Hearing the name Kevin Feige, Eric's eyes lit up.
Anyone familiar with Marvel knows that for over a decade, the reason DCEU flourished, with a group of superheroes forming a cinematic universe, was due to Kevin Feige's planning and promotion.
It can be said that until "The Avengers 4," which marked the end of Marvel's third phase, the company's operations were extremely successful, raking in tens of billions of dollars globally over a decade, making countless people envious.
The biggest contributor to this success was Kevin Feige; he oversaw the entire situation and was undoubtedly a successful planner and strategic master.
Then, with Quantum Realm travel and Thanos's demise, the grand climax that audiences had anticipated for over a decade finally concluded. Although some viewers complained about too many plot bugs in The Avengers 4, most audiences were satisfied, which could be seen from the box office.
Then the Marvel Universe entered its fourth phase, and the departure of iron man and Captain America instantly left the hero team without a backbone.
Coupled with over a decade of superhero blockbusters, audiences had indeed grown aesthetically fatigued. After watching "Avengers: Endgame," fans who had followed for over ten years felt their wishes fulfilled.
It's like when a man's desire sharply decreases after ejaculating, naturally losing interest in subsequent works.
New moviegoers were unwilling to revisit old movies from a decade ago, and without watching from the first installment, many plots were incomprehensible, inadvertently raising the viewing threshold.
These factors are all in line with objective laws, and no one can change them.
The TV shows and movies released in the fourth phase included "WandaVision," "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," "Loki," "Black Widow," "Shang-Chi," and "Eternals."
Do you see the problem?
The quality of the first few shows was decent, especially "WandaVision," which received widespread acclaim, but then it rapidly declined.
The casting for "Shang-Chi" was clearly discriminatory, deliberately choosing Simu Liu and an ugly Korean woman to disgust people, while Tony Leung still eagerly went to participate.
It was only because of his immense fame that he wasn't blacklisted, just like when he filmed "Lust, Caution" back then; it was also due to his fame that he wasn't blacklisted, but newcomer Tang Wei was unlucky and had no acting jobs for three years.
"Eternals" was even worse, shining with LGBT elements, rotten beyond belief.
The root cause of this situation actually lies internally.
Because just as Warner Bros. particularly liked to interfere with DC's planning and filming, Disney also began to interfere with Marvel's internal operations from this phase.
Mickey Mouse appointed a new CEO, Bob Chapek. After this old man took over Marvel, he immediately placed a large number of cronies in important company positions, with Victoria Alonso as a representative, and they took away power from Kevin Feige.
Because Kevin Feige understood both comics and movies, he always met with directors face-to-face to discuss project blueprints.
However, after Bob Chapek arrived, Kevin Feige was forbidden from communicating directly with directors and screenwriters; instead, other executives had to be present for discussions.
If everyone's opinions differed, then, unfortunately, he could no longer make final decisions as before; he had to constantly hold meetings, negotiate, and seek instructions.
If the director, screenwriter, and other executives had consistent opinions, Kevin Feige would be sidelined, losing his advisory power.
Under Bob Chapek's series of operations, Marvel became a place where political correctness ran rampant, and Kevin Feige was completely isolated, becoming a puppet with a title but no power.
Fortunately, the consequences were also evident: except for "spider-man 3," which made money based on nostalgia, most other projects resulted in losses.
After being tormented for a few years, Disney seemed to finally realize its mistake, so it kicked out Bob Chapek and invited Kevin Feige back, hoping he could clean up the mess.
Then Marvel produced a masterpiece like "Loki 2," which once again achieved legendary status.
From the subsequent development of Marvel, it is clear that Kevin Feige is definitely a talent; Marvel with him and Marvel without him are completely two different companies.
It also indirectly proves that when an amateur guides a professional, problems are bound to arise.
Eric must recruit such a talent. After two or three years, he would let him replace Avi Arad as CEO, while he himself would serve as the chairman of the board.
On the surface, Kevin Feige would be responsible for Marvel, while Eric would oversee from behind the scenes. With one overt and one covert, they could ensure Marvel's prosperity for decades.
Of course, Kevin Feige didn't always do well; for example, the plots of "Captain America 1," "Thor 1," and "Thor 2" were not good either.
