San Diego, where Qualcomm is headquartered, is located in southern California, less than two hours' drive from Los Angeles, and it is very convenient to get there. After Eric expressed his intention to buy shares in Qualcomm to Owen Jacobs, the two sides started close consultations.
In Eric's office in Firefly Studios, Kelly, who had just returned from San Diego, handed a memo to Eric, saying: "Chris will also discuss with several important shareholders of Qualcomm in the afternoon. He asked me to Just came back, this is the result of our negotiations in the morning, Qualcomm’s board of directors is only willing to accept half of the capital injection we proposed, but their attitude is not so firm, it should only be a matter of time before the final deal is reached.”
Eric opened the memo that Kelly handed over, and said: "Since the official contact has begun, this matter must not be kept secret for too long. If it is delayed for a long time, something will inevitably happen. All I care about is time. A Week, I hope this deal is finalized within the next week."
Kelly said: "Eric, if we squeeze the negotiation into a week, we will definitely be very passive."
Eric shook his head and said, "This matter can't be solved quickly. If too many people pay attention, we will really fall into a passive position. You continue to go to San Diego tomorrow and explain the pros and cons to Qualcomm. As soon as the spectrum license was announced, gsm was announced as its technical standard, and the other operators who got the spectrum license will not hesitate for too long. If they miss the best time to lobby for dma because of hesitation, we will not hesitate to give up on the deal, so it's only a week."
Once the news that Firefly intends to take a stake in Qualcomm spreads. Not only will it cause the stock price to skyrocket. It may also cause interested people to follow up. after all. Firefly's investments in companies such as Cisco, America Online, Yahoo, and Nokia in recent years have all received very rich returns, and the capital market has already begun to pay close attention to the investment trends of Firefly. If the negotiation drags on for too long and another company interested in Qualcomm suddenly appears in the process, that will be the biggest trouble.
Kelly considered for a moment, then nodded: "Okay, I will prepare."
Eric read the memo, discussed some precautions with Kelly, and then picked up a thick package on the desk. He stood up and said, "Brother Wachowski will be here soon, you should come with us."
Kelly followed up and said in surprise, "Eric, are you really going to let them direct "The Matrix"?"
Eric said: "It hasn't been confirmed yet, let's see each other first."
"I always feel that this matter is a bit... outrageous. They are just two little-known screenwriters."
Eric smiled and said, "I used to be just a little-known screenwriter."
Kelly said: "But you didn't direct a movie with such a huge budget from the beginning. "Home Alone" had a budget of only one million at the beginning, and later there were "Pretty Woman", "Home Alone 2", "Dark Wars" ’ and ‘Ghostly Love’, you didn’t start trying big-budget films until the sixth ‘Tornado.’”
Eric explained: "At that time, I was relatively timid. If I directly produced a big project with an investment of over 100 million yuan. If the box office failed miserably, I would definitely not be the person I am now."
Kelly is still a little puzzled. Judging from Eric's directing route from small to big, he has always been a very rational person, but this time his behavior seems a bit irrational.
Because of the great success of "Jurassic Park", Firefly has great expectations for Eric's film adaptation of "The Matrix", and the production budget directly reached 100 million US dollars. Katzenberg and others actually hope that Eric can continue to direct in person, but Eric has become interested in two fledgling Hollywood rookies who have not even directed a work, which is really puzzling.
It was still the small restaurant where Eric often had lunch near the administrative building. Just after entering the door, the two brothers who were already waiting in the restaurant stood up, accompanied by an employee of the studio.
Eric sent the accompanying employee away, and sat down opposite the Wachowski brothers with Kelly. Looking at the Wachowski brothers, who were still men at this time, Eric inexplicably felt a strange feeling Feeling, perhaps because of differences in cultural concepts, it is difficult for Eric to understand the thoughts of transgender people.
Feeling Eric's gaze, Larry Wachowski, who looks thin and wears glasses but is actually his brother, looked at the package Eric put on the table and said, "Mr. Williams, may I ask you What do you think of our vision for The Matrix?"
Eric put away his inexplicable thoughts, took out the sketch of the shot in the package, and said: "You can call me Eric, I think the ideas about bullet time and 360-degree rotating lens in your sketch are very cool, but, I feel that you guys didn't completely adapt my novel, but there is no detailed script in these drafts, can you tell me your specific thoughts on the plot first?"
