Chapter 255

On the Oscar podium, Wu Yuchen held the Best Picture statuette, then walked to the microphone and looked at the people below:

"Before the awards, I told Grazer that I didn't want to sit below and be pitied by everyone, and he said no."

Speaking of this, Wu Yuchen didn't speak, but raised the statuette in his hand. Grazer beside him leaned over and also held the statuette in his hand high, shouting into the microphone:

"Buddy, we did it; we are the big winners tonight!"

The two of them singing in harmony with such passion stirred up the emotions below again, and a round of applause and cheers erupted once more.

Of course, these words directly poked at Harvey, making him grit his teeth. He and "Chicago" didn't win a single award out of 13 nominations, which was even more miserable than "The Shawshank Redemption" back then, so it would naturally evoke sympathy. But only losers would sit below and be pitied; who the hell wants to be a loser!

However, Wu Yuchen didn't care about him. Anyway, they had already clashed; so what if he mocked him to his face?

Wu Yuchen hugged Grazer gently: "Thanks to Grazer; he is truly the best partner, having paid a lot for 'A Beautiful Mind' from beginning to end!"

Subsequently, Wu Yuchen continued to say with a smile:

"Thanks again to Mr. John Nash and Ms. Alicia; it is your legendary achievement that made 'A Beautiful Mind'!"

He extended his right hand again, pointing far toward the direction of the crew:

"I must thank the actors of the crew: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Ed Harris... This is not just talk; their brilliant performance is the reason I can stand here!"

These actors in the crew had all stood up, each with a face full of smiles, watching Wu Yuchen's speech.

"Thanks to all the workers of the crew; it is the contribution of each of you that shaped this 'A Beautiful Mind' that will go down in film history!"

It was just noon in China at this time, and many people were guarding their computers, waiting for the latest news from the Oscars. This year's Oscars had Wu Yuchen's participation, which naturally attracted the attention of many countrymen.

"Fuck! Best Picture!"

"As expected of Wu Dao, he hits the mark as soon as he makes a move!"

"He really won it?!"

"Congratulations to Wu Yuchen! The first Chinese to win an Oscar for Best Picture!"

In a dormitory, several people were guarding a computer screen, chatting while refreshing the webpage:

"How many awards does 'A Beautiful Mind' have now?"

"It's good enough that he can win; you have so many demands! Anyway, Wu Yuchen is our Chinese!"

"Awesome! Wu Dao is awesome!"

"That's hard to say; I saw in the newspaper that the competition is quite fierce, and 'A Beautiful Mind' doesn't have much of an advantage."

"Best Picture! The biggest award! It would be great if this film were a Chinese-language film!"

"Sigh, just consider it building up credentials. After all, Ridley Scott also has old credentials, and he has been nominated many times; it wouldn't be a surprise if he won."

"3 already: Best Supporting Actress, Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay."

Just as they were talking, several people suddenly saw a line of the latest bright red big characters refreshed on the webpage: "Oscar Best Picture: 'A Beautiful Mind'!"

At the same time, the noon news on TV also began to insert reports:

"Congratulations to our country's famous director Wu Yuchen for winning Best Picture at the 74th Academy Awards with 'A Beautiful Mind'! It is reported that this is also the first time a Chinese person has won this award!"

Although "A Beautiful Mind" wasn't a Chinese-language film, Wu Yuchen was Chinese. In this day and age, China was just moving toward the international stage, and from top to bottom, everyone was eager to get international recognition, so Wu Yuchen, who had won the final big Oscar award, naturally had to be brought out for publicity again.

"Maybe..."

"Hey, do you think there's any hope for Best Picture?"

At the same time, with the live broadcast on TV, with the transmission of radio, and with the internet crossing the ocean, the news of Wu Yuchen winning the Oscar for Best Picture also spread to every corner of the world.

"It's a pity about the Best Director just now; I originally thought Wu Yuchen had hope."

Similarly, the internet was already in an uproar at this time.

And in Los Angeles, Wu Yuchen was attending the Vanity Fair party after the awards ceremony, accepting congratulations from all sides.

"Congratulations, Wu!"

