Chapter 556： The old fox has a long heart

Since the 1980s, aa has expanded the scope of the broker's business, and there have been more professional script brokers. After the channels are unblocked, in addition to the various types of adaptation scripts that the film company hired to write scriptwriters, Hollywood film companies receive thousands of copies each year. Original scripts, because these scripts are picked up by big movie companies, and even sold for millions of dollars, often make many poor children who have not been named into the ranks of millionaires, so Hollywood has another A title, both 'speculative scripts'. The first screen that Eric sold at the time, "Returning to Seventeen", is a very successful speculative script.

In recent days, in order to select a project for DreamWorks Film Co., Ltd., which was established in cooperation with MGM Studios, Eric will carry a thick big head with him, no matter where he goes, it looks like the same small sixteen. The masterpiece, but the five or six hundred pages of the bulk of the content is actually a summary of the script submitted by many Hollywood brokerage companies.

After releasing the news of the selected script, Eric’s desk was filled with scripts that were initially screened every day. In his current situation, Eric could not take enough time to check them one by one, so he simply told me. A few words, one day later, a summary of the carefully-stamped script was delivered to him in accordance with Eric's request. In addition to some necessary script writers and other information, each script was reduced to a story of two or three pages.

Rupert Murdoch sat in the main road of Firefly Studios in his luxury car. Looking at the huge studios and busy crowds on both sides, he couldn’t help but feel a bit of emotion, but remembered today’s meeting, a sigh of relief. It floated to my heart again.

The luxury car passed through the office area and stopped outside a well-decorated restaurant inside the Firefly Studios.

Because there is no lunch time, there are not many people in the restaurant. When Murdoch walked into the restaurant, he saw a simple t-shirt in the corner, reading a book in a leisurely manner, like Eric in the Firefly Studios, a common young employee.

If it weren’t for the whole process, who could imagine a young man who was not even 25 years old, and swallowed Disney in a few short years. Establish a huge firefly film industry.

Although the source of funds for the annexation of Disney is miraculous, with the current global box office size of Jurassic Park, Murdoch knows that even without the oil crisis brought about by the war two years ago, Firefly Pictures has grown into Hollywood. One of the film companies is just a simple time issue.

Eric’s eyes were felt when someone came in at the restaurant. When he looked up, he found out that it was Murdoch. He quickly put down the book and got up and greeted him: “Rubert, didn’t you make an appointment for twelve. How come so early?”

Murdoch smiled and shook hands with Eric and said, "I am very curious about how you look when you work, so come over and see, I didn't expect them to tell me that you are here."

Eric and Murdoch sat down together and explained: "I just talked to a director here and he hasn't been away for a long time."

Murdoch asked curiously: "Is it "007" or "Chou Jiaowa", I heard that MGM has handed over "007" to you?"

""007" will not be produced until at least next year, and I will not intervene too much. At present, "Jiaojiaowa" is the main one, but it is very clever. I chose a film for the two films, the one I just saw. Man, named Martin Campbell."

Murdoch didn't think of Martin Campbell for a while, but the one who could make Eric deliver the two heavyweight film guides at the same time must have something extraordinary. Murdoch secretly recorded this name in his heart, intending to let people investigate, maybe Fox can also draw.

The waiter quickly put a cup of coffee for Murdoch, and Murdoch took a sip, but he was not willing to mention the topic of today. I saw the big book in front of Eric, which was finely bound but had no title. I continued to chat and asked: "What book are you reading?"

"For the DreamWorks thing, I have recently received a lot of scripts. I made a simple script summary, which is very interesting to read," Eric said, pushing the book to Murdoch.

Like other Hollywood studios, Murdoch is very envious of Eric’s plan to provide 10 films to MGM Studios in a three-year dream factory. If possible, Fox doesn’t even care about the same conditions. Cooperation. After all, an average of three high-quality films a year will not make a big film company dependent on the production company, but also bring very rich benefits, no one will not be embarrassed. But he is also very aware of a series of intricate dark-selling transactions behind the establishment of DreamWorks, so he can only watch the fat flesh fall into the hands of MGM's Hollywood ‘destruction’, just like other film company executives.

Murdoch simply turned over and handed it to Eric. He said, "These are speculative scripts. Can you pick out the good ones?"

The ones that can be sent to Eric are definitely good scripts. Of course, Eric is more of a sneak peek. If you can meet a good movie script in memory, it would be better. If you can't, you should read a short story set, and if you encounter a script that you are very interested in, the budget will not be too high, Eric will also pick it out and give it to the production department to try.

Of course, Eric will not put all the attention in the hands of these original scripts, he also let people follow the memory of their past lives to investigate some of the good film information that will appear in the next few years, if the end is not enough, Eric also intends to pick a few large films that did not appear in the original time and space. As for the results, it is not within his consideration. Anyway, DreamWorks is not interested in the firefly film industry. As long as he guarantees that most of the ten films make money, he is already worthy of the European investors.

Aside from the books that Murdoch re-delivered, Eric replied: "My eyes are good."

Murdoch is really envious of Eric's ‘eyes’. If he can have Eric's eye-catching vision, News Corp. has long ruled the world. Of course, this is absolutely only the envy of the coffee, and took a small mouthful of coffee, Murdoch said: "I thought you would write the script yourself."

