Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 472 There's a lot going on.

Back in 2005, when Robert Iger first became CEO of Disney, he proposed to seek to expand Disney's audience, because at that time Disney was centered on women and children.

The amazing superhero IPs, which target the male and teenage markets, make them the ideal target for Disney to expand its audience.

However, due to certain historical reasons, he did not hold his position firmly at the beginning of his tenure, and there were many opponents within the company.

Even so, he still pushed hard for the acquisition of Pixar Animation.

However, it was precisely because of his tough approach that the backlash was significant in the following two years, leading to even more opposition within the company.

It wasn't until he spearheaded the collaboration with Cao Yang and the phenomenal success of "Pirates of the Caribbean" that Disney's stock price soared, that he truly secured his position as CEO and gained a significant number of supporters within the board of directors.

Pirates of the Caribbean was released on December 21, 2007. By early 2008, Robert Iger had gained a significant number of supporters within Disney.

So he turned his attention back to expanding Disney's audience.

At a board meeting, Robert Iger first proposed his plan to acquire Marvel Entertainment.

For this project, he conducted extensive market research and developed a series of reports on the limitations of Disney's audience.

However, the Disney board rejected the proposal due to concerns that the violent nature of the Marvel characters would conflict with Disney's "family-friendly" image.

In July 2008, things took a turn for the better.

Marvel Entertainment's all-or-nothing production, Iron Man, has grossed $5.85 million worldwide since its release in May, proving Marvel's ability to independently develop films and the commercial value of its IP.

Therefore, Robert Iger proposed the acquisition of Surprise for the second time at the board meeting.

The huge success of "Iron Man," a Marvel second-tier superhero, forced the Disney board to take Robert Iger's proposal seriously.

Disney's strategy department conducted a reassessment and concluded that Marvel not only has a library of more than 5000 characters, but also has the potential to build a long-term blueprint for a "cinematic universe".

This conclusion stemmed from the fact that Marvel had already officially announced plans for Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man 2, which aligned perfectly with Disney's IP matrix strategy.

Of course, Disney's strategy department needed time to reassess, and by the time a conclusion was reached, it was already the end of September.

Don't think that spending two months on evaluation and research is a long time; this is already an extremely fast pace.

The acquisition of Surprise involved a multi-billion dollar deal. If Robert Iger hadn't been prepared, it would have taken at least six months, let alone two.

At the end of September... the global financial crisis had just begun to erupt on a large scale.

No one knows how long this financial crisis will last, or how large its scale and damage will be.

Acquiring another company at this time, especially one involving a transaction worth billions of dollars, is certainly unrealistic.

So, before even starting contact with Marvel Entertainment, Disney's acquisition plan was once again shelved.

As for when this plan could be restarted, or whether Disney would restart the acquisition plan at all, it was uncertain at the time.

Given the uncertain situation, Robert Iger, as a seasoned manager, actually supported the shelving of the acquisition plan.

With various bailout plans and substantial investments in the United States, coupled with increased global cooperation in response to the financial crisis, Robert Iger felt in 09 that perhaps it was the most appropriate time to revive the acquisition plan.

However, out of caution, he observed for a while longer.

Around the time of the 81st Academy Awards, Robert Iger felt the time was right, and it was the perfect moment to approach Marvel Entertainment.

Of course, before contacting Marvel Entertainment, he still had someone investigate the current situation of Marvel Entertainment. The purpose of doing so was to know the enemy and himself, so that when he contacted Marvel Entertainment, he could be more targeted.

However, looking at the latest investigation report, Robert Iger fell into deep thought.

How many months will it take this time?
Since the end of September last year, in less than half a year, I was amazed by the huge changes that have taken place.

Then, Robert Iger took out another document that he couldn't disclose and looked at it again. This was the latest internal information obtained through specific channels.

This was the third time Robert Iger had looked at the information on it; he seemed to be trying to decipher the meaning from those few short lines.

"What is Isaac Perlmutter trying to do? Is he giving up?"

Robert Iger murmured to himself.

"What is Cao Yang up to now? Does he want to take control of Amazing Entertainment? Does he want a production company?"

Robert Iger murmured to himself again.

However, he later denied the idea.

According to his inside information, Cao Yang only acquired 4.9% of Jingqi's shares last year, which did not trigger the disclosure threshold.

According to SEC regulations, shareholders holding ≥5% of shares must submit a 13G/13D filing for public disclosure.

