I’m in Hollywood

Chapter 68: The Ugly Duckling Pixar

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Eric quickly sorted out the trivial memories of Pixar in his previous life. As the leader of Hollywood 3D animation, Pixar has produced the world-famous "General Mobilization" series of animated films.

But before 1995, Disney's 2D animation films still dominated the animation film market, and no one was optimistic about the future of 3D animation.

Jobs himself did not have any confidence in 3D animation. Until the release of "Toy Story", Jobs always wanted to sell the burden of Pixar, and even pinched his nose to contact his old rival Microsoft.

When in contact with Microsoft's top management, in order to please Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's senior vice president, Jobs also deliberately placed a laptop running Windows on Pixar's desk.

It's a pity that the price offered by Microsoft could not satisfy Jobs. Jobs, who was "sinking in the mud and unable to extricate himself", had to grit his teeth and hold on, and finally ushered in the dawn.

After "Toy Story" was released, North America alone had a record-breaking box office of 192 million US dollars, and the global box office was close to 360 million. The cost of Toy Story was only 30 million US dollars.

After that, the market value of Pixar, which was worth US$50 million, directly increased by 20 times. When Disney acquired Pixar in 2006, its market value had reached US$7.4 billion.

Calculating the time, Jobs should have started to sell Pixar, a 'losing product'. Eric just had the idea of buying Pixar immediately, but he had to shake his head in disappointment.

Although it is impossible for Jobs to insist on a price of 50 million U.S. dollars like in his previous life, even if it is discounted in half, Eric will not be able to get 25 million.

He doesn't have much money now. "Home Alone" has been in theaters for so long, and Columbia must have begun to share accounts with theaters.

However, Eric wants to get his own share, and in the best case, he has to wait until "Home Alone" is released. It is not uncommon for film directors and actors in previous lives to go to court with film companies that owed money in order to get their own share.

Hundreds of millions of dollars of funds, even if they are only deposited in the bank, the daily interest is a very impressive figure. Even if there is a clear agreement, the Colombian side will definitely try to delay it for a day.

Eric can even think of what kind of "losing tricks" Columbia will use to default on the payment. For example, after a few months, the box office potential of "Home Alone" has obviously been exhausted. Hanging there to prevent the movie from going down, Eric is likely to just stare blankly.

Because of the VAM agreement, it is very unlikely that Columbia will cooperate with Eric again in the short term. There is no need to estimate the relationship between the two parties, and Columbia has no psychological pressure to use these tricks that harm others and benefit itself. Especially now sitting in the Columbia president's seat or Blunt Cohen.

After much deliberation, Eric still feels that the most important thing is to do a good job of the movie "Pretty Woman". Anyway, even if the history does not change, there are still six years before the release of "Toy Story", Eric Enough time to take down Pixar.

Before the filming of "Pretty Woman", the preparations were quite complete. The crew did not need Jeffrey, the producer, to be present at any time. A few executive producers were enough to arrange everything.

After discussing with Eric for an hour, Jeffrey hurriedly left the crew and was about to fly to New York to negotiate with nbc about advertising.

The advertising bidding for the Super Bowl started half a year ago. NBC has successfully sold 80% of the advertising space for this year. What Jeffrey wants to fight for is one of the remaining 20%. It would be great, even if the advertisements in good time slots were much higher than the average price, they would have been snatched away long ago.

Three days later, as soon as Eric woke up, he received a call from Jeffrey, saying that he had won a 59-second commercial. Super Bowl commercials are counted in seconds, with a minimum of 15 seconds and a maximum of 90 seconds.

"What, $1.5 million, didn't you say that $1.2 million can be won?" In the bathroom, Eric clamped the cordless phone under his neck and squeezed toothpaste on his toothbrush.

Jeffrey also had helplessness in his tone: "If no one bids, it is true that 1.2 million can be negotiated. During the bidding, a New York fashion company suddenly appeared to compete for this advertisement. You told me that I must I had to raise the price to 1.5 million US dollars. I even suspect that the fashion company was hired by NBC, but this is just my guess without any evidence."

There was an extra $300,000 in expenses, and Ai Ruimo was not in the mood to brush his teeth slowly, fumbled a few times, rinsed his mouth, and returned to the living room.

