Chapter 204

For now, the performance of the Sun 1.0 graphics workstation is certainly worse than the minicomputers of IBM and DEC, but the price is US$50,000 per unit, which is much cheaper than the minicomputers of more than 100,000 US dollars or even hundreds of thousands of US dollars. There are many, so once launched, it was very popular in the market!

Li Zetian directly asked Disney to purchase 500 Sun1.0 workstations.

Both film special effects and computer animation require the use of graphics workstations with excellent performance. Li Zetian did this to promote the rapid development of Disney in these two fields!

Industrial Light and Magic is now also a company under the Disney Company, and is in need of a large number of graphics workstations to produce computer special effects and at the same time carry out technology development.

Many people only know that Industrial Light and Magic is a computer special effects production company, but they do not know that Industrial Light and Magic is more like a technology development company, and most of its annual income is used to develop new technologies!

The reason why Industrial Light and Magic has always been the leader in the industry and can produce lifelike, real and shocking computer special effects is because its investment in technology research and development has always exceeded other special effects companies!

If you want to do your job well, you must first sharpen your tools!

Right now, the Sun 1.0 graphics workstation is naturally the best tool for Industrial Light \u0026 Magic!

After Disney purchased a large number of Sun 1.0 workstations, Li Zetian stopped by Disney. Since he arrived at Disney last year, Disney has undergone earth-shaking changes and reorganized its animation department full of creativity.

However, this animation department belongs to the traditional Disney animation department. Each animation is purely hand-drawn, then photographed, and then played continuously. It can be said that every animation is drawn frame by frame.

In fact, it's not that Li Zetian doesn't want to make changes, but that the computer animation production technology is not mature enough, the production cost is high, and the effect is not as good as traditional animation!

Of course, computer 3D animation is the future development trend. Li Zetian separated the computer animation production department of Industrial Light and Magic and established Pixar Animation Studio, specializing in the research of computer animation technology production. Li Zetian listed it as a member of the Disney Company Key projects.

In addition to animation, Disney also produces and distributes live-action films.

Although Li Zetian did not interfere too much in the development of Disney Company, he could not completely ignore it.

After arriving at the company, Li Zetian made an appointment with Steven Spielberg to discuss a business worth about US$2 billion.

Although the global box office of "E.T." is only US$792.9 million, the revenue from peripheral products is much more than the box office. Li Zetian has already asked a well-known Hollywood screenwriter to write the script according to his idea. Steven Spielberg has previously promised to help him make a movie, but he must read the script first.

Li Zetian was chatting with Disney CEO Michael Eisner in the office, and not long after, Steven Spielberg came.

Everyone exchanged pleasantries for a while, and then Li Zetian said straight to the point: "Director Spielberg, you helped George Lucas finish "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Now should you help me make a movie? I've even prepared the script. Got it!"

Spielberg nodded: "Of course, no problem. Have you brought the script? Let me see how the script is written first!"

"Yeah," Li Zetian responded and looked at Michael Eisner. Michael Eisner immediately took out the script of "E.T." from the drawer and handed it to Spielberg.

Spielberg took the script and read it carefully. As soon as he read the beginning, he was completely attracted by the story of the script, as if this was the story he had always wanted to tell...

After Spielberg read the script, he raised his head and looked at Li Zetian and said excitedly: "Mr. Li, I accepted this movie!"

Li Zetian smiled, because he was very sure that Spielberg was willing to shoot "E.T.", so he was not surprised. He then reached out and said to Spielberg, "Director Spielberg, it's a pleasure to work with you. I hope E.T. can become a classic with both good reputation and box office!"

"Um!"

…

"E.T." is a very warm science fiction family movie, which is very suitable for the whole family to sit together and enjoy, and it always brings tears to the eyes inadvertently. It's the type of movie that suited Disney so well that it beat out blockbusters like "Shrek" and "Finding Dory" to be voted the greatest children's movie of all time.

The investment budget of "E.T." is only US$10 million, making it a small-budget film.

