Hollywood Tycoon [US Entertainment + Business War]

After leaving the cafe where he met Michael Bay, Jed wandered around downtown Hollywood somewhat bored.To be honest, this was the first time he was in the mood to experience this city after his rebirth.In the eyes of Americans, Los Angeles actually represents many places. It can be Los Angeles County, Los Angeles City, or the greater Los Angeles area.

Simply put, the city of Los Angeles is the county seat of Los Angeles County, and Los Angeles County and adjacent Orange County constitute the greater Los Angeles area.Jed actually haunts relatively very fixed places, Hollywood, Burbank, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Santa Monica and Westwood, sounds like a lot of places, but in fact apart from Malibu and Santa Monica Except, the rest are part of the city of Los Angeles.

To put it bluntly, Jed actually lives in Dongcheng District, and then works in Chaoyang District, and then he likes to go to Shijingshan when he is free.The distance from Santa Monica and Malibu to Los Angeles is actually similar to the distance from Beijing to Tianjin and Tangshan.It's just that the greater Los Angeles area is much larger and sparsely populated compared to North China, so it seems very far away.

Like most rich people in Los Angeles, Jed's home is in Beverly Hills, but he owns his own summer house in Santa Monica, keeping a cruise ship or something.It’s just that, in addition to investing in these two properties, Jed’s parents also purchased a Mid-Levels apartment near the Westwood District in downtown Los Angeles, and also purchased a sea-view villa in Malibu.Of course, these two houses are really in Jed's name, unlike the houses in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, the property rights also belong to the Sherman Family Development Fund.

Hollywood and Burbank are where Jade works. Hollywood is a symbol of the entire Southern California film industry. Although many film companies have moved out of here, there are still the largest number of independent film companies in the United States.Moreover, the Actors Union, the Directors Union and the Screenwriters Union are all located here. If actors, directors and scripts are to be recruited, Hollywood still has to come, not to mention that there are three guilds on Jed's body: the Directors Union, the Producers Union and the Screenwriters Union. membership status.

However, although there are many places where teenagers seek their dreams in Hollywood, it is also a place where many people's dreams are broken.The most developed industry in California is the entertainment industry, but the largest part of the entertainment industry is adult movies.California can legally shoot adult films. How many young people come to Hollywood with dreams, but they have to become adult film actors under the pressure of life.

As for Burbank, it is the entertainment metropolis of the United States, and the western headquarters of all the major television stations in the United States are located in Burbank.And because Burbank not only has the most studios in the United States, but also has the most landforms in the United States, Burbank has almost become the first choice for filming movies and TV series in modern America.When walking around in Los Angeles, Jed sometimes sighed that the temptation of this city is too great.

Next to Hollywood is Beverly Hills, the most upscale residential area in the United States, and Westwood District, the most luxurious commercial area in the United States, which all the time hints at young people in the United States, come on!This is the place to live out your American Dream.

After shopping for about two or three hours, Jed parked his car on the side of the road, found a cafe that looked pretty good, and walked in.When Jade entered this cafe, he suddenly felt like he had entered Shanghai in the 40s and [-]s. Looking at the people next to him, it turned out that this is a cafe specially serving Chinese people.However, the owner of the cafe didn't mind a foreigner like Jed who broke in by accident, and arranged a seat for him very thoughtfully, and introduced several famous desserts and coffee here.

While savoring the coffee, Jed found two people in the next seat discussing something in Cantonese.Since Jade worked in Hong Kong in his previous life, he knows Cantonese very well.After listening to a few words, Jed found that one of them was the great Chinese director John Woo.At this time, Wu Yusen's reputation in Asia reached its peak because he successively filmed "The True Colors of a Hero" and "Across the World" in Hong Kong. Therefore, in 1992, he was invited to Hollywood to shoot "Ultimate Target" of Universal Pictures.

When Jed had a good relationship with Universal, he heard Universal's production manager talk about it.In his previous life, Jade, like all Chinese boys, loved John Woo's "The True Colors of a Hero" series.But after coming to the United States, I was too busy and forgot to visit this idol from my previous life.However, John Woo's first Hollywood film "Ultimate Target" only won a box office of 3200 million US dollars in the United States, ranking 49th on the annual box office list.

In the same year, Jed and Spielberg jointly launched two super masterpieces "Jurassic Park" and "Schindler's List", especially "Jurassic Park", which broke 10 billion box office in history. The movie is also the work of Universal Corporation, so it makes Wu Yusen a little embarrassed to compare the two.If the original development pattern is followed, John Woo will soon participate in the shooting of "Broken Arrow", which can be regarded as his turning point; and later on "Face Changing", John Woo will reach the pinnacle of his career in Hollywood.

However, the mixed reputation of "Mission: Impossible 2" caused Wu Yusen to go downhill. When the film "Wind Talker" bankrupted MGM, Wu Yusen's career as a director in Hollywood was completely blocked, and he had to turn back. domestic.

