Chapter 153： Death is gone

The two films filmed with financing from Abu Dhabi were both released from the North American market, but their fates were completely different.

"Ace Agent", which was released first, had poor results, but the target audience was clear, and it still won $10.6 million in the box office in North America.

In addition, the sharp editing and hand-held photography styles have been well received in the video tape market. From the beginning of January to the present, the sales of video tapes and discs, including rental tapes, have also generated nearly $3 million in revenue.

The "Reaper Is Coming" released later became a phenomenon-level horror film whose value can last for many years.

"The subsequent distribution of all peripheral copyrights of these two films will be handed over to Embassy Pictures."

In the office, Ronan said to George Clint: "Your task now is to cooperate with Paul Greengrass to complete the preliminary planning of "Bourne's Identity."

George Clint asked, "Funds?"

Ronan said: "First borrow part of the loan from the theory of relativity entertainment, as the start-up cost, and the rest will be settled according to our plan." Having said that, he remembered one more thing: "Find two from the film library and have not sold overseas copyrights. The video tapes of the film came out and authorized to be distributed by the Embassy Pictures."

George Clint asked again: "Do you want Embassy Pictures to distribute overseas? Who will do the overseas distribution of "Ace Agent" and "Reaper Is Coming"?"

He reminded Ronan: "It's been a long time since the release in North America. Piracy has already appeared in the underground market. The situation overseas is not optimistic. The overseas release should be as soon as possible."

Even in places with strong copyright protection such as North America, piracy cannot be eliminated. It is difficult to completely solve the problem of movie piracy alone.

Ronan knows this and said: "The overseas distribution department of Embassy Pictures has just been established, and the channels are still being sorted out. It is impossible to release films in a short time." It is obviously unrealistic to let Embassy Pictures immediately invest in overseas distribution of films: "The overseas copyrights of these two films continue to be authorized for sale."

Regardless of whether it is a publicity effect or a piracy issue, the overseas copyrights of the two films cannot be held in hand for too long.

All these will be handed over to Embassy Pictures. Embassy Pictures, as an agency distributor, can draw from it openly. Ronan plans to distribute "Ace Agent" and "Death Is Coming" into two parts. The "Ace Agent" The copyrights were sold separately to make the accounts clearer, and "Reaper is Coming" and the two video films of Shahai Entertainment form a film package and packaged for sale.

"Ace Agent" was filmed with funds from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority; "Death Is Coming" was funded by private individuals in Abu Dhabi.

Ronan has certain concerns about the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and plans to stop cooperating with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority after "Ace Agent".

Without the support of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, it would be much more difficult to get private financing from Abu Dhabi, and he does not want to go to Abu Dhabi anymore.

Of course, if those wealthy people in Abu Dhabi are willing to personally come to Los Angeles to continue participating in the film investment of Shahai Entertainment, Ronan will also welcome with his hands.

Compared with the investment of industry insiders like Tom Cruise, Ronan still welcomes funds from overseas.

After George Clint left, Ronan made a special call to Tony Koch from Germany, and asked him to pass the preliminary information of "Bourne's Identity" to Koch Pictures for the convenience of Koch Pictures. Financing operations.

After a year of development, Koch Films has also been on the right track. It has already received nearly tens of millions of dollars in financing. As long as the Hollywood film project is in hand, the appeal will be even greater.

In addition, when operating the tax rebates for the two projects "Ace Agent" and "Reaper Is Coming" in Germany last year, Shahai Entertainment has been owing Koch Pictures the "investment share" of US$10 million and failed to give it to Ronan. I gave Mary a notice and asked her to pay the tens of millions of dollars within a week.

Last year’s investment turned around and returned to German investors. Although the money did not increase, more than 30% of the tax was saved, which is very cost-effective for anyone.

In this era, most people invest legally, and it is impossible to make such a high profit in a year.

As long as these people taste the sweetness, it will be much easier for Tony Koch to ask them for a second investment.

Besides, there is no worries.

Strictly speaking, this is not tax avoidance, but a policy specifically promulgated by the German "government" to stimulate investment and financial circulation.

The relevant information of "Bourne's Identity" was faxed to Koch Pictures. Tony Koch called again and discussed with Ronan for a long time.

If Tony Koch's financing goes well, not only "Bourne's Identity", the sequels of "Human Elimination Project" and "Reaper Is Coming" can continue the same operation.

However, films with a smaller investment may be less likely to pass the review.

In addition to the existing ones, Ronan is also considering new projects, limited to capital and company size, the first choice is still a series of movies that can continuously generate revenue.

During the period, I went to the Copyright Bureau to make an inquiry again and denied many projects. Hollywood has too many scripts or adaptation rights for movies, which were in the hands of the six major companies many years before filming.

