In September 1999, Blue Sky Studio became a member of Flame Films, producing "Ice Age" at a cost of 65 million, which landed on the big screen in theaters on May 10, 2002, becoming the seventh CGI animation film to grossing over 100 million in North America, and finally received 476 million global box office. This proud achievement has made Blue Sky the fourth largest CGI animation company after Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks.

With the crazy boss of Wonder Yang, the newly rising blue sky seems ambitious, and soon after that, two new CG film plans were announced in a row.

The first is to invest 75 million in the production of "Ice Age 2: Melting Glaciers", which will be continued by Carlos Sardanha, the director of the first episode, and another director, Chris Wecchi, will be in full charge of the production.

Compared with the first part, "Glacier Melt" not only has a more mature behind-the-scenes production team, experienced animators, but also leaps and bounds of advanced and detailed CG technology, as well as new voice actors for new characters, the naïve and persistent female mammoth Elle is played by the increasingly popular Quinn Ratifah, and the naughty possum brothers around Elle invite Sean William Scott, the "hard strip" of the "American Pie" series.

Now that the sequel has been produced and is in the final stages of the dubbed soundtrack, it will be released in North America on May 7 this year, less than three months later, to capture the box office share of the 2004 summer vacation slot. And it will be available in some overseas theaters on April 23 and April 30, including the Netherlands, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina...... This is one of the very few overseas releases that precedes North America. Because no matter from the box office, later peripheral sales and other data, it is obvious that the overseas market is more interested in "Ice Age", and the huge success of the first part has given overseas distributors confidence to agree to cooperate in publicity and scheduling.

Overseas is larger than North America, overseas is earlier than North America, this is also the market positioning of the "Ice Age" series and the "Kung Fu Panda" series, and even the development strategy of the new series and the entire animation company in the future, "Ice Age 2" is the first blow!

"These pandas are so cute...... Oh, look at that one, it's looking at us!"

Under the light blue sky, the trees are thick, and the black and white giant pandas are lazily crawling on the low muddy ground of weeds, or sleeping on wooden sheds, and one sleeping between the branches of a three-pronged tall tree, curled like a big round hairball. An adult giant panda walking on a wooden shed looks behind the stone railing in the distance, where there are a few sporadic visitors.

A brown-haired woman in blue clothes pointed here in surprise, and the black-haired man in gray clothes next to him was taking pictures with something, and the giant panda only felt a flash of light, and it yawned in boredom, and the brown-haired woman said happily: "Haha, it's yawning!

After climbing Mount Everest and stepping on the top of the world, Wang Yang and Jessica left Tibet and continued to be alone in the world of the two, enjoying the newlywed honeymoon with more than ten days to go, and the first stop of the journey was Chengdu, Sichuan, the giant panda breeding research base.

Since the early summer of 2002, the 100 million budget of "Kung Fu Panda" has been busy preparing, which took more than a year, and finally began filming and production in early January 2004, and is scheduled to be released in May 2005. For a CG animated film from scratch, the speed and efficiency of the 3-year production cycle is already very high.

This is undoubtedly due to the fact that Wang Yang, one of the screenwriters, planners and producers of the team, provided a lot of advice, and directly solved many problems that took a long time, so that the Panda team took a lot of crooked paths.

Producer Chris Weckey, Producer & Screenwriter Jonathan Abel, Producer & Screenwriter Glenn Berger...... Abel and Berger are both in the same position of the 08 version of DreamWorks "Kung Fu Panda", they became famous with the 1997 Canadian TV animated comedy "The Head of the Family", and they have a production team and a screenwriter team, so who will hand over the main microphone of the director team of "Kung Fu Panda"?

This is a problem that has plagued the flame blue sky and Wang Yang for a long time, not to mention the directing ability, this person first needs to know how to be funny and funny, and the style is suitable for all ages;

Flame Blue Sky hopes to invite Xu Chengyi (Raman Xu) to direct.

Xu Chengyi was born in Hong Kong in 1963, graduated from the Department of Graphic Design of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1984, initially worked as a cartoon producer in Hong Kong Quantum Studio, moved to Canada in 1988 to study computer animation production at Serdan College, animator of "Baseball Angel" in 1994 and "Batman 3" in 1995, character design and animation director of "Ant Soldier" in 1998, animation producer of "Shrek" in 2001, and "Shrek 2" in 2004 Animation Producer, First Assistant Director...... Wang Yang knows that Xu Chengyi is the co-director of "Shrek 3" in 2007.

Xu Chengyi is the baby of DreamWorks' animation department, one of the most important members of the "Shrek" team, maybe DreamWorks originally had his share of the production of "Kung Fu Panda", maybe one day he will move to Blue Sky Studios, but now, he can't come over anyway.

The problem is that the two are also core members of the DreamWorks/Paramount system, and now Stephenson and Xu Chengyi and others are directing and producing the animated TV comedy "Proud Dad", which will be broadcast on NBC in the fall, and Mark Osborne directed the CG animated film "The Adventures of SpongeBob SquarePants" for Paramount, which will be released in November this year.

