Chapter 708: Ambition (5000-word update!)

After reading *Get Out*, Mukan Zorge immediately realized the preciousness of this script.

Sometimes, whether a film is good or not might not even be visible during a test screening.

However, whether a script is good or not, for film creators, is almost a matter without much dispute; you know it at a glance.

If Lu Yan He had brought a more artistic, deeper script, such as *Raise the Red Lantern*, Mukan Zorge would certainly not be interested.

Or, if Lu Yan He had brought out a classic thriller like *The Silence of the Lambs*, Mukan Zorge might not necessarily feel it was suitable for him.

But what Lu Yan He brought out was *Get Out*, which itself is a very good-looking, attractive thriller story. That kind of spiritual horror story about being hypnotized and controlled as a slave is in the same vein as Mukan Zorge's past horror aesthetics.

From the film *The Mist*, it can actually be seen that Mukan Zorge actually likes a bit of supernatural, surreal stories in a modern context. Simply put, it is to break people's daily life appearance, put the protagonist in an extreme, thriller environment, and produce physiological and psychological fear.

On this basis, *Get Out* also has a natural good topic—black slavery.

If the Asian revenge theme of *The Mist* was a theme direction that didn't exist at the beginning and was slowly gathered by D19 according to market feedback later, then the theme of *Get Out* was obvious from the text, almost without any disguise, straightforward.

Mukan Zorge thought to himself, it's just that he himself is not black. If he were black, this film would probably have become a thorn in the side of some extremists from the beginning of the project.

He said to Lu Yan He: "Is this script written specifically for me?"

Lu Yan He asked with a smile: "Do you like it?"

"Are you kidding? This script is too surprising!" Mukan said. "How could you write such a story? This is simply—"

It is simply that even though it is not an art film, just by relying on this theme, it is bound to become a film text with issues, thereby relying on huge discussion to be sent to the awards season.

It is not only art films that have artistic value; in artistic value, there is another dimension called sociality.

When *Get Out* broke into the awards season with such a completely commercial, sensory thriller style while exploding at the box office, it was by relying on the social discussion it sparked.

Its significance exceeds the significance originally contained in an ordinary thriller.

In a social background where many people are saying that black people have been equal for many years and why they always regard themselves as the discriminated, it pointedly poked at the hypocrisy of some white groups and the fear that black groups cannot dispel in their hearts.

Once a slave, generations of shadows.

Mukan Zorge asked: "Are you really willing to hand this script over to me to film?"

"Yes," Lu Yan He nodded. "However, I hope my film company can participate in the production of the film."

Mukan frowned immediately upon hearing this.

"I don't want to interfere with your creation," Lu Yan He explained immediately. "I just hope to learn through this project. You know, I have a film company. In the future, there are several scripts of my own that I want to film myself, but I don't understand the filming environment here. If there is an opportunity for people in the company to truly participate in the production of a project, it is of great significance to us."

Mukan Zorge: "I like this script very much, but if I want to produce this film with you, I need to discuss it with my producer."

"No problem," Lu Yan He nodded. "Understood."

"Lu, is this a prerequisite for me to film *Get Out*?" Mukan Zorge asked.

Lu Yan He nodded.

"*Red Eye*, *Source Code*, these films, I have proposed the same conditions," he said. "I don't intend to compete for your dominance over the film, but I also don't want to just provide a script. Mukan, I don't just intend to be a foil in Hollywood."

Mukan Zorge looked at Lu Yan He with some surprise.

Over the years, because his wife is Hua Ruzhen, he is one of the European and American directors who has had the most contact with Chinese actors.

In recent years, with the continuous expansion of China's own market, the "going overseas fever" of Chinese actors has gradually faded.

Popular actors like Lu Yan He who go against the trend are a very small minority.

However, Mukan Zorge only felt that Lu Yan He just wanted to broaden his acting path.

He hadn't thought before that Lu Yan He actually had such great ambition for Hollywood—

Ambition that doesn't just belong to an actor.

The two actors who have been nominated for Oscars in the sequel to *The Mist* are one named Lean Waters, who plays the ghost who attacked the ghost-catching team at the beginning of the film and was finally seriously injured and driven away by the ghost played by Lu Yan He, and the other is Erin Wallace, who plays the captain of the ghost-catching team.

Lean Waters is thirty-six years old this year. The highlight of his entire acting career was the play for which he got an Oscar nomination. Other than that, he basically belongs to "mediocre performance," but his acting skills have always been well-received and have never dropped the chain.

Erin Wallace is now 28 years old. At the age of 19, she played a flower-like girl in an Oscar Best Picture, a role similar to "Lolita," which shocked the film industry at the time and was a hot candidate for Best Supporting Actress that year, but finally lost.

