Chapter 435: Unique Treatment in the World

How much is Mar-a-Lago worth?

This is a question.

When Tang Tang Nade bought it in the 80s, it should have only cost 8 million USD.

By 2023, when Tang Tang Nade was embroiled in lawsuits, Chen Nuo saw in the newspaper that a real estate valuation agency believed its value was 500 million USD.

Back to the present in 2011.

Although under Tang Tang Nade's operation, this manor had become a celebrity club, no longer the awkward old house that was once deserted and abandoned for many years.

However, it was definitely not the private residence that was endowed with many meanings later and could be said to be the most famous in the world.

So, when he was in Rome and saw Tang Tang Nade impatiently fax him a real estate appraisal report, on which the valuation of the manor actually reached 300 million USD, this made Chen Nuo a bit angry and a bit amused.

He immediately sent a text message to old Tang: "I've read your book, Tang Tang Nade. Don't play games."

Afterward, when he followed the distribution team of the Italian distributor Eagle Pictures to Sibiu, Romania, in Southern Europe, to participate in the roadshow of "No Man's Land" there, the second valuation received from Florida was much more reasonable—

This was actually a relatively reasonable price.

After all, this Mar-a-Lago had already become a quite famous private club under old Tang's management. In Palm Beach, there were not a few Palm Beach owners who wanted to join this club, go to the golf course to play golf, eat at the manor, stay for a few nights, and conduct celebrity circle social activities. The annual membership fee per person was 150,000 USD, and the final profit could be balanced with the manor's maintenance costs, and there might even be a little surplus.

Therefore, theoretically speaking, including the inflation over these years, a valuation maintained at just over 100 million was acceptable.

But even so, Chen Nuo didn't intend to let old Tang off so easily, so he sent a text message to Tang Tang Nade, saying: "Keep going down. We're getting there."

By the time he reached Paris, the third quote he received was even more reasonable.

100 million USD.

At the same time, he also received Tang Tang Nade's text message: "This is the bottom line."

Chen Nuo replied with a text message: "'The first bottom line you tell is never the bottom line—Tang Tang Nade, The Art of the Deal'."

Chen Nuo didn't know what Tang Tang Nade's thoughts were about his student learning and applying so quickly, using his own spear to attack his own shield. Anyway, after sending it, there was no more news from that side.

In the following ten days or so, he flew from Paris to London, and from London to Barcelona, Budapest, etc., turning through almost half of Europe, and also got familiar with the general managers, CEOs, etc., of those large and small distribution theater chains locally, signed several agreements, and only then, in the 10,000-meter high altitude flying to Asia, received Tang Tang Nade's latest quote.

95 million USD.

When Allison held the laptop and let him see this number in the email—Chen Nuo couldn't help but laugh.

He guessed old Tang must have gone to think of ways again. Finally, it was estimated that he still couldn't find any cards to play, so he had to return to him, breaking his bottom line for him, and losing 5 million.

It couldn't be said that the people old Tang associated with were all unloyal fox friends. When he was bankrupt in credit at the bank, they didn't lend him money. However, this wasn't 480,000, nor 4.8 million, it was damn 48 million USD!

Could Epstein, that pimp, have so much money? Could Tom Barrack, who also dabbled in real estate and was deeply trapped, have so much cash? Carl Icahn, he believed he definitely had it, but every cent of his was used to make trouble in the financial market, how could he lend it to him!

95 million, hahaha, old Tang's heart must have been dripping blood when he lost these 5 million.

Thinking of this, Chen Nuo really laughed out loud.

It's just a pity that the Bombardier Global Express 6000 business jet he rented for 1 million USD a month only provided satellite internet service with limited speed. At 30,000 feet in the air, he could at most check emails, and the phone had no signal, so he couldn't send a text message to Tang Tang Nade immediately.

Finally, he just let Allison reply with an email: "Done." It could be considered letting old Tang off the hook.

After all, he wasn't saying he wouldn't lend it and was forcing old Tang to jump into the sea; he just wanted to let that side know through this method that he wasn't a rich and stupid person, and to play fewer tricks on him in the future.

Clearly, old Tang was full of excitement about this news. When he got off the plane at Seoul Airport in Korea, he received two text messages from Tang Tang Nade in his phone one after another.

They came together, separated by more than 2 hours.

The first one was: "This is the true bottom line, you will have 50% ownership of Mar-a-Lago, what else do you want? Chen, this time I really can't make any more concessions."

