Chapter Nine Hundred and Eighty Third Meet

This relationship with Caroline was broken, except that the little cousin showed more naturalness and affection in front of Eric, and even rarely blushes again, and Melanie said a series of 'My God' in a row. Other than that, everything seems to be business as usual.

After filming in Lone Pine Town, the crew returned to Los Angeles to begin the finishing touches of scattered interior scenes.

The time has entered May, and according to the shooting schedule, "Iron Man" will be completed at the end of May and enter a long post-production stage. With the end of the filming, Eric is no longer as busy as the previous two months, and began to have more time to deal with other things in the company.

This summer, although the Firefly Group only has one blockbuster blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow" released, several other films such as New Line Pictures' "Midnight Bell" and Disney Pictures' "Born Together" can only be regarded as medium Low-budget films.

However, this summer, the entire Hollywood movie list is still eye-catching.

It's just a big heavyweight movie. In addition to "The Day After Tomorrow", there are MGM's "Charlie's Angels 3", Warner Bros.' "Lethal Weapon 4", Sony's "Patriot", Universal's "Scorpion King", Amberlin's The Matrix 2, Fox's The X-Files Movie, Paramount's Truman World, and more.

The appearance of Eric, although many well-known Hollywood movie projects have been "fanned", but the trend of Hollywood gradually tending to large investment and large production has not changed at all.

Eight big-budget films, just the production budget, the average investment of more than 100 million US dollars. In the face of heavy cost pressures, several major film companies have consciously started to spread their schedules this year. They no longer focus on all films in June and July like last year, but wisely choose to stretch their fronts.

Therefore, starting from the second week of May this year, the first films of the summer season have been released one after another. At the same time, the Easter schedule is inevitably coming to an end, and the three films "Ace Power 2", "The Wedding Singer" and "Alien" have all begun to rapidly reduce their release sizes.

Firefly Studios, looking at the twins standing quietly in front of him, Eric wondered, "Why are you two alone?"

Natasha replied: "The boss said that she went to visit the crew of "Mission Impossible 3" in Berlin."

Eric sighed helplessly. After that call, there was no movement for half a month. Eric thought that this was basically over. However, two days ago, Caroline suddenly told Eric that her aunt would come over today.

After thinking about it, Eric called and asked the girl who went to New York to attend the metball dance to come back and take care of it. Unexpectedly, there were only two twins who came back.

It's easy to understand when you think about it. With Drew's upbringing, it's really hard to have a good impression of relatives like his parents. The only contact she has with her mother now is to give each other a check every year. As for her unreliable father, the girl even publicly announced that she had cut off the father-daughter relationship with the other party.

Eric naturally wouldn't hide from Drew what he met with Caroline a few days ago. The girl always thought that she was the closest woman to Eric. Suddenly, the one who would occasionally tease her. The little assistant became the little cousin, and this girl inevitably gave birth to some vigilance and resistance.

As for the little cousin's aunt, that is, um, the vigilance and resistance are even heavier.

Since the girl expressed her resistance, Eric didn't force it, and said to the twins, "That's it, she, um, will probably arrive this afternoon. Carly and May may also stay at the manor tonight, you two will go back and prepare Come on, guest room, dinner, etc."

Natasha nodded and said again, "Master, do you need us to pick you up at the airport?"

"No, Carly and May will pick them up, just wait at the manor."

"Okay," Natasha nodded again, seeing that Eric had no other orders, and left with her sister.

After the twins left,

Eric absently flipped through the documents in front of him for a while, when he heard the secretary's knock on the door: "Mr. Williams, they have come."

"Well, I'll go right now," Eric closed the folder in front of him, got up and walked out.

Today is May 11th, Monday, and from April 3rd, this is the sixth week of the Easter period.

According to last Friday's data, the three films of the Firefly system during the Easter schedule, "Ace Power Spy 2" has a cumulative five-week box office of 168 million US dollars, and "Wedding Singer" has also reached 101 million. Although the performance of "Alien" is slightly worse , also reached 69.63 million US dollars, which has recovered the production cost.

Although the weekly box office of the three films has entered the closing stage of less than 10 million US dollars in a single week, their total box office has also reached 338 million.

With a total investment of $140 million, the three films have brought in over $40 million in net profits for several companies. The subsequent overseas distribution, DVD, TV broadcasting rights and other income will also generate pure profits. There is no doubt that these incomes add up to more lucrative profits than the pure North American box office.

To this end, the heads of the three companies have proposed to hold a celebration dinner this weekend. However, considering the long production cycle of the movie, during this time, everyone has also begun to prepare for next year's "Easter Movie Package".

Eric's upcoming conference is for that purpose.

Walking into a conference room, Fox's Joe Ross, MGM's Amy Pascal and Katzenberg were all sitting at the conference table, and there were several other production departments in the conference room. 's upper floors.

Sitting down in the vacant seat next to Katzenberg, Eric stopped himself from thinking about other things, glanced at everyone, and said, "Then, let's start, Amy, talk about your project first."

This Easter, MGM's "Xenogeneic" has the highest investment, but the lowest box office, and Eric is naturally slightly biased towards MGM. Fox has already made a lot of money with "Ace Power Spy 2", and Firefly has not regarded MGM as an outsider at all. The two companies feel Eric's bias and are not unhappy.

In fact, MGM's internal estimate for the North American box office of "Alien" is only about 60 million, and now the film's box office even has the potential to hit 80 million US dollars. Although Amy Pascal envied the performance of the other two films, she was not too disappointed.