However, there are exceptions. For example, if there is an intention to acquire a controlling stake in a company, even if it is less than 5%, a 13D filing is required.

Robert Iger specifically checked and found that Cao Yang had never submitted a 13D, meaning that he probably had no intention of taking control of Marvel Entertainment.

But what's wrong with Isaac Perlmutter? Why does he keep trying to sell more shares to Cao Yang?

Cao Yang seemed interested?
This is the strangest part. Without knowing that Disney wanted to acquire Marvel Entertainment, no matter how you look at it, Marvel Entertainment was not a good choice.

Robert Iger would never believe that Cao Yang knew in advance that Disney wanted to acquire Marvel.

Suddenly, Robert Iger had a flash of inspiration and immediately made a special phone call.

Not long after, he received the information he wanted.

After seeing this information, Robert Iger nodded knowingly.

He probably knows why Cao Yang bought shares in Amazing.

"Having acquired the film rights to those comics, does he intend to adapt them into art-house or commercial films?"

However, regardless of which adaptation is adopted, if successful, the company's stock will definitely experience a surge.

But this is not what Robert Iger wants to see.

If Cao Yang gives Amazing's owner, Isaac Perlmutter, confidence, he will either not sell Amazing for the time being, or he will ask for an exorbitant price.

This is not okay.

"It seems I need to have a serious talk with Cao Yang. Perhaps we can explore a deeper level of cooperation."

That evening, Cao Yang took Pang Bing with him to Warner Bros.' celebration party.

The celebration was quite large; almost all of Warner Bros.' top executives attended, and Cao Yang even met with Time Warner CEO Jeff Bex.

Jeff Bix only became CEO of Time Warner last year. Prior to that, he was the president and chief operating officer of Time Warner, whose CEO at the time was Richard Parsons.

However, after the financial crisis broke out last year, Richard Parsons took over as chairman of the board of Citigroup and led the response to the financial crisis.

Jeff Bix, the number two figure at Time Warner, became the new CEO.

Unlike Richard Parsons, Jeff Bix has always held a somewhat special position, at least for Warner Bros.

Earlier in his career, before Jeff Bix became president and chief operating officer of Time Warner, he served as chairman of Time Warner's entertainment and network companies, directly overseeing Warner Bros., New Line, HBO, and Cinemax.

He was also responsible for CNN, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network, and WB Television Network.

Even after becoming president and chief operating officer of Time Warner, he still personally oversaw these matters.

For Warner Bros. executives, their relationship with Jeff Bix seems to be... rather special?
Whether it was Warner CEO Barry Mayer, President Jeff Robinoff, or other senior vice presidents, they all chatted and laughed with Jeff Bix, getting along very well.

This puzzled Cao Yang.

It's well known that Warner Bros.' top management is notoriously "mentally unstable," consistently opposing their parent company, Time Warner. This has been the case both during the merger of Time Warner and AOL, and during Richard Parsons' tenure.

Furthermore, in the past few years, no matter how many "blockbuster" movies Warner Bros. released each year, it never made much money when calculating profits.

But with Jeff Bex, who had been overseeing Warner Bros., becoming the new CEO, things seem to have changed.
Then, shaking his head slightly, Cao Yang realized he was being a bit of a conspiracy theorist.

Who cares? These things don't directly affect my interests.

Jeff Bix was very polite to Cao Yang, and he even asked, "Time Warner's Creative Development and Global Products division is short of a chairman. Are you interested?"

Although Cao Yang didn't know what the department was mainly responsible for, he still smiled and declined.

"I am currently only interested in directing and producing films, and I have not considered other aspects yet."

Jeff Bix echoed Cao Yang's words, saying, "In that case, let's cooperate more with Warner. Don't worry, Warner is definitely the most sincere in all of Hollywood and can offer you the most lenient and favorable conditions."

"Warner Bros. will be my first choice if there is a suitable script."

Cao Yang said with a smile.

As for what kind of script is suitable, that's up to me.

If I say it's suitable, then it's suitable; if I say it's not suitable, then it's not suitable.

Afterwards, Jeff Bix talked to Cao Yang about many things related to movies, and asked Cao Yang if he had any ideas for sequels to "Joker" and "Batman", and when he planned to start the project.

Cao Yang found the conversation with Jeff Bix strange. Why was the CEO of Time Warner suddenly getting involved in Warner Bros. affairs?
Isn't this too much micromanagement?

