~： Five hundred and ninety-two - for the market

Wayne's attitude towards the nascent Netflix is ​​actually doubtful. He is not sure whether it is a better time to take action. After all, the original Netflix president, after touching his nose in Hollywood, still put this The pattern is done.

"Boss, I think it's better to invest in the IMDB that has market prospects than investing in this video rental website that you have kept me staring at."

Leaving the lounge, the two did not continue to stay in the party. They said hello to Jeff Robinoff and the busy Peter Jackson, and left the hotel in a low-key way to avoid the media. On the way back to the manor , Nina still couldn't help but persuade in a low voice.

Judging from the narratives of Reed Hastings, this is obviously another Internet company that sells concepts. This way of drawing investment with a concept is also the specialty of those tech elites in Silicon Valley.

"Talk to him slowly first. It's certain to invest in his company, but I'm still a little unsure about the timing of the investment." Wayne smoked silently, looking at the night scene of the street that was receding outside the car window, and frowned in response. a sentence.

What he is most worried about now is that he took the shot at the very beginning and gave the other party the funds needed for development, as well as the more important platform resources of the film and television giant Warner Bros. Will this future streaming media overlord be let down? , change its original process, and unpredictable situations occur in the process of development.

On the contrary, he did not give up his plan to enter Netflix at all. Outside the film industry, he was sure that there were not many rides that he could catch. Such a streaming media giant with a market value of more than 300 billion US dollars in the future cannot easily give up.

And as long as there are no major accidents, after Netflix successfully develops, it can also become the most beneficial channel supplement for Warner Bros. Of course, these things will take many years to develop, but it cannot be denied that this is a company that develops from another. A company that can compete with the six major arm-wrestling companies along the way.

"My suggestion, it's best not to be the first investor now, we'll wait and see."

After determining what her boss meant, Nina immediately changed her way of thinking and began to measure the gains and losses from Wayne's point of view. "The model of Reed Hastings, no matter how it is packaged, still cannot be separated from the scope of Internet companies. In the early stage of an Internet company, it is completely burning money for development. As long as you want, Greenberg works The next projects in the room will require large sums of money.”

"Let's do this first."

This time, Wayne will be willing to stay at the cocktail party after the media meeting. He just wants to take the initiative to meet the legendary founder of Netflix, but what Reed Hastings did not expect is that this will be between them. The last time we saw each other in a short time.

Two days after the conference ended, the tech billionaire had collected relevant information and wanted to meet and talk with Wayne again, but every time he answered the phone and talked about these matters, it was basically Nina who was doing it. , the answer is always that Mr. Greenberg is busy with work.

Reed Hastings clearly felt that the young Hollywood boss was indeed interested in his company, but he was always hesitant. Since the other party's assistant had been keeping his side with him. Contact, and inquire about the company's development from time to time, it proves that the other party's eyes have always been on him, and he has never left.

In fact, his demand for funds is not the first. If he wants to attract investment, there are plenty of opportunities on Wall Street. Nowadays, the market is full of the myth of making wealth through the Internet. Wall Street has never lacked willingness to pay for a story or a concept. people.

What Reed-Hastings values ​​more is actually the identity of the major shareholder of Wayne Warner Bros. If the new Netflix can be promoted by such a big platform as Warner Bros., the situation will be completely different. What's more, the moment he saw Wayne, he was already thinking about Warner Bros.' huge library license.

Time is slowly advancing. With the arrival of September, the hottest summer season in North America has ended amidst the harassment of the media. The North American theater market has once again returned to a stable period, ending every weekend. Since then, at least two big investment films have been released together.

The preparations for "The Flash" are proceeding in an orderly manner, and most of Wayne's energy has been put here for a while, and as the preparations for "The Flash" come to an end, he has also slowed down his work. , and turn more attention to the upcoming trip across the Pacific Ocean.

"Wayne, I've carefully read the script you built for The Flash, and I've watched your previous DC series more than once."

