Chapter 281 The Days of Wanting to Make Trouble
After getting a satisfactory answer from Spielberg, Wu Yuchen left with a smile on his face.
This time, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is aiming for the Best Director award.
If we talk about the right time, right place, and right people, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" has advantages in both time and people.
The right time is the Iraq war that Brad Pitt and the White House are currently planning, which has led to a continuous rise in anti-war sentiment in Hollywood. In this regard, anti-war films will undoubtedly have an advantage in this Oscar.
The right people is Wu Yuchen himself. His personal network has been expanding in the past two years. He has cooperated with DreamWorks and Universal on "Pirate King", co-produced "Spider-Man" with Sony, and filmed "The Hours" with Fox. Warner is also negotiating with him on the "Batman" project. He has made many people his common interests through the benefits of one project after another, which will make those Hollywood studio executives with voting rights subconsciously favor him.
At the same time, Wu Yuchen is no longer an Oscar rookie. He has twice made attempts at the Best Director award. Although the two failures are regrettable, they also saved him points, which will make many judges have some psychological tendencies when they think of him.
The only thing that "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" lacks is the location, that is, this movie is a Chinese-language movie, not an English movie, and it is basically impossible to compete for the Best Picture in this year.
Some people may say that "The Last Emperor" won the Best Picture, but please note that although the actors in "The Last Emperor" are all Chinese, this is an English movie, not a foreign language movie. People speak English directly, and the actors speak in English when they act. Therefore, this movie competed for the Best Movie instead of the Best Foreign Language Film.
In other words, unless Wu Yuchen is willing to let "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" use English dialogue during filming and release, there is no possibility of winning the Best Picture. This is the current Hollywood default rule.
This is definitely unacceptable to Wu Yuchen. Although he made this movie for the Oscar, it is also a movie dedicated to China. It is to represent China to make a voice in the international community about the persecution suffered by invaders during the War of Resistance against Japan, so that more people will pay attention to this period of history.
The director of "The Last Emperor" is Italian, but Wu Yuchen is a real Chinese. How can he change this movie into a pure English movie? Then why did he spend so much effort to make this movie?
The first foreign language film to win the Best Picture at the Oscars in the previous life was "Parasite" in 2020. The social environment and the environment of Hollywood at that time had changed a lot, and the voice of ethnic minorities had greatly risen.
At the same time, the influence of the Oscars in the world has really weakened a lot compared to its current peak. Whether it is the best picture of "Parasite" or Michelle Yeoh's first Oscar for Best Actress, it is a signal released by the Oscars to show the open and inclusive attitude of the Oscars.
In fact, the main purpose is to attract more attention and traffic from Asians. After all, traffic represents green US dollars!
But the Oscars are at their peak of influence now, so there is no need to do this.
On the other hand, Wu Yuchen just won the Best Picture award last year with "A Beautiful Mind". Unless the movie is unparalleled in all aspects this year, he will basically have no chance of winning the Best Picture award at this year's Oscars.
Therefore, Wu Yuchen has no hope of letting a Chinese-language movie win the Best Picture Oscar. He has been aiming for the Best Director award from the beginning.
…
Marilyn is a fan of Wu Yuchen, and she has been one for a long time. Before Wu Yuchen entered Hollywood, she had already paid attention to Wu Yuchen since "The Night the Comet Came", and she was sure to like his work when she saw "Run Lola Run".
In fact, compared with the commercial films shot by Wu Yuchen, Marilyn prefers Wu Yuchen's literary films, such as "Love", "The Sixth Sense" and "A Beautiful Mind". She thinks these movies can touch her heart more. Well, actually, she is an American literary young woman.
This time, the premiere of Wu Yuchen's "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" received high praise, and many film reviews praised it. This naturally aroused Marilyn's desire to watch the movie. She dragged her friends across half of the city to go to a few theaters that were showing the movie to queue up for tickets.
Marilyn and her friend walked into the theater with laughter, but when they came out, their eyes were already red and swollen, and they kept wiping their tears with tissues.
"Director Wu is so cruel! Why can't you give the cute little angel a better ending! Xixi is so cute and kind, I will never forget his pure and flawless eyes..." the friend cried.
Marilyn said at this time: "While you are sad for Xixi, please don't ignore Xiaochun. He can't be treated differently just because he is a child in the concentration camp. There are other people in the concentration camp. They are all equally innocent~"
The friend was stunned for a moment, and then covered her mouth: "Oh my God, I am really ashamed. All my attention was on Xixi!"
Marilyn sighed: "I think this is also the deep meaning that Director Wu wants to express. Xixi is very pitiful, but should those people in the concentration camp die? Even if Xixi is rescued, who knows their tragic fate and who cares about it?"
After listening to this, my friend nodded vigorously and said:
"The culprits of all this are the invaders who started the war, the Japanese! Oh my God, if I hadn't watched this movie, I would never have known that the Japanese had done such evil things! They are no better than Natchi in Germany!"
Marilyn also had the same feeling in her heart. She is a new generation of American youth born in the 1980s. Although she has heard of the so-called Pearl Harbor incident and knows that Japan was once a war criminal country in World War II, she has no idea what Japan has done.
On the contrary, because Japan has been subservient to America for decades, her impression of Japan is more about the games she has played and the movies she has watched, the cute Pikachu, the super plumber Mario, the Japanese are rich, the richest country in Asia, and the politeness and rigor of the Japanese...
