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"The Mist"?

The first thing that came to Lu Yanhe's mind was an American movie he had seen.

A horror movie adapted from Stephen King's novel of the same name.

The movie tells the story of a small town suddenly covered by thick fog, which surrounded the entire town. In the thick fog, there was a terrifying and evil supernatural force hidden.

Lu Yanhe opened the script and read the first three pages. He was shocked to find that the beginning of the movie was quite similar to the American movie he had seen.

Of course, it was only the beginning that was similar. A thick fog enveloped the town. After that, both the characters and the plot development were completely different.

Lu Yanhe breathed a sigh of relief.

Just now, there was a moment when Lu Yanhe actually felt a vague sense of tension in his heart--

At that moment, he was worried that there was also someone in the United States who had traveled through time and brought a script called "The Mist".

This horror movie script called "The Mist" tells the story of a remnant soul coming to avenge the town that hurt him in the past.

It turned out to be a supernatural horror movie.

Lu Yanhe was surprised.

The horror film genre has never been popular in China. Due to some unspeakable reasons, this genre cannot form a big climate in China.

But in Europe and the United States, horror films are one of the most popular genres.

Lu Yanhe did not expect that Muken Sorge would bring him a horror film script.

However, Lu Yanhe himself has watched a lot of horror films.

Especially before crossing over, when he was in junior high school and high school, many Saturday nights, the teacher would let everyone watch movies in the classroom.

When the teacher chooses, he usually chooses some American animated films, so that they can learn English by the way.

Sometimes, the teacher will give the choice to the students. At this time, everyone will generally choose horror or thriller films. It was at this time that Lu Yanhe watched a series of horror thrillers such as "Midnight Bell", "Chainsaw Killer", and "Silence of the Lambs"...

In Muken Sorge's "The Fog", the ghost who came for revenge after death came to find the character played by Lu Yanhe.

This is an Asian American who came to this town with his parents. Because of the discrimination against Asians in the town, his family has been in a bad situation.

In the end, they died in a deliberate arson by several teenagers in the town.

The story begins five years after the incident, when the teenagers who deliberately set the fire have grown up.

The Asian ghost played by Lu Yanhe appeared as an evil villain at the beginning, endangering these people. Until the plot slowly progressed, he deliberately caused these people to have various accidents, and used various means of intimidation to force them to recall the arson incident that year, so that they admitted what they did in front of everyone in the town, and his motives emerged.

However, the people in the town did not intend to punish these murderers. Instead, they believed that the Asian family destroyed the tranquility of the town. They invited an exorcist to purify the Asian ghost.

At this point, the story of the movie has progressed two-thirds. The last third, which is the climax of the movie, is the fierce struggle between the Asian ghost and the exorcist. In the process, the Asian ghost keeps killing people, and finally kills all the people who set fire to his family.

It took Lu Yanhe almost an hour to finish reading the script.

He reads very quickly.

There is almost nothing puzzling about this script, so there is no need to think too much.

Overall, this is a very cool horror movie. Especially Lu Yanhe, you can tell what role Muken Sorge wants him to play from this script. After putting himself into the role of this Asian ghost, Lu Yanhe reads this script completely from the perspective of revenge.

In general, after learning why the ghost wants to retaliate and kill these people in the story, Lu Yanhe completely understands him.

The theme of revenge is a unified theme regardless of nationality and cultural background. At the beginning, Lu Yanhe was worried that this role turned the Asian character into a villain. The image of deliberately doing evil made him a little worried. In the middle of the film, Lu Yanhe no longer thinks this is a villain.

The further he read, the more Lu Yanhe felt that this Asian ghost was the protagonist of this story.

After reading, Lu Yanhe looked at Muken Sorge in surprise and said, "Mr. Sorge, do you want me to play the role of the vengeful ghost?"

Although he had already guessed it, Lu Yanhe still wanted to confirm it with him.

Muken Sorge nodded and said, "Yes, I have seen your performance in "Three Mountains". I was completely shocked by your performance. When I was writing this script, I put your image in my mind. I hope to invite you to play this movie."

"Three Mountains" -

Well, maybe in Muken Sorge's eyes, "Three Mountains" is also a ghost movie.

After all, it is indeed supernatural.

Moreover, Lu Yanhe's performance in "Three Mountains" is not normal, like a person who is possessed by evil.

Lu Yanhe probably guessed why Muken Sorge wrote such a character in "The Mist".

Speaking of which, the ghost in "The Mist" has a bit of the flavor of the fortune teller.

At the beginning of the story, he kept appearing with strange phenomena to scare people. Those scenes all have the shadow of "Three Mountains".

