Chapter 245: Spanish Market

That night, after the screening of The Devil Wears Prada, a huge party was held at a nearby hotel. 

The main members of the Rob-B-Hood crew also attended. After all, Gao Yuanyuan was now the lead in Painted Skin, a movie invested by Capet Pictures.

"Hey, Jackie!" Charles called out when he saw Jackie Chan approaching.

Jackie Chan smiled and walked over. "Good evening!"

"I'm a big fan of yours, Jackie," Charles said with a smile, shaking hands with Jackie. "Is Rush Hour 3 done filming?"

"We've finished the scenes in France. We're preparing to shoot in the US now," Jackie said without hesitation, as the release date for Rush Hour 3 was already set for next August.

New Line Cinema hesitated to start the third installment immediately after the second one. The reason being that the paychecks for Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker were too high. 

"Hey, Charles, since Jackie is here, is there any project you guys could work on together?" Bill Kong's eyes lit up. When it came to developing films, the young man in front of him was Hollywood's Midas touch.

"Jackie is currently the most important Chinese actor on the global stage," Bill sincerely flattered, as Jet Li couldn't quite compare.

Jackie's co-productions were mostly medium to large-budget films, never under $50 million.

Jet Li was different. To date, he mainly appeared in independent B-movies, playing various roles such as villains and side characters.

Charles looked at Jackie. "Jackie, do you have any ideas? Personally, I'm very interested in kung fu movies. I've watched Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle several times."

Jackie smiled. "It would be great to work with Capet Pictures, but right now I don't have a good script."

"No rush, we can take our time," Bill Kong explained with a smile because Jackie was now focused more on the domestic market.

"Alright, you guys chat," Charles said, feeling the need to greet others.

After Charles left, Bill Kong sighed, "Capet Pictures is incredible. This young man is a natural-born movie producer!"

...

The Devil Wears Prada was only there for promotion at the Venice Film Festival. After the screening, the film crew would leave and not attend the closing ceremony. Anne Hathaway was set to go to Rome and Madrid for promotion, and would wait for Charles in Milan.

Painted Skin did announce its plan at the Venice Film Festival, and James Toonon had certain expectations for the European release of this movie.

"Universal Pictures wants to develop The Mummy 3? And they're setting the story in the Qin Dynasty of ancient China, not in Egyptian pyramids?" Charles said as he looked at Phyllis Jones in front of him.

"Yes, they are in contact with Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh. Universal Pictures plans to make this a China-U.S. co-production," Phyllis Jones continued to explain.

"First The Forbidden Kingdom, now The Mummy 3," Charles shook his head, thinking they were all bad movies anyway.

"But I heard that Rachel Weisz, the heroine of the first two Mummy movies, was dissatisfied with the script and would not star in this third movie, but the leading man Brendan Fraser would still appear!"

Phyllis Jones reminded Charles, "Recently, Tom Cruise and his partner Paula Wagner have been in frequent contact with MGM. According to the information, Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner seem interested in entering United Artists, a subsidiary of MGM!"

"United Artists?" Charles smiled. It was one of the big eight studios back in the day but got directly bought by MGM in the early '80s and its distribution system was shut down.

"Now what's left of United Artists? Except for some silent film rights from the Chaplin era and this label, if the 007 series were still under United Artists, I'd be interested!"

Phyllis Jones laughed and said, "But the United Artists brand is still famous. Although it has less than 20 employees, if Tom Cruise can take over United Artists, he could attract a lot of investments."

"Cruise/Wagner Productions signed a $100 million fast-track deal with investment funds on Wall Street, right? With Tom Cruise's fame, it wouldn't be too hard to secure more investments," Charles did not underestimate Tom Cruise's long-standing popularity.

"I don't know, but Tom Cruise has been in and out of Wall Street a lot lately. Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs all have seen him around," Phyllis Jones also knew that Tom Cruise was seeking capital backing.

Developing movies independently couldn't be done without capital. However, someone like their own boss, Charles Capet, using his own money to develop movies was extremely rare in Hollywood.

After all, in the film industry, less than 20% of movies are profitable, especially big films - a loss could mean a huge loss.

"Don't worry about it. Other than those film library rights, the 007 series and the Pink Panther series are the only valuable ones in MGM," Charles snorted.

"Although MGM's releases have increased this year under Sony's control, the only real heavyweight is Casino Royale coming out at the end of the year."

As for the tenth Pink Panther, Charles didn't care about it.

"Pay attention to Cruise/Wagner Productions though," Charles hoped to get involved in the re-launch of Mission: Impossible 4 when Tom Cruise and Paramount reconciled.

After all, the success of Mission: Impossible 4 led to the later sequels' box office surge.

However, since Paramount held the distribution rights to the Mission: Impossible series, Charles was not too interested with Capet Pictures being just a simple investor.

"What's the box office for The Departed now?" Charles asked again.

"As of now, North America has made 100 million dollars and overseas also crossed 100 million dollars, predicting a global box office of about $300 million," Phyllis Jones quickly responded.

"Seems like Brad Pitt's box office draw is indeed a bit lacking," Charles shook his head. After all, this version of The Departed directed by Ridley Scott was obviously stronger than Martin Scorsese's original.

The Departed cost $80 million to produce, but Capet Pictures spent over $40 million on promotion, using blockbuster marketing techniques.

"Pitt's Babel received high praise at the Cannes Film Festival this year, and he also starred in another indie film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford!"

"How many art films have high box offices?" Charles's self-developed art films were not many, apart from memorable big hits; high-grossing art films were rare.

"By the way, make sure the project at the Shibuya headquarters in Tokyo starts as soon as possible, and notify James to perfect Capet International Pictures' distribution network in Europe as soon as possible."

Now that Capet Pictures' films were so popular worldwide, Charles was unsatisfied that their European distribution network had not been massively built yet.

They hadn't even secured the major countries, Italy and Spain. Especially Spain, which had huge influence in Latin America.

There was no worry about the English-speaking market, but Capet Pictures needed to speed up in the Spanish-speaking market. Without dealing with Spain, what could they do in Latin America?

"Yes, Ms. Langley is already setting up the Latin American entertainment center in Miami, speeding up the Spanish-language film and TV business!"

Capet Entertainment was expanding quickly, thanks to its substantial cash flow. Miami could radiate to Central and South America and was the international metropolis with the highest Latin population.

All the major entertainment groups had set up branches in Miami oriented towards Latin America.

Charles nodded. Since that was settled, he could continue to have fun in Italy for a few more days. He couldn't let the beautiful Anne Hathaway down!

*****

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