Chapter 421 Finally Started Filming

Murdoch pondered these, so he ignored the other meaning of Eric's question and said bluntly: "Liz is just a woman, I still hope that Lachlan and James can take my class."

Eric didn't say anything. Murdoch was born in a conservative family in Australia, and his patriarchal ideology does not seem to be much weaker from the East. If Elizabeth can't achieve overwhelming achievements, it will not be an easy task for Elizabeth to take charge of News Corporation in the future. an easy thing.

After chatting a few things about Oscar at random, Murdoch talked about a series of big moves of Firefly recently. Firefly will have two movies "Toy Story" and "Terminator 2" released at the same time in the summer.

Although "Toy Story" played a trailer at the Super Bowl two months ago, it is still unknown whether this kind of animated film, which is completely different from traditional 2D animation, will be accepted by the audience. Monopoly, after the trailer of "Toy Story", Disney felt that its position in the animation field would be threatened, and used various channels in its hands to attack "Toy Story" either explicitly or covertly.

In order to prevent the film from being stereotyped due to smears from competitors before its release, Firefly set a promotional budget of $20 million for "Toy Story" in North America alone, equivalent to 50% of the production cost of the animated film. .

And "Terminator 2" seems to be even less optimistic. Because of the lessons learned from "Abyss", many people think that Cameron will once again indulge in the exploration of film technology and make a film that is well-received but not well-received. What's more, many Everyone knows that "Terminator 2" has become the first movie in Hollywood history to cost over 100 million yuan, plus the announcement. If this film wants to recover its cost at the box office, it needs at least a global box office of about 300 million US dollars, while Cameron's last "Abyss" has a global box office of only 80 million. In the eyes of outsiders, Firefly wants to recover its investment. will face enormous pressure.

In view of the fact that Firefly sold the copyright of the popular "Dark War" to Colombia some time before the Oscars, many companies thought that Firefly was already facing a situation of financial constraints, and the seven major Hollywood film companies may encounter this situation every two years. In this case, although many people know that Eric participated in the two consecutive fluctuations in the crude oil futures market in the first half of the year, Firefly did not make much movement afterwards. Many people also thought that Eric did not make much profit from it. So Murdoch's mind has also become active. Perhaps this is another opportunity to invest in Firefly. Although Eric's personality is a little bit insufferable, there is always nothing to lose by trying.

After chatting with Eric for a while, Murdoch asked: "Eric. Firefly even sold "Dark War". The funds must be very tight during this time, right?"

"It's okay," Eric immediately understood what the old man meant. It seemed that he heard similar words last year, when Murdoch personally delivered it to the door, but this time, Eric didn't do anything at all. To give in, he finally managed to say that the fireflies were completely in his hands.

It is impossible to bring in any more shareholders unless it is a last resort: "Mr. Murdoch, Firefly has just returned to me. So I will not sell any more shares, so I think we should stop talking about this topic. , maybe we can talk about something else."

Seeing Eric's rejection directly, Murdoch smiled. He didn't expect too much, so Eric's rejection was not too disappointing. Just said: "Eric, you should know. Investing in movies is a risky act, and if you don't pay attention, you may lose everything. So using cooperation to share the risk is a very cost-effective thing, I think Your bet on "Terminator 2" is too big, and the damage to Fox from James Cameron's last "Abyss" is still not recovered, and even now, there are still about 20 million US dollars However, this does not have much impact on Fox, because the film is jointly invested by Fox and several other investors, and although there is a big loss, it is not much distributed to Fox.”

"Actually, it can't be said that way," Eric replied: "The joint-invested film projects are basically all film companies that don't pay much attention to it. I think Warner will definitely not jointly develop the "Batman" series with outsiders. The Star Wars franchise will certainly not bring in outside investors.”

Seeing that Murdoch didn't fool Eric, he said again: "Speaking of which, you promised to let Fox release "Home Alone", and there was no movement last year, so this year can't be delayed any more, that... Lanker's little guy is already ten years old, and if he is two years older, it is estimated that he is no longer suitable for the male lead."

"At present, we are already in contact with caa. Last year, the price offered by the other party was too outrageous, so Firefly temporarily put the project on hold."

"Eric, since you can sell "Dark War", do you think it is possible to transfer the copyright of "Home Alone" to Fox."

Eric quickly thought about Murdoch's suggestion. He had already had this idea before. According to Firefly's internal assessment, the cost of the third part of the "Home Alone" series will be between $40 million and $50 million. And the North American box office estimate is only about 100 million US dollars, so this sequel is likely to be profitable only through overseas distribution and video tapes. Perhaps directly selling the development rights of this project is the easiest and most direct way to make money. Although it may make less money, it has won a lot of time and energy to invest in other projects.

However, Eric does not plan to sell the entire copyright of "Home Alone", and the plan to acquire Disney has been going on secretly. Once this plan is successful, as "Home Alone", which has a very important position in children's hearts, after Disney's omni-channel development, and Disneyland's Home Alone theme, will bring in a lot of money.

"Mr. Murdoch, I will not transfer the copyright of "Home Alone", but Firefly does not have much time and energy to spend on this project, so if Fox has this intention, Firefly can authorize the development of Disney's sequel right."

Murdoch thought about it. Then agreed.

However, neither of them was in a hurry to negotiate a specific cooperation agreement. The copyright of "Home Alone" has already involved too many things, and it cannot be negotiated in a short time. It can only be handed over to the staff of Firefly and Fox to negotiate slowly.

