"Mr. and Mrs. Smith" is a large-scale movie with an investment of 60 million US dollars, which even exceeds the sum of the cost of all the films that John Wu spent in Hong Kong in the past 20 years. Wu felt offended, and even felt a sense of relief. After all, the total investment of 60 million US dollars was close to 500 million Hong Kong dollars after conversion. After John Wu took over the film, every time he thought of this figure, he felt like walking on thin ice Fortunately, Eric affirmed his shooting results after seeing the samples, and John Wu's anxiety for several months finally dissipated.
Near the end of get off work time, Tina Fei parked the car in the parking lot of Firefly Studios, looked at her watch, picked up the satchel full of documents, and hurried to the post-production center of the studio, just arrived at the gate of the production center Outside, she saw Eric and an Asian male coming out of it, whispering and laughing.
Eric left Allen in Paris. Although he had his own special assistant office in the Firefly headquarters, he didn't choose a temporary first assistant from it, because Xiao Nizi no longer had any after completing "Detective Airplane Head" with tg There was too much work as an excuse to temporarily push Tina Fey over, and Eric didn't object. It was more convenient to have a familiar woman by his side than others.
Seeing Tina Fey's @⊥, figure, Eric nodded towards her, chatted with John Wu for a few more words, and then walked towards the girl. Seeing the heavy satchel on Tina Fey's shoulder, Eric reached out to take it, but Tina Fey dodged it.
"Eric, I can do it myself." Tina Fey shook her head.
Occasionally show some strong little details for women. Eric didn't mind either. He smiled and said, "Then let's go back, we just got off work."
The two came to the parking lot again. Tina Fey was about to drive her own car, but was stopped by Erica: "Let's put it here, and we will drive tomorrow. We just happen to be in the car and we can talk about some things."
This time Tina Fey didn't object anymore, she nodded slightly, and got into Eric's car together.
Wait for the driver to start the car. Tina Fei put the satchel on her lap, and took out several folders from it: "Eric, Mr. Hansen... Oh, it's the document that Mr. Hansen from New York sent you this afternoon, about the surprise entertainment group He also called and said he would hand it over to you as soon as possible."
Only then did Eric understand why Tina Fei rushed over at this time, nodded, and took some thick documents from the woman's lap. Compared with the brief information about Marvel that Eric and Chris talked about in New York, this information is much more detailed, covering all aspects of Marvel Entertainment Group's operating status, business structure, debt ratio, and comic copyright. There's even a document devoted to Marvel's entanglement with Ron Perelman's investment company.
Eric just glanced at the professional information that is biased towards the economic aspect, but focused on the copyright and other materials of Marvel Comics. in memory. After looking at it, Eric found that the actual information was quite different from the information in his memory. He originally thought that Marvel Comics sold his popular comic characters to several major Hollywood movies in order to solve the financial crisis in the mid-to-late 1990s. company's. In fact, Marvel has been selling film rights to comic book characters since the 1980s.
According to the information in hand, there are currently buyers for Marvel's best-selling comic characters. The copyright of "Fantastic Four" is in the hands of Konstantin Films of Germany, the copyright of "Spider-Man" is in the hands of Carlock Films, and the copyright of "Captain America "The copyright of "Hulk" is in the hands of 21st Century Film Company, and the copyright of "Hulk" is also in the hands of New World Film Company, which Eric has never heard of. The right to adapt the characters of the film is basically in the hands of second- and third-tier film companies, and no one even cares about the film adaptation rights of second-tier superheroes such as Iron Man and Black Widow.
Moreover, the copyright transfer agreements signed by Marvel and these film companies are similar to the agreements signed with several major film companies in Eric's memory. If there is no work released within a few years, the copyright will automatically return to Marvel Comics. However, Although these second- and third-tier film companies have bought the copyright, the motivation to change it into a movie does not seem to be too strong. Constantine has been shelving the copyright of "Fantastic Four" since he got it, but one day the senior executives of the film company suddenly When he found out that the copyright he bought with money was about to expire, he hurriedly found someone and spent less than a month concocting an ultra-low-cost B-grade "Fantastic Four", just to continue the copyright in his hand.
Other film companies that own the copyright only follow suit and launch their own adaptations of Marvel comics in the following two years after Warner's successful launch of "Batman", but none of them caused any splashes.
Tina Fey sat quietly beside Eric, and from time to time, she secretly glanced at the side face of the man who was seriously reading the materials. Ever since Drew said that sentence jokingly a few months ago, Tina Fey has been telling herself Don't think about it, but you can't help but have some messy thoughts in your heart. When you get along with Eric again after a few months, you can't be as calm as before.
When Drew pushed her to Eric, although he told himself a hundred times to refuse and refuse, he agreed unknowingly. From the bottom of his heart, although he didn't want to admit it, but from the bottom of his heart , she also always hopes to spend more time with Eric.
"Tina," Eric read a document, suddenly turned his head and spoke, just in time to meet Tina Fey's small eyes like a thief, watching the girl look away in a panic, Eric couldn't help laughing I got up: "Hey, since I saw you last time, I always feel that you have become weird. What happened?"
"No, nothing," Tina Fey quickly denied.
Eric thought for a while, and tentatively asked: "Drew told you something?"
"Ah?" Tina Fey opened her mouth, but did not answer.
Eric shrugged, thinking he had guessed right, and said, "Well, it's not a secret. It's okay to tell you. Anyway. I'm going to be a father next April."
