Los Angeles during the awards season can be described as very lively, unless they can't get out of filming outside, most of the stars will gather in Hollywood during this time, either for award public relations, or to find opportunities, all kinds of parties are also one after another, hovering between the lights and wine, and the stars are also enjoying the glory brought to them by the aura of status after a busy year.

However, the upcoming Golden Globes are no longer attractive to Eric, and he even knows the final results of some awards in advance, such as "The Lion King" will win Best Picture in the Musical Comedy category, and Catherine will lose to Mel Gibson in the Golden Globe Award for Best Director for the follow-up Oscar PR strategy. In the final analysis, even the Oscars, which have more than 6,000 judges, have been affected by public relations factors, not to mention the Golden Globe Awards, which have only more than 90 judges.

Compared with the Golden Globe Awards, Eric pays more attention to the 29th Super Bowl final to be held at the end of the month, and this year's Super Bowl final is just the turn of ABC to broadcast live, which also has a certain symbolic meaning for the Firefly Group.

Of course, Firefly's upcoming summer films "Jurassic Park 2", "Solo Day" and "Toy Story 2" also won the best Super Bowl live advertising space. The three summer blockbusters have been largely produced, and after the Super Bowl trailers, Firefly will conduct internal test screenings of these films, making appropriate adjustments based on audience response, and then will begin large-scale global distribution and promotional efforts.

While he doesn't have to be as busy with PR activities as many award-nominated filmmakers, Eric has been just as busy lately as he gets off the ground at the start of the new year. In addition to attending a variety of important meetings. Eric also needs to be personally involved in the work of Firefly's film project for the new year.

After the hand-drawn animation department was auctioned off as a whole. After half a year of recruitment and training, the fully digital Disney animation department has begun to take shape, and at the end of last year, a 6-minute 3D animated short film was completed, which was very good. In addition to more than 200 trained digital animators, Eric coordinated with Pixar to move a small Pixar team led by Peter Doggett to Los Angeles to take charge of Disney's animation department, and Peter Doggett arrived with an animation project he had conceived himself. "Monster Electric Company".

While Pixar's most well-known anime in Native Time is Toy Story, in Eric's view, Monster Power Inc. Pixar's work of taking imagination to the extreme, the idea of monster employees passing through the doors of time and space to collect children's screams to draw energy is amazing, and at the end of this story, the transformation of the monsters from scaring children to bringing joy to children is also completely in line with Disney's core spirit of bringing joy to the world, so this work can almost be said to be tailor-made for the new Disney digital animation department, and Peter Doggett demos "Monster Power" for Firefly management After the story version. All the executives present agreed to start the project immediately, and gave maximum support in terms of production time and project budget.

Firefly Pictures' two big-budget live-action films, "Titanic" and "The Matrix", have also entered the substantive preparatory stage.

Firefly Studios is a specially prepared studio for Titanic. After taking a break for more than half a year, Cameron, who started working under Eric's repeated urging, was gushing about his plan: "I have surveyed the environment of Rosarito in detail, where Firefly can build a base dedicated to filming Titanic, and the Mexican side has agreed to cooperate with our work." I also plan to replicate the Titanic in its entirety, which will take about three months, but during these three months, the crew will be able to shoot the corresponding interior scenes in the studio......"

Eric stood in front of the workbench covered with sketches, looked at the delicate model of the Titanic in the center of the workbench, and suddenly interrupted Cameron's words: "Jim, you mean, you plan to copy the Titanic in its entirety?"

Cameron eagerly explains: "Of course, Eric, although it will definitely cost a little more, but I think this is the only way to achieve 100% realism, and if you shoot entirely on a model or a green screen, the visual effect will definitely be greatly reduced." ”

Eric recalled the information in his mind, took the model of the Titanic on the workbench, gestured and said: "Jim, I must agree to build the real Titanic, but there is no need for a complete copy, you see, the two sides of this ship are almost identical, we can build only one side, so we can save a lot of budget, right?"

Cameron took the model over, held it on his chin and thought about it for a while, still a little hesitant, and said: "Eric, this can indeed save a budget, but if one side is used on both sides, many props, especially those with character symbols, need to be completely reversed when shooting, and the workload of post-production special effects will also increase a lot, and correspondingly, the production cycle will also be extended." ”

"Compared to building a complete Titanic model, it's definitely a lot cheaper to copy a set of props with inverted characters, right?Jim, you should know in your heart how huge the project you want to shoot is, the budget of $150 million is absolutely unprecedented, and this is also the highest budget that Firefly can afford, so you can save some or save some. ”

Although Cameron was still a little reluctant, Eric's reason also made him unable to refute, and compromised: "Okay, Eric, just do as you say." ”

While chatting, a staff member knocked lightly on the open door: "Mr. Williams, Mr. Cameron, Miss Vichy has put on her makeup, do you want to take a look?"