With assistant directors Gilmour and Sofia Coppola, Wayne circled the studio that was about to be built. During the preparation work in the crew, the father of DC, Joe Kubert, who has always kept a low-key and transparent image , quietly came to him and said: "I don't have any good suggestions for DC series movies, but I found that in addition to the absolute protagonists in the movie, the abilities of other DC comics characters are not displayed much... "

Keeping pace, Wayne nodded silently as he looked at the studio that was about to be completed. He turned to look at Joe Kubert. He knew what the other party meant. Many characters in DC comics were created by this old man. Created, certainly hope that each can shine on the big screen.

"Joe, comics and movies are two different media after all. The length of a movie is only so long, and we can't give too many shots to small characters. All development can only revolve around the protagonist."

Several people walked out of the studio slowly, and Wayne was also slowly explaining the difference between the two with the father of DC superheroes. "And, Joe, for DC superhero movies, it's still in the stage of laying the foundation. The first thing we have to ensure is to impress the audience with enough protagonists. As for those small characters who also have the ability, wait until The DC Universe has been successfully built, and naturally it will gradually be displayed on the big screen.”

"Your plan is too big, and the timeline is too long."

Joe Cubert smiled, reached out and patted Wayne's arm, and sighed: "I don't know, can I still see the DC Justice League appearing on the big screen to assemble, can I see the Justice League popular Globally, my health has gotten worse and worse over the past two years."

As the creator of most well-known heroes in DC Comics, Joe Kubert certainly hopes that more and more heroes will be put on the big screen, and he also hopes to see the Justice League described by Wayne.

"Yes, you'll see soon."

Taking a deep look at the father of DC superheroes around him, Wayne took the lead and walked into the preparatory studio. He knew that the reason why this old guy said this and was willing to come to the crew to participate in the preparations was purely because he liked it, and there were no other interests involved.

You know, Joe Cubert is completely different from the father of Marvel, Stan Lee, in his memory. Every movie, TV series, anime, etc., shot by Marvel, according to the contract, Stan Lee can get it. Divided into the copyright of large figures.

This part of the income is very objective. He still remembers that there have been media reports that Stan Lee can take more than 8% of the profits from every Marvel movie. 》How much can he get that terrifying box office?

But the Hollywood film company, everyone knows what virtue it is. When the Marvel movies began to form a world-swept state, Stan-Lee also fell out with the company at the same time, and the reason was nothing more than the issue of profit distribution. In the end, when it came to court, the matter was not resolved satisfactorily.

But there is no similar copyright contract between Joe Cubert and DC Comics, or Warner Bros., the usually obscure father of DC superheroes, the reason for doing this is purely out of pure love.

"Boss, look at this."

A few people had just entered the studio. The prop supervisor, Weeks Hart, and the head of Industrial Light & Magic, Brooks Carter, both held a flash suit and kept waving to Wayne and the others.

ILM has been a partner since Wayne's films required a lot of special effects, and the team led by Brooks-Carter joins directly whenever his new project starts, and it's the same this time.

Although in this film, more computer special effects technology will be used, but in his vision, computer special effects technology combined with realistic prop modeling is the most reliable method in this era, and Industrial Light and Magic is also good at it. at this point.

"According to the sketch you designed, this is the last version of the Flash suit." Weeks-Hart clapped the suit in his hand. "I've had James Franco try it, no problem at all."

Not just the one in his hand, but three of the same hanging on the prop rack behind them. Compared with the thin and light ones that were more in line with the comics, the ones they made now have a more technological sense, and they look a lot more bloated than the original version.

The overall tone is still mainly dark red, and on the chest, two lightning bolts are added. More importantly, the helmet of the battle suit has a more futuristic sense of technology than other parts. As a whole, it looks more like a metallic battle armor than a battle suit.

"Are you sure you want to do this? Will it be boycotted by comic fans."

