MGM announced that they will be signing director Christopher Nolan for a large sum of money. Also, this is a long-term contract. Ten years, ten movies, and it will be a base salary plus a bonus from the box office.
For a moment, everyone was shocked.
They were most surprised. Who is this Nolan?
At this moment, Nolan is still a nameless small director, or rather, a new director who switched from being a cameraman, screenwriter, and actor. Everyone's impression of him is probably that of < Memory Fragments >. This is a mediocre box office movie. It is neither a commercial film nor an artistic film.
Recently, Nolan has made some other moves. For example, he is the director of the comic book < Batman >. This movie is scheduled for this summer and is invested by Time Warner.
Even if MGM signed this new director and bet on his future, they shouldn't be giving him such generous terms. To get a bonus from the box office, it must be a commercial director like Steven Spielberg or Cameron.
Also, ten movies in ten years. This is too much. Is MGM out of directors? But there are still many successful directors in Hollywood. Why did they choose this one?
Nolan is a director that Feng Yu likes. In his previous life, Nolan slowly climbed to the top of the world's top directors. Most importantly, Nolan's placement in the movie was subtle and very effective.
If a movie wants to make money, product placement is an effective method. But if the product placement is too serious, it will affect the viewing experience.
Also, Nolan's superhero movies are very good. Although DC Comics is owned by Warner and they refuse to sell it, Marvel did not say they will not sell it. Also, Marvel movies are not as popular as before Feng Yu's previous life. Maybe they can get Marvel under their banner by spending less money.
Also, getting Marvel under their banner is not only good for adapting movies. The Wind and rain game can also be adapted into a video game, and there will definitely be a lot of income. Comics, cartoons, dolls, costumes, and other merchandise can also be developed. These are all money.
Many people feel that some movies are losing money at the box office, but why are they still making sequels? It's not that the investors are stupid, nor is it the production company. It's that they are making money through the merchandise.
The movie might lose tens of millions from the box office, but it could earn back a hundred million from the peripherals. Moreover, there was another advantage to the sequel, which was that it could drive the surrounding area to become even more popular. It could also drive the sales of the previous movies and earn another sum of income.
Therefore, when many film companies signed with actors, they would sign three or four film contracts at once, letting one person represent the image of a character. This way, they could avoid the actor leaving and causing the sequel to not be accepted by the fans, or the actor's salary to skyrocket, which would affect their production costs.
Feng Yu had asked MGM to give Nolan such a generous offer because he was afraid that Nolan would be poached by Warner Bros. After all, Nolan's Batman was about to be released. If the movie received good reviews and box office was high, Warner Bros. would definitely ask Nolan to make a sequel.
It was a pity that Warner was paying Nolan a fixed salary, which couldn't be compared to MGM. Although the box office bonus was also risky, Nolan could only get a dividend of pure profits, which was three times the box office earnings minus the production costs. The rest of the money was the box office profit.
But at this time, no one was willing to give Nolan an unknown director.
Moreover, before Nolan signed with MGM, he had received news that Cameron was going to enter the commercial film industry again, and MGM was the first to offer him an olive branch.
Cameron had been filming documentaries for the past few years. Many people had invited him to continue filming Terminator, but he had rejected them all. He had a script in mind, but no one had been willing to invest in it for almost ten years.
He had written this script before Titanic was released. He had thought that with Titanic's unparalleled box office earnings, he would be able to get a huge investment.
But those companies were very unhappy with Cameron's shooting and production speed, because Cameron had said that he planned to finish the movie in five to eight years, and that it would be a masterpiece in film history.
No one was willing to invest in five to eight years, especially when Cameron was asking for 300 million dollars. How much would the box office earnings be to earn back the money? Even if it was calculated according to five years, how much would 300 million dollars become after inflation? If this 300 million USD was invested in other movies, it would be enough to produce at least three to five large-scale commercial films. How much would the profits be?
That's why even though Cameron was one of the top 20 directors of the 21st century and had the highest box office earnings, he still could not get any investment.
But it was different this time. MGM does not lack money, or rather, Wind and Rain Holdings does not lack money, and they were willing to invest.
In particular, Cameron had promised that while filming his dream movie, "Avatar", he would film another "Terminator" and use the profits from this movie to support the filming of "Avatar".
In particular, Cameron wanted to turn 'Avatar' into a movie series, just like 'Terminator' and 'Star Wars'. This was something that MGM agreed with.
If the first movie was a success, it would become a series, and they could make more money. This was also in MGM's interest.
Actually, MGM's staff had objected to this, but Ralph had followed Feng Yu's advice and suppressed them. Wind and Rain Holdings had the final say in the company, and they will invest if they want to!
It's just money. Feng Yu could not get a bank loan, but he could borrow money from Wind and Rain Holdings.
This was not only a monetary gain, but they could also use the film company to influence the culture of the US.
All along, the United States had used their movies and other cultural products to export their values, or rather, the values they wanted others to abide by.
Why can't they reverse the trend and let the culture of the US influence the values of the US?
Commercial films in the US focus on visual effects, and the plot must be simple and straightforward with a clear main storyline. This main storyline could be about love, it could be about punishing evil and promoting good, it could be about revenge, or it could be about the opposition between good and evil.
No matter what, the plot must be simple and straightforward, and most people can understand it easily. It was like the fantasy novels Feng Yu had read on the internet in his previous life. It was fine as long as it made the readers feel good.
And in this simple pleasure, it would be good to highlight a universal value system.
After signing the two directors, Feng Yu decided to meet them personally to correct their misconceptions and let them make money for the company faster.
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