The second one was: "When are you coming back to the US?? Thank you so much!"

Seeing all caps, Chen Nuo knew old Tang must be truly excited, otherwise he wouldn't have asked Ivanka, who helped him write the text, to write it like this. He replied "One week later, see you then," and put the phone in his pants pocket.

Having stayed in Europe for more than half a month, dealing with all kinds of foreigners, and returning to the land of Asia, Chen Nuo's first reaction was that his nose felt comfortable.

No need to go and stick to people, no need to smell all kinds of perfumes. In the Chinese cultural circle, although the same culture also bred all kinds of weirdos, at least everyone had a sense of distance, which made Chen Nuo feel very comfortable.

This time it was still CJ people who came to pick up the plane. After all, the Korean copyright of "No Man's Land" was also bought by this acquaintance company. But at the airport, besides the old CJ people, there was also another group of people.

Chen Nuo didn't expect that the chairman of the Grand Bell Awards consortium and honorary chairman of the Korea Film Association, Shin Young-kyun, would solemnly wear a Hanbok and personally come to the airport to pick him up.

Based on the Chinese etiquette of respecting the old and loving the young, he stepped forward quickly for the first time, shook his hand, and laughed: "Sorry to trouble Senior Shin to come and see me, how can this be?"

Shin Young-kyun held his hand and said seriously: "Over the past few years, the influence of Asian cinema on the international stage has gradually risen, and Chen Nuo-xi, you are undoubtedly the most dazzling promoter among them. This time, our Grand Bell Awards established the 'International Film Special Contribution Award' to be awarded to people who have made outstanding contributions in international film exchanges. It is our great honor that you, as the first winner, can come to receive the award. On behalf of the Grand Bell Awards, I should express my welcome to you for the first time."

After saying this, still feeling it wasn't enough, the gray-haired Shin Young-kyun stepped back and bowed.

Chen Nuo had no choice but to bow back in a decent manner and said: "I don't dare to accept."

Afterward, he shook hands with the group of people from the Grand Bell Awards who accompanied Shin Young-kyun one by one, and finally met with the old acquaintances from CJ.

Han Young-ho said sincerely: "Chen Nuo-xi, long time no see, congratulations, 'Inception' has achieved amazing results."

He had been watching Chen Nuo greeting Shin Young-kyun from the side, and his heart was truly filled with emotion.

The Grand Bell Awards, the oldest and most valued award in Korea, could be said to be the most influential film award ceremony in Korea and even East Asia in the hearts of Koreans, and was also rated by the Korean media as the most authoritative and fair film festival.

Before this, as the palace-level coordinate of national cinema, this award had never been awarded to non-local filmmakers.

And this time, upon learning that this person was coming to Korea in late October, exactly when the Grand Bell Awards ceremony was held, they specially established an International Film Special Contribution Award for him.

The purpose was to use his current global reputation to help the Grand Bell Awards build international prestige.

This sounded a bit unacceptable to people, a bit hurtful to Korean self-esteem.

But this is reality.

With the emergence of this person, the original parallel Korean and Chinese cinema, currently China has already taken a lead.

In the past two months, "Inception," which won the second highest global historical box office and conquered global movie fans in terms of word-of-mouth, not only starred a Chinese person but also had over 50% of its shares participated in by Chinese capital. This is an irrefutable ironclad proof.

For this reason, Shin Young-kyun personally came to the airport to pick him up. Speaking of which, it was a bit self-humiliating, but standing from the perspective of the Grand Bell Awards, standing from the perspective of promoting Korean cinema, it was actually reasonable.

However, according to Han Jeong-ho, tonight's airport pickup was confidential.

Speaking of which, tomorrow night's award ceremony was the same. The temporarily added "International Film Special Contribution Award" and the winner didn't appear on the previous nomination list at all.

It's just that the confidentiality of the airport pickup was to avoid rumors, while the confidentiality of the winner was to create a surprise.

Chen Nuo met the group of people from the Grand Bell Awards committee and finally came to Han Jeong-ho, reached out and said: "Department Head Han, hello, I have to trouble you again this time."

Han Jeong-ho held Chen Nuo's hand with both hands, shook it up and down heavily, and said: "This is all what I should do. President Lee is setting up a banquet at the hotel waiting for you. Shall we go over now?"

"Okay."

