The production process of American TV dramas is very standard and complex, and the competition is extremely fierce, often only one out of a hundred scripts can be selected, and many American dramas that enter the filming stage, after the production of pilot episodes, will also go through a rigorous screening process again and kill the next part. In the end, the new American drama that can be broadcast on the TV station, according to the convention, only six episodes are booked first, and after the first broadcast phase before Thanksgiving is completed, if the ratings are good, the follow-up part will continue to be produced, and if the ratings are too poor, it will even be cut in half.

Even Murdoch can't buy all the first seasons completely because it is an American drama produced by his daughter's production company, at most, he will only give some preferential conditions after the TV series produced has good ratings.

And now, "Buffy" has not even been produced in a pilot episode, and it has been booked by Fox for a full first season, and Eric can't think of any other reason than himself, a producer who has a name but hasn't actually done anything.

Seeing that Eric didn't speak for a while, Capper tentatively asked, "Eric, are you still there?"

"Well, I was just a little surprised. ”

"Hehe, you're the most powerful person in Hollywood right now, so, about that incident just now, do you want to take the time to meet that girl, didn't you also say that she has a lot of potential?"

Eric smiled and teased, "I'm a little skeptical right now, whether you owe that Michelle Simmons a favor or a debt." ”

"Hey, Eric, no kidding. My sons are in secondary school. ”

"Okay, okay. That being the case. Eric touched his chin and thought for a moment, then said, "I'll just take the time to meet that girl, and honestly, I really had a good idea." ”

Kapoor asked, "About the movie?"

"yes, I just thought about making an action series with a female protagonist, and the girl is only eighteen years old, and there are still benefits, at least if that movie does well at the box office in the future. A few more sequels could be made. ”

"How can the box office of the movie you make be bad," Kapoor complimented from the bottom of his heart, and smiled half-truthfully, "Just leave a few more cast spots for ICM when the time comes." ”

"Of course it's fine," Eric said, "That's it for today, I'll get Alan in touch with you when I have time." ”

After hanging up the phone, Eric just turned around, and saw Xiao Nizi, who was originally hiding behind him and eavesdropping, jumped over and grabbed Eric's arm: "Eric." What girl, what movie?"

"It's the girl in the afternoon. Kapoor was asked to call," Eric pinched the girl's face: "Speaking of which, you are also eighteen years old, and the copyrights reserved by Flower Pictures can be taken out for you to hone in on it, starting with the female action movie I just talked about." ”

Drew was already aware of the copyright 'little treasury' that Eric had reserved for himself: "You mean the movie version of "Breaking Bad"?"

Eric took Drew into the restaurant again, and after sitting down, he said: "Yes, the first two years of "Crazy Flower of the End" and "Spicy Police Flower" performed very well at the box office and word of mouth, as well as last year's "Red Pink Alliance", which is enough to prove that female-themed movies have great potential." ”

Xiao Nizi, who has always been giggling, was a little apprehensive at this time, looked at Elizabeth and the girls, and said, "But, Eric, I don't know if I can do it well, and what should I do on TG's side?"

Eric said, "It's not going to happen for a while, and I don't think it's a problem for TG to hand it over to Liz." ”

Hearing Eric's recognition of herself, Elizabeth was a little proud at first, and then became dissatisfied: "I don't want it, TG was originally established by me, Drew and Julia, why do you have to overwhelm me with work now, but the two of them can easily get dividends." ”

"Then I'll sell you TG," Drew said without hesitation.

Elizabeth was stunned and didn't know how to answer, and Julia, who had been hugging Emma, was also worried: "Otherwise, I, I'll also give up TG's shares." ”

Julia's words are obviously empty-hearted, TG has been established for so long, she basically hasn't helped do anything, but she invested millions of dollars when she founded the company, but in the past two years, she has received more than ten times the dividends from TG, and it is with this money that Julia has become lazy and has become less interested in starring in movies, and even the Walk of Fame that Eric painted for her at the beginning is no longer interested.

Hearing Drew and Julia say this, Elizabeth was embarrassed: "I...... I didn't mean that, I just said it, I didn't mean to ask you to sell your shares. ”

Eric tapped lightly on the table, interrupting several women, and said, "Actually, I have an idea, you can listen to it." Twentieth Century Fox's film business has not been ideal for the past two years, and I remember Liz telling me that Mr. Murdoch wanted to buy TG, right?"

Seeing Elizabeth nodding, Eric continued: "In that case, then you can consider selling TG to Twentieth Century Fox as a whole, and as for whether the three of you want to exchange Fox's shares or cash, then it's up to you to decide." Then Drew can get out and come back to run his own flower studio, Liz, you can go to Fox, with the strength you have shown in the past two years, I think you can at least get a vice president position at Twentieth Century Fox. ”

Eric stopped at this point, and he didn't say anything else. As long as all goes well, then Elizabeth can slowly climb up the ladder in the Fox system and eventually take over the Murdoch family's News Corporation, although Murdoch has always preferred his son to succeed him, but if his daughter's performance is too eye-catching, far better than his son's strength, even if Murdoch still wants to prefer to hand over power to his two sons, Eric believes that the other shareholders of News Corp. will not agree, after all, although News Corp. is firmly controlled by Murdoch. But in fact, the Murdoch family does not have an absolute controlling stake in News Corporation. And investors are definitely more inclined to give their investments to the more capable person.

Eric said that. Drew immediately nodded in agreement, Elizabeth looked thoughtful, Tina Fey as an outsider, taking a small bite of the dinner in front of her, only Julia opened her mouth, as if to say what about me?

