The Best Entertainment Era

That afternoon, Ronan asked Connie to transfer George Romero's script to Sandsea Entertainment. Whether they could cooperate or not would depend on the negotiation of the project.

He had watched Land of the Living Dead. George Romero tried to make a lot of innovations because of the failure of Zombies Uncaged, and the film looked very interesting.

But the specific market response, Ronan is not very clear.

However, many zombie movies, even if the box office is not very good, the offline market is relatively broad.

For example, Zombie Uncaged was a typical box office and word-of-mouth failure in the mid-1980s, but by the end of the 1980s, the production company not only relied on offline video tapes and the TV station market to recover its investment, but also made a lot of profits.

Later, a sequel came out.

At the same time that Dawn of the Dead was successful at the box office, Warner Bros., who had witnessed the filming and production of the film, purchased the copyright of the remake of Zombie Uncaged from Anchor Bay Entertainment. It is said that they are preparing to shoot New Zombie Uncaged .

After many years of relative silence, the theme of zombies will enter an active period again.

The wider the zombie audience, the greater the future market space for the copyright that Shahai Entertainment has acquired.

Land of the Living Dead still needs to control the scale of investment. Ronan's standard is that the production budget is about 10 million U.S. dollars, including script copyright fees.

Liking George Romero's zombie films and investing in his zombie film projects are two completely different things.

George Romero was very happy, accepted the conditions offered by Sandhai Entertainment, and prepared to cooperate with Sandhai Entertainment in the filming of Land of the Living Dead.

After getting the news, Ronan also personally attended the signing ceremony between Shahai Entertainment and George Romero.

Seeing George Romero's all-white hair and beard, Ronan suddenly remembered something. After the death of the father of the modern zombie film, some fans mourned him and said: May George Romero go The paradise in the world is full of zombies...

There is Nine Uncles in the East and George Romero in the West.

The zombie godfathers of the East and the West are gone.

The only difference is that after Uncle Nine, the zombie movies were in a slump.

Without George Romero,

There are still great zombie movies coming out.

What Ronan didn't expect was that George Romero officially signed a contract with Sand Sea Entertainment. After the news of shooting a new zombie-themed movie appeared in the media, a large number of actors applied to the production department of Sand Sea Entertainment in the Theory of Relativity Building.

Including some well-known actors and stars, they all expressed their willingness to star in this zombie movie even if they don't want a penny of pay.

That's not to say that George Romero has much appeal.

George Romero does have a pioneering status in zombie-themed movies. In fact, he has never been considered a first-line director in the mainstream film industry, and he has never made a blockbuster that has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide.

It would be weird to compare George Romero to Spielberg and James Cameron, but everyone agrees that he is definitely a legendary.

It was him who single-handedly created today's hot zombie culture.

George Romero's zombie film is the sentiment of too many people, including many actors and directors.

Edgar Wright, the director of Shaun of the Dead released in April this year, and Simon Pegg, the leading actor, came to the Relativity Building together, wanting to star in George Romero's new zombie film, even if he appeared in the show, he was headshot The zombies are also good.

The daughter of the famous Italian horror film master Dario Argento, the famous European female director and actress, Aisha Argento, who served as the heroine of Xx Agent in Hollywood, also called.

The well-known American journalist, Susan Walls, who was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, has repeatedly expressed her strong desire to play a zombie.

Roger Ebert, who slammed and abused Night of the Living Dead back then, is also willing to play a zombie to make up for his past mistakes.

The combination of George Romero and the theme of zombies has a huge impact.

Ronan also specifically consulted George Romero on the adaptation of The Walking Meat, and planned to invite him to direct a few episodes in the future, but George Romero refused without hesitation.

I watched this series when it first came out. I don't like this work. I have no interest at all. George Romero didn't hide his distaste for The Walking Dead at all: It's like a soap opera at eight o'clock. It’s just a zombie every once in a while, it’s not a zombie work at all.”

Sandsea Entertainment invested US$10 million in George Romero's Land of the Dead, which will be released next year.

In the office, Ronan asked Connie: Is there any clear news from New York?

Connie replied: Not yet. The latest news came yesterday. Robert has met Joan Clare Lee and Stan Lee's attorney, Keya Morgan. Avi Arad is talking to Stan- The Li couple communicated.

Ronan nodded lightly. The sooner this matter is resolved, the sooner the agreement is made, Relativity Entertainment has already made preparations to pay a certain price. After all, delaying the Avengers Project exposure is the real trouble.

