Chapter 136 The highest bidder is
Chapter 136 The highest bidder is.
There are about three to four thousand media outlets around the world that are currently paying attention to the latest developments at the Berlin Film Festival.
As the news that "A Quiet Place" was being fought over by distributors came out, it instantly became the hottest news of the day.
soon.
This incident was widely hyped by the media and quickly spread around the world.
Except for A Quiet Place.
Fan Wumian himself also became the focus of attention.
The Los Angeles Times, one of the three major newspapers in the United States, called him "the 18-year-old talented director of Hong Kong."
It means that Fan Wumian has successfully made an excellent movie with Hollywood style, but breaks the conventional Hollywood routine, and it is expected to be introduced to North America for release soon.
The British newspaper The Times was also not idle.
I wrote an article specifically for Fan Wumian, titled "High school students in Hong Kong made a wonderful science fiction thriller movie, attracting a Hollywood distributor to offer 2400 million US dollars."
Also mentioned in the article.
In addition to directing and starring in a masterpiece, Fan Wumian is also an Asian pop singer with album sales exceeding 800 million copies.
of course.
The Times media has not forgotten to brag about itself.
He said that the reason why Hong Kong has become one of the entertainment centers in Asia is also due to the contribution of Britain.
A high school student from Hong Kong used his winter vacation to shoot a movie, which attracted many distributors who offered sky-high prices to compete for it.
This kind of news is really brilliant.
Thousands of media outlets took turns reporting on the event, and in just a dozen hours, Fan Wumian was able to experience the feeling of becoming an "international superstar."
The downstairs of the hotel where he was staying was crowded with reporters trying to interview him.
Hong Kong officials and mainland counterparts also sent people to contact Fan Wumian, and their attitudes were extremely enthusiastic.
The media that were busy criticizing "A Quiet Place" and Fan Wumian yesterday, immediately changed their attitude and started praising him crazily, as if they were not the ones being slapped in the face, and continued to find ways to grab the popularity.
All of a sudden.
News about Fan Wumian is everywhere in the world.
Especially in Mainland China, even many mainstream media outlets came out to report on his success at the Berlin Film Festival.
Fan Wumian's fans were overjoyed, but his colleagues in the Chinese film industry were silent.
Those well-known directors who had just spoken out and mocked him yesterday felt more uncomfortable than eating a fly and felt that they had been duped by the reporters.
It was as if the bullet fired yesterday had turned a corner and hit them again.
After all, their works are not sought after by overseas publishers, and cannot be sold at such high prices.
Port city.
The old house has been renovated and is being rented out through an agent.
When Silly Old Fan was surrounded by reporters and heard that the movie made by his son could actually sell for more than 20 million US dollars, he was completely stunned.
This astronomical figure was beyond his comprehension.
When Silly Old Fan recovered, he answered the interview with one hand on his waist, his mustache twitching, and was so cool. He told us that he also made a guest appearance in "A Quiet Place" and mentioned that when Fan Wumian was a child, he often brought him to the crew to play.
the other side.
Trinity College has ended its winter break and resumed classes.
When surrounded by reporters, the new principal Li Jiagui was so excited that he couldn't wait to announce that he would hang Fan Wumian's photo on the wall of honorary alumni.
Even the Huiwen Daily reported this incident on its front page.
He also mentioned that because he was attending a film festival abroad, "Emperor of the Desolate World" would be temporarily suspended for two weeks.
Seeing the wind direction suddenly change, Zuo Ziyan was extremely excited.
He was very proud in front of his parents, showing that he obviously had better vision.
Berlin.
Wake up from sleep.
Fan Wumian heard from Ji Qiao that he had become extremely famous.
Around 8 o'clock in the morning, several people had breakfast together in the restaurant of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and many strangers came to congratulate him.
At this moment.
Ji Qiao, who was in charge of public relations, picked up the orange juice and said:
"We'll know in a moment what kind of offer the publishers will give us. I wish you a big profit, boss! There are many reporters waiting downstairs. Many heavyweight media outlets have offered olive branches, and we can't arrange them all."
Several people communicated in Mandarin.
Assistant Director Lu Hao also said with emotion:
"I thought the script was good before, but I didn't expect it to be this good. Last night, a senior invited me to have a drink, and he also mentioned that he would help me find a new job. A company is planning to ask me to make a movie for the upcoming Venice Film Festival. It's not easy for mainland films to participate in film festivals."
"A Quiet Place" was invested by a Hong Kong company and was also filmed in Hong Kong.
