Become famous another day.

Chapter 598 Pursuit of victory
Regarding whether Lu Yanhe should take on independent film roles in the future, his overseas agent Darren Wilson seriously advised Lu Yanhe to try not to do so.

Unless the script is good enough to win awards, don't act in it.

"Acting in a movie is not charity. It's not like they come to you with a good script and you just think, just act and help out, that's all." Darren Wilson said, "There are many independent film actors in the world, but your current achievements are unrepeatable. Protect your current achievements and don't let obvious failures appear on your resume."

Chen Ziyan and Darren Wilson have the same attitude.

"As I said, we can consider acting in famous directors and good scripts. It's not that we can't act in low-budget independent films, but the requirements must be strict." Chen Ziyan said, "If you think these independent film scripts are good and want to help them, there are many other ways to help."

Lu Yanhe quickly raised his hands to ask them to stop.

"Wait a minute, I'm confused. I never said I would help these independent films in this way. Why do you and Darren assume that I will act in these movies? Of course, my standards for accepting roles are also very high. I don't accept any role, and it doesn't mean that I will definitely act if the script is slightly better."

"There's nothing you can do about it. When you reach a certain level, it's a common problem for all actors to want to star in artistic films with deep connotations." Chen Ziyan said, "There are only a handful of actors like you who can understand the commercial and success concepts so clearly. The most difficult thing for a person to balance is his or her actual pursuit of interests and spiritual pursuits."

Lu Yanhe: "Well, I won't act in so many independent films. You've made it very clear to me before. You see, I've won several film awards in the past few years. As you said, the box office success of "The Mist" has actually helped my career much more than "Road to Glory", which won me the Best Actor award."

"That's mainly because when you won the Best Actor award in China, you had already reached the top of the domestic entertainment industry and there wasn't much room for you to continue to rise." Chen Ziyan said, "If you won the Best Actor award at the Jose-La Isla Film Festival, it would still be different."

"Well, but, especially in the past year, with The Birth of an Actor, Love Letter, and Jump Up Theater, I know very well that I really need real-life success to make everyone willing to trust me and do these things together." Lu Yanhe said, "They didn't come to try these new things with me just because I won the Best Actor or Best Screenwriter awards."

The box office success of "The Mist" actually means something very important to Lu Yanhe in the eyes of overseas filmmakers: Lu Yanhe is not only successful in China and Asia, he can also be successful in Europe, America and the world.

Believing that a person can achieve such an achievement and that this person has actually achieved such an achievement are two different concepts.

especially--

Although Lu Yanhe was not the leading male character in the beginning of the project "The Mist", in fact the main characters were three other people, but in the subsequent publicity and the focus of the audience after the movie was released, Lu Yanhe became the biggest star of the movie "The Mist".

This concept is probably similar to Daniel Radcliffe to Harry Potter and Melanie Streep to The Devil Wears Prada, the real star of a movie, the person who was called the "pillar" in the past.

Therefore, Lu Yanhe can become a movie star who truly wins both awards and box office.

This makes Lu Yanhe the intersection of the list of actors that all parties want to cooperate with in the greatest sense.

Whatever you want, you can get it. There will never be a situation where the director wants something but the film company is not satisfied with it, or the film company wants something but the director dislikes it.
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Also because of Lu Yanhe’s current situation, many people don’t quite understand Lu Yanhe’s next choice.

Among them was Muken Sorge.

"I heard that you are going to shoot a Malaysian movie and a Chinese TV series later, and you won't be the leading role in either of them." Muken Sorge expressed great doubts on the phone. "The Mist has just been released and has achieved great box office results. Shouldn't you take advantage of the success and either take on an art film that can win awards, or take on the leading role in a blockbuster movie?"

Lu Yanhe smiled and explained to Mu Ken.

"We have been in contact with and have already agreed on these two projects. Besides, I am also waiting to shoot the second part of The Mist," Lu Yanhe said. "With the success of the first part, the box office performance of the second part should not be bad, right? I have great faith in you."

Muken: "I heard in Hollywood that you have rejected many scripts recently. Some people even asked me if you are willing to act in Hollywood. Some people are wondering if you agreed to act in The Mist because my wife is Chinese. Many great actors are unwilling to act in Hollywood. People are beginning to doubt whether you are one of them."

"Of course I'm willing to act, but I have to get a good script and role." Lu Yanhe said, "The roles and scripts that come to me now are too ordinary. They are either similar to the roles in "The Mist" or the typical Asian roles with stereotypes. I'm not interested in playing a stereotypical Asian in a Hollywood movie. They can find any Asian face to play such a role, so why should they let me go?"

Muken: "I will help you tell those people in Hollywood about your attitude. No matter what, you have to let everyone know that you are not opposed to acting in Hollywood. Don't let them have the wrong impression."

