Chapter 497 You Are Not Optimistic

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith" is a large-scale film with an investment of 60 million US dollars, even more than the total cost of John Wu's 20 years of filming in Hong Kong. Therefore, Eric's intervention in the final editing of the film not only did not let John Wu Wu felt offended, and even felt a sense of relief. After all, the total investment of 60 million US dollars was close to 500 million Hong Kong dollars after conversion. After John Wu took over the film, every time he thought of this number, he would feel like walking on thin ice. Fortunately, Eric affirmed his shooting results after seeing the samples, and John Wu's anxiety for several months finally dissipated.

When it was time to get off work, Tina Fei parked her car in the parking lot of Firefly Studios, looked at her watch, picked up a satchel full of documents, and hurriedly walked to the post-production center of the studio. She just arrived at the door of the production center. Outside, she saw Eric and an Asian man whispering and laughing and walking out of it.

Eric left Allen in Paris. Although he has his own assistant office at the Firefly headquarters, he did not choose a temporary first assistant, because Xiao Nizi has no more after completing "The Detective Plane" with tg. Because of too much work, he temporarily pushed Tina Fei over, and Eric did not object. It is more convenient to have a familiar woman by his side than others.

Seeing Tina Fei's figure, Eric nodded to her, and chatted with John Wu for a few more words before walking towards the girl. Looking at the heavy bag on Tina Fei's shoulders, Eric reached out and wanted to take it. But it was avoided by Tina Fei.

"Thank you, Eric, I'll do it myself." Tina Fei shook her head.

Eric didn't mind the little details that women occasionally showed good strength, and said with a smile: "Then let's go back, it's just after get off work."

The two came to the parking lot again. Tina Fei was about to drive her car, but was stopped by Eric: "Let's put it here and drive tomorrow. We can talk about something in the car."

This time, Tina Fei didn't object anymore and nodded slightly. Followed and got into Eric's car.

When the driver started the car, Tina Fey put the satchel on her lap and took out a few folders: "Eric, Mr. Hansen... oh. It was sent to you this afternoon by Mr. Hansen from New York. Documents, information about the Marvel Entertainment Group, he also called and said that he would give it to you as soon as possible."

Only then did Eric understand why Tina Fei rushed over at this time, and reached out to take the thick document from the woman's knee.

Compared with the simple information about Marvel Comics that Eric and Chris talked about in New York, this information is much more detailed, involving the operation status, business structure, debt ratio and comic copyright of Marvel Entertainment Group. There's a document devoted to Marvel's entanglement with Ron Perelman's investment firm.

Eric's professional information that is biased towards economics is just a glance.

Instead, it focuses on materials such as Marvel's copyright. At a glance, Eric realized that the actual information was very different from the information in his memory. He originally thought that Marvel sold his popular comic characters to several major Hollywood studios in the mid-to-late 1990s in order to solve the financial crisis. But actually, it started in the 1980s. Marvel has been selling movie rights to comic book characters.

The information in hand shows that there are currently buyers for the most popular comic characters in Marvel. The copyright of "Fantastic Four" is in the hands of German Konstantin Pictures, the copyright of "Spider-Man" is in the hands of Carlock Films, "Captain America" The copyright of "Hulk" is in the hands of 21st Century Films, and the copyright of "Hulk" is also in the hands of New World Films, which Eric has never heard of. That said, right now the Hollywood Seven are not interested in Marvel's comic book rights. The rights to popular characters are basically in the hands of second- and third-tier film companies, and the movie rights of second-tier superheroes such as Iron Man and Black Widow are not even considered.

Moreover, the copyright transfer agreement signed by Marvel and these film companies is similar to the agreement signed with several major film companies in Eric's memory. If the work is not released within a few years, the copyright will automatically return to Marvel. However, Although these second- and third-tier film companies have bought the copyrights, the motivation to change them into movies does not seem to be too strong. After Constantine got the copyright of "Fantastic Four", it has been shelved, but one day the executives of the film company suddenly When he found out that the copyright he bought with money was about to expire, he hurriedly found someone to concoct an ultra-low-cost B-level "Fantastic Four" in less than a month, just to continue the copyright in his hand.

Other studios that own the rights have followed suit with their Marvel adaptations two years after Warner's success with "Batman," but they haven't made a splash.

Tina Fey sat quietly beside Eric, occasionally glancing at the profile of the man who was seriously reading the material. Since Drew said that sentence jokingly a few months ago, although Tina Fey kept telling herself Don't think nonsense, but you can't help but have some random thoughts in your heart. When you get along with Eric again after a few months, you can't be as calm as before.

When Drew pushed her to Eric's side, although he told himself to refuse and refuse a hundred times, he unknowingly agreed. From the bottom of his heart, although he didn't want to admit it, from the bottom of his heart , and she always wanted to spend more time with Eric.

"Tina," Eric turned his head suddenly after reading a document, and just met Tina Fei's small eyes like a thief. Eric couldn't help laughing when he watched the girl look away in a panic. Get up: "Hey, since the last time I saw you, I've always thought you've become weird, what happened?"

"No, nothing," Tina Fei quickly denied.

Eric thought for a while, then tentatively said, "Did Drew tell you something?"

"Ah?" Tina Fey opened her mouth, but didn't answer.

Eric shrugged, thinking he guessed right. He said, "Well, it's no secret, it's okay to tell you. Anyway, in April next year, I'm going to be a dad."