"I am interested in it. Of course I will have one or two, like "Jiaojiaowa", but my personal energy is still limited," Eric saw Murdoch not seem to want to talk about the topic, and he was not in a hurry. Anyway, the withdrawal plan for Firefly’s exit from Fox TV has been handed over to Fox a few days ago. Even if Murdoch is not willing to talk or even talk about it, then Firefly Pictures can withdraw from Fox TV in full accordance with normal business processes. Of course, in this case, it will take a long time.

Unconsciously arrived at twelve o'clock, when the meal time, the studio has a large staff canteen, but there are still many staff from time to time into this restaurant, although I saw two big bosses in Hollywood sitting here. These staff members consciously did not come to the table around Eric and Murdoch, but this time is no longer the time to talk about business.

After ordering two lunches, Eric and Murdoch continued to chat, had lunch, and saw that the people in the restaurant were also walking. Eric allowed the waiters to remove the cutlery and replace them with coffee.

Both of them are busy people. At this time, Murdoch did not mention some irrelevant topics. Eric took the initiative to say: "Rubert, you should have seen the withdrawal plan?"

Murdoch nodded. Picking up the coffee and taking a bite, the bitter taste made him brow and added a few pieces of sugar to the coffee. Murdoch said: "Eric, although the firefly film industry has developed very well in the past two years, but you Don't think. Are you too eager to take this step?"

"Since I have seen the way forward, of course, I have to go early, and it is better to go forward with a group of people in the future."

From this year, Viacom and QV bid for Paramount, the media group's merger and acquisition prelude has been opened, the United States has a total of three large television networks. The pace is slow, and it is sure to compete with other groups in the future, so that the difficulty of acquisition and the price paid will increase greatly.

"With your character, even if you choose a certain proportion of stock exchange mergers and acquisitions, you will certainly not give up too many shares. If you don't plan to let the firefly movie market go public, then you can only issue bonds." Murdoch understates The plan that Eric conceived was put forward, saying: "You should be aware of the risks involved. Many companies that have developed well are in the process of uncontrolled mergers and acquisitions, because the accumulation of huge debts has been dragged down. Just like MGM now, because of the large amount of debt accumulation, even if some profits are generated every year, it is often just barely paying debt interest. The film company has little value except for being repeatedly sold by shareholders to earn some benefits. If you expand blindly, Firefly Pictures is likely to fall into this situation."

Murdoch said that he took a bit of coffee that was already sweet and continued to look like a kindly elder. He said to Eric, "Eric, simple calculation, even if the firefly film is released fifty. The long-term bonds of 100 million US dollars, at an annual interest rate of 5%, the annual interest on debt is as high as 250 million US dollars, not to mention the $5 billion in debt principal. These funds are always repaid, and the film is invested. Uncertainty is high, it is impossible to maintain high profits all the time, and the TV network is not so good. Once the firefly film industry is in a loss, you will find that the originally enthusiastic Wall Street capital forces will immediately open their claws. Trying to control your company as a creditor, I have encountered this kind of thing more than once."

Of course, Eric has repeatedly considered these issues and has a lot of solutions in mind.

At this time, Eric certainly knows that Murdoch can't really think about him. This old fox just doesn't want to lose the original relationship with Firefly.

In addition to several TV programs, the high-quality films produced by Fireflies in the past two years, the TV channel will basically choose the Fox TV network platform, a large number of high-quality box-quality films not only bring more ratings to the Fox TV network, but also To a large extent, the reputation of the Fox TV network has been improved, and in this respect, the performance of the 20th Century Fox is much worse.

Once Firefly Pictures acquires its own TV network, the original cooperation between the two parties will definitely be canceled and even become hostile.

Losing the Firefly movie supply is second or none, but at this time, several major programs of Fox TV, "Friends", "Archives" and "Who will become a millionaire" are inextricably linked to Firefly Pictures. Contact. Although Murdoch has created a series of miracles in the newspaper business, it is not too good for media content. For example, in recent years, although several TV programs such as Friends have supported ratings, Fox TV The network itself has not developed a popular TV show with copyright itself.

The importance of these pillar programs to a TV network, not to mention the other, thinks about the sky-high price of the six stars in the last few seasons of the "Times".

Although Eric is young, Murdoch will not regard Eric as a young man in the world. He believes that if it is necessary, even if Eric can not fully recover the three programs, he will put these three. The block program was completely destroyed, because Murdoch knew that he would do it when he needed it. And Firefly Pictures, which holds at least half of the copyright, also has this permission.

After talking about some dry mouths, Murdoch once again picked up the coffee, and looked at the indifferent expression of the opposite youth, and couldn't help but sigh.

Putting down the coffee cup, Murdoch finally had to ask: "Eric, since you have already made up your mind, then let's talk about "Friends". Buying a TV network is not a one-off event, but after this year, The contract between Fox TV and Firefly on "Friends" has expired. What about the renewal of the contract?"

The copyright of "Friends" is entirely fireflies, and the other two programs are five-season contracts, which will not expire until next year. Moreover, the first thing to talk about "Friends" is that Murdoch is also testing Eric. attitude.

Eric also did not circle, bluntly said: "Rubert, "Friends" will certainly not renew, but, in the other two programs, I can assure you that after the expiration of the contract next year, the firefly film industry can still Renew the contract with Fox TV." (To be continued...)