Chapter 143: Wrap-Up, Domestic Response, and Low-Level Director (Two in One)

"Wow! Mom!!!"

On the set of "Insidious", the filming process was forced to stop as a burst of crying broke out.

It turned out that the young actor Sonny, who played the hero's son, was frightened by the actor wearing "ghost make-up".

Lu Ping'an was helpless. This was already the fourth time. He didn't think much and directly said Wen Ziren: "Xiao Wen."

"clear!"

Wen Ziren immediately ran forward and performed the magic of warming men.

After a while, the young actor returned to his normal state, and the entire crew relaxed.

Child actors are troublesome in Hollywood.

The shooting time cannot exceed 3 hours a day. For horror films, you must have psychological-related medical equipment, and you cannot die during the plot, etc.

So little Sonny was frightened in this way, but now he has calmed down. If he still has problems when he undergoes psychological questioning later, the crew may be in a lot of trouble, including losing money, going to court, etc. It's a lot of trouble.

Fortunately, James Wan is obviously more effective than ordinary psychotherapists, and even more effective than little Sonny's mother.

After some coaxing, hugging, and a few words, the problem is solved.

Even though it has been a week since the filming of the film, Lu Ping'an suspected that Sonny deliberately did this so that James Wan could "play" with him.

Speaking of which, James Wan is really useful.

His native language is English, and he has an extremely keen sense of smell for horror movies. He can completely follow Lu Pingan's ideas, so that when Lu Pingan needs an actor to express what kind of effect he needs, but he can't express it clearly quickly, Wen Ziren can understand it in seconds. Helps with communication very well.

This also made the filming process go very smoothly.

Now that we have been shooting for a week, the film is about 60% complete, which is three days faster than expected.

Not bad, Lu Pingan feels that this little brother is worth it.

In the afternoon, after getting off work, Wen Ziren and Lu Ping'an went home together, had dinner, and then began to summarize today's problems and discuss other things.

Lu Pingan also plays the role of his "master".

If you can answer it well, teach it well. If it is not easy to answer, just say: "You have to understand it in practice."

Generally speaking, the number of times that the above answers cannot be answered is very small.

Because the current Wen Ziren is indeed not that strong and has very little practical experience.

But Lu Pingan can also see that with his talent, it will not take long to surpass ordinary people like Lu Pingan in horror movies.

Jimmy Fallon came to guest star the next day, and Lu Pingan gave him the role of the first batch of exorcists who appeared in the film. They were a pair of exorcists.

In order to echo "The David Late Show", Lu Ping'an and Jimmy Fallon each made a guest appearance, just for fun, which was quite interesting.

During his cameo, Jimmy Fallon recorded a follow-up report that will air as Insidious begins to promote its release.

Combined with talk shows, the publicity effect will be good.

During the filming period, the box office of "Death Day" was released in the third week, which was 16 million. The total box office in North America also reached 56 million. This also made Lu Ping'an once again become one of the focuses of the Hollywood media.

Another success after "Chainsaw 1", Lu Ping'an has basically established a firm foothold in Hollywood, and the market quotation of the director's salary has also completely stabilized at US$3 million!

At the same time, other regions have begun to go online one after another, and the box office this week is expected to exceed 20 million.

Regardless of other regions, Lu Ping An only looks at the North American accounts. The profit after deducting costs and publicity will be about 22 million.

Nice, but gets used up quickly.

Wattsberg has contacted several overseas theater companies to see if he can get involved in distribution and exhibition business outside North America next year.

The rest was saved for future film projects.

In the future, both legs must be strong to reach the top.

One is a low-budget horror film, and the other is an award-winning film.

Low-budget horror films are currently developing step by step. After "Insidious" is completed, it will be released in March next year, followed by "Death Day 2", "Chainsaw 2", "Insidious 2", etc., all of which are profitable films. Ping An only participated in the screenwriting, not the director.

