Chapter 200 199. We Found Taylor Swift

When Eric heard the name Kevin Feige, his eyes lit up.

Anyone who knows Marvel knows that the reason why DCEU has flourished over the past decade, with a bunch of superheroes forming the movie universe, is that Kevin Feige is the one who planned and promoted it.

It can be said that until "Avengers 4", which is the end of Marvel's third phase, the company's operations were extremely successful, making hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide over the past decade, making countless people jealous.

The biggest contributor to such success is Kevin Feige, who has a comprehensive view of the overall situation and is undoubtedly a successful planner and strategic master.

Then there was quantum time travel and the death of Thanos, and the climax that the audience had been looking forward to for more than ten years finally came to an end. Although some viewers complained that Avengers 4 had too many plot bugs, most of the audience were still satisfied, as can be seen from the box office.

Then the Marvel Universe entered the fourth stage, and the departure of Iron Man and Captain America made the heroic team lose its backbone in an instant.

In addition, more than a decade of superhero blockbusters have indeed made the audience aesthetically fatigued. After watching Endgame, the fans who have been chasing the franchise for more than a decade have finally fulfilled their wishes.

Just like when a man ejaculates during sex, his desire will drop sharply, and he will naturally lose interest in the subsequent works.

The new group of moviegoers are unwilling to revisit old movies from ten years ago. If they don’t watch the first part, they won’t understand many of the plots. Unknowingly, they have raised the threshold for movie-watching.

These factors are in line with objective laws and no one can change them.

The TV series and movies launched in the fourth phase include "Wanda and Vision", "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier", "Loki", "Black Widow", "Shang-Chi", "Eternals", etc.

Have you found the problem?

The quality of the first few dramas released was pretty good, especially "Wanda and Vision", which received rave reviews, but things took a sharp turn for the worse afterwards.

The casting of "Shang-Chi" was obviously discriminatory. They deliberately chose Simu Liu and a girl who was uglier than a Korean girl and was disgusting. Yet Tony Leung Chiu-wai still went to take part in the film.

It is because he is too famous that he was not banned, just like when he was filming "Lust, Caution". It was also because of his fame that he was not banned. But the newcomer Tang Wei was unlucky and had no filming time for three years.

"Eternals" is even more of a piece of shit, with LGBT elements shining through, and it's so rotten that it can't be worse.

The reason for this situation actually lies within the organization.

Because just as Warner particularly likes to interfere with the planning and filming of DC, Disney also began to interfere with Marvel's internal operations from this stage.

Mickey Mouse appointed a new CEO, Bob Chapek, to take office. After the old man took over Marvel, he immediately placed a large number of his confidants in important positions in the company. The representative figure was Victoria Alonso. They took away the power from Kevin Feige.

Since Kevin Feige understands both comics and movies, he always meets with directors face to face to communicate the project blueprint.

But after Bob Chapek came, Kevin Feige was prohibited from communicating directly with the director and screenwriter, and other executives had to be present to negotiate.

If everyone disagrees, then sorry, you can no longer make decisions as before, and you have to hold meetings, negotiate, and ask for instructions constantly.

If the director, screenwriter and other executives agree, Kevin Feige will be kicked out and lose his right to make suggestions.

Under a series of operations by Bob Chapek, Marvel has become a place where political correctness is rampant, and Kevin Feige has been completely isolated, becoming a puppet with a name but no power.

Fortunately, the consequences are also obvious. Except for "Spider-Man 3" which made a lot of money by relying on sentiment, most other projects suffered losses.

After several years of trouble, Disney finally seemed to realize its mistake, so it kicked out Bob Chapek and brought in Kevin Feige, hoping that he could clean up the mess.

Then Marvel made a masterpiece like "Loki 2" that once again made it a masterpiece.

It can be seen from the development history of Marvel in later generations that Kevin Feige is definitely a talent. Marvel with him and without him are completely two different companies.

At the same time, it also indirectly confirms that if laymen guide professionals, something bad will definitely happen.

Eric must recruit this kind of talent and let him succeed Avi Arad as CEO in two or three years, while he will serve as chairman of the board.

On the surface, Kevin Feige is in charge of Marvel, while Eric is in charge behind the scenes. The two of them, one in the light and one in the dark, can ensure that Marvel will prosper for decades.

