Chapter 606: The Beginning of the Hollywood Film Campaign

Chapter 606: The Beginning of the Hollywood Film Campaign

Chapter 606: The Beginning of the Hollywood Film Campaign

On January 1971, 1, a huge event happened in New York. It was related to an island in the sea. This event also aroused the Chinese people's love for their nation.
In early February, relevant committees were organized in Hong Kong and leaflets were distributed on a large scale.

The entire Hong Kong media was also reporting on this matter. Yang Wendong paid a moderate amount of attention to Hong Kong news every day, so he was naturally aware of this matter. He called his assistant Aying and said, "We will donate 100 million Hong Kong dollars to this committee anonymously, so that they will have enough funds to do what they should do."

When it comes to ZZ incidents, it is not convenient for any wealthy person to come forward directly, especially when they have some businesses in Japan and the United States.

Ah Ying quickly agreed, "Okay, Mr. Yang, but it's better if we don't provide the funds. We can find a long-term partner and let them provide the funds. Later, we can compensate them with the funds through legal business.

This way, we can avoid any risk on our side, and if something does happen, it will have absolutely nothing to do with us.”

As assistants, they are all top students from top law, political science, and business departments, and they have a high level of cognition, not only for their bosses, but also for society.

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Okay, we need to choose a good partner who is trustworthy. Also, don't leave any written records of this matter. The conversation needs to be held in a place we prepare, and it cannot be recorded. Alternatively, we can have the conversation through someone else, and you don't need to show up yourself."

The assistants to the boss of a large group basically also represent the boss, so this also requires caution.

Ah Ying smiled and said, "No problem, Mr. Yang, don't worry, I know what to do and I will make sure there is no possibility of it being linked to our group."

"Okay, that's it. Just pay the money and don't get involved in anything else. As for the media, let TVB and Oriental Daily follow up on the report." Yang Wendong said again.

As a top conglomerate, controlling the media is also a top priority. The Changxing Group has long controlled television stations, movies, and some media newspapers. It can be said that it controls half or even more of Hong Kong's communication channels;

Especially TVB. After Hong Kong's economy improved, a large number of families owned televisions. After owning televisions, people naturally prefer to get news content by watching free TV. After all, it is free and does not require reading. There are also video content, which seems easier.

It can be said that in terms of profits, the media is far behind other businesses, but in terms of influence, it is much stronger for the whole of Hong Kong. Even the Governor's Office often needs to cooperate with us on some matters, and generally speaking, if the matters are not too troublesome, we are willing to help, which can also promote our relationship with the Hong Kong government.

Ah Ying said quickly, "Yes, Mr. Yang."

There may be many disputes within the Chinese nation, but when facing the outside world, they are basically united. This has been the case since the Qin Dynasty.

Time soon came to the end of February, Li Xiaolong returned from the United States and came to Yang Wendong's office.

"Mr. Yang, this is the movie script that I decided to shoot after discussing with 20th Century Fox." Li Xiaolong handed over a thick stack of information.

Yang Wendong also showed some interest. He took the information and started reading it. The plot was not very complicated. The main theme was a Chinese martial arts school in Los Angeles that taught Chinese martial arts normally.
One day, a female reporter came to interview and had a little spark with the Chinese male protagonist. It was originally a good thing, but the news team that the female reporter belonged to went to Japan on a business trip. When they came back, they found that some illegal materials had been added to their luggage, and they were arrested by the NYPD.

The heroine's brother is also a NYPD officer. He soon investigated the matter with the Chinese hero and found that it was the Japanese Sankouchi organization behind it, which had been carrying out DP activities for a long time. So the two of them joined forces and went deep into their internal affairs. They got some evidence of them, but they were finally in crisis. They saved their lives by relying on various skills, and then cooperated with the NYPD to wipe out part of this organization.

At the end of the story, there is still a suspense, that is, Japan's attitude towards this matter. A new team will be sent soon to prepare for a possible sequel. If the film performs well, a second part will be filmed.