As for movies competing for prizes, the closest one is "Brokeback Mountain" which Lu Ping'an bought before.

The specific shooting time will be in the second half of 2004, and will impact the 2005 Venice and 2006 Oscars.

There will be profits and awards, and once the wave comes down, Peak will be able to establish itself as the first echelon of Hollywood independent film companies.

During my stay in the United States, news also came from the mainland.

The Bashu team has completed the filming of "Kung Fu Panda" and is currently moving back to the capital. Wu Guohua has rented a larger office space, and the next work will only be arranged after Lu Ping'an returns from Lao Mei's business.

During this period, Wanwan also called. There was a Golden Horse Awards ceremony on December 13. The other party invited him, but Lu Pingan was not available. After filming "Latent", he had to follow up on post-production. At the same time, he also had to watch some of James Wan's movies. The point is, besides, he didn’t have any works shortlisted for the Golden Horse this time, so he simply didn’t go.

The original owner's sister-in-law also called to remind him not to forget the date.

December 18th was the wedding of the original owner's sister-in-law and her boyfriend, who was a policeman. Of course, Lu Ping'an would not forget it, because that day was also an auspicious day, suitable for getting married, praying for blessings, and offering sacrifices.

Lu Ping'an had long decided to set the day for the opening of the masterpiece.

By December 11, "Insidious" was completed.

【97% completion】

[Reward: No change of expression]

The structure of the work is complete, and there is basically no room for Lu Pingan to improve. James Wan, who was brought in to help, is still a rookie, so it is expected that he could not surpass it.

Looking at the reward again, Lu Pingan found that this is a psychological skill.

The so-called expression does not change, that is, when seeing some disgusting, terrifying and other scenes that can make people have negative emotions, there will be no physiological reaction.

This skill is very suitable for forensic doctors!

Lu Pingan thought of it at the first time.

However, Lu Pingan was still very satisfied, because he did feel sick when he saw some exciting scenes.

Now when I think of some scenes, such as the short video of northern Myanmar that I saw in my previous life, it is just like watching an ordinary movie. I don’t feel anything, and I even think it’s a bit good for eating.

Not bad, this at least fills one of my psychological weaknesses.

After receiving the reward, Lu Pingan greeted everyone to finish work, and then there was a wrap-up party in the evening.

The actors of "Insidious" this time are all newcomers.

Rachel became popular and joined the new crew, and David was the same.

In fact, even if the two of them were free, Lu Pingan would not let them act. It’s not suitable and it’s a bit expensive.

Now these new actors are pretty good, with a total salary of less than 90,000 yuan.

It took 12 days to shoot, and the total cost was only 770,000 yuan.

Of course, if Lu Ping'an's own director's salary is included, it will be expensive. This time, the director's salary is paid at 2 million yuan, and this money should be taken.

In addition, there is a share, 50%.

The movie is a big hit, and he is still the biggest winner.

Several shareholders have no objections. Without Lu Ping'an, the company would not have such a profitable project, and they are all very satisfied.

"Insidious" has been completed, and the next step is post-production work.

James Wan is still learning at this stage.

At the same time, the news that "Death Day" was a big hit in North America for three weeks was reported back to China, which immediately caused a shock in the domestic industry.

At this time, China happened to be a window for the marketing of "House of Flying Daggers".

On that day, "House of Flying Daggers" released stills, with Andy and Takeshi Kaneshiro dressed like Jinyiwei, Zhang Ziyi's gorgeous costumes and dance postures, as well as Song Dandan's styling and the bamboo sea on the movie set.

Several stills, exquisite and beautiful.

In addition, "House of Flying Daggers" also released more soft articles about the plot.

This time, Lao Mouzi focused on the martial arts style, saying that his favorite martial arts novel author is Gu Long.

The new film "House of Flying Daggers" will also be different from "Hero", adding more special effects and more visually impactful martial arts moves.

