Capítulo 108: Chapter 108 - Actor Undecided, Investment Unavailable
The big beautiful Charlize Theron teased a big red face, Lin Mingyang heart is very satisfied, he is getting more and more relaxed, Charlize Theron is getting more and more rushed. When the song ended and the two exited the dance floor, Charlize Theron no longer dared to look directly into Lin Mingyang's eyes, because she found that there was a magical attraction in Lin Mingyang's eyes, but when this kind of look appeared in his eyes, a small collision of the eyes could make Charlize Theron's heart flutter.
After the dance, she found a random excuse and hurriedly left the stage. Lin Mingyang looked at Charlize Theron's marvelous back hidden in the crowd of the reception, his heart was always a bit unfulfilled.
Just as Lin Mingyang froze with a glass of juice, someone behind him suddenly called out in surprise, "Felix?"
Lin Mingyang turned his head with a surprised expression, but found that the guy who "shouted" and almost scared himself was a strange middle-aged man with his hair cut short on both sides and standing up in the middle.
Lin Mingyang did not have any impression of this guy, but on second thought, if he could attend such a reception, he might be the editor-in-chief of a newspaper or a magazine, and this group of people are not as easy to deal with as journalists. Without even thinking about asking the other party's identity, Lin Ming Yang's mind quickly flashed through such a thought.
"I'm sorry, I have to go to the restroom!" He didn't wait for the other party to say anything, snatching the juice down before him and preparing to bolt.
Lin Mingyang thought that he would be able to get rid of the guy this way, but the other party followed him all the way. While Lin Ming Yang was pretending to wash his hands, he leaned against the side of the dryer, "I'm familiar with you because I've seen the few movies you've acted in, and your scripts are well-written..."
The guy seemed to have forgotten that he should have organized his words before he opened his mouth, and the words came out a bit upside down, "I like to write my own scripts, and I've certainly filmed scripts that I've written."
After washing up, Lin Ming Yang pulled out a paper towel to wipe his hands, he felt that the other guy's grammar was really problematic, so he couldn't help but ask, "Are you sure you're really a director?"
It was only when Lin Mingyang reached his hand under the dryer that the guy slapped his head and remembered that he was still a stranger between himself and Lin Mingyang, and that he should introduce himself first when they met, "My name is Andrew Nicoll, from New Zealand."
"Andrew Nicol?" Lin Ming Yang felt that this name was somewhat familiar, and when he thought about it carefully, he forgot to retract his hand.
"Your hands have been blow-dried!" Andrew Nicol kindly reminded.
Lin Ming Yang smiled awkwardly at the other party, and when he retracted his hand, he suddenly remembered which god this Andrew Nicol was. Speaking of which, this guy should be quite famous now, although not as scenic as his hometown Peter Jackson, but this guy did his best to work with big Hollywood movie stars, and has made movies that are famous, "Truman's World", "Virtual Idol", and the most famous one called ...
"Happy Endings", but this film I'm just the screenwriter and executive producer, the director is Mr. Spielberg." Andrew Niccol smiled modestly, "I used to shoot some commercials in London, but now I've switched to directing, and I've made two movies."
"But... "Lin Ming Yang held all the second half of his sentence in his mouth in a raw manner, what he actually wanted to say just now wasn't Happy Endings, but he didn't get the time wrong this time after all, it was only 2004, and the filming of Andrew Niccol's most iconic one hadn't even started yet.
Andrew Niccol looked at Lin Ming Yang with a somewhat strange expression, "Is there a problem?"
Lin Ming Yang looked at the other man speechlessly as he rolled his throat with difficulty, "I think... this should be my line!"
"I have a script in my hand that's short of actors, do you want to give it a try?" This was an idea that popped up only after Andrew Niccol ran into Lin Ming Yang at the reception, with Lin Ming Yang, a new generation of Hollywood movie stars joining him, it would be much easier for him to take the script and go looking for an investor. But the crux of the matter was that what Andrew Niccol had prepared for Lin Ming Yang was only a supporting role.
"For the male lead I'm going to invite Nicolas Cage to star, and you'll play his brother."
"But do you think Nicolas Cage and I look like brothers?" Lin Ming Yang really admired the director's "imagination", if he and Keanu Reeves were to play brothers that would be somewhat reliable.
