Chapter 146: Hollywood Agent

The Sundance Film Festival is held every January in Park City, USA.

Seeing Lu Kuan and Liu Liu Yifei set off from Beijing with their assistants Yang Yang Siwei and A Fei, transferring midway from San Francisco to Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah, before taking a car to Park City.

The nearly 20-hour journey was too grueling; Boss Lu was in no mood to engage in deep conversation with the blonde beauty casting him flirtatious glances, and dragging his heavy feet, he only wanted to get off the plane as quickly as possible.

His feet finally touched solid ground, and the cold wind of Salt Lake City hit his face; it felt milder than in Beijing.

A pair of young man and woman walking among a crowd of colorful foreigners was quite eye-catching.

The drive from Salt Lake City to the outskirts of Park City was short, and the group took their time watching the snowy scenery outside the window.

Utah is a typical inland state in the western United States, with high mountains and canyons filled with lush forests, and its unique red rock landscapes and ever-flowing inland rivers attract countless tourists to stop and visit.

In addition to natural landscapes like the Great Salt Lake and Arches National Park, many classic films such as *Forrest Gump* and *Mission: Impossible 2* were filmed here at the Mormon Temple and Monument Valley.

And Park City, where the Sundance Film Festival is held, is a quaint mountain town.

Because it had just hosted the Winter Olympics last year, its popularity was soaring, and during the film festival, it was common to find that rooms were fully booked due to congestion.

The four of them had just gotten out of the car when Yang Yang Siwei shouted and caught up.

"Director Lu, Sister Xixi, something big has happened!"

"The people at the studio sent a message; take a look."

Boss Lu was displeased: "Maintain composure in the face of great events; what are you panicking about!"

He took the phone, and Liu Liu Yifei also leaned her head in.

Public Opinion Monitoring: 【Young director Seeing Lu Kuan and "Lu Girl" Liu Liu Yifei were in the same car in broad daylight, and both got out about an hour later; the man had an action of discarding an unidentified tissue.】

Below were a few MMS photos, naturally the work of Zhuo Wei.

"Holy shit! 'Unidentified tissue,' that's Little Liu's snot rag, alright!"

Boss Lu cursed loudly, as if he weren't the one who had just spoken about maintaining composure.

He admitted that he had bought this car with the intention of having sex in it, but one couldn't just slander someone's innocence out of thin air!

"Hey, Lu Yao, contact the Blog Network side immediately, ban Zhuo Wei's account, and control the public opinion."

The power-tripping dog has arrived; close the gates and release the internet trolls!

The point is, damn it, Boss Lu really hadn't done it; the feeling of being wrongly accused was so uncomfortable!

And this Zhuo Wei, how could he have the nerve to use a few photos based on hearsay to try and nail someone? Nail your mother!

Liu Liu Yifei awkwardly stuck out her little tongue, though judging by her expression, she didn't seem to care much.

She had a sense of relaxation that hadn't yet been tempered by cyberbullying.

"Little Liu, you guys go back to the hotel first; I'm going to take a turn around the film festival."

"A Fei, accompany them; the US is chaotic, watch out for safety."

A Fei hesitated: "Boss, then you..."

"I'm fine, this place I..."

Seeing Lu Kuan almost blurted out that he was familiar with this place, but being familiar was a matter from his past life.

Sundance is a paradise for American independent filmmakers; "independent filmmaker" sounds nice, but to put it bluntly, they are broke filmmakers, including students.

In his past life, Seeing Lu Kuan and his roommates at USC would basically come every year, sometimes even bringing works to exhibit.

If one happened to stumble upon a dead mouse, wouldn't they hit the jackpot? Just like Quentin.

Liu Liu Yifei looked suspicious; she seriously doubted that Seeing Lu Kuan had other motives for ditching them.

"Then we can go together; it's my first time here too!"

That was her using a petty person's measure to gauge a lecher's heart; Seeing Lu Kuan was planning to find his best friend from his past life—Emile.

Emile was of French-American descent, studying in the US; his father died early, and his mother was a Huaerjie banker with Jewish ancestry.

This was also a guy obsessed with directing; in their past lives, he and Seeing Lu Kuan were a tacitly cooperative duo, and every year they would submit low-cost independent films to Sundance.

