Stimulated by a series of good news, MGM's share price has risen from $10.5 before the summer vacation to $13.7 after the media conference. $f,
After completing the integration of the three companies, the total share capital of the new MGM reached 365 million shares. When the stock price reached 13.7 US dollars, the market value of MGM successfully exceeded 5 billion US dollars. Therefore, the next plan to issue 70 million additional shares will bring about US$1 billion in cash to MGM. With this fund, MGM will also completely get rid of the shadow of debt that has been entangled with it and embark on a healthy development path. the way.
The issue of additional stock will be completed by MGM executives in the next few months. After the media conference, Eric allocated part of his energy and began to plan for the MGM Agents movie universe.
Charlie's Angels and Mission: Impossible are both spy movies that have risen in the past two years. Although they are both adapted from old TV series, they did not receive much opposition when they joined the spy movie universe. Instead, they aroused a lot of anticipation among movie fans. .
It was Eric who let the 007 series join the plan, which caused some controversy. The focus of most of the controversy is that this plan may dilute the brand effect of the 007 series. For this reason, the media also specially interviewed the previous 007 actors. Sean Connery, the first 007 actor, publicly expressed his opposition to the plan, claiming that MGM was messing around.
Eric just laughed off these objections.
So far, the original novels of the 007 series, except for Casino Royale, have all been filmed before 1987.
Moreover, even those series of works before 1987, many of them have little to do with Ian Fleming's novels, just to prove their pedigree. The title of almost every episode of the 007 series is used to be far-fetched to be associated with Ian Fleming, or Ian Fleming's pet name. Or the name of Ian Fleming's vacation cabin, or a line from an Ian Fleming novel.
Somewhat ironically. The only film in the 007 series to earn more than $10 in the global box office was Skyfall. The title of this sequel has nothing to do with Ian Fleming. Instead, the MGM screenwriter team got the name themselves.
In Eric's view, this kind of far-fetched is almost completely unnecessary. The biggest advantage of the 007 series is actually the popularity it has generated around the world for decades. As for the box office appeal, it can be seen from the fact that the previous 007 "License to Kill" was only 34 million US dollars in North America. The box office appeal of the 007 series is actually not that high. If you can't shoot a story well, no matter how famous you are, the audience will still not buy it.
The reason why Eric came up with the idea of the agent movie universe is actually influenced by Daniel Craig's version of 007 in the original time and space.
In the original time and space, the 007 series before and after the new century, Casino Royale is undoubtedly a very good one with excellent reputation and box office.
Although the 007 series likes to flaunt their pedigree, most of the time, they are used to creating a brand new story for each episode, which often completely discards the popularity accumulated by some previous characters. This has to be said to be a very regrettable waste.
Daniel Craig's version of 007 took another path. In Eric's view, the appearance of this path was also very accidental.
After the huge success of Casino Royale. MGM can't wait to start the sequel production, but the bad thing is that the process of sequel production just caught up with the 2008 Hollywood screenwriter strike, and there is no way to summon big-name screenwriters to create a brand new story drama as in the past In desperation, the production team could only piece together bits and pieces on the basis of Casino Royale. Created a sequel that followed Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace.
Viewers who haven't seen Casino Royale. I can't even understand the plot of this sequel. Therefore, it is conceivable that MGM originally had no expectations for this sequel at all. But what is surprising is that this sequel, which has left many viewers confused, has created a global box office of nearly 600 million U.S. dollars that is comparable to the previous one.
So, from the beginning of Quantum of Solace, MGM seemed to be enlightened. They no longer completely get rid of the story of the previous episode in each episode, and they no longer rack their brains to find a villain for Bond in each episode, and they no longer force the story with Ian Fleming for the so-called bloodline. Instead, they got rid of the shackles of the past and created a hidden story line that runs through several sequels.
Under this change, the subsequent Skyfall created a peak in the history of 007, with a global box office reaching 1.1 billion US dollars. Although the later Spectre had a bad review, it also won a global box office of nearly 900 million US dollars.
Inspired by Daniel Craig's 007 series, Eric plans to cut off Pierce Brosnan's follow-up Die Another Day, Tomorrow's Empire and other films in his memory, and leave the whole world to find villain routines. For the ultimate boss, pull Charlie's Angels and Ethan Hunt into this background story setting to create a complete spy movie universe.
At the beginning of this story, Eric was set as Ian Fleming's only novel that has not been put on the big screen, Casino Royale. GoldenEye, which is now in theaters, will also be the last film in which 007 will be associated with his nemesis, the Soviet Union.
Of course, while conceiving the main story line, MGM must also solve another problem, that is, a lawsuit that has entangled the 007 series for decades.
More than 30 years ago, the villainous organization Spectre that appeared in Ian Fleming's novel was actually based on the setting in another novelist, Kevin McGrory's novel. After a long lawsuit that year, The rights to Spectre were awarded to Kevin McGlory.
MGM had to address this copyright issue if it wanted to set Spectre as the ultimate villain in the MGM Agents movie universe.
Of course, maybe in the past, MGM was unwilling to pay millions of dollars in copyright fees. But at this time, the issue of money is not a big issue for MGM now. Kevin McGrory is still alive at this time. The copyright fee of 2 million US dollars offered by the other party is completely acceptable in Eric's view, after all. Spectre has appeared in six previous 007 films, although after the original verdict. MGM hasn't used it in years, but the fame of Spectre is totally worth the price.
