Chapter 239： 1 The raccoon of the hill

Boston's Logan International Airport.

Accompanied by bodyguards, Dunn was here early to wait for the pick-up, his official girlfriend Natalie Portman.

It had already been agreed that Dunn would take part of the time this summer to take her on a trip, but because of various things, it was delayed again and again.

Seeing that Harvard was about to start school, Natalie had to fly to Israel with her mother to admire the style of her motherland.

Natalie was too tolerant of him, and Dunn was inevitably guilty.

Soon, Natalie appeared in a simple white shirt and jeans. She was only accompanied by her mother, and she didn't even have an assistant, and she didn't have the air of a star at all.

She was wearing a pair of sunglasses, and the long international voyage made her face a little tired. After seeing Tang En who was waiting from a distance, a bit of joy appeared on her face, and then she pouted.

Tang En embarrassedly smiled, walked up quickly, opened his arms, and embraced her in his arms, "Baby, you miss you."

Natalie twisted her body and hummed softly, "Aren't you busy making movies? How can you take care of me?"

Dunn lowered his voice, "The movie represents my career, and you represent my family."

Natalie pursed her lips and glanced at him while holding back a smile, "Smooth tongue!"

Dunn made her laugh, and then spoke to her mother, Shirley Hirschler, "Sherry, the room has been booked, you can go and rest directly."

Shirley Hirschler is now an employee of Dunn Pictures, in charge of finance. She came to Boston this time to accompany her daughter and send her to school, and also to work.

Staying here for a day, she will go directly to New York, meet Michael Ovitz, represent Dunn Films, and conduct business negotiations with Merrill Lynch.

According to Michael Ovitz, the platter investment project has attracted the interest of Merrill Lynch, one of the world's largest financial firms.

Now, with the dot-com bubble bursting, Wall Street is looking for new investment projects while pulling out of high-tech stocks.

Michael Ovitz took the initiative to come to the door, representing the amg brokerage company and Dunn Films to promote the film platter investment project, which immediately aroused the unanimous optimism of Merrill Lynch executives.

The reason why Merrill Lynch was chosen as the first partner is because Dunn has some friendship with Merrill Lynch. Scott Swift, the general manager of Dunn Capital, and Blanca Reyes, a private financial advisor, are all From Merrill Lynch; second, when Paramount created the platter investment plan in the previous life, the first investor to eat crabs was Merrill Lynch.

The platter investment plan was proposed by Dunn, and Michael Ovitz expanded and developed the plan, and proposed three major financing plans——

One, the debt-first model.

This part of the financing is mainly based on loans from banks or lending institutions. Such funds will be repaid in priority by the film company, and for investors, the risk is the least. Of course, the profit obtained is also the lowest, usually only between 5%-9%.

Second, middle-tier financing.

This is usually a mix of debt and equity financing, which means that in the event that the repayment obligation is not met on time, the borrower has the right to convert the debt into equity, and its repayment time is after the senior debt, and the investor is responsible for Greater risk, but higher reward. Usually between 10%-15%.

Third, share financing.

Investors occupy the corresponding shares according to the proportion of the funds they put in in the entire platter. When all the debts of the project are paid off, they can obtain the profits corresponding to these shares. The risk is the greatest, but the income is also the highest, which is the real dividend of film investment.

Merrill Lynch is a financial giant in the world. They are not interested in ordinary lending models. What they pursue is a higher return on investment.

The newly established "Legendary Pictures", even Tang En has invested 100 million US dollars, how much risk can there be?

In the past, when Tang En invested in X company and acquired Apple stock, Merrill Lynch analysts could not understand it, but in the film industry, they had 100% trust in Tang En.

According to Michael Ovitz, Merrill Lynch and its subsidiary Merrill Lynch are very interested in the platter investment project. If the negotiations go well, it will take another two or three weeks to become the first platter investment in history. The special film company "Legendary Pictures" will appear in the true sense.

Over the past few decades, Michael Ovitz has been playing the intermediary between artists and film companies. Now, a new intermediary model is about to be born. Legendary Pictures will be the intermediary between Hollywood and Wall Street!

Shirley Hirschler was an agent in the past and is now the financial director of Dunn Pictures. She will represent Dunn in talks. In terms of negotiation skills, she is definitely better than Dunn.

The three walked out of the airport lobby slowly, and soon they saw a few young people with bright eyebrows, holding microphones and recording pens in their hands, rushing towards them like crazy.

Tang En glanced at Natalie and said bitterly: "These reporters are really all-pervasive, can they be caught?"