Assistant Director Gilmour reached out and stroked the battle suit. It seemed that these things were very metallic, but when you touched it, you could see that the whole battle suit was still not out of the scope of props, and was actually much lighter than metal. "The current version is completely out of the setting of the comics."

"Well done."

Wayne nodded to Weeks Hart and Brooks Carter. He carefully stroked the finished products and looked at them with satisfaction. These battle suits, at least on the surface, looked very well-made and completely It was like a technological product from the future, completely in line with his vision.

"Gilmore, to a certain extent, our films don't have to try to please comic book fans."

Wayne was clearly in a good mood when he decided on the version of the battle suit he needed for the shooting. He didn't take the assistant director's worries to heart at all. Turning to look at Brooks Carter of Industrial Light & Magic, he asked, "How much does it cost to make just one set of this suit?"

"If it is made by hand, the cost of this set will exceed $5,500. It should be noted that this cost does not include labor costs."

Due to the requirement of perfection for props in shooting, these movie props must strive for perfection during the production process, and also take into account the feelings of the actors after wearing them, the influence of actions, etc., the cost is basically impossible to be low.

However, Brooks-Carter thought for a while after he finished speaking, and then said: "But if some of the expensive materials are replaced, from hand-made to mechanical assembly line processing, and finally assembled, the cost can be completely reduced to 1800. Below the dollar, maybe even lower, you know, it depends on the scale of production.”

"Ok, no problem."

Wayne nodded with satisfaction, turned around and walked to the director's office with a few people. The few works needed for filming under the film camera completely meet his requirements. What he is more concerned about now is the cost of mass production of this suit.

You must know that he is not just a simple film director. As a shareholder of Warner Bros., this is naturally determined by his position.

The fire of "Batman: The Dark Knight", the best selling peripheral props, but unexpectedly is the whole set of one-to-one Batman armor, based on this, as early as "The Flash" after the preparations began, Charles Rowan The request from Warner Bros. executives was conveyed.

It is foreseeable that as long as there are no major surprises, the Flash is destined to be a carnival of DC fans again after its release in the summer next year, and the Flash suit that appears in the movie will inevitably become a fan favorite again. object.

This time, Warner Bros.'s strategy is very clear. After the film is released, the Flash suit will be the focus of operation around the movie. There are previous examples of the hot sales of Batman suits. Warner Bros. is confident that this price is destined to not be People-friendly uniforms have once again become the focus of film peripheral sales.

After the issue of the suit was determined, the preparations for "The Flash" were gradually coming to an end. After a meeting with the core team members, Wayne immediately announced that the crew would be disbanded for a week, and the film officially started shooting a week later. Work.

On the second day after the disbandment of the crew he brought Nina and Sergey on board the chartered plane of Warner Bros., and set off for the country on the other side of the Pacific Ocean in a low-key manner. Facing the first time in so many years that he was about to return to the land that appeared in his dreams, Wayne's mood was also very complicated.

As for "Batman: The Dark Knight", which has been released in most of the world's cinema market, his main purpose this time was to participate in the premiere of the film there and to release it for Warner Bros. video to lay the foundation.

In North America, the film has seen a marked slowdown at the box office since August. Regardless of the size of the screening or the number of screenings, it has withdrawn from the mainstream attention in the cinema market. From August to the beginning of September, the total North American box office has accumulated to 5.58 US dollars.

The overseas box office trend of this film has always been a little higher than that of the North American box office. Today, it has fallen from the middle and lower levels of most of the world's cinema markets, but the overseas box office has also reached 630 million US dollars, and the total global box office has accumulated 11.88. One hundred million U.S. dollars.

As for whether this film can exceed 1.2 billion US dollars before the global release is completely, no one can say clearly now, but Wayne's trip has been placed high hopes by Warner Bros. The market has not yet released "Batman: The Dark Knight". With its terrifying population base, there is no reason not to be optimistic about Warner Bros.