Huayu: Director started with art films

"Boss, if you don't include Golden Lion Pictures, I'm afraid the valuation given by Ernst & Young will only be around $500 million."

Amy didn't know why Li Yishu didn't want to merge Golden Lion Pictures into the group, but since the boss didn't want to, he must have his reasons.

However, when the valuation is given, it will probably be very unsatisfactory.

After all, many of the film copyrights shot by Li Yishu only retain the copyright for the Chinese market, and the rest are sold to international film distributors, and the film copyrights are purchased from European film festivals and film and television companies such as Shaw Brothers.

In the view of Ernst & Young, it cannot be said to be worthless, but it is definitely not worth much.

They are all old movies that can only be sold through VCDs, and are only limited to East Asia and Southeast Asia. Not to mention entering Europe and the United States, they may not even be able to make it to Asia.

"$5 million is $5 million."

Li Yishu smiled and said, "They gave this valuation based on the standards of the same industry, but we don't just look at the standards of the same industry when raising funds. Our Art Media Group has a promising future. The performance of the Miss Asia beauty pageant this year is very good."

Although the Miss Asia beauty pageant has encountered many problems, its revenue is quite good. Not only are there dozens of cosmetics and jewelry brands sponsoring it, but the advertising fees for one night of the finals are also astonishingly high. All of these add up to no less than 1 million US dollars!
The reason why the advertising costs are so staggering is that the 16 beauties on the scene are from 16 countries.

Although due to the delay in the live broadcast, only audiences in East Asia and some Southeast Asian countries can watch the live broadcast, the recorded content of the finals will be broadcast in all participating countries later.

Including the populous countries of China and India, the number of people watching this round is at least close to 1 million!

"One hundred million US dollars!" Amy was stunned. She didn't expect that the Asian beauty pageant would be so profitable.

"Yes, Japanese cosmetics companies are still willing to spend money."

Li Yishu couldn't help but sigh. Shiseido, a well-known Japanese cosmetics brand, won the naming rights of the Miss Asia beauty pageant for 1500 million US dollars, and also contracted all the cosmetics for the contestants.

In addition to Shiseido's large sum of money, Chow Tai Fook, a long-established Hong Kong jewelry company, spent $1000 million to become the jewelry sponsor for the contestants.

At the same time, Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Company also used diamond jewellery worth millions of dollars to make a crown and scepter to be used as the champion's equipment.

Of course, this is definitely not given to the champion, but to the organizers of the Miss Asia beauty pageant, so that it can be used as a standard for future Miss Asia champions when taking photos.

We have to say that Chow Tai Fook played this trick beautifully. There will be a Miss Asia champion every year in the future, and the crown and scepter they sponsored will appear in the public eye with every beauty pageant.

"Then I have to talk to the accounting firm Ernst & Young." Amy's face showed joy. Last year, Asia Television not only had no revenue, but also lost money. You can tell from the situation this year that it will definitely make a lot of money.

This valuation will definitely go up further.

Li Yishu smiled and said, "You don't have to tell me. After the Miss Asia beauty pageant is over tomorrow, the TV station will reveal the third quarter's revenue situation. By then, the people from Ernst & Young will naturally catch this."

Asia Television is a listed company. When its financial situation was bad in the past, it could delay reporting to shareholders.

But this year the profits were enormous. Many old TV series from Asian TV stations were sold to mainland TV stations after being reviewed.

Although the price is not high, a TV station in a prefecture-level city can buy a TV series for tens of thousands of RMB, and at the county level it can be bought for thousands or even tens of thousands, but there are now more than 2,000 TV stations in China!
Ninety percent of them are county-level TV stations, which only have one or two channels and are only broadcast locally or in surrounding counties. However, small amounts add up to a lot, and if all the copies of a drama are sold, the revenue can definitely be hundreds of millions or even tens of millions.

Not to mention the money earned from the sales of these old dramas, the advertising fees earned from the Miss Asia beauty pageant alone are enough to make headlines, and the stock price may even surge.

After all, the Miss Asia beauty pageant is held every year. Even if there is not as much as 1 million US dollars next year, there must be or million US dollars, right?

Amy asked, "Boss, are you going to the Miss Asia beauty pageant tomorrow?"

Li Yishu nodded and said, "Yes, by the way, the winner will be the leading actress of my new film next year."

Amy was surprised and asked, "New movie? Boss, you have a new movie again?"

