Chapter 266 277 [How can you be qualified to sit at the same table with us? ]

After hearing this, Li Yishu frowned. He looked back and saw two familiar faces appear in front of him.

Richard Gere and Sean Connery!

The former played the male lead in “Hachiko”, and the latter was the first generation James Bond.

“Richard, they are not my assistants.”

Harvey said awkwardly: “This is Li, this is Zhang, they are both Chinese directors.”

“Chinese director?”

Richard Gere said contemptuously: “Harvey, you shouldn’t try to please them for the sake of the market. What good directors can China produce?”

Sean Connery next to him sneered: “That’s right Harvey, Gere is right, what good directors can China have?”

Upon hearing this, Li Yishu’s face instantly turned pale. Zhang Yimou’s English was not very good, but after the translator next to him translated in a low voice, his expression instantly fell.

Han Sanping, Gong Li and others also had solemn expressions on their faces.

Harvey frowned, but still introduced: “Richard, Li is a grand slam director who has won the gold medals at the three major European film festivals, and Zhang is also a director who has won the gold medals at Berlin and Venice…”

“Oh!” After hearing that Lee Yi-su was a European triple-Award winning director, Richard Gere took two steps forward, glanced at Lee Yi-su’s young appearance, and said disdainfully, “I think Time magazine is really crazy. They actually rated such a young man as the godfather of Asian movies. In my opinion, the only person in Asia who truly deserves the title of godfather of movies is Akira Kurosawa.”

Richard Gere had collaborated with Akira Kurosawa on “August Rhapsody” two years ago. In addition, he himself is a vehement anti-China activist, so he was very unhappy with Lee Ye-seo’s three gold awards. However, this achievement is real, and he can only indirectly criticize the so-called godfather of Asian films, which is nothing but a joke.

Hearing this, Li Yishu smiled and said, “Harvey, you still don’t know who this is?”

Harvey glanced at him, then saw Li Yishu’s smile, and said hesitantly, “This is Richard Gere.”

“Richard Gere?” Li Yishu pretended to be in deep thought, shook her head for a long time and said, “Sorry, Harvey, can you tell me what movies he has acted in?”

However, Harvey didn’t know what Li Yishu meant, and thought that the other party didn’t know him, so he said, “Pretty Woman!”

Speaking of this movie, Richard Gere’s originally unhappy expression immediately turned into a raised chin. Although he is not a household name, he has been in the industry for more than ten years. In 1990, he collaborated with Roberts in “Pretty Woman”, which grossed 4.63 million US dollars at the global box office. He is still very famous in North America.

“Pretty Woman? I’ve seen that movie, but was he in it? All I remember was Julia Roberts.”

After Li Yishu finished speaking, without waiting for Harvey to speak, he pretended to be enlightened: “I remember, you played in “American Gigolo”! Hey, Gere, you played a great gigolo, it’s almost like yourself, have you really been a gigolo? Oh, sorry, we Chinese have always called male prostitutes ducks, because their whole body is soft, only their mouths are as hard as ducks’ mouths!”

“Pfft!!”

Gong Li couldn’t help laughing out loud.

Quentin laughed too.

Han Sanping and Zhang Yimou were not good at English, and they realized it belatedly after the translator’s translation and almost laughed out loud. Fortunately, they held it back. But the look of being unable to hold back was worse than laughing out loud.

Richard Gere was so angry that his teeth were itching. Although he didn’t understand the duck joke, the other party was talking about being soft all over but being tough on the outside. He was mocking his weakness!

“Hi!”

Sean Connery stood up at this time, stared at Li Yishu with anger on his face and said: “Young man, don’t think that you can disrespect your seniors just because you have achieved a little success!”

“Sorry, Harvey, who is this?” Li Yishu turned and looked at Harvey beside her.

Harvey’s face wasn’t very good at the moment, but after looking at Li Yishu and Han Sanping beside him, and then at the angry Sean Connery, and Richard Gere with a livid face, to be honest, he didn’t want to get involved in the dispute between the three of them.

But when he thought about the fact that China was about to introduce ten foreign films, and the huge market with a population of 10 billion, if he could get in and get a quota for introduction, it would definitely make his Miramax Films stand out in Hollywood.

