Chapter 225: Inception

Oscar night, sleepless night.

After participating in the Oscar banquet and accepting some interviews, it was already past one o'clock in the morning when they returned to the villa provided by Columbia.

Cao Yang thought Dong Xuan would be very tired, but he didn't know that Dong Xuan was obviously more excited than him, probably because it was her first time participating in the Oscars.

Helping Dong Xuan take off her evening dress with great effort, Cao Yang hadn't said anything yet, when he was pulled into the independent and spacious bathroom by Dong Xuan for pre-match warm-up.

Fish catch peach waves and swim in spring water, breaking through the pine forest with a piece of smoke.

After a song of war was sung, the two of them were still in the bathroom, just in time to wash up and head to the next battlefield.

It was said to be pre-match warm-up; the main match hadn't started yet.

During the halftime break, which was also the skill cooldown time, Dong Xuan told Cao Yang about today's events, especially Li Zi's relief.

People originally came for Cao Yang's face; if it weren't for knowing that Dong Xuan was Cao Yang's female companion, would they be full and have nothing to do to relieve a Chinese actor with no fame?

Dong Xuan wouldn't be self-indulgent enough to think that Li Zi had an interest in her and relieved her.

As everyone knows, Li Zi only likes young supermodels; his current girlfriend is Gisele Bündchen, the most famous supermodel in the world.

For this Oscar ceremony, Li Zi also brought her to walk the red carpet.

"Li Zi relieved you, not hesitating to offend International Chapter... You say, did Li Zi take a fancy to you?"

Cao Yang smiled and joked.

Well, although International Chapter still has some popularity, Li Zi doesn't necessarily know her, and even if he has heard of her, he won't care.

Li Zi also has a heart.

"Go to yours; who in Hollywood doesn't know that he only likes supermodels? With a girlfriend as beautiful as Gisele Bündchen, he still constantly has scandals with other supermodels; I heard the news of him constantly meeting secretly with different supermodels in the country."

Dong Xuan lightly hammered Cao Yang and said with a smile:

"Besides, I have you enough; I don't like foreigners at all; those foreigners mostly have body odor, and the body odor is still very big; I don't understand how those who find foreigners endure these."

Cao Yang thought for a moment, and didn't understand this problem; probably those people just like men with body odor?

Haha, he could naturally understand that for those people, in the case of having a purpose, what is a little body odor?

"Ask you a question, see if you can answer it."

Cao Yang said while picking flowers and weeds: "What thing is that the people above are excited, and the people below are excited?"

Dong Xuan was stunned for a moment, then laughed and asked coquettishly: "Do you want to be excited or excited?"

Cao Yang knocked on Dong Xuan's head and said seriously: "What are you thinking? Thinking about these messy things all day; I am talking about concerts."

"Concert?"

Dong Xuan was stunned for a moment, then leaned close to Cao Yang's ear and asked softly: "Does the concert have to be sung with the mouth? I also want to hold the microphone and sing a song..."

Since you want to hold the microphone and sing, then come on; it's not like there is no microphone.

Thus, the second half started.

Cao Yang clearly felt that Dong Xuan "knew" a lot tonight, even if every movement was not standard and very green.

Dong Xuan in the past either tied up two ponytails, or put on the costume of the Goddess Dragon and bit her hair, or played a female knight, and others were also completed passively.

Tonight is different.

But precisely because of the greenness, it can better arouse the man's "wildness" and sense of achievement.

Dong Xuan originally thought that by watching some "teaching materials" of the little days, she could make Cao Yang walk while holding the wall tomorrow.

Implementation and actual combat are two different things.

Just like the "thug excited fist," it will only arouse the man's fighting power.

After two rounds, Dong Xuan could only surrender and say weakly: "Brother, let's stop here tonight."

Stop here?

This is just where!

To tell the truth, for being able to win the Oscar for Best Director, Cao Yang was still a bit excited.

He told himself again and again that this was just an award for Hollywood to entertain itself, and it was not worth making a fuss about.

However, this is the Oscars after all, the award with the most global influence in this era.

It's impossible not to be excited.

This excited mood, not being aroused is fine, once aroused, it is easiest to transform into fighting power.

Two bodies of fragrant sweat are secretly wet, and bursts of spring breeze penetrate the jade pot. The joy of dredging the sword, the pleasure of flowing and walking the plate beads.

The next day, Dong Xuan was full of energy, and her face was rosy.

Cao Yang was a bit listless; he originally planned to go to Fox Searchlight to see the post-production of *Juno* today.

But before he set off, Columbia's Executive Director Tang Mu Luo Binsi came. This is really impatient; afraid of long nights and dreams, Cao Yang will be "seduced" away by other big film studios in Hollywood.

"My dear Director, congratulations on winning the Best Director that countless directors dream of; this is Columbia's sincerity, are you satisfied?"

