Exciting 1979!

Chapter 486 If you won't go in, I'll just rub against you.

Cheng Long was overjoyed to see Wei Ming and jumped up to hug him, feeling like he had met an old friend in a foreign land.

He didn't know Wei Ming was in the United States, but he still made a special trip to the Hyatt Hotel where they had stayed together before, and unexpectedly, he actually ran into him.

Wei Ming told his aunt and the others to go upstairs first, while he chatted with Lao Long. Cheng Long's eyes flashed over Li Zhi; she was truly stunning. It was a pity that one should not steal a friend's concubine.

After sitting down and chatting, I learned that Jackie Chan was there to sign a contract for "Cannonball Run 2" and then he was going to Australia to film a movie, though his role wasn't very big.

"After we finish filming this movie, my senior brother, Yuen Biao, and I will go to Spain to film a new movie."

This new film is definitely "Wheels on Meals," which is also a classic.

He also told Wei Ming some good news: "Project A eventually grossed 3 billion yen in Japan, but unfortunately it was less than 100 million yen less than Shaolin Temple."

This gap was too painful for him, and he only hoped that one day he could suppress that young man named Li Lianjie as soon as possible.

3 billion yen is equivalent to more than 10 million US dollars in box office revenue, which is more than 100 million Hong Kong dollars. This result far exceeds the film's box office in Hong Kong. Therefore, Raymond Chow's feelings for Wei Ming are also changing. He really hopes that Wei Ming can write another script for Jackie Chan that sweeps Japan and South Korea.

However, Wei Ming lacked motivation, and he feared that writing another book would be difficult to surpass "Project A," unless he were to attempt a Hollywood breakthrough, but now was not the time.

When Cheng Long asked Wei Ming about his purpose in coming to the United States, Wei Ming smiled and said, "I'm planning to pursue a master's degree in the United States."

"Pursue a master's degree? You won't be pursuing a doctorate later, will you?"

Wei Ming: "We have that plan."

Cheng Long looked Wei Ming up and down: "Tsk tsk tsk, I thought that since you've started directing movies, you'd definitely be staying in Hong Kong for a long time. I didn't expect you to come all the way to America. Aren't you worried about your girlfriend?"

"How can a man be bound by emotions?" Wei Ming said, against his will.

Cheng Long liked to hear this, and lightly clinked his teacup against Wei Ming's: "By the way, I saw your little Zhou Tianhou when I went out to eat with my brothers a couple of days ago."

"Impossible, my Amin never goes to those shady places."

Jackie Chan: "We don't just go to those kinds of places. This time we met at Jumbo Floating Restaurant."

"Oh, with whom? Anita Mui?"

"No, she's much prettier than Ah Mei, very charming, just a bit too thin," Cheng Long recalled. Being too thin was a disadvantage for him, unlike Zeng Zhiwei who could eat even though he was skinny.

"Oh~" Wei Ming responded meaningfully.

After checking in, Cheng Long couldn't stay still and wanted to go to the bars on Sunset Boulevard to fool around, but Wei Ming didn't go with him.

Cheng Long's "hanging out" involves drinking foreign liquor and bragging, while Wei Ming doesn't need to drink; he can just brag.

After going upstairs, Wei Ming went straight into Melinda's room. She was looking at New Line Cinema's information, focusing on their past performance.

"Although this company has been established for more than ten years, I have never heard of any of the films in its film library, and none of its films have grossed more than 10 million at the box office. The highest grossing film is only more than 5 million. The key is that this film had too high a cost and even lost money. Valuing this company at 10 million is a bit too high."

Wei Ming sat next to her: "When Coca-Cola bought Columbia, it spent twice the company's market value. It was like buying time with money. They could use it right away. I have the same attitude towards New Line Cinema. Although the company is not large, it has everything it needs. And small companies that have been operating for more than ten years are all capable. Robert Shaye is also a veteran who has been in Hollywood for twenty years. If we can win him over, we can save a lot of trouble."

Melinda said, "He'll probably find it hard to resist the price you offered, and he'll probably call you tomorrow. How long do you expect it to take to recoup your investment?"

“If all goes well, it will take a year.” Wei Ming reached into Melinda’s arms.

Even a mid-sized Hollywood blockbuster with tens of millions in box office revenue, let alone a major blockbuster, can completely offset their investment.

Melinda's hands started to wander: "How about making 'It' into a movie? The novel is very popular in the United States. If we find a good director, I think the box office should be good."

Wei Ming kissed her: "I think so too..."

Just as the two were about to get intimate on the sofa, the phone rang. It was unclear whether it was their aunt or their younger sister.

The result was Robert Shaye.

"Mr. Wei, I agree to cooperate. Would you like to meet tomorrow?"