“The story is pretty standard, but how it performs depends on your fighting scenes.” Yang Wendong analyzed after watching it.

Li Xiaolong said with a smile: "Don't worry about this, Mr. Yang. The fighting scenes will definitely not be a problem."

"Yeah, okay." Yang Wendong nodded, and then asked, "Will the three of you organize a FD?"

In his previous life, Yang Wendong seemed to have heard that this organization did not do such things, but he was not sure whether it was true or not.

"Of course there are, but Japan is not a tropical region, so it is not top-notch, but it definitely exists." Li Xiaolong said curiously.

"Oh, that's fine. I just asked." Yang Wendong didn't think much about it. The times were different, so he asked again, "Why did you choose a Japanese gang as the villain? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to choose Mexico or South America for the United States?"

Li Xiaolong explained: "We were originally planning to choose Colombia, but I felt that Japan was more suitable, and the US side agreed considering the Asian market.

We estimate that we will finish filming this year and broadcast it before Christmas, and this year also happens to be the 30th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.”

"Okay, relatively speaking, we still don't dare to do anything to Americans in our daily life." Yang Wendong said with a smile.

Li Xiaolong added: "20th Century Fox has agreed to pay me $60, the same as the other male lead. This amount is considered above average in Hollywood."

"Okay, this is what you should do." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "But this first movie must be shot well. Whether you can gain a foothold in Hollywood in the future depends on this one."

Li Xiaolong said: "I understand. As long as Mr. Zou has negotiated the business cooperation, I will be ready to start filming. This time, I will definitely do my best."

Even if he is very confident in his martial arts, he may not succeed. This is quite mysterious. Many times, movies that are shot seriously will be ignored, while those that are shot simply may become dark horses. This kind of thing is common in both the United States and Hong Kong.

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Okay, don't worry too much. After the movie is made, I will promote it for you in the American media. As long as the movie is not too bad, it will be fine." It doesn't matter how much money is made from making this movie. What's important is to make Li Xiaolong completely famous in the United States and become a top star.
In this way, various civilian products, especially Red Bull, can easily enter markets around the world through it;
In addition, they will also be eligible to cooperate fairly with Hollywood giants. Only with long-term benefits will these people be less greedy.

Even after Li Xiaolong's success, other Hong Kong martial arts stars will have the opportunity to cooperate with Hollywood.

"Okay, thank you Yang Sheng." Li Xiaolong said gratefully.

A few days later, Zou Wenhuai came to Yang Wendong's office and said, "Mr. Yang, the cooperation with 20th Century Fox has been almost negotiated. The ratio of this joint venture is 55, and the total investment in the film is 1000 million US dollars;
As for the profits, we split them in half. 20th Century Fox is responsible for the European and American regions, and we are responsible for the rest of the regions.”

"What about the copyright?" Yang Wendong asked.

Zou Wenhuai said: "Half for each of us. They originally wanted the copyright in Europe and America to belong to them, and Asia to belong to us. I disagree. In terms of copyright development, Asia is still far behind Europe and America."

"Then it's basically half each." Yang Wendong nodded.

Zou Wenhuai followed up by saying, "Yes, this cooperation itself is also an experiment, and the funds involved are not that much, so it is easier to just split it in half in many aspects. Fox is not very tough either, and they probably want to cooperate with us for a long time."

"If we didn't have Li Xiaolong and enough theaters in Asia, they wouldn't be so easy to talk to." Yang Wendong shook his head and said.

In fact, everyone has this kind of thing called "greed", and the key lies in who is stronger;
For example, when it comes to investments in manufacturing or retail industries in Hong Kong, Changxing Group often cooperates with other consortiums, but Changxing Group basically has the final say and takes the bulk of the profits. This is not "greed", but the entire project depends on me, so I should naturally get the lion's share of the benefits, unless the other party also has its own irreplaceable advantages.

The same is true for cooperation with Hollywood. As the world's largest film market, the United States indirectly controls Europe and other regions. In this case, foreign film companies are naturally at a disadvantage when cooperating with Hollywood giants.

