"For decades, almost all the studios were occupied by a group of lawyers and accountants, and DreamWorks might be different. - Tom Hanks

In 1994, Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was kicked out of Disney by Michael Eisner, joined music mogul David Geffen, film guru Steven Spielberg, and received a huge investment from Paul Allena, one of the founders of Microsoft, to establish DreamWorks.

The Big Three are determined to build a "21st-century, high-tech-driven, conglomerate-free independent multimedia entertainment empire" beyond Hollywood. At that time, there were two opinions, one thought that it was a great project, and the other thought that it was just a pipe dream, and sooner or later it would go out of business.

Hanks' view represents the expectation of most filmmakers that DreamWorks will bring a new vision to the industry, where everything is no longer money, money, money.

They have reason to expect that DreamWorks will have a start-up capital of up to $2.6 billion, and Paul Allen also says "how much do they want, how much do I give", financial pressure?

Three ambitious dream-chasing middle-aged figures get infinite building blocks, just let go of their hands and feet to pile up the kingdom they want.

Movies, music, games, networks, ...... Anything!

In 1995, Spielberg personally designed the blueprint for "DreamWorks Studios," an abandoned airfield southwest of Los Angeles that would have sound stages, recording studios, theaters, and rides...... The upfront cost is estimated at $200 million.

In 2005, DreamWorks Studios was just a blueprint, and within a decade, the Internet, games, television, and music were either closed or resold one after another. It's not that they don't have strategic vision, they don't have talent, and they don't have money, but because of this, DreamWorks dies of generosity, dreams, and conceit.

Cooperate with Microsoft to develop 10-12 games every year, including virtual reality games that have not yet been technically realized. In the beginning, 10-12 models a year? Soon, that number dropped by half. Spielberg is a master at making movies, and he is a rookie when he develops games, and he gets tired of it quickly without results. In 2003, the gaming division was sold to EA.

In 1999, DreamWorks announced that it would set up a website POP specializing in live-action short films and cartoons, and in the same year, the bubble of technology stocks burst, and POP died before it was launched. However, the old iFilm and the emerging YouTube are becoming more and more valuable.

TV, DreamWorks' style is still expensive, sophisticated, and artistic, and as a result, except for "Spin City" and "Band of Brothers", nothing else can recover its costs, and the TV department is finished.

How can music, with David Geffen, fail? People don't understand, probably even he doesn't understand. But sometimes it doesn't work, and DreamWorks' record division has been running poorly until it was sold to Universal in 2003, and since then David Geffen has been outside of DreamWorks and focused on philanthropy.

What does it look like for the Big Three to meet together?

Tom Hanks, who has witnessed many times, put it this way: "David Geffen's words are usually short and gentle. Katzenberg, on the other hand, is a Mr. 'substance', and he keeps meetings to 22 minutes or less. Spielberg is like a cartoonist, he can draw anything on paper and turn it into reality.

For example, if you invite someone, Geffen will say 'we think you're great, if you could join us, it would be perfect, if you can't, we still think you're great', Katzenberg would say 'you're great, there are 17 reasons why you should work with us, the first one is ......'

Spielberg would say, 'I love the table you had in that film five years ago, the part where you had the platypus dancing around the table, and if you can do that, it means you can do anything.'" That's how they have meetings, and it's sure to be over in 22 minutes. ”

Twenty-two minutes is a lot for Spielberg, who almost never attends a finance meeting and hopes that "any meeting I attend will be over in two minutes" and not get in the way of my filmmaking. Many people have commented that Spielberg is a big child.

It was like that when he was young, it was like this when he was middle-aged, let alone a tycoon, he couldn't even be a successful businessman, but the film department of DreamWorks was counting on him.

"DreamWorks is finished because the Spielbergs are having too comfortable a good time. When the recent news of DreamWorks' acquisition by Paramount was confirmed, Business Telegram commented. The previously successful Hollywood tycoons had only one dream for a movie, money. This is also the case with the leaders of media groups such as Murdoch and Lei Shidong, and the Big Three of DreamWorks are spoiled, and their pursuit of art and their attitude of spending money doom DreamWorks to perish.

Look at what Spielberg has done, in addition to the animation department that has been spun off, in 11 years, DreamWorks' film library only has 61 films, and there are indeed a large number of high-quality products, such as "Saving Private Ryan", "Desert Island Aftermath", "American Beauty", "Gladiator", "American Psych", "Pentium Age", ......

