Chapter 364: Return to Venice

The 64th Venice International Film Festival was set to open on August 29. One week before the opening, news leaked from Cannes, France, that instantly sparked widespread discussion and attention.

A local media outlet in Cannes reported that a Chinese-language film had been produced without obtaining full copyright, and absurdly, it had still managed to be shortlisted for the main competition section of the Venice Film Festival...

They also revealed that this film involved a Chinese director of great international renown who also held significant influence in Hollywood.

The media outlet concluded by asking how a film festival with such a long history and immense international influence could commit such an amateurish act.

It seems the decline of certain film festivals may be an inevitability.

Finally, the tone shifted, using the Cannes Film Festival as an example, stating that in its 60-year history, Cannes had always been cautious and serious in its selection of films, never having seen such amateurish operations.

Although this Cannes media outlet did not expose the name of the film, such a matter was certainly easy to investigate.

There were only five Chinese-language films selected for the Venice Film Festival's main competition, and the only ones with international fame were Tian Zhuangzhuang, Jiang Wen, and Li An.

Among those with international fame who also held high influence in Hollywood, Tian Zhuangzhuang was ruled out first; Jiang Wen’s reputation was mostly limited to Cannes and the domestic market, and his influence in Hollywood was truly very limited.

Thus, 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 analyzing the situation, identified the "suspects" as Li An... and Cao Yang.

That’s right, they dragged Cao Yang into it as well.

Their reasoning was quite sound: although Cao Yang was not shortlisted as a director at the Venice Film Festival, he was the producer, executive producer, and screenwriter for another shortlisted film, *Sacrifice*!

The Cannes media had said: this film involves a Chinese director of great international renown who also has high influence in Hollywood...

Look, Cao Yang fit the description perfectly; after all, the Cannes media hadn't specified whether it was the director, screenwriter, or producer.

With the "addition" of Cao Yang, it instantly ignited global attention.

This was the embodiment of influence.

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

After learning a little about the ins and outs of the matter, Cao Yang felt quite... well, he couldn't call it admiration, but he had all sorts of sighs regarding the grand gesture made by Old Situ.

Old Situ was really going all out to boost the influence and attention of the Venice Film Festival.

Letting the Cannes media make the first move was a quite logical tactic.

As for why it wasn't Berlin, it was simple: Li An had previously won a Golden Bear in Berlin and was considered a Berlin loyalist, so naturally, Berlin wouldn't target him.

As everyone knows, the relationship between the "Big Three" in Europe isn't great; they might not be trying to kill each other, but they certainly hope for the other to die quietly.

There were plenty of instances of them undermining each other.

To mention one everyone is familiar with, the Venice Film Festival once gave the Golden Lion to a film pulled from Cannes, namely Zhang Yimou’s *Not One Less*.

Such face-slapping incidents had occurred many times among the European Big Three.

Therefore, it was quite "normal" for the Cannes media to report that they "knew" a film selected for the Venice main competition lacked complete copyright.

It’s just that, for the sake of attention and influence, Old Situ pulled a slick move and "hard" dragged Cao Yang into it.

Of course, Old Situ was also quite tactful; he called Cao Yang shortly after to explain the matter and hinted that he would definitely compensate Cao Yang.

Fine, the complaints Cao Yang had prepared vanished into thin air upon hearing the offer of compensation.

The matter fermented for three days, Venice held a half-day internal meeting, and that night they held an emergency press conference, with Old Situ appearing in person.

The content of the press conference could be summarized in two points:

First, due to a lapse in work, they hadn't expected that the internationally influential director Li An would submit a work without full copyright, and the Venice Film Festival apologized for its oversight.

Second, they disqualified *Lust, Caution* and dismissed a person in charge at the festival who had handled the matter.

This finally restored the truth.

However, Cao Yang still couldn't quite grasp the thought process of the Italians.

To expose their own ugliness with such fanfare, a scandal they had deliberately manufactured themselves, and then, fearing the attention was too low, to use their own reputation to hype it up...

