Tang En didn't know much about Chen Chong, only that she was a famous actress in the mainland back then, and later starred in "The Last Emperor Began to Break into Hollywood".

I really don't know what movies she has directed.

Fortunately, Catherine Kennedy sent detailed information.

Tang En flipped through it, this female director Chen, in 97 years, made a Chinese film "Tianyu has a good reputation and has won a lot of awards."

Later, he made a romance film for MGM, "Autumn in New York", starring Winona Ryder and Richard Gere, which also achieved no small success.

The film was released in 2000 at a cost of $45 million and grossed $90 million.

Because MGM has been incorporated into the New Globe umbrella, Don can see more detailed data.

The film grossed $32 million at the box office, $700,000 from pay-to-demand view, $3 million from pay-TV and $5.4 million from free-to-air TV, $6.2 million from overseas television rights and $21 million from DVD/videotape sales and rentals.

Excluding the production cost of 45 million US dollars, the publicity and distribution investment is 5 million US dollars, the shareholders and actors have 1.1 million US dollars in dividends, the loan interest is 2.1 million US dollars, and the taxes and fees are 7.65 million US dollars......

As of yesterday, "Autumn in New York" had generated a substantial profit of $7.45 million with a total revenue of $68.3 million and a total expenditure of $60.85 million.

It's not easy.

Especially for MGM, which had countless bad movies and lost one by one, it was not easy to make such a profitable movie.

Looking at the details, it is even more surprising.

A quarter of the crew of "Autumn in New York" is filmmakers from China!

Among them, the cinematographer of the film is Gu Changwei, the royal photographer of the somewhat cynical old Mouzi who has drunk wine at a wine table with Tang En.

That's so important.

Although "Autumn in New York" is a film that is all funded by the United States, part of the production team is from China, which can be regarded as a Sino-American co-production.

Chinese and American filmmakers work together in the same crew, and they already have experience.

Although "Autumn in New York" is only a medium-cost romantic drama film, which cannot be compared with Hollywood's commercial productions, it is better to exist than to have nothing.

Chen Chong has lived in the United States for so many years and has so much work experience, so he has enough understanding of Chinese and American films.

In this sense, she is much more suitable than those first-class directors in the mainland.

"Mulan" is a Disney cartoon, and we can't change it according to the traditional Chinese story, we have to change it according to the plot background of this cartoon. Even, many plots, shots, and composition designs have to copy the original cartoon to achieve the emotional effect of killing fans with memories. Kathleen Kennedy said.

In the cartoon of "Mulan", there are fantasy elements and the appearance of "dragons", which is completely catering to the imagination of Western Chinese culture and breaking the traditional story of "Mulan".

Precisely, because of the successful blueprint of the cartoon "Mulan", the plot direction of the live-action movie can be planned. Coupled with the appearance of some big stars of Chinese-language films, the popularity of "Mulan" in the mainland market will not be too bad.

There will be no ending like "The Great Wall", which neither succeeded in currying favor with the West nor meeting the tastes of mainland fans.

Don didn't think too much about it, and immediately said, "Okay! Then do it! Catherine, "Mulan" will be handed over to you! We want to create the first Hollywood commercial production in history with a female producer, a female director, and a female star! Rose Pictures is a feminist pioneer in the film industry!"

……

If it is co-produced with Disney, according to the schedule, "Mulan" needs to be released in February 2006. It's late October 2004, so it's going to be rushed.

Now, Disney has withdrawn from "Mulan", and the schedule is only based on the will of New Universal, which is much easier. Don't be in too much of a hurry, just finalize the project and let them do it slowly.

After basically determining Chen Chong, a female director, Tang En can let go of the project "Mulan" and have the energy to focus on more company business, as well as the "Avengers" that is being produced.

"The Departed" was released for 5 weeks, breaking the box office record of all Martin Scorsese's previous films, grossing $210 million in North America, $190 million overseas, and $400 million worldwide.

New Universal is still showing an invincible posture in the film market.

In contrast, among the giants of Hollywood, the worst ...... It may not be Paramount that has been carved up, but Sony Pictures.

With the announcement of the third quarter earnings report, Sony is really miserable.

