Chapter 149: Eunuch Boss Lu

The next day, Lu Kuan accompanied Emil to the Lionsgate headquarters to sign the contract.

From this day on, *Paranormal Activity* would be distributed in North America in DVD format.

If the gambling conditions previously agreed upon by both parties were met, Lionsgate would be responsible for the theatrical distribution of the film with a 30% distribution fee.

Both parties to the transaction thought they had taken full advantage, passed each other, and called each other "idiots."

Lu Kuan was about to go downstairs when he met a middle-aged couple with Chinese faces at the corner.

The man was taller, with a thick Xiangjiang accent: "Are you Director Lu?"

Boss Lu was stunned; he didn't know either of these two, and had no impression of them in his previous life.

The woman looked at her husband in confusion, received a certain look, and then smiled and extended her hand.

"Hello, Mr. Lu, I am Zou Chongheng from Wenjie Jiahe Pictures, and this is my husband, Chen Yingming."

Wenjie Jiahe?

Meeting an acquaintance in a foreign land, and the other party was so enthusiastic, Boss Lu let Emil go back to the company to handle the contract first, and found a coffee shop with this Xiangjiang couple to talk.

"Hello, Ms. Zou, Mr. Chen, nice to meet you!"

Chen Yingming laughed: "Mr. Lu is incredible, angrily withdrawing from the Golden Horse Awards; we all support you."

Xiangjiang filmmakers have a relatively poor perception of the Taiwan film industry. There are some historical reasons for this, but judging by the "shitty" nature of the Golden Horse Awards, there are very few true supporters.

Chen Yingming is friends with Chen Guo, who participated in the Golden Horse Awards, and also acted in his films; he must have seen him at the Golden Horse Awards in November.

As for the uproar he and Liu Yifei caused on the internet later, it became even more of a topic of conversation for industry insiders after tea and dinner.

"Dead Horse Awards," right? Enough to be damaging!

"How did the two of you come to Lionsgate?"

Ms. Zou's expression was a bit stiff, and her husband Chen Yingming sighed to help her out.

"The current situation of Wenjie Jiahe is not very good."

"It's that my father-in-law is preparing to let Chongheng take over and hand Wenjie Jiahe to her. We are visiting Lionsgate this time to investigate and discuss some film copyrights by the way."

Boss Lu suddenly realized.

This is not just a simple matter of Zou Wenhuai passing the torch; Wenjie Jiahe is truly in a crisis.

The kind that is terminally ill.

The 1997 Asian financial crisis raged, and the intertwined problems of the Xiangjiang film industry broke out comprehensively; Wenjie Jiahe was not spared.

Just when it was precarious, his nemesis Run Run Shaw united with Xiang Huaqiang, Lin Jianyue, and other six film companies to launch a sniper attack, winning the government-approved land for the Tseung Kwan O Film City from Wenjie Jiahe.

Immediately after, Wenjie Jiahe lost the Hammer Hill Road studio and completely lost power.

A film company doesn't even have its own cinemas and filming locations; how can it survive?

Time entered 2002, *The Accidental Spy*, co-produced by Jackie Chan and Wenjie Jiahe, flopped, and there was another biggest blow to old man Zou Wenhuai—

Jackie Chan left.

He reached an agreement with Emperor Entertainment, started Emperor Motion Pictures, and immediately went north, beginning to fully embrace the mainland film market.

Boss Lu looked at the gloom on the couple's faces; I'm afraid Jackie Chan's departure is imminent.

Boss Lu sighed: "When I was a child watching videotapes, as soon as I heard 'Dang-dang-dang-dang,' I knew it was a Wenjie Jiahe film. Mr. Zou is a filmmaker with great sentiment. I hope you can overcome the difficulties."

This is half true and half false.

Having sentiment is true, but Wenjie Jiahe...

That is Wenjie Jiahe!

Wenjie Jiahe, which has countless film copyrights of Jackie Chan and Li Xiaolong, has dominated the Xiangjiang film scene for decades and influenced a generation!

