Chapter 284

Wu Yuchen stared at Luo Bote Iger for a few seconds, then revealed a smile and asked: "Do you want to make friends with me as Luo Bote, or as Disney CEO, Mr. Iger?"

The latter smiled and said: "Luo Bote Iger."

The meaning of this answer is that no matter if it is him personally or as Disney CEO, he, Luo Bote Iger, wants to become friends with Wu Yuchen.

Wu Yuchen naturally understood the meaning in his words and shook his head with a chuckle:

"Luo Bote, if you are here as an individual, I have to admit that you are a very charming person, making everyone want to become friends with you. But if you are here as Disney CEO, forgive me for being blunt, this is unlikely."

Luo Bote Iger didn't have any disappointed expression, but put on a sincere face and said:

"Wu, I know that because of some mistakes Disney made before, there is a gap between you and Disney. And I came here today in the hope of filling this gap, letting us return to the past. Our cooperation on 'The Sixth Sense' was a very pleasant experience, wasn't it?"

Wu Yuchen smiled directly with a hint of sarcasm: "Luo Bote, you should know everything that happened between me and Disney. I don't want to be stabbed in the back again!"

"Wu, this matter is indeed Disney's fault. We violated the spirit of the contract and caused you great harm. For this, I am very sorry! I just hope you can give me and Disney another chance. Similar things will absolutely not happen again!"

Wu Yuchen waved his hand directly and said: "Hehe. Disney owes me an Oscar for Best Director. Give it back to me first before talking about anything else!"

To be honest, Wu Yuchen's words were not very polite. If it were the presidents of other major studios, they would have been angered by Wu Yuchen's disrespectful posture. After all, they sit in this position, hold great power, and are themselves the most powerful batch of people in Hollywood.

Wu Yuchen really revealed a look of surprise this time. Disney helping him with public relations for Best Director? He hadn't even considered such a magical thing before. This Luo Bote Iger... what does he want to do?

Disney's core business is their animation. If Disney animation falls, then the entire Disney is gone. But in the short term, Disney's own animation department is no longer enough to support Disney animation, so Luo Bote set his target on Pixar. Pixar cannot be allowed to leave Disney; Pixar must be kept or even acquired!

Luo Bote gave Jobs enough face. Even the short-tempered Jobs couldn't pick out any faults with him, and he made many promises to Jobs, allowing both sides to sit back at the negotiating table to discuss the renewal of Disney and Pixar.

However, such help delivered to the door should not be wasted. Wu Yuchen naturally accepted it directly. And this time, with a lesson learned, he would keep a close eye on it, and it was impossible for backstabbing to happen again. In this way, his grasp of this year's Oscar for Best Director increased by a few points.

But to be honest, even after doing so much, he didn't dare to say how much certainty he had to win Best Director. He didn't know how many Jews Spielberg could convince, and there was also old Martin's "Gangs of New York" eyeing him covetously, whose competitiveness was not inferior to his at all...

If Jobs represents animation, then Wu Yuchen represents live-action films. Disney really has no results to show in live-action films in recent years. Miramax, owned by the Weinstein brothers, is also currently cutting ties with Disney following Eisner's downfall.

Luo Bote Iger didn't come here to backstab Wu Yuchen again this time. As he said, he came to make friends with Wu Yuchen. In fact, before Wu Yuchen, he had already gone to make friends twice.

Miracle Pictures goes without saying. With Wu Yuchen there, miracles have been created one after another. In the situation where Miramax and Disney have fallen out, if Miracle Pictures can join Disney, it can completely support Disney's live-action film sector.

Immediately after, Luo Bote hurried to visit Wu Yuchen.

But Luo Bote Iger is worthy of being "Smiling Mickey Mouse." He didn't show any anger at all, but revealed a look of thought, and then said directly:

"Wu, if this can make up for the relationship between us, then this year we at Disney will try our best to help you win this Oscar for Best Director!"

Luo Bote Iger shook his head: "This is the sincerity I show you! I said, I came here today because I want to make friends with you!"

Therefore, Disney must have live-action film business that can be shown. Luo Bote values not only Wu Yuchen as a person, but also Miracle Pictures and Marvel in his hands.

Wu Yuchen couldn't help but narrow his eyes and look at the smiling Luo Bote Iger: "I won't pay any public relations fees."

After Wu Yuchen sent Luo Bote Iger away, he couldn't help but fall into thought. He absolutely didn't believe that a Disney CEO was simple enough to help him with public relations just to make friends with him. Although Wu Yuchen said that Disney owed him an Oscar, he wouldn't be as naive as a child to think that the other party would pay him back.

This time, in order to impact the Oscar for Best Director, Wu Yuchen actually made a lot of preparations, such as specifically filming an anti-war film that conforms to the trend, and such as letting Spielberg coordinate the relationship with "The Pianist."

But now, Luo Bote Iger actually acted like a good old man, saying that he owed him an Oscar, and he really wanted to help him win one. The key is that he didn't make any requests at all. So this made Wu Yuchen a bit suspicious, repeatedly thinking about what medicine the other party was selling in the gourd.

And now, Disney's new CEO suddenly popped up and actually told him he wanted to help him win this year's Oscar. If Disney's power were really added, then his chances of winning this year would be much higher!

And after completing the initial internal reorganization, the second friend Luo Bote went to make was Pixar's boss, Jobs.

With the explosion of "Spider-Man," Marvel's various live-action films made Luo Bote see some possibilities for the future. Marvel doesn't just have one "Spider-Man." As long as they film well, they can continuously create IPs, and these can be well combined with Disney and Disney parks!

