Chapter 359: Killing Two Birds with One Stone

Yu Feihong never did say whether she would follow Cao Yang to Los Angeles for a while.

However, after Cao Yang finished his call, she put her legs down, sat up, smoothed her hair, and asked softly, "You said just now that the more times you do it, the higher the probability gets?"

Then she reached out, grabbed the handle, and said with a smile, "You've washed up, right?"

Next, the strange sounds in the room started up again, only this time, they began with the sound of eating.

After arriving in Los Angeles, Cao Yang first checked to see if the CG special effects progress for *Pirates of the Caribbean* had stalled or run into any issues during his absence.

Fortunately, the presence of a visual supervisor had prevented these problems to a certain extent; for the big picture, he only needed to communicate with the visual supervisor.

According to the current progress, Cao Yang estimated that all post-production work could be completed in August.

The wish-granting day activity created by *The Fault in Our Stars* was growing in intensity; now, every "Wish Day" event where a wish was fulfilled attracted great attention, with many people waiting every day for the video to go live.

Columbia's executive director and the film's producer, Tang Mu, very happily told Cao Yang that several cable TV stations had already inquired about the rights, as they had also seen this unparalleled level of attention.

In their conversations, some stations wanted to turn it into a reality show, while others said they wanted to make it an unprecedented public welfare variety program.

Public welfare? A variety program?

What is this?

Could it be that the American TV stations were so kind-hearted that they would donate all the proceeds to charity?

Tang Mu smiled and explained, "As long as you set up a charity account and deposit a portion of the proceeds into it, this part can be tax-exempt while also carrying the name of charity."

Fine, whatever it's called or whatever form it takes, the root won't change: everything is profit-first.

Cao Yang didn't care how they handled it; this was America, and he just needed to share the profits generated according to the contract.

Cao Yang calculated that the 100 wishes for seriously ill children and teenagers promised by the Wish Day activity would be completed exactly on August 6th.

That is to say, according to the plan, *The Fault in Our Stars* would be released on August 6th.

August 6th was a Monday, not a traditional release day; Hollywood films usually chose to release on Fridays because their weekend box office rankings were only based on the three days of the weekend.

If it were released on a Monday, it would certainly affect the first week's box office performance and ranking.

Weekend box office rankings were an important reference for many North American viewers when deciding to see a movie.

After the release, the weekend box office ranking could also provide an extremely important promotional effect.

"Tang Mu, August 6th is a Monday. Do you mind releasing it that day?" Cao Yang asked.

Tang Mu was only stunned for a moment before he burst into laughter.

"My dear director, you are still too inflexible. Think about it, we never said we had to fulfill one child's wish every single day."

He looked at Cao Yang with some smugness and continued: "We just need to artificially add some difficulties to these so-called wishes, or have the children say they aren't satisfied. What can we do then?

We would have no choice but to fulfill their wishes again.

In this way, it would even make it look like we are truly passionate about public welfare, unafraid of difficulties and trouble. Isn't this something worth praising?"

Now it was Cao Yang's turn to be silent.

Tang Mu was right; as long as they had a seriously ill child or teenager say to the camera that they were a bit dissatisfied with the wish fulfilled that day, the production team could "magnanimously" fulfill a wish for this "troublesome" child once more.

Viewers who didn't know the truth would certainly be moved by the production team and Columbia.

As for why the final wish would be fulfilled just in time for a Friday release, who would care about that?

"Fine, I have no problem with that."

In the blink of an eye, it was late July.

On July 28th, the Venice Film Festival announced the list of films selected for the main competition section.

When the domestic media saw it, good heavens, they almost instantly went crazy.

This time, it could be considered a "bumper harvest" for Chinese-language films.

Two films from the mainland were selected for the main competition: Tian's *Pieta* and Zhuang Yuxin's *The Teeth of Love*.

One co-production between the mainland and Xiangjiang was selected: Jiang Wen's *The Sun Also Rises*. Because this film had investment from Xiangjiang, it was made as a co-production from the start.

One film from Taiwan was selected: *Help Me Eros*, directed by Li Kangsheng.

There was also one co-production between China and the US: *Lust, Caution*, directed by Li An.

This 64th Venice International Film Festival had a total of 5 films entering the main competition section.

