Back in early May, with the outbreak of "Ghost Shadow" in the first round of April, the start of Fire Lion Pictures finally came as scheduled. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

Ali once again came to the Sunset Villa with a shocking news.

"The battle for the rights to Harry Potter is now joined by an RB company. As soon as Ali Emmanuel opened his mouth, it was surprising news.

"Which company?"

"Nintendo. ”

"The Nintendo that made the game, the Super Mario one?" asked Sid, laughing.

"Yes. Ali nodded.

"And now?" Sid asked, tilting his head.

"Warner Bros.'s secret purchase program has gone bankrupt. "Now that Disney and Universal are in the talks, Ms. Rowling and her publisher have announced that there will be a bidding session in June," Ali said. ”

"Oh-" Sid's eyes sparkled, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly with pleasure, "Looks like we need to make a trip to London, Ali." ”

"Are you going to do it yourself?" asked Ali with interest.

"The lion that has been reborn from the ashes just needs a grand debut, and since someone can't wait to set up the stage, how can we waste it. Sid covered the corners of his mouth and smiled domineeringly.

————————————————————

In a private jet 10,000 feet above the ground, Sid and the rest of the Fire Lion crew were on their way to London. The plane was secured through Wells Fargo, which was also done to avoid people's eyes.

After the filming of "Little Sunshine Beauty" ended, the crew members who had just rested for a few weeks were boarded by Heatera. And this time Sid only brought members of the production department, Jeremy, Amy, and Lindsey did not. Jeremy and Amy need to prepare for the post-production of "Ghost Record", while Lindsay still has to focus on her studies.

At this time, Henry, who was sitting with Sid, discussed the trip in a low voice.

"Boss, what are you going to do about the copyright bidding?" asked Henry curiously.

Sid smiled: "Well, as a children's novel that wants to be adapted into a movie, the most intuitive way is of course to make a sample film to show the author our production capabilities. ”

This method is also a common method used by many directors in the game with the original author, for example, Quentin Tarantino made a comic-style short film with another director in order to get the adaptation rights of "Sin City" to show his directorial style to comic book author Frank Miller.

Of course, most of the time you don't have to be so troublesome, and you can adapt a good script.

Sid couldn't help but pause when he said this, "But the Harry Potter novel can't be treated so simply. ”

"How?" asked Henry, curious.

"J.K. Rowling is a very 'ambitious' woman. Sid laughed, "According to the information collected by Ali, when she negotiated with Warner Pictures, in addition to explicitly requiring the film to be shot in the UK, all British actors were used. Even the right to review the surrounding development must be obtained. This is what a writer who doesn't know how to run would do, she is simply a shrewd person with a considerable business acumen. ”

"We had to show that we were not only the most suitable company to shoot Harry Potter, but also that we were fully capable of developing and promoting the merchandise. Sid's eyes gleamed with excitement.

"But we haven't even fully built a distribution channel covering North America, let alone overseas. In terms of film release, we are still far behind, and as for the surrounding development......" Henry said with a frown.

Sid knew that what Henry said was the truth, compared to the current shallow foundation of Fire Lion Pictures, Warner Bros., Disney, Universal, no matter which one is a behemoth. Even Nintendo, the RB game company, is more qualified to bid than Fire Lion Pictures.

The challenge of the fire lion now is like an ant regretting a tree.

But the importance of "Harry Potter" is something that Henry cannot understand.

In this wave of fantasy movies around 2000, excellent movies emerged one after another. For example, "The Lord of the Rings" and "Pirates of the Caribbean", there are also many surprising existences, such as "The Matrix". Of course, there are also so-called "masterpieces" that are not worthy of the name, such as "Star Wars Prequels".

But if there is anything really revolutionary in this wave, it has to be Harry Potter!!

Although Harry Potter does not have a high media rating, it has never won any heavyweight awards at the Oscars.

But its impact on Hollywood, and even the global film industry, is unmatched by other films. Including The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Star Wars Prequels are not good.

Because "Harry Potter" affects not only a single movie, but the entire industry.

Speaking of which, we have to mention the original owner of the "Harry Potter" series, Warner Bros. Pictures. In 2000, Time Warner was acquired by AOL, the "king of the Internet".

