Actor: My Entertainment Era

Zhang Yuanjun also brought the two Golden Horse trophies of Damien Chazelle and David Seidler.

David Seidler has returned to the UK. The old man has not produced any works for two years since "The King's Speech" and "Her". It seems that he is not in good health. He has been recuperating in the UK in the past few years and occasionally goes to school to give advice. Students go to class and live a very relaxed life. It has been a long time since I started writing scripts.

Zhang Yuanjun handed his Golden Horse trophy to Eddie and asked him to forward it to David on his behalf.

Damien Chazelle happened to be in Hollywood, and Zhang Yuanjun came to see him off and also visited his young friend.

Damien Chazelle lives in an ordinary apartment on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

"Zhang, you are welcome to be our guest." Damien Chazelle warmly received Zhang Yuanjun.

Zhang Yuanjun first handed the red wine he brought as a gift to Damien Chazelle: "This is what we will drink tonight."

"It's up to you." Damien Chazelle smiled.

Zhang Yuanjun returned the Golden Horse trophy to him: "This is the highest award for Chinese films."

Obviously, Damien Chazelle has no idea about the Golden Horse Award, but he still likes this trophy: "This is the first film award I have won, and I must put it in the most conspicuous place in my room. "

The two sat down and talked about their respective jobs. Zhang Yuanjun said that he has two movies to shoot this year: "Both are small-budget productions, but both have very interesting scripts. Crystal also has two movies to shoot this year."

Damien Chazelle was even more excited when talking about his future work: "I am preparing my second feature film, Zhang, which is a great story."

Damien Chazelle spoke vividly about his new film: "I made a short film first, and I won the short film award at the just-concluded Sundance Film Festival."

"I heard Eddie say, congratulations." Zhang Yuanjun smiled.

After Eddie knew that Zhang Yuanjun was going to visit Damien Chazelle, he told Zhang Yuanjun to be careful about this person. Eddie's original words were this: "He is raising funds for his new movie, although the short film he shot in advance was in St. Dance won the award, but he still didn't get enough investment. I turned him down, so be careful if he asks you for money."

As for what kind of movie Damien Chazelle was preparing to make, Zhang Yuanjun did not ask Eddie in detail.

It seems that Damien Chazelle plans to leave the new film project at the dinner table as a topic of discussion to Zhang Yuanjun.

After a while, another friend of Damien, Justin Hurwitz, also came to Damien's apartment, and the three of them had dinner together tonight.

Zhang Yuanjun saw that this was the intention of good gay friends to join forces.

Zhang Yuanjun wanted to see what kind of work these two could do.

Sure enough, as soon as the three of them had a glass of wine, Damien said that he wanted to show Zhang Yuanjun his talent: "My father is a loyal fan of blues and jazz, and I have learned music from him since I was a child."

Justin Hurwitz praised: "Damien is very good at playing drums. We were in a band together in college, he played drums and I played guitar. Damien, why don't you show it to our guests. "

Damien didn't refuse, put down his knife and fork, walked to the drum set in the corner of the room, and played a while.

Naturally, he won applause and praise from Zhang Yuanjun.

Justin Hurwitz also performed, putting on his guitar for a solo.

"Zhang, I heard from Eddie that you were once a singer and released an album. Come on and perform a performance for us." Damien invited.

Zhang Yuanjun smiled and said, "I haven't touched a guitar for a long time." Although there was a hint of rejection in his words, Zhang Yuanjun became more interested. He tried a few notes on Justin Hurwitz's guitar and said, "I can't play it well." Okay, don’t laugh at me.”

Zhang Yuanjun hummed a piece of "Yesterday Once More" while playing, which won applause from his two companions. Zhang Yuanjun laughed: "I haven't played it for many years."

"Very good, Zhang, if we were still playing music, I would definitely invite you to our band."

Just listen to these kind words.

