I’m in Hollywood

After Eric rejected private offers from Disney shareholders, Disney shareholders delegated the mandate to Disney management to negotiate with Firefly and Viacom. [In order to keep his position, Michael Eisner spared no effort to help Viacom in all aspects. Any contact between Disney and Firefly in terms of negotiation, the Viacom team knew almost immediately.

When Michael Eisner issued a statement following Viacom, the Firefly team anticipated and prepared for this situation. When Disney shareholders completely decided to sell Disney, the negotiation process between Disney management and Viacom and Firefly accelerated rapidly. After several bidding, the wholly-owned purchase price climbed to 5.6 billion US dollars in just two weeks.

This price is already 2.1 billion higher than the market value of Disney’s $3.5 billion when Firefly made its initial offer, with a premium of 60%. In most past hostile takeovers, when the premium exceeds 50%, hostile takeovers tend to die, but Firefly Neither side with Viacom had any intention of backing down. Whether it was public or private, the confrontation between the two sides brought an increasingly heavy smell of gunpowder.

Given this situation, several Wall Street analysts have issued risk warnings about the acquisition. Some companies that originally planned to join the acquisition saw such fierce competition between the two sides, and silently put the originally prepared acquisition plan into waste cartons.

On January 14, 1992, Disney, Firefly and Viacom reached a preliminary agreement on the terms of the acquisition after months of lengthy negotiations, and the final bid will be held on January 20.

After half a year of work, the exhausted Firefly acquisition team can finally take a short rest. Eric is still busy preparing Firefly's 1992 film project.

After Dumb and Dumber. Immediately, a number of film companies approached Jim Carrey. Hope to seek cooperation, although Dumb and Dumber is a dual-protagonist structure, both film critics and ordinary audiences praised Jim Carrey's performance, while another actor, Jeff Daniels, won the award. A fairly satisfactory evaluation, coupled with the Dumb and Dumber box office exceeded 100 million, Jim Carrey's salary also skyrocketed to 5 million US dollars.

As the price rises, the state of mind is also different. At the beginning, as long as I could get the opportunity, I was willing to pay any conditions, but now I feel that I have suffered a big loss. In an interview with a Hollywood newspaper, Jim Carrey publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the five-year option contract he was forced to sign. However, when I heard the news, neither Eric nor the girls of tg cared too much. The original option contract was drafted by Firefly's special legal team, and there were absolutely no loopholes in the law. Jim Carrey wanted to Breach of contract, even if the lawsuit is brought to the Federal Supreme Court. You have to obediently pay out $100 million in liquidated damages.

However, in order to prevent Jim Carrey from making a movie, he has to toss once. Eric asked tg to directly offer Jim Carrey a $10 million contract for two movies,

This condition is definitely not bad for the other party. Eric never thought about the good thing that he wanted the horse to run without feeding the horse. However, when Elizabeth came forward to negotiate this plan, she did not see Jim Carrey directly. In the words of his agent, Carl Maxon, Jim Carrey went on vacation to Hawaii.

Of course Elizabeth understood that Jin Carey wanted a higher price. She even felt that the price Eric offered was a bit high, and the other party was not satisfied. Elizabeth also directly put Jin Carey aside.

Although it has not been negotiated with Jim Carrey for the time being, Firefly has successfully won the copyright of Grangers in Disguise, and also poached Tom Shadiak, the screenwriter of Detective Plane from Warners. Eric directly took the two films to tg for project approval and preparatory work.

Playa Vista's studio base, Eric is leading a few people to visit the special effects studio of the digital field, Venice Beach, the original headquarters of the digital field, but after the completion of the Playa Vista studio base, the digital The field has been relocated. On the one hand, a large amount of rent can be saved. On the other hand, the studio is adjacent to a large studio, and it is more convenient to work.

This is the latest special effect software developed by the software research and development center, called it, which is mainly used to make scenes such as buildings being shattered.

While introducing, Stan Winston manually called up a relevant shot from the computer. Eric and several people around him gathered around and saw the movie screen of a drive-in movie theater on the movie screen. Under the action of the hurricane, slowly The broken footage, everyone gave a low voice of admiration.

This is just the completed section, there is another section, the whole villa is torn apart, but this section has not been completed yet, Stan Winston finished his introduction, adjusted the screen to the software operation interface, and let the aside.

Standing next to Eric, a thin middle-aged man in his thirties couldn't help but sat on an office chair and clumsily manipulated the computer to check the various options of the software.

The functions of the software are still being improved, but this is much better than the original version, Stan Winston said from the side.

Eric looked at the middle-aged man who was obviously not familiar with this software, but was very moved, and said with a smile: Roland, you don't want to change career as a special effects artist, we just signed a contract, I'm sure No one will be released.

Hearing Eric's joke, several people laughed, and Roland Emmerich also stood up with a smile: I think I'd better be a director honestly.

James Cameron, standing on Eric's right side, said: I think there is no essential difference between a director and a special effects artist. We are all creating pictures, but the process is different.

Although James Cameron did not have a stake in the digital field in this time and space, but with his good relationship with Eric and Stan Winston, as well as his obsession with film technology, every time a new special effect processing solution was launched in the digital field, Cameron would always come here to 'try out', so he didn't join up as curiously as Roland Emmerich just now.

After joking a few words, Eric said: Okay, I've seen so much. There is a cafe next to it. Let's go there and rest for a while.

Several people walked into the coffee shop in agreement. Because it was working time and there were no employees in the cafe, Eric and six others sat around a long table.

