Chapter 176 - Stubborn Michael Bay
The wonderful interlude of Lin Ming Yang and Charlize Theron's award kiss brought the entire atmosphere of the venue to its highest point, and the public's excitement was released in advance, so much so that when the real main event, the results of the Best Director and Best Film awards, were announced, the reactions from the stage were not very enthusiastic.
Keira Knightley, who had lost out on the Best Actress award, strutted around on the surface with an attitude of indifference, but her gaze still occasionally flickered towards the glittering little gold man in Lin Mingyang's hands. Her inner feelings at this moment could be summarized by a classic line from the film Three Stooges: "You feel bad when your friend flunks; you feel worse when your friend comes in first."
Sitting in front of the TV, Kate should have been happy that she won the bet and Lin Mingyang became an Oscar winner, a best of both worlds ending, but the episode after the award presentation didn't make her very happy. Even though she knew that it was just a play for the occasion, there was still some pain in her heart.
Having lost the bet, Lin Mingyang would have to unconditionally promise her one thing, and at this point Kate was considering whether or not she should restrict this guy from acting too intimately with other female celebrities in public. But on second thought, what would Lin Ming Yang think if she made such a request, the two of them hadn't had any substantial relationship so far, wouldn't it seem a bit selfish of her to do so?
Kate was entangled in this problem, she didn't even have the heart to pay attention to the Oscars ceremony that was being broadcast live on TV. Tom Hanks went on stage to present the Best Director, announcing that Ang Lee had won Best Director, and there were cheers from the stage.
During his speech, Ang Lee said, "First of all, I would like to thank a lot of people who were present and not present, like producer Ann Li, screenwriter Diana, Jack, etc. I think Brokeback Mountain belongs to me, Ang Lee, alone, and I will be very angry if it is made by anyone else! This movie is not about homosexuality, women, love, but love itself. Thank you all for your support, thank you my wife and son, I love you all and I will always be with you. Although my father sadly passed away during this time, thanks to my mom at home, and my compatriots in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China. Finally, thank you all for your concern!" At the end, he also thanked his Chinese compatriots in Chinese.
After successfully winning Best Director, it seems to be a given that the movie Brokeback Mountain will be the Best Picture. Because Brokeback Mountain had barely missed a beat in all of its previous outposts, the Producers, Writers and Directors Guild Awards were all in the bag, not to mention the Golden Globes.
As many Chinese, probably on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, were cheering for Ang Lee's unquestionable win for Best Director, in a turn of events, Jack Nicholson announced, with his badass smile, that the biggest winners of today's Oscar night were not the two handsome cowboys who had been faithful to the end among the lush green hills of Wyoming, but rather, the assorted people of all stripes who had lost and hoped for something in their lives on the streets of Los Angeles.
Producer Kasey Shulman, who won Best Picture for Crash, took the stage to give his acceptance speech, "Thank you for dropping in on this movie, a movie about love, tolerance and truth. We sweat before the other nominees, and you have made this one of the most exciting, wonderful and unique years for American cinema to have the most exciting, wonderful and unique films. Thank you all!"
After the host John announced, "The awards ceremony is over, good night everyone," the three and a half hour long ceremony finally came to an end. Viewers at the venue and in front of the TV experienced three hours of dull "anticipation", and then in the last half hour of suspenseful suspense, they witnessed two dark horses come out of the woodwork. Lin Mingyang walked away with the movie star crown, while the film "Punch" won Best Picture. Some are already saying that this is one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history.
This Oscars, there are tears in the eyes of the successful, but also failures in the heart of the regret, but these will soon be dissipated, only the movie can bring everyone eternal memories, just like the lifetime achievement award winner Robert Altman, the old director in his speech, said: "the beach with the sand construction of the castle, have to watch the waves to wash them away. The process of making each movie is the process of building a castle on the beach, the beauty of which can only remain in memory."
----
A week later, Lin Mingyang was invited to the base of the 'Hasbro' company in Rhode Island, and on the way he chatted with fellow traveler Spielberg.
"I had an interview after the Oscars that day, all without having a chance to congratulate you." Spielberg reached over, "Congratulations, you became the youngest movie star in Oscar history!"
Shaking hands with him, Lin Ming Yang didn't have that smug and excited expression on his face, "I've also seen a lot of happy news about you in the newspapers lately, it seems like you've recently been inducted into the 'Science Fiction Hall of Fame', and I'd like to congratulate you here as well!"
Spielberg smiled and waved his hand, "Do you know why I like the science fiction genre so much?"
"Because it's a space where you can take your imagination to the extreme!"
Because of this answer that satisfied himself, Spielberg decided to mention Lin Ming Yang, "It's because of that reason you mentioned that made me show a strong interest in filming the live-action version of Transformers. There are many directors who specialize in making sci-fi films, but do you know why I chose Michael Bay over others?"
"Because he has a great feel for this type of storytelling, and he can take fictional characters and rub them into reality and give them real humanity." In front of this globally acclaimed director, Lin Ming Yang had no need to hide anything, and he boldly stated his thoughts, "And the theme that the live-action 'Transformers' story is going to highlight is also humanity, whether it's 'Decepticons' or 'Autobots ', you definitely don't want them to be just a bunch of cold machines in the movie, fighting for the sake of fighting."
Spielberg held up his glasses and looked at Lin Ming Yang with a very formal gaze, "If this movie is put to shoot 5 years later, you will definitely be the best director of the movie!"
Lin Ming Yang laughed, "But if I wait another 5 years, I guess I won't be able to play the male lead at my age!"
This humorous answer amused Spielberg, he smiled and nodded, "Yes, what we need now is a young lead actor, but I still retain the idea I had just now, if the film is filmed for a sequel in the future, maybe I'll really ask you to be the director!"