After Luo Bote Iger took office, the first thing he did was to visit Roy Disney, not only inviting him back into the board of directors as an honorary director but also hiring him as a consultant, giving enough face to this spiritual pillar of Disney, thus calming down Disney's employees and old ministers, gaining support, and allowing him to smoothly carry out internal reforms with great vigor.

And the core figure of all this is Wu Yuchen!

Therefore, everything he does now is to repair the relationship with Wu Yuchen and establish a friendly relationship. No matter what plan he has, it must be based on having a good relationship with Wu Yuchen. Compared to his goal, what is it for Disney to pay some help to Wu Yuchen to win an Oscar?

If possible, Luo Bote hopes that Disney's animation department will have Pixar in the future, and the live-action film department will have Miracle Pictures and Marvel. When that day comes, he believes he can definitely lead Disney to the peak of Hollywood!

Luo Bote Iger is not in a hurry; he is very patient. For this day, he can lead Disney to pay for 5 or even 10 years!

On February 5, 2003, then-US Secretary of State Powell took out a tube of white powder at a UN meeting, claiming it was evidence of Iraq developing "weapons of mass destruction." But he was unwilling to take this bag of white powder for testing...

Seeing this scene on the TV screen, Wu Yuchen smiled. Others don't know what this is, but doesn't he? It's just a bag of laundry detergent!

10 years later, the US side has already publicly admitted that this so-called "weapon of mass destruction" was a lie.

But now, as the fourth-ranked person in the US political sequence threw out such an excuse at the UN, it naturally allowed Bush to make trouble, once again delivering a speech emphasizing Iraq's threat to world security and peace, and at the same time proposing three goals: demanding the disarmament of Iraq, restoring freedom to the Iraqi people, and protecting the world and defending against severe dangers.

In the language familiar to people today, it is "demilitarization," "democratization," and "protecting peace."

This statement caused the entire situation to escalate again. This is clearly a declaration of war!

Everyone is not a fool, and they all felt the atmosphere of a storm coming. Anti-war protests immediately broke out in many places in America, and thousands of anti-war protesters called for peace in New York, saying no to war.

One slogan was particularly eye-catching: "A village in Texas (Bush's birthplace) is missing its idiot." This sentence, which has been used to tease him since Bush ran for president, was also widely cited by protesters to mock him when the Iraq War broke out.

In short, the entire American society, and even the whole world, became tense. Anti-war movements broke out everywhere. And it was in this atmosphere that on February 11, the nomination list for the 75th Academy Awards was announced.

"The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas": Best Picture, Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score.

"The Hours": Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score.

This time "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" received 7 nominations, while "The Hours" had as many as 9.

At the same time, Wu Yuchen achieved another achievement for the second time, which is the Oscar double-nominated director. He also became the person with the highest voice to win Best Director this time!

"Thank you, but it's too early to congratulate me now. I hope you can save your congratulations for the night of the Oscar awards ceremony~"

Wu Yuchen smiled and hung up another phone call. Since the nomination list was announced, people kept calling to congratulate him. Although Wu Yuchen himself was also very happy, the more it reached this time, the more humble and cautious he appeared. He remembered clearly the last time the double director nomination ended in failure.

Wu Yuchen was happy, but some people were furious.

"Baka!"

Japan, a man angrily smashed a teacup.

"Miyamoto-kun, didn't you say before that you wouldn't let this film appear at the Oscars? Didn't you say you would hand it over to your Sony?"

A middle-aged man bowed and apologized: "Sumimasen! I did try, but the person in charge of Sony North America rejected my request!"

The man snorted coldly. As a right-wing force in Japan, he was extremely disgusted with Wu Yuchen's "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas." They had been continuously denying the crimes during World War II and even whitewashing the evil deeds of their predecessors, achieving quite a few results over the decades.

But now, Wu Yuchen's "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" was exposing their crimes in Hollywood, which has the most exposure in the world, and at the Oscars. How could they not be angry?

"Matsuda-kun, have you contacted the Japanese-American groups in America?"

"Already contacted. They have also mobilized some of their power to protest and even report it. But because Wu's filming technique is extremely cunning, this film has no bloody scenes at all and will not be reviewed for a higher rating..."

"What about the media? Let some pro-Japanese North American media smear it!"

"Yes, we are already doing so."

"Must do our best to stop it, and don't let this film achieve good results at the Oscars!"

After saying this, he glared fiercely at the Sony director again. At such a critical moment, he couldn't even control his own company. He is really a waste!

"Also, let diplomats protest to the Chinese side again, protesting against smearing our Japanese image through the film! Mobilize all our capital power, especially those that have cooperation with China, to exert pressure!"

He knew that China is currently valuing the economy and values foreign investment very much. They, Japan, are also an important force investing in China. Many Chinese people can give up many principles for the sake of economy and money. By exerting pressure on certain departments and regions in China and threatening to withdraw capital, letting them target Wu Yuchen internally, maybe they can achieve miraculous results.

"Send someone to contact Wu Yuchen himself, test his attitude, polite first and then force, threaten and lure!"

Although they might not be able to do anything to Wu Yuchen, maybe it would work?

"Hai!"

And everything done here is to snipe "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas."

Previously, "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" was only a preview screening, and the spread range wasn't large. But with the announcement of the Oscar nomination list, the theater chains directly increased to 500, which is already a significant number.

If this film continues to achieve better results at the Oscars, it will definitely spread to the whole world on a large scale. This is the situation that the Japanese right-wing least wants to see!