The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 289 The Value of "The Matrix"

China and the United States have a long history of co-produced movies, which can be traced back to ten years ago. The more famous examples are "The King of Kung Fu" eight years ago, which featured two kung fu superstars, and "The Great Wall" filmed last year. There are countless co-productions like the crucian carp crossing the river.

Although the box office is not considered a success, it still cannot stop the enthusiasm of filmmakers from the two countries to cooperate.

Although he was a little pleasantly surprised by Chen Jingxing's attitude of agreeing, Jeff Miller was still a little puzzled by what Chen Jingxing said later.

"Of course you are not Zhang Yimou."

"What I mean is that the cooperation between the two parties should be based on me." Chen Jingxing's tone was very firm: "I only accept Universal's money, but I cannot accept any interference from Universal's producers."

Hollywood is a producer-centered system, and even for this reason, many filmmakers fought against the so-called "independent films".

On the surface, independent films are to resist the big studios, but in essence, they are against the concept and production model produced by the producer-centered system.

In non-independent films, especially non-independent commercial films, the director does not have the right to edit, and the editors are brought in by the producer.

Among the commercial film directors in North America, the only director with complete editing rights is the one at the top of the pyramid, which can be counted with two hands. This is a privilege only available to internationally renowned directors.

In fact, even with Chen Jingxing's resume, if he left Huaguo to make a movie in Hollywood, he would not be able to directly obtain the editing rights.

Because the producers of "The Great Wall" also include National Film, so Chen Jingxing learned from Qin Zhonghe that Zhang Yimou was greatly restricted by Hollywood producers when he was filming "The Great Wall". A co-production film under the Filmmaker Center system.

Chen Jingxing can accept the joint production of movies with Universal, but it is absolutely impossible for him to accept the producers of Universal.

Although Jeff Miller was a little surprised by Chen Jingxing's firm request, he did not particularly object. Universal wanted to get on DreamWorks' car because it was out of interest considerations. As long as it could make money, whether to interfere or not to control The process is not the core issue.

"You know the movie "The Matrix" that I just finished?"

"Of course I know, I heard it's a kung fu... science fiction movie?" Jeff Miller said hesitantly.

Universal is not always aware of DreamWorks' developments, but he has been following Chen Jingxing's own films.

"You mean we could work together on a sequel to The Matrix? I hear it's a trilogy, right?"

"That's right, Universal can invest in the follow-up two films of "Matrix"."

Because "Matrix" is a film produced solely by DreamWorks, Chen Jingxing believes that the following two films can give up 40% of the share. It was at a time when the rest of Hollywood was hostile to DreamWorks.

The European and American markets are worth such a price, and with the help of Universal's mature peripheral development system, if "Matrix" can replicate the success of the previous world in the world, the box office revenue will not even be the biggest profit.

In the previous world, the total income of the "Matrix" trilogy exceeded 20 billion US dollars in 30 years, and the main creators of the film, including the actors, can get a dividend of the income every year.

Chen Jingxing's previous movies will also have a steady stream of follow-up income. For example, "Source Code" has sold the rights to adapt games, but they cannot compare with this series. The complete story and world view of "Matrix" make his commercial value It belongs to the top of the pyramid in hard science fiction movies.

And with the "Matrix" carrot, Universal will be able to do more with DreamWorks' other film releases.

But obviously Jeff Miller seems to be a bit disapproving of this "carrot". He doesn't hide his expression and opinion: "Chen, let me remind you, the kung fu craze has long since ebbed here. It's just this movie that I'm afraid Sincerity is not enough."

Chen Jingxing retorted: ""Matrix" is a science fiction movie, and kung fu is only a relatively important element in the movie. You can't completely define it as a kung fu movie."

"What we want is an ambitious movie like "Gravity", not just a level project like "Signal" or "Source Code."

The production cost of "Matrix" is less than 5000 million US dollars, which is really not enough in today's Hollywood. In the eyes of Jeff Miller, it is at most a film project of the level of "Source Code", which is not enough Universal Appetite.

Chen Jingxing's attitude is sincere: "Believe me, the value of "Matrix" will only be higher than that of "Gravity"."

Chen Jingxing's confident attitude still infected Jeff Miller a little bit. After all, judging from Chen Jingxing's historical record, it seems that he really did not speak big words, but "Matrix" is still in post-production, and there is no way for Jeff to see it In fact, it is completely different from "Gravity", so for Universal's vice president, it is difficult to rule out the suspicion that Chen Jingxing is selling himself.

Of course, relying on the follow-up two of "Matrix" will slowly satisfy Universal's appetite.

Chen Jingxing already had a preliminary plan in mind.

In addition to "Matrix", there is another type of movie that is very suitable for cooperation with Universal, and that is zombie movies.

Of course, it depends on whether DreamWorks' next big show "The Walking Dead" can successfully elevate this theme from a niche plasma film to a more popular subculture.