The three of them sat down again and chatted a lot about music. They started talking about performance, then about creation, and then about classic song and dance repertoire.

Zhang Yuanjun said: "Musical films are not popular in the East. The ones people talk about most are still "Riverdance", "The Phantom of the Opera" and..." Damien tentatively added: "'Cats'?"

Zhang Yuanjun smiled: "Of course. "Cats" is very well-known in China."

These three plays have been performed poorly all over the world, but there is no way, the audience just likes to watch them.

Damien Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz both admitted: "Who wouldn't love Cats?"

But in terms of film and television, musicals are still limited to "Singin' in the Rain", "Moulin Rouge" and "The Sound of Music".

Regarding "Black Swan" and "The Artist", which have become popular in recent years, Zhang Yuanjun bluntly said that he "doesn't like it very much".

"Today's screenwriters and directors mix too many things into musicals. "Black Swan" is more of a psychological thriller than a musical. Natalie's performance is too average, and "The Artist" is even more Don’t mention it, it’s a product of the nostalgic era, and singing and dancing are just its skin. I look forward to a pure musical and dancing film, with a simple story, a beautiful protagonist, and good-sounding and beautiful singing and dancing, so that the audience can relax.”

When Zhang Yuanjun said this, Damien Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz felt nervous. Zhang Yuanjun had a very traditional taste in musicals and preferred stage musicals, which made both of them hesitant to go along with it. Bring out your own movie based on the topic of singing and dancing.

But Damien Chazelle still felt like giving it a try, so he mentioned to Zhang Yuanjun: "Zhang, we are just planning to make a different musical film. I believe you will like it."

"Oh? Why is it different?" Zhang Yuanjun answered.

"We had lost the environment of Singin' in the Rain, so we decided to find another way and make a movie about the protagonist learning music the hard way."

Justin Hurwitz explained for his good friend: "Damien has been playing the drums since he was a child. He knows how hard it is to learn to play the drums, so he wanted to make a drumming movie for himself."

"It's pretty good." Zhang Yuanjun smiled, "It's a cool thing to make your own experience into a movie."

Justin said: "It is indeed a cool thing, but Damien lacks investment. Today's Hollywood is pursuing comic adaptations, and few bosses are willing to support original stories, even low-cost original stories like ours."

“How small is the cost?”

"$300 million." Damien said.

"It's really a small cost," Zhang Yuanjun said. "Those bosses can just hold one less party and buy one less car."

"That's right!" Justin also denounced the behavior of these bosses, "They would rather spend their money on champagne and beautiful women than support movies."

Zhang Yuanjun stopped talking. The couple spent seven figures on entertainment every year. He waited for Damien to speak.

To put it bluntly, they are here to ask for money.

Damien then spoke: "Eddie is a professional manager. He cannot fully understand the meaning of shooting such a movie, but Zhang, you are different. You are an actor. You should be able to understand me, right?"

Zhang Yuanjun shrugged: "Of course I understand."

Why does this sound like CX brainwashing?

Zhang Yuanjun said: "Three million US dollars is indeed not much, but the company has shot blockbusters like "The Hunger Games" in the past two years, and also shot two or three low-cost movies. Eddie should not have much money to give you."

It was only after Damien saw that "The Hunger Games" was making money that he approached Eddie to challenge him, but he was met with disappointment.

But it is impossible for Damien to give 300 million to Zhang Yuanjun: "I can only give you 300 million. You still need to find a way for the remaining 200 million. In addition, I will send a supervisor to the team to supervise."

This is Zhang Yuanjun’s right, and Damien has no reason to refuse.

"Cracking Drummer" is of course a good film. Once it is signed and released, it will further build its reputation and prepare the company for the next step of financing.

Damien and Justin successfully achieved their goals tonight. After dinner, they wanted to invite Zhang Yuanjun to see their preparations, but Zhang Yuanjun declined and returned to the hotel to sleep at night. (End of chapter)