Millennium director

At around two o'clock in the afternoon, Wu Yuan arrived at Light Times' office in Los Angeles.

Although Light Times has developed very well in the past few years, with annual net profits exceeding 100 million US dollars, John did not have the luxury of building a headquarters building for the company.

Until now, Light Times has rented a two-story office building in the CBD where independent film companies gather in Hollywood.

However, the company's employees have been expanding. Now there are about fifty people in the office staff. If we add the company's own crew, we have to pay wages to about two hundred people every month.

Although a sparrow is small, it has all five internal organs. This sentence is suitable to describe the age of light.

"Daniel, you are finally back."

"Do you remember this is your company?"

As soon as he saw John, Wu Yuan heard two very familiar words from his mouth.

It seemed that every time the two of them met, John would start with something similar.

Shrugging and giving John a warm hug, Wu Yuan smiled and said, "John, you know, I'm really busy in China."

"And you did a pretty good job, didn't you?"

"The box office sales of "Fake Marriage" are really good, thank you for your hard work."

"Fake Marriage" was released in North America earlier this year.

With sci-fi action movies dominating the world in recent years, this movie has suddenly emerged. With a box office of US$158 million, it defeated "Sex and the City" with a box office of US$152 million, becoming the highest-grossing romantic comedy in the past 10 years.

This result is close to the highest box office record for a romantic comedy, which was $178 million in 1990.

As an independent film company, Light Times once again won a victory, attracting the attention of countless Hollywood film companies.

This company of Light Times is really amazing.

You would say that "Light Age" is inconspicuous in Hollywood where there are so many movie companies. This company can release a movie every year with a box office of at least 100 million US dollars.

But if you want to say that this company is very powerful and eye-catching, that's not to say that a film company with an annual revenue of 3.5 billion is less than a fraction of the revenue of the Big Six.

The current [Light Age] seems to be walking the line between inconspicuous and inconspicuous. While making money from the North American film market, it does not appear to be a big threat. It seems that it is impossible to deliberately target.

This is all due to Wu Yuan's unique vision in film selection, which has precisely controlled the money-making speed and profit of "Light Age" to a level that is unlikely to be rejected by the six major Hollywood movies.

Do you think he doesn’t want to make movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Harry Potter,” and “Transformers” that can easily gross a box office of six to seven billion or even more than a billion dollars?

If you dare to take pictures, the six major organizations will join forces to suppress and annex the [Light Age]!

Hollywood doesn't allow such awesome foreign-funded film companies to exist!

"Daniel, thank you for your compliment." John raised his eyebrows quite proudly.

Having been at the helm of [Light Age] for so many years, although most of the company's movie scripts were given by Wu Yuan, or the film and television adaptation rights were purchased at his request.

But Wu Yuan only produced a script. The specific production and shooting of the film, as well as post-production distribution, publicity, screening, etc., all depended on John. He put in a lot of effort for this. Without him, there would be nothing. In the current [Light Age], he is certainly proud of it.

Of course, for John, joining [Light Age] was the most correct choice he ever made. In just a few years, he earned an eight-digit salary from [Light Age], which was much better than what he had done as a one-person employee. The filmmakers make more money.

John is very satisfied with the current situation. Even though it is quite hard to serve Wu Yuan, the hands-off shopkeeper, he still enjoys it.

Wu Yuan is also very satisfied with John. The honeymoon period between the two will probably last for a long time. Unless Wu Yuan cannot come up with an excellent movie script one day, conflicts will occur between the two.

"Daniel, the actors for "Weakness" have been selected."

John excitedly took out a document from the drawer and threw it to Wu Yuan.

"We still ask Gwyneth Paltrow for the heroine."

"Gwyneth's performance in "Fake Marriage" was very good. This year she also joined Marvel's "Iron Man" movie. When she finishes filming "Iron Man" in July, she will join our "Weakness"."

"As for the leading man, gosh, do you know how hard it is to find a big guy?"

"It's not an easy task to find such a big guy who can play a football player in Hollywood where slim men are everywhere."

"Fortunately, I am one of the best producers in Hollywood. Nothing can be difficult for me."

"I found a good black actor. He is 6 feet 8 inches (2.03 meters) tall and weighs 352 pounds. He can definitely play the role of the ace athlete who is feared by everyone on the football field."

"His name is Quinton Aaron, and he sounds white, but he's black."

"You are the producer, you can decide." Wu Yuan shrugged, sat down opposite John, and did not raise any objections to his casting.

As a movie queen-level actress, Gwyneth Paltrow has absolutely no problem playing "Weakness".

It's just that Sandra Bullock, after "Fake Marriage" and "Gravity", another powerful masterpiece was ruined by Wu Yuan

It is worth mentioning that the "Iron Man" Gwyneth will be filming this year is the blockbuster movie that launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "Iron Man 1"!

