"Since Alien 2, James Cameron has had a partnership with Twentieth Century Fox. ”

In his office at the Fox Tower, James Murdoch, who has completely shifted his focus from London to Los Angeles, asked Tom Belke, chairman of the film company: "Later, I worked together on "Terminator 2", "True Lies" and "Titanic", and all of them were successful. ”

His gaze was unusually sharp: "With such a foundation in hand, why did James Cameron switch to Relativity Entertainment on Avatar?"

Tom Belk had a few beads of sweat rolling down his forehead and said, "James Cameron has refused to work with us again. He knew that this kind of pot couldn't be carried by anything, so he hurriedly pushed it on others: "As early as five or six years ago, Ronan Anderson had a relationship with James Cameron and sponsored James Cameron's documentary filming. At that time, all Hollywood didn't know about the existence of "Avatar", and by the time we got the news and contacted James Cameron, all the people and projects had been poached by Ronan Anderson and Relativity Entertainment. ”

This sentence implements one purpose throughout, twentieth century Fox and James Cameron did not continue their cooperation, not the fault of the film company, but all Ronan's insidious and despicable digging of the wall.

Actually, this is not wrong, because Ronan was able to reach a cooperation with James Cameron, and the smear of Twentieth Century Fox is also an important reason.

Of course, the smear is a bit exaggerated, mainly to make James Cameron recall all the unhappiness that happened with Twentieth Century Fox during the filming of "Titanic".

How could James Murdoch not understand this, he groaned slightly, and said: "What we missed is a project with a global box office of nearly $3 billion and a short-term profit of $2 billion!"

Tom Belk, and Jim Prologis on the other side did not answer, and for a while they couldn't figure out James Murdoch's thoughts, and they were not willing to speak casually.

But in their eyes, Twentieth Century Fox can't really be blamed for this, film cooperation is a two-way choice, Ronan Anderson moves earlier and faster, James Cameron is willing to cooperate with Relativity Entertainment, and Twentieth Century Fox has no choice.

You can't be like Harvey Weinstein, who can't achieve his goal and put the director under house arrest in a hotel, right?

That's the way to deal with overseas directors or producers, like Hollywood directors, there are basically unions behind them, who dares to do this?

James Murdoch is not settling the score, and then said in an accentuated tone: "Now discussing "Avatar", it is not to put anyone responsible, but to remind you that some projects and profits, if we do our work more carefully and more proactively, will not slip away from hand." ”

"I have a responsibility that cannot be shirked. Tom Belk wasn't stupid either, and immediately said, "It's me who didn't do my job." ”

Jim Prologis answered: "I'm responsible, too.

James Murdoch waved his hand and said, "I can't blame you, a director of James Cameron's level has the initiative to cooperate." He was still a little heartbroken: "It's a pity that "Avatar" ......"

Relativity Entertainment is such a movie, and the profit is higher than a year's effort by Twentieth Century Fox in the film business!

It's all fake to say it's not envious, it's not heartache, especially since the director of the film is James Cameron, who has been working with Twentieth Century Fox for a long time.

Since last year, Twentieth Century Fox's film business has performed poorly, especially for first-tier big-production projects, with almost one film unsuccessful.

This made James Murdoch even more regretful for missing "Avatar".

"Okay, I won't say much about "Avatar", after all, this is already a project of another company. James Murdoch is a man who does big things, so he put down the regret and unhappiness in his heart and turned to today's topic: "Some time ago, news was circulating that George Lucas was going to retire and sell Lucasfilm. ”

Tom Belk continued: "The news of George Lucas' retirement has been clear, I personally asked Spielberg last week and got a positive answer. ”

James Murdoch asked, "What about Lucasfilm?"

"It's almost certain that George Lucas is going to sell Lucasfilm. The person who answered this time was Jim Prologre, who looked a little serious: "According to the latest information, a group of Relativity Entertainment has been in secret contact with representatives of Lucasfilm and has been in contact for some time. ”

Tom Belk frowned, and he didn't know if the sentence was subconsciously or deliberately, and immediately spit it out: "Relativity entertainment again?"

Unfazed, James Murdoch grasped the crux of the matter: "Did they reach a deal?"

