Dominating Hollywood: Starting with Scarlett

Chapter 265 Future Planning
One month after its release, the final box office of "Lucy" was set at 18.72 billion US dollars.

However, theaters around the world will continue to show the film, so it is only a matter of time before the box office exceeds 20 billion.

This time, Norton's Eye and Tang De truly proved their ability to shoot blockbuster movies, and even United Artists and MGM benefited from it.

And many film companies immediately sent invitations for their own films.

For example, Marvel's "Iron Man" series, Paramount's "Transformers" series, Sony's "Spider-Man" series, etc.

Digital Domain, which was responsible for the special effects of "Lucy", has finally returned to the forefront of the Hollywood special effects industry, captured a lot of market share, and has re-entered the profit stage.

However, Tang De is not very interested in these superhero blockbusters. Instead, he announced that he will direct a new movie in the 007 series, "Skyfall".

In the original world, this movie was planned in 10, filmed in 11, and released at the end of 12.

Because MGM was in deep debt, the film was handed over to Sony for production, but now it is no longer needed.

This movie, which has grossed over $1 billion worldwide, will be produced by Norton's Eye in collaboration with United Artists and MGM, and Tang De will become the new director of this well-known series.

When fans learned the news, they were very excited.

This is Tang De, the Tang De who filmed "Lucy" and "Inception". His presence will definitely inject new vitality into this movie.

Soon after the news came out, the movie fan community listed "Skyfall" as a must-see for 007 fans, without even having to wait until it was released.

Because Tang De has proved with his own strength and box office that the movies he directed are indisputably good-looking.

But compared to the 007 that fans are talking about, Tang De has not made too many changes to it now. He thinks the original version is already quite good. At most, he will modify some bugs and bloopers, and make the shots and scenes more exciting.

For Tang De, the reason for directing 007 was just to make money and add another medal to his honor roll.

So he didn't focus on this movie. During this period of time, apart from accompanying his children, he also accompanied Kyoko Fukada who came from Japan.

Her stay was short, so she tried her best to provide pleasure to Tang De.

When she left America, she asked Tang De for the role of 007's female supporting actor.

There was no problem with that. For Tang De, the role issue was no big deal now. As long as he asked, no one in Hollywood would ignore his suggestions.

After seeing off Kyoko Fukada, Tang De began to get busy with a new movie in the Super Saiyan Universe.

He plans to release three new films in the next five years, each named after a hero in the Super Saiyan worldview.

Of course, before that, the comics must come out first.

Tang De hired a group of professional writers to write scripts. At the same time, he proposed a more generous bonus system for the cartoonists of Warriors Comics. As long as the sales of the comics they released exceeded expectations, they would be able to get a portion of the commission.

This strategy is intended to encourage cartoonists to improve their quality.

After several batches of comics are released, Tang De will find superheroes with a certain degree of popularity to adapt.

But now, the comic book of "Lucy" has been released.

After the movie had been popular for a month, its comic version was finally published and began to be strictly scrutinized by comic fans.

Vincenzo was one of the first readers to get the comics.

"It's very delicate." After he removed the plastic bag, he found that the comic book felt very good to the touch. If he held it closer, he could even smell the scent of paper and paint.

The cover shows the scene where Lucy finally transforms into a black biological computer. Large blocks of black, purple, and red are mixed together, and matched with simple and sharp lines, which looks very comfortable.

Vincenzo turned to the first page and found that the beginning of the story was different from the movie.

In the comics, several pages are used to describe Lucy's life story.

She was born in an ordinary family and worked part-time to pay for her studies when she was young. Because there were scholarships for applying to universities in other countries, she finally chose Seoul.

But unfortunately, she met a scumbag boyfriend who loved to go clubbing, drink, and take drugs.

Lucy learned these bad habits under his influence, but even so, she never gave up her studies, which is why she refused her boyfriend's request for help at the beginning of the movie.

Because she has to go to class.

The subsequent plot is similar to the movie version, but the comics have some larger-scale descriptions, especially the blood-splattering during the battle between the two sides, which made Vincenzo very enjoyable to watch.

By the time he reached the fifth page from the end, the plot had reached the point where Lucy solved everything and handed the USB flash drive of her avatar to Dr. Norman.

"So what's next?" Vincenzo turned to the fourth to last page with some curiosity.

The content of this page is Lucy's narration.

"I thought I had lost all human emotions."

“But when I traced back from human genes to the very beginning of creation, I found that this world is far from as simple as I thought.”

"I was shocked and utterly horrified."

"Because I saw..."

"They..."

In the picture, tiny Lucy is sitting on a chair, surrounded by the endless ocean and mountains hidden behind the clouds.

Looking up, you can see a group of vague figures surrounding the earth.

It was like the dining table of the gods, and Lucy was the food being served.

"Who are they?"

"What is their purpose in coming to Earth?"

"Why haven't our explorations of the universe found them?"

"What is the truth of this world?"

"I don't know, so I'm going to go find out, go back to the beginning of humanity, and look for the answer."

This part of the plot was drawn very quickly, using only half a page to simply describe Lucy's search process.

From modern cities to medieval Europe, to ancient Rome, ancient Egypt, and finally to primitive tribes.

Finally, she stopped in front of a stone tablet.

Around her were a large number of savages prostrating themselves in worship. They were dressed roughly but their attitudes were very pious.

Rows of people knelt from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain, stretching as far as the eye can see.

Lucy was shocked. She didn't understand why these people were worshiping an ordinary stone tablet, so she turned around and found that the stone tablet was surrounded by flowers and plants of various strange colors.

The azure color is very similar to CPH4.

Lucy thought for a moment, then stepped forward and stared at the stone tablet.

I saw a string of extremely strange words on the stone tablet.

"It seemed to have life, constantly changing in my eyes."