Hearing this sentence, Tina Fei's eyes suddenly widened: "Being a father, you...are you married?"

"Of course not," Eric looked at Tina Fey's expression: "So you don't know."

There was a strong sense of loss in Tina Fei's heart, but she still nodded: "Dru. Drew didn't tell me this."

After speaking these words, there was a brief silence in the carriage.

after awhile. Tina Fei said cautiously, "Then, when the child is born, will you get married?"

"No," Eric shook his head, "but I will try my best to be a good father."

Tina Fey didn't know how to continue this topic for a while. She came from a very conservative middle-class American family, and the concepts she had accepted since she was a child made her unable to agree with Eric's approach, but at the same time, she couldn't feel much resentment in her heart. It is that people with wealth and power will be more tolerant on the scale of social rules.

"Have you read it?" Tina Fei was silent for a while, before pointing to the document in Eric's hand again.

"Not yet, I just watched some. I'll go back and watch it again. Oh, what I just wanted to say is, tomorrow you take the time to help me collect the videotapes of these movies. I'm going to watch it." Eric finished, put the information He took it out and handed it to Tina Fei.

Tina Fey took out the memo and quickly wrote down the name of the movie.

This episode seems to have passed, but then Eric found that the atmosphere when the two got along changed from one strange to another strange.

...

Under the personal command of Katzenberg, after a month of rectification, the renamed Disneyland Paris is open to tourists again. Because of the media clout brought by the sudden closure less than ten days after opening, and Disney's unabashed sincere gesture of apologizing to the public and making vigorous reforms. Within just a week of the reopening of Disney, the number of tourists once again rushed to a peak, reaching 700,000. Although ticket prices and Disney-themed hotel stay prices have been reduced, after the survey was conducted again, the number of tourists. Satisfaction has risen to 70%, of which the satisfaction of French tourists has reached 85%, because Disneyland Paris has not only made a considerable adjustment to the French culture, but also Make French the working language of Disneyland Paris staff.

Although after the opening, the average consumption of tourists has not increased due to the price reduction, but the management is quite optimistic about this situation. Just like a movie, if a highly anticipated movie just gets a high box office, but ends up with a very poor reputation, then the film's sequel will definitely be very difficult to make, on the contrary, if a movie has a huge reputation , even if it doesn't make much money at the box office, the studios will be very keen to make a sequel. After reopening, Disneyland Paris, which has received good reviews from tourists, is like a movie that has won a good reputation, and as long as it has a good reputation, the possibility of tourists visiting Disneyland again will greatly increase.

"If we can keep the momentum going, maybe Disneyland Paris won't be as bad as we thought," Eric said, looking at the results of another survey Katzenberg gave himself when he returned to Los Angeles. .

"I feel the same way," Katzenberg didn't change much except that he was leaner after not seeing him for a month: "Fortunately, it was made up in time, although the closure for a whole month brought some unnecessary expenses. , but judging from the current situation, this loss is completely worth it. At least, Disneyland Paris should be able to break even this year. Although the previous estimates for this project were too optimistic, one thing is true, that That is, the potential base of tourists in Europe is definitely larger than that of Japan and the United States. I think the biggest problem is that it does not adapt to the local culture like Tokyo Disneyland. The problem."

"Okay, don't mention responsibility anymore. After all, we all know that the responsibility for this matter is not on you and me," Eric said with a smile.

Disneyland Paris was personally controlled by Michael Eisner. Although Katzenberg was also an executive of Disney at the time, with Michael Eisner's character, Katzenberg was absolutely impossible to intervene in this project. For such a big mistake, this black pot will undoubtedly fall on Michael Eisner's head, and he is definitely not wronged.

Katzenberg did not dwell on this topic, but said: "I will also keep an eye on the situation over there in the future and make timely adjustments. There is one more thing, Giancarlo lost the case against MGM. When I was in Paris, I just got the news that the main source of funds for Giancarlo’s fraud was a French consortium. The MGM shares in Giancarlo’s hands will be auctioned by French banks in mid-December to repay investors’ debts. I think this is very important for Firefly. It should be a good opportunity to expand the film library.”

Eric shook his head and said: "But it will cost a lot of money, Jeffrey, I have also considered this matter, although after getting the MGM film library, the number of films in Firefly Pictures will be doubled. The above, but we do not have the strength to convert these films into actual economic benefits. We neither have enough video tape distribution resources nor our own TV stations, which are the two most important channels to convert early films into practical benefits. "

Katzenberg knew that Eric was telling the truth, and obviously felt a little pity, because if this opportunity was grasped well, it would be enough to completely swallow MGM's film library, and MGM currently has the most valuable thing left. , that is, it has accumulated a huge library of more than 10,000 movies and TV series.

Thinking of this, Katzenberg asked: "So, Eric, should we consider building our own TV station next?"

Eric put down the document in his hand, got up and poured two cups of coffee for himself and Katzenberg, brought it over and sat down again, and said, "At least until next year, and if you want to acquire a public television station, We have to deal with the relationship with Fox Network, maybe, we have to give up the 10% of Fox Network, or we will definitely get into trouble with the Federal Exchange Commission.”

"It sounds like you already have a goal?" Katzenberg noticed Eric's expression and asked curiously.

Eric nodded with a smile: "However, we will have to wait for the results of Viacom and Paramount to come out."

When Katzenberg heard this sentence, he almost understood and smiled: "It seems that you are not optimistic that Barry Diller can win Paramount." (To be continued)