Due to Guillermo del Toro's illness, the crew of "I Am Legend" suspended filming, and since visiting Guillermo del Toro in the hospital, Matthew has paid special attention to the negotiations between Skydance Pictures and Universal Pictures, and from time to time he will rush to David Ellison's office to meet with David Ellison.

He could not personally participate in the negotiations, otherwise he could have caused trouble.

It's not Matthew's opinion alone, Helen Herman and David Ellison have told him several times.

The negotiations between the two sides were extremely difficult, in the first negotiation, Universal Pictures directly rejected Sky Dancing Pictures' $30 million sequel offer, and later Sky Dance Pictures raised the offer to $40 million, and Universal Pictures has also been using a delaying strategy in the negotiations and did not give a direct reply.

A few days later, the two sides returned to the negotiating table, and Universal Pictures put forward an extremely strict precondition that they sign a confidentiality agreement in advance for the relevant negotiations, and both Universal Pictures and Sky Dancing Pictures are strictly prohibited from revealing the contents of the negotiations until the negotiations are over.

Although they thought it was a big deal, Matthew and David Ellison agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement, but Sky Dance Pictures added a seven-person production team to Skydance Pictures' negotiation team on the grounds that the production team of "Spartan 300 Warriors" had the right to know.

In this way, as the nominal producer of "The Three Hundred Warriors of Sparta", Matthew's name also appears on the list, which will not arouse the suspicion of Universal Pictures.

With the signing of the non-disclosure agreement, the negotiations entered a tug-of-war stage, Matthew and David Ellison hid behind the remote control negotiation team, originally wanted to find an opportunity to propose a copyright replacement, but what they didn't expect was that without waiting for Skydance Pictures to propose, Universal Pictures offered the conditions for the copyright of the sequel to "Spartan Three Hundred Warriors".

At the same time, Universal Pictures, like Matthew and other merchants who have the initiative, has opened a terrifying lion's mouth.

In addition to exchanging the rights to the sequel to "The Three Hundred Warriors of Sparta," Universal Pictures also demanded that Sky Dance Pictures continue to pay the $40 million in rights transfer fees.

In addition, the distribution rights of all "Fast and Furious" films produced by Sky Dance Pictures in the future will be owned by Universal Pictures, which will not only take a cut of the box office revenue of the film, but also enjoy 50% of all revenues related to copyright as dividends.

Such conditions are more than harsh. ”

In the reception room of Sky Dance Pictures, Helen Herman had a cold face, "All the efforts we will make on this series in the future are just working for Universal Pictures." ”

David Ellison also shook his head, "They're more greedy than I thought." ”

The bald CEO replied, "Universal Pictures thinks they have an absolute advantage......

The atmosphere in the conference room was a little frozen, Matthew pinched the calluses in his palms, and said, "Reject them!

"Huh?" said David Ellison, thinking.

But the bald CEO said, "Matthew's words make a lot of sense, and we will just withdraw from the negotiations." ”

"I'm a layman in business, but from the perspective of profit gain and loss, you see if it's operable. Matthew said directly, "Before Universal Pictures proposed the copyright of the sequel to "The Three Hundred Warriors of Sparta", we begged Universal Pictures, and the initiative was completely in the hands of Universal Pictures, but after Universal Pictures proposed the copyright appeal for the sequel to "The Three Hundred Warriors of Sparta", the situation changed completely, and we have the sequel rights of a film that grossed more than the "Fast and Furious" trilogy combined. ”

He spread his hands, smiled, and said, "So, I think the advantage is now on our side." ”

Hearing this, David Ellison nodded slowly.

Helen Herman said, "We should change our negotiation strategy appropriately. ”

Matthew shrugged his shoulders, "I'm sorry, it's okay for me to make a suggestion, and it's up to you professionals to figure out how to negotiate specifically." ”

David Ellison frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "I'll leave this to me." ”

In the afternoon of the same day, in another round of negotiations between Sky Dance Pictures and Universal Pictures, Sky Dance Pictures categorically rejected Universal's proposal, clearly informing Universal Pictures that any content involving the copyright of "Spartan 300 Warriors" is not for sale.

In short, Matthew and David Ellison negotiated an attitude that Skydance Pictures would rather not want the rights to the sequel to the "Fast and Furious" franchise than sell the rights related to "The Three Hundred Spartans".

Sky Dance Pictures voluntarily suspended the negotiations.

It was a risky gamble, but when the news that one of the film's producers, Zack Snyder, had been in contact with Frank Miller several times as a representative of Warner Bros. was revealed by TMZ, Universal Pictures offered to resume negotiations.

