This is a fundamentally flawed idea, and can even be considered shooting oneself in the foot before anything even starts.
This is because a TV series that is already famous abroad carries a strong preconceived stereotypical impression. As soon as your adapted TV series deviates even slightly from the original, you will immediately face the furious condemnation of the original's fans.
However, if you were to film it exactly the same, you would receive even more ridicule. Think about it, from 2000 to 2022, how many re-adapted or triple-adapted TV series haven't been lambasted as inferior to the original? And how many have truly achieved high viewership and audience recognition?
It would be better not to publicize that the TV series is an adaptation.
In short, adapting TV series is a thankless task. It might gain a little traction at the beginning, but in the end, it will inevitably result in a torrent of criticism.
Historically, the only TV series that managed to be an adaptation and achieve massive viewership was "The Temptation to Go Home." However, because Hunan Satellite TV never advertised it as an adaptation of a Korean drama, and very few viewers had seen the original, it became a hit thanks to its quality script and classic storyline.
Conversely, later, a film company acquired the rights to adapt "Full House" and then heavily promoted it as an adapted series. However, due to the acting skills of the lead actors and a script that was only slightly less brain-dead than other brain-dead dramas of the time, it was thoroughly trashed and never gained any popularity.
Oh, and by the way, "The Temptation to Go Home" has completed its script. The original Korean drama, "The Temptation of Wife," was released in 2008. Currently, there's nothing, but "The Temptation to Go Home" is being filmed and is currently one of Tangren Film's two semi-masterpiece works.
If there are any future adaptations of "The Temptation of Wife," it's likely that Tangren Film will need to purchase the copyright.
Therefore, even if Boss Huang bought the adaptation rights for "Friends," he would absolutely not promote it as an adaptation of "Friends." It wouldn't even be called "Friends," but would still be named "iPartment." This is probably one of Boss Huang's small obsessions.
Of course, Boss Huang wouldn't admit that when negotiating with the American television station to purchase the adaptation rights for "Friends," they asked for 200 million US dollars.
After all, "Friends" could be considered the hottest TV IP in the world at the time. Countless television production companies from various countries wanted to purchase the adaptation rights for the "Friends" script and adapt it into their own local versions of "Friends."
However, the production company of "Friends" had never sold the rights, not because they were reluctant, but because the price was very high. Therefore, Jiangnan Group was the first to discuss the adaptation rights for "Friends," and they naturally set a high price.
Boss Huang felt that 200 million US dollars was simply too inflated. It would be better to plagiarize it sneakily. At worst, they could push the director and scriptwriters out to take the audience's骂, and Boss Huang himself would remain a pure white lotus.
After all, these are the actions of his subordinates, what do they have to do with Boss Huang?
Then, the two sides engaged in a highly contentious negotiation. After a month of negotiation, both sides were quite heated. During the negotiation, the production company of "Friends" repeatedly emphasized how famous their IP was worldwide, stating that the three words "Friends" alone could be sold for 100 million US dollars.
So, the negotiation representative from Tangren Film directly said at the negotiation table, "Then I don't want these three words. Just sell me the script for 100 million!"
"The other party assumed that the Tangren Film representative was speaking out of anger. After all, all companies adapting 'Friends' were targeting the name 'Friends.' Who would do something like buying the container but returning the gem, only buying the script content and not the TV show's name?"
So, the other party directly responded, "Alright, if you guarantee not to use the name 'Friends' and also promise not to use any promotional slogans like 'adapted from Friends' in external publicity, I will sell it to you for 100 million!"
"..." The negotiation representative vaguely recalled that Boss Huang didn't seem to care about the name "Friends." So, he quickly called Boss Huang to report!
"There's such a good thing!" Boss Huang heard this and was overjoyed. Without a second thought, he told the negotiation representative to accept the condition. The other party could only watch foolishly as Tangren Film presented a brand new version.
Considering they had already spent a month in arduous negotiation, it was too tiring. And if they didn't use the name "Friends," their company seemed to have more operational options. Thus, they reached a script adaptation contract.
It was agreed that Tangren Film, having purchased the script adaptation rights, could not use names like "Friends" or "Friends China Edition," nor could they promote it under related titles, otherwise, they would have to pay 100 million US dollars in damages. With that, the contract was signed, and Boss Huang obtained the script adaptation rights for "Friends."
Next, naturally, they had to arrange for their scriptwriters to begin adapting the "Friends" script. An advantage of directly purchasing the "Friends" script adaptation rights is that the "Friends" script has a total of 10 seasons, with one season released each year.
