Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
Star Moon Animation Studios.
On the third floor, in the screening room.
The animated films of this world were being projected onto the screen.
One film.
Two films.
Three films.
“Teacher Zhang.”
“Mhm?”
“Have you seen this before?”
“No.”
“Then you must have watched Squirrel before, right?”
“Nope, never watched that before.”
“Surely you must have watched Toy Cat then!”
“I really haven't watched any before.”
At first, Mark Foran and the others did not believe him. They thought that Zhang Ye was just kidding with them, or perhaps they didn't understand the kind of humor that the Chinese people had. As such, Mark Foran specially picked out a few of this world's better known Hollywood animated films that had the highest box office earnings and showed them to Zhang Ye. In his opinion, even if one wasn't professionally involved with animated films, they would probably still have watched them before. This was because these t.i.tles were world-famous. But after playing a few of them, they finally plunged into despair when they realized that Zhang Ye had really not watched any of them before. He had not seen a single animated film before!
Mark Foran was on the verge of breaking down.
The staff of Star Moon were facepalming.
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Me too.”
“Surely you don't need a feeling to see where this is going, right?”
“We're screwed.”
Everyone looked depressed.
But Zhang Ye stared fixedly at the screen with a serious expression.
An hour.
Three hours.
Five hours.
It was getting dark and about time to clock out.
Ha Qiqi asked, “Director Zhang, how is it?”
Zhang Zuo said, “Have you made any headway after watching them?”
Zhang Ye smiled and waved his hand, saying, “Go back first, I'll continue watching.”
Mark Foran also came in at this time. “Shall I get the staff to clock out first?”
“Sure.” Zhang Ye smiled and said, “Go home, all of you. There's no need to worry about me. Haven't all the movies been brought over? I'll just play them by myself and research further.”
Everyone left. Only Zhang Ye was left in the screening room as he continued watching. Later on, he sped up the playback and watched it in fast forward.
10 movies.
20 movies.
30 movies.
Some of them did well at the box office.
Some of them didn't do so well at the box office.
Some of them were from the early era of animated films.
Some of them were just shown this year.
Zhang Ye had been wondering why everyone around him kept saying that it wasn't OK to do animated films. It felt like they were trying to avoid making one. Qian Haitao was like this, and so was Ha Qiqi, Mark Foran, and the others from Hollywood. It seemed like this industry was simply a dead end. It wasn't until Zhang Ye watched a portion of the Hollywood animated films that he finally understood why they had said that.
The production budget was low!
The investments were small!
The plots were childis.h.!.+
How the f.u.c.k do they even call those animated films?
What nonsense is this!
So the animation film industry in this world was still stuck in its most primitive state? Their target audience was children and teenagers? Although there were also some animated films made for adults, they all contained dark humor and satire without exception. Such animated films were only targeted at an extremely small demographic, and the younger crowd did not like watching them at all. Therefore, their final box office earnings tended to be extremely poor as well. Year by year, animated film after animated film, an illusion that such works were bad started building up. This resulted in the current situation where no directors liked making animated films and no viewers liked watching them either.
In actual fact, Zhang Ye knew that Hollywood animated films were an extremely strong medium. Many excellent animated films were able to give the top Hollywood live-action movies a run for their money at the box office. In his previous world, if anyone shouted on the streets that Hollywood animated films were bad, they would surely be seen as idiots. This was because in that world, of the Top 100 Highest-Grossing Movies of all time, a quarter of the list was taken up by animated films!
If even that didn't work?
Then what else would work?
This is only happening because you people are not good at making them!
Sitting there, Zhang Ye spent the entire night researching.
“What the heck is this?”
“This movie isn't good either.”
“I guess only I can broaden you people's horizons!”
“Which animated film should I use then? I will crush all of you with whichever one that I bring out!”
Zhang Ye kept muttering to himself in the screening room. But he wasn't wrong either. All of the animated films he could think of were far better than this world's animated films. Whichever one he chose to bring out would definitely astonish a lot of people. This gave Zhang Ye a headache over which one to choose.
The next day.
Hollywood, in the morning.
An incident suddenly happened in the outside world. The members of the Directors Guild were once again targeting Zhang Ye. In an instant, a battle started on the Web!
“What?”
“An investment of 160 million USD?”
“And that's only just the production budget?”
“If we count the publicity expenses, wouldn't it come up to 200 million USD?”
“That Chinese man has really gone crazy!”
“Do they even understand how the film industry works?”
“Hollywood has been occupied by laymen!”
“The things that Zhang Ye does are way too crazy!”
“If this animated film can make money, I'll eat my head!”
