Of course, the best time to make Transformers is ten years from now, but if that happens, Eric believes that Alan Hasenfeld will probably leave on the spot.

"Five years," Eric said after a moment's thought, to Alan Hasenfeld, and it wasn't entirely about dealing with the other party. The production time was advanced to about 2000, and there were no big problems in terms of technology, but the cost would be higher: "I have several high-tech companies in my hands, so I still have a good understanding of this aspect. At the current pace of technological development, Transformers will be able to start up in five years, and the cost will be within the range of risks we can bear. ”

Eric's remarks last night, although it did not completely discourage the film companies that wanted to get the rights to Transformers, the impact was also very obvious.

Before Alan Hasenfeld came in the morning, he called the executives of several film companies that had been negotiating for a while, and the tone of the other party was no longer as eager as it had been a few days ago. Alan Hassenfeld understands that these people are not no longer interested in the Transformers copyright, but because of Eric's words, they have scruples.

Since Eric openly suppressed the Transformers copyright at the party, no matter what his intentions were, his intention to not want others to compete for the Transformers copyright is almost certain. Since Eric did this while Transformers was still in the copyright battle stage, there is no guarantee that he will not be ruined during the production of the film.

Therefore, the best partner for Hasbro at this time is only Fireflies. Of course. They can also hold the Transformers copyright in their hands, but this is not in the fundamental interest of Hasbro.

After Eric finished speaking, Alan Hasenfeld stopped inking. "Eric, Firefly has always been Hasbro's most desired partner, and we have thought about it in detail, if you can be the director of this film yourself, Firefly will only need to pay $5 million for the copyright license, but Hasbro hopes to co-invest." Our requirements are not high, only 30% of the investment rights are sufficient. ”

"Alan, I can't guarantee that I will be able to be the director of this film. However, I will definitely be the producer myself, and as for Hasbro wanting to participate in the investment, it is not impossible to consider it......"

Eric replied without hesitation. It's not that he can't guarantee it. Rather, he didn't want to be the director of Transformers at all.

Eric's positioning of the Transformers series of films is a super popcorn movie, with all kinds of special effects, all kinds of explosions, all kinds of cool, these are enough. Because of this positioning of the Transformers in the previous life, the ratings of the media and filmmakers have basically not passed, and Eric still cares more about his director's reputation, so the position of the director of the Transformers should continue to be handed over to the explosive shell who doesn't care so much about the filmmaker's various fancy mockery.

The two of you haggled back and forth. An agreement was finally reached.

Hasbro licensed the film adaptation rights of Transformers to the Firefly Group for $3 million for a period of ten years. Firefly promises to develop a film version in five years. Hasbro can invest up to 25% of the film.

Alan Hädlingfeld didn't really care about the multimillion-dollar licensing fee, so Eric lowered the licensing price to $3 million, and he didn't insist too much. However, Eric was a little surprised to allow Hasbro to participate in 25% of the investment. During this period of contact with other studios, the main point of conflict in the negotiations was the proportion of investment that Hasbro participated in.

Hasbro initially whimsically wanted to invest half of the live-action film with its partners, but they soon realized that the major studios would not be able to agree to such conditions. Before Alan Hasenfeld came, the bottom line in his mind was actually 20%, and Eric readily gave a 25% investment ratio, which even gave him the idea that he would not have to waste so much time with several other companies.

Eric took in Alan Hassenfeld's expression and smiled in his heart. Even if the idea buried in the bottom of my heart doesn't work out by then, Hasbro will taste Hollywood's financial system in the future.

The specific terms of the contract will definitely need to be discussed in detail by both parties. But now that the results have been decided, Eric is a little more enthusiastic, and he deliberately opened a bottle of champagne to be a simple celebration.

Alan Halsenfield, champagne in hand, and Eric looked forward to the future of Transformers movies with Eric, and seemed to inadvertently cause another topic: "Eric, with all due respect, Firefly's development of movie merchandise in recent years is far from reaching the limit of those big hits. For example, in the case of several 3D animated films released by Disney, Firefly produced some merchandise itself, but limited these goods to fixed sales circles such as Disneyland and Disney stores. As for the types of peripheral goods that Firefly can't produce, your extensive licensing model of cooperating with whoever applies is actually a great waste of the brand. ”

Firefly is actually aware of this problem internally, but in the past few years, both Firefly and Disney have focused on the film business, and after the annexation of Disney, Eric has started the acquisition of TV networks non-stop, and there has not been much energy to deal with this matter during this period. Katzenberg has already begun to look for a solution, and Eric has recently seen several related documents, and the brand operations department is discussing a packaged image licensing agreement with the fast-food giant KFC, which is about $100 million a year for KFC to license the cartoon characters printed on the tableware of its fast-food restaurants. As long as this cooperation plan is formed, Firefly can continue to use it as a template to develop a more efficient brand operation strategy.

However, of course, Eric would not say this to Alan Hasenfeld, and he understood the intention of Alan Hasenfeld's words, so he just nodded approvingly, and some other thoughts popped into his mind at the same time.

Sure enough, Alan Hasenfeld added, "Eric, that's the case. I think why don't we work together in depth on this. Firefly is a media conglomerate, and I'm guessing you're not going to go on a big spree with its Disney store. That's not the focus of Firefly's business. Then, Hasbro is well positioned to fill the gap in markets beyond Disneyland and Disney stores, as we not only have a well-established product distribution system in North America, but also have a deep market expansion in Europe and Asia. ”

Eric made a very interested look, but said regretfully: "Alan, hearing you say this, I very much hope that everyone can cooperate. But this kind of thing, I have to discuss it with the management before I can decide. However, regardless of the outcome of the discussion, I will get back to you as soon as possible. ”

Alan Hasenfeld didn't expect Eric to give an answer on the spot, but he was very excited about Eric's intention.

