Abstract Art Award Winner

Chapter 210 I have an idea

Zhou Le's words were more straightforward than Jiang Wen's, but they were exactly what Jiang Wen wanted.

Because although "Hidden Man" has commercial attributes, it is not a purely commercial film.

At the same time, Jiang Wen also knew that if someone else said this, it might not have any effect, but Zhou Le's words would instead arouse many people's curiosity and drive them into the cinema.

He doesn't care about being scolded.

Just scold me, haven’t you been scolded enough in these years?
But even if he was scolded, everyone would definitely be interested in the scene where Zhou Le ran naked on the roof with a cloak on his bare butt.

After this was over, Zhou Le followed Jiaozi to do a preview promotion.

This domestic animation received very good reviews during the early previews, which also allowed Jiaozi to increase his psychological expectation of 2.5 billion to 3 billion.

But despite expectations, Jiaozi was still very nervous.

And after dinner that night, on the way back to the hotel, Jiaozi suddenly said, "Teacher Zhou, I actually have a friend who works in animation, and I want to meet you. I wonder when you are free?"

"Friends who work in animation?"

"That's fine. Let's wait a few days. After I finish recording this episode of the variety show I'm working on, we can arrange a time to meet up for dinner."

"No problem, no problem. I'll bring him to you then, and let him choose the place."

When Zhou Le heard this, he felt that there was something else behind the words.

"Is your friend who works in animation encountering any difficulties?"

"Brother Le, you can see that he has indeed encountered some difficulties. He has set up a studio over there, and now the team only has 30 people. The situation is a bit similar to when I first started.

He originally wanted to raise Series B funding this year, but failed, and now the liquidity in his account is only enough to last for three months, so."

"So you want to make some money?"

"Correct."

"So how much does he want now?"

"Of course the more the better, but a little is fine too. After all, it's not easy for you, Brother Le, right now. The share of the Nezha box office revenue will have to wait until at least the first half of next year."

"Okay, but what kind of company is your friend's? Generally speaking, if they can get the first round of financing, the second round shouldn't be too difficult."

"It's called Yihua Kaitian. They previously made an anime called 'The Cage of Spirits'."

Zhou Le felt very familiar when he heard this name.

I searched online and found out that it was the producer of Ling Cage.

After thinking for a while, he changed his mind.

"Let's go back and take a look first."

"After all, I think not every company is a cocoa bean, and not every studio owner is like you."

After returning, Zhou Le asked Su Yingxia to check the situation at Yihua Kaitian.

The next morning, Zhou Le received a call from Su Yingxia as soon as he got off the plane.

"Brother Le, I found the studio you asked me to check."

"Yihua Kaitian received tens of millions of yuan in investment from Bilibili and Tencent last year. The company's overall situation in the early stages was somewhat similar to that of Director Jiaozi, but they were producing anime series in a 3D style.

To be honest, this company's profitability is not strong. If no one injects capital, it will probably go bankrupt in a year or two. Currently, the company is on the brink of bankruptcy.

Of course, it is not ruled out that the company will be intervened by capital in the future, but if that situation really happens, only giants will dare to accept it. But as long as the giants accept it, it will not be a simple investment but actual controlling stake.

Furthermore, given the company's current value, if we wanted to inject capital and take control, we would have to shell out hundreds of millions."

After thinking about it, Zhou Le called Jiaozi again.

"Have you contacted your friend?"

"Not yet. I plan to talk to him later."

"If not, that's perfect. I've thought about it again. The revenue potential of 'Tower of God' is average, and it's already released one season. If I invest directly, I'm not sure if I can get the money back. But if they're willing, I can buy a controlling stake, at least 51%.

He can also bring a few friends over, but his own shares may be diluted to a very small amount."

Jiaozi thought for a moment and asked, "Then how much can you offer, Brother Le?"

"One hundred million at most, no more."

Although Zhou Le has always been reckless in investing, he was willing to invest after seeing the quality of "Nezha". Guo Fan also read the script and read Guo Fan's intentions. With the support of China Film behind Guo Fan, he was able to work so hard to help promote it and was willing to pay for it out of his own pocket.

But this is different for Yihua Kaitian. It is obviously a big pit. One hundred million is within their acceptable range, but they also have to wait until the box office revenue of "Nezha" is shared.

"Okay, can I call him now and ask?"