After figuring this out, Harvey naturally didn’t care about offending the two of them. In Hollywood, where profit is paramount, there is no such thing as favoritism. He immediately introduced: “This is Sean Connery… He is the actor who plays 007.”

“007?”

Li Yishu looked him up and down in confusion: “I remember that the actor who played James Bond was Roger Moore, right?”

Harvey said: “There is more than one actor who plays 007. Sean is the first 007.”

“That’s it…”

Li Yishu nodded in understanding, then grinned: “No wonder they changed to Roger Moore. Everyone knows that 007 is a handsome man. Letting a bald man continue to play 007, even if he wears a wig, will ruin James Bond!”

“Fuck! Say that again if you dare!”

Sean Connery’s greatest pain is that he is bald in middle age. When he saw this Chinese director mocking his baldness, he was so angry that he was about to rush over and attack him.

Facing Sean Connery’s attitude of rushing over, Li Yishu ignored him and turned to look at Harvey and said, “Harvey, did you invite them?”

“Uh…” Harvey hesitated.

“This is a gathering of Cannes nominated films. I don’t want to hang out with people who don’t even deserve to be nominated.”

Li Yishu raised her chin and looked at the two of them. “I am a triple gold director at the Venice, Cannes, and Berlin Film Festivals, and Director Zhang is a double gold director at Berlin and Venice. Have these two won a European Film Festival award?”

Upon hearing this, Richard Gere and Sean Connery’s faces turned pale. Not to mention winning any film festival awards, their films had rarely been shortlisted for the three major European film festivals.

This time they came to the Cannes Film Festival mainly to promote the movie “The First Samurai” about King Arthur that they collaborated on.

Li Yishu’s undisguised contempt made the two men so angry that they wanted to fight on the spot. However, seeing that the other side had a group of people and they were only two people, Richard Gere stopped Sean and took a deep breath and said, “Sean, we won’t argue with barbarians. Let’s go!”

After saying that, Richard Gere turned and left. Sean Connery pointed at Lee Yi-su, made an angry expression, and finally left as well.

“Harvey, they don’t even have a gold medal, how can they be qualified to share a table with us for dinner? Remember next time, don’t invite people like this, otherwise it will be a disgrace to us gold medal-winning directors!”

The two paused as Li Yishu’s voice was deliberately raised. They wanted to come back and get back at him, but since they had already left, it would be embarrassing to go back, so they had to leave in disgrace. “Haha, Yishu, I didn’t expect you to be so good at talking!”

Gong Li laughed happily.

“It’s not that I’m good at talking, it’s that they are just rubbish. They don’t even have a gold medal. Are they worthy of challenging us?!”

Li Yishu snorted coldly. He would not tolerate these two idiots.

After listening to the translation, Han Sanping and Zhang Yimou wanted to say something but finally did not say it.

Harvey came over at this time and said, “Lee, you are really embarrassing me. Richard and Sean are my friends. You embarrassed them in public. I’m afraid they will do something to you when we return to the United States.”

Li Yishu glanced at him, saw what the old man was thinking, and smiled faintly, “Harvey, you should know that China is planning to introduce ten foreign films this year, right?”

Hearing this, Harvey’s eyes lit up: “Yes, I heard about it, Lee, I wonder if our Miramax Films has a chance to cooperate with you?”

“Of course there’s a chance. We’ll have a good chat after the film festival is over.”

Li Yishu patted Harvey on the shoulder. No matter whether the old guy was using unspoken rules in Hollywood or not, it was all a dog-eat-dog fight among Americans. There was no need to vent her anger on Harvey because of these things.

And judging from what happened when Li Yishu angrily scolded the two of them just now, Harvey not only did not stop them, but also cooperated with them, which shows that this guy is eyeing the market share of imported films.

After all, when Li Yishu introduced Han Sanping before, he only said that he was the leader of the National Film Studio. For Harvey, who was not familiar with the Chinese market, he must have thought that Han Sanping was of a very high level and could influence the share of imported films.