Lu Yanhe said: "Mr. Sorge, thank you for inviting me to play this role, but I can't give you an answer for the time being. I need to take it back and discuss it with my agent."

Muken Sorge nodded and said: "No problem."

Muken Sorge said again: "However, this is still a low-cost movie. We don't have a high budget for the actors' salaries. You also know that this movie will definitely not be released in mainland China, nor can it be sold to streaming media in mainland China, which will greatly reduce your ability to carry the box office."

Lu Yanhe knew that Muken Sorge's words were correct. The movie "The Mist" is destined not to be released in mainland China, which means that the vote bank behind him cannot become the capital for his salary negotiation.

"According to our current budget, we can only give you a salary of 600,000 US dollars."

600,000 US dollars, according to the current exchange rate, is about 4 million RMB.

If you don't take into account the mainland China vote bank represented by Lu Yanhe, this salary can't be said to be deliberately low, but it is indeed not high.

After all, Lu Yanhe is still well-known and influential in Asia, not to mention that he has performed very well on several streaming media such as Maxine and HP. If he stars in a movie, they will definitely give a relatively higher purchase price.

Lu Yanhe did not express his opinion immediately, but said: "I don't know about the salary. My agent will talk to you."

As for the movie "The Mist", Lu Yanhe didn't know whether he would act in it.

It is even more impossible to say that he doesn't care about the salary in order to act in this movie.

Lu Yanhe smiled at Muken Sorge and said: "Mr. Sorge, let me go back and talk to my agent first. I just finished watching this movie and haven't studied it seriously. Please give me some time to think about it."

Muken Sorge nodded.

-

"This is a good opportunity." Chen Ziyan's reaction exceeded Lu Yanhe's expectations.

"Huh?" Lu Yanhe originally thought that Chen Ziyan would think this project was average.

Chen Ziyan said: "First, Muken Sorge is not an unknown person. His two previous horror films, "Z" and "Trek", both made over 50 million in North America and over 100 million in the world. The results are very good. If it weren't for the limitation of the horror film genre, he would have been a famous director with the performance of these two films. In fact, he is not bad now. He will not have trouble finding actors for his new film."

"Second, this is Hollywood's initiative to find you to act. It is not a kind of inexplicable and lousy film with unknown background. It is produced by a serious film company. Your role may not be the first one, but from the content, it is completely the protagonist setting."

Lu Yanhe flipped through the script.

"Indeed, there are many ghost scenes, and there is a lot of room for performance."

"You have to know that although Hollywood is a multi-ethnic and diverse place, it is actually xenophobic. Outside actors who want to enter it basically start as supporting roles. If you look at the foreign actors who have successfully entered it in recent years, who is not like this?"

Chen Ziyan's fingers tapped twice on the table.

"Given your current situation, this may be the only leading role you can get." Chen Ziyan said, "And based on the performance of Muken Sorge's past two films, and this film continues to follow the horror and thriller route, the box office performance will definitely be good. Your first work in Hollywood has achieved excellent results, which is very beneficial for your popularity in North America and will be very beneficial for your future roles."

Lu Yanhe nodded and said, "What about the salary?"

"I will negotiate the salary. Six hundred thousand US dollars is definitely low, but it can't be raised much higher." Chen Ziyan said, "We must be mentally prepared for this. After all, this film cannot enter the mainland market, and our biggest bargaining capital will be directly invalidated."

"Yes."

Chen Ziyan said again: "If you can enter the Hollywood market through this film, it will be of great help to your future career development."

In the world that Lu Yanhe traveled to, American films and Hollywood are still the world's largest film markets, but their influence is relatively weaker than that of the world before Lu Yanhe traveled to.

This is mainly because the gap between the four major international film festivals and major film markets and the American Oscars and the market is not as large as that in the world before Lu Yanhe.

This little difference actually gives many places a chance to breathe and develop their own markets.

Including Korean TV dramas. In the world before Lu Yanhe crossed over, they had almost completely become streaming media producers. They seemed to be developing well, but in fact, the Korean local TV drama market was hit hard, and a large number of production talents flowed to streaming media.

But here, the Korean local streaming platform X-K is also doing well, and American-controlled streaming platforms like Maxine still have to pay attention to Asians like Zhong Benshuo to promote the Asian market in Asia.

This little difference actually means the difference between retaining some local forces and sparks and becoming completely a vassal of big companies.

This is even more true for the film market in Europe.

Their united film market has effectively resisted the monopoly of Hollywood films on the market, and every year their own films have achieved good box office results.

Including special effects blockbusters, this is no longer the patent of Hollywood in the United States.

This is a world where each market is turbulent.

