The final resolution of the directors was largely influenced by Lin Mu's report, and the company's board of directors finally reached an agreement on the acquisition of Paramount. Many directors were impressed by the report of the www.biquge.info of the pen, as one director later recalled: "This young Chinese man named not only brought a visual revolution to Viacom, but also had an impact on Viacom even more than Sumner-Rayshidong." In fact, when it comes to Viacom in the 90s, people only think of Lin! ”

At the beginning of April, Lin Mu received a call from Frank Durabont, and after a long production, the film "The Shawshank Redemption" is finally going to meet the audience.

Lin Mu congratulated Frank Durabont, who knew that the film "The Shawshank Redemption" made Frank Durabont famous and became one of Hollywood's top directors in one fell swoop. Lin Mu also gladly accepted his invitation and decided to attend the new film conference held in Washington.

During this time, Lin Mu and Julia Roberts were very busy, Lin Mu was preparing for Viacom's investment planning, and Julia Roberts took over a new film. After accepting Lin Mu's suggestion, Julia Roberts no longer chose some vase-like roles, but began to try to create some connotative screen images. The two have had little time to spend together except for talking on the phone recently. The scandal about the two finally faded out of people's sight. So at the press conference of the new film "The Shawshank Redemption", no reporter talked about the scandal between the two of them.

Although the main creators of the film are all sitting on the stage, the focus of the reporter's questions is only on a few people. Lin Mu is undoubtedly the focus of the audience, but he is also notoriously difficult to interview. What the reporters wanted from Lin Mu was a topic that Lin Mu didn't want to talk about. So the film's starring Tim Robbins and black actor Morgan Freeman have become popular targets for journalists. Forrest Gump has clearly not taught enough lessons to the media, and they still don't pay much attention to director Frank Durabont, who was not yet well-known at this time.

"The same script with the theme of prison break, many people think that "The Shawshank Redemption" is the movie version of "Prison Break", I wonder if you agree with this point of view, Mr.?" Halfway through the press conference, a reporter finally asked Lin Mu such a question.

Lin Mu did not refuse this question, he had heard such a statement before, and it was obvious that everyone's understanding of this question was a bit backwards. "I'm glad that Mr. Reporter asked this question, I know that "Prison Break" is very popular with everyone, but I have to say that although "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Prison Break" are both set in prison breaks, the themes that the two scripts want to express are completely different. If I had to say that there was any connection between the two, I could only say that "Prison Break" is an adaptation of "The Shawshank Redemption"! ”

Lin Mu has amazing words every time he releases a new film, and this time is no exception. As soon as he said this, the audience immediately talked about it. "Can you tell us more about what you think of these two scripts?"

In fact, these two scripts still have a certain origin in creation, so it is inevitable that there are some similarities in the plot at the beginning, and the protagonists are wrongfully imprisoned. In fact, at the beginning of the creation, I first had the idea of writing "The Shawshank Redemption", and on this basis, I was inspired by the prison escape incident in California last year, so I first came up with the script of "Prison Break". Due to more consideration of commercial factors, "Prison Break" mainly focuses on the portrayal of the plot. "The Shawshank Redemption" focuses more on expressing a connotation, and the script revolves around the main line of redemption, and conducts in-depth thinking about the two major propositions of humanity and friendship. In my opinion, "The Shawshank Redemption" has no less artistic appeal than "Forrest Gump"! ”

Hearing Lin Mu compare this film with "Forrest Gump", many reporters became interested, and stood up again: "So do you think this film may achieve the same box office results as the film "Forrest Gump"? ”

This reporter wanted to beat around the bush, but Lin Mu just didn't fall for it, "I'm not God, so I can't predict the box office, but I believe God will like this film too!" ”

This "movie that God will love too" finally lived up to Lin Mu's high expectations, and the film received rave reviews upon release. And many TV viewers who love "Prison Break" walked into the cinema for the first time, and they wanted to see if this original movie of "Prison Break" in Lin Mu's mouth was really as wonderful as he said. They were not moved by the plot of the film, but they were deeply conquered by the profound meaning expressed in the film. And many of the dialogues in this film have become classics, "Cowardice imprisons the soul of man, and hope can make you feel free." The strong save themselves, and the saints cross the people" has become the motto of many Americans who love this movie. And in the film, Red said, "These walls are funny. When you first went to prison, you hated the walls around you; Slowly, you get used to living in it; Eventually you find yourself having to rely on it to survive, and that's called institutionalization. This was unanimously rated by the media as the most classic movie dialogue in 93.

The film was released for a month and a half, and finally earned 680 million at the box office, becoming Columbia Pictures' highest-grossing film in recent years. The videotape of the film also set a record for the sales of audiovisual products in the United States. And the biggest winner of the hit film "The Shawshank Redemption" is Frank Durabont, who was not taken seriously before. The industry has praised director Frank Durabont for expressing the individual's fear of "the passage of time and the transformation of the environment" through the special context of prison, which is a special setting of forced deprivation of liberty and a strong emphasis on discipline. Almost everyone is optimistic about the film, thinking that at next year's Oscars, Frank Durabont will definitely be able to get a little golden statuette.

