The call was made by ICM's Kapoor Sheed himself.
After Columbia decided to shoot a Godzilla movie, it couldn't wait to start looking for a director for the project. Joe Johnston, who had just successfully produced "Jurassic Park 2", was undoubtedly the most suitable candidate. On the other hand, actors, directors and producers who are closely related to Firefly have most of their brokerage contracts with ICM. Due to the anti-monopoly law, although the two parties have no direct interest relationship, among the three major brokerage companies, the relationship between ICM and Firefly It has always been very close.
Therefore, the news that Sony tried to poach the wall reached Eric immediately.
Bill Michanik is a veteran manager in Hollywood. It is not difficult to find information. His management style tends to be conservative and his personality is cautious. After Sony appointed Bill Michanik as the CEO of Columbia, Eric once thought that Sony He would give up the strategy of throwing money with a lot of money and start to accumulate money step by step, but the moment he heard that Sony planned to start "Godzilla", Eric immediately determined that Sony would go the same way as in the previous life.
In the original time and space, although Peter Cooper and Jon Peters were expelled, Sony still did not refrain from the strategy of blindly spending money to find a sense of presence. Not only did it offer Kim Carrey the first With a sky-high salary of 20 million U.S. dollars, he also blindly invested in a number of big-budget films that ended in failure. Among them, the 1998 version of "Godzilla" is undoubtedly the most typical failure.
Relying on Godzilla's worldwide popularity, at the early stage of film preparation, Sony was ambitious to make it into a trilogy, and invited Roland Emmerich, who had a huge box office success with "Independence Day" .
But many things are often inseparable from the vicious circle that the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.
In my memory, the 98 version of "Godzilla" was not only rated as childish, tacky, inexplicable, and illogical, but also, fans focused more on Godzilla in the movie.
The reason why Godzilla is called the "King of Monsters" is mainly because of its powerful combat effectiveness, the Japanese version of Godzilla. Not only does it have powerful attack methods such as the indestructible body of King Kong and radiating heat rays, but it can even withstand nuclear bomb attacks, and even occasionally is pulled out to fight against alien invasions. This is the kind of monster that truly destroys the world King.
Look at the 98 version of "Godzilla". The first reaction of most Godzilla fans after watching the movie is basically "you are fucking kidding me", the majestic king of monsters, abandoned the classic image of the Japanese version, and was designed to grow a dorsal fin overlord That's all for dragons. But the strength is so weak that it is only entangled by the steel cables of the bridge and cannot move. Is Godzilla's strength so weak
That's all, that's all, but the most unbearable thing is that Mr. Dorsal Tyrannosaurus Rex was hit by a few missiles from the US military, and he died so easily, died, died...
Moreover, before hanging up, there was no unwilling struggle. There is no near-death counterattack. At the last moment of his life, Mr. Dorsal Fin Tyrannosaurus rex chose to look at the male protagonist affectionately. His eyes were full of reluctance and nostalgia, and he left behind the male protagonist's love. You got his man, but I got his heart" After the subtext, he passed away safely, leaving only the poor audience in the movie theater with infinite thunder and rolling slots, you die as soon as you die, and you have to cosplay King Kong temporarily What's the matter!
In Eric's memory. The box office of "Godzilla" is not considered a complete failure, but its reputation is so bad that even after more than ten years, it is often pulled out by fans to flog the corpse.
Not only did the film receive razzie nominations for worst remake, worst director, worst script, and worst supporting actress after its release, but it also received unanimous condemnation from movie fans around the world.
Godzilla's copyright owner Japan Toho originally planned to completely end the series after the 22nd Godzilla in 1995.
But after the 98 version of "Godzilla" was released. In order to restore the image of Godzilla in the hearts of movie fans, it had to be restarted again, and it didn't stop until 28 films were filmed. Things developed later, and the 98 version of Godzilla (Godzilla) was even given the God prefix and was only named Zilla.