"Thank you! Congratulations to you too, Ridley, for getting what you wished for!"

Wu Yuchen and Ridley Scott clinked their glasses together and congratulated each other. Wu Yuchen looked at him and thought to himself that he had done quite a bit of targeting against Harvey before this, but he hadn't gone to mess with this old senior.

However, he reckoned that Ridley Scott wouldn't have contributed less than him in messing with Harvey and "Chicago," otherwise, relying solely on his own strength, he wouldn't have been able to make Harvey suffer so much this time. He and Ridley could be considered to have joined forces and fulfilled each other in this year's Oscars.

Ridley Scott smiled kindly and said: "Wu, the future belongs to you!"

Wu Yuchen wanted to roll his eyes upon hearing this. He didn't want to wait for the future; if he really had to struggle for decades like Ridley to win Best Director, that would be truly miserable.

He still had a plan for the future. It would be best if he could win the awards he could get abroad before the Chinese-language film market rose, and after that, his main energy would be to return to the Chinese-language film industry for development.

This thing called the Oscars, the further you go, the lower its gold content. If the response caused by winning an Oscar now in the country was 100, then with the development of China's national strength and the improvement of national self-confidence, the response caused by winning the same award more than a decade later would be at most 50.

In fact, it was the same all over the world. With development, everyone's aesthetics were becoming more and more diversified. In these few years before the internet was fully developed, it was the time when the Oscars had the greatest influence and were at their peak.

Wu Yuchen counted in his heart: he had won all the Oscar screenplay awards, and Best Picture was in his hands this time; only Best Director remained. He should put in some effort in these few years; it would be best to win it as soon as possible!

Wu Yuchen also noticed that it seemed the "Chicago" crew didn't come to the party tonight, so he asked casually: "Ridley, didn't Harvey come?"

Ridley Scott smiled and teased: "I don't think he wants to come here to accept everyone's sympathy; after all, he is the 'King of the Oscars'!"

Wu Yuchen immediately agreed with a smile: "Hahaha! That's right, our King of the Oscars won't come to congratulate us!"

The "Chicago" crew broke up unhappily after the awards ceremony ended. The male and female leads both left directly. Although they didn't dare to lose their temper at Harvey, one could imagine their dissatisfaction. However, they didn't dare to say anything to Harvey, but someone dared.

"Harvey, is this the result you handed me? I gave you the entire Disney PR team, and as a result, you didn't win a single award?!"

Eisner was also very angry at this time, constantly questioning Harvey. He had been expecting Harvey to bring him a big award from this Oscar, but he didn't expect it to be 13 goose eggs.

Harvey was also burning with anger at this time, and was ignited by Eisner at once, not caring whether he was the president or not: "Shut up, Eisner! Can't you see? I was targeted this time!"

Harvey understood very well that it was because of the previous so-called "King of the Oscars" incident that he was targeted by the Academy. Although the Academy allowed PR, it didn't want the Oscars to be completely labeled as being able to be swayed by PR, as this would call into question the gold content and fairness of the Oscars, so they simply taught Harvey a lesson this time.

And it also made Harvey have bitter words he couldn't speak, because out of the 13 nominations for "Chicago," the winners of each award were not weaklings, and "Chicago" couldn't even say it was absolutely better than the other party.

"Aha? Are you trying to use this reason to fob me off? If you weren't so arrogant usually, even if you were targeted this time, it wouldn't be this result!"

Eisner's sarcasm also annoyed Harvey: "Shit, go to hell!"

After cursing, he hung up the phone directly. He wouldn't easily admit defeat; the Academy's targeting of him would be at most this one time. He didn't believe they could do it to him again next time! He was going to build another Oscar-contending film and personally take back the glory that belonged to him!

Although it was impossible for Harvey to congratulate Wu Yuchen, there were plenty of people who wanted to build a relationship with him now, such as Nicole Kidman, who was currently wearing a sweet smile and an elegant posture:

"Wu Dao, congratulations! 'A Beautiful Mind' is a great film; Best Picture is well-deserved~"

Wu Yuchen looked at Nicole Kidman in front of him. Although she was over 30, she was well-maintained, and the beautiful woman's style remained. No wonder she could make the public idol Tom Cruise so obsessed.

