"By the way, Tetsuko, Liying, congratulations!"

"Thank you!"

After a few more polite sentences, Wang Zhongjun suddenly said: "It's really a pity that "Nightclub" didn't cooperate last time, Zhezi, are you interested in cooperating with our Huayi again?"

"What kind of cooperation method does Mr. Wang mean?" Li Zhe said with a smile.

The Wang brothers glanced at each other, and Wang Zhonglei said tentatively: "Zhezi, I heard that the copyrights of your two books, "Neverending" and "Source Code", have not been sold yet?"

"Neverending" and "Source Code", the two novellas sci-fi, are the best sold in the United States among Li Zhe's works, and more importantly, these two decimal parts are soft sci-fi that do not involve too many special effects, but they don't require too much investment, and it is no wonder that they will be targeted by the Wang brothers.

But Li Zhe is not a philanthropist, why should he share this kind of investment with others for projects with small and high returns.

Li Zhe didn't answer directly, but thought for a while and said, "Is Wang Zhong interested in disaster movies?"

"Disaster movie. ”

Wang Zhongjun's brows furrowed slightly, Li Zhe was obviously changing the topic and refusing in disguise.

"Something like 2012?"

The Hollywood disaster blockbuster "2012" is about to be released, and the disaster movie is very hot, and Hua Yi and Feng Xiaogang also made a "Tangshan Earthquake".

But Wang Zhongjun is not very optimistic about disaster films, disaster films have a large investment, high technical requirements, they are not very good at filming, and it is easy to lose money, and another point is that it is not easy to pass the review.

"Tangshan Earthquake" is not so much a disaster movie, but a plot ethics film under the guise of a disaster film.

Li Zhe smiled. "It's a gimmick borrowed from the 2012 Mayan prophecy, and the theme of the movie is mecha fighting monsters. ”

"Mecha? This theme seems to be very popular in Japan. Wang Zhonglei showed an interested expression.

"Mecha originated in Japan, mainly referring to mechanical devices controlled by humans, this theme is very popular in Japan, influenced by Japanese anime such as "Evangelion" and "Gundam", mecha culture is also very popular in China. ”

Li Zhe explained briefly, and then said: "The mecha and disaster movie I conceived is called "Pacific Rim".

"In 2012, a wormhole-like passage appeared on the ocean floor of the Pacific Ocean, and in the decades since, giant monsters have emerged from the unknown world under the ocean to attack cities along the Pacific coast such as Los Angeles.

In order to defend against the attacks of the sea monsters, humanity has gathered all its resources and launched a military project called "Mecha Hunter", in which two pilots connected by neurons work together to control giant robots and alien monsters. ”

After listening to Li Zhe tell the plot, Wang Zhongjun thought for a while and asked: "It sounds like the amount of money that needs to be invested is not small, if there is no overseas market, it will be difficult to recover the cost at the domestic box office alone, but the theme of mecha seems to be rare in the United States?"

The reason why he values Li Zhe is that he wants to use the influence of his works to break into Hollywood, rather than spending a lot of money to play something original with him.

In 07, he invested in "The King of Kung Fu" in order to break into Hollywood, but the results proved to be unsatisfactory.

was cheated once, and the Wang brothers also understood that there is no market for original Hollywood originals, and what is popular are adapted movies and sequels to popular movies.

Li Zhe nodded and said: "Mecha is indeed not a mainstream culture in North America, but similar Transformers, the theme of mechanical life, is a popular IP, which shows that this theme has great development potential, and Iron Man is also a mecha." ”

What he said was fooling, the original "Pacific Rim", the live-action version of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" (both human robots, driving requires synchronization with the machine, and the monsters they fight are similar.) In North America, the investment of $190 million is also a first-line production in Hollywood, but the North American box office is barely over 100 million.

If it weren't for the unexpected hit in the domestic release, it almost lost all its money, with a global box office of $400 million, and the domestic contribution was $108 million, accounting for 25% of the total box office, surpassing North America.

In order to cater to the domestic market, I have Da Tiantian to save the world, "Pacific Rim 2: Thunder Rising".

Li Zhe didn't think about making money when he filmed "Pacific Rim", mainly to go to North America for release, brush up on Yingbao's coffee position, and mix up the title of "international star".

He was originally going to make a Chinese kung fu film, and he also picked up the martial arts skills that had been lost for many years, but after "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Hero", and "Ambush on All Sides", Chinese kung fu films have completely declined.

The last Chinese film to do well at the box office in North America was actually "The City Full of Golden Armor" ($6.57 million) in 06, can you believe it?

Therefore, Li Zhe racked his brains and didn't think of a suitable Chinese kung fu movie, he remembered that Cheng Long made a "Zodiac", but the North American box office of this movie was only 60,000 US dollars, which was simply dead!

It doesn't work to make Chinese-language films, you can only make Hollywood blockbusters, and Li Zhe will think of "Pacific Rim", not because of how good this movie is, but because it is the most suitable.

First, the protagonists of the movie are not humans, but mecha and monsters, and the impact of changing roles can be minimized.

To put it simply, using domestic actors to "sinicize" Hollywood blockbusters, the box office exploded, and a lot of money was made by the American imperialists and people, the idea is very beautiful, but it is unrealistic, and it is most likely to pounce into a dog.

For example, "Super Body" starring Scarlett Johansson, with an investment of 40 million US dollars, a North American box office of 126 million, and a global box office of 450 million, but if you want to change to an actress who is not famous in Hollywood, it is fortunate that half of the box office can be used.

In addition to the aesthetic gap between the East and the West, it is more about the huge influence brought by international first-line actresses.

This is still a science fiction film based on special effects.

If Hollywood blockbusters were easy to shoot and the American imperialists made money, Li Zhe would have asked Ying Bao to shoot "Super Body" first, and what else would he shoot "Pacific Rim".

Second, the setting of the heroine in the movie is very suitable for Yingbao.

Pacific Rim borrows a lot of Evangelion, such as dual-OS neural connectivity.

The heroine Asako is obviously imitating Rei Ayana, and her hairstyle is the same, but Rinko Kikuchi is really ugly.

In Li Zhe's opinion, the short-haired Ying Bao is more like Ayanami Li, cough cough, but her chest is a little flat.

"I plan to co-produce "Pacific Rim" with Lionsgate, invest $80 million, publish the same name first, and then release the movie. ”

The production cost Li Zhe directly cut 100 million, if it is really filmed according to the scale of the original top production, the risk is really too great.

He plans to put the main filming location in China, which can greatly reduce the labor cost, and all the main roles are also used by domestic actors, so that the salary is negligible, and the funds are still not enough, so there is no way to reduce the level of special effects a little.

Although he intends to join companies such as Huayi and China Film to invest in helping him make films for free, he can't go to the dead pit, or he won't be able to pit people in the future...... No, no one dared to cooperate with him anymore.