They didn't expect to be shortlisted or win awards; just being able to come and mooch off the organizers for food and lodging was great, and the point was to come and analyze films!

Boss Lu helplessly took Liu Liu Yifei, this little tag-along, and let Yang Yang Siwei and A Fei go to the hotel to check in and drop off their luggage.

Without Liu Liu Xiaoli by her side, being in a foreign land, and with Seeing Lu Kuan by her side, the young girl seemed even more lively.

The ground was slippery with snow, and Liu Liu Yifei tugged on Seeing Lu Kuan's forearm, looking around excitedly.

Boss Lu looked at her attire with disdain: a water-red cotton jacket and a blue scarf—it was incredibly tacky.

It was truly all saved by that face.

"Little Liu, don't you think you look like a village girl today?"

Liu Liu Yifei felt very wronged: "Is that so? I think it's a great match, very fitting for my youthful, beautiful girl temperament."

Boss Lu couldn't be bothered to educate her; what a loser!

Red Star Dock needed to hurry up and hire a fashion expert and aesthetic mentor to properly revamp the young girl's style.

Boss Lu arrived at the organizer's service desk, picked up a viewing guide, and went through the list from beginning to end.

Films in the main competition and non-main competition units were listed in order with pictures, and the sample films submitted by people like him and Emile in his past life would also be given a few pages of introduction.

This was to support the film dreams of independent filmmakers and poor students; it was usually just the film title, synopsis, genre rating, and the director's contact information.

This was for the convenience of buyers to find directors to discuss cooperation.

"What are you looking for? I've already seen our film; it's in Hall 8, premiering the day after tomorrow morning."

"Shh, don't be noisy."

Seeing Lu Kuan stared intently at the fine print, searching line by line, and was almost forced to start over by Liu Liu Yifei's interruption.

Found it!

*Rose-Colored Phantom* / Drama / NC-17 / Emile (France, USA)

Fuck! This grandson!

Liu Liu Yifei leaned over to look at the line of small print and asked: "What does this mean?"

Boss Lu glanced at her: "It means you can't watch it yet."

"No one 17 and under admitted!"

"Tch, in Venice, you went to watch these things with Teacher Feng; why are you looking for them again when you come to Sundance?"

Boss Lu now had to take care of the young girl's feelings, so he helplessly made excuses for himself: "I've heard of this Emile; he's a young director with potential, and I need to find him to do me a favor."

He took Liu Liu Yifei to a coffee shop and immediately dialed the number.

"Hello?"

"Is this Mr. Emile? I am the winner of last year's Venice Golden Lion Award, I'm looking for you..."

It wasn't that he was showing off; if he said anyone else, the other party might not bother with him.

"Beep beep beep beep..."

Seeing Lu Kuan was dumbfounded.

Hung up? This son of a bitch, he must have taken me for a scammer.

Americans of this period still had very strong self-confidence, especially Hollywood's cultural confidence.

Some of them only focused on North American films and looked down on the three major European film festivals.

This lay in the standard of measurement; some films from the three major European festivals were not even as popular as a local pornographic film.

Profit, that is the American standard of measurement.

Boss Lu held his forehead in frustration; if he called again, he might just be...

"Little Liu, you talk later."

Liu Liu Yifei had just been preparing to mock him, and she pointed to her own nose in disbelief.

"Me? How should I say it?"

"Just say you are a buyer from China Film, and invite him to the Sundance Resort lobby to discuss cooperation."

It was just the hotel they were staying at.

"Okay! I'll try!"

Liu Liu Yifei was on a mission to lie, and her expression was very cheerful.

"Hello, hello, is this Emile?"

Emile looked at the familiar number, but it was clearly a female voice, and the accent was very American.

"It's me, what's the matter?"

"I am a film buyer from China Film, yes, China. Can we talk about your film?"

Emile was overjoyed and put down the camera in his hand.

"Really? You Chinese people also watch foreign pornographic films?"

Liu Liu Yifei rolled her eyes helplessly and glared at Seeing Lu Kuan, who was giggling on the side.

Look at the good job you found for me!

"Sundance Resort lobby, we will be waiting for you there, see you in a bit."

