Chapter 1397

When the executives of Huanya were still considering whether to accept Li Mu's proposal for cooperation, they suddenly received a message that Li Mu had bought the English remake right of Infernal Affairs from Warner at a price of 3.5 million US dollars!

And Warner is really happy. It takes less than a day to think about it and another day to finish the process. Now, the English remake copyright of Infernal Affairs has been returned to Makino image

When Huanya heard the news, they were confused. They didn't understand what Li Muwan was up to. The front foot gave him an offer to cooperate with the North American distribution right of Infernal Affairs. The back foot directly bought the English remake right of Infernal Affairs from Warner at double price.

As we all know, the goal of English remake right itself is to point to the North American market. The senior executives around Asia are especially murmuring. They gathered together to brainstorm and asked what the purpose of Li's move was.

"What did you say Li Mu bought it for? How wonderful it is to cooperate with us to push the original Infernal Affairs to the North American market, so that he can make money empty handed! "

"You ask me, I ask who? Is Li Mu trying to use this to coerce us into accepting his exploitation plan? "

"My God, when will that be? He got the copyright today, and started shooting directly today. It will take at least half a year to release! If we find a suitable partner, Infernal Affairs will be released in North America next month! We are not in the same period of time... "

"Does Li Mu think there is more profit margin for remaking the English version of Infernal Affairs?"

"Not likely," Infernal Affairs "script although very good, but to Hollywood will certainly be acclimatized, to Hollywood, how can the production cost get $30.5 million, box office if less than 200 million do not make money at all."

"Whether it's possible or not depends on how the script is changed, who will do it and who will do it."

"You guys, even if Li Mu really thinks it's profitable to remake Infernal Affairs, it has nothing to do with our original Infernal Affairs. Our priority now is to determine how to operate Infernal Affairs, whether to sell it directly to Hollywood or to accept Li Mu's cooperation plan."

"Li Mu's plan is too farfetched! We are the copyright owner, he only gives us 30%! This guy's heart is not so black! I won't cooperate with him unless he is willing to give us not less than 50%

"Not less than 50%? Let's report to him at 50%. "

"Yes, I agree!"

……

When Li Mu heard about the final offer of Huanya from Li Ziwei, he was not surprised at all, let alone angry, but said lightly: "tell them directly that I will take back the offer. In the future, don't communicate with Muye image. Muye image will not cooperate with them in any form based on this film."

"Good!" Li Ziwei immediately nodded and said, "I'll reply to them right now."

Li Mu hurriedly said: "don't worry, it's unnecessary. It's just a movie company. We don't care about the size of the company or the space for cooperation. We can reply when we are in a good mood."

After that, Li Mu shook his head and said with a smile, "I'm getting more and more backward. A small film company has the courage to bargain with me."

Li Ziwei said with a smile, "I know your mood. You are concerned about whether Chinese films can go out of the Chinese circle, rather than how much money they can earn."

Li Mu nodded and said: "for some capitalists, movies do make money, but for me, the money that movies make is pitiful. I should be concerned about when Makino technology and Taobao technology will go on the market, when the market value will break through the hundred billion dollar mark, instead of figuring out whether a movie can make a profit when it is released in North America Even if I want to make this money, I should not do it myself. It is more cost-effective to focus on other places in terms of pure value. But movie is a powerful tool for cultural output. If I want to do a good job in cultural output, the main battlefield of movie must be firmly grasped. "

With that, Li Mu took a sip of water and said: "by Ziwei, please contact Spielberg for me and let him tell the management of DreamWorks. I intend to start the project of Infernal Affairs in English. This film will be the next key film of Makino image after flying tigers. I hope to continue to cooperate with DreamWorks. If they are interested, they can follow the Everyone's time, arrange a video conference. "

"OK, I'll get in touch with director Spielberg."

Speaking of this, Li Ziwei hesitated for a moment, as if hesitated for a moment, or asked Li Mu: "Mr. Li, I venture to ask you, is the original version of" Infernal Affairs "all right? I always think it's a pity... "

Li Mu smiled and asked, "crape myrtle, what do you think of the movie Infernal Affairs?"

"It's very nice." Li Ziwei answered without hesitation: "it should be the best Hong Kong movie in recent years."

Li Mu asked with a smile, "what's good about it?"Li Ziwei said: "the plot is great, the actors are also very good, and the lineup is strong. They are all well-known actors in Hong Kong film industry."

"Do you think audiences in North America will like the original version of Infernal Affairs?" Li asked

"This..." Li Ziwei thought about it and said, "I think it should be? After all, there is a precedent for the success of Mr. zombie. "

"I don't think it's easy for North American audiences to accept the original version of Infernal Affairs," said Li Mu with a smile. "At least, in terms of their current understanding of China, they can't accept it."

