Entertainment: Who still wants to fall in love when there are cheats?

Chapter 219 Crossover
To be honest, Legendary Pictures, Lionsgate, and even the domestic investors who invested in the film "Infinite Terror" were all reluctant to let Li Boda do the special effects himself. After all, they trusted Hollywood from the bottom of their hearts and had no confidence in their own technology.

However, when Li Boda told them that the cost of special effects by Magic Cube Technology was only one-third of that in Hollywood, they were tempted.

I can't help but be tempted!

Special effects are just too expensive!
The movie "Infinite Terror" in particular required a lot of special effects.

While the special effects used in "Infinite Terror" are far inferior to those in "Avatar," they still surpass the special effects required for many movies.

Moreover, 3D technology was specially used during filming, which cost a lot of money!
If we use Hollywood for special effects, the total investment of 600 million won't be enough! We'll need at least another 100 million, and even that might not be enough.

In other words, with Hollywood special effects, the total investment in this movie was as high as seven or eight hundred million.

If we were to have 'Magic Cube Technology' handle the special effects, 600 million would be more than enough.

There's a difference of about one or two hundred million here. Plus, Li Boda guaranteed the quality of the special effects for "Infinite Terror" and even allowed them to check the effects every now and then, so they could inspect them at any time.

Under these circumstances, the special effects for "Infinite Terror" were entirely handled by Li Boda.

In reality, it's just that Weta Digital and Industrial Light & Magic genuinely didn't have the time and needed to wait in line. Otherwise, even if it meant paying more, Li Boda would have been willing to let them do it, since their special effects level is higher.

Unfortunately, neither of those two companies had the time, and the other special effects companies couldn't match the level of Li Boda's work. So, Li Boda simply took over the special effects work himself.

Admittedly, the price for this job is only one-third of what Hollywood special effects pay for.

However, Li Boda actually made money doing special effects, and quite a lot of it. So, he was willing to take on this job.

In reality, the main expenses for special effects are equipment upgrades and technology upgrades.

The equipment and technology don't need to be updated on Li Boda's side for the time being, so while making special effects alone costs a lot of money, it is also profitable, and not a small amount.

After Li Boda returned to China with the original film of "Infinite Terror", almost all the reports and news in the country were about Li Boda and "Infinite Terror".

On the one hand, the production cost of the movie "Infinite Terror" was really too high, 600 million yuan. At least in China, no movie has ever had an investment exceeding that figure.

Until the investment exceeds this figure, the reputation of the movie "Infinite Terror" in this regard will not fade.

Moreover, "Infinite Terror" is a Sino-foreign co-production film. Apart from the main characters from the Zhongzhou team, the rest of the cast are all foreigners.

In fact, of the 600 million yuan investment, more than 200 million yuan came from the salaries of foreign actors.

It's mainly the original cast and crew from Resident Evil, and their salaries are high.

Just before the filming of "Infinite Terror" began, "Resident Evil 3" was released, and its global box office almost broke 300 million US dollars.

The actors in the Resident Evil team had their salaries inflated significantly. In the end, Li Boda had to offer 20 million US dollars to get them to participate in the Infinite Terror production. Otherwise, they wouldn't have participated at all if the price wasn't right.

After all, Li Boda is a director from China.
Twenty million US dollars, converted to RMB, is already over one hundred million.

Then there are the costs of purchasing 3D equipment, hiring a Hollywood team, and so on. These expenses are no less than, and may even be more than, the salaries of the Resident Evil cast.

In addition, the costs of domestic actors and director Li Boda, among other things, resulted in insufficient funds for the special effects portion.

It's fair to say that this 600 million investment was truly and practically spent, and there's really no need to worry about the quality of the movie "Infinite Terror".

Therefore, it's perfectly normal for a film with such a large investment to receive so much attention in the country.

Another aspect is the director, Li Boda!

Despite the fact that last year, 2010, Feng Gangpao's film "Aftershock" grossed 690 million yuan, followed by "Let the Bullets Fly" which grossed 680 million yuan, plus Feng Gangpao's "If You Are the One 2" which grossed 470 million yuan.

However, Li Boda's "Love is Not Blind" still ranked third in the annual box office rankings with a box office of 33 million yuan.

With a box office of 490 million, or nearly 500 million, Li Boda has truly become one of the top directors in China.

While Li Boda is certainly not as good as Feng Gangpao, Jiang Wen, Zhang Yimou, or Chen Kaige, he is certainly not as good as Li Boda.

However, below them, Li Boda is considered to be among the top tier.