Eric nodded, "Of course, let her come over." ”

Soon, Rachel Weisz walked in surrounded by a group of staff, and everyone in the studio was almost immediately attracted by Rachel's outfit.

The deep purple wide-brimmed top hat set off Rachel's face a little petite, but it didn't hide the pride and stubbornness of an English lady with a slightly raised chin.

The double-breasted lapel suit dress accentuates Rachel's slender and slender figure. Compared to the somewhat bloated figure in my memory, I don't know how many times stronger. The white gloves and the umbrella in his hand add a bit of elegance to Rachel.

Facing the scrutinizing gaze of everyone gathered on him. Rachel didn't have stage fright at all, but took a few steps forward, with a demure smile on the corner of his mouth, and reached out to Cameron with a graceful gesture: "Hello, Mr. Director, I'm Rose DeWitt Booker, it's nice to meet you." ”

The standard British London accent woke Cameron from his trance, and almost subconsciously caught Rachel's hand and shook it gently. Then he reacted, turned his head excitedly, and said to Eric, "That's right, Eric, this is my Rose." ”

Eric said teasingly, "I told you, Jim, that I have a hundred times better eye for choosing a heroine than you do." ”

"I hope you don't focus on choosing the lead actor," Cameron retorted with a little mischief, his gaze turning to Rachel again, after the excitement just now. There was already a little more pickiness in his eyes, and he beckoned the costumer to step forward. Said: "The shape of this suit is very good, but the white looks too monotonous, are there any other colors?"

The costumer replied, "There's another black and white striped model, Mr. Cameron, would you like to try it?"

"Well, I'll give it a try," Cameron nodded, circled around Rachel, and shook his head again, "Umbrellas, umbrellas aren't right, I remember what I saw in the materials......"

Cameron was still recalling, and the costumer took the initiative to explain: "Mr. Cameron, your eyes are so sharp, Miss Rachel should have been equipped with a wooden umbrella, but we can't find that style for the time being, so we can only customize it later." ”

"Write it down, don't forget," Cameron nodded, took a step back, and held his chin again.

Eric knew that Cameron couldn't finish for a while, so he turned his attention away from Rachel Weisz, and waved at the petite figure who had been following Rachel just now, although most of the people around were paying attention to Rachel, but someone still noticed Eric's movements, Caroline's face was slightly red, and she smiled at Eric a little reservedly, but still walked over: "Eric, good morning." ”

Eric stepped aside and let Caroline lean against the large workbench with him, and asked with a smile, "It's supposed to be work time, are you absenteeism?"

"No," Caroline shrunk her neck, knowing that Eric was joking with herself, but she still looked at Kelly who was standing not far away, and explained with a small face, "I took a leave of absence from Ms. Haynes, Rachel just arrived in Los Angeles yesterday, and I need help with a lot of things, but I can go to work tomorrow." ”

Eric shook his head and said with a smile: "Don't be in such a hurry, you good sister haven't seen each other for so long, you can accompany her around Los Angeles this week, and come back to work next week." ”

Caroline waved her hand and said, "It won't take that long, it's only Tuesday today." ”

Eric patted Caroline on the shoulder, "Don't refuse, just take it as my reward for your work, Kelly has always told me that you have done a great job, let me praise you." ”

Caroline nodded her chin in delight, but quickly asked a little unconfidently, "Really?"

Eric nodded very firmly and smiled: "Really, I have read the Qualcomm data you are responsible for collecting, and it is very detailed. ”

Caroline's face flushed, her little head drooped subconsciously, and after a while, she mustered up the courage to raise her head and said, "Eric, Rachel said that she wanted to take the time to invite you to dinner, thank you for helping her get this role." ”

"When?"

"We know you've been busy lately, as long as you have time. ”

Eric said, "Then I'll let you know then, will Rachel live with you?"

"Well, Rachel is staying with Melanie and me for the time being, but Rachel's agent is looking for a house for her, she said...... She said it wasn't appropriate for Rachel to live with us. ”

Rachel's brokerage contract was signed directly under the ICM banner under Eric's lead, and hearing the rare small dissatisfaction in Caroline's tone, Eric said: "If you think that agent is not doing well, feel free to call me." I made Kapoor substitutions. ”

"Nope. No. Caroline quickly shook her head and said, "She's doing a good job, I just regret not being able to live with Rachel." ”

Eric smiled and didn't say anything more, Caroline has lived in the meticulous care of relatives and friends since she was a child, and she is simple-hearted, and she is inevitably a little too dependent on the people close to her.

Picked on by Cameron, Rachel stepped forward to greet Eric. Then he was rushed by the eager Cameron to transform the type, and Caroline looked at Eric with some reluctance and followed.