Li Ziwei asked, "why do you say that?"

Li Mu said: "Mr. zombie is actually very simple. What it exports to the outside world is the system of Chinese zombies, and it is a fictional folklore. Therefore, even if the North American audience does not understand Chinese culture, they will have a sense of substitution. This is the same as when we watch the Hollywood science fiction film" heteromorphic ". We only need to recognize the heteromorphic system, i.e People can't feel different from westerners when they watch that film, but Infernal Affairs is different. "

Li Ziwei asked him in a hurry, "why?"

Li Mu said: "Wujian Dao contains too many Chinese elements and Hong Kong films have a strong flavor. It focuses on human nature, strategy, Buddhist fatalism, benevolence, righteousness and morality, and Wujian purgatory. We understand that Westerners don't understand it. In addition, Hong Kong has a very unified common feature when it's shooting films, that is, the deeper the better, the deeper it is, The more successful it is on the level of directly attacking the soul, which is no problem for our Chinese audience, because we accept and are used to such a routine, but for westerners, it's too difficult for them to accept so many things they don't understand at once. "

Speaking of this, Li Mu added: "so when you watch Hollywood blockbusters, the main line is clear, the rhythm is bright, and most of the characters are not so complicated. It can be said that they have distinctive characteristics, especially action movies, which are basically nothing else. When they come up, they will have a good time. But the more such films are, the more they can be sold in the world. Why? Because it's simple and direct. There are more than 200 countries, countless nationalities and countless cultural styles in the world. Do you know how these cultures develop? "

Li Ziwei listened to the clouds and fog, and shook her head in a daze. "I don't know very well. It seems that the problem is a bit profound..."

Li Mu said with a smile: "in fact, it's not profound at all. Let me tell you this, so many cultures around the world are like a huge giant tree. It's not only towering into the clouds, but also full of branches and leaves. It's extremely complex to open branches and leaves. But no matter how big a tree is, it also grows from a seed, sprouts from a root system, and grows into a thick trunk , and then slowly open branches and leaves to develop continuously. The more extended the development, the greater the difference between different branches and vines. "

"If each branch is a different culture, then each culture is not just its own branch, but starts from its own branch to trace the roots of the trunk and trees that have been extended all the way. Although everyone has the same roots, they have great differences because the follow-up development path is completely different.

Although every culture has developed from the front end to the end for thousands of years, everyone who lives in the present lives at the end of their own culture, so you can't take the things at one end and let the people at the other end adopt and accept them. What is the infernal way? It's a product of the end of our culture. Do you think the people who are not in our culture can fully understand and accept it? "

Li Ziwei shook her head gently: "according to your metaphor, it should be very difficult to accept."

Li Mu went on to say: "so back to the topic of Hollywood, Hollywood action movies are very simple, without any connotation or special end culture. They even use the end thought of western culture, but the front thought. So they are the products of the front end in the western culture system. So I just said that every culture is actually the product of the front end It's the branches and leaves of a tree, which is doomed to a rule: the more you explore the front end of culture, the closer you are to other ethnic cultures, otherwise, the farther you are from them.

If the front-end reaches an extreme and goes to the root of human civilization, all cultures are the same. All cultures can't do without eating, drinking and Lhasa. All cultures can't do without sex, love and hatred. All cultures agree that good people should have good rewards, bad people should have bad rewards, and if they are beaten, they should go back. All cultures It is also recognized that good people should be punished if they are bullied by bad people. So Hollywood makes such a simple film without any surprises with other national cultures. It may not have depth, but it can be accepted and recognized by all people. "

With a sigh, Li Mu said: "in my opinion, this is the key to the success of Hollywood commercial blockbusters. When other films, such as Hong Kong films, go back on the road of looking for depth, they turn their heads and put the depth behind their heads to find something that can be accepted by people in any cultural background in the world. So you can watch Infernal Affairs again 》It stands at the back end of Chinese culture. Maybe some Western audiences can see the depth and praise the film, but most Western audiences will not accept the depth, which is doomed to make it difficult to achieve commercial success in North America. "Li Ziwei suddenly realized that she finally understood the relationship between commerciality and culture, why Li Mu didn't like the box office potential of Infernal Affairs in North America, and why Hollywood could become the leader in the field of commercial films. However, the more she understood this, the more puzzled she was about a question. She asked Li Mu, "since Mr. Li You think it's hard for westerners to accept Infernal Affairs. Why pay double the price to buy the remake copyright, and then invest in remaking its English version? "