Chapter 409 Copyright
Liu Cixin was stunned when she saw Xia Lian, wondering if her ears had heard wrongly.
What day is it today?
Could it be that I am dreaming?
"Director Xia, are you kidding me?" Liu Cixin asked hesitantly.
"No, I'm very serious." Xia Lian said with a smile, "Depending on the quality of your novel, short and medium stories cost 30,000 to 50,000 yuan, and long stories cost 100,000 to 150,000 yuan."
Liu Cixin was shocked. He didn't expect the other party to be so generous.
Short and medium stories cost 30,000 to 50,000 yuan, and long stories cost 100,000 to 150,000 yuan!
Even selling a novel is a huge amount of income, not to mention that the other party doesn't ask for multiple choice questions at all, but wants them all.
The magazine paid Liu Cixin a manuscript fee of 150 yuan per thousand words because he won the Galaxy Award for Chinese Science Fiction from 1999 to 2006.
But the genre of science fiction is too niche. Before Three-Body Problem became popular, his books had almost no chance of being published, and there was no room for royalties.
As for the adaptation of film, TV series, animation and the like, it is even more impossible.
Liu Cixin began to contribute articles to "Science Fiction World" magazine in the 1990s, and entered her creative peak in 1999.
Including "The Wandering Earth", "Country Teacher", "Full Band Blocking Interference", "Supernova Era", and "Ball Lightning" were all created during this period.
"The Three-Body Problem", which made Liu Cixin truly famous, is still in production and will not be published until May 2006.
Liu Cixin counted and found that he had almost thirty works. If calculated based on the lowest price, they would all be in the millions.
Thinking of this, Liu Cixin's hands were shaking with excitement.
This is really a huge sum of money!
Xia Lian took out a catalog and put it on the table for Liu Cixin to read, "This is a list of all the novels you published in "Science Fiction World" magazine. Please check to see if there are any missing ones."
Then Xia Lian motioned to her assistant to bring over a thick briefcase, and took out a thick stack of contracts. One after another, they were stacked on the table, which was more than 20 centimeters thick.
When Liu Cixin saw the thick contract, her eyes were beating and her heart was getting hotter.
Xia Lian opened the contract enthusiastically and explained the terms of the contract to Liu Cixin, "Teacher Liu, please read these clauses."
"Party B will retain the copyright property rights of the agreed works, including various language versions of the agreed works, and all completed and unfinished versions of the agreed works, worldwide, including but not limited to Article 10 of the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China. Items (5) to (10) of paragraph The copyright rights specified in item 7) and other rights necessary for the exercise of these rights are exclusively authorized to Party A, allowing Party A to use it on its own or sub-license and conduct commercial promotion and sales of the above rights, and sign relevant agreements. .”
"Both parties confirm that for the relevant rights authorized by Party B to Party A under this paragraph, Party A will provide Party B with corresponding benefits. At the same time, in order for Party B to further understand the copyright development status of the agreed works, Party A will exercise the rights authorized by this paragraph in accordance with this paragraph. When acquiring film/TV/animation/comic/game adaptation rights, Party B will be informed in a timely manner about the cooperation status of such adaptation rights, and will sincerely listen to Party B’s opinions and suggestions in order to achieve better cooperation results.”
"In order to clarify the legal rights of Party B, Party B shall enjoy the global moral rights of the agreed works in accordance with legal provisions (including but not limited to the right of publication, the right of signature, the right of modification and the right to protect the integrity of the work, etc. "Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China" 10th The personal rights of copyright specified in Items (1) to (4) of Paragraph 1 of Article 1), the cooperation under this Agreement will not be deemed as Party B authorizing Party A to the personal rights of such copyrights it enjoys. ”
Liu Cixin was a little confused looking at these items. After pondering for a long time, he didn't find anything wrong with these items. On the contrary, these items were quite beneficial to him.
"If there is anything you don't understand, I can explain it to you." Xia Lian said with a smile, "If you think there is nothing wrong with the terms of the contract, we can sign the contract."
"Okay!" Liu Cixin read the contract carefully from beginning to end.
There are no problems with other aspects of the contract. The other party has completely exclusive rights to film, television, animation, comics, and game adaptations for a period of fifty years. In addition, a sum of money will be given to him from the proceeds from the adaptation.
It is equivalent to directly buying out the adaptation rights of all written works.
But Liu Cixin didn't care. The other party came to talk to him, and it was definitely not for charity, and the conditions were quite generous.
If the work is published, he can get a large share of the profits, and he is quite satisfied.
As for those adaptations and the like, he could also get more money, but he didn't pay attention to these. In Liu Cixin's view, these were still too far away.
Liu Cixin signed the contract happily and gave Xia Lian her bank account number. The next step was to wait for the money to arrive.
