Eric did not deny it, and said: "Telecom and Comcast both have their own ideas. Under such circumstances, it would be a strange thing for Barry to successfully acquire Paramount."
After this incident, even if Barry Diller will not part ways with Telecom and Comcast, the cooperation between them will not last long. Barry Diller's talent in running the TV network is unquestionable , if it can be won over to its banner, Eric believes that he will never repeat the embarrassment after Disney acquired abc in the original time and space.
Katzenberg was also aware of Eric's thoughts, and said with a smile: "Your idea is very good, but unfortunately it is unlikely to be realized."
"There's no chance until you try it," Eric replied.
While chatting, Katzenberg's assistant knocked on the office door and came in and said, "Mr. Williams, Mr. Katzenberg, Mr. Cooper is here."
"Then let's go and see the samples of Mr. and Mrs. Smith," Katzenberg got up and said.
The two had just walked out of the office, and Peter Guber had already walked over with a smile, warmly giving Eric and Katzenberg a hug. Eric noticed Peter Guber's deputy, John Peters He didn't follow, and these days when he returned to Los Angeles, he vaguely felt that there was a conflict between Peter Cooper and Jon Peters, which seemed to be related to Warner's "Superman" copyright.
In the 1980s, Warner released four "Superman" movies in a row, but the box office was not as good as one. The fourth "Superman" in 1987 even only got a poor box office of 15 million US dollars. As a result, the "Superman" series was completely refrigerated, and DC Comics, which was attached to the Warner system, also fell into business difficulties for a time. Downhearted. DC has sold the film adaptation rights of the "Superman" series. The buyer was Jon Peters, who had his own production company at the time.
Although the word-of-mouth and box office of the second "Batman" is not as good as the first one, it is much stronger than the "Superman" series in the 1980s. It seems that they have seen the potential of DC superhero movies, and many people are against the strong . Peters's "Superman" movie copyright moved his mind.
As for the detailed entanglements, Eric is not very clear. With the memory in his mind, he knows that the producer column still exists in the end credits of "Superman: Man of Steel" more than 20 years later. Jon Peters' name. It can be seen that Warner's misstep has caused eternal hatred, and it has not been able to fully take back the movie copyright of "Superman" from Jon Peters from the beginning to the end.
And right now, Eric can almost guess that it is estimated that Peter Cooper has taken a fancy to the copyright of "Superman" in the hands of Jon Peters and wants to let Columbia develop it, but the two should not agree on the distribution of benefits. There is a contradiction.
After exchanging pleasantries, the three of them walked towards the screening hall together. At this time, many high-level executives from Disney and Columbia had already gathered in the screening hall, as well as the director of the movie, John Wu. The two leading actors, Nicole and Pierce Brosnan, did not come to the trial screening because they had already started the promotional work of the film.
After learning Eric's affirmation of the success of John Wu's filming. Peter Guber changed his dissatisfaction with Eric's insistence on using John Wu in the past, and greeted John Wu with a smile on his face.
Eric didn't make much of a change to the plot of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The film still begins with the Smiths, who have been married for five or six years, conducting marriage counseling.
However, it was precisely because Eric did not change the plot of the movie much that it looked amazing in the eyes of the audience in the screening hall. Because of the series of high-tech equipment that appeared in the movie, although due to the times, many shots were completed in the digital field using special effects technology, but this is very cool, even more so than 007, which uses high-tech equipment as a selling point. More cool.
John and Jane, who worked for two hostile killer groups, fell in love at first sight after meeting in the chaotic capital of Colombia. The two got married in a flash and lived a seemingly ordinary American middle-class family life. However, behind this life was A series of assassinations that the two concealed from each other.
Although John and Jane hid their identities well from each other, this incident was learned by the killer group behind the two. In order to get rid of their two "unstable" factors, the two killer groups cooperated by coincidence made an action.
John and Jane soon understood each other's identities. After some twists and turns, the two had a confrontation in the villa where they had lived for six years. fight back.
In the tense and exciting plot of the movie, there is no lack of occasional warmth and small humor. After Eric's re-editing, the plot of the movie is more compact.
After watching the movie for 120 minutes, the movie ended with the sound of hot rock music. The executives in the auditorium waited patiently for the subtitles to be played and the lights to be turned on before applauding.
"Mr. Wu, thank you for bringing us such a wonderful movie," Peter Guber applauded while complimenting John Wu who was sitting beside him.
John Wu said a few words of modesty in keeping with the oriental habits, but he could still see the look of satisfaction and satisfaction on his face.
The schedule and publicity plan of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" have been determined before the completion of the film, and the release date will be on December 18th during the Christmas period. Confirmed in order to fine-tune the original announcement plan, but after watching the movie, neither Disney nor the few people brought by Columbia's Peter Guber had any idea about the movie's $25 million announcement budget. Opinion.
It is worth noting that Warner seems to be trying to create a gimmick for each other, and also put Eric as an executive producer in order to get the contract of "Jurassic Park" actor Sam Neal. On the 18th, he fought with "Mr. and Mrs. Smith".
Now that the executive producer is named, it is of course impossible for Eric to ignore this movie. Although Warner just wanted to use Eric's fame to increase the box office of "Bodyguard", it did not really let Eric participate. meaning of this item. But a few days ago, Eric was specially invited to participate in the film test. Eric felt that the biggest selling point of that movie. It's almost Kevin Costner, the last Oscar winner for Best Director and Best Actor. Of course, there are also a few songs by Whitney Houston. Apart from that, Eric didn't feel this There is something special about the story.