If it were other mainland films, they would need to complete approval and filing procedures before they could participate in film festivals abroad. Otherwise, the director, actors, and investors might all be blacklisted.
"A Quiet Place" does not have those restrictions. It only needs to be simply registered with the Hong Kong Film, Television and Entertainment Affairs Management Office, and the procedure is quite convenient.
Hear the words.
Fan Wumian said to him:
“When a theme becomes popular, other companies like to follow suit crazily, which can easily lead to terrible films.”
"Why don't you just sign a contract with my company? I still have a lot of creative ideas that I want to film, and I can hand them over to you when the time comes. If you can think of a good script yourself, I'd be happy to invest some money in you."
"I want to direct and act in my next movie. If I change to another assistant director, it will take a long time to get used to it."
Upon learning that Fan Wumian wanted to sign him, Ma Yingjie smiled and replied:
"When A Quiet Place is sold out, you will have 200 million in your hands. Of course I want to hug such a thick thigh."
Jiang Shixi waited for them to finish speaking before reminding them:
"Last night, one of the chief judges of the film festival was interviewed at a party. A reporter asked him what he thought of A Quiet Place. He replied that the special effects were crude and the film lacked artistry. Although it looked good, he personally didn't like it too much."
The film festival has just begun.
But the work of selecting the finalists had already started long ago.
Last month, the shortlists for the main competition unit, panoramic unit, etc. were announced one after another.
Although "A Quiet Place" has great box office potential, Hollywood-style popcorn movies have always found it difficult to win important awards at European film festivals.
Even those blockbusters with investments of hundreds of millions of dollars are rarely liked by the judges of European Film Festivals. Fan Wumian doesn't think he can be an exception.
He told his agent:
"It doesn't matter. I'm a rather vulgar person."
"I came to the film festival with the goal of selling the film. Since the focus is on commercialism, some artistic qualities will inevitably be lost. I never thought that I could win an award. It doesn't matter whether the judges like it or not."
"As for the special effects, the total footage is only over one minute long. I deleted everything that could be saved. It's not wrong to say it's crude." Ma Yingjie couldn't help laughing, saying:
"If I am liked by the judges of these European film festivals, I will be more worried about my future. Few of the works that can win awards have high box office, and most of them are critically acclaimed but not commercially successful. It is easy for the American Oscars to produce films that are both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. The preferences of the audience and the judges are often different."
Fan Wumian also smiled and said:
"Compared to winning awards, making money is the real benefit. Some directors like to cater to the judges' preferences too much. They have a lot of titles, but few audiences have actually watched their works. I don't want to be that kind of director."
Seeing that the boss didn't care, Jiang Shixi breathed a sigh of relief:
"I was worried that you would be angry, but I hope you're okay. I wonder what price the publishers will give you later."
yesterday.
Many agents and distributors went to the cinema in groups and watched "A Quiet Place" carefully from beginning to end.
The special effects are relatively simple, and they mainly serve to set the mood. Fortunately, they do not affect the viewing experience, but instead add a sense of tension and mystery.
After studying the film again, the vast majority of representatives of American distributors generally believed that if the pre-promotion was done well, the box office would be at least 8000 million US dollars.
Someone specifically asked other viewers, and the feedback they got was that most of them liked the movie.
This gave the publisher's representatives enough confidence in "A Quiet Place".
this morning.
There are some new changes in the situation.
Upon learning that director and lead actor Fan Wumian had become very popular, Avril, who seemed to have nothing to do with him, posted a photo of the two of them online last night.
Representatives of some distributors have again raised their box office estimates for "A Quiet Place."
Hollywood film companies have always disliked purchasing the distribution rights of films in which they have not participated in the investment. They have many projects of their own and rely on their strong strength to squeeze out independent films.
However, in the past two years, audiences have begun to tire of the familiar Hollywood routine, and the stock prices of several major film companies have fallen sharply.
Moreover, distributors led by Sony Columbia Pictures and Miramax Films have made a lot of money from overseas films, which has led several giants to quietly increase their investment in purchasing overseas films.
Time Warner Group, which was hit hard by the bursting of the Nasdaq bubble a few years ago due to its merger with the Internet company "America Online", really spent a lot of money this time.
It bid through one of its subsidiaries and quoted a price of "US$2700 million".
The Sony representative, who had originally said he was not optimistic about "A Quiet Place", also sent someone to bid after watching the movie. He was worried that someone would write 3000 million, so he reported - "3005 million US dollars."
All offers received by 10 o'clock.
