Chapter 682： The most profitable pig

Although the plot of the script is quite different from the plots of the movies he has seen before, Ronan can still determine from the setting of the background that this is "Avatar".

The project will take several years to complete. With James Cameron’s character, the script will inevitably be constantly changed.

Many general Hollywood rules, such as scripts that cannot be changed after they are finalized, do not apply to top directors at all.

Similarly, it does not apply to top stars.

It is not uncommon in Hollywood that big-name celebrities and directors require changes to the script during the filming process.

During Ronan’s exchanges with James Cameron in the next two days, he did not express any opinions on the script. Instead, he communicated with James Cameron on technical aspects. In particular, James Cameron mentioned "Avatar After shooting with motion capture for almost the entire time, the hero and heroine of ""

Motion capture is a brand-new movie shooting technology that has emerged in recent years, and it has been used in a large number of scenes in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and the "Polar Express".

Therefore, Ronan solemnly recommended Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital Studio to James Cameron, which is currently the best motion capture special effects studio in Hollywood. His representative work is the Shi Mai in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Ge.

In addition, he also mentioned Andy Serkins who played Smegol.

This person is unique in motion capture.

In addition to the motion capture role of Smeggo, Andy Serkins currently uses motion capture to play King Kong in a piece of "King Kong" that Peter Jackson has transferred to post-production.

Once, Andy Serkins also acted in motion capture as Captain Adok in The Adventures of Tintin, the absolute protagonist Caesar in Rise of the Apes and so on.

It is even called the "King of Motion Capture" by the media.

Motion capture technology used to develop rapidly, but looking back at Smeigor more than 10 years ago, I still have to admire the strength of the special effects company Weta Studio and Andy Serkins' motion capture.

In terms of special effects, James Cameron has long given up on the "digital realm" created by the shooting of "Titanic", and he did not have the idea of ​​pulling the "digital realm" in a bad situation. Cooperate with Weta Studio and Industrial Light & Magic in special effects production.

Compared to Ronan's communication with James Cameron, the negotiations between George Clint and Jon Landau, representing Sandsea Entertainment, can only be described as difficult.

Although the two bosses have confirmed their intention of cooperation and the atmosphere is harmonious, the people below must strive for greater benefits for themselves.

In the entire cooperation negotiation, there are as many as dozens of items that need to be discussed in only major items, and there are many small items in each major item.

For example, the big item of James Cameron's remuneration involves basic remuneration, box office share, technology patent royalties, screenwriter share, director share, and so on.

For a top production project with a future investment budget of 500 million U.S. dollars, the two sides talked about it for two months.

If it's slow, maybe it's the end of the year.

For example, Richard Mattson’s "The Last Man", which Warner Bros. owns the copyright, has been adapted into a movie twice, but Warner Bros. is preparing to shoot the new copyright and plans to invite Will Smith to play the leading role.

The two sides have talked for more than half a year, and no agreement has been reached yet.

"Jon Landau is a veteran producer in the industry and it is difficult to deal with."

In Relativity Entertainment's office floor of Shahai Entertainment, George Clint accompanied Ronan to the Shahai Animation Studio: "He used all possible conditions to fight for the interests of James Cameron."

Ronan said: "Cooperation belongs to cooperation, and negotiation belongs to negotiation. We cannot relax what we should strive for."

George Clint said: "We should of course not give up."

Ronan knows very well that "Avatar" is actually not as good as "Titanic" compared to the number of movie viewers, but "Avatar" is not inferior or even stronger than commercial revenue.

"Avatar" can do more peripheral projects than Big Ship.

"When will I talk about it?" Ronan asked.

George Clint thought carefully and said: "The negotiation is more difficult than expected. Jon Landau is very difficult and will not be completed in two months."

Ronan nodded: "You can grasp the details yourself."

The two entered the animation studio. Because Chris Leonard went to the zoo to inspect the pandas. He was not in the studio. His assistant accompanied Ronan and George Clint to look around.

The production of "Despicable Me" has entered the final stage. It is expected that it will be completed around Thanksgiving this year. The "Minions" project is officially promoted and has entered the field production stage.

In addition, DreamWorks Animation Studios has registered several copyrights.

Since he was aware that DreamWorks Animation Studios will not cooperate with Relativity Entertainment for a long time, Ronan specifically listed a future plan, such as letting Robert Lee go to the UK, from the famous children’s writer Cressida Cowell In his hands, he bought the film and television adaptation rights of the children's fantasy literature "How to Tame Your Dragon" series for five million US dollars.

