Chapter 516: Vanity Fair: Jing Tian Returns Fully Loaded

Every year from December to February is Hollywood's awards season, a period during which countless film production companies host cocktail parties to lobby for various major awards.

Among these, the lobbying for the Oscar is particularly complex.

In the early stages, it is necessary to formulate a specialized lobbying plan based on the film's genre and the number of award categories the film is applying for.

Subsequently, one must conduct a specific screening of those thousands of Academy judges.

They are categorized according to different dimensions such as gender, preferences, and standards, and then, based on these categories, lobbying is conducted to varying degrees.

The lobbying phase is divided into two parts: the first step is lobbying for the nomination list, and the second step is lobbying for the final awards list.

The nomination list for this year's Oscar has already closed before the 4th, and this part of the lobbying work was carried out by Summit Entertainment through a professional public relations firm; Wei Jin did not have to worry too much about it.

He will only participate in the second phase of lobbying cocktail parties after the nomination list is finalized.

Therefore, having just arrived in North America, Wei Jin was not as busy as imagined; after resting for a morning in Beverly Hills, he headed to the set of Edge of Tomorrow to visit the crew.

This film began shooting in mid-October and has now reached the final wrap-up stage, with filming expected to finish in these two days; if Wei Jin did not go to visit the set now, he would be breaking his word.

As one of the veteran "Big Six" of Hollywood, Warner Bros. has nearly thirty independent soundstages around the world.

The soundstage where the Edge of Tomorrow crew is located is in Burbank, just 20 kilometers from Los Angeles.

Burbank is a residential satellite city and industrial center of Los Angeles, with a population of just over one million.

Yet, this is the location of the Disney headquarters, and many world-famous media and entertainment companies, including Warner Bros., NBC, Viacom, and NPR, have branch offices in Burbank.

Therefore, Burbank is also known as the "Media Capital of the World."

Upon arriving at the set and finding that filming was in progress, Wei Jin did not disturb them and started chatting with several engineers who had come from the country.

These individuals had participated in the filming of Pacific Rim, and in their view, this collaboration—whether it was the director Doug Liman or the overall level of the Warner production team—was superior to the previous one.

Wei Jin was not surprised by this; large Hollywood companies have a complete background check system at the beginning of a project.

A 170-million-dollar project being handed to Doug Liman naturally meant his abilities had been thoroughly investigated and ultimately approved.

Furthermore, with the profits brought by the previous two collaborations, Warner would naturally pour more effort into this project.

After chatting for a while, a scene ended, and Jing Tian glanced over here unintentionally and saw Wei Jin.

In an instant, a smile appeared on the young girl's exquisite face, and her clear eyes sparkled as she threw herself into Wei Jin's arms like a swallow returning to its nest. On the crew's side, Doug Liman and Tom Cruise specifically took advantage of the break to come and meet Wei Jin.

"Wei, your Dixing Yinxing was shot brilliantly; it is full of unconstrained imagination, truly incredible."

Doug Liman is also a science fiction enthusiast; he discussed many of the filming techniques of Dixing Yinxing with Wei Jin from a technical perspective, with much flattery in his words.

"By the way, I wish you success at the Golden Globe Awards."

"Thank you."

Afterward, Wei Jin chatted with Tom Cruise, one of the actors with the strongest commercial value on the planet.

The fifty-year-old Tom Cruise is very well-maintained, with a sturdy, muscular build and a heroic bearing.

Come to think of it, this person's experience is also very legendary.

He debuted at 19 with his first film, Endless Love, and just three years into the industry, he relied on Risky Business to receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.

Top Gun, which he starred in in 1986, caused his popularity to soar globally, and he was honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the age of 24.

In 1990, he won the Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama at the 47th Golden Globe Awards for Born on the Fourth of July.

Of course, when it comes to Tom Cruise's most influential works worldwide, it has to be the Mission: Impossible series.

It was also starting from this series that Tom Cruise became the male star with the highest commercial value globally; for Mission Impossible 4, his salary plus profit-sharing reached as high as 75 million US dollars.

Therefore, for this Edge of Tomorrow, Tom Cruise received a base salary of 25 million US dollars, plus 5% of the first-dollar gross.

However, it was clear that although Tom Cruise is already at the pinnacle of commercial value, he still has some pursuit of awards; he talked to Wei Jin for a long time about the script for The Hunt, speaking of it with much praise.

