"Future Water World" is similar to "Mad Max" on the water. It is also a wasteland world after the collapse of civilization, but it is set after a nuclear war where resources are exhausted, and it is set in a distant future where the land is submerged by the ocean. . +,
Compared with "Cut Throat Island", which has a huge investment but has become a box office dud, "Future Water World" has a global box office of more than 200 million yuan, which is not too much of a failure.
However, the production situation of this film is similar to that of "Titanic". It is because of a series of overspends during the filming process that the investors were caught off guard. The final production cost of The World was 175 million U.S. dollars, and the total investment in publicity and distribution costs exceeded 200 million U.S. dollars. It was the most expensive movie before "Titanic".
It's just that the endings of the two films are very different. "Titanic" created an unprecedented box office record. Although "Future Water World" has a global box office of more than 200 million, compared to the huge investment, it still caused a lot of trouble for the producers. suffered huge losses.
Just from the perspective of a bystander, Eric still likes the story setting of "Future Water World" very much. If this film can follow the low-cost production route of "Mad Max", Eric will definitely not Take this item without hesitation. But now that he is the boss of Firefly Pictures, Eric will never touch this project if he can foresee the future prospects of this film.
Moreover, since Kevin Costner already intends to star in the "Mission Impossible" series before "Future Water World", Eric hopes that "Future Water World" can repeat the same mistakes, so that in "Mission Impossible" They can take the initiative in the sequel salary negotiation.
Both Amy and Drew could clearly feel that Eric was absent-minded when he was flipping through the script of "Future Water World". Drew knew that this often happened when Eric read the script. But this will not affect his judgment on a script. Amy Pascal felt that Eric's absent-mindedness might be because he was not very optimistic about the film.
Sure enough, Eric finished the script quickly, without the slightest excitement when he saw a good script, and said to Amy: "Have you talked to Kevin Costner about this project?"
Amy shook her head and said, "Not yet. When I was negotiating with Kevin Costner for "Mission: Impossible", I found out that Kevin Costner's personal production company was contacting this project. Vin Costner's agency ma intends to package and market this project to major studios."
Eric frowned slightly when he heard the word 'package', although now the three brokerage companies in Hollywood, AA, MA and IM, are three pillars. But because of the article he published at the beginning, the other two companies imitated AA's packaging strategy. Three years ago, "Captain Hawk", which greatly damaged Spielberg's directorial personality, was AA's packaging project.
When he first entered Hollywood a few years ago, Eric only felt from memory that the agency’s packaging strategy overinflated the agency’s power, and at the same time made the stars’ remuneration and film production costs higher and higher. As he stayed in Hollywood for longer, Eric also has a deeper understanding of the brokerage company's packaging strategy. The damage caused by the brokerage company's packaging strategy to the film company is far more than that. The main creators of the film crew of the packaging project are recommended by the brokerage company, although they can be modified. But there is often not much room for choice, which also causes the main creator of a film project to be often not suitable for this film. Ultimately caused the failure of the movie, Spielberg's "Captain Hawk" is the most classic example.
The failure of a huge investment is the biggest damage to a film company. As the scale of film investment becomes larger and larger, the impact of this damage will become more and more serious.
Just like "Future Water World" in hand, if you want to shoot this water wasteland style movie, there is no doubt that the most suitable director is George Miller, who became famous with the "Mad Max" series, The "Future Water World" in the original time and space is a complete imitation of "Mad Max" from costumes to sets, and the result is that it only imitates a shell.
In Eric's memory, the director of this film was Kevin Reynolds, and the shooting of the film was delayed until the end. Kevin Reynolds was unable to control the situation. In addition, he had a premonition that "Future Water World" might be over, so he directly dropped the pick quit. It is conceivable that if the right director was selected at the beginning, the ending of "Future Water World" would definitely not be so bleak.
"Since it's a packaging project, we don't want to participate. Huahua Pictures can't fail now," Eric handed the script to Amy, and said, "Just pretend that this has never happened and concentrate on preparing for "Disc." Impossible."
Amy raised her eyebrows slightly when she heard the word 'failure', thinking that Eric was really not optimistic about this project. However, she quickly realized the other meaning of Eric's words and showed a knowing smile.
If "Waterworld" fails, it will certainly save a lot of money for the "Mission: Impossible" sequel.
Looking at the time, it was almost twelve o'clock, and Kevin Costner would come over soon, so Amy hurriedly stuffed the script of "Future Water World" into her bag.
Kevin Costner quickly brought his agent to the restaurant. Although he knew that Eric was behind the "Dances with Wolves" incident, but after a few years, the incident has faded. After all, Hollywood is In a gamble, everyone buys and leaves, admits the bet and admits defeat. If you are worried about the success or failure of a game, it is impossible to survive in Hollywood.
The two sides used the lunch time to finalize various details of "Mission: Impossible". Although Eric recommended Brian De Palma, a horror film director, there were some doubts, but no one sitting here was stupid enough to doubt Eric. vision.
Considering Kevin Costner's age, Eric only plans to make three "Mission: Impossible" in this time and space. After all, after three, unless Kevin Costner takes the initiative to reduce the pay, otherwise The salaries of leading actors in Hollywood series movies have increased, and if it continues, the film company will be working for the stars.
