Chapter 364: Returning to Venice

The 64th Venice International Film Festival opens on August 29th. One week before the opening, a piece of news from Cannes, France, instantly sparked widespread discussion and attention.

A local media outlet in Cannes reported that there is a Chinese-language film that was filmed without obtaining full copyright, and absurdly, it was even shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Venice Film Festival...

They also revealed that this film involves a Chinese director with great international fame, who also has high influence in Hollywood.

The media outlet finally said, as a film festival with a long history and huge international influence, how could they do such an amateur thing?

It seems the decline of some film festivals is perhaps inevitable.

Finally, the tone shifted, and they used the Cannes Film Festival as an example, saying that in the 60-year history of the Cannes Film Festival, the selection of films has always been cautious, serious, and earnest, and such amateur operations have never appeared.

Although this Cannes media outlet didn't expose the name of the film, such things are certainly easy to check.

There are only five Chinese-language films shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Venice Film Festival, and the only ones with international fame are Old Tian, Jiang Wen, and Li An.

While possessing international fame and also having high influence in Hollywood, Old Tian is excluded first; Jiang Wen only has a bigger name in Cannes and domestically, and his influence in Hollywood is truly very limited.

Consequently, only Li An remained on the list.

Just as the media was preparing to investigate and follow up on the report, a local media outlet in Venice, after analysis, identified the "suspect" as Li An... and Cao Yang.

That's right, they dragged Cao Yang in too.

What they said also made a lot of sense: although Cao Yang didn't enter the Venice Film Festival as a director, he is the producer, supervisor, and screenwriter of another shortlisted film, *Breathless*!

What the Cannes media said was: this film involves a Chinese director with great international fame, who also has high influence in Hollywood...

Look, Cao Yang fits perfectly; after all, the Cannes media didn't say whether it was the director or the screenwriter/producer.

With Cao Yang's "addition," it instantly ignited the eyes of the whole world.

This is the manifestation of influence.

Even Cao Yang, who was far away in Los Angeles, was bewildered by the countless calls wanting to interview him.

After slightly understanding the ins and outs of the matter, Cao Yang was quite... well, he couldn't say he admired Old Ma's big move, but in short, he had all kinds of sighs.

Old Ma really went all out to improve the influence and attention of the Venice Film Festival.

Letting the Cannes media make the first move, this trick was quite reasonable.

As for why it wasn't Berlin, it's very simple: Li An once won the Golden Bear in Berlin and is considered a direct descendant of Berlin, so Berlin certainly wouldn't mess with him.

As everyone knows, the relationship between the three major European film festivals is not very good; one can't say they want to kill each other, but they certainly hope the other side dies quietly.

There are plenty of instances of them undermining each other.

Let's mention one everyone is familiar with: the Venice Film Festival once gave the Golden Lion award to a film that had been withdrawn from Cannes, which was Old Mouzi's *Not One Less*.

Such face-slapping incidents have happened many times among the three major European film festivals.

Therefore, it was quite "normal" for the Cannes media to report that they "knew" a film shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Venice Film Festival hadn't obtained full copyright.

It's just that Old Ma, for the sake of attention and influence, pulled another crazy stunt and "hard" dragged Cao Yang in.

Of course, Old Ma was also very sensible; not long after, he called Cao Yang to explain the matter and hinted that he would definitely compensate Cao Yang.

Fine, the complaints Cao Yang had prepared disappeared without a trace in the face of the other party's willingness to compensate.

The matter fermented for three days; Venice held a meeting for half a day internally, and then held an emergency press conference that night, with Old Ma appearing personally.

The content of the press conference can be summarized into two points:

First, due to negligence in work, they didn't expect that the internationally influential director Li An would send a work that hadn't obtained full copyright, and the Venice Film Festival apologized for its negligence.

Second, they canceled the shortlisted qualification of *Lust, Caution* and fired a person in charge at the film festival who was responsible for this matter.

This finally restored the truth.

It's just that Cao Yang still couldn't quite figure out the brain circuits of the Italians.

To expose their own ugliness with such great fanfare, and it was a scandal they deliberately created themselves, and they were afraid the attention was too low, so they even used their own fame to hype it up...

For the sake of attention and influence, is it really good to strike at the prestige of their own film festival like this?

Fine, perhaps standing from Old Ma's perspective, doing this is the optimal solution.

After all, the person in power at the Venice Film Festival can generally only serve for a maximum of two terms, eight years, unlike Cannes or Berlin, where the person in power serves for at least twenty-plus years.

