Hollywood Road

Flying to London, Murphy and Kara Firth engaged in tense negotiations, and Stanton Studios and Twentieth Century Fox also put the negotiations on the European region of "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" in the UK. In addition to a cable TV station in the UK, some companies in France, Germany, Spain and Portugal have also expressed strong interest.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that many of the settings of "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" are based on the history of the European Middle Ages. From the history of the Seven Kingdoms of Westlot, we can see many traditional European powers shadow.

Compared with other American dramas, "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" is naturally suitable for broadcasting in Europe, and the good ratings and overwhelming reputation in North America are the guarantee for high sales prices.

Murphy and Kara Firth first faced the British buyer, but in the negotiation, Murphy was more of a participant, and the negotiation was still dominated by Kara Firth.

Kara Firth has more experience in this area than he does.

The progress of the negotiation was a little smoother than expected. After a week of see-saw negotiations with the British TV station, a formal agreement was reached. The other party exclusively bought out the TV broadcasting of the British Isles at a price of 2.5 million US dollars per episode. rights and network on-demand rights, the term is three years.

There is also a supplementary clause in the agreement. Under the same conditions, the British TV station has the right of first refusal for the second season in the future.

To get the UK done, Murphy and Kara Firth each led a negotiating team and put themselves into negotiations with other European companies and TV stations. TV series that are of good enough quality and tested in the North American market are just like the best-selling Hollywood movies in North America. There is no need to worry about overseas markets.

In ten days, after many rounds of negotiations, Murphy and Kara Firth reached agreements with TV stations and distribution companies in many European countries and regions, and signed formal contracts to release "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" "The TV and Internet broadcasting rights for the next three years will be exchanged for a large revenue figure.

Germany is the same as the United Kingdom, and each episode is as high as 2.5 million US dollars for three years; France is slightly lower, but it also has 2 million US dollars per episode; Spain and Portugal get 1.5 million US dollars and 1 million US dollars per episode respectively; Italy 1.2 million US dollars per episode... …

During this trip to Europe, Murphy and Kara Firth took away a total of 125 million US dollars in copyright transfer income.

There is no doubt that the great success of "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" will bring terrifying profit figures to Stanton Studios and Twentieth Century Fox.

It is precisely because of this kind of profit guarantee that Murphy and Kara Firth will increase the production investment of the second season, and will not completely abandon the war scenes. They plan to film Stannis at the end of the second season. An epic battle with the Lannisters in King's Landing.

If there is no such outstanding profit performance, this war is bound to be cut off by Murphy.

"Currently the development of peripheral games is negotiating with companies in Silicon Valley."

Walking along the aisle towards the flight to Los Angeles, Kara Firth told Murphy the latest developments in North America, "Peripheral products such as cultural shirts, dolls, toys, etc. will also go on sale as soon as possible, and at the latest No later than when it goes on sale on DVD."

Murphy, who had been listening most of the time, nodded at this moment.

In North America, popular TV series will drive a large number of additional industries, not only the streamlining of the film entertainment industry, but also TV series, such as "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones", which has both ratings and word-of-mouth. A huge money making machine.

"Welcome aboard this flight..."

Stepping on the plane, the flight attendant from Midland immediately greeted her with a smile. Murphy nodded politely, entered the first-class cabin with Kara Firth, sat in two adjacent seats on the window side, and waited for the plane to take off.

I don't know why, the plane didn't take off after waiting for a long time, it seems that it was delayed for some reason, Murphy and Kara Firth were a little bored,

The flight attendant from Midland wanted to come to the newspaper and read it.

Probably the recent negotiations between him and Kara Firth have attracted the attention of a lot of media on Fleet Street. There are many comments and reports on "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" in the entertainment section of the newspaper.

However, the British Empire has always put on airs, and the more influential the media, the more obvious it is, such as the "Times" commentary.

""Game of Thrones" is too realistic and dark, I don't know where to watch it."

Just from the title, it can be seen that some British media still habitually attack cultural products from Hollywood.

