(The previous plot is completely over)

Saturday, March 17, 1984.

Gu flew alone to Los Angeles, the media capital, to work on the Lobby for a week-long Oscar nomination.

This year's Academy Awards ceremony will be held on April 9, and the official results of the awards will not be known until this last minute.

The nominee luncheon is normally held two weeks before the awards ceremony, on March 24. Whether a film can be nominated and how many nominations it will be made, even if the dust settles on March 24, there will be no further increases and decreases in the future.

Therefore, the focus of the Lobby work during the awards season is divided into two sections, the first section strives to be nominated as many times as possible, and the second section strives to win as many awards as possible on the projects that have already been nominated.

However, considering that Gu Biao now has another identity, even if the relevant cultural departments ask him for help, it is not easy to make a big splash. Gu Biao's visit to the United States this time was another reason for approving a coat on the official face-

In terms of external publicity, in his capacity as the "director of the Preparatory Committee of Huaxing Communications", Gu Biao went to the United States to conduct in-depth and detailed negotiations with Motorola on the authorization of certain technologies for the OEM production of pagers and paging signal base stations in China.

In fact, during the more than two weeks when he was in the United States, Gu Biao would really take a few days to go to San Francisco and Chicago to talk to the old acquaintances of the Galvin family. And the rest of the days, in the name of "self-funded investigation", secretly worked in Los Angeles.

Nowadays, it is not easy to go abroad, as long as it does not cost the country's money, the leaders of state-owned enterprises can hold a meeting abroad, participate in a technical academic discussion for three or five days, and rest and recuperate for a week or two after the meeting, then no one can say anything about you.

When I arrived at the Los Angeles airport, it was someone from Miramax who sent a car to pick up Gu Biao.

A low-key Cadillac with Harvey Weinstein himself sitting in the back seat. He sat down on the outside side of the car very carefully, took the initiative to get out of the car and go around half a circle to open the door for Gu Biao, and then went back to get into the car.

When Gu Biao saw Harvey, he was still a little strange, because with his understanding of Harvey, Harvey should be in the passenger seat at this time, so that it is convenient to help open the door, and he does not have to be on an equal footing with the boss.

Maybe it's because he wants to chat in the car.

However, after sitting down, Gu Biao glanced at the passenger seat in front of him a little, and he understood, because he also saw a strong man humbly acting as a bodyguard in that position, it was Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had two pleasant cooperation experiences with Gu Biao and Cameron.

The windows of this Cadillac are very dark, and there is a one-sided semi-permeable film, so it is difficult to see clearly from the outside, as is the case with many big-name cars in Hollywood.

"How embarrassing is this, Arnold, you are also a big star now, you should come up with a big star style. Gu Biao said kindly.

"Nothing, boss. "Schwarzenegger is also very cheerful.

"Arnold just has two films released by me, and we've been walking around a lot lately, so I'm here today. Harvey explained in the center.

Gu Biao was a little curious, asked a little bit, and quickly figured out the situation.

It turned out that from last year to the beginning of this year, Arnold was targeted by some wild investors and made two routine films, which are nothing more than superhero shootouts that will be translated as "devil XXX" in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Of course, these films were not made in 83 or 84 in history, because in the original time and space, Arnold was not so famous at that time.

However, because these films are originally consumer films, as long as the action star is popular, he can tailor as many as he wants. Gu Biao learned a little about it, and they were all goods with a production cost of tens of thousands, a maximum box office of 20 million in the United States, and a small profit from foreign earnings.

The investment and production of these films have nothing to do with Gu Biao, but they were released by Miramax after filming, so they intersected with Harvey. Now that the Oscars season is approaching again, Arnold is also not low in IQ, so he is willing to follow Harvey and Gu Biao as a younger brother, even if he acts like a cameo bodyguard.

A person who acts in movies, to this point, always wants to be more familiar in the Oscar circle.

Gu Biao also made a big decision: "Then I will be disrespectful, Arnold, during the time I came to the United States, I still have to go to Chicago, negotiate with Motorola, and go back to Watsengton to see the current situation of my mentor." If you are really free, you are willing to be my bodyguard for three weeks, and I will give you the basic salary. ”

Arnold agreed.

Gu Biao no longer cared about Arnold's affairs, and turned his head to chat with Harvey about the recent situation of the lobby work.

"How many nominations can 'The Last Emperor' apply for this year?" he asked straight to the point.

Harvey replied lightly: "Best Picture and Best Director and Screenwriter, I think Bertolucci is the way he wants to win." In Hollywood, at the Oscars, celebrity biographical films have a natural advantage in winning these two awards, and the second is the processing and adaptation of real people that reflect social issues. "The Last Emperor" is such a good book, it's not a big problem. ”

Gu Biao also knows that what Harvey said is the truth, and celebrity biographies have always been Oscar winners. Spielberg's "Lincoln", Joe Wright's "Darkest Hour" (Qiu Fatzi's biography), and Tom Hopper's "The King's Speech" all won the award without suspense.

