"This guy has pretty good taste!" Li An muttered. He actually leaned towards filming Brokeback Mountain. Although this theme was difficult for Asians to accept, as Huang He said, it was too good a subject, with strong artistic merit and a high chance of winning an Oscar.
Li An currently had a lingering desire: an Oscar award.
Some might say, didn't Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon dominate an Oscar ceremony? Why did he still have an Oscar complex? Was he Leonardo DiCaprio?
One couldn't say that, because although Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did dominate an Oscar ceremony, Li An didn't win the Best Director award for it. This was a sore spot for Li An; he needed just one Best Director Oscar to feel complete.
Therefore, Li An had already made a choice in his heart, but he used this script to test Huang He, as he thought Huang He would be more interested in the culturally Eastern Memoirs of a Geisha. It turned out Huang He was most interested in Chinese culture.
Soon, the barbecue was almost finished, and Huang He began to prepare to leave. Li An looked at Huang He with some reluctance and finally couldn't help but ask, "Don't you really want me to help you make a movie?"
"No, I never meant that!" Huang He nodded. "After all, I don't like any of the movies you've made."
"Goodbye."
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After leaving Li An's house, Huang He and his group headed straight for New York and quickly found Weta Workshop's office in the city. When they heard that an Oriental was planning to have Weta Workshop produce the special effects for a TV series, the entire Weta Workshop was shocked. They had never imagined producing movie-level special effects for a TV series.
However, the other party's attitude was very serious, and it was a Xianxia world, completely different from Middle-earth. This piqued the interest of Weta Workshop's executives. The executive even decided to fly directly from New Zealand to the United States to communicate with Huang He. Both parties would discuss further in a few days.
Thus, the matter with Weta Workshop was temporarily put on hold.
"Brother-in-law, what's the second thing we're doing in America?" Leng Zhiruo asked curiously.
"That's right!" Huang He nodded.
"What about the third thing? Can you tell me now?" Leng Zhiruo couldn't contain her curiosity. Huang He had said he had three things to do in America, and now only the last one remained.
"Meet someone named Isaac Perlmutter and buy another item from him!" Huang He said.
October 11, 2002. Isaac Perlmutter was feeling a bit anxious because one of his comic book companies was once again facing a funding crisis. This comic book company was even struggling to print the latest issue of its comic magazine.
You might not believe it if I didn't say it, but this comic book company is the future's renowned Marvel.
Marvel was, at this point, almost facing the worst period of its existence. Since the 1990s, the widespread rise of the internet and video games had led the younger generation to invest more of their interests in these areas. Comic books, once deeply loved, saw their sales declining, now less than 1/20th of their peak.
And this was a situation that no measure could reverse, because the existence of comic books itself was contrary to the trend of history. It was a culture destined to shrink into a niche. Therefore, any attempt to revitalize comic books had proven futile.
Conversely, Marvel's repeated attempts at revival gradually depleted its funds, leading to its complete collapse in the early 1990s. It was acquired by a notorious villain.
This villain had no intention of operating Marvel seriously. At best, he merely kept Marvel on life support, preventing it from declaring bankruptcy.
From this perspective, it seemed sufficient, as Marvel was still alive. However, the problem was that this villain discovered new profits from Marvel, thanks to the superheroes under its banner.
This villain found that many film companies were interested in superhero movies, and Marvel's classic superheroes were the best targets for adaptation into films.
Any single superhero could be sold for hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars. Thus, this villain began this infamous business of selling heroes.
During this villain's tenure at Marvel, who knows how many superheroes were sold? Perhaps only Marvel itself has detailed data. But at Marvel's worst, only two heroes remained in Marvel's hands, including Iron Man and Spider-Man. The copyrights of other heroes had been sold, some even permanently, with no possibility of retrieval.
Fortunately, this villain's actions provoked immense anger from Marvel fans. Then, coupled with a financial fluctuation at the time, this villain suffered heavy losses and decided to sell Marvel again.
Eventually, Marvel fell into the hands of Isaac Perlmutter. He was a good person. Under his stewardship, Marvel's superheroes were no longer sold off. At most, licenses were granted to film companies to make movies. Simultaneously, Isaac Perlmutter began the slow process of reclaiming some of the sold superheroes.
Moreover, in the early 21st century, the influence and box office revenue of superhero movies were declining. Many superheroes that were once very valuable became less so. Therefore, although Perlmutter's reclamation efforts were slow, they continued to progress. Many superheroes gradually returned to Marvel's hands, earning Isaac Perlmutter considerable popularity among Marvel fans.
