After Eric rejected the privately proposed conditions of Disney shareholders, Disney shareholders authorized the negotiations with Firefly and Viacom to Disney management. In order to keep his position, Michael Eisner spared no effort to help Viacom in all aspects. Any contact between Disney and Firefly in terms of negotiations, the Viacom team could almost immediately know.
When Michael Eisner issued a statement following Viacom, the Firefly team had anticipated this situation and had been prepared for it. After Disney shareholders decided to sell Disney, the negotiation process between Disney management and Viacom and Firefly quickly accelerated. After several biddings, the wholly-owned acquisition price climbed to US$5.6 billion in just two weeks.
This price is already 2.1 billion higher than Disney’s market capitalization of US$3.5 billion when Firefly first made an offer, with a premium of 60%. In most previous hostile takeovers, when the premium exceeded 50%, malicious bidders would often die down, but Firefly Both Viacom and Viacom have no intention of backing down. Whether it is public or private, the confrontation between the two sides has brought more and more gunpowder.
In view of this situation, many analysts on Wall Street have issued risk warnings on this acquisition. Some companies that originally planned to participate in the acquisition saw such fierce competition between the two sides, and silently put the originally prepared acquisition plan into the waste cardboard.
On January 14, 1992, after several months of lengthy negotiations, Disney, Firefly and Viacom finally reached a preliminary agreement on various acquisition terms, and the final bidding will be held on January 20.
After half a year of busy work, the exhausted Firefly acquisition team can finally take a short break. Eric is still busy preparing for Firefly's 1992 film project.
After Dumb and Dumber. Immediately, many film companies contacted Jim Carrey. Hope to seek cooperation. Although "Dumb and Dumber" has a dual protagonist structure, both film critics and ordinary audiences have praised Jim Carrey's performance, while the other leading actor, Jeff Daniels, won the With a fairly satisfactory evaluation, and the box office of "Dumb and Dumber" exceeding 100 million, Jim Carrey's salary soared to 5 million US dollars.
As the social status rises, the mood will be different from the past. At the beginning, as long as I could get the opportunity, I was willing to pay any conditions, but now I feel that I have suffered a big loss. In an interview with a Hollywood newspaper, Jim Carrey publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the five-year option contract he was 'forced' to sign. However, upon hearing this news, neither Eric nor the daughters of TG paid much attention to it. The original option contract was drafted by Firefly's special legal team, and there were no legal loopholes at all. Jim Carrey wanted If you breach the contract, even if you bring the lawsuit to the Federal Supreme Court. I have to obediently pay out the liquidated damages of 100 million US dollars.
However, in order to prevent Jim Carrey from making a movie, he has to toss it once. Eric asked tg to directly offer Jim Carrey a $10 million contract for two movies. This condition is definitely not treating the other party badly. Eric never thought that he wanted the horse to run and not feed the horse. Good thing, but when Elizabeth came forward to discuss the plan in person, she didn't meet Jim Carrey himself. According to his agent, Carl Mexon, Jim Carrey went to Hawaii for vacation.
Of course, Elizabeth understood that Jim Carrey wanted a higher price. She even felt that the price Eric offered was a bit high, and the other party was not satisfied, so Elizabeth also directly put Jim Carrey aside.
Although there is no agreement with Jim Carrey for the time being, Firefly has successfully won the copyright of "The Masquerade" and also hired Tom Sadiak, the screenwriter of "Aeroplane" from Warner. Eric directly sent the two films to tg for project approval and preliminary preparations.
At the studio base of Playa Vista, Eric is leading a few people to visit the special effects studio in the digital field. The original headquarters of the digital field is Venice Beach, but after the completion of the studio base in Playa Vista, the The field was moved here, on the one hand, it can save a lot of rent, on the other hand, the studio is next to a large studio, and it is more convenient to work.
"This is the latest special effects software developed by the software research and development center, called broken, which is mainly used to make shots of buildings being smashed."
While Stan Winston was introducing, he called up a relevant scene from the computer himself. Eric and several people around him gathered around and saw the movie screen of a drive-in movie theater on the movie screen under the action of the hurricane, slowly The broken lens, everyone let out a low sound of admiration.
"This is just one section that has been completed, and there is another section, the scene where the entire villa is torn apart, but this section has not been completed yet," Stan Winston finished the introduction, switched the screen to the software operation interface, and let the side.
Standing beside Eric, a thin middle-aged man in his thirties couldn't help but sit on the office chair, awkwardly manipulating the computer to check the various options of the software.
"The functions of the software are still being improved, but this is already much better than the original version," Stan Winston introduced while standing beside.
Eric looked at the middle-aged man who was obviously not familiar with this software but was very moved, and said with a smile: "Roland, you don't want to change careers to become a special effects artist, we just signed a contract, I'm sure I won't let anyone go."
Hearing Eric's joke, several people laughed, and Roland Emmerich also stood up with a smile: "I think it's better for me to be a director honestly."
James Cameron, standing on the right side of Eric, said: "I don't think there is any essential difference between a director and a special effects artist. We are both creating images, but the process is different."
Although James Cameron did not invest in the digital field in this time and space, relying on his good relationship with Eric and Stan Winston, as well as his obsession with film technology, every time a new special effects processing solution is launched in the digital field, Cameron would come here to 'try something new', so he didn't get close to it as curiously as Roland Emmerich just now.
After a few jokes, Eric said: "Okay, I have seen so much. There is a coffee shop next to it. Let's go there and have a rest."
Several people echoed and walked into the coffee shop. Because it was working hours, there were no employees in the cafe, so Eric sat down with six other people around a long table.
