Speaking of the most profitable movie series in the 21st century, I believe that as long as everyone knows a little about movies, everyone will choose the Marvel Cinematic Universe series.
Although many people criticize MCU movies for being too childish, lacking plot depth, and not having sophisticated special effects, etc., they can even list 100 shortcomings of Marvel movies.
But one thing you have to admit is that this series has been a commercial success.
This movie world, composed of 23 movies, not only has a total box office of more than 20 billion US dollars, but "Avengers 4: Endgame" has also won the new box office champion in film history.
No matter how worthless this box office champion is in the eyes of others, at least it is now in the first place.
This does not even include the endless movie-related peripherals, the profits from which even far exceed the movie box office itself.
In a nutshell, you may not like the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but you can't not like the money these movies make.
Many people think that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Marvel's own original creation.
But in fact this statement is completely wrong.
As early as the black-and-white film era, Universal formed the monster movie universe with films such as The Mummy and Frankenstein.
The more recent "Alien vs. Predator" series can be seen as a fusion of movie universes from different series.
However, these movie universes either do not have a perfect plan or have too little influence, and they cannot be compared with the entertainment empire of MCU.
But one thing is certain: whether you like Marvel or not, it has changed the rules of the film industry and the way film companies make movies.
Before Marvel, when people watched a movie, they were just watching a single story, but after that, everyone saw a universe, a world.
As a commercial director, Nanaya is of course interested in the Marvel series, not to mention that he was a die-hard fan of the MCU in his previous life.
In fact, Nanaya did have his eyes on Marvel, but unfortunately it was not until after 2000 that he was able to get to Hollywood.
According to the memory of the previous life, Marvel should have gotten out of the debt crisis by this time and started preparing for the MCU.
In other words, at this time Nanaya has already lost the opportunity to enter the game.
As for the possibility of Marvel coming to him on their own initiative, Nanaya always felt that it was very small.
After all, although Washimine has its own distribution company, it is still far behind the Big Six.
In this situation, if Marvel, which has ambitions to build an empire, wants to find a distribution partner, it will definitely look for the Big Six rather than a Hollywood newbie like Washimine.
So, although Nanaya felt sorry for missing out on Marvel, he didn't force it.
After all, there is no end to the money in the world. He already has the Type-Moon that is starting to take off, so if Marvel can't get it, then so be it.
However, things are just so coincidental sometimes. Just when Nanaya had given up, Marvel came to him.
"Is there still a chance to pick up such a big bargain?"
Nanaya was walking around Shion's office quickly. He felt as if he had found a hen that laid golden eggs, and this hen might not have been discovered by anyone yet.
Bang!
Nanaya slammed his hands on Shion's desk. He stared at Shion and asked, "What did Marvel ask for? Tell me now!"
"Why are you so startled?"
Shion shook her head. She couldn't figure out what Nanaya was so excited about.
"Tell me quickly!"
Nanaya was very anxious.
This is Marvel!
If the Type-Moon Universe in their hands still needs their own efforts to build and improve, Marvel can make money without doing anything!
As for the fact that "Iron Man" which will be released in 2008 has already started looking for a crew, Nanaya doesn't care about this issue at all.
Generally speaking, the preparatory work for big-budget movies starts very early, not to mention that Marvel is far from being an assembly line factory that will produce at least two films a year in the future.
It is normal that the first "Iron Man" would start preparations several years in advance.
"Okay, okay."
Shion had to lean back to avoid Nanaya's saliva.
Fortunately, Shion was already used to Nanaya's intermittent fits. She first motioned for Nanaya to sit down, and then told Nanaya about Kevin Feige's previous lobbying.
"They hope to let Luvia play the leading role in Iron Man because her gentle and elegant temperament is very suitable for the leading role."
When Shion said this, she looked at Luvia who was still sitting on the sofa with a strange expression.
If she didn't reveal her true nature, she would indeed have the temperament of a young lady.
Nanaya thought so too, but he thought a little more in his mind.
Based on his understanding of Marvel movies, Nanaya could even guess that the role Marvel wanted Luvia to play should be Pepper Potts.
Just looking at Luvia's star setting in Hollywood, there is indeed no problem for the gentle aristocratic lady to play the woman behind Tony Stark.
[But why does the painting style seem so inconsistent? ]
Nanaya unconsciously had a scene in his mind:
Luvia snatched the Infinity Stones before Tony snapped his fingers, and then threw them at Thanos using gem magic.
Then she rushed over, hugged the purple potato spirit, and gave him a back throw.
Luvia didn't know that Nanaya had imagined herself as a violent muscular woman. She smiled and said, "Senior, it's very impolite to keep staring at a lady like this. Besides, aren't you afraid that Rin will be jealous?"
