Harvey himself was quite optimistic about this movie, but what he was really optimistic about was not the artistic value of this movie, nor was it the pure commercial value of this movie, but the value of the depth of the operation.
Harvey was like an excellent plastic surgeon. He could see through the facial features of a movie at a glance and find the best plastic surgery plan. Such changes seemed small, but they could be the finishing touch and make the movie stand out from the crowd.
He already had a whole set of operation plans for "The Hero." The most important part of this plan was how to put Quentin's name into this movie, and then use Quentin's reputation to attract the box office of the North American audience.
This was because Harvey knew very well that the North American audience did not understand Hua Xia's martial arts culture. They just wanted to see the excitement, the visual effects, and the exotic atmosphere.
In terms of visual effects, "The Hero" had no problems. The only thing it lacked now was a gimmick to fool the audience.
It was precisely because the audience did not understand this kind of movie that they were the easiest to fool. If the name of the great director Zhang was used and thirty million dollars was invested in North America, it might not be able to earn thirty million dollars at the box office. However, if the name of Quentin was used, even with only three hundred thousand dollars of publicity, it would still earn at least thirty million dollars at the box office. This was Quentin's appeal.
Moreover, Quentin himself was a great director with an extremely obvious style. Even if his audience did not understand a thing after watching his movie, they would definitely go around saying how this movie was in Quentin's style and how awesome it was. No one was willing to admit that they did not understand Quentin. Instead, they were proud that they could understand Quentin.
Harvey was Quentin's talent scout. He had absolute confidence that he could get Quentin to cooperate with him. Therefore, as long as he got this movie, with Quentin's name, this movie would be able to make a lot of money in North America. The most important thing was that even Hua Xia himself had no confidence in the North American box office of this movie. This meant that there was a great possibility that he could buy out this movie at a low price, and then sell it in North America to hype it up and make a lot of money.
This was indeed the situation in his previous life. Harvey used the shell of Miramax Pictures to buy out the North American distribution rights of "The Hero." The so-called buyout was that after buying it out for a certain price, the rights would belong to someone else, and the original copyright owner would not care how much they earned.
If Harvey paid one million dollars to buy out the North American box office of "The Hero," then even if Harvey made tens of millions of dollars in the end, it would have nothing to do with Director Zhang and the producers. Apart from the one million dollar buyout, the only thing they could gain was reputation, which was the capital to increase their value and brag.
However, although the box office of "Hero", which was packaged in such a way, set a record for the overseas box office in the history of Huaxia movies, in fact, for North American users, most of them were paying for Quentin. They might not even know who Director Zhang was until the end.
Originally, the producers of "The Hero" hoped to confirm the cooperation with Harvey as soon as possible, in case Li Mu refused to let go of "The Hero" in the future and cut off its overseas development route. Therefore, if they sold the copyright to Harvey as soon as possible, they could get rid of the risk of being besieged by Li Mu.
Harvey himself was ready to confirm the copyright agreement with the producers of "The Hero" as soon as possible, but when he found out that the domestic box office of "The Hero" was extremely dismal, he immediately went back on his word. He decided to use the box office failure as an excuse to further lower the pre-agreed buyout fee, which made the producers of "The Hero" very angry.
However, Director Zhang suggested that the producers should not worry about money for the time being, and establish a cooperation with Harvey as soon as possible. Because of Harvey's great influence in Hollywood, if the movie wanted to get the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Harvey's lobbying was indispensable. If they did not confirm the cooperation with Harvey as soon as possible, and if Li Mu took the initiative, there was no telling what would happen.
The producers and investors also realized the potential threat of Li Mu. After several discussions, they agreed to Harvey's request and sold the North American distribution rights of "The Hero" to Harvey at 40% of the original price.
Losing 60% of the buyout fee made the producers of "The Hero" very depressed, but there was nothing they could do. They could only pray that Harvey could promote the influence of the movie in North America, so that even though they did not make any money, they could at least gain some reputation.
For Harvey, who was far away in Hollywood, this news was great. He liked to use these kinds of conspiracies to get the copyright of others at a low price, and then make the biggest profit through his own manipulation.
