"The independent film craze is coming, and the Internet's upstarts are coming to Hollywood!"

"The Matrix Trilogy, Bruno Song invested US$240 million in a science fiction epic blockbuster!"

"Hollywood's annual blockbuster, many Hollywood superstars have announced their intention to star in "The Matrix"!"

"The Wachowski brothers have boldly stated that they will use The Matrix to change the era of movies!"

"Suspicious of bad movies?

Some people in the Hollywood film media questioned whether Bruno Song's investment in The Matrix was a hype. Statistics show that the success rate of science fiction movies in the past ten years is only 7.8%."

When Song Yang's Americas Global Investment Fund announced that it would spend US$240 million to film the "Matrix" trilogy, the entire Hollywood was completely shaken.

There are those who want a piece of the pie, and several major movies have approached Song Yang one after another, wanting to "co-produce". In fact, the movie is handed over to them for production, distribution, etc. Stars and actors from all walks of life also flocked to it.

A large-scale production costing more than US$200 million is rare in Hollywood.

You know, we are still in the 1990s, and the era of big sales has not yet begun, and the purchasing power is quite strong. Think about "Titanic", the cost has skyrocketed from 80 million US dollars to 200 million US dollars, and it almost cost Fox

Going bankrupt, one can only imagine the scale of investment in a movie in this era.

Of course, as soon as the news came out, everyone in Hollywood came out in unison. Some people touted this as a victory in the era of "independent films." With Song Yang's entry, it marked that after DreamWorks, another top independent film manufacturer

Appear!

However, as soon as they came up, they spent more than 200 million US dollars to invest. This is something that several major Hollywood film giants cannot do. I can't imagine what the hell this has to do with "independent films" and "hacker patriotism"

It is definitely a super big-budget movie.

There are also questions as to whether Song Yang is hyping up, because as soon as this movie, which was invested by an upstart Internet company and promoted "Internet culture", was released, the entire Nasdaq "Internet concept stocks" almost surged collectively.

Who knows, Song Yang just set up a flag, but some people really took it seriously. From old technology companies such as Microsoft and Sun to Netscape, Yahoo, AOL and other Internet companies, their stock prices have soared. Even after listing,

The stock price of Double Click Company, which had been half-dead, soared to $9 that day, causing the short sellers of Double Click Company to suffer a collective loss that day!

It’s not surprising. Some media have speculated whether Song Yang is doing this for hype. A movie in the name of “Internet culture” can cause the Nasdaq to skyrocket. It can be called an ugly toad’s flower. What the hell?

Whatever the reason is, it’s all due to the rapid growth of the Internet.

The announcement of investment in "The Matrix" marked the beginning of Song Yang's full entry into Hollywood. The Americas Global Investment Foundation announced the establishment of America Western Pictures. The meaning of Western Pictures is simple and crude, which means it comes from West Texas!

Nominally speaking, Western Pictures has become another independent film company in Hollywood after New Line Cinema, DreamWorks, Miramax, and Peak. However, this newbie is a bit fierce and does not play the trick of slowly becoming king.

The wall set.

Western Pictures, like DreamWorks, is the only company in Hollywood that makes big moves as soon as it is established. Unlike several other independent film companies, they all start with small-budget films, win a few awards first, and then slowly develop.

Instead, just open the Baron.

The newly established Western Pictures was nominally established by the Americas Global Investment Foundation. Song Yang is the largest shareholder of Western Pictures, and America Telecom is also one of the investors of Western Pictures.

A small building with less than ten floors in Los Angeles has become the office building of Western Pictures. Compared with Paramount, Disney, etc., Western Pictures naturally has a weak foundation. It does not have its own filming factory and no publicity and distribution channels. Now it has

There is an office building purchased for US$12 million, and the Wachowskis have been signed, and everything is under construction.

However, Song Yang was not idle here. After establishing Western Pictures, he quickly cut through the mess and made several acquisitions in succession.

The first acquisition was the Internet movie database company imdb, which was founded six years ago. The name is quite simple and crude. It is to record movies on the imdb website. The original purpose was the founder of imdb, a veteran who has read countless movies.

Comey Needham wants to save and share his "personal movie collection list" on the Internet, which is the movies he has watched since childhood.

Later, it attracted a group of like-minded people and jointly established the imdb website. At that time, it was still a desert of the Internet. Netscape had not yet appeared. People on the Internet were still playing in the mud, let alone supporting themselves. A group of people ran imdb.

, and you have to pay money to the website.

However, in the past few years, imdb has accumulated a large number of users, and the traffic has become larger and larger. In the latest ranking of website visits, imdb unexpectedly ranked 48th. It can be said that the traffic has already

Quite a lot of people, at least those who like movies, have begun to gather on this website in greater numbers.

