Actor: Thank you.

If he knew that Zhang Yuan had taken advantage of his inattention to invest in PalmFun, a company he had been eyeing for a long time, it would be like discovering that his wife had been cheating on him while he was away on a business trip.

Discovering that Zhang Yuan's investment in Ourpalm came from Alibaba is like discovering that your wife's lover was introduced by your own father.

There is no way to survive this day.

When Zhang Yuan wanted to raise money, Alibaba was the first company he considered.

First, he went to the bank to exchange the money. The discount was huge, but the procedures and bridge fees were not cheap.

This is similar to going to a pawnshop in ancient times to pawn something.

No matter how good something is, people will still criticize it harshly and then try to drive the price down to the bone.

It can be a backup plan when you urgently need funds.

But Uku is so popular now!

The first global video platform to go public on Wall Street—that's quite remarkable.

Many companies, bosses, and investors want it, and they have to wait in line.

I'm losing a lot of money by giving it to the bank.

So when Gu Yongqiang heard him mention this, his first thought was about banks.

After denying it, he considered it to be an institution.

Many financing and venture capital firms are willing to take over.

But Mr. Gu was meticulous; he didn't want his company's shares to fall into the hands of some illegal institutions or ambitious organizations.

Leaving aside the primitive era, the Baoneng Group's attempt to acquire Vanke was a similar example.

Wang Shi went down, temporarily donning his armor to hold the line in the critical moment.

Baoneng Group has now set its sights on Gree.

Then it was pulled apart by an invisible hand.

Because of this incident, many people attributed the credit for the downfall of Baoneng to Ms. Dong of Gree.

Actually, Dong Mingzhu doesn't have that much ability. When Baoneng was dealing with Vanke, they were already being watched by its backers.

With the combined support of Gree's backing, the Baoneng brothers, once nicknamed "barbarians," were completely brought to their knees.

Gu Yongqiang was also afraid of encountering such unreasonable companies and bosses.

But when he mentioned Ali's name, the other party paused for a moment, then indicated that he knew it and did not object.

Internet giants are generally better than those in traditional industries.

Boss Gu was also interested in cooperating, but he was very cautious. It wouldn't be a bad thing for him to go and test the waters first, while he himself observed from the sidelines.

The reason why Zhang Yuan approached Alibaba is even simpler.

He knew the other party was interested in internet platforms, and in his previous life, they even eventually acquired Youku.

Last year, when he faced off against Huayi, Alibaba Cloud's early intervention was a major concern for him.

However, the other party intervened in advance, which was a butterfly effect caused by my own action of selling Tudou.com shares to Huayi.

The potatoes are still badly damaged and haven't recovered yet.

Zhang Yuan was certain that the other party was now also interested in Youku.

If you bring your own shares, the other party will definitely treat you well.

Alibaba also wants to test the waters.

So when he went to them, their attitude was, "It's a deal, double happiness is coming."

Is Alibaba short of money?
No shortage.

However, Alibaba at that time was not as robust as it would become in later years, with a market value of less than 200 billion US dollars.

The three major internet companies, BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent), all experienced rapid expansion around 13 and 14.

It's completely impossible for them to swallow up Uku, which has a market value of over 50 billion US dollars.

Holding shares is the best way to get involved.

Alibaba has plenty of money and can afford to pay a higher price than banks.

Based on market prices, this 1% stake is worth just over US$5000 million.

Alibaba's willingness to offer $4000 million in cash is already a substantial amount.

However, if the loan is issued in the form of a company loan and the loan is not repaid on time, the shares will be confiscated directly.

Secondly, the interest rate is very high, with an annualized rate of 10%.

Even if you repay early, if you borrow today and repay tomorrow, you will still have to settle at least a year's worth of interest.

The true nature of financial lending has already been revealed ahead of time.

The annualized rate of 10% is much higher than that of banks, and of course, the principal is also higher.

How high exactly is this interest rate?

Let's put it this way, it's almost as high as student loan debt for North American college students...

Why do you think Obama paid off his college loans after becoming a member of parliament at the age of 40?

Compared to foreign capital, Alibaba is still too human-like.

The move that resulted in his final punch was something that people in North America had already done before.

And so, Zhang Yuan received this large sum of money, but he quickly spent it all.

Kick-Ass alone cost ten million US dollars.

Ourpalm wants another 20 million US dollars.

Money is meant to be spent.

This is what they call "no guns, no cannons, the enemy makes them for me".

He was quite happy with his spending, as for the Wang brothers...

WHAT CAN I SAY.

Huayi OUT.

We were out of the picture because of the investment in Ourpalm, which affected their original plans.

So when the board meeting was held after the New Year, Xiao Wang was sullen and in a bad mood.

I was keeping it to myself, but even after I found out, I didn't say anything.

At the board meeting, someone questioned Xiao Wang about why Zhang Yimou had gone to another company.

"What exactly did you guys do?"

