The American version of the "Infernal Affairs" project started exceptionally smoothly, after DreamWorks communicated with Ben Affleck, the other party agreed to the invitation of the film in advance without seeing the script, and played the role of police undercover Liu Jianming in the film, Leonardo, Ben Affleck, Tom Hanks The starring lineup was also recognized by Martin Scorsese, and the remaining roles, Li Mu was completely handed over to Martin Scorsese to decide on his own.

After the director and leading actors were decided, Makino Imaging and DreamWorks immediately signed a relevant cooperation agreement and started the related work of script creation.

Since the filming of "Flying Tigers" is expected to be completed in early September, the American version of "Infernal Affairs" is tentatively scheduled to start preparations in August and officially start filming at the end of October.

"Infernal Affairs" is an urban film through and through, and all of its story structures take place in a spatial dimension that even takes place in one city, so it is not difficult to shoot, and the shooting time is expected to be about two to three months, and if nothing else, it will be completed early next year.

According to this rhythm, it is impossible to compete for next year's Oscars, the film will be released in the first half of next year or in the summer, and then participate in the Academy Awards in February and March of the following year, the time is just right.

In Li Mu's view, with the lineup of the American version of "Infernal Affairs" + Martin Scorsese + Leonardo and Tom Hanks, coupled with the support of his own strong resources, it is not a problem to win several awards at one Oscar.

At the same time that the project of the American version of "Infernal Affairs" was basically taking shape, the total box office of "Zombie-Master" in North America had exceeded $200 million, and it only took a staggering seven and a half days to achieve this amount.

Although the follow-up box office is a little weaker than before, the downward momentum is very stable, according to this estimate, it is not a problem to win another 100 million box office in the remaining release time.

Hollywood and the Hong Kong film industry have been shocked and numb to the amazing achievements of this film, and the direct impact on Hollywood and the Hong Kong film industry is that Hong Kong has recently launched several zombie-themed movies, and Hollywood has already had companies to negotiate with Plaza Premium for the North American remake, adaptation rights and reproduction rights of "Zombie-Master".

Huanya held back his strength to sell "Infernal Affairs" at a high price, but he has been holding it in his hands until now, and now the news that Li Mu is going to remake it has come out, and Hollywood's interest in the original "Infernal Affairs" is even weaker.

The way the film itself is handled and the narrative technique is not very in line with the tastes of North American audiences, and Makino Imaging does not participate, if Hollywood studios take it, it will be difficult to push it up in North America, and now Makino Imaging has directly put aside Uniasia and is ready to invest in a remake, in this case, Hollywood film companies can also guess that the relationship between Makino Imaging and Uniasia is not very good, and may even be a little nervous, so they have to worry about it: Makino Imaging, who has mastered the ticketing system of Makino Films, will it find some awkwardness for the release of this original film in North AmericaEven if it just weakens the film schedule, it is enough for the distribution company to drink a pot.

"Mr. Zombie" missed out on a large amount of revenue, and "Infernal Affairs" failed to monetize, which made Uniasia's anger against Makino Imaging reach a peak, so when several Hollywood companies wanted to package and buy all the English rights and derivative rights of "Mr. Zombie", Uniasia was ready to take this opportunity to make a big profit, and then also find some trouble for Makino Imaging.

Plaza Asia knows very well that there are many zombie films with overseas distribution rights in Makino Images, which means that the big money of "Zombie-Master" in North America is only the beginning of Makino Images' money, and next, this movie will definitely be released around the world, and let "Plants vs. Zombies Online" around the world Players pay for it, and after the global gold collection of this movie is over, Makino Imaging can launch other zombie film copyrights to earn another round, so that Makino Imaging will inevitably make a lot of money.

What makes Huanya angry is that most of the copyrights of high-quality zombie films are out of their own hands, which means that they have to endure the pain of watching Makino Imaging make more money with their copyrights.