Therefore, Yang Wendong did not think about participating in the American film industry in the early days, because he would not get the benefits he deserved if he participated. Only when he became strong enough could he really negotiate the terms.

Zou Wenhuai said: "Yes, now it all depends on the performance of this movie. If it is a hit at the box office, we will be the first to promote Hong Kong films internationally."

Although Hong Kong films were previously shown in many Southeast Asian countries, the main customer group was still the local Chinese, and the influence was not great;
Only by achieving real success in Europe and the United States can we say that we have entered the international market.

"Yes, you should mobilize all resources to make this movie a success." Yang Wendong also said, "Also, there are many Chinese people in this movie script, so put some famous Chinese people in Hong Kong in the movie. Maybe some of them will perform well and be noticed by Hollywood. Even if they are not the protagonists, it is not bad to be a well-known supporting actor. There will always be a chance to make a comeback in the future."

After all, there are only a few people who can be the protagonist. Most people will never have this opportunity in their entire lives in the film and television industry. But supporting roles, relatively speaking, have more opportunities. Moreover, most protagonists are promoted from supporting roles, so whether you can succeed depends on your own abilities.

Even if there are some Chinese supporting roles in Hollywood movies frequently, it will also have a subtle influence on the European and American groups.

"Okay, Mr. Yang." Wrinkle agreed.

Yang Wendong suddenly said, "By the way, let's see if we can find a few people who are talented in comedy performance and martial arts. If they can perform in a funny way, they might have a chance to take a different route from Li Xiaolong."

In the previous life, Li Xiaolong passed away prematurely due to unknown reasons, which was quite a pity. In this life, Yang Wendong naturally tried his best to prevent this from happening again.

But no matter what the outcome is, both Jet Li and Jackie Chan in their past and future lives have become famous in Hollywood, which also shows that their two styles are feasible and can conquer Europeans and Americans.

Although Jet Li's style is not the same as Li Xiaolong's, they are somewhat similar. Jackie Chan's style is obviously different. He goes for a funny martial arts style.

It is impossible to ask Yang Wendong to find Jackie Chan now. Who knows where he is now? In the era without the Internet, there is no need to do so. However, it is still feasible to train the right people in this direction.

"Comedians?" Zou Wen thought for a moment and said, "In the past two years, there have been many actors in Hong Kong who are good at making comedy movies, but among them, there are no actors who are good at martial arts."

Yang Wendong said indifferently: "If there is no one, just pay attention to it later and see who has this two-way talent. Once you find them, you can cultivate them appropriately."

Under his influence, Hong Kong films have now taken a completely different path. In the past few years, various blockbuster films have emerged like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.
It's just that in terms of box office records, he can't compare with Li Xiaolong and has always been suppressed, but he also has many movies with box office exceeding one million, including several comedies;

Yang Wendong often watched these movies in his spare time. These movies made him a lot of money, but more importantly, they also brought him a lot of fun. Now, under his urging, the quality of Hong Kong movies has caught up with those in the 1980s and 1990s, and the content is different;
The quality of some of these contents is not low-level at all for Yang Wendong, and it is also very interesting for a modern person whose threshold has been raised very high by the entertainment industry in his previous life.

Zou Wenhuai nodded and said, "Okay, I'll pay attention to it."

In the following days, the headquarters office of Changxing Group reviewed the cooperation plan with 20th Century Fox and also passed it through an American law firm. It was confirmed that there were almost no major problems in the contract, so it was handed over to the boss, and Yang Wendong also signed the contract;

Since then, Hong Kong films have officially cooperated with Hollywood giants for the first time in the film industry, with a total investment of up to 1000 million US dollars.
After the news broke, the Hong Kong media was in an uproar. No one could have imagined that a city like Hong Kong would one day be able to collaborate with top Hollywood companies to shoot movies.

Changxing Film Company immediately began to screen actors internally, and then cooperated with Li Xiaolong to go to the United States to film. Everything was going on normally and smoothly.

PS: Ask for monthly ticket

(End of this chapter)