Hearing this sentence, Tina Fei's eyes widened immediately: "Being a father, you... are you married?"
"Of course not," Eric looked at Tina Fey's expression, "So you don't know."
Tina Fey felt a strong loss in her heart, but she still nodded: "Drew, Drew didn't tell me this."
After saying these words, there was a brief silence in the carriage.
after awhile. Tina Fei said cautiously: "Then, after the child is born, will you get married?"
"No way," Eric shook his head: "But I will try my best to be a good father."
Tina Fey didn't know how to continue this topic for a while. She was born in a very conservative middle-class American family, and the concepts she had accepted since she was a child made her unable to agree with Eric's approach. I can't afford too much disgust. Perhaps people's subconscious is always more tolerant of people with wealth and power in terms of social rules.
"Have you finished?" Tina Fey was silent for a while. Only then pointed to the document in Eric's hand.
"Not yet, I just watched some. I'll go back and watch it again. Oh, what I just wanted to say is that tomorrow you take the time to help me collect the video tapes of these movies. I plan to watch them." After Eric finished speaking, he uploaded the materials He pulled it out and handed it to Tina Fey.
Tina Fey took out the memo and quickly wrote down the name of the movie.
This episode seemed to pass like this, but then Eric found that the atmosphere when the two got along changed from one kind of strangeness to another kind of strangeness.
…
Under the personal command of Katzenberg, after a month of rectification, the renamed Paris Disneyland opened to tourists again, because of the media influence brought by the sudden closure less than ten days after opening, and Disney's undisguised A sincere gesture of apologizing to the public and carrying out major reforms. In just one week after the reopening of Disney, the number of tourists once again rushed to a peak, reaching 700,000. However, after another survey, the satisfaction of tourists has risen to 70%, among which the satisfaction of French tourists has reached 85%, because Paris Disneyland has not only made considerable progress in content The scale tends to be adjusted to French culture, and French is even used as the working language of the Paris Disneyland staff.
Although after the opening, the average consumption of tourists has not increased due to the reduction in prices, but the management is quite optimistic about this situation. Just like a movie, if a highly anticipated movie only gets a high box office but gets a very bad reputation, then it will definitely be very difficult to make a sequel of this movie. , even if it doesn't make much money at the box office, studios are very keen to make a sequel. After reopening, Disneyland Paris, which has received good reviews from tourists, is like a movie that has won a good reputation. As long as it has a good reputation, the possibility of tourists visiting Disneyland again will be greatly increased.
"If the current momentum can be maintained, maybe the situation in Paris Disneyland will not be as bad as we originally expected," Eric said, looking at the results of another questionnaire given to him by Katzenberg who returned to Los Angeles. .
"I think so too," I haven't seen him for a month, and Katzenberg has not changed much except for being leaner: "Fortunately, it was made up in time, although the closure for a whole month brought some unnecessary expenses , but judging from the current situation, the loss is totally worth it. At least, Disneyland Paris should be able to maintain a balance of payments this year. Although the previous estimate for this project was too optimistic, one thing is true, that That is, the potential tourist base in Europe is definitely larger than that in Japan and the United States. I think the biggest problem is that it has not adapted to the local culture like Tokyo Disneyland. As long as this can be done, it should not be too big to make a profit The problem."
"Okay, don't mention responsibility anymore. After all, we all know that the responsibility for this matter is not on you or me," Eric said with a smile.
Disneyland Paris was controlled by Michael Eisner himself. Although Katzenberg was also an executive of Disney at the time, with Michael Eisner's character, it was absolutely impossible for Katzenberg to intervene in this project. For such a big mistake, it is no surprise that Michael Eisner will be blamed, and he will definitely not be wronged.
Katzenberg didn't bother with this topic, but said: "I will always pay attention to the situation there in the future and make timely adjustments. Another thing is that Giancarlo lost the case against MGM. In Paris, I just got the news that the main source of Giancarlo’s fraud is the French consortium. The MGM shares held by Giancarlo will be auctioned off by the French bank in mid-December to repay the investors’ debts. I think this is very important for Firefly. It should be a good opportunity to expand the film library.”
Eric shook his head and said: "But it will cost a lot of money, Jeffrey, I have also considered this matter, although after getting the MGM film library, the number of films of Firefly Pictures will be doubled Above, but we do not have the strength to turn these films into actual economic benefits. We neither have enough video tape distribution resources nor our own TV stations, which are the two most important channels for turning early films into actual benefits. "
Katzenberg knew that Eric was telling the truth, and obviously felt a little pity, because if this opportunity is grasped well, it will be enough to completely swallow MGM's film library, and MGM currently has the most valuable thing left , that is, it has accumulated a huge film library of more than 10,000 movies and TV series.
Thinking of this, Katzenberg asked: "So, Eric, should we consider building our own TV station next time?"
Eric put down the document in his hand, got up and poured two cups of coffee for himself and Katzenberg, took it over and sat down again, and said: "At least until after next year, and if you want to acquire a public TV station, We have to deal with the relationship with the Fox TV network, maybe we have to give up the 10% stake in the Fox TV network, otherwise we will definitely be troubled by the Federal Trade Commission."
"It sounds like you already have a goal?" Katzenberg noticed Eric's expression and asked curiously.
Eric smiled and nodded: "However, we have to wait until the results of Viacom's competition with QVC for Paramount come out."
When Katzenberg heard this sentence, he almost understood, and said with a smile: "It seems that you are not optimistic that Barry Diller can win Paramount." (To be continued...)