Although Li Mu was a businessman, he preferred partners who were more compassionate than those Western businessmen.
Li Mu was usually more repulsed by those who were especially meticulous in their calculations. It was not that he was narrow-minded, but it was purely his personal preference.
When you wanted to pull a friend together to do something mutually beneficial, but the other party was only thinking about their own calculations, it was a very uncomfortable feeling.
With the foundation of Kung Fu Panda, the profit margin and future derivative value would not be too high. However, if he could bring the fame of the panda bear into the movie, coupled with the resources that he would give it, DreamWorks' income and profits would increase greatly. Not only would the box office of a single movie skyrocket, but there would also be more room for future sequels.
Many movies would not be able to continue after two or three movies due to lack of stamina, but there were also many movies like The Fast and the Furious that could continue to be produced, and the box office earnings would continue to increase.
The difference between live-action movies and live-action movies was that the later they were produced, the higher the cost. For example, The Fast and the Furious, the main actors were not famous at the beginning, and they could not wait to sign the 1,800,000 USD salary. They even used Guo Degang's joke of carrying two bags of noodles to get the job done.
However, as the movie became more and more popular, there were more sequels, and the value of the main actors increased, so the cost of the movie naturally skyrocketed.
In the production of American TV series, usually after three to five seasons, the salary of the main actors had to be adjusted several times. There were even cases of the main actors threatening to stop acting in order to increase their salary.
For animated movies, the more sequels there were, the lower the cost would be.
This was because the character design, background, world setting, art, visual elements, and model building were all one-time investments. As more sequels were produced, the cost would be diluted.
It was like the opening fee in the industry. Opening a set of molds would cost tens of millions. If only one product was produced, it would definitely be extremely expensive. Just the cost of the molds alone would be tens of millions.
But if ten were produced, the cost of the molds would be reduced to tens of thousands.
If DreamWorks was willing to work with him, it would be a win-win situation for them, and the profit margin for them would be much higher than if he worked alone. Plus, every successful collaboration would pave the way for even bigger collaborations. In the future, he would give them more resources and opportunities, but if it was too much of a ploy, then he might as well get rid of them as soon as possible.
Spielberg also realized the seriousness of the problem. After realizing that Li Mu was a little angry with him, he immediately chartered a plane to Beijing to personally apologize to Li Mu. At the same time, he also brought the outline, setting, and script of Kung Fu Panda.
Li Mu really didn't send anyone to pick him up. He didn't even ask when he would arrive.
Spielberg flew all the way to Hua Xia, and the first thing he did after getting off the plane in the morning was to go straight to Makino Technology.
After all, Spielberg was a world-famous director and a billionaire with a net worth of more than 100 million yuan. He came to Huaxia alone and did not dare to put on any show. He just wore a peaked cap and took a car to Muye Technology. Moreover, he did not contact Li Mu but went directly to the front desk.
Makino Technology's front desk usually had at least four people on duty at the same time. Three of them provided Chinese services, and the other one provided English services.
Seeing that it was an old white man, the receptionist who provided English services smiled and asked, "Hello, is there anything I can help you with?"
Spielberg touched the brim of his peaked cap and said, "Hello, I want to see your Li Zong."
The girl at the front desk didn't recognize him at first. When he said that he wanted to see Li Mu, the girl just asked as usual, "May I know your name? Do you have an appointment in advance? "
Spielberg said, "My name is Steven Spielberg. I made a verbal agreement with Mr. Lee before."
"Spielberg …" The girl at the front desk was stunned. After looking at him carefully for a moment, she recognized that the person standing in front of her was the famous director of Hollywood, Spielberg.
She was so surprised that she couldn't speak, but Spielberg was a little embarrassed. He coughed and said, "I wonder if you can help me to inform him?"
The girl at the front desk came to her senses and said quickly, "I'm sorry, please wait a moment. I'll make a phone call and ask."
With that, the girl at the front desk immediately picked up the phone and called Li Ziwei's office. She said, "Sister Ziwei, Mr. Spielberg is at the front desk. He wants to see Li Zong."
Li Ziwei said, "I see. Tell him to wait a moment. I'll inform Li Zong."
"Okay."
Li Ziwei quickly came to Li Mu's office, knocked on the door, and said to Li Mu, "Li Zong, Director Spielberg is here."
Li Mu grunted and said, "Let him come up."
A moment later, Spielberg was brought up by the staff.
The moment he saw Li Mu, Spielberg immediately took the initiative to step forward and said apologetically, "Mr. Li, I'm really sorry about what happened before. I didn't think it through."
Li Mu smiled slightly. "Steven, we're all friends. Don't be so polite. Please sit down."
When Spielberg heard "we're all friends," his face burned even more. He didn't know whether Li Mu said this intentionally or unintentionally, but he felt very ashamed when he heard it.
He hurriedly said the words that he had thought about all the way and said, "Mr. Li, I thought about it carefully later and realized the importance of win-win cooperation. In fact, Makino Technology is willing to use the image of the panda bear for us to make a movie, which is very beneficial to us."
Li Mu nodded and said lazily, "It's good that you've thought about it clearly. Otherwise, you'll always feel that I'm cheating you."
"How could that be?" Spielberg said hurriedly, "I wasn't worried that Li Zong would cheat us from the beginning. It was just that I was too optimistic about the future value of the copyright. Later, after thinking about it carefully, Li Zong's cooperation plan was the most suitable."
"Yes." Li Mu nodded faintly and asked, "So what do you think now?"
Spielberg said hurriedly, "It's very simple now. I hope that I can cooperate with Makino Technology and make the IP of the panda bear bigger and stronger."
Li Mu nodded and asked, "Did you bring the script and other materials?"
Spielberg nodded and took out a printed document from his bag. He handed it to Li Mu and said, "Li Zong, this is the relevant material for the story. Please have a look.
Li Mu nodded slightly and turned to the first page. He saw a line of words, "The protagonist of the story is a panda named Po?"
Spielberg nodded and said, "Yes, it is the first protagonist."
Li Mu said, "Can you change the name to Pang Da?"
"Pang Da? What does that mean? "
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