In order to avoid a collision of thinking, the novel version of "The Matrix" written by Eric did not follow the route of the movie version in memory except for the name and the main line concept, nor did it have profound philosophical thinking. After discovering that he is living in an illusion, he fights against the matrix with his partners and returns to reality.
Hearing Eric's question, Larry Wachowski said: "Eric, in fact, Andy and I have had similar ideas before, but they have always been scattered and fragmented ideas. We didn’t decide to script our story until we saw your novel, so the storyboard drawings you saw were drawn by me and Andy combining your novel and some of our own ideas. We think , Compared with the novel version, such a story should be able to carry out deeper exploration and discussion, about reality and illusion, about the root of life, etc., and should not just be a science fiction novel."
Eric nodded and said, "So, let's put aside my story completely and talk about your ideas?"
"Of course no problem," Larry Wachowski said, "Our idea is this, in the illusion created by the matrix. Neo should be a programmer proficient in hacking techniques. One day, a mysterious person suddenly contacted he… "
The Wachowski brothers enthusiastically began to talk about their own story ideas, and Eric interjected a few words from time to time. Unknowingly, even Kelly was gradually attracted into the discussion.
It wasn't until after two o'clock in the afternoon that several people thought of having lunch to simply fill their stomachs. Eric began to ask the Wachowski brothers about their specific shooting ideas, and the discussion continued until the evening. The Wachowskis had just left Firefly Studios.
Eric asked the waiter to remove the coffee from the table, ordered dinner by the way, and then asked Kelly next to him, "What do you think of them?"
Kelly thought for a while, and said: "Two people with great ideas, but if they are shot according to their ideas, this film may be a bit... obscure. If it is made into a low-cost ult film, it may become a classic. But As a big production with an investment of hundreds of millions, it is difficult to guarantee the box office."
Eric nodded. The female assistant's eyes are still very sharp.
In the original time and space, in order to attract the investment of "The Matrix". The Wachowski brothers are still very restrained in terms of scripts, and they combined the philosophical thinking and commercial elements they want to express just right, so the audience saw a cool but not lacking in connotation of science fiction blockbuster. When the first part of "The Matrix" came out, it immediately caused a sensation. Not only did the box office have a good reputation, but it also made the Wachowski brothers, who were originally unknown, become Hollywood's first-line directors. Hollywood has a very simple and crude rule, as long as you can make a blockbuster movie for the studio, then you can get everything you want. Therefore, after the success of the first film, the two brothers became Hollywood's first-line directors, and gained full control over the production of the sequel. He began to add his own ideas to the film without restraint. The sequel became dark and obscure while the special effects were unscrupulously swayed. After that, I finally saw two follow-up works. After the second "Reloaded" basically exhausted the reputation of the series, the fans directly expressed their disappointment on the third part, making what should have been The final chapter of the pinnacle of the series has been reduced to the worst box office and word-of-mouth of the entire series.
Recalling these things, Eric said to the female assistant: "I will personally check the script, and I will definitely not let them do whatever they want."
"Eric, but they don't have any directing experience after all. According to the approximate film production cycle, if everything goes well, "The Matrix" will take about three months of shooting and the same four months of post-production. It will also take three months, and the total will be less than a year. From now to next year's summer vacation, we still have a year and a half. In the future, the announcement and release can be carried out at the same time as the later stage. The time card is tighter, and maybe they can use this In half a year, first direct a low-budget film to practice."
Eric nodded: "That's a good idea, well, a year and a half... well, a year and a half, eighteen months, six months, 1995, 1997..."
Seeing Eric talking, Kelly's face suddenly changed continuously, she muttered to herself strangely, and stood up worriedly: "Eric, what's wrong with you?"
Eric calmed down, forced a smile, reached out and patted Kelly's little hand on his shoulder, and said, "I'm fine, I just thought of something suddenly."
"Why doesn't it matter?" Kelly was still a little worried, and put the back of her hand on Eric's forehead again, except for a little sweat, she didn't feel anything unusual.
Eric smiled and grabbed the female assistant's little hand, put it on his lips and kissed it, and said, "It's really all right, it just suddenly occurred to me that I might have overlooked something."
Kelly was kissed by Eric on the back of her hand. Feeling the surprised gaze of the waiter not far away, she withdrew her little hand with a reddish face and sat down again, but forgot to ask Eric why he lost his composure just now.