After learning about this incident, Eric began to think about how to make this incident develop in the direction he wanted.
Under his influence. Hollywood history has undergone great changes, and Eric is not sure if "Godzilla" will fail like his previous life if the director is changed, so he quickly made up his mind to make "Godzilla" Guided on the trajectory of the previous life.
Although Sony is far more determined than Panasonic in operating the film business, Eric does not believe that Sony will continue to do so if it suffers successive failures in major productions. The life-saving straw of the Spider-Man series.
In the current Hollywood, there are not many directors suitable for directing "Godzilla". Cameron is one, Spielberg is one, and Eric himself is of course one. In addition, there are Joe Johnston, Roland? Emmerich, Jane de Bont, Paul Verhoeven, and a few others, most of these people are related to Firefly. After all, in recent years, the most successful special effects blockbusters in Hollywood have come from Firefly, Cameron, Roland Emmerich and others have also accumulated enough experience in special effects films with the support of Firefly. [ㄨ]
If you want to make "Godzilla" repeat the same mistakes, it is undoubtedly the most simple and direct way to push Roland Emmerich to Sony again.
Therefore, what Eric has to do is very simple, just block Sony's way to find several other directors.
In this regard, Cameron doesn't care, he is making "Titanic", Sony must have no way to start, Joe Johnston signed an option contract with Firefly before he took over "Jurassic Park 2" Even if Sony can offer a sky-high price of 20 million US dollars, it is not enough to pay liquidated damages, so he does not have to think about it. Eric is not too worried about the others. Before excluding the directors of the first sequence, Eric I believe Sony will definitely not settle for less.
So, the most unstable factor is Spielberg instead. "Jaws", which Lao Si was famous for back then, is actually a monster movie.
There is no doubt that even if Eric deliberately let the water go, Sony is very likely to choose the former between Spielberg and Roland Emmerich.
Of course, there are no absolutes in the world, but right now, Roland Emmerich has the best chance to improve his 'competitiveness'. To know. "Independence Day" is definitely the pinnacle of Roland Emmerich's directing career.
While Eric is paying close attention to Sony Godzilla's preparations, Hollywood's summer season is still in full swing to harvest the box office. Among them, the weekly box office performance of "Forrest Gump" has not been high. But definitely the most eye-catching one.
With a box office of US$47 million in the first week, compared to 1,500 screens, the average box office reached US$30,000, far exceeding the box office standard of US$10,000 per museum.
Then, on June 16th. Firefly's "Toy Story 2" was released, and without any suspense, it topped the weekly box office chart with a box office of 69 million U.S. dollars in its first week. After accumulating the total box office to 217 million US dollars, the box office fell by 49% in the third week, with a harvest of 39.25 million US dollars. Relatively speaking, the decline of "Forrest Gump" in the second week was only 18%, and the box office reached 39.2 million US dollars. Jurassic Park was just a hair's breadth ahead at $50,000. Dangerously defended his box office runner-up throne.
When June 23rd came, although Time Warner's "Batman Forever" had a polarized reputation, fans were salivating and paying for the screen show of several famous villains in pain and joy, "Ah The accumulated strength of "The Story of Gan Zheng" is finally revealed.
After the weekly box office was released from June 23 to June 29, although "Batman Forever" topped the list with a box office of 78 million US dollars, everyone's attention was attracted by the second place "Forrest Gump" with 35 million US dollars. The box office of 10,000 US dollars firmly attracted attention, and the box office fell even more weakly, only a mere 10%. The box office of "Toy Story" has slipped to 33 million US dollars in the second week, ranking third. "Jurassic Park 2" continued to follow the box office rules of its ladder-style commercial films, shrinking by 40%, and only earned 23.5 million US dollars, ranking fourth.
unconsciously. In three weeks, "Forrest Gump" has grossed an unexpected $122 million.
