America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM

Chapter 19 Transformers, The Walking Dead and Gal Gadot

At the MGM Tower, there were far fewer people in the conference room at this time.

After a while, someone walked in with a large stack of scripts: "Boss, these are the movies that are currently being produced and are planned to be produced next year."

Eric picked up a book and flipped it through. When he saw the title, "The Groom Goes to the Wrong Bed," it was an urban light comedy. He had never heard of it. It must be a loser, and he immediately threw it away.

I picked up the second book. The movie is called "Alien God Dog". It focuses on the youth market. I haven't heard much about it. It will most likely lose money. Throw it away!

The third one is the movie "Time Out," starring Denzel Washington. The contract has been signed and filming is about to begin.

Eric did have some impressions of this movie, but it wasn't a good impression because the movie wasn't a hit.

On the contrary, Denzel Washington's tyrannical behavior was complained by the entire crew, which made it into the entertainment news. The filming was not smooth, so how could the result be any better.

I sighed, threw the script aside, and read several books in succession. Finally, my eyes lit up when I saw "Legally Blonde 2".

Although the investment in "Legally Blonde 2" has doubled and the estimated cost is as high as 26 million U.S. dollars, the impression is that the box office is over 100 million U.S. dollars. Coupled with the income from other aspects such as the disc market and TV stations, it is certain to make money and it is of high quality. resource.

But that's all. Except for this and a co-invested 007 movie, among the dozens of scripts, almost all of them are garbage.

MGM is so big, and its sense of film and market is simply terrible.

Seeing Eric's uncertain expression, several middle-level managers knew something was going to be bad and stayed where they were without daring to speak.

Sighing, Eric threw back the script of "Legally Blonde 2": "Continue to produce this one, but pay attention to compressing the cost. 26 million US dollars is a bit high, try to reduce it to less than 22 million, and the rest All those are void.”

"???"

The conference room suddenly fell into suffocation, and even his father, Charlie Cooper, looked confused.

"Eric, are your decisions too arbitrary? Some of these movies have already been launched and some contracts have been signed. We will lose tens of millions of dollars!"

Eric smiled: "Dad, believe me, those are just a bunch of rubbish. It is better for a strong man to cut off his wrist than to continue to invest and lose more money. What we need now is victory, and what we need is a big hit movie. Believe me!"

Seeing his son's firm eyes, Charlie Cooper was silent for a moment, recalling their agreement.

The new MGM was at the helm and was the captain of the ship, but Eric had absolute power over film and television production choices until the first production he directed failed.

"Everything is done according to Eric Cooper's wishes. Regardless of whether it is started or not and whether a contract is signed, all these scripts are on hold for the time being."

Although Charlie Cooper's heart was bleeding, he still gave the order in an unquestionable tone. If he could win the 10 million bet, he would definitely be able to win this time.

Moreover, my son has just joined the company, so in order to establish his authority, he must support him to the end.

Others look at me and I look at you, and it’s hard to say anything. Anyway, it’s your company, so you can do whatever you like, and just pay me my salary on time.

Judy asked: "Then the company's only movies waiting for release this year are "Red Dragon" and "Barbershop", and next year's plan is only "Legally Blonde 2". Do we need to add new plans?"

"Of course it is necessary, and I have set a clear goal. This year and next, MGM's major project will be Transformers!"

Eric thought about what to make for the first movie for a long time. He originally thought it would be good to travel back to 2002, but when he recalled the big-selling movies carefully, he suddenly felt that it was a loss. It would have been perfect if it could have been made a few years earlier. .

For example, in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the five films have a box office of 4.5 billion, with an average of 900 million per film. Unfortunately, the first film will be released next year. Disney has been producing it for more than a year, and it is impossible to cut it off now.

JK Rowling sold the rights to the Harry Potter series to Warner Bros., and the first movie was released in 2001.

The Fast and Furious series can be said to be the only popular racing movie on the market, with billions in box office. Unfortunately, the first part was also released in 2001.

Jurassic series, the masterpiece of the last century.

The Star Wars series is also a masterpiece of the last century.

The Lord of the Rings series, like Fast and Furious, was released in 2001, and Tolkien's rights had been sold long ago.

In short, almost all the blockbusters in the series that can be thought of were the first ones released a year or two ago.

Now you know why people like time travel at the turn of the millennium.

After some thought, Eric took aim at one of the few omissions - Transformers.

Although the last few Transformers films are indeed a stretch, there is no denying its ability to attract money, with an average box office of more than 800 million per film.