Boss Lu gave her a thumbs up: "Not bad, not bad, your acting skills have improved; you don't even blink when you lie."

The Sundance Resort was the most expensive hotel during the film festival; Emile hung up the phone, thought about it, and since it was only a ten-minute drive, he might as well go and see what was going on.

Treat a dead horse as a living one; maybe he could really meet his Bole?

His film *Black Phantom* was a pornographic film starring a black woman; he didn't expect that the mysterious East would have such a buyer with such rich aesthetic taste!

Emile walked into the lobby and looked around; there were very few Asian faces.

Suddenly, an Asian girl in a water-red down jacket waved at him.

"Yes, that's him, that bearded big fat guy."

This was Seeing Lu Kuan giving her pointers from the side.

"Hello, beautiful lady of the East!"

Emil was taken aback when he saw the youthful-looking Liu Liu Yifei, and he gentlemanly attempted to perform the hand-kissing etiquette.

Boss Lu was quick-witted and pulled the young lady aside, offering his own palm-leaf-fan-sized hand instead.

Emil, a bearded, burly bear of a man over 1.9 meters tall, suddenly reacted, looking at him with unkind eyes.

Who the hell are you?

Liu Liu Yifei giggled on the side.

"Hello, I am Seeing Lu Kuan, winner of last year's Golden Lion Award!"

Only then did Emil react, his face flushing red: "Are you two ganging up to trick me? Is there something wrong with your brains?"

Boss Lu helplessly took out his phone and showed him a few photos from the Venice Film Festival.

Including group photos with Quentin and Kitano Takeshi.

Emil was shocked: "Quentin!? Kitano Takeshi?! Are you really a Golden Lion Award winner?"

He truly hadn't been paying attention to that scene; he had spent the entire last year in the Congo filming his black erotic movies.

Why bother? He could have gone to Guangdong Province to find some locals to film the same thing.

"Authentic and genuine!"

"Please sit down, let's have a chat."

Emil then sat down, half-doubting, and the two began to talk grandly.

He clearly hadn't inherited his American father's directing talent, otherwise he wouldn't have made such nauseating erotic films.

After a few rounds, he was already won over by Boss Lu's film knowledge.

"My God! That's amazing. I've seen Zhang Zhang Yimou's 'Raise the Red Lantern'. Your 'Whiplash' also participated in Sundance? I will definitely go watch and learn from it!"

Seeing Lu Kuan interrupted his flattery and moved on to the main topic.

"Emil, this lady just now was tricking you; we are not buyers from the China Film Group."

Before the big Emil could go crazy, Seeing Lu Kuan added: "I want you to open a film company for me in Hollywood, held by my company in mainland China, and I will give your subsidiary 2% in stock options and a $100,000 annual salary."

Liu Liu Yifei looked at him in surprise, not knowing why Seeing Lu Kuan had suddenly set his sights on this big American fatty.

The development of the domestic film market and the international film market is extremely out of sync; he can gallop freely at home, but Hollywood has its own rules and requires an agent with an American face.

Seeing Lu Kuan's current business map is still out of reach for the United States, and if he absolutely had to find a collaborator, he still trusted this "film buff" friend he had spent over a decade with in his past life.

He had a simple and honest personality, without too many twists and turns, and at USC he only knew how to bury his head in filming and analyzing movies; his professional ability was very strong.

It was just that his thinking was too wild, requiring a qualified producer to suppress him, and he was a bit lecherous...

In his past life, when Boss Lu was destitute, he had taken the initiative to help him, sending foreign currency from the United States; it could be considered a friendship forged in adversity.

Not to mention that he had a Huaerjie banker mother behind him, which might provide some convenience in financing in the future.

Emil couldn't digest this news for a moment; the stock options were one thing, but this $100,000 annual salary?

For a poor student, that was really quite a lot!

He was both surprised and suspicious in his heart.

"Why me? What do I need to do?"

Boss Lu counted a series of tasks for him on his fingers: "Hoard copyrights in the North American market for the company, do script registration; help me poach some special effects talent from USC, NYU, and UCLA; act as an executive producer for me when my domestic company and the Hollywood company have co-production projects..."

He spoke at length, summarizing it as the role of an agent to implement his will in the United States.