"This is indeed a problem!" Andrew Niccol clasped his hand on his chin, looking up and down at Lin Ming Yang, as a Chinese mixed race child, Lin Ming Yang's handsome face is comparable to Keanu Reeves, the oriental features are even more obvious, "but the script is what I wrote, it's very simple to modify, you and Cage are half-brothers, so there's no problem now, is there? "
"Can I read the script first?" Lin Ming Yang had actually guessed which movie Andrew Niccol wanted to make, but he still needed a final verification.
"I don't have the script with me, but that's definitely a challenging subject, have you heard of this man Victor Bout?"
This person Lin Ming Yang really hadn't heard of, seeing his blank face, Andrew Nicoll explained, "He is the most famous arms smuggler in the international arena, owning the largest fleet of private cargo planes in the world. He ships all sorts of weapons to various conflict zones around the globe through his own air cargo network, and as long as you have enough money on hand, he even ships tanks as well as other heavy weapons to any corner of the world."
"U.S. and U.N. information shows that Butt smuggled huge quantities of assault rifles, grenade launchers, bullets, and other light and heavy weapons to war-torn areas in Africa.Between 1992 and 1995, he also sold $50 million worth of arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan. He also secretly supplied arms by sea to anti-government forces in many conflict zones around the world in exchange for diamonds as well as other valuable goods."
"This guy is that good?" Hearing one of the figures listed by Andrew Nicol, Lin Mingyang also had a smack of his lips, "So is he still alive now?"
Generally, "bulls" end badly, the most bullish **** got two planes to crash into a US building, so now the US army is digging through Afghanistan to find this guy. Victor Butt also sounds very "bullish", so Lin Mingyang guessed that this guy also did not have a good ending.
Unfortunately, his guess was wrong this time, Victor Bout is not only alive, but also living a good life.
"He currently resides in Moscow, but spends most of his time in the UAE maneuvering his own fleet of cargo planes. With many false identities and the care of many Establishment figures, he has always managed to escape sanctions. His name has appeared in a series of UN Security Council reports and many of the deadly deals he operated have been cited. The Belgian government has issued a wanted notice for him for money laundering and conspiracy, and his name also appears on Interpol's most wanted list."
Lin Mingyang was shocked, "After carrying so many charges, no one can sanction him?"
"Perhaps he will be sanctioned by the law one day, but buying and selling weapons is just a normal need in the course of war. What really creates wars is often the manipulation of certain powers behind the scenes, and even many long-term conflicts are created because of certain powers on purpose. That's why I've already thought of a name for this movie, and it's called King of War. I am trying to tell everyone this simplest truth through the story of an arms dealer!"
"I think you should go and make a documentary, just about the subject of arms dealers selling guns before the Iraq war, maybe it'll be like Fahrenheit 9/11 and set another box office record for documentary movies!" As the two came out of the restroom together, Lin Mingyang made a suggestion.
"I can assure you that truthfulness is the biggest feature of this movie, and the details of the seemingly crazy plot are absolutely derived from reality. The main character of the movie, Yuri, is a combination of 5 arms dealers, and all the stories in the movie are also based on real experiences. Details including military helicopters being sold as emergency helicopters, arms dealers changing the names and registering companies of their ships off the high seas, arms dealers being released from prison for certain non-public reasons, and former Soviet military weapons being looted or stolen after the collapse of the Soviet regime, etc. are all true. It's a movie that reflects on the nature of war, and I think there's a lot more to making it than making a documentary."
Lin Mingyang suddenly stopped in his tracks, "You should have watched the Oscars tonight?"
Andrew Niccol nodded suspiciously, "I was sitting on the stage at the time."
"Then did you also watch last year's awards ceremony?"
"I watched it live on TV last year."
"What do you feel is the biggest difference between these two Oscars?"
Andrew Niccol misunderstood Lin Ming Yang's meaning, "The feeling of being there is completely different from watching it live!"