Besides them, in the ghost-catching team, there is an athlete who retired from the British diving team three years ago. After retiring, he transitioned to become an actor, Jason Potter, a person who has fame but is strictly speaking just starting as an actor.

Besides that, because Lu Yan He is the lead, Darren Wilson also fought for a position as a ghost-catching team member for another Chinese-American actress under him, Wang Jiaqi.

These few people, plus Lu Yan He, also formed the main star cast of the sequel to *The Mist*. Compared to them, the other actors basically have no fame.

On the second day after Lu Yan He arrived in the United States, he went to try on costumes and try out the look.

Mukan Zorge also came.

Compared to the first film, the overall look, at first glance, has no changes.

However, many details have been adjusted.

The overall effect presented is more ghostly.

If you put this look together with the look of the first film, the difference in effect is like the same set of clothes, one is a buyer's show, and one is a seller's show.

People from D19 saw this and had no objections.

You know, in the film, his image itself has a lot of special effects parts.

Basically, every time he appears, there will be several blowers, creating some soft wind to make the black robe on his body sway and flutter like clouds and mist, a sense of non-physicality—

The effect is comparable to CG special effects produced by computers—

This means that the post-production workload will be reduced a lot, and it also means that a lot of production costs will be saved for D19.

D19 had nothing to say.

Lu Yan He's stylist didn't mess around, respected the look of the first film, didn't change it much, and also made it clear that the aesthetics and technology were more superb, much higher than the level of the stylist of the first film.

Lu Yan He was also very satisfied with this look.

Mukan Zorge said: "This look of yours now makes you look much more handsome than the first film."

Lu Yan He: "Ten years have passed, my strength has recovered a lot, and it's normal for my image to be more handsome, right?"

Mukan Zorge: "Normal, I didn't say it was bad. I mean, I guess this image of yours will attract quite a few female fans."

"I'm looking forward to it," Lu Yan He nodded.

As an actor, who doesn't have a few fans who like their looks. If you really don't have a few fans who like your looks, to be honest, it's really hard to become a legend. There is no legendary actor who doesn't have a good image. It's very cruel, even very brutal.

In reality, there are of course some actors with bad images who have climbed to the first-tier or even ultra-first-tier position by their own efforts and acting skills, but if you take stock, you will find that such actors will never be pushed to the position of "representative" by an industry.

You can only say that he is an acting school.

Acting is a profession that relies on one's face.

Lu Yan He wouldn't feel that he could rely on strength just because he won a few acting awards. Without this face of his, he wouldn't even be able to get the role in his first film, *The Golden Age*.

Seeing Lu Yan He not minding "relying on his face to eat" so much, Mukan Zorge was shocked again.

In the European and American film industry, generally speaking, actors with better images also avoid being praised for their good looks in the professional field of performance. This is because in the mainstream concept of Europe and America, professionalism is respectable, and the skin is superficial.

In China, the professional field of course also has such a view, but on the one hand, the boundary between actors and artists is far less distinct than in Europe and America, which makes this concept not so "commandment-like" for actors. On the other hand, many actors in the entertainment industry, let alone those from professional backgrounds, even before acting in their first film, have no acting experience—

It can even be said that there are a lot of them. When the whole environment is filled with a batch of actors who don't really regard themselves as actors, it is difficult for you to tell these actors what you should be in awe of through the mainstream concepts of the big environment.

Lu Yan He doesn't avoid being praised for being handsome, not because he is influenced by this big environment in China, nor is it that Lu Yan He doesn't agree with these things; he just feels that people, sometimes, still have to be a little honest with themselves.

Taking one's face too seriously is a problem, and insisting on destroying one's face to prove some kind of "professionalism" and "plasticity" is also a problem.

Lu Yan He has really never deliberately "destroyed his image" to play a character.

Because an actor's initial accumulation is relying on their face to attract some people. This is an indisputable fact, not something that anyone can deny if they want to.

D19's CEO Scott Harris specifically came to meet Lu Yan He before the film started filming and had dinner together.

It was just the respect that Scott Harris, as CEO of D19, had to show to the lead of a hot sequel.

However, this time, besides chatting with Lu Yan He about *The Mist*, Scott Harris also chatted with Lu Yan He about several other Hollywood projects.

"We D19 are an independent film production company, which cannot be compared with big studios like Parameter and Green Valley, but films like *Source Code* and *Buried*, actually we D19 also have the ability to do."

Lu Yan He nodded and said: "Scott, my cooperation with them is based on the script, unfolding cooperation in multiple dimensions. I am also one of the producers. Before, I also gave the script of *Buried* to you, but you only wanted the script at that time."

Scott Harris laughed and said: "The world is changing at any time, isn't it?"

Lu Yan He smiled slightly and didn't continue to say anything about this.

Scott Harris: "You are an outstanding creator with outstanding talent. This time, we will also use the sequel to *The Mist* to impact the awards season for you."

