As soon as the four of them found a no-man's place in the hotel and sat down, Alan Ryder couldn't wait to talk to Huo Yaowen about copyright, "Mr. Evan, our Twentieth Century Fox Film Company attaches great importance to adapting this film, and I believe that you, as the author of the "1999" science fiction series, must hope that it can faithfully restore the original plot. ”

Huo Yaowen grinned, "Of course, I definitely hope that "1999" can be put on the big screen, which should not only be my personal idea, but also the expectation of tens of millions of book fans around the world." ”

"Of course, I'm also a fan of 1999, and I'm also a fan of your books, Mr. Evan, and I've read all of your books that are currently published in the United States, and I like them very much. ”

What Huo Yaowen's last sentence meant, Alan Ryder knew very well in his heart, it was nothing more than wanting to use the world's book fans as bargaining chips, which he had thought of before.

The 1999 Trilogy sold more than 13 million copies in the United States alone, not counting Europe and Asia, according to figures previously provided by Bantan Books. In particular, Japan, where is the Asian trilogy is the most popular, almost comparable to the United States, with more than 11 million copies.

It is precisely because "1999 Trilogy" has been hugely well-known around the world in recent years that Alan Ryder chose to adapt this one, so he is bound to get the film copyright of this book.

Since the resignation of Darryl Zanuk, the former general manager of Fox two years ago, Alain Ryder, who is nearly 35 years old, has tried to adjust the direction of the company, proposing that films should be younger, and finally decided with the board of directors and the company's top management to make films for younger audiences.

So far, most of the movies shot by Fox in the past two years have shown a younger age, which is very in line with the viewing of young people, and it is no longer like ten years ago, spending $400 million to make the worst and lowest-grossing "Cleopatra" in history.

You must know that the $400 million in 1963 is not simply ten or twenty times more than ten or twenty times in the future, and just buying a house will be worth at least $78 billion in 40 or 50 years later.

The investment of $400 million in "Cleopatra" has caused Fox to suffer heavy losses, and it is almost on the verge of bankruptcy, so in the past ten years, Fox has adhered to small investment, small development, and everything is based on caution.

In the past few years, several low-cost but popular films have been born, such as "The Sound of Music", which won five awards including Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director, which grossed more than $280 million worldwide, while it cost only a measly $8 million.

Seeing that a small investment can be exchanged for big profits, Darryl Zanuk immediately prepared several low-cost films, but the results were not as good as the ideal, almost all of them were lost, which also made the board of directors completely see that the era of Darryl Zanuk has passed, and after dismissing him, he hired a young general manager, Alain Ryder.

The newly appointed Alan Ryder also kept cautious and successively shot a number of low-budget films for many new directors, not to mention, the box office of these small-budget films was not bad. Especially when I saw "American Painting" shot by George Rocas, a newcomer director of Universal Company, the cost was only 770,000 US dollars, but the final box office was as high as 100 million!

This also allowed Alan Ryder to see George Rocas's directing ability, and while soliciting the other party, he also listened to his ideas and suggestions to make "1999", and decided to make a big move in combination with the current situation of the company, that is, to adapt "1999".

......

After several temptations, Huo Yaowen couldn't hear more useful content, he pondered for a moment in his heart, and said with a smile: "I don't know Mr. Ryder, how much money your company has prepared for this movie?"

"Hmm..."Alain Ryder didn't rush to answer, but glanced at George Lucas beside him.

"That's right, Mr. Evan, I have already discussed with my colleagues how to shoot this film, because the plot line in the book is relatively large, and we have only excerpted some of the plots, so the cost of investment may not be very high, about 10 million US dollars. ”

George Lucas said so much, in fact, because of the lack of funds, he couldn't let him shoot that kind of starship picture, so he could only settle for the next best thing and try to arrange a reasonable plot in the cost of 10 million dollars.

Long nonsense is definitely going to be there.

"Only $10 million?"