To say that foreigners sometimes really don't know how to be humble, and their speech is direct enough; as soon as he saw Cao Yang, Tang Mu Luo Binsi hugged him exaggeratedly and said with a smile.

Pointing out Columbia's payment, Tang Mu Luo Binsi was afraid that mentioning this alone would cause Cao Yang

"Of course, it's still your directing foundation that is good; 'District 9' was filmed brilliantly. Otherwise, even if Columbia worked hard to operate it, it wouldn't have been successful. The foundation of success is built on the quality of the film."

Cao Yang knew Columbia's goal; in order to win him over, the other party hadn't discussed any conditions beforehand, directly showing sincerity before coming to talk business.

For foreigners, this was indeed a very sincere display.

"Tang Mu, I have also been considering this matter during this time. It's not that I don't want to cooperate with Columbia, but I feel that the timing for filming '2012' is not right now. The closer this film is to its 2012 release, the better the effect will be."

Cao Yang had indeed considered this; if he filmed this movie in 2010 and released it in 2011, wouldn't it have more of a gimmick?

Of course, this was only one of the reasons.

!

The main thing was that Cao Yang didn't really want to film this movie; for him, even if the box office was good, such a disaster film wouldn't add much to him personally.

To put it bluntly, this film didn't have much artistic substance; if he filmed it, he would definitely be criticized.

Cao Yang could be certain that he would definitely be blasted at that time; he could imagine how those people would talk.

"Since it's the end of the world, why did you, a world-renowned art-house director, only scratch the surface instead of digging deep into human nature? Isn't this subject matter just right for exploring human nature in depth..."

If he really described human nature even slightly in depth, the film would become boring, which would definitely affect the box office, and it could really become his "Waterloo."

With an investment of over 100 million dollars, if it didn't sell 400 or 500 million dollars at the global box office, it would definitely be considered a failed work given Cao Yang's current influence and reputation.

Columbia wouldn't consider so much; they wouldn't care about art or not; what they wanted was box office and a big hit.

Last year, "The Day After Tomorrow" was released and became a big hit; disaster films seemed to have potential, and the possibility of success was greater, which was why Columbia chose "2012."

Still the same saying: for high-investment films, one must seek stability.

If he really explored human nature in the film, Cao Yang could be certain that even if it were agreed beforehand that he had full autonomy, Columbia would turn against him at that time, even at the risk of completely offending Cao Yang, and would edit their own version of "2012."

An investment of over 100 million dollars is not just talk; if a film with such an investment flops, the blow to the film company is very large.

It could even trigger a chain reaction, eventually leading to the company's bankruptcy and liquidation.

The failure of "Windtalkers" led to a chain reaction for MGM, becoming the fuse for MGM's bankruptcy.

Initially, "Titanic" had an investment of 100 million dollars, but due to Cameron being too "dilatory" and a series of disturbances, Twentieth Century Fox had to bite the bullet and add investment.

If Paramount hadn't stepped in to help with over 60 million in aid, Twentieth Century Fox would have gone bankrupt at the time.

Tang Mu Rothman began to think.

He admitted that what Cao Yang said made sense; the closer it was to a 2012 release, the more of a gimmick it would definitely have.

However, film is a thing with great uncertainty.

What he and Columbia's executives could be certain of was that the big hit of "The Day After Tomorrow" last year would make "apocalyptic" disaster films easier for audiences to accept and easier to succeed again.

As for what would happen in a few years, who knew; the uncertainty was too great.

"Director, what you said makes a lot of sense; this film indeed has more of a gimmick the later it is released. However, you must know that the success of a film doesn't just rely on gimmicks; one must also consider many other factors."

Tang Mu Rothman said very seriously, trying to persuade Cao Yang.

"You have now won the Oscar for Best Director and are at a time of great attention. As long as you announce that you are going to film '2012,' I dare say that tomorrow the whole world will be talking about this news.

Plus, the subject matter is a disaster film, so everyone will be even more curious; that's two-thirds of the success right there..."

"Tang Mu, let me be blunt: I have a Chinese art-house film to shoot in my hands right now, and I don't have much interest in '2012' for the time being."

Cao Yang looked at Tang Mu Rothman's changed complexion and knew that this old guy had misunderstood, thinking he was playing him and Columbia.

So he continued:

"I am actually interested in adapting another one of my short stories. Depp was interested in this novel long before filming 'District 9.' I think as long as we film this movie, Depp will join even if he takes a pay cut."

Tang Mu Rothman's expression stirred; would Depp, who had firmly entered the "20 Million Club," take a pay cut to join?

He was tempted.

Depp's influence was at its peak right now; if news spread that he was collaborating with Cao Yang again, what a huge gimmick that would be; it would definitely come with its own heat and discussion.

"Which one is it?"

Tang Mu Rothman couldn't help but ask.

"'Inception,' I want to film 'Inception.'"

(End of chapter)