Reborn in America, I'm serious about making money.

"I didn't expect that. We were being stingy. I thought it was $50,000."

The factory manager sighed, still feeling lingering fear. If he had ruined this cooperation, the entire factory, including the higher-ups, would probably have come after him.

"Yes, factory manager, it's a good thing you didn't mention that. This has given us experience in negotiating with them later." The others were relieved and praised the factory manager's resourcefulness.

"Director, what should we do about this? Five and a half million US dollars, should we agree to it?" Some people were even more worried that the project might not go through. Although the five and a half million US dollars might not all go to Shanghai Animation Film Studio in the end, it would be good if a part of it went to them, of course, in RMB.

"Let's raise the price again, otherwise it'll feel like we're taking advantage of them if we agree too easily." The factory manager, being the factory manager, naturally spoke with depth.

"Ah, yes, yes, that's so true, the factory manager really has a broad vision."

The factory manager's words resonated widely; who would complain about not having enough money?

The matter quickly reached the cultural and educational departments. It was that university teacher who reported the situation. Once one department knew, the other departments naturally found out as well.

That same day, many higher-level departments approached them and discussed the matter.

"You absolutely must take on this business."

"That's over five million US dollars. How much would it take to produce to earn that much foreign exchange?"

"You must take the cooperation with Global very seriously; the city will definitely give you all its support."

The factory manager felt immense pressure! All his direct superiors had called, and he immediately understood—they wanted to... He should have agreed right then and there, instead of dragging it out for so long.

"I'll try to get it tomorrow, if not, five and a half million will do." After saying that, the factory manager seemed like a deflated balloon, utterly exhausted.

The next day, the factory manager made another effort and finally won the project for six million US dollars. The two sides discussed the details, and many leaders came to sign the contract.

A signing ceremony was held, and many reporters came to witness the event. MCA Global also announced that it would set up an office in Shanghai as a liaison point for both parties. However, this news may have been big news in mainland China, but it was not reported at all on the other side of the strait. In their view, North American companies cooperate with overseas companies too often. Five and a half million US dollars? It's a small project with no news value.

Zhang San received the news three days after the signing; he was busy with another matter recently. As for the cooperation between Huansheng and Shanghai Meichang, it was just a small project, and he just wanted to see if he could make a quick buck along the way.

Now that something big is happening in Europe, Zhang San's focus is mainly on Germany. At this time, Germany and East Germany are merging, and he has his eye on a camera company in East Germany. Although he also has his eye on other companies there, those are not within his reach. However, he still has a way to acquire one or two companies.

He entrusted this matter to Morgan Stanley for help. That company was no worse than West Germany in the field of optics, and its cameras were selling very well.

He would be very happy if he could acquire that company; if he couldn't, there was nothing he could do, after all, the benefits of the privatization of East German state-owned enterprises over there were not meant for foreigners.

However, he could acquire raw materials or non-Western standard parts and equipment from those factories and then ship them back to the mainland for sale. After all, much of the equipment on the mainland still uses equipment from the northern big brother.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but laugh, then muttered to himself, "Heh... I've really become a 'ragpicker,' making my fortune by collecting junk and now I'm going to make money from junk."

As for this, Zhang San didn't mind. He just joked about it, saying, "If you can make money standing up, who would want to make money on their knees?"

Another thing was filming a new movie. He thought of a movie called The Hunger Games, which was inspired by the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale, a movie that was touted as a survival movie on a deserted island and a real-life battle royale.

When Zhang San watched the movie back then, he felt that the creators of PUBG might have designed the game based on the movie.

Zhang San had no qualms about plagiarism. He immediately thought of another movie, and thus, he could combine the two movies into one. "Killing Time" was the name Zhang San gave to his script outline.

The story is simple: in the future, a group of wealthy people with boring lives gather together on a deserted island to hold a real-life deserted island survival and real-life monster-raising game called "Killing Time".

They will recruit a large number of people of different professions, ages, and genders, and have them kill each other on the deserted island, with only five surviving in the end.

The last survivor will receive a million-dollar prize. These survivors will then engage in killing on a camera-covered island for the entertainment or betting of the wealthy, in order to attract more rich people to join in.

After finishing one book, he still felt it wasn't enough, so he wrote several more, including The Hunger Games. He planned to write the outline, find a ghostwriter to adapt it into a novel, expand the influence of the book's fans, and then promote the movie.

Writing an outline is easy, since it's not like writing a script. He simply took the stories he knew and wrote the outline.

He wrote so many outlines, of course, for the purpose of making them into movies in the future, especially one of the scripts, "The Big Ship." This script has not yet appeared, but someone is already preparing it.

In 1985, Rob Ballard discovered the wreckage of the Titan. According to the truck driver, he only wanted to explore before making the movie. It wasn't until 1995, ten years later, after his underwater exploration, that he began writing the script, which took him six months to complete.

Since he wanted to get involved, he naturally had to "hijack" the project. He had a script, and when the other party approached him, he could invest. However, Zhang San disliked the 200 million yuan filming fee and the fact that the props would be dismantled and sold as scrap metal.

He now owns MCA Universal, which owns a movie theater. If this ship is used as part of the movie theater project, it will definitely attract a lot of people. Moreover, the ship can be used as a hotel for those people to stay in. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

When Zhang San makes a movie, he naturally inflates the production costs. He plans to learn from his predecessors, specifically "How to Buy Three Thousand Dollar Straw Sandals," so that he can make a good movie.

Another essential skill is making two movies on the budget of one.