Once the world's No. 1 electronics giant, the curtain is at dusk, and it looks like it is about to go bankrupt.

The resignation of Sony's CEO Nobuyuki Idei seems to be a foregone conclusion.

The candidate to replace him, not surprisingly, will be Sony's president Kuni Ando. As for Howard Stringer, vice chairman of Sony and head of Sony America, because of the poor performance of Sony Entertainment, the possibility of promotion has been completely cut off.

On this day, a few Japanese came to Don's office, and the leader of the team was Sony's president Kuniwei Ando!

Obviously, Kuniwei Ando has seen the current situation of Sony, and intends to increase his efforts to create some achievements and pave the way for his smooth ascension.

He will negotiate with New Universal, not in the entertainment business, but in the electronics business!

It's an HD Blu-ray disc!

The current DVD market is divided into two parts, one is the regular version and the other is the high-definition version. Among them, the market for the HD version is completely occupied by Toshiba's HD-DVD.

Since the launch of HD-DVD last year, it has been favored by the market. Because the resolution of TVs is getting higher and higher, 1K is the mass standard, and 2K have appeared one after another.

The resolution of ordinary DVDs is between 0.3K-0.8K, which can no longer satisfy the appetite of movie fans.

The future DVD market must be a high-definition world.

Toshiba took a step ahead and launched HD-DVD, and signed cooperation agreements with major Hollywood manufacturers, including New Universal, all movies in the copyright library have been produced in HD-DVD versions.

Such a market environment makes Sony very worried!

Blu-ray discs, because the technology is newer and more advanced, will take longer to develop, and will appear two years later. If you can't have better preparation in advance, then even if Sony successfully launches Blu-ray HD, I'm afraid it will be difficult to beat HD-DVD.

In this situation, Kuniwei Ando came out.

He wants to convince Done!

Pull New Universal into the Blu-ray camp!

New Universal's acquisition of MGM and Netflix's frenzied acquisition of movie rights around the world, New Universal's inventory exceeds 6,300 films, making it the world's largest film rights library!

After getting the new universal, Blu-ray has a lot of hope.

"Mr. Ando, I have admired the daimyo for a long time!"

Tang En warmly invited the Japanese visiting group into the living room.

The whole meeting room is very high-level, and Don is accompanied by his assistant Tosca Musk, secretary Ira Fisher, Frank Derry, vice president of interactive entertainment, and Dolby Jr., CEO of Dolby Laboratories.

The scene was grand.

It's like a meeting with the leaders of the two countries.

Kuniwei Ando said with emotion: "Mr. Walker, I have also heard about Netflix Japan, it is amazing, Internet rental of DVDs, it is really a great initiative!"

Tang En was a little amused, "It's all the efforts of all the kings." ”

Ando Guowei said seriously: "I know that Zhou Fang Yuxiong has a set of levels in the drill camp, and he is in business...... Hehe. If it weren't for your support, he wouldn't have found such a good way. ”

Don was noncommittal.

After a brief politeness, Kuniwei Ando said: "Mr. Walker, our sincerity is very great, and we sincerely hope to cooperate with a powerful company like New Globe,"

"We signed a three-year contract with Toshiba, which didn't expire until 2006. ”

Kuniwei Ando hurriedly said: "I know, it's okay! Tell the truth, the Blu-ray disc is still in the testing stage, and there are still several technical problems that have not been solved." According to the normal R&D cycle, the official version will be launched next year. To really mass produce and promote to the world, D-DVD is upgraded and modified according to DVD, and there is no need to change the production line. From a technical point of view, it is relatively simple, so the development is faster, and the test is simple and shorter. But Blu-ray is different, this is a completely different disc form from DVD, and it is a standard for video discs re-developed by Sony, and the development cycle is ...... Naturally, it will be longer. ”

Tang En nodded and said with a smile: "In this way, the research and development cost of Blu-ray discs is much higher than that of HD-DVD." ”

"Yes. ”

"What's the advantage? Higher resolution?"

Kuniwei Ando said honestly: "In terms of visual effects, there will not be much difference between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. For the user, there is no difference in appearance or weight between the two discs. But for manufacturers, the cost of Blu-ray disc will be lower than that of HD-DVD! For a large company like New Universal, which has a huge film library and has a strong sales power of video discs, choosing Blu-ray means that it has lower production costs. ”

Don smiled slightly.

