Chapter Five Hundred and Eighty Eighth How Much Money Do You Have

Chapter 588

"Future Water World" is similar to a "Mad Max" on water. It is also a wasteland world after the collapse of civilization, but it is set in a distant future where the land is submerged by the ocean after a nuclear war with exhausted resources. .

Compared with "Cut Throat Island", which made a huge investment but became a box office dud, "Future Water World"'s global box office of more than 200 million is not a failure.

However, the production situation of this film is similar to that of "Titanic", because a series of overruns during the filming process made it difficult for investors to ride a tiger. The final production cost of "The World" was 17.5 billion US dollars, and the total cost of publicity was more than 200 million US dollars, which was the highest cost film before "Titanic".

It's just that the endings of the two films are very different. "Titanic" has created an unprecedented box office record. Although "Future Water World" has a global box office of more than 200 million, compared with the huge investment, it still causes damage to the producers. huge losses.

Just from a bystander's point of view, Eric still likes the story setting of "Future Water World" very much. If this film can follow the low-cost production route of "Mad Max", Eric will definitely not. Do not hesitate to take this project 7∠. But now that he is the boss of Firefly Pictures, Eric will never touch this project if he can foresee the future prospects of this film.

Moreover, in the case that Kevin Costner has already intended to appear in the "Mission Impossible" series before "Water World", Eric hopes that "Water World" can repeat the same mistakes, so that in the "Mission Impossible" sequel They can take the initiative in the salary negotiation.

Both Amy and Drew could clearly feel that Eric was a little absent-minded when he read the script of "Future Water World". Drew knew that this often happened when Eric was reading the script. But this does not affect his judgment on a script. Amy Pascal thinks that Eric's absent-mindedness may be because he is not very optimistic about the film.

Sure enough, Eric quickly finished the script, without the slightest excitement when he saw a good script, and said to Amy: "Have you talked to Kevin Costner about this project?"

Amy shook his head and said, "Not yet, when I was negotiating with Kevin Costner for "Mission Impossible", I found out that Kevin Costner's personal production company was contacting this project. Kevin Costner Turner's agency, wma, intends to package the project to major studios."

Eric frowned slightly after hearing the word 'packaging', although Hollywood caa, wma and the three brokerage companies are now three-legged. But because of the article he originally published, the other two companies have imitated caa's packaging strategy. "Captain Hawk", which greatly damaged Spielberg's director's personality three years ago, is caa's packaging project.

When he first entered Hollywood a few years ago, Eric just felt that the agency's packaging strategy had inflated the power of the agent, and at the same time made the star's salary and film production cost higher and higher. As he lived in Hollywood for a long time, Eric also has a deeper understanding of the brokerage company's packaging strategy. The brokerage company's packaging strategy causes far more harm to the film company. The main creators of the film crew of the packaging project are recommended by the brokerage company, although they can be flexible. But there is often little room for choice, which also causes the main creator of a film project to be often not suitable for this film. The ultimate failure of the film, Spielberg's "Captain Hawk" is the most classic example.

The failure of huge investment is the biggest damage to the film company. As the scale of film investment becomes larger and larger, the impact of this damage will become more and more serious.

Just like "Future Water World" in hand, if you want to shoot this water wasteland-style film, there is no doubt that the most suitable director is George Miller, who became famous with the "Mad Max" series. "Future Water World" in time and space is a complete imitation of "Mad Max" from costumes to sets, and the result is only a shell.

In Eric's memory, the director of the film was Kevin Reynolds, and the filming was delayed until the end. Kevin Reynolds was unable to control the situation, and he felt that "Future Water World" might be over, so he just gave up. . It is conceivable that if the right director was chosen at the beginning, the ending of "Future Water World" will definitely not be so bleak.

"Since it's a packaging project, we don't want to participate. Flower Pictures can't have any failures now," Eric handed the script to Amy, and said, "Just pretend that this has never happened, and concentrate on preparing for the "Disc" Impossible."

Amy raised her eyebrows slightly when she heard the word 'failure', thinking that Eric really wasn't optimistic about this project. However, she also quickly realized the other meanings in Eric's words, and showed a knowing smile.

If "Waterworld" fails, it will certainly save a lot of money for the "Mission: Impossible" sequel.

Looking at the time, it was about twelve o'clock, and Kevin Costner was coming over soon, and Amy hurriedly stuffed the script of "Future Water World" into her bag.

Kevin Costner quickly brought his agent to the restaurant. Although he knew that Eric was behind the operation of "Dancing With Wolves", but a few years later, things have faded. After all, Hollywood is a In a casino game, everyone buys and leaves, admits the bet and admits defeat. If you are worried about the success or failure of a game, it is impossible to survive in Hollywood.

The two sides used the lunch time to finalize various details of "Mission Impossible". Although there were some doubts about Eric's recommendation of Brian De Palma as a horror film director, the people sitting were not stupid enough to doubt Eric's vision. .

Considering Kevin Costner's age, Eric only plans to make three "Mission: Impossible" films in this time and space. After all, after three films, unless Kevin Costner actively reduces his pay, it will be a Hollywood series. The salary of the leading actors of the film has increased, and if the film company continues, it is equivalent to working for the stars.

However, as long as the copyright of the "Mission Impossible" series is in hand. After the trilogy. Shelved for ten or eight years. When Kevin Costner's influence on the series fades, the project can still be restarted again, and by the way, you can play emotional cards or something.

