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Chapter 257 Divide the cake

"Indie film frenzy strikes, Internet upstarts come to Hollywood!"

"The Matrix trilogy, Bruno Song invested 2.4 million US dollars in a sci-fi epic blockbuster!"

"Hollywood's annual blockbuster, many Hollywood superstars have announced their intention to star in "The Matrix"!"

"The Wachowski Brothers boasted that they will use The Matrix to change the era of cinema!"

"Bad movie suspicion?
Some people in the Hollywood film media question whether Bruno Song’s investment in The Matrix is ​​hype. According to statistics, the success rate of science fiction movies in the past ten years is only 7.8%. "

When Song Yang's American Global Investment Foundation announced that it would spend 2.4 million US dollars to shoot the "Matrix" trilogy, the entire Hollywood was completely blown upside down.

Those who wanted to get a share of the action, several major movies came to Song Yang one after another, wanting to "co-produced", in fact, the movies were entrusted to them for production, distribution, etc., and stars and actors from all walks of life also flocked to it. A large-scale production of more than 2 million US dollars is rare in Hollywood.

You know, it’s the beauty of the 90s now, and the era of big water release has not yet started, and the purchasing power is quite strong. Think about the "Titanic", the cost soared from 8000 million US dollars to [-] million US dollars, and it almost bankrupted Fox directly. One can imagine the scale of investment in a movie in this era.

Of course, as soon as the news came out, all the bulls and horses in Hollywood were dispatched. Some touted this as the victory of the "independent film" era. With Song Yang's entry, it marked another top independent film company after DreamWorks. Appear!
But as soon as it came up, it took out more than 2 million U.S. dollars to invest. This is impossible for several major Hollywood movie giants. Definitely a huge blockbuster movie.

There is also a question whether Song Yang is hype, because when this movie, which is invested by Internet upstarts and under the banner of promoting "Internet culture", comes out, the entire Nasdaq "Internet concept stocks" almost collectively soar.

How the hell do you know that Song Yang just set up a flag, and some people really take it seriously. From old technology companies such as Microsoft and SUN to Internet companies such as Netscape, Yahoo, and AOL, the stock prices have soared. Even after the listing, The double-click company, which has been half-dead, soared all the way to 9 dollars that day, so that the group of people who shorted the double-click company suffered a collective loss that day!
This is not surprising, some media speculate whether Song Yang is hype, a movie with "Internet culture" can collectively skyrocket the Nasdaq, it can be called a toad ugly flower, what the hell Any reason is the rhythm of the Internet skyrocketing.

Announcing the investment in "The Matrix" marked the beginning of Song Yang's full entry into Hollywood. The American Global Investment Foundation announced the establishment of American Western Films. The meaning of Western Films is simple and rude, which means that it comes from West Texas!
Nominally speaking, Western Films has also become another Hollywood independent film company after New Line Films, DreamWorks, Miramax, and Summit. It’s just that this rookie is a bit fierce, and he didn’t play that set to slow down his reputation. The wall set.

Western Films, like DreamWorks, has become the only Hollywood company that makes big moves as soon as it is established. Unlike other independent film companies, they all start with small-budget films, win a few awards first, and then develop slowly. Instead, open the baron directly.

The newly established Western Films was nominally established by the American Global Investment Foundation. Song Yang was the largest shareholder of Western Films, and American Telecom was also one of the investors of Western Films.

A small building with less than ten floors in Los Angeles has become the office building of Western Films. Compared with Paramount, Disney, etc., Western Films is naturally weak. It does not have its own shooting factory and publicity channels. Now its There is an office building bought for 1000 or [-] million dollars, and the two directors Wachowski and Wachowski signed, everything is under construction.

However, Song Yang was not idle here. After establishing the western film industry, he cut through the mess quickly and made several acquisitions in a row.

The first acquisition was the Internet movie database company IMDb, which was established six years ago. The name is quite simple and rude. It is to record movies on the IMDb website. Comey Needham wants to save and share his "personal movie collection list" on the Internet.

And then, attracted a group of like-minded people, and jointly established the IMDb website. At that time, it was still a desert of the Internet, and Netscape had not yet appeared. , You have to post money to the website.

However, in the past few years, IMDb has accumulated a large number of users, and the traffic is getting bigger and bigger. In the ranking of website visits in the latest statistics, IMDb ranks 48th, which can be said that the traffic has already Quite a lot, at least people who like movies have begun to gather more and more on this website.

The original small workshop model has become difficult to maintain an increasingly large traffic volume, and it is impossible to rely on operating personnel to pay for the expenses, or rely on unstable donations.

