"The Mist"?
The first thing that came to Lu Yanhe's mind was an American movie he had horror film based on Stephen King's novel of the same name.
This movie tells the story of a thick fog that suddenly drifted in a small town, surrounding the entire town. Hidden in the thick fog was a terrifying and evil supernatural force.
Lu Yanhe opened the script and read the first three pages. He was somewhat shocked to find that the beginning of the movie was quite similar to the American movie he had seen.
Of course, the beginning is similar, with a thick fog covering the town. After that, both the characters and the plot development are completely different.
Lu Yanhe breathed a sigh of relief.
Just now, for a moment, Lu Yanhe actually felt a vague sense of tension in his heart——
At that moment, he was worried that there was someone in the United States who had traveled through time and brought with him a script called "The Mist".
This horror film script called "The Mist" tells the story of a remnant soul coming to avenge the town that hurt him in the past.
It's actually a supernatural horror movie.
Lu Yanhe was surprised.
The horror film genre has never been popular in China. Due to some unspeakable reasons, this genre has not been able to create a big trend in China.
But in Europe and the United States, horror films are one of the most profitable genres.
Lu Yanhe didn't expect that Muken Sorge would come to him with a horror film script.
However, Lu Yanhe himself has watched quite a few horror movies.
Especially before I traveled through time, when I was in junior high and high school, many Saturday nights the teachers would let everyone watch movies in the classroom.
When teachers choose, they usually choose some American animated films so that they can learn English at the same time.
Sometimes, the teacher will give the choice to the students. At this time, everyone will generally choose horror or thriller movies. It was at this time that Lu Yanhe watched a series of horror thrillers such as "The Ring", "Saw Killer" and "The Silence of the Lambs"...
In Muken Sorge's "The Mist", the ghost who comes for revenge after death comes for the character played by Lu Yanhe.
This is an Asian American who came to this small town with his parents. Because of the discrimination against Asians in the town, his family has been in a bad situation.
In the end, they died in a fire deliberately set by several teenagers in the town.
The story begins five years after the incident, when the teenagers who deliberately set the fire have grown up.
The Asian ghost played by Lu Yanhe initially appeared as an evil villain, endangering these people. As the plot progressed, he deliberately caused various accidents to happen to these people, and used various intimidation methods to force them to recall the arson incident of that year, and made them admit what they had done in front of everyone in the town. Only then did his motives emerge.
However, the people in the town did not intend to punish the murderers, but believed that the Asian family had destroyed the peace of the town. They invited an exorcist to purify the Asian ghost.
At this point, the story of the movie has progressed two-thirds. In the last one-third, which is the climax of the movie, the Asian ghost engages in a fierce struggle with the exorcist. In this process, the Asian ghost keeps fighting back and finally kills all the people who set fire to his family.
It took Lu Yanhe almost an hour to finish reading the script.
He read very quickly.
There's almost nothing confusing about the script, so there's no need to think too much about it.
Overall, this is a very enjoyable horror film. Especially Lu Yanhe, who knew from the script what role Muken Sorge wanted him to play. After he got into the role of this Asian ghost, Lu Yanhe read the script completely from the perspective of revenge.
In general, after learning why the ghost wanted to retaliate and kill the people in the story, Lu Yanhe completely understood him.
The theme of revenge is a universal theme regardless of nationality or cultural background. At first, Lu Yanhe was worried that this role would turn an Asian character into a villain. He was a little worried about the image of deliberately doing evil. But in the middle of the film, Lu Yanhe no longer felt that this was a villain.
The further he went on, the more Lu Yanhe felt that this Asian ghost was the protagonist of this story.
After reading it, Lu Yanhe looked at Muken Sorge in surprise and said, "Mr. Sorge, are you looking for me to play the role of the vengeful ghost?"
Although he had already guessed it, Lu Yanhe still wanted to confirm it with him.