Throughout October, Eric spent almost all of this busy time. In addition to paying attention to the movies to be released at the end of the year, he also had to discuss next year's production and distribution plans with Firefly's management.
end of october. Roland Emmerich's "Clash of Heaven and Earth", which took nearly 20 weeks to shoot, has finally been successfully sealed. Emmerich has never been in charge of such a large-scale movie, so compared to Eric's filming of "Jurassic "Park" went smoothly, but Emmerich had to be more cautious, and the shooting process seemed very slow because of this. Fortunately, Roland Emmerich didn't overspend, and the film soon started post-production work in the digital field.
November is fast approaching, with the Thanksgiving-Christmas schedule near the end of the year, Halloween at the beginning of the month, Firefly and several other big studios. Both released their own small production horror movies, but Eric didn't pay much attention to these small productions with an investment of less than $10 million. Instead, it was safely handed over to the management of Firefly.
In addition to movies, another event of great importance to the United States took place in November. On November 3, the results of the quadrennial US presidential election were announced. The Republican presidential candidate William Jefferson Clinton won 42%. With a narrow advantage, he defeated the Democratic candidate Bush Sr. with 37% approval rate and was successfully elected as the 42nd President of the United States.
Eric finally breathed a sigh of relief. The historical process has not changed. If Clinton had not been elected president, many things would be unpredictable. Perhaps the United States would not have had the fastest economic growth rate in history for ten years.
In the Angle Manor, Eric was chatting with Catherine Bigelow who came to visit: "Now you believe my words, I have said that even if you don't need to release "Riot" in advance, Clinton can still win the election because his economic policies beat the Bush team."
Catherine Bigelow just gave Eric a light look, and took a sip of the plain water in her hand. Clinton's election was almost narrowly won. Even before the final vote, Bush Sr.'s approval rating was still higher than Clinton's, so The end result surprised many.
In the process of making a documentary about the Los Angeles riots, Catherine Bigelow gradually became a supporter of Clinton. In fact, many directors and stars in Hollywood are supporters of Clinton, including Spielberg, George Lucas and others .
Therefore, after Catherine completed the documentary "Riot", she proposed to Eric to release the documentary in September to support Clinton, but was rejected by Eric, who was still in France at the time.
After a detailed investigation and analysis, the documentary "Riot" blamed a large part of the cause of the Los Angeles riots on the high unemployment rate in South Los Angeles. Although the Bush administration won the Gulf War, it has made a lot of trouble since World War II. The American people who have not won a few wars are very excited, but the economic policies implemented by Bush Sr. during his four-year term have all failed. The current unemployment rate in the United States is as high as 9%. The deficit, and even owed a national debt of up to 4 trillion U.S. dollars, which was 4 trillion U.S. dollars in the early 1990s when the U.S. dollar was strong.
After a while, Catherine said: "It's only a 5% lead. If you don't pay attention, you may fail. Didn't you say that you are also a supporter of Clinton? Why did you oppose my release of this documentary?"
"Because your purpose is too obvious, and it may even backfire."
"How is it possible?" Catherine was a little surprised.
Eric remembered the "Fahrenheit 9/11" about his previous life. During Bush's re-election process, Michael Moore forcibly released this documentary about the 9/11 incident, sharply attacking the Bush administration , but in the end, not only did this documentary not play a role in suppressing Bush Jr.'s approval rating, it even aroused the rebellious psychology of some voters because of the too intense views of "Fahrenheit 9/11". In short, the result is that even Bush Jr.'s opponents in the election did not agree with the views of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and stood on the opposite side of Michael Moore, but in the end Bush Jr. was re-elected.
Catherine’s documentary on the Los Angeles riots, although not as sharp as Michael Moore’s, still pointed the finger at the failed economic policies of the Bush administration. At this sensitive moment, it may be used by the Bush campaign team , Turning black and white as evidence of deliberate smearing by competitors, you must know that Bush Sr. is still the president of the United States, and he has far more resources in his hands than Clinton. It is not too difficult to achieve this.
"People's hearts are difficult to figure out. Sometimes you may think that what you are doing is correct, but in the eyes of others, it is a completely opposite situation." Eric thought for a while and replied.
Catherine was not stupid either. Hearing what Eric said, she quickly understood and couldn't help but sighed lowly.
Eric watched the woman rarely show such an expression, and couldn't help comforting him: "Don't worry, Firefly has already planned to release this documentary in mid-December, and I promise you, at least I will get one for this movie." Oscar nomination for best documentary."
Catherine knew that Eric had good intentions and nodded. She also knew very well that the subject matter of "Riot" was too sensitive. It's too close, less than a year. Although some people want to reflect, most people subconsciously don't want to mention this matter, so it can be said that it is not yet time to reflect.
In this case, being able to get an Oscar nomination for best documentary is already the limit, and it is not very possible to win an award.
"Next, you can concentrate on making "Saving Private Ryan,"" Eric said, then smiled, with a bad expression on his face: "There is one more thing to tell you, Jim's "True Lies" is also in Last month was joining Firefly's project plan for next year, and I plan to put it in the next year's summer file, what do you think?"
A year has passed since the incident, and Catherine's hatred for Cameron's cheating has dissipated a lot. When she heard this sentence, she just gave Eric a blank look: "You like doing this kind of thing." ( To be continued..)