Chapter 592: Green Book

“Green Book” is a movie released in 2018, but it is also an absolute classic in film history.

It tells the story of Tony, an Italian-American bodyguard, who is hired to drive Don, the world’s finest jazz pianist.

The pianist will start a concert tour in New York, telling the story of a friendship between the two that transcends race and class.

Although this is a movie that reflects racial discrimination, the theme is more than that.

Don is a talented pianist with great fame throughout the United States.

But he is a black man.

The audience who heard him play could eat in the restaurant, but he, as a performer, could not.

All the subordinates were respectful to Tang, but they still looked down on him in their hearts.

Only Tony, who was unemployed and applied for a job as a driver, treated him as an ordinary person.

Feed him fried chicken, tell him your true thoughts, don’t treat him as a black person, and don’t really discriminate against him.

It was Tony who taught him to fight back, to speak up for himself and to defend his rights and dignity.

They are treated unequally in so-called “high-end and distinguished” places, but instead gain respect and support in “low-end and humble” black bars.

This is undoubtedly a great irony for Tang.

So genius is not enough, only courage can change people’s hearts.

Since others don’t consider your feelings, why should you care about his emotions?

If you tolerate for a moment, they will become more demanding; if you take a step back, they will become even worse.

Violence can’t make you win anything, but cowards will always be losers. Only by confronting the malice of life head-on can you defeat it.

Therefore, the movie “Green Book” is not only a satire on racial discrimination, but also tells all the audience that sometimes talent is not enough, and courage is also needed to tear down the wall in the heart before one can get to the point.

The whole movie does not have any scenes that can greatly arouse people’s emotions. It is just a seemingly ordinary musical journey, but it makes people immersed in it and touches their hearts.

Kevin Channer read the script carefully and couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

“Liu, if your life trajectory wasn’t so clear, I would really doubt that you were a native American. Otherwise, how could you write such a profound American story.”

Liu Zhou smiled and said:

“Nowadays, information is so developed that as long as we learn more, we can naturally understand the situation over there.

In fact, “The Green Book” is also a real travel guide for black people in American history.

In 1962, the white supremacy movement once again reached a climax in the United States. A black postman, Victor Hugo Green, compiled a pamphlet pointing out which hotels and restaurants allowed black people to stay and dine.

The name of the booklet is “Green Book”, and the word “Green” is taken from Green, which means green in English and symbolizes smooth flow.

“It’s amazing that you know America better than Americans do.”

“I don’t know much about America, but as a director, I pay more attention to some interesting things.

I happened to learn about the story of Green Book by chance, and I thought it was very worth making into a movie, so I came up with this script.”

“Liu, are you planning to win another Oscar with Green Book?”

“It doesn’t matter. The Oscars are not important to me now. The most important thing is to make this movie well.”

“No, this movie is very suitable for Oscars. Anti-racism is a hot topic in the United States right now, and black actors are becoming more and more valued in Hollywood.

As long as you make this movie, it will definitely win an Oscar next year.”

Liu Zhou naturally knew that in two years, a Black Lives Matter movement would soon emerge in the United States.

By then Captain America will become black, and Snow White will also become black.

And there is already a trend in this direction.

And Oscar has always liked movies on this subject.

Because racial discrimination is illegal in the United States, no matter what happens in private, political correctness must be enforced in public.

Hollywood is of course the first to be affected. There must not be any racial discrimination in the movies, not even reflections, and there must be black people in every movie.

At the Oscars, if a movie reflects racial discrimination and is well made, it is generally more likely to win an award.

And “Green Book” is not just good, it’s excellent.

So the movie was released in 2018 and won four major awards at the 2019 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor.

Before the Oscars, he won all the awards, big and small, including the Golden Globe Awards and other American awards such as the Screen Actors Guild Award, the National Society of Film Critics Award, etc.

Previously, Liu Zhou had higher aspirations for the Best Director Oscar.

However, since “Joker” broke the global box office of one billion US dollars, his idea has faded.

The reason why he was so eager to win an Oscar before was mainly to surpass Zhang Yimou as a director.

Now this goal has been achieved. The box office of “Joker” has exceeded the billion-dollar mark, ranking among the top ten in the world, greatly raising his status in the hearts of the Chinese people.

Domestic audiences have increasingly come to believe that Liu Zhou is the country’s top director.

Therefore, Liu Zhou’s desire for the Oscar for Best Director, or even for an Oscar, has been reduced a lot now.

At this time, he was thinking about how to improve his position in global film history.

Of course, using box office performance is one way.

However, the box office of subsequent movies was higher than the previous one, but they were all comic adaptations or IP series movies. The global box office of original movies could only exceed one billion US dollars, which was the ceiling.

So for Liu Zhou, the billion-dollar box office performance of “Joker” should be his limit.

Of course, he can also take over those big IP movies, but the performance of these movies will only bring limited benefits to the director.

Or maybe Liu Zhou could spend more time and investment to make a great blockbuster. He has the capital now anyway, but that doesn’t make much sense.

And he doesn’t have that much time to make movies anymore.

So the box office approach is not feasible.

In addition, only by making some classic films can we enhance our status in global film history.

And there is no doubt that Green Book is such a movie.

This time he chose “Green Book” and he has a more relaxed attitude towards winning awards.

But this is an art film after all. If Warner wants the film to achieve higher box office results, it will definitely make the film compete for an Oscar.

Given the quality of this film, it shouldn’t be hard to win an award.

Perhaps when Liu Zhou is no longer obsessed with the Oscar, the award may fall on his head instead.

“You guys at Warner will take charge of the arrangements when the time comes.” Liu Zhou said calmly.

“Liu, so you are ready to cooperate with Warner Bros. on Green Book?”

“You have come to China in person. Besides, I promised you before that I will definitely not break my promise. What I said before was not just a polite remark.”