In 1970, Raymond Chow left Shaw Brothers and founded Golden Harvest with Leonard Ho and others, and soon ranked as the hegemon of the film scene with three films: *The Big Boss*, *Fist of Fury*, and *The Way of the Dragon*.

After Li Xiaolong's unfortunate passing, Wenjie Jiahe successively discovered stars like Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.

When mentioning Chinese film companies abroad, the first one foreigners mention is Wenjie Jiahe.

And for Boss Lu, the copyright value, cinema value, distribution capability covering the entire Southeast Asia region, and mature filming team of Wenjie Jiahe.

Saying he isn't jealous would be a lie.

Zou Chongheng and her husband looked at each other, both a bit moved.

"Thank you, Mr. Lu, I will definitely convey your expectations to my father."

The two sides exchanged pleasantries and then parted ways.

Lu Kuan walked on the streets of Los Angeles, but his heart was still worried about Wenjie Jiahe.

For his closed-loop film industry, cinemas are definitely indispensable.

And the symbolic meaning represented by the name Wenjie Jiahe even exceeds its value itself.

In later generations, it wasn't until 2007 that Zou Wenhuai and his daughter sold 24% of the shares in their hands to Orange Sky Entertainment for more than 200 million HKD, which was only one-third of the value when it was just listed.

And for the current Wenjie Jiahe, it's not certain that they can easily overcome the immediate difficulties.

Because besides Lu Kuan, there will be a strong enemy eyeing Zou Wenhuai and Wenjie Jiahe.

The US News Corporation.

In 2004, US media tycoon Murdoch entered the Asian market and intended to acquire Wenjie Jiahe.

The Zou Wenhuai of later generations invited Li Ka-shing to be a "white knight" to ensure his status as a major shareholder.

In this life, Lu Kuan obviously doesn't need to wait 5 or 6 years to intercept Orange Sky Entertainment and eat the shares in Zou Wenhuai's hands.

But there isn't much time left for him. With Wenjie Jiahe's current stock price of 0.2 HKD on the US stock market, it would take at least 400-500 million RMB in funds.

This is the approximate funding requirement for secretly eating up shares in the secondary market, bulk acquisitions, and transfers from Zou Wenhuai's hands.

Is it worth it? It's definitely worth it.

It's just that "a penny can stump a hero"; where is he supposed to get 500 million in a year???

At this moment, Lu Kuan is like a castrated eunuch looking at a beautiful naked woman, excited but incompetent.

Of course, with Zou Wenhuai's status in the world, even if he had this money, he would have to get his approval first; that's a story for later.

After the affairs in the US were handled, Lu Kuan went to the embassy to go through the procedures, gave some instructions to Emil, and flew directly to Berlin.

Of course, before leaving, he also arranged some interception tasks, but there weren't many blockbusters that could be intercepted in 2003.

He prepared to copy the *Insidious* series, *Buried*, *The Hangover*, and *The Hunger Games* series from Lionsgate and register the copyright first.

The *Twilight* series, which was popular throughout North America, had to wait for the books to be published; the popularity of the later film was also built on a large group of book fans.

February 14, 2003, Lu Kuan landed in Berlin with Hu Zi.

The Berlin Film Festival started on February 6th. Boss Lu was delayed due to visa issues, but fortunately, he didn't miss tomorrow's awards ceremony.

The road to the hotel was congested, and the streets were filled with protest teams; this was a march against the impending US war on Iraq.

As mentioned earlier, the Berlin Film Festival is jokingly called a "political reformatory," and the ownership of this year's Jin Xiong in Berlin just happens to confirm this.

Tomorrow night, a film about the experiences of Afghan refugees, *In This World*, will win the Jin Xiong. The stubborn Germans don't seem to care much about the impact this will have on US-German trade.

"Li Dao, long time no see!"

