On behalf of DreamWorks, Spielberg signed a copyright use agreement for Panda Bear with Li Mu, as well as a strategic cooperation agreement for "Kung Fu Panda".
The overall terms seem fair, but if you really look into it, DreamWorks has suffered some losses.
Li Mu's approach is like a well-known star going to a well-known restaurant to have a meal and then forcibly buying shares. Although it brings its own traffic, in the long run, DreamWorks has indeed lost a greater space for imagination.
But Spielberg had no choice. He didn't want to offend Li Mu because of a movie. After all, no matter how great a movie is, the space for imagination is limited, but behind Li Mu, there are infinite possibilities.
After the contract was signed, Makino Imaging became one of the producers of "Kung Fu Panda". In order to build momentum for the movie in advance, YY teamed up with Weibo Twitter to announce the news to the outside world.
Subsequently, the news that Panda Bear was about to star in the DreamWorks Animation film "Kung Fu Panda" hit screens all over the world.
This is the first time in the history of Hollywood that cross-border cooperation between cartoon characters has occurred.
Since the "Kung Fu Panda" project has just begun at DreamWorks, the outside world has not heard any news at all, so they all thought that this was a movie specially customized for Panda Bear by Li Mu.
The concept of customizing a Hollywood-level animated film specifically for a cartoon character shocked the world. It sounded like building a university specifically for a child. However, when thinking about the wealthy Makino Technology, people were surprised. The rest is acceptable.
As for those fans who like Panda Bear, they are naturally very happy. Although they don't know the specific plot of the movie yet, the name "Kung Fu Panda" is already very exciting.
After the news of Panda Bear starring in "Kung Fu Panda" came out, Li Mu and Spielberg immediately realized a win-win situation. Spielberg also saw Panda Bear's powerful fan effect from social networks and news media. Such a powerful fan effect With the support of its fan base, as long as "Kung Fu Panda" reaches first-class production standards, it shouldn't be a problem to earn US$1.5 billion at the global box office.
As for the production cost of "Kung Fu Panda", DreamWorks previously estimated it to be around US$100 million.
However, for almost all movies, the pre-production budget will be lower than the actual cost. Almost every director will increase investment during the actual operation. Therefore, after the production of "Kung Fu Panda" is completed, the cost should increase by another two thousand. Ten thousand dollars or so.
With a box office of US$1.5 billion and a cost of US$120 million, the revenue ratio is extremely optimistic.
So Spielberg immediately adjusted the focus of DreamWorks' current work and raised the priority of "Kung Fu Panda" to the first place. In other words, from now on, DreamWorks' main job is to produce "Kung Fu Panda" .
After all, DreamWorks is a top animation brand with rich experience. It immediately made work adjustments. The location selection team, which had originally planned to conduct live-action selection in several provinces in southwest China, immediately turned around and most of them rushed to Bashu, especially They are Jiuzhaigou Valley and Wolong Town.
Jiuzhaigou was recommended to Spielberg by Li Mu. The Peace Valley in "Kung Fu Panda" is also located in mountains and rivers with a strong Chinese style. However, for Chinese people, that style is too common and not representative enough.
Therefore, Li Mu suggested that Spielberg refer more to the scenery of Jiuzhaigou, especially the water there, when structuring the scene.
In addition to Jiuzhaigou and Wolong, Li Mu also recommended Huangshan to Spielberg. Li Mu had traveled to many mountains and rivers in his previous life. In his eyes, Huangshan was the most fairy-like.
So Spielberg immediately instructed the location selection team to separate a small team and go to Huangshan to have a look.
Therefore, Li Mu hopes that the future "Kung Fu Panda" will have the majestic mountains of Huangshan and the magical lakes of Jiuzhaigou in terms of landscape structure, and then incorporate the freehand brushwork of Chinese landscape paintings to make the artistic conception more in-depth.
Spielberg fully adopted Li Mu's suggestion. This time he came to China in a hurry, which made Spielberg understand a very simple truth: no matter what, he must satisfy Li Mu.
Li Mu was not idle either. He immediately asked the team to shoot and produce a new issue of Panda Bear emoticons. This time, in order to highlight "Kung Fu Panda", the shooting team specially built a martial arts scene and let Panda Bear shoot a A series of expressions related to "kung fu", but these expressions are also exaggerated, and the panda bear is not deliberately portrayed as a kung fu master, but as a kung fu loser.
For example, a panda bear practiced kung fu on a plum blossom pile, but fell heavily; he performed kung fu techniques in front of a wooden dummy pile, but was struck back by the wooden pile because he was too clumsy.
In addition to kung fu-related expressions, the team also added some funny, mean-spirited, mischievous and cute expressions in order to avoid a single style in this updated emoticon pack.