But now, through this "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", although there are no bloody scenes in the movie, the whole movie tells the anti-human crimes committed by the Japanese.
Now, what Marilyn wants to do most is to go home and check online whether the cute Xixi, Xiaochun, and the other people in the concentration camp really existed in history.
If this is true, then for the sake of the cute Xixi and Xiaochun, she will promote this "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" to everyone around her. This is the only thing she can do for the two little angels in her heart!
…
“Wu, Nicole, Jennifer, look here!”
In the camera, Wu Yuchen stood in the middle, showing a brilliant smile, with two beauties, Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Connelly, standing on his left and right. Both women were dressed beautifully and smiled charmingly in the direction of the flash.
Half a month later, after “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”, Wu Yuchen was attending the premiere of “The Hours” with the two women. This was what he had promised the two women, so he would not go back on his word.
At the premiere, many reporters asked questions:
"Nicole, are you going to continue to strive for an Oscar this year?"
"Of course, the Oscar is the goal pursued by all actors!"
"Jennifer, who is the protagonist in this movie between you and Nicole? How do you evaluate Nicole's performance?"
Jennifer Connelly smiled: "Nicole performed very well, but my role was not less than hers~"
"Wu, how do you evaluate the performance of both of you?"
Wu Yuchen was also calm in the face of many eyes: "This movie can be described in one sentence, three women in one play, whether it is Nicole or Jenny, they are great. As for who is better, I think I can only leave this question to the Oscar judges~"
This time, he gave Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Connelly the same help, helping them apply for the best actress, and will also help them with public relations later. Whether they can win it really depends on themselves.
"Wu, you have two movies that are going to compete for Oscars this year. Which one will you focus on?"
Wu Yuchen smiled and said, "Both The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and The Hours are my works. There is no distinction between the main and the secondary. Moreover, the themes expressed in these two movies are different, and they will have different audiences. They are not in much competition with each other~"
In fact, Wu Yuchen was telling the truth. He had divided the two movies and the awards they were mainly targeting were different. The Hours was going for the Best Actress, and it was also in this direction during publicity and marketing. Of course, at this stage, no matter which movie it is, try to get as many nominations as possible.
At this time, a voice among the reporters shouted:
"Director Wu, regarding your The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, some Japanese groups have protested, saying that you have vilified the image of Japanese people. What do you think of this issue?"
After hearing this question, Wu Yuchen turned his head and looked at the reporter. He was an Asian face, and it is possible that he himself is a Japanese American.
Wu Yuchen smiled and said, "I don't think there is anything controversial about "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". During World War II, Japan was the aggressor and pursued fascism. It committed unforgivable crimes against China, Asia and even the whole world. This is an ironclad historical fact!"
The man immediately said, "But regarding the concentration camps described in your film, Japan believes that this is completely fictitious and made up by you!"
Hearing this, Wu Yuchen's face became serious and he couldn't help but shouting:
"Fictitious? Up to now, there are still many old sites of concentration camps in China, such as the Fengtian Prisoner of War Concentration Camp, Lushun Prison, Weixian Concentration Camp in Shandong Province, Jinan Concentration Camp, Shimen Concentration Camp, Pingfang 731 Site, etc. Many of these concentration camps not only detained Chinese people, but also prisoners of war from the United States and the Allied Forces such as Russia, as well as some compatriots from all over Asia such as North Korea, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
These sites, photos and evidence are all well preserved, and even some elderly people who were tortured in the concentration camps are still alive. Can this be denied?
If Japan can still quibble about this, it proves that Japan has never reflected on its aggression in the past! "
This series of words made the reporter speechless, his face turned pale, and many reporters around him also recorded Wu Yuchen's words and thought of the news headline: "Nemon reporter denies war crimes, Wu Yuchen angrily denounces on the spot!"
Then Wu Yuchen slowed down his tone and said, "Everyone, this is the premiere of "The Hours", please focus on "The Hours". ”
In fact, Wu Yuchen had expected that after the release of "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", there would be protests from Japan, but he didn't expect Xiao Rizi to be so shameless that he even denied the existence of the concentration camps and said that he made it up!
Wu Yuchen thought to himself, since Xiao Rizi is so shameless, he won't give them face. When the Oscar nominations come out, he will give Xiao Rizi "a long face"!
…
On the other side, at the Sony Building, Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony North America, was answering a call:
"Stop "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"? Wu Yuchen? I don't recommend it.
Yes, I refuse. I am responsible for the performance of Sony Columbia and Sony North America. Wu is currently Sony's most important partner. Why should I fall out with him?
Just because of this movie? Do you know how much profit "Spider-Man" has brought to us Sony? If Wu and Marvel stop "Spider-Man", how much money will we Sony lose?
It's up to you. I am only responsible for the company's performance! "
After saying that, Howard Stringer hung up the phone and showed a disdainful smile. A Sony director from Japan wanted to command him?
Although he is an American and a wage earner, he is now the boss of Sony in North America, and is likely to become the boss of the entire Sony Kingdom in the next two years. He also has the strong support of the current Sony Group boss Nobuyuki Idei. Therefore, he doesn't care about some noise from other people. He knows that his reliance is to make achievements.
Howard is very clear in his mind. For professional managers, making money is the first priority. If you can't help the company make money, everything you do is wrong. If you can help the company make money, his future will be bright!
And "Spider-Man" is the most profitable project of Sony Columbia now. He doesn't allow others to break this money printing machine that he has worked so hard to make!