Moreover, the film and television rights have not yet been bought by Paramount. Now, if we communicate with Hasbro, we are very sure to win the rights.

As for the biggest difficulty in filming Transformers, it must be the special effects technology. In this regard, the MGM special effects department has no chance. It must find professional teams such as Industrial Light and Magic or Weta Digital.

The production of the original Transformers began in 2005, and when we start filming here, it will probably be in 2003. Two years later, the special effects technology will be fully up to standard.

In fact, when it comes to the most profitable movie projects, the pinnacle should be the Marvel series.

Although 20th Century Fox has already produced the "X-Men" series, and Sony has just released the first Spider-Man, it was Iron Man in 2008 that really started the era of superhero movies.

From Iron Man to Avengers 4, superhero blockbusters have swept the world in 11 years, greatly suppressing the living space of other types of movies.

But after 11 consecutive years of glory, Avengers 4, although dazzling, is more like the afterglow of the setting sun. What follows is the dark night of winter and the collapse of superhero movies.

There are many reasons for the failure of superhero movies, such as the epidemic, political correctness, the cunning manipulation of DC and Marvel executives, etc. However, in Eric's view, these are not the fundamental reasons.

The root cause is actually aesthetic fatigue, especially Marvel’s popcorn model, which has remained unchanged for 11 years. Audiences around the world are tired of it, and their movie-viewing potential has been exhausted.

This situation can only be restored with time. Only when a new group of movie-watching subjects grows up can superhero movies be revived. Any other method will not work. Even if there are one or two big hits in the future, it will only be a single one. Phenomenon.

However, although the glory period was not long, he made a lot of money. At worst, it was just a later transformation. Eric would definitely have to take advantage of this fat piece of meat in advance.

DC was acquired by Disney as early as the last century, but Marvel is still independent, but its situation is so miserable that it has to sell its children and daughters to survive.

Spider-Man and his friends and Ghost Rider were sold to Sony, the X-Men franchise was sold to 20th Century Fox, the Hulk was sold to Universal, and Black Widow was sold to Lionsgate.

Even Iron Man was sold to Universal. Later, Universal felt that there was nothing to do and sold it to 20th Century Fox.

20th Century Fox also felt that this second-tier hero was difficult to film, and sold it to New Line.

New Line held on to it for a few years, and also had no idea how to make a movie for this tough guy, and finally sold it back to Marvel.

Marvel made a desperate move and mortgaged all their wealth to the bank. Finally, they produced Iron Man and put it to death.

In short, with the current miserable situation of Marvel, it is definitely a good time for acquisition.

However, he had just acquired MGM and immediately launched new acquisitions. Eric was worried that even his father would not support him.

Others didn't have the foresight, and the current Marvel is a mess and worthless.

When he made some achievements, it was time to acquire Marvel, and Eric set the time in his mind for next year.

"Mr. Volvo, you should contact Hasbro first. It's best to obtain the copyright secretly before announcing it. I don't want to cause any complications."

Volvo is a talent poached by his father. He has worked in a small film company for twenty years and has rich experience.

"Don't worry, I will contact Hasbro as soon as possible."

Eric hummed: "In addition, I also plan to start filming a TV series with a zombie theme. It is a story about a sudden global infection, leaving only a few survivors struggling to survive in the apocalypse."

The TV series Eric was talking about was of course "The Walking Dead". Compared with movies, TV series are also a piece of fat that cannot be ignored, as well as variety shows.

However, the choice of TV series is more complicated, because income is greatly affected by ratings, and the ratings statistics in the United States are completely different from those in China. Not all TV series are compared together, because just like movies, American TV series are also graded. For public stations and cable stations.

TV dramas on public channels are all free to watch. The public channels with relatively wide coverage in 2002 were CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC, WB, UPN and PBS.

Among them, PBS is quite special. Its content is mainly about education and children. For example, "Sesame Street" is theirs and has nothing to do with American dramas or anything like that.

As for CW, which is often mentioned in China, it was formed from the merger of WB and UPN in 2006, and it has not yet been established.

Public channels are strictly controlled. Generally speaking, nudity and vulgar language will not be seen. Even some sensitive words will be moderated, which is equivalent to the PG13 rating in movies. For example, Eric's favorite "Friends" is from NBC.

The cable channel is a paid channel, so the scale is naturally relatively large. After all, I have paid the fee, why are you still showing me SpongeBob SquarePants?