Seeing five Chinese-language films selected, the domestic media's first reaction was surely that Chinese-language cinema was on the rise; well, even if it wasn't a true rise, it was at least developing in a good direction.

This was definitely worth reporting extensively.

They didn't know that Cao Yang had already "plotted" against *Lust, Caution* with Han Zong a year ago; they were unaware of *Lust, Caution*'s appearance.

But Cao Yang was stunned.

He had returned to China a while ago and heard Han Zong say that because the copyright was unclear, *Lust, Caution* had not passed domestic censorship.

For this reason, Li An had pulled quite a few strings and even went to the Film Bureau, but in the end, it seemed they just pushed the responsibility onto each other and dragged the matter out. It looked like there was no end in sight for passing censorship.

Therefore, *Lust, Caution* definitely hadn't passed censorship at this time.

For a film with unclear copyright like this, the Venice Film Festival, as an internationally influential festival, shouldn't have accepted it at all.

Cao Yang originally wanted to call the Venice Film Festival chairman, Ma Keboluo, to ask about it, but after thinking it over, to avoid unnecessary trouble, he decided to call Han Zong first; Han Zong would certainly know about this.

However, before he could call Han Zong, his cell phone rang.

Cao Yang thought it was Han Zong having a meeting of minds with him and calling.

To his surprise, when he looked, it was Old Ma calling.

"Old Ma, I was just about to call you."

Cao Yang answered the phone and said with a smile first.

He didn't need to think to know that Old Ma must have called about *Lust, Caution*. To show that he wasn't being distant or holding any grudges, Cao Yang took the initiative to bring it up.

"Haha, is it because of Li An's *Lust, Caution*?"

Old Ma asked.

He knew about this film of Li An's that had copyright disputes; he had called Cao Yang before the Venice main competition nomination list was announced.

Old Ma was certainly not sensitive to the content of *Lust, Caution* and wouldn't think about the underlying meaning. After all, to an Italian, wasn't it normal for a so-called "traitor" to survive in the end, or for love to be placed above the country?

Italians never felt that surrendering or switching sides was a disgrace; on the contrary, they would take pride in it, feeling that they had made a decision that followed their "ancestors."

Therefore, Old Ma didn't care about the connotations of *Lust, Caution*; he just felt that it was a film co-produced by the internationally famous director Li An and Hollywood, and that was enough.

In fact, at the time, he had specifically called Cao Yang to ask if Cao Yang could step in and resolve the copyright dispute for *Lust, Caution*.

In his mind, weren't these all Chinese-language films?

Cao Yang had explained the connotations of *Lust, Caution* to Old Ma at the time, as well as the fact that the copyright dispute was very difficult to resolve.

Old Ma was a smart man; he didn't understand China's national sentiment, but he respected it.

He could roughly understand what Cao Yang meant. Finally, he smiled and told Cao Yang not to worry.

Is this how you let me not worry?

This was also the reason why Cao Yang didn't think to call Old Ma immediately; he was afraid of having an unpleasant falling out with Old Ma over this matter.

"Haha, Brother Cao, you can't blame me for this; if you want to blame someone, blame yourself."

Old Ma said with a smile.

His words left Cao Yang bewildered. How was it his fault?

Old Ma then continued: "Brother, look, at the beginning of the year, you could go to Berlin to be the jury president, but a while ago, when I asked you to come to Venice, you made all sorts of excuses, saying you were busy...

Haha, I can understand you; I know you have several projects on your hands.

However, you know that the Venice Film Festival is not what it used to be; both its attention and influence are declining. You aren't coming to increase Venice's exposure or bring influence, so I'm anxious too."

Cao Yang remained silent; he could hear Old Ma's dissatisfaction with him not going to the Venice Film Festival to be the jury president.

Old Ma continued: "So, I played a little trick and let *Lust, Caution* enter the main competition section.

Li An has great fame and influence. If a controversy arises, then more people will pay attention, which can be considered bringing some attention to Venice."

Cao Yang understood Old Ma's meaning. He was prepared to let this matter ferment and create controversy, and then he would say that *Lust, Caution* had hidden the copyright dispute, hold a press conference to formally apologize to the audience, and then remove *Lust, Caution*...

