Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 549 I'm making a scene

New Line Cinema deserved it all back then. They blindly invested in blockbusters, suffered huge losses, and ended up with a mountain of debt and countless lawsuits. If Warner Bros. hadn't merged New Line Cinema into Warner Bros. Pictures, Michael Lynn and his old friend Robert Shea wouldn't even be able to pay their interest payments now.

Michael Lynn and Robert Shea, who spearheaded those investments, were ousted from Warner Bros., and they had no one to blame but themselves.

Robert Shea is now completely retired. Apart from cursing Warner Bros. and criticizing the Hollywood giants' monopoly from his luxury apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side, he no longer engages in any other specific film work. He has never forgiven Warner Bros.

Li Qiutang asked the vice president to contact Warner, also to take care of Michael's feelings.

However, the result turned out to be a case of Li Qiutang being petty.

The vice president brought two pieces of good news from Warner: first, Warner was willing to cooperate with Lantern Entertainment; second, Warner wanted to hire Michael Lynn as an advisor for Warner's streaming business. As long as Michael Lynn agreed, the two sides would reach a settlement.

Li Qiutang looked at the two pieces of news from left to right and felt that neither of them made sense.

What exactly is wrong with Warner that requires Michael Lynn as an advisor?

The vice president said that Warner Bros. wants to create a streaming platform, but every company's copyright library is full of garbage code, especially since New Line Cinema has now merged into Warner Bros. New Line Cinema already has a lot of copyright disputes, which is giving Warner Bros. a huge headache. Warner Bros. wants to ask Michael Lynn to help sort out the copyright issues of Warner Bros.' film library and deal with IP streaming licensing disputes.

Robert Shea quit, so now Michael Lynn is the only one left to do the job.

This embodies the saying "Having an elder in the family is like having a treasure," and this kind of work cannot be done by anyone but a veteran.

As for cooperation between the two companies, that's open to discussion!
Michael Lynn had no reason not to accept Warner Bros.' offer.

He wasn't as cynical as Robert Shea, otherwise he wouldn't have become a professional manager for a young man from the East. In contrast, his old friend Robert Shea once said indignantly that he had been a boss for 40 years and would never work for someone else, before resolutely retiring and going into seclusion.

Li Qiutang didn't stop Michael Lynn from becoming a consultant for Warner Bros., considering it tuition she paid for her collaboration with Warner Bros.

But Universal Music Group wouldn't have it!

Lantern Entertainment had always been considered a worthy successor by Universal, so why is Warner Bros. poaching them?!
But Li Qiutang had something to say: What has Lantern Entertainment gained from its cooperation with Universal over the past few years?

Lantern Entertainment handed over most of its films, including "The Hunger Games," to Universal for distribution, making the latter a fortune. But what about Universal?
Jurassic World and Despicable Me were not associated with the entertainment industry, and DreamWorks wouldn't even let Li Qiutang touch them. In 12, they used Dracula Untold to try and fool people by saying they would imitate Marvel and develop a dark universe, which Li Qiutang criticized for a long time across the Pacific Ocean.

Global Times said that Legendary and Thomas Tull were greedy, and Li Qiutang could also say that Global Times was unscrupulous in its dealings, only wanting to take advantage and not wanting to give anything in return.

Compared to Lantern Entertainment, Universal clearly places greater emphasis on Legendary Pictures, which has a Wall Street fund background.

Since that's the case, let's each go our own way.

Moreover, Li Qiutang guessed that since the company's most profitable film, "The Hunger Games," had ended, Universal believed that Lantern Entertainment no longer had much value to them, and letting Lantern Entertainment leave was also a way for them to get rid of a burden.

Li Qiutang could then feel even more justified in switching companies. But Universal didn't think so. Universal believed that even if its own assets were rotting in the pot, it wouldn't allow others to eat them. Moreover, even without "The Hunger Games," Lantern Entertainment's films had always been profitable. Without a major IP, it was still a very high-quality partner, and Universal didn't want to let Lantern Entertainment leave.

More importantly, while Legendary Entertainment, another partner of Universal, is wealthy, Thomas Tull is a terrible partner, and the two companies have already developed a rift. Universal will not let Lantern Entertainment go at this sensitive time.

However, despite Li Qiutang's complaints, Universal is still not prepared to open up its high-quality IPs to Lantern Entertainment. As compensation, Universal allows Lantern Entertainment to purchase the rights to Warner Bros. films and produce them, but Lantern Entertainment cannot accept Warner Bros.' investment, and Universal will make up the corresponding portion. Universal will still be responsible for the distribution.

What kind of compensation is this?

Do I need your permission to do something I was going to do anyway?

The so-called "distribution based on how much you make a scene" is probably what Lantern Entertainment is like now. I'm sure you won't let me jump ship to a competitor. In order to keep me, you have to offer me a price that satisfies me. If the price isn't right, I'll keep making a scene.

Universal Pictures knew what Lantern Entertainment wanted, and Li Qiutang was eyeing the Jurassic World series.

Since Universal is dissatisfied with Legendary Entertainment for contributing little but earning much more on Jurassic World, they should kick Legendary out and replace them with Lantern Entertainment.

But Global Times doesn't intend to do that, at least not for the time being.

As further compensation, Universal agreed to increase its investment in Lantern Entertainment films from 25% to 35% during the remainder of the contract period.

This is a good offer; it can save the company a significant amount of cash.

But Li Qiutang still wants to discuss cooperation with Warner.

The collaboration was negotiated very quickly. Lantern Entertainment CEO Michael Lynn served as a special advisor to WarnerMedia's streaming service for the copyright work. Lantern Entertainment acquired the film adaptation rights to WarnerMedia's 1990 TV series "It," with WarnerMedia not involved in investment or distribution.

Warner Bros. also attempted to hand over the Meg movie, which they had been working on for almost 20 years without success, to Lantern Entertainment, hoping that Lantern Entertainment would take over the project.

This project is a notorious Hollywood flop. When the novel was published 20 years ago, Disney bought the rights, but Disney never made it and shelved it for 10 years. In 07, New Line Cinema bought the rights again, but it was not made. Last year, the novel's author announced the restart of the filming plan, and the director was even chosen. However, due to creative differences, Warner Bros. fired the director. This year, Warner Bros. has restarted "The Meg" again, and the director has been replaced by Jon Turteltaub, the director of "National Treasure".

Michael Lynn wouldn't be interested in such a bad idea. Hollywood is full of films like this that take ten or twenty years to make, and most of them are bad ideas.

But Li Qiutang took the film away, saying that making it into a Sino-US co-production might be promising—which would not violate the contract between Lantern Entertainment and Universal.

Warner Bros. was obviously getting rid of a burden, and Li Qiutang knew it too, but he was willing to take it on. The prospects of "The Meg" were better than the Dark Universe that Universal was throwing at him.

Warner Bros. didn't care whether "The Meg" was made into a Hollywood film or a co-production, as long as someone was willing to pay for this 20-year project, they readily let Li Qiutang take the film back to China.

(End of this chapter)