Murdoch thought about this, so he ignored the special meaning of Eric's question, so he replied a little bluntly: "Liz is only a woman after all, I still hope that Lachlan and James can take over my class. "
Eric didn't say anything more. Murdoch was born in a conservative family in Australia, and his patriarchal thinking is not much weaker than that of Orientals. If Elizabeth can't make overwhelming achievements, it will not be easy to take charge of News Corporation in the future matter.
After casually chatting a few words about the Oscars, Murdoch talked about a series of big moves of Firefly recently. It is now approaching April, and the new summer vacation will start at the end of May. In the summer, Firefly will have two movies, "Toy Story" and "Terminator 2", released at the same time.
Although "Toy Story" played a trailer on the Super Bowl two months ago, it is still unknown whether this 3D animation film, which is completely different from the traditional 2D animation style, will be accepted by the audience. As a giant in the Hollywood animation industry In other words, a monopoly. After the trailer of "Toy Story" was played, Disney felt that its position in the animation field would be threatened, and it did not hesitate to use various channels in its hands to attack "Toy Story" either explicitly or covertly. .
In order to prevent the film from being stereotyped due to competitors' smearing before it was released, Firefly allocated a promotional budget of 20 million US dollars for "Toy Story" in North America alone, which is equivalent to the production cost of this animated film. 50% of the cost.
The situation in "Terminator 2" seems to be even more pessimistic. Because of the lessons learned from "The Abyss", many people thought that Cameron would once again indulge in the exploration of film technology and produce a film that was well received but not popular. not to mention. Everyone knows that "Terminator 2" has become the first movie in Hollywood history to cost over 100 million. Plus publicity investment. If this movie wants to recover its cost at the box office, it needs a global box office of at least 300 million U.S. dollars, while Cameron's last "Abyss" had a global box office of only 80 million. In the eyes of outsiders, Firefly wants to recover its investment. will face enormous pressure.
In view of the fact that Firefly sold the copyright of the popular "Dark War" to Colombia some time before the Oscars, many companies thought that Firefly was already facing a tight financial situation. The seven major Hollywood film companies will encounter this situation every two years, so even Warner or Disney, which is operating well, each bears debts of no less than one billion US dollars.
Although Eric participated in two consecutive fluctuations in the crude oil futures market in the first half of the year, Firefly did not make much action afterwards, and everyone judged that Eric did not make too much profit from this oil crisis. So Murdoch's mind has also become active. Perhaps this is another opportunity to invest in Firefly. Although Eric's personality is a bit stubborn, there is always no loss in trying.
After chatting with Eric for a while, Murdoch asked, "Eric, Firefly even sold "Dark War". Funds must be very tight during this time, right?"
"It's okay," Eric immediately heard what the old man meant. It seems that I heard similar words last year, and Murdoch personally delivered them to the door that time, but this time, Eric didn't mean to make any concessions at all. He managed to say that the fireflies are completely in his hands, no As a last resort, it is impossible to introduce any shareholders: "Mr. Murdoch, Firefly has just returned to my hands, so I will not sell any more shares. I think we should stop talking about this topic, maybe We can talk about other things."
Murdoch saw that Eric refused directly, and smiled. He didn't expect too much, so Eric didn't feel too disappointed when he refused. He just said earnestly with the airs of an elder: "Eri Ke, investing in movies is a very risky behavior. If you don’t pay attention, you may lose your money. Therefore, it is a very cost-effective way to share the risk through cooperation. I think you are betting on "Terminator 2" The stakes are too high. James Cameron’s previous film "The Abyss" has not recovered the losses caused to Fox, and even up to now, there is still a gap of about 20 million US dollars, but this is not too big for Fox. It has a big impact, because this film is jointly invested by Fox and several other investors, although the loss is huge, it is not much apportioned to Fox."
"It can't be said that way," Eric replied: "The film projects jointly invested are basically not valued by the film companies, or they don't have much confidence. But each film company's own ace series It will definitely not allow outsiders to intervene, for example, Warner will definitely not jointly develop "Batman" with outsiders, and the "Star Wars" series will definitely not introduce external investors."
Seeing that he didn't fool around with Eric, Murdoch said again: "Speaking of which, you agreed to let Fox release "Home Alone". There was no movement last year, so you can't delay this year. That... called Stuart Lang Kerr's little guy is already ten years old, and if he is two years older, he probably won't be suitable for a leading actor anymore."
"At present, we are already in contact with CAA. The price offered by the other party last year was too outrageous, so Firefly temporarily shelved this project."
"Eric, since you can sell "Dark Wars", do you think it is possible to transfer the copyright of "Home Alone" to Fox."
Eric quickly thought about Murdoch's suggestion, and he had already had such an idea before.
According to Firefly's internal assessment, the cost of the third part of the "Home Alone" series will be between 40 million and 50 million U.S. dollars, and the North American box office estimate is only about 100 million U.S. dollars. Peripherals such as distribution and video tapes can be profitable. Perhaps it is the best choice to directly sell the development rights of this project. Although this may make less money, Firefly saves a lot of time and energy, which can be invested in other more valuable projects .
However, Eric does not plan to sell all the copyrights of "Home Alone". The plan to acquire Disney has been going on in secret, once the plan is successful. As "Home Alone" has a very important position in the hearts of children. After Disney's omni-channel development and Disneyland's "Home Alone" themed project. Will bring a lot of profit.
"Mr. Murdoch, I will not transfer the copyright of "Home Alone", but Firefly really doesn't have much time and energy to spend on this project, so if Fox has this intention, Firefly can authorize the development of Fox's sequel right."