At first Lin Ming Yang just took that proposal as a joke, but now it seemed like Spielberg was serious.
Seeing that Lin Ming Yang's expression was a bit rushed, Spielberg patted him on the shoulder, "I agree with the kind of point of view you emphasized in your Oscar acceptance speech, for a young man, too early and too high an honor is both an incentive, but it may also stifle your potential and creativity, and since you understand this, there's no need to be in a hurry, and the future of Hollywood will ultimately belong to you! s!"
----
At the entrance of the 'Hasbro' company's base, there towered a ten-meter tall model of Optimus Prime, which could be seen from a long distance away. It was only when the car came closer that Lin Mingyang realized that there was already a person standing underneath the model. When they got out of the car, the guy wearing a short blue T-shirt and sunglasses was tilting his head to observe the huge Autobot model in front of him.
This person was naturally Michael Bay, who Spielberg had talked to Lin Mingyang about on the way. Lin Mingyang was no stranger to this director who had made several sold-out commercial blockbusters. When the two sides met, Lin Mingyang and Michael Bay coincidentally made a move to remove their sunglasses and then hung them on the open collar.
"Looks like you guys have found common ground between you!" Spielberg noticed this detail and then used it as an entry point to the conversation, "You two should know each other, right?"
Michael Bay and Lin Ming Yang shook hands in a friendly manner, "This should be our first meeting, but we should know each other."
"That's right!" Lin Ming Yang nodded, "I've basically seen all the movies you've made!"
"I've also watched quite a few of the movies you've acted in, especially that 'Blood Diamond', it was really well made!"
"It should be my honor to receive your recognition!" Lin Ming Yang smiled and said, "Most of the movies I acted in before were some youthful campus movies, and in the past, I always thought that a director like you wouldn't like that style type of movie."
"To be honest I'm really not very interested in those types of movies, but I'm very interested in myself!" Michael Bay said frankly, "In fact, during the preparation of my last movie, Escape from Clone Island, I had considered asking you to take the lead role in this movie, and for that reason I seriously watched most of your movies. Although most of your roles were a bit childish again, your acting style was very mature. Later, because of some other factors, I did not go for you. Facts proved that my judgment was correct, you are now an Oscar winner, and I should congratulate you here!"
Last year's release of Escape from Clone Island failed to achieve the expected success, drawing bad reviews and failing miserably at the box office, but Michael Bay didn't have too many scruples when referring to the movie. With a director as established as him, one wouldn't let the failure of one movie completely negate his abilities.
The two men met for the first time and talked about topics of interest to each other. Spielberg looked at the two men on the side and saw that they shared a lot of common topics, and a stone hanging in his heart finally fell to the ground. After they chatted for a while, Spielberg brought the topic back on track.
"Michael, just now I saw that you have been observing that big guy at the door before us, do you have any thoughts on that?"
Michael Bay of course understood the meaning of Spielberg's words, but unfortunately he shook his head and said regretfully, "Nothing has touched my inspiration yet!"
Spielberg wasn't discouraged, "Then let's go in first and take a tour, I promise that there will be a lot of childhood toys in there that you..." he first looked at Michael Bay and then pointed at Lin Ming Yang, "And you, too, are all very familiar with. You will find out how authoritative and serious this company is when it comes to producing toys."
----
When they entered Hasbro's base for a tour, the staff inside was designing a new Monopoly game, and Lin Mingyang saw the drag doll "Mr. Potato" and the American soldier from "Special Forces". Lin Mingyang saw the cross-dressing doll "Mr. Potato" and "Special Forces" American soldier dolls, each of the toys here represents a childhood memory. Although Lin Mingyang did not inherit this body's memories, but for toys, he still has a natural affinity. And Michael Bay has been silent as far as the beginning of the tour is concerned.
After the tour was over, they met Brian Goldner, the CEO of the 'Hasbro' company. For being able to take a successful toy product and reinterpret it in the form of a live-action movie, the forty-something year old head of the company acted like a child, showing uncontrollable excitement in his words.
When Goldner arrived at Hasbro in 2000, the company was struggling to make ends meet and losing $144 million. That year, sales of licensed toys for Lucasfilm's Star Wars Prequel I: The Phantom Menace and Nintendo's Pokemon games in Japan were not doing so well. Hasbro was waking up to the fact that it was dangerously out of balance to become too enamored of Star Wars fandom and neglect its own classic toy brands.
The previous three years, Hasbro in order to obtain Lucas "Phantom Menace" and other Star Wars film toy licensing, commitment of at least 590 million dollars in royalties, but then the performance of the toy sales is not as expected for the turnaround, the company's patriarch Al proposed that the company's top priority is to stimulate their own sales of the core brand, reduce the dependence on external licensed products. They needed a young and creative mind to start a toy renaissance movement.
The new CEO Goldner just meets this condition, he likes to go against the convention, according to the convention is the toy business for the movie toy license to fight a lose-lose, and Goldner is open to reverse thinking, become passive for active, the existing toy brand licensed to the Hollywood studios to shoot the movie, the movie as the best marketing vehicle for toys.
In the background of this leading company's business ideas, which has Hasbro and DreamWorks joined forces to create a live-action version of "Transformers" action. "Transformers, Hasbro's marquee product, has huge potential for development. Understandably, Goldner was so protective of each of the company's products that he asked to "oversee" the movie as a producer.
In Spielberg's opinion, this request was not too much to ask, as Goldner's understanding of Transformers was unparalleled, and his participation in the movie would certainly provide a lot of effective help. But Spielberg had to take into account another person's feelings before agreeing to him.