Since the 80s, CAA expanded the business scope of agents, the emergence of more professional script agents, and the channels have been unblocked, in addition to the various types of adapted scripts specially hired by film companies to write screenwriters, Hollywood film companies will receive thousands of original scripts every year, because once these scripts are selected by large film companies, and even sold for millions of dollars, they often make many poor boys who were originally penniless step into the ranks of millionaires. Speculative scripts'. Eric's first screenplay, "Seventeen Again," was a very successful speculative script.

In recent days, in order to select projects for DreamWorks Films, which was established in partnership with MGM Pictures, Eric carries a thick tome with him wherever he goes, which looks like a small sixteen-page masterpiece, but the content of the five or six hundred pages is actually a script summary submitted by many Hollywood agencies.

After the news of the selection of scripts was released, Eric's desk was initially filled with preliminarily screened scripts every day, and with his current situation, Eric could not spare enough time to read them one by one, so he simply gave a few instructions, and a day later, a summary of the script that had been carefully bound according to Eric's requirements was sent to him, except for some necessary information such as the script author, each script was reduced to about two or three pages of short stories.

Rupert Murdoch sat on the main road of Firefly Studios in his luxury car, looking at the huge studios on both sides and the busy crowd, and couldn't help but feel a little emotional, but when he thought of today's meeting, a ray of melancholy came to his heart.

The luxury car passed through the office area and stopped outside an elaborately renovated restaurant inside Firefly Studios.

Because it was not yet noon meal time, there were not many people in the restaurant. When Murdoch walked into the restaurant, he saw Eric in a simple T-shirt and jeans in the corner, reading a book in a relaxed manner, like any ordinary young employee in Firefly Studios.

If it weren't for witnessing the whole process, who would have imagined that a young man who was not even twenty-five years old would swallow Disney from scratch in just a few years. Establish a large-scale Firefly Pictures.

While the annexation of Disney was a miracle in terms of funding, with Jurassic Park's current global box office size, Murdoch knew that even without the oil crisis brought on by the war two years ago, it would only be a matter of time before Firefly Pictures developed into one of Hollywood's big studios.

Out of the corner of his eye, Eric felt someone coming in the restaurant, and when he looked up, he realized that it was Murdoch, and quickly put down his book and got up to greet him: "Rupert, didn't you make an appointment at twelve o'clock." Why did you come here so early?"

Murdoch shook Eric's hand with a smile and said, "I was curious about what you looked like when you were working, so I came to check it out in advance, but I didn't expect them to tell me you were here." ”

Eric sat down with Murdoch and explained: "I just had a conversation with a director here, and he hasn't been gone long ago. ”

Murdoch asked curiously, "Is it "007" or "Breaking Bad", I heard that MGM gave you "007" too?"

"007 won't be made until at least next year, and I'm not going to get involved too much. At present, it is mainly based on "Thunderbolt Baby", but it is a coincidence. For both films, I chose a director, the guy I just met, Martin Campbell. ”

Murdoch didn't think of Martin Campbell for a while, but there must be something special about the person who was able to get Eric to deliver two heavyweight film tubes at the same time. Murdoch secretly kept the name in his heart, intending to have someone investigate, and maybe Fox could also woo it.

The waiter quickly served Murdoch a cup of coffee, and Murdoch took a sip, but he was reluctant to bring up the topic of today's meeting. Seeing the delicately bound tome in front of Eric without a title, he continued to ask casually, "What are you reading?"

"I've been getting a lot of scripts lately for DreamWorks stuff, and I've had people make a simple outline of the script, and it's interesting to read," Eric said, pushing the book in front of Murdoch.

Like other Hollywood studios, Murdoch was envious of Eric's plan to offer MGM Pictures ten films over three years as a DreamWorks production company, and Fox wouldn't even mind working on the same terms if possible. After all, an average of three high-quality films a year will not make a big film company dependent on the production company, and it can bring very lucrative benefits, and no one will not covet it. But he is also well aware of the intricate series of grey market transactions behind the establishment of DreamWorks, so he can only watch this piece of fat fall into the hands of MGM, a Hollywood 'smash', just like other film company executives.

Murdoch simply flipped through it, then handed it to Eric again, and said, "These are all speculative scripts, can you pick out the good ones?"

What can be sent to Eric must be a good script, of course, Eric is more of a 'leak' mind, if he can meet a good movie script in his memory, it will be even better. If he can't, he reads a collection of short stories, and when he comes across a script that interests him very much and doesn't have a high budget, Eric will pick it out and give it to the production department to try.

Of course, Eric will not pay all his attention to these original scripts in his hands, and he also asked people to investigate the information of some good films that will appear in the next few years according to the memories of his previous life, and if it is not enough in the end, Eric also plans to pick a few blockbusters that did not appear in the original time and space to produce, as for the result, it is not in his consideration. Anyway, DreamWorks doesn't involve too many interests in Firefly Pictures, and as long as he ensures that most of the ten films make money, he is already very worthy of those European investors.

Putting aside the book that Murdoch had handed back to him, Eric replied, "I still have a good eye." ”

Murdoch is really very envious of Eric's 'vision', if he could have Eric's picky vision, News Corp. would have ruled the world a long time ago. Of course, this is definitely only envy, and after taking another sip of coffee, Murdoch said, "I thought you would write the script yourself." ”

"Met interested. Of course, I will do one or two, like "Breaking Bad", but my personal energy is still limited," Eric saw that Murdoch didn't seem to want to get down to business, and he wasn't in a hurry, anyway, the withdrawal plan for Firefly Pictures from the Fox TV network had been submitted to Fox a few days ago. Even if Murdoch is reluctant to talk this time or even the two talk down, then Firefly Pictures can withdraw from the Fox TV network in full accordance with the normal business process, of course, in this case, it will definitely drag on a little longer.

