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Alberto and others.

"Lee, we made it."

Emmerich stood next to Li Shengyao, looking around, his eyes full of excitement, applauding and shouting.

Phoenix stood on the other side of Li Shengyao, his lips pursed and his eyes slightly red. No one knew how much he paid to play this role.

An apple a day, I even had some mental breakdown during the filming.

That is to say, Li Shengyao supports him, otherwise, he might really collapse.

Fortunately, everything has passed. Judging from the applause after the screening, this movie is undoubtedly very successful. Even if it cannot win an award, it is still a very classic movie.

"Lee, come on, share with us your experience making this movie and what you think."

Lee Sung-Yao, Emmerich, Phoenix, De Niro, and Baez came to the stage together.

Taking the microphone from the host, Li Shengyao was about to speak, but the applause from the audience became louder.

After the applause subsided a little, Lee Sheng-yew said: "I'm very happy that everyone likes this movie. When people from Warner Bros. approached me, I thought about making a different movie.

Then I thought about the Joker from the DC Universe.

This character is very charming, and there have been many predecessors who have performed his unique qualities brilliantly.

I thought at the time, maybe I could make this character more vivid and make people understand his past and why he became the person who opposed Batman.

I want to thank many people, Emmerich, Phoenix, De Niro, Baez, and other actors, as well as all post-production friends and set workers.

There are also some media friends whose urging gave us greater motivation.

Of course, there are also friends from the Venice Film Festival. You are very kind to "Joker". I can feel the care of Mr. Alfonso and Alberto. Thank you very much. "

After the words fell, applause sounded again.

Meimeiguo likes silly, straightforward, and very confident characters.

But people in Europe are actually more humble. This is the difference between old Europe and beautiful countries.

Li Shengyao's remarks were obviously in line with the habits of the vast majority of the audience at the scene.

Subsequently, Phoenix, De Niro and others expressed their opinions on "Joker".

The applause continued, and the post-screening interview lasted for thirty minutes. When the second screening time came, the audience was reluctant to leave.

Alberto couldn't help but nod to Li Shengyao, "Li, thank you for bringing such an excellent movie. I hope you can win the grand prize."

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman."

After the audience of the first scene left, the audience of the second scene quickly entered.

Although they don't know the plot of the movie, the news that "Joker" has received rave reviews has spread, and everyone hopes to watch this high-scoring movie.

The first screening showed more celebrities, and the second screening was almost all ordinary audiences.

However, the "Joker" crew members still stayed. Everyone was very excited and did not find it tiring.

They are willing to share the production process of "Joker" and their own mentality with more people.

Just like that, the second screening began, and at the end, just like the first screening, there was constant applause and waves of cheers...

"Joker is the best movie I've seen in recent years."

"'Joker' gave superhero movies another direction. This movie is very important and has guiding significance across the ages."

"I have to say, Lee Sheng Yew is really amazing, he conquered me."

"An amazing movie, "Joker" is expected to win the Golden Lion Award at this Venice Film Festival."

"There was no peeing throughout the whole process. Arthur is the most classic character in 2015."

"Phoenix gave an unparalleled performance and made the Joker even more exciting."

"Although Hildy is a young scorer, the score of "Joker" impressed me deeply."

After the movie was screened, word-of-mouth exploded. The media not only praised "Joker" in Venice, but also in France, England, and Spain.

Sight and Sound and Cahiers du Cinema were not published so quickly.

Magazines such as "World Cinema" and "Cinema" published critics' opinions on "Joker" early on.

Under such circumstances, "Joker" has attracted more attention, and more fans are looking forward to the premiere of "Joker".

Naturally, Warner will not let this opportunity pass by and once again increase its publicity.

"Joker" will be released worldwide on October 12th, and the Venice Film Festival awards ceremony will be on the evening of October 11th.

In other words, Warner is actually waiting for "Joker" to win awards, then promote it and release it immediately to make money.

Emmerich was very nervous. "Joker" had received very good reviews, which further raised his expectations.

Warner originally thought that "Joker" would be enough if it could gross US$300 million at the global box office.

Now they want $500 million.

Emmerich wants to rely on "Joker" to gain credit, and he naturally hopes that "Joker" will have a higher box office.