Without Stephenson and Osborne, even if they can come over, judging from the current blank list of film and television directors of the two, it is not necessarily a good thing to let them take Po to do kung fu.

After looking for negotiations, Flame Blue Sky finally decided on the director last summer, Steve O'Delcock.

"Yes, its mouth is so wide open!Uh, its eyes seem to be laughing at us......" By the stone railing, Wang Yang looked at the SLR digital camera in his hand, only to see a close-up of the giant panda displayed on the screen, so lazy and uninterested, he couldn't help but laugh and dubbed it: "Stupid human!!" Jessica next to him suddenly said urgently: "Shoot it, hurry up! Oh my God, have you taken a picture?" She smiled cutely: "It's so cute!"

Wang Yang kept pressing the shutter, and the camera flashed a series of flashes, and the giant panda who laughed at them sat on the side of a wooden stake, with a black plush palm supporting the stake and supporting its head, looking silently thinking. He glanced at her, remembered something, and immediately smiled with interest: "Sweetheart, let's adopt a baby panda!" The adoption fee is naturally nothing to the two of them, but they have a giant panda in name.

"Okay!" Jessica nodded with interest, she looked at the pandas in the garden below, closed her palms, and her voice was very excited: "Okay, okay! Baby, what should we name it? I don't want to call it Po!"

"No, Ah Bao will be used for adoption by Blue Sky Studio in the future. Wang Yang smiled and said that he took several more photos, which is a promotional plan for "Kung Fu Panda", and it is also very interesting to have a real "Bao" who grows up with the movie series. A few tourists walked by, and Jessica leaned against the railing, rolling her eyes and thinking about the name: "We've got Danny, called Vanny Bonnie Manny?"

Wang Yang booed mysteriously: "I already have an idea, guess what, hint: what we will do every night." Jessica thought about it suspiciously, looking at his ambiguous demeanor, as if to say "you know", she suddenly laughed: "I'm not sure, what?" clicked, Wang Yang flashed her eyes with the camera: "Don't give up lightly! Tips: Think simply, don't think so complicated, and be visual." ”

"Oh......" Jessica, who was flashed, suddenly frowned and kicked at him.

Wang Yang dodged haha, and when he talked about Ah Bao, he remembered some things about "Kung Fu Panda" again, it has been more than two months since it was launched, and I don't know how it is progressing now.

Steve O'Delcock has a big background, in fact, he has a higher reputation and status in the industry than Xu Chengyi, John Stephenson, and Mark Osborne at this time.

The 42-year-old O'Delcock's most accomplished career as a screenwriter has been the 1990 TV series "Vivid Colors", the 1996 "Fat Professor" and last year's hit comedy "The Impostor", and so on, and as a director, he has not achieved much, most recently in 2002's "Kunbao Punches".

Also in 1990, Odelcock founded the production company "O Entertainment" to undertake some of the animation cartoon business of Nickelodeon, in 1999, he began to get involved in CG films, and directed and acted in the 29-minute TV movie "Thumb Version of Star Wars", which achieved decent results, and then participated in the production of "Genius Boy Jimmy" in 2001, and the four producers are ranked as follows, Paramount (with the copyright), Nickelodeon Pictures (with the copyright), DNA, and O Entertainment.

The results of "Genius Boy Jimmy" are not very good, and the global box office of 102 million at a cost of 30 million is enough, but it is enough to be called a success. Because of the unsatisfactory reputation, Paramount temporarily postponed continuing to cooperate with DNA and O Entertainment, but Steve O'Deckcock, who tasted the sweetness, began to be ambitious, so O Entertainment spent 10 million to fully independently produce "Kunbao Punch".

This is an action comedy adapted from the 1976 Hong Kong martial arts film "Snake and Crane Double Walk", as a producer, director, screenwriter, starring Steve O'Decock put his love for kung fu martial arts, spoof and funny cells to the fullest, the distributor 20th Century Fox is very confident in him, on January 25, 2002, "Kunbao Punch" landed in 2478 North American theaters.

Something frustrating happened, the box office in the first week was 8.24 million, and the final global box office was 16.994 million, with a freshness of 11% and 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 64% audience liking...... And the spoof of kung fu and martial arts in the film has caused dissatisfaction among many kung fu martial arts fans, thinking that Steve O'Dercock is satirizing, insulting, and smearing.

However, O'Delcock is a person who is very fascinated by Hong Kong martial arts movies in the 70s, he said: "The exaggerated martial arts effects and strange music make all children dream of becoming the protagonist one day." Regarding "Kunbao Punches", which edited the new footage with the old footage of the original "Snake and Crane Double" to form a half-new and half-old style, he said: "Isn't that a cool thing? I fell in love with the heroine of 25 years ago in the film!"

Come to think of it, if you don't have a deep understanding of kung fu and martial arts, how can Odelcock find the dead end of the spoof? how can he be interested in choreographing, directing, and acting? And if O Entertainment Company is putting his life on the line.

It's just the opposite of what happened.

