Chapter 278 No One Is Optimistic About "Iron Man"

At about 2 pm, Wu Yuan arrived at the office of Light Times in Los Angeles.

Although Light Times has developed very well in recent years, with a net profit of over 100 million US dollars every year, John did not build a headquarters building for the company.

Until now, Light Times has rented two floors of office buildings in the CBD where Hollywood independent film companies are concentrated.

However, the company's employees have been expanding. Now there are nearly 50 office staff. If the company's own crew is added, it has to pay salaries to nearly 200 people every month.

Although the sparrow is small, it has all the organs. This sentence is just right to describe Light Times.

"Daniel, you are finally back."

"Do you remember that this is your company?"

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

It seems that every time they meet, John will start with similar words.

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

"And you're doing a good job, aren't you?"

"The box office of "Proposal" is really good, thank you for your hard work."

"Proposal" was released in North America at the beginning of this year.

In recent years, when science fiction action movies have dominated the world, this movie has emerged as a dark horse, with a box office of 158 million US dollars, beating "Sex and the City" with a box office of 152 million US dollars, becoming the best-selling romantic comedy in the past 10 years.

This result is close to the highest box office record of romantic comedy "Pretty Woman" with a box office of 178 million US dollars in 1990.

As an independent film company, Light Age has won another victory, which has attracted the attention of countless Hollywood film companies.

Light Age is really amazing.

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

But if you say this company is powerful and eye-catching, that's not the case. A film company with an annual revenue of 300 to 500 million is not even a fraction of the revenue of the Big Six.

Now [Light Age] seems to be wandering between being eye-catching and inconspicuous. On the one hand, it makes money from the North American film market, and on the other hand, it seems to be not a big threat, and it seems not worth targeting deliberately.

This is all thanks to Wu Yuan's unique vision in selecting films, which just controls the speed and profit of [Light Age] to a level that will not be rejected by the Big Six in Hollywood.

Do you think he doesn't want to make movies like "Pirates of the Caribbean", "Harry Potter" and "Transformers" that easily make 600 to 700 million or even more than 1 billion US dollars at the box office?

If you dare to make it, the Big Six will dare to join forces to suppress and swallow [Light Age]!

Hollywood does not allow such a powerful foreign film company to exist!

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

Having been at the helm of [Light Era] for so many years, although most of the film scripts of this company were given by Wu Yuan, or the film and television adaptation rights were purchased according to his requirements.

But Wu Yuan only gave a script. The specific film production and shooting, later distribution, publicity, and release, etc., all depended on John. He made a lot of efforts for this. Without him, there would be no [Light Era] now. Of course, he is proud of it.

Of course, for John, joining [Light Era] is also the most correct choice he has ever made. In just a few years, he has earned an eight-digit salary from [Light Era], which is much more than he made as a producer.

John is very satisfied with the current situation. Even if it is quite hard to serve Wu Yuan, the hands-off boss, he is happy with it.

Wu Yuan is also very satisfied with John. The honeymoon period between the two will probably last for a long time, unless one day Wu Yuan can't come up with an excellent film script, there will be conflicts between the two.

"Daniel, the actors of "The Blind Side" have been selected."

John took out a document from the drawer and threw it to Wu Yuan with great interest.

"We still want Gwyneth Paltrow to play the leading actress."

"Gwyneth performed very well in "The Proposal". This year she also joined Marvel's "Iron Man". When she finishes filming "Iron Man" in July, she will join our "The Blind Side".

"As for the leading actor, my God, do you know how difficult it is to find a big guy?"

"It is not easy to find such a big guy who can play a football player in Hollywood where slim men are rampant."

"Fortunately, I am one of the best producers in Hollywood, and 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 ace athlete who is feared by everyone on the football field."

"His name is Quinton Aaron. The name sounds very white, but he is indeed a black man."

"You are the producer, you decide." Wu Yuan shrugged and sat down opposite John, without raising any objections to his casting.