It is no wonder; although Tom Cruise has won Golden Globe Awards several times and has been nominated for an Oscar three times, he has never won one, and he is completely insulated from the European Big Three.

Now that he has caught a top-tier award-chasing director like Wei Jin, he naturally has to communicate well.

Tom Cruise even stated on the spot that if Wei Jin has a suitable art-house script for him in the future, his salary and everything else would be easy to discuss.

Wei Jin was also very happy and immediately exchanged phone numbers with Tom Cruise; after all, he is a top-tier big shot, and he might come in handy in the future.

By the time filming was about to end in the afternoon, Paul from Warner also arrived at the scene; he came up and gave Wei Jin a hug, his attitude extremely enthusiastic.

There was no help for it; Paul was originally just a department head at Warner Bros. Pictures, but having collaborated with Wei Jin twice in a row, with both Inception and Pacific Rim achieving huge success, this has gradually increased his influence within Warner.

Seeing that the Huaxia market is getting bigger and bigger, getting along well with this "Eastern Emperor" Wei Jin is the proper thing to do.

Unlike domestic crews, the set-visiting culture here in Hollywood is very unique; they don't make a point of hosting dinners, and Wei Jin respected the custom.

However, Paul did indicate that the film would wrap up tomorrow, and there would be a grand cocktail party at that time, requesting that he stay an extra day to attend.

Wei Jin had no objections to this; after all, after this time, it might be three or four months before he sees Jing Tian again, so he must make the most of it.

When filming ended after five o'clock in the afternoon, after saying goodbye to everyone on the crew, he took Jing Tian straight to the hotel.

As soon as they arrived, the two couldn't wait to embrace and kiss, releasing their longing for each other to their hearts' content.

Early the next morning, Jing Tian, having fully released her emotions, appeared energetic and rosy-cheeked, humming a little tune as she happily headed to the set to continue filming the final scenes.

Wei Jin stayed at the hotel, browsing through emails and relevant film information sent from the country.

Domestically, the smoke of the New Year Slot is still lingering, but as the Spring Festival draws nearer, the overall market is gradually shrinking.

Lost in Thailand, with an unstoppable momentum, dominated the second half of the New Year Slot, with daily box office firmly maintained at a high level of 50 million.

Currently, it has been released for 12 days, and the box office has reached 656 million. According to Chen Zhiming's report, Xu Guangtou has great ambition and is still leading the crew tirelessly on a continuous roadshow, calling on everyone to go into the cinema and laugh heartily.

Although Chinese Zodiac did not succeed in extending its run, its momentum is still maintained quite well, with a daily box office of over 20 million.

Currently, it has been released for 19 days, and the box office is approaching the 700 million mark.

Cheng Long, who is on the set of New Police Story 2013, does not forget to call for his own film.

However, this move was ridiculed by netizens, who asked him why he didn't mention Dixing Yinxing.

That The Grandmaster, which Wong Kar-wai spent four years honing, with every thought having an echo, is performing quite well.

It reported 31 million on its first day, and after three days of release, the box office has broken the 100 million mark, which can be considered a stunning success, creating Wong Kar-wai's peak box office.

The entire Huaxia film circle has begun a collective flattery mode, with the Hong Kong Circle being particularly prominent, even crowning Wong Kar-wai with the title of "The Grandmaster."

However, just as Wei Jin expected, the online word-of-mouth was polarized; although the rating on Yinxiang Net was 7.8, which is not low, there were quite a few negative reviews, with many netizens finding the film too dull.

However, Zhang Ziyi was very good at seizing opportunities; even while in Hollywood, she still touted the film at a rate of two or three Weibo updates per hour.

And as one of the judges for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, she would also intentionally or unintentionally mention *The Grandmaster* when accepting media interviews.

As for *Gravity*, the current total domestic box office has already reached 1.692 billion.

It is just that after entering the extension period, the daily box office has fallen quite sharply, barely maintaining around ten million.

There is no help for it; the domestic ceiling is right here, and even if many people watch it a second or third time, it can only reach this point.

The performance in the overseas market is actually passable; although it has already entered the standard disposal process, the box office has already approached 990 million USD, and the road to breaking 1 billion is not far off.

The films set to be released in February have all already begun their promotional warm-ups.