Eric's expression quickly returned to normal, but he didn't let go of the thought just now.
Because of Kelly's inadvertent reminder, Eric suddenly thought of the production cycle of "Titanic". In the original time and space, after "Titanic" created a box office miracle, many production details were picked up by the media. Eric clearly remembers that the preparations for "Titanic" in the original time and space began in the second half of 1995, and the official shooting began in 1996. Fox originally planned to release it in the summer of 1997. As a result, Cameron delayed the production cycle again and again. It was finally delayed until the end of 1997 before it was released, and the entire production cycle was nearly two years.
Although a production budget of 150 million U.S. dollars was approved for "Titanic" from the beginning, Eric already had the psychological preparation in his heart that Cameron would definitely overspend, as long as he could bring the same classic as the original time and space, Eric didn't mind that Cameron raised the budget to $200 million again. But he inadvertently overlooked that Cameron would not only overrun the budget, but also overrun the production.
Because of the auction of Disney's hand-drawn animation department last year, Firefly will have a break in the annual animation film next summer. If "Titanic" can no longer be released as scheduled, the 1996 Firefly summer file may only have "The Matrix" left.
In the past few years, the profits generated by the main films of Firefly’s summer file accounted for about half of the annual film business profit, which shows the importance of the summer file to Firefly’s film business department. If the uploading scale of summer movies next year suddenly shrinks to one-third of the previous one, the film business of Firefly Group will inevitably be greatly affected.
For this kind of thing, staring at Cameron will definitely have no effect. In the end, it will only make his roaring decibels a little higher on the set.
Eric quickly made up his mind, it's better to prepare in advance.
And, luckily, it's only early 1995. If I realize this in the second half of the year, I want to prepare a film that can carry the 1996 summer file. Time is definitely running out.
…
The director of "The Matrix" was decided by Eric himself, and the Wachowski brothers were quickly confirmed.
Eric also asked the Wachowski brothers to shoot a low-cost film in advance to hone their director skills during the preparatory stage of "The Matrix" according to Kelly's suggestion.
The Wachowski brothers were screenwriters, and they happened to have a script called "Fantasy Flowers" written by themselves, but the script had already been sold to an independent production company affiliated to Warner. After coming forward to coordinate and Firefly agreed to joint investment, Warner readily agreed to hand over the directorship to the Wachowski brothers.
Negotiations with Qualcomm continued, and the news inevitably leaked out in the next few days. Several major telecom operators expressed close attention, and even AT-T's top executives called through Warren Buffett to inquire about Ariel. Gram's intentions.
Although Qualcomm's stock price also skyrocketed immediately, under Firefly's tough attitude, Qualcomm's shareholders and the board of directors began to compromise step by step.
Hollywood, the Golden Globes are coming up. Eric seldom paid attention to this matter. In order to avoid the delay of Cameron's "Titanic" and cause no film to be released next summer, Eric began to be busy with selecting scripts.
"Mr. Williams, the story goes like this. A Marine Corps officer, because he was dissatisfied with the attitude of the US government to the soldiers who died in battle, led his subordinates to seize a batch of gas bombs and hijacked them on a prison island that was turned into a tourist attraction. took a group of tourists as hostages, threatening the U.S. government to pay a ransom of 100 million U.S. dollars to compensate the fallen soldiers. The abandoned prison was once known as 'Alcatraz Island' and was known for its tight guards. During the process of rescuing the hostages, forced to find out A former British agent is the only criminal who has successfully escaped from Alcatraz, so he forced the executives to lie to the agent that he will be arrested by the US government on the premise that he leads special forces into Alcatraz to rescue the hostages... "
In Firefly Studios, Eric's office, a thin middle-aged man narrated his script idea to Eric, and made some gestures from time to time. Eric listened quietly, and the man sitting on the other side Jerry Bruckheimer kept nodding, waiting for the middle-aged man to finish his narration, and said, "Eric, how about David's idea, isn't it great?"
Eric smiled noncommittally, and said to the thin middle-aged man: "Mr. Weisberg, you go back first. If there is a result, someone will notify you."
