Chapter 407: Dangerous Ideas

After returning, Cao Yang spent a long time communicating with Anne Hathaway and Eva Green; both actresses expressed that they had learned quite a few performance and vocal techniques.

Because yesterday's Oscar ceremony was naturally energy-consuming, and on top of that he had to tutor the two actresses after returning, Cao Yang slept a bit soundly and woke up a bit late.

By the time he woke up, it was already eleven in the morning.

However, Anne Hathaway and Eva Green were no better off; neither of them had woken up yet either.

Logically speaking, the two should have had better energy than Cao Yang, but there are exceptions to everything.

In order to look more radiant and moving on the red carpet at the Oscar ceremony, female stars often go on a diet many days in advance; in the few days before the event, they might even eat nothing or just a tiny bit.

This resulted in them having neither physical strength nor energy.

Therefore, the two, curled up together, slept even more soundly than Cao Yang.

Cao Yang sat up and reached out to pat each of their bottoms, but the two didn't even have a particular reaction.

Shaking his head, Cao Yang picked up his phone to take a look; there were actually two missed calls, one from Warner CEO Barry Meyer and one from Warner Bros. Pictures President Jeff Robinov.

Cao Yang couldn't help but shake his head and sigh; he couldn't tutor too late in the future... no, that wasn't it, he couldn't tutor multiple people's acting skills at once. Look, two calls came in on his phone, and he hadn't even heard them.

He first called Barry Meyer back, and when the call connected, he said with a smile:

"Sorry Barry, I set my phone to silent mode at yesterday's Oscar ceremony, and afterwards there were interviews and the banquet, so I forgot to switch it back. I only realized you had called when I picked up the phone."

"Haha, understood, understood. In that kind of setting, one definitely has to switch it to silent."

Barry Meyer's tone was natural, and one couldn't hear any displeasure at all—given his status, few people would dare not answer his calls, and he basically never encountered such things.

But since he encountered it this time, he still had to smile and express understanding.

"I haven't congratulated you yet, my dearest Mr. Director. Congratulations on your production of *The Fault in Our Stars* winning Best Picture. If I remember correctly, this is your third one, right?

This is a truly remarkable achievement; it is extremely rare in the entire history of Hollywood. Congratulations on becoming the first in history."

"Tied, it's tied. Mr. Saul Zaentz is a legend of Hollywood; he is a great producer."

Cao Yang replied with a smile.

Hmm, Saul Zaentz is a legendary producer; flattering him is definitely not wrong. The more impressive he is... haven't I already reached the same level as him, winning three Oscar Best Pictures?

Of course, Saul Zaentz's status doesn't need to be bragged about.

In the producer industry, even the most active gold-medal producer currently, Jerry Bruckheimer, cannot be mentioned in the same breath as Saul Zaentz in terms of status and influence.

It's just that Saul Zaentz is very low-key, or rather, the award-winning films he produced are from a slightly older era; by the time the internet became popular, he had basically retired, so people rarely pay attention to figures from that era.

Actually, there is another film everyone is familiar with that was also operated and pushed by Saul Zaentz, only he was just behind the scenes.

This film is *The Lord of the Rings* trilogy.

What everyone sees on the surface is Peter Jackson using this series to rank among the great directors of Hollywood, but I'm afraid not many people know the hidden story behind it.

As early as 1976, Saul Zaentz bought the film, television, game, merchandise, and other multi-field adaptation rights for *The Lord of the Rings* and *The Hobbit*.

It's just that, limited by the technology of the time, he didn't produce it into a live-action film, but only produced an animated film, *The Lord of the Rings*.

Later, he sold the film adaptation rights of the novels to Miramax, led by the Weinstein brothers.

This is what achieved Peter Jackson.

However, there is one point: he only sold the film adaptation rights to Miramax; the remaining television, game, peripheral merchandise, and other rights were still in his hands.

Later, Miramax didn't think highly of *The Lord of the Rings* film and sold the rights to New Line.

The *The Lord of the Rings* film series eventually achieved great success, and both New Line and Peter Jackson made a fortune, but Saul Zaentz didn't earn any less.

A specialized company once conducted an assessment: the success of *The Lord of the Rings* film series made the valuation of the rights related to these novels exceed 2 billion US dollars.

