Hollywood Tycoon [US Entertainment + Business War]

Xiao Ansheng came to interview with Jed Sherman. Besides the contract, there was also a question to determine the originality of this work.As a senior editor, Xiao Ansheng is confident that he can figure out the other party's familiarity with the work from the other party's discussion of the plot direction of the novel and the structure of the work.At the same time, Xiao Ansheng will also find various classic works from his own memory to confirm each other to ensure the originality of the works.In the United States, "plagiarism" is a very serious crime.Not only "Wen Chaogong" itself is very likely to be boycotted by the entire publishing industry, but also the publishing house that published the "plagiarized work" and the editors responsible for this "plagiarized work" will become the laughing stock of the entire cultural circle.Xiao Ansheng couldn't let himself and Simon & Schuster Publishing House fall into this situation no matter what.However, the result of this conversation made Xiao Ansheng very satisfied. Jed Sherman is obviously very familiar with his own works, not only has a very clear understanding of the story structure, but also has a clear goal for the direction of future works.

However, since he has not yet signed a contract with Simon & Schuster Publishing House, Jed is a little vague on many details.Xiao Ansheng didn't think there was anything wrong with this.Although the US cracks down on "plagiarism" and "plagiarism", strong publishers often steal ideas from weak authors. Therefore, authors are reluctant to talk too much with publishers without contract guarantees. detail.After confirming the originality of the work, Xiao Ansheng began to discuss some details of the work with Jed. Since it was going to be published, the publisher still hoped that the author could revise the work based on commercial considerations.

"No, I won't change my protagonist to a male." Jed rejected Xiao Ansheng's proposal.This is relatively conservative in the 90s and [-]s. American readers still hope to see a superman-like protagonist, and female hero works are very rare.Although Simon Schuster thinks that "Resident Evil: The Conspiracy of Umbrella Corporation" is a very good work, in order to gain more readers, it is necessary to make the work more mainstream. "Rebecca Chambers has to be the main protagonist, because I need to interpret the future world from a female perspective with a maternal perspective. Shaw, I can tell you that "Resident Evil" will be a series of works, and they will There are male protagonists, but they will not be the main protagonists throughout the series. At the same time, they are not as brave as Rebecca Chambers, and they will not have her abilities. I even plan to introduce a Chinese female in future works The protagonist, as Rebecca Chambers' partner, fights against zombies and the Umbrella Corporation."

Hearing Jed's fierce resistance, Xiao Ansheng couldn't help but rubbed his forehead.He knows better than Jade the fact in the publishing world that books with male leads sell better than those with female leads because the majority of readers in the US are men and men have more of a say in the publishing world right.Why are "Batman" works so popular, but "Catwoman" has always been mediocre?Even the derivative work "Robin" of "Batman" can outsell "Catwoman", forcing Marvel to introduce the storyline of "Catwoman" into "Batman" to improve the work sales. "Mr. Sherman, I understand your concern about women's issues, but from a business point of view, your decision is wrong."

"I don't care about money, Mr. Shaw." Jed Sherman laughed. "As you can see, although the Sherman family has some problems recently, it hasn't hurt my fundamentals. Maybe I won't be able to spend a lot of money in the future, but I can still be a little rich and a little rich. What do you think? Do I care about the sales of novels? I hope my works can be published in their entirety instead of being revised for some reason or another.”

Xiao Ansheng was dumbfounded for a moment, yes, he almost forgot that the person in front of him was a master who had no shortage of money.Although I heard that there were some troubles some time ago, it seems that these troubles are being resolved.Since there is no way to ask the author to revise his creative ideas, Xiao Ansheng can only calculate the loss of the publishing house by himself.According to Xiao Ansheng's judgment, if the protagonist's gender is changed, it is very likely to become a bestseller; but if the protagonist's gender is not changed, "Resident Evil: The Conspiracy of Umbrella Corporation" is still a very good novel.The most important thing is that this book is extremely suitable for being transformed into movies and TV series. It seems that I have to add some clauses and win the right to adapt this work.

So Xiao Ansheng proposed some additional clauses to Jed Sherman, and Jed didn't care about these supplementary clauses about the right to adapt.He is very clear that it is useless to hold the right to adapt the work in his hands. Only by handing it over to professional people can he maximize his benefits.What's more, Jed knows that the current parent company of Simon & Schuster Publishing, Western Harbor, has Paramount, one of the Hollywood giants, and CBS, which is owned by Viacom, which will acquire Western Harbor in the future, will hand over the film and television adaptation rights. No problem at all.So Jed just asked to retain his final decision-making power, and at the same time put forward his own requirements for the profit sharing after the adaptation.After the two sides negotiated, Xiao Ansheng left, saying that the contract would be sent over in about a week.

At this time, Jed suddenly said: "I still have a few book plans here. I wonder if Simon Schuster is interested?"

besides?Xiao Ansheng's heart skipped a beat.In Xiao Ansheng's view, creating the "Resident Evil" series is enough to involve most of a person's energy, and this rich second generation actually has the time to create other works?He took the outlines of several other books with a suspicious expression. Before seeing the outlines, Xiao Ansheng felt that these outlines must be of low quality, but because of Jed's face, he still endured and read them.