The thin middle-aged man looked at Jerry Bruckheimer, and said to Eric with some reluctance: "Mr. Williams, you can imagine that the role of the old British agent is played by Sean Connery, The first 007 played a British agent, full of gimmicks, the chemical expert can be handed over to Nicolas Cage, the director chose John Wu, his director style is very suitable for this script. It was shot with this cast. The movie will definitely be big For sale. And…”
Eric still didn't say anything, but Jerry Bruckheimer frowned impatiently and said, "David, listen to Eric, you go back first, and I will call you in the afternoon."
David Weisberg felt Jerry Bruckheimer's displeasure, and he didn't dare to pester him anymore, so he got up and left the office obediently.
Wait for the office door to close. Jerry Bruckheimer said to Eric: "Eric, can you talk about your thoughts now?"
"Jerry," Eric spread his hands and smiled, "You know my rules. I don't want the incident in the script of "Cutthroat Island" to happen again."
Knowing that Eric was looking for scripts, Firefly received a large number of scripts from script agents in just a few days. However, drawing lessons from the past, if you want to send the script to Eric, the owner of the script needs to sign a strict intent contract with Firefly first. After confirming that Eric has selected the script, the screenwriter will not monopolize the script to other film companies for profit.
today. Jerry Bruckheimer suddenly excitedly brought a screenwriter to the door, saying that he had a good idea to recommend to him, so the situation just now happened.
Jerry Bruckheimer said: "Of course I know, and I also feel that you dug a hole for Michael Eisner at the beginning, am I right?"
Eric shrugged, even if everyone guessed it, he would not admit it.
Jerry Bruckheimer smiled knowingly, and then explained: "I have already bought the script, so let it go, as long as Firefly agrees to invest, everything else will be fine."
"Jerry, you all seem to have overlooked a problem. Until now, I still don't know the name of this script."
"Um, I overlooked this, but the title of the movie is often undecided at the script stage. Of course, David has already given this story a name, called "Bravely Entering the Island of Death."
"Okay, "Brave to Kill the Island," Eric read it again, and said with a smile: "Well, David Weisberg just said that Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, John Wu, oh, and you are a gold medal producer, if this is the case, have you calculated the film budget yet?"
Eric didn't know how much Sean Connery was paid in "Brave to Kill the Island" in the original time and space, but he happened to know that Sean Connery was in the subsequent "The Trap" Zhong got his first salary of 20 million yuan, even if it is lower now, it will not be too low. Cage's current film salary is also around 15 million US dollars. John Wu has experienced three blockbuster films, and the director's film salary is also no less than 10 million US dollars. Certainly not. Then, this film is only the salary of the main creator, and it will not be less than 50 million.
Jerry Bruckheimer thought for a moment, and said: "Eric, the cost of the starring role in this film is a bit higher, but the film does not have many special effects and big scenes, so the budget should be controlled within 80 million. "
Eric didn't know how much box office "Into the Deadly Island" got in his previous life, but this film was the first batch of imported films in China at that time, and the box office in North America and the world would definitely not be too bad. Knocking on the armrest of the seat and thinking about it for a moment, Eric nodded and said, "Well, Jerry, it's only 80 million, and you know, Firefly doesn't have the habit of signing remuneration plus sharing agreements, so this 80 million is all the producers expenditure."
When Jerry Bruckheimer reported this budget, he actually adjusted it up a bit. According to his estimate, the film can be completed for about $75 million. Eric didn't deliberately withdraw a main creator or compress the budget of 10 to 20 million to make it difficult for the producer like the senior executives of the film company he had worked with, which made him feel very comfortable, so he nodded and said: "No problem, Eric, I am quite familiar with Sean Connery, and I can help persuade him to join this project, as for Cage and John Wu, you'd better come out and say hello in person."
The two discussed the project in detail, and Jerry Bruckheimer was about to leave, Eric joked: "Jerry, in recent days, everyone who enters this office will leave one or two script ideas, don't you Are you going to leave just like that?"
Jerry Bruckheimer laughed, remembering that he had nothing urgent to leave, Eric said so, sat down again, raised his legs and said in a casual tone: "I really have a script here , It’s just a bit old-fashioned. It’s a criminal action movie that imitates the two policemen in “Lethal Weapon”. I originally planned to sell it to Columbia for a little money. The budget is not high, only 19 million. Are you interested in hearing it? ?”
Eric narrowed his eyes slightly, without changing his smile, and said, "Oh, what's the name of the script?"
""Jedi Men"." (To be continued.) For mobile phone users, please visit http://