The copyright negotiations then resumed, and although Sky Dance Pictures did not get the absolute initiative, it also put the two sides in a relatively equal position.

The rest is a see-saw bargain.

"How's the negotiations between Universal Pictures and Skydance Pictures?"

At a café in Burbank, Vin Diesel, with his bright bald head, asks his new agent, Bullock Lesner, "They don't know there's a circus Horner behind this, do they?"

Brock Lesner had just arrived, pulled out a chair and sat across from Vin Diesel and said, "I don't know yet, Universal Pictures always thought it was David Ellison's operation." He picked up the glass of water in front of him, took a big sip, loosened his tie, and said, "I suspect that in a week at most, Universal Pictures may reach a deal with Sky Dance." ”

Vin Diesel touched the light, and in his angry tone, there was obvious dissatisfaction, "Speculation?"

As an agent, Brock Lesner knew that Vin Diesel was the center of the world, and he didn't take it to heart, saying, "Since three days ago, I haven't heard anything new except that the two sides are negotiating, and they have obviously reached a consensus on confidentiality." ”

Hearing this, Vin Diesel was expressionless.

Brock Lesner continued, "The day before yesterday, Sky Dance voluntarily withdrew from the negotiations. Yesterday afternoon, at the initiative of Universal Pictures, the people of Sky Dancing returned to the negotiating table. ”

Vin Diesel was still expressionless, as if he would always be the same.

"This shows that the two sides are not far from reaching an agreement. Brock-Lesner reminded.

"Hmm. Vin Diesel nodded, and said in a loud voice, "So the opportunity I've been waiting for is coming?"

Brock Lesner was a little helpless, but nodded in response, "That's right." ”

He heard the relevant news from Martin Davis more than a week ago, and also fed back to Vin Diesel in time, originally according to his plan, he wanted to immediately feed back to Universal Pictures, so that Universal Pictures could completely cut off contact with Sky Dancing Pictures, and then work on his own side to run the sequel to the "Fast and Furious" series.

But Vin Diesel had no such intention at all, insisting on choosing the right time as he saw fit, and then going to Universal Pictures.

"Do you still think my approach is superfluous?" Vin Diesel asked, glaring at Brock Lesner.

Because of the need to rely on Vin Diesella's funds, Brock Lesner could only accommodate Vin Diesel before, but he was not afraid of him, and replied directly, "Very redundant." ”

"Hmph, you know what. Vin Diesel snorted coldly and said, "I not only want to reboot the Fast and Furious franchise and create a successful franchise, but also make Matthew Horner look good!"

At the mention of this name, he seemed to have a pain in his chest, as if the depression on the night of the Victoria's Secret show had never dissipated.

At first, he was only interested in restarting the "Fast and Furious" series, after all, the cooperation with Universal Pictures back then was not pleasant, and those people were often annoying on the set.

But after listening to Brock Lesnar talk about Matthew Horner's desire to buy the rights to the series, the interest instantly soared, and what could be more enjoyable than hitting Matthew Horne directly?

"I'm just going to show up when Matthew Horner is about to get his hands on it. Vin Diesel stood up, his momentum raging, as if the entire galaxy was kneeling in front of him, "Take the Fast and Furious series from him, I'm going to humiliate him to his face!

The corners of Brock Lesner's mouth jumped, and an irrepressible thought appeared, is it a mistake to dig up a megalomaniac like Vin Diesel?

This kind of person is too difficult to deal with, how much trouble and criticism will it cause in the future?

However, the idea was fleeting, and Vin Diesel had the resources he needed behind him, especially the money to launch a film project.

After lunch together, Brock Lesner accompanied Vin Diesel to Universal Pictures, where he met with a director of Universal Pictures' production department, and everything went as expected.

After learning that behind David Ellison and Skydance Pictures stood Matthew Horner, Universal Pictures reconsidered the market outlook for the Fast and Furious franchise.

The two executives of Universal Pictures took the opportunity to promote behind the scenes, and Vin Diesel clearly said that he could raise tens of millions of dollars in funds, and CAA would also invest certain resources to cooperate, and the management of Universal Pictures obviously began to hesitate.

Since someone can solve most of the production funds, Universal Pictures certainly wants to try it, and even if there is a loss in the future, it will not lose much.

The news of the breakdown of the negotiations soon reached Matthew and David Ellison, and the two quickly figured out the basic situation, and Matthew did not need to continue to hide, so he simply participated directly in the negotiations with David Ellison, and after quietly conducting two extremely confidential negotiations, he appeared at Universal Studios at the invitation of Universal Studios.