In this business society, as long as you are willing to spend money, things are naturally easy to do.

In just one day, two small teams led by Dreett and Wilson summarized the verified relevant news to Megan Ellison's side.

Wilson made direct contact with Jerry Bruckheimer and reported: "The news is true, Jerry submitted a proposal to Disney Pictures on behalf of Bruckheimer Pictures in early December last year, wanting to adapt the "Lone Ranger" movie, and the information we got was actually compiled by Jerry. ”

Megan Ellison laughed: "It turns out that Martin Davis is stealing someone else's project. ”

Wilson added: "It's true, because of the revenue share of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, Jerry had a conflict with Disney Studios, and the latter's new president, Alan Horn, had a lot of opinions about Jerry and directly pressed the project, and Jerry thought that the other party wanted to make him bow his head because of this. ”

He added: "I still heard from Jerry that there is no information, and he originally planned to lead the original production team of Pirates of the Caribbean, such as Gore Verbinski as the director, Depp as the leading actor, and create another Caribbean series. ”

Megan said: "A gold medal producer, with a gold medal production team, very good! ”

Drawing on his years of experience, Wilson advised, "President, we should take this project as soon as possible!" ”

Dreit interjected: "In order to snatch Depp, Davis Studio offered a very exaggerated salary and fully bore liquidated damages, Martin Davis is obviously retaliating against us!" Also, I bought the people at Disney Pictures and got the exact news that the "Lone Ranger" project was talked to by Martin Davis himself with Alan Horn. ”

These are enough for Meghan, the proud, tough and decisive domineering female president, to make a decision: "Immediately select the company's most capable personnel to form a negotiation team, and officially ask Disney Pictures for the adaptation rights of "The Lone Ranger" today, money is not a problem!" ”

She thought for a moment and then said, "Wilson, you're officially in contact with Jerry Bruckheimer's team, and I'm going to get the Caribbean gold medal production team to join this project!" ”

Wilson said: "Martin Davis' personal relationship with Alan Horn is going to be the biggest obstacle. ”

"Openly seeking to buy, Alan Horn is only the president of Disney Pictures, not the controlling shareholder." Meghan's strategy is very simple, speak with strength, and pressure people with funds: "Let Disney's management all know about our offer, this will become a more pure business behavior, and no matter how good Martin Davis and Alan Horn's personal friendship is in front of the group's profits, they can only give way!" ”

Annapurna Pictures has not been established for a long time, the number of copyright film libraries is zero, and the film projects involved in investment can be counted on one hand, and it belongs to a new company among new companies, but it is well funded!

In the afternoon of the same day, an explosive news swept the whole of Hollywood, Annapurna Pictures asked Disney Studios for the film adaptation rights of the classic old drama "The Lone Ranger" at a high price of 30 million US dollars!

Disney Studios immediately held a management meeting and then responded, making initial contact with people at Annapurna Films, saying that the rights to the film adaptation of "The Lone Ranger" were Disney's not for sale.

This is a clear markup signal.

Annapurna Film immediately raised its offer, and the two sides began to see-saw.

…………

Davis Studios, Martin's office.

Leonardo opened the glass case, took out Lily's latest creation, and said as he admired it: "The fish bites." ”

Nicholson looked at Martin: "You have to respond, you can't back down now." ”

"I understand." Martin picked up the phone and called Jessica: "We also have a public offer, $50 million!" ”

Nicholson's eyebrows jumped: "Are you crazy?" What to do to scare people away? ”

"No, Jerry Bruckheimer's original plan was to make another blockbuster franchise like the Caribbean, and $50 million is a small amount for the rights to the series," Martin said. ”

In his memory, the film and television rights of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" series were sold for more than 100 million US dollars.

Leonardo answered: "We didn't really buy, what are we afraid of." ”

Nicholson's cell phone rang, he answered a call, hung up and said: "The latest news, the people from Annapurna Pictures contacted Jerry Bruckheimer, and it is estimated that Megan Ellison wants to invite Bruckheimer's team to produce and shoot." ”

"We gave Depp this option in advance, and she contacted Jerry Bruckheimer, and if nothing else, she will also invite Depp to play the leading role." This is the key, Martin secretly calculated from the perspective of an investor: "Bruckheimer's earliest plan, co-production with Disney, proposed a production budget of no less than $150 million, and if you include the copyright fee, she will also invest at least $200 million in production." ”

Leonardo, who has a film company, said: "There will only be more, not less." ”

Nicholson laughed, very happy: "This time it's big, if it's really like what you said, three projects with such a big investment all fail, Annapurna Pictures will inevitably go bankrupt, even if Larry Ellison has nearly $30 billion in assets, it is impossible for his daughter to send money to Hollywood so generously." ”

Martin reminded: "You two be careful, don't kill yourself with eight shots in the back!" ”

Nicholson said: "Even if you come, I'm afraid no one will me!" ”

Subsequently, the three of them left Burbank together and came to Hollywood to attend the Screen Actors Guild's awards luncheon.

