Chapter 260

Xu Can, however, needed to fly to Hua Xia and return to his homeland.

The "Interstellar" project he had discussed with CNSA was tight on time and urgent in mission, so Xu Can needed to quickly assemble the crew and start shooting as soon as possible.

Before departing, Xu Can still had to hold an important executive meeting at the company to lay out the tasks for the year 2009.

"You finally came back. Be careful, or one day you'll forget where the company door is."

Happy complained helplessly.

His own boss was never around, dumping everything onto him, the general manager.

Back when he was Xu Can's agent, the money wasn't much, but at least he was happy.

Now Happy was practically a master of pulling all-nighters, sleeping only four or five hours a day, spending the rest of the time helping Xu Can handle the company's operations.

He sifted through countless decisions to pick out the most critical ones and handed them to Xu Can to handle.

Unless there were matters that were extremely difficult to decide, requiring the company's chairman, Xu Can, to come in person for a meeting.

Galaxy Pictures, Galaxy Music, Galaxy Digital, Galaxy Streaming, and Marvel Entertainment,

the top executives of Galaxy Entertainment's five major divisions gathered together,

including Happy, Kevin Feige, the music head Old Man Doug Mo Lisi, Galaxy Pictures head Joey Wright, digital effects head Xu Jian, streaming head Ted Sarandos...

and even one of the company's shareholders, angel investor Ivanka.

It had been a long time since he'd seen Ivanka; the girl had even better skin now, radiating the noble aura of a wealthy heiress in front of outsiders.

She sat beside Xu Can in a black evening gown, her smooth, fair calves inevitably drawing a second glance from Xu Can.

With the soul of the group in place, each department began its own report and plans for what was next.

On the music front,

A, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey would all release their debut albums this year.

A's "Yours Truly" focused on a sweet and cute style, a world of difference from the later explicit little yellow songs.

including hits like "The Way" that would dominate the charts in the future.

Lorde's second album "Kiss" was likewise finished, already including the globally viral "Call Me Maybe."

When chatting with Lorde, Xu Can casually brought up the creative concept of the song, which indeed sparked her inspiration!

For projects that weren't films, Xu Can didn't like to interfere with the original creative process and just copy the songs over.

Copying movies is one thing, but copying songs over is pretty boring.

Who knows, they might even create an even more remarkable work.

"Call Me Maybe" was about to hit the radio charts next month,

and he believed that in just over a month, the melody of this song would echo through every street and alley in the world.

As for Lana Del Rey, with her debut self-titled album performing well, her second record "Born to Die" was finished.

It also included that dark-horse single "Summertime Sadness."

With three aces all making their moves at once, Xu Can felt that the most awesome company in his group was no longer Galaxy Pictures,

Galaxy Music might just pull off an overtake!

Add Taylor Swift, the true god, in three days, and it's a divine lineup!

Of course, besides them, Xu Can's company had also leveraged its foreknowledge advantage to sign Justin Bieber and Bruno Mars early on,

and poached Piqué's future girlfriend Shakira from Columbia Records.

By next year's World Cup, the worldwide rights to her famous "Waka Waka" would belong exclusively to Xu Can.

……

The music sector was surging forward, about to create gods.

The digital effects company was likewise booming, no longer needing to leech off the film company,

Galaxy Digital was already the most famous effects studio in Hollywood, having shot to fame with "Iron Man" and "Spider-Man 2"!

Now, many of the upcoming blockbusters in Hollywood had chosen to partner with Galaxy Digital.

For example, the upcoming Paramount blockbuster "Star Trek" had chosen to deeply collaborate with Galaxy Entertainment,

as the saying goes, if you can't beat them, join them—Paramount had been thoroughly beaten into submission by Xu Can over the past few years.

In addition, "Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen" had likewise chosen Galaxy Digital.

The two films brought Xu Can nearly $200 million in revenue!

An absolute blood profit!

Galaxy Digital had previously handled the production of "Captain America 1" and "Lei Shen,"

and would next take on the effects for "Interstellar," as well as "The Avengers," which was expected to begin filming in the second half of the year!

……

Galaxy Entertainment's streaming platform GalaxyTV+ had likewise not stopped making moves.

On Xu Can's suggestion, the platform signed "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan and began working on the hit series "Breaking Bad."

The platform was also negotiating the rights with "A Song of Ice and Fire" author Old Man Ma Ding, and the deal was basically done.

Alan Taylor would team up with Old Man Ma Ding to create "Game of Thrones."

"The Walking Dead" producer Glen Mazzara had likewise been poached by the platform to oversee series production.

Since Xu Can had three blood-transfusion channels backing him—music, film, and effects production,

he could approve unlimited budgets, using money to hammer out premium series!

Besides the pillar show "The Big Bang Theory," three series—"Breaking Bad," "Game of Thrones," and "The Walking Dead"—would begin airing one after another in the second half of 2009!

Additionally, "Sherlock," "Shameless," and "Spartacus" had all been scheduled into the plan and were brewing.

With the royal flush played, GalaxyTV+ would become the world's premier streaming platform!

Occupying absolute dominance!

……

Star River Pictures' most important project right now is *Interstellar*—we'll set that aside for now.

Next, on the Marvel side, Kevin Feige reported his plans to Xu Can.

*Captain America: The First Avenger* would premiere in May, *Thor* at the end of June, and *Iron Man 2* at the end of July!

Xu Can's Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One was about to dominate the entire 2009 summer box office!

Once these three blockbusters hit theaters in succession, *The Avengers* wouldn't be far off!

This time, Xu Can had no plans to film a Hulk origin movie.

Ang Lee's earlier *Hulk* hadn't performed well, but it had already familiarized audiences with the origin story.

After much deliberation, Xu Can had no plans to shoot *The Incredible Hulk* on its own.

Hulk's origin story would be folded into *The Avengers*.

After all, Hulk's origin had nothing much to offer—everyone knew that.

The upcoming "World War Hulk," "Red Hulk," "Immortal Hulk"…

These major Hulk events were the real best picks for a solo Hulk film!

Whatever event got filmed, it would be slotted into Marvel Phase Two.

"Put the Hulk project on hold for now and bump The Avengers up in priority."

"Understood, don't worry, Xu." Kevin Feige nodded in full agreement.

The entire Marvel Cinematic Universe operated independently; Xu Can oversaw the big picture and didn't take part in the actual creative work.

He still devoted most of his energy to those more meaningful films.

Of course, when Spider-Man eventually showed up, Xu Can would inevitably be involved.

Even *Spider-Man 3: Into the Spider-Verse*—Peter Parker versus the Sinister Six—

wouldn't just feature Spider-Gwen; other Marvel characters would cameo in post-credits scenes too.

This would be scheduled after *The Avengers* and before *Avengers 2*.

Throughout the entire meeting, Kevin Feige and the company's executives and shareholders all discussed things seriously and threw themselves into it.

Star River Entertainment, as Hollywood's most promising contender for a major powerhouse, was worth everyone pouring themselves into it and treating it as their own career.

But throughout the whole process, angel investor Ivanka remained detached from the team.

She simply listened with poise, sitting quietly like an aloof goddess, offering no suggestions at all.

"Don't you have anything to say?"

Xu Can asked softly while the others were discussing.

Ivanka merely shook her head gently.

"This is your team—I won't interfere. Besides… you won't need my investment going forward, will you?"