Chapter 951 You Are the Boss

After talking about the movie for an afternoon and having dinner together, Eric gradually discovered that although he has a delicate appearance that makes a man's heart move, Jodie Foster is basically a woman, and he is still very forthright. .

Moreover, during the dinner chat, Jodie Foster knew far more about Eric than Eric knew about her, and a lot of information was definitely not the kind that can be found in the media. After Eric tried it out, he learned that Jodie Foster and Julia had always maintained a very good friendship after filming "Silence of the Lambs". A group of women gathered together, and the topics discussed in private were self-evident.

After a dinner, the woman bluntly stated that as long as Eric didn't 'conspiracy' against her, she would treat Eric as a friend.

The contract between Firefly and Jodie Foster went well, and then Jodie Foster took a lot of "Gravity" material from Eric and started writing for the movie and spin-off novel. prepare.

"Gravity" actor, Eric still chose George Clooney.

Before participating in "Batman and Robin" last year, George Clooney had already announced that he was leaving the shooting of the hit drama "Emergency Room Story" owned by abc, intending to concentrate on the development of the film industry.

Then, almost nothing.

However, the popularity of this handsome old man in the circle has really left many people behind. Before Eric sent an invitation to George Clooney, someone started to help him match up. Even Jodie Foster, who had just announced that he was a friend of Eric, called and thought that George Clooney was very suitable for horses. With the role of T. Kowalski, Eric also went with the flow and harvested a small amount of favor.

Los Angeles International Airport, time has unknowingly arrived in mid-January.

Eric is taking Katzenberg and several other Firefly Group executives to see off the "Lord of the Rings" crew.

From the idea of ​​filming "The Lord of the Rings" as a child to now, after 30 years of anticipation, the filming of his dream is finally about to start, and now Peter Jackson looks radiant and high-spirited.

Shaking hands with Eric, Katzenberg and others, and swearing and reassuring, Peter Jackson boarded the charter plane to New Zealand with a team of nearly 100 people. Going to go back to Hollywood.

Of course, if the huge budget of the entire trilogy project is 300 million US dollars, if the filming fails, this guy will really not want to go back to Hollywood.

Until now, apart from Eric's full support for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, most of Firefly's management still has a worried attitude, and the media has never given up on this kind of Questions about 'big and inappropriate' projects.

It wasn't until the sky blue Boeing 747 rushed into the sky that Eric patted Katzenberg's shoulder beside him and said, "Jeffrey, and everyone, let's go back. I think you should give more energy. A guy who has persisted in an idea for 30 years has a little confidence, not to mention that Firefly can't afford to lose 300 million US dollars now."

Walking out of the tarmac with Eric, Katzenberg smiled bitterly: "Eric, you clearly know that this is not just a matter of three hundred million dollars."

The premiere of "The Lord of the Rings" will be released at the end of next year. Now that the project has been finalized, it will take nearly two years for the next two years, in addition to the production budget of the film,

Firefly must also devote significant marketing resources to promoting it. These marketing resources and potential time costs are indeed far more than $300 million.

Eric naturally understands these truths, and he doesn't bother to think of any reason to comfort the elders, so he changed the subject and said, "Does the hero of "Midnight Bell" look good?"

Katzenberg shook his head and said: "Kenneth Horn, who is in charge of the new line, and that Gore Verbinski want Johnny Depp to try. However, Johnny Depp has been pulled to Tee. Depp has been good friends with Burton in the pending project of Am Burton, and the kid is not interested in this horror movie, and he said that if he wants to star in him, unless Firefly can invest in Burton's new film."

Eric narrowed his eyes, if he hadn't heard Tim Burton's name, he would have scoffed at Johnny Depp's request. Now, none of the three major Hollywood brokerage companies have the confidence to presume any binding conditions in front of the Firefly Group, let alone an actor.

"What's Tim Burton's New Movie?"

Katzenberg thought for a while and said, "It's a movie based on an old horror novel called Sleeping Hollow."

Sure enough.

Eric thought to himself, and continued: "I have heard of this novel. The subject matter is very in line with Burton's bizarre style. How can no one want to invest?"

A group of people had arrived at the parking lot outside Los Angeles International Airport at this time. Katzenberg and Eric got into a car and waited for the car to start and drove towards Firefly Studios before saying, "Burton's last movie , do you have an impression?"

Eric doesn't remember this. Looking back, he only remembers Burton's second "Batman Returns" filmed in 1992. In the next few years, he really didn't hear any good films from Burton.

Katzenberg looked at Eric shaking his head and said, "That's it, since 'Batman Returns' in 1992, Burton's films have not been successful in recent years, especially the last one with Jack Nick. Ersen's "The Martian Plays on Earth", the film invested 70 million US dollars, and the North American box office was only 37 million. After the film failed, Warner broke up with him completely. I did not read the project information of "Sleepy Hollow" Yes, but I have heard some of it in private chatting with people, the cost of this film may be close to 100 million, and everyone naturally avoids it."

Tim Burton is definitely a Hollywood geek, and because he's a geek, the box office prospects for directing films are very unstable.

However, "Sleepy Hollow" is definitely the most classic of Tim Burton's works, and it should be good at the box office.

Knocking on his knees and thinking for a while, Eric said to Katzenberg: "Jeffrey, let me have a look at the script and budget of Sleeping Hollow."

Katzenberg worried: "Eric, in addition to the Batman series, Burton's previous highest-grossing work "Beetle Juice" was only over $70 million, so you wouldn't be really interested in "Sleepy Hollow" right? ?"

Eric asked back with a smile, "Isn't "Beetle Juice" a movie produced by Disney back then? Do you remember the production budget of this movie?"

