Against the background of popularity and topicality that has not cooled down at all, there is still an endless stream of viewers entering the theater to watch a certain wraith climb out of the TV.
In the fifth weekend, the total North American box office of "Midnight Ring" has reached 171 million U.S. dollars. It is expected that in the next four working days and after next week, the film's North American total box office will exceed the 200 million U.S. dollar mark.
Early on Tuesday morning, Michael Eisner was sitting in a Beverly Hills restaurant, carefully reading a Variety analysis of why "The Ring" was a blockbuster at the box office, putting down the newspaper, His eyes fell on the script called "Pirates of the Caribbean" on the dining table again.
Another pirate movie.
Michael Eisner has now been able to face his big stumble on "Cut Throat Island" very calmly, left Disney, and made a comeback with Universal. He has also reflected on his original working experience at Disney over the years. In the last few years, he has indeed become too blind and self-willed, and now he regards the experience a few years ago as a transformation of his career.
This summer, the two films "The Mask of Zorro" and "The Scorpion King" released by Universal Pictures have achieved very good box office results, especially "The Scorpion King", which is a spin-off of the "Mummy" series. The success indicates that Universal Pictures has also begun to have its own "movie universe". Even if it cannot be compared with MGM's Secret Agent movie universe, which has produced two consecutive blockbusters with a global box office of 1 billion, it is enough to make other The big studios are envious.
With the prosperity of Universal Pictures, Michael Eisner's position in Hollywood and the Seagram Group has become more and more stable. However, the sudden appearance of "Pirates of the Caribbean" still caused some ripples in Michael Eisner's settled state of mind.
Michael Eisner was in a daze, and the current CEO of Seagram Group, Edgar Bronfman, hurried over, greeted him casually, sat down opposite Michael Eisner, and waved eagerly The waiter comes over.
Michael Eisner frowned slightly and glanced at Edgar Bronfman's manic behavior, but didn't say anything.
Although the situation of Universal Pictures is very good, the situation of the parent company Seagram Group can only be described as bad during this period.
Last year, the Seagram Group just acquired Polygram Records with a huge investment of tens of billions of dollars. The integration with Universal Music has not yet been completed. This year, the situation of the entire record industry has taken a sharp turn for the worse.
Affected by the rapid proliferation of pirated music resources on the Internet, the record sales of the world's major record giants in the first half of the year generally fell by about 30%. The situation of Universal Music and Polygram Records, which are in the period of business integration, is even worse. However, other record companies are still in a decline in performance and can still maintain a profitable state, but Universal Music has suffered huge losses.
Michael Eisner had to admire Eric Williams' foresight again at this time.
He has been paying close attention to the development of Firefly Group, and he clearly knows that in the past two years, all the executives of Firefly Group intend to expand the company's record business. It is rumored that Polygram Records first approached Firefly Group as a prostitute. It was just this proposal. Was overruled by Eric Williams without hesitation.
Although the Firefly Group still acquired Viking Records last year, the scale of the Firefly Group's record business is still far from being comparable to that of several major record companies.
Perhaps it is because of this attitude that the boat is small and easy to turn around. In the first half of the year, the performance of several major record companies has plummeted. Although there is no public financial report, judging from the many public record sales data, the performance of Firefly Records is definitely growing.
Firefly's strategy of focusing on teen pop also seems promising. In the entertainment industry, young people's money is undoubtedly the best.
Taking a few sips of the soda water brought by the waiter, Edgar Bronfman said angrily again: "Doug Morrison is such an idiot, Polygram has discovered another 600 million The hidden debt in US dollars, counting the losses in the first half of the year, the record group will have to write down at least US$1 billion in assets.”
When Michael Eisner heard Edgar Bronfman blame Universal Music's current bad situation on the CEO of Universal Music, his lips moved, but he didn't say anything. In fact, apart from being impacted by Internet pirated music, the biggest reason for Universal Music's current situation is that Edgar Bronfman was too eager to acquire Polygram.