Muken Sorge nodded and said, "Yes, I have seen your performance in Three Mountains. I was completely shocked by your performance. When I was writing this script, your image was in my mind. I hope to invite you to act in this movie."
Three Mountains
Well, maybe in Muken Sorge’s eyes, “Three Mountains” is also a horror film.
After all, it is indeed mysterious.
Moreover, Lu Yanhe's performance in "Three Mountains" is also abnormal, like a person possessed by an evil spirit.
Lu Yanhe probably guessed why Muken Sorge wrote such a character in "The Mist".
Speaking of which, this ghost in "The Mist" has a bit of the flavor of the fortune teller.
At the beginning of the story, he kept appearing in strange ways to scare others, and those scenes were reminiscent of "Three Mountains".
Lu Yanhe said: "Mr. Sorge, thank you for inviting me to play this role, but I can't give you an answer for the time being. I need to take it back and discuss it with my agent."
Muken Sorge nodded and said, "No problem."
Muken Sorge added: "However, this is still a low-budget film, and our budget for actors' salaries is not high. You also know that this film will definitely not be released in mainland China, nor can it be sold to streaming media in mainland China, which will greatly reduce your ability to carry the box office."
Lu Yanhe knew that what Muken Sorge said was correct. The movie "The Mist" was destined not to be released in mainland China, which meant that the vote bank behind him could not become the capital for negotiating his salary.
"According to our current budget, we can only give you $600,000 in salary."
Six hundred thousand US dollars, according to the current exchange rate, is approximately four million RMB.
If we ignore the mainland Chinese voting base represented by Lu Yanhe, the salary cannot be said to be deliberately low, but it is indeed not high.
After all, Lu Yanhe still has a certain degree of fame and influence in Asia, not to mention that he has performed very well on several streaming media such as Maxine and HP. They will definitely give a relatively higher purchase price for the movies he stars in.
Lu Yanhe did not express his opinion immediately, but said: "I don't know about the salary issue, my agent will have to discuss it with you."
As for the movie "The Mist", Lu Yanhe doesn't even know whether he wants to act in it.
It is even more impossible to say that he doesn't care about the pay just for starring in this movie.
Lu Yanhe smiled at Muken Sorge and said, "Mr. Sorge, let me go back and talk to my agent first. I just watched this movie and haven't studied it seriously yet. Please give me some time to think about it."
Muken Sorge nodded.
-
"This is a good opportunity." Chen Ziyan's reaction exceeded Lu Yanhe's expectations.
"Hmm?" Lu Yanhe originally thought that Chen Ziyan would think this project was average.
Chen Ziyan said: "First, Muken Sorge is not an unknown person. His previous two horror films, "Z" and "Trek", both made over 50 million in North America and over 100 million in the world. These are outstanding results. If it weren't for the limitation of horror films, he would have definitely become a famous director based on the performance of these two films. In fact, he is not bad now. He will not have trouble finding actors for his new film."
"Secondly, Hollywood took the initiative to find you to act in this movie. It's not some rubbish movie with no background. It's produced by a legitimate film company. Your role may not be the first one, but judging by the content, it's definitely the protagonist."
Lu Yanhe flipped through the script.
“Indeed, there are a lot of ghost scenes, and there is a lot of room for performance.”
"You have to know that although Hollywood is a multiracial and diverse place, it is actually still xenophobic. If outside actors want to enter the industry, they basically have to start out as supporting roles. If you look at the foreign actors who have successfully entered the industry in recent years, who is not like this?"
Chen Ziyan tapped her fingers on the table twice.
"Given your current situation, this may be the only leading role you can get." Chen Ziyan said, "And based on the performance of Muken Sorge's past two films, and this film continues to follow the horror and thriller route, the box office performance is sure to be good. Your first work in Hollywood has achieved outstanding results, which will be very beneficial for your popularity in North America and will be very helpful for your future roles."
Lu Yanhe nodded and asked, "What about the pay?"