Wu Yuchen revealed a polite smile at her: "Thank you! Nicole, your performance in 'Moulin Rouge' was also great; it deserved a Best Actress award. It's really a pity today!"

Nicole Kidman revealed a flattered expression, then asked with a look of joy: "Wu Dao, do you really think so?"

"Of course, if it weren't this year, your chances would be very high."

"Thank you, Wu Dao, for your recognition of me; this really made me feel much better."

Nicole Kidman stroked her chest, then changed the subject and asked: "Wu Dao, I really hope to cooperate with you; I wonder if I have this honor?"

Nicole Kidman was also releasing her charm at this time. After losing the Best Actress award tonight, she had already made a decision: she must find a man with enough ability to help her, otherwise, it would be really difficult to win an Oscar for Best Actress.

When she married Tom Cruise, although there was the reason that Tom Cruise was handsome, her main purpose was of course the big star halo of Tom Cruise. Although she had divorced Tom Cruise last year, she had also used Tom Cruise to become a world-famous female star from a small Australian star.

And now, divorced, she was being talked down by many media and public opinions, all saying that she would fall rapidly after leaving Tom Cruise. She must take out results in these two years to crush those remarks and become a benchmark for independent women!

At the previous awards ceremony, the first person who popped into her mind was Harvey Weinstein; after all, that fat guy's past Oscar results were truly strong. But after seeing "Chicago" lose to "A Beautiful Mind," watching Wu Yuchen accepting the cheers of thousands on stage, and thinking of him personally lifting Jennifer Connelly, who hadn't been doing well before, to the Oscars, she immediately changed her target.

Harvey's momentum looked like it wasn't as good as before, but Wu Yuchen was in a state of constant upward movement. And looking at Wu Yuchen's young and strong body in front of her, as well as his handsome and tough face, with him in front of her, who would choose that fat pig Harvey!

Nicole Kidman had sufficient confidence in herself and didn't think she would be any worse than Jennifer Connelly.

Wu Yuchen smiled and sized up the beautiful woman in front of him. Her features were much better looking than a Barbie doll; she could truly be called skin like ice and bones like snow, white and glowing, but her skin didn't have the small freckles that white people usually had. Standing 180cm tall, she had a slender figure, and a gray strapless lace gauze dress looked just right on her, showing off her beautiful shoulder and neck lines and exquisite collarbones. Just standing there, she was constantly radiating light; she was worthy of being crowned "the most beautiful woman in the world" by the media many times!

However, he didn't agree directly. Wu Yuchen was now reaping both commercial and award success; no actress in Hollywood could refuse his invitation. Whoever he wanted to invite to play the female lead, it was almost a sure thing.

He wasn't someone who could be flirted with just by these few words now; even if it was Nicole Kidman, so what? If she didn't give him something practical, don't even think about getting any promises from him.

Wu Yuchen maintained his smile: "Nicole, I plan to prepare a Chinese-language film next. I'm still hesitating about whether to start another film in Hollywood this year, and I don't have a clear goal."

Nicole Kidman followed his words and asked: "Wu Dao, are you going to challenge for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film again?"

Wu Yuchen said vaguely: "You could say that."

But Nicole Kidman wouldn't give up so easily. She didn't want to wait another year; she wasn't a 20-something girl anymore and didn't have that many good years to wait.

She thought for a moment and asked: "Wu Dao, I heard you have prepared many scripts. May I ask if there is one suitable for me?"

Hearing her question, Wu Yuchen thought about it in his mind, and there really was one. Two years ago, he had copied many scripts under Disney, including Miramax's, otherwise Harvey wouldn't have come to him to buy scripts. And among them was "The Hours," which helped Nicole Kidman win the Oscar for Best Actress in his past life next year.

This film wasn't difficult to shoot; there were no big scenes, just a 25 million dollar art film. It mainly depended on the performance of the actors. If it went smoothly, it was estimated that it could be finished in a month.

Nicole Kidman looked at Wu Yuchen's thoughtful appearance, looking at him with hope.