And the award-winning movie "Mother and Daughter Love" in 84 years in history can only be regarded as the second category at best, that is, "adaptation of real people and real things that reflect social issues", in today's environment, the competitiveness is not very strong-

Generally speaking, if it is an era when the nuclear file is strong, the United States does not emphasize the correctness of the ZZ, and this kind of subject matter is not as good as celebrity biographies to win awards. But if it is a year when the pig stalls are strong, it is possible to do the opposite.

For example, "Bohemian Rhapsody" in 2019 belongs to the pinnacle of celebrity biographical films that year, but it has not done the social feedback of the year, the pinnacle of ZZ correctness "Green Book".

Of course, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is just a superstar documentary, and it is inherently unable to shoot the tragedy of fate, which is still different from the biopics of the four emperors, kings, presidents, and prime ministers mentioned above.

"In addition to these three awards, what else?" Gu Biao continued to ask after smoothing out his thoughts.

He can't remember exactly how many awards "The Last Emperor" won in history and which ones they were, but there must be more than five or six, so there must be more.

This time, Harvey thought for a while: "There are also a lot of things that can be reported, photography and editing are on the one hand, and there are costumes and original music, because of the addition of unique Chinese elements, I am very sure ......"

Gu Biao felt a little chattering, interrupted the other party's description, and asked directly about the more important point: "What about the actors?

Harvey smiled embarrassedly: "Gu, you should understand that the actors this time are all Chinese, I don't mean blood, but nationality." ”

Gu Biao smiled helplessly and nodded: "I understand." ”

He just doesn't know these historical details and doesn't care about them in his previous life.

It seems that there is no way to solve this problem for the time being. Foreigners can shoot Chinese themes and win awards, but the premise is that it is foreigners who do it.

In fact, the historical "The Last Emperor" was originally able to win the award for the best original soundtrack in the "national style", but now because of the change and advance of history, this award is likely to be lost, but Gu Biao doesn't know - in history, the BGM of the film was composed by a publicly-funded graduate student surnamed Su who stayed in Germany, and the famous composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, so he finally won the Oscar.

And if in the 80s, you expect a pure Chinese creation to win an award, it is almost impossible.

But Gu Biao made this film 3 years ahead of schedule, which means that "the first batch of art students who studied abroad after resuming the college entrance examination and graduating from college have not yet had time to enter the professorship of a university abroad after graduating from graduate school". Therefore, the composition of "The Last Emperor" was almost mainly done by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

It is also very utilitarian for Americans to give out awards, so they will not think that a movie with a Chinese background is "mellow in national flavor" for the sake of their own face.

Therefore, from this point of view, it is really difficult to say whether it is a good thing or a bad thing for publicly-funded international students to stay and not return after studying.

It can only be said that the science and engineering technical talents urgently needed by the country should indeed be able to get a few more and get a few more when they come back. And for liberal arts students and art students who are not helpful to a strong country, it is also valuable to stay outside, at least to brush up on cultural exchanges.

If you are a professor at a German university or stay in violation of regulations because you admire the West, Westerners will feel a sense of superiority in their hearts, and if you compose a little and make some achievements, you may win the Oscar for Best Original Music. And as long as this person's conscience is still intact and he has not given up his Chinese citizenship and become German citizenship for the time being, it can be regarded as "letting a Chinese musician win an Oscar", and it can be regarded as a national honor. (It's not easy to get a German nationality, and people pay more attention to blood.) ）

Gu Biao has studied international relations all his life, and he can barely be regarded as a liberal arts student, but he can really contribute to the country anywhere, and he doesn't have to be rigid about the occasion.

"Anything that can be nominated, you have to try to win. For the actor category, even if there is no hope, at least apply for a supporting actor - the white actor who plays Johnston should be apprised. Whether the nomination is successful or not is another story. ”

Gu Biao finally made such a decision about the current situation, and then he changed his words and asked Harvey, "Besides, in the past few weeks, is there anything that I have to do personally? Or can you do it for you?"

Harvey also dared to call the boss, and immediately said: "If you have time, I suggest that you hold some cultural exchange meetings and banquets on occasions where the members of the jury are likely to appear." Don't talk about movies, that's against the law, just show how open China is today. ”

Gu Biao thought about it for a while, and already knew what Harvey's idea was.

Indeed, in the past two years, the country has been moving from left to right, and although it has been opened up, it has also been rectified. And at the special moment, in order to temporarily stabilize the mood of foreigners, it will be very helpful to convey the signal of "those are in the past, and now we are very open" to the old-fashioned judges of those jury.

This is also the only thing Gu Biao can do and do professionally. If you really talk about film art with the jury, Gu Biao is not at Harvey's level.

There is a sequence of hearing the Tao, and there is a specialization in the art industry.