"Eric, I don't think it's a big problem for Firefly to get 70% of the shares of AE TV Network if you insist. The Hearst Group has no initiative in this matter," said Ka Senberg said to Eric with regret. [ㄨ]
Eric was holding a plate in his hand and was picking food with Katzenberg at the buffet table. Hearing this, he turned his head and looked at William Hester, who was chatting and laughing with Tom Murphy not far away, and said, "I want The development of Lifetime TV station will definitely require a large amount of investment in the early stage. The joining of Hearst Group can not only share the investment risk, but also the support of their paper media channels all over the world. Moreover, we have already obtained an absolute controlling stake. The Hearst Group won't have any initiative anymore, will it?"
Eric's words had some unfinished meaning, but Katzenberg immediately understood, grinning thiefly, showing a row of big teeth. When Lifetime TV develops, as an absolute controlling shareholder, Firefly has countless ways to dilute the shares held by the Hearst Group.
After the two picked out the food, they found a table and sat down. Katzenberg said, "I couldn't attend the children's birthdays a few days ago, so Peter sent me gifts. Have you received them?"
"Of course, they all like it," Eric nodded, and said, "What about you, are you planning to go back to Los Angeles for Easter?"
"Marilyn and the others came to New York and spent this year with my parents, so I just didn't have to run around," Katzenberg replied. He married very early, his wife was Marilyn Siegel, and he had a couple Dragon and phoenix fetuses.
After a brief chat about homework, both of them involuntarily turned to work again.
During this period of time, the group's top management focused on discussing the general development plan of Lifetime TV, but somewhat ignored the production of specific programs.
In the morning meeting, after consultation with the Hearst Group, the final planning scheme was determined. At this time, Katzenberg began to care about the host of "America's Next Top Model" again. This matter has been discussed since the Oscars. It has remained unresolved. Eric ended up torn between Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista, and Tyra Banks, the 'original host', was ruled out because of his age. .
"Eric, there is less than half a year before the autumn file in September. The reality show needs to be completed in one go, and we don't have much time to waste, Linda Evangelista and Cindy Crow Fu, have you considered which of these two you will choose in the end?"
Eric hesitated. Said: "I've been thinking about this question too, both of them are very good, so, Jeffrey, what do you think of dividing into two?"
Katzenberg frowned slightly: "Eric, you mean to let them take turns serving as the host. This is not a good idea. Changing the host will easily distract the audience. [ㄨ]"
"No, I mean. Since we now have $100 million in funding for the project, why don't we start two reality shows at the same time and let them host each of them."
Katzenberg became interested: "Eric, do you have any good ideas?"
"I've been worrying about this recently. I have ideas, but I don't know much about it."
Katzenberg showed a puzzled expression, not quite understanding what Eric meant.
"I mean," Eric continued: "This idea is also related to last year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. During the preparation period of the project, the designer came up with dozens of designs for angel outfits almost every week. However, only 40 sets were finalized. The elimination was very intense, and some of the designers’ proposals were not even used. I was thinking recently, since we can hold a model competition, why not Create a reality show about a fashion design competition. But I don’t know anything about fashion design, so I don’t know if I should implement this plan.”
What Eric is talking about now is the "Project Runway", which is as famous as "America's Next Top Model". These two programs can be said to be rivals, and they were launched at about the same time. The ratings are evenly matched, and even, as the hosts of the two programs, Tyra Banks and Heidi Klum also won the top two positions in the Forbes highest-paid TV actress list at the same time.
But unfortunately, Eric was not interested in fashion design in his previous life. In order to see the long legs, he watched a few episodes of "America's Next Top Model", but he never watched "Project Runway".
Compared to Eric's hesitation, Katzenberg seemed very optimistic, saying: "Eric, many times, a successful project starts with an idea, and Walt Disney also saw his daughter playing, and it happened by accident. Disneyland, he certainly didn't know how to build a Disneyland at the time, but now Disneyland has spread all over the world. And, I think your idea is better than America's Next Top Model, there are countless in the United States People are very interested in design, and those celebrities who are a little bit famous like to launch their own personal brands, but most of the ordinary designers who are not well-known are hard to get ahead. If we can provide such a fashion design reality show platform, not only It can attract outstanding civilian designers to participate, and those audiences who generally have their own design dreams in their hearts will also like to watch such a program. As for fashion design issues, professional things just need to be left to professional people. Yes. There are so many top fashion magazines in the world under the Hearst Group, if they can just bring in an editor-in-chief, they can serve as the art consultant for this reality show, and Cindy and Linda, who have been working for so many years They are supermodels, and their taste in fashion is definitely better than most ordinary designers, enough to be the host of a reality show."
"Well, the two of them have also come to New York recently. I will take advantage of Easter to rest for a few days. I will think about it and talk to them by the way," Eric was persuaded by Katzenberg's words. The main reason for the hesitation is to be on the safe side. After all, just after the reform of Lifetime TV station, the original program failed. This will have a great impact on the TV station's next plan.
Thinking about it now, start the production first to see how the effect is. If the quality of the program does not meet your psychological expectations, you can just refrigerate the project, and the big deal will be a loss of several million dollars.
In the West, Easter falls on the first Sunday after the vernal equinox and the full moon. During this period, students have a one-week spring break, but it is not a legal holiday at the national level.
But it's the weekend after all. Eric returned early to East Hampton, Long Island, intending to spend time with the women and children. This year's Easter is much later than in previous years. Most of the time Easter is in March, but this year it is April 16.
at the same time. "Resident Evil," which was produced by DreamWorks and distributed by MGM, was also officially released in 2,500 theaters the week before Easter.
