Watching Natalie Portman leave, Brad Pitt went back to his desk and sat down, leaning back in a wide chair, thinking about what Natalie Portman had just said.

"Andrew Stanton wanted to direct a live-action film. He tapped his fingers slowly on his desk and pondered, "Or is it a top-notch production with an investment of more than $200 million?"

No wonder Matthew Horner regretted "Cloud Atlas", but there was no subsequent action to compete, it turned out that he wanted to run such a big project, but such a super production can be handled by Matthew Horner and David Ellison? The two of them may be able to raise funds, but Hollywood's top big productions are not something that can be played with money.

His fingers tapped on the desk more and more slowly, ""Princess Mars" seems to be the work of the author of "Tarzan of the Apes", it is said that many big productions in the circle have borrowed from this, and in this respect alone, "Princess Mars" is very valuable for adaptation.

And Andrew Stanton is a very thoughtful person in terms of movies, and he has served as a producer and screenwriter for several Pixar animated films, all of which have been successful without exception, and the "Finding Nemo" directed by him has become a hit at both the box office and word of mouth.

Andrew Stanton is a very successful man by any measure.

The probability of success of such a person's project is relatively high.

Natalie Portman is worthy of being one of the most scheming women in Hollywood, and inadvertently got a lot of useful information from Matthew Horner, but unfortunately she is less famous than Angelina Jolie, otherwise she can kick Jolie out and change to another girlfriend.

Brad Pitt sat in his office and asked his assistant to stop all the calls for half an hour before bringing in the director of Project Investment for Plan B.

This is his absolute cronies.

"Franco ......," he said to the director of the project investment department, "There is a project on Walt Disney's side, Andrew Stanton of Pixar Studios, who wants to direct a film called "Martian Princess" or "Alien Battlefield", and the project is still in the early planning stage, you need to find someone to find out, and don't have direct contact with Disney and Andrew Stanton for the time being." ”

The director named Franco nodded seriously and said, "I'll find someone to do it." ”

As he got up and left, Brad Pitt added, "Wait. ”

He then went back to explaining the details and telling Franco to keep his operation secret.

Such a huge project is still in the early planning stage, and the budget amount determines that there is still a long way to go before the preliminary preparation, and Brad Pitt is very patient and not in a hurry.

Matthew is also very patient, and in addition to being busy with work and fitness routines these days, he has been enjoying the freshness and excitement of "rhythmic gymnastics" every night.

A beautiful girl who has just left the professional gymnastics world for a few years can burst into charm with all her might, which is really amazing.

Nina Dobov also blew his mind.

Of course, Matthew is a man with a great work ethic and has already said hello to Bearded Jack and Justin Lin to reserve a female character that is not very important.

"I've been to Paramount Pictures for the past few days. ”

In the reception room of Horner Manor, Helen Herman sat on the sofa and said unhurriedly, "I have also been in contact with the publisher of the "Twilight" trilogy, and I have learned some basic information. ”

Matthew kept walking back and forth in the reception room and said, "Tell me more about it." ”

"The series currently consists of Twilight, New Moon and Lunar Eclipse, but it is not a traditional trilogy and is not finished. "Helen Herman's tone is as steady as ever," according to the publisher, author Stephanie Mayer is working on the fourth installment. ”

She took a sip from her teacup and continued, "Author Stephanie Mayer, now in her Chinese New Year's Eve, was originally a stay-at-home housewife with three children and had no writing experience, but her debut novel, Twilight, was a success upon its release, and since its release in 2005, Twilight has been on the New York Times bestseller list for 56 weeks, including five weeks. ”

Matthew nodded and asked with concern, "What about the copyright?

That's what he's most concerned about, and he's been learning recently that there are a lot of books that have topped the New York charts, and the rights to the movies haven't been sold yet, so he's hopeful.

"About copyright...... Helen Herman said deliberately, "there's good news and bad news, which do you want to hear first?"

"Miss Herman. Matthew turned to look at her, "That's not your usual style, is it?"