DreamWorks' version of "The Walking Dead" is a fusion of the world view of the top zombie-themed works such as "Resident Evil", the TV series "The Walking Dead", and "World War Zombie" in the previous life.

Compared with the height and completeness of the worldview itself, the current level of the zombie theme is completely crushing. If it can have a wider influence like "Black Mirror", it can definitely be upgraded to a popular subculture. , then the follow-up film and television animation game development is a big gold mine.

Moreover, due to the current ungraded film review system in Huaguo, it is already the limit for "The Walking Dead" to be produced and broadcast in the form of an online drama, and it is almost impossible to put it on the big screen.

Then movies based on the world view of "The Walking Dead" can only go overseas, and Universal is a very suitable partner. If it can achieve the same influence as the previous "Resident Evil" series, then this is also a tens Big IP at the billion-dollar level.

Absolutely worthy of Universal's protection and support for DreamWorks.

In addition, there are some sci-fi projects that are not suitable for setting the background in China. For example, works like "The Ninth District" are put into the current movie market. Four to five billion dollars at the box office.

There is no need to use Chen Jingxing's other film projects in the next few years as bargaining chips. The two "Matrix", plus the new zombie-themed series derived from "The Walking Dead", and one or two other projects are enough to satisfy the appetite of Universal within five years up.

As for a few years later, after DreamWorks has established a stronger global distribution network and its own brand influence is more stable, the chips that Universal and even other Hollywood studios can threaten will become smaller, and it will be relegated to the North American market, which is the second largest box office. It's not as big as it is now.

Universal wanted to take the car of DreamWorks and share the cake from DreamWorks, but DreamWorks was also taking the car of Universal, at least from Chen Jingxing's point of view, he didn't suffer a disadvantage.

However, Chen Jingxing thought he was "generous", but Universal was dubious about it.

What Universal wanted was a project like "Gravity", but whether it was "The Martian" or subsequent sci-fi productions, Chen Jingxing didn't want Hollywood to share the cake.

Although there were various dissatisfaction, for Chen Jingxing's promise, Universal still adhered to the attitude of listening to Chen Jingxing's words and observing his deeds.

The two parties plan to initially sign an agreement stipulating how many film projects DreamWorks will provide in the next few years and how many joint productions will be produced by Universal, and the maximum share that Universal can take. Universal will participate in the global distribution of DreamWorks films in the next few years, and Try to make sure that DreamWorks films get home-grown treatment for North American releases.

Of course, such an agreement does not have much coercive force. The guarantee for the cooperation between DreamWorks and Universal is actually the hostility of other major factories towards DreamWorks.

If Chen Jingxing casually came up with some projects with no commercial value to fool Universal, Universal could naturally stop protecting and supporting DreamWorks at any time. Without Universal's support, under the rejection of other major filmmakers, the films after DreamWorks would like to be released in North America. Large-scale release will naturally be difficult, which is equivalent to closing half of the door to DreamWorks in the North American market.

Soon, DreamWorks signed an agreement with Universal Pictures, and the news that the two parties would co-produce multiple films in the future shocked Hollywood.

You must know that DreamWorks is not an NBCS in Hollywood. It can be said that it is the foreign film company that has made the most money in the North American market in recent years.

As a director, Chen Jingxing himself has a relatively high reputation among young people, coupled with the overwhelming publicity of "Gravity", it gives people a feeling that Chen Jingxing has landed in Hollywood.

It's just that this "landing" has a completely different meaning from that of foreign directors coming to Hollywood in the traditional sense.

Some right-leaning media have even shouted the headline "Hua Guo Corporation Invades Hollywood".

Indeed, in the eyes of many people, this is a very serious matter. Even in the past when Dongying Company acquired a major Hollywood studio, and the media shouted "Dongying bought Hollywood", the movies produced by the major factories acquired by Dongying Company are still Hollywood movies. Just an "invasion" in the sense of equity.

It is completely different when DreamWorks and Universal want to promote Chinese-American co-productions. If other foreign companies cooperate with Universal, people usually think that this is Hollywood trying to make money from foreign countries.

But the target is DreamWorks, so people don't think so, especially when discussions about "Black Mirror" are hot on the Internet in Europe and the United States.

Obviously, this is a signal that this foreign company wants to make further money in the North American market.

Not to mention that he is still a Huaguo company.

Of course, there are not many people who are excited about this, and many people don't care who is making money in the movie market, they just want to see better-looking and cooler movies and TV shows, especially science fiction works.

Chen Jingxing and DreamWorks have harvested a large number of fans and established a brand image through several previous sci-fi movies and the recent mini-sci-fi series "Black Mirror".

Many fans who love Chen Jingxing's movies and "Black Mirror" even spread news about whether "Black Mirror" will be made into a movie version, or whether "Signal" will be made into an American version.

At the same time, news of the fanfare cooperation between DreamWorks and Universal Pictures also spread to China, triggering many speculations and discussions from the media and peers.

(End of this chapter)