Reborn in the Chinese Entertainment Industry: My Childhood Sweetheart is Boss Yang

The next day, in a conference room at Warner Bros. headquarters in Los Angeles.

Today's event is quite a large-scale affair.

On Warner's side, President Jeff Robinoff sat in a row with a group of department heads in suits.

On Gu Heng's side, besides Kevin, there was another person: Li Ming.

This is the head of Vision's North American branch, and one of the few veterans under Gu Heng who can handle things independently.

"Mr. Gu, welcome to Warner Bros." Jeff greeted him with a smile and extended his hand first.

"Mr. Jeff, you're too kind." Gu Heng shook hands, a slight smile playing on his lips. "After all, we might be doing business together for a long time from now on."

Compared to the superficially amicable but actually turbulent business pleasantries on this side, Nolan seemed extremely out of place.

As soon as the famous director entered, he found a seat at the very end of the long table, sat down without even looking up, and continued to look through the script and storyboards that Gu Heng had given him.

In Nolan's world, the power struggle between capital is nothing. As long as it doesn't affect my movie-making, I don't care if you beat your brains out.

Jeff cleared his throat and got straight to the point: "Mr. Gu, tell me your terms."

Gu Heng nodded, leaned back in his chair, and interlaced his fingers: "I want a 40% investment share. Of course, 5% of that will be counted as part of my script and storyboard fees."

"Furthermore, I want global revenue sharing. I want 40% of all profits from *Inception*!"

"There are two more characters."

The atmosphere at Warner immediately soured after those words were spoken.

Holy crap, these Chinese people are really daring to speak up!

Jeff's face darkened, and he waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

"Mr. Gu, we can't offer you full revenue sharing across all channels. At most, we can offer you box office revenue sharing! And our investment share is limited to 20%!"

What kind of international joke is this?

There's a ton of kickbacks in the profit-sharing!

DVDs, television broadcasting rights, merchandise... the long-term revenue from these peripherals alone can sometimes equal or even exceed the box office revenue.

This is where Hollywood studios really make their money; would they really let an outsider like you get involved?

Gu Heng wasn't annoyed at all. He picked up the coffee on the table and leisurely took a sip.

"Mr. Jeff, there's an old Chinese saying that goes, 'Those who eat food... no, it's 'harmony brings wealth.'"

Gu Heng smiled and said, "I provided the script, the funding, and even the storyboards. Chris just had to use them to film. How much did that save Warner Bros.?"

"Besides, look how much Christopher likes this script."

Following the direction of Gu Heng's finger, Nolan, who had been shielding himself from the outside world, vaguely heard someone calling his name.

He looked up blankly: "You called me? What, you've finalized the deal? When can the project be approved and filming begin?"

Warner executives: "..."

Jeff almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

How did I end up with such a father!

Seeing how impatient this living father was, Jeff knew that today Gu Heng had completely gotten his foot in the door.

"Okay." Jeff gritted his teeth, feeling his heart bleed. "But forty percent is really too high, it can't be that high! Twenty!"

"Thirty." Gu Heng refused to budge an inch.

Jeff took a deep breath, as if he had made a huge compromise: "Fine! Thirty percent. But Mr. Gu, you need to contribute twenty-five percent, and the script and storyboard will be yours for five percent."

"No problem!" Gu Heng agreed readily. "Oh, by the way, my people will be involved in the entire audit of the books."

"Mr. Jeff, rest assured, we only have the right to view your documents and will absolutely not interfere with your normal financial operations."

Jeff was taken aback and glanced at Kevin and Li Ming behind Gu Heng.

The project's total budget is initially set at $2.6 million, with Vision Capital contributing 25% and securing 30% of the global profits, plus an audit team to be on-site.

Warner executives are now feeling worse than if they'd swallowed a fly.

This is just like when Duan Yu was fed the Yin-Yang Harmony Powder. He couldn't vomit it out, but he was afraid of exploding and dying if he swallowed it!

Especially when Jeff later found out that the guy named Kevin who was backing Gu Heng was a seasoned veteran on Wall Street, the executives in Warner's finance department almost had a collective heart attack.

Why do these Chinese people never play by the rules?!

That's not how business negotiations work!

Now that the contract was finalized and everything was settled, Gu Heng wasn't in a hurry to leave. Instead, he took a vacation and spent a few days traveling around Los Angeles.

But after spending a few days there, Gu Heng felt that Hollywood was nothing special.

On the surface, it looks glamorous, but underneath it's a complete mess. Some sections even smell so bad it's an eyesore. It's better to go back to the courtyard house in China and play with your own little fox.

However, before leaving, Gu Heng suddenly thought of a crucial matter.

He specifically sought out Nolan, who was preparing for the film production.

"Chris, have you heard of that 3D filming equipment James Cameron's been tinkering with lately?"

Gu Heng asked casually, thinking that if he could get a set of equipment back to China, he might be able to let Lu Yang or Ning Hao also experience the benefits of 3D.

Upon hearing this, Nolan put down what he was doing, his brow furrowing slightly. "Cameron's project has been all over the news in the industry, of course I know. The equipment is indeed powerful, but take my advice, even if we get the equipment, it'll be completely useless."

"How so?" Gu Heng raised an eyebrow.

"Currently, apart from his own technical team, nobody knows how to operate that thing!"

Nolan shrugged, looking helpless.

"Not to mention the post-production 3D special effects rendering. If you want to do that, you not only need an astronomical amount of investment, but you also need top talent readily available. Right now in Hollywood, everyone is still watching to see if Cameron will go bankrupt."

Indeed, it took Cardiac ten years to hone his skills, and the effort and resources he expended during that time are unimaginable to ordinary people.

Just understanding that 3D shooting logic would drive domestic directors crazy.

After some deliberation, Gu Heng ultimately gave up his plan to shoot 3D films himself.

Trying to do too much at once will lead to failure, and taking too big a step can easily result in trouble.

But... since he can't make 3D movies, that doesn't stop him from making money!

If I can't create content, I can manage distribution channels!

When Avatar was released, the existing cinema equipment in China was simply unable to handle the huge special effects bonus.

"Fine, if we can't film it, then we won't."

Gu Heng stroked his chin: "After returning to China, it seems we'll have to completely upgrade Time Cinemas. We'll just throw money at installing IMAX and 3D screens, and then we can just sit back and collect ticket revenue!"