One of the benefits of a private jet is hiding one's tracks.

No crowds waiting at the airport, no hysterical fans, at most there were some vague rumors on the internet saying he had secretly arrived in Korea, but whether it was true or not, without photos taken by paparazzi, without sightings by fans, everything remained at a stage of being plausible.

This also gave Chen Nuo greater freedom than before.

Especially this time he didn't stay at the conspicuous Shilla Hotel, but stayed in a Han-style courtyard arranged by Lee Mi-kyung. This was Lee Mi-kyung's private residence, specially used to receive high-end people, with a total of five entrances, plus high walls and tight security, which could be said to be the best privacy Chen Nuo had ever stayed in besides Palm Beach.

This allowed him to smoothly meet Jeon Do-yeon after Lee Mi-kyung's banquet.

This night was truly like sweet dew after a long drought, dry wood meeting a raging fire.

Chen Nuo had been behaving himself and doing nothing for more than half a month, and had long been full of fire, and Jeon Do-yeon was undoubtedly even more so.

So this night, the two could be said to be firing on all cylinders.

The next morning, Jeon Do-yeon took a shower, walked into the gym with a head of wet hair, leaned against the door, and said with a smile in Korean:

"You really lost weight."

Chen Nuo pressed the stop button, and the treadmill slowly stopped.

He looked down at his upper body. Indeed, compared to a month ago, he could vaguely see a few ribs, which showed that the weight-loss nutritionist he spent a lot of money to hire in America still had a little bit of effect.

He wiped his sweat, also generously didn't put on a top, turned around and sighed: "Not enough."

Jeon Do-yeon crossed her arms, leaned against the door frame, and looked him up and down with a smile, looking very interested.

Chen Nuo originally thought that early in the morning, this woman had some crooked thoughts again, but didn't expect that after watching for a while, Jeon Do-yeon suddenly said: "I really envy you, Chen Nuo-xi, for having a new goal. It seems you are very passionate about this role, really good."

Chen Nuo was silent.

Jeon Do-yeon opened her mouth again: "Chen Nuo-xi, can I ask you a question? How do you always keep this passion?"

Her eyes carried confusion, and also a few points of admiration: "You just released an incredibly successful movie, and now you are running promotion for another cameo movie. I remember in December, there should be one of your 'Twilight' series movies to be released... But, you have already started preparing for the next new movie?"

"I've seen many workaholics, but you are really the craziest one I've ever known."

"Is this the secret to your success? Working, working, and working? Even giving up time for making love, traveling, and falling in love?"

"I envy your passion, but sometimes I also feel it's scary. Perhaps, it is precisely because of this that I am not worthy of your talent, nor can I reach your current height."

Jeon Do-yeon said very seriously, without any teasing meaning, however, Chen Nuo heard it and almost burst into tears.

Her words made Chen Nuo completely make up his mind.

He was actually still a bit hesitant before.

Netflix was indeed very sincere, plus Rory Eisner's favor, he once thought that after filming Quentin's movie, he would grit his teeth and take that show, it wasn't impossible to endure.

But Jeon Do-yeon's words were too heartbreaking.

He looked back—these years, except for being on set, he was on the road, either filming or promoting, either promoting or preparing, and he only stole a month or two of laziness a while ago. As a result, now there was a pile of plans, and even coming to Korea this time, he was forced to be stuffed with an award.

Is this a life for a human?

Think about DiCaprio, then think about himself, Chen Nuo felt he had really become a beast of burden, being pointed out by Jeon Do-yeon, almost falling into tears.

So, this night he really figured it out:

Not filming anymore.

After filming Quentin's play next year, he must stop for a while.

Not just to rest, to accompany his family and his children, but also to let his face take a break.

Think about it, since "Inception," besides "No Man's Land," he had two movies lined up for release—one commercial film "Twilight," one literary film "Dorp," brushing his face one after another. Weibo actually didn't have anyone giving him the nickname "Model Worker Nuo," he felt strange?

But frequent exposure is really not a good thing. Actors need a gap to settle, to experience life, to feel changes, rather than outputting non-stop like a factory machine.

Similarly, the audience also needs time to miss you, to wait for you, rather than not having walked out of the previous work in the cinema, and seeing your next poster hanging on the wall.

Therefore, in the backstage dressing room of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul, Korea, where the Grand Bell Awards ceremony was held, Chen Nuo first told Rory about this matter.