Jim Prologis replied: "George Lucas himself has a certain inclination, but Lucasfilm also has multiple shareholders who have not yet reached an agreement. ”

James Murdoch nodded slightly: "After all, this is a multi-billion dollar deal, personal friendship has a certain impact, but it is no longer the key, Lucasfilm's shareholders, even including George Lucas himself, must maximize their interests." ”

Tom Belk said: "Twentieth Century Fox has always been the distributor of the Star Wars franchise, and we have a significant interest in the series, and Relativity Entertainment doesn't have a good relationship with us, and if Lucasfilm falls into the hands of Relativity Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox could add a lot of new troubles." ”

Jim Prologis thought of the "X-Men" series and the "Fantastic Four" series, which were still raging, and said, "Not a possibility, but a certainty." ”

Hearing the words of these two people, James Murdoch instantly had an idea and said: "The "Star Wars" series is of great value, if the "Star Wars" movie can be restarted......"

Tom Berke's eyes widened unconsciously: "Although George Lucas's prequel trilogy and comics in the past year have made Star Wars fans extremely dissatisfied, if a new movie comes out, I think there should still be a large number of viewers who will buy it, and the income will not be much lower even if it is not as good as "Revenge of the Sith". ”

Jim Pross nodded slowly: "Yes, this is a great possibility. ”

James Murdoch pondered for a moment and said, "Jim, you have a close relationship with Lucasfilm, continue to find out which one Lucasfilm and Relativity Entertainment have progress......ed to!

He said slowly: "Twentieth Century Fox has sent an offer to Lucasfilm to buy it!"

"Okay!" Jim Pross replied, then asked, "But our resources, along with News Corp., are on Time Warner's side." ”

James Murdoch shook his head: "Time Warner's side is coming to an end, and the acquisition can't be successful." ”

Speaking of which, he thought of his stubborn father, who was a little depressed for a while, News Corp. and Twentieth Century Fox had spent too many resources on Time Warner, and now they hold a number of shares in Time Warner, but the acquisition cannot continue, the economic crisis has caused Warner's stock price to fall, and a large number of funds from the two companies are temporarily tied to Warner, which is simply a waste of resources.

Especially in the twentieth century Fox, the situation is really not optimistic because of the first transfer of funds to acquire Warner shares, and then the successive failures of big-budget film projects, and the withdrawal of funds from investment institutions and bank loans, coupled with the general environmental situation brought about by the economic crisis.

Perhaps, Lucasfilm is the key to breaking the dilemma.

In mid-November, News Corp. and Twentieth Century Fox jointly convened a press conference to announce the withdrawal of the takeover bid for Time Warner.

Subsequently, Rupert Murdoch gave a television interview, claiming: "Time Warner management and its board of directors have consistently refused to negotiate with us regarding our extremely high-profile takeover offer. In addition, the share price of 20th Century Fox has been falling since the announcement of our acquisition proposal, and it does not appear that the deal is attractive to 20th Century Fox shareholders. ”

This meant that the Murdoch family's expansion plans had suffered a major setback.

Ronan was given more detailed information, and the anti-takeover faction within Time Warner has always been overwhelming, and despite the aggressiveness of News Corp. and Twentieth Century Fox, the attack on the stock market, and the huge investment in buying a group of shareholders' shares, Time Warner would rather prepare a poison pill plan than compromise.

Another point is that the U.S. entertainment media industry does not want News Corp and Twentieth Century Fox to succeed in the acquisition of Time Warner, which means the birth of a supergiant, after all, the two are not simple film and television entertainment companies like Relativity Entertainment, and they are also in the forefront of the media industry.

So, with a number of companies quietly influencing and Time Warner lobbying, Washington authorities intervened in the acquisition, including the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, which expressed their opposition to News Corp. and Twentieth Century Fox through their respective channels.

Although the Washington authorities are called a herd of pigs above the public and the media, they are not real pigs, and no company can ignore the political factor, otherwise there would not be so much capital and group speculation on the political side.

Rupert Murdoch's attempt, which ultimately failed, did not seem to have much impact on the big news corps and Twentieth Century Fox.

However, there is one aspect that cannot be ignored, and the large sums of money of the two companies cannot be withdrawn in time.

Ronan has been gathering information on all aspects of the situation as a close watcher in order to keep abreast of the latest developments.

In addition to Twentieth Century Fox and News Corp., there is also Lucasfilm, and after nearly three months of contact between Relativity Entertainment and Lucasfilm, the progress was relatively smooth, but the spoiler appeared unsurprisingly.

Although contact has been kept secret on a very small scale, Lucasfilm is not a small company, and it is impossible to keep the relevant information secret for a long time.