Chapter 1713 (1/2)
”Kung Fu Panda”
Li Mu was shocked by Spielberg's words.
He thought it would take at least two or three years for Kung Fu Panda to appear, but he didn't expect that DreamWorks had started the art design related work of Kung Fu Panda since last year, which means that the whole project of Kung Fu Panda is not only on paper, it is likely that the whole project has been finalized.
Li Mu hurriedly asked him, ”Steven, can you tell me the story of Kung Fu Panda?”
”Kung Fu Panda” is an animated movie with Chinese culture as its background. The protagonist of the story is the unique national treasure panda of China. In our movie, the protagonist is a panda who is very obsessed with Kung Fu. He accidentally gets involved in a dispute in the Wulin and finally becomes a martial arts expert
Li Mu asked him with a smile, ”has the character image been designed?”
”Not yet.” ”We are mainly doing the scene design of the film now, because we need to have full Chinese elements, so our art team is looking for suitable landscape materials everywhere in China, and will start the character design when they come back,” Spielberg said
Li Mu said, ”I don't think you need to worry about it. I'll give you the image of panda bear and let panda bear play your Kung Fu Panda. What do you think?”
”Panda bear?” Spielberg exclaimed, ”God! Why didn't I think of it! ”
As he said, his voice was full of joy, saying: ”if we use panda bear, it will be of great benefit to both of us. It can not only directly use the fan base of panda bear, but also create enough background stories for bear and cat bear.”
Li Mu admired Spielberg's vision. He saw the pain points of both sides.
For DreamWorks, to create a new story, the story itself has no foundation, and there won't be any fan base. The only one that can gather fans is DreamWorks's own fame. However, if you give the story a setting with a strong fan base, then the story naturally has a strong fan base.
Panda bear has hundreds of millions of fans all over the world. If it can make this movie with its image, as long as the news is released, there will be countless people waiting to see it in the cinema.
Just when Spielberg wanted to promise right away, he suddenly realized a very serious problem.
Copyright.
If DreamWorks independently develops Kung Fu Panda according to the original plan, there is no doubt that all the copyrights of the whole movie belong to DreamWorks itself, especially the main character panda itself, which can be developed in-depth on a large scale. However, if it cooperates with Li Mu, the most important copyright of Kung Fu Panda is Li Mu's, which can't be ignored The copyright of the key figures is not in their own hands, right? Then their future derivative value will be castrated.
Thinking of this, Spielberg asked Li Mu in a hurry, ”Mr. Li, if we cooperate, what should we do with the copyright issue?”
Li Mu said, ”first of all, I authorize the image copyright of panda bear to you free of charge. At the same time, I won't take any money from your box office income. I can also grant you the license of three big films at one time, which are all free. However, the copyright of this movie belongs to you, and other characters in this movie belong to you, but the copyright of panda bear belongs to me.”
Spielberg hesitated for a moment.
As a successful Jewish businessman, he is very sensitive to the distribution of rights and interests. Although Li Mu grants the copyright free of charge, does not share it from the box office, or even authorizes three films at one time, he still feels uneasy in his heart, because he knows that if he loses the copyright of the core protagonist, the copyright of other characters will lose the value of development.
For example, if I want to cooperate with universal studios to build a venue for Kung Fu Panda, but I don't have the copyright of panda bear, the protagonist of Kung Fu Panda, how can this venue work? Even if we do it, the guests will be depressed, right?
Thinking of this, Spielberg couldn't help saying: ”Mr. Li, if we don't have the copyright of the protagonist, the loss to us would be too great...”
Li Mu asked, ”your loss? Steven, you can't just think about what you've lost and what you've got. The panda bear image is authorized to you. How much extra income can you make at the box office? If you develop Kung Fu Panda by yourself, can the global box office achieve 400 million or 500 million dollars? ”
”It's not certain,” Spielberg said awkwardly, ”that the $450 million global box office has been a great success.”
Li Mu asked, ”if you have the image of a panda bear, is the global box office worth US $450 million still a problem?”
”Here...” Spielberg thought for a moment.