"... First of all, I'm sorry to tell you this early in the morning, but I've already considered it. Next year, I will only shoot one movie. Sorry, Rory."

"Okay, although it's a pity, but... I respect your decision. I will tell Hastings."

Chen Nuo looked at the beautiful stylist doing his hair one by one in the mirror, talking on the phone with one hand.

He didn't bring Michelle this time, so it was the award ceremony's makeup artist messing with his head, but the overall style was there, so there shouldn't be any big problems.

He asked: "Do you think Reed will continue to invest?"

"Don't know, maybe 50% to 50%. But I will also try my best to fight for it."

"I'm so sorry, Rory."

"It's okay. I said, whatever decision you make, I understand. What's more, your reason is sufficient. You should indeed take a break. Let yourself relax and have a good long vacation."

"OK, thank you. Bye."

"Bye."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Nuo knew Rory Eisner was actually still a bit disappointed. He had to compensate her in other things later. As for "Eagle Catches Chicken," if Netflix didn't invest, even if it was an independent operation, he would have to do it.

Just then, the dressing room door was knocked.

Guli Nazha got up to open the door. She thought it was a staff member at the award ceremony, but when the door was pulled open, it was a group of girls wearing black performance costumes, each with a skirt hem so short it was shocking, and the leg lines were unobstructed.

The leader was a short girl, babbling a bunch of Korean, and Nazha didn't understand a word. Fortunately, the blonde girl behind her added it in English in time, and she understood the intention—

They were here to "greet" Chen Nuo.

"Please wait a moment." Nazha responded politely and closed the door.

The outside of the door was quiet for a moment, and then the girls whispered.

"So beautiful."

"Is this Chen Nuo-xi's assistant."

"Feels like a mixed-race."

"Yes, yes."

"Taeyeon, do you think he will let us in?"

"Don't know. Stay honest, Yuri, don't talk."

"Yoona, what are you laughing at?"

"Nothing."

"Are you laughing at Taeyeon speaking Korean just now?"

"I didn't."

"Wow, Chen Nuo senior really came! If President Lee hadn't told us, we wouldn't have known."

"Yeah, I've never seen a real person... what about you guys?"

"My sister has seen him."

"I know, Jessica, you've said it many times."

"I..."

The door was suddenly pulled open, the original chatter disappeared, and there was a silence.

Guli Nazha stood at the door, smiling and stepping aside: "Please come in."

Chen Nuo had actually heard of this set of "senior" and "junior" etiquette in the Korean entertainment circle long ago, and felt that this etiquette was really a bit silly. But it just so happened that the ones who came today were "Girls' Generation"...

Ho!

I saw a row of girls of different heights filing in, like a flowing black landscape.

Everyone was wearing exquisitely tailored black stage costumes, and under the short skirts were pairs of bare legs, especially when they stood side by side, and the leg lines were neatly arranged, it really had the feeling of the era of big legs.

"3, 2, 1." Leader Kim Taeyeon counted down, and then a row of girls bowed and greeted neatly together, the movements were sharp and unified, as if they had rehearsed many times, and said in unison: "Hani haseyo, we are Girls' Generation."

Afterward, everyone said it one by one.

"Chen Nuo senior, I am leader Taeyeon."

"I am Yuri."

"I am Yoona."

"I am..."

After speaking quickly, the girls bowed again together, "Chen Nuo senior, please take care of us."

Chen Nuo smiled and said: "Hello." And because his mood wasn't very good, he didn't continue.

People performed with great momentum for a long time, he just replied with that one sentence, and afterward, the idol group that was currently popular all over Asia bowed again and left one after another.

Once out the door, the girls started chattering again.

"The real person is more handsome than in the movie."

"Face is so small."

"Yes, yes, yes, I think he is thinner than in the movie."

"Wow, really worthy of being the number one man people most want to date."

"When he looked over, I was so nervous."

"Did you notice, he kept looking at Yuri just now."

"How is that possible, don't talk nonsense."

"Really, I noticed it. He really... Yuri, did you feel it."

"I..."

"Alright!" The agent on the side suddenly interrupted the discussion of several people, "Don't talk anymore."

The girls who didn't believe it at first looked at the agent's suddenly serious expression, and their hearts "thumped," realizing something. The giggling stopped instantly, and their eyes fell on Kwon Yuri in unison.