Hasbro in the course of rapid expansion in the eighties. In order to enrich their own toy product range. Mergers and acquisitions are often very clumsy.

Firefly's strong rise in CG special effects blockbusters and 3D animated films in recent years has given Hasbro another avenue of development. If we can work closely with Firefly Group, then Firefly's CG special effects movies and 3D animation films will bring a steady stream of toy images to Hasbro. Hasbro has been coveting the development of toys for films such as "Toy Story", "Jurassic Park" and "The Lion King" for a long time, but Firefly has been very conservative in this area in the past few years, so it has never had a chance.

With this intention reached, Alan Hasenfeld was satisfied. I looked at the time, and it was just after eleven o'clock. There was still some time before lunch, and Eric had no intention of leaving him for lunch, and Alan Hasenfeld took the initiative to leave with great interest.

Sending Alan Hassenfeld away, Eric did not return to the villa terrace to enjoy life, but instead dialed Katzenberg's phone.

Alan Halsenfeld's suggestion to work together also made him aware of another opportunity.

Just look at how much Firefly's movie merchandise is worth, just look at KFC's willingness to pay $100 million a year for licensing Disney's cartoon characters.

Eric originally suggested that Fox buy Hasbro, in addition to the copyright of Transformers, he also fancied Hasbro's perfect toy production and sales system, Fox was unwilling to take this risk, Eric had already had the idea of eating Hasbro, but because of the need to make large investments in high-tech industries in recent years, Eric could not spare enough funds to take Hasbro for the time being.

At the moment, Alan Hassenfeld's proposal for cooperation is almost equivalent to sending Hasbro to the door.

As long as it can reach a close cooperative relationship with Hasbro and take a strong position in the brand image of Firefly's films, this world-class toy giant will definitely gradually become dependent on Firefly's brand image.

At the same time, all contracts are expied, and Eric predicts that Firefly Investments will probably be able to recoup a large amount of money at the height of the dot-com bubble around 2000, when it will also have enough strength to buy Hasbro.

Then, Firefly only needs to sign a five-year contract with Hasbro, these five years, the closer Hasbro cooperates with Firefly, the stronger the dependence on Firefly, and when the contract expires, Firefly takes advantage of the trend to launch a takeover offer, Hasbro, which has been firmly tied to the Firefly Group, naturally knows how to choose, or, they have no choice at all.

He shared his thoughts with Katzenberg over the phone, and Katzenberg agreed, and said in high spirits that he would immediately convene the management of Firefly to discuss the matter.

Eric hung up the phone and looked at the time, half past eleven.

Gather for a meeting near the meal...... Well, anyway, resentment or something will definitely not fall on me.

After complaining so secretly about a workaholic, Eric called Elizabeth again and told her a brief about what had just happened. Elizabeth has heard about last night's incident, although there is some regret in her tone, but things have unexpectedly gone so far, this kind of ending is actually the best, after all, Eric does not take action personally, and Fox has little chance of grabbing the copyright of Transformers alone.

After the two phone calls, Eric returned to the terrace of the villa, saw several women walking towards him with strange eyes, smiled, and said, "Everyone, it's noon, ready to eat...... Wow. ”

Plop -

The sound of water sounded, and before Eric could finish his words, he was quickly picked up by five women and thrown into the pool.

After choking on a few mouthfuls of water, Eric stabilized himself on the water.

Listening to the plopping sound, the five women jumped into the water with a smile and shouted at him defiantly, "Hey, Mr. Shark, it's punishment for hanging us out for so long." ”

Eric wiped the water from his face, glared at Cindy Crawford with feigned anger, and quickly swam towards her, saying, "In that case, then you should be prepared to accept the punishment." ”

"Wow, ahhh......hh

"Haha. ”

"Run, run. ”

After tossing and turning for a while, Eric finally grabbed a body as soft as jade, and in order to prevent her from escaping, he lifted the woman out of the water with a slight force with both hands, pressed her to the edge of the pool, and shook her wet hair, Eric opened her eyes, but what she saw was Linda Ivangelinsta.

Linda Ivangorinsta did not have the slightest consciousness of becoming a 'captive', but stretched out two long straight legs and boldly encircled Eric's body, her eyes shining and her eyes hot.

As soon as Eric's hands moved, he remembered something, stared at Linda Ivangolinsta, and asked, "Linda, I remember, you should have been married a long time ago, right?"

Linda Ivangolinsta divorced her husband the year before, but at this time, she did not have the slightest explanation, stuck out her tongue and licked the corner of her lips, looked at Eric defiantly, and said, "What's the matter, don't you dare?"

Since the women in front of him didn't mind, Eric was of course no longer hypocritical, but instead added a bit of heat to his heart, and several other women nearby quickly widened their eyes and let out exclamations, whether true or false.

Once the door is opened, it is often difficult to close.

It wasn't until the new Monday morning, the evening was the Oscars, and it happened that Cindy Crawford forgot to inform her agent of her whereabouts, and it took a lot of effort for the anxious agent to contact her.

At the same time, it also made the five women realize that they still had more important things to do, and hurriedly left the Sharp Corner Manor.

(To be continued.) )