On the plane to Venice, Cheng Peng changed the crew to a tour group, but after the opening of the film festival, he didn't have time to take everyone out to play, he was busy watching movies, receiving film dealers, and communicating with other directors.

For this reason, the members of the crew protested to Cheng Peng: "Leader, what about the tour group?" We're waiting for you to take us on a trip! ”

In the face of everyone's protests, Cheng Peng could only raise his hand to surrender, announcing that he would put down everything tomorrow and organize everyone to travel.

The next morning, more than 10 people in the crew rushed to the main island of Venice, only Zhang Ziyi did not go with her, she is the spokesperson of L'Oreal Asia, and there is an event for L'Oreal today.

Venice is one of the most important tourist attractions in Italy, with many famous attractions, such as St. Mark's Square, known as "the most beautiful living room in Europe", and the Rialto Bridge in the movie "Love Falling Bridge", where "a kiss on the bridge can make the sea dry and the rocks rot" and so on.

After strolling until the evening, there were still many attractions to visit, and everyone reluctantly boarded the passenger boat and prepared to return to Lido Island.

The boat is very spacious, the crew gathers on the deck and keeps taking pictures, while Cheng Peng leans on the side of the boat and thinks about the movie, it is impossible for "Dark Invasion" to win awards, is there any way to make it more popular?

At this moment, a man's voice came from beside him: "You are the director of the movie "Invasion of Darkness"? ”

Cheng Peng turned his head and saw a middle-aged fat man, with small eyes, a big nose, and a beard, and his face looked a little fierce, a bit like the warden in the TV series "Prison Break".

He felt as if he had seen this person somewhere, but he couldn't remember who it was for a while: "Yes, I'm Cheng Peng, I don't know if you are?" ”

The fat man laughed, "I'm Harvey Weinstein." ”

Harvey Weinstein, the boss of Miramax! Cheng Peng's eyes lit up, he was too familiar with this name, as long as it was a movie, I am afraid that no one would not know this name.

Harvey Weinstein and younger brother Bob Weinstein are Hollywood's most well-known filmmakers, and no surname shines brighter in Hollywood than "Weinstein."

The Weinstein brothers have a legendary experience, and in the first decade of their founding, Miramax did not go well, and the way to make money was to buy cheap, deep, and even soft-art films directed by European directors, and then pick out the exposed shots in the movies and make trailers to attract audiences. But his unbridled cuts to European films earned him the nickname "Scissorhands Weinstein." In the eyes of some non-American directors, Weinstein is synonymous with "demons". Hayao Miyazaki once said in an interview with The Guardian that when "Princess Mononoke" was released in the United States, he mailed Weinstein a katana with a naked line written on the blade: "No cuts!" ”

In 1989, Miramax bought Steven Soderbergh's award-winning film "Last Name, Lies, and Tape" at the Sundance Film Festival for $1 million, which changed the Weinstein brothers' fortunes after its release.

Since then, they have embarked on a journey of world conquest, successfully producing and distributing a large number of classic films, such as "The English Patient", "Shakespeare in Love", "Chicago", "Trainspotting", "Pulp Fiction" and many more, for which they have earned the reputation of "the savior of modern cinema".

So far, they have been nominated for 205 Oscars and have won back 51 of them, making them the most thanked people at the Oscars besides God.

Cheng Peng knew that the Weinstein brothers were money-hungry and not easy to deal with, but their distribution ability was really strong, and "Hero" was released by them, and said with a smile: "I have long admired the name, Mr. Weinstein!" ”

Harvey Weinstein laughs: "When the festival opened, I was very impressed by your films. I don't know if it's me, the audience at the scene was taken aback, this is the most interesting thing since the opening of the film festival! ”

"I hope you will be able to watch the movie live when it is released, I am sure you will be scared many times!"

"When will Invasion of Darkness be released?"

"8 p.m. the day after tomorrow."

"In two days, I'm very interested in "Dark Invasion", I wonder if you have any related information? Trailer or DVD, I want to see it soon! ”

"We came to Venice to sell movies, all of which are available, if you are interested, you can go back to the hotel with us to see them!"

"Okay, I'm looking forward to the movie!"

Harvey Weinstein was really interested in "Invasion of Darkness" and kept asking about the movie; Cheng Peng, on the other hand, keeps making introductions, and he also hopes to cooperate with a big company like Miramax.

The two were talking, when suddenly there was a commotion, Cheng Peng looked up and found that the boat had stopped six thousand meters away from the pier. A group of police officers on the dock probed with their instruments, as if they were looking for something.

Cheng Peng frowned and said, "What's wrong?" ”

Harvey Weinstein also wanted to know what was going on, so he called his younger brother, Bob Weinstein. Soon, his face sank: "I just received an anonymous call saying that a bomb was installed on the dock!" ”

Bombs, how is that possible?

Cheng Peng has no memory of the bombing of the Venice Film Festival, it should not be true, and said lightly: "It must be a prank, just like fireworks on the red carpet." ”

Harvey Weinstein didn't expect Cheng Peng to be so indifferent, this is a bomb, what if it's true, his expression was a little nervous: "I hope it's just a prank!" ”

After waiting for more than twenty minutes, the crisis was lifted, the detection near the pier was completed, there was no sign of any bomb, and the anonymous call was just a prank.