The first outline is called "Tomb Raider", and it is another work with a female protagonist.But this time, what the heroine has to face is not zombies, but various crises during the expedition. Although it is only an outline, Xiao Ansheng immediately felt that this was a very interesting subject.Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is really popular, and at this time, an adventure novel about a female "Indiana Jones" should be a big hit.

The other "Halo" is completely a bloody war novel, and it is a star war in the future.The story of the Covenant soldiers conquering alien planets based on American soldiers is simply a novel written to please American readers. Although the depth of thought is not high, it is full of commercial gimmicks.When watching "Resident Evil", Xiao Ansheng felt that he had dug a good little gold mine; but after watching "Tomb Raider" and "Halo", Xiao Ansheng was sure that what he dug was a mine Rich diamond mines.

"Mr. Sherman, do you mean that these two books also want to be published by us?" Xiao Ansheng was a little excited.

"If I don't intend to hand it over to you, what should I do with it?" Jed felt that Xiao Ansheng's question was a bit silly, "I can pack up three books and sign a contract with the publishing house, but I need a special answer on the issue of adaptation and work sharing." contract."

"Of course." Xiao Ansheng didn't think Jed Sherman's proposal was too much. Any editor with some experience could see the value of these three books.Even if these three books were published by different publishing houses, each publishing house would regard Jed as a guest of honor.What's more, these three books will be packaged for Simon & Schuster. "But Mr. Sherman, I need to contact the publisher before I can give you an answer. With my authority, I cannot give you the best conditions."

"No problem." Jed smiled and agreed to Xiao Ansheng's conditions, "And I also need to contact my lawyer to be responsible for the contract."

The lawyer Jed mentioned is the family lawyer of the Sherman family, and most American families hire their own family lawyers.These lawyers charge relatively low fees, but their services are limited and they seldom appear in court.But generally it involves matters such as contracts, which can still be handled by them.What's more, the Sherman family's family lawyer is also a very famous law firm, Paul Weiss Los Angeles office.This law firm itself is also a very powerful law firm, but the corporate lawsuit that Jed filed this time is somewhat beyond the scope of Paul Weiss, so Jones Day was hired additionally.Hearing that his employer needed to sign a publishing contract, Paul Weiss immediately arranged for an intellectual property lawyer to rush to Jed's mansion in Beverly Hills to assist.

When Paul Weiss' lawyer arrived, Xiao Ansheng also got the new terms of the contract.Paul Weiss' lawyer naturally checked the draft contract carefully to avoid any pitfalls.After about half an hour, Paul Weiss' lawyer confirmed that there was no problem, but he also made a suggestion of his own, "Mr. Sherman, I personally think that the future income from the adaptation of these three works will be huge. If you completely monopolize the adaptation rights in the name of an individual, it will have a certain impact on your tax finances. My suggestion is to register one or more offshore companies and control a copyright agency through cross-shareholding between you and these companies Company, you authorize this copyright agency company to be responsible for all matters related to your work, and then the publisher and the copyright agency company will sign the contract."

After Xiao Ansheng listened, he didn't have much opinion.It doesn't matter who you sign the contract with, as long as your own publishing house has the right to publish and act as an agent for adaptation. "If it's not convenient for Mr. Sherman to sign a contract for the time being, can we sign a memorandum first?

"No problem." Jed agreed, and then fell into the lawyer's proposal.In the future, Jade will have many works to come out, and most of them will be movie and TV scripts, and even some reality show projects.If the copyrights of these works belong to their own personal names, then the tax that needs to be paid every year is a very headache.Therefore, it is a relatively good way to authorize a copyright agency company by yourself, and then hold the agency company through financial means.After sending Xiao Ansheng away, Jed and Paul Weiss' lawyer began to discuss matters related to registration and holding.

According to Bao Weisi's idea, it is suggested that Jed register several shell companies in the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda Islands, Gibraltar and the Bahamas, and then register a copyright agency company in Nevada, through these shell companies The company holds a Nevada corporation.Because Paul Weiss is very good at this matter, Jed entrusted this matter to them.In less than half a month, there were eight shell companies under Jade's name, and these eight companies controlled Muse Culture Communication Company in Nevada.Jade's future works will be represented by Muse Culture, and Simon Schuster will also sign a contract with Muse immediately.

The author has something to say: The advantages of registering an offshore company are: first, there is no foreign exchange control, which is very beneficial for investment companies.Of course, it is also very beneficial for money laundering.Second, it will not require disclosure of shareholder information, which is very good for some wealthy people to avoid taxes.Third, taxes are relatively low.Another advantage for mainland Chinese companies is that they can be mixed with foreign investment status, and it is also convenient to list in the United States.In addition, the reason why the protagonist's copyright agency company is located in Nevada is that Nevada has no foreign exchange control and does not require disclosure of shareholder information and shareholder meeting requirements. (If it is a listed company, it still needs to be disclosed) Therefore, it is still very good to register a private company in Nevada.And most importantly, Nevada refuses to participate in the IRS financial information sharing program, so if you do something bad in Nevada, you can't catch you. How powerful is the IRS?The famous New York mafia godfather in the United States was not arrested by the FBI in the end, but was sent to prison by the IRS.And that's why you should sign up with a copyright agency.Because the personal tax in the United States is still quite heavy, it is actually the choice of many wealthy Americans to share part of the tax burden through registered companies.Because once you are a company, you have many ways to avoid taxes.