"I'll negotiate for the salary. $600,000 is definitely low, but it won't go much higher." Chen Ziyan said, "We have to be mentally prepared for this. After all, this film cannot enter the mainland market, and our biggest bargaining chip will be lost."
"Ah."
Chen Ziyan added: "If you can enter the Hollywood market through this movie, it will be of great help to your future career development."
In the world that Lu Yanhe traveled to, American films and Hollywood are still the world's largest film market, but their influence is relatively weaker than that of the world before Lu Yanhe traveled to.
This is mainly because the gap between the four major international film festivals and major film markets and the American Oscars and the market is not as big as the world that Lu Yanhe was in before.
Just this slight difference actually gives many places a chance to breathe and develop their own markets.
Including Korean TV series. In the world before Lu Yanhe traveled over, they had almost completely become streaming media producers. It seemed that they were developing well, but in fact, the Korean local TV series market was hit hard, and a large number of production talents flowed to streaming media.
But here, South Korea's local streaming platform XK is also doing well, and American-controlled streaming platforms like Maxine still have to pay attention to Asians like Zhong Benshuo to promote the Asian market in Asia.
This slight difference actually means the difference between retaining some local power and sparks and becoming a complete vassal of a large company.
This is especially true for the film market in Europe.
Their combined film market has effectively resisted the market monopoly of Hollywood films, and their own films have achieved good box office results every year.
Including special effects blockbusters, this is no longer the exclusive domain of Hollywood.
This is a world of turbulence in every market.
Chen Ziyan wanted Lu Yanhe to take the international route because she wanted to create a truly world-class Chinese superstar in the same way Hollywood creates stars.
This means that on the four major film festivals side, Lu Yanhe must continue the momentum of the past two years and continue to maintain his presence at international film festivals. On the Hollywood side, which has not yet opened up the situation, Lu Yanhe also needs to look for opportunities.
The Mist is one such opportunity.
-
After Lu Yanhe discussed it with Chen Ziyan, he did not hesitate any longer and immediately asked Chen Ziyan to contact and negotiate with Muken Sorge and D19, the production company of "The Mist".
Before the negotiations, Chen Ziyan specially compiled a list of the box office and streaming performance of movies starring Lu Yanhe in overseas markets, especially the evaluation opinions of the two streaming platforms Maxine and HP on movies starring Lu Yanhe.
Lu Yanhe had no previous achievements in Hollywood, so there was no way he could ask for a share of the profits. He could only negotiate the most basic salary.
Chen Ziyan is not without experience in this regard.
Both Shang Yongzhou and Chen Bige have filmed Hollywood movies before.
Chen Ziyan can usually calculate how much of the actors' budget will be based on the cost of a movie. Then, based on the cast of the movie and the importance of the role played by Lu Yanhe, she can roughly analyze how much she can ask for.
But when Chen Ziyan started contract negotiations with D19 company, something happened.
Although Muken Sorge took the initiative to find Lu Yanhe and invited him to star in this movie, the production company D19 had doubts about Lu Yanhe.
D19's biggest concern is that Lu Yanhe's representative works are all art films. Can such an actor act well in horror films?
Such problems basically do not occur in the domestic entertainment industry, because Lu Yanhe's wide range of acting skills has almost become a consensus.
But this is Hollywood, and the people at D19 only know Lu Yanhe as an actor who often appears at international film festivals and has very good box office performance in the Chinese mainland market.
This is indeed a good advantage, but it is not enough for the people in D19 to recognize that Lu Yanhe is capable of playing the leading role in a movie.
This is of course D19's way of lowering prices.
Chen Ziyan believed that the concerns were real, but they were definitely not fatal. Otherwise, there would be no point in discussing this matter. There would be no point in looking for Lu Yanhe. It would be better to just find someone else.
Chen Ziyan didn't argue either.
Coincidentally, at this time, the cover of an Italian magazine that Lu Yanhe took when attending the Venice International Film Festival came out.