In short, the marketing has aroused enough interest in "House of Flying Daggers" for many fans.

Zhang Weipin specially read the comments on the Internet, and everyone basically has the same idea.

That is, "Hero" should be criticized, but Lao Mouzi is still recognized.

Lao Mouzi is thick after all. He is the top director in China at present, with good business and art. So even if the reputation of "Hero" in 2002 was torn, most people still recognize Lao Mouzi, thinking that "Hero" was just a small mistake of his, and it will be better later.

Zhang Weipin is very happy, he feels that everything is under control.

Movies rely on publicity.

At this point, he can't help but think of Lu Pingan.

Now Lu Ping'an's new work "9527" is still kept under wraps, which is very effective. Everyone is very curious, and Zhang Weipin is also under a lot of pressure. However, after an overall assessment, he still feels that Lu Ping'an's Xingchen Film and Television is far inferior to him in marketing.

This is still soft power. In terms of hard power, the lineup of "9527" is average, the director's reputation is not as good as Lao Mouzi, and the investment is even less than "The Source".

So at present, it seems that the advantage is still on me!

However, at this time, news about Lu Ping'an suddenly broke out on the Internet.

"Lu Ping'an succeeds again in Hollywood"

Zhang Weipin shuddered suddenly and clicked to take a closer look.

The media described it very vividly.

It is said that Lu Ping'an's first Hollywood movie only received an investment of 1 million US dollars, but it became a big hit and created a miracle.

In the second part, according to common sense, it should have received at least 30 million US dollars in investment, but in the end it was still less than 5 million US dollars. The investors felt that Lu Ping'an's first success was luck.

But Lu Ping'an worked hard. With only this little money, he still relied on his strength to achieve amazing results for you.

4 million US dollars, 56 million box office! And it's only been three weeks, the global box office will still exceed 100 million in the future!

This achievement is a miracle in Hollywood!

The media also reprinted many comments from American media, celebrities, and the public.

"Lu is the most talented Chinese director I have ever seen."

"Lu's movies are really great, he made me realize the strength of Chinese directors."

"Lu is so surprising, he will become a real big director."

"Because of Lu, I have a great interest in Chinese movies."

The news finally said: After this time, Lu Ping'an will completely gain a foothold in Hollywood and become another successful Chinese director in Hollywood after Li An, John Woo and others!

These days, anything that has something to do with the Americans can attract widespread attention.

What's more, Lu Ping'an is still going for glory, and it's a big glory!

In addition, in this era when commercial films are gradually accepted by mainland filmmakers, it is no longer difficult to talk about box office publicly.

Lu Ping'an's commercial success in Hollywood may bring him a greater bonus than the short film Oscar and the Grand Slam.

So this news quickly became a hot topic today, directly crushing "House of Flying Daggers" in the film industry, and even went viral, becoming social news to a certain extent.

After watching it, the general public was very excited.

To say that the news narrative in the previous storytelling mode could only give domestic netizens a small climax.

But seeing the comments of foreigners reposted later, seeing that they all said they admired it, the climax was raised several degrees.

A group of netizens commented in the forum.

"Lu Ping An is awesome!"

"What kind of movie is this? Where can I watch it?"

"I want to know if it can be shown in China."

"I've seen all of Lu Ping An's movies. They are really interesting."

"When it comes to the storytelling of movies, Lu Ping An is way better than Zhang Yimou!"

"I agree, but it would be even better if Lu Ping An had the visuals in Zhang Yimou's movies."

"I'm in the US. I've seen Saw. I can only say that Lu Ping An is amazing! The new movie Happy Death Day is not as good as Saw, but it's still good!"

"Does the person above sell discs? I'm asking for a high price."

"I just want to know what kind of movie 9527 is."

"Inside information: 9527 is a comedy!"

"The person above is just talking nonsense."

Then various news about Lu Ping An's new Hollywood movie also became the focus of attention.