Lu Yan He: "Thank you."

Scott Harris: "However, why have you been unwilling to sign the follow-up contract for *The Mist* series?"

Lu Yan He: "Scott, we haven't started filming the second one yet. Is it too early to talk about things later?"

Scott Harris: "You are now a hot popular star in Hollywood. If I don't sign your contract, I can't feel at ease."

"Let's take it one film at a time," Lu Yan He said. "You also know that I am really busy, right?"

Scott Harris nodded.

"I know."

He smiled, as if he didn't mind Lu Yan He's refusal just now at all.

Lu Yan He also knew he wouldn't mind.

For a popular actor to be arrogant and wild is very normal—everyone thinks so. Lu Yan He also gradually felt that sometimes, being a bit arrogant and cold-blooded is actually easier and saves him trouble.

"Lu, actually I am very curious, why didn't you act in the film *Buried* yourself?" Scott Harris said. "If you were the lead in this film, even if you wanted to be a producer, I would have considered it at the time."

Lu Yan He: "If I had to act in every script I wrote, I wouldn't have time to act in films like *The Mist* that I didn't write."

Scott Harris: "That's true. Do you have an assistant to help you write the script?"

"Ah?"

"The number of scripts you have written in the past few years is almost equivalent to the achievements of seven or eight screenwriters," Scott Harris said.

Lu Yan He shook his head. "I don't have an assistant; I wrote them all by myself."

"This is too incredible. How can you create so many scripts?"

Lu Yan He: "On the one hand, I can write, and on the other hand, the scripts I write have basically not been required to be rewritten or modified on a large scale by production companies."

To put it bluntly, the pass rate is extremely high.

Every success is further consolidating the "Lu Yan He Myth." Every time the "Lu Yan He Myth" is reinforced, the gold content of every word he writes is a little more.

Production companies regard it as a treasure, so how dare they change it easily.

And by the time of projects like *Buried*, *Red Eye*, and *Source Code*, Lu Yan He's ability as a screenwriter had already been doubly affirmed by box office and awards, and he was negotiating cooperation from a relatively strong position. Unless they really had fundamental opinions on the script, they wouldn't easily raise them.

Or rather, they wouldn't cooperate at all.

Scott Harris laughed: "That's true. No one would dare to change your script easily now."

Lu Yan He thought to himself, although Scott Harris says so now, he actually shouldn't have taken it too seriously.

Scott Harris has a typical Hollywood arrogance.

This arrogance of his is not aimed at you; he is aimed at all non-Hollywood filmmakers—you certainly have talent, but whether this set of yours works in Hollywood has not been verified yet.

Lu Yan He thought to himself, wait until the box office results and return rates of the few films like *Source Code* come out, and the smile on your face will be much more sincere.

The capitalist world is also easy to mix in, as long as you do two things, you can walk sideways:

First, you have the value of making money.

Second, you have the ability to avoid being screwed over.

Lu Yan He and Scott Harris ate this meal with laughter and toasts, and took a group photo together. Scott Harris took the initiative to post it on his Twitter, completing the "respect for talent" action that a film company boss should show.

Lu Yan He also brought this "endorsement" and met the actors of the sequel to *The Mist* for the first time.

"Lu Yan He went to film *The Mist*." Zhang Yuezhen put down her phone. On the phone was a group photo of Lu Yan He and Scott Harris. She said to Chen Pinhe, "We also have to speed up."

Chen Pinhe said: "What's the rush? It's not a race."

Zhang Yuezhen: "Can you accept being messed up by Lu Yan He again the next time there is a project like *Doomsday*?"

Chen Pinhe: "This matter has passed. Is it necessary for you to always bring it up repeatedly?"

His brow furrowed.

The film *Doomsday* brushed past Chen Pinhe. In Zhang Yuezhen's mouth, it was said that Lu Yan He messed it up. In fact, they both knew that it was actually Chen Pinhe himself who was worried that *Doomsday* would be downgraded and was afraid of losing face, so he gave it up voluntarily, which gave Lu Yan He the opportunity to operate it for the Jiang Army.

Zhang Yuezhen knew that Chen Pinhe actually cared about this matter very much.

She didn't mention it anymore.

"I don't mean anything else, I just don't want us to move too slowly and lose a lot of initiative in the end," Zhang Yuezhen said. "By the way, Yang Zhoujin invited us to dinner tomorrow night. Are you free?"

"Yang Zhoujin? Was he let out by his family again?"

"He reached an agreement with his family's old man. If he doesn't continue to make trouble, his old man will give him a chance to compete fairly with Yang Zhouli," Zhang Yuezhen said. "Yang Zhoujin will get a sum of money to enter the market."

Chen Pinhe showed a look of surprise upon hearing this.

Zhang Yuezhen said: "He needs results, we need funds, just getting what each needs." ===== CHAPTER 709 =====