In Lee Sheng Yew's previous life, the global box office of "Joker" was around 1 billion US dollars. Now a few years ahead of schedule, Lee Sheng Yew believes that there will be no problem with the box office exceeding 500 million US dollars, and there is even a chance of reaching 1 billion US dollars.

But he didn't tell Emmerich.

After the screening of "Joker", there were many outstanding films being screened. Without any promotional duties, Lee Sheng Yew arranged for the crew members of "Joker" to move around freely.

He himself goes out to watch movies every day.

Almost every time he attends the three major European film festivals, he will watch movies.

This time it was the same.

Until the last day of the film festival, when the closing film "Old Paoer" was screened, Lee Sheng-yew was watching the movie.

On this afternoon, the sun was shining brightly and the autumn wind was blowing gently. A group of young Chinese movie fans gathered around the red carpet and shouted loudly.

Before the screening of "Old Paoer" began, the cast and crew had a red carpet ceremony.

The cast of this movie is still very strong, including Xiaogangpao, Fanfan, Li Yifeng, Xu Qing, and Zhang Hanyu.

Fanfan quit the Korean troupe and became a top male star after returning to China. Even in Venice, many young girls came to support him.

Lee Sheng Yew has always been in contact with Xiaogangpao. Now that the movie starring Xiaogangpao is being screened, he will naturally come to support it.

This movie is the closing film, so naturally we can’t expect any awards.

In fact, "Old Paoer" is promoted through the Venice Film Festival, and they will be released in China soon.

After Lee Sung-yao came to the screening hall of "Lao Pao Er", he sat in the middle of the crew of "Lao Pao Er". On the left was Xiaogang Pao and on the right was Guan Hu. He looked like an important member of the crew. In fact, he was in the movie. Not a single cameo scene.

Such treatment is naturally due to the fact that he is now a major international director.

Li Shengyao didn't have much contact with Guan Hu. He mainly chatted with Xiaogangpao. At this time, Xiaogangpao was wearing a suit, and his skin color looked normal. However, if you look closely, you can still see a lot of lesions, which look quite scary.

The momentum of Xiaogangpao in the past two years is obviously not as good as in the previous years.

Although the "If You Are the One" series has a good box office, it is not comparable to "囧 in Thailand" and "囧 in Hong Kong". His current box office is not even as good as Deng Chao.

Starring in a movie this time is considered his first attempt.

However, as an all-powerful director, he is naturally not willing to serve other directors.

He just didn’t have a good subject matter in mind, and when he did, he would quickly start directing again.

"Director Li, you are still awesome. You are really awesome. You will definitely win the Golden Lion this time."

Xiaogangpao looked at Li Shengyao with envy in his eyes, and gave a thumbs up as he spoke.

There is no doubt that Xiaogangpao's achievements in commercial films are not as good as Lao Mouzi or Lee Sheng-yao, but they are much better than Brother Kaizi and Chief Jia.

He now wants to make some "normal" movies, movies that reflect his level.

However, he knows very well that his movies may have a score of 7 or 8, but they are not outstanding. If he does not get a score of 9, it is impossible for his quality to win awards in the three major European movies.

In this respect, he will never be as good as Lao Mouzi and Brother Kaizi.

He sincerely admires Lee Sing-yew's continuous winning of awards.

Li Shengyao smiled and looked at the big screen in front of him, "Director Feng, the awards have not yet been awarded. It is too early to say this now. We will wait and see. If we really win the grand prize, I will treat you to a drink then."

"Just inviting me to drink is not enough. You must be a guest star in my next movie."

Guan Hu sat on the other side and looked at the little steel cannon with envy after hearing this.

Lee Sheng Yew is so popular right now. If Lee Sheng Yew is invited to make a cameo, the movie will definitely attract more viewers.

It's a pity that he and Li Shengyao don't have such a relationship.

Li Shengyao looked at Xiaogangpao's thin face, chuckled and nodded, "Okay, when you make your new movie, say hello to me, and I will make a guest appearance then."

When Xiaogang Pao heard this, he happily gestured with OK. Then he remembered that Lee Sheng Yew had read the script to him before.

This time "Joker" was written by Lee Sung-yew, who created such a charming clown.