"I watched the first season of "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" in the United States some time ago. The overall feeling is that it is too realistic and gloomy. Except for the Stark family and some night watchmen, the rest of the characters are almost All of them are thick black spirits, without beliefs and principles, only eternal self-interest, any honor, any responsibility, any friendship, any family affection, all are ****, all can be thrown away, and they also Almost all of them have self-knowledge, they admit that they are cheap, insidious, and shameless, but they have a clear conscience, because they will say: This is reality, I have to work hard for reality, for this I can live like a dog, I don't care about anything else."

"I admit that reality often makes people feel disheartened, and it does force us to give up our ideals, beliefs, and principles. But we have already tasted these bleakness in reality, but why should we be full again in TV dramas? tortured?"

"Ned Stark, who symbolizes the good side, died in such a way that people have no time to recover, and because of this, people are sweating about the future fate of his children. I would like to ask the director and screenwriter, since you can let a person carry us. The important role of his sustenance and expectation is so easily lost in the darkness of reality, so for his children, what else can you not do?"

"A TV drama needs realistic factors, but it also needs positive factors that make people see hope. Otherwise, what are we going to watch?"

"If a drama in the name of reality is always happy to put darkness, conspiracy, cruelty, ruthlessness... on our visual dining table again and again, and let the kindness and beauty in human nature and our The anticipation and hope of the people died in front of us bloody, so that we can never see the end, and then tell us that this is reality, so I want to ask, is this kind of pitiful spectacle worth watching?"

Although this is a critical comment, it is not unreasonable. The abuse of "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" has indeed reached a new level since the birth of the TV series.

"What?" Kara Firth turned to look at Murphy, "Did you see the criticism?"

Murphy shrugged, and said indifferently, "It still makes sense."

He handed the newspaper in his hand to Kara Feith, and Kara Feith took it, and handed over her copy, "Look at this good review, "Chicago Sun Times", Roger Albert It is rare to publish a drama review."

Although it is known that Roger Ebert's ability to publish a review of "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" must have something to do with the promotion behind 20th Century Fox, but with his current identity and status, it is not unreasonable. He will easily risk his own reputation, and he is willing to give good reviews, which is also quite recognized for this drama.

After receiving Kara Firth's newspaper, Murphy saw Roger Ebert's column.

"In general, the adaptation of "Game of Thrones" has not shown any 'nervous split' so far. Murphy-Stanton's thinking is very consistent, which is to make the TV series more concise and more focused while maintaining the flavor of the original. Most of the new plots added to the TV series are clear and reasonable, and the dialogues sometimes have magical touches, all of which are commendable and rare in adapted film and television works."

"The magic trend led by "The Lord of the Rings" has been popular in Hollywood in recent years, but it has not made much noise on the TV screen. Now Murphy Stanton has finally created a new era with the heavy work of "Game of Thrones" , Most people think that this drama will have a lot of war, magic, action and sex scenes, but after the broadcast, it is found that this drama does not focus on these audio-visual gimmicks, but focuses on the plot and characters."

"Although each episode has three or four story lines going hand in hand, the plot is not scattered at all, but rather compact and exciting. The technical links such as photography, costumes, scenery and art are also extremely delicate and exquisite. The whole drama is simply a piece of exquisite art. Taste."

"Murphy Stanton has directed a TV series that can be called a masterpiece, allowing the audience to fully immerse themselves in this huge and illusory world view, but the seven kingdoms and nine families in the play are as real as they are. Close. At least for now, this is the pinnacle of fantasy TV dramas that are extremely difficult to read."

Seeing Roger Ebert's unreserved praise, Murphy couldn't help scratching his head. It seemed that the Pulitzer Prize winner really liked his dark style.

"Maybe it's because most movies and most directors in Hollywood are too homogeneous." Murphy can only think so, "Maybe it's because my own PR work is really good?"

After thinking about it for a while, there was no definite answer to these things at all, and Murphy didn't bother to think about it anymore. It is always a good thing to have Roger Ebert's praise.

No one can ignore the influence of this Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic.

Putting down the newspaper, Murphy looked at the time and found that the flight was almost half an hour late, and there was no intention of taking off.

"What's going on?" Murphy tilted his head and looked out the window.

Kara Firth was even more straightforward. He took out his mobile phone and made a call. After asking a few words, he said helplessly, "There is a crowd of protesters occupying the airstrip."