Frank Durabont didn't refuse to be interviewed because the media had previously snubbed him, and he didn't show much euphoria during the interview. He sincerely said that this is not his personal success, and the success of the whole film is also inseparable from the joint efforts of all members of the crew. In particular, he emphasized the importance of a good script on the success of a film. "When I first saw this script, I knew it was going to be a success, because it was so well written! I believe that even if you change directors, you can also achieve the same results as me. This film is not so much my success as it is the success of Mr. Lin, who used a great script to shape a successful movie! ”

When it comes to Lin Mu, Frank Durabont's words are full of gratitude, "It was at Mr. Lin's insistence that I was fortunate enough to be the director of this film, and I later learned that in order to convince the company's top management, Mr. Lin gave up the high price of the original script." This also strengthened my idea that I must make this film well, so the first thing I want to thank is Mr. Lin!"

Frank Durabont's praise for Lin Mu has earned him a good reputation as a "good person", which will undoubtedly help Lin Mu continue to serve as a continuing producer in the future. Thanks to this good reputation, he reduced a lot of resistance when he boldly used some unknown directors and actors later.

At the same time, Viacom has also accelerated its acquisition of Paramount. As Lin Mu analyzed, Paramount is now in a very embarrassing predicament, although last year's "Forrest Gump" regained a little of Paramount's former style, but the company's overall situation has not been fundamentally reversed because of the great success of "Forrest Gump", and the performance of the entire company has been declining, which makes Martin Davis, the owner of Paramount's parent company Gulf West, have the intention of selling the old film company as a whole.

As soon as the news came out, it immediately attracted the attention of many people. As a veteran giant of the film industry, Paramount is known for its starry symbol of the snow-capped mountains, in fact, it is very appropriate to use the mountain as a metaphor for Paramount's position in the film industry, in the first three decades of its existence, the company has been sitting on the throne of Hollywood hegemony with many stars, high-quality films and theater chains all over the United States. From the '60s to the '90s, Paramount's real power changed rapidly, but that didn't affect the quality of its films, whether it was Robert Evans or Barry Diller, the studio was always able to produce films like "The Godfather," "Weekend Night Mania," "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Forrest Gump." The imminent sale of such a troubled old film company will not only worry about the future of Paramount, but also several other Hollywood studios, and no matter who Paris ends up falling into, it will have a huge impact on the future of Hollywood's film market.

Viacom was the first company to approach Martin Davis, and the negotiations between the two sides had already entered the substantive stage, but halfway through the way, a Barry Diller was killed, and the negotiations between Viacom and Martin Davis came to a standstill.

Barry Diller, the former CEO of Paramount, took over Paramount in 1976 with a television background, and his production staff, known as the "Diller Killers," were aggressive, bold and able to capture the audience's tastes. Spielberg's "Ark Marauders" had a budget of $17.5 million, an astronomical amount at the time, but Eisner, a subordinate who thought it was a children's cartoon based on real life, could be released on Saturday morning, insisted on filming, and as a result, the film was released in 1982, Paramount netted $115 million, and was called a classic of thriller action movies of that period. And Diller's beloved film "The Red Molecule" was Diller's most expensive film during the Paramount period, winning three Oscars, giving Diller a reputation for making "serious" films.

In 1983, Paramount made a profit of $141 million, compared to $39 million in 1973. Paramount jumped from the bottom to the top of the six studios. In 18 months, 20 blockbuster films were made. Indiana only. The Jones series earned $224.6 million and cost $49 million to shoot. Diller changed Paramount's fortunes, and one of the clear signs of its success was that in 1980, two of the five films nominated for the best Oscar were produced by Paramount. "I was driving to the studio when the radio announced the nominations, and I almost hit the wall when I heard the news," Diller said. ”

Ten years later, Diller joined Fox and co-founded the Fox Network with media mogul Murdoch, which within a few years made it the fourth-largest television network in the United States. By the year, at the age of 50, Diller had become a Hollywood figure. But he was disappointed that the Fox network's performance continued to decline, and Diller made the decision to resign just after his 50th birthday. He set his sights on the burgeoning TV shopping, but he foresaw the future of commerce from TV shopping shows - just by interacting with the screen, it would be easy to make a purchase. In the same year, Barry Diller joined QVC as the company's CEO.

Barry Diller's cross-shot shot made Viacom's negotiations with Martin Davis passive, and the originally negotiated price was immediately rejected by Martin Davis at the negotiating table the next day, which made Sumner Raystone feel very angry. He consulted with the Woods in Los Angeles about the matter, and was told that Viacom had to take Paramount from Barry Diller. Lin Mu told Sumner-Lei Shidong that the company had no choice. If this opportunity is missed, Viacom's pace of development will be at least two years slower than previously planned. And in two years, a lot of things will change.

On the one hand, Viacom's top management is hesitating, and on the other side, Barry Diller is actively engaging with Martin Davis. Although the disagreement with owner Martin Davis was the main reason for Barry Diehler to leave Paramount, Barry Dihler and Martin Davis have always had a good personal relationship, and Martin Davis is happy to see Combe have one more competitor, and the result of the two strong rivalry is to raise the price of Paramount's final sale, and Martin Davis is happy to see such an outcome.

At first, Lin Mu didn't take it very seriously, and in his memory Barry Diller was indeed involved in the race to buy Paramount, but Viacom was the winner. In Lin Mu's opinion, QVC's own strength cannot be compared to Viacom, when things are far from being as simple as he imagined. At this time, Lin Mu's relationship with Julia Roberts also had problems. (To be continued.) )