“Okay, I like partners like you the most.” Kevin Channer said with a smile.

In Hollywood, nothing you say counts, only the signed contract counts. He has seen too many cases where people promise something on the surface but then turn around and deny it.

Even contracts that have been signed are often torn up.

Liu Zhou is very popular now. All major Hollywood companies want to cooperate with him, and the conditions they offer are definitely more generous than the last.

It is normal that he will not cooperate with Warner in his subsequent films.

Of course, Warner can also offer the conditions offered by other companies, but other companies may not necessarily continue to choose to cooperate with Warner.

That’s why he was so enthusiastic about Liu Zhou, hoping that under the same cooperation conditions, he could impress him and make the balance in his heart tilt towards Warner.

But now it seems that I was worrying too much. Liu Zhou never thought of going back on his word.

This should have been a normal thing, but because there were so many people who did not keep their promises, he felt surprised by normal things.

Such a partner is always reassuring.

“So when do you plan to start preparing for this movie? I’ll be ready too,” Kevin Channer asked.

“Maybe after August, but we can let the actors prepare in advance.

Tony is an Italian from New York. Italians place more emphasis on family, so the actors needed to observe life and learn the New York way of speaking with drawn-out tones.

And the male lead Tang must also be able to play the piano, or at least be good at it.”

“Do you have someone suitable in mind?”

“Yes, I prefer Viggo Mortensen for Tony. Although he is of Danish descent, his acting skills are quite good. I think he is very suitable for this role.

So he also needs to observe life more.”

Viggo Mortensen played Tony in the original Green Book.

This movie is also very famous in the country and has a very high box office.

In his previous life, Liu Zhou watched this movie several times and was of course deeply impressed by the two actors in the movie.

Viggo Mortensen undoubtedly performed very well, and he was born in 1958 and made his debut in the 1980s.

Maybe he is not as famous now as he will be six years later, but there should be no problem with his acting skills.

And for this movie, the fame of the actors is not very important.

“Where’s the other male lead, Tang?”

This role made Liu Zhou feel a little troubled.

Of course, he also wanted to find the original actor Mahershala Ali, but he had not yet entered the film industry at that time.

He was a black man who converted to Islam in the early 21st century, so he changed his name to Ali.

This caused him to suffer a lot of unfair treatment in his work and life.

After all, in Hollywood, Jews are the most powerful force, and many villains in Hollywood movies are people with the last name “Ali”.

However, because his father was a Broadway actor, he was exposed to acting since he was a child and he was very talented in acting.

He won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his outstanding performance in his first film, Moonlight.

“Moonlight” is the movie that caused a mess at the 2017 Oscars.

The Best Film award was originally for “Moonlight”, but unexpectedly the presenter gave it to “La La Land”, and the organizing committee had to come forward to clarify.

But Liu Zhou had no idea where Mahershala Ali was now.

He couldn’t ask Kevin Channer to search all over the United States based on a name.

In that case, he would definitely wonder how he knew an unknown American.

Liu Zhou was too lazy to explain and didn’t want to cause such a misunderstanding, so the role of Tang had to be played by someone else.

Besides, there are thousands of actors in Hollywood, and it is not necessary to have Mahershala Ali.

“I don’t have a suitable candidate for the role of Tang yet. We need an audition to confirm it.”

“Then I’ll arrange it. If those actors knew about your new film casting, their resumes would be as tall as the Empire State Building.”

“Don’t be so exaggerated. Warner should go through the preliminary screening first.

After reading the script, you should understand the characteristics of the character Tang. Not only can he play the piano, but his temperament is also very important.

Those with lots of tattoos and those who are chatty and hip-hop are not wanted. It’s better to find black actors who have received higher education and are more polite.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. I’ve carefully selected a few candidates, and you can make the final decision.”

“I trust you to do the job, and that’s why I’m willing to continue cooperating with you.” Liu Zhou said with a smile.

“Has the film investment budget been made?”

“Not yet. Let’s wait until the two leading actors are confirmed. But my current price is not enough for the previous treatment.”

“Don’t worry, the treatment is absolutely in line with your status and position. 20+10, you should be satisfied, right?”

“no problem.”

20+10 means million US dollars plus % of the North American box office share.

This is already the highest treatment for a director.

Like actors, directors also have a ceiling for their salaries, which is 20+20.
However, only a few big directors can get this 20+20 treatment, such as James Cameron, Spielberg, Peter Jackson and others.

It is impossible for Liu Zhou to get the highest salary just by starring in “Joker”.

Even Christopher Nolan has just gotten the 20+20 treatment now.

Previously, his “The Dark Knight” also broke the global box office of one billion US dollars.

But it was not until “Inception” that he became one of the most successful directors in Hollywood.

Warner is able to offer me a 20+10 salary, which can be said to be a sign that they value me very much.

So Liu Zhou was quite satisfied and agreed without any bargaining.

Twenty million US dollars plus 10% of the North American box office share, this treatment is higher than what Jackie Chan received at the beginning.

After “Rush Hour 2”, Jackie Chan’s influence reached its peak, with a salary of million US dollars, officially becoming a member of the million club.

This is unique to Chinese actors.

Although there is no share of the box office revenue, in Hollywood, only a small number of people can earn $20 million for a film.

So Cheng Long can be said to have reached the ceiling of Hollywood actors.

It’s just that his subsequent films didn’t keep up and all flopped at the box office, which caused him to fall out of the 20 million club.

And because of age issues, he also ended his Hollywood career.

Now that Liu Zhou has received this treatment, he is considered a member of the 20 million club, and he also gets 20 million from the box office share.

PS: The movie “Green Book” is really good. If you are interested, you can go and watch it, or read the movie commentaries, some of which are also very good.

(End of this chapter)