Katzenberg nodded and said, "It's about $15 million. Well, it's still very profitable."

"Beetlejuice is a grotesque horror story, which is exactly what Burton is good at, so he can shoot well and can be recognized by the market. You can listen to the name "The Martian Plays on Earth" , I haven't seen this film, but just listening to the name, we can't help but guess that it's a comedy, let a horror film genius make a comedy, how likely do you think it will be successful? And now, "Severed Heads" Valley," which is exactly what Burton does best."

"But, Eric, the budget for this movie is $100 million, and it's a horror movie."

"So, Jeffrey, when you go back to the studio, you can find me the information on Sleeping Hollow first, then call Johnny Depp directly and say I can do Tim Burton a favor and let him He directly signed with the crew of "Midnight Bell". When I read the script, if it feels good, we will shoot it ourselves, if not, we will release the news that Eric Williams is very optimistic about this project and let others rush it. shoot."

Katzenberg said helplessly: "I always think you've made up your mind to shoot."

"Don't you believe my vision?"

"Of course I believe, the key is that you haven't read the script yet."

"Don't you trust my intuition?"

Katzenberg raised his right hand in surrender: "Okay, you're the boss."

When I got back to the studios office, it was just after nine o'clock in the morning.

January is the busiest time for the entire Firefly Group. A lot of financial information, summary planning, and personnel transfers are concentrated during this time. Eric has also recently formed a fixed schedule of dealing with company affairs in the morning and busy with a few movies in the afternoon.

Eric walked into the office, and Caroline followed up with some documents.

Putting a stack of folders in front of Eric, Caroline said: "Eric, we have just received news from Europe that Seagram Group and Philips Group have just reached an acquisition agreement for Polygon Records. The transaction value was $10.6 billion."

The negotiation between Seagram Group and Philips Group about the acquisition of Polychrome Records has been going on publicly for half a year. Eric was not too surprised. He picked up a folder that Caroline had just put down and opened it, and asked: " Is there anything else?"

"Not yet, the Philips Group just released a very brief press conference before the end of get off work today, local time in the Netherlands."

Eric nodded, remembering what he had chatted with Katzenberg when he came back. He was going to ask Caroline to collect the information on Sleeping Hollow, but he thought that he had already told Katzenberg about it. There is no more.

After Caroline left, Eric had just finished flipping through the 16 films New Line Cinema had planned to make or release this year when Katzenberg knocked on the door himself.

"Eric, here's the script and budget for Sleeping Hollow. It also has Tim Burton's contact information. You can call him anytime if you have any questions," handing Ai a file bag. Rick, Katzenberg pulled a chair and sat down opposite Eric, and said, "I just heard that Seagram has just reached an agreement with Philips to acquire Poly Gold."

"Caroline already told me," Eric nodded and smiled: "So what?"

"The Spice Girls you built in Europe, Barry Weiss and I have talked to me several times, the single 'wannabe' has sold more than 1 million copies in the UK only. Although the Spice Girls is not the focus of development North America, but because of you, the songwriter, the single record of "wannabe" sold more than 1.6 million copies in the United States. However, because the distribution channels of Firefly records are not perfect, except for the United Kingdom and the United States, this single The sales figures for music in other countries in Europe and Southeast Asia are not satisfactory. So Barry said that even if we have no intention of expanding the global market, we should acquire another record company that has at least a full distribution channel in Europe, so that our record business can be fully Covering the whole of Europe and the United States.”

In order to create a teenage pop singer, Eric poached Barry Weiss, a music producer who once made the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and others famous, from a small record company owned by Sony. Over the past few years, Barry Weiss' work has been really satisfying, and Firefly Records now has several top-notch pop stars in its hands.

It is already 1998. With the further explosion of global Internet users, this year will also be a watershed for the record industry from prosperity to decline. Even if mp3 players didn't appear earlier, due to the rapid proliferation of pirated music on the Internet, the physical record industry will experience a very obvious decline in the next few years.

Eric's positioning of Firefly Records has always been to promote the "supporting facilities" of mp3 players. However, since Barry Weiss has proposed it more than once, Eric also realizes that if Firefly wants to continue to retain this talent, it must make some moves in the record business.

Although it achieved a very brilliant sales performance in North America last year, the fireflyer player is still in the early stage of promotion. If it leaves the support of Firefly Records and continues to release excellent records, Firefly Electronics will be more passive in the promotion process, and Eric does not want Barry Weiss left Firefly Records at this time.

Come to think of it, Barry Weiss's favorite must be the PolyGram that has just been taken away by Seagram. If it acquires this record industry giant, Firefly Group will immediately have a global record distribution network, but this is obviously It is impossible, and Eric will never spend more than ten billion dollars to buy a company that is destined to decline.

After thinking for a while, Eric asked, "Does Barry Weiss have a suitable acquisition target in mind?"

Katzenberg replied, "Viking Records, have you heard of it?"

Eric nodded. He deliberately asked people to collect a lot of information on record companies last year: "If I remember correctly, Virgin Records should be a subsidiary of EMI, right?"

"Yeah, Barry actually wants us to buy EMI."

Eric shook his head and smiled: "Then he can only think about it."

"That's what I told him," Katzenberg laughed. "So, next to nothing, Barry had his eye on Virgin Records, a record company that EMI bought for $1 billion in 1992. However, Since the acquisition, Virgin Records has not cultivated any first-tier pop stars in these years, and its performance has not been tepid. Now it has become a burden to the EMI Records Group. Barry contacted a director of Virgin Records, the other party Said that if Firefly was interested, he could coordinate and help us make this acquisition."