And because the script quality of "Friends" is generally very high, it is foreseeable that the popularity of "iPartment" will not decline in the next 10 years. Audiences can anticipate the latest "iPartment" each year. Cumulatively, this is probably a more powerful card than "Drawing the Sword."
Another thing worth mentioning is that during the script adaptation, Boss Huang directly deleted the character designs of Lu Zhanbo and Tang Wanyu, and instead incorporated Zhang Wei and Zhuge Dali into the script, achieving a final script with 8 protagonists. This character setup will continue for all 10 seasons.
This is not to say that Boss Huang was dissatisfied with Lu Zhanbo and Tang Wanyu. It's just that in his previous life, the scenes for this pair were scattered, and their CP felt very chaotic.
Of course, the most important thing is that Lu Zhanbo's character design is far less outstanding than Zhang Wei's. Zhang Wei, who was originally just a cameo in the first season, walking out of the restroom, was able to become a regular character in "iPartment" purely through his character's charm. He successfully became the biggest draw of the entire series in the fifth season, and his CP with Zhuge Dali essentially dominated all the trending searches at the time.
Therefore, Zhang Wei's character design is undoubtedly much more successful than Lu Zhanbo's. So, Boss Huang decided to have Zhang Wei appear from beginning to end.
However, with the addition of Zhang Wei and Zhuge Dali as a CP, the original six CPs in the "Friends" script needed to be expanded. Considering they had to film 10 installments at once, this required revising over 200 episodes of the script from start to finish.
Tangren Film has now assembled a professional team of screenwriters to handle this. However, it is estimated that revising the script will take one to two years, and there will be a considerable wait.
Following Tangren Film is Jiangnan Game Studio, which is the Shanghai Dayu Game Studio that produces "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" and was previously acquired by Boss Huang. He then simply renamed it Jiangnan Game Studio.
However, this game studio currently has zero revenue because they have not produced any actual products yet. "The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4," which is currently in development, is not expected to be released until 2005.
Although the entire "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" series was previously available on the 00 Game Center, it was opened for free to all players as a benefit, and no money was received.
As for blind boxes, merchandise, and TV adaptation rights, they were all licensed to Jiangnan Commercial for free, with no consideration for revenue at the time.
However, starting from 2004, this game studio will begin independent financial accounting, and everything will be handled according to commercial procedures. Revenue will be generated when "The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4" is released.
Of course, since it has been renamed Jiangnan Game Studio, they can no longer solely focus on the "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" series. They have already split off a team and are developing a brand-new game called "Plants vs. Zombies."
This game was naturally commissioned by Boss Huang for Jiangnan Game Studio. And quite miraculously, Boss Huang told the studio staff that he had a dream. In his dream, zombies were trying to eat him, and he ran into a house and found a magical plant that could continuously spit peas. The peas shot by this plant were highly effective against zombies, killing them directly, and thus Boss Huang was saved.
Upon waking up, Boss Huang ordered the studio to produce this game and also provided the game's general structure and gameplay.
When they first received this task, the employees of Jiangnan Game Studio felt like they were going crazy. The idea of creating a game based solely on a dream was simply too absurd.
But Boss Huang's orders could not be refused. It was only when they actually started developing the game that the entire Jiangnan Game Studio's attitude gradually changed. Now, Jiangnan Game Studio has become very confident in this game. The head of the studio even stated that it is a game that will not be inferior to "The Legend of Sword and Fairy."
Most importantly, the game's mode is very unique. The producer has reviewed all computer games worldwide and found that there isn't a single game with a similar gameplay to "Plants vs. Zombies." This alone is enough to make it a bestseller.
Coupled with Boss Huang's generous funding and the game's cartoonish art style, the progress has been surprisingly fast. By July, "Plants vs. Zombies" will be available on the 00 Game Center.
Therefore, one can look forward to Jiangnan Game Studio's financial report for 2004.
After the game studio, it's time for Jiangnan Mall.
Following last year's e-commerce battle, Jiangnan Mall has no rivals in China. Despite its seemingly aggressive posture and the integration of three top domestic e-commerce platforms, and the rumored 1 billion US dollar investment in the market by eBay, it couldn't even manage to earn a few chapters of descriptive text in novels as a competitor to Jiangnan Mall. As it operated, it was on the verge of collapse.
At the beginning of this year, eBay, possibly for reform and market revitalization, decided to replace the original Chinese CEO, Li Guoqing, with an Indian-American CEO from the United States, believing this person had the ability to change everything. Boss Huang couldn't even be bothered to learn this CEO's name.