1978 Synthetic Writers - Chapter 497 Venice Film Chapter "Green Light"

Venice, Italy.

Zhao Zhenkai, wearing a suit and with his hair slicked back, sat upright in his seat, watching intently the film "Green Ray", which was shortlisted for this year's Venice International Film Festival.

The director is Rohmer.

Anyone who knows a little about literature and art should know the saying: "The end of French style is Rohmer."

“A very wonderful art film.”

After the movie ended, Zhao Zhenkai applauded with the crowd and nodded excitedly to the American female translator Danica beside him.

"Yes, I was very moved after watching it. I think this movie depicts the inner world of women in a very delicate way."

"Lee An, what do you think?"

Ang Lee sighed, "I heard that Rohmer was inspired to make this film by a line in French novelist Jules Verne's book The Green Ray, 'Whoever sees the green light will be happy.' After watching it, I couldn't help but marvel at how Rohmer sees through women and love."

"Then we should talk to the director about the overseas distribution rights of this film." Zhao Zhenkai suggested excitedly, feeling that he had found a treasure film at this Venice Film Festival.

Today, a group of people from the film industry immediately went to the hotel to meet Rohmer and the creative team of "Green Ray".

Rohmer is in his sixties and looks very thin. His independent films gained international fame decades ago, and he has won numerous awards including the Academy Awards, the Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival, and the Berlin International Film Festival.

So Zhao Zhenkai immediately showed a very respectful attitude, "Although we have just been established and cannot compare with the eight major film companies, we have cooperated with some theaters."

Today, the attitude here is very respectful, and the negotiation was also conducted in a very respectful tone, for fear of treating this master of the film industry unfairly.

On the other hand, Rohmer felt very happy to see these Chinese faces showing him so much respect.

Compared to them, the people from the eight major film companies are simply not human.

These Chinese friends do not have such concerns.

Everyone had full trust in him and offered very generous prices.

May God bless them.

"Well, I have to report this result to my boss. I will discuss this matter with him in detail." Zhao Zhenkai said.

"Come on, let's celebrate, we talked about the distribution rights for Greenlight."

"cheers."

After the people in the film industry finished celebrating today, Zhao Zhenkai looked at the time. Venice time is 6 hours behind Beijing time. It is early morning here, but it is already morning in Beijing.

So he quickly called Jiang Xian.

"You contacted me?"

Zhao Zhenkai was stunned for a moment, "What's wrong? Is there anything wrong?"

"You need to prepare 8 million dollars of funds."

"How many?"

"I just negotiated an investment for a movie."

"what movie?"

“The Last Emperor.”

"The Last Emperor?!"

Knowing this, the famous erotic film director Bertolucci suddenly went crazy, borrowed more than 20 million US dollars, and went to China to shoot a movie about ancient Chinese directors, and planned to show it to Europeans and Americans.

Why does Zhao Zhenkai know it so clearly?

Because Bertolucci is the chairman of the main competition jury of the 43rd Venice Film Festival.

Chairman Bei's "feat" has long been known among the participants of this film festival and can be said to be a laughing stock.

Even the famous domestic directors can't understand this movie.

Bertolucci saw it and said, "You should send it to Venice as soon as possible to attend the Venice Film Festival. I am serving as a judge there."

Unfortunately, Director Tian was just as arrogant as he was later, and didn't take Bertolucci's words seriously at all.

"We don't have that much money now." Zhao Zhenkai said.

Jiang Xian was puzzled. "I probably earned more than this from royalties. Why did you embezzle my money?"

"How can it be?!"

Zhao Zhenkai looked aggrieved. "Lao Jiang, you can check the company's accounts. I have never taken a penny more than I should have."

"Then how come there is no money?"

Zhao Zhenkai coughed twice, then told the story of his visit to Rohmer. "I heard from many judges that this film, Green Ray, has a good chance of winning the Golden Lion Award at this year's Venice Film Festival."

The Golden Lion Award is the highest award at each Venice International Film Festival. It is ranked alongside the Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival in France and the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany as the three highest international awards in the film field.

Why do people say that Lao Mouzi is so great? Because in 92, his film "Qiu Ju Goes to Court" won this award once.

"Green Light?"

"I told him that although our distribution channels in the United States cannot compete with those of the traditional Hollywood studios, we do have some theater chains in our hands, and we have established relationships with theater chains in North America and Europe, so we are quite familiar with them."

"Speak the key."

"He is willing to negotiate the North American rights to us."

"how much is it?"

"Old Zhao!"

Jiang Xian's tone was a little angry. "It's just a crappy art film, and you want to split the profits with him 50-50?"

"Isn't it the minimum respect to split the profits 50-50? After all, Rohmer is a master in the film industry."

"Master, so what? Master, do we have to kneel down and be taken advantage of? We are talking about business, business! Not for you to chase stars!"

"And think about it carefully. Will such artistic films like Green Ray and Purple Ray perform well at the box office? Those who buy movie tickets are ordinary audiences. How many of them can reach the artistic aesthetics of the Venice Film Festival competition judges? Why should they buy into your art?"

"." Zhao Zhenkai felt aggrieved and wanted to refute Jiang Xian, but he couldn't think of anything to refute Jiang Xian's words.