...

After the Oscars ceremony, the media has of course made a lot of comments on this year's Oscars. "Silence of the Lambs" relies on its excellent quality. Although it is not guilty at all to win the award, it still receives a lot of doubts as usual, but neither the winner nor the film academy has made any response to these doubts. .

Because it was repeatedly mentioned at the awards ceremony. The scene on stage when Elizabeth won the best picture is even more memorable for many people. For TV audiences, maybe Eric is just a topic of conversation after their dinner, but in Hollywood, this situation also indicates that Eric influence is growing.

As Billy Crystal joked at the end. Hollywood studio executives finally found out that Eric was no longer madly making several movies a year, but he appeared at the Oscars again. Although none of the seven major film companies operate Oscar films as their main business, the influence and peripheral economic benefits brought by the Oscars are still a big piece of cake. In previous years, most of this cake has belonged to the seven Big, Eric stepped in suddenly, and they were once again facing the enemy.

However, none of this affected Eric in the slightest. The preparatory work for "Tornado" has been completed, and the film crew of more than 200 people has been heading to Oklahoma in batches, ready to start at any time.

Eric was in Los Angeles for a few more days. Negotiations finalized with Fox over the licensing of Home Alone. Firefly plans to produce and release five films this year. Before the Oscars, four films have been confirmed: "Toy Story", "Terminator 2", "Dumb and Dumber" and "Hot Police Flower", Eric's last few days in Los Angeles , finally determined the last film, which is the sequel to the original new line's signature series "Monster Street".

Because the fourth installment in the Elm Street series failed at the box office. Originally, when Robert Shea was still in Firefly, he planned to make another finale sequel. There were even some first drafts of the script, and all Eric did was hammer out the project. It is tentatively named "The Death of Freddy", unless this sequel can be a big hit, otherwise, after this sequel, Eric will temporarily seal the project, and wait ten or eight years, when Hollywood remakes are popular. take it out.

In addition to "Nightmare on Elm Street", Eric will not forget his attention to Disney's "Cut Throat Island". This film was launched in February. Disney has not stopped promoting various promotions for this film. Oscar At the award ceremony, the role of an award guest was specially publicized for directors Renee Haring and Geena Davis, and even the news that the script was originally favored by Eric was revealed.

According to numerous reports in various newspapers and media, "Cutthroat Island" is being filmed in the Mediterranean island country of Malta, and may even be transferred to Thailand for on-site shooting. TV stations will occasionally release some tidbits. Moreover, it is said that the original investment of this film was set at 70 million US dollars, but due to the rush, there are obvious signs of overspending. Disney and Robert Shea are also bachelors. After learning that "Terminator 2" invested more than 100 million US dollars, simply It was also announced that the cost of Cutthroat Island would exceed $100 million.

Although there are still three months before the release of the two films, there are already sparks between "Cutthroat Island" and "Terminator 2", and the media is also very keen to put the two films together for comparison. Seeing this Such news Eric always produces an inexplicable sense of joy. The only comparability between the two films may be recorded in the history of Hollywood films.

In New York, while managing the Firefly investment, Chris has not relaxed his absorption of Disney stocks. In February, he also bought the largest 0.9% stake from a Disney shareholder. Chris expects A total of about 10% of Disney's stock can be absorbed through several different channels before July. At that time, if the goodwill acquisition fails, Eric can use the chips in his hand to launch a hostile acquisition that has an overwhelming advantage over Disney.

On March 28, Eric took the last group of the "Tornado" crew by plane to Oklahoma in the south-central United States.

Compared with the densely populated east and west coasts, the inland of the United States can be described in one sentence. Take Oklahoma as an example. Oklahoma City, the capital of the state and the largest city in the state, has only five A population of 100,000, and the surrounding population is even more sparse.

The filming location of "Tornado" was not in Oklahoma City, but near a small town called Ponca in northeastern Oklahoma. The crew built a large number of sets around Ponca City, such as the heroine Qiu The town where the aunt’s house is located, the hotel where the motorcade stopped before the tornado hit, etc., because these need to be destroyed in the later stages of the filming, so it is impossible to rent real houses for filming.

The biggest film that Eric directed before was "Dark War", but the investment in that film was only more than 30 million, and it was filmed in Los Angeles, where various conditions were very convenient. In contrast, "Tornado" is the first big-budget movie in the real sense of Eric's control.

This film not only has a guaranteed investment of 70 million US dollars, but also has more than 200 staff members. In addition to the team directly controlled by Eric, there are also three assistant directors in charge of the three teams. Each of the three assistant directors has a clear The division of labor, one is responsible for the day's shooting, the other is responsible for finishing the previous day's shooting, and the last group prepares for the next day's shooting.

In addition to literary dramas, a large number of tornado shots of the crew need to be shot on cloudy days as much as possible. Therefore, it is impossible for the shooting plan to rigidly stipulate which scene to shoot on a certain day, and it is necessary to flexibly change the shooting plan according to the local weather. In order to To ensure the filming of the crew as much as possible, Eric even asked the logistics team to customize a huge gauze of several hundred square meters. If the suitable weather conditions cannot be found for a long time, the crew will hire several tower cranes to cover the large net. Brace yourself to create gloomy weather by artificially creating gloomy light. (To be continued)