Resident Evil cost $30 million, which is mid-range.
Eric did not adopt the movie version in his memory, but designed the plot according to the main line of the game version. Compared with Mira's real-life version, Eric prefers the two 3D animation movies launched by Capcom based on the game plot . Especially in "Resident Evil? Curse", the fight scene between Sister Wang and the female president of East Slavia is so handsome. Although it is impossible for the plot to start from "Resident Evil? Curse", as long as the villain is changed, in the script With Ada Wang on the stage, this fight scene can still be included in the film. Therefore, during the script creation period, Eric specially drew some relevant shot scripts and gave them to the screenwriter to figure out. During the filming, he also specially invited martial arts from Hong Kong Island The director is in charge of the play.
no doubt. The effect is very good.
After the film was released, what the audience talked about the most, besides the special effects scene of the licking father and the tyrant, was the close combat between Ada Wang played by Hu Kaili and the big villain. Hu Kaili also became famous because of this, and became a movie fan. The Kung Fu actress who loves to talk about it.
Although the film's media evaluation is generally not high, but with a smooth plot, perfect setting and enough plot highlights, the film won a box office of 23 million U.S. dollars in the first week, which is a very good start. The industry estimates that the North American box office of the film will reach about 60 million U.S. dollars, and the production cost can basically be recovered, and Eric knows better. The important market of "Resident Evil" is actually not in North America, but overseas. In the previous "Resident Evil" series, none of the "Resident Evil" series had a box office of over 100 million US dollars in North America, but it became the first game with a global box office of over 1 billion US dollars. Adaptation of a series of films.
Although some people in the media ridiculed this film as Eric's worst film at the box office after entering Hollywood, the box office of the film's first weekend has just been released. The executives of MGM and DreamWorks called Eric one after another, hoping to start the production plan of the sequel immediately.
In the villa of East Hampton Manor, Eric hung up the phone call from MGM CEO Frank Macasso, got up and walked outside.
Today is April 15th, Saturday.
The box office of the first day of the second week of "Resident Evil" was released yesterday. Compared with the same period in the first week, the box office dropped by only 30%. Therefore, the total box office of the film was readjusted to a height of 70 million US dollars, so Frank Maccasso couldn't wait to play again. When I called, I announced the good news to Eric and discussed the sequel. Of course, Eric had no problem.
In April, the daytime temperature in New York has just warmed up, but today is a sunny day with moderate temperature.
On the lawn in the backyard of the villa, Joanna and Virginia are sitting at a table with their children and painting Easter eggs.
Eric walked out of the villa, walked around the swimming pool to the lawn, picked up Emma who ran over to show him the little easter egg in his arms, came to the table, and looked at the time when he just made a phone call. Eva Pakula, who popped up again, smiled and said, "Why are you here?"
Eva picked up a paintbrush and poked at Eric in dissatisfaction: "My sister hates me, so do you hate me too?"
"How dare I despise you," Eric smiled and avoided, and put Emma on the small chair. The little guy immediately grabbed the paintbrush on the table, and suddenly forgot about Eric's existence.
Eric looked around. Virginia was holding Kevin's little hand and drawing a pattern on an egg stroke by stroke. He picked up the easter egg and gestured to Eric, showing off how good my son is. And Hawaii, who was sitting on Joanna's lap, was holding a colored pen in his hand, but his little eyes were full of boredom.
Eric leaned over and kissed his baby son on the cheek, pulled the chair and sat down, reached out and hugged Hawaii in Joanna's arms, and said, "Come on, baby, is it true that mom draws very badly, let dad teach you .”
Joanna watched Eric hugging her daughter, smiled and handed over the eggs and paintbrush in her hand, and said: "Xia Xia is not interested in these, maybe I draw too badly, ha ha."
"Okay, let's draw a funny face first," Eric said, holding Hawaii's little hand like Virginia.
Hawaii struggled lightly in Eric's arms, felt his father's somewhat rough big hand holding his own little hand, relaxed helplessly, and sighed.
Ugh, why am I drawing such nonsense on boiled eggs, so stupid.
The little girl complained in her heart, and looked up at the little boy sitting in Aunt Vicky's arms on the other side, curled her little mouth, tsk tsk, she was so stupid to be able to smear paint on her face.
Her eyes drifted to her mother's side again, Joanna propped her chin with one hand, and looked at them with a warm smile on the corner of her mouth.
The little girl sighed again.
well.
However, watching my mother look at the happy face of my father when he taught me how to draw, I just pretended to be as clumsy as Kevin.
However, it is so difficult.
Hey, stupid dad, you can still draw crookedly while holding someone's little hand, really.
The little girl complained in her heart, but finally couldn't help it, and said, "Dad, why do we draw these?"
"To celebrate Easter," Eric explained.
"Then why is there Easter?"
"Because it is said that Jesus will be resurrected on this day, it is called Easter."
"Who is Jesus?"
"Son of God, oh, don't ask me who God is, I don't know."
"The day of the resurrection, why do we celebrate it?"
"Because Jesus is the faith of many people."
"What is faith?"
"Faith is what a person needs to hold on to in his heart."
"Hold on to what?"
"Stick to what you think is right."
"Dad, what is your religion?"
"Oh, baby, you can't ask me, but can you ask your mother?"
"Mom, what is your religion?"
"Jesus."
"..."
The little girl blinked her big eyes that were as beautiful as her mother, sorted out the information in her mind, and found a circle.
So, she realized that her parents were perfunctory again.
Alas, these boring grown-ups, really. (To be continued.)