This wave of traffic would be secured.

It was just a mix of good and bad, though.

The attention was there, but the negative impact would certainly be significant.

Others would definitely question the authority of the Venice Film Festival—how could they not even discover a film with unclear copyright?

The greater the controversy, the higher the attention.

Old Ma probably didn't care about this bit of negative impact.

You can't think according to normal logic when it comes to the way Italians think.

The Venice Film Festival had done many bizarre things, so it wouldn't care about one more.

"This will damage the credibility of the Venice Film Festival. Aren't you afraid the impact will be irreversible?" Cao Yang still reminded Old Ma.

Old Ma just laughed out loud, laughing for a long time.

Cao Yang even thought something was wrong with Old Ma before he finally stopped.

"Brother, do you know that people inside Venice have always had opinions about me holding both the positions of film festival chairman and artistic director? Some people want me to resign from the position of artistic director under the guise of me paying too much attention to Chinese-language films.

Do you know, brother, they secretly finalized the candidates behind my back? This is absolutely unforgivable!"

Old Ma's tone was somewhat agitated.

Perhaps realizing he had lost his composure, Old Ma took a deep breath and said softly with a smile: "Li An and Hollywood's Focus Features thought I didn't know about the copyright issue, so they came directly to me.

But you had already told me about the copyright dispute, so I pretended not to know about it and hinted to them that I was about to be sidelined and wouldn't be able to keep the position of artistic director after the film festival.

I told them to go find a new artistic director..."

This time, Cao Yang could clearly hear again that Old Ma was somewhat smug about how he handled this matter.

The matter was already very clear: as long as the copyright dispute of *Lust, Caution* was exposed and the prestige of the Venice Film Festival was affected, then someone would have to take responsibility, right?

Who would bear the main responsibility?

It must be that candidate for artistic director who pushed for *Lust, Caution*.

Damn, I didn't expect Ma to be such a sly old fox.

Cao Yang had just thought that for the sake of attention, Ma didn't care much about the prestige of the Venice Film Festival being affected.

So that’s what he was waiting for here.

In this way, he can both increase attention due to the controversy surrounding a famous director and eliminate his own potential rival.

Generally, those who can climb to high positions and stand firm, whether at home or abroad, are none of them simple.

"How do you want me to cooperate?"

Cao Yang asked.

Ma laughed heartily once again and said, "Li An is a Chinese person after all; it wouldn't look good if you were the one to come forward. You don't need to worry about this matter; I will handle it properly before the film festival opens."

Cao Yang also felt Ma's personality "charm" once again.

First, he complains to make you feel guilty.

Then, he gives you an unreserved explanation to make you feel that you are still the closest of insiders.

Finally, he "thoughtfully" tells you that you don't need to intervene, entirely for your own sake.

After a combination of these moves, an average young person surely wouldn't be able to handle it, right?

Cao Yang shook his head; he and Ma were like two parallel lines that basically wouldn't have any conflicts of interest, so he just needed to keep his guard up and didn't need to deliberately defend against this old guy.

Domestic media could actually find out that *Lust, Caution* hadn't passed censorship.

However, because *Lust, Caution* was jointly invested in by Xiangjiang Yindu and Hollywood's Focus Features, and seemed to have several hidden investors, as long as such a film didn't want to be released domestically, the country certainly wouldn't care about media reports.

Therefore, domestic media had been reporting extensively over the past few days.

Many of the headlines were also quite sensational.

"Chinese-language films take over Venice; this is a grand festival for Chinese-language filmmakers."

"Who will the Golden Lion fall to? It is highly probable that a Chinese-language film will take the prize."

"Li An, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Jiang Wen, who will have the last laugh?"

Li An hung up the phone and sighed; the other party hadn't been fooling him, telling him directly that as long as he could resolve the copyright issue, a mainland release would certainly be no problem.

This was exactly what gave Li An a headache.

The copyrights for *Lust, Caution* were too scattered; the copyrights in Taiwan were actually easy to deal with, as he had someone spend a large sum of money to buy them, but who knew that a portion of the rights had already been traded away before that.

This was the most headache-inducing part.

It was precisely the company that had bought a portion of the rights that was preparing to sue him for infringement all over the world.

(End of chapter)