Artists under the Rebirth of the Coal Boss

Chapter 296 A Breakthrough in Copyright Acquisition!
On Friday, Zhang Youqian drove a Buick GL8 registered under the name of Jinyuan Huwei Coal Industry's Shanghai office on the G60 Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway.

After several days of confrontation, Lin Xingzhuo once again displayed his "cool and domineering" nature, exposing a bunch of benefits to Zhejiang TV.

This includes a series of unequal agreements concerning the exposure of artists under Tiger Shadow Star Entertainment on Zhejiang TV's core variety shows, priority in promotional resources for their works, and the right to review and approve post-production editing.

Tiger Shadow Star Brilliance's legal and contract department has already traveled to Lin'an City, Yuezhou Province, to sign a strategic cooperation agreement with Lantai.

Lin Xingzhuo then agreed to allow Tiger Star Stars artists to participate in Zhejiang TV's New Year's Eve gala.

Among the major satellite TV stations in mainland China, Zhejiang TV has a lot of problems.

Not only is internal bureaucracy rampant and the company highly dependent on government funding, but it also has a host of off-the-books companies involved in related-party transactions and the transfer of benefits.

Moreover, it lacks in work efficiency, innovation, talent development, and humanistic qualities.

But their advantage lies in their wealth!

This kind of TV station setup is a tough challenge for Tiger Entertainment Capital, which has strong connections with the eldest sister-in-law Shen Mojun, is powerful, and adept at maneuvering through upper-level channels.

Zhejiang TV is practically a super fat sheep that was custom-made for you!
Whether it's using them as pawns in public opinion campaigns or for continuous gold coin generation, it's all within their grasp.
In contrast, Hunan TV and Tiger Group's full-industry chain layout in the entertainment industry are somewhat incompatible.

First of all, Hunan TV was known for its news program back then, and its ratings were so good that even CCTV was afraid of it!
The Hunan TV team is no joke!!

Although those investigative journalists from back then have been marginalized, their influence remains. It would be extremely difficult to deeply win them over and corrupt them!

Furthermore, although Hunan TV is now positioned as an entertainment channel, its director, Ouyang Changlin, is a powerful figure in the Chinese entertainment industry and not someone to be trifled with!
Since the millennium, he has been building a relatively small but complete star-making industry chain at Hunan TV.

This industry chain alone is enough to give them sufficient bargaining power in front of other entities in the entertainment industry.

Between the two, Lantai, with its incompetent officials, rampant nepotism, and numerous scandals, is certainly more in line with the interests of the Tiger Group's coal capital!
Agent Zhang Youqian drove Lin Xingzhuo to Lin'an in a Buick GL8, while executive agent Xiao Ma settled the second phase of expansion of his cement factory and also bought plane tickets from Guangzhou to Lin'an.

As for the Tiger-affiliated artists Zhao Yihuan, Zhu Yilong, Da Peng, Mao Xiaotong, Wan Xi, Huang Jingyu, and others, they took leave from the production crew in the past two days and arrived one after another.
Zhu Yilong, who was filming "The Piano in a Factory" in the old industrial area of ​​Anshan City in Northeast China, arrived in Lin'an City yesterday after taking a Changlong Airlines flight from Teng'ao Airport.

I only blame myself for not holding your hand tighter back then.
I only realized how important you were after I lost you.

It's too late to regret it now.

My heart is aching.

The FM radio station "Music Radio" in the car was playing Huanzi's new song "Heartache 2009," which was released at the end of the year.

Lin Xingzhuo reclined his chair, intending to take a nap.

Just then, the cell phone rang. It was Xu Zhixia, who was facing setbacks in the United States, making an international long-distance call.

Lin Xingzhuo had long since given up hope on this copyright acquisition trip.

The acquisition of the rights to "Kung Fu Panda" by DreamWorks Animation is unlikely to be finalized anytime soon, and Tiger Group's coal capital doesn't have that much money right now.

The internal strife at Toho in Japan won't be resolved until next year, and the Godzilla copyright issue will also come later.

Lin Xingzhuo answered the phone, and Xu Lu sounded very excited, saying, "Xingzhuo, it's done!"

Lin Xingzhuo asked in surprise, "What? The rights for Kung Fu Panda 2 have been secured?"

