Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 256: Poaching and New Projects

It is a celebration party as well as a social occasion.

Many people who we rarely see came that day, and the executives of Autumn Pictures seized the opportunity to discuss cooperation.

The boss Li Qiutang is leading by example and he is also lobbying Zhang Zhao.

It is impossible that he is the only one eyeing a talent like Zhang Zhao. Autumn Pictures is definitely not the largest or the most powerful one among them, but Li Qiutang thinks that he should be the one who understands movies the best and can talk with Zhang Zhao the most.

At Zhang Zhao's level, salary and equity can no longer impress him. He wants money, and staying in a glamorous position will only earn him more. What he wants is a platform to realize his film ambitions.

"Those Internet people don't understand movies." Li Qiutang knew that LeTV's CEO Jia was also trying to recruit Zhang Zhao. "What he's talking about now, the whole ecosystem and the whole industry chain, sounds very promising, but I'll just say one thing, his idea is basically to build his own TV station, which the radio and television industry won't allow. You're also an old hand in the film and television industry, so you should know how much resistance there is."

"…The Internet can only be used as a tool for the film industry, it cannot dominate the film industry. Films are different from other commodities and cannot be driven solely by capital. If you open a factory to make bags or clothes, you can change the workers on the assembly line one after another. As long as the craftsmanship and the production line are there, there will be no problems with the product. But this is not the case with films. If you change the director, the team, and the same script, the product will be different."

Zhang Zhao knew these principles very well.

"Let me be realistic. The domestic environment does not allow for the emergence of media giants like Disney and Fox."

Zhang Zhao smoked one cigarette after another and nodded. He had been in the media industry for a lifetime, so of course he knew all this.

"We still have to get back to the content. We are also working on the industrial layout. I won't brag about our production capabilities. Although our scale is small, we can still produce a lot of films every year. I am confident that we can become the first echelon of the industry in the next five years. I also have a company in the United States, and we have a good relationship with Universal. Universal has always wanted to cooperate with me, but their appetite is too big, so I have not agreed yet."

In addition to boasting, Li Qiutang also disassembled LeEco's model to Zhang Zhao, including LeEco's high debt. Li Qiutang finally predicted: "LeEco will definitely fail. To put it nicely, its model is ahead of its time, but to put it bluntly, it is unrealistic and makes big promises. It is very tempting, but it really cannot be implemented.

"Look at which movie company boss would brag like him. Huayi is doing so well now. Even the two Wang brothers can't brag as much as he does. With the sixth largest scale in the industry, it has the highest profit margin. Who would believe it if they say there is no problem?"

Zhang Zhao lit up another cigarette.

Li Qiutang said, "Sister Cao Ping and I both come from the content industry, and we are not very good at company management. If you come to Qiu Tian to help me, Sister Cao and I will be able to focus on the project. It will definitely not be like you in Guangxian, and we will be restricted by Li Xiaoping."

"I will fly to the United States tomorrow to discuss a project with Legendary. We want to make a Sino-US co-production of a blockbuster movie with an investment of nearly $2 million. If you are willing, you can do this project. No company in China has ever managed such a large co-production project. Guanghua is not good enough, and LeTV is even worse."

Zhang Zhao was interested in this co-production project. A blockbuster with an investment of 2 million US dollars was indeed very challenging, so he asked a few more questions.

It's easy if you're interested. In order to prove that he was not just talking nonsense, Li Qiutang told Zhang Zhao about the project.

"Legendary's mecha monster blockbuster, directed by Toro, was told by a vice president of Legendary at the celebration party two days ago that the investment is too large and Legendary wants to find someone to share the cost. You also know that my American CEO Michael Lynn doesn't get along with Warner, so Legendary found me." Legendary is Warner's financial cow, and the two companies have collaborated on dozens of films. Michael Lynn has a grudge against Warner, and he personally will not invest in Warner's projects.

"Toro is notoriously slow to work, and the cost keeps going up, which Legendary can't stand, but after reading the script and some of their design drafts, I know it's definitely doable within $2 million, so I want to get involved and make it a co-production."

Zhang Zhao smoked half a pack of cigarettes and said he would think about it again.

LeTV is large in scale and has sufficient funds, but big companies have their own problems. Even if Boss Jia delegates power to him when he goes to LeTV, he may not be able to fully mobilize LeTV's resources. It will take a lot of his energy just to integrate the internal resources.

But Qiu Tian is different. Although it is small in scale, it is flexible. The two founders are both content developers. They know the rules of film and television creation and will not blindly command or abuse power. In addition, Qiu Tian and Guangxian have cooperated for a long time, and the company is very familiar with Zhang Zhao. Zhang Zhao coming to Qiu Tian can save a lot of energy. Zhang Zhao lit another cigarette, took a deep puff, and said that he would think about it again.

It seemed that he was sure he could not stay any longer.

Li Qiutang didn't rush him and said, "You should also take a few months off to relax, we'll talk about it later. Don't smoke too much, your health is important."

The next day, Li Qiutang really led a team of five people and flew to the United States.

The code name of "Pacific Rim" during the preparation and filming was Silent Seas, which means "Sea of Silence".

Although Legendary Pictures had the backing of Wall Street and was not short of money, Thomas Tull was tortured to death by Toro's slow and meticulous work and had to find someone to share the burden.

Li Qiutang is not a sucker. It is true that Pacific Rim is an excellent mecha monster movie, but its high cost is prohibitive even for Li Qiutang.

And he knew that Pacific Rim actually lost money at the global box office!
Li Qiutang will not and does not want to get involved in the global profit sharing. He has a small family and a small business, and cannot compete with Legendary and Warner.

So the plan in the fall was to buy out the mainland revenue rights of "Pacific Rim" for US$1500 million and make "Pacific Rim" a Sino-US co-production, just like "The Forbidden Kingdom" back then.

Legendary thought the price was too low. The cost of Pacific Rim was close to 2 million US dollars, and Legendary felt it was not cost-effective to buy out the profits from such a large market in mainland China with just 1500 million US dollars.

But Li Qiutang had good reasons. After all, Pacific Rim is not an IP like Transformers. As an original mecha movie, it would be very risky to spend 1500 million US dollars in the fall.

Li Qiutang and others spent a week in the United States, and Chuanqi bargained down the price from 1500 million to 2200 million. In the fall, the price was bargained down to 1700 million, and then increased to 2000 million. Finally, Thomas Tull agreed to the deal.

Li Qiutang said: "2000 million US dollars, I want to use our mainland actress for the female lead."

Toro prefers Japanese anime, and the heroine in the script is of Japanese descent, but Li Qiutang paid 2000 million, so it should be no problem for him to change it to a Chinese descent.

Whether the heroine is Japanese or Chinese will not have any impact on the story of "Pacific Rim", and Toro agreed.

Li Qiutang also had a request, that the crew had to come to China to shoot, and that the domestic co-shooting team had to use Qiu Tang's people. This was also a small matter, as Pacific Rim did not involve many scenes in China, so a small team could be sent to shoot.

The two parties agreed in the United States that the $2000 million in the fall would be received in two installments, half before filming started and the other half two months after it started.

Li Qiutang agreed.

With a buyout cost of 2000 million US dollars, the cost is close to that of "In Time". It will take 4 million box office in mainland China to break even. The film industry is under great pressure in autumn.

But this drama was promoted by Li Qiutang himself. He is optimistic about the future performance of Pacific Rim in China: "We can't always make small and medium-budget films. We must make blockbusters."

As for who will be the heroine, is there any need to think about it?

(End of this chapter)