Everyone is curious, what kind of movie can conquer the US?

The curiosity also spread to Lu Ping An's new movie 9527 in the mainland.

As for House of Flying Daggers?

There are still people paying attention to it.

But Zhang Weipin knew that this wave of marketing was far from the effect he wanted.

However, he was not panicked, because "Hero" would be released in the United States in a few months.

I believe that if it achieves super high box office, it will definitely be able to regain its place!

Lu Ping'an's success in Hollywood has also made many people in the industry eager to move.

Countless people are thinking that if Lu Ping'an succeeds in Hollywood, can he use his relationship to act in Hollywood movies in the future?

Of course, the bigwigs in the industry are relatively calm about this matter.

Because they all know what kind of role the director plays in Hollywood.

Whether the project can be participated in is not up to the director. This is not a co-production, but a pure Hollywood movie. It is not that easy to participate in the investment.

However, it is still necessary to keep paying attention, so they all politely sent their blessings, congratulations and wish Lu Ping'an further progress in his career.

But some people are not so stable.

When Zhang Weipin was asked about Lu Ping'an by reporters, he sang the opposite tune.

"Horror movies are niche movies in the US, and they are not mainstream. What's the point of high box office? Let's wait until he participates in big production projects and succeeds."

After saying that, he turned and left.

He was fed up with these news these days.

And with Zhang Weipin coming out to criticize.

There are more and more bad voices in the market.

Some people think Lu Ping'an is stupid. He went to Hollywood to make money for others, but he didn't get any share of the money. He is almost like a sucker.

Some people think Zhang Weipin is right. Horror movies are not mainstream anywhere, and there is nothing to brag about Lu Ping'an's success.

Others say that Lu Ping'an is conveying stereotypes to the West, making them think that Chinese people can only make horror movies.

Various voices are everywhere, good and bad.

But one thing is certain.

That is, Lu Ping'an's director status is indeed much higher.

That is Hollywood after all, which is the ceiling level of the current film and television industry contempt chain.

For the Hong Kong and Taiwan film and television industry, mainland practitioners are all trying their best to get in, and Hollywood is even more so.

So no matter whether Lu Ping'an's Hollywood films are mainstream or not, now that he has achieved great success, he has become the most popular director in the mainland and even among Chinese directors.

Countless actors began to fantasize that it would be great if they could be valued by Lu Ping'an, because that would be a Hollywood movie!

As a director, Lu Ping'an can easily get someone into the group, right?

So he tried to find a way to make connections!

Those who hold this view are basically people who have a vague understanding of Hollywood.

They don't look at things from such a high perspective, so they are naturally much more naive.

Zhang Songwen, Ning Hao and other friends who are close to Lu Ping'an are always asked this question these days.

Zhang Songwen was even said to have said that you and Director Lu said that as long as you can show up in a Hollywood movie, money is not a problem.

But there is no answer to this question.

If there is a chance, can I give it to you?

If I say there is no chance, you won't believe it, and it will offend people.

So the answers were all the same: I'll ask later

Liu Xiaoli also took the initiative to ask Liu Xixi: "Have you contacted Ping An recently?"

"Of course."

Liu Xixi was a little impatient.

She didn't like her mother's snobbish questions.

But she was still very grateful for the matter itself.

Because she and Lu Ping An have always had a good relationship, she always goes to his courtyard house, and when Lu Ping An is at home, she occasionally goes there for a meal, and she can also go into Lu Ping An's study! The koi in his water tank were all bought by her, but she didn't know if they were dead now. She decided to ask Zhang Songwen for the key tomorrow and go to see.

You see, this is much better than many actors who find it difficult to see him once.

"That's good." Liu Xiaoli was relieved after hearing this, but still instructed: "Ask him when he will be back when you are free."

"No, there is no reason."

Liu Xixi still felt that the purpose was too obvious, and she didn't like it.

Liu Xiaoli shook her head: "Give him the script of the next play for advice."

