After the fierce bidding two years ago, Paramount, Disney's hand-drawn animation department, was acquired for a huge sum of US$2.5 billion, and the entire team was moved to a new work park in Culver City, Los Angeles.
At this time, Paramount Pictures CEO Shirley Lansing walked out of the office building of Paramount Animation Studios, said goodbye to the person in charge Roger Eiles, and got into her car.
The car started, and Shirley Lansing, who was leaning on the leather seat, gently rubbed her forehead, recalling the issue of "Pocahontas" that she had just discussed with Roger Ailes.
"Pocahontas" tells the story of an Indian princess who rescues British explorers and defuses a race war. This is a project that has been in preparation since the Disney animation period. The detailed script, storyboard, and sub-shots have been determined during the Disney animation period. After Paramount bought the hand-painted animation team, the production of "Pocahontas" also started immediately.
Although after changing the owner, the salary of the entire animation team has increased significantly. However, the grievance of being abandoned by Firefly did not dissipate so easily. For more than a year, the entire hand-painted animation team has worked hard to create a masterpiece like "The Lion King" again, so that Firefly can be the original I regret the decision to ditch the hand-drawn animation department.
Therefore, although the usual two-year animation production cycle has been shortened to one and a half years, the quality of "Pocahontas" is still very good. During the test screening, even Lei Shidong himself was full of praise for this animation.
In order to realize Viacom's diversification ambitions in the entire industry chain, Redstone has spared no effort in supporting Paramount's animation department.
However, Shirley Lansing was far less optimistic than Redstone and the animation team.
Despite strict cost control, due to the soaring salaries of animators, the production cost of "Pocahontas" still reached 80 million U.S. dollars. With subsequent announcements, the total investment is likely to exceed 120 million U.S. dollars, which is equivalent to "Lion" "The King" is twice the cost of production and publicity.
The sequels of "The Lion King" and "Mulan" are being produced, and the cost is definitely not low, but they want to use Paramount animation as the content locomotive, and cooperate with Viacom's Blockbuster chain and Nick Kids Taiwan and other channel resources to create a diversified industrial chain that can fully tap the commercial potential of animation films. It is conservatively estimated that it will take five years.
Before that, if you want to recover the investment in these expensive animation projects, you mainly rely on the movie box office.
It is conceivable that in the long process of opening up the industrial chain, as long as one of these animation films with huge investment fails at the box office, it will seriously damage the capital chain of Paramount Pictures, and even have to do like Warner Bros. The parent company provides profits, but also obtains financial support from the headquarters.
Moreover, Shirley Lansing has always had doubts about why Firefly would suddenly sell Disney's hand-drawn animation department.
After all, that was the peak moment when the global box office of "The Lion King" was nearly one billion US dollars. It is impossible for a slightly rational business manager to make such a counterintuitive decision.
But if that young man is acting on his own temper, the reason is even more untenable. Firefly has miraculously risen in less than ten years and has become the largest media group in North America and even the world. The person who built such a media empire , How could it be possible to act on one's own will? However, if the sale of the hand-drawn animation department is the result of the other party's deliberation, then Paramount may already be taking some very hidden risks.
The decision to acquire Disney's hand-drawn animation department was made by Redstone himself. Shirley Lansing knew that even if there was a problem with the animation department, she would not take too much responsibility, but as the CEO of Paramount Pictures, once such a thing happened If it happened, her life would definitely not be easy.
Everything is a foregone conclusion. Shirley Lansing struggled for a while, and quickly let go of this matter, and decided to focus more on live-action movies. Although there are not as rich peripherals as animated movies, live-action movies will always be Hollywood. mainstream.
"Is there any news from Steven?" Shirley Lansing asked the assistant in the front row after sitting up straight.
With the support of Microsoft, Spielberg will join forces with David Geffen and George Lucas to set up a new major studio, which is already known in the industry.
Although everyone knows that this studio will gradually build its own distribution network, unless it continuously annexes the distribution channels of New Line and Disney like Firefly did at the beginning, at least in recent years, Spielberg and others will definitely need to Hand over the distribution of the film to the seven major studios.
Because Bill Gates, the main investor behind the scenes, has an unfriendly relationship with Firefly, the three companies in the Firefly system will definitely not be considered by Spielberg. Sony Pictures has not yet struggled out of the mess. There are already many affiliated production companies, and Spielberg can choose only Paramount and Universal, and both of them are trying their best to win this cooperation project.
The assistant replied: "Mr. Spielberg's assistant called not long ago, saying that at eight o'clock tonight, Mr. Spielberg can spare time, and I have already reserved a table at Morton's Restaurant in Beverly Hills."
Shirley Lansing nodded in satisfaction, and looked at her watch. There was less than an hour left before the off-duty time, and she was about to tell the driver to drive home so that she could make some preparations for the dinner in advance. Suddenly there was a buzzing sound.
After five or six pages of documents were printed out, the sound of the fax machine stopped.
The assistant roughly scanned the information, and handed it to Shirley Lansing in the back row: "It's about "First Fear". In the past two days, there have been some... Well, Ms. Lansing, you can read it for yourself. Let's see."
"First Fear" is a crime thriller directed by Gregory Hobright, who has served as the director and producer of well-known TV series such as "L.A. French Open" and "New York Serious Crimes".
The film cost $30 million, which is a mid-range production.
Perhaps because he was born as a TV director, Gregory Hobright could not control the rhythm of the film well, which resulted in the original film being more than 160 minutes long. After many revisions and editing, it was compressed to 130 minutes. Although It still looks lengthy, but it can no longer be modified, otherwise it will affect the integrity of the entire story.
After the initial internal test film, except for the amazing performance of the newcomer named Edward Norton, other aspects were not favored by the management.