"As for why it's you?"

Boss Lu paused for a few seconds, then said mysteriously: "Do you know about Daoism? The mysterious Eastern religion."

Emil widened his eyes: "The White-Browed Daoist in Quentin's movie?"

Quentin's "Kill Bill" had already released its trailer, so it wasn't strange that Emil knew this character.

Boss Lu nodded, took the teacup from the table, dipped his index finger in water, and "traced dragons and snakes" on the table!

Another fatty! Another fatty with Jewish blood!

Harvey: I'm familiar with this trick.

"See that? This is a divine talisman of Chinese Daoism. I used it to calculate you; you are the best candidate I have chosen for a collaborator!"

Emil looked at Seeing Lu Kuan as if he were looking at a fool; he neither believed it nor dared not to believe it!

In this day and age, the mysterious ancient Eastern country is still very profound in the minds of foreigners.

Boss Lu shook the water off his hands and threw out a few "predictions."

"Your mother is Jewish, your father is Anglo-Saxon, and he was a guy who loved alcohol more than life."

"He passed away when you were fifteen. Before he died, his three mistresses came to the funeral together, and your mother..."

Emil was shocked: "Stop, stop, stop! I believe you, I believe you!"

Liu Liu Yifei looked at Seeing Lu Kuan with some disbelief. This fatty was easy to fool, but she wasn't!

How did Seeing Lu Kuan know all this?

Judging by the horrified look on the fatty's face, every word was true!

Boss Lu smiled calmly and stopped talking.

How did he know? He heard Emil bragging about it when the two went to a massage parlor together in their past life.

He said his length and stamina were inherited from his old man, and how his old man was a playboy right up until he died...

The three of them had dinner together at the hotel, and Emil could be considered officially on board.

He soon received the first task arranged by Boss Lu.

"Take a look."

Emil took the manuscript; it was an English script titled "Paranormal Activity."

Liu Liu Yifei tilted her head and glanced at him. Seeing Lu Kuan had been writing this stuff on his computer on the plane for a long time, and she was the one who took it to be printed when they returned to the hotel.

So it was prepared for this big fatty.

Emil flipped through the script quietly, the "film buff" quickly entering the state.

A young couple moves into a haunted house, and the constant strange phenomena trouble them, so they prepare to use a video camera to replace themselves to capture evidence of the ghosts haunting the place.

If one were to describe the plot of this extremely low-budget horror film, it seems like it could be summarized in just one sentence.

But Seeing Lu Kuan had marked very simple camera positions and lighting arrangements in the script.

Emil, a top student at a prestigious film school, was very engaged in deducing it in his mind and couldn't help but applaud the creativity of this old partner from his past life.

The most stunning part was the creativity of the film's subject matter.

The simple plot, under the guise of a mockumentary, pulled the audience's immersion to the maximum.

Especially the scene where a supernatural force slowly pulls the blanket off while they are fast asleep, and then suddenly drags the woman off the bed, making even Emil, who was just reading the script, feel a chill.

Emil praised it endlessly: "Being able to achieve this effect with a handheld DV is fantastic."

The first "Paranormal Activity" of later generations was a handheld camera work with a cost of only $11,000; this shooting method is generally common in news and documentary filming.

Adopting this method in a film, besides considering the cost, was to create a sense of reality like a mockumentary, showing the fictional content to the audience as if it were a real documentary.

Emil asked suspiciously: "Is this our first film project? It seems..."

He left some words unsaid; the film was certainly creative, but for the two of them to go to such great lengths to establish a film company just to shoot a film with a cost of less than 20,000...

Isn't that a bit too shabby?

He didn't realize the value of this work, and the entire "Paranormal Activity" universe.

Seeing Lu Kuan didn't say much to him for the time being: "This is just the first one. You shoot it first; I'll give you a month."

"I plan to find Lionsgate through Quentin's connections and introduce this film to them."

"But if we just take the script over like this, the people at Lionsgate will tell you it's a pile of dog shit, and then turn around and write a similar script to shoot themselves."

With such low costs and easily plagiarized creativity, Hollywood filmmakers with no moral integrity would definitely not let this piece of fat meat go, even if it looks a bit dry right now.

