After an afternoon of talking about movies 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 female man, and he is still very bold. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Moreover, during the casual conversation over dinner, Jodie Foster knew much more about Eric than Eric knew about her, and much of the information was definitely not the kind that could be found in the media. After Eric's probing, he learned that after filming "The Silence of the Lambs", Jodie Foster and Julia had always maintained a very good friendship. A group of women get together, and the topics they talk about in private are self-evident.

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

Firefly's contract with Jodie Foster went well, and Jodie Foster took a lot of information about Gravity from Eric and began preparing for the film and spin-off novel.

The actor of "Gravity", Eric, still chose George Clooney.

Before participating in "Batman and Robin" last year, George Clooney had already announced that he would leave the filming of ABC's hit series "ER" and intend to concentrate on developing in the film industry.

And then, almost no then.

However, the popularity of this handsome old guy who is always personable in the circle does make many people out of reach. Before Eric had even sent an invitation to George Clooney, someone had already begun to match him, and even Jodie Foster, who had just announced that he was a friend of Eric, called and felt that George Clooney was very suitable for the role of Matt Koworski, so Eric also pushed the boat and reaped a small favor.

At Los Angeles International Airport, the time has come to mid-January before you know it.

Eric and Katzenberg and several other Firefly Group executives are seeing off the crew of "The Lord of the Rings".

From the idea of filming "The Lord of the Rings" when he was a child to now, he has been looking forward to it for 30 years, and the film of his dreams is finally about to start, and now Peter Jackson looks radiant and energetic.

After shaking hands with Eric, Katzenberg and others one by one, and swearing a promise, Peter Jackson boarded a charter flight to New Zealand with a team of nearly 100 people, looking like he didn't plan to return to Hollywood if he didn't make a good movie.

Of course, with a huge budget of $300 million for the entire trilogy project, if it is smashed, this guy really doesn't want to go back to Hollywood.

Until now, except for Eric's full support for the plan of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy continuous shooting, most of the management of Firefly still has a worried attitude in their hearts, and the media has never given up on questioning this 'big and inappropriate' project.

It wasn't until the sky-blue Boeing 747 burst into the sky that Eric patted Katzenberg on the shoulder next to him and said, "Jeffrey, and everyone, let's go back." I think you should give a little more confidence to the guy who has been able to hold on to an idea for thirty years, not to mention that Firefly can't afford to lose $300 million now. ”

Walking towards the tarmac with Eric, Katzenberg smiled wryly, "Eric, you know that this is more than a matter of $300 million. ”

The release of the first part of "The Lord of the Rings" is scheduled for the end of next year, and now that the project has been finalized, in the next nearly two years, in addition to the production budget of the film, Firefly must also invest a lot of marketing resources to promote it. These marketing resources, as well as the potential time cost, are indeed far more than $300 million.

Eric naturally understood these truths, and he didn't bother to think of any reason to comfort a few old men, so he changed the topic and said: "Does the male protagonist of "Midnight Bell" have eyebrows?"

Katzenberg shook his head and said, "Kenneth Horn and that Gore Wipinski in charge of the new line both want Johnny Depp to try." However, Johnny Depp has been pulled into Tim Burton's pending project, Depp has always been good friends with Burton, and the kid is not interested in this horror film, and he said that if he wants to participate, unless Firefly can invest in Burton's new movie. ”

Eric narrowed his eyes, and if he hadn't heard Tim Burton's name, he would have scoffed at Johnny Depp's request. Now the three major Hollywood agencies have no confidence to put any binding conditions in front of the Firefly Group, let alone an actor.

"What's Tim Burton's new movie?"

Katzenberg thought for a moment and said, "It's a movie based on a very old horror novel, called "Guillotine Valley." ”

And so it was.

Eric thought to himself, and continued: "I have also heard of this novel, and the subject matter is very in line with Burton's grotesque and weird style, how can no one want to invest in it?"

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

Eric doesn't remember this, going back, all he remembers is Burton's second "Batman Returns" filmed in 1992, and in the next few years, he really hasn't heard of any good films from Burton.

Katzenberg looked at Eric and shook his head and said: "That's it, since 1992's "Batman Returns", Burton's movies have not been successful in recent years, especially the last "Martian Plays the Earth" with Jack Nicholson, which invested $70 million and only 37 million at the North American box office. After the film failed, Warner completely parted ways with him. I haven't seen the project information of "Guillotine Valley", but I have heard some of it when I chatted with people in private, and the cost of this film may be close to 100 million, so everyone naturally avoids it. ”

Tim Burton is definitely a Hollywood geek, and because he is a geek, the box office prospects of directing films are very precarious.

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

After thinking about it for a while, Eric said to Katzenberg, "Jeffrey, have someone bring me the script and budget for "Guillotine Valley." ”

Katzenberg worried: "Eric, in addition to the Batman series, Burton's previous highest-grossing "Beetle Juice" is only more than 70 million dollars, you won't really be interested in "Guillotine Valley", right?"

