This celebrity is overly enthusiastic!

Chapter 34 Han Sanpin's Shock
Chen Yuan showed Han Sanpin a clip of animation that had already been completed, showing the Mighty Five intercepting and blocking the Remnant Leopard on the suspension bridge.

After watching it twice, Han Sanpin could hardly believe his eyes. The smooth fighting, the cool scene composition, and the highly creative animal warrior characters were truly amazing.
He then asked Chen Yuan to show him the parts that were not finished in the later stages.

Some parts lacked voice-over and background music, and some computer-generated effects were unfinished, but the entertaining and exciting fight scenes alone were enough to make him overlook all the other flaws in the film.

Han Sanpin's small eyes widened in surprise. It turned out that Chen Yuan had actually managed to produce an animated film of this quality after a year of hard work!
If "Lotus Lantern" merely imitates Disney in form, employing a stiff three-act story structure, resulting in a work that is neither truly Chinese nor truly Western,

That "Kung Fu Panda" is not only similar in appearance, but also in spirit.

Po is destined to be the Dragon Warrior, and Han Sanpin immediately recognized that this was a plot deliberately set up by Chen Yuan to please Western audiences.

However, apart from the final battle where Po defeats the leopard, which felt somewhat like a deus ex machina, the rest of the plot was very complete and smooth, and it also incorporated a lot of Eastern philosophical ideas.

Although Kung Fu Panda is an animated film, its quality is exceptionally high. Han Sanpin even doubted whether Disney and Japan could produce such smooth, natural, and imaginative fight scenes.
Han Sanpin flipped through the thick stack of photocopies of the storyboards that Chen Yuan had personally drawn for the film. Although he had been working in an administrative position for many years, he had not lost his directing skills.

Did Chen Yuan create the script by imagining a three-dimensional environment in his mind and then simulating the shooting process when making animated films, with this action design and camera movement?
What's the structure of your brain?
Chen Yuan himself is a kung fu master, and he incorporated his imagined moves into his animation creation.

With such formidable cinematic skills, it's no wonder he dared to boldly declare that he would create a martial arts drama that would broaden the horizons of audiences nationwide!
After confirming Chen Yuan's creative process, Han Sanpin was certain that Chen Yuan was not only good at shooting commercials and marketing, but also a born genius director!

To be honest, if Chen Yuan had approached China Film Group to collaborate on "Kung Fu Panda," he would have rejected it without hesitation; the risks were simply too great.

But now Chen Yuan has single-handedly completed all the most difficult pre-production work, which is truly insane!
Since he has taken the brunt of the risks, why shouldn't China Film Group take a gamble?
It would be a loss for Chinese cinema if such an excellent work were to lose money domestically.

Compared to films made by fifth and sixth generation directors that depict various problems in China,
Han Sanpin believes that animated films like "Kung Fu Panda," which are funny, lighthearted, exciting, and feature a cute, chubby panda as the main character, are more likely to win over overseas audiences.

Doesn't the fact that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" received 10 Oscar nominations prove that overseas audiences are very interested in Chinese kung fu?

Han Sanpin directly approved China Film Group's decision to handle domestic distribution and was even willing to invest 2000 million yuan in the "Kung Fu Panda" project to help him refine the film.

Chen Yuan doesn't lack the 2000 million yuan production budget from China Film Group, but he lacks 2000 million yuan for the upfront investment in peripheral toys, as well as the funds for the subsequent development of the panda park with Chengdu Film Studio.

In the future, we will have to deal with China Film Group and Han Sanpin quite a bit. After some haggling, we gave China Film Group 17.5% of the net profit from overseas box office revenue.

After Kung Fu Panda became "his own" project, Han Sanpin actively sought overseas channels for it, with Columbia Pictures being his primary target.

Columbia Pictures began paying attention to developing its business in China very early on, and was the first Hollywood film company to establish a formal office in China.

Through Han Sanpin's introduction, Chen Yuan met the head of the representative office in the Colombian capital.

