Most of the members of the "Iron Man" crew are on the weekend off, but Eric has no way to relax.
Firefly's only blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow" this summer, although the trailer was released at the Super Bowl in January, the final cut of the film has not been completed until recently, and it is about to be submitted for review and rating and will start to release TV trailers. Ke specially took the time to watch the finished film with Katzenberg and others.
In addition, he also checked the production progress of several projects such as "Midnight Ring", "Teddy Bear", "Sleepy Hollow" and even the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy filmed in New Zealand.
"Midnight Ring" has started filming, and it is expected that it will be released smoothly in the summer. Casting for Teddy Bear has also wrapped up, and the motion-capture technology, which will require heavy use, is being tested.
"Sleepy Hollow" has just completed the budget plan and is about to enter the stage of casting and scenography.
After the success of "Monsters, Inc." late last year, Disney's animation department has been preparing a new story script for several months.
Katzenberg and some other Disney veterans hope to continue the tradition of Disney’s fairy tale feature films. Eric also does not want Disney Animation Studios to become another Pixar. What’s more, Disney in the original time and space has also proved the correctness of this path. Naturally, he would not object to the proposal of Katzenberg and others.
Therefore, among the several ideas provided by the studio management, after discussions with Eric, Katzenberg and others, "Rapunzel" was selected.
As for the hit "Frozen", Eric still hopes that the studio will continue to hone through one or two projects before releasing it.
The original version of "Rapunzel" was seriously out of control due to script revisions and high-level turmoil. The production cycle was delayed for six years, burning Disney 260 million US dollars and becoming the most expensive 3D animation film in history.
In order to avoid repeating the same mistakes as much as possible, although Disney Animation Studios has come up with a very detailed story script, Eric still asked them to use another three months to polish the detailed script to ensure that after the project starts, there will be no previous stories. that situation.
As for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy filmed in New Zealand, Eric can only watch a batch of samples airlifted by the crew for the time being, and held a remote video conference with Peter Jackson.
Katzenberg has flown over to New Zealand twice in the past few months. A vice president of Firefly Pictures is even one of the producers of "Lord of the Rings" and is based in Australia. Peter Jackson himself Focusing on the "Lord of the Rings" series, Eric is still very relieved about this project.
Breaking time into minutes and working for two days, Eric finally regretted acting in "Iron Man". weekend break.
Moreover, this is because Eric has completely acted as a hands-off shopkeeper for many things.
This year, there are only three films that Eric personally made the decision and will be released within the year: "The Day After Tomorrow", "Teddy Bear", and "Midnight Ring". The huge film production and distribution system of the Firefly Group naturally cannot only have these three films .
Not counting the two animation studios with long project cycles, Firefly Pictures, Disney Pictures, and New Line Pictures are currently the main film production labels of the Firefly Group. This year, more than 20 films have been confirmed for release within the year.
Although Eric seldom directly intervened in the production of these projects in the past, most of the projects, even ultra-low-budget films with a budget of two or three million, no matter the genre, budget, cast, schedule or box office prospects, etc. , he can actually know what he knows.
But this year, "Iron Man" in the first half of the year, and "Gravity" in the second half of the year, the two movies will take most of his energy. If Eric wants to do this, it is simply impossible. Other than business, Eric can spare very little energy. As for some MGM or Fox movies, Eric didn't care about it anymore.
On the side of Firefly Investment, Eric is now only paying some attention to Yahoo, and the rest is fully handed over to Chris.
"Eric, this is the first draft of the second part of "Harry Potter" that has just been passed over from the UK. Harper Collins Publishing hopes that the second book will be released during the summer vacation," Firefly Burbank Headquarters said. It was already Sunday afternoon, and Caroline knocked on the door and came in, putting a sample booklet on his desk.
Eric signed a budget document for Firefly Studios Park, then raised his head and took the book, and glanced at Caroline inadvertently. The girl's eyes suddenly showed panic, and she quickly moved away.
"Did you do something sorry for me recently?" Eric asked casually without looking up when he opened the catalog page of the novel.
This girl doesn't know what's wrong, every time she sees him these days, she always looks guilty.
Hearing Eric's sudden question, Caroline subconsciously took a step back and shook her head: "No, no."
"Hey, it doesn't matter, I forgive you. So, don't be like this anymore, work hard, or your salary will be deducted."
Caroline listened to Eric's slightly teasing and gentle tone, blinked her bright eyes a few times quickly, and resisted the urge to nod, seeing that Eric still didn't look up at her, that's why she didn't run away .
After turning a few pages, Eric closed the book, looked up at Caroline, and asked, "How much is the first volume of "Harry Potter" sold?"
Caroline answered accurately without thinking: "The global sales statistics for last week were 13.5 million copies."
Eric nodded with satisfaction. Although the "Harry Potter" series has not yet reached its peak state, with the promotion of the Firefly Group, since the first volume was released in September last year, the global sales volume has reached 13.5 million. a miracle.
"It's up to Harper Collins to decide when they want to release the second book, as long as they keep the speed of one book a year," Eric pushed the novel draft to Caroline, and said: "In addition, put Three copies of the novel were sent to East Hampton, and the little ones loved the story."
"Okay," Caroline nodded, picked up the first draft and hugged it in her arms, and said: "Also, an email has just been sent from the New Line, and they have already negotiated with Chris Tucker on the " The salary of Rush Hour 3 is 20 million US dollars. Jack Cheng still hopes to get a share on the basis of the film salary."
Eric waved his hand: "I don't care about this matter. Let them discuss it themselves. If they want to share, the basic salary can't exceed 10 million. This is the rule of Firefly. If it doesn't work out, don't shoot."
