China Entertainment started from Nortel 2002

Chapter 704: Purchasing Copyright (Special Circumstances Today, Update )
“In the early morning of May 2017, 5, Beijing time, the 29th Cannes Film Festival closed and various awards were announced one after another.

The film "Liberty Square" won the Palme d'Or this year, and the Jury Prize was won by the film "120 Beats Per Minute" directed by Robin Campillo.

"Li Mu and Liu Yifei appeared at the Imperial Capital Airport today and accepted media interviews:
There was no fierce debate with blood splattering during this review meeting. Everyone respected each other. Although not all opinions were consistent, they discussed and exchanged ideas in a respectful atmosphere.

"."

"So you think Sofia Coppola's win for Best Director was a bit of a cheat?"

Liu Yifei knew that Li Mu had watched the movie "The Beguiled". After the results came out, Li Mu told her that he felt it was unbelievable that the award was given to Sofia Coppola.

"It's simple. The merits of the film come from the book and only end with the book. Sofia Coppola did not make much improvement to the story at the film level.

The story is based on the background of the Civil War and the characters of left-behind women, and it was written just to win awards.

But she uses the characters' words at the beginning of the film to directly express how dangerous the environment they are in is, which is the lowest level and least dramatic way of script writing.

The plot progresses very slowly. When there is no time left in the final stage, the plot progresses suddenly faster, and there is an overall lack of control.

So if it weren't for this subject matter and the public opinion incident caused by Maren Ade, who missed the Grand Prize at Cannes last year with "Toni Erdmann", Sofia Coppola would not have won the Best Director award this time."

Li Mu shrugged. He watched the movie "Under the Beguiled Flowers" and thought that it was not worthy of the title of Best Director in general. However, the fact that Cannes gave the first female Best Director award in history obviously had a special meaning.

All we can say is that Sofia Coppola was in the right place at the right time.

"I can only say that democracy can sometimes bring problems. For example, Will Smith really liked Jupiter's Moon, but he was screened out in the end because he didn't get enough votes."

Liu Yifei said with a hint of regret.

This review process is naturally also a voting process, but each vote is a cruel screening and sometimes may not be satisfactory.

On May 5, the Dragon Boat Festival holiday ended and it was time to return to work.

There were not many surprises in this year's Dragon Boat Festival.

Judging from the single-day box office during the Dragon Boat Festival period, the daily performance of around 2.6 million yuan is not significantly different from the daily weekend box office.

It is also basically on par with the single-day box office during the May Day period.

However, the performance of this year's Dragon Boat Festival period has undoubtedly poured cold water on the market again.

Because the box office revenue of 8.45 million yuan in the same period last year increased by 2015% compared to 6 million yuan in 41.

In addition, due to the sluggish box office performance of the Qingming Festival and the May Day holiday, the Dragon Boat Festival became one of the most profitable periods for mainland movie box office in the first half of last year.

As the market still received a cold reception in the early part of this year, the Dragon Boat Festival period finally failed to bring a turnaround to the market.

"In this way, we can increase the publicity for "Blade Master 2" and have the overseas film distributors sign the contract as soon as possible."

After Li Mu finished reading the data, he immediately gave instructions to Liu Weijuan.

If the last period before the summer vacation fails to perform well, the accumulated box office enthusiasm will most likely be released during the summer vacation, which may not be a bad opportunity for "Knife of the Assassin 2".

Moreover, "Knife of the Assassin 2" was not without gain from participating in the Cannes Film Festival. Currently, eight overseas film producers have taken notice of it. As long as the contract is signed, a lot of the cost will be recovered invisibly.

"Okay, Mr. Li!"

Liu Weijuan nodded in response, and was about to turn around and leave. Unexpectedly, as soon as she opened the door, she bumped into Lu Yang outside the door, who seemed to be about to knock on the door.

"Mr. Liu, what a coincidence." Lu Yang smiled.

"Director Lu, President Li is already inside."

Liu Weijuan also nodded and smiled, then quickly walked to the legal department, obviously to speed up the contract matters between "Assassin 2" and the overseas film distributors.

At this time, Lu Yang walked in holding a lot of information, his expression full of anticipation.

"What kind of information is this? Don't stand, sit anywhere."

Li Mu walked over and asked with interest, then he casually pulled out a very thin book, and the words that caught his eye were "Assassination of Novelist".

Li Mu then put down "Assassination of Novelist" and picked up a notebook, on which were written the various framework structures and character designs of "Assassination of Novelist". And judging from the appearance of the notebook, it was obvious that he had been writing for some time.

"Director Li, this is a short story published in a literary magazine last year. I read it when I was filming "Blade Master 2". It's a really interesting story."

Lu Yang was a little excited when he spoke, and he stood up and gestured:
"A depressed middle-aged man wants to see polar bears, and for money, he accepts a mysterious mission.

A big shot believes that the works of Lu Kongwen, an unknown novelist from a distant place, are related to his own destiny, and the content of the novel will affect his real life.