Li Yishu: "Not a new film, but a Hollywood movie that I promised to Yang Shoucheng and Cheng Long."

When Amy heard about Hollywood movies, she remembered the script of "Rush Hour" written by her boss. Her eyes lit up and she said, "Boss, this movie must be produced by our group. We can't give it to Golden Lion Pictures anymore."

As the group had sufficient resources, Amy began to deal with Golden Lion Pictures in an impartial manner. For example, she used the distribution and publicity channels of the Art Media Group and paid them all the money they owed, but there would definitely be a certain discount.

"Don't worry, this movie is prepared to impact the stock price." Li Yishu's eyes flickered. After finishing filming "Red Cliff of Three Kingdoms" in the middle of next year, he will spend two months to shoot "Rush Hour".

After that, post-production began, and it lasted until 1997. Before the Art Media Group went public, the first part of "Red Cliff" was released. After the group went public, the second part was released. After the stock price soared and stabilized, "Rush Hour" was released.

Guaranteed that the stock price will continue to soar!
By then, Li Yishu will be able to clear out the shares in her hands and prepare for bottom fishing next year.

"correct."

Li Yishu remembered something and asked, "Have you secured the copyright for The Emperor and the Assassin?"

Amy nodded. "Yes, it's done. Ten million US dollars after tax. Because it's a mainland deal, the leaders above made special arrangements. Everything has been settled. Except for the Chinese and Japanese copyrights, the copyrights for other regions have all been obtained."

"It's fine once it's done. You can ask the Beijing Film Studio..." Li Yishu paused and shook his head, "Forget it. I'll tell Director Han to bring the film copies and materials to Hengdian."

"Boss, can I really make my money back by spending 10 million US dollars to buy the movie rights and the Qin Palace in Hengdian?"

Amy hesitated and said, "I watched the movie 'The Emperor and the Assassin',' and it was so well made that I couldn't describe it in words."

Li Yishu shook her head. "In fact, there is only one Qin Palace. Ten million dollars is worth it. I watched the construction of this Qin Palace with my own eyes. It cost about 1.5 million. We bought it for half of the price. It is definitely worth it."

"And I need to copy the footage from the shooting, in order to re-edit and reshoot some war scenes, so that after our film Red Cliff is released overseas, as long as the box office meets expectations, we can release the remake."

What Li Yishu did has a bit of the flavor of Hong Kong following the trend of making bad movies to make money. However, although the plot of "The Emperor and the Assassin" is poor, Chen Kai's artistic skills are still very commendable.

The color rendering shots in the film are still very beautiful. As long as the film is re-edited and someone is hired to re-dub and re-dialogue, and the scene where Zhao Ji is a traitor is removed, the story will be about Qin Shi Huang sweeping across the world. In order to protect the country from being destroyed, Prince Dan of Yan sends the killer Jing Ke to assassinate the First Emperor.

Drastically cut some useless plots, get rid of the shitty Shakespearean lines, even if Li Xuejian, who plays Qin Shi Huang, seems a bit crazy, but as long as the lines and dubbing are good, isn't it another kind of domineering?
"Need to reshoot?" Amy frowned.

"Well, we'll just reshoot some war scenes. As for the other scenes, I'll tell you after I've seen the footage."

Lee Yi-su isn't sure how much reshoots are needed, but it's likely that she'll just have to reshoot some war scenes, add more scenes of sweeping across the six nations, reduce some boring plots and scenes, and re-edit and dub the film. It should be considered a qualified historical film.

Hearing this, Amy nodded and said nothing more.

"Okay, let's stop talking. Let's go out. We still have a lot to do in the afternoon."

Li Yishu stood up and strode out of the hotel conference room. He had to meet with Sophie Marceau and others in the afternoon. Most of the foreign filmmakers invited by Li Yishu were only here to attend the opening ceremony. He was going to Hong Kong tomorrow, so he would definitely entertain these people in the afternoon and evening.

Time passes little by little.

night.

Western-style house on Wukang Road.

In the end, Sylvia Chang did not move to live next door, because she lived alone now, so there was naturally no need to move to the villa next door.

"Why hasn't Director Li come back yet?"

It was almost seven o'clock and Li Yishu had not returned yet. Zhang Aijia couldn't help but look at Qingxia curiously.

"I'm afraid he won't be back until very late."

Qingxia smiled and said, "Sophie Marceau and Adjani will both fly back to France tomorrow morning. There are also some foreign filmmakers invited by Art Book who are leaving tomorrow. He has to entertain them."