Once the money arrives, the contract becomes official.
Xia Lian also breathed a sigh of relief at this time. The matter explained by Mr. Qin was finally completed, and then she sent a text message to Mr. Qin to announce the good news.
After a while, Mr. Qin replied to him, "Ask Liu Cixin if he has any unpublished works? Sign them together."
? ? ?
Xia Lian was a little confused. She looked at Liu Cixin in front of her with confusion.
Is this person so important?
Does Mr. Qin value this person too much? He even wants to sign unpublished works?
Xia Lian asked tentatively: "Teacher Liu, do you have any unpublished works?"
Liu Cixin also looked confused, "Uh, no."
"But there is a work in progress."
"It doesn't matter, we also want the works in progress!" Xia Lian said quickly, "Is it a long story or a short story?"
"Ah? I want the ones I'm working on too?!" Liu Cixin was also shocked.
……
"President Qin, the unfinished "Three-Body Problem" has been won."
Qin Shaoyan smiled after receiving the news and replied with a text message full of joy, "Well done."
The IP of "Three-Body" was won by me first. This is a gold mine that has not yet been tapped. In a few years, the value of this gold mine will rise sharply.
Qin Shaoyan won "The Three-Body Problem" not just to raise the stock price and create a hype, but he really wanted to make this IP a good one.
The value of this IP is not only in economic terms, but also in terms of cultural output.
In 2015, The Three-Body Problem won the Best Feature Award at the 73rd Hugo Award, and was also the first Chinese work to win the Hugo Award.
"The Three-Body Problem" has become the world's top science fiction IP, and the outside world commented that "Liu Cixin single-handedly brought Chinese science fiction to an international level."
Many national leaders are fans of "The Three-Body Problem", and U.S. President Obama even came forward to urge it to be updated.
From this point we can see the influence of "The Three-Body Problem".
However, for such a super IP, the situation of the work with the most value for film and television drama adaptation is hard to describe.
In Qin Shaoyan's previous life, the development of the "Three-Body" IP had many twists and turns.
In 2009, after watching "The Three-Body Problem", a female screenwriter encouraged her husband, an 18th-tier director, to buy the film and television rights to "The Three-Body Problem" at a very low price.
This is the famous "Three-Body Copyright for 100,000 sold at a low price" public case in the science fiction world, but it is said that the amount was several hundred thousand, not as low as 100,000.
But it's still a hugely profitable business. In August 2015, "The Three-Body Problem" won the Best Feature Story Award at the 73rd Hugo Awards. The film and television rights that were bought out suddenly became popular, and capital rushed to invest in all projects related to the Three-Body Problem. And this couple who hit the limelight sold the film and television rights of "The Three-Body Problem" to Youzu for 120 million.
In 8 years, copyright fees have increased hundreds of times.
The couple did not expect such huge profits at the time, even though they had discovered that the "Three-Body" IP was promising.
In fact, they want to buy it for their own use.
However, this director is just a horror film director. He has never directed any successful commercial films, and he has no experience in science fiction films.
So they are not that good at all. After selling the "Three-Body" IP to Youzu, they still couldn't get it done even after getting support from their boss Lynch.
This director is Zhang Fanfan, director of the film version of "The Three-Body Problem".
It was of great significance to Liu Cixin who sold the copyright at that time. You must know that "The Three-Body Problem" was still a golden egg without hair at that time, so Liu Cixin always felt that the money was a bargain.
Later, he regretted it after seeing the movie "The Three-Body Problem".
The first prerequisite for adapting a novel into a movie is to respect the original work. This "Three-Body" movie, which was started by Youzu and took only 5 months to shoot, is called a "running PPT movie." However, Liu Cixin looked at these movies that were ruined by the grassroots team and refused to admit that she sold them for 100,000 yuan. Publishing rights, when pressed, they will ask the media: "What did you do earlier?"
You can't blame Da Liu for being angry, after all, this matter would be uncomfortable for anyone.
The work that I put my heart and soul into is like my own child, and no one can accept this situation.
How amazing is this movie?
A certain leader at that time was also a science fiction fan. When I heard that the "Three-Body" movie was completed, I excitedly went to watch it on-site at Youzu and became one of the first viewers of the "Three-Body" movie.
Relevant news is also available on Youzu’s official website.
Then, there is no more.
The "Three-Body" movie has never been seen again.
Cameron had some incidents with Liu Cixin. At a film festival, Cameron heard about the "Three-Body" movie and wanted to see the movie in advance, but Liu Cixin declined in embarrassment.
After YOOZOO bought the copyright of "Three-Body", it established Trisolaris Universe (Shanghai) Cultural Development Co., Ltd., and after a brief taste of the consequences, it made it clear that it would abandon the "Three-Body" movie project and will develop full copyright of the IP.