In fact, he knows all these things that the other party said.

He had a prescient vision, he knew that the future world belonged to the blue light!

Although HD-DVD is jointly developed by Toshiba and Microsoft, it is indeed too costly. Hollywood is the world's largest high-definition DVD output base, and even a 10-cent price difference can reach the scale of $1 billion.

In this respect, Sony's strategy was a success.

The research and development of Blu-ray requires a stronger and more R&D team, and a new video disc production line, which has a large upfront investment and is not dominant. However, as long as it is successfully introduced to the market, it can take advantage of the lower cost advantage and defeat the HD-DVD that once monopolized the market.

Throwing into the Blu-ray camp is an inevitable choice for New Universal's future.

Don would put on such a big posture and negotiate with these Japanese, mainly for another business - a video player.

This is a huge market with a total value of more than $20 billion per year!

In the past, the DVD player could not play HD-DVD.

If fans want to watch HD-DVDs, they have to buy a new DVD player.

In the same way, if fans want to watch Blu-ray HD, they must also buy a DVD player that can play Blu-ray discs.

The research and development of Blu-ray discs is difficult, and the research and development of Blu-ray DVD players is naturally more difficult than HD-DVD players in terms of technology.

Last year, as soon as HD-DVD was introduced to the market, Philip, Panasonic, Samsung, Toshiba, Siemens and other companies immediately launched HD-DVD disc players, which shows that there are no technical barriers.

However, Blu-ray is different!

Blu-ray disc launched the official version in 2005, and it was not until half a year later that giant electronics companies such as Philip, Siemens, and Samsung successfully launched Blu-ray disc players.

It even took a whole year for Sony to develop its own Blu-ray DVD player.

What's more, HD-DVD players are not compatible with Blu-ray players!

HD-DVD player can only play DVD and HD-DVD formats,

Blu-ray Disc Player can only play DVDs and Blu-ray Player.

It wasn't until more than half a year later that a DVD player was finally launched that was compatible with playing HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs.

At that time, it was already 2007.

This kind of DVD player replacement is very unfair to movie fan users.

You know, in a few years, the DVD player will be completely eliminated and enter the era of online streaming.

Don wanted to enter the market.

On the one hand, it is for the sake of movie fan users, and on the other hand, it is ...... I also want to make a quick buck!

"Mr. Ando, in my opinion, the predicament that Sony is experiencing now is only temporary, and Toshiba is not an opponent at all. If the cost of Blu-ray discs can be lower, New Universal may not be able to cooperate with Sony. ”

Don's words made Kuniwei Ando very excited.

Donn went on to say, "In three years, New Universal can sign an exclusive distribution deal with Sony!"

Kuniwei Ando was even happier.

If he can promote the cooperation between Sony and New Universal, it will be of great significance for his promotion.

"However, I have a little request here. Don changed his words.

Kuniwei Ando hurriedly said, "Just say it!"

Don said: "I need the R&D data of Blu-ray Disc. ”

"Huh?"

Kuniwei Ando was stunned for a moment.

Tang En said bluntly: "Mr. Ando, New Globe has Dolby Laboratories, and it also has hardware R&D and production capabilities. Of course, we weren't interested in producing HD discs, I was interested in the DVD player market. ”

Kuniwei Ando breathed a sigh of relief.

With the strength of New Universal and its influence in Hollywood, if it really enters the high-definition video market, Sony and Toshiba together will not be opponents.

It's good now, Don is interested in the DVD player market.

Kuniwei Ando also understood what Donn meant, if he could grasp the information of the Blu-ray disc in advance, he could let Dolby Laboratories start the development of the DVD player in advance.

Blu-ray was officially launched in 2005, and other companies could only follow at that time.

If Dolby Laboratories can collect enough materials now, it can enter the R&D phase 10 months earlier than Siemens, Philip, and Samsung!

Dolby Laboratories will be the first company in the world to sell Blu-ray discs.

"If that's the case, it's okay!" Kuniwei Ando glanced at Don deeply, "As long as New Universal and Sony can become partners!"