He seemed quite anxious. Wei Ming replied, "Okay, come directly to the Hyatt Hotel tomorrow morning. It's been a pleasure working with you, Mr. Saya."

"Pleasant to work with."

At this point, Robert Shaye wasn't very sincere; he was only after money. However, Wei Ming would make him understand how enjoyable it is to ride the coattails of someone who's riding high.

Wei Ming hung up the phone, and Melinda picked up the receiver again. No one was allowed to disturb them from then on.

An hour later, Wei Ming, having given up, said to Melinda, "Later, you should register a DreamWorks Pictures in the United States to acquire New Line Cinema and invest in New Line's films."

Regardless of company size, Hollywood companies always seek investment to minimize risk by avoiding using their own money when making movies. Wei Ming was confident in his judgment, so he also profited from the investors' money.

Melinda: "Okay, but I'm in the UK, so who's going to manage this company?"

Wei Ming: "Don't bother two people with one thing. Let Li Zhi manage Hong Kong DreamWorks, and let her be in charge of American DreamWorks too. It's just a matter of doing the accounting anyway."

Melinda put the phone back and joked, "Should we call her over now to discuss this?"

Wei Ming hugged Melinda tightly: "Let's talk about it tomorrow, go to sleep."

Another task for DreamWorks is to acquire the copyrights of promising works, such as the Tolkien works that Wei Ming asked his aunt to inquire about. These are not just promising works, but highly anticipated masterpieces.

Tolkien is widely regarded as the father of modern fantasy literature, and his works sparked a reading frenzy worldwide in the 1950s.

His major works are a series of stories that take place in Middle-earth and span countless years and peoples, mainly The Hobbit in the 30s, The Lord of the Rings trilogy in the 50s, and The Silmarillion, a posthumous work compiled and published by his son in the 70s.

What Wei Ming wanted most was the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which not only had three box office hits but also had very high derivative value, making it one of the most successful examples in Hollywood history.

The next day, Wei Ming opened a conference room at the hotel and invited Wei Hong along. This time, the girl hadn't played games for more than ten hours and wanted to challenge her self-control.

Robert Shaye also called over the other partners who had shares in the company. In the end, except for one small shareholder who held 2% and wanted to sell and took $20, the others continued to hold their shares. As a result, DreamWorks directly controlled 72% of New Line Cinema's shares.

This acquisition process couldn't be completed in a day or two; it also involved the establishment of DreamWorks.

Moreover, Wei Ming also needs to review the company's subsequent projects, cutting unnecessary and low-quality films, and ensuring that the new production line reaches a new level.

The new line has made a breakthrough. Wei Lingling is eager to return to Hong Kong to set up the video game department. She said, "Then we'll go back to Hong Kong first. You and Melinda can continue to keep an eye on it."

Wei Ming: "Didn't I ask you to help me find out about Tolkien's copyright?"

Wei Lingling: "Robert is here now, you can ask him. How could an old hand like him not know?"

That makes sense, so Wei Ming directly asked his partner Robert.

He came to the right person: "I am also a loyal reader of The Lord of the Rings. I was not very satisfied with the animated versions of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit from a few years ago, so I have some knowledge in this area, but our company really does not have the ability to invest."

"Oh? These two films were also adapted into animations?"

"Yes, but the quality is rather average," Robert said truthfully, referring to The Hobbit from 77 and The Lord of the Rings from 78.

However, it's not surprising that these two movies were adapted into animations, as it's indeed very difficult to present the various races and spells of Middle-earth in a live-action film with current technology.

He then went on to discuss the copyright issues of these works.

"First, in the late 1960s, Tolkien, short of money, sold the rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to United Artists. This included film adaptations, stage plays, games, merchandise, etc. As we all know, United Artists has now been sold to MGM, which is owned by casino tycoon Kirk Koccorian."

Wei Ming: "How much did you get for it?"

“£10 plus a share of the box office revenue from the adaptations,” he said. “The copyrights to the rest of the works are held by the Tolkien Estate, managed by Tolkien’s son, and the box office revenue also goes to this estate.”

Wei Ming nodded, but he didn't know what specific box office revenue sharing this referred to, and he guessed that the ownership of the copyright was definitely not that simple.

Sure enough, Robert continued, "United Artists once tried to make a live-action version of 'The Lord of the Rings,' but the plan was canceled due to the huge cost. A few years ago, they sold part of the rights to the two novels to the famous producer Saul Zahnz. He and United Artists produced the animated version of 'The Lord of the Rings,' but he is best known for producing the Oscar-winning Best Picture 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.'"

The assistant, Lizhi, took notes and wrote down the key name.