At the beginning of this year, Comey Needham finally announced the commercialization of IMDb. He and the people who previously co-operated IMDb became shareholders of IMDb. Comey Needham became the founder and president of IMDb!

Song Yang threw an olive branch to IMDb. Komi Needham and the management of IMDb flew from England to Los Angeles without much thought.

It is not that there are no other companies that asked IMDb for a price and wanted to acquire IMDb, but they were all rejected by Comey Needham and a group of original shareholders. On the one hand, the offer was too low. On the other hand, IMDb is for Hollywood movies. The database is inextricably linked with Hollywood, after all, it is impossible to bypass Hollywood.

But now, the appearance of Song Yang perfectly solves this point. First of all, it is not difficult for Song Yang to support an IMDb with a lot of money. Looking at the entire Internet industry, Microsoft and Netscape are the only ones who can compare with Song Yang. , Yahoo, and several Internet companies, but they are not interested in IMDb.

Another point is that Song Yang has also entered Hollywood, which is more important to IMDb, which means that Song Yang has entered the Hollywood circle. After acquiring IMDb, it will not let IMDb leave the film industry!

In addition to making quotations to IMDb, Song Yang also established and acquired multiple Internet domain names one after another. The domain name websites such as "America Online Video", "America TV", and "Internet Online Video" were all acquired by Western Films. , These are used to prepare for the online video business.

Although the online video has not yet written a horoscope, but Song Yang has to start preparing in advance, and let the pits be occupied first!

When he came to the Western Films office building, Song Yang heard the quarrel inside before he entered.

In the meeting room of Western Pictures, the Wachowski Brothers, Industrial Light and Magic Special Effects, Weta Special Effects, Elias and Sofia Coppola, who represent Hollywood Italians, are all present. At the end of the meeting room Also sat Harvey, David Geffen, and the heads of the distribution departments of several Hollywood companies.

Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski in the conference room felt their heads were a little big when they watched the scene of arguing.

Today is the time to set up the crew of "The Matrix". Naturally, it is necessary to determine the director, producer, finance, publicity, distribution and other departments. The day lily is probably going to be cold if it is processed after shooting.

But for these, the people present couldn't stop arguing. With an investment of more than 2 million US dollars, several major film companies all wanted a piece of the pie.

The two Wachowski brothers, whose heads grew bigger after being quarreled, breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Song Yang coming in, and stood up hastily.

Song Yang looked around at the people in the conference room, and then at Wachowski and the two, "How is the preparation of the crew?!"

Larry Wachowski said, "At present, the filming locations have been selected, respectively in America and New Zealand, and the film special effects of The Matrix were completed by Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Special Effects Studio."

The special effects have been determined a long time ago. Apart from Industrial Light and Magic, no other special effects company can complete them now. The Weta special effects are invested by Song Yang, and now they belong to the special effects studio under Western Pictures. Outsider Tian, ​​Weta special effects must be used.

Dennis Mullen, the technical director, came to represent Industrial Light & Magic today. Dennis Mullen understood that letting Weta Special Effects and Industrial Light & Magic jointly be responsible for the special effects work of the Matrix is ​​basically letting Weta Special Effects learn from Industrial Light and Magic. Magic has technology and experience.

But for this point, Dennis Mullen is not afraid at all. With more than [-] years of technical accumulation, Weta special effects can not be learned in one or two movies. At least within a few years, Weta special effects can only be given to Industrial Light and Magic. Be a younger brother.

"Industrial Light and Magic can guarantee that the special effects of The Matrix will be completed on schedule!"

This time, for Industrial Light and Magic, it is another opportunity to show their strength, and there are huge profits.

After Industrial Light and Magic, Richard Taylor said on behalf of Weta Special Effects, "Weta Special Effects is responsible for part of the special effects work, and the scene layout, props, costume design, etc. are all done by Weta Special Effects!"

Weta Special Effects is helping Industrial Light & Magic this time, but even so, it is a rare opportunity for Weta Special Effects to cooperate with the top special effects company in the industry. Not every special effects company is so lucky. Once it is acquired, there will be more than 2 million US dollars in film projects, let them practice with Industrial Light and Magic!
After talking about the special effects, the Wachowski brothers had some headaches. Now Western Films is just an empty shelf. It doesn't have its own team at all. It can only use other film companies' shooting and production teams. This requires a choice.

"We invited several directors to join the crew as assistant director and producer," Larry Wachowski looked at Song Yang's expression, "Peter Jackson, Sofia Coppola and..."

(End of this chapter)