Xu Zhixia said urgently on the phone, "No! It's about negotiations with Marvel!"

Lin Xingzhuo was stunned for a moment.

Xu Zhixia managed to get involved in the massive $42.4 billion acquisition of Marvel Entertainment by The Walt Disney Company.

Xu Zhixia continued on the other end of the phone:

"The negotiations between Marvel and Disney were not going well, especially after the huge success of Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, Marvel tried to raise its offer several times."

"Therefore, we need to act as the catfish entering the market!"
Lin Xingzhuo asked, "So how did you get involved with Marvel?" Xu Zhixia patiently explained over the phone:
"Do you remember when our company's James Wan Studio was established, we hired that extremely expensive legal counsel, and we even discussed it at the company's monthly business meeting?"

Lin Xingzhuo said, "I have a vague impression. That young man worked at one of the top law firms in New York and now runs his own independent firm. He can also speak Chinese."

Xu Zhixia said, "His 62-year-old lover, whom he met at his former firm, is now serving as the legal counsel for Marvel's acquisition negotiations."

"They actually have quite a connection; they both graduated from the University of Chicago Law School and both played wide receivers on the school's men's football team."

"I don't know if this has been reported in domestic news, but this situation is becoming more and more common in the United States."

"Recently, the U.S. military has implemented reforms, abolishing the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy that prohibited gay soldiers from openly serving in the military."

"Starting next year, we will significantly increase the proportion of LGBTQ individuals among military officers!"

"This matter has been reported in mainstream newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, and there has been a great deal of discussion on CNN, FOX, and CBS programs!"

Lin Xingzhuo felt a little dizzy listening to this and collected her thoughts.

It sounds a bit like what my sister-in-law Shen Mojun mentioned in the last video conference about how she was able to know some very powerful high-level resources.

The eldest sister-in-law, Shen Mojun, explained it as a "social node".

In any industry, field, region, etc., there is always an elder brother or sister, who is a particularly influential person.

His influence extends to a group of entrepreneurs in the surrounding area, or at least a group of people with business needs.

These are the social nodes.

This is a turning point for some top lawyers in the United States!

When Lin Xingzhuo pulled himself back to reality, Xu Zhixia had already brought up the fact that, under the current president's impetus, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage legal last week, causing a judicial shock.
Lin Xingzhu slammed on the brakes to steer the conversation back on track, saying, "So what's the point of us being catfish? We don't have that much money to acquire Marvel!"

Xu Zhixia said, "Our main role is to provide support! Disney wants a package deal to buy all of Marvel's existing copyrights, and that's where we're going to make our move!"

Lin Xingzhuo became interested. Considering Marvel's history of selling its copyrights piecemeal, this was indeed a feasible approach, so he asked:
Which roles have been secured so far?

While on the phone, Xu Zhixia flipped through her meeting notes and said:

"Polaris, The Collector, Red Guard, Black Widow II, Howard the Duck, Baron Mordo, Cosmo the Space Dog."

"Marvel only sells minor, peripheral characters."

"Because we heard that Disney has a rather ambitious creative plan that spans ten years, Marvel is also worried that it might go too far."

Upon hearing about these characters, all of whom were characters who didn't even make it into the main storyline in the first two phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Lin Xingzhuo remarked, "They are indeed just some minor characters."

Xu Zhixia thought for a moment and added, "There's also a second-tier hero IP, one that Nicolas Cage starred in, something about a skeleton riding a bicycle."

"But I heard that the box office was a disaster. With a cost of $2.1 million, it only made $2 million at the box office, which overdraws the commercial value of this character."

"If we're willing to add a little more money, maybe we can reach an agreement."

Lin Xingzhuo made a decision and said, "At a time like this, we shouldn't be stingy with money. Once Marvel and Disney reach an agreement, there won't be another chance!"

Xu Zhixia said, "Okay! I'll go talk to them again."

"By the way, Disney's negotiators also contacted our lawyers, wanting us to stop negotiations with Marvel."

"They heard we have a cinema chain and could offer us some benefits in terms of distribution, so should we still accept these leftovers?"

Click!

Lin Xingzhu lit a bottle of Guose Tianxiang Liqun cigarette, realizing this was an opportunity.
(End of this chapter)