Chapter 678： Zombie Godfather

In the afternoon, Ronan asked Connie to transfer George Romero's script to Shahai Entertainment. The specific cooperation depends on the negotiation of the project.

He once watched "Land of the Living Dead" and George Romero worked hard to make a lot of innovations because of the failure of "Zombies Out of the Cage". The film looks very interesting.

But Ronan is not clear about the specific market response.

However, for many zombie movies, even if the box office is not very good, the offline market is relatively broad.

For example, "Zombie Out of the Basket" was a typical box office and word-of-mouth failure in the mid-1980s, but by the end of the 1980s, production companies not only relied on offline video tapes and TV stations to recover their investment, but also made substantial profits.

Later a sequel came out.

At the same time as the box office success of "Dawn of the Living Dead", Warner Bros., who witnessed the filming and production of this film almost all the way, purchased the remake copyright of "Zombie Out of the Basket" from Anchor Bay Entertainment, and it is said to be preparing to shoot "New Zombie Out of the Basket" .

After years of relative silence, the subject of zombies will enter an active period.

The wider the audience of zombies, the greater the future market space for the copyright that Shahai Entertainment has obtained.

"Land of the Living Dead" still needs to control the scale of investment. Ronan's standard is to include the script copyright costs and the production budget is about 10 million US dollars.

Loving George Romero's zombie films and investing in his zombie film projects are completely different things.

George Romero was very happy over there, accepting the conditions offered by Shahai Entertainment, and preparing to cooperate with Shahai Entertainment to film "Land of the Living Dead".

Ronan received the news and personally attended the signing ceremony between Shahai Entertainment and George Romero.

Seeing George Romero’s all-white hair and beard, Ronan suddenly remembered something. After the death of the father of modern zombie films, a fan mourned him and said: May George Romero go. The heaven is full of zombies...

In the East there is the Ninth Uncle, and in the West there is George Romero.

The zombie godfathers of the east and the west have already driven west.

The only difference is that after Jiu Shu, the zombie film was in a slump.

Without George Romero, excellent zombie films are still coming out.

What Ronan didn't expect was that George Romero officially signed a contract with Shahai Entertainment. After the news of shooting a new zombie movie appeared in the media, a large number of actor applications were passed to the production department of Shahai Entertainment in the Theory of Relativity Building.

Including some well-known actors and stars, they have expressed their willingness to star in this zombie movie even if they don't need a penny.

This is not to say how powerful George Romero is.

George Romero does have the status of the originator of zombie movies. In fact, he has never been a first-line director in the mainstream film industry, and he has never made a blockbuster that has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide.

It would be a little strange to compare George Romero with Spielberg and James Cameron, but everyone admits that he is absolutely "legendary."

It was him who created today's hot zombie culture.

George Romero's zombie films are the feelings of too many people, including many actors and directors.

The director Edgar Wright and the actor Simon Peggy of "Shaun Zombie" released in April this year came together to the Theory of Relativity Building. They wanted to appear in George Romero's new zombie film, even if they appeared on the scene, they got a headshot. The zombies are also good.

Aisha Aquido, the daughter of the famous Italian horror master Dario Aquido, a famous European female director and actress, and the heroine of "Xtreme Agent" in Hollywood, also called.

The well-known American journalist, Susan Walls, who was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, has repeatedly expressed her strong desire to play as a zombie.

Roger Albert, who violently criticized and abused "Night of the Living Dead", is also willing to play as a zombie to make up for his mistakes.

The combination of George Romero and the theme of zombies has a huge influence.

Ronan also consulted George Romero about the adaptation of "Walking and Going Meat", and planned to invite him to direct a few episodes in the future, but George Romero refused without hesitation.

"I watched this series when it was first published. I don't like this work. I have no interest at all." George Romero didn't hide his aversion to The Walking Dead: "It's like a soap opera at eight o'clock. Only occasionally does a zombie appear, it is not a zombie work at all."

Shahai Entertainment invested 10 million US dollars to invest in George Romero's "Land of the Living Dead". The film will be released next year.

In the office, Ronan asked Connie, "Is there any clear news from New York?"

Connie replied: "Not yet. The latest news came yesterday. Robert has met Joan Kleia Lee and Stan Lee’s attorney Coya Morgan, and Avi Allard is working with Stan Lee. Li and his wife communicated."

Ronan nodded slightly. The sooner this matter is resolved, the appointment will be settled. Relativity Entertainment has made preparations to pay a certain price. After all, it will be the real trouble if it is delayed until the "Avenger Project" is exposed.