Emil savored Seeing Lu Kuan's statement: "Are the subsequent ones also in this style?"

"That's right, I only wrote two or three."

"Shoot the first one first, since the cost is almost negligible, and then take it to Lionsgate to talk about distribution. Register the copyright before that."

Boss Lu said confidently: "If Lionsgate can't give me a satisfactory price, we'll release the DVD ourselves first, then find distribution!"

In fact, this kind of shooting method, which is very easy to borrow, cannot be protected from copycats by copyright.

But before this first "Paranormal Activity" explodes, no one will mindlessly imitate it.

What Seeing Lu Kuan needs to do is, like the Chinese-American director James Wan, use a finished film to attract Lionsgate's attention, reach a deep cooperation between the two sides, and make quick money from this kind of low-budget horror film until his hands go soft.

After all, he has the script and the creativity, but no distribution, and he can't do the derivative products business for the time being.

These are all business lines that need to be laid out slowly; the Wenjie (USA) subsidiary represented by Emil is the first step for him to step into the hinterland of American cinema.

The Chinese-American director James Wan of the "Saw" series will send a semi-finished product to Lionsgate this year, and the latter will be very interested, investing a budget of $1.2 million in the production of the first film.

It's too late to intercept "Saw" now.

And the "Paranormal Activity" series is convenient to shoot, low in cost, and doesn't pick actors, and it fits Lionsgate's strange taste, which is different from the traditional Big Six.

The first installment of the "Paranormal Activity" series in later generations raked in $193 million at the box office with a cost of $11,000, and that was after it was first released on DVD and then adapted for the big screen.

Do not have the covetous heart to swallow this staggering input-output ratio alone.

As a "Hollywood newcomer" like Seeing Lu Kuan, it is impossible to achieve such results without the marketing and scheduling of film companies and theater chains like Lionsgate.

Film production is only the upstream link; if the post-production work cannot keep up, no matter how creative or cost-effective the product is, it will only rot.

Or it will be imitated by interested parties and repackaged, becoming popular in a grand manner.

Boss Lu drank iced lemonade, feeling a bit chilled to the bone.

Foreigners are foreigners; in the dead of winter, there's only this stuff. He missed a cup of hot tea in a Beijing courtyard house immensely.

"You go to Los Angeles first to register the company; I will arrange for the registration documents to be faxed to the hotel."

"Come to my room tomorrow morning to get the money; I will prepare the initial capital for you, and one more thing!"

Seeing Lu Kuan tapped the script on the table: "I've already told you how to shoot *Paranormal Activity*; you don't need to have your own creative input."

"Oh right, there's also this."

Seeing Lu Kuan pulled out another script as if by magic, *Hard Candy*.

"Take this to get it filed and register the copyright."

"Find good union actors, get it done for me in a week, including post-production; I will book a buyer from Lionsgate in advance."

At home, one relies on parents; away from home, one relies on friends.

He knew Lionsgate, but Lionsgate didn't know him—but everyone knows Quentin!

The tool-man Quentin was online for a limited time; considering the experience of Boss Lu taking him out to have a good time at the Tienshan Human World in Beijing, perhaps Quentin could return the favor this time.

Welcoming Boss Lu, this friend who had traveled from afar, in the most enthusiastic way!

U. S. Western Time, January 16, 2003, the 19th Sundance Film Festival opened grandly in Park City, Utah.

The Sundance Film Festival has its own distinct style; it is a blessed land and a holy site for independent filmmakers.

The genius Quentin, the manic-style Robert, and the Coen brothers, who were not yet famous at the time.

As well as the previously mentioned Chinese-American director James Wan, all emerged here and became known to the world film industry.

It is worth mentioning that Zhang Zhang Yimou, who had just premiered his masterpiece *Hero* last December, had also brought *Ju Dou* and *Raise the Red Lantern* to Sundance in 1992, at which time he was officially called a maverick Chinese director and cinematographer.

The style of Sundance films is unconventional, and the style of the red carpet is also different from other film festivals.

However, none of this had anything to do with Seeing Lu Kuan anymore; he finished the entire promotional process with Harvey and then flew directly to New York with Liu Liu Yifei to handle her expatriation matters.

(End of this chapter)