Well-known representatives of cable channels include FX, AMC, CNN, HBO, Showtime, etc., which are divided into basic channels and premium channels. The basic channels will also take appropriate consideration of teenagers and will also add some advertising elements appropriately. Premium channels have basically no ads and the standards are even higher.

For example, AMC in the basic channel has representative works such as "Mad Men", "Breaking Bad", "Better Call Saul", "The Walking Dead", etc. Among them, the fifth season premiere episode of "The Walking Dead" set a ratings record for basic cable TV drama series. .

Among the premium channels, HBO has representative works such as "Game of Thrones", "The Sopranos", "True Blood", "Band of Brothers", "Sex and the City", etc. All of them are capable representatives. HBO even filmed an advertisement for itself. The tagline is "This is not a porn movie, this is HBO."

Even on cable channels with fierce competition and frequent production of excellent works, although "The Walking Dead" is not the highest rated, nor the highest overall ratings, it is indeed the most profitable and has a good reputation. Such a good drama naturally attracts Eric Take it first.

It is not too late to develop high-scoring dramas such as "Breaking Bad" after making money, because although "Breaking Bad" is the ceiling for American drama ratings, its first three seasons and even the first half of the first four seasons did not have high ratings, and it was even almost canceled Lose.

The main reason is that after the climax of the plot, many viewers who have not watched the previous plots spent money to watch the previous seasons on demand, which resulted in higher ratings. However, the cost-effectiveness of "Breaking Bad" is far inferior to that of "The Walking Dead".

"Billy, you should conduct an investigation together with the marketing and legal departments first, especially in the field of comics. I don't want to have to fight a copyright lawsuit later. Give me an answer within three days."

Billy understood that this was his first test, and immediately said solemnly that it was no problem.

Eric looked at the creative department again: "George Martin, do you know this person?"

A middle-level manager hurriedly replied: "I know he is a writer and screenwriter, but his screenwriting skills are not very good. He has worked in Hollywood for several years and has not created well-known works, but his novels have received good reviews."

"Yes, I just want the copyright of his novel. "A Song of Ice and Fire" is a great work. We can get it earlier than other companies."

"Also, keep an eye on the horror movie scripts on the market, collect them and send them to my office. That's all the plans for the time being."

After seeing Eric finish speaking, everyone couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief. The company had not stabilized yet, and the steps were too big, and it was easy to get hurt.

Then Charlie Cooper arranged some things, and everyone walked out of the conference room one after another.

"Judy, wait a minute."

Hearing Eric's voice behind her, Judy couldn't help but turn around and retracted one of her legs as she stepped out of the door.

"What's the matter, Boss?"

Without anyone else, Judy suddenly became unruly, speaking in a strange accent and long voice.

"Stop making trouble, let me ask you something. I remember you are Jewish."

"Yes, what's wrong? Do you hate Jews? But it's too late to say that now."

Eric thought to himself, even if I really hate Jews, I wouldn’t dare say it. Look at Mel Gibson, how many celebrities have been banned for saying the wrong thing?

"As long as you are Jewish, I have something to ask you to do."

A smile suddenly appeared on Judy's face: "Brothers Warren and Giese were assigned jobs, but I was left alone. It turns out you have a secret errand."

"Ahem, what secret errands are all for work? Let's take a look at this first."

Eric took out a magazine, opened one page, pointed at a girl with a cheerful smile on it and asked: "How is she?"

Judy's eyes lit up, she grabbed the magazine, looked at it carefully, licked the corner of her mouth and said, "She is such a young and beautiful beauty, no, when did you start paying attention to the fashion world?"

"I saw this girl by chance recently, her name is Gal Gadot, an Israeli Jew. I think she is very good and has the potential for the big screen."

Judy chuckled: "There are many models who want to enter the film and television industry, but few have actually succeeded. I admit that this girl is very beautiful, but how do you know she has potential? Do you just look at her face?"

"Yes, it's just about looks!"

"Well"

Judy was speechless and asked after a moment: "Okay, what do you need me to do? Help you hunt for women?"

"Don't say it so harshly. It's all for work. Find out Gal Gadot's address and contact information, and test whether she is willing to develop in Hollywood. I will give you certain authority and you can promise something appropriately."

Judy shrugged: "No problem, I am very good at dealing with women, especially beautiful women. Make sure you are really not interested in her? If not, I will take action!"

Eric: "Don't mess around, I'm still a minor."

"Really? Then my interest will be even greater!"

""

Again, don’t keep books, you will really die.

Everyone is welcome to comment and provide suggestions if you have any good ideas.