In addition to the already mentioned Roland Emmerich and James Cameron, the other three are Jon Landau, Jerry Bruckheimer and Jane DeBont, these future Hollywood famous directors or producers People are the result of Eric's recent work.
Perhaps the names of these people are a bit unfamiliar, but when it comes to movies such as "Titanic", "2012", "Transformers", "Speed", all of them are well known, and these people are the directors or producers of the above movies .
Among them, James Cameron and Jerry Bruckheimer are already famous. After Cameron completed "Terminator 2", it became logical to sign with Firefly. But Jerry Bruckheimer was the producer of the famous "Top Gun" back then. I don't know if it was Cruise who succeeded or lost. The success of "Top Gun" made Jerry Bruckheimer one However, the box office of Cruise's 80 million "Ambition of Thunder" last year was far lower than expected. As a producer, Jerry Bruckheimer was terminated by his old club Paramount.
Jerry Bruckheimer's future golden partner, Michael Bay, is just a rookie who has been involved in the filming of the MV. It is impossible for Eric to promote him to be a director. However, Eric still signed Jerry Bruckheimer without hesitation, because the other party is very good at being a producer of big-budget movies, and what Firefly lacks most is this kind of talent.
Jon Landau, Jane Debont and Roland Emmerich are not very famous yet. However, these people have been in Hollywood for many years, and their personal abilities are beyond doubt. In addition, Eric happened to have a project suitable for several people, so they signed it together.
After the waiter served coffee for a few people and left, Eric said: "After reading those just now, I don't think everyone has any concerns about the script I gave you, right?"
Except for Stan Winston, who was drinking coffee leisurely, the others nodded, but James Cameron said: "Eric, although the script change you gave me is good, I don't want to do it so soon." Start working, I want to enjoy life, I'm not a workaholic like you. Besides, Arnold has already accepted a film contract from Sony Pictures, and he won't be free until next year."
Eric said: "I know this, I didn't arrange you in this year's production plan."
"Forehead… "
"Hahaha… "
Jerry Bruckheimer said: "Eric, I remember that Mr. Jeffrey has always been the producer of your film, right? Why did you choose me to be the producer of "Jurassic Park"?"
"Jeffrey wants to take care of the company, and he won't be the producer himself in the future. At most, he'll hang his name," Eric said after explaining, looking at Roland Emmerich, "Roland, "Clash of Heaven and Earth" "What do you think of the script?"
Roland Emmerich glanced at Eric. The script was written with the outline written by Eric himself. Although Eric had the highest achievement among this group of people, Roland Emmerich felt that this The script is pretty bad. Opening his mouth, Roland Emmerich still asked cautiously: "Eric, do you want to listen to the truth?"
"Of course," Eric nodded.
"Well, I think this script is a bit bad. The main line of the story is about the great crisis of human beings facing extinction, but in the first half hour of the story, the heroine has been entangled in such unacceptable things as high-ranking scandals."
James Cameron heard the discussion between the two, and interjected, "Eric, is it your idea of a movie about a comet hitting the earth?"
Eric nodded and told the story briefly.
After hearing this, James Cameron shook his head: "I feel the same way as Roland, although people always talk about things like scandals, but it's too bad for a disaster movie to use this kind of plot as a foreshadowing. "
Jane Debont, who has always been relatively silent, couldn't help but said at this time: "I worked as a photographer for a small-budget sci-fi film seven years ago. I think the setting of that film is good. Use family affection and love, or The life of the little people is used as a foreshadowing, which can have a greater contrast effect and make it easier to bring the audience into the plot."
Several people nodded.
Seeing that no one agreed with the original script, Eric was not angry, and said with a smile: "I know, but this requires major surgery on the script."
"Then overthrow them all," James Cameron said without any scruples, "It would be a pity if such a good subject matter of a disaster movie is ruined by a bad stock market."
"I think that a little modification will make this story even better," the chubby Jon Landau interjected at this time.
Attracting everyone's attention, Jon Landau continued: "Look, the heroine has been tracking the code name of the official involved in the scandal. This code name originally refers to a woman. If we change this code name to the What about comets?"
Eric's eyes lit up, but James Cameron slapped the table directly: "This is better, modify the setting a little bit, and remove the scandal factor. In order to avoid panic among the people, the White House concealed the news, and A woman’s code name was used to represent the comet. And the senior official who was misunderstood as involved in the scandal and was forced to resign actually hoped to reveal the truth to the public, but his proposal was not approved, so he resigned angrily.”
Jerry Bruckheimer nodded and echoed: "Eric, I think this is a good change, although the public will always have such and such opinions on the federal government, and always feel that the government is full of all kinds of things. There are all kinds of conspiracy theories, but generally speaking, ordinary people still have good illusions about high-level officials, and this setting just meets the deepest expectations of the public."
Eric smiled and said, "Then change it like this, Jim, Jon, do you want to add your names in the screenwriter column?"
Cameron and Jon Landau shook their heads at the same time. They both knew that Eric was just joking. Although up to one-third of Hollywood scripts have authorship disputes, they really want to get the authorship. However, they need to participate in the modification of more than 30% of the script.
Now that we have talked, after "Clash of Heaven and Earth", Eric will bring out the scripts of the three films "True Lies", "Jurassic Park" and "Speed and Death" that several people here will respectively lead. After talking about it, I got a lot of inspiration.
Until the evening, the happy people separated and sent Cameron and others away first. Ai Rui was about to get in the car and go back to Malibu, but was stopped by Stan Winston.
"Eric, there is something they were here just now, and it's not easy for me to tell you," Stan Winston pointed to the office not far away: "Let's go back and talk about it."
Seeing Stan Winston's serious expression, Eric nodded, told the driver a few words, and returned to the office with Stan Winston. (To be continued..)