"Forget it, 1.5 million is 1.5 million." Eric sat on the sofa and poured himself a glass of boiling water: "Sign the contract as soon as possible. By the way, Jeffrey, tomorrow is the Golden Globe Awards ceremony. Could you come back earlier?"

"I'll see the situation, I probably won't be able to go back." Jeffrey said with regret in his tone, "Anyway, what everyone wants to see most is you, the miracle director, and it doesn't matter if I go or not."

"Haha, don't worry, it doesn't matter if you miss this time, there will be opportunities in the future."

"I believe that too," Jeffrey also laughed: "If there is nothing else, I will hang up. You must have just woken up, and it should be seven o'clock in the morning in Los Angeles. But the $300,000 overspending I have to let you know as soon as possible."

"It's okay, it just so happened that I didn't stay up late last night and came back after ten o'clock."

After saying goodbye, Eric hung up the phone.

Leaning on the sofa and tapping his knees lightly, Eric silently calculated a small account for himself. The $25 million check he received from Fox at the beginning was 1.9 million for the mansion in Beverly Hills, which was paid to Drew 1 million for the mother, 1 million for the acquisition of UTA, another 3 million for the lease and decoration of Firefly, and the expensive professional equipment in the dubbing room and editing room. million, adding up to a total of 15.4 million US dollars.

Although he is not a extravagant person, during this period of time, there are hundreds of thousands of dollars in odds and ends.

Now that he was reborn in the United States, Eric will soon face one of the two things that no one in this country can escape: paying taxes. With the current income situation, he must pay the highest personal income tax rate of 35%, which is nearly 10 million US dollars.

After swearing at the evil capitalist system, Eric found sadly that before the tax return deadline of April 15th, he probably won't have any income anymore.

"I don't even need a loan to pay my taxes." Eric rubbed his forehead and smiled wryly. After all, he is not a real American in his bones, and has not formed a deep-rooted concept of advanced consumption, so he is very resistant to such things as loans.

Putting this matter behind for the time being, Eric drove to the set after having breakfast.

Perhaps it was because Eric announced that the one-day fixed rest day every week would be brought forward to tomorrow, and the crew members were all in high spirits. At the end of the day, they even took five or six more shots.

After ten days of filming, "Pretty Woman" has completed 60% of the shots. If this goes on, after the Golden Globe Awards ceremony, it will only take one week for the film to be officially finalized.

The reason why the shooting was so smooth is mainly due to Julia's excellent performance. From the beginning, Eric never worried about anything going wrong with Al Pacino. Al, who has won so many Oscar nominations, has no pressure at all to perform such a role that does not require much acting skills, and even needs to restrain acting skills.

As a newcomer, Julia is different. At the beginning, Julia did not have any major problems when shooting personal shots, at most, she only ng a few times. But at the beginning when Al Pacino was acting opposite, Julia made frequent mistakes, and the number of NGs soared. Compared to Al, Julia's acting skills are indeed in the infancy stage.

However, after a few days of running-in and Eric's unbearable roar, Julia gradually narrowed the gap with Al Pacino. Even in some scenes, it can form a certain degree of pressure on Al, even if it is under the condition of Al Pacino's restraint, it is not easy to do.

"Okay, that's it for today." After the last shot, Eric announced that work was over, and the crew members cheered and began to pack up and go their separate ways.

Eric stopped Al Pacino, who was about to remove his makeup, and asked, "Al, how did you do with that piano solo?"

In the original movie, the piano solo of Edward in the restaurant was composed and performed by Richard Gere himself. Eric used his memory and worked with the company's soundtrack engineer to write out the score of less than 40 seconds. Handed over to Al Pacino.

Al's piano skills were only slightly better than Eric's, but he insisted on playing himself, and Eric had to postpone the scene.

"Eric, give me another... no, two days, I think I need to practice more."

"That's okay," Eric admired Al's professionalism: "However, Al, we can't delay it for too long. The filming progress is so fast, and it took too long. With the development of the plot, you The emotional changes will be great. Even if the performance is good, it will be difficult to perform the feeling after shooting those scenes a few days ago."

Al Pacino thought for a moment and realized that Eric was telling the truth. After realizing that his little persistence could not improve the quality of the movie too much, Al nodded helplessly and compromised: "Okay, Eric, then put this scene in the day after tomorrow. If it doesn't work, use the post-dubbing."