"I mean the content!" Lin Ming Yang really didn't know how Andrew Niccol, a guy with a thin head, wrote such a classic movie script as King of War, "Last time, when all the winners gave their speeches, they all mentioned the war, and at that time, the US was preparing to attack Iraq. Now the U.S. occupies Iraq, but the war isn't over, and U.S. troops are losing men and women every day, even more than when they took Iraq. But tonight's honorees kept their mouths shut about anything war-related, which really represents Hollywood's attitude toward the war, deliberately ignoring and not commenting on it."
"What exactly are you trying to say?" Andrew Niccol marveled not at Lin Mingyang's attitude towards this war, and the perspective from which he considered the issue.
Lin Mingyang asked a very realistic question, "I want to know, are there investors willing to pay money to help you make this movie?"
"As you said, Hollywood investors are a little skittish about the subject matter that this movie is reacting to, I'm actively looking for foreign investors right now, if you're willing to join, and then I'll convince Nicolas Cage, I'm sure someone will be willing to invest." Andrew Niccol spoke with confidence, but in fact he didn't have a bottom in his heart.
There has never been a movie that comes so close and exposes the truth and inner workings of the arms trade and does not shy away from the important role played by the United States as Kings of War does. Because of the sensitive subject matter involved, Andrew Niccol became quite tough in finding American investors.
"That is to say, the cast of this movie is undecided and the investment is not available for the time being?" Lin Mingyang picked his words straight up and said, "Honestly, I'm not interested in that role you're offering."
From the previous conversation, Andrew Niccol felt that Lin Ming Yang was interested in this movie, but Lin Ming Yang's final reply made him a little disappointed.
Andrew Niccol nodded with a grim expression, it wasn't the first time he had hit a wall on this issue, with the same reason, he had been rejected so many times that he felt like he was about to go numb.
"Don't be too busy being disappointed, I haven't finished my words yet!" Lin Ming Yang called out to Andrew Niccol who was about to leave, "I'm not interested in that role, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating and agreeing with the theme of this movie. I'll pay for this movie, you make it!"
----
After Ecks learned of Lin Ming Yang's decision, his first reaction was that he was out of his mind.
"I feel so much better since I got mental illness!" Lin Ming Yang didn't bother to argue with him and simply admitted that he was really "sick".
"There's always that group of guys in Hollywood who hold on to the so-called truth and specialize in making shocking subjects, and then there's always some fools like you who are convinced by them in a few words and still think they're saving the world, but are actually stupid to the core!" With just one script, Andrew Niccol was ready to write Lin Ming Yang a check for $40 million, which was equivalent to one-third of his current assets. Ecks hadn't even looked at the script that Andrew Niccol had sent over before coming to this conclusion.
"I think you should read the script before determining who exactly is the stupid one!" Lin Mingyang suggested calmly.
"There are a total of 550 million guns in the world. That's an average of 1 gun for every 12 people. The only problem is, how do we get the other 11 people to have guns as well?" Ecks wasn't out of breath yet, he flipped through the script and the first sentence on it made him laugh, "Selling guns as if you were selling food, easy for you to say!"
"There are more gun stores in America than McDonald's!" Lin Ming Yang shot back tit-for-tat, "That's a line from the script, but I've looked it up on the internet and that's just the way it is, from that perspective, there's no difference between selling guns and selling vegetables!"
Ecks sat there with a speechless expression on his face, Lin Ming Yang gestured for him to continue reading, "I think that after you've watched it carefully, not to say that you completely agree with it, but at least you'll feel that using 40 million dollars to make a movie like this will be worth every penny spent."
Eckles patiently continued to read, slowly, and admitted that it was a very interesting story, though he soon discovered more serious problems, such as a line of dialog in the script that went something like this:
"You sold both sides in the Iran-Iraq war, but did it ever occur to you that I wanted both sides to lose? It's more effective to change a government with the barrel of a gun than with a vote."
Echolls thinks similar language in a movie would certainly make it seem like a satire of the Iraq war that the U.S. is currently engaged in, and that such a movie would be under a lot of political pressure.
"I don't think it's satirized enough, there's more charged later in the script! Yuri, the hero, claims he never sold arms to ****, not because of moral issues, but back then the other guy's checks always bounced."
"This political humor isn't funny!" Ecks looked at Lin Ming Yang worriedly, "You take the money you make from the US and then invest in a movie that satirizes the US government?"
"Every dollar I make is taxed according to the law, so it's my right to criticize the government."
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