When Disney announced the film, it did not attract much media attention.

The media hopes to see Disney film "Star Wars 3", but the plan has been put on hold for the time being. Li Zetian knows very well that frequent filming of sequels can easily cause audience fatigue. As the saying goes, "Beauty comes from distance." If you shoot a movie in a few years, the effect will be even better.

Li Zetian knows very little about the popular Hollywood movies in the 1980s. "E.T." and "Star Wars" are the movies he is more familiar with. If he were asked to name a few more well-known movies, he would definitely not be able to answer. , but I am very familiar with many movies produced in the 1990s.

Therefore, Li Zetian cannot provide more suggestions for Disney to invest in movies for the time being.

In fact, the Disney Company is prospering under the management of Michael Eisner, so there is no need for Li Zetian to worry.

However, for long-term reasons, Li Zetian decided to acquire some super IPs, such as "The Lord of the Rings", "The Hobbit" and Marvel Comics.

Especially Marvel Comics. Due to the sluggish comic market, it changed hands several times in the 1980s and 1990s and sold a large number of superheroes, such as Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Wolverine, Deadpool, X-Men, Green Lantern, etc. Giants and other characters.

Li Zetian feels that if he doesn’t buy Marvel Comics now, it will definitely be difficult to get these comic heroes back in the future.

After leaving the Disney Company, Li Zetian thought of this and asked Dongfang Yuqin to send someone to investigate first.

These things were easy to investigate. The next day, Dongfang Yuqin put the information on Li Zetian's desk.

In 1969, the American company United Artists Entertainment bought the copyrights of "The Lord of the Rings: The Hobbit Adventures" and "The Lord of the Rings" from Tolkien for 10,000 pounds, as well as all related The product management rights and film adaptation rights are also included. At the same time, United Artists will also have to pay 7.5% of the operating income related to the two books as royalties to Tolkien and the beneficiaries of Tolkien's will. In 1976, United Artists sold the rights to Saul Zaentz, who still owns the rights to this day.

After reading the information, Li Zetian smiled faintly: "Haha, that is to say, just buy the copyrights of "The Lord of the Rings: The Hobbit Adventures" and "The Lord of the Rings" from Sal Zaenz! "

"Yes, Mr. Li." Dongfang Yuqin nodded with a smile, and then added, "According to the evaluation given by professionals, the copyright price of the two books is around US$10 million!"

"10 million U.S. dollars? That's not expensive. Let's inform Disney later and buy it as soon as possible!" "The Lord of the Rings: The Hobbit Adventures" and "The Lord of the Rings" are two fantasy novels that shocked the past and the present, published The sales volume is astonishing and it has a huge user base. If it is made into a movie, the value of the peripheral industries derived from it will be an extremely astonishing figure. 10 million US dollars is really not expensive, it is simply a bargain price.

Then, Li Zetian started to look at the information about Marvel Comics. It was founded in 1939 and was once called "Times Comics". It was officially named Marvel in 1961. Due to the slump in the comics market, Marvel's main competitor, DC Comics, has been acquired by Warner Bros. and has filmed "Superman" and "Batman" movies. And Marvel Comics is still hanging on, looking for a buyer.

Unfortunately, Marvel Comics is worth more than $90 million, and no one is willing to buy it at the moment.

The boss of Marvel Comics always laments this...

PS: There are 2 more updates today, and I also recommend a new book "The Age of Rebirth of Giants". Author: Xi Yuan Bao Shao, who has written two million-word novels and is considered an old author.

The introduction is as follows. If you like it, you may want to read it. The beginning gives you a sense of déjà vu from "The Master".

[I am neither a good person nor a bad person. You take all the honors and I will fight all the charges.

Some people say that I am the emperor of the domestic Internet, some say that I am the godfather of the entertainment industry, and some say that I have created a golden age.

My name is Jiang Cheng. I was reborn in 2002. The big data that controls the future will create a new era, an era of giants that belongs to me. 】