However, even if they weren't good, they were still better than the later ones. And these less-than-stellar works would need Eric's oversight.
As for the DCEU's opening work, filming "iron man" would naturally be the best, but unfortunately, the rights to iron man are currently held by New Line Cinema.
After New Line Cinema successfully launched the blade series, it seemed to have great confidence in superhero movies and had previously announced plans to bring iron man to the big screen, inviting Tom Cruise to play Tony Stark.
Then MGM could only settle for the next best option and film "captain america" first.
Anyway, in terms of character popularity alone, captain america is far more popular than iron man; the former has always been a top-tier hero, while the latter has never become one.
It was only after the movie's release that iron man's popularity began to soar, but he still never became the most popular.
spider-man, Wolverine, Doctor Doom, Magneto, and others always overshadowed him.
At Neverland Ranch, Eric and Michael discussed recent events.
"Michael, a few days ago I went to China to promote transformers and talked to officials there about you."
"They asked me to help extend an invitation to you, hoping you could go to China to participate in a large gala and perform on stage."
"Me? Are you saying China plans to invite me?" Michael asked, pointing to his face in surprise.
"Yes, you are the King of Pop, and you have a large number of fans in China, possibly more than in the entire United States."
"There are 1.3 billion people there. Do you know how huge that is? The United States only has over 200 million, just one-fifth of China's population."
"Eric, wait for me."
Michael said, stood up, and left. After a while, he returned with several photo albums.
"Wow, looking at the covers, these albums seem to be quite old."
"Hmm, they contain photos from my eighties, at least a decade ago."
Saying that, he opened one of them, flipped through it without finding what he wanted, then picked up another and opened to a specific picture, immediately smiling and pointing, saying, "Look at this, guess where this is?"
The photo showed a youthful Michael, whose skin was still completely dark at the time. He looked to be in his early twenties, with handsome features and a feminine softness.
Next to him was a kind Chinese grandmother smiling at the camera.
Eric could tell at a glance that she was definitely Chinese; that feeling was completely different from Southeast Asia or Korea.
"Hahahaha, you can't guess, can you? I'll tell you, the place in the photo is China."
"That was in 1987 when I went to Hong Kong for a vacation and then visited a city in Guangdong Province, or rather, a village would be more appropriate."
"I can't remember the exact place name, but look at the scenery in these photos; it was truly beautiful there, a beauty unique to nature, mysterious and peaceful."
Saying that, he pointed to a photo of a lake and said, "Look at this, I'm sitting in a small boat with a straw hat, surrounded by water, and the water is exceptionally clear."
"That old lady, she even invited me to her home for tea and gave me some potatoes to eat."
"This memory suddenly came to mind; thinking about it now, it's truly wonderful. I love that country."
Eric looked at the photo album for a long time.
Fate, truly wondrous!
"Michael, are you willing to participate in the gala? It will probably take up two or three days of your time."
"Which year exactly?"
"The evening of January 22nd, but you'll need to fly over in advance. The gala might require rehearsals, and you'll also need to familiarize yourself with the stage beforehand."
"Eric, do a lot of people watch this gala?"
Eric nodded solemnly: "The Spring Festival Gala is China's highest-profile gala, held only once a year. Hundreds of millions of people watch it simultaneously. You can think of it as China's Super Bowl."
Americans might not understand the Spring Festival Gala, but no American doesn't understand the Super Bowl. American football is truly the number one sport in the US; baseball, basketball, and soccer combined can't compete.
Indeed, hearing the words 'hundreds of millions of people,' Michael, who was used to big events, was also very surprised.
"My goodness! A gala watched by hundreds of millions of people! It seems I truly have no reason not to participate. What do you need me to perform? Singing or dancing?"
Eric shrugged: "You decide the performance yourself. Just consider it a warm-up for next year's national tour."
"Hahahaha, you're right. I've been doing recovery training lately, so I'll use this gala as a touchstone for my return to the stage."
"It's always been my dream to let more people see and know me. The scale of hundreds of millions of people makes me excited just thinking about it."