However, as a strong woman in her bones, Amy Pascal still put a lot of thought into today's meeting. After hearing Eric's words, she gestured to an executive of the production department at MGM next to her. After a while, the other party got up and said: "Mr. Williams, and everyone, Easter is the spring break period for high school and even college students. Obviously, our three films this year are not too special for this group. So. , what MGM is preparing for next year is a youth-oriented comedy movie for teenagers. The story is about a few young people who are about to graduate from high school and enter college, and make an agreement with each other to find a female partner on the eve of the prom..."

The executive explained that the secretary of the conference room has distributed the general information of the project to everyone one by one.

Eric glanced at the script title in the documentation and almost laughed.

Well, tough American Pie.

Why do you say sturdy, because Eric has a very deep memory of the scene where the actor Jim "invaded" the apple pie in the film.

Obviously, Amy and the others have seen the success of "Ace Power Spy 2", and they also want to launch a vulgar comedy in next year's Easter schedule, and it is a teenage sex comedy that is more suitable for the Easter schedule.

Eric went through the project materials roughly, and the executive also explained the general idea of ​​"American Pie" and sat down again.

Eric raised his head and said, "So, do you have any opinions?"

Joe Ross, who was sitting on the other side, closed the folder in front of him and said, "Amy, first of all, I have to state that Fox's planned project for next year is also a sleazy comedy similar to "Ace of Power 2" , but I still have to say that since this is a story about the graduation season, maybe it's more appropriate to put it in the summer season."

Amy Pascal smiled and shook her head, "Joe, I know what you're worrying about, but even if MGM opts out, several other companies will launch sleazy comedies to compete with Fox next Easter. As for Speaking of the story itself, we can't only face a small number of twelfth graders who are about to graduate from high school, but the entire group of teenagers who have their own expectations or memories, so there is no problem with the schedule."

Eric felt that the two of them were showing signs of tit-for-tat, and immediately interrupted, saying, "Joe, let's look at the script on your side."

Joe Ross motioned his secretary to distribute the materials to the crowd, and explained in person, "This is a, um, script related to memories of youth, and an embarrassing incident at the high school prom caused Ted to brush up against the girl he had a crush on. After many years..."

Eric only guessed the name of the script after listening to Joe Ross say the beginning. He could only sigh inwardly, perhaps, a good script really cannot escape.

Opening the folder, Eric saw a somewhat long film title printed on the cover of the project: "I'm Crazy for Mary".

After Joe Ross finished speaking, Eric couldn't help but look at Katzenberg: "Jeffrey, won't we also prepare a vulgar comedy here?"

"To be honest, there really is one," Katzenberg shrugged slightly, asked for a script from the assistant behind him, handed it over to Eric, and said, "This is a script written by Adam Sandler himself, he is not Have you signed two film contracts with us? This is the second film after "The Wedding Singer". The plot still follows a similar pattern to "The Wedding Singer". At the same time, the male protagonist also imitates the character in "Forrest Gump". sweet."

Eric looked at the script called "Tea Boy" in front of him, which he had never heard of before. After simply glanced at the outline of the story, Eric also understood why he had never heard of this film.

This is a story about football. Although football is the most popular sport in the United States, its popularity is limited to the United States. Correspondingly, it is difficult for rugby-related films to become popular overseas.

Seeing the helpless expression on Eric's face, Katzenberg grinned and said, "I already guessed that this might be the case today, and the New Line is going to strike while the iron is hot and put this movie on show. It will be released at the end of the year, so this is definitely not our Easter movie next year. Don't you want to launch a big production at Easter? The project that Jerry and the others have been brewing may be suitable. They have already found the male lead. , is Will Smith, the other party also intends to play."

Eric naturally didn't know about Firefly's projects, so he said, "You mean "Enemy of the People"?"

"Public Enemy" is a project Jerry Bruckheimer started a few years ago and tells the story of a lawyer who is inexplicably involved in a murder case and tries to exonerate himself. The whole script is kind of like a cross between "Desperados" and "Evaporation". However, due to various reasons, the preparation of this project is very slow.

Coupled with the fact that Bruckheimer had been working on "The Day After Tomorrow" with Michael Bay before that, Eric hadn't heard about the film for a long time.

Katzenberg nodded and said, "I've talked to Jerry. This project has been in the works for so long. Once it starts, it will definitely be finished before Easter next year. It's just that Will Smith's film contract needs you. I personally decided that they want to sign a package contract for "Men in Black 3" and "Public Enemy". Bill Michanick of Sony Pictures has also approached me several times. Eric, Sony said, If we continue to delay, they're going to actually file a lawsuit."

"Then Public Enemy, I'll talk about other things later," Eric nodded noncommittally, looked at Joe Ross and Amy Pascal again, and tore a corner of the paper from the document in front of him and wrote He said, "Hey, it's impossible to squeeze two comedies of the same type in the Easter movie package, so let's cast lots, if you have words, you can go, and if you don't have words, you can change the genre. I know you must be prepared. The candidate projects. As for the original script, I think these two stories are very good, and they have great potential in the summer file. "

After speaking, Eric tore the paper in his hand into two balls, put it in the palm of his hand and handed it to Amy Pascal first.

Amy hesitated, but still twisted a small ball of paper from Eric's palm, and the remaining one was naturally given to Joe Ross.

The two slowly opened the paper ball, and finally Amy wrote a 'yes' on the piece of paper in his hand, and the matter was settled. Although Joe Ross was a little unwilling, he didn't say anything. He still didn't dare to challenge Eric's prestige. Since he was unlucky, he could only accept his fate, so he came up with Fox's second plan, a A romantic comedy called "A Kiss Sets the Country".