Chen Ziyan asked Lu Yanhe to go the international route, just to follow the Hollywood way of making stars and launch a truly world-class Chinese superstar.

This means that Lu Yanhe has to continue the momentum of the past two years and continue to maintain his presence at the four major film festivals. In Hollywood, which has not yet opened up the situation, Lu Yanhe also needs to find opportunities.

"The Mist" is such an opportunity.

-

After Lu Yanhe discussed it with Chen Ziyan, he did not hesitate and immediately contacted and negotiated with Muken Sorge and D19, the production company of "The Mist".

Before the negotiation, Chen Ziyan specially compiled a list of the box office and streaming performance of Lu Yanhe's starring movies in overseas markets, especially the evaluation opinions of the two streaming platforms Maxine and HP on Lu Yanhe's starring movies.

Lu Yanhe had no achievements in Hollywood before, so it was definitely impossible for him to get a share of the profits. He could only negotiate the most basic salary.

Chen Ziyan is not without experience in this regard.

Both Shang Yongzhou and Chen Bige have shot Hollywood movies before.

Chen Ziyan can usually calculate how much of the actor budget is based on the cost of a movie, and then based on the lineup of the movie and the importance of the role played by Lu Yanhe, she can roughly analyze how much she can ask for.

When Chen Ziyan began to negotiate the contract with D19, something happened.

Although Muken Sorge took the initiative to find Lu Yanhe and invited him to star in this movie, the production company D19 had doubts about Lu Yanhe.

The biggest doubt of D19 is that Lu Yanhe's representative works are all art films. Can such an actor play a good horror movie?

Such problems basically do not appear in the domestic entertainment industry, because Lu Yanhe's wide acting range has almost reached a consensus.

But this is Hollywood, and the people of D19 know Lu Yanhe as an actor who often appears at international film festivals and has a very good box office performance in the Chinese mainland market.

This is indeed a good advantage, but it is not enough for the people of D19 to recognize that Lu Yanhe can be the protagonist of a movie.

This is of course a price-cutting method of D19.

Chen Ziyan believed that the concerns were real, but they were definitely not fatal concerns. Otherwise, there would be no point in talking about this matter. What was the point of looking for Lu Yanhe? Just change someone.

Chen Ziyan didn't argue.

Coincidentally, at this time, the cover of an Italian magazine shot by Lu Yanhe when he participated in the Venice International Film Festival came out.

Chen Ziyan sent the magazine to the contact person.

"..."

Why do we sometimes find that many actors are closely connected with the fashion circle?

Because these two circles overlap to a large extent.

The most important thing is that the success of a star artist in the fashion circle can best help them further develop in the entertainment industry.

Including actors, including acting.

It is difficult to explain how this phenomenon came about. The current situation is that people in the fashion circle recognize the box office superstars and award darlings in the film circle, and people in the film circle also recognize the muses and celebrities in the fashion circle.

Chen Ziyan sent this magazine to illustrate one thing.

Don't make a big deal about Lu Yanhe not having worked in Hollywood. Even if Lu Yanhe has never made any achievements in Hollywood, his achievements in the film industry are recognized by even Italian fashion magazines. This is the recognition accumulated by his consecutive works winning awards at international film festivals.

Lu Yanhe starred in "The Mist". Even if it can't bring you box office in the Chinese mainland market, he is still well-known and influential in the international film industry.

Both sides should play the game. On the other hand, creative things also need to be promoted.

For example, Lu Yanhe provided a DVD of his own audition as required.

In a five-minute DVD, Lu Yanhe spent one minute sitting in front of the camera to introduce himself, and then spent four minutes trying out the script.

As for acting, Lu Yanhe is really not afraid at all now.

Even if he is sitting in front of the camera alone and acting like a monologue.

Compared with his first acting three years ago, he is now absolutely confident in himself.

-

After receiving Lu Yanhe's audition DVD, Muken Sorge excitedly told D19 that the ghost in the play "The Mist" must be Lu Yanhe.

In the film industry, there is often a saying about horror movies, that is, horror movies do not require acting skills.

But people who really know a little about horror movies know that this statement is pure bullshit.

Just look at how many actors have won major awards and nominations for acting in horror movies.

Muken Sorge said: "Only Lu Yanhe can play this role."

Shirley Yang of D1 Sorge's film said to Muken Sorge helplessly: "Muken, if you didn't directly tell Lu Yanhe that you chose him at the beginning, we would have negotiated Lu Yanhe's contract long ago. Every time you tell Lu Yanhe that you must have him, it increases the difficulty of our negotiation."

Muken Sorge asked doubtfully: "Did his agent ask for too much?"