And Yuri's cheeks flushed rapidly, like a flame spreading from her neck to her earlobes.

Actually, this was a misunderstanding.

As mentioned before, that Korean girlfriend of Chen Nuo in his previous life once went on a road trip with him, crossing the United States together through Highway 1. On the way, not only did they go to Silicon Valley, but they also met Krystal and Jessica recording a program together, and the few of them even ate together.

Why could they eat together?

That was naturally not love at first sight.

It was because that girlfriend of his who graduated from Berkeley was Kwon Yuri's cousin, and later broke up with him and returned to Korea, becoming a quite famous composer.

So, seeing Yuri, he couldn't help but look a few more times.

But that was all. He didn't have any thoughts. Because to be honest, in the era of big legs, there really weren't many he could take a fancy to. Yuri was still a grade lower than her cousin.

In the award ceremony that night, Chen Nuo went on stage for the third to last award and received his International Film Special Contribution Award.

The award presenter was none other than Jeon Do-yeon and Choi Min-sik, who had the best relationship with him.

For this award that he took easily, Chen Nuo didn't have much to say, just expressed some thanks to the organizer and said some words about working hard together.

That night, he refused Lee Soo-man's arrangement and still spent the night with Jeon Do-yeon.

The next day, after attending the premiere of "No Man's Land" held by CJ, he flew from Korea to Japan in the afternoon.

It needs to be explained that the original scheduled release time in Japan was early October, but because "Inception" had an overly enthusiastic response in the Japanese market, Toho urgently decided to adjust the schedule to avoid head-on collision and left-hand-right-hand fighting, postponing the release time of "No Man's Land" to October 20.

Now it seems that although they still couldn't completely avoid the influence period of the two films, at least they staggered some key schedules slightly.

However, this also brought unexpected benefits—his popularity in Japan at this time was indeed quite good. Just one premiere caused quite a bit of publicity effect, making Toho's top management very happy.

After the premiere ended, Toho President Keiyuki Seto invited him to dinner. After the two had a round of toasts, they signed a three-year strategic cooperation agreement the next day.

This was also the fifth distribution agreement in Huanxin Film's "Silk Road Alliance" layout—following Italy's Eagle Pictures, UK's BBC Films, Germany's Constantin Film, and Korea's CJ E&M, it finally filled the most critical link in the East Asian market: Japan.

From this moment on, Huanxin Film's overseas distribution network finally took initial shape. In major international box office markets outside the United States, they basically had their own channels and resources.

What does this mean?

First of all, if he shot another "The Message 2" now, it wouldn't be as pitiful as the original "The Message 1," with the number of opening theaters being a mere 40-something. The "100-theater release" that the Nakamura father and son knelt down and begged for back then was now just a flick of a finger for Toho Pictures, and it was even explicitly written in the agreement: as long as he starred in it himself, the number of opening theater chains could not be less than 300.

Secondly, more importantly, in these countries, Huanxin was no longer just the party selling copyrights, but had the distribution capability of "participating in profit-sharing." In other words, their films no longer needed to be sold off in one go, but could share proportions based on box office with local distributors—this is exactly the global model of Hollywood giants like Disney, Warner, and Sony.

Of course, wanting to expand from five countries to the whole world and truly achieve global simultaneous release wouldn't be so simple; that would be a long, lasting, and huge investment battle.

In the following two days, Chen Nuo also handled matters related to "Legal High" without stopping. In a meeting with Fuji TV's top management, he pointed out the serious lag in project progress without any politeness, especially that even the male lead candidate hadn't been finalized, and he lost his temper on the spot.

At the meeting, he directly made the decision to let Masato Sakai play the lead role of Kensuke Komikado. Although some people from Fuji showed difficulty at first, they finally had to accept reality.

Looking at the appearance of those Japanese dogs... people bowing their heads and admitting mistakes, saying yes one after another, Chen Nuo felt that the efficiency in the future would probably be a bit higher.

After he went to Brazil in South America for a stroll and rushed back to Palm Beach, ending this global trip that lasted more than half a month, it was already October 28, US time.

The plane stopped slowly at Palm Beach International Airport. When Chen Nuo stepped out of the Bombardier cabin door and walked down the passenger stairs, he suddenly saw old Tang standing by the stairs, full of smiles, holding a large bouquet of flowers in his hand.

He was startled, then couldn't help but laugh.

This treatment...

Can it be considered unique in the world?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 436 =====