China Entertainment: Been working as a director since 03

Chapter 623: No Pay in Exchange for Dividends
When the news that Chen Kaige and Li Yu were going to work together again reached the ears of the National Master, his heart skipped a beat.

Does Chen Kaige really want to join forces with Li Yuqiang to defeat him?

After the movie "The Thirteen Soldiers Return to Yumen", here comes another movie about the Tang Dynasty.

Chen Kaige publicly said that the new movie will surpass "The Thirteen Soldiers Return to Yumen" in all aspects.

The national teacher is willing to believe this because "The Thirteen Soldiers Return to Yumen" is not Li Yu's masterpiece.

As a historical blockbuster, the script of "Man Jiang Hong" is better than that of "The Thirteen Soldiers Return to Yumen".

If Li Yu is really serious, he will definitely be able to write a script that is better than "Man Jiang Hong".

Chen Kaige also has high hopes for this new film. He spent five or six years building a Tang City in order to make this film.

The cost of building the city alone is no less than 700 million, so they will definitely not skimp on the production costs.

Therefore, Chen Kaige's new film has great potential.

It is very likely to become another masterpiece of Chen Kaige.

The national director feels a little uncomfortable. After the Olympics, his gilded body has been established, and it is difficult for others to take away the title of the country's number one director.

But it would not be good if it got out that he, a domestic director, was being criticized all the time.

What's more, the person who beat him was Chen Kaige, so it would surely cause even more discussion.

Because before Chen Kaige became a failure, his status was similar to Chen Kaige's.

Since Chen Kaige has a Palme d'Or in his hands, many people think that Chen Kaige's status is higher than his.

If Chen Kaige really becomes stronger and stronger, there might really be some people who think that the reason he was able to successfully reach the top is that Chen Kaige was too reckless in the past, not because he is too strong.

In order to avoid this situation from really happening, the national teacher thought he had to fight a good battle.

He carefully studied the script of "Green Book" written for him by Li Yu.

This time, he must rush into the Oscars and realize his Oscar dream.

Li Yu himself didn't know that because of him, two great domestic directors, Guo Shi and Chen Kaige, were involved.

One tried his best to overtake, while the other tried his best to avoid being overtaken by the other.

The emergence of this phenomenon is actually a good thing for the general audience.

Because the big directors are busy and dare not waste money, they can make movies that truly suit everyone's taste.

……

A few days later, Li Yu flew to the United States.

He came to discuss new cooperation with Huana.

After some tug-of-war, both sides took a step back and the negotiation process went much more smoothly.

Warner Bros. thinks that Li Yu should not shoot "Aquaman 2" for the time being, but can shoot other movies, as long as they are not too big a step like "Oppenheimer".

Before Li Yu flew to the United States, they had already received Li Yu's new script "Barbie".

This time, they were very impressed by Li Yu's pragmatism.

Barbie dolls are the childhood memories of many women in Europe and America. When combined with the theme of feminism, the audience group is large enough and has great potential.

Most importantly, the film was made on a low budget.

Even if Li Yu makes a bad movie, he won't have to pay much money.

At worst, the movie loses money, and they can persuade Li Yu to shoot "Aquaman 2". Wouldn't the money lost be earned back many times over?

"Mr. Li, this time you are on the right track. The potential audience of Barbie is much larger than that of Oppenheimer. We can invest in your Barbie." The other party agreed to Li Yu's next film plan.

This was all within Li Yu's expectations, so there was nothing surprising about it.

When discussing the details further, Li Yu's treatment was further improved.

Warna did not reduce Li Yu's treatment just because he was not filming "Aquaman 2" this time.

The remuneration they offered to Li Yu was the same as the price they offered last time to persuade Li Yu to shoot "Aquaman 2". The director's salary was 7.5 million Euros, and if the box office exceeded 15 million Euros, he would get % of the box office dividend, and if the box office exceeded billion Euros, he would get % of the box office dividend.

The price they offered was very sincere and Li Yu could not find any fault with it.

However, for the sake of the quality of the film, Li Yu felt that he could give up the 15 million yuan director's salary.

The total production cost of "Barbie" was just over 1.4 million yuan, and director Li Yu alone received million yuan. The leading actors, extras, and various staff also received salaries.

With this calculation, the money actually spent on production may not be enough.

So Li Yu said, "The production cost of this film is not high, and the 15 million I got has a great impact. How about this, I don't want the film salary, just increase the percentage of the box office profit a little bit."

This is very reasonable, no salary required, in exchange for a higher proportion of box office dividends.

If superstar actors can do this, directors can certainly do this.

Warner didn't take the movie "Barbie" very seriously, at least not compared to "Aquaman 2".

Their attitude towards this movie is that it would be best if it could make money. Anyway, the investment is not high and the loss will not be much.

It is reasonable for Li Yu to not take any remuneration and take risks with them, so it is reasonable for him to get a higher reward after success.

So the other party readily agreed to Li Yu's request: "Okay, since you are willing to be a director for free, if the box office exceeds 10 million, you will get 10% of the box office dividends, and if the box office exceeds 22.5 billion, you will get % of the box office dividends."

They think that if the movie could gross 500 million at the box office they would be lucky, and 1 billion is something they wouldn't even dare to dream of.

Since Li Yu dared to think so, it would be no big deal if they increased the dividend ratio for Li Yu a little bit.

An unattainable goal is no different from writing a blank check.

It is normal for Warner to have such an attitude, as the production rights of "Barbie" were not in Warner's hands at the beginning.

At first, Huanqiu got it first, but the film has been difficult to produce and the director and screenwriter have changed several times.

Later, Universal transferred the production rights to Sony, but the film also had difficulty in production in Sony.

After all the trouble, the project came to a standstill again, and Sonid transferred the production rights to Huana.

This difficult project was not taken seriously in Huana. If Li Yu had not started the project ahead of time, it would probably have been buried in Huana for several years before it could be successfully launched.

The other party was cautious and asked, "What about Aquaman 2..."

"If the performance of "Barbie" does not meet your expectations, I will start preparing for the filming of "Aquaman 2." Li Yu knew what the other party wanted to hear.

The other party was also waiting for Li Yu to say this.

With Li Yu's promise, they were very happy.

For some reason, they had the evil idea that Barbie would be at a loss.

But you can't lose too much. Losing a few million is the best outcome.

Even though they lost money, it wasn't too much, so they had reason to let Li Yu quickly shoot "Aquaman 2" and then make a big profit again.

This is because they have not seen the answer. If they knew that the "Barbie" project had the potential to hit a box office of over ten billion, they would not have given Li Yu 22.5% of the box office dividends.

(End of this chapter)