"Sol Zanz has set up a company specifically for these copyrights called Middle-earth Enterprises. Anyone who wants to make a film about The Lord of the Rings has to buy the license from Sol."

"Authorization?"

“Yes, he doesn’t sell it, he only licenses it to other companies to film, but so far no fools have fallen for it,” Robert Shaye said, then laughed. His laughter trailed off, and he looked at Wei Ming. “You want to film it?”

Wei Ming: "I'm just thinking about it, but I'd rather just buy this China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) and solve the problem once and for all."

Wei Ming remembered that in his previous life, Amazons had also made a TV series about "The Lord of the Rings," but it was a prequel.

Robert is unaware of many of the inside stories regarding copyright; after all, he is an outsider and may only be able to find out by personally contacting Saul.

When they saw Robert Saya off, they ran into Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan was curious and asked Wei Ming who the foreigner was. "Nothing special," Wei Ming replied. "I bought a film company in America, and he was the original owner and is now the company's general manager."

"Huh? You, you, you're going to make it in Hollywood!?"

Wei Ming: "If you won't go in, I'll just rub against you."

Jackie Chan only considered Wei Ming's involvement as a hobby. There are countless film companies in the United States; if he wanted to, he could buy one himself, but it wouldn't make any sense.

Knowing he was a blabbermouth, Cheng Long asked Wei Ming, "Can we tell Boss Zou about this?"

"Of course! I'd love to get him to invest so we can all make a fortune together," Wei Ming said with a friendly smile.

However, Cheng Long sensed a conspiracy in his smile, but it didn't matter; he would definitely tell Boss Zou anyway.

Jackie Chan is preparing to leave for Australia to film a movie. According to Jackie Chan's habits, he can be considered half Australian.

Wei Lingling: "Then Xiaoli and I will also be going back to Hong Kong tomorrow."

Wei Ming: "No, don't go back to Hong Kong yet. Please go to Japan instead."

"What?"

"I know a company that also makes video games, and it may become our main competitor in the future."

"So you want us to go over there and cause trouble?"

Wei Ming: "No, no, no, I want you to help me buy some of their stock."

Wei Lingling: "..."

In the end, Wei Lingling agreed to the request. She also wanted to see just how good Nintendo really was, given how much Wei Ming valued it.

Finally, at the airport before parting ways, Wei Lingling asked Wei Ming for advice: "Langning has a high brand value and a good social reputation, but its involvement in the game industry is suspected of corrupting children, so I want to give the game business a new name to distinguish it from Langning."

For something as simple as naming a child, we definitely need to ask the great writer Wei Ming for help.

Wei Ming: "When playing games, you definitely want your level to keep getting higher and higher..."

Wei Hong nodded in deep agreement, "That's exactly right!"
Wei Ming: "How about we call it 'Step by Step Higher'?"

"Step by step higher?" Wei Lingling repeated it twice, then exclaimed, "Lucky!"

Wei Lingling took the reluctant Lizhi to Japan, while Wei Ming, Melinda, and Wei Hong remained in Los Angeles to acquire New Line.

With only three people left, Wei Hong could clearly sense that something was wrong; her brother and ex-sister-in-law seemed to be sharing a room.

Wei Ming explained, "The room rate is quite expensive, so we try to save money wherever we can."

Wei Hong sighed: Amin, I'm so sorry, it's impossible to guard against such a thing!
But Amin probably doesn't care, since his older brother isn't exactly innocent either; he himself saw him kissing Melinda in Frankfurt.

Wei Ming kept thinking about Hong Kong. Could the beautiful woman Cheng Long mentioned eating seafood with Ah Min be Sister Xue?

So he made an overseas call to Ah Long, but Ah Long couldn't confirm it because even Gong Ying didn't know.

"However, Sister Xue is leaving Hong Kong tomorrow to return to the mainland. She has already been confirmed to play the female lead in 'Paper Butterfly'," Ah Long said.

"Oh, I see." Wei Ming was a little disappointed, but also a little relieved, because now he could go to Hong Kong without worry.

He then inquired with Ah Long about the latest developments in Hong Kong, and Ah Long introduced the successful operation of Madman Comics.

"However, Wong Yuk-long is also trying to turn things around; he has started importing Japanese comics."

This was the same thing he did a few years later. Wei Ming comforted him, saying, "Don't be afraid. Dragon Ball can beat Japanese manga to a pulp in Japan, and it's not afraid of them in Hong Kong either."

“We still have too few talents. I want to go back to Shanghai again to recruit people.”

“Haha, you little rascal, Director Te Wei is probably going to be really upset, but I support you,” Wei Ming said. “Here’s what we’ll do: you go to the Shanghai Animation Film Studio on my behalf and say you’re in charge of supervising Transformers.”

