Who are you calling "little fresh meat"? I'm the king.

Chapter 460 The Demon Catcher (34)

In fact, Jiang Zhiqiang made his fortune through animated films!
In the 1980s, major Hong Kong film companies all had their own partners, and big-budget productions were unlikely to be entrusted to Edko Films, which only had three theaters…

Then, Jiang Zhiqiang set his sights on animated films.

Of course, the campaign got off to a bad start.

The first animated film imported to Hong Kong, *Garfield Goes to Town*...

Then, several competitors joined forces to release the Hollywood blockbuster "Phantom Heroes" a week earlier, resulting in "Garfield Goes to Town" being a complete flop, with box office revenue of only over 20, resulting in a loss of more than 500 million in one deal.

After that, he continued traveling all over the world…

At the Tokyo International Film Festival, Bill Kong was immediately drawn to "Castle in the Sky," which "tells the adventure story of a girl named Sheeta and a boy named Pazu in their search for the sacred land of Laputa." The film's Asian-style animated characters and the clash between cold weapons and magic balls instantly captivated Kong.

"It has tradition, innovation, and depth." To this end, he made a special trip to Osaka to find director Hayao Miyazaki and learn about the story behind the filming.

The two hit it off immediately…

After that, Hayao Miyazaki entrusted the distribution of more than ten of his films to Bill Kong.

Oh, Sky City didn't disappoint Bill Kong. In 15 days of release in Hong Kong, it grossed nearly HK$1000 million.
Subsequently, Jiang Zhiqiang imported 12 animated films from Japan in one go, and all of them became hits, causing Edko Films' revenue to exceed 5000 million.

DreamWorks…

Shen Yan definitely knows!
"Spielberg's Dream Factory?"

"Spielberg has stepped down, and now Jeffrey Katzenberg is running their animation business, you know?"

Shen Yan nodded: "Of course, 'Kung Fu Panda,' 'Shrek'..."

“…We’ll discuss this in detail later…” Jiang Zhiqiang waved his hand and continued pushing forward the process…

Ultimately, 3 projects were given premium recommendation slots…

This means that all 13 projects have the opportunity to promote themselves to the people in charge of finding projects at various film and television companies…

……

"In 98, DreamWorks' animated film 'Antz' was screened in Hong Kong, and I was the distributor..."

"Antz" is an animated film that Jeffrey Katzenberg supposedly stole the inspiration from Pixar's "A Bug's Life" and released ahead of it!

Pixar released Finding Nemo, and DreamWorks produced Shark Gang.

Of course, DreamWorks made Madagascar, and Disney created Wild Nature...

It is said that... Madagascar was also a plagiarized idea.

That's a digression. Jiang Zhiqiang continued, "That year I met Raman Hui. He represented DreamWorks and discussed the Hong Kong release with me... Raman Hui, you know him, right?"

"I've heard of it..."

"He's the father of Shrek, DreamWorks' number one animator!"

"Shrek has an original story, adapted from the picture book of the same name by the famous children's book author William Steiger... If we have to say who the 'father of Shrek' is, I personally think the original author would be a more suitable candidate?"

"But he is indeed very capable!"

"Well... definitely, not all Asians can work as animators in Hollywood!"

Raman Hui…Character Designer and Animation Director for Shrek…

By the third installment, he had become a co-director!

That's quite inspiring!

Jiang Zhiqiang continued, "I invited him to return to China to make a film..."

"Isn't he doing pretty well at DreamWorks?"

"...DreamWorks doesn't have many projects..."

The poor box office performance of films like *Mr. Peabody & Sherman*, *Rise of the Guardians*, and *Turbo* in the past two years has severely hampered the development of DreamWorks' other businesses.

Although The Croods received good reviews and performed reasonably well at the box office, compared to Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me, which cost half the price of DreamWorks' film and grossed twice as much!
Even founder Jeffrey Katzenberg is busy selling DreamWorks Animation. There's really no future for Raman Hui if he stays at DreamWorks.

"Together with screenwriter Yuan Jinlin, we searched through all the stories in the *Classic of Mountains and Seas* and *Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio*, and finally found a short story called 'The House Demon' in *Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio*..."

"The Otaku Demon..."

"The key is to determine the monster's appearance: flesh-colored, very smooth and delicate; when you get close and touch it, it's surprisingly soft, like flesh..."

Then Jiang Zhiqiang took out his laptop: "This time it's a three-minute short film, take a look..."

Okay, it really is "Monster Hunt"...

The monster's design is purely CG...

"I hope to create a fantasy IP. The United States has 'Harry Potter' and 'The Lord of the Rings,' when will China have its own Harry Potter and Aragorn?"

"When 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' and 'Hero' were released, the main consumer group in cinemas was around 40 years old. At that time, only they had the purchasing power to go to the movies. But now, 18-year-olds have enough purchasing power to go to the movies. Times have changed, and kids want to see fantasy productions!"

"The popularity of Hollywood fantasy movies in mainland China gave 'Monster Hunt' a market foundation, because audiences are receptive to this type of fantasy blockbuster."

Shen Yan remained silent, listening to his boasting… until he said, ‘Only Raman Hui could create the story of *Monster Hunt*…only Yuan Jinlin dared to imagine creating a world where monsters and humans coexist!’

"Excuse me!" Shen Yan couldn't help but interrupt: "Do you know that fantasy is a major genre of online novels?"

"what?"

“Eastern fantasy…” Shen Yan took out his phone and searched for a book: “Pet Charm, A Record of Unusual Creatures. You can take a look and see the imagination of us online novelists. Don’t be narrow-minded!”

"Both of these are?"

"One is a novel similar to Pokémon, and the other is similar to Men in Black... only with a larger world!"

Jiang Zhiqiang nodded, then asked, "So, are you interested?"

What are your interests?

"Appear in this movie!"

Shen Yan asked curiously, "...Didn't you contact Ke Zhendong?"

"you know?"

"Of course I'm very interested in a big-budget production with an investment of over 200 million..."

"That…"

Shen Yan waved his hand: "I don't have time to act in movies this year. I have a concert tour and a sci-fi movie to film..."

Jiang Zhiqiang immediately said, "We can wait!"

“…No need,” Shen Yan still refused, “My schedule for next year is already booked, and I won’t be available until at least August next year…”

"...That's true, you're the most popular actor!"

"Whether you become popular or not depends entirely on the audience's support," Shen Yan continued. "If you're short of money, I can invest half!"

Jiang Zhiqiang: "...This is a combination of animation and live-action, I can't guarantee the profits."

Shen Yan smiled and said, "It's alright. I still trust President Jiang's judgment... If you're willing to spend money, what am I afraid of?"

"Okay... I'll give you 50% of the investment..."

“Okay,” Shen Yan nodded, then asked, “Is this the main character, Huba?”

"Hmm, radish!"

"...Could you design it to look nicer? I feel it's really weird."

　We have guests, I'll add another chapter tomorrow...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)