Chapter 329 Buying a Company
That night, Zhang Chen appeared on the flight to Los Angeles.
Beijing is 10,059 kilometers away from Los Angeles, and the whole journey takes 12 hours to fly. When nothing happened along the way, Zhang Chen was still thinking about what Cheng Long said.
How should "Violent Street" be filmed?
He definitely wants to incorporate this movie into the sequence of the Agent Universe, but he still needs to think carefully about how to connect it.
The plane took off from the capital, crossed over Tianjin, then the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, and came to the sky over South Korea.
Then it flew over Japan, entered the sky over the Pacific Ocean, then the Bering Sea and Alaska, and finally entered American airspace from the West Coast and landed at Los Angeles International Airport.
Los Angeles International Airport is one of the top five airports in the United States, with constant flow of people all year round.
It was still Diane who came to pick him up.
"Boss, long time no see~"
"Diane, you are different every time I see you, and this time you are much more beautiful than last time~"
"Haha, thank you for your compliment, but all of this is thanks to the Mani you brought. If you have money, a woman will be younger~"
"Then I wish you can earn more and more Mani~"
"It depends on you, boss~"
In the past year, several of Zhang Chen's movies have been a hit in the United States, which has also improved her status a lot and made a lot of money.
You know, she gets dividends.
Zhang Chen is even happier. The more Diane earns, the more he earns.
"This way please~"
Diane led Zhang Chen to the roadside, and then a stretched Cadillac stopped in front of him.
While Zhang Chen was still wondering, the driver got out of the car and opened the door, while Diane smiled beside him.
"This is...our car?"
Diane smiled and nodded, but still added: "Rented."
Well, it seems that Diane has done a pretty good job of dressing him up in terms of style.
Entering the Cadillac, the space inside was very large and the sofa was very comfortable. Diane sat beside him.
Zhang Chen saw a book on the table - "The Twilight Saga".
Diane also noticed Zhang Chen's expression, "Boss, the sales of the book you asked me to pay attention to have surged recently..."
"The Twilight Saga" is a must-read copy of Mei Entertainment. It can be called a model of using small things to make a big difference.
"Has the copyright been obtained?"
"Not yet~"
Diane hesitated for a moment and then said: "The first "Twilight" was published in April, and it sold really well. It sold millions of copies in a few weeks, and it also became a New York Times bestseller. Ranking No. 5
But what I want to say is that I do not recommend you to get the film and television rights of this novel. There are too many vampire youth books, and at least dozens of novels of the same type are released every year.
And its author, Stephenie Meyer, is a very difficult guy..."
"Oh, so difficult?"
All Zhang Chen's information about "Twilight" came from later generations, and he really didn't pay attention to the author of the original work.
"As I said before, this vampire youth theme is not favored by film studios, and none of the six major film studios have taken a fancy to it.
Then a small company under Paramount contacted Stephenie Meyer and wanted to win the film and television adaptation rights and adapt it into an action film, but Stephenie Meyer refused. The woman demanded that the adaptation must follow the original work. It’s just about falling in love, nothing else..."
"Which means that even if I win the adaptation rights, I can only film as she asked?"
"Yes."
Diane looked speechless: "Moreover, the track of adapting best-selling books is not as good as you think. You only saw that the "Harry Potter" series was a big hit, but in fact, adapting movies from best-selling books loses money." There are many, the most famous one is "Dragon Knight". In my opinion, "Twilight" is not a good project in any aspect. I suggest you be cautious..."
Diane believes that Zhang Chen saw the success of "Harry Potter" and wanted to copy the same type of "Twilight", but she believes that the possibility of success in adapting a best-selling book is very low, otherwise why wouldn't the Big Six do it? Woolen cloth?
Zhang Chen didn't know how to convince the other party. From Diane's point of view, this was indeed the case.
"Interview with the Vampire", Tom Cruise + Brad Pitt, cost 60 million US dollars, and the global box office only exceeded 200 million...
"400 Years Later", the work of Francis Ford Coppola, also failed at the box office...
"Van Helsing", starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale, with a production cost of US$160 million, a Hollywood super-A production, with a global box office of less than US$300 million...
"Dragon Rider" cost 20th Century Fox 100 million US dollars to produce, and the promotion and distribution was also 100 million US dollars. However, the global box office total was less than 200 million, and the North American domestic box office was only 75 million. It can be said that it was lost to grandma's house...
Diane's statement seems to be correct. In fact, Zhang Chen should be lucky to have such a good employee who knows how to stop the boss from losing money.
But he has the memory of later generations and is very aware of the money-making ability of "Twilight".