[What kind of lady are you, a female Tyrannosaurus? ]
Nanaya's heart is full of desire to complain
"You already know that..."
Luvia shook her hair proudly, "Tohsaka is so easy to see through. She figured it out right away."
"I don't think it's something to be proud of, although it's true that Rin is easy to see through, but that's also what makes her cute."
Nanaya rubbed his temple and brought the topic back to the topic: "So let's get back to Pepper... ahem, Luvia's starring role. What did Marvel require?"
"Hey, are you going to let it go after you've distributed dog food like this?"
Shion knocked on the table in annoyance.
"Do you want to see a picture of me and Rin kissing?"
"Go to hell!" Shion raised her middle finger and said in a very unhappy tone, "Marvel said that because the movie budget needs to be concentrated on production, Luvia's salary cannot be too high. As compensation, they can give us the game copyright of their comic characters."
"Are they short of money?"
The copyright of Marvel characters is indeed tempting, but combined with what Shion said before that Marvel would come to attract investment, Nanaya immediately realized Marvel's financial difficulties.
This made Nanaya immediately realize that this would be a very good opportunity to join the game.
As for the fact that Marvel asked Luvia to play Pepper, Nanaya didn't care much about it.
After all, the original actor who played Pepper, Gwyneth Paltrow, has a pretty bad reputation in Hollywood.
Her good self-image and various nervous breakdowns make her a perfect example of what a severe princess syndrome is.
It can be said that if this woman had not been Spielberg's goddaughter, she would not have gotten the role of Pepper Potts at all.
As for why Marvel wanted to give face to Old Si, you should know that Marvel's early publisher was Paramount...
So, in the final analysis, it is just a simple exchange of interests.
Speaking of Spielberg's godchildren, there are very few normal people among them, which is really a waste of their resources.
Although Luvia has not won any major acting awards, she is a stable second-tier commercial actress.
Luvia's box office appeal is much better than that of Gwyneth Paltrow, the "Water Queen".
But there was one problem that Nanaya couldn't figure out.
"Why is Marvel short of money?"
Nanaya remembered that Marvel mortgaged everything it could in order to prepare for "Iron Man", and used its entire fortune to obtain a loan of more than 500 million to prepare for the MCU.
Logically speaking, Marvel should not have any financial problems at the moment.
"Forget it. If you can't figure it out, just check it out."
Nanaya said to Shion: "You ask someone to carefully investigate Marvel's current situation, not only the preparations for "Iron Man", but also the operation of Marvel."
"Why, you are optimistic about Marvel?"
Shion feels that Nanaya's goal is not on the "Iron Man" movie project at all, and he has an interest in Marvel that goes beyond other things.
If he was just investigating a film project, Nanaya wouldn't need to understand the company's operations.
When you eat, do you still have to worry about the chef's marital status?
The dishes are delicious.
"Yeah, don't you think this is an opportunity to expand our territory in Hollywood?"
Nanaya said excitedly: "There are too few IPs in Washimine Entertainment's hands now. Apart from the Fate series, there are only Washimine game IP copyrights, but it is very difficult to adapt these IPs into movies."
In fact, Washimine also has Tsuburaya in his hands, but Tsuburaya's special effects character IP can only be regarded as a small circle in North America, and its influence is really too low.
"Marvel has hundreds of comic book characters, and the character IPs alone are a treasure trove that can be explored endlessly."
"But Marvel's most valuable IP is not in their hands now."
Shion is no longer the newbie who knew little about Hollywood a few years ago.
She did see the potential value of Marvel characters, otherwise she would not be interested in Marvel's proposed "Iron Man" project.
However, Shion still has many concerns about whether this project will be popular.
Marvel has made many IPs into movies, but only Spider-Man is a real hit. X-Men has also become a successful commercial series thanks to its large number of members.
But Marvel's other characters are not so good. Although "Blade" in the last century was successful, its influence was too small; and Universal's "The Hulk" was a complete failure.
There is also the recently released "Fantastic Four", which has been beaten to a pulp by "Fate" on the box office charts this week, and even its mother can't recognize it.
Therefore, it is hard to say whether the "Iron Man" project can be successful.
In addition, the man named Kevin Feige who came to him for investment was a bit unreliable in his words.
This is also the reason why Shion asked Nanaya to come over and give her some advice, as she herself was really unsure.
But...
Shion looked at Nanaya who was extremely excited. It was the first time she saw him being so concerned about someone else's movie.
"Maybe, this movie will be a success?"
Shion felt that she needed to ask Iioka to investigate the Marvel company thoroughly.
Although she has no confidence in Marvel, Shion has great confidence in Nanaya.
He has never made a mistake when it comes to movies.