However, pointing out these points would not have any practical effect except to make Edgar Bronfman angry, so Michael Eisner simply kept silent.
Edgar Bronfman said what he just said, and saw that Michael Eisner neither echoed nor refuted, and his expression was a little embarrassing. Since he can become the head of the Seagram Group, he naturally cannot be mediocre and incompetent. In his previous life, he was well aware of the root cause of Universal Music's problems.
Seeing a manuscript that looked like a script in front of Michael Eisner, Edgar Bronfman took the initiative to change the subject and said, "Michael, is this our company's new script?"
Michael Eisner handed over the script of "Pirates of the Caribbean" and said, "No, this script was only circulated in Hollywood yesterday. It is said that Eric Williams personally saw it, and Firefly Group has already made an offer. "
Edgar Bronfman took the script and glanced at the cover, and said, "Pirate movies, didn't you say that pirate movies are forbidden in Hollywood?"
Having said that, Edgar Bronfman glanced at Michael Eisner pointedly, and the embarrassment in his heart just now has dissipated a lot. Michael Eisner was in "Cut Throat Island" "The somersault on the top is absolutely tragic.
Michael Eisner didn't seem to notice the change in Edgar Bronfman's eyes at all, and said: "It is because of this that it is more likely that Eric Williams personally read the script, and others will not Touch this subject easily."
Edgar Bronfman could hear the emotion in Michael Eisner's tone, and he couldn't help persuading him: "Michael, although I am absolutely assured of handing over Universal to you, we can't touch this kind of subject matter." Just don't touch it."
"I've asked the production department to make a budget. For this movie, be cautious, and $80 million should be able to handle it," Michael Eisner did not answer Edgar Bronfman's words, and said to himself: "Although The overall story is a bit old-fashioned, but it fits well with the ideas of high-concept movies, coupled with the fantasy plot of pirates being cursed, it can be made into a blockbuster with special effects, which is still very promising at the box office."
Edgar Bronfman was a little dissatisfied with Michael Eisner's independent decision. He doubted whether it was the right decision to help Michael Eisner drive Michael Ovitz out of Universal. The development situation of Universal is indeed getting better and better, but Edgar Bronfman can clearly feel the weakening of his control over Universal.
Because of the bad situation of Universal Music, in order to prevent the entire group from falling into turmoil, he does not dare to have too many thoughts of taking back the power of Universal Pictures from Michael Eisner.
After Michael Eisner finished talking about his plan, he noticed the slight change in Edgar Bronfman's expression, smiled, and said, "However, I can only think about it. Universal will follow the quotation. But after all, we don’t know Eric Williams’ thoughts on this script, so we won’t offer an outrageous price, and the possibility of getting this script is very low.”
…
It's past ten o'clock in the morning in New York. Warner Bros. CEO Richard Parsons and Steve Case talked for several hours about the merger of the two companies and refused Steve Case's lunch Invite, drive to East Hampton by car. These days, Gerald Levin, the vice chairman of Time Warner Group, has been spending summer in East Hampton. The two agreed to have lunch and talk about Richard Parsons and Negotiation progress for Steve Case.
Now, the merger negotiations between AOL and Time Warner are almost on the horizon. Firefly Investment sold 25% of AOL shares in one fell swoop, which also made the prospect of this merger clearer. Otherwise, even if the two parties reach a merger intention , must still be subject to the intention of Firefly Group and the ensuing anti-monopoly review issues.
After leaving America Online headquarters, the assistant handed over a script as soon as he got in the car.
Although a large part of his mind was put on the merger case during this period, Richard Parsons did not let go of his management of Warner Bros. at all.
In a company like Warner with serious internal fighting, once the power is released, it will be even more difficult to take it back.
"This is the script that came out yesterday?" Richard Parsons asked with some uncertainty after turning a few pages.