If Lee Sheng Yew is asked to help read the script, the story of the new movie will definitely be more solid and exciting.

He opened his mouth to express what was in his mind, when a white reporter bent over.

"Lee, can you take a photo?"

"of course."

It's not a good time for an interview. After all, "Old Paoer" is being screened, but squatting in front and taking photos won't affect the audience behind you from watching the movie.

With one person taking the lead, more reporters and photographers soon came over, all wanting to take photos of Lee Sheng-yao.

These foreign reporters may not know Xiaogang Pao and Guan Hu. They came here just to see Lee Sheng Yew.

Xiaogangpao looked at the reporters and photographers one after another with envy in his heart. At the same time, he also understood the influence of Lee Sheng-yao now.

Thinking of my request to invite Li Shengyao to help read the script, I couldn't help but hesitate.

Lee Sheng-yew's current status as a celebrity and his willingness to make a guest appearance are enough to give him face.

I want someone to help me read the script. Isn’t it too much?

It’s not like Lee Sheng Yew will invest in his movies, it seems really unsuitable.

After the reporters finished taking photos, Xiaogang Pao thought for a moment and couldn't help but ask: "Director Li, do you have a direction for your new movie?"

"Not yet. Several major Hollywood film companies have approached me and offered me a salary of 30 million, production rights, editing rights, and 30% of the film copyright. However, I still want to wait until "Joker" is released before doing it. Decide."

Xiaogangpao was very smart and immediately understood what Li Shengyao meant, "Director Li, do you think "Joker" can achieve extremely high box office, get more remuneration, or raise higher requirements?"

"Yes, that's what I thought."

Are you still not satisfied with the salary of US$30 million?

Even higher, that is a salary of US$50 million.

There are very few Hollywood films with this level of pay.

James Cameron has the highest price, and is unique in the history of world cinema. "Avatar" has the right to share the box office, and one movie can earn two to three billion US dollars.

For example, Spielberg or Nolan can earn a salary of US$50 million.

However, Spielberg's salary is unstable. After all, after the turn of the millennium, he has relatively few high-grossing movies.

According to Nolan, he has two billion-dollar movies to earn such a salary.

Lee Sung-Yao wants to earn US$50 million, which means that "Joker" may earn US$1 billion.

Although I have known for a long time that Li Shengyao is very good and I admire Li Shengyao's strength very much.

But for a billion dollars, Xiaogangpao still thinks it’s impossible.

Just like Nolan's two billion-dollar box office movies, the "Batman" series of movies, one of them still used the gimmick of Heath Ledger's death to achieve such a high box office.

Batman is a very famous superhero in the beautiful country. The character is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so it is reasonable for him to get high box office.

But Joker does not have such a mass base, not to mention that the story of "Joker" is not from the comics, but was re-written by Lee Sheng-yew himself.

Under such circumstances, it is too difficult to get a billion dollars at the box office.

In addition, I heard that "Joker" will not be introduced to the mainland due to plot reasons, which makes it more difficult for "Joker" to increase the global box office.

Thinking of this, Xiaogangpao looked around, then lowered his voice and couldn't help but said: "Director Li, do you think "Joker" will be a box office hit?"

Li Shengyao nodded, "There is a chance."

In Lee Sheng-yew's previous life, "Joker" was released in 2019. In fact, in 2019, the global economic situation had begun to decline, and the movie box office also declined.

The movie market in 2015 is better than that in 2019.

What's more, Lee Sheng-yew's appeal in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong Island, Wanwan, and Europe should be stronger than that of Todd Phillips, the director of "Joker" in his previous life.

Therefore, Lee Sheng-yew believes that the box office of this movie will not be worse than the previous one, at least one billion.

Of course, Emmerich wouldn't believe it if he told it now, and would think that Li Shengyao was delusional.

That is to say, when chatting with Xiaogangpao now, he treats it as bragging to a fellow villager and expresses his thoughts.

"Old Paoer" was being screened, and it happened that the leading actor was bragging.

In this movie, which reflects the old and new gangsters in Yanjing, except for a few characters, all other characters like to brag.

Xiaogangpao looked at Li Shengyao and couldn't tell for a moment whether Li Shengyao was bragging or whether he really had such confidence.

"One billion is too much."

(End of this chapter)