"That's not true." Shirley Young said, "However, our budget is very tight. If we can save a little on him, we can hire one or two more well-known actors. For "The Mist", There are many roles in it. If more well-known actors can be found to play them, I don’t need to say more about the benefits to the film, right?”

Muchen Sorge said: "I don't understand these things. That's your business. However, don't let these things lead to the collapse of the negotiations and Lu Yanhe not coming to act."

"Don't worry, we have you as the director of this movie. For Asian actors, if they have the opportunity to play major roles in Hollywood movies, pay will definitely not be their main consideration."

"Don't think about Lu Yanhe like an ordinary actor. He is not an ordinary actor." Muchen Sorge said immediately.

Shirley Yang glanced at him in surprise.

"Mu Ken, you have only met Lu Yanhe once, why do you think so highly of him?"

Muchen Sorge said: "Have you seen the movie "Three Mountains" in which he acted?"

Shirley Yang shook her head.

Mulken Sorge said: "If you watch his performance in "Three Mountains", you will know why I must have him play "The Mist"."

-

The relationship between directors and actors is always very delicate.

Some directors never work with actors they have worked with before for a second time.

Some directors have a team of actors that they work with regularly.

There are even some directors who, for a period of time, have the same protagonist in their films.

But generally speaking, the relationship between the director and the actors can be described as "intimate". To a certain extent, actors can stimulate the director's creative desire, and the director can also allow the actors to discover a deeper self.

However, for many people, this is all a fault of art films or great directors. As a genre film director, unless you have a preference for a certain type of image, which everyone can understand, otherwise, you who make horror films also need a muse? People will just think it's nonsense.

Muchen Sorge is just a horror film director, not an art film director.

Shirley Yang never thought about Muken Sorge's appreciation of Lu Yanhe in this direction.

She always felt that Muken Sorge's favor for Lu Yanhe must be for a reason.

Is Lu Yanhe's acting skills this good?

After she went back, she watched the movie "Three Mountains" seriously. After watching for a long time and not seeing Lu Yanhe appear, she became a little impatient. Because this movie is really not good to watch. Then, I saw three young people breaking into a temple, and Lu Yanhe appeared.

Lu Yanhe's scene in "Three Mountains" can be said to be Lu Yanhe's first "god-like" moment in a movie.

An actor, relying on a ten-minute scene, rose to international fame, stealing the spotlight from the protagonists, and later became the main publicity point of the movie when it was released. If nothing else, this is enough It shows how awesome it is.

Shirley Yang, who has been in the film industry for so many years, still has a good sense.

Of course Shirley Young can tell whether an actor knows how to act and what level of acting skills he has achieved.

Shirley Yang was surprised by Lu Yanhe's performance.

Shirley Yang is a Singaporean whose ancestors were Chinese. Later, she immigrated to the United States and became an American. Although she is of Chinese descent, she does not understand Chinese culture at all. Unlike many people whose parents are Chinese, she has never lived in China, going back two generations. Her family is a family that has lost touch with Chinese culture. This made her never feel that she had anything to do with China. For this reason, most of her Chinese friends would pay attention to certain situations in China, but she did not have this habit.

She also pays almost no attention to China's entertainment industry.

Shirley Yang will pay attention to young actors like Lu Yanhe who emerge at international film festivals, but not much. Hollywood itself is a big enough place. The place with the greatest shortage of talented young people in the world is definitely not those international film festivals, but Hollywood. Because this is the place where the world's top film creators gather most.

Lu Yanhe is very good at acting and has won many awards.

Lu Yanhe's starring roles in China have achieved high box office results, and he is known as the "Box Office Miracle".

Lu Yanhe is also a screenwriter, and even his screenwriting works have been very successful.

But what does this have to do with her, Shirley Yang?

As long as Lu Yanhe doesn't come to Hollywood to develop, no matter how powerful he is, he has nothing to do with her, Shirley Yang.

Now, Lu Yanhe is here.

"Lu Yanhe's acting skills are really good. His performance in "Three Mountains" shocked me." Shirley Yang did not hesitate to praise Lu Yanhe on the phone, "Mu Ken wants him to play "The Mist" "I don't find it strange anymore, but his agent wants a salary of one million, which is a very high figure. Lu Yanhe is not worth this price in Hollywood now."

Shirley Young was on the phone with D1 Bridge.

D19 is not a traditional large company.

It made its fortune by making low-budget movies, and the capital behind it was the Bridge family of Fernando Bridge.

The Bridge family comes from Italy and has a history spanning hundreds of years, and of course, it's not all glorious history. Originally, the Bridge family was not involved in the film and television industry. For such a large family with a long history, they looked down on new things like the film and television industry at the beginning. They lost the opportunity. It would be more difficult to enter later. .