Murdoch thought about it and agreed. However, neither of them was in a hurry to negotiate a specific cooperation agreement. The copyright of "Home Alone" already involved too many things. It will not be possible to negotiate in a short while, and it can only be handed over to the staff of Firefly and Fox to negotiate slowly.
…
After the Oscars ceremony, the media naturally commented on this year's Oscars. With its excellent quality, "The Silence of the Lambs" won the award without guilt at all, but it still received a lot of doubts as usual. However, neither the winners nor the Academy of Film made any response to these questions.
Because it was mentioned repeatedly at the awards ceremony, the scene on the stage when Elizabeth won the best picture is even more memorable to many people. For TV viewers, maybe Eric is just a topic of conversation after dinner. But in Hollywood, the situation also heralds Eric's growing influence.
As Billy Crystal joked at the end, the executives of the Hollywood film company finally found out that Eric no longer frantically made several movies a year, but this fellow appeared at the Oscars again. Although none of the seven major film companies regards Oscar films as their main business, the influence and surrounding economic benefits brought by the Oscars are still a big piece of cake. In previous years, most of this cake belonged to seven Big one, Eric suddenly intervened, making them feel like they were facing an enemy again.
However, none of this affected Eric in the slightest. The preparatory work for "Tornado" has been completed, and the film crew of more than 200 people has gone to Oklahoma in batches, ready to start at any time.
Eric stayed in Los Angeles for a few more days, finalizing negotiations with Fox on the authorization of "Home Alone". Firefly plans to produce and release five films this year. Before the Oscars, four films, "Toy Story", "Terminator 2", "Dumb and Dumber" and "Hot Hands" have been confirmed. Eric's last days in Los Angeles , and finally confirmed that the last movie is the sequel to the original New Line's signature series "A Nightmare on Elm Street".
Because of the box office failure of the fourth part of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, when Robert Shea was still in Firefly, he planned to make another sequel as the end, and even had some first drafts of the script. What Eric did was Completely finalize this project and temporarily name it "Freddy's Death". Unless this sequel can be a big hit, otherwise, after the fifth part, Eric will temporarily seal this project and wait for ten or eight years. Bring it out when Hollywood remakes are popular.
In addition to "A Nightmare on Elm Street", Eric will not forget his attention to Disney's "Cut Throat Island". ", the Academy Awards ceremony also specially publicized the role of an award presenter for directors Renny Harlin and Geena Davis, and even revealed to Eric that the script was originally optimistic about the script. media.
According to numerous reports in various newspapers and media, "Cutthroat Island" is being filmed in Malta, a Mediterranean island country, and may even be transferred to Thailand for on-site shooting. The TV station will occasionally release some tidbits. Moreover, it is said that the original investment of this film was set at 70 million US dollars, but due to rush work, there are obvious signs of overspending. Disney and Robert Shea are also bachelors. After learning that "Terminator 2" has invested more than 100 million US dollars, It was also announced that the cost of "Cut Throat Island" will also exceed $100 million.
Although there are still three months before the release of the two films, sparks are already flying between "Cutthroat Island" and "Terminator 2", and the media is also very keen to compare the two films together. Seeing this Eric always feels inexplicably happy about such news. The only comparability between the two films in the original time and space may be recorded in the history of Hollywood movies.
In New York, while managing the Firefly investment, Chris has not relaxed his absorption of Disney stocks. In February, he also bought the largest 0.9% stake from a shareholder of Disney. Chris estimates that There are a few different avenues that could add up to around 10% of Disney stock before July. At that time, if the friendly takeover fails, Eric can use the funds and chips in his hand to launch a hostile takeover that will have an overwhelming advantage over Disney.
On March 28th, Eric took the last group of "Tornado" crews to Oklahoma, which is located in the south-central United States, by plane.
Compared with the densely populated east and west coasts, the inland of the United States can be described as a vast land and sparsely populated. Take Oklahoma as an example. As the state capital and the largest city in the state, Oklahoma City has only five A population of 100,000, while the surrounding population is even rarer.
The filming location of "Tornado" was not in Oklahoma City, but was chosen near a small town called Ponca in northeastern Oklahoma. The crew built a large number of sets around Ponca City, such as the heroine Qiu The town where the aunt’s house is located, the hotel where the convoy stopped before the tornado encountered a huge tornado, etc., because these need to be destroyed in the later stages of filming, so it is impossible to rent real houses for filming.
The biggest production film directed by Eric before was "Dark War", but the investment of that film was only more than 30 million, and it was filmed in Los Angeles, where various conditions are very convenient. In comparison, "Tornado" is the first big-budget movie in the true sense controlled by Eric.
This film not only has a minimum investment of 70 million US dollars, but also has more than 200 crew members. In addition to the core of the crew directly controlled by Eric, there are also three assistant directors in charge of the three teams. Each of the three assistant directors has There is a clear division of labor, one is responsible for the shooting of the day, one is responsible for finishing the shooting of the previous day, and the last group prepares for the shooting of the next day.
In addition to literary dramas, a large number of tornado shots of the crew need to be shot on cloudy days as much as possible. Therefore, it is impossible to rigidly stipulate which scene to shoot on a certain day in the shooting plan, but it is necessary to flexibly change the shooting plan according to the local weather. As far as possible to ensure the filming of the crew, Eric even asked the logistics team to customize a huge black gauze net of hundreds of square meters. Once the suitable weather conditions are not encountered for a long time, the crew will hire several tower cranes to move the large screen. Nets are propped up to artificially create dark weather conditions. (To be continued..)