At the same time, after he made a brief outline, the screenwriter department of Shahai Entertainment also produced an animated script "Kung Fu Panda" that needed to be carefully polished, and registered the copyright with the screenwriters union and the Copyright Bureau.

This is also the feature film territory that Shahai Entertainment Animation Studio will expand in the next step in addition to the "Little Yellow Man" series.

Chris Reynard went to the zoo to investigate pandas on the spot to prepare for this project.

In addition, Ronan asked the screenwriter department to prepare a new animation script combining primitive man and mountain orogeny.

Although he is eyeing Pixar Studios, Ronan will not give up the development of Shahai Entertainment Animation Studio.

"Little Pig Page" has become the most successful commercial work of the animation studio.

Today’s summer vacation, this animated series launched its third season. After the warm-up and continuous broadcasting of the first two seasons, the influence of Peppa Pig gradually spread. By the end of the third season’s premiere, the Pages family has become a TV A star in the animation market.

This is directly reflected in the copyright fees for the third quarter.

In order to obtain the first broadcast rights of the 35 episodes of the third season, NBC TV paid 7 million US dollars to Shahai Entertainment.

Due to the surprising ratings of the first broadcast among children, the copyright fee for the second round of broadcasts is still as high as 4 million US dollars.

In direct proportion to the number of viewers and copyright costs, there are also peripheral products of "Little Pig Page".

In the first seven months of 2004, the global market, including North America, was added together. In the peripheral product market outside of the animation series, Shahai Entertainment received a total of 11.7 million US dollars, including merchandise and peripheral licenses.

This number is still increasing. Relativity Entertainment has made market expectations internally. The peripheral products of "Little Pig Page" may bring a total of US$20 million in revenue to Shahai Entertainment in 2004.

Animations, especially the surroundings of popular animations, are often very profitable.

Even Hasbro, one of the two largest toy dealers in North America, is attracted by Pink Piggy. In addition, Hasbro has business dealings with Relativity Entertainment. Hasbro Chairman Brian Goldner came to Los Angeles to visit Luo south.

"Hasbro is one of the most well-known family brands in the world."

In the reception room, facing Ronan, Brian Goldner confidently said: "Kids Po can create broad marketing channels for children's product portfolios and bring strong operational returns."

Ronan did not answer, and waited patiently for Brian Goldner to continue.

Brian Goldner has a clear mind and has also dealt with Ronan and Relativity Entertainment, knowing that it is impossible to buy out the copyright of the "Little Pig Peppa" series, so he can only retreat to the next best thing: "Shahai Entertainment to Hasbro Authorized, Hasbro uses channels all over the world to sell Pink Piggy’s products to every market. This will be a strong alliance and mutual cooperation."

Ronan asked: "What kind of authorization does Hasbro want to get?"

In fact, from the perspective of profit maximization, he is not opposed to partial authorization to Hasbro.

Although Embassy Pictures has relatively strong offline distribution capabilities, has close business relationships with many related businesses, and can also obtain various peripheral products of superior quality and low prices from the other side of the Pacific Ocean through OEM For traditional toy manufacturers like Hasbro, there are still major shortcomings in some aspects.

And authorization is one of the main ways to operate around Hollywood.

Brian Goldner could hear that Ronan was not opposed to authorization, and said with a smile: "Hasbro's business covers toys, games and consumer products. We hope to get the relevant authorization for these three categories of products. ."

"Yes." Ronan agreed: "Brian, you ask Shahai Entertainment to talk about authorization, and I will notify them."

Brian Goldner smiled brighter: "This will be a successful cooperation."

Ronan said, "I hope we can win both."

I vaguely remember that once read a report that "Peppa Pig" has created annual revenue of 1.1 billion US dollars for the company where it belongs.

This is definitely the most profitable pig ever.

Of course, without too much analysis, it is not difficult to draw a conclusion that more than 90% of these revenues are derived from animation peripheral products.

In the peripheral operation of animation products, Relativity Entertainment still has a long way to go. It is very necessary to cooperate with companies like Hasbro.

In order to show his importance to his partners, Ronan called Shahai Entertainment in front of Brian Goldner.

As for how to talk about it, Ronan will not interfere, but the peripheral licenses will definitely not be sold out, but will cooperate with a small amount of basic license fees and high sales commissions.

After talking about the authorization of Peppa Pig, Brian Goldner suddenly changed the subject and said, "Ronan, you got the copyright to the adaptations of "Transformers" and "Special Forces" a few years ago. , When do you plan to start production?"