In addition to the already mentioned Roland Emmerich and James Cameron, the other three are Jon Landau, Jerry Bruckheimer and Jane Debont, these future Hollywood directors or producers People are the result of Eric's recent work.

Maybe the names of these people are a little unfamiliar, but when it comes to movies such as Titanic, 2012, Transformers, Life and Death, they are all familiar, and these people are the directors or producers of the above movies. .

Among them, James Cameron and Jerry Bruckheimer are already successful. After Cameron finished Terminator 2, signing with Firefly also became logical. On the other hand, Jerry Bruckheimer was the producer of the famous Top Gun. I don't know if it was Cruise in success or Cruise in failure. The success of Top Gun made Jerry Bruckheimer one. He jumped to become a top producer, but Cruise's 80 million Thunderbolt box office was far below expectations last year, and Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer, was terminated by his old club Paramount.

Jerry Bruckheimer's future golden partner Michael Bay is still only a rookie in the shooting of mv, and Eric can't help promote him to director. However, Eric did not hesitate to sign Jerry Bruckheimer, because the other party is very good at being a producer of large-scale movies. What Firefly lacks most is this talent.

Jon Landau, Jane Debont and Roland Emmerich are not very famous yet. However, these people have been in Hollywood for many years, and their personal abilities are beyond doubt. In addition, Eric just had a project suitable for several people, so they signed it together.

After the waiter served coffee for a few people and left, Eric said, After reading the ones just now, I think everyone has no concerns about the script I gave you, right?

Except for Stan Winston, who was drinking coffee leisurely, several others nodded, but James Cameron said: Eric, although the script change you gave me is good, I don't want to change it so soon. Start working, I want to enjoy life, I'm not a workaholic like you. Also, Arnold has already taken over a film contract from Sony Pictures, and he won't be able to spare until next year.

Eric said: I know this, I didn't arrange you in this year's production plan.

Forehead……

Hahaha……

Jerry Bruckheimer said: Eric, I remember that the producer of your film has always been Mr. Jeffrey, why did you choose me to be the producer of Jurassic Park?

Jeffrey wants to take care of the company, and he won't be the producer himself in the future. At most, he will hang his name, Eric explained, looking at Roland Emmerich and saying, Roland, The Clash of Heaven and Earth What do you think of the script?

Roland Emmerich glanced at Eric. The script was written based on the outline written by Eric himself. Although Eric had the highest achievement among this group of people, Roland Emmerich felt that this The script is very bad. Opening his mouth, Roland Emmerich asked cautiously, Eric, do you want to tell the truth?

Of course, Eric nodded.

Well, I think this script is a bit bad. The main line of the story is about the great crisis of human beings facing extinction, but in the first half hour of the story, the heroine has been entangled in the scandal of high-ranking officials and other very inconsistent things.

James Cameron heard the conversation between the two and interjected: Eric, is that your movie idea about a comet hitting the earth?

Eric nodded and told the story briefly.

After listening, James Cameron shook his head: I feel the same as Roland, although people always talk about scandals and scandals, but it's too bad for a disaster blockbuster to use this kind of plot as a foreshadowing.

Jane Debont, who has always been relatively silent, couldn't help but say at this time: I was a photographer for a small-budget sci-fi film seven years ago, and I think the setting of that film is good, using family and love, or The life of the little people is a foreshadowing, which can have a greater contrast effect, and it is easier to bring the audience into the plot.

Several people nodded.

Eric was not angry when he saw that no one agreed with the original script, and said with a smile: I know, but this will require major surgery on the script.

Then it's all overturned, James Cameron said without any scruples: It would be a pity if such a good disaster movie theme was destroyed in a bad stock market.

I think a little modification will make the story even better, the chubby Jon Landau interjected at this time.

After attracting everyone's attention, Jon Landau then said: Look, the heroine has been tracking the official name of the official involved in the scandal. This code name originally referred to a woman. If we replace this code name with that one What about comets?

Eric's eyes lit up, but James Cameron slapped the table directly: This is even better, slightly modify the settings to remove the scandal factor. In order to avoid public panic, the White House concealed the news, and The comet is represented by a woman's code name. And the high-ranking official who was misunderstood as being involved in a scandal and was forced to resign, in fact, wanted to reveal the truth to the public, and his proposal was not approved, so he resigned in anger.

Jerry Bruckheimer nodded and said, Eric, I think it's a good change, although the public always has opinions about the federal government, and they always feel that the government is full of various There are all kinds of conspiracy theories, but in general, ordinary people still have good fantasies about high-level people, and this setting is just in line with the public's deep inner expectations.

Eric smiled and said, Then change it like this, Jim, Jon, do you want to put your names in the screenwriter column?

Cameron and Jon Landau shook their heads at the same time. They both knew that Eric was just joking. Although up to one-third of Hollywood scripts have a lawsuit involving authorship, they really want to get the authorship. Right, but need to participate in the revision of more than 30% of the script.

Now that the chat has started, after The Clash of Heaven and Earth, Eric will take out the scripts of the three films True Lies, Jurassic Park and Speed ​​of Life led by several people present. After talking about it, I got a lot of inspiration.

It wasn't until the evening that the people who were enjoying themselves separated from each other. Cameron and others were sent away first. Airi was also about to get into the car and go back to Malibu, but was stopped by Stan Winston.

Eric, there's something that they were here just now, and it's not easy for me to tell you, Stan Winston pointed to the office not far away: Let's go back and talk.

Eric looked at Stan Winston's serious expression, nodded, instructed the driver, and returned to the office with Stan Winston. (To be continued..)