"OK."

Zhou Le sat in the car for about twenty minutes, and Jiaozi's call came back.

"Teacher Zhou, he still thinks one hundred million is too little. After all, according to him, if 'Tower of God' is to be produced, the cost per episode is about four to five million."

Zhou Le didn’t understand much about these things, but he knew that Jiaozi would definitely not lie to him.

"Four or five million, is that a lot?"

"A lot. Although he and I are friends, Mr. Zhou, he hasn't told me this before. I've actually taken a look at 'Tower of God'. The production level there is around two to three million per episode."

Speaking of this, not to mention Zhou Le, even Jiaozi figured it out.

"Brother Le, why don't you just forget it? I don't think this is very reliable."

"Yeah, it doesn't sound very reliable. Since he's unwilling to sell his shares, forget it."

Zhou Le also sighed.

It turns out that not everyone is a dumpling.

After returning, Zhou Le rehearsed "Like Father, Like Son" for a few more days, and then performed on stage with Tong Dawei. This time, Zhou Le won the highest number of votes in this show.

After the performance, they went to select scripts again, and this time Zhou Le finally got to work with Zhang Guoli.

After selecting the script and contacting the director, Zhou Le reviewed the script and got a few days of vacation thanks to his superb acting skills.

Anyway, Li Binbin will take sick leave and not attend this event, so this is just a performance and he will not participate in the voting.

So Zhang Guoli didn't care too much about it. As long as he could perform well in the end and get everyone's recognition, that was enough.

At present, many people Zhou Le had contacted before have begun to help promote "Nezha".

Including Zhou Le also went on a roadshow with Jiaozi again.

But at this critical juncture, the company's human resources department suddenly contacted Jiaozi and said that there was a video interview scheduled for the next morning.

"Brother Le, would you like to come and interview with me when the time comes? After all, you have quite a few shares in the company."

Zhou Le thought that he had not interviewed many people before, so he agreed.

The next morning in the hotel, Zhou Le sat next to Jiaozi.

The video call was connected quickly and the other party had preliminarily passed the human resources interview.

Now they have a profile of the interviewee.

Zhou Le flipped through it and found that the other party actually came from Yihua Kaitian.

His name was Liu Jun. His salary expectations were normal industry standards, and his position was in the animation production team.

The other party answered the previous professional questions fluently. As for why he came, it was because he saw that cocoa beans were gaining momentum, so he wanted to join in.

Finally, Jiaozi asked if the other party had any representative works. After thinking about it, he sent a video.

"Director Jiaozi, this is the first episode of the second part of The Three-Body Problem, which I produced myself."

Zhou Le was sitting next to him, and he immediately felt less sleepy after listening to "The Three-Body Problem".

Ever since Liu Cixin sold "The Three-Body Problem" for 2017 yuan, until now, although a company has said that it wants to make "The Three-Body Problem" into a movie, it is expected to be completed in , but there has been no movement until now.

Guo Fan could actually take on this project at the beginning, but he finally chose "The Wandering Earth" because there is a lot of room for modification in "The Wandering Earth".

They also talked about this topic at the time. Guo Fan's original words were that "The Three-Body Problem" was definitely a big pit. First of all, someone had to run the censorship network, and second, top capital had to be involved.

This may not necessarily result in a good shot.

Tencent currently has plans in this regard.

But probably they haven’t found a production company yet, so the project has been put on hold.

The two of them finished watching each other's "The Three-Body Problem".

The overall look and feel is quite good.

Zhou Le thought about it.

"I think it's okay."

"Get it in first."

After Zhou Le spoke, Jiaozi naturally didn't care. The company was already short of people, and adding one more person would just mean paying one more salary.

Anyway, the company’s current shortfall is no longer a matter of tens of thousands of dollars.

However, after confirming the other party's starting time, Zhou Le sat in his chair and fell into deep thought.

"If The Three-Body Problem could be made into an animation, it would probably be simpler than a movie and could show more."

"But 'The Three-Body Problem' and 'The Wandering Earth' are different in that they involve a lot of sensitive issues."

Thinking of this, he started chatting with Jiaozi again.

"If I want to make The Three-Body Problem, is it possible?"

dumpling:"???"

"Brother Le, even though it's inappropriate for me to say this, I still want to ask you if you're crazy. We can't spend money like this, because I've done Nezha and have been following it for several years, so I know the pitfalls here.