These films not only received the box office, but also received a large number of Oscar nominations and awards, the 72nd-74th Oscars, and the best pictures for three consecutive years were produced by DreamWorks.

However, there is no money to be made.

If you know the global 4. "Saving Private Ryan" (70 million production fee), which has a box office of 8.1 billion, only earned 30 million for DreamWorks, and it is not difficult to understand why. There is no distribution channel, and the new distribution system that was promised to be built in cooperation with Microsoft has not been seen, and in many ways, DreamWorks has to use Universal and Paramount to jointly publish, so that there is not much profit.

And since the 90s, movie games have become more and more difficult to play, and it is not uncommon for everything in the research to be correct only to find out that it was a big mistake. Independent companies are increasingly unable to afford the consequences of a single failure, and playing this game is like gambling, with only one of two outcomes: success, or bankruptcy.

But DreamWorks still likes to throw a lot of money. In fact, it has been ruined several times by the failure of a movie, and in 2003 "Sinbad" lost 1. 2.5 billion, which is equivalent to losing 4 "Saving Private Ryan" at once, can still hold on, when a series of failures led by the fiasco of "Escape from Clone Island" occur this year, it can't hold on.

From the very beginning, DreamWorks has been the most willing to spend money in the film industry, and sometimes even the biggest ones, which is Spielberg's responsibility.

But Katzenberg wasn't much better. When it comes to hard work, there are few people like Katzenberg, who doesn't have any holidays, wakes up at 5 a.m. and arrives at the office at 6 a.m. every day, in the office, on the plane, and in various work locations. It's just conceited, so happy, having to compete with Disney all day long, and having some achievements that can't be beaten, these are also Katzenberg.

No one likes to keep losing money, especially businessmen. When DreamWorks was left with only movies and animation, both of which were high-risk and low-return, things started to go bad, and Paul Allen was no longer patient, and he finally got some returns, and the Big Three, who hadn't received any salary for 10 years, also got some dividends. But Wall Street and investors at large were trapped.

"If it were today, I would never be in the entertainment industry. David Geffen said earlier this year.

He knows something, and he may be disheartened if he doesn't do it.

On December 5, the event that shocked Hollywood and shocked the world's film industry was announced, and Paramount's parent company, Viacom, would buy DreamWorks for $1.6 billion, of which about $400 million would be used to take on debt.

The media reported like crazy for a while, why DreamWorks failed, DreamWorks' past and present lives, where DreamWorks is going, why it dramatically changed from Universal to Ramon, and its impact on independent films...... have become the most enthusiastic topics of professional film media.

In the face of the media, the Big Three avoided talking about their feelings, and only Katzenberg sighed: "Even the most brilliant talents are too difficult to survive in today's film industry." "He's the only one who spun off, DreamWorks Animation, the only money-making department, is still independent, and he hasn't lost the battle with Disney yet.

Spielberg was silent, and no one knew exactly how he was feeling. Sadness, relief, waking up?

In any case, Spielberg is still the movie giant, why is Paramount willing to spend 1.6 billion to buy DreamWorks without an animation department? But with Spielberg's right of first refusal, it becomes a bargain. However, he no longer has the years to spend money, buying the adaptation rights of the French novel "If-Only-It-Were-True" at a high price of 2 million, and then making "Like Paradise" for 58 million, just because he likes that novel, things will not be so easy anymore.

"I don't make movies to make money. Spielberg once said so, even though he was the most lucrative director.

Throughout his 11 years in DreamWorks Film and Television, he is qualified to say this.

DreamWorks is like a TV series it produced, "Freaks and Nerds" (1999-2000), a campus comedy with only one season and 18 episodes, with a super good reputation and an IMDb-9 score, and has now formed a cult culture with wide influence, and has even published novels and has countless fans.

But when it aired on NBC, it had an average of only 6.77 million viewers, making it only 93rd.

Then, there is no second season.

The more time passes, the more people scold NBC for cutting it too early, which is cutting off a generation of dramas and cutting off a dream.

DreamWorks, born of money, died of money.

The collapse of DreamWorks was the collapse of idealism. It's different, but money, or the master of this game, may always be.

Lionsgate is now the only truly independent film company with scale. To be sure, Lionsgate is different from DreamWorks in that it is budget-conscious, talent-driven, and it doesn't take so many businesses at once, and it moves forward for the camp step by step.

