P.25 Message from the CGO (4)

Message from the CGO Growth Strategies

Nakatani: Legendary has produced numerous global blockbust- ers, including “Dune,” “Minecraft,” and “Godzilla.” What do you think are the essential elements of a global hit? Grode: If there were a perfect formula or recipe, we would use it every time. Unfortunately, there is no such perfect recipe. But ev- erything starts with the story. If you have characters that people can genuinely connect with emotionally, and if you can clearly understand what motivates those characters, the film begins to tell their story in a compelling way within that setting.

We are all in!

Nakatani: This October, “Street Fighter,” produced by Legendary, will be released worldwide, and full-scale promotion for the film will begin in Japan. Grode: We are very excited about this film. This film also carries a universal theme—a story about two brothers struggling to repair their relationship. It is a great piece of IP born in Japan and a great game that has been loved across generations. It will be a compelling story filled with exciting visuals. I view this as a wonderful case study of the partnership be- tween TBS and Legendary beyond simply creating new content from scratch. Nakatani: Do you have a future vision or goals for what you would like us to accomplish together through our partnership? Grode: What we want to do is discover the creative talent in Japan that is creating great stories and building compelling characters, and then figure out together how to bring those stories to audiences around the world. We do not yet know whether that will take the form of anime or film. What excites us is discovering unknown artists, uncovering IP with great stories, and finding the best web comics and manga. There are no “right answers” or “wrong answers” in the cre- ative process. It is all about an exchange of creative expression and different perspectives, and everyone at the table has a valuable voice. We want to gather as much insight as possible and arrive at the answer that feels right. Beyond sourcing Japanese IP, what do you hope to achieve as we work together to create global franchises? Nakatani: At TBS, we want to focus on project development to bring as many IP properties from Japan and the TBS Group as possible to the world as global hits. We also have many highly talented creators within the Group. Thanks to your generosity, Josh, we are currently arranging opportunities for our creators to receive training on Legendary’s production sets. By having our creators experience the actual production environment, we strongly hope to bring the quality of our productions closer to global standards and help them reach a world-class level. Grode: That’s fantastic. Thank you. We are all in! We will sup - port you all the way! Nakatani: We are all in! Thank you. 25