Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 219 North American Release
Before the filming of "The Beauty Inside" started, Liu Yifei renewed her agency contract with Red Star House for 5 years without telling Li Qiutang.

She could never find a suitable opportunity to talk to Li Qiutang about this, but she felt that it was good to stay in Red Star House. Although she did not make any contribution to the company, it did not delay Liu Yifei in any way.

She might prefer the agency leave her alone.

Of course, she didn't know that the Red Star House had changed hands, and the staff flew to Shanghai to ask her to sign the new contract.

She was also assigned a new agent.

Liu Yifei does not need a resource-based agent, so the new agent is not a big name in the industry. He is only required to take care of Liu Yifei's daily life and complete the basic work of an agent.

On the 2nd, the filming of "The Beauty Inside" was announced to have started in Shanghai. Director Xue Xiaolu, leading actress Liu Yifei, Autumn Pictures' artistic director Cao Ping, and Guangxian Pictures' president Zhang Zhao attended the press conference.

The press conference was attended by many guests. Zhang Zhao gave a speech, saying that "The Beauty Inside" is the first film in the cooperation plan between Guangxian Pictures and Autumn Pictures. Although it is a low-budget production, Guangxian is very optimistic about "The Beauty Inside" and said that it will use Guangxian's unique ground-based promotion model to provide the best guarantee for the distribution of "The Beauty Inside".

The leading actress Liu Yifei said that this was her second collaboration with Qiu Tian and also her second collaboration with Guang Xian. She was very grateful to Cao Ping and Zhang Zhao for choosing her to star in this movie.

It's just some clichés.

Director Xue Xiaolu didn't say much, saying that the film was not as heavy as "Ocean Paradise" and was a cheerful urban love comedy.

At the press conference, the crew also released a movie poster, in which Liu Yifei with long hair is standing in a furniture store, wearing everyday clothes and smiling slightly.

She was the only one on the poster, and the tables, chairs and benches behind her were empty, with no one sitting there.

Three days after the press conference, the crew completed their preparations and officially started filming.

Li Qiutang was unable to attend due to her busy work, but she sent a text message to Liu Yifei on the day of the start of filming.

Because he is now in the United States, a subcontractor of Weta Digital, watching the special effects production of "In Time".

《时间规划局》总共882个特效镜头，大概2/3在韩国制作，剩余1/3在维塔数码手里。

At the same time, good news finally came from the crew of "The Hunger Games". Michael Lynn has officially announced that the best-selling novel "The Hunger Games" will be adapted into a movie of the same name, and the movie has been confirmed to start shooting in July next year.

Such publicity is very necessary, and most blockbusters will start building momentum one or two years in advance.

The $2000 million provided by Li Qiutang was enough for the crew to pay for the preliminary preparation costs, and Michael Lynn also raised another $2300 million for the crew. Together with what Universal promised, the start of filming of "The Hunger Games" should not be a problem.

In the next year, Michael Lynn and Li Qiutang only need to raise about $2000 million for "The Hunger Games" to support the crew to complete all the work.

Michael Lynn and Li Qiutang discussed the 2000 million and decided to sell the copyright in advance.

But before selling the copyright and collecting the money, Li Qiutang decided to pay another $800 million to become the largest shareholder of "The Hunger Games". The remaining $1000 million was given to Michael Lynn to sell the distribution rights.

The North American copyright is not for sale; it is the company's private domain.

Of course, as the global distributor of "The Hunger Games", if Lantern Entertainment wants to sell the distribution rights and collect money in advance, it still needs to cooperate with Universal.

Lantern Entertainment has completed filming of another adapted film, Limitless, and the company has allocated another $300 million to the crew for post-production. It is rare in Hollywood for a start-up company to be able to produce two films at the same time, one medium-sized and one small-scale.

This is almost the limit of Lantern Entertainment.

There was no way. The domestic bosses did not believe that Li Qiutang could run a company in Hollywood, and they were not interested in Lantern Entertainment.

But it’s also good this way. Li Qiutang is already very satisfied with what it has achieved now.

The inability to raise funds is only temporary. Li Qiutang is waiting for the domestic opportunity.

What is the trend? The trend of Internet hot money entering the film and television industry. As long as this trend blows, Li Qiutang is sure to raise at least $100 million for Lantern Entertainment.

There is basically no worry about "The Hunger Games", as long as it can move forward steadily. With the addition of "Limitless", the company also got Universal's distribution. Although Universal has a big appetite and wants Lantern Entertainment to be its cash cow, the cooperation on "The Hunger Games" and "Limitless" was finally achieved. These are all the contributions of Michael Lynn in the past year.

Li Qiutang was very satisfied with the achievements made in just one year, and officially appointed Michael Lynn, who was nearly 70 years old, as the CEO of Lantern Entertainment.

The appointment ceremony was simple. It took place in the company office. In front of all the employees, Li Qiutang presented Michael Lynn with a letter of appointment.

The old man was very excited, as this meant that he had returned to Hollywood two years after New Line was acquired by Warner in 08.

Li Qiutang encouraged him and his employees: "Hollywood will always remember your name. Warner is a mountain, but we will flatten it!"

After being officially appointed, Michael Lynn did not look like a 70-year-old man at all. He was full of energy. In his plan, Lantern Entertainment could not be a pure film company that only produced but not distributed films. Lantern Entertainment must establish its own distribution channels. Without distribution channels, it would never be successful.

He was the one who built New Line's distribution network. Now that he is starting a new business, he is confident that he can build another distribution network.

So he suggested that the company take out a portion of the funds and buy a large number of low-cost R-rated movies to boost sales, and use these movies to negotiate with some theaters. R-rated movies have a huge number of fans in North America, and using such movies as the lead is a good choice. New Line and Lionsgate both started out with R-rated movies that no one dared to release.

Li Qiutang certainly wanted to distribute the film in North America, but his own funds were not enough to support this undertaking.

So while he affirmed Michael Lynn's plan, he also said that establishing a distribution network would not happen overnight. Lantern Entertainment has not released any films yet. The company's top priority is to build its reputation through "The Hunger Games" and "Limitless", and then talk about establishing its own distribution channels.

"We will definitely build our own distribution network, but we can't rush it. We will start with production. We will distribute The Hunger Games and Limitless together with Universal. We will first accumulate experience."

Michael Lynn also knew that this kind of thing could not be rushed. According to his plan, it would take 5-10 years for Lantern Entertainment to establish its own distribution channels.

But at the same time, Li Qiutang also agreed with Michael Lynn's idea of buying R-rated movies.

"In fact, we can make an R-rated movie ourselves if we have a good idea."

Li Qiutang is not a fan of R-rated movies, but her mind is racing through R-rated movies that make money.

"The Human Clearance Project" should be considered a very profitable R-rated movie, right? What is this movie about?

(End of this chapter)