It's quite interesting, actually. Isaac Perlmutter was initially just a merchandise producer that collaborated with Marvel, specializing in action figures.
Later, a toy company that survived on Marvel's copyrights actually ended up absorbing Marvel. It had to be said to be a very interesting turn of events. However, Isaac Perlmutter's persistence until now had become extremely difficult. His toy company was facing operational difficulties, and Marvel's comic sales continued to decline. Many people were advising Isaac Perlmutter to sell Marvel, or to sell Marvel's superheroes as before, but Isaac Perlmutter stubbornly persisted.
And so, this morning, Isaac Perlmutter received a call from a visitor. Yes, someone interested in Marvel. Although Isaac Perlmutter was deeply resistant in his heart, he had to agree to meet, as Isaac Perlmutter hoped for a form of cooperation that he could accept.
That was to sell a portion of his shares to the other party in exchange for capital inflow, while firmly retaining control of Marvel's operations. This was the only way Isaac Perlmutter could accept cooperation.
But unfortunately, those willing to invest in Marvel did not accept this method. They were all intelligent people who saw that Marvel was on a dead end. Only Marvel's superheroes could generate some money through sales. They could not allow Isaac Perlmutter to continue as he was, not only refusing to sell heroes but also attempting to spend more money to buy back these hero copyrights.
Finally, with a sliver of hope, Isaac Perlmutter met the person who came to discuss the acquisition. Although he knew from the phone call that the visitor was Asian, Isaac Perlmutter still felt a natural resistance when he actually saw such a young Chinese person.
"I will not accept losing control of Marvel. I must firmly hold onto the leadership power of Marvel!" Isaac Perlmutter stated frankly as soon as they met.
"If you continue with this attitude, then we will likely part ways unhappily, just like many before us!" Huang He said, shrugging his shoulders.
"The door is right there. If you want to leave, you can do so anytime!" Isaac Perlmutter said stubbornly.
"It's no problem for me to leave, but can Marvel still hold on?" Huang He asked calmly. "I can inject two hundred million US dollars into Marvel!"
"Two hundred million US dollars!!" Isaac Perlmutter swallowed hard. This price was unprecedented. Isaac Perlmutter had only spent forty million dollars in total when he bought Marvel, and the highest price offered by anyone who had come to discuss acquiring Marvel before was no more than fifty million dollars. This two hundred million dollars caused Isaac Perlmutter's attitude to begin to soften.
Seizing the opportunity, Huang He smiled and said, "Actually, you don't need to be so resistant to potential acquirers, because you must understand that no one is willing to spend money but not have control over their destiny. We need to find our common ground and then cooperate!"
"What common ground do we have?" Isaac Perlmutter asked dismissively. A Chinese person talking about revitalizing Marvel was simply laughable.
"Our common ground is that we both want to reclaim Marvel's heroes and revitalize Marvel!" Huang He said with a smile.
"Hmph!" Isaac Perlmutter snorted but did not retort, clearly agreeing with Huang He's statement.
"Then let's move on to our previous point of divergence!" Huang He said. "I'd like to know how you plan to revitalize Marvel?"
"For Marvel to fully enter the internet, manage the superhero IP, and then develop dolls and other merchandise, opening up new revenue streams!" Isaac Perlmutter said.
"That's great!" Huang He slapped his thigh. "I thought we had a divergence of opinion, but it seems our ideas are completely aligned. I also believe this is the only way to revitalize Marvel!"
"Is that so?" Isaac Perlmutter suddenly felt that this Huang He looked quite handsome.
"Indeed, and I believe Marvel's content is still excellent. The problem is that the channel has shifted from paper comics to the internet. So, I suggest that Marvel can establish a website and post all of Marvel's comics in history on the website, and then make them available for free viewing by all users!"
"What? Free for everyone to see!" Isaac Perlmutter was shocked.
"Yes, free!" Huang He nodded vigorously. "What is Marvel's biggest crisis now? It's that we've lost our youth base. Many young people don't read comics anymore."
"Therefore, we need to cultivate new users. But to systematically understand Marvel's comics, one needs to read many of Marvel's previous storylines. So, we need to make all the previous comic content free and open to attract a large number of young people to become Marvel fans. This will be the foundation for Marvel's future resurgence!"
"Furthermore, these are all old comics. We can't possibly make money from them anymore. It's better to adopt a posture of 'everything for the fans' and let Marvel win over hearts and minds!" After Huang He finished speaking, Isaac Perlmutter's eyes sparkled. Was this Huang He sent by heaven to help him revitalize Marvel?