"Why is it that a listed company couldn't beat an independent company in the competition for famous directors?"

"What else is wrong? Ask them."

Just as Xiao Wang was feeling awkward and unsure how to answer the question, Alibaba's representative made a sarcastic remark.

“We’ve already asked around, and it turns out that Zhang Yi didn’t come to Huayi because he was worried about your credibility.”

"As company leaders, how will you take responsibility if your personal reasons cause damage to the company's reputation?"

"Should they be held responsible? And who should be held responsible?"

This really annoyed Xiao Wang.

In a fit of anger and frustration, and also to divert attention from the conflict, he slammed his fist on the table and shouted loudly.

"Then what is the meaning of you providing Zhang Yuan with funds to invest in PalmFun?"

"And who should be held responsible?"

They started arguing, and the words got increasingly harsh. They rolled up their sleeves and almost came to blows in the meeting room.

When this matter came up during dinner that night, more people criticized Alibaba than Zhang Yuan.

This is actually a misalignment in the understanding of relationships.

The Wang brothers believe that I am the boss of the company, that I built it from scratch, and that I should be in charge of all matters related to the company.

But Alibaba isn't here as a partner; it's here to be a godfather.

What does my trading have to do with you?
This tactic of Zhang Yuan's was to let the other side experience what a genuine strategy of sowing discord looks like.

Don't assume that just because you two get together you're a family. That's bullshit!

Actually, everyone has their own thoughts.

Planting some landmines for you, weakening our relationship, is to my advantage.

Seeing Xiao Wang so angry, drinking glass after glass of wine, Feng Xiaogang, who had overheard the whole thing, was dumbfounded.

Murder, but also punish!

How terrible.

He could see that Zhang Yuan's small action had escalated the conflict within his company.

I only played a little trick on this kind of person, sending him a message in the middle of the night...

Then I won't die!
He has this leverage over me; if I report him, I'm sure I'll be in big trouble.

This terrified the famous director.

On the other side, Zhang Yuan was communicating with another famous director.

"This... Christian Bale is good, he's a good actor."

Zhang Yuan talked to Zhang Yimou about "The Flowers of War".

Especially the actors.

The male protagonists have their eyes on the current Batman, Christian Bale.

To be honest, this is what this guy does.

She has superb acting skills, an elegant demeanor, and unparalleled professionalism.

Even Zhang Yuan admitted that he was no match for his brother; he was a ruthless man, especially ruthless to himself.

Nicknamed "Rubber Man".

To film "The Mechanic" and "Batman" back-to-back, I gained over 100 pounds in a few months. The result was migraines, gout, and a series of aftereffects.

Calling him a theater fanatic wouldn't be an exaggeration.

He's good-looking too, and he captured the air of nobility that Bruce Wayne possessed.

In Hollywood, he's considered to be in the same category as Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey—all renowned new-generation actors.

Compared to these, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt are a bit lacking.

Previously, Zhang Yimou, Zhang Weiping, and Jiang Zhiqiang searched around and finally chose Bale. The reason was very simple.

He's the most popular right now!
Several Batman movies, plus Terminator Salvation, have made him one of the most popular male actors in Hollywood in recent years.

This also brings up a problem: when someone becomes popular, their salary will inevitably be high!

A single trip would cost at least 1500 million US dollars.

With a budget of 100 million just for the male lead, how could this movie not be expensive?

To be honest, $1500 million isn't even considered an exorbitant amount.

But Zhang Yuan knew that Bell was indeed a good person, and his character was not a big problem.

But there's one question: does the play drive the actors, or do the actors drive the play?

She was already quite popular before, considered a near-A-lister in Hollywood.

But it was the new Batman series that truly made it a huge hit.

So here's the question: Is Batman popular because of him?

At most half.

Speaking of the series' actors alone, Heath Ledger is the most famous.

However, this fire, like Paul Walker later, died before the film's release, which generated a huge marketing boost.

The success of the Batman trilogy was mainly due to director Christopher Nolan.

Nolan has always been the box office draw; whoever stars in his films becomes a star.
Bale himself is not particularly good at carrying box office revenue.

He's the kind of actor who wins awards, not a purely commercial actor; his image is similar to Liu Ye's.

Ultimately, his impact on the film's box office performance in China was limited; some people went to see it because of him, but not many.

What's worse is that the film was originally expected to make a fortune overseas, ideally replicating the success of "Hero" and rake in tens of millions, even a hundred million US dollars.

As a result... the overseas box office was barely worth mentioning.

Hiring Bale to play the role is clearly not a good deal.

It couldn't even recoup its costs at the box office in North America.

This can't be blamed on him, because white people only watch kung fu movies, period dramas, and even kung fu period dramas, including Chen Long's movies, which haven't been as popular overseas in recent years.

Foreigners don't like watching Chinese movies.

He knew the outcome, so he planned to abandon the North American business market.

Furthermore, the fact that "The Flowers of War" performed particularly poorly at the North American box office was not because Zhang Yimou or Christian Bale had any issues.