For example, "Princess Diaries", Ronan always thought it was an original movie, but after searching, he discovered that it was based on a novel, and the copyright of the novel was already in Disney's hands.

There are many things like a screenplay registered in the Copyright Bureau for ten years before it enters the stage of film adaptation.

Too many screenwriters directly sold the copyright of the screenplay to a film company with deep pockets because of life problems before reaching the first-line screenwriter.

Hollywood is a typical pyramid structure, and very few can go to the upper level.

If it hadn't been for James Huang, Ronan couldn't believe that a senior screenwriter who had been in the business for more than ten years had to change his career forcibly because of income problems.

Ronan made timely adjustments based on the actual situation and formulated a special response strategy.

On the one hand, recruiting and hiring a professional screenwriter team, like the most common assembly line production in the industry, write some of his ideas into scripts. The scripts do not need to be too detailed, and it is sufficient to pass the registration and review of the Copyright Bureau.

Of course, it is impossible to completely block the appearance of certain movies. After all, there are too many movies with similar themes and genres in Hollywood. The most typical "White House Fall" and "Shocking Crisis" can be said to be extremely similar.

In fact, some movies can completely change the form of expression and appear on extremely similar themes.

This is inevitable. Even the Big Six companies cannot dominate the movie market, not to mention the current Relativity Entertainment.

However, this can ensure that Relativity Entertainment will have more topics to choose from in the future.

On the other hand, Ronan insisted on reading the New York Times bestseller list in each issue, looking for books with adaptation value.

Some memories are pressed in the deepest part of the mind. Sometimes people try to think of one thing but can't remember it. If touched a little, the relevant memory can appear in the mind.

In his previous life, Ronan had seen too many movies and TV series because of his work in related industries, including domestic movies, Hollywood movies, European movies, action movies, art movies, horror movies, and even small romance movies.

And what little Anderson left him was just an ordinary human brain, which was smarter at best, and had no retrieval function at all.

Foresight is Ronan's greatest advantage. The ability to find valuable things from many things can be said to be one of the greatest manifestations of this advantage.

There is another aspect, that is to maximize the use of existing series of movies.

Both "Human Removal Project" and "Reaper Is Coming" will be developed as sequels. As long as "Bourne's Identity" can succeed, it must be a trilogy series.

On this basis, is it possible to dig out value?

After thinking carefully, Ronan suddenly thought of a comment about "Death Is Coming" that he had read on the Internet in the past. Is it possible to shoot a comedy film similar to "Screaming"? I remember that the netizen also used the name "Reaper is gone". Some people escaped from the black hand of the Reaper, and then the Reaper couldn't kill him no matter how he hunted it down, and finally made the death angry...

The investment is not large, and there are successful films as the foundation, and the market audience of bad comedies is wider than that of horror films, which seems to be feasible.

Worried about forgetting in the future, Ronan quickly recorded the case, wrote down the general idea, and then asked him to give it to George Clint.

The scale of the company is expanding, and the number of personnel and projects are increasing. It is impossible for Ronan to be specific about the details of participating in every project, but to make decisions and control the direction of development.

This project allows Shahai Entertainment to have an internal meeting to verify, and then do a preliminary market survey for "sex". If it is of value, it will operate and shoot.

If you control your investment well, it doesn't matter if you can't enter the theater, you can also distribute video tapes and discs directly.

The home entertainment market is very large, and the annual output value directly created in North America far exceeds the theater box office.

Ronan’s actions are very fast. In just one week, he has finalized a five-person screenwriter team. These five people are unscrupulous screenwriters in the industry. Previously, they were also engaged in the scriptwriting work of gunmen's "sexuality". Both parties signed Good agreement, there are provisions of the copyright law, the copyright of the works within the contract period is clear.

They are responsible for turning several ideas in Ronan's memory into scripts and then handing them over to the lawyer Dinah Ampton of Shengzhi Law Firm, who will complete the copyright registration.

Each item must comply with laws and regulations to avoid future copyright disputes as much as possible.

Ronan will never underestimate people's greed. Like Hollywood's hot movies, many people who have nothing to do with each other jump out and say that they infringe on copyrights and want to get a share of the pie, not to mention some people who have personally engaged in script creation.

In addition, Ronan also remembered several popular adaptations of movies in his previous life, but soon discovered that the copyright was already in the hands of the six major companies. He tried to get in touch with it. There was no possibility of taking it down, so he gave up.

For example, the copyright of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" was acquired by Paramount Pictures for a long time, and then transferred to Disney. Now Disney is planning to adapt the movie in the next few years and has not considered transferring the copyright at all.

The Big Six companies eat the meat in their mouths and want them to spit it out, which is too difficult.

Ronan quickly gave up those unrealistic ideas and cared more about projects that could be obtained. Best entertainment age