No matter how you use accounting rules, through various means, the amount of share involved will be calculated in units of 100 million.

Perelman made a lot of quick money from Marvel, but he left Marvel with trouble.

Anyone who has a sense of responsibility for the company will sign this kind of contract with Stan Lee?

It can only be said that Perelman only wanted to make a large sum of money and ran away from Marvel, and he had not considered long-term business at all.

Connie said at this time: "You keep me paying attention to 20th Century Fox, and just got a news." She looked at Ronan and saw that he did not stop, and said directly: "20th Century Fox obtained from Lehman Brothers. A financing of up to 1 billion U.S. dollars is used to acquire several Internet companies, including IGN entertainment and photo-sharing site Photobucket, in preparation for the integration and formation of a social sharing and video site wholly owned by Twentieth Century Fox."

Ronan immediately thought of the key: "Twentieth Century Fox wants to establish their Netflix."

"Yes." Connie has already analyzed: "This possibility is extremely high. Netflix's Internet business has attracted Hollywood attention. It takes time and effort to create an Internet business from scratch, and it is far from easy to acquire directly, and we are in Chennai. The success of flying above has also allowed other companies to see successful cases."

Ronan asked, "What about other companies?"

Connie replied: "At present, there is definite news. Warner Bros. has combined the network resources of entertainment media such as "Variety Show" and "Entertainment Weekly" and is preparing to cooperate with other companies to establish a new entertainment gossip website. Sony Columbia Pictures is working with Amazon Talking about cooperation, Walt Disney is looking for suitable targets and also wants to take the acquisition route."

"Twentieth Century Fox moves very fast." Ronan tapped the arm of the chair lightly.

Connie said: "Once the acquisition is successful, 20th Century Fox can integrate the resources of these Internet companies. Although it will not threaten Netflix, it will also enter the same market."

Ronan understands what Connie means. An Internet company supported by Twentieth Century Fox and News Corporation has developed faster than ordinary companies.

Of course he wouldn't just watch it.

"You contact Mark Randolph." Ronan decided to use the simplest and most effective method: "Let Mark Randolph evaluate whether these websites are useful for Netflix, and let Netflix also try to quote them. Netflix’s useful companies strive to win at a reasonable price, and companies with overlapping or useless businesses must also compete with Twentieth Century Fox. Twentieth Century Fox cannot easily succeed."

He emphatically emphasized: "Let Netflix drag time through competition, the longer the delay, the better."

"Okay." Connie saw that Ronan had nothing else to do, and said, "I'm going to notify Netflix."

Netflix is ​​now the dominant player in the industry. It must attach importance to its own development, but also cannot ignore potential competitors.

Mark Randolph received a notice from the head office, and immediately asked people to investigate several Internet companies. These companies are no strangers to Netflix. They are all located in Silicon Valley. The photo-sharing site Photobucket is also known as Netflix. Fei has done photo business outsourcing.

The technical capabilities of this Internet company are quite good. Unfortunately, like most startups, it lacks sufficient funds. Mark Randolph originally intended to acquire this company. Some necessary inspections are underway. After the approval of the parent company, immediately Speed ​​up the action.

As a result of the cooperation with the station Photobucket company, Netflix understood the actual situation of this company, and quickly sent out an invitation to acquire tentatively, and tried to quote the price.

In addition, for technical reasons on Netflix, Mark Randolph also proposed to Ronan that the launch time of Netflix's streaming media business will be slightly delayed.

Today's network bandwidth and most people's computer hardware are here. Even if Netflix has enough technology accumulation, it still has many problems to be solved if it wants streaming media services to transmit video clearly to users through the network.

Netflix discovered a brand new network transmission technology in a company in Silicon Valley ~ www.novelhall.com ~ has just completed a patent buyout. It will take time to digest and apply it to the streaming media business.

But with this technical support, under the same bandwidth, the video resolution provided by streaming media services can be increased by 30%, and it can effectively solve problems such as video freezes.

This technology alone is worth the wait.

At the same time, news from New York reached Ronan. With the assistance of Avi Allard, Robert Lee successfully resolved the issue of Stan Lee's contract.

Robert Lee persuaded Stan Lee's daughter with only 2 million US dollars, and then she persuaded Stan Lee in her own way for this one-time performance.

It is said that on the day Marvel and Stan Lee signed the general agreement, Stan Lee still had a big bag on his forehead.

With the signing of the agreement, whether it is the Avengers project or other superheroes who will reclaim copyrights in the future, there is no more worries.