Of course, Kevin Feige doesn’t always do a good job, for example, the plots of "Captain America 1", "Thor 1", "Thor 2" and so on are not good.

But even if it is not good, it is better than those in the later period, and these bad works need Eric to control.

As for the opening work of DCEU, it would of course be best to shoot "Iron Man", but unfortunately the copyright of Iron Man is currently in the hands of New Line.

After New Line successfully launched the "Blade" series, it seemed to be more confident about superhero movies. It once released news that it wanted to bring Iron Man to the big screen and invited Tom Cruise to play Tony Stark.

Then MGM can only settle for the second best and shoot "Captain America" ​​first.

Anyway, in terms of character popularity alone, Captain America is much stronger than Iron Man. The former has always been a first-line hero, while the latter has never been a first-line hero.

It was only after the movie was released that Iron Man's popularity began to increase rapidly, but he still has not become the most popular.

Spider-Man, Wolverine, Doctor Doom, Magneto and others have always been superior to him.

At Neverland Ranch, Eric and Michael are talking about what has happened recently.

"Michael, I went to China to promote Transformers a few days ago, and I talked about you with the officials there."

"They asked me to help send you an invitation, hoping that you can go to Huaxia to attend a large party and perform on stage."

"Me? Are you saying that China is planning to invite me?" Mike asked in surprise, pointing at his face.

"Yes, you are the king of pop in the world. You also have a lot of fans in China. The number may be more than that in the entire United States."

"There are 1.3 billion people there. Do you know how big a group of people that is? The United States has only over 200 million people, only one-fifth of China's."

"Eric, wait for me."

Maikou stood up and left, then came back after a while with a few photo albums.

"Wow. Looking at the cover, this photo album seems to be quite old."

"Well, it contains photos of me from the 1980s, at least a dozen years ago."

As he said this, he opened one of the books, flipped through it, and didn't find what he wanted, so he picked up another book and flipped through one of the pages. He immediately smiled and pointed at it and said, "Look at this, guess what place this is?"

The photo shows a young Michael. His skin was still completely dark at that time. He looked to be in his twenties, with a handsome face and a feminine beauty.

Next to him was an old Chinese grandmother, looking at the camera kindly.

Eric could tell at a glance that he was definitely Chinese. The feeling was completely different from that of Southeast Asians and Koreans.

"Hahahaha. You can't guess it, right? I tell you, the place in the photo is China."

"It was in 1987. I went on vacation to Hong Kong and then to a city in GD Province, or it would be more appropriate to call it a village."

"I can't remember the exact place name, but if you look at the scenery in these photos, it's really beautiful. It's a beauty that belongs only to nature, mysterious and peaceful."

He then pointed to a photo of a lake and said, "Look at this. I'm wearing a straw hat and sitting on a boat. There's water all around me. The water is very clear."

"That old lady even invited me to her home for tea and gave me some potatoes to eat."

"This memory suddenly came flooding back to me, and it's so beautiful to think about it now. I love that country."

Eric stared at the album for a long moment.

Fate is wonderful!

"Michael, would you like to attend the party? It will probably take you two or three days."

"Which year exactly?"

"On the evening of January 22nd, but you have to fly over in advance. The show may require rehearsals, and you also need to familiarize yourself with the stage in advance."

"Eric, are there many people watching this show?"

Eric nodded solemnly: "The Spring Festival Gala is China's highest-level gala, held only once a year, with hundreds of millions of people watching at the same time. You can think of it as China's version of the Super Bowl."

It is said that Americans don’t understand the Spring Festival Gala, but there is no American who doesn’t understand the Super Bowl. Football is undoubtedly the number one sport in the United States. Baseball, basketball, and football combined are not enough.

Sure enough, when he heard the words "hundreds of millions of people", even Maikou, who was used to many ups and downs, was surprised.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

"Oh my god! Hundreds of millions of people are watching this party. It seems like I really have no reason not to participate. What kind of performance do you want me to perform? Sing or dance?"

Eric shrugged: "You decide the show yourself. Just treat it as a warm-up for next year's national tour."

"Hahahaha. You're right. I've been doing recovery training recently. I'll use this gala as a test for my return to the stage."

"It has always been my dream to have more people see me and know me. Just thinking about the number of hundreds of millions of people is exciting."