Was it really good to damage the prestige of their own film festival for the sake of attention and influence?

Fine, perhaps from Old Situ’s perspective, this was the optimal solution.

After all, those in power at the Venice Film Festival generally serve at most two terms of eight years, unlike Cannes or Berlin, where those in power serve at least twenty-plus years.

From Old Situ’s standpoint, it didn't matter if the Venice Film Festival declined under someone else's watch, but it could not decline on his watch.

Furthermore, he could use this incident to increase the attention of the Venice Film Festival and simultaneously take out a rival who threatened him... killing several birds with one stone?

If one ignores the negative impact on Venice, perhaps it was killing several birds with one stone.

As for the negative impact... this was the fourth year of Old Situ’s first term, which was the final year of his first term, and he was about to run for his second.

If he didn't increase Venice’s attention and influence, especially by taking down his competitors, he might be ousted from power; since that was the case, who cared about the negative impact!

Just do it!

The incident that blew up at the Venice Film Festival didn't just affect the festival itself; Li An also suffered a massive blow.

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

According to common sense, given his influence in the art circle, even without copyright, as long as he made the film, the copyright holders would be scrambling to negotiate with him, as collaborating with him would truly expand their own interests.

He himself had never taken this matter seriously.

He never expected the other side to be so "tough," nor did he expect Cannes to intervene.

The current situation had truly exposed him to the world, leaving him somewhat notorious.

What could be done now?

The best way was to pay a high price to obtain the copyright from the other party, then hold a press conference to say that they had been negotiating the copyright and had reached an agreement long ago, but just hadn't signed the contract.

This was the way to minimize the negative impact.

This matter also had to be done as soon as possible.

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

They didn't say much, only stating that they indeed held a portion of the copyright, and the copyright remained in the company's hands, not having been sold to any person or organization.

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

Li An’s team could only urgently formulate a response strategy, stating publicly that when Li An purchased the copyright for *Lust, Caution*, he did not know it was an incomplete copyright and had always assumed it was the entire copyright... in short, they denied it.

This was the only way; they had to shift the blame.

However, it wasn't long before the media dug up that there were two executors of Zhang Ailing’s will: one was the writer Bai Xianyong from Taiwan, and the other was named Song Yilang, meaning 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 Taiwan-based Era International.

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

Of course, the outcome was that Era International lost the lawsuit; since Song Yilang didn't even have the full copyright himself, how could he give the full copyright to Era International?

This incident had caused quite a stir in Taiwan at the time.

This meant that when Li An purchased the copyright from Bai Xianyong, he should have known that Bai did not hold the full copyright, because the original copyright incident had been quite high-profile.

At the same time, this indicated that Li An had filmed *Lust, Caution* while knowing full well that he did not have the full copyright.

This fact dug up by the media was quite detrimental to Li An’s reputation.

Consequently, Li An’s team came out again to say that Li An had lived in the United States for many years and was unaware of what had happened on the island of Taiwan, and no one had told him that the copyright for *Lust, Caution* was fragmented...

In short, it was the media, Li An and his team, and the small company holding partial copyright pulling back and forth, and in the process, they dragged Zhang Ailing’s will executors Bai Xianyong and Song Yilang into it as well.

With the parties involved pulling and attacking each other, it was almost impossible for *Lust, Caution* to be released under such circumstances.

Furthermore, it caused substantial damage to Li An’s reputation, leaving it in tatters.

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

Many new films were released in North America this weekend, including the well-known *Mr. Bean's Holiday* starring "Mr. Bean," and *The Nanny Diaries* starring "Black Widow" Scarlett Johansson and "Captain America" Chris Evans.

Additionally, there was *War* starring another international Chinese kung fu superstar, 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 all flops.

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

Li Lianjie’s *War* only grossed 9.2 million in its first three-day weekend, with a single-day high not exceeding 5 million; even on its first day of release, it barely managed 3.7 million.

*War* ranked one spot higher than *The Nanny Diaries*, placing sixth on the weekend box office chart.