"Movies on the Top 10 Worst List of 2002. I think I laughed, once. Maybe not. —Tom Myüsta, Dallas Morning News; The content of the film is almost all stupid and empty, constantly using two, three, unlimited gags to maintain a laugh. —John J. Puccio, DVDTon; "All of these jokes are snake-like, and they don't make people laugh. —Roger Moore, The Orlando Sentinel...... 20th Century Fox is nothing, and it just released a super bad movie, but O Entertainment was hit in the face, and Steve O'Rdcock was even more heartbroken, you must know that although he wears four hats, the investment in "Kunbao Punch" rarely returns to his pocket, so it is only 10 million, and now it is really a loss to the point that the underwear is gone, what should I do? O Entertainment will continue to invest in movies independently? Go back to the old road of playing for big companies?

In the moment of depression when O Entertainment was in a slump, Flame Films gave the answer, Steve O'Delcock: the director's microphone for "Kung Fu Panda";

Flame Blue Sky doesn't mind "promoting" O Entertainment, anyway, the art business that needs to be outsourced is either for this or that, even if O Entertainment invests millions of dollars to come in, it doesn't have any copyrights and only enjoys a small share of dividends, while Steve O'Deckcock is very suitable for "Kung Fu Panda".

The problem with "Kunbao Punches" is that the style is not accepted and the script is bad, but "Kung Fu Panda" is not Odelcock's one-man show. On the contrary, he is absolutely funny and funny, suitable for both men and women, young and old, and the many successful collaborations with Jim Carrey have long shown this, he loves kung fu martial arts, has a certain understanding of oriental culture, Chinese culture, he has a lot of experience in CG animation production, he can assist the work of screenwriters and producers, perfect.

Sent Kung-Po away, ushered in Po! Faced with the invitation of the flame, Steve Odelcock was very surprised, the 16.994 million box office "Kung-Po", the 100 million cost budget of "Kung Fu Panda", his first thought turned out to be: "Magical Yang's gang looking for death?" and then Wang Yang told him: "The most failed reason for 'Kung-Po' is that he is not a panda! is that it is not Hong Kong in the 70s." But I really died laughing, especially the human and cow fights. ”

"Heroes cherish heroes, and heroes rejoice in each other. ", "Wine is less than a thousand cups of confidants", "Do not seek to be born in the same year, the same month and the same day"...... In any case, after talking to Wang Yang at that time, Steve O'Deckcock was very moved, if the audience around the world enjoyed "Kunbao" like Magic Yang and knew every martial arts spoof point, how good it would be! His heart, which was shattered by the film critics, was beating violently, and that passion for kung fu martial arts has never dissipated.

There was no reason to refuse, Odelcock readily agreed to the invitation of "Kung Fu Panda", and O Entertainment was temporarily tied to the flame and blue sky.

Sent away Kunbao and ushered in Po! At that time, the film entertainment media were very puzzled and surprised, like Odelcock, if it was the screenwriter, it would not be strange, but the director ...... It's not good to find anyone, why do you want to find a bad luck director who just lost his underwear? The cost of 100 million yuan was handed over to Odelcock to play, what a terrible thing! Even many movie fans seem to have seen the tragic end of "Kung Fu Panda", how much better can Ah Bao be than Kunbao?

This is the idea of the members of the Flame Blue Sky, and no one was optimistic about "Ice Age" at the beginning, 476 million, and "Kung Fu Panda" will inevitably be stunned again, and the time is in the summer of 2005.

"I guess the baby's name is ...... Sleep?" On the long stone road planted with verdant bamboos on both sides, the two laughed while walking, Jessica's voice did not fall, and when she saw Wang Yang's nose wrinkled, she was about to open her mouth to speak, she hurriedly grabbed him: "Wait, I know!LOVE?LOVE!" she said and rolled her eyes, her pretty face full of smiles: "It must be LOVE! or bastard." ”

"No, it's a little bit worse. Wang Yang laughed, looked at her annoyed look of biting her lip, waved her hand and said: "It's almost almost! It's all so many hints, you have to visualize!" He revealed: "The baby's name is YOUCA, Y, O, U, C, A oil card." Jessica was stunned and amused, "What do you mean? Is that a word? Or is it a combination of our names?"

Wang Yang stopped, looked into her eyes quietly, and suddenly said, "Yes, it is a word, which means what we do every night, before and after. Haha!" Before he could finish speaking, he looked up to the sky and ran forward laughing.

"Bastard......" Jessica laughed and got angry, and there was no one next to her to beat her, so she had to hold her waist and exhale, she shouted and chased after her: "But LOVE can also be!"

During the period when the two were enjoying their newlywed honeymoon sweetly and happily, many movies had new developments, "Sin City" announced the addition of Scarlett Johansson, a 19-year-old beauty with a sexy and hot appearance and extraordinary acting talent, who will play the heroine Nancy, "Fantastic Four" also found a candidate for the invisible man Sue, 25-year-old Rachel McAdams joined in the role, officially entering the blockbuster ranks, and 22-year-old Natalie Portman has appeared on the set of "Stealing Hearts", which started shooting in early February...... After "Kung Fu Panda" > Steve O'Delcock, "Brokeback Mountain" > Ang Lee, Flame's latest release of "League of Assassins" & John Woo, the John Wu who made MGM and Paramount lose all their panties, John Wu, John Woo.

(To be continued)