"If you agree, I will give the other party a reply. You should sign the contract as soon as possible. However, I predict that the remuneration will not be too high. I hope you don't mind."

Michael waved his hand: "Remuneration is not a problem, Eric. We are all people who don't value money. It is enough for hundreds of millions of people to see me at the same time."

It went unexpectedly smoothly. Eric didn't expect Michael to agree so easily. He had planned to persuade him.

After all, due to economic conditions and copyright restrictions, people over there watch and listen to pirated content, which actually does not bring much economic benefit to Maxco.

The stars invited by the Spring Festival Gala are never paid. It is good enough to just give them boxed lunches. Even if foreign stars are paid, it would not be high in 2003.

It is said that when Celine Dion sang on the Spring Festival Gala, she only received a friendly price of 2 million RMB.

Nowadays, it would be good to have 200,000 RMB. At the same time, Maxco will definitely bring its own clothing and team, which is actually equivalent to paying for it.

Eric knew exactly what Chen Ou was thinking when he came to him. It was because he knew the relationship between him and Michael, so he wanted to borrow his face.

Now that Michael has given me face, and MGM has been helping China expand its overseas markets and has paid so much, I don’t believe that they are still holding up the approval of the entry of American TV series.

If you are really so unkind, don't blame Eric for being angry.

Of course, there are selfish motives. Let Maikou bring a little shock to the domestic entertainment industry. It would be best to severely hit the Korean wave and Taiwan’s idol style, improve the public’s aesthetic level, and it will also help the ratings of American dramas after they enter China.

I picked up the phone and called Chen Ou on the spot.

"Hello, Director Chen, are you available to talk?"

"Convenient, go ahead, Mr. Cooper."

"Regarding the matter you asked me to do, Michael has already agreed. He will participate in this year's Spring Festival Gala."

"Really? Thank you, thank you very much Eric."

Chen Ou's somewhat excited voice came from the other side. Being able to invite the world's three tenors does not mean that we can also invite the world's king of pop.

The former is a bit too elegant, and being too elegant means that it is too highbrow and not understood by the common people. It is not widely spread, so in terms of popularity and value, it is actually far inferior to Maikou.

"You're welcome. I told you that friends are supposed to help each other."

"Hahahaha. That's right, that's right. Friends are supposed to help each other. That makes so much sense."

"Please find some time to send someone over to sign the contract and discuss the stage details. After all, time is running out."

"Well, I'll send someone to the United States right away, Eric. I didn't expect you to get things done so quickly. To be honest, I was just giving it a try that day."

Eric smiled and said, "Director Chen, I hope you guys can give me a quick reply."

"Don't worry, I will do my best. No, I will do my best!"

After hanging up the phone, Eric looked at Michael and said, "Huaxia will send someone over soon. You two can discuss the details. I won't be in charge of it."

"What! That won't do! We'll go together then, and you can't shirk your responsibility as the middleman."

Eric laughed and said, "No problem. It's not bad to watch the Spring Festival Gala live."

After talking about this, the two talked about the business issues of Meiyi Records, especially that it was time to start recording The Voice of America, otherwise it would not be able to compete with American Idol next year.

"By the way, Michael, when does the recording of The Voice of America start?"

"It will be launched officially before the end of the month. The players we found this time are all good talents with good skills."

"I listened to their demos and there were a few that stood out and I thought were worth nurturing."

"Haha. To be recognized by you means they are really strong. Do you have detailed information? Resumes or something like that."

Soon, Maikou brought a thick document, which contained all the contestants' personal information, including their name, home address, singing style they were good at, etc. There were dozens of items in it.

That’s right, although the other three mentors don’t know the contestants’ information, as one of the producers, it would be incompetent if he didn’t know.

However, what we are listening to are all demos, which are very different from the live performances, so it will not affect the live recording effect.

Besides, even if it will be affected a little, I still have my acting skills to make up for it.

Turning to the first page, Eric saw a teenage boy named Cavallon Sinai, but he didn't have much impression of him.

The second page was another teenage boy, still unknown.

I flipped to the tenth page and suddenly a young girl appeared in front of me. She looked only thirteen or fourteen years old in the photo.

The name column clearly read: Taylor Alison Swift.

(End of this chapter)