According to the story, the person who corresponds to him in the novel will die at the end, so he wants the middle-aged man to kill the novelist to save himself. The middle-aged man accepts this inexplicable task and begins to approach the novelist.

"The story is a bit cheesy!"

After listening to it, Li Mu couldn't help but comment that the original story of "Assassination of Novelist" is actually quite childish. "Don't be so excited. Sit down first and talk slowly."

"It looks like a special effects blockbuster. By the way, have you sold the copyright?"

Li Mu's question hits the core point. After all, the most important thing when adapting someone else's novel is copyright.

Lu Yang scratched his head and said, "Too late. I checked and it's in Huace's hands."

"You came to me, maybe it's about this matter."

Li Mu said unhappily, Wow, this requires some effort.

"If you have any difficulties, you must ask your senior brother for help."

Lu Yang immediately changed his address and called him "senior brother".

"Huace!"

Li Mu frowned. It's not that Huace CEO Fu Meicheng and Li Mu have no contact. When the copyright of "Operation Red Sea" was being auctioned before, they had met each other, but they were not very familiar with each other.

"Okay, I'll have someone look into this matter. If we can buy it back, we'll buy it. If we can't, then we can cooperate."

The movie "Assassination of Novelist" is actually quite good, it's a pity that it was released at the wrong time. If it could have been released earlier or later, it would definitely be much better than it was at the time.

The environment was special, and it happened to coincide with the release of "Hello, Li Huanying" and "Detective Chinatown 3". At that time, "Raging Fire" also attracted a wave of traffic due to scheduling issues, and "Nezha Reborn" also attracted a lot of criticism because of the "Nezha" label.

Only "Assassination of Novelist" had no gimmicks or hype, but it grossed more than 9 million yuan in less than three weeks after its release. It is a fantasy adventure movie that was ignored by the media but well received by the audience.

Li Mu then called Lu Yu over and handed over the book "Assassination of Novelist" and said, "Ask someone to check the copyright of this novel and see if you can buy it back."

"Okay, Mr. Li!"

Lu Yu took it and nodded.

The scorching sun of June was already high in the sky. The fierce sunlight was burning the earth like a torch, and there was not a single cloud in the sky.

Cinemas have also felt the enthusiasm, because in the next four weeks, four Hollywood commercial films, "Wonder Woman," "The Mummy," "Alien: Covenant" and "Transformers 5: The Last Knight," will bombard the domestic market with one film released per week.

Although the quality of the four films remains to be seen, theaters believe that there will be "mid-range movies", such as "Transformers 26", which is rumored to have a guaranteed box office of 5 billion yuan.

So many Hollywood blockbusters in June also leave room for domestic films in the summer vacation period in July.

At the same time, Fu Meicheng, CEO of Huace Film & TV, also learned the news.

"You said someone wanted to buy the film and television rights to the short novel you bought last year?"

Fu Meicheng asked the producer Wan Juan.

"Yes, Mr. Fu, and the offer is not low."

"Who is this person?"

"It seems to be a cultural media company in the industry, not very well-known."

Of course, you cannot ask Mengying Media when purchasing copyrights, as that would expose your purpose. Naturally, the people at Mengying Media are not that stupid.

"Mr. Fu, I'm quite optimistic about the copyright of this novel. The story is very imaginative and very suitable for making a special effects blockbuster. I suggest you not sell it."

Wan Juan suggested anxiously that although selling it now would be equivalent to multiplying the price several times and making some money, what would this amount of money mean if the movie could make a profit?
"Okay, I see."

Fu Meicheng nodded. He still believed in Wan Juan's vision. After all, she was the producer of "Fireworks in the Daytime" and one of the promoters.

After Wan Juan left the office, Fu Meicheng had a calm expression on his face, tapping the table rhythmically with his fingers, as if he was thinking about something. Then he picked up his mobile phone and dialed a number.

"Help me check this cultural media company and see which film and television company is behind it."

Fu Meicheng said lightly.

He felt that someone had his eyes on the copyright, but professional matters naturally had to be done by professionals, and he had no way of knowing who was behind this and who wanted the copyright.

In the evening, after dinner, Liu Yifei was watching "Ode to Joy" and playing with her little bun on the sofa.

"Liu Tao is really hardworking."

Liu Yifei couldn't help but comment as she watched Liu Tao in Ode to Joy, "She took on 25 TV series in four years."

She couldn't believe how 25 TV series were produced in these four years.

"I paid off 25 million yuan through 4 TV series, and I still have 6000 million yuan left to invest in LeTV Sports, although it will be reduced to zero soon."

Li Mu didn't know how to comment.

She seemed to be married to a billionaire husband and lived a happy life, but unexpectedly she encountered the global financial crisis in 2008. This billionaire lost all his fortune overnight and faced hundreds of millions of debts.

He made TV series to pay off his debts and invested in LeTV in the middle.

As a result, LeEco North America has now announced that it is laying off 350 people in North America due to insufficient funds, and executives have also left one after another. This money is destined to be wasted.
(End of this chapter)