Jade actually admires John Woo, or Hong Kong directors.In such an environment, Hong Kong directors have no money and no skills, but they can make action movies that are not inferior to Hollywood.Even in the field of action movies, Hollywood is still learning from Hong Kong until today.However, as a master director of Hong Kong action films and a pioneer of "violent aesthetics", John Woo's final results in Hollywood are embarrassing.

Some people say that Hollywood can't tolerate foreigners. In fact, isn't the "King of Disaster" Emmerich doing well?While drinking his coffee, Jade thought about why John Woo failed in Hollywood.It is certain that John Woo and Hollywood are "incompatible". Before you become a producer yourself, Hollywood directors are just pawns of the production company.They give you the script, they give you the actors, and even how the film is edited is out of the director's control.This is somewhat unacceptable for directors in Hong Kong, because Hong Kong is actually still a "director-centered system", and everything is decided by the director.

When John Woo succeeded with "Broken Arrow", the film company naturally decided that you, John Woo, could only make such a movie, so the next "Face Changing" continued to be successful. Although "Mission: Impossible 2" was scolded by film critics, the box office was still good... ...which seems to show that John Woo has succeeded.

When Wu Yusen also became a big director in Hollywood, his director temper in Hong Kong also returned. He didn't want to be bound by the production company anymore. He wanted to make his own movie, so there was "Wind Talker".It's a pity that wrestling with the production company is not what John Woo is good at, so "Wind Talker" became the "four different images" compromised by the director and the producer. In the end, the box office lost 1 million US dollars, forcing MGM to go bankrupt , It also made Wu Yusen a disaster star in the eyes of Hollywood producers.

Jade wants to arrange a Chinese director in his film company, but there are not many who can use it now. Naturally, artistic directors like Ang Lee and Wong Kar-wai are not what he needs, but Wu Yusen, the only director of commercial films, is pursuing art. movie dream.It's funny to say that, no matter in the East or the West, all directors believe that art films are the real films, while the commercial films that support the film industry are regarded as deviant and alternative works.

When John Woo was complaining that the production company was unfair to him and expressed his desire to return to Hong Kong, Jade suddenly interjected in Cantonese, "I'm sorry to hear the conversation between the two of you. If this Mr. Wu is interested, you might as well go to my Take a look at the company." With that, Jed handed over his business card.Although Jed knew it was rude, this was an opportunity.

Wu Yusen frowned and took the business card. No matter where he was, it was very impolite to eavesdrop on other people's conversations and interrupt them loudly.But the next moment, Wu Yusen was startled by the name on the business card.Chairman of Galaxy Film Productions, Jed Sherman.

As a director from Universal Films, how could Wu Yusen not know Jed's name?The "Jurassic Park" directed by him and Spielberg became the first film in the history of the world to have a box office of more than one billion, but the film he launched that year was only 3000 million.Thinking of the gap between the two, the dissatisfaction in Wu Yusen's heart also disappeared.It's like even if an elephant disturbs the lives of ants, ants are not qualified to compete with elephants.

"Does Mr. Sherman want to invite me to make a film? Didn't Mr. Sherman inquire about the box office of my last film?"

Wu Yusen's self-deprecating words made Jade a little dumbfounded. In fact, it is quite risky for such a successful director to come to Hollywood to start again.When Emmerich first came to Hollywood, he was just a young director who had made a few films.Therefore, he quickly got used to the rules of Hollywood and showed his talent within the rules.

But John Woo is already a master-level director in Hong Kong and even in Asia. It is really embarrassing for you to ask him to come to Hollywood to do things with his head down.But Jed didn't feel that Woo Yusen offended anyone, after all, if a great director has no temper, he wouldn't be a great director.

"I have a very interesting script, which has nothing to do with action movies, but I think Mr. Wu will be able to make this movie well. If Mr. Wu still has expectations for Hollywood and himself, welcome to my office tomorrow afternoon. Come to your company and we can talk about it in detail.”

After leaving his business card, Jed left the cafe.Regardless, today's wanderings were rewarding.Although Jed still plans to let Wu Yusen take the route of action film director in the future, he must first broaden his acting skills as a director.Why can "The Matrix" take a route that dazzles the world after absorbing the essence of Hong Kong action movies?That's what Jed wants Woo to do.

He is going to give John Woo a very light-hearted popcorn movie, which is probably a script that John Woo would never shoot anyway.But Jed believes that as long as John Woo can make this movie well, his development in Hollywood will never be interrupted.And more importantly, Jade hopes that John Woo can win the Oscar for Best Director through a purely Hollywood film produced by Hollywood in the future, which is the most important thing.

Of course, Jade also intends to get acquainted with Hong Kong filmmakers through John Woo's network. The best springboard for future deployment in mainland China is Hong Kong.The focus of Jade's future work in Asia is bound to be in Hong Kong.