Natalie rolled her eyes, "I was interviewed in Israel and said that I would return to the United States today."

Tang En was speechless for a while.

Natalie gently took Dunn's arm, made a happy look of a bird and a person, intentionally or unintentionally directed at the paparazzi who were taking pictures in the distance, showing a sweet smile.

Tang En pouted secretly, saying that women are born to be actors.

An actress in this profession... as expected, she is acting twenty-four hours a day.

Five or six reporters rushed over excitedly, handing over microphones, recorders, and microphones, "Director Walker, can you ask a few questions?"

Tang En said lightly: "It's an old rule, I don't answer any questions about my personal life."

The reporters were obviously aware of Dunn's rules, and immediately asked, "Don, the recent box office trend of "The Girl Who Moves the Soul" is doing well. Is that why?"

Tang En said with a smile: "The reason is very simple, because my girlfriend is very good at acting."

Natalie pursed her lips and waved her little hand, "Don't listen to his nonsense, the movie is the result of the joint efforts of all the crew members, this is everyone's hard work, and I'm just one of them."

Natalie's delicate appearance is no different from ordinary college students. She is close to people and is very popular with reporters, "Miss Portman, congratulations, your movie has completed the box office crush of "The Fox and the Dogs". ."

""Fox and Dog Party"? What is it?" Natalie looked blank.

The reporter quickly fanned the flames and said, "It's a Disney movie!"

"Cartoon?" Natalie said innocently, as if she didn't know anything, "This name is so strange, it's not cute at all."

"No no no! Miss Portman, you misunderstood, this is not a cartoon, but a crime comedy, a live-action movie."

"Ah? Live-action movies?" Natalie was surprised, as if hearing about it for the first time. "Didn't Disney make animations exclusively? Is it still making live-action movies?"

The reporters looked at each other a few times, and they were all speechless.

Isn't this lady for real? As an actor, you don't even know about Disney's live-action movies? On purpose?

Tang En explained with a smile, "That's right, you know, she's still a student, and she spends most of her energy on maintaining her studies. She doesn't know much about Hollywood... and her news channels are sometimes not as good as some senior movie fans. Know some big studios like Warners, Universal, Columbia."

The hearts of the reporters were pounding.

What does it mean?

Are you firing again?

This is a movie that clearly satirizes Disney, not as good as several other giants such as Warner and Universal.

But then again, Tang En said these words, it's really not too much.

Throughout this summer, aren't the several movies produced by Disney all pressed and rubbed on the ground by Dunn Pictures?

Facts speak louder than words!

Tang En looked at everyone's strange expressions, and said with a smile: "You said just now that "The Soul Shifting Girl" has a good box office, I admit this, but compared with the excellent mainstream commercial films, it still has no strength to compete. The first week At the time, "Soul Shifting Girl" was ranked after New Line Cinema's "Invasion of Brain Cells", and this week, two films from Universal and Warner were also released strongly. So, it is not " How splendid the literary film "Soul Shifting Girl" is, the key depends on the comparison object."

"Dawn, you mean... Disney's movies are too unpopular to be compared with yours, right?"

Such obvious provocative remarks that added fuel to the flames, when the words fell, aroused the dissatisfaction of many reporters. They were afraid that this rude question would make Tang En go away.

But I didn't expect that Tang En's face was indifferent and calm, "I can't say that, Disney's cartoons are still good, as for live-action movies... I'm sorry, it's not because of the company's strong hard power that they can make excellent films. movie of."

"You're saying Disney lacks the appropriate film talent?"

"That's what I mean!"

"Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay have worked together on a lot of great movies in recent years."

Dunn curled his lips in disdain, "Michael Bay? That director who can only explode is obviously overrated. As for Jerry Bruckheimer... Forget it, wait for the release of "Pearl Harbor" that the two of them collaborated on next year, You all know what I mean by what I said today. Things gather together, and people are divided into groups!"

"Director! Director! There's one last question!" Seeing that Dunn was about to leave, a small reporter rushed over, "Director, Bruce Willis got divorced two days ago. It is said that the property was divided, and his ex-wife Got a huge fortune of $190 million, what do you think about that?"

Everyone knows that Bruce Willis and Dunn have a grudge.

After Tang En heard it, he was startled for a moment, then laughed, very unscrupulous, and then snorted coldly, "There's nothing to say, a raccoon dog on a hill!"

The current Tang En is completely different from two or three years ago. He is full of confidence!

(Sanqi Chinese)