Best of Hollywood

The bankruptcy auction process of Carlock Films proceeded quickly. Twentieth Century Fox won the filming rights for the sequel of "Terminator", and Ryan obtained the videotape distribution company under Carlock Films, which was directly merged into Orion Films.

At the same time, Jon Felthammer officially represented Orion Films to negotiate with 20th Century Fox executives about the shooting of the sequel to "Terminator".

"The project is temporarily named "Terminator 3: The Vigilance of the Machine", and the protagonist is still Arnold Schwarzenegger."

Looking at the 20th Century Fox executives in front of him, Jon Fertimer looked very calm. He had dealt with many people present, so he was not unfamiliar, and some of them were even very familiar.

"Orion Films has initially obtained a sum of overseas financing, and is ready to promote the project approval and the preliminary preparations for the film at any time."

"If 20th Century Fox encounters problems with its funding, or is worried about the risks of the entire project, Orion Pictures can increase the proportion of investment."

"Of course new investors can be introduced, but the investment ratio of Orion will not change." Jon Felthammer is full of confidence in "Terminator 3: Machine Alert".

The only thing to worry about is that he is afraid that the whole project will take too long.

"Terminator 3: Awareness of the Machine" is a futuristic sci-fi action movie, not a drama or a horror movie.

There is a lot of work to be prepared in the early stage, such as special effects, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the training of actors who will play the female villain robot, going to Hong Kong to invite the action guidance team, and so on.

It takes at least three months to half a year of preparation time, so the sooner the film project is approved, the better.

Twentieth Century Fox is more entangled. The sequel to "Terminator" and Ryan Gosling, the combination of the two, has almost succeeded in half.

But an investment of up to 130 million US dollars is really not a small amount.

Even with Orion Pictures sharing half of the investment, it is still as high as $65 million.

Even if 20th Century Fox, a Hollywood behemoth, faced with a project with an investment of 130 million US dollars, it still needs to go through careful calculations, and it is impossible to agree to it casually.

"Jon, 20th Century Fox needs to pay more than 65 million US dollars, including the film's future promotional budget, it will reach about 80 million US dollars.

"

Jim Gianopoulos said without exaggeration: "You have to know that the total budget of "Independence Day" we are shooting is only 75 million US dollars, which is only half of the investment of the "Terminator 3" project."

"In addition, I have another question. Faced with a huge investment, the film's North American box office needs to exceed at least 200 million US dollars before it is possible to recover the investment in the film."

"But can anyone tell me how many films made more than 200 million US dollars at the North American box office last year?"

No one could answer him, and the entire conference room became silent.

Because in 1995, "Toy Story", which ranked first in the domestic box office in the United States, had a North American box office of only 191 million U.S. dollars, and no film with a North American box office of more than 200 million U.S. dollars appeared.

"This is a sequel film, which belongs to the sequel film of "Terminator"."

Jon Fertemer took the initiative to break the silence, and said emphatically: "The box office of the last "Terminator 2" reached 204 million US dollars, the overseas box office was 315 million US dollars, and the global box office was 519.8 million US dollars."

"This is not counting the surrounding copyrights, derivative product income, etc."

He is full of confidence, there is no way, who made the last "Terminator 2" a hit, the global box office exceeded 500 million US dollars, and the investment companies and distribution companies of the film made a lot of money.

At the same time, as a senior executive of a Hollywood film company, he naturally understands that 20th Century Fox's worries are nothing more than the risks brought about by high investment, and he cannot explain it to the board of directors

"Don't forget, the director of the film will be Ryan Gosling."

Jon Fertimer said unceremoniously: "Unless you want to reject the cooperation on "Terminator 3" again like you rejected "The Truman Show" at the beginning."

"Then, on behalf of Orion Films, I will formally initiate an invitation to acquire the filming rights for the sequel to Terminator."

"Even if it bears the entire $130 million investment, Orion Pictures will continue to establish the "Terminator 3" project."

Sell ​​the rights to the sequel of "Terminator" just acquired?

What a joke, 20th Century Fox would only agree to it unless it was crazy.

What's more, the director and editor of the film is Ryan Gosling, a guy who is familiar to the top management of 20th Century Fox.

The last time it was because of the amount of investment that 20th Century Fox rejected the investment in the "The Truman Show" project.

Right now, the North American box office of "The Truman Show" has exceeded 100 million US dollars, and the global box office is expected to reach 200 million US dollars, and it is only a matter of time.

However, it was rejected by 20th Century Fox at the beginning because of the investment of 35 million US dollars. Otherwise, the top executives of 20th Century Fox would not have to hesitate so much.

"Okay, Jon, you should be aware of our difficulties, just like you were at Sony back then, some things are not up to us to decide."

Tom Rothman made a statement in person, stopping Jon Fertimer from talking endlessly, "I will personally explain this matter to Mr. Rupert Murdoch and ask for his support."

In fact, Tom Rothman is very appreciative of this cooperation, whether it is the female villain robot and new fighting moves, or the bullet time special effects that surprised Cameron.

All that said, Ryan Gosling is likely to create a classic movie and even change the way Hollywood action movies are shot.

After the negotiation was over, Jon Fertimer did not leave 20th Century Fox immediately, but chatted with a group of high-level executives, and went to have a drink together in the evening.

Work is work and life is life.

Of course, while drinking, you can also casually talk about some business matters.

Therefore, the presidents of most second-tier film companies in Hollywood are almost all from the seven major film companies, and there are almost no women.

Men can facilitate communication, expand the company's relationship, and seek more opportunities for cooperation.

At the same time, throughout the January schedule, the North American film market is almost dominated by "The Truman Show", "Toy Story", and Sony Pictures' "Exodus".

Within a few weeks of its release, the total box office of "The Truman Show" has broken through the $110 million mark and is about to reach $120 million.

However, "The Truman Show"'s release screen and screening rate have been continuously reduced by theater companies. The number of screens has dropped to about 700 yuan, and the single-day box office is getting less and less. It is estimated that the final North American box office of the film will hardly reach 150 million US dollars. .

The good news is that the entire winter schedule is very deserted. At least until March, there will be no large-scale commercial productions. There is at least one month before the release of "The Truman Show".

Of course, regardless of the time, there is still a long release cycle, but the daily box office of the film is estimated to not be too much, and it can only rely on time to accumulate little by little.

At this time, in a studio owned by Twentieth Century Fox, there were densely packed video cameras, no less than a hundred of them, showing a half-moon shape, and all of them were the latest models of high-speed cameras.

It took three days for this scene to be arranged reluctantly.

Ryan kept instructing the staff to adjust the position of each camera, and the height of the camera positions decreased in turn.

For these high-speed cameras in front of them, the staff of Orion Films almost emptied the warehouses of several large rental equipment companies in Los Angeles, and even shipped some from another city rental equipment company, and barely got together more than one hundred A latest model high-speed camera.

It almost made a joke. Many videographers in Los Angeles said that it has become difficult to hire high-speed cameras recently. The reason is that the new Orion Films has almost rented out high-speed cameras in the entire city.