For people like Harvey, strength and character were not proportional at all. Director Feng once scolded Harvey publicly, saying that his usual trick in Hua Xia was to first lure the local filmmakers with a high price, such as eight million to buy out the North American copyright. This price would scare away all the other interested competitors, and then Harvey would pay a small deposit in advance to reassure the filmmakers in Hua Xia. But after the movie was finished, he immediately regretted it and said that he did not want the movie anymore. He would rather give up the deposit than buy the copyright at the agreed price. However, it was already too late to find a new seller at that time. In the end, Harvey could only buy it at an extremely low price. The initial price of eight million might only be one million.
The excited Harvey immediately sent a representative to Hua Xia, ready to sign the final buyout agreement with the production company of "The Hero." But he never dreamed that when his representative was on the plane to Hua Xia, all the YY users in the United States received a news pop-up window.
This news pop-up window contained a lot of information. It included the entire process of the Shadow Mu ticketing system from its birth to its development, and then to its strangulation by dozens of film and television companies. There were many articles, reports, and even a lot of pictures and demonstration videos.
In this push window, Harvey, who had an extremely keen sense of smell, did not have time to see the whole story. He immediately realized the magic of the Shadow Mu ticketing system, and his eyes suddenly lit up at this awesome product!
Even though he had the ability to turn the world upside down in Hollywood, Harvey still admired the Shadow Mu ticketing system from the bottom of his heart. The more awesome a person was, the more they knew how to respect others. He had not been so shocked in a long time, so when he saw this push window, his first thought was to bring this system to North America!
With Harvey's deep understanding of the film and television industry, he knew very well that once this system was popularized in North America, it would definitely bring a huge change and improvement to the entire North American box office. By then, the entire Hollywood would benefit from it. In Harvey's opinion, this system was also very easy to transplant to the United States. As long as Alipay was replaced with PayPal, this system could be completely popularized in North America!
Harvey excitedly sent a message to the subordinate he sent to Hua Xia, asking him to find a way to contact Makino Image as soon as he landed. He wanted to buy the rights to use this system in North America. Once this system was in his hands, with his influence in Hollywood and the entire North American film and television industry, he would definitely be able to quickly popularize it throughout North America. The benefits were so great that even Harvey could not imagine it himself.
However, after Harvey sent the message, he continued to read the push window and was surprised to find that this system was actually being boycotted by the film and television companies in Hua Xia. As he continued to read, Harvey's eyeballs almost popped out!
In this global synchronized push window, Li Mu published all the names of the companies that had secretly stifled Shadow Leopard's ticketing system. He even included a lot of evidence of their backstabbing, such as the transfer records of the production company of The Hero to the domestic Internet Water Army, the email records of The Hero and the bosses of other companies, and even the photos that were secretly taken when they were having a meal in a restaurant, as well as the recordings that were secretly recorded.
In short, the chain of evidence that Li Mu published this time was so sufficient that the dozens of film and television companies would definitely not be able to get rid of it no matter how hard they tried!
When Harvey found out that the production company of The Hero was among them, and that this company even played an important role in it, he immediately realized the seriousness of the problem!
First of all, Harvey did not have the slightest doubt about Li Mu's influence. He knew how powerful Li Mu's influence and appeal was in the world. However, he did not expect that Li Mu's counterattack would be so ruthless. He directly used all of his resources to fight back against his opponents.
Secondly, he did not expect that the company that he originally wanted to cooperate with turned out to be the biggest enemy of Li Mu's public counterattack.
Thirdly, if he continued to cooperate with this company, he would definitely offend Li Mu. By that time, the possibility of him buying the Shadow Leopard's ticketing system from Li Mu would be almost zero. Most importantly, if Li Mu also saw him as an enemy, then he would not be able to withstand his attack at all. Although he was very powerful in the film and television industry, compared to Li Mu, the difference in strength was too great. They were not even in the same dimension.
The cunning Harvey almost immediately made a decision. Based on Li Mu's counterattack against the production company of The Hero, he could not take the North American copyright of The Hero no matter what. Even if the movie had a huge profit margin, he had to give it up, because this thing would attract hatred. Whoever held it in their hands would offend Li Mu. Furthermore, Harvey still needed to continue working in the film and television industry. He could not offend a super big shot like Li Mu just for the profits of a movie.
After making this decision, Harvey immediately sent a message to the subordinate he sent to Hua Xia: Give up the copyright of The Hero, and stop talking to them. You only have one task in the next few days, and that is to find a way to contact the higher-ups of Makino Image!
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