No matter how much accounting rules are used, through various means, the number of shares involved will be calculated in units of hundreds of millions.

Back then, Perelman made a lot of quick money from Marvel, but left Marvel with a lot of trouble.

Anyone with a sense of responsibility to the company would sign such a contract with Stan Lee?

It can only be said that Perelman just wanted to make a lot of money from Marvel and ran away, without considering long-term business at all.

Connie said again at this time: You asked me to keep an eye on Twentieth Century Fox, and I just got a message. She looked at Ronan, and seeing that he didn't stop, she said directly: Twentieth Century Fox acquired from Lehman Brothers A financing of up to US$1 billion may be used to acquire several Internet companies including IGN Entertainment and the photo-sharing website Photobucket, and is preparing to integrate and form a social sharing and video website that belongs entirely to Twentieth Century Fox.

Ronan immediately thought of the key point: Twentieth Century Fox wants to start their Netflix.

Yes. Connie has already made an analysis: This possibility is extremely high. Netflix's Internet business has attracted Hollywood's attention. It is time-consuming and labor-intensive to create an Internet business from scratch, which is far less convenient than direct acquisition, and we are in Netflix. The success of flying above has also allowed other companies to see success stories.

Ronan asked, What about other companies?

Connie replied: Currently there is definite news that Warner Bros., together with online resources of entertainment media such as Variety Show and Entertainment Weekly, is preparing to cooperate with other companies to establish a brand new entertainment gossip website. Sony Columbia Pictures is working with Amazon Talking about cooperation, Walt Disney is looking for suitable targets and also wants to take the acquisition route.”

Twentieth Century Fox is fast. Ronan tapped the armrest of the chair lightly.

Connie said: Once the acquisition is successful, 20th Century Fox can integrate the resources of these Internet companies. Although it will not threaten Netflix, it will also enter the same market.

Ronan understood what Connie meant. An Internet company backed by Twentieth Century Fox and News Corp. was definitely developing faster than ordinary companies.

Of course he wouldn't just watch.

You contact Mark Randolph. Ronan decided to use the simplest and most effective method: Let Mark Randolph evaluate whether these websites are useful to Netflix, and let Netflix try to offer them. Companies that are useful to Netflix strive to win them at a reasonable price, companies with overlapping businesses or useless companies must also form a competitive situation with 20th Century Fox, and 20th Century Fox cannot be easily won.

He emphasized emphatically: Let Netflix delay time through competition, and the longer the delay, the better.

Okay. Seeing that Ronan had nothing else to do, Connie said, I'll inform Netflix right away.

Now that Netflix is ​​the only one in the same industry, it must not only pay attention to its own development, but also cannot ignore potential competitors.

Mark Randolph received a notice from the head office and immediately asked people to investigate several Internet companies. These companies are no strangers to Netflix, and they are all located in Silicon Valley. Fei Fei has done photo business outsourcing.

The technical capabilities of this Internet company are quite good, but unfortunately, like most start-up companies, it lacks sufficient funds. Mark Randolph originally intended to acquire this company and is conducting some necessary investigations. After obtaining the approval of the head office, immediately Speeded up the action.

Because of the cooperation with the website Photobucket, Netflix understands the actual situation of this company, and quickly sent out an acquisition invitation tentatively, and tried to quote a price.

In addition, due to technical reasons on Netflix’s side, Mark Randolph also suggested to Ronan that the launch of Netflix’s streaming business will be slightly delayed.

Today's network bandwidth and most people's computer hardware are here. Even if Netflix has enough technology accumulation, there are still many problems to be solved if the streaming media business wants to clearly transmit videos to users through the network.

Netflix discovered a brand-new network transmission technology in a company in Silicon Valley. It just completed the patent buyout, digested and applied it to the streaming media business, and it took time.

But with this technical support, in the case of the same bandwidth, the video clarity provided by the streaming media service can be increased by 30%, and it can effectively solve problems such as video freeze.

The technology alone is worth the wait.

At the same time, news from New York also reached Ronan. With the assistance of Avi Arad, Robert Lee successfully resolved Stan Lee's contract issue.

Robert Lee persuaded Stan Lee's daughter with only 2 million US dollars, and then she persuaded Stan Lee in her own way for this one-time performance money.

It is said that on the day Marvel and Stan Lee signed an ordinary agreement, Stan Lee had a big bag on his forehead.

With the signing of the agreement, whether it is the Avengers plan or other superheroes who want to reclaim the copyright in the future, there is no longer any worries.