"That's a good reason. I'll bring Aying and Mom along too, especially Mom, she misses home."

Wei Ming felt comfortable hearing this: "That's how it is."

Wei Ming was going to Hong Kong in a few days and planned to bring Ah Long some of the latest American comics. However, the hottest new comic series right now was "Transformers".

However, the most popular ones are only so-so. The comic book market is somewhat sluggish now, and only the three most popular superheroes, Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man, still have a large market.

It was also due to the limitations of the times; special effects hadn't developed to that level yet, so it was difficult to make movies adapted from comics, and it was impossible to expand influence through comic book adaptations.

The most successful one so far is the Superman series, and Clark Kent is undoubtedly the number one superhero.

But the successful film adaptation of "Batman" will have to wait until the genius director Tim Burton.

Therefore, American comics will continue to decline for several more years. Only DC was able to sell itself to Warner Bros. early on without any worries. Marvel, on the other hand, has been sold off several times and even forced to sell its own creations.

One of the major tasks of DreamWorks after its establishment was to keep an eye on Cadence Industries, the parent company of Marvel. However, Wei Ming was still hesitant, as owning Marvel would mean that the company would be sidelined for more than a decade.

But if we don't hold onto it, it will be broken up sooner or later, and it won't be easy to put it all back together then.

A few days later, the acquisition of the new line was basically sorted out, and Wei Ming was also preparing to take Xiao Hong to Hong Kong.

Before leaving, Wei Ming visited the New Line Cinema headquarters in New York. To make things easier for Wei Ming, only one headquarters office would remain in New York, while the main body would be moved to Los Angeles, where the film atmosphere was more intense and it was also closer to San Francisco.

"This one passes, this one passes too..." Wei Ming rejected several low-budget horror film projects as soon as he arrived. He had never heard of these projects, whether in terms of their names or plots. He estimated that they would not make much money at the box office and would mainly rely on the videotape market.

Robert Shaye was obedient; he did whatever his boss said. After all, his contract stipulated that he could not resign within a year, but he would be free after a year!
So no matter what he does this year, he's already secured the 700 million.

Suddenly, Wei Ming stared at a script for a long time without passing it.

"What do you think?" Robert asked.

Wei Ming said, "Let's invite the director over. I think he's the one."

The script is called "A Nightmare on Elm Street," and it tells the story of Freddy Krueger, a demon who enjoys killing people in his dreams.

Freddie Mercury is a very famous and well-known horror character in Hollywood, on par with characters like Chucky (whose novel Wei Ming just finished writing) and Jack the Ripper.

Before meeting with Wes Craven, the screenwriter of the script, Robert introduced the middle-aged director and screenwriter's work.

"His most famous work before that was 'Stop Breathing' two years ago, which grossed 800 million!"

This was also Sharon Stone's early breakthrough work.

Even if it's only 800 million, it's an achievement that Robert would envy.

Wei Ming knew that Wes Craven's most successful work in the future would be the Scream series, as he was a very strong director in the horror film genre.

"Stop Breathing" is an MGM production, and Wes Craven has worked with major companies before, but his script, which he wrote based on his childhood dreams, was not well-received.

After failing to get accepted by both Disney and Paramount, he submitted his script to New Line, a stronger company among smaller studios.

Then he met the new owner of New Line, who was Chinese and one of the most famous Chinese people in the United States. The new owner didn't say anything, just offered his support.

"I hope to see this movie released this year. I can't wait to be scared by this Freddie."

“No problem, I’ll be quick, as long as the funds are sufficient!” Wes Craven gripped Wei Ming’s hand tightly, as if he had found a kindred spirit.

After learning that Wes Craven's budget was only $180 million, Wei Ming suddenly realized that New Line Cinema could start another new film at the same time, and he could afford that amount of money.

In the second part, Wei Ming plans to present his novel, "The Clown's Horror".

The film adapted from this novel will break global box office records for the horror genre, and the exceptional creation of a terrifying atmosphere will place even higher demands on the director.

Before leaving the United States, Wei Ming told Robert, "You can contact Sam Raimi first, and I'll talk to him when I come to the United States next time."

Sam Raimi is indeed a future box office sensation. His Spider-Man trilogy cemented his place in film history and can almost be said to have ushered in a new era for comic book adaptations.

But right now he's just a young Karami, and very young, only 24 years old.

However, he debuted very early, and two years ago he directed "Evil Dead" on New Line Cinema, which grossed 200 million, which can only be considered a small profit.

Unexpectedly, this nobody suddenly received a message from Boss Saya, instructing him to thoroughly read a teen novel called "The Clown Horror".

~
(End of this chapter)