"If you agree, I'll give them a reply. You two should sign the contract as soon as possible, but I predict the remuneration won't be too high. I hope you don't mind."
Michael waved his hand: "Remuneration is not an issue, Eric. We are both people who don't value money. It's enough to let hundreds of millions of people see me at the same time."
It was unexpectedly smooth; Eric hadn't expected Michael to agree so easily and had planned to persuade him thoroughly.
After all, limited by economic conditions and copyright restrictions, people there watched and listened to pirated content, which actually didn't contribute much economic benefit to Michael.
And the Spring Festival Gala has always invited celebrities without remuneration; it's good enough if they provide a meal. Even if foreign celebrities receive remuneration, it wouldn't be high in 2003.
It is said that when Celine Dion performed at the Spring Festival Gala, she only received a friendly price of 2 million RMB.
In today's terms, 200,000 RMB would be good. At the same time, Michael would inevitably bring his own costumes and team, which essentially meant he would be paying out of pocket.
Eric knew Director Chen's intentions when he approached him: he merely wanted to use Eric's influence due to his relationship with Michael.
Now that Michael had given him face, and MGM had been helping China expand its overseas market, having put in so much effort, Eric didn't believe they would still stall the approval for American TV shows.
If they were truly so unfeeling, Eric wouldn't hesitate to turn hostile then.
Of course, there was still a selfish motive: to let Michael bring a small shock to the domestic entertainment industry, preferably to severely curb the Korean Wave and Taiwan's idol trends, improving public aesthetic standards, which would also help ratings for American TV shows entering China.
He immediately picked up the phone and called Director Chen.
"Hello, Director Chen, is it convenient to talk?"
"Yes, please speak, Mr. Cooper."
"Regarding the matter you entrusted to me, Michael has agreed. He will participate in this year's Spring Festival Gala."
"Really? Thank you, thank you very much, Eric."
Director Chen's somewhat excited voice came from the other end. Being able to invite the world's three great tenors didn't mean they could invite the King of Pop.
The former was a bit too refined, and being too refined meant that the music was too highbrow for the general public to understand, lacking widespread appeal. Therefore, in terms of fame and net worth, they were far inferior to Michael.
"You're welcome. I said that friends are meant to help each other."
"Hahahaha, you're right, you're right. Friends are meant to help each other. That's so true."
"You should quickly send someone over to sign the contract and discuss the stage details, as time is running out."
"Hmm, I'll send someone to the United States right away. Eric, I really didn't expect you to settle this so quickly. To be honest, that day I was just trying my luck."
Eric smiled: "Director Chen, I also hope your General Administration of Press and Publication can give me a reply soon."
"Don't worry, we will do our best, no, we will spare no effort!"
Hanging up the phone, Eric looked at Michael: "China will send someone over soon. You two can handle the specifics; I won't interfere."
"What! No way! We'll go together then. As an intermediary, you can't back out."
Eric chuckled: "No problem, watching a Spring Festival Gala live would be nice too."
After discussing this matter, the two then talked about Meiyi Records' business operations, especially since The Voice of America should begin recording soon, otherwise, it wouldn't be able to compete with American Idol next year.
"By the way, Michael, when will The Voice of America start recording?"
"Soon, it will officially launch before the end of the month. The contestants we've found this time are all promising talents with good foundations."
"I listened to their song demos, and several are outstanding. I think they're worth cultivating."
"Heh heh, to gain your approval means they are truly strong. Do you have detailed information? Like resumes."
Soon, Michael brought a thick stack of documents, all containing contestants' personal information, including names, home addresses, and preferred singing styles, totaling dozens of pages.
That's right, while the other three mentors might not know the contestants' information, Michael, as one of the producers, would be derelict if he didn't.
However, they only listened to demos, and there's a significant difference from live performances, so it wouldn't affect the live recording results.
Besides, even if it did affect it somewhat, there's still acting, which can compensate.
Flipping to the first page, a teenage boy named Cavallone Sinai; Eric had no impression of him.
The second page was another teenage boy; still didn't recognize him.
He kept flipping until the tenth page, where a fresh-faced young girl suddenly appeared. The photo showed her looking only thirteen or fourteen years old.
The name field clearly read: Taylor Alison Swift.