As an actress of the highest caliber, Gwyneth Paltrow has absolutely no problem playing in "The Blind Side".

It's just that after "The Proposal" and "Gravity", Sandra Bullock's other masterpiece was ruined by Wu Yuan.

It is worth mentioning that the "Iron Man" that Gwyneth is going to shoot this year is the blockbuster "Iron Man 1" that opened the Marvel Cinematic Universe!

Her most well-known character Pepper Potts in front of the global audience is about to appear.

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

In the 1980s, in order to cope with the financial crisis, Marvel had begun to sell its hero copyrights to various Hollywood film studios.

Universal Pictures acquired the copyright of the character of Iron Man in 1990.

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

Unlike the later famous, in fact, in the 1980s and 1990s, Iron Man's reputation was too low. If you are not a comic fan, few people know him.

The heroes familiar to the public are Superman, Batman and Spiderman.

Iron Man is not only low-profile, but also very expensive to shoot.

Because the selling point of this hero is various armors, let alone whether the technology in the 1990s can produce such a cool effect, but from the production point of view alone, the cost cannot be too low.

In layman's terms, if the money is too little, the Iron Man movie can't be made at all.

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

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

At that time, Fox was already a big customer of Marvel. It purchased and filmed movies such as X-Men and Fantastic Four, and successfully made X-Men and Fantastic Four the most famous superhero team under Marvel.

But after the copyright was in Fox's hands, it was still the same old problem. It was too expensive to make an Iron Man movie.

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

Even if Fox is a big family, it dare not take the risk of investing hundreds of millions of dollars in such an unpopular superhero who is unknown in North America.

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

After that, the copyright of Iron Man was sold to New Line, but New Line still did not make it.

In the end, Marvel gritted its teeth and stomped its feet, and finally made the film itself!

Marvel even put all its treasures on "Iron Man", mortgaged some hero copyrights to the bank, and relied on borrowed money to develop the film, deciding to take a big gamble.

If this film fails, Marvel can also declare bankruptcy.

Now that John mentioned this project, Wu Yuan was also quite interested, so he asked: "John, is the preparation for "Iron Man" going smoothly?"

"I heard that Marvel doesn't have much money and is borrowing money from the bank to make movies?"

"Yes." John nodded: "It's not just about borrowing money. I don't know what Marvel was thinking. They actually found a marginal actor to play Iron Man."

"Oh my God, a superhero, Robert Downey Jr., a drug addict, was actually cast."

"The distributor Paramount strongly opposed Marvel's decision, and the industry generally did not look favorably on this project."

"Several large companies are already preparing to acquire Marvel after it goes bankrupt. After all, Marvel's superhero copyrights are still pretty good."

The current Robert Downey Jr. is not the world-famous Iron Man.

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

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

The United States in the 1990s was still conservative. If a star had such a scandal, it would basically ruin his acting career.

Robert Downey Jr. suddenly fell from a quasi-first-line actor to a marginal actor. He could only play supporting roles in some low-budget movies and could not even get any roles at one time.

Now Marvel wants him to play the leading role in "Iron Man", and the whole Hollywood thinks Marvel is crazy

But Wu Yuan doesn't think Marvel is crazy. He knows how outstanding and successful Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man 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. We can invest together."

"Marvel's money may not be enough to complete the filming of this movie?"

"I think they should be very happy to see a company willing to lend a hand to them."

Now several big companies in Hollywood are not willing to take over the "Iron Man" project at all.

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

Marvel, which was determined to make "Iron Man" even if it had to borrow money, now urgently needed a sponsor to help.

For Wu Yuan, this was a godsend.

In the next ten years, Marvel opened up the superhero universe, and every movie was a global hit, making a lot of money, but these movies were not something that Guangshidai could get involved in.

Only the pioneering work "Iron Man" was not favored by anyone, so Wu Yuan had the opportunity to pick up a bargain.

"What?"

"We participated in the investment in "Iron Man"?"

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

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