As a result, Plaza Asia decided to give Makino Imaging a stumbling block, and sell a series of derivative rights and interests such as the remake, adaptation and reproduction of "Mr. Zombie" to Hollywood, so that Hollywood can make a big fuss, so that not only can he make a lot of money through copyright licensing, but also let these Hollywood film companies encircle and suppress Makino Images, and reduce the profits obtained by Makino Images from zombie films as much as possible.

If Hollywood gets these copyrights, not only can it remake the movie, but it can also adapt it by itself, make various sequels, and even refine the characters to create more new stories, and after selling, Uniasia itself will never be able to adapt "Mr. Zombie" into any English version.

Others are trying their best to fish, but Uniasia wants to pack up and sell the entire fish pond.

However, the proceeds from the sale are still very considerable, with Hollywood studios offering more than $6 million, while Plaza Asia mediates between several film and television companies, and the price has faintly exceeded $10 million.

When Plaza Premium finally negotiated with a Hollywood film company to sell the exclusive English remake rights of "Mr. Zombie", as well as the adaptation rights and reproduction rights, for $12 million, the news shocked the whole of Hong Kong.

Is a Hollywood company willing to buy the rights to the English remake and the reproduction of "Mr. Zombie" for $12 million? This is simply a fantasy! $12 million, that's almost 100 million Hong Kong dollars! Hollywood studios can't afford to have a long brain?

This price seems outrageously high, but in the eyes of Hollywood companies, it is actually very profitable, and now, "Zombie-Master" has become a popular IP in the North American market. Make a new sequel, you can also make a North American-style comic and anime, or even imitate Marvel to create a new superhero, and then make this superhero your own IP.

Marvel's success lies in the fact that it has a large number of popular superheroes, Spider-Man is very popular, Wolverine is also very popular, Captain America and Thor, Iron Man, Hulk are very popular, each of these superheroes can support a huge industrial chain, from comics to animation to movies and TV series, peripheral products, Image licensing, in which the profit margin is huge, and the income cycle is extremely long, a superhero can even make a company change the operation for seventy or eighty years, such as Captain America, this character was born in the distant 1941, and it is estimated that by 2041, he will still be active on the big screen.

What's even more perverted is that when these popular heroes become popular, companies like Marvel can make money lying down, it can let all kinds of heroes play their own games, and it can also rub them together to make a S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers.

Hollywood companies are best at this kind of long-term branding, so spend 12 million to buy a Chinese "superhero" image, and it is a superhero image that already has a strong fan base in the United States, this account is still very cost-effective, as long as you remake an original book, and then create a transitional sequel of "Mr. Zombie to deal with the ultimate zombie and seal it with the ultimate zombie for nearly a hundred years, until the seal is accidentally broken", the image of "Mr. Zombie" can be used in the modern context to make a big fuss.

This may sound far-fetched, but there has been a precedent for success, and that is the famous Captain America.

Captain America was frozen for decades, resurrected after a few decades, and continued to work with a shield, this premise has been accepted by the audience, since Captain America can, why can't Mr. Zombie?

Moreover, for Hollywood people, they have countless ways to localize overseas culture, in their opinion, the image of Zombie-Master is too easy to take root in the United States, because the United States also has a large number of ghost legends, which are very large and no worse than the ghost legends in China, both Eastern and Western cultures are in awe of ghosts and supernatural powers, Chinese people like to find people to tell fortunes, find gods to see a doctor, and Westerners also like to find soothsayers and psychics to solve troubles, now" Zombie-Master", the image and brand of the Chinese Taoist priest, has become popular, and when the time comes, a transitional plot will allow him to live to the United States in the 21st century, and then he can let this Mr. Zombie from the East with great powers deal with the ghosts and gods in American legends.

If the copyright of this IP is finally bought by Marvel, it is likely that after a while, the Taoist priest from Huaxia will deal with the Nazi zombies with Captain America in the movie, and then Captain America will be tired of waving his shield in front of thousands of Nazi zombies, and when he can't hold it anymore, the Huaxia Taoist priest in a yellow Taoist robe jumped out, holding a peachwood sword, and said calmly: "Those who are fighting in the army, all move forward in array", "Taishang Laojun, anxious as a law", when the time comes, Handprints and formations are flying all over the sky, and the picture is so beautiful that I can't think about it......