Eric cleaned the dinner on his plate in two or two, then glared at Julia, whose eyes were messing around, "As for you, we'll talk about it later." ”

Julia shrunk her neck. Lifting Emma in his arms, he said, "I...... I'm going to sleep with Emma tonight. ”

The little one didn't know why his aunt lifted herself, but the little ones obviously liked it, giggling and waving their little hands excitedly.

Eric took out a tissue from the cardboard box and wiped his hands, got up and walked over to the little one, and took Emma from Julia's arms: "Come, Emma, let's go watch TV." ”

"TV, TV," the little one called. He didn't recognize his life at all, and reached out his little hand to grab Eric's collar.

Eric walked. "Little one, I'm going to talk to your aunt tonight, are you going to sleep with Aunt Liz, or with Aunt Drew, and oh, and Aunt Tina too?"

Although the two-year-old was already able to understand Eric's words, his little brain turned around for a while before he said, "Auntie." ”

"Well, that's not good," Eric shook his head with a smile, picked up the remote control and turned on the TV, and sat down with the little girl in his arms: "Choose another one." ”

Emma, who was sitting on Eric's lap, stared at him with wide eyes for a moment, and suddenly said, "Daddy." ”

"Forehead ......"

"Hehe," hearing the little girl's crisp 'Dad', the restaurant immediately resounded with the laughter of several women.

Eric smiled and pinched the little girl's face, turned to a few people in the restaurant and asked, "What the hell is going on, why does she call me dad again?"

Elizabeth had already considered Eric's suggestion just now, and when she heard him speak, she said in a somewhat sour tone: "You're going to be a father anyway, what about multiple daughters, you still don't want to?"

"No, it just feels weird," Eric shook his head, remembering another thing, and asked, "Hey, I think about it, what was the name you registered for the little guy in the first place?"

"Emma," replied Elizabeth.

Eric sensed that Elizabeth's tone was a little strange, and asked, "I mean the last name." ”

There was a moment of silence in the dining room.

Eric had a bad feeling in his heart that these women wouldn't really mess around.

Finally, it was Drew who whispered, "Eric, don't you know?"

"I ...... You know?"

"Yes, it's said that it's still your opinion. ”

Eric felt his temples jump a few times and asked, "What the hell?"

"Emma Roberts Murdoch Barrymore Williams!"

Flutter -

Tina Fey, who was originally unknown for this reason, immediately burst out laughing when she heard this long list of surnames, and the remote control in Eric's hand fell to the floor with a snap.

After a while, Eric said to Elizabeth, "I think I remember asking about it, and somebody swore that they would never add my last name to the little one, what the hell is going on?"

Elizabeth faced Eric's questioning, and tilted her waist unconvinced: "We can add it if we want, and the surname Williams is not exclusive to you, so we can't use it yet." ”

"That's it," Julia muttered quietly, but quickly slipped into the kitchen to wash the dishes.

Drew sat down next to Eric and betrayed Elizabeth without hesitation: "Liz was afraid that using the surname Murdoch would cause misunderstanding, and I was just joining in the fun." ”

Eric habitually knocked on Drew's head, speechless: "This can also join in the fun!"

……

The day after Eric had just talked to several women about his plan for TG, Murdoch, who was far away in New York, eagerly called Eric.

Although TG's shares are not directly related to Eric, according to the contract signed when TG was established, Firefly, which owns the North American distribution rights and peripheral operation rights of all TG films, is still the biggest beneficiary of TG.

These two parts of the profits can share more than half of the profits of TG's films. Fox, on the other hand, only owns a low-profit overseas distribution right, plus a share of TG, Fox only gets 15% of the total profit generated by TG films, and Elizabeth, Drew and Julia share about 30% of the total profit.

If Fox buys TG and can't get the distribution rights back in the hands of Firefly, it's almost the same as not having an acquisition, and Murdoch obviously won't do that.

TG's valuation is also a matter that needs to be negotiated for a long time, which is similar to the situation of Miramax, which is also seeking to be sold, although history has deviated, but in the past two years, the Weinstein brothers' Miramax Films has still fallen into huge losses due to the excessive expansion of the business, and has to find a backer, but the Weinstein brothers offered 500 million US dollars, and several major studios or investment institutions that are interested in acquiring only gave Miramax a valuation of about 50 million, and the price difference is ten times. Miramax's most important bargaining chip is the Oscar public relations resources in the hands of the Weinstein brothers, this kind of 'intangible asset' is really difficult to estimate, as for Miramax's film library and distribution channels, to be honest, several major Hollywood studios don't pay much attention to it. In addition to Eric's support, the most important bargaining chip in TG's hand is undoubtedly the option contract signed with Jim Carrey for three years, with Jim Carrey's three consecutive low-budget comedies in the past two years have exceeded 100 million at the box office, even if one movie is produced every year in the remaining three years, it is conservatively estimated that it can bring about $300 million in profits to the producer.

Although the two sides are getting along more and more unpleasantly because of the conflict of interests, and there is even news that Kim Carrey contacted a lawyer to try to file a lawsuit to get rid of the option contract, the relevant people in the industry are very clear that there is no way for Kim Carrey to get rid of the contract with liquidated damages of up to $100 million, otherwise with the box office potential shown by Kim Carrey, several major studios would have already started digging into the wall.

In addition, if the TV series version of "Vampire Slayer Buffy" that TG is developing is as successful as the original plane, it will be another very important bargaining chip for future negotiations.

TG's business plan for 1993 had already been determined in advance, and even if the acquisition negotiations were to be launched, it would definitely start in the second half of the year. (To be continued......)