A total of 14 distributors participated in the bidding. After the results were counted on site, the highest bid was made by Miramax, which offered $3200 million.
Even though Fan Wumian was mentally prepared that the bid today might be higher than $2400 million, the number of $3200 million still shocked him.
My heart was beating wildly.
The area was filled with onlookers.
As soon as the price was announced, a deafening roar instantly broke out in the film trade venue.
When Fan Wumian shook hands with the representative of Miramax, the representative covered his mouth with his hand and whispered:
"Congratulations, you are a lucky guy. This year's Oscars are about to be held. Be prepared to come to Los Angeles in advance. It may be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film."
After listening to this, Fan Wumian instantly thought of a lot of things.
The boss of Miramax is a scumbag who has brought disaster to many Hollywood actresses and will go to jail in the future.
But this company was particularly generous.
The overseas distribution rights of "Hero" were bought by Miramax for 2100 million US dollars. Compared with a Chinese costume blockbuster, "A Quiet Place" is obviously more to their taste.
Since Miramax almost controls the Hollywood Oscars, even if it does not make money at the box office, it can still earn considerable peripheral revenue by distributing DVDs.
This may be the reason why they were willing to pay a high price to get "A Quiet Place" in one fell swoop.
An Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film would give the film a chance to earn tens of millions more dollars, and the revenue from purchasing overseas films would be far higher than that of other distributors.
Fan Wumian didn't consider whether he would win an Oscar.
All I could think about was that I had really gotten rich this time, and had suddenly become rich.
The next interview session.
There are obvious differences in the attitudes of European and American journalists and domestic journalists.
For example, a reporter from the American Star Tribune only asked:
"This "A Quiet Place" sold for a good price. Have you ever thought about cooperating with a Hollywood film company?"
The Hong Kong media used the term "unprecedented sky-high price!" to describe the transaction between Fan Wumian and Miramax Films.
Think about it.
These days, when developing Hong Kong and mainland entertainment, it is very easy to fall into the "sitting in a well and looking at the sky" thinking error.
People always think that in the Chinese-language film industry, a total box office of around 2 million RMB is already the limit.
In the previous life, it was until 2009.
After Lu Hao finished filming "Crazy Stone", he continued to shoot "Crazy Racing" and it was released. Only then did the mainland give birth to the fourth director whose "single film box office exceeded 4 million RMB".
This is still the era of Feng Gang and Zhang Mou, the two "billion-dollar directors". Chen Ge's "The Promise" has not yet been released, but he is expected to become the third director to have a box office of over 3 million yuan in the mainland.
And in Hollywood, USA.
First-line actors such as Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Cameron Diaz, Gene Kelly, etc., can earn $2500 million for a movie, and sometimes they also get extra box office dividends.
Hong Kong action star Jack Long also entered the "US$2000 million box office club" last year. A few years ago, he was said to have earned more than US$2 million with the movie "Rush Hour 4000".
It’s difficult to mix in the domestic and Hong Kong entertainment industries these days.
But if you jump out and choose to connect with Hollywood, the ceiling will suddenly become countless times higher.
Fan Wumian chose to film "A Quiet Place" first, which was undoubtedly a right move, as it successfully allowed European and American distributors to feel its unique charm.
I went through the motions in a daze.
At this year's Berlin Film Festival, the director of the popular mainland film "Peacock" specifically found Fan Wumian.
I was told that a company called Dongguan Video was willing to pay RMB 500 million for the mainland distribution rights of the VCD and DVD of "A Quiet Place".
Someone also asked him to convey a message that they hoped to introduce "A Quiet Place" to the mainland.
Since it is a Hong Kong movie, it needs to go through formal channels to find a mainland distributor to cooperate with before it can pass review and be released in the mainland.
During this process, part of the profits need to be given to the agent distributor, but Fan Wumian is already very calm.
One after another, many distributors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Mainland tried every means to find him to discuss business.
After understanding the general situation.
Fan Wumian cut the Gordian knot and continued to select two companies to cooperate.
For example, the publicity and distribution work in the Mainland was handed over to Huayi Brothers, who made a very sincere offer, while the Hong Kong, Formosa and Macau regions were packaged together and sold to Media Asia Films.
As for audio and video distribution.
Considering the rampant counterfeiting, "A Quiet Place" is just a science fiction thriller, and the DVD and VCD distribution rights of Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu" only sold for 1000 million Hong Kong dollars.
After some consideration, Fan Wumian agreed to the deal at 580 million RMB, but the DVDs would not be available for sale until one and a half months after the movie was released.
(End of this chapter)