Cao Yang was also a bit confused about Warner's current situation, so he decided to wait and see. As for cooperation, he would decide later based on the situation.

Fat Bing saw Anne Hathaway again, and she even witnessed the woman casually slipping a room key into Cao Yang's pocket while they were talking.

This annoyed Fatty Bing.

Because she personally witnessed at least seven women handing room keys to Cao Yang that night.

As for who Cao Yang will choose from these seven people... of course he won't choose any of them, because he still has himself tonight, and no one can take him away.

Fat Bing suddenly felt that he hadn't taught Cao Yang a lesson enough last night, so he should double it tonight?
I think I'll pass. Teaching him a lesson is too tiring, so I'll just keep the intensity from last night.

When Cao Yang got home that evening, he received a call from Hou Keming, who seemed to have something urgent to say.

"when are you going back to China?"

"Is something wrong?"

Cao Yang asked directly.

Hou Keming seemed a little hesitant to say it over the phone, and instead said vaguely, "You've won another Oscar, you should come back and celebrate."

At this point, seemingly worried that Cao Yang might not understand, he emphasized again:

"You were the chief consultant for the Olympics, and you also won the European Grand Slam of Best Director and the European Grand Slam of Three Gold Medals... We haven't had a proper celebration yet. You'd better come back soon so we can celebrate together."

Cao Yang was stunned for a moment, and then the saying "1+1+1 is greater than 3" came to mind. Could it be because of this?

He wasn't particularly fixated on it.

Because some things, especially certain positions, require a full-time commitment to obtain.

To go full-time would mean giving up filmmaking and no longer being able to direct movies; instead, he would have to enter a field he wasn't good at.

As a director by profession, his career path in that field is already limited; he can't go very high at most.

On the contrary, there are some uncertain risks.

It's better to choose a career that seems less important, but still has some influence in the film and television industry, and doesn't require giving up the director's profession... After all, being a director is the foundation upon which he stands.

As long as his position in the history of world cinema is secured, he will be virtually invincible as long as he doesn't make any fundamental mistakes.

Cao Yang felt that this was the most suitable for him.

"Okay, I still have some things to take care of here. I'll finish them as soon as possible and then go back to China."

Cao Yang said.

Hou Keming skipped the topic, believing that Cao Yang would understand his meaning.

There was another matter he wanted to remind Cao Yang of.

"Cao Yang, is there something you've forgotten? How's your doctoral dissertation coming along? Is your graduation project ready?"

"Ok?"

Cao Yang was completely stunned this time.

Haven't I graduated yet?

In other words, am I still in school?
Cao Yang felt as if he hadn't attended a class since graduating with his bachelor's degree in 02.

Well, actually, he has hardly attended any classes since he started preparing for his first movie in 00, and it seems that no one ever required him to attend classes.

What kind of thesis do I need to prepare? What are the specific requirements? What is my graduation project? What are the requirements for it?

Cao Yang thought about it carefully, and it seemed that his mentor, Old Situ, had never mentioned anything about this.

Ugh, that's really substandard!

And you call yourself a supervisor? You haven't given me any research topics or made any demands. How am I supposed to graduate?

Cao Yang's question also stumped Hou Keming.

He had actually forgotten about it.

In the school's thesis defense committee, someone looked through the materials and asked, "Director Cao Yang is graduating this year, who should he invite?"

This matter was then reported to Hou Keming.

Unfortunately, this committee member is really hard to find.

In fact, there are quite a few people who want to be this committee member, but very few who are qualified.

Hou Keming also had a headache.

He was only thinking about who was qualified, but he didn't know that Old Master Situ seemed to have forgotten as well.

Okay, I reckon there aren't many people in the whole school who can remember that.

Hou Keming had a toothache again.

"It's hard to explain over the phone when you get back, let's talk about it when you come back."

Hou Keming could only try to gloss over the matter for now. He quickly gathered some people over the next couple of days to study it carefully, as this matter was actually quite important.

After all, Hou Keming knew without a doubt that Cao Yang's doctoral dissertation and graduation project would become the focus of attention in the directing circle and the academic community of the film and television industry.

"Okay, I'll try to get back as soon as possible."

After hanging up the phone, Cao Yang looked at the itinerary that Bellman had drawn up for him and shook his head. If he followed this, he wouldn't be able to return to China for at least half a month.

Forget it, I'll decline some social engagements and private gatherings if I can.

(End of this chapter)