Also, if it wasn’t a recognized bad project, how could it be Summit Entertainment’s turn to take over.
Summit Entertainment is a very small company. It was only established in 1993. It has produced two successful works in its lifetime, one was the "Twilight" series and the other was "The Hurt Locker".
"Listen to me, Diane, Twilight will definitely become one of the most profitable movie franchises in history." "But..."
"I know, and I also know that the script for "Twilight" has been on Paramount's desk for a long time, but it just wasn't picked up. The entire company thought it was a bad project and no one wanted to take it on. .”
"Then you still insist? Why do you think "Twilight" will definitely succeed?"
"Intuition."
The moment Zhang Chen said his 'intuition', Diane knew that she had to shut up.
After all, Zhang Chen is the boss, she is just a part-time worker.
Zhang Chen How Zhang Chen wants to spend his money is his business, but she still stubbornly said: "I insist on my opinion, but you are the boss, you have the final say, I reserve my opinion."
"Haha, Diane, one day, I will convince you."
"Well, I hope I can see that day, and I will go to Stephenie Meyer to discuss copyright matters tomorrow~"
"Very good, I hope you can bring me good news."
"I will definitely do it. No one will compete with me for this crappy project."
Diane shrugged, looking confident.
Then she took out an envelope from her briefcase: "This is another thing you asked me to do, collect information about the special effects company.
After filtering according to the conditions you set, there are three companies that can meet the standards you require. All of them are small in scale but have certain technical strength. ”
While Zhang Chen took it out and looked through it, Dai An introduced it next to him.
"The owner of this Red Dragon Studio is a Jew. It did pretty well in the past few years, but in the past one or two years it has been poorly managed and has been operating at a loss...
In addition, the shareholders of this Activision special effects company are relatively dispersed. They are a group of young people with great ideas. They have some patents of their own. At present, they mainly lack funds...
In the end, this was a small film production company that had produced a few films, but was not famous. The owner's son lost a lot of money investing in a farm, and he seemed to buy the company to help his son. ”
Dai An finished all this in detail, and Zhang Chen finished reading it almost at the same time.
He has long wanted to have his own company in Hollywood, especially one with a special effects production department.
Everything else is easy to talk about, but when it comes to special effects, there is always a feeling of being stuck.
The general special effects are okay, and it's just a fool's errand in China.
But if the picture requirements are slightly higher, it can only be done in Hollywood. And if we do special effects here, it really costs money per minute.
But the effect is really good, and Hollywood special effects are really the best in the world.
Otherwise, it’s called the film industry.
“Let’s go to this film company first~”
Although Zhang Chen urgently needs special effects personnel, it would be better to have a complete company.
Many of the ideas in his head are not suitable for China, but are more convenient here in the United States.
Just like "Fifty Shades of Grey".
"Fifty Shades of Grey" is a very strange novel.
This book was first published in the "Twilight Saga" fandom area. Yes, it is a "Twilight" fanfic.
The author E.L. James is a fan of "Twilight" and couldn't get enough of it, so he simply used the heroes and heroines Edward and Bella of "Twilight" as prototypes and serialized them on a fan fiction website. It was originally called "The Universe" King".
"Lord of the Universe" is actually a short H-story, similar to a loaded version of "The Twilight Saga".
Sounds familiar?
There were similar articles in Jinjiang in the past, and they were also available on SouShu.com, such as the supplemented version of "The Deer and the Cauldron".
"Lord of the Universe" aroused people's popularity as soon as it came out, and it also attracted dissatisfaction from fans of the original work. Then the author simply started over and changed the name of the book and the characters, turning it into "Fifty Shades of Grey".
Crucially, this novel has sold over 100 million copies!
Later, it was made into a trilogy, "Fifty Shades of Grey", "Fifty Shades Darker" and "Fifty Shades Freed", which grossed more than 1 billion US dollars at the global box office.
On the way, Diane couldn't help but ask again: "Boss, I really can't compete with my curiosity. I want to know what you are going to do if you really win "Twilight". Will you direct it yourself?"
Zhang Chen smiled: "Of course not, I will find a suitable director, next year at the latest, start filming, and try to release it in 2007~"
"But we are just a small studio and have no production qualifications at all. I don't think any company would be willing to produce such a movie with you..."
Diane tried her best to stop it.
"No, we may have the company soon. Didn't you organize these information?"
Zhang Chen said and patted the document bag in his hand.
Diane finally stopped talking. She felt that this was a disaster. In fact, what she was most worried about was the bloodbath in the "Twilight" movie, which would most likely end her job.
She tried her best to stop it, but Zhang Chen seemed determined to take pictures of it, and there was nothing she could do to persuade him.
(End of chapter)