After watching part of the finished film and unfinished clips of "Kung Fu Panda", the other party was amazed and realized that this was an extraordinary project, so they immediately reported it to higher authorities.

Three days after "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" shocked the domestic and international film industry with 10 nominations and 4 wins at the end of March.

Chen Yuan met with Chen Guofu, the Chinese president of Columbia Asia.

Although "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was initially filmed with great difficulty thanks to loans and borrowing money, it was later strongly supported by Mr. Fruit Chan, who saw the potential in the film. The film's current success is inseparable from Columbia Pictures' powerful global distribution capabilities.

After achieving great success with the Eastern martial arts film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Columbia Pictures is now actively seeking high-quality domestic partners, intending to continue this successful path.

Columbia Pictures has now partnered with Huayi Brothers, planning to invest a small amount of money to collaborate with Feng Xiaogang on a comedy film called "Big Shot's Funeral".

After watching the sample footage of "Kung Fu Panda," Chen Guofu was also very optimistic and immediately offered a high price of US$1000 million to buy out all the copyrights except for those in mainland China.

Compared to the numerous difficulties encountered during the initial production phase of "Kung Fu Panda," the process of finding partners to collaborate with has been remarkably smooth.

The reason is simple: even without riding the wave of the Olympics, Kung Fu Panda is still a top-notch animated film of exceptionally high quality.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have made four films in a row, turning it into a world-class IP.

Chen Yuan's version can be described as a 3D to 2D conversion, which retains the flexible camera angles and spatial sense of 3D, as well as the unique exaggerated deformations, delicate realism and other advantages of 2D animation.

The animated world created by the artists at Shanghai Animation Film Studio is also full of antique Eastern charm.

The total cost of "Kung Fu Panda" so far, including subsequent special effects, voice acting, and music, is approximately 5000 million RMB.

If he weren't in a rush, and the artists at the animation studio could slowly work on it for three or four years, then without considering inflation, with him providing a complete storyboard, it could be done for 20 to 30 million.

But who told him to try and ride the wave of the Olympic bid by outsourcing on a large scale and spending money like crazy, which caused the production cost to double.

This is also a characteristic of 2D hand-drawn animated films, which can leverage the advantage of 'more people, more power'.

In a live-action movie, no matter how much money you spend and how many people you throw at it, the impact on the film's progress is limited.

No one in China dares to spend so much money on a live-action movie, yet Chen Yuan dared to gamble on "Kung Fu Panda," which is why so many people call him crazy.

Chen Yuan didn't care about a mere 1000 million US dollars, and later discussed 2000 million, and even 2500 million US dollars.

2500 million US dollars—this amount will make Metaverse a fortune. Binbin, the director of Shanghai Animation Film Studio, and many other artists were moved to tears upon hearing such a price.

When the budget was $1000 million, Han Sanpin was somewhat dismissive. The quality of "Kung Fu Panda" speaks for itself; this amount of money was far too little.
When the price was $1500 million, Han Sanpin was somewhat tempted;
When the amount reached $2000 million, Han Sanpin's heart began to pound uncontrollably.
When the price was $2500 million, Han Sanpin almost wanted to just grab Chen Yuan's hand and have him sign the agreement!
$2500 million, that's equivalent to 2 million RMB! 2 million!!!
If Chen Yuan agrees, he could become the director who generates the most revenue from a single film, surpassing Zhang Yimou and Feng Xiaogang!

Moreover, this money is earned by the metaverse itself, not from movie box office revenue, so there is no need to share it with theaters or distributors.

Shanghai Animation Film Studio is just an employee and doesn't need to share; it only needs to give a portion to China Film Group.

There's no need to wait for a long profit-sharing period; as long as Chen Yuan agrees, the money can be pocketed immediately.

The 2000 million that was spent will double back in less than a month!
This is Han Sanpin's most brilliant investment since he became the vice chairman of China Film Group in 1999 and took the lead in the group's film production business!
(End of this chapter)