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Chapter 931

"How is it? What do you say over Zhang Chu?"

Walker Smith sat on the sofa, holding a glass of vodka with ice in his right hand, and the bow tie on his neck was untied and half-hanged.

His assistant Erin Carter replied in a red skirt, "They did not agree to our proposal to purchase the copyright, and they didn't even give us the initial adaptation rights."

"If you don't sell it for $5 million, does he really think this "Lord of the Rings" can be compared with "The Da Vinci Code"? Paramount's people just want to catch a life-saving straw. It seems that we are forced to get angry!"

As a Disney producer, Walker Smith came here to promote his upcoming movie. By the way, he heard that Paramount wanted to buy the copyright of Zhang Chu's new book, so he got involved.

"At present, the opinions given by the script experts in the company are that adaptation is difficult and not valuable. But if the price is right, you can buy it back and fill it in the script library, and then adapt it after Zhang Chu's work is released a few years later. There are rumors that Warner Bros. has offered a price of $10 million, twice ours, and Zhang Chu and Warner also cooperate. Their "Pi's Fantasy Drift" will be released in the awards season and will officially hit the Oscars!"

These big companies have spies to each other, and they can't hide any movement from each other, and the price issues will be exposed.

It is almost impossible to complete a big project in a low-key manner, unless you cut the mess quickly and reach the contract at a very fast speed.

Walker Smith took a look at the book "The Lord of the Rings" beside him. He wanted to get the film and television adaptation rights of this book, but he didn't want to spend so much.

Even if it is the company's money, you have to apply!

"Damn it, after the writer becomes famous, the cost of this adaptation will rise sharply."

Even so, every film company hopes that the writer's works will become popular, so that there will be more audiences after the adaptation.

Of course, there are also some people who specialize in focusing on those unknown writers. As long as the story is wonderful, they can buy the film and television copyright, even if the full copyright is bought for hundreds of thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.

This is how many copyright companies hoard copyrights, cast a wide net, and then slowly catch fish, and recommend some of the excellent works to film companies. The profits generated in the middle have nothing to do with the writer!

But Zhang Chu is different. The cost of his movie adaptation rights has been completed by a triple jump, and several works have received the attention of major manufacturers. With "The Lord of the Rings" already topped the global bestseller list, it is impossible to reduce the adaptation fee.

The self-decreasing value has always existed in legends and news reports, and the reduced value has to be filled with the remaining benefits.

It’s like Zhang Chu did not charge the film and television adaptation fee for the crew of "Farewell My Concubine", but instead put all the money in the dividends.

At first glance, he seemed to have lost a lot, at least seven or even eight digits of adaptation fees, to exchange for an uncertain box office prospect.

This situation is very rare. Zhang Chu can cooperate with small companies like this, but there is no need to work with large companies. There is no need to save money for them, and the other party is unwilling to take out the dividends.

Adapted movies have always occupied an important part of Hollywood movies, and almost 42% of the movies that won the Oscar for Best Picture are adapted from. In the market, more than 50% of the movies adapted through adaptation account for 20%, and this proportion has been increasing in recent years!

The magic of words lies in the space of imagination, and the excitement of the movie is to turn these magnificent imaginations into real images. Even if they may be criticized and scolded by book fans, they may also be the magic of turning decay into magic.

There are fewer and fewer original movies, and many film and television works are adapted from comics, songs, stage plays, biography, real events, etc. These stories have a clear structure and complete and moving content.

In Hollywood copyright transactions, standardized operations already have fixed templates.

Unlike in China, the right to adapt film and television books is often in the hands of the author himself rather than the publisher. Unless it is particularly abundant in funds or has a strong network of relationships, it is impossible to covet best-selling writers like Zhang Chu.

Their asking price is often very high, and they may be taken down by rich companies early on.

The way for ordinary Hollywood companies is to target books that have been published for several years. The authors may have a certain reputation in specific circles, but they are not well-known to the public for the time being. This is a cost-effective literary work.

Walker Smith thinks that Zhang Chu's "The Lord of the Rings" is relatively cheap!

If he signed this book, the risk was a bit high, so he thought about it and was not ready to update the quotation.

...

At the same time, at Universal Pictures’ project meeting, President Donna Langley was checking out the project reports in his hands.

As the only female president among the six major Hollywood film companies, Donna Langley has a brilliant resume, no worse than the bosses of other companies!

This former executive of the new line company worked at Universal Pictures after 2001 and produced excellent works including "Fast and Furious", "Despicable", "Indestructible", and "Ace Spy". He is one of the best executives of the film industry.

"Chris, I see the report says you have an idea about "The Lord of the Rings"?"

"That's right, we found out from the online database of the Copyright Office that his book was indeed registered, and the United States and Europe discovered any copyright transactions and rights transfers. I think this work has deep potential to explore. The senior executive of Random House, who I met at a cocktail party, revealed some news to me that Zhang Chu has actually completed the creation of the second part of the Lord of the Rings, but he plans to put it into the market together after he finishes the third part."

Universal Pictures has had a very good global box office in the past two years, second only to Disney, the dominant player.

But Donna is not satisfied with competing for the second place with Warner Bros., what she wants is first!

If you always use the film sea tactics and make them at a low cost, you will not be able to accumulate high box office in any case, and will only attract yourself to the infamous movies like Warner Bros.

Therefore, developing commercial blockbusters is the top priority. There are very few works that can shoulder this important task. Even if there are, they will have been divided up long ago!

So Donna thought for a while and said, "Although several other film companies are bidding in semi-public form, we will keep up with them for the time being. Chris, you and the script development department should hurry up and use a reliable screenwriter to write simple scripts and prepare for casting. We skip the initial adaptation rights transaction and take the adaptation rights of his series of works by ourselves. The faster the better, this is our opportunity!"

"No problem, I'll go now."
Chapter completed!
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