There were no surprises on the male and female leads, and Leonardo and Natalie Portman won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor and Actress respectively.

It is no exaggeration to say that the two have a 99% chance of winning the Oscar for Best Actor and Actress.

In the battle for "The Lone Ranger", Martin no longer has to worry about it, Nicholson has been acting as the commander and controlling the entire digging plan.

The so-called play is a full set, Davis Studio increased the price at the same time, increased the poaching of Depp, and also contacted Jerry Bruckheimer's production team, putting on a competitive posture.

The two companies are so competing that the news cannot be kept secret, and the project that Martin and Jerry Bruckheimer are optimistic about soon attracted more wolves.

Relativity Entertainment, which was established by Summit Entertainment and Wall Street Capital Financing, jumped out to join the competition.

Lionsgate and Paramount Pictures also asked about the possibility of a Disney Pictures co-production.

Sony Columbia Pictures even offered $60 million for the purchase.

The higher the offer, the weaker Alan Horn's idea of adapting Disney Pictures, investing more than $200 million in filming and production projects, the final profit may not be comparable to copyright licensing, and what is the risk?

Before the Oscars began, the whole of Hollywood was drawn to this commercial bid, and "The Lone Ranger" seemed to have turned into a super hot project.

A week before the Oscars, Annapurna Films won the film adaptation rights of "The Lone Ranger" with a strong cash flow of $80 million plus an undisclosed percentage of the post-production share.

All Hollywood shocked!

Meghan Ellison's strength is even more shocking than when her brother David Ellison entered Hollywood.

At the same time as signing a licensing agreement with Disney Pictures, Annapurna Pictures got the original Pirates of the Caribbean production team led by Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski, and announced that it would shoot and produce "The Lone Ranger" with this gold medal team.

But with Johnny Depp, there was some trouble.

"$30 million? Do I continue to star in their new productions? ”

Today's Depp is rarely sober, and when he heard Annapurna Films' offer, he directly rejected it and said to his agent: "I don't feel sincerity." ”

"It's their base offer and we can continue to talk," Whigham said. ”

Depp said directly: "I remember that Davis Studio offered me a base salary of $35 million for this role, plus an offer of up to 10% of the North American box office, Annapurna can't be lower than this offer, right?" ”

Martin's offer raised Depp's psychological expectations.

"In the afternoon I will negotiate again with Annapurna Films, 35+10 is the basis. ”

Martin wanted to poach Depp, Jerry Bruckheimer insisted on using Depp, and Annapurna Film finally signed a $35 million plus up to 15 points of North American box office share with Johnny Depp.

Depp is notoriously difficult, in addition to these, the filmmaker also has to provide high salaries for Depp's five attendants, three nannies and two dogs,

As for other additional agreements on food, clothing, housing, transportation, etc., there are hundreds of them.

But now Depp has such capital.

After the signing of the actor agreement, Annapurna Film held a grand press conference before the Oscars, which was also the launch of the film.

The project has a production budget of up to $220 million, and Jerry Bruckheimer's team will immediately begin preparations for the filming of "The Lone Ranger" after Depp finishes filming "Transcendental Hacker".

In addition, Annapurna Pictures is also advancing two film projects at the same time, "The Seventh Son" and "The Hunt for Osama bin Laden".

Hollywood's established companies can see clearly that after Relativity Entertainment, Hollywood has another wolf.

But whether the wolf eats meat or leaves itself fat is still uncertain.

Running these four projects at the same time, and having never produced a film itself, it is difficult to attract foreign investment, and Annapurna Films' cash flow is very tight.

Megan Ellison couldn't have asked her dad for help for everything, so she simply applied for a bank loan.

However, Annapurna Film did not have a film library and fixed assets to pledge, and the bank rejected their application to use the film's future proceeds as collateral, and Megan Ellison simply used the trust fund that Larry Ellison set up for her as collateral.

She belongs to the outsiders of Hollywood, who scoffs at the old Hollywood rules such as not using your own money to make movies.

(End of chapter)