If DreamWorks is a rich man who talks a lot about dreams and art, and is bent on competing for hegemony and changing Hollywood, only to lose until he goes bankrupt; Lionsgate is a poor boy who saves money little by little to make a fortune and always tightens his pockets, how Hollywood cares about my, and living my own little life is the most important thing.

What the future holds, no one knows yet. DreamWorks is a thing of the past.

In the past 11 years, throwing money at a teenager and investing millions in a teenage movie kid is definitely the most profligate and successful one of DreamWorks. Although he is the main sponsor of Pretong, Tom Hanks said in an interview: "It was only when Steven was Steven's assistant for a day that Steven told me, 'That kid is a genius,' that I made up my mind." ”

That is, they will not have a big studio to deal with Ye Wei at that time, and genius newcomers only happen in independent films.

However, things have changed, "Little Sunshine Beauty" and Ye Wei have become an important asset for DreamWorks, Paramount's spokesperson Brenda Sicohen mentioned that Paramount expects to have a close working relationship with Ye Wei, she said, "His talent is invaluable, and we are actively communicating with him about the possibility of cooperation." ”

As for this major event in the industry, Ye Wei did not make any comments, and he was caught up in the gossip of a fight with Peter Jackson.

The media is concerned about the movements of this talented teenager, will the changes in DreamWorks make any changes in his new projects, and what is Paramount communicating with him?

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"What!?" When she heard the news, Julia Roberts was so excited that her face turned red, Emma is definitely and absolutely suitable to play, better than "Lovely Bones!!

She thinks this is really a gift from God, a commercial system with a budget of 100 million, how many projects can be compared?

immediately called Ye Wei, and she smiled and scolded affectionately: "Stinky boy, you are still hiding it from me, I know it! I really want to congratulate you, this is great." ”

"Oh... You mean, I didn't, and I'm not going to say yes. ”

Hearing Ye Wei say this, Roberts' eyes almost darkened, what kind of joke, are all talented people like this? Jesus Christ! She persuaded: "However, this is a rare and good opportunity to meet again in a lifetime! Not only for Emma, but also for you! If you can catch it and don't mess it up, you're not just a prodigy, you're a first-line director!"

"You know, Julia, I love independent filmmaking, and I don't think I can stand this kind of process of making big projects in big studios. ”

Roberts was very anxious, and continued to persuade in a good voice: "You don't plan to make small-budget independent films for the rest of your life, do you? You don't want to try blockbusters? Ang Lee, Ang Lee also made "The Incredible Hulk", right? Spielberg, what blockbusters do you tell me? But what big director doesn't make commercial blockbusters?"

"In fact...... A lot, Terrence Malick, Woody Allen, Russ von Trier, ......"

"Russ, Russ von Trier, I don't even know what this guy has filmed!"

"He's a madman, I don't like him, but I love him and he calls Roman Polanski a dwarf, haha. ”

"Believe me, I know who Lars von Trier is......" Roberts was very helpless, the kid had now grown wings, and she said helplessly: "I don't care what happens to Tyre or Polanski." Have you seriously thought about making a movie with a budget of 100 million yuan at the age of 18? How many people have struggled for many years to have the opportunity? Are you not ready to agree?"

"I really wasn't very interested in this project. ”

"You have to take this opportunity, or you'll regret it, really!"

......

Tendency to rejection!?

Brian is choking on something in his throat, VIY, VIY, don't do this, just this time, show your cleverness, you're a genius!

Ye Wei's voice was still coming from his mobile phone: "I know you want me to take over commercial films, I will, I'm just not sure if it's now." I'm about to win TLB, I still have SS, and there's another project that I really want to shoot. Brian, I don't owe money now, and I don't owe anyone anything with LMS grades, and I thank you guys, but for me, making movies first and foremost is fun. ”

"Listen to me, this project is a lot of fun, you can use CGI special effects to show your imagination, isn't it interesting?" Brian knew not to provoke him, and to communicate with talented and characterful people, he had to be patient and think of a way, "You won't be scared, will you?

"Please. If you have fun, you have passion, and if you have passion, you can make a good movie, and I will only mess things up if I force myself to shoot it. ”

Brian continued to agitate: "A budget of 100 million is very high, but you only need to be a director, Paramount is not prepared to let you produce the film, and your workload will not be a lot." Even if you agree to direct, it doesn't have to be you, you still have to pass the guò assessment, which is a huge challenge, but!"