Standing from Old Ma's position, it doesn't matter in whose hands the Venice Film Festival declines, as long as it doesn't decline during his tenure.

Moreover, he could use this matter to increase the attention of the Venice Film Festival and, while at it, eliminate a rival who was a threat to Old Ma himself... killing several birds with one stone?

If one doesn't consider the negative impact on Venice, perhaps it is killing several birds with one stone.

As for the negative impact... this is the fourth year of Old Ma's first term, which is the last year of his first term, and he is about to run for his second term.

If he doesn't increase Venice's attention and influence, especially by getting rid of his rivals, he might be stripped of power; since that's the case, who gives a damn about the negative impact!

Just do it!

The matter that blew up at the Venice Film Festival didn't just affect the film festival itself; Li An also received a very big impact.

As an internationally famous director who also has considerable influence in Hollywood, the copyright of a film shouldn't have been a big deal for him.

According to common sense, with his influence in the art-house circle, even without copyright, as long as he made the film, the copyright holder would come to negotiate, because collaborating with him would indeed expand the copyright holder's personal interests.

He himself had never attached importance to this matter.

Who could have expected the other party to be so "tough," and he didn't expect Cannes to intervene.

The current situation is truly showing his face globally, making him a bit notorious.

What can he do now?

The best way is to spend a high price to get the copyright from the other party, then hold a press conference to the outside world, saying that they had been talking about the copyright matter and reached an agreement a long time ago, just didn't sign the contract.

This is the way to minimize the negative impact.

This matter must also be done as soon as possible.

However, before Li An and the film company behind him could take action, the small company that owned part of the copyright took the lead in holding a press conference.

They didn't say too much, just saying that they indeed held part of the copyright, and the copyright was still in the company's hands and hadn't been sold to anyone or any organization.

Alright, this press conference directly defined the nature of Li An's *Lust, Caution*.

Li An's team could only urgently formulate a response strategy, speaking to the outside world, saying that when Li An bought the copyright for *Lust, Caution*, he didn't know he was buying incomplete copyright and had always thought it was the entire copyright... in short, it was a denial.

This is also something that couldn't be helped; they could only shirk responsibility.

However, not long after, media dug up that Zhang Ailing had two executors of her will: one was the writer Bai Xianyong from Taiwan, and the other executor was named Song Yilang; that is to say, both held the copyright to the novel.

Li An's copyright was obtained from Bai Xianyong. And before this, the other executor, Song Yilang, had been in a lawsuit with the Era Company of Taiwan.

The reason was that the Era Company sued Song Yilang for fraud—they bought the copyright for *Lust, Caution* but found that the copyright Song Yilang held was incomplete, yet he hadn't informed them beforehand, and they wanted to own the complete copyright.

Of course, the outcome was that the Era Company lost the lawsuit; Song Yilang himself didn't have the complete copyright, so how could he give the Era Company the complete copyright?

This matter caused quite a stir in Taiwan at the time.

That is to say, when Li An bought the copyright from Bai Xianyong, he should have known that he didn't hold the complete copyright, because the copyright incident at the time caused quite a stir.

At the same time, it also shows that Li An filmed *Lust, Caution* while knowing full well that he didn't have the full copyright.

The matter dug up by the media was quite unfavorable to Li An's reputation.

Consequently, Li An's team came out again and said that Li An had stayed in the United States for many years and was not clear about what happened on Taiwan island, and no one had told him that the copyright for *Lust, Caution* was scattered...

In short, it was the media, Li An and his team, and the small company holding part of the copyright pulling back and forth, and as they pulled, they dragged Zhang Ailing's will executors Bai Xianyong and Song Yilang in too.

With several parties dragging each other and spraying each other, under such circumstances, it was almost impossible for *Lust, Caution* to be released.

Moreover, it caused substantial damage to Li An's reputation, causing his reputation to be greatly damaged.

Amidst this clamorous farce, the new weekend box office chart in North America was released.

Many new films were released in North America this weekend, among which the more famous ones were "Mr. Bean's Holiday," and *The Nanny Diaries* starring "Black Widow" Scarlett Johansson and "Captain America" Chris Evans.

In addition, there was *War* starring another international kung fu superstar of the Chinese, Li Lianjie.

It seemed that these three films released on the same day were all very competitive, but in terms of box office performance, they were one worse than the other.

*The Nanny Diaries* starring "Black Widow" and "Captain America" only took 7.8 million in the three-day weekend, ranking seventh on the weekend box office chart.

Li Lianjie's *War* only harvested 9.2 million in its first three-day weekend, and the highest single-day box office didn't break 5 million; even on the first day of release, it barely managed to get 3.7 million.