"Okay, I get it. Actually, I won't. I already have an agent who specializes in handling my overseas brokerage affairs, Darren Wilson from Williams Company. He is helping me connect with various companies and directors. If I am not interested in acting in Hollywood, why would I find myself an overseas agent?"

"That's fine." Muken nodded.

"Mooken, how's the script for the sequel to The Mist coming along?"

"I'm still thinking about it." Muken said, "I found two other screenwriters in Hollywood who are thinking about the direction of the sequel with me. Do you have any ideas?"

"I don't have any idea for a sequel to The Mist, but I have a script in hand, an English script that I've already written, called Buried Alive. I wanted to work with D19 before, but the negotiations didn't go through," Lu Yanhe said. "I thought, maybe you can help me recommend if there are suitable producers and directors who can run this project."

"Oh, you wrote a script and are looking for a director? Why didn't you consider me?" Muken asked directly.

"This script is quite special. The whole story takes place in a narrow coffin, and there is only one actor in the whole scene." Lu Yanhe said, "The cost is very small. I wrote this before filming The Mist. At that time, I wanted to use this script to knock on the door of Hollywood. It is experimental in nature, so it is not suitable for you to direct it now."

As soon as Lu Yanhe finished speaking, Mu Ken understood.

This kind of movie, in which the entire movie is shot about one person and one coffin, is destined to be a small movie no matter how good the script is.

For a director who has already made hundreds of millions of dollars in box office, it is not suitable for him to make such a low-cost movie.

His salary alone cannot be covered by such a low-cost budget.

Nowadays, Muken Sorge's director's salary for shooting a movie, not counting the dividends and bonuses in the later stage, starts at at least five million.

Muken said, “Send me the script and I’ll help you take a look.”

Lu Yanhe said yes.

He added: "I talked to D19 at the time, and they wanted to keep the film rights in their hands. I didn't want to, so we didn't reach an agreement. Now I think about it, I want to make this film myself, and then find a distribution company later."

"Okay." Muken said, "It seems that the production cost of this film is really low?"

"Well, it's estimated to be between two and three million dollars," Lu Yanhe said. "If we use an actor who is completely unknown, the cost will be lower, but I still hope to find an actor with a certain degree of fame to play the leading role, and he must have good acting skills."

"Of course. It's too much for an actor to act from beginning to end by himself." Muken said, "You have to hold an audition, right?"

"Yes." Lu Yanhe said, "But before that, I have to register a film company in Hollywood."

After talking to Mu Ken, Lu Yanhe hung up the phone.

Regarding the script of "Buried", the original intention of writing this script was because it was easy to film, low-cost, and could be used as a stepping stone to enter Hollywood.

Unexpectedly, the unexpected box office success of "The Mist" helped him skip this step.

But Lu Yanhe felt that since he had already written it, it would be a shame not to film it.

It’s just that this script is really no longer suitable to be a key project.

Therefore, it is better to treat it as a practice for Linghe.

After hearing about Lu Yanhe's plan, Chen Ziyan nodded and said, "That's good. However, if you want to register a film production company in the United States, Wan Qingqing alone will definitely not be enough. She has a small office there and hired a few people. However, the contract is not signed with us Linghe, so they are not considered as our Linghe people. Moreover, if you want to register a film production company, you must have more professional staff, not just a small office like that."

Lu Yanhe said, "Sister Ziyan, we are just using Buried to practice, and there is no need to organize the company's people so quickly. If Buried is finished and there are no subsequent projects, the burden will be great." Chen Ziyan: "What do you mean?"

"See if Director Muken can recommend me a more reliable producer or director. If there is such a person, after we register a film company, it will be convenient to handle the copyright of "Buried Alive" and sign a cooperation agreement with them." Lu Yanhe said, "Let them take care of the specific filming, and Wan Qingqing or Song Jiang can just look after the financial matters. If they don't have enough experience, we may have to find someone from China to look after them together. Hollywood has much more experience in making movies than we do. Too many crews take the money, but in the end only one-third of it is used for making the movie, and the rest is swallowed up by others."

Chen Ziyan nodded: "Yes, we are indeed unfamiliar with the United States and it is easy to be cheated."

"Well, so we use this small project to practice. First, it gives Wan Qingqing and Song Jiang a chance to get familiar with the operation of the crew. Second, it also gives us a chance to get familiar with Hollywood. We have suffered losses and taken detours on this project. We can bear the risks and costs. It is better than taking a bigger fall in the future." Lu Yanhe said.

Chen Ziyan nodded.

Lu Yanhe: "Also, I'll ask Yuming's alumni if ​​there are any people working in the film and television industry in Hollywood. At times like this, we should stick together for warmth. There are some who can give us some pointers and help us avoid taking detours."