"That's not necessary."

"Silly girl!"

Liu Xiaoli began to give some advice, "If the relationship is good now, can it continue to be good in the future?"

"...Okay."

Liu Xixi looked helpless, but Liu Xiaoli's words did make her feel a little crisis.

Lu Ping'an has been doing so well in Hollywood, flying higher and higher, and getting busier and busier. In the future, there will be fewer opportunities to go to his house for meals, and the relationship will become more and more distant. Thinking about this, she really feels a little lost.

So she quickly accepted her mother's advice.

After the text message was sent, Liu Xixi felt a little inexplicably nervous.

Fortunately, Lu Pingan replied quickly: "Wait a few days before returning home."

A text message, Liu Xixi's whole sky seemed to be bright, oh no, it has never been cloudy, only her mother was imagining!

Lu Pingan received a lot of similar text messages.

Everyone wanted to improve their relationship with Lu Pingan.

Even Yan Danchen was not immune to this, and a sense of crisis could be heard in her tone when she called.

Lu Pingan couldn't help but sigh, he had won so many awards in the past, and the domestic box office had exploded several times, but none of them had a big impact as successful in Hollywood.

The Americans are really good at chanting!

He felt that it was a bit too much.

This really shouldn't be the case.

But it can't be changed.

This is how it is in this era.

Just as he was thinking about it, the phone rang again, it was Han Sanpin calling to congratulate him.

"Ping An, congratulations!"

"It's nothing, just a small achievement."

"Then strive to achieve greater results next time!"

"I'll try my best."

After congratulating him, Han Sanpin continued: "I know you are just a director now, and you can't make decisions on many things, but if there is an opportunity for Sino-US cooperation, you should still consider it. But don't worry too much, I just said that, it's okay if there is really no opportunity."

He didn't know Lu Ping An's position at the top, so he just mentioned it.

Lu Ping An probably also heard that Han Sanpin might be under some pressure at the moment, otherwise he wouldn't mention it.

"Okay, Uncle Han, I will try."

In fact, "Batman 1" can actually do it, and there are several scenes involving the mainland.

It's just that "Batman 1" is still in the prop production stage, and the official shooting will not start until next year, so there is no rush.

Han Sanpin then asked: "When will you return home?"

"I will be back on the 18th to attend the wedding."

"That's just in time. It will probably be on the 18th or the 19th. The higher-ups will call you for a meeting about the Olympics. They should call you tomorrow. Pay attention."

Han Sanpin said that Lu Ping'an's great achievements in Hollywood this time indirectly affected his status in the eyes of his superiors.

Lu Ping'an said calmly that he would not think about it after knowing it.

That was a pit, he would not jump into it, and besides, people might not really jump into it for you, with Lao Mouzi in front of him.

Han Sanpin continued: "House of Flying Daggers was blocked by you from a distance."

Lu Ping'an laughed on the spot after hearing this.

This was unexpected, but it sounded very comfortable.

Han Sanpin: "Zhang Weipin was very dissatisfied and said that you were not up to standard."

"Don't care about him. No matter how many good things he says, I will keep an eye on him!"

Lu Ping'an didn't feel anything at all.

It's not up to Zhang Weipin to decide whether you are up to standard or not.

Besides, if you really want to say that horror movies are not mainstream, it would only take him a few minutes to become mainstream.

But everything has to go according to plan.

Now he has attracted so much attention in the mainland just by relying on two low-budget successes.

If he had succeeded directly with a big production, it would have been a big deal.

On the next level, if they knew that he was also a capital in Hollywood.

Well, life will not be easy.

Lu Ping'an didn't expect to reach that point so quickly.

Take it slowly.

Hide if you can.

Now, he just needs to be a "low-budget" director.

For the rest, just make a fortune quietly.

After the phone call, Lu Ping'an continued to reply to a few intimate text messages and then ignored the phone and continued to do post-production.