Chen Ziyan sent the magazine to the contact person.
Why do we sometimes find that many actors are closely connected with the fashion industry?
Because these two circles overlap to a large extent.
The most important thing is that a celebrity’s success in the fashion industry can best help them develop further in the entertainment industry.
Including actors, including acting.
It is difficult to explain how this phenomenon came about, but the current situation is that people in the fashion industry recognize the box office superstars and award-winning film industry winners, and people in the film industry also recognize the muses and celebrities in the fashion industry.
Chen Ziyan sent this magazine over to illustrate one thing.
Don't make a big deal about the fact that Lu Yanhe has never worked in Hollywood. Even if Lu Yanhe has never achieved success in Hollywood, his achievements in the film industry are recognized even by Italian fashion magazines. This is the recognition accumulated from his consecutive works winning awards at international film festivals.
Even if Lu Yanhe's starring role in "The Mist" cannot bring you box office success in the Chinese mainland market, he is still well-known and influential in the international film scene.
Both parties should play the game, but on the other hand, creative work also needs to be promoted.
For example, Lu Yanhe provided a DVD of his own audition as required.
In a five-minute DVD, Lu Yanhe spent one minute sitting in front of the camera introducing himself, and then spent four minutes rehearsing with the script.
Lu Yanhe is really not afraid of acting now.
Even if it's just one person sitting in front of the camera, performing a monologue.
Compared to his first acting experience three years ago, he now has absolute confidence in himself.
-
After receiving Lu Yanhe's audition DVD, Muken Sorge excitedly told D19 that Lu Yanhe was the only one who could play the ghost in the play "The Mist".
In the film industry, there is often a perception about horror films that they do not require acting skills.
But anyone who really knows a little about horror movies knows that this statement is pure bullshit.
Just look at how many actors have won major awards and nominations for starring in horror movies.
Muken Sorge said: "Only Lu Yanhe can play this role."
Shirley Yang, who was in charge of Muken Sorge's film at D19, said to Muken Sorge helplessly, "Muken, if you hadn't told Lu Yanhe directly that you chose him at the beginning, we would have already negotiated Lu Yanhe's contract. Every time you tell Lu Yanhe that you must have him, it increases the difficulty of our negotiations."
Muken Sorge asked doubtfully, "Did his agent ask for too much?"
"That's not the case," Shirley Young said, "but our budget is very tight. If we can save a little bit with him, we can hire one or two more well-known actors. There are many characters in "The Mist". If we can find a few more well-known actors to play the roles, I don't need to say much about the benefits to the film, right?"
Muken Sorge said: "I don't understand these things, that's your business, but don't let these things lead to the breakdown of the talks and Lu Yanhe not coming to act."
"Don't worry, we have you as the director of this movie. For Asian actors, if they have the opportunity to play a major role in a Hollywood movie, the salary will definitely not be the main consideration for them."
"Don't think about Lu Yanhe with the average actor's mindset. He is not an average actor," Muken Sorge said immediately.
Shirley Yang gave him a surprised look.
"Mu Ken, you've only met Lu Yanhe once, why do you think so highly of him?"
Muken Sorge said, "Have you seen the movie Three Mountains in which he acted?"
Shirley Young shook her head.
Muken Sorge said: "If you watch his performance in Three Mountains, you will understand why I must have him play The Mist."
-
The relationship between director and actor is always very delicate.
Some directors never work with actors they have worked with for the second time.
Some directors have a group of actors with whom they work regularly.
There are even some directors who use the same person as the protagonist in their films over a period of time.
But generally speaking, the relationship between directors and actors can be described as "intimate." To some extent, actors can inspire directors' creative desires, and directors can also help actors discover a deeper level of themselves.
However, for many people, all of this is a problem only with art films or great directors. If you are a genre film director, unless you have a preference for a certain type of image, everyone can understand it. Otherwise, if you are a horror film director, do you also need a muse? People will just think it's nonsense.
