Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 308 Sincerity
The huge success of "Inception" in North America has made Disney and Warner Bros., who were negotiating with Cao Yang's team, uneasy.

Bellman called, laughing, and said, "Disney and Warner Bros. have both made significant concessions, but their executives want to speak with you in person. When are you coming to Los Angeles?"

The concessions made by Disney and Warner Bros. were within Cao Yang's expectations.

Both companies want to speak with him in person, hoping to reach an agreement as soon as possible.

"To what extent have we discussed this?" Cao Yang asked.

"10% of the total global box office is the basic condition. Warner Bros. and Disney have tacitly agreed to this in principle and have also agreed to the idea of ​​tiered revenue sharing. What they want to talk to you about is how much more to add on top of this 10%."

"However," Berman said with a smile, "Warner Bros. Vice President Ian Howard has another suggestion. He said that if you can adapt and direct 'Gravity' yourself, they can give you 15% of the global box office revenue."

Having Cao Yang direct the Batman series or reboot the Pirates of the Caribbean series would definitely be different from directing Gravity.

The novel "Gravity" is by Cao Yang, and he holds the copyright entirely. It also has a large readership.

Given the global success of "Inception," the conditions offered could only be higher than those for "Inception," which is why Warner Bros. asked for 15% of the total global box office revenue.

Batman and Pirates of the Caribbean could not possibly offer such conditions.

If Cao Yang hadn't never failed before, and if both "Juno" and "Inception" had been huge hits, he probably wouldn't have even been able to negotiate a 10% share of the box office.

Cao Yang had analyzed with Bellman and his team that 10% was probably the limit these film companies were giving, otherwise they would have a hard time explaining to the board of directors.

However, in addition to the 10% cut, there is another method that film companies can accept: tiered revenue sharing.

When the box office in North America or globally reaches a certain threshold, the revenue share can be increased.

This is something that Hollywood film companies are very happy to accept.

In fact, when a movie's box office reaches a certain level, the film company no longer relies solely on the film's box office revenue and merchandise sales to make money.

Box office revenue is one of the key indicators for measuring the performance of film companies.

A successful film can bring huge revenue to a company, thereby driving up its stock price. When a film achieves great box office success worldwide, the stock of the production company behind it is often sought after by the market.

For example, when Cao Yang's "Inception" grossed over $5 million worldwide, the Colombian stock market surged; when it grossed over $8 million worldwide, the Colombian stock market surged again.

A month after its release, Inception began to be pulled from theaters in many parts of the world.

Columbia Pictures also held a press conference to announce that Inception had grossed over $4 million in North America and over $9 million worldwide.

This was reflected in the stock market, with Colombian stocks rising sharply, surging by as much as 6.3%.

For companies like Columbia Pictures, with a market capitalization of hundreds of billions or even trillions, the profits from a stock market surge far exceed the box office revenue.

This is especially true for the company's senior management.

"15%? Ian Howard is the vice president of Warner Bros., right? Can he make that decision?"

Cao Yang asked.

He had always had doubts about Warner Bros. Putting aside the outrageous changes in directors, actors, and production costs, just this time, Warner Bros. actually couldn't reach a consensus and split into two groups to negotiate with Berman.

Furthermore, they were not satisfied with the $1 million budget for "Gravity" and insisted on giving it $1.5 million. I've never seen such a "generous" investor.

Just outrageous.

No wonder everyone in Hollywood knows that Warner Bros. executives are seriously ill.

Like Columbia Pictures, they were very strict about cost control for "Inception" and even had Cao Yang cooperate in choosing several places with low tax rates and generous tax refunds for filming.

Minimize costs as much as possible.

This is the norm in Hollywood.

This is also the norm for normal film companies.

"Haha, you don't know this, but Ian Howard is not only the vice president of Warner Bros., but also the president of Warner Bros. Studios. He has a lot of power, so you don't need to worry about that."

Bellman explained.

Cao Yang couldn't help but ask with some curiosity, "Who was the person at Warner Bros. who supported the filming of 'Batman'?"

"The person I talked to about Batman was Jeff Robinoff, the president of Warner Bros. Pictures."

"That's what Bellman replied."

Cao Yang was even more confused about Warner Bros.

As far as he knew, weren't Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Bros. Studios the same company? Just different names for Warner Bros.? Oh, there really are two companies!

I wonder what each of them is responsible for.

Cao Yang had never worked with Warner Bros., so he really didn't know about their internal division of labor.

However, why does Warner Bros., a company that is so big and has such popular IPs as "Harry Potter", "Batman" and "Superman", always give Cao Yang the feeling of being a makeshift operation?

Tell them that I have some things to take care of and don't have time to go to Los Angeles for the time being.

Cao Yang said to Bellman.

“Okay, I understand, I get it, haha…” Bellman laughed and hung up the phone.

Cao Yang listened to the dial tone on his phone, momentarily bewildered. "What do you know? What have you come to understand?"
baffling.