However, Fernando Bridge has been interested in the film industry since he was a child. He came to the United States to study directing. However, he did not make his own movies, but invested in two movies - both of which were low-cost movies with only one to two million US dollars. With a unique vision, both movies sold nearly 10 million box office. Counting other income such as family entertainment, it is considered a big profit.

He used this money to establish D19 and began to concentrate on making low-cost films.

At first, the adults of the Bridge family thought that Fernando was just playing around. Every family has some young people who are unwilling to follow the rules, and they didn't care until they found out a few years later that Fernando made D19 very successful. The projects he made were basically profitable and profitable every year. Then they paid attention to it.

Later, the Bridge family became Fernando's loan bank.

Most of the funds for the movies produced by D19 came from the Bridge family's business group.

Today, Fernando Bridge is only in his early thirties and is the target of many actresses in Hollywood.

A man from a big family, rich and with his own company, is like a flower with a fatal and seductive fragrance to the butterflies in the flowery world.

As a result, before the Hollywood actresses tried their best to win him over, Fernando Bridge married Shirley Young.

"Dear, if Muken must find that Chinese actor to play, we should support Muken." Fernando Bridge said to Shirley Young.

Muken Sorge made the first two horror films at D19, and he is also a representative director of D19. Fernando Bridge is very supportive of Muken Sorge. A director who has proven himself through two successes, any film company will support him.

Shirley Young: "Of course we will support Muken. Alas, Muken really shouldn't have gone to Lu Yanhe first, which gave his agent an advantage and knew that he was the first choice in Muken's mind. Otherwise, maybe we could sign him with only $400,000."

Fernando Bridge said: "One million is one million, Lu Yanhe is not an unknown newcomer."

"There has never been such a precedent in Hollywood." Shirley Young said, "Our film cost only eight million to make, and we gave a million to an Asian actor who has never starred in a Hollywood film. This breaks the industry practice. If this film can be successful in China, I would be willing to pay him two million dollars for the film to be released in mainland China, but this film will never be introduced to mainland China. "

Fernando Bridge said: "If Muken had not chosen Lu Yanhe to play the role, I would not care who played this role. Shirley, the key to this film is not the actor, but Muken. Since Muken believes that Lu Yanhe must be found, as long as the conditions are not too high, we can agree to it. As for Hollywood conventions, our D19 has never been a traditional mainstream Hollywood film company, right? "

Shirley Yang also laughed along with Fernando Bridge's brisk tone, curling her lips.

"Okay."

-

Chen Ziyan got out of the car with a smile on her face, holding a rectangular box in her hand, went upstairs, and rang the doorbell.

After a while, Lu Yanhe came to open the door and looked at her in surprise.

"Sister Ziyan, what did you bring?"

"The latest MH retro mechanical keyboard." Chen Ziyan said, "I thought you would like it when I saw it, so I bought it. Congratulations on your success in taking over the movie "The Mist" with a salary of one million US dollars."

Lu Yanhe showed a pleasant surprise.

"Oh——" Lu Yanhe took the rectangular box from Chen Ziyan's hand and opened the box on the spot with surprise, "I have been looking for a suitable keyboard. The space bar of the keyboard I used before always failed. Your gift is too timely."

Chen Ziyan: "Is this the point? The point is the movie "The Mist", a salary of one million US dollars, I negotiated it for you!"

Lu Yanhe stared at the keyboard in his hand, "Sister Ziyan is awesome!"

Chen Ziyan: "..."

I have never seen Lu Yanhe so perfunctory before.

Lu Yanhe also suddenly began to pay attention to various keyboards in the past one or two years.

Probably because he has to type almost every day now, Lu Yanhe often goes to see the new keyboards that are launched. Of course, he didn't buy any of them.

Even though the space bar was not working properly, he did not think about changing it.

He felt that he was still thrifty.

Li Zhibai and Yan Liang were both filming outside. Lu Yanhe asked Chen Ziyan if she had any plans for lunch, and Chen Ziyan said no.

Lu Yanhe said that they should make some food at home.

Chen Ziyan asked in surprise: "Do you often cook for yourself now?"

-

6,000 words guaranteed, 8,000 words updated.

You have limited my performance, and I still have 4,000 words in reserve.

Everyone's enthusiasm for voting for monthly tickets is not strong enough, and the monthly ticket extra update activity will continue.

Vote vigorously... Well, for those who don't have monthly tickets, I recommend my old book "I Became the Scandal Heroine Overnight", which is still quite good, so try to read it. (End of this chapter)