*Mr. Bean's Holiday* also failed to break 10 million in its first three-day weekend, grossing only 9.8 million and ranking fifth on the weekend box office chart.

Cheng Long’s *Rush Hour 3* grossed 10.6 million over the three-day weekend, ranking fourth on the box office chart.

This was the third week of *Rush Hour 3*’s release; compared to the 21 million grossed over the three-day weekend last week, the drop was about 50%, which was fine and within the normal range.

Added to the 9.3 million from the four weekdays, the total box office finally crossed 100 million, reaching 108.4 million dollars.

Come to think of it, in Hollywood, Cheng Long’s status and influence were indeed incomparable to Li Lianjie’s; this could be seen from the roles they could land and the investments in their films.

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

Ranking third was the "comeback" *The Bourne Ultimatum*; last week *Rush Hour 3* was one spot above it, but this week it was one spot higher than *Rush Hour 3*.

However, the box office wasn't much higher, only 11 million.

*The Bourne Ultimatum* had already grossed 182 million in North America, and based on its current performance, reaching 200 million would be no problem.

Ranking second was Sony Pictures’ *Superbad*, which grossed 17 million.

*The Fault in Our Stars* continued to maintain its strong momentum, grossing another 18.7 million over the three-day weekend, a 44% drop from last week, which was a normal decline.

Added to the four-day weekday box office, *The Fault in Our Stars* had currently reached 148 million dollars.

Based on the current box office trend, even if it were moved to second-tier theaters for a long run, it would be very difficult to cross 200 million.

Of course, as a low-budget art film, even if it stopped at its current results, it was a huge hit, wasn't it?

Cao Yang was even a little worried that at next year’s Oscars, *The Fault in Our Stars* might miss out on some major awards because its box office was "too high."

*New Pirates of the Caribbean* had finished production, and the release date was set for four days before Christmas, December 21, which happened to be a Friday.

With Nolan and executive producer Ning Hao representing Cao Yang on the *Batman* project in collaboration with Warner Bros., he didn't need to worry about it.

The other film, *Joker*, was not in a rush; he had already negotiated with Warner Bros., and it would likely start filming after February of next year.

This film would definitely have to wait until after the release of Nolan’s *Batman 2*, with at least a three-month gap in between, to let the influence of *Batman 2* fully diffuse.

Thus, Cao Yang had nothing to do for the time being over here in the States.

Just then, Ma Lin called him, asking him to go to the Venice Film Festival, and hinted that as long as he went, there would be a surprise waiting for him.

What kind of surprise?

The Golden Lion award for *Pieta* should be a sure thing, right?

Does that count as a surprise?

Regardless of whether it counts or not, he was heading back to the country anyway, so stopping by Venice for a few days would be fine.

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

Greeting him were the Venice Film Festival chairman Marco Mueller, and standing next to him, grinning, was Tian Zhuangzhuang.

That is the good thing about foreigners; a Venice Film Festival chairman and a director with a film in the main competition walking together in an airport where reporters were waiting, not fearing rumors or gossip at all.

If this were back home, people would be rushing to avoid suspicion; who would dare to walk together so openly during the film festival?

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

Ma Lin laughed and said:

"Do you remember the first time you and Tian Zhuangzhuang came to Venice? I wasn't the chairman of the Venice Film Festival back then. In the blink of an eye, four or five years have passed. Isn't the three of us meeting again the biggest surprise?"

He then asked Tian Zhuangzhuang, "Don't you agree, Tian Zhuangzhuang?"

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

"Heh, heh, Tian Zhuangzhuang, is the Golden Lion really that important?"

Ma Lin asked with a smile.

Tian Zhuangzhuang nodded without hesitation, "Nonsense, for this film, I even quit drinking... for a long time. You tell me if it's important or not?"

"Fine, I'll consider it, I'll consider it some more. After all, we're such close friends."

The three of them cracked jokes that made no sense along the way, and the slight rift that had formed between them and Cao Yang a while back vanished into thin air amidst the joking.

(End of chapter)