Muken Sorge is just a horror film director, not an art film director.
Shirley Yang never thought of Muken Sorge's appreciation of Lu Yanhe in this direction.
She always felt that there must be a reason why Muken Sorge favored Lu Yanhe.
Is Lu Yanhe’s acting skills really that good?
After she went back, she watched the movie "Three Mountains" carefully. After watching for a long time, she didn't see Lu Yanhe appear, and she was a little impatient. Because this movie was really not good. Then, she saw three young people breaking into a temple, and Lu Yanhe appeared.
Lu Yanhe's scene in "Three Mountains" can be said to be Lu Yanhe's first "god-like" moment in the film.
An actor, with just a ten-minute scene, became internationally famous, stealing the limelight from the other protagonists. He later became the main publicity point for the film when it was released. If nothing else, this is enough to show how awesome he is.
Shirley Young, who has been in the film industry for so many years, still has some vision.
Shirley Young can certainly tell whether an actor can act and what level of acting skills he has.
Shirley Yang was surprised by Lu Yanhe's performance.
Shirley Yang is a Singaporean whose ancestors were Chinese. Later, she immigrated to the United States and became an American citizen. Although she has Chinese ancestry, she knows nothing about Chinese culture. Unlike many people whose parents are Chinese, she has never lived in China for two generations. Her family is a family that has lost touch with Chinese culture. This makes her never feel that she has any connection with China. Therefore, most of her Chinese friends around her pay attention to some situations in China, but she does not have this habit.
She also pays little attention to the Chinese entertainment industry.
Shirley Yang would pay attention to young actors like Lu Yanhe who emerged at international film festivals, but not much. Hollywood itself is a big enough place. The place in the world with the most talented young people is definitely not those international film festivals, but Hollywood. Because this is the place where the world's top film creators gather the most.
Lu Yanhe has excellent acting skills and has won many awards.
The movies starring Lu Yanhe have all had high box office success in China, earning him the title of "box office miracle".
Lu Yanhe is also a screenwriter, and his screenplays have all been very successful.
But what does this have to do with Shirley Young?
As long as Lu Yanhe doesn't come to Hollywood to develop, no matter how powerful he is, it has nothing to do with her, Shirley Yang.
Now, Lu Yanhe is here.
"Lu Yanhe's acting is really good. His performance in Three Mountains shocked me." Shirley Yang did not hesitate to praise Lu Yanhe on the phone. "I am not surprised that Muken wants him to play in The Mist. However, his agent wants a million yuan for the film, which is a very high number. Lu Yanhe is not worth this price in Hollywood now."
Shirley Young was on the phone with D19 boss Fernando Bridge.
D19 is not a traditional large company.
It made its fortune by making low-budget films, and the investor behind it was the Bridge family, to which Fernando Bridge belongs.
The Bridge family comes from Italy and has a history of hundreds of years, of course, not all of it is glorious. Originally, the Bridge family did not get involved in the film and television industry. For such a large family with a long history, they looked down on the new stuff of the film and television industry at first, and lost the first opportunity. It was also difficult for them to enter later.
However, Fernando Burri has been interested in the film industry since he was a child. He came to the United States to study directing. However, instead of making his own films, he invested in two films - both were low-cost films with budgets of only about one to two million US dollars. With a unique vision, both films sold at the box office of nearly ten million US dollars. Taking into account other income such as home entertainment, he made a lot of money.
He used the money to establish D19 and began to focus on making low-budget films.
At first, the adults in the Bridge family thought that Fernando was just playing around. Every family has some young people who refuse to follow the rules, so they didn't care. It was not until a few years later that they found that Fernando had made D19 very successful and that the projects he had completed were basically profitable and made a profit every year that they began to take it seriously.
The Bridge family then became Fernando's loan bank.
Most of the funding for the films produced by D19 comes from the Bridge family's conglomerate.