Eric smiled and asked, "Isn't "Beetle Juice" a film produced by Disney back then, do you remember the production budget of this movie?"

Katzenberg nodded: "It's about $15 million, well, that's a lot of money." ”

"'Beatle Juice' is a grotesque horror story, which is exactly what Burton is good at, so he can shoot it very well and be recognized by the market. I haven't seen the film, but just listening to the name, we can't help but guess that this is a comedy, and if you let a horror genius make a comedy, how likely do you think it is to succeed? And now, "Guillotine Valley", this 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 first find me the information about "Guillotine Valley", and then call Johnny Depp directly, and say that I can do Tim Burton this favor and ask him to sign a contract directly with the crew of "Midnight Bell". When I read the script, if I think it's good, we'll shoot it ourselves, and if it doesn't, we'll release the news that Eric Williams is very optimistic about the project and let others rush to shoot it. ”

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

"Don't you believe my eyes?"

"Of course I believe it, the point is, you haven't even read the script. ”

"Don't you trust my instincts?"

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

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

In January, it is the busiest time for the entire Firefly Group, and a large amount of financial information, summary planning, and personnel transfers are concentrated during this time. Eric has also recently formed a regular 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 a few papers.

Placing a stack of folders in front of Eric, Caroline said, "Eric, we just received news from Europe that Seagram Group and Philips Group have just reached an agreement to acquire Polygram Records for $10.6 billion. ”

Negotiations between the Seagram Group and the Philips Group on the acquisition of Polygram Records have been going on publicly for half a year, and Eric was not too surprised, picking up a folder that Caroline had just put down and flipping through it, asking, "Is there anything else?"

"Not for the time being, the Philips Group just released a very brief press conference before the end of work today local time in the Netherlands. ”

Eric nodded, remembering what he had talked about with Katzenberg when he returned, and had planned to ask Caroline to collect information on "Guillotine Valley", but he thought that he had already told Katzenberg about it, so he didn't do anything more.

After Caroline left, Eric had just finished flipping through the list of 16 films that New Line Pictures had included in the planned production or distribution this year, when Katzenberg personally knocked on the door and came in.

"Eric, this is the script and budget plan for "Guillotine Valley", and it also has Tim Burton's contact information, you can call him at any time if you have any questions," handed Eric a bag of papers, and Katzenberg pulled a chair and sat down across from Eric, "I just heard that Seagram has just reached an agreement with Philips to buy Polygram." ”

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

"Barry Weiss and I have spoken several times about the hot girl group you've created in Europe, and the 'wannabe' single has already sold over a million copies in the UK alone. Although the focus of the Spice Girls is not in North America, because of you as a songwriter, the "wannabe" single album has sold more than 1.6 million copies in the United States. However, because of the imperfect distribution channels of Firefly Records, except for the United Kingdom and the United States, the sales data of this single in other European countries and Southeast Asia are very unsatisfactory. So, Barry said, even if we don't want to expand globally, we should buy another record label that has at least a complete distribution channel in Europe, so that our record business can fully cover the whole of Europe and the United States. ”

In order to create a teen pop singer, Eric poached Barry Weiss, a music producer who once became popular with Backstreet Boys, Britney and others, from a small record label owned by Sony. In recent years, Barry Weiss's work has been really satisfying, and now Firefly Records has several first-line pop stars.

It's 1998, and with the further explosion of Internet users around the world, this year will also be a watershed moment for the record industry from prosperity to decline. Even if MP3 players don't appear in advance, the brick-and-file record industry will see a very significant decline in the coming years due to the rapid proliferation of pirated music on the Internet.

Eric's positioning of Firefly Records has always been to promote the 'ancillary facilities' of MP3 players. However, now that Barry Weiss has come forward more than once, Eric also realizes that if Firefly wants to keep this talent, he must make a move on the record business.

Although it achieved very brilliant sales in North America last year, the Fireflyer player is still in the early stages of promotion, and if it leaves the support of Firefly Records to continuously launch excellent records, Firefly Electronics will be more passive in the promotion process, and Eric does not want Barry Weiss to leave Firefly Records at this time.

If the acquisition of this record industry giant, the Firefly Group will immediately have a global record distribution network, but this is obviously impossible, Eric will never spend more than $10 billion to buy a company that is destined to decline.

After thinking about it for a moment, 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 about record companies last year: "If I remember correctly, Viking Records should be a subsidiary of EMI, right?"

"yes, Barry actually wants us to buy Momoyo. ”

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

"That's what I told him," Katzenberg laughs, "So, on the back, Barry got his eye on Viking records." The label was acquired by EMI in 1992 for $1 billion. However, since being acquired, Viking Records has not produced any A-list pop stars over the years, and its performance has been tepid, and now it has become a burden for EMI Records. Barry approached one of the directors of Viking Records, who said that if Firefly was interested, he could coordinate it and help us complete the acquisition. (To be continued.) )