On January 18, the Golden Globe Dinner was held on a Sunday. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Eric still did not attend the ceremony, but after the ceremony, he rushed to a Beverly Hills estate to attend a celebration party hosted by Miramax.

"It's half past nine, why did you come here?"

As soon as Eric got out of the car, Elizabeth and Julia greeted him. Elizabeth reached out and dragged Julia, who wanted to get tired of Eric, away, and did not forget to express her dissatisfaction.

"I made an appointment with Tim Burton for dinner," Eric replied, looking at Julia, who was deliberately blocked by Elizabeth with an aggrieved expression, "You don't always bully her." ”

"How can I bully her, do you want to see her rubbing you in front of so many people?" Elizabeth raised her chin to gesture to the crowd on the lawn not far away, and continued, "Tim Burton, has it to do with the Guillotine Valley?"

Eric nodded: "yes, talk about some things about the preparation of the movie." ”

Elizabeth said enviously: "You robbed me of a good movie again, I have also read that script, now that I think about it, it is really good." ”

"Not necessarily, who knows what the outcome will be until the movie is released. ”

"Then you give it to Fawkes. ”

"No. ”

"Bastard," Elizabeth subconsciously raised her hand to pinch her.

Eric smiled and dodged a little, and waited for Elizabeth to withdraw his hand before asking, "How did it turn out, how many prizes did you win?"

"The English Patient, Best Picture in a Drama, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Score," Elizabeth immediately said with a long list of awards with a little pride, "and the best adapted screenplay for 'Soul Catcher'." On the TV series side, "Black Angel of the Last Days" also received several nominations, but all of them failed, but "Black Road Family" won four awards. ”

After listening to Elizabeth, Eric was a little puzzled: "I thought Harvey would focus on PR "Soul Catcher", why is it still "The English Patient", Harvey?"

"Harvey is talking to Robert Redford about a movie," Elizabeth explained, with the same regret on her face, "Actually, we also want to give up 'The English Patient' and go all out on 'Soul Catcher'." It's just that, from the very beginning, Miramax has already invested a lot of PR resources in "The English Patient", and it is impossible to change the goal immediately. And, you know Perfection, right?"

Eric nodded, "Perfect" is a feature film released by Sony Pictures at the end of the year, starring Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt. The film tells the story of a writer with a withdrawn and obedient personality who gradually changes his attitude towards people and things under the influence of the people around him. Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunter both have very good performances in this film.

The box office curve of "Perfect" is similar to that of "Soul Catcher", both of which are high-reputation long-term box office, and since its release in December, the cumulative box office has reached more than 87 million US dollars, and the box office in a single week has remained at about 10 million US dollars, which is more energetic than "Soul Catcher", and the total box office of the film in North America may even rush to $150 million.

However, the production cost of this film is $50 million, which is already a big production, and the rate of return is far from comparable to "Soul Catcher".

Elizabeth continued: "The box office and reputation of 'Perfect' are better than 'Soul Catcher', but not as good as 'The English Patient'. Sony Pictures has failed in commercial films this year, and it is hard to have such a bright spot, and they have also spared no effort in the public relations of the awards. If Miramax were to switch to Mindcatcher for the Olympics, or to distract ourselves from taking care of The English Patient at the same time, we might not get anywhere, so we can only continue to fully support The English Patient for now, so as to ensure that it will be better than Perfect, and as for Mindcatcher, we will have to resign ourselves to fate. ”

With that, the three of them had already walked onto the lawn where there were many people.

Eric smiled and greeted the guests one by one, Harvey Weinstein and the famous director and actor Robert Redford also came out of the villa, Robert Redford was also followed by a middle-aged man in his thirties, somewhat familiar, Eric thought for a while, and remembered that this was Richard Lovett, the current president of CAA.

Eric hugged Harvey and turned to shake hands with Robert Redford and Richard Lovett.

Robert Redford was a little reserved, but Richard Lovett was very enthusiastic, shook Eric's hand, and didn't forget to take the opportunity to stuff a business card over.

After greeting and greeting the gathered guests for a while, Eric and Harvey walked into the villa together under Elizabeth's eyes.

Arriving at a reception room, Eric saw Elizabeth kicking out Julia, who was looking to follow up, and sat down on the sofa with a helpless smile, looked at Harvey, Robert Redford, and Richard Lovett, and said, "Liz just said you were talking about a film?"

Harvey nodded, and when Elizabeth walked in with a tray of champagne and distributed it to several people, he sat down next to Eric, Harvey said, "Eric, it's the horse whisperer, Robert wants to adapt it into a movie, and we're talking about it." ”

The Horse Whisperer is a novel written by British writer Nicholas Evans. Her daughter Chrissy lost a leg in an accident, and her mother, Anne, in order to heal her daughter's psychological trauma caused by the accident, traveled thousands of miles with a horse that also survived the accident but was seriously injured, looking for a person who is said to know how to communicate with horses to heal the horse.

Although the ending of the novel is unsatisfactory, the overall is very warm and healing.

Since its publication in 1995, the novel has been translated into more than thirty languages and has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

Half of Eric's knowledge of this information is his life experience, and he has always kept an eye on the information of several bestseller lists, so that he can buy the rights to the valuable books in his memory at any time. The other half is from a previous life, because of the original "Horse Whisperer", the daughter Kreese plays the role of Scarlett Johansson.

Eric heard Harvey say this, but he glanced at Richard Lovett, the president of CAA.

With Richard Lovett back in the world-class bestseller of The Horse Whisperer, it's not hard to imagine that this should be a CAA package.