The original small workshop model was no longer able to maintain an increasingly large flow of traffic, and it was no longer possible to rely on operating personnel or unstable donations to cover expenses.

At the beginning of this year, Comey Needham finally announced the commercialization of imdb. He and the people who previously co-operated imdb became shareholders of imdb, and Comey Needham became the founder and president of imdb!

Song Yang offered an olive branch to imdb. Without much thought, Comey Needham and imdb's management flew from England to Los Angeles.

It’s not like there aren’t other companies that asked imdb for a price and wanted to acquire imdb, but they were rejected by Comey Needham and a group of original shareholders. On the one hand, the offer was too low, and on the other hand, imdb was making Hollywood movies.

The database is inextricably linked to Hollywood. After all, it is impossible to bypass Hollywood.

But now, the emergence of Song Yang has solved this problem perfectly. First of all, it is not difficult for Song Yang to support an imdb because he is rich. Looking at the entire Internet industry, those who can compare with Song Yang are Microsoft and Netscape.

, several Internet companies like Yahoo, but none of them have any interest in imdb.

Another point is that Song Yang has also entered Hollywood, which is even more important to imdb. It means that Song Yang has entered the Hollywood circle. After acquiring imdb, imdb will not be separated from the film industry!

In addition to quoting imdb, Song Yang also successively established and acquired multiple Internet domain names, such as "America Online Film and Television", "America TV", and "Internet Online Video", all of which were acquired by Western Pictures.

, these are used to prepare for online video business.

Although the online videos have not yet revealed the horoscopes, Song Yang has to start preparing in advance and take advantage of the pitfalls first!

When he arrived at the Western Film Office Building, Song Yang heard the quarrel inside before he even entered.

In the conference room of Western Pictures, the Wachowski Brothers, Industrial Light and Magic Special Effects, Weta Special Effects, as well as Elias, Sofia Coppola and others who represent Italians in Hollywood are all present at the end of the conference room

Also sitting were Harvey, David Geffen and the heads of distribution departments of several Hollywood companies.

Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski in the conference room felt a little dizzy when they saw the noisy scene.

Today is the time to set up the "Matrix" crew. Naturally, we need to determine the director, producer, finance, publicity, distribution and other departments. From the moment a movie is approved, it must be continuously promoted to maintain popularity, determine the distribution company, etc. It is impossible to wait until

If you process it after taking pictures, the day lilies will probably get cold.

But regarding these, everyone present could not agree. With an investment of more than 200 million U.S. dollars, several major film companies all wanted a piece of the pie.

The Wachowski brothers, whose heads were swollen due to the noise, couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Song Yang coming in, and stood up hurriedly.

Song Yang looked around the conference room, then looked at the Wachowskis, "How are the preparations for the production going?!"

Larry Wachowski said, "The filming locations have been selected, in America and New Zealand. The special effects for The Matrix were completed by Industrial Light and Magic and Weta Special Effects Studio."

The special effects have been decided a long time ago. Except for Industrial Light and Magic, no other special effects company can complete it now. Weta Special Effects was invested by Song Yang and is now a special effects studio under Western Pictures. The money will not flow.

For outsiders, Weta special effects must be used.

Today, on behalf of Industrial Light and Magic, technical director Dennis Mullen is here. Dennis Mullen understands that letting Weta Effects and Industrial Light & Magic jointly be responsible for the special effects work of The Matrix is ​​basically letting Weta Effects learn about industrial light.

Magic's skills and experience.

But for this, Dennis Mullen is not afraid at all. With more than 20 years of technical accumulation, Weta Special Effects cannot be learned in one or two movies. At least within a few years, Weta Special Effects can only be used by Industrial Light and Magic.

Be a younger brother.

"Industrial Light and Magic can guarantee that the special effects part of The Matrix will be completed on schedule!"

This time is another opportunity for Industrial Light and Magic to show their strength, and there will also be huge profits.

After Industrial Light and Magic, Richard Taylor said on behalf of Weta Effects, "Weta Effects is responsible for some of the special effects work. In addition, scene layout, props, costume design, etc. are all completed by Weta Effects!"

Weta Effects is working for Industrial Light & Magic this time, but even so, being able to cooperate with the top special effects company in the industry is a rare opportunity for Weta Effects. Not every special effects company is so lucky.

Once acquired, they will be able to have more than 200 million US dollars in film projects, allowing them to practice with Industrial Light and Magic!

After talking about the special effects, the Wachowski brothers had a headache. Now Western Pictures is just an empty frame. It doesn't have its own team at all. It can only use the shooting and production teams of other film companies. This requires a choice.
Chapter completed!