Today, Fernando Blige is only in his early thirties and is the target of many female stars in Hollywood.
A man who comes from a big family, is rich and has his own company. For the butterflies in this world, he is like a flower that exudes a deadly and alluring fragrance.
As a result, before Hollywood actresses could do everything they could to win him over, Fernando Bridge married Shirley Young.
"Honey, if Muken must find that Chinese actor to play the role, we should support Muken," Fernando Bridge said to Shirley Young.
Muken Sorge made his first two horror films at D19, and he is also a representative director of D19. Fernando Brich is very supportive of Muken Sorge, a director who has proven himself through two successes, and any film company will support him.
Shirley Yang: "Of course we will support Muken. Alas, Muken really shouldn't have gone to Lu Yanhe first. This gave his agent an advantage and he knew that Muken's first choice was him. Otherwise, maybe we could have signed him for only $400,000."
Fernando Bridge said: "One million is one million. Lu Yanhe is not a newcomer without a reputation."
"There has never been such a precedent in Hollywood," said Shirley Yang. "Our film only cost $8 million to make, but we paid an Asian actor who has never starred in a Hollywood film $1 million. This breaks industry practice. If this film could be shown in mainland China, I would be willing to pay him $2 million, but there is no way this film can be introduced to mainland China."
Fernando Bridge said: "If Muken hadn't chosen Lu Yanhe, I wouldn't care who played the role. Shirley, the key to this movie is not the actor, but Muken. Since Muken believes that Lu Yanhe must be chosen, as long as the conditions are not too high, we will agree to it. As for Hollywood conventions, we, D19, have never been a traditional mainstream Hollywood film company, right?"
Shirley Yang also laughed along with Fernando Bridge's cheerful tone, curling up the corners of her mouth.
"Ok."
-
Chen Ziyan got out of the car with a smile on her face, holding a rectangular box in her hands, went upstairs and rang the doorbell.
After a while, Lu Yanhe came to open the door and looked at her with surprise.
"Sister Zi Yan, what did you bring here?"
"The latest MH retro mechanical keyboard." Chen Ziyan said, "I thought you would like it when I saw it, so I bought it. Congratulations on successfully taking on the movie "The Mist" with a salary of one million US dollars."
Lu Yanhe showed a look of surprise.
"Oh..." Lu Yanhe took the rectangular box from Chen Ziyan's hand and opened it on the spot with surprise. "I have been looking for a suitable keyboard. The space bar of the keyboard I used before always malfunctioned. Your gift is just in time."
Chen Ziyan: "Is that the point? The point is the movie "The Mist". I have negotiated a salary of one million US dollars for you!"
Lu Yanhe stared at the keyboard in his hands, "Sister Zi Yan is awesome!"
Chen Ziyan: "..."
I have never seen Lu Yanhe be so perfunctory before.
In the past one or two years, Lu Yanhe suddenly began to pay attention to various keyboards.
Probably because he has to type almost every day, Lu Yanhe often goes to see new keyboards that have been launched. Of course, he didn't buy any of them.
Even though the space bar wasn't working properly, he never thought of replacing it.
He felt that he was still saving money.
Li Zhibai and Yan Liang were both filming outside. Lu Yanhe asked Chen Ziyan if she had any plans for lunch, and Chen Ziyan said no.
Lu Yanhe said, then they could just make something to eat at home.
Chen Ziyan asked in surprise: "Do you often cook for yourself now?"
-
Six thousand words guaranteed, eight thousand words updated.
You have restricted my ability to express myself, but I still have 4,000 words of manuscripts in hand.
Everyone's enthusiasm for voting for monthly tickets is not strong enough, so the monthly ticket and extra chapter activity will continue.
Vote vigorously... Well, for those who don't have monthly tickets, I recommend my old book "I Became the Scandal Heroine Overnight", which is still quite good, so go and try to read it. (End of this chapter)