Therefore, the company did not put too much emphasis on publicity.
Until recently, Gary Lucchesi, the producer of "First Fear", thought of a way to connect the film with "Seven Deadly Sins", which is a popular new line under Firefly, and jointly hype it to increase the popularity of "First Fear". And then promote the box office marketing plan.
Today is Wednesday, and both "First Fear" and "Seven Deadly Sins" will be released this Friday. Through various feedbacks, Shirley Lansing is also very satisfied with the effect of Gary Lucchesi's marketing plan .
Seeing that the assistant's words faltered after reading the fax, Shirley Lansing curiously took the pages of the fax. The assistant forgot to arrange the pages of the fax just now. The first thing Shirley Lansing saw was some media coverage of " First Degree Fear" commentary snippet.
"...If "The Seven Deadly Sins" just used some religious-style torture methods to give people pure sensory stimulation, the shocking reversal of the ending of "First Fear" brought us pure spiritual shock. Numerous theories and facts have It once proved a point that psychological fear is the real fear. In this regard, as a crime thriller of the same type, "Level One Fear" undoubtedly achieves this to the extreme, while "Seven Deadly Sins" is more like It's a routine blood-soaked film."
"..."First Fear" is undoubtedly a highly completed crime thriller, there are no mysteries in the plot, and there are no old-fashioned images that deliberately mislead the audience, and some are just in people's thinking that everything is in the dust. Timing, the shocking and frightening stimulus reversal in a blink of an eye. If "Seven Deadly Sins" can score 7 points by swaying plasma to show off the killing method, "First Fear" can score at least 8.5 points. I look forward to being able to go to the cinema again to enjoy this truly wonderful film when the film is officially released."
"..."
After a quick scan of a few paragraphs, Shirley Lansing frowned. The established propaganda method at the beginning was to provoke a comparison between the acting skills of Edward Norton and Kevin Spacey. What is the situation now? Well, the reputation of "Seven Deadly Sins" in the circle has long been established, otherwise it would not have won the Sundance Film Festival Jury Award.
Now the quality of the film that promotes "First Fear" is better than "The Seven Deadly Sins", isn't this waiting for the film to be slapped in the face after it is released
He raised his head and said to the assistant, "Pick up Gary's call for me."
While picking up the car phone to dial, the assistant turned around and said, "Ms. Lansing, this is from Mr. Lucchesi."
Shirley Lansing nodded, flipped through the pages of the fax in her hand, and found Gary Lucchesi's notes on the first page. It turns out that these comments are not the result of the operation of Paramount's marketing department. It is self-evident who will pay attention to the two films except Paramount.
The phone was dialed, and the assistant handed over the microphone. Shirley Lansing discussed with Gary Lucchesi, who was in charge of the announcement of "Level One Fear", for a while, then put down the phone helplessly, and read the faxed pages in her hand several times. Several thoughts flashed through my mind in succession, but none of them seemed appropriate.
It is almost certain that these media comments come from the Firefly Group.
Shirley Lansing knew that even herself, if she encountered such a thing, she would often make some counterattacks, but she was unlikely to have such a helpless means as the firefly.
After all, these comments are all praises of "First Degree Fear". Paramount can't publicly say that our film is not good enough and needs to be improved.
But if you don't, you'll just let the idea that "First Fear" is better than "The Seven" spread, and then, by the time the two films are released on a large scale, the press and audiences will find themselves duped , the result will be even more unpredictable.
Obviously, this is killing you, holding you high, then falling, smashing you to pieces.
The quality of the finished film of "First Fear" did not meet Paramount's expectations, so the promotion of the film is not too strong. But that doesn't mean Shirley Lansing doesn't care about the movie. Throughout Paramount, there will never be more than ten movies that cost more than 30 million U.S. dollars a year.
After thinking about it, Shirley Lansing said: "Go back to the headquarters, and call Gary and the others to discuss the countermeasures."
"What about the meeting with Mr. Spielberg?"
"As long as you are not late, please pay attention to the time and remind me when the time comes."
…
The publicity work of a movie often begins when the movie project is approved.
However, the real word-of-mouth of the movie is established only a few weeks before and after the official release. Word of mouth will only spread if it is released on a large scale.
Since winning the Sundance Film Festival jury award in January, "Seven Deadly Sins" has a very strong sense of presence in the media and fan groups.
Because of Paramount's ingenious joint promotion method, as Easter approached, many people suddenly noticed a movie of the same type called "First Fear".
After all, not many ordinary people will seriously study movie reviews, they will only faintly feel the influence of the general trend of public opinion, and gradually feel that, perhaps, this "Level One Fear" is really like what the newspapers said In that way, it's even better than "The Seven Deadly Sins".
Just a few days passed quickly. Easter is not a statutory holiday in North America, but this period is the spring break time for American college students. Most American college students will get at least one week of spring break during this period, although some of them are from good families. Young people will choose to travel, but most of them cannot have such financial strength after all.
However, watching a few movies with family and friends during the holidays is also a common entertainment for Americans.
"Seven Deadly Sins" and "First Degree Fear" are undoubtedly the first choice for most people to watch movies this Easter.
On Friday, April 5, the day before Easter, "Seven" and "First Degree Fear" were released simultaneously on 2,500 and 1,900 screens, respectively.
Because of the tepidness of "Alien 3", David Fincher's popularity is not too high, but the two leading actors of "Seven Deadly Sins", Matthew McConaughey and Morgan Freeman, have become famous in recent years. The Hollywood stars that are familiar to the public, coupled with the gimmick of Diane Kruger's screen debut, attracted a large number of audiences to buy tickets.
At the same time, influenced by the media's comments on the two films in recent weeks, a large number of people also chose "Fear of the First Degree". (To be continued.)