Although Saul Zaentz also sold the game adaptation rights to New Line, he still kept some other rights.

Tolkien probably never imagined until his death that his novels could create such great value.

He died in 1973, and his heirs sold all the rights to *The Hobbit* and *The Lord of the Rings* in a package to Saul Zaentz in 1976.

I just don't know if Tolkien's descendants, after seeing *The Lord of the Rings* series create so much wealth, will regret their original decision.

Hmm, they definitely regret it to the point of their guts turning green.

Warner CEO Barry Meyer calling Cao Yang to offer congratulations was just a formality; it's just an Oscar for Best Picture. Compared to this, he values more Cao Yang's ability to save the "dead" *Pirates of the Caribbean*.

Most importantly, it is the ability to make *New Pirates of the Caribbean* a global blockbuster of over 1 billion US dollars.

That's right, over 1 billion US dollars.

Don't look at the current box office of *New Pirates of the Caribbean* being a little short of 1 billion; after this film won several major technical awards at the Oscars, 1 billion US dollars is definitely achievable.

The promotional power that comes with the Oscars is very large.

Many art films that win Oscar awards can sell for one or two hundred million US dollars or even more globally.

Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many Hollywood films daring to throw millions or tens of millions of dollars into it just to get an Oscar nomination or award.

Barry Meyer also wants to produce a billion-dollar-level film.

Among the two films in the entire Hollywood currently exceeding 1 billion US dollars, *Titanic* was co-produced by 20th Century Fox and Paramount.

And *The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King* nominally belongs to Warner, because the production company for this film, New Line Cinema, was acquired by Warner as early as '93.

But unfortunately, although New Line was acquired by Warner, New Line's original president, Shaye, still held major equity in New Line at the time of the acquisition and enjoyed the company's autonomous management rights.

Therefore, although New Line belongs to the Time Warner Group, its film operations are not related to other film companies within the group.

This is very awkward.

A nominal subsidiary produced a film of the billion-plus level, while Warner, although it has a constant stream of blockbuster films and even "cash cows" like *Harry Potter*.

It just hasn't produced a film of the billion-plus level.

Barry Meyer really hopes to join forces with Cao Yang to produce another film of the billion-plus level.

He placed this hope on *The Dark Knight*, which is currently in post-production.

*Batman* is the superhero with the most fans and naturally possesses a good box office foundation; plus, with Cao Yang collaborating with Nolan, there is still hope.

Barry Meyer's purpose is very simple: it is to "urge" Cao Yang—the Oscars are already over, shouldn't you come to the company now to follow up on the film's post-production?

Regarding Cao Yang letting go and letting Nolan handle post-production, Barry Meyer is still not at ease.

Who is Nolan?

Just a Hollywood director who is barely reliable.

The films he has directed have neither won major awards nor had box office explosions, and even for a national-level comic book adaptation like *Batman*, he almost messed up the first rebooted film!

Don't say that not losing money at the box office is a huge profit.

That is for new films with no foundation.

Is *Batman* a new film? Does it have no foundation?

This is a film with the largest fan base in North America, okay!

Look at the rebooted film *Pirates of the Caribbean* directed by Cao Yang; its global box office can exceed 1 billion US dollars. Can the 300-plus million global box office of the first *Batman* directed by Nolan compare?

No matter who it is, would they choose to believe in Cao Yang or believe in Nolan?

The answer is obvious.

After hanging up on Barry Meyer, Cao Yang was just about to call Warner Bros. Pictures President Jeff Robinov when he didn't expect him to have called again.

Compared to Warner CEO Barry Meyer, Jeff Robinov is not only concerned about the sequel to *Batman*, he is more concerned about *Joker*.

In Jeff Robinov's view, the *Batman* sequel has Cao Yang stepping in, joining forces with Nolan, so the probability of success is still very high.

But *Joker* is different; this is an extension of the *Batman* series. There has never been a precedent for pulling out a villain from it to start a project, so it is very uncertain.

This kind of film with a villain standing alone, because the popularity definitely cannot compare to the protagonist, is very unsuitable for being made into a commercial blockbuster.

If it can't be made into a commercial blockbuster, then it can only take the art-house route, digging deep into the character's inner world and relationship map, magnifying human nature for the audience to see.