Reborn Action Star: Starting in Hollywood

Chapter 364: Olive Branches from All Around
"With the success of 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest', many film companies are now eager to buy the film," Mr. Eisen continued.

"What? Do they also want to join MGM and Columbia Pictures to encircle and suppress me?" Lin Yuan asked.

"What are you thinking? Not everyone is like Mills, who chooses to confront you right away. They just want to cooperate with you," said Mr. Eisen.

Lin Yuan nodded to show that he understood. Mills Brown was the actual controller behind MGM.

All previous hostile actions against him were led by Mills, who involved Columbia Pictures.

From initially using Fox News to instigate Tyson to pick a fight with him, to the subsequent Phuket controversy, the Hollywood awards bribery, and finally the fight for the release of "The King's Avatar," this series of malicious actions was all carried out by Mr. Mills Brown.

However, as Mr. Eisen said, most people in the business world still believe in making money through harmony.

Why waste resources on confrontation when it can be solved through cooperation?
Among the eight major Hollywood film studios:

Universal Pictures was Lin Yuan's earliest collaboration, with "The Fast and the Furious" and "Jurassic Park 3" both being successful products. Recently, director Cohen, on behalf of Lin Yuan Films, has continued to collaborate with Universal Pictures on a follow-up to "The Fast and the Furious."

Collaboration with Disney was a key step in Lin Yuan's rise to fame in Hollywood. To secure the lead role in Hollywood's top blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean," Lin Yuan filmed the Time and Space Trilogy with Anne Frank to allay Disney's concerns.

Warner Bros. is the latest company to partner with Lin Yuan. The project is primarily a Batman trilogy, currently being filmed by director Christopher Nolan, who recently joined Lin Yuan Films.

MGM and Columbia Pictures were irreconcilable enemies, so there is no need to elaborate on that.

The remaining three film companies: Paramount, United Artists and 20th Century Fox, had previously maintained a neutral attitude towards Lin Yuan.

The main reason why they remained neutral was that they were worried that Lin Yuan would take away their market share after he came to the table, so they were wary of him.

However, through the success of "King of Spy", "Pirates of the Caribbean" and the "Jurassic Park 3" series, Lin Yuan proved that he could make the cake bigger instead of engaging in a zero-sum game.

The three film companies immediately changed their attitudes and extended olive branches of cooperation to Lin Yuan.

"Take a look at the cooperation invitation they sent you first, and then decide whether to accept it." Mr. Eisen took out three documents and handed them to Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan flipped through it carefully.

Paramount was still a bit arrogant. Although they had proposed cooperation, their attitude was still quite high. Therefore, Lin Yuan chose not to contact them for the time being, and would wait until they could see the facts clearly.

The conditions offered by United Artists were the best among the three companies, giving Lin Yuan full control over resources, but the greater the power, the greater the responsibility.

He didn't want to be tied down at this point. He felt the Disney ship was too tightly tied to him and wanted to jump ship, so naturally, it was impossible for him to accept the United Artists' proposal.

The proposal put forward by 20th Century Fox was quite sincere. It proposed two ways of cooperation, and let Lin Yuan choose:

The first option is to fully leverage Lin Yuan's popularity, talent, and vision. Lin Yuan proposes the film, and he stars in it himself. Twentieth Century Fox pays for the production, and both parties share the profits.

The second option is to simply draw on Lin Yuan's vision. Lin Yuan proposes a film project, and both parties invest in the film and share the profits.

Lin Yuan directly chose to refuse the first option. He is getting busier and busier now, and he doesn’t have enough time to work on his own company’s films, let alone participate in co-productions with other companies.

The second form of cooperation is actually the way Lin Yuan is cooperating with Warner now.

Since we are already cooperating with Warner Bros. in this way, why not add 20th Century Fox?

Lin Yuan had long coveted several films from 20th Century Fox in his previous life. Now that the other party came to him on their own initiative, it couldn't be better.

"Let's accept the partnership with 20th Century Fox. We can co-produce a few films with them. With their funding and team, our development will be much faster," Lin Yuan said. "Choose so quickly? You had this planned all along, didn't you?" Mr. Eisen knew Lin Yuan's character very well.

"Yes, I have approved several film plans before. I originally wanted to keep them and shoot them slowly by ourselves, but now we will co-produce them with 20th Century Fox." Lin Yuan also took out several shooting plans and handed them to Mr. Eisen.

"'The Day After Tomorrow,' 'X-Men,' 'Night at the Museum,' and 'Avatar?'" Mr. Eisen asked curiously. "You cover a wide range of genres, including disaster films, superheroes, and fantasy."

"I am very confident in these movies, especially "Avatar". I am most optimistic about it among the four. However, we may have to wait a little longer for this movie until the computer technology and special effects become more mature. The other three can be started and filmed first." Lin Yuan said.

"Okay, then I'll go and formally reply to 20th Century Fox," said Mr. Eisen.

"Is it time to talk about the box office of 'Pirates of the Caribbean'?" Lin Yuan asked.

"Wait, since we are already talking about cooperation, let's finish discussing the remaining cooperations together, and then slowly talk about the box office." Mr. Eisen replied.

"Is there any more cooperation?" Lin Yuan asked.

"Of course, you don't know how popular you are right now. I have already eliminated more than 90% of the unreliable cooperation invitations for you, but there are still so many left." Mr. Eisen said, handing over a few more documents.

The first one was a cooperation invitation from South Korea's CJ Entertainment.

CJ Entertainment is a subsidiary of CJ Group. In Lin Yuan's later impression, this company has shot a number of classic Korean films such as "Memories of Murder", "Myeongryang", "The King and the Clown", "Parasite", etc., and owns the brand cinema chain CGV, which is also considered a giant in the Korean entertainment industry.

Compared with CJ Entertainment, SM Company invested by Lin Yuan is simply a small and insignificant company.

CJ Entertainment's parent company, CJ Group, is a large chaebol that controls the lifeline of South Korea's economy, just like Samsung Group.

CJ Entertainment has proposed a two-film collaboration plan.

Lin Yuan laughed as soon as he saw them: "The Taegukgi" and "Snowpiercer".

When someone wants to open a window in a wall, they often propose to tear down a wall. Then, under persuasion, they step back and open a window, which is easier to accept.

And "Taegukgi: Flying Tiger, Hoopla" is clearly that wall.

What does this movie reflecting the Korean War have to do with him, a Chinese?
It's so sensitive that Lin Yuan would never touch it.

"Snowpiercer" is different. This movie is really worth a try. Moreover, if it is released at this point in time, it can be released together with "The Day After Tomorrow", a collaboration with 20th Century Fox, which can achieve more results with half the effort.

Lin Yuan smiled and said, "They want to enter Hollywood. Let's work with them on Snowpiercer and let Director Johnston shoot it. There shouldn't be any problem."

After stamping the invitation from South Korea, Lin Yuan opened the second cooperation invitation, and he was even happier when he saw it:

They are all old acquaintances from "House of Flying Daggers" directed by Zhang Mou.

It seems that after reaping the benefits of the success of "Hero", director Zhang Mou's ambition has become even more inflated.

"Will you take it?"

"No, it's a bad movie!"

(End of this chapter)