Top of the big era

These heads of Lucasfilm, especially Kathleen Kennedy and Linwen Brennan, were originally appointed by George Lucas and were his right-hand men.

This was also a condition attached to the acquisition of Lucasfilm.

This is also easy to understand.

Lucasfilm was George Lucas's lifelong effort, and he was also worried that after selling the company, the company would be destroyed by the management.

Zhou Buqi agreed to such conditions.

Then it becomes a bit troublesome.

There is a bit of a yin and a yang here at Lucasfilm, with all female actors in charge.

The subsequent effects will appear.

In the rebooted "Star Wars" series, the two actually wanted to abandon the traditional male protagonist model of Hollywood blockbusters and focus on female protagonists.

Men used to save the world, they want women to save the world.

In fact, it is a very popular feminist trend in Europe and the United States.

Zhou Buqi had the foresight and quickly called a halt.

The new trilogy of "Star Wars" in the previous life used the story line of the heroine... Not to mention, the heroine was chubby and not beautiful at all.

What the hell is this?

If the "Star Wars" brand hadn't been too invincible and its appeal was too strong, feminism might have destroyed the brand, so much so that both of them later left Lucasfilm, which was regarded as resignation.

Although Zhou Buqi is not a professional filmmaker, he still understands the basic business logic.

Commercial films are mass commodities.

Especially Hollywood blockbusters.

It must cater to the most popular aesthetics and tastes.

Feminist thoughts are rampant, but this is a niche circle after all. Most women still yearn for Prince Charming and a domineering male president who can protect them.

This is basic human nature.

Just like the masterpiece series "The Twilight Saga" by Summit Entertainment, a subsidiary of Ziweixing Global.

This movie is actually terrible.

The story is bad, the plot is bad, the acting is bad, the production is bad, it can be said that everything is bad.

However, it became a phenomenal Hollywood masterpiece!

The global box office of "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part 2)" released this year reached an astonishing US$880 million, which is more than the box office of many Hollywood blockbusters that have spent huge amounts of money to create.

Another example is "Fifty Shades of Grey," which later became a global hit. It was as bad as it could get, but because it matched women's yearning for a domineering male president, it became a phenomenal blockbuster movie series.

This is human nature.

Hollywood has long studied this thoroughly. Hollywood blockbusters in the past hundred years have been dominated by male protagonists. As long as the male protagonist is chosen, it is enough for the female protagonist to have a vase. The most typical one is the "007" series .

Actors are the mainstay of the box office.

However, it’s not like there are no Hollywood movies with heroines as the core. But this must have a major premise, that is, they must all be "big heroines", such as Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman, Sandra... Bullock, Jennifer Lawrence, including Gal Gadot in "Wonder Woman".

It must be beautiful enough, charming enough, and attractive enough!

This will attract the attention of more male viewers.

But in today's European and American rights system, beauty seems to have become a sin, an attitude specifically designed to please and cater to men.

This led to Kathleen Kennedy and Linwen Brennan taking a very strange route when strategizing the new trilogy of "Star Wars".

Since the heroine is required to save the world, she must not be too beautiful.

It's simply anti-humanity and anti-movie.

It would be strange not to fail!

Fortunately, Zhou Buqi had planned ahead of time and set the tone for the newly launched "Star Wars" early on, focusing on the story, the male protagonist, and a simple storyline of punishing evil and promoting good.

The most important point is to follow the "cool writing" mode.

This is too easy for Zhou Buqi.

The male protagonist was surrounded by bad guys and jumped to the bottom of a cliff. Here he found a weird old man and learned skills from him... Later it was discovered that he turned out to be the last Jedi Knight.

After completing his studies, he went down the mountain. When he encountered trouble, he wanted to help. Others told him to stay out of trouble. The other party was too powerful and he might lose his life... But the hero was not afraid and defeated the bad guy in front of everyone's surprised eyes.

In the past few years, the best-selling novels in Europe and the United States have been "The Twilight Saga", "The Hunger Games" and "Fifty Shades of Grey", which is a real "cool writing" model.

After being adapted into a movie, it has to be a big hit.

Human nature is universal.

Focusing less on value and telling more stories is the operating strategy that a world-class IP like "Star Wars" should have.

This is somewhat of a philosophical disagreement with the people at Lucasfilm.

This time the two of them opposed Boss Zhou without hesitation, probably because of such background factors.

Zhou Buqi didn't want to be on the same level as the two of them, so he spoke truthfully and sincerely.

Industrial Light \u0026 Magic is indeed No. 1 in the world, that’s right.

But being No. 1 in the world now is no longer the same as in the past.

Before the 1990s, Industrial Light and Magic was not only the first in the world, but also the only one in the world. All Hollywood blockbusters relied on Industrial Light and Magic to produce the ideal special effects.

George Lucas was the first person in film technology.

Later, a new guy came out named James Cameron.

He felt that Industrial Light and Magic was too expensive and too difficult to deal with, so he found people by himself, set up a special effects company, and filmed Titanic.