Because Kevin Costner was eager to make "Future Water World", the schedule was very tight. After "Mission Impossible" had finalized a series of main creators, it quickly entered the production stage, and Columbia also confirmed that "Mission: Impossible" "The schedule of the series is at the end of the year.

Arranged "Mission Impossible", Eric was concerned about the acquisition negotiations at the same time. And put most of the energy on a series of upcoming and post-production films.

Of the three summer films, "The Lion King" has been completed, while the other two films, Catherine Bigelow's "Saving Private Ryan" and Cameron's "True Lies" have entered the final editing stage. I am very reassured about Cameron, so I did not interfere too much with "True Lies". Before the filming of "Saving Private Ryan", Eric had seen a lot of footage shot by Catherine and was very satisfied. The most important landing battle in Normandy, supported by the top special effects technology in the digital field, was even more shocking than the original. It's just that Katherine's directing style is very different from the original, so Eric has to appear in the editing room often. As a result, Catherine's complaints are also caused from time to time, and the woman is not because of Eric's meddling in editing. More is to complain about Eric's distrust, and occasionally there are some small resentments in her tone that she didn't realize.

These are Firefly's upcoming films, and Eric also has to pay attention to the preparations for "Jurassic Park 2" and "Solitary Day", which are expected to start in the second half of the year, because Eric doesn't plan to continue Directed the "Jurassic Park" series, so the choice of the director took a lot of effort.

In addition to the film of the Firefly Headquarters, "Men in Black" cooperating with Colombia has also entered the final stage, and the schedule is also in the summer. end of the year.

DreamWorks' "Charlie's Angels" has almost completed the final production. DreamWorks plans to start three films this year, and it will be able to complete the plan of ten films in three years this year. Therefore, Eric also has to divide it for the other side. With enough energy, I took the time to select the other two works, and wrote the outline of the story of "Resident Evil", and handed it over to the screenwriters to complete the script. At the same time, he also made some suggestions for the upcoming sequel of "007" by MGM. Since Sophie has gone to Ireland with the "Braveheart" crew, Eric gave "Golden Eye of 007" in the normal order. ", but Famke Jensen would definitely shoot "The X-Files" during the filming of "Golden Eye", and Eric did not give her the role of the villain.

In the midst of all these trivialities, time soon came to March, and this year's Oscars were scheduled for March 21, much earlier than in previous years.

However, in early March, it wasn't the upcoming Oscars that Hollywood paid the most attention to. There was another thing that caught people's attention.

Last night, I had a very late chat with Roland Emmerich about "The Day of Alone". Coupled with the recent rush, Eric planned to sleep in today, but it was only eight o'clock. Ke was pushed awake by Elizabeth, who had burst into the bedroom.

"Eric, get up quickly, you read this issue of Forbes magazine, and the newspaper..." Elizabeth's tone was a little hurried and a little excited.

Eric woke up in a daze, stretched out his hand and rubbed the girl in front of him, and said, "Don't be noisy, I'll sleep a little longer."

"You're the richest man in the federation now, and you're still sleeping!" Elizabeth slapped Eric a few times.

Eric knew what was going on when he heard "Forbes". Regarding the latest issue of the Forbes Rich List, Eric and Steve Forbes discussed on the phone several times, and finally settled on a number, although This time is still not Eric's real worth, but it is the most beneficial to the negotiation of Firefly Pictures' acquisition of the TV network.

"19.7 billion, I didn't expect you to have so much money, and it's a full $10 billion higher than the second-placed Warren Buffett." Elizabeth saw Eric lying on the bed, so she had to lie beside him and said.

"Do you also believe the numbers on this?" Eric turned his body and said.

Elizabeth was stunned and said, "What do you mean?"

Eric said: "This number was negotiated by me and Steve Forbes, so it is not accurate. You are also making a fool of yourself. Help me make breakfast."

"Breakfast is ready," Elizabeth said, pushing Eric hard: "Then tell me, how much money do you have?"

Seeing that Eric would definitely not be able to continue sleeping, he opened his eyes and took the Forbes magazine in front of Elizabeth, looked at it, and said, "Look, it's not mentioned above, because of the outbreak of the film and television industry, the 19.7 billion Of the US dollar assets, US$190 belongs to Firefly Pictures, and there are only US$700 million in other assets. If there are only so many, do you think Chris can still play a hostile takeover of ltd?”

Elizabeth has heard about the acquisition of ltd by Chris in New York. If Firefly Investments attracts funds to the public, then a board of directors must be established, but Firefly Investments has never done so, which means that Firefly Investments Most of the money should be Eric's. Right now, Chris has offered more than $2 billion to acquire ltd in New York. Even if this is a leveraged buyout, without sufficient funds, Chris would never dare to play like this. Hearing Eric say this, Elizabeth came to be interested, and asked with great interest: "Then tell me, how much money do you have?"

Elizabeth has heard about the acquisition of ltd by Chris in New York. If Firefly Investments attracts funds to the public, then a board of directors must be established, but Firefly Investments has never done so, which means that Firefly Investments Most of the money should be Eric's. Right now, Chris has offered more than $2 billion to acquire ltd in New York. Even if this is a leveraged buyout, without sufficient funds, Chris would never dare to play like this. Hearing Eric say this, Elizabeth came to be interested, and asked with great interest: "Then tell me, how much money do you have?" (To be continued.)

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