I was struggling just to make Nezha, and now you want to make The Three-Body Problem, so you must go in the direction of 3D animation. Once you succeed, you will become famous and successful, so we won’t talk about it.

But what if you fail to do it well? Not only will you be criticized, you will also lose everything. More importantly, you have to find a way to pass the review. After all, if "The Three-Body Problem" is to be filmed, it must be faithful to the original work because it is so popular.

Modifying the game just to pass the review will definitely ruin its reputation. Otherwise, with such a big IP and so much capital, it still hasn’t been produced in so many years.”

Zhou Le pondered for a long time: "What if we can get rid of the censorship and then attract investors to participate, that is, to be as faithful to the original work as possible, can we do it?"

"If you put all that aside, then it's definitely possible. After all, when I was making Nezha, no one was optimistic about it, but I still managed to make it in the end."

But Zhou Le felt that he had no team now, and the only people he could contact were Guangguang and Jiaozi. Maybe Guo Fan could also provide some help in science fiction.

But Zhou Le didn't want to touch the Colorful House on the Guangxian side. Wang Changtian was definitely a smart man.

It may be okay for everyone to get along with each other normally, but if you really want to engage in deep cooperation, you will definitely not get any benefits.

But if I really want to carry out this project, I must first have a company. Although Jiaozi and I have already set up another one, I currently have no one in this area.

Think of this.

Zhou Le asked again: "Besides Yihua Kaitian, are there any other strong animation production companies that can be acquired?

It would be best if the company had produced works in the past but is now in a very bad situation, preferably on the verge of bankruptcy."

Jiaozi sat in the chair and thought for a long time, until his mouth was almost crooked, before he uttered a name.

“October Culture.”

"This company was founded very early and is one of the earliest 3D animation production companies in China. It has a great reputation in the industry, but its financial situation is not very good now. I have talked to their boss before. He is a very capable person and an animation director. He made "The Monkey King: Hero is Back", but now he is worried all day long.

In particular, their Series B financing was also unsuccessful, and several investors are currently waiting and watching, but the overall situation is much better than that of Yihua Kaitian. "

Zhou Le thought for a moment and said, "Can you make an appointment for me? I want to have a meal with them and have a chat."

Jiaozi sighed: "Are you really going to make "The Three-Body Problem"?

"Yes, Tencent should have the development rights. After we have a preliminary discussion here, I will contact Tencent to see if they can take over the project."

"Okay, then I'll ask. He should be free recently."

Jiaozi called Tian Xiaopeng from October Culture on the spot.

When the other party heard that someone wanted to acquire shares in the form of investment, he immediately agreed.

Because October Culture has just started a new project and is short of money.

The call was made in the morning and the person arrived in the afternoon.

During this period, Zhou Le asked Su Yingxia to collect some information from October Culture.

Currently, October Culture also has shares in Guangxian.

This is something Zhou Le is quite wary of.

There were only three people in the private room in the hotel, Zhou Le, Jiaozi and Tian Xiaopeng.

Tian Xiaopeng is also in his forties this year.

And he looks a bit old.

It is obvious that he has been a little exhausted by the company's financial situation in recent years.

At the beginning, everyone got to know each other.

Tian Xiaopeng naturally also knew that Zhou Le had invested more than 30 million yuan when Jiaozi was in the most difficult time.

So he is still optimistic about this cooperation.

After chatting for about twenty minutes at the beginning, Zhou Le got straight to the point.

"Mr. Tian, you know I'm an actor now, and I'm also the boss of an agency. The company's profitability is pretty good right now. I made some money investing in Wolf Warrior before, and now I'm investing in Nezha. Judging from the current situation, I'm sure I'll make a lot more money.

The reason I invited you here this time is actually to discuss cooperation."

When Tian Xiaopeng heard this, he thought it was a good thing, and Zhou Le's straightforward approach saved everyone from arguing with each other.

"Then I wonder how Mr. Zhou plans to cooperate."

"Mr. Tian, I want to acquire the controlling stake in October Culture."

Tian Xiaopeng was stunned for a moment. He thought it was a good thing that Zhou Le was straightforward, but he didn't expect Zhou Le to open the door like this.

He asked for controlling rights as soon as he opened his mouth.

(End of this chapter)