The problem lies with the script.

First of all, the background is the Southern Zhili Massacre, and Zhang Yimou's work is of a higher standard than Lu Han's in terms of both skill and values.

But foreigners don't know this, and they're not interested.

Secondly, foreigners are very familiar with the story of this movie; they know it by heart.

The internationally renowned musical "Madame Butterfly", and its adaptation "Miss Saigon".

The content all features a white male in a foreign country with a local woman, specifically referring to people of Asian descent.

The woman in "Madame Butterfly" is from an island nation, while the woman in "Miss Saigon" is from Vietnam.

The woman became pregnant with the white man's child.

In the end, the woman always sacrifices her life for love and children, while the man leaves the local area with his children and returns to his "world-famous" home.

Essentially, the soul of these things is the arrogant, condescending values ​​of white people who consider themselves the world's elite.

Only the West is a civilized society; other places are barbaric.

The women of the wilderness need us white people to save them.

It's not just Asians; if you watch movies and TV shows featuring white people, you'll see a lot of Native Americans, Black people, and Middle Eastern women falling in love with white people.

Anyway, we white guys are the bosses, we're popular wherever we go.

A white man impregnates a yellow woman, who then falls in love with him and eventually brings their child back to her home country.

Madame Butterfly was absurd enough, but Miss Saigon was even more disturbing.

When it comes to Vietnam and the war, Zhang Yuan only recognizes two films: "Full Metal Jacket" and "Apocalypse Now".

That's what war is all about, and that's closer to the truth.

An older white man saves a young, beautiful Asian woman...

The problem is that "The Flowers of War" is also such a story.

The male protagonist is a white hoodlum who disguises himself as a priest to save Chinese women in wartime.

The female lead ended up sleeping with him.

The female lead is from a wealthy family.

This part is almost identical to the setting and the story of "Miss Saigon".

Zhang Yuan didn't mean to stop filming; as long as it was profitable and not illegal, he had no objection.

However, he rejected the casting of Christian Bale because he was too expensive.

It also denied the "last shot before battle" in the script, which was the scene where the female lead planned to spend the night with the white male lead the night before she went to the Japanese party in place of a female student.

Cheap or not?

Even if the female lead is a prostitute, she's still too despicable.

They already treat Asian women like "steaks," and you still take pictures like this.

"I think it should be changed to a hug, or at most a kiss, or a dance with arms around each other. Make it more dreamy, even if it has a bit of sexual innuendo."

"Don't actually do it."

Zhang Yimou scratched his head after hearing this.

White people love watching this, and I'm doing this to make more money.

Zhang Yuan then spoke his mind.

"Let's take good care of the domestic audience first."

"Don't always consider the feelings of foreign grandpas."

"But we still want to make money in North America," Zhang Yimou said with a worried expression.

His generation is deeply influenced by the "advanced" ideology of the West, believing that they are stronger and more civilized, and that this will remain true forever.

We can't entirely blame them; it's due to the times.

“I’ll take care of the box office situation; you don’t need to worry about it.” Zhang Yuan took the lion’s share of the responsibility.

"What about the male actor?"

"You say Bell is expensive, then who is cheaper?"

Zhang Yuan touched his chin, remembering someone.

“I went to Hollywood a while ago and met Nicolas Cage.”

You know Cage, right?

"I know him, but I've never seen him in person. I've only seen the play." The moment the name is mentioned, Zhang Yimou knows him.

In terms of acting skills, Cage is no less than Bale.

Anyone who has seen his performance in "Lord of War" knows that he handles war-torn regions with ease and his emotions are incredibly nuanced.

This guy has a chaotic personal life, but he's very professional when he's acting and doesn't act like a diva.

The key is that it's cheap!

Given his current situation, Zhang Yuan is probably not even as wealthy as Mickey Rourke.

He is also familiar to domestic audiences.

It just has a bad reputation in North America.

The domestic situation is lagging behind; it hasn't completely deteriorated yet.

Both "National Treasure" and "Ghost Rider" are popular in mainland China.

Zhang Yuan never intended to make money in North America, so using Cage wouldn't be a loss for him and could even save him money.

This would save at least $1000 million in film salaries!

This is a way to increase revenue and reduce costs.

Go talk to him in person; you should be able to reach an agreement.

With Zhang Yimou's influence, several scenic spots have already approached him wanting to collaborate.

The film set construction costs were all covered by the other party!

As long as Zhang Yimou is willing to come, not only will it not cost him any money, but he'll even give him some money.

This is the appeal of a famous director.

His plan was to keep the cost down to just slightly higher than that of "Let the Bullets Fly".

"Let's discuss this in more detail and hold several meetings to decide together."

"But what's important is your approval."

Zhang Yimou is also someone who's easily swayed; hearing him say that made him feel better.

"Put it aside for now, I need your help with something... or rather, your cooperation."

"You need to come with me to meet some people..." (End of Chapter)