Rebirth of Xiangjiang - 1978

In the previous life, "007: The Living Daylights" released by MGM grossed US$51 million in North America.

It can be said that there is almost no growth compared to the US$50 million of the previous film "Thunderbolt".

Part of the reason is that "The Living Daylights" changed the protagonist from Roger Moore to Timothy Dalton. Perhaps this is also one of the reasons why the box office cannot rise.

But whether the box office is 60 million US dollars or 50 million US dollars, it is unacceptable to Lin Daoqiu.

After all, the production budget of "007" is as high as 30 million U.S. dollars. It is impossible to recover the cost of this movie just relying on the theater box office revenue alone.

That is to say, it is the income from peripheral products that makes the "007" movie series profitable.

However, in Lin Daoqiu's view, if the investment cost can be recovered in box office revenue, or even a small profit can be made, then peripheral sales will greatly increase their profits.

In order for "007" to be a hit at the box office, in addition to relying on one's own fame, what really needs to be done is improving the viewing angle of the movie itself.

The original stunt team for "The Living Daylights" was hired by John Grant to be a team led by aerial stuntmen Voss and Jack Lombard.

But this time, Lin Daoqiu decided to transfer the kamikaze stunt team from Xiangjiang and let Chen Yiyan cooperate with the team of Ke Shouliang and Jack Lombard.

As for the special effects, the special effects team originally hired by MGM, together with Magic Studio, came to help and take charge.

If he wants to gain a foothold in Hollywood, Lin Daoqiu cannot completely copy the style of Xiangjiang. After all, the ecological environment here also exists.

If everyone uses Xiangjiang's team, I'm afraid it will cause some unnecessary criticism.

The preparations for the filming of "007" had already started before Lin Daoqiu bought MGM. However, before the filming started, Lin Daoqiu suddenly changed the director and the leading actor.

However, this did not affect the previous plan. The crew of "007" was still going to Gibraltar to shoot the opening scenes of "The Living Daylights" as previously scheduled.

Pierce Brosnan, who was invited by Lin Daoqiu to play James Bond, has been doing simple action exercises with Yuan Jiaban during this period.

After all, in order to play James Bond well, it is impossible to let a person with no action skills just go into battle. At the very least, he must go through a period of training.

But the good thing is that this role does not require very flashy movements. At least in the movie "The Living Daylights", Lin Daoqiu's setting of James Bond is not that exaggerated.

His changes to the film were more about improving the technological level of the tools used by James Bond in it.

When filming "Mission: Impossible", Lin Daoqiu once got a batch of sports cars and took them to Paris to crash.

When this part of the plot was shown in Hollywood, it can be said that it was a feast for the eyes of the audience there. Later, many people began to imitate Lin Daoqiu's move.

Lin Daoqiu naturally wanted to come up with some new tricks this time, but ramming a luxury car was a bit out of date for Lin Daoqiu, so he wanted to play some new tricks.

"Thank you very much for Mr. Lin's willingness to accept our sponsorship. These two cars will be delivered to your designated location in six months."

The head of BMW North America was invited by Lin Daoqiu to the headquarters of MGM to discuss sponsorship-related matters.

But this time Lin Daoqiu didn't want the other party to sponsor money, but for them to sponsor two latest cars.

To be precise, what Lin Daoqiu wanted BMW to sponsor were concept sports cars. These cars had never been seen in public before, and even no one from BMW had seen them. They were all made by Lin Daoqiu himself.

"I don't know much about aerodynamics. I still need your company to help me complete these ideas."

What Lin Daoqiu wanted was not something fanciful, but he slightly changed the shape of the sports car he had seen in later generations.

After careful discussion with the sketches provided by Lin Daoqiu, BMW's professional team found it quite difficult, but finally agreed to help them get the two cars out with the chairman's approval.

In exchange, Lin Daoqiu will give these two cars long shots in "The Living Daylights" and ensure that the BMW logo will be highlighted in return.

For Lin Daoqiu, simple product placement is meaningless at all. Instead of taking money from the other party, it is better to ask the other party to provide something that others cannot provide.

"Mr. Lin's idea is very good. From the sketches, these cars look great. If possible, I really hope that the headquarters can mass-produce these models in the future."

In front of Lin Daoqiu, what this BMW executive said was very pleasant to the ears. If you didn't know better, you would think that Lin Daoqiu's request was very easy for them to fulfill.

You must know that it is not that simple to produce these two cars. Although they do not need to be mass-produced, they only need to appear in the movie.

But even so, after receiving this request, BMW headquarter still held several meetings and discussions, and finally decided to accept Lin Daoqiu's request.

"Thank you, but I hope not. After all, professional people do professional things, and making movies is my profession. I don't think I have the talent to design sports cars. This kind of thing should be left to professional engineers."

Lin Daoqiu did not accept the other party's flattery. After all, this kind of thing was impossible without even thinking about it.

If you can design a sports car just by drawing pictures, then you clearly disrespect science.

…………

While Lin Daoqiu was flexing his muscles in Hollywood, Xiangjiang also received news about Lin Daoqiu's presence in Hollywood.

As the first Chinese to buy a Hollywood film company, Lin Daoqiu has naturally become the focus of media attention in Hong Kong and even Southeast Asia.

Lin Daoqiu, who was in the limelight, did not know that his move made Li Zhengnan, who was far away in the treasure island, love and hate him.

Li Zhengnan's commander's physical condition is already very worrying at this time. According to the doctor, he may only be able to survive for a year or two.

As Baodao's second-in-command at this time, Li Zhengnan is undoubtedly one of the most popular candidates to take over.

But even so, Li Zhengnan did not dare to be careless. He wanted to win international support for himself, and here, especially the support of Americans, was particularly important to him.

After all, in addition to him, there are several forces in Baodao that are also ready to move. Li Zhengnan's succession is not a sure thing. If he can get the support of the American people, Li Zhengnan will be completely relieved, otherwise he will not be able to sleep at night.

I couldn't sleep peacefully.