As soon as Lu Kuan entered the room, Li Yang "followed" in with the lead actor Li Yixiang.

The director of *Blind Shaft*, with a face full of vicissitudes, complained: "Director Lu! Boss Lu! I've finally waited for you to come. Why are you so late!"

"Sigh! Don't mention it. It's all because of those protests and demonstrations outside. There were some problems with the visa in the US, and I almost couldn't come."

Li Yixiang laughed: "These foreigners are just too free; they don't know the severity."

Boss Lu was still more concerned about his money, especially now that the greedy heart of coveting Wenjie Jiahe had arisen, his desire for money was even greater.

"Li Dao, how have you been chatting with foreign film merchants these past few days?"

Li Yang was overjoyed: "Fortunately, you introduced me to Jiang Dong; he knows many people. Although it's been tiring these past few days, there have been some gains after all."

He took out several documents from his bag, all in the form of memoranda of understanding.

This was the requirement set by Boss Lu, the major investor who held 2/3 of the shares: talk before the awards ceremony ends, don't decide.

Li Yang didn't have such confidence in his own film. This year's Berlin was surrounded by strong enemies; not to mention others, Zhang Yimou's *Hero* was a towering mountain.

And there were only these two Chinese films that entered the main competition unit.

Lu Kuan flipped through the contracts. The numbers might be considerable for Li Yang, but they were far from reaching his expectations.

"Wait a bit. I have a premonition that after tomorrow, your room threshold will be trampled!"

Li Yang laughed loudly: "Good! Everyone says Director Lu is the little immortal of the mainland entertainment industry. Let's see if it's accurate this time!"

Lu Kuan looked at his watch: "Let's go, I have an appointment to eat with Jiang Dong and Director Yimou. Yixiang, come along."

Li Yixiang gratefully agreed repeatedly; without Lu Kuan's word, Li Yang really wouldn't have been able to bring him along.

The dining location was not far from the hotel, and several people walked there. Hu Zi looked left and right nervously, afraid that the boss would be bumped by the protesting crowd.

Jiang Zhiqiang and Zhang Yimou were already seated in the Chinese restaurant, and there was a delicate-looking girl sitting next to the latter.

"Li Xiaolu, here!"

Zhang Yimou was already the number one director in the country, but his dress was not very particular, wearing an old black sweater. Seeing Lu Kuan, he smiled with wrinkles all over his face.

Boss Lu introduced several people and then jokingly teased Jiang Zhiqiang.

"Jiang Dong, I don't know what the rules are in your Xiangjiang. In our mainland, we pay attention to the fact that it's still the New Year until the first month is over."

"It's only the Lantern Festival tomorrow. In the first month of the New Year, a big boss like you invites us to eat this?"

Boss Lu exaggeratedly knocked on the shabby menu. Calling this a Chinese restaurant would be better called an East Asian restaurant.

There weren't many Chinese dishes; the Korean kimchi and the Japanese sushi occupied several lines.

Everyone laughed, and the girl next to Zhang Yimou also covered her mouth, curiously looking at this "washing machine" director who was famous outside.

Not to mention his directorial ability, he was much more romantic than his father.

Zhang Yimou introduced everyone belatedly: "Everyone, this is my daughter Zhang Mo, currently studying in the film department at NYU."

"Mo'er, everyone here is your uncle or brother, say hello."

Zhang Mo also had a generous personality and questioned her father: "Is Director Lu older than me? Didn't he just enter his freshman year at Beidian last year?"

"Haha, I'm in the same age group as Lafite."

"Ah?"

"I'm an '82, 1982 Lafite, haha."

Jiang Zhiqiang finally found a chance to tease him: "Li Xiaolu, don't get excited as soon as you see a beautiful girl; her father is sitting here."

Lu Kuan cupped his hands as if to apologize, and everyone laughed again.

"Come on, alone in a foreign land as a stranger, let's have a drink together!"

"Cheers!"

(End of this chapter) ===== CHAPTER 150 =====