Helen Herman didn't go any further down the banter and simply said, "Let's talk about the good news first." The rights to the series are still in Stephanie Mayer's hands, and according to the reliable information I received, Stephanie Mayer had a lot of ideas for adapting the movie, she hired a screenwriter to adapt "Twilight" with her, and sent the script to many studios, Paramount Pictures was the only one of the six Hollywood companies that had ever been interested. ”

She shrugged slightly, "But a bestseller doesn't equate to a successful movie, and the manuscripts of Stephanie Mayer's and the script reached the desks of several Paramount Pictures executives at the beginning of this year, and it has been more than half a year now, and the manuscripts are still lying in Paramount Pictures' script library waiting to fall into the dust." ”

Matthew breathed a sigh of relief, which meant he still had a chance, and then asked, "Why?"

"Quite simply, Stephanie Mayer has no contact with the film industry, and the screenwriters she hires are very peripheral, and her current agency is also inconspicuous in the book publishing industry, and lacks practical operational experience. Helen Herman lifted her glasses, "So, Stephanie Mayer's agency only sent the script manuscript to the film company, not even the most basic plan, and this kind of script can be very rare by the film company." ”

She continued, "Also, several executives at Paramount Pictures with decision-making power think that vampire and werewolf love is stupid, and that this kind of movie should be an action movie, not a dead and alive youth romance of love." ”

Matthew nodded slightly, if it weren't for the forgotten memories evoked by Nina Dubov by chance, judging by the successful experience of Hollywood in the past, movies with werewolves and vampires, of course, to make magical action movies, what kind of love things like vampires and the like, will there be a sense of substitution?

Helen Herman continued, "Now that it is recognized in the circle that the era of big hits in romance movies has passed, and in the last five or six years, big hits have been extremely rare, and even the former queen of romance films, Julia Roberts, can't lead the series, how can the film company be confident?"

At this point, she tilted her head to look at Matthew, "Are you sure you want to fight for the rights to this series? What I just said is not just a problem faced by Paramount Pictures, but an objective condition." ”

Matthew didn't talk nonsense, didn't explain much, and said directly, "As long as possible, I will do my best to win the film adaptation rights." ”

"That's good. Helen Herman, as always, didn't get to the bottom of it, "Now I'm going to have bad news. ”

Hearing this, Matthew raised an eyebrow in dissatisfaction with her.

Helen Herman didn't seem to see it, and said, "Stephanie Mayer and her agency have not waited, and have been actively seeking the possibility of film adaptation, in July, they contacted Summit Entertainment, and last month Summit Entertainment gave an exact reply, expressing interest in the series and willing to buy the copyright to invest in the adaptation of "Twilight". ”

Matthew interjected and asked, "Didn't negotiate?"

"Given those objective conditions that I said. Helen Herman said calmly, "Summit Entertainment doesn't want to invest too much money, you've worked with Summit Entertainment, and you know that they're just a mid-range production company, and they invested a huge $110 million this year to bet on Kathryn Bigelow's Bomb Disposal Unit." ”

"Just James Cameron's ex-wife as a director?" Matthew gestured, "the one stronger than me?"

He met this female director once at the beginning of the century, Charlize Theron was already a very big skeleton among women, but compared to Catherine Bigelow, she was not in the stream at all.

Catherine Bigelow is six feet tall, more than 90 percent of men, and has a tiger's back and waist that is not enough to describe, and James Cameron's aesthetic simply cuts through the cosmic sky.

Helen Herman nodded, not dwelling on the issue, and said, "For a company of Summit Entertainment's size, the more than $100 million "Bomb Disposal Unit" plus several small projects such as "Dance Out of My Life 2" and "Never Back Down" at the same time, the funds have reached the limit. ”

There is no doubt about this, when he cooperated with Summit Entertainment in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" before, Matthew heard Aziva Gossman say that the assets of the entire Summit Entertainment Company are only two or three hundred million US dollars.

Summit Entertainment has invested in these projects, and it must have reached the limit of financing and pre-sales.

Helen Herman took another sip of the teacup, moistened her throat, and then said, "Summit Entertainment only paid $1 million for the rights to "Twilight", and the film adaptation budget was about $8 million, which was too far from Stephanie Mayer's expectations, and the negotiations between the two sides have dragged on from July to now, and no result has been negotiated. ”

"Isn't that good news for us?" asked Matthew.

Helen Herman shook her head slowly, "Due to the lack of interest from other film companies, Stephanie Mayer has a tendency to compromise under the persuasion of the agency. ”

Matthew immediately turned his head, looked at Helen Herman and said, "You meet me with Stephanie Mayer!"

(The script and script for "Twilight" were unattended at Paramount Pictures for half a year, but it was a real thing.) ）