The ranking of *War* was one place higher than *The Nanny Diaries*, ranking sixth on the weekend box office chart.

*Mr. Bean's Holiday* also didn't break 10 million in its first three-day weekend, only harvesting 9.8 million, ranking fifth on the weekend box office chart.

Cheng Long's *Rush Hour 3* took 10.6 million in the three-day weekend, ranking fourth on the box office chart.

This is the third week of *Rush Hour 3*'s release; compared to the 21 million box office of last weekend, the drop is about 50%, which is okay and belongs to the normal range of drops.

Adding the 9.3 million from the four weekdays, the total box office finally broke 100 million, reaching 108.4 million USD.

Speaking of which, in Hollywood, Cheng Long's status and influence are indeed not comparable to Li Lianjie's; this can also be seen from the roles they can get and the investment in their films.

Of course, it is also more intuitive in terms of box office; even in its third week, *Rush Hour 3*'s three-day weekend box office is higher than the first three-day weekend box office of the newly released *War*.

Ranked third is the "counter-attacking" *The Bourne Ultimatum*; last week *Rush Hour 3* was still one place above it, but this week it is one place higher than *Rush Hour 3*.

However, the box office didn't have much more, only 11 million.

*The Bourne Ultimatum* has currently reached 182 million in North America, and according to the current box office performance, reaching 200 million is still no problem.

Ranked second is Sony Pictures' *Superbad*, which took 17 million in box office.

*The Fault in Our Stars* continues to maintain a strong state, taking another 18.7 million in the three-day weekend, a drop of 44% compared to last week, which is considered a normal drop.

Adding the box office from the four weekdays, *The Fault in Our Stars* has currently achieved 148 million USD.

According to the current box office trend, even if it is put into second-tier theaters for long-term screening, it is very difficult to break 200 million.

Of course, as a low-budget art-house film, even if it stops at the current result, it is still a massive breakout, alright.

Cao Yang is even a bit worried whether *The Fault in Our Stars* will miss out on some major awards at next year's Oscars because the box office is "too high."

*Pirates of the Caribbean* (reboot) has finished production, and the release date has been set for four days before Christmas, December 21st, which happens to be a Friday.

With Nolan and Ning Hao, the executive producer representing Cao Yang, there, Cao Yang doesn't need to worry about the *Batman* collaboration with Warner.

The other film, *Joker*, is also not in a hurry; he has already discussed it with Warner, and it will likely start filming after February next year.

This film must wait until *Batman 2* directed by Nolan is released, with at least three months in between, to let the influence of *Batman 2* fully diffuse.

Consequently, Cao Yang has nothing to do in the US for the time being.

It just so happens that Old Ma called him, asking him to go to the Venice Film Festival, and hinted that as long as he goes, he will give him a surprise.

What surprise?

The Golden Lion for *Breathless* should be no problem, right?

Does this count as a surprise?

Regardless of whether it counts, he is going back to China anyway, so stopping by Venice for a few days is fine.

September 2nd is the fifth day of the 64th Venice Film Festival; Cao Yang got off the plane at Venice Marco Polo Airport.

Greeting him were Venice Film Festival Chairman Marco Müller, and Old Tian, who was smiling next to Old Ma.

This is the good thing about foreigners; a Venice Film Festival Chairman and a director shortlisted for the main competition unit walking together at an airport where reporters are waiting, not afraid of rumors and gossip at all.

If it were in China, they would avoid suspicion, and wouldn't dare to walk together openly during the film festival.

After getting into Old Ma's car, Cao Yang jokingly asked him, "What is the surprise you mentioned? Can you tell me now?"

Old Ma laughed and said:

"Do you still remember the first time you and Old Tian came to Venice? I wasn't the Chairman of the Venice Film Festival then; in the blink of an eye, it's been four or five years. Isn't the three of us meeting again the biggest surprise?"

Then he asked Old Tian, "Isn't that right, Old Tian?"

Old Tian rolled his eyes and deliberately coughed before saying: "Old Ma, as long as you give me the Golden Lion in a few days, everything you say is right."

"Hey, hey, Old Tian, is the Golden Lion that important?"

Old Ma asked with a smile.

Old Tian nodded without hesitation, "Nonsense, for this film, I even quit drinking... for a long time, you tell me if it's important?"

"Fine, I'll consider it, I'll consider it again; who told us to have such a solid relationship."

The three of them cracked endless jokes along the way, and the slight barrier that had formed between Cao Yang and them some time ago vanished in the jokes.

(End of chapter)