The assistant nodded: "The Firefly Group made an official quotation for this script yesterday. You know, few people have made pirate films in recent years. This script is also a typical template for a high-budget special effects blockbuster. In the Firefly Group, except Eric .Williams himself, and other high-level decision-makers are obviously unlikely to be interested in this type of script."
"You mean, these are just speculations, not confirmed?"
The assistant nodded and said, "We can only make speculations. It is obviously impossible for the Firefly Group to give us confirmation."
Richard Parsons hesitated for a moment. In the past two years, Warner's film business has been tepid, and it is in great need of a pillar series that can explode. Especially now, if the film business can turn around, Warner and the United States You can gain a lot of initiative in the online negotiation process.
"In this way, you rush back to Los Angeles in person, and I will give you three million dollars to try to snatch this script. If you can confirm that Eric Williams himself is interested in this script, you can raise the price to five dollars." One million U.S. dollars."
…
As soon as they walked into the office early in the morning, Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott were notified that Ms. Shirley Lansing wanted to talk to them.
Since yesterday afternoon, the two small screenwriters of Paramount Animation Studios have felt the attention they have never received in their life, and various inquiries, invitations and tentative calls have been entangled for the whole night.
At this time, the two big men both had thick dark circles under their eyes, and they didn't feel the slightest excitement of receiving attention, because they both realized that they might have played too big.
If this script incident is just an oolong, and Eric Williams doesn't even know the script of the pirate movie in their hands, then, it is conceivable that once the matter is exposed, the two of them will never want to hang out in Hollywood for the rest of their lives .
Outside Shirley Lansing's office, the secretary went in to report. Terry Rossio, who was standing outside, finally came to his senses, and asked Ted Elliott next to him in a low voice: "What should I do next?" What should I say?"
Ted Elliott was a little more sober than Terry Lucio, and whispered hurriedly: "Reject, refuse first, and wait for the reaction from Firefly."
Terry Rossio nodded, and he understood a little bit in his heart. Only when the Firefly Group gave a further response, their guess would be considered to have a foothold. If the Firefly Group no longer takes any action on this script, then this matter obviously has nothing to do with Eric Williams, and the acquisition of the script of "Pirates of the Caribbean" is just a very common act of copyright hoarding.
At that time, Firefly does not need to publicly deny it, as long as it shows its attitude, other major Hollywood film companies will realize that they have been deceived. In that case, even if they can get a huge sum of millions of dollars now, they will have no hope in this life.
A few million dollars, after deducting the broker's commission, paying taxes, and then sharing them equally between the two, is basically not much, and it is impossible to satisfy them for the rest of their lives to support their families.
Although the current job does not pay too much, it is stable enough, and more importantly, they can keep writing scripts and looking for opportunities. Once you are labeled as a liar and kicked out by Hollywood, you probably won't have anything to do with the media industry for the rest of your life. Both of them graduated from the Department of Literature, and apart from playing with pens, they are unlikely to find other decent jobs.
The secretary quickly came out to inform the two that they could go in.
Walking into Shirley Lansing's office, Paramount, the female head of Hollywood, was looking down at the documents wearing a pair of delicate silver-rimmed glasses. Seeing the two people walking in, she let go of the folders in her hands and stood up politely Come over and shake hands with the two.
After some introductions and pleasantries, Terry Rossio, Ted Elliott and Shirley Lansing sat down on the sofa in the reception area.
After the secretary served a few cups of coffee and left, Shirley Lansing looked at the two of them with a smile and said, "I have read your script suggestions for the animation studio's recent animation films, and they are very good. Speaking of which, you all It's an employee of Paramount, if you have a good script, you can directly contact the company's script procurement department."
Of course, Terry Rossio and Paramount had contacted the script purchasing department of Paramount, but the other party was not interested in the pirate script as soon as they saw it. However, at this time, both of them just respectfully echoed Shirley Lansing's words, without any intention of defending themselves.