The merger of Time Warner, which was originally the largest media group in North America, and AOL, known as the "king of the Internet", the biggest beneficiary of the Nasdaq Internet bubble, is regarded by many as an important turning point in changing the media and Internet industries. At that time, the news of the merger of the two companies alone sent AOL's stock price soaring by 40%.

One example of this is the importance that the market and the general public were taking about the merger of Time Warner and AOL at the time.

When the news of the merger of the two companies hit the cover of Time magazine, the owners of the two companies occupied ninety percent of the entire cover. However, the portrait of then US President George W. Bush could only pitifully squeeze out a small area of five centimeters in the upper left corner.

But it didn't come to pass, and this dream of marriage ushered in the first blow after only a few months.

A few months later, the dot-com bubble burst and the Nasdaq online stock market plummeted. This caused the stock price of AOL Time Warner Inc., which had just completed the merger, to plummet all the way, and this decline was several years.

Time Warner's former boss, CNN founder, and media tycoon Ted Turner was directly exiled by shareholders, and the entire group's top management was purged. The dream of the world's largest media group has finally turned into a dream.

In addition, the rise of online media at the same time has caused Time Warner's traditional newspaper business to shrink significantly, and a large number of well-known media, including Time Magazine, have been impacted. In those years, Time Warner could say that life was not much better than that of DreamWorks, which was regarded as a thorn in the side of the seven major studios.

In order to tide over the difficulties, they had to follow Marvel's example and sell their music record groups and newspaper businesses one by one.

Against this backdrop, when AOL and Time Warner officially split in 2009, AOL's market capitalization plummeted by 98% from $163.8 billion before the merger to $3.4 billion. But Time Warner has caught up, growing from just $10 billion to nearly $100 billion.

Why is there such a contrast?

The answer lies in the three pillars – The Lord of the Rings, the rise of HBO, and most importantly, the Harry Potter series!

The "Harry Potter" series, which has been released since 2001, not only has the box office of the whole series reached more than 7 billion US dollars, but also the market value of its derivatives and its entire industrial chain has reached an insane 200 billion US dollars!

It can be said that without the "Harry Potter" series, there would never be the rebirth of the later Time Warner Group. Even with a movie series like "The Lord of the Rings" and the strong rise of HBO, it can only keep Time Warner Group from going bankrupt, and it is impossible for it to be reborn and become stronger against the trend.

You know, after all, not everyone can rise again in hundreds of billions of dollars in losses.

It is precisely because the "Harry Potter" series is so important that Sid will immediately lead the production team to the UK as soon as he gets the news. Grabbing the rights to the Harry Potter series is arguably the most important task at the moment.

Although Ali Emmanuel's connections allowed him to participate in the bidding, Sid knew that he had no advantage over other large companies that came to bid. Whether it's Warner Bros., which is now in full swing, or Disney, Universal, or even Nintendo, the RB game company that came to the business without doing business.

They are all multinational groups that have been marketing the world for many years, and have strong capabilities and resources in film production and distribution. And from JK Rowling's choice of Warner Bros. later, it can also be seen that she attaches great importance to whether the film company has the strength to produce the "Harry Potter" movie she wants.

It's a big gamble, and the outcome of the big gamble will decide the fate of Sid and the Fire Lion.

Is it to get the biggest chips to lay a solid foundation for reversing the game in the future, or to fall into the game and end up being a sinking chess piece under the left and right of the players.

Although by all accounts, Sid and Fire Lion are the weakest of the current bidders. But Sid also has his own killer feature – a deep understanding of J.K. Rowling's humanity.

Although Sid says that she is a "very ambitious" woman, she has the purest soul of a creator. The ultimate goal of all ambition games is to make one's work face book lovers and consumers in the best possible way, and not become unrecognizable due to the distortion of the business machine.

In order to be able to personally review and control these, this shrewd stupid woman is willing to give up tens of billions of dollars worth of shares for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And her purity is not only manifested in the treatment of her works, but also in "patriotism". Although Sid has always been a man of disgust, in his view, all love, country, lord, and righteousness are the last refuge of hooligans.