Eric was about to continue discussing the preparation of the project with Cameron, when Kelly came over and said, "Eric, it's ten o'clock, you made an appointment with Owen Jacob and Alan Salmasi from Qualcomm at noon, Chris and Emily just called, they have arrived at Sharp Corner Manor." ”

Eric looked at his watch, it would take about an hour to get back to Malibu from Preavista, and he needed to prepare in advance. So Cameron said goodbye and left Firefly Studios.

Take Kelly back to Sharp Horn Manor. The chef was already preparing lunch, the twins were helping in the kitchen, and Nizi and Emily were sitting in the corner by the glass curtain wall, giggling and discussing something, but Chris, who was sitting on the sofa reading a magazine, first noticed Eric and Kelly, and got up and waved.

Walking through the hall to the curtain wall, Nizi and Emily also came over.

After greeting each other, Chris didn't immediately talk to Eric about Qualcomm, but took out a thick package and handed it to Eric, saying, "Eric, this is what my dad asked me to bring to you." ”

Eric took it curiously, feeling as if there was a book inside, and asked a little heavily, "What is it?"

A few people sat down on the sofa, Xiao Nizi was tired of Eric beside her, and unceremoniously took out the contents of the package, but it was a thick stack of split-shot sketches, but when she saw the first one in Xiao Nizi's hand, Eric raised her eyebrows slightly and took the stack of sketches.

Although the brushstrokes of the sketches were a little rough, it was obvious that each one was very careful, and Eric could still easily tell that the content of the first sketch was that of a man lying in a nutrition warehouse with pipes in his body.

Then flip through it, and in each subsequent photo, you can find a familiar scene from a certain movie in your memory.

Chris looked at Eric's serious expression and explained with a smile: "Didn't my dad do a film investment project to support young directors, the agent will transfer some scripts to him every month to choose, I went back to Maryland to visit my dad last week, he just received this package, and after reading the sketch, he asked me to bring it to you, and he also said that these two young people are very attentive, they obviously like your novel very much, isn't "The Matrix" in the process of selecting directors, maybe you can try it." ”

With a smile on his lips, Eric continued to flip through the hundreds of drawings he had prepared in his hand, and asked knowingly, "What's their name?"

Chris said: "These are the brothers, the older brother is Larry Wachowski, and the younger brother is Andy Wachowski, and they've already had a script in Hollywood, oh, there's contact information in the package." ”

As Chris said this, Nizi helped Eric open the package and look for it, took out an envelope, and handed it to Eric.

Eric took it and read the letter, which was addressed to Jeffrey, in a sincere tone that would introduce them to the position of director of The Matrix.

Chris explained at this time: "Dad said that the two brothers should be worried that they would send these to the fireflies, and it would probably be disposed of as garbage if they didn't reach you, so they found another way to contact him." ”

Eric put the letter paper and storyboard in an envelope and put it away, and said with a smile, "I'll think about this carefully." But for now, let's talk about the next meeting with Owen Jacob. ”

Chris knew that since these things had been handed to Eric, with his vision of the movie, if the two brothers could really take on the role of director of "The Matrix", Eric would definitely not miss this opportunity, so he didn't say anything more, and followed Eric's topic: " Firefly Investment, I have bought 2.1 million shares of Qualcomm shares, but there are only 6 million shares in the market after all, our buying during this period should have been noticed, recently Qualcomm stock price has risen to $19.6, an increase of nearly 15%, and the selling orders are getting less and less, I am afraid it is not easy to continue to absorb enough 3 million shares in the circulation market. ”

Hearing Chris and Eric talk about these boring company data, Nizi obviously lost interest, got up and pulled Emily and Kelly towards the kitchen together.

Eric turned sideways to let the women away and said, "If you can't buy it, forget it, if the next thing can be negotiated, we can ask Qualcomm to directly conduct a private placement of Firefly Investment." ”

Chris nodded, he actually had this idea in his heart, and said, "In addition, I recently investigated AT-T, Verizon and Sprint, the three main operators, CDMA is definitely hopeless on AT-T, and there are a number of operators relying on AT-T will definitely follow it to choose GSM technology, but Verizon and Sprint have not yet determined the technical standards, as long as we can pull any of the two into the CDMA camp, our investment in Qualcomm is valuable. As for the C-segment license, according to the current situation, there is also that somewhat ridiculous lawsuit, I think that in the future, this part of the frequency band license will eventually be swallowed up by the three major operators, and it is somewhat unrealistic for CDMA to seek a breakthrough in this regard. ”

Chris said, handing Eric some materials prepared in advance, and said, "It's not impossible to pull Verizon and Sprint into the CDMA camp, this is the financial information of the two companies, you can see it when you look at it." (To be continued.) )