"That's why I'm not interested. Why was it possible for me to produce "The Exorcism Video" in 18 days? because it was an indie film! But what about LMS?

Even DreamWorks, Pretong executive producers, small-budget projects, I'm the first producer, I'm the director, there are so many meetings, one disagreement after another, it's not about creation, it's about power, it's just a waste of time. If it was a TET model, I would have been able to do an LMS in up to three months, but how long did it take me?

Brian, like Spielberg said, I also want all the meetings to be over in two minutes! I said, you do it. I'm scared, I'm scared of having so many producers on one football team, suing me for not being able to do this, and having so many other soccer teams that I don't know who's guy, suing me for what I'm supposed to do.

And then there's the research, the analysis, the numbers...... In the end, I said that nothing counts, and I definitely don't have the right to cut it, and I can't change my lines, so is it still called making a movie? ”

"You haven't tried it yet, it's not as bad as you think. Brian couldn't argue a little bit, of course the big studio model would be like that, Spielberg, Cameron had a bunch of meetings. He had no choice but to persuade: "The issue of power can be discussed slowly, maybe we can talk about the final cutting power." ”

"Maybe! Maybe I've been in pain for a year or two and I've made a, and it's not the shape I want. Man, I love adventure, but I can't take this risk. ”

Brian sighed, "But, don't live up to everyone's expectations of you, now the whole world wants you to make the right choice, you win, I win, everyone wins!"

He said in an excited tone: "This is a wide avenue! As long as you shoot this project well, it will be ten times more powerful than LMS in the future, the level of "Harry Potter" and "The Chronicles of Narnia"! No matter how many conferences, you put up with a project, your fame and your status will rise to the real top! The top in the world!

However, this is a huge challenge, it will not be easy, if it is a challenge, it will not be easy, do you dare to accept the challenge?"

The mobile phone rang Ye Wei's laughter, "Brother, your words are very encouraging, but I have done too many such things since I was a child, so ...... Not very useful to me. You know, I don't want to put up with it, I'd rather make a few more independent films and give myself more power, and then go and make commercial blockbusters, things will be much simpler, I guess so. ”

"No, an independent film and a commercial blockbuster are two different things, even if you have 10 LMS, your first blockbuster will still be restricted!

"I'll think again. ”

"Great challenge!" "Director, there are so many meetings, one disagreement after another, and it's not about creation, it's about power, it's a waste of time. If it was a TET model, I would have been able to do an LMS in up to three months, but how long did it take me?

Brian, like Spielberg said, I also want all the meetings to be over in two minutes! I said, you do it. I'm scared, I'm scared of having so many producers on one football team, suing me for not being able to do this, and having so many other soccer teams that I don't know who's guy, suing me for what I'm supposed to do.

And then there's the research, the analysis, the numbers...... In the end, I said that nothing counts, and I definitely don't have the right to cut it, and I can't change my lines, so is it still called making a movie? ”

"You haven't tried it yet, it's not as bad as you think. Brian couldn't argue a little bit, of course the big studio model would be like that, Spielberg, Cameron had a bunch of meetings. He had no choice but to persuade: "The issue of power can be discussed slowly, maybe we can talk about the final cutting power." ”

"Maybe! Maybe I've been in pain for a year or two and I've made a, and it's not the shape I want. Man, I love adventure, but I can't take this risk. ”

Brian sighed, "But, don't live up to everyone's expectations of you, now the whole world wants you to make the right choice, you win, I win, everyone wins!"

He said in an excited tone: "This is a wide avenue! As long as you shoot this project well, it will be ten times more powerful than LMS in the future, the level of "Harry Potter" and "The Chronicles of Narnia"! No matter how many conferences, you put up with a project, your fame and your status will rise to the real top! The top in the world!

However, this is a huge challenge, it will not be easy, if it is a challenge, it will not be easy, do you dare to accept the challenge?"

The mobile phone rang Ye Wei's laughter, "Brother, your words are very encouraging, but I have done too many such things since I was a child, so ...... Not very useful to me. You know, I don't want to put up with it, I'd rather make a few more independent films and give myself more power, and then go and make commercial blockbusters, things will be much simpler, I guess so. ”

"No, an independent film and a commercial blockbuster are two different things, even if you have 10 LMS, your first blockbuster will still be restricted!

"I'll think again. ”

"Great challenge!"