"Well," Caroline nodded, and continued: "In addition, the copyright department has already contacted Nancy Collins' agent for the right to adapt the short story of "Monster Love", and the other party is willing to sell it. It's just that , we can only get the film and television adaptation rights, and the other party has sold the game adaptation rights to White Wolf Game Company in advance. The copyright department sent an email asking if we need to take back the game adaptation rights. White Wolf Game Company has not yet started production As long as the price is right for the game adaptation of this novel, the other party should be willing to change hands."
Since 1993, the annual output value of the world's video game industry has been comparable to that of the film industry. Movie-adapted games are also getting more and more attention from several major movie giants. Firefly also has an interactive entertainment department that produces video games, but Eric is not optimistic about the prospects of this department at all.
Video game production has many similarities to film, and they are both creative fields.
An excellent video game must be inseparable from a creative core creator, just like a film director and producer. Like the entertainment and interactive department, hiring a group of programmers to develop games according to the software development process is like asking a group of purely technical personnel such as photographers and lighting engineers to make a movie. Very unlikely.
Therefore, before the advent of the online game era, Eric did not plan to get involved in the game field too much.
Even if online games appear in the next few years, Eric is more inclined to use Yahoo's huge user base for game agency. As for online game production, the studio model is still the best method. Of course, Yahoo can also adopt the mode of capital injection or acquisition to obtain the actual control of these studios.
Thinking of this in his heart, Eric shook his head and said, "No, as long as you get the right to adapt the film and television. Are there other things?"
Melanie has urged herself to invite Eric to dinner more than once these days, but Caroline knows how busy Eric is these two days, and this is obviously not the right time. What's more, Eric already has arrangements for tonight.
Quickly finding a reasonable reason for herself, Caroline hesitated a little, then shook her head and said, "No more."
Eric raised his hand and looked at his watch, and said, "Then you and Mei should get off work early and go back to rest. Today is the weekend, so you can play more in the evening. I'm going to get off work soon."
Tomorrow is the Oscars, and Eric will go to the Oscars eve party tonight, not for fun, but to take the opportunity to chat with Harvey Weinstein about the FFM TV station.
Half a month ago, the second season of "The Sopranos" officially launched, and the first episode of the second season had 5.16 million viewers. viewership records.
Thanks to the ratings boom caused by "The Sopranos" and other original series and high-quality movies launched by FFM TV, the total number of subscribers of FFM TV has also successfully exceeded the 10 million mark. Compared with last year's "The Sopranos" before its broadcast, it has achieved more than 120% growth.
Since the Firefly system lacks a cable TV operation system like Warner Cable, after the previous outbreak, the growth rate of the number of subscribers of FFM TV station will definitely start to slow down significantly. FFM TV station also needs to make appropriate adjustments in its operation strategy.
After Caroline left, Eric looked through a few more documents, and the time came to five o'clock in the afternoon.
Looking at another pile of documents waiting to be processed, Eric could only give up.
Although tomorrow is the day of the Oscars, the filming of "Iron Man" will still continue, but there is no role for Eric, and he can still work for a few hours during the day.
Leaving the Burbank headquarters, the car drove along the mountain road to the Beverly Hilltop mansion of Elizabeth and Julia.
Julia went to Paris because she was going to shoot an advertisement, and she will not attend the Oscars tomorrow. In the mansion, only Elizabeth is putting on a dress with the help of two stylists.
Eric walked into the villa, looked at the three busy people in the living room, just nodded, and leaned comfortably on the sofa.
"Eric, how about this dress?" After a while, Elizabeth walked over with the skirt of the big red one-shoulder dress, turned around a little, and asked.
Eric has always preferred one-shoulder dresses, always feeling that this kind of dress is inexplicably playful and sexy, and the women around him seem to have gradually realized his preference.
After looking up and down, Eric nodded, just looked at the skirt that almost dragged to the ground, and said: "It's very beautiful, but tonight is a party, not an award ceremony, so you are not afraid of tripping yourself. ?”
"I haven't worn high heels yet, and it won't be like this if I wear high heels," Elizabeth lifted up her skirt again, revealing her two fair feet, then pointed to the two big boxes on the coffee table in the living room, and said, " By the way, I also ordered a suit and leather shoes for you, hurry up and try to change it. Lisa is here, if it doesn't fit, you can change it temporarily."
"I'm too tired, I don't want to change clothes anymore, I'm going to wear this suit," Eric leaned on the sofa again, he didn't want to be tossed about again, and said: "Besides, I'm hungry, I'll be low if I don't eat Blood sugar fainted, you figured it out."
Seeing Eric's shameless appearance, Elizabeth kicked him lightly on the leg angrily, bowed her head and pulled his two leather boots off and threw them away, saying in a savage tone: "Hurry up, if it wasn't for you, I would too." I'm too lazy to dress so formally."
Eric raised his leg: "How about you help me wear it?"
"You think beautifully," Elizabeth rolled her eyes at him, and walked back to the two stylists who had seen this scene but tried to pretend that they didn't exist, and asked them to help arrange the dress.
Eric felt Elizabeth's menacing gaze for a while, and had no choice but to get up and hold the two boxes of clothes and shoes, and walked upstairs to the bedroom.
After changing her clothes and going downstairs, the two stylists had already started to help Elizabeth with her hair.
It was basically impossible for a woman to dress up for an hour or two, so it was not until half past six that the two finally left the Beverly Hills mansion.
Although Elizabeth didn't plan to have dinner, she didn't mean to let Eric accompany her to be hungry. She went to a restaurant first and ate something with Eric before the two rushed to the Oscar's eve party at seven o'clock Place. (To be continued.)