“The combined box office earnings of all the Hollywood animated films over the past two years didn't even cross 160 million USD, yet you invested 160 million just like that? What a joke!”
“This is an international joke!”
“Even a live-action movie wouldn't cost that much!”
“Ha! I'm so exasperated by this!”
Many Hollywood big name directors couldn't help but step forward and say something.
Many Hollywood industry insiders also started a barrage of scolding aimed at Zhang Ye.
Star Moon Animation Studios.
The employees had not arrived for work yet.
Zhang Ye had gone out alone to buy breakfast for himself. He hadn't gotten any sleep all night and was hungry. As he ate, he browsed the Internet and happened to come across the news as well.
You people stuck your noses in when we wanted to acquire a movie studio?
You people are sticking your noses in again now that I am going to make a movie?
Why the f.u.c.k are you all such busybodies!
Zhang Ye logged into his account and replied: “It's my business what I want to make. You guys are such busybodies!”
A big shot Hollywood movie director shot back: “Wanna make a bet?”
Zhang Ye laughed and asked: “What are we betting on?”
Another Hollywood director said: “A bet on your box office earnings!”
Zhang Ye replied: “Sure.”
A third Hollywood big name director said: “Your box office earnings won't exceed 30 million dollars!”
Zhang Ye said: “What if it does?”
That American director said: “I'll eat my own head!”
Zhang Ye sneered and said: “Don't talk about things that you can't do. Say something more realistic.”
Another American director joined in. “How much do you expect an animated film to earn at the box office? Us directors will all get box office earnings that are multiple times yours. Let's make a bet! It will be limited to this year alone. If your animated film's box office earnings can exceed any of our new movie's box office earnings, we will consider it your win. But if you lose, then get out of Hollywood! A layman like you shouldn't be coming here to make trouble!”
Zhang Ye said: “That won't do.”
Wilson was also here. “Haha, you won't bet on that, will you?”
Many of the directors started deriding him.
But at the next moment, their expressions froze.
Zhang Ye laughed and said: “How about this? If any of your new movies' box office earnings can exceed mine, I will consider it my loss. The wager of the bet will remain as you guys suggested. But if none of your new movies' box office earnings can exceed mine, I won't ask too much of you in case any of you back out. When I get a chance to make a new movie, I want you all to guest star in it, free of charge, and play any role that I a.s.sign you. How about that? It's not too difficult a request, is it?”
What?
Exceed your box office earnings?
Many of the Hollywood directors were enraged!
Wilson said angrily: “So long as any of us exceeds your box office earnings?”
Zhang Ye said: “So are you going to take the bet?”
Tony said: “I'm just afraid that you'll go back on your words!”
Zhang Ye laughed and said: “This is the World Wide Web; there are records of what everyone has said. The entire world's media outlets and people are looking at this now, and they can all bear witness to what I said. I should be the one who's afraid of you guys going back on your words!”
“Who gave you the b.a.l.l.s to say something like that!”
“This is so infuriating! I'll take the bet! Take his bet!”
“I don't believe you can do it! I'll take the bet too!”
“Alright, count me in!”
“And me too!”
This was a provocation!
This was an insult!
How could this group of elite, international Hollywood movie directors take this lying down? They were all stirred up by this, and many other Hollywood directors who did not appear earlier also started coming forward at this time. The entire Directors Guild came forward to take the bet and swore to chase a layman like Zhang Ye out of Hollywood. As for that wager to act for free in a movie by Zhang Ye? It was something that they didn't even consider! Lose? How could they possibly lose! The worst performer of this bunch was already a member of the 100 million USD box office earnings club. Even if they shot a movie with their eyes closed, they couldn't possibly bring in less than 50 million USD at the box office. But an animated film? Of the Hollywood animated films that were shown this year, none had exceeded 10 million USD at the box office!
Zhang Ye sneered and said: “So it's on then?”
The group of Hollywood directors all said: “It's on!”
Zhang Ye said: “Let the world bear witness!”
The directors said: “Let the world bear witness!”
What kind of temper did Zhang Ye have? If this fellow didn't look for trouble with others, it would be a blessing. But for this group of Hollywood directors, they kept coming back time and again to take it up with Zhang Ye, so of course he would strike back at them. Moreover, he was the type who would either do nothing or retaliate in the most vicious of ways! And this time, with several dozen Hollywood directors joining the bet, it was the perfect time for him to strike them down all at once!
The argument was reaching a boiling point!
The outside world was watching in shock!
Something big was happening again in the international entertainment industry!
Zhang Ye had gotten into an argument with the Hollywood directors again!
With the entire world bearing witness, the craziest bet in the history of the international entertainment industry was official!