It is precisely because they have figured out how to dig deep into this industrial chain that Hollywood film companies are extremely interested in the remake and adaptation copyright of this movie.

When Li Mu heard that Uniasia was talking with Hollywood film companies about the overseas rights of "Mr. Zombie", including remakes, adaptations, and reproductions, Li Mu only let Makino Technology release a statement on YY.com, which was very concise:

Makino Imaging acknowledges that Uniasia is the owner of the film "Mr. Zombie" and its related intellectual property rights, and Makino Imaging is also very pleased that Uniasia can export this intellectual property to the world, but Makino Imaging would like to make a kind reminder: Although Uniasia is the intellectual property owner of "Mr. Zombie", Makino Imaging is "Zombie-Master" The exclusive owner of this English brand name, this English brand has been registered worldwide and is protected by global intellectual property rights, and I hope that Plaza Premium and Hollywood studios will know about it.

This statement suddenly woke up Uniasia and Hollywood dreams.

"Mr. Zombie" is the copyright of Plaza Asia, that's right, Makino Imaging only has the overseas distribution right of this film, but there is no adaptation right, let alone the right to continue filming, in other words, if all countries in the world want to release the original version of "Mr. Zombie", then the copyright needs to be negotiated with Makino Image, and it has nothing to do with Uniasia, but if all countries in the world want to remake "Mr. Zombie", this copyright needs to be negotiated with Uniasia, and Makino Imaging has no right to interfere.

However, the original English name of "Mr. Zombie" was Mr. Stiff-Corpse, that is, "Mr. Zombie Corpse", the exact meaning of "Zombie-Master" should be Zombie Master, and this name was taken by Makino Imaging himself, although it is used in Uniasia's "Mr. Zombie", but this does not mean that the copyright of this English name also belongs to Uniasia.

To put it more bluntly, Uniasia can license the derivative rights of "Mr. Zombie" with any film company in the world, but neither Uniasia nor these copyright partners have the right to use the name "Zombie-Master".

It's like Marvel has the intellectual property rights of "Captain America", which is protected by intellectual property laws all over the world, if you are not Marvel, you can't use this name, you can call "Secretary of the American Brigade", "American Branch Secretary", "American Political Commissar", "American Women's Director" and so on, but you can't call it "Captain America".

This is the lifeblood of the audience, and the audience remembers "Captain America", not any other title other than "Captain America"!

Now "Mr. Zombie" is popular in the United States, but American audiences know that the name of the movie is "Zombie-Master", and the Taoist priest in it is a "Zombie-Master".

Moreover, the movie "Mr. Zombie" has a very, very unfavorable thing for Uniasia, that is, the starring Lin Zhengying and Master Lin have passed away, so that no matter who makes a sequel, there is no way to let Master Lin reappear, in this way, whether Hollywood buys its own copyright, or Hollywood directly makes up a new Taoist who can fight zombies, there is no way for the audience to be sure that it is a sequel to "Zombie-Master", unless its name is " Zombie-Master》。

Therefore, for a Hollywood company that was originally willing to spend $12 million to buy a series of copyrights for "Mr. Zombie," if it could not use the brand name "Zombie-Master," how much would the copyright of the film be worth? No one would buy it for a million! Because the image and setting of the Chinese zombie and the Taoist priest are derived from Chinese folklore, and the legend has no copyright at all.

In this way, instead of spending a lot of money to buy the copyright of "Mr. Zombie" from Uniasia, it is better to create a new Taoist image by yourself according to the legend of the Chinese zombie, or simply go to Makino Image to get the brand use right of "Zombie-Master", at least as soon as the "Zombie-Master" brand is revealed, the audience will know what is going on!

Seeing that all Hollywood companies that are interested in buying copyrights have withdrawn, and the top management of Uniasia is almost about to go berserk, they never dreamed that Li Mu would still have such a hand, "Zombie Dao Chief" is popular in North America, but the name of "Zombie-Master" is owned by Makino Imaging......