Harvey Weinstein breathed a sigh of relief and complained with a calm face: "The organization of this film festival is terrible, there is chaos every day, the whole organization process seems almost amateurish, I have been to many film festivals, and I have never encountered a film festival with so many problems!" ”

Indeed, as Harvey Weinstein said, this year's film festival can only be described as chaotic, the opening ceremony was half an hour late on the first day, and the next chaos was one after another, the world premiere of the movie "5x2" was supposed to be held at 10 o'clock in the evening, but it was actually 75 minutes late, and director Ou Rong was very disappointed; The release of the film "The Merchant of Venice" was postponed by one hour, which made the Hollywood star Al Murphy who participated in the film. Pacino wandered outside the theater for more than half an hour; Then the computer malfunctioned, and more than 200 movie tickets were re-sold. "Finding Neverland" starring Depp has been postponed from its scheduled midnight premiere to 2:15 a.m.

In the past two days, Cheng Peng has been praying that there will be no chaos during the premiere of "Dark Invasion", and at this moment, when he heard Harvey Weinstein complaining, he smiled and said: "I specially prepared a pair of cement shoes, if there is a problem with the premiere of "Dark Invasion", let Mr. Muller choose how to die, jump into the Grand Canyon, or the hotel pool, or the Venice Lagoon?" ”

Harvey Weinstein laughed: "That's a good idea, if that guy Mark finds out, he'll be scared and take care of the rest of the matter!" ”

After the ship docked, Cheng Peng brought Harvey Weinstein back to his room, where there were big-screen movies and DVDs, and many crews were in the room to show trailers and movies for the studios.

Ninety minutes later, the movie ends.

Cheng Peng looked at Harvey Weinstein and smiled, although Harvey Weinstein did not scream like the audience in the movie theater during the screening of the movie, his body also shook several times.

Harvey Weinstein was scared enough during the movie, his face turned a little pale, exhaled, and said: "It's a good shot, it's scary, but it's impossible to win an award in Venice, this is not an award-winning movie." ”

Cheng Peng admitted frankly: "Horror films will have a lot of deliberate places in order to achieve the purpose of scary, which is a fatal flaw for the awards, and it is beyond my expectation to be shortlisted." Of course, I didn't make this movie to win awards, but to make money, and enough money for me to make more movies. ”

Harvey Weinstein laughed: "Scary enough for a horror film, I hope to get the North American rights to this film!" ”

"How much are you willing to pay?"

"$3 million, what do you think? If possible, it is desirable to be able to sign the contract as soon as possible. On the 9th, I'm going to Toronto, which is the last major film market in North America! ”

3 million is a good price, if 3 million sells the North American rights, the movie will return to its original cost, but Cheng Peng did not rush to agree.

In fact, after the crew arrived in Venice, the distributor had already begun to contact Cheng Peng and ask to watch the film. Cheng Peng let it go for several film companies, and the response was good, but he was not in a hurry to sign the contract, he was confident in his film, and planned to negotiate the contract after the premiere after receiving praise from the media.

The original version of "Invasion of Darkness" is relatively high in terms of both the audience's reputation and the media's evaluation, and Cheng Peng is confident that it will be better than the original, and believes that it can get a higher evaluation, and after a large number of praises come out, the price of the movie will inevitably rise.

Cheng Peng smiled faintly and said: "This price is good, but the contract is not urgent, we Chinese have an old saying, shop around, and after the movie is released, we will talk to other companies!" ”

Harvey Weinstein didn't expect Cheng Peng to not agree to this price, and said in surprise: "Are you not satisfied with this price?" Cheng, you must know that Americans don't like to watch foreign language films, they don't like to watch movies with subtitles, and it is difficult for foreign language films to achieve high box office, so far there are no more than 15 foreign language films with a box office of more than 10 million, and these movies are basically films that have been nominated for Oscars, and they can get this result by relying on the influence of the Oscars. Until now, there have been no blockbuster foreign horror films, and your Asian blockbusters "Midnight Bell" and "The Grudge" have all grossed zero in North America! ”

"Although "Midnight Bell" and "The Grudge" both grossed zero at the North American box office, the DVD sales exceeded 10 million US dollars. There are many things that these two movies can't understand for North American audiences, my movie doesn't have such problems, the story is relatively simple, and the movie tries to simplify the dialogue as much as possible, using movements, expressions, and other silent language to tell the story, I believe that North American audiences can understand it. ”

Harvey Weinstein is optimistic about "Invasion of Darkness" because of this, the audience does not have much obstacle to watching the movie, he originally thought that Cheng Peng was this style, but he didn't expect it to be deliberate, and Cheng Peng's gaze is a little different: "Oh, then how much do you think this movie is worth?" ”

Cheng Peng shook his head with a smile and said, "I'm not in a hurry to talk about this issue, wait for the movie to be released, look at the evaluation of the media, see the audience's reaction, and then make a decision!" ”

Harvey Weinstein saw that Cheng Peng was determined to wait for the premiere, and he didn't stalk him, he believed that after the premiere, 3 million might not be able to buy, and said with a little disappointment: "Okay, let's talk after the movie premieres!" ”

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