“No problem!” Harvey was envious. He just deliberately cooperated with Li Yishu to say Sean’s name and the movie in order to sell well. Now it seems to be selling very successfully. As long as he can get a share of imported movies, he will be very rich.

Harvey is well aware that Disney Entertainment Group is also working hard for the share of imported films.

For a company as big as Disney, the share of an imported film is certainly insignificant, and it won’t bring much in terms of box office revenue. But why is Disney trying so hard to enter the Chinese market?

It’s all for the 10 billion people.

In the future, Disney theme parks, Disney’s children’s cartoons, Disney’s animations… all of these have the potential to enter the Chinese market.

If they don’t build good relationships in advance and are overtaken by other Hollywood giants, there will be no place for them, Disney.

This is just a small episode.

The group walked into the restaurant again with laughter.

Zhang Yimou has participated in the European Film Festival many times and is somewhat well-known at the festival. Naturally, when he arrived, many people came up to him to get to know him.

Li Yishu has come to say hello to many directors and actors she knows, including European triple-Award Grand Slam directors and the godfather of Asian films. No matter which one, they are all worth talking to and getting along with.

“Art book!”

Just after Li Yishu finished chatting with a group of shortlisted crew members, Han Sanping also came over.

Li Yishu raised an eyebrow: “What’s wrong, Third Uncle?”

Han Sanping asked worriedly, “Will those two people cause you any trouble?”

“Uncle San, you underestimated me and overestimated those two guys.”

Li Yishu laughed, but it was understandable. Nowadays, people in China don’t know much about the United States, so it was normal for Han Sanping to worry.

He comforted her, “Don’t worry about my Third Uncle. You should know that I opened a film company in the United States, right? In capitalist terms, I am the capital now, and they are just actors. Would you be afraid of an actor from your studio?”

Li Yishu is not bragging. Although Richard Gere and Sean Connery are both quite famous, neither of them is a particularly famous actor.

The former, Richard Gere, became famous with “Pretty Woman” a few years ago, while the latter, Sean Connery, is simply relying on his past reputation. He is 64 years old this year, and it is hard to say how many years he has left in his film career.

Anyway, Li Yishu’s only impression of Sean Connery was the movie “The Rock” in which she collaborated with Nicolas Cage a few years later.

Richard Gere only has one film, Hachiko: A Dog’s Story.

These two people may have some connections in Hollywood, but now Li Yishu is not an ordinary Chinese director. In addition to having his own film company in Hollywood, he also has connections with Columbia and Time Warner.

Secondly, what gives Li Yishu the greatest confidence is the policy of “introducing foreign films” that the country is about to implement.

Although the Chinese film market is very small now, even smaller than Japan, population means potential and population means the future.

With a population of 10 billion, even if only one twentieth of them are trained to watch movies in the future, that would still be 5000 million people going to the cinema.

Not to mention all the other areas besides movie box office, such as product peripherals, videotapes, amusement parks, etc.

Hollywood movie moguls have long since moved away from the era of making money solely from box office revenue. Peripheral products are the basis of their profits, and creating movie-themed parks is also one of their major selling points.

Not to mention that the current domestic film market has not yet reached the slump of the late 90s and early s. Among the six major Hollywood giants, who would not want to enter the Chinese market early to prepare for future conquests?

It’s okay if the conditions are a bit harsh, only 18% of the box office share, but that’s okay too. In the eyes of the six major Hollywood giants, this money can be earned back with interest in the future.

Backed by the Chinese film market, Li Yishu is also a banner for today’s Chinese film directors. No one would choose to offend Li Yishu and the market behind him for the sake of two insignificant actors.

After hearing this, Han Sanping breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t that he was scared, but mainly because he had just inquired about these two people, and they were both somewhat famous in Hollywood.

“Yishu, that’s true, but I’m afraid these two will spread rumors everywhere. You know some people in the country now…”

Han Sanping didn’t finish his words, but Li Yishu had already guessed what he wanted to say. There are a lot of sheepdogs in the country these days.

If Richard Gere and Sean Connery said something wrong at the Cannes Film Festival, and the news got back to China and was distorted by people with ulterior motives, it would probably not have a good impact on Lee Yi-su’s reputation.

(End of this chapter)