Before I knew it, it was twelve o'clock, and when it was time to eat, there was a large staff cafeteria in the studio, but there were still many staff members who walked into this restaurant from time to time, although they saw two big Hollywood bosses sitting here. The staff consciously didn't come over to the tables around Eric and Murdoch, but it was no longer time to get down to business.

After ordering two lunches, Eric and Murdoch continued to chat, and after lunch, he saw that the people in the restaurant were almost gone, so Eric asked the waiter to remove the dishes and replace them with coffee.

Both men were busy people, and Murdoch did not mention some inconsequential topics at this time. Eric took the initiative to speak: "Rupert, you should have read the share withdrawal plan, right?"

Murdoch nodded. Picked up the coffee and tasted it, the bitter taste made him frown, and added a few more pieces of sugar to the coffee before Murdoch said: "Eric, although Firefly Pictures has developed very well in the past two years, don't you think." Are you in too much of a hurry?"

"Now that we have seen the way to the future, of course, it is better to go through it early than to huddle together with a group of people in the future. ”

Since Viacom and QVC bid for Paramount this year, the prelude to the merger and acquisition of media groups has begun, and there are a total of three large television networks in the United States. If the pace is slow, it will definitely have to compete with other groups in the future, which will greatly increase both the difficulty of acquisition and the price paid.

"With your character, even if you choose a certain percentage of share exchange mergers and acquisitions, you will definitely not give up too many shares, and you don't plan to let Firefly Pictures go public, then there is only one way to issue bonds," Murdoch said lightly about Eric's plan, "You should know the risks, many companies that have developed well have been dragged down in the process of uncontrolled mergers and acquisitions because of the huge debt accumulation." Just like MGM now, because of the accumulation of a large amount of debt, even if it generates some profits every year, it is often only barely paying the interest on the debt, and this film company has little value at all now except for being repeatedly resold by shareholders to earn some profits. If it expands blindly, Firefly Pictures is likely to fall into this situation. ”

Murdoch said this, took a sip of the already sweet coffee, continued to look like a kind elder, and said to Eric earnestly: "Eric, simply calculate, even if Firefly Pictures issues five billion dollars of long-term bonds, at a rate of 5% In terms of annual interest rate, the annual interest paid on the debt is as high as 250 million US dollars, not to mention the 5 billion US dollars in debt principal, these funds always have to be repaid, the uncertainty of film investment is very large, it is impossible to maintain a high profit all the time, and the TV network is not so easy to operate, once Firefly Pictures falls into a loss, you will find that those originally enthusiastic Wall Street capital forces will immediately open their claws and try to control your company as a creditor, this kind of thing I have personally encountered more than once. ”

Eric, of course, had thought about these issues over and over again, and already had a lot of options in mind.

At this time, Eric of course also knew that Murdoch couldn't really be thinking about him, this old fox just didn't want to lose the original partnership with Firefly Pictures.

In addition to a few TV programs, the high-quality films produced by Firefly in the past two years will basically choose the platform of Fox TV Network for the broadcast of TV channels, and a large number of high-quality films with high box office not only bring more ratings to Fox TV Network, but also greatly improve the brand reputation of Fox TV Network, and in this regard, Twentieth Century Fox performance is much worse.

Once Firefly Pictures acquires its own television network, then the original cooperation between the two parties will definitely be canceled, and it will even become a hostile relationship.

The loss of Firefly Pictures' film supply was secondary, but at this time, several of the Fox Network's major shows, "Friends," "The X-Files" and "Who Will Be a Millionaire," were inextricably linked to Firefly Pictures. Although Murdoch has created a series of miracles in the newspaper business, he is not too good at media content, for example, in recent years, although there are several TV programs such as "Friends" to support the ratings, but the Fox TV network itself has not developed a popular TV program with completely own copyright.

The importance of these pillar programs to a television network, not to mention others, can be seen when you think about the sky-high salaries of the six leading actors in the last few seasons of "Friends" in the original time and space.

Although Eric is young, Murdoch does not regard Eric as a young man who has not been deeply involved in the world at all, and he believes that if necessary, even if Eric cannot take back all three shows, he will destroy all three shows, because Murdoch knows that he will do it when necessary. And Firefly Pictures, which holds at least half of the copyright, definitely has this permission.

After saying it again, Murdoch picked up his coffee again, and at the same time looked at the indifferent expression of the young man opposite, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

Putting down the coffee cup, Murdoch finally had to ask: "Eric, since you have made up your mind to pay attention, let's talk about "Friends", the acquisition of the TV network is not an overnight thing, but after this year, the contract between Fox TV Network and Firefly on "Friends" will expire, how about we talk about renewing the contract?"

The copyright of "Friends" belongs entirely to Firefly, and the other two shows are both five-season contracts that will not expire until next year, and, first of all, when it comes to "Friends", Murdoch is also testing Eric's attitude.

Eric didn't go around in circles, and said bluntly: "Rupert, "Friends" will definitely not renew the contract, however, for the other two shows, I can assure you that after the contract expires next year, Firefly Pictures can still renew the contract with Fox TV Network." (To be continued......)