Chen Ziyan: "You really need to make good use of this resource. Your alumni circle is basically made up of elite talents from all walks of life. If you can make use of it, it will be a great help."
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In the evening, Lu Yanhe held a live broadcast after a long absence, live-streaming his reaction to the second play "Whirlpool" of Jump Up Theater.

This is also to promote the Jump Up Theater.

"The Vortex" is adapted from a short story by Liu Jiazhen and stars Huai Qian, who has excellent acting skills but has never been very famous.

He and Lu Yanhe met before because Yongshan Hesan deliberately caused trouble.

As an actor of the younger generation with very good acting skills but unknown to the public because he had always starred in low-budget art films, that incident was the first time Huaiqian was widely recognized. It was also because of that incident that he met Lu Yanhe, and this collaboration was born.

There were two plays adapted from Liu Jiazhen's short stories. One was "Silent Stairs", which was played by Lu Yanhe. For the other one, "Whirlpool", it was discussed at the time that the male protagonist of this story should be young and have very good acting skills, and the salary should not be too high to avoid exceeding the budget. After much calculation, a list of actors was drawn up. Among the few people, everyone saw Huai Qian and thought this name was familiar. After checking again, they invited him.

Huaiqian also responded within a day of receiving the invitation, expressing his willingness to perform.

Suspense and crime stories have always been popular themes in film and television.

However, there are not many good stories. Such stories are often in the hands of a very small number of top suspense and mystery novelists. For writers like Liu Jiazhen, who are currently in high demand, his novels are the object of competition among major film and television companies. Huai Qian is difficult to get in touch with——

He is neither a rising star who has been bet by a big company, nor does he follow his own agent. There is no strong company to help him get resources. He basically just hangs around in art films. He is famous in a small circle but not well known to the general public.

In this case, he cannot get the leading role in mainstream projects, and there is no need for him to play supporting roles - after all, in any mainstream project, important roles within the sixth place are basically used by various companies to exchange resources.

Huaiqian's agency was not at the table and could not help him exchange resources. Even though he had the reputation of being the leading actor in art films, he could only play a small supporting role other than the sixth-ranked one.

Even if he wanted to play this kind of role, his agent wouldn't let him take it.

Moreover, if he really acted in the role, he would lose the reputation he had built in the art film circle.

This opportunity to star in "Whirlpool" is the best resource Huaiqian has received in recent years.

With the current attention of Jump Up Theater, Huai Qian has also entered everyone's field of vision.

Just like the two girls who played in "Girl's Adventure" last week, they were immediately included in the list of backup actors by major film and television companies.

During the two hours that Lu Yanhe watched "The Vortex", except for a few times during the commercial breaks when he went to the bathroom and checked his phone, he was concentrating on watching TV.

In the middle, he sighed no less than three times, "Huai Qian performed this part so well."

Naturally, Jump Up Theater would not miss this opportunity and immediately bought hot searches for related terms for the play.

In fact, Lu Yanhe was not exaggerating. Huai Qian did show good acting skills in "The Vortex".

There are two emotional outburst scenes in the film that are very gripping.

One of the clips, which showed a five-second face-changing, also became popular on the Internet.

"Whirlpool" had a viewership rating of 0.78%.

Compared with "Girl's Adventure", it increased by 0.1%.
-
Huaiqian’s Weibo followers gained 11 overnight.

Someone @the official Weibo account of "The Birth of the Actors", saying that Huai Qian deserves to be on the next season of the show.

The official Weibo account of "The Birth of the Actors" also responded immediately: Huai Qian is already a very famous young actor in our domestic art film circle. If he is willing to come to our show to play, we will of course welcome him very much.

The next day, Huaiqian’s agent told him that he had received two scripts since the broadcast of “Vortex”, both of which were major roles in the top six, and both were projects rated A by the platform.

The agent was excited.

I have been with Huai Qian for so long, but I have never encountered a situation like this.

Huaiqian also breathed a sigh of relief.

As an actor whose acting skills have always been praised, Huai Qian has actually always been a little conceited.

He has such good acting skills and a nice image, but he is always lacking in popularity and is not very famous.

Is it true that he is not destined to become famous?

Sometimes, he had such thoughts.

Fortunately, at such a time, a work like "Whirlpool" appeared.

The agent added: "Jump Up Theater has sent us another script."

"Ok?"

"But this time it's not a suspense crime type script, it's a love story." The agent said, "Would you like to take a look?"

Huaiqian nodded and said, "Of course."

"But compared to the salaries offered for the two previous dramas, the salary offered to us by Jumping Theater has hardly increased at all. The difference is quite big," said the agent.

Huai Qian said: "I have become a little famous now thanks to 'Whirlpool', so I have to repay it no matter what."

"That's right." The agent nodded.
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Recommended old book "I Became the Scandal Heroine Overnight"

(End of this chapter)