Moreover, according to its hot topic and weak weekly box office decline trend, box office evaluation agencies adjusted the box office expectations of "Forrest Gump" again and again. When the third week's box office came out, everyone was surprised to find out. Most of the box office evaluation agencies and the media have unknowingly set the box office tone of "Forrest Gump" at a high of 300 million US dollars.
Although the four-week box office of "Jurassic Park 2" has reached 279 million U.S. dollars, and the total box office of 300 million U.S. dollars is just around the corner, but few people doubt that "Forrest Gump" has unknowingly revealed the same "Jurassic Park" 2" compete for the strength of the annual box office champion.
Regarding the box office results of "Forrest Gump", the producer Huahua Pictures is the most excited of course, and the most complicated mood is undoubtedly because of the dispute between "Men in Black" and "Jumanji" at the beginning of the year, which was rejected by Eric Sony-Columbia, which won the distribution rights of "Forrest Gump" and "Night at the Museum."
When Sony found out that it could only make a little hard money for "Men in Black" and "Game of the Brave" due to the substantial increase in cost (according to the original agreement, Sony only had 40% of the benefits of the two films) ), and gave up "Forrest Gump", which can bring them at least more than 100 million US dollars, some shareholders even publicly raised strong doubts about the decision of the American branch. Ringer endorsed that the head of the US branch who had just taken office may be about to 'take the blame and resign'.
As the wind blows, Howard Stringer has become more determined to get rid of the shadow of fireflies and make "Godzilla" a super-best-selling series.
After the intention of inviting Joe Johnston to direct "Godzilla" was directly rejected by the other party, Howard Stringer quickly set his sights on Spielberg. However, Howard Stringer is still better than a German film investor who only picks big stars regardless of whether the other party is old or not, because "Jurassic Park" was taken away by Eric, and Spielberg Although the box office of the two years of films is good, they are not too dazzling. His box office miracles "Jaws" and "ET Alien" are already more than ten or twenty years ago.
What's more, Columbia and Spielberg's "Captain ****" a few years ago also ended in a tepid failure amidst the one-sided applause in the early stage. Moreover, in recent years, Spielberg has been cooperating with Universal Pictures. The industry has maintained close cooperation. The box office "Ghost Horse Elf" that started this summer is the result of the cooperation between Spielberg's Lin Films and Universal. This fantasy family comedy is in " Under the pressure of super blockbusters like Jurassic Park 2, it has stubbornly achieved a box office of more than 80 million US dollars.
It is even said that the brand-new studio that he is about to establish with David Geffen will be affiliated with Universal. Therefore, Howard Stringer's confidence in inviting Spielberg is not so firm.
Amid this indecision, Independence Day was released.
"Independence Day", which opened on June 30, earned a box office of 56 million US dollars in the first three days of the weekend, because the Independence Day holiday on July 4 in the United States happened to be on a Monday, and the box office on that day did not drop compared to the previous weekend. Therefore, with strong word-of-mouth and a marketing company, the box office of "Independence Day" reached 85 million U.S. dollars in the first week, exceeding its production cost of 75 million U.S. dollars in a week. Zhou gets 90% of the box office, so in theory, Firefly has recouped all production costs in the first week.
The original "Clash of Heaven and Earth" had already made Roland Emmerich one of the first-line directors, and the box office of "Independence Day" was released, which made Roland Emmerich's reputation even more prosperous.
Moreover, Howard Stringer was pleasantly surprised to find that Roland Emmerich did not have the comfort of an option contract like that of Joe Johnston.
In other words, as long as the price is paid enough, Sony can invite Roland Emmerich to direct "Godzilla".
Now the question is, how would Firefly react if Sony extended an invitation to Roland Emmerich
Although he wanted to try his best to get rid of the shadow brought by the fireflies, Howard Stringer knew very well that it was impossible to completely get rid of the influence of the fireflies. At least, this film absolutely needs the support of the digital field in terms of special effects. (To be continued.)