Throughout August, Eric, a colleague who was busy with the MGM Agents movie universe, also took time to go to Silicon Valley in San Francisco.
After preparations, Firefly Electronics Co., Ltd., responsible for the development of 3 players and e-readers, was formally established. At the same time, Firefly Electronics also signed a secret agreement with hard disk manufacturer Seagate to entrust the development of micro hard drives.
Because the company has no official products, Firefly Electronics has only set up an electronic product research and development center in Silicon Valley at this time. at the same time. Yahoo's equity incentive plan has been fully implemented. Except for a few resigned executives such as Jeff Locke, Yahoo's management has basically remained intact. At the same time as the p3 and electronic paper book research and development centers were established, Yahoo also launched a plan to build an online music store and an online e-book store.
The development of the micro hard drive will take at least a year. Eric's biggest expectation for the R&D center in Silicon Valley is not that they will come up with finished products as soon as possible, but to take the opportunity to register a complete patent covering all technologies of the 3 player in the United States and overseas. copyright. The technical content of the p3 player is actually not high, but as long as most of the patents are obtained in advance, then no one can produce it in the future, and Eric can also rely on this advantage. Master the absolute initiative in the era of online music.
Returning from San Francisco to Los Angeles, there was also news from Firefly that the Wachowski brothers had completed the production of the director's work that they used to practice.
Eric hears a call from Katzenberg on the plane. So after getting off the plane at Santa Monica Airport, I rushed directly to Playa Vista Firefly Studios not far away, and got into the screening room with Katzenberg, Wachowski Brothers and others.
Frightening Flowers tells the story of a pair of gay girls who want to get out of their current lives, and design to defraud $2 million from the mafia boss and thus provoke a mafia infighting.
If you strip off the cloak of homosexuality and heroine films, this is actually a typical black list film. Of course, it is also because of the lesbian elements that this film has a bit more charm.
In the screening room, Eric watched the movie. Nodding in satisfaction, he said to Katzenberg beside him: "According to the quality of this film, if you let New Line operate it, you may be able to recover the production cost of 4.5 million US dollars in the box office alone. You will never Don’t doubt their strength anymore.”
Having made movies for so many years, Katzenberg certainly does not lack vision. He nodded and said with a smile: "Of course, I already have some expectations for the two of them now."
The two exchanged a few words in a low voice. After the subtitles on the screen finished and the lights in the projection room came on, Eric got up and said to the Wachowski brothers who came over anxiously: "Get ready, I hope you can Take the crew to Sydney as soon as possible, most of the preparations have been completed, you just need to start shooting as soon as possible."
The Wachowski brothers were stunned for a moment, and then they realized that Andy Wachowski said: "Eric, so we passed."
"Yes," Eric nodded, and said again: "However, I will pay attention to the production of The Matrix throughout, so I hope you will not let me down."
"Of course, absolutely not," Andy Wachowski rubbed his hands excitedly.
After chatting about the details for a while, the Wachowski brothers left in a hurry. Katzenberg brought Eric to the office and talked about another thing: "Eric, according to the current scale of the digital field, even if it only supports The film production of Firefly and MGM is already a bit difficult, and we still have many orders from other film companies, Stan also discussed with me yesterday, hoping to continue to expand the number of employees in the digital field.”
After MGM is on the right track, the two companies will produce no less than 5 G special effects movies each year. According to the special effects team of even 500 people for each movie, 2,500 people are needed. At the same time, the application of G special effects is becoming more and more widespread. Even movies that do not focus on special effects still require special effects companies to process a lot of shots. Therefore, the past few years can be said to be the golden age of special effects companies. As long as you have enough technology, there will be no shortage of projects at all, and industry giants like the digital field are living even more nourishingly.
However, Eric knows that there are only a few years left in the good days of special effects companies. When the new century comes, with the further development of computer technology and other software giants joining the ranks of special effects software development, special effects companies will soon From the aristocratic industry to the civilian class, the special effects artist with a high salary at this time will also be reduced to a skilled migrant worker at that time.
Eric has already planned to cash out the digital field at the peak moment of special effects movies in the next few years. At this time, considering the future, it is impossible for him to continue to expand his investment in the digital field.
Thinking of the upcoming filming of The Matrix in Australia, Eric said: "It's okay to continue to expand in the United States. If possible, we'd better set up a branch overseas. The special effects company will not consume a lot of social resources, but can create very Huge taxation, I think Canada, Australia or New Zealand would be very welcome, we can set up branches in these countries and ask them for tax benefits."
"That's a good idea," Katzenberg nodded, and said, "Then, in which country do you think it would be more appropriate for us to set up a branch?"
Eric immediately thought of New Zealand. Weta Digital, which was as famous as the digital field in the previous life, came from this country.
However, Weta Studio has already been established at this time. It was founded by Peter Jackson and a few friends in order to shoot his personal film a few years ago. Although Eric will safely hand over the Lord of the Rings series to Peter Jackson, he will not support a special effects company that has nothing to do with Firefly.
After thinking about it for a moment, Eric said: "Just choose Australia and New Zealand. Films such as The Matrix and Lord of the Rings will be shot in these two countries, which can save a lot of energy on the spot. Well, I will work with Fox communicated that, after all, the foundation of News Corporation is in Australia, and we can obtain more preferential treatment from the Australian government through them."
With that said, Eric looked at his watch, and there were still more than two hours before he got off work, so he said to Katzenberg: "In this case, I'll go to Fox to have a look now, you should do your work first." continued.