Later, another technology geek named Peter Jackson came out. He wanted to make the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, but he didn't have enough funds, so he set up his own special effects studio.

Since then, Industrial Light \u0026 Magic's monopoly has been broken. Only then did Hollywood discover that in addition to Industrial Light and Magic, other studios also produced top-notch special effects!

Now, countries in Europe, Asia and other countries have also made significant developments in the special effects industry.

Industrial Light \u0026 Magic is becoming less and less important.

We have reached such a critical moment, and if Industrial Light \u0026 Magic still doesn’t change... who can ensure that it will remain No. 1 in the world in the future?

Zhou Shaoning said: "Now is the era of technology, and technology is developing too fast. Sooner or later, others can do the results you can do. It is almost impossible to limit competitors technically."

Linwen Brennan was unmoved, "Industrial Light and Magic has the best intellectual property rights in the world, and they cannot surpass it."

Zhou Shaoning was a little angry, "Business competition is not only about the level of technology, but also the level of cost. Industrial Light \u0026 Magic hires the top scientists and special effects artists, and the cost is the highest in the industry. Am I right?"

Linwen Brennan said: "Industrial Light and Magic originally served a few Hollywood blockbusters to create the best special effects scenes in the world."

Zhou Shaoning asked: "Why must we serve Hollywood blockbusters? Since we have advanced technology, wouldn't it be better to serve all mankind? Just treat them differently just for Hollywood blockbusters?"

Kathleen Kennedy said calmly: "Because this is Hollywood!"

Zhou Shaoning almost choked to death.

Linwen Brennan said sternly: "How can Hollywood blockbusters maintain their commercial status if they are not special? Now the film industry in various countries is developing rapidly. The United Kingdom, France, Germany, South Korea, China... If they also have If we create a film industry like Hollywood, how can we ensure Hollywood’s dominant position?”

Zhou Buqi didn't know if she was deliberately messing around and going online, or if she really thought so. He immediately criticized: "The soul of Hollywood is culture, not technology! Making a mountain out of a molehill!"

Linwen Brennan was scolded and was not convinced.

Seeing that the big boss seemed a little angry, Kathleen Kennedy smoothed things over and said: "Yes, technology is developing very fast, and more and more competitors have appeared in Industrial Light and Magic. However, in the most critical special effects production, Industrial Light and Magic It has an irreplaceable role. Even for Cameron's "Avatar", the most critical aspect is to cooperate with Industrial Light and Magic. Only Industrial Light and Magic can produce the ideal effects. If we let go of intellectual property rights, It really gives our competitors the opportunity to catch up or even surpass us.”

Zhou Buqi is not a filmmaker.

He doesn't have any feelings for Hollywood either. It's all about the management's ideas, focusing on profit.

In his opinion, Industrial Light and Magic has been surpassed...if it is surpassed, it will be surpassed, so what?

The most important thing is to do a good job in color management of Asda's mobile phones and tablets, which is a big deal; to build a new creative design platform, this is a big deal!

This is a plate worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

How much is Industrial Light \u0026 Magic worth?

After working hard for a year on special effects, earning hundreds of millions of dollars, and making net profits of tens of millions of dollars... it's not even enough to fill one's teeth. This small amount of money is dispensable, and if it's gone, it's gone.

If ILM can improve the competitiveness of Asda's electronic products and incubate a design software company that can compete with Adobe... that would be the greatest achievement!

Even if Industrial Light \u0026 Magic goes out of business because of this, it doesn't matter.

In the final analysis, Zhou Buqi is not a filmmaker and lacks the sentiment of movies. He is also not the founder of Lucasfilm and has no emotional entanglement with Industrial Light and Magic.

Which way to make money?

Much like Carl Icahn's attitude toward Yahoo.

From the other party's perspective, it's somewhat cruel.

But Zhou Buqi is the big boss.

In the eyes of people like Lucasfilm, he is like an evil devil.

With no other choice, Kathleen Kennedy could only use her final trump card, "At first, George sold part of his intellectual property rights to Adobe, and many disputes arose later. Later, he sold part of his assets to Steve Jobs. But it was the famous Pixar. Both of these things were disappointing. Since then, George has set a rule that Lucasfilm will no longer license any intellectual property rights in the technical field to external parties."

Zhou Buqi was a little funny, "What about you? What do you think?"

Kathleen Kennedy gritted her teeth and said, "I think George is right."

This George is George Lucas, the founder of Lucasfilm and the "Star Wars" series.

Zhou Buqi shook his head, "It's completely the opposite!"

Zhou Shaoning understood what he meant and said calmly: "I have authorized part of the intellectual property rights to Adobe, but the current market value of Adobe is US$18 billion. This is still Adobe at its lowest point. Normally, the market value is not even US$50 billion." Too much. When Pixar merged with Disney, its market value reached US$7.5 billion. This just shows one thing. These high-quality intellectual property rights of Lucasfilm can only be created in the hands of the right people. value!"