After this set of expressions came out, Panda Bear and "Kung Fu Panda" became even more popular on the Internet.
…
Just when the news about "Kung Fu Panda" was at its peak, the station leaders of Xiangnan Satellite TV became aware of this powerful cultural IP.
Over the past year or so, Xiangnan Satellite TV has received a lot of help from Li Mu. The popularity of "Super Girl" has helped them open up a new world of talent shows, and the popularity of "Longing for Life" has made them in the field of reality shows. It is also far ahead of other domestic satellite TV stations.
Now, as the Lunar New Year is approaching and the first season of "Longing for Life" is about to come to an end, Xiangnan Satellite TV is preparing to plan a new variety show, and they have focused their attention on the now popular Panda Bear.
Right now, there is a very popular reality show in the international market. Its English name is "The Amazing Race". The general routine is to select several groups of guests and then take them to travel around the world, and complete it while traveling. Various tasks, there will be many competition units in the program, one or two teams will be eliminated every once in a while, and then new teams will be filled in.
Each season of "The Amazing Race" is like a football league. After a series of games and continuous elimination, the last group of winners is left. The program production company prepares generous bonuses for the winners to improve the program's popularity. their appeal.
This program has been broadcast by RTHK, and Travel TV has also started broadcasting it last year. The ratings are very good. This program is different from ordinary variety shows. Most variety shows are indoor programs. Even "Longing for Life" ", the venue of each season is also fixed, but "The Amazing Race" is different. Its characteristic is that it never repeats the scene. Both the contestants and the program are constantly changing the scene and moving forward at a rapid speed, so the rhythm of the program is very tight. Nervous and exciting.
After the success of "The Longing for Life", Shonan Satellite TV wanted to continue to develop new variety shows to expand its advantages, so their leadership suddenly came up with a program concept. They wanted to use the model of "The Amazing Race" Move in and create a domestic version of The Amazing Race.
Since it is a domestic version, it is most suitable to shoot the first season in China. Now, Li Mu is using Panda Bear to promote domestic panda tourism routes. This has given the leadership of Hunan Satellite TV a good inspiration. They feel , the best choice is to take advantage of the popularity of the panda travel route and create a "The Amazing Race" version of the panda travel route.
In their design plan, they planned to invite 12 guests to form 6 teams. These six teams would start from Yanjing and march from Yanjing to Sichuan through competitions arranged by various programs.
In the first season, they want to shoot it in 10 episodes, including one in Yanjing, two in Hebei, two in Shanxi, and one across the Yellow River. Then they will shoot two in Shaanxi and two in Bashu.
They hope to use Panda Bear elements throughout the program, and even hope to co-produce it with Makino Image, because they are well aware of Li Mu's ability to produce TV programs, and they also covet Li Mu's powerful resources in publicity and promotion. If With the cooperation between the two parties, the ratings of this program will definitely explode in the future.
So they immediately held a meeting to discuss the feasibility of the entire plan. At the meeting, everyone raised their hands to pass the resolution. Then, after confirming the details, they approached Chen Wan, who had become the first sister of Xiangnan Satellite TV.
As soon as Chen Wan entered the conference room, the station manager smiled and said to her: "Chen Wan, I came to you today because I have an important task for you."
Although she didn't know what the mission would be, Chen Wan nodded immediately and said, "Director, please tell me."
The director said: "We have planned a variety show, and I asked Director Wang to give a general introduction."
At this time, the senior executive known as Director Wang briefly introduced the overall idea of "The Amazing Race".
After he finished the introduction, the station manager said: "Chen Wan, you have the deepest relationship with Li Mu. I hope you can communicate with him on behalf of the station. There are three main demands. One is to use the image of a panda bear; For the concept of panda tourism routes, secondly, I hope to get support from Li Mu in terms of promotional resources, and thirdly, I hope to co-produce with Li Mu’s Makino images for mutual benefit.”
Chen Wan nodded immediately and said: "The idea of this program is great, and it can indeed promote each other with Li Mu's panda tourism. I think Li Mu will not refuse."
After saying that, Chen Wan added: "I'll call him later."
The station director hurriedly said: "I'm afraid it's such a big thing that I can't explain it clearly over the phone, and it won't show my sincerity. How about this? Let's see when Li Mu has time and make an appointment with him to meet and talk. I'll Ask Director Wang to take the creative team with you to meet him and see if Li Mu has any good suggestions for us. I think his thinking mode is very advanced. No one would have thought that a farmhouse entertainment program like "Longing for Life" could be successful. It has set a ratings record for domestic variety shows excluding talent shows. Now, the two shows with the highest ratings in the country, Super Girl and The Longing for Life, are both the creative ideas of Makino Image. I believe they have a way to make "The Amazing Race" become Be more perfect and better!"
(End of chapter)