With the template of last year's *Once Again* and the blessing of Valentine's Day, this year's Spring Festival Film Season is very lively, with seven or eight films such as *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons*, *Beijing Meets Seattle*, and *Sophie's Revenge 2* set to debut.

However, looking at all the films, Wei Jin has nothing to worry about.

Zhang Ziyi's national popularity is too low, and her public image is even somewhat poor, so *Sophie's Revenge 2* basically has no competitiveness.

It was just that upon seeing the promotional news for that film *Together* by Zhen Zidan, Wei Jin really couldn't help but laugh.

This damn Kung Fu actor, 170cm tall, acting in a romance film with Yang Ying, is this a joke? Barring any accidents, this Spring Festival Film Season will be the world of *Journey to the West* and *Seattle*.

Wei Jin originally thought it was the wrap party for *Edge of Tomorrow*, but he didn't expect the lineup on Warner's side to be quite significant.

Not only were there many local artists, but even senior executives from Disney had come over.

However, thinking about it, Disney's headquarters is right here; although they are in a competitive relationship with Warner, the Big Six themselves are in a state of having you in me and me in you, so attending the banquet also seemed extremely normal.

Representing Disney at the reception was a white man in his fifties named Bob, and at this moment, he was beaming with smiles while chatting with Wei Jin.

Compared to other competitors like Warner and Paramount, Disney's market share in Huaxia is not high.

Seeing that Huaxia has already become the world's second-largest film market, with the upper limit of a single film approaching 300 million USD, it would be impossible for Disney not to be envious.

But Disney's projects are mostly based on series and animation projects, and the path of co-productions is slightly difficult; they are in urgent need of a teammate.

And looking across Huaxia, there is no one more suitable than Wei Jin.

Because Wei Jin is not just a director; he has shares in Summit Entertainment and possesses a massive cultural and entertainment group in Huaxia.

Wei Jin's influence in Huaxia is even more terrifying than the Big Six's influence in North America; he is absolutely the best partner.

And Wei Jin was also releasing goodwill; after all, putting all one's eggs in one basket is unscientific.

Although the cooperation with Warner has always been very pleasant, who knows what will happen in the future?

Being prepared for a rainy day is always good.

Wei Jin and Bob both had the same thoughts, so at this first meeting, both sides could be said to have chatted happily.

However, this scene made Paul, who organized the gathering, somewhat unhappy, always feeling as if the vegetables in his own field had been stolen by a neighbor.

Therefore, Paul had to hover around Wei Jin from time to time, looking as if he were the latter's follower.

The many other Hollywood stars and artists also came to greet Wei Jin from time to time.

Looking at Wei Jin, who was like the stars surrounding the moon in the Hollywood Vanity Fair, a brilliant smile bloomed on Jing Tian's face; this was the man she chose.

Entering the internet age, news spreads very quickly; before the banquet in North America had even ended, relevant reports had already been sent back to the country.

"The 170 million USD production cost Sino-US co-produced sci-fi blockbuster *Edge of Tomorrow* wrapped up on the 8th, local time in North America; Director Wei Jin attended the wrap party."

"Tom Cruise stated that as a Huaxia actress, Jing Tian's performance in the film was extremely outstanding."

"Warner expects that the film's post-production time will not exceed 4 months, and it is very likely to be released in the second half of the year or at the end of the year!"

"At the wrap party, Wei Jin chatted and laughed with senior executives of Hollywood giants such as Warner and Disney, accompanied by Jing Tian."

After more than three months, *Edge of Tomorrow* once again occupied the industry's attention.

Looking at the news online, many actresses remembered that time they were fooled by Han Sanping and couldn't help but grit their teeth in hatred.

Looking again at Jing Tian, who was surrounded by numerous star bigwigs and Hollywood executives together with Wei Jin, the actresses' Dao hearts were even more shattered.

If thoughts could kill, Han Sanping and Wei Jin should have already died hundreds of times.

However, Wei Jin had no time to pay attention to the bitterness of these actresses; after attending the reception hosted by Warner, he took Jing Tian back to the hotel to entangle until death.

Because the young lady was about to return to the country; after all, the end of the year had arrived, and as a super A-list actress, Jing Tian had too many press releases, especially since she had already declined too many schedules in these past few months.

Therefore, in tonight's card game, Wei Jin put in a lot of effort, letting Jing Tian return fully loaded. (End of this chapter)