Life in the Light and Shadow of Chinese Entertainment

"10.81 billion. It seems you're also paying attention to this movie. Xiao Wu, if Chinese films want to develop and grow, we can't always be making low-budget dramas. As the most internationally influential director today, you also need to shoulder your responsibilities."

"Of course, I also know that the domestic film industry is still in its infancy, and its special effects technology cannot compare with Hollywood. There is no fertile ground for shooting science fiction blockbusters. However, China Film Group has decided to cooperate with Qingdao to build the Oriental Movie Metropolis, the largest film studio in China."

"We have also reached a strategic cooperation with Paramount. Starting next year, we will place orders with Paramount in China to purchase various advanced filming equipment. In exchange, we can send young Chinese directors, or directors who want to shoot sci-fi special effects blockbusters, to Paramount's studios for further training in batches."

Master Han said a lot, and Wu Yang listened carefully, only vaguely remembering the last part.

It seems that the future director Guo went to Paramount for further studies in 14, and the construction of the Oriental Movie Metropolis in Qingdu also seems to have started in the second half of 13.

It's only August 2011 now. Even if we start building and learning next year, the timeline will be moved forward by one or two years!

Whether it was influenced by Wu Yang or not, this positive news really excited Wu Yang!

After hanging up with Han Sanye, Wu Yang thought for a moment and then called Peter, who was far away in the United States.

Wu Yang's studio in the United States does not have permanent employees; the three permanent employees come from three different partner companies.

Among them, the work at finance companies and law firms was the least, since Wu Yang's main battlefield has never been the United States.

As for managing the script copyright and liaising with directors, Wu Yang initially only hired a small agent to handle it.

After winning the Oscar for Best Director, he partnered with WMN, William Morris Agency.

They were responsible for the operation and publication of Wu Yang's personally registered script copyrights, and also assigned Wu Yang a dedicated agent.

"Peter, I agree to William's proposal. I will fax you the agency agreement tonight."

Back when Paramount executives contacted Wu Yang, William, the vice president of WMN in charge of publishing, had already given Wu Yang some advice.

Of the dozens of scripts Wu Yang registered, only a few were dramas, romances, or thrillers.

The rest are all science fiction films, including hard science fiction, soft science fiction, and some pseudo-science fiction.

Before his time travel, Wu Yang was a true science fiction fan, and he even uploaded video clips with commentary on Douyin.

They were all science fiction films, so Wu Yang's most vivid memories after time travel were of science fiction movies.

I know a bit about other movies, but I'm not as obsessed with or familiar with science fiction as I am with them.

Secondary editing is also a form of creation!

Movies like "First Love" and "Love Like a Bouquet" were ones I watched with my ex-girlfriends.

So I remember the plot, and "Buried Alive" and "Manchester by the Sea" can be said to be Wu Yang's guides.

It was watching various clips and explanations of these two movies that led Wu Yang to take the part-time job.

After gaining a large following, his income actually exceeded what Wu Yang earned as a resident film critic, his main profession.

They no longer need to be subservient to others, nor do they need to lie to their conscience just to make a living.

William's suggestion to Wu Yang was that WMN would invest, with Wu Yang contributing personnel and the script as a stake, and then the film would be shot and produced, bypassing the six major Hollywood studios, and distributed through WMN's global publishing channels.

At the same time, it would be best to expand the script into a novel before the movie is released, in order to gather a group of fans of the original work.

To ensure the film wouldn't lose money, Wu Yang initially didn't want to go through such trouble.

Expanding a screenplay into a novel is no easy task.

After all, these scripts were all adapted versions that Wu Yang painstakingly compiled from the initial stages of dissecting the scripts.

While it wasn't difficult for Wu Yang to turn it into a novel, it was very time-consuming.

Moreover, Wu Yang has registered more than 30 science fiction scripts. Once he gets started, won't he exhaust himself to death?!

Fortunately, William also knew that Wu Yang, as the director, had been involved in too many experiences due to filming and other issues.

Therefore, the proposal was made to recruit professional screenwriters, with Wu Yang providing the scripts, and then have these screenwriters adapt them.

Of course, to avoid giving others grounds for criticism, an adaptation agreement can be signed, followed by a revenue-sharing agreement and an authorship agreement.

Simply put, it involves finding people to adapt Wu Yang's registered script into a novel, enjoying joint authorship rights and a small share of the publishing revenue.

As the copyright holder, Wu Yang only needs to sign the adaptation rights and publishing rights to obtain ownership of the script and published books, as well as most of the publishing revenue.

This practice has been prevalent in the United States for decades. Many celebrity autobiographies and publications are written by professional screenwriters, but the authors only have joint authorship rights and a small share of the publishing revenue.

However, the royalties or writing fees are very high, making them popular with some unknown authors.

Many famous screenwriters in Hollywood gained public attention by being co-authored.

They became famous in this way, and then published their own unique works, thus achieving a leap in social class.

There are many people like this; after all, no matter what, you need to be able to make a living before you can work in any industry.

Only then can one realize their ambition of becoming famous and influential. If they are starving, they should eat their fill first!

When Wu Yang first heard about this, he was indeed tempted, but he didn't agree immediately. Instead, he replied that he needed to think about it.

At that time, I was in contact with Paramount's top management, but now that they've disappeared, I just received a call from Master Han.

Wu Yang knew he couldn't delay any longer. In any case, it was just an authorized script, and the publisher would oversee the quality, so Wu Yang didn't need to worry about it at all.

Since William was so interested, and there were many successful examples of this approach in the US, Wu Yang agreed.

In fact, Wu Yang had already begun assembling his behind-the-scenes team in preparation for filming the registered science fiction movie.

He ordered a lot of science fiction books, not only reading them himself but also letting Pei Le and the rest of the team read and learn from them. They were also aware of the script copyrights that Wu Yang had registered.

Science fiction movies make up 90% of them, so nowadays when I have free time, I also watch some American science fiction movies for analysis and study.

Of course, everyone has their own preferences, and some members of the behind-the-scenes team weren't particularly fond of science fiction films.

Wu Yang didn't force them to keep up with his pace; after all, this brought in another 103 interns.

Pei Le and his team of 9 people each had to mentor more than 10 interns.

Before joining the crew, these interns naturally knew Wu Yang very well, and they were also aware of the script titles Wu Yang had registered in Hollywood.

Therefore, most of them are people who are interested in science fiction films. Wu Yang had already told the behind-the-scenes team and Tian Zhuangzhuang and others about this before recruiting them.