"That means we need to entertain you well."

Zhang Aijia nodded and suddenly said, "Qingxia, when I went to the opening ceremony today, I found that many European and American actors and directors came, and many of them were familiar faces."

Read the error-free version at 69shuba! 6=9+shu_ba is the first to publish this novel.

"Really? A lot of European and American filmmakers are here?"

Qingxia looked at the other person curiously. She had read the newspaper these days and heard Li Yishu say that some people had come, but she really didn't know how many had come.

"Yes, there are many people here, including Sophie Marceau, Isabelle Adjani, Nicolas Cage, and Quentin, the director of Pulp Fiction..."

Sylvia Chang reported dozens of names in one breath, all of whom were well-known actors and directors in the European and American film circles.

After finishing her speech, Zhang Aijia could not help but sigh, "Qingxia, this time I can really see Director Li's connections. I think most of the people who came to the Shanghai International Film Festival this time came for Director Li's face. Otherwise, they would not have any works to participate in the competition, so why would they come to participate in this film festival?"

Hearing her praising Li Yishu like this, Qingxia raised the corners of her mouth and looked proud.

"Tsk tsk, Qingxia, you look so proud."

"That's right, he's my man!"

"Haha, you..."

Before Zhang Aijia finished speaking, the door was suddenly pushed open. The two turned around and looked. Qingxia asked in surprise: "Why are you back? Aren't you here to entertain the guests?"

Li Yishu shook her head and said, "They won't leave for now."

"Not leaving? Why?" Qingxia was surprised, and Zhang Aijia also looked curious.

Li Yishu shrugged and said, "He said he wanted to play for a few more days."

After hearing this reason, Qingxia and Zhang Aijia looked at each other and both found it quite funny.

Li Yishu asked, "What man did you just talk about?"

Qingxia shook her head: "Nothing, just talking about how many big stars came to the film festival today."

"That's a lot." Li Yishu looked at her watch. It was already past seven, almost half past seven, so she asked, "Where are Tuantuan and Mom?"

"Go upstairs to rest."

"Then turn on the TV. The news channel will be on soon. There should be ready-made footage."

Li Yishu stood up and walked over to turn on the TV in the living room and tuned to CCTV-1.

After waiting for seven or eight minutes, the News Channel officially started broadcasting. The first half was about the international situation, national policies, etc., and the second half was about news related to people's livelihood.

"This morning, the second Shanghai International Film Festival officially held its opening ceremony at Shanghai Film City. It is reported that many domestic and foreign filmmakers came to the festival. They attended the opening ceremony and visited the exhibition of 100 outstanding films in the 100-year history of Chinese films..."

As the host was reporting the news, the screen began to switch to the opening ceremony this morning.

Domestic and foreign actors and directors who can only be seen in movies, pictorials, and weekly magazines walked into the Shanghai Film City’s 1,000-person venue. During the event, some domestic and foreign filmmakers were interviewed.

Soon, the broadcast showed Li Yishu standing on the stage and giving a speech at the opening ceremony. A voiceover said, "The chairman of the jury of this year's Shanghai International Film Festival is our country's outstanding young director Li Yishu. He..."

Seeing her man appear on the largest news program in mainland China, Qingxia couldn't help but excitedly hold Li Yishu's hand.

Li Yishu glanced at her, smiled, said nothing, and continued watching the show. It's true, he looked so high-spirited under the CCTV camera.

Zhang Aijia smiled and said, "Director Li's photos are really handsome."

"Okay."

Li Yishu simply replied that the value of the News Network was not something they, as Taiwanese, could understand, after all, there were a lot of TV stations in Taiwan.

He just calculated the time he appeared on screen, including the award ceremony and the interview afterwards, there was about a minute and a half of footage.

This is a very high proportion for a news channel that is pressed for time.

After the news broadcast ended, Li Yishu told Qingxia that she would go to Hong Kong tomorrow to participate in the Miss Asia beauty pageant finals.

Zhang Aijia asked: "Director Li, I saw the contestants of this year's beauty pageant. Who won the prize in the end?"

Qingxia next to her also looked curious.

Both of them are insiders, so they naturally know that in this kind of beauty pageant, a large part of the candidates are pre-determined in advance.

"I am not sure as well."

Li Yishu said: "The finals adopt a judges' points system, and the judges come from ten countries." (End of this chapter)