Huo Yaowen frowned, although he didn't know how much "Star Wars" cost in his previous life, but he wouldn't think it would be so little, you must know that the bad movie "Cleopatra" ten years ago invested 400 million, an ancient movie cost so much money, but the movie in the future world is only 10 million?

George Lucas was embarrassed for a while, and he also wanted more money, but in fact, it was Alan Ryder and the board of directors who made tens of millions for the company by watching his last film, plus there was a very well-known sci-fi "1999", so they agreed to shoot 10 million, otherwise, they would still make small-budget movies as in the past, trying to continue to make big things with small things.

"Mr. Evan, you may not know that the investment in the movie, in fact, 10 million dollars, is already a big-budget movie in Hollywood. As the general manager of Fox Company, Alan Ryder naturally wants to speak out to maintain the company's image, and he can't let the other party look down on him.

Huo Yaowen took a sip of the champagne on the table, looked at the two in front of him and smiled: "If it's only 10 million, I think Mr. Ryder, you might as well go and shoot my other work "Second World". Although the book is a virtual world, in my setting, it is almost the same as the real world, you just need to show the extraordinary power of the protagonist in the virtual world, like Superman in DC Comics. ”

Look down on us?

Alan Ryder frowned, he didn't expect Huo Yaowen to refuse to cooperate because the investment cost was too small.

Although "Second World" is also very influential in the United States, and its global sales are also expensive, it is not at all comparable to the popularity accumulated by "1999 Trilogy" in the past five or six years.

"Mr. Evan, the $10 million investment is the result of our detailed planning and finalization of the script. Film investment is not as much as possible, to put it mildly, it's like the "Cleopatra" shot by Fox ten years ago, which cost a full $400 million, but the box office was miserable in the end. ”

In addition to wanting to tell Huo Yaowen that movies are not necessarily as much money as possible, on the other hand, he just wants to show Huo Yaowen the strength of their company, which invested 400 million yuan ten years ago, and now it is no problem to sell more.

But back to the first sentence I said earlier, that is, making movies is not about making movies with more money, the better.

"You agreed on the script?" Huo Yaowen shook his head with a smile and said: "Mr. Ryder, it's not that I don't think about your screenwriters, in fact, I adapted the first part of "1999" into a script when Mark told me that Fox wanted to shoot my work, and there are many plots and settings that I didn't write back then. ”

"Awesome, Mr. Evan, I've been worrying about the script before, I just want to wait for you to come and discuss it, since Mr. Evan has already written the script, I don't know if I brought the script over. George Lucas was very excited, he tried his best to invite Huo Yaowen to come to the United States, just to communicate with the author and make sure that the script would start filming after it was confirmed.

Forehead......

Okay, Alan Ryder showed his stuff, Rao is a very thick-skinned person, and he also glared at George Lucas without leaving a trace, and then looked at Huo Yaowen and said: "Mr. Evan, although we at Fox are very optimistic about Your Excellency's work, no one can be sure how it will be made into a movie at the final box office, so ......"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Ryder!"

Huo Yaowen interrupted him, "I also set up a film company in Hong Kong, which is naturally not as large as Fox, one of the eight major Hollywood film companies, but in Southeast Asia or Asia, there is still a certain distribution capacity, so my idea is that the film copyright fee can be converted into film investment, and I will also contribute a sum of money." ”

Now Alan Ryder can figure out why Huo Yaowen wants to say that the investment is less, it turns out that he wants to cooperate in filming!

He didn't directly refuse, but pondered for a moment and asked, "I can't answer you about this for the time being, but I don't know how much Your Excellency is going to invest?"

Huo Yaowen smiled, "I don't have much money on hand for the time being, so I may not invest much, only about 20 million US dollars! As for Fox, whether it is as much as I do, or 10 million as Mr. Ryder said, these are no problem." ”

Million!

Alan Ryder's eyes couldn't help but widen, he didn't expect that the other party, an obscure small film company, would actually open his mouth to invest 20 million US dollars, compared to his own Fox's 10 million, it seemed so shabby.

...