“These few simple words contain far more than all human knowledge combined.”

"I don't understand it, but I know I have found the key." "Deciphering these words may explain the existence of extraterrestrial life."

"And I need help."

Vincenzo unknowingly turned to the last page, which showed several mysterious figures.

Obviously, this is the helper Lucy is looking for.

"Damn it, why are there puzzles?"

After reading it, Vincenzo resolved some of his doubts, but he was still more itchy.

He couldn't wait to see the second Lucy movie.

But of course this is impossible now.

He could only pay attention to the next issue of Warrior Comics, but fortunately the answer was given on the website.

There will be a new comic coming out next month.

After Vincenzo finished reading all the information, he quickly recorded a video to explain the content of the comics to the followers of his channel.

Combined with the comics, we speculate on the plot of the next movie.
-

The release of Warriors Comics was more optimistic than Tang De had initially expected. Perhaps because of the success of the movie "Lucy", comic shop owners were very confident in this comic, so they purchased a large amount of it.

In America, comics have gone through many stages of development.

Before the Great Depression, comics were mainly published in newspapers and books. Since readers generally had enough money, they were able to afford the high prices of books, allowing comics to continue to develop.

But after the Great Depression, expensive comic books could not be sold, so some companies took the opportunity to sell periodical comics for 10 cents.

This form has been a huge success and has gradually occupied an important position in the comics market.

But compared to the collection value of comic books, what people criticize about periodical comics is that their collection value is not great because of their cheap workmanship.

It wasn't until the birth of DC Comics in 1935 that periodical comics gained collectible value.

The journal is 250mm x 380mm in size, has 36 pages, and comes with card stock, matte cover, and setting collection. This is New Fun, the first collectible journal comic in American history.

Since then, periodical comics have become the mainstream of the market, and many teenagers have developed the habit of buying periodical comics.

This also explains why DC likes to reboot in recent years? Because the first issue of a new series of journals is collectible, and reboots often stimulate the buying enthusiasm of the comic collection market, and the same is true for commemorative issues and major events.

But in the 1950s, Marvel's "Fantastic Four" and "Daredevil" caused social controversy because of their horror, love and violence elements, which indirectly led to the ban of comics.

This led to many adult and non-mainstream magazine comics evolving into underground comics.

Just like the underground magazines of the same period.

It wasn't until 1974 that the United States passed the Anti-Paragraph Act, which restricted the spread of underground comics.

Therefore, American comics have entered a new era.

That was the comic book store era.

Distributors prohibited retailers from returning unsold comics for refunds.

In exchange for more favorable ordering terms, retailers and distributors must gamble that they can accurately predict customer demand for their products.

In return, comic shops can usually get new issues a week earlier than newsstands, and comic shops can also provide better service. The key point is that comic shops can prevent minors from entering and selling adult comics more effectively than newsstands.

This also leads to a lot of popular comics being purchased in large quantities, while lesser-known comics are often not favored by comic shop owners.

Fortunately, the movie version of "Lucy" has successfully made a name for itself and is also very well-known among comic book store owners.

However, Tangde and Warriors Comics still have to worry that comic store owners may reduce the purchase volume of subsequent comics due to their lack of fame.

In response to this, Tang De plans to overtake others and move towards another publishing route.

That's the graphic novel.

This is not a new concept in America.

The graphic novel was pioneered in the 1970s by William Eisner, one of the leading figures of the underground comics movement and the prototype of the Eisner Awards in American comics.

Simply put, graphic novels are comics drawn in the form of literature. DC's "Watchmen" and "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" are among the best.

The Dark Knight Returns spent 40 weeks on the UK bestseller list.

This is enough to show the charm of the graphic novel format.

And since the 1990s, with the emergence of Amazon, independent bookstores, and book cities, graphic novels have ushered in a new spring.

After 2005, the sales of graphic novels even exceeded those of periodical comics, which is why Tang De planned to transform Warrior Comics.

In the fixed and rigid periodical market, it is difficult for Warrior Comics to defeat the two giants DC and Marvel, but in the graphic novel market with emerging development potential, the status of these two companies is not so prominent.

This is a blue ocean, and Warriors Comics can overtake others.

To this end, Tangde and Amazon have reached an exclusive cooperation. In the future, Warrior Comics' graphic novels will be exclusively released on Amazon, and Amazon will also give them the best display positions and publicity.

It's a win-win.

After he had finalized all of this, Norton's Eye once again sent out a publishing signal to the outside world.

“Norton’s Eye will publish the setting collection and cybernetics design guide for Lucy in the near future, because we know that many fans like the cybernetics designs in our movies very much. After discussion, we think these designs should be shared with everyone, so we will record all the cybernetics structures in the form of paintings and sell them as gifts for fans.”

After this news, the first people to react were not movie fans.

But the group who likes to play COSPLAY.

When these people heard the announcement from Norton Eye, they were so excited that they wanted to celebrate and immediately ran to Norton Eye to kiss Tang De and his wife.

"Wow, this is really great!"

"I can also make the cybernetic body in the movie, it's so cool!"

"I didn't expect Norton's Eye to be so considerate! I finally don't have to watch every frame on the screen anymore!"

Many crafting buddies said that this was the wisest decision Norton Eye had ever made.

However, colleagues from other film companies could not understand Tang De’s actions.

It is normal to release the setting collection of "Lucy" to raise money.

But it is really hard to understand why they would disassemble the props they worked so hard to make and organize them into picture albums for sale.

Are there really any movie fans who would buy into this boring stuff?

After thinking for a long time, they could only think that Tang De was returning the favor to his fans.

But in fact, Tang De’s thoughts were far more profound than theirs.

"This is the most advantageous weapon in the IP war." This is what he said to Youfei.

(End of this chapter)