With the addition of the 600 million yuan investment in "Infinite Terror," some people have even begun to secretly compare Li Boda to Zhang Yimou and others.

Therefore, the combined buzz surrounding director Li Boda and the 600 million yuan film "Infinite Terror" is simply indescribable. As a result, news about Li Boda and "Infinite Terror" is practically everywhere across the country.

As a result, subscriptions to the novel "Infinite Terror" also began to rise rapidly. Last year, the average subscription for "Infinite Terror" had already exceeded 100,000.

It can be said that the average subscription rate of the novel "Infinite Terror" is the highest among all online novels.

Even with the increasing popularity of Li Boda and the movie "Infinite Terror", the average subscription rate of the novel "Infinite Terror" is still rising rapidly, showing no signs of stopping.

Shanda Literature even contacted Zhang Heng multiple times, trying to spend a lot of money to bring him back.

Unfortunately, Zhang Heng refused.

Zhang Heng wasn't stupid. The reason why the average subscription rate of the novel "Infinite Terror" continued to rise even a year after it was completed was because Li Boda adapted it into a movie.

Moreover, the treatment he received at 'Magic Cube Literature' was really good. He was doing well at Magic Cube Literature, so why would he want to go back to Shanda Literature, which was already being overtaken or even surpassed by Magic Cube Literature?

Then, Shanda Literature, seeing that it couldn't win Zhang Heng back, started suing him.

The lawsuit is against Zhang Heng for writing novels related to "Infinite Terror" on "Magic Cube Literature".

To be honest, if it were just Shanda Literature suing Zhang Heng, an author, Zhang Heng would absolutely not win.

However, with 'Magic Cube Literature' behind Zhang Heng, the situation is different.

With contracts like those from Shanda Literature, a decent lawyer could easily find numerous loopholes.

After all, while Shanda Literature's previous contract was formal, it couldn't be said to be overly rigorous.

Moreover, in the end, "Infinite Terror" was only serialized on Shanda Literature. It had already officially ended before "Infinite Terror". The story had a beginning and an end and had fully complied with the contract that Zhang Heng signed with Shanda Literature.

It is perfectly reasonable and legal for Zhang Heng to be writing a sequel to "Infinite Terror" on "Magic Cube Literature".

After all, Zhang Heng's contract wasn't like Changba Tianxia's, where 100,000 yuan sold all the copyrights to "Ghost Blows Out the Light," preventing Changba Tianxia from writing any more content related to "Ghost Blows Out the Light."

For Zhang Heng, "Infinite Terror" is "Infinite Terror" and the sequel is the sequel; they are two completely different books.

After all, the contract didn't stipulate that the sequel to the novel had to be written by Shanda Literature.

Therefore, Shanda Literature has absolutely no chance of winning.

Following this incident, a new clause was added to Shanda Literature's contracts, stipulating that the copyright for sequels, side stories, and other related content would remain with the Shanda Literature website. Any sequels or side stories that were to be written on Shanda Literature's platform were to be produced there.

However, once this contract was announced, some authors on Shanda Literature's website became unhappy again.

Previously, there was no other way; in the online literature circle, all websites were equally bad, which made Shanda Literature seem much better in comparison.

But now, with 'Magic Cube Literature', their contract terms are very lenient. The website only wants the serialization rights to your novel; they don't want anything else, unless you find copyright management troublesome and can hand it over to 'Magic Cube Literature' to handle.

Given this comparison, who would want to stay and write books at Shanda Literature?

As a result, another wave of authors jumped ship from Shanda Literature to 'Mofang Literature'.

Upon seeing this, everyone at Shanda Literature was seething with hatred.

What should we do? Revise the contract again?

But if the contract is changed, they'll get less profit!

If we really compare Shanda Literature to 'Mofang Literature', considering the costs of website operation, server purchases, employee salaries, and various other expenses, 'Shanda Literature' is almost not making any money at all!
Shanda Literature was furious with Magic Cube Technology. "You're a mobile phone seller! Why don't you just stick to selling your phones? What are you doing running an online novel website?! Are you trying to kill us all?"
The thing that killed 'you' wasn't even from the same industry, but from some damn outsider.

Shanda Literature must be furious.

In fact, it's not just Shanda Literature; other online novel websites are also feeling like they're about to explode with frustration.

They weren't doing as well as Shanda Literature to begin with, but now that Mofang Literature has jumped out, it not only almost killed Shanda Literature, but also stunned other online novel websites.

They were all unsure of what to do next, whether or not to make changes.

(End of this chapter)