I really have something to do.

Human imagination is truly all-powerful; things you haven't thought of, others have already filled in the blanks for you in great detail.

It's already the end of August. As the face of Beijing Film Academy, the chief producer of Qingying Studio, and a professor in the directing department, Cao Yang is to attend the school's opening ceremony and give a speech. This is the result of Hou Keming "pleading" with Cao Yang for two days.

Because of Cao Yang, and the fact that Cao Yang's films always recruit interns from the school, the Beijing Film Academy has become the top choice for art students.

The school's reputation also rose accordingly, gradually widening the gap with the Central Academy of Drama and the Shanghai Theatre Academy, and its admission scores were in a league of their own among several schools.

The number of applicants for the directing program, in particular, is growing exponentially every year, with both undergraduate and graduate applicants increasing.

Hou Keming once asked Cao Yang if he wanted to take on a master's student. If Cao Yang was willing, Hou Keming would personally handle all the procedures.

After considering it for a moment, Cao Yang declined Lao Hou's suggestion.

He spends only a limited amount of time at the school each year, so he doesn't have time to mentor students.

Lao Hou expressed his great regret, saying that if Cao Yang were willing to mentor graduate students, he believed that the number of students applying to Cao Yang's graduate program alone would significantly boost the quality of students in the Beijing Film Academy's directing department.

Lao Tian hasn't been idle lately either. After fully considering Cao Yang's opinion, he sent audition invitations to Kara Hui and Maggie Cheung from Hong Kong for the female lead.

In terms of age, Kara Hui is more suitable.

Maggie Cheung is only 42 years old this year, which is quite "young".

However, it's not a big problem. With makeup, it's easy for a 42-year-old to play a character between 45 and 50 years old. It just depends on whether Maggie Cheung will accept such a role.

Cao Yang said that the female lead must have exceptionally good acting skills.

Old Tian listened to this.

In Lao Tian's opinion, compared to Kara Hui, he still thought Maggie Cheung's acting skills were better, which is why he also sent Maggie Cheung an audition invitation.

To be honest, he wasn't sure if Maggie Cheung would take on such a role.

In 04, when Maggie Cheung was 40 years old, she won the Best Actress award at Cannes with the help of her ex-husband for her role in "Clean". After that, she announced her intention to retire from acting.

Sure enough, she hasn't taken on any roles in the past two years.

Even if Maggie Cheung doesn't retire from acting, she probably wouldn't accept the role of an older "mother" in "Pieta" because of her image.

However, Lao Tian still wanted to give it a try.

Why did Maggie Cheung retire from acting?

It's very difficult for women over forty to continue playing leading roles or "young girls".

Therefore, for top-tier actresses, turning forty is an extremely awkward age. They can't find leading roles, but they are unwilling to accept supporting roles. So what can they do?
Difficult to handle.

As for the male lead, Lao Tian was much more familiar with domestic actors. He not only sent audition invitations to Zhou Yiwei, Wang Baoqiang, and Duan Yihong, but after consideration, he also sent audition invitations to Fu Dalong and Liu Ye.

When Cao Yang was filming "Empty Room," Lao Tian was the cinematographer, Liu Ye was the male lead, and Fu Dalong also had a role, so he highly recognized the acting skills of both of them.

Old Tian was particularly impressed by Liu Ye.

When Liu Ye joined the crew, he was a shy, delicate young man.

Soon after, he was "trained" by Cao Yang into a eccentric but impulsive young man.

Lao Tian believes that Liu Ye is the kind of actor with a lot of "talent".

Interestingly, of the five actors invited to audition for the male lead, four called Cao Yang immediately after receiving the audition invitation.

Duan Yihong, Liu Ye, Zhou Yiwei, and Fudalong have all worked with Cao Yang, and they all have Cao Yang's phone number.

The only one who didn't call Cao Yang was Wang Baoqiang.

When Wang Baoqiang received the audition invitation, his first thought was that it would be great if he could get in touch with director Cao Yang, since everyone knew that this was a script Cao Yang wrote for Lao Tian.

However, Wang Baoqiang's success is due to his emotional intelligence, but also his willingness to put aside his pride and his boldness and meticulousness.

He went directly to the Beijing Film Academy and waited there for two days, finally "catching up" with Cao Yang.

"Director Cao, hello! I'm a fan of yours, I really love the movies you make."

Wang Baoqiang had a forced smile on his face, but he was very careful.

He could actually contact Cao Yang through other people, such as Xiao Gangpao, with whom he had a good relationship. As is well known, Xiao Gangpao openly "admired" Cao Yang.

In addition, he maintained a good relationship with Li Xiaoran. After getting to know Li Xiaoran through the movie "A World Without Thieves", he called her "sister" and would send her greetings during holidays.

However, he felt that introducing him through others might displease Director Cao, so it would be more sincere for him to "stake out" the place himself, and he could also adjust his approach depending on Director Cao's attitude.

(End of this chapter)