"Old Zhao."

Jiang Xian's tone softened a bit. "We have just entered the film industry. You can't look at the film industry with the perspective of literature. You think that if the artistic value is high, the commercial value is high, and the audience will definitely buy into the works of masters. Film and literature are not the same thing. You have to change your mindset about many things."

Zhao Zhenkai was still a little bit unwilling to give up. "You may not know how well this movie performed at the film festival this time. The best film at the Golden Sail Award, the best actress at the FIPRESCI Award, and the Pasinetti Award were all awarded to this movie."

Zhao Zhenkai was talking about several unofficial awards of the Venice Film Festival, which will be presented in advance before the official awards ceremony of the festival.

CIA is the event publication of Venice, a magazine, and the Golden CIA Award is an award of this magazine.

The FIPRESCI Prize is an award given by the International Federation of Film Critics, and was won by The Piano in a Factory.

It's not that valuable. It's just like the Film Channel Media Awards at the Shanghai International Film Festival, and it's just for entertainment.

However, the reason why these awards are famous is that the selection process is of a relatively high level, and many problems can be discovered from them. They can be regarded as a weather vane for the official awards of the film festival.

"Then this movie isn't worth that much money."

Jiang Xian was very determined. "Why should we split the profits of an art film 50-50? You should learn from the Jews and lower the price to squeeze out the value of that old man."

"This is business, how can there be so many morals?"

"."

Zhao Zhenkai fell silent.

Jiang Xian’s words made him feel very uncomfortable, but when he thought about it carefully, there was nothing wrong with it.

"You're not just talking about me. I've also heard many people talk about The Last Emperor you mentioned. It's an independent film, and it tells a Chinese story for European and American audiences. Few people in Hollywood are optimistic about this film, and investing 800 million US dollars in it all at once is too risky." Zhao Zhenkai said.

"how to say."

Jiang Xian paused, then said in a very confident tone: "When doing business, sometimes you have to be bold."

"."

What a double standard!

They are both independent films and art films.

I have Eric Rohmer's "The Green Ray", which has a good chance of winning the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, but you don't want it.

Why do you insist on investing money in a movie like "The Last Emperor" which has no guarantee at all?

"30% of the film copyright." Jiang Xian said.

30% of the film rights, this was the final result he and Thomas reached.

Thomas is, after all, a gold medal producer in Europe.

As a ruthless man who has been active in the film industry, he feels that Jiang Xian is difficult to deal with, and Jiang Xian also feels that he is a tough nut to crack.

With the help of Jiang Xian's "anti-fraud" system, he finally negotiated Thomas's offer of 1200 million for 30% of the film rights to 800 million, which was a perfect result for Jiang Xian.

When the movie is released in the future, the amount of money that this 30% will bring will definitely be enough to make everyone today happy for a long time.

"Okay, you are the boss, I will listen to you." Zhao Zhenkai finally gave in.

"It's not that we can't discuss "Green Light", but this movie is obviously not worth such a high price." Jiang Xian said.

"The distribution rights in North America are worth at most 200 million, so we should have a higher share. If we want to avoid risks, we should use a tiered share system."

Jiang Xian put his knowledge into practice immediately, "Find someone to work out a tiered contract that prioritizes our interests."

"."

Zhao Zhenkai was speechless.

They are cool in giving orders and leave all the difficult problems to their subordinates.

We had already agreed with Rohmer, but he suddenly changed his mind at this time. How difficult must this be?"Old Zhao, there's something I forgot to discuss with you."

"how?"

"I think the house my sister-in-law and her children live in at the grinding factory is too small."

"Moved in?"

Zhao Zhenkai felt as if he was on a bungee jumping machine, rising into the air and then falling back down.

“This is so troublesome”

"What's the trouble? It's all right. You helped me so much abroad, so I'm here to help you take care of your sister-in-law. It's all right."

"Okay, Lao Zhao, we have been friends for many years, don't be so hypocritical, just rest assured that you are out there, I will take care of your wife."

"."

After the call, Zhao Zhenkai's mood, which was a little resentful just now, suddenly turned into a mood that wished he could die for Jiang Xian.

The human heart is made of flesh.

This is the same reason why there were roles like death warriors in ancient times.

The dead soldiers you think:

They were captured and trained since childhood, without a trace of emotion, with poison in their mouths and weapons all over their bodies. As long as their master gives an order, they will charge forward like a ruthless machine.

The actual dead soldiers:

What do you say you will do?Jing Ke was a death warrior, so how was he treated?It is said that once Jing Ke thought a maidservant had beautiful hands, so Prince Dan of Yan cut off the maidservant's hands and gave them to Jing Ke as a gift. Jing Ke was so shocked that he was numb.

With Zhao Zhenkai, Jiang Xian will let you eat delicious food and drink spicy drinks when you go abroad, and live in his big villa. His wife and children at home will not be treated badly, and they will live in a big yard and have meat for every meal.

So what’s the problem with offending Rohmer?Don't even talk about lowering the price.

Jiang Xian asked him to keep Rohmer hanging first and then lower the price severely after other film producers had left. Zhao Zhenkai did it without hesitation.

(End of this chapter)