Her best-known role to audiences around the world, Pepper Potts, is about to debut.

Speaking of the movie "Iron Man", the preparation was really bumpy.

In the 1980s, in order to cope with the financial crisis, Marvel began to sell the copyrights of its heroes to various Hollywood studios.

Universal Pictures acquired the rights to the Iron Man character in 1990.

However, projects related to this mecha hero have not yet been finalized.

Different from his later fame, in fact, in the 1980s and 1990s, Iron Man's reputation was so low that few people who were not comic fans knew about it.

The heroes that everyone is familiar with are Superman, Batman and Spider-Man.

Not only does Iron Man have a low reputation, but the filming cost will be very high.

Because the selling point of this hero is various armors. Let’s not talk about whether the technology of the 1990s can produce such a cool effect, but purely from a production point of view, the cost cannot be too low.

To put it simply, if there is too little money, there is no way to make an Iron Man movie.

In this way, Universal Pictures did not make the movie until the copyright expired.

Then Marvel sold the rights to "Iron Man" to 20th Century Fox.

At that time, Fox was already a major patron of Marvel, purchasing and filming X-Men, Fantastic Four and other movies, successfully making the X-Men and Fantastic Four the most famous superhero team under Marvel.

But after the rights were transferred to Fox, the same problem remained. It was too expensive to make an Iron Man movie.

Even for "X-Men", Fox only gave it a budget of US$75 million, but to make Iron Man, it would require at least hundreds of millions of US dollars in production costs.

Even if the Fox family has a huge business, they would not dare to risk investing hundreds of millions of dollars on such an unpopular superhero that is unknown in North America.

Then, until the copyright expired, the Iron Man movie was not prepared.

Later, the rights to Iron Man were sold to New Line, but New Line still didn't make it.

In the end, Marvel gritted its teeth and stamped its feet, and finally managed to make it on its own!

Marvel even put all its treasure on "Iron Man", mortgaged some hero copyrights to banks, relied on borrowed money to develop the movie, and decided to take a big gamble.

If this movie fails, Marvel can declare bankruptcy.

Now that John mentioned this project, Wu Yuan was also very interested and asked: "John, are the preparations for "Iron Man" going well?"

"I heard that Marvel has no money and is borrowing money from banks to make movies?"

"Yes." John nodded: "It's not just a matter of borrowing money. I don't know what Marvel thought, but they actually found a marginal actor to play Iron Man."

"Oh my god, a superhero is actually played by Robert Downey Jr., an addict."

"Paramount, the publisher, strongly opposes Marvel's decision, and the industry is generally not optimistic about this project."

"Several big companies are already waiting to acquire Marvel after it goes bankrupt. After all, Marvel's superhero copyrights are quite good."

Robert Downey Jr. is not yet the Iron Man who is famous all over the world.

He once stood at the top, starring in the biographical film "Chaplin" in 1992, and was nominated for the Best Actor Award at the 65th Academy Awards.

But his peak period was short-lived. From 1996 to 2001, he was arrested and imprisoned many times for DU-related issues.

In the 1990s, the United States was still conservative. If a celebrity caused such a scandal, his or her acting career would basically be ruined.

Robert Downey Jr. suddenly fell from a quasi-A-list actor to a marginal actor. He could only play supporting roles in some low-budget movies, and for a time he couldn't even get a role.

Now Marvel is looking for him to play the male lead in "Iron Man". The whole Hollywood thinks Marvel is crazy.

But Wu Yuan doesn’t think Marvel is crazy. He knows how outstanding and successful Iron Man played by Robert Downey Jr. is.

"Hey, John!" Wu Yuan thought for a while and said solemnly: "Can you contact Marvel?"

"I am very optimistic about the "Iron Man" project, and we can participate in investment together."

"The money Marvel has on hand may not be enough to complete the filming of this movie, right?"

"I think they would be happy to see a company willing to lend a hand and help them."

Nowadays, several major companies in Hollywood are not willing to take over the "Iron Man" project.

They are all waiting for Marvel to go bankrupt and liquidate because of this movie, so that everyone can divide Marvel's legacy together.

Marvel, which gritted its teeth and decided to make "Iron Man" even if it borrowed money, is in urgent need of help from a financial backer.

For Wu Yuan, this was a God-given opportunity.

In the superhero universe opened by Marvel in the next ten years, every movie has been a global hit and made a lot of money, but these movies are not something that the light era can match.

Only "Iron Man", a pioneering film that no one was optimistic about, Wu Yuan had the opportunity to miss.

"What?"

"Are we participating in "Iron Man"?"

John looked at Wu Yuan in surprise, "Daniel, are you serious?!"

"Of course." Wu Yuan looked at him very seriously: "My vision is never wrong!"