However, as long as the copyright of the "Mission: Impossible" series is in hand. After the trilogy. Put it on hold for ten or eight years. When Kevin Costner's influence on this series fades, this project can still be restarted again, and by the way, it can also play the emotional card or something.
Because Kevin Costner is eager to produce "Future Water World", the schedule is very tight. After finalizing a series of main creations, "Mission: Impossible" quickly entered the production stage. The "Spy" series is scheduled for the end of the year.
After arranging "Mission Impossible", Eric was paying attention to the ab acquisition negotiations. He put most of his energy on a series of films that are about to be produced and in post-production.
Among the three films in the summer, "The Lion King" has been completed, while the other two films, Catherine Bigelow's "Saving Private Ryan" and Cameron's "True Lies", have entered the final editing stage. Ke is very relieved of Cameron, so he didn't intervene too much in "True Lies". Before "Saving Private Ryan" was closed, Eric had seen a lot of shots taken by Catherine and was very satisfied. The most important Normandy landing battle was supported by the top special effects technology in the digital field, which was even more shocking than the original version. It's just that Catherine's directing style is very different from the original version, so Eric has to often appear in the editing room. Therefore, Catherine complained from time to time, not because of Eric's intervention in editing. More complained about Eric's distrust, and occasionally there were some small grievances in her tone that she didn't realize.
These are the upcoming films of Firefly, Eric also pays attention to the preparation status of "Jurassic Park 2" and "Independence Day", these two films are expected to start in the second half of the year, because Eric does not plan to continue Director of the "Jurassic Park" series, so the selection of the director took a lot of effort.
In addition to the films of Firefly, the "Men in Black" co-operated with Columbia has also entered the final stage, and the schedule is also in the summer. end of the year.
DreamWorks' "Charlie's Angels" has almost completed the final production. DreamWorks plans to launch three films this year, and this year it will be able to complete the plan of ten films in three years. Enough energy, took the time to select two other works, and wrote the outline of the story of "Resident Evil", and handed it over to the screenwriters to complete the script. At the same time, he also made some suggestions for MGM's upcoming "007" sequel. Now that Sophie has gone to Ireland with the "Braveheart" crew, Eric gave "007: Golden Eyes" in the normal order. ", but Famke Janssen was definitely going to shoot "File" during the filming of "Golden Eye", and Eric didn't give her the role of the villain heroine.
Between these continual trifles, time soon came to March, and this year's Oscars were scheduled for March 21, much earlier than in previous years.
However, in early March, Hollywood is not most concerned about the upcoming Oscars, people are attracted to another thing.
Last night because of "Independence Day" and Roland Emmerich chatted late, coupled with the recent travel, Eric planned to sleep in today, but it was only eight o'clock. Rick was woken up by Elizabeth who broke into the bedroom in a hurry.
"Eric, get up, look at this issue of "Forbes" magazine, as well as the newspaper..." Elizabeth's tone was a little hasty, with a little excitement.
Eric woke up in a daze, reached out and hugged the girl in front of him, and said, "Don't make noise, I'll sleep a little longer."
"You are the richest man in the Federation now, still asleep!" Elizabeth hit Eric a few times.
Eric knew what was going on when he heard "Forbes". Regarding the latest Forbes Rich List, Eric and Steve Forbes discussed on the phone several times before finally deciding on a number. Although this time is still not Eric's real worth, it is most beneficial to the negotiation of Firefly Pictures' acquisition of ab TV network.
"19.7 billion, I didn't expect you to have so much money, and it's a full 10 billion dollars higher than the second place Warren Buffett." Elizabeth saw Eric lying on the bed comparing, so she had to lie beside him and said.
"Do you believe the numbers on this?" Eric turned his body and said.
Elizabeth was stunned for a moment, and said, "What do you mean?"
Eric said: "This number was discussed between me and Steve Forbes, so it's not accurate. You also followed suit and made breakfast for me."
"Breakfast is ready," Elizabeth said, pushing Eric hard: "Then tell me, how much money do you have?"
Seeing that he couldn't continue to sleep, Eric opened his eyes and took the "Forbes" magazine in front of Elizabeth, looked at it, and said: "Look, it didn't say that because of the outbreak of the film and television industry, the 19.7 billion Among the US dollars in assets, 190 US dollars belong to Firefly Films, and only 700 million US dollars in other assets. If there are really only so many, do you think Chris can still play hostile takeover ltd now?"
Elizabeth has heard about the acquisition of New York Chris Ltd. If Firefly Investment attracts funds from the public, then a board of directors must be established, but Firefly Investment has never done so, which means that Firefly Investment's Most of the money should belong to Eric. Right now in New York, Chris has offered a price of more than 2 billion US dollars in order to acquire ltd. Even if it is a leveraged buyout without enough funds, Chris will never dare to play like this. Hearing Eric say this, Elizabeth became interested, and asked with great interest: "Then tell me, how much money do you have?"
Elizabeth has heard about the acquisition of New York Chris Ltd. If Firefly Investment attracts funds from the public, then a board of directors must be established, but Firefly Investment has never done so, which means that Firefly Investment's Most of the money should belong to Eric. Right now in New York, Chris has offered a price of more than 2 billion US dollars in order to acquire ltd. Even if it is a leveraged buyout without enough funds, Chris will never dare to play like this. Hearing Eric say this, Elizabeth became interested and asked with great interest: "Then tell me, how much money do you have?" (To be continued.)