Today is the first time Richard Lovett has met Eric since the last Pierce Brosnan pay incident. The last incident caused a lot of trouble, and afterwards Pierce Brosnan figured everything out, although he couldn't find trouble with CAA because the truth was muddyed by Richard Lovett, but he quickly terminated the brokerage contract with CAA, and now he has invested in the WMA.

The psychological shadow caused by the whole thing to Richard Lovett is not insignificant, and now the initiator of the whole thing is sitting opposite him, but Richard Lovett does not show any resentment in his heart, he is a very realistic person, noticed that Eric looked over, just smiled, and took the initiative to add: "Mr. Williams, "The Horse Whisperer" already has a world-class influence, both artistically and commercially, this is a very potential project. ”

Eric nodded and said, "Although I haven't read it carefully, I probably know the content of "The Horse Whisperer", which is indeed a very good novel, but it will be very difficult to adapt it into a movie, because on the whole, the plot of the novel is mainly warm and plain, so, Bob, what are you going to do?"

Robert Redford felt a little strange in his heart as he listened to the young man in front of him ask himself.

The sixty-one-year-old Robert Redford has already made a name for himself in Hollywood, and he has already won the Oscar for Best Director, but he is also the founder of the Sundance Film Festival, which has become increasingly influential in recent years.

However, thinking about the series of box office miracles created by Eric, Robert Redford's discomfort in his heart was quickly relieved, and Eric's "Casino Royale" box office last year was much more than the box office of the movies he shot in his life combined.

After gathering his thoughts, Robert Redford said: "Eric, it's not easy to tell this story well, and I plan to focus the script on the transformation of the relationship between the male protagonist Tom Pocker and the mother and daughter of Anne and Cress, so as to avoid the whole film becoming dull." Tomfa Pock was an unruly man, and at first, Anne contacted him by phone, hoping for help, but he refused without hesitation. Anne made the long way to his farm, and out of pity for the little girl, and out of affection for Anne, a strong woman, Tom agreed to help heal the wounded horse. Eventually, the horse got back on its feet, and the little girl untied her knot, but Tom and Anne were sadly unable to get together. ”

Eric looked at Harvey opposite him and Elizabeth beside him with an approving expression, nodded approvingly, and then asked, "So, Bob, how much money are you going to spend on this movie?"

Robert Redford hesitated and looked at Richard Lovett beside him.

Richard Lovett said: "Mr. Williams, Mr. Evans, the author of "The Horse Whisperer", asked for an investment of at least $50 million in this project. ”

"$50 million. ”

Eric repeated, rubbing the glass in his hand.

He can see that Richard Lovett's words are still reserved, and the final production cost of the film may be higher.

Although "The Horse Whisperer" is a bestseller in recent years, and some media have even compared it to famous books such as "The Dream of the Covered Bridge" and "The Thorn Bird", in fact, "The Horse Whisperer" is far from reaching this classic level. But the novel's strengths are also clear: it has only been published for three years and is at its peak in popularity.

As a top director in Hollywood, it is also very unlikely that Robert Redford will smash this film.

If the budget of the film can be controlled within $30 million, it is definitely a project worth doing. But the cost is more than 50 million, which is a bit dangerous for a literary drama. After all, the commercial role of literary films is limited, such as "Dances with Wolves" and "Forrest Gump", which are phenomenal films with double box office harvests, Hollywood may not have one in three or five years, and Eric does not have any connection between "The Horse Whisperer" and the Oscars in his memory, even if it is operated by the Weinstein brothers this time, it will have an advantage in the future Oscars, but the cost is more than 50 million US dollars, and the profit prospects of the film are also limited.

Elizabeth and Weinstein, and even Richard Lovett and Robert Redford, wanted to judge the project's prospects through Eric's vision of film.

Seeing that Eric had been silent for a while without speaking, several people were in a state of anxiety.

Eric noticed that the four people were staring at him, and after thinking about it, he still didn't directly express his inner thoughts, but just diverted the topic lightly on the grounds that he hadn't read the script.

After the celebration party was over, Eric and Elizabeth rushed back to their mansion on Beverly Hills.

Elizabeth started the car, looked at Julia who was already tired of Eric in the back row, and pouted dissatisfiedly. Eric rarely drives, and Julia's state in front of Eric is not suitable for driving at all, so she has to come by herself.

As the car drove smoothly down the Beverly Hills, Elizabeth couldn't wait to ask, "Eric, what do you think of Horse Whisperer?"

Eric put his arms around Julia's thin waist, felt the girl rubbing against him like a cat, and said, "It's okay to do it or not, the cost is too high, you can't lose money, but don't want to make too much." ”

Elizabeth said: "Harvey said that the global box office prospect of this project is at least 200 million, and if it can win the Oscar, the later video tapes and TV rights will also be very lucrative." ”

"You should also recognize a reality, Liz, the audience of literary films is limited after all. In my opinion, for literary films, the production cost of 50 million US dollars is already the limit of investment, and no matter how high it is, the possibility of recovering the cost is very low, let alone making a profit. ”

Elizabeth hesitated and said, "However, Harvey has done well in the past few years, and Fox can't always limit him to small-budget literary films." ”

"The problem is Harvey, I don't deny Harvey's ability, but he may have been stimulated by the success of big-budget commercial films in recent years, and thinks that big investments will have high returns, but this rule simply doesn't apply to literary films. I remember talking to you about it back in the day, and if Harvey starts leaning towards big-budget and big-budget blockbusters, it's almost time for Fox and Miramax to part ways. (To be continued.) )