At that time, Lynch appointed Xu Yao as the CEO of Trisolaris Universe, and he served as the actual person in charge of Trisolaris Universe, that is, the big boss.
Lynch appointed Xu Yao so that he could devote his energy to the copyright of "The Three-Body Problem". However, he was not only busy with copyright, but also established a risk control system in the company, controlled the overall expenses, and gave Lin Qi the pleasure of being the boss. weaken.
After all, it’s definitely not a problem if you can’t spend the money and you still haven’t gotten a penny back.
In the end, Lynch chose Bilibili as his partner, rather than Yoozoo choosing Bilibili.
It would be better to say that Bilibili selected Youzu. Youzu holds many game IPs. Even though it has the rights to adapt Three-Body, there has been no adaptation results that can satisfy all parties.
With Bilibili, a big platform with 90 million daily active users, and the popular "Three-Body Problem", we have to make a profit no matter what we do, right?
As early as 2015, Youzu finalized its IP "film and game linkage" strategy, using IP to connect games and film and television dramas, achieving the effect of killing two birds with one stone and eating two fish.
At that time, Youzu chose to cooperate with a game company in Beijing that started out as a web game to develop the IP of "Strategic Alliance", and the web game and mobile games were being developed at the same time.
After the TV series "League of Military Advisors" was launched, the game industry has been silently launched, whether it is a web game or a mobile game.
The game hopes to rely on the platform of Bilibili to implement its big IP strategy.
During the Spring Festival of 2019, the science fiction movie "The Wandering Earth" came out and became the darkest dark horse, setting off a huge science fiction craze.
The movie "The Wandering Earth", known as the beginning of Chinese science fiction movies, was also adapted from Liu Cixin's novel.
YOOZOO and Bilibili watched it with excitement. At this time, Three-Body fans are crazy about domestic science and technology movies. The bad "Three-Body" movie has been left behind. What everyone is thinking about now is when the new big production will be released. .
Then, the "Three-Body" animation produced by Yihua Kaitian opened everyone's eyes.
In September 2020, Trisolaris announced that it would jointly develop an English series with Netflix. Xu Yao began to be marginalized and transferred to other projects. Since then, Xu Yao has not been seen in almost all publicity.
Then a dramatic scene occurred.
On December 25, 2020, Youzu announced that its 39-year-old founder Lin Qi had passed away due to ineffective treatment for illness. The police targeted Xu Yao, who was suspected of committing a major crime.
In order to retaliate, Xu Yao poisoned Lin Qi for a long time.
In the end, Lin Qi died of his injuries, Yoozoo's stock price plummeted, and the market was in chaos.
If Penguin hadn't restored its reputation with the drama version of "The Three-Body Problem", this super IP would really have been ruined by capital.
……
Yizhou, "Science Fiction World" magazine.
Editor Yang Ping looked at the middle-aged man in front of him with some confusion, took the business card and glanced at it, "Chinese Science Fiction Works Promotion Association?"
"Well, why haven't I heard of this association?" Yang Ping frowned, "Xun..."
"Xun Ziliang, just call me Mr. Xun." The middle-aged man said with a smile.
"What exactly does your association do?" Yang Ping asked curiously.
"The main purpose of our association is to promote science fiction works." Xun Ziliang introduced, "Our association has been established since the 1980s. It was initially just a loose reading club composed of science fiction lovers."
"Later, with the downturn of science fiction novels, we felt that we should take on the responsibility of promoting science fiction works, let more people understand science fiction works, and give science fiction works a second life."
"Oh." Yang Ping nodded, "Then you come to our magazine?"
"We are here today to submit manuscripts." Xun Ziliang solemnly took out a stack of manuscripts from his briefcase and handed them to Yang Ping solemnly, "Please Editor Yang to make corrections."
"I am growing potatoes on Mars?" Yang Ping glanced at it in surprise, and then he was attracted by the content of the story. When he read the protagonist was abandoned alone on Mars, he found that the following chapters were missing, "Hey, what about the next part? ”
"We are still working on it later," Xun Ziliang replied.
"Oh, this novel is so well written, not bad." Yang Ping said happily, "The creativity is novel, the writing is good, and the plot is twists and turns. It is really a good work. We can publish it in the next issue of the magazine."
"I will discuss with the editor and give you a suitable manuscript price."
"No hurry, no rush." Xun Ziliang said with a smile, "Actually, I came to your company today for another reason, which is to cooperate with your company."
"Cooperation?" Yang Ping was stunned.
"Yes." Xun Ziliang said solemnly, "We will spend 500,000 yuan every year to establish a science fiction work incentive fund with your company, and select a part of the works every year to reward them."
(End of chapter)