The top of fame and fortune [Comprehensive British and American]

In late July, Erica arrived in Rome on an international flight.

"Erica, I didn't expect you to come to Italy." Saul Zaentz, the producer of "The English Patient", was not just acting.

He really did not expect that Erica would leave for Rome, where the crew was located, after receiving the news from Screen Actors Union Chairman Ellen Rosenberg.

According to common sense, Zaentz is now anxious to find a new investor, and he wants to seek help from Erica, so naturally he should return to Los Angeles or New York to meet and discuss with her.

But Erika did not seem to show the arrogance of the investor. She showed a standard beautiful smile on social occasions, and said to Zaenz, who is over seventy years old, "I happen to have plans to go to Europe for vacation recently."

The truth of this sentence is not high. In fact, she has been busy with affairs recently and has a lot of energy. After all, her agent and partner Michael Ovitz may make big moves at any time, which will affect her career. .

The reason why Erica came to Italy in person was more out of respect for the old man Saul Zaentz. After all, taking a long-distance flight at the age of 70 can easily cause some physical discomfort or health problems .

She didn't mention the fact, though, that many Americans don't like being seen as old.

But of course Zaentz couldn't have missed this point. He didn't resent being treated like an old man, after all, it was a fact.And the modesty and politeness shown to Erica made his impression of this young man a little better.

And she is willing to come to Rome in person, which at least shows that she has enough willingness to invest in "The English Patient".From this point of view, the situation seems to be very favorable for him.

In the conference room, apart from Erica and Zaentz, there was also Alan Rosenberg, chairman of the Screen Actors Guild who came to Rome with Erica. Bridge, "I love the novel "The English Patient" very much, and the screenplay is surprisingly good."

This is true. Once the original book "The English Patient" came out in 1992, it won the highest award in English literature, the Booker Prize, and enjoyed a high reputation in the world literary circle.

"Whether it's war, history, or love and death, this movie is profound and touching." Zaenz is confident enough that "The English Patient" will win an excellent reputation.

Erica has no objection to this, but she said frankly, "But this movie theme does not have excellent commercial potential, or it should be said that it is more suitable for the awards season, and it needs to use awards to enhance its extraordinary reputation in order to boost the box office. .”

As a producer, she naturally had to ensure sufficient commercial value.

"As for the lobbying operation during the awards season, the Oscar's public relations costs alone may cost three to five million," Erika continued talking about the basic investment of the film, "I saw your budget book, twenty-six million The production cost can ensure that the film can be made."

If the various distribution costs after the release are added, this is also not a small expense.Especially when Erica is investing in "Titanic" and needs to repurchase Michael Ovitz's studio equity in the near future.

In fact, after allocating these investments in succession, her net worth will shrink by half, and if there is a major change in the middle, she may even be at the risk of bankruptcy.

At the meeting, after Erica stated that the commercial value of investing in "The English Patient" was doubtful, Saul Zaentz immediately talked about the film's great potential for success, "If "The English Patient" can win the awards season, I would It is believed that her box office can reach hundreds of millions of dollars, and the downstream income such as video discs will also be very considerable."

This is actually true. The reason why Hollywood studios are keen on the Oscars is because the awards can directly generate box office revenue, and the benefits from DVD rental and sales can even exceed box office revenue.

But Erica did not let go because of this, she looked at Zaentz, "I am optimistic about the long-term benefits of this film, but I have to be honest, my independent studio has been in a tight financial situation recently, as an investor In other words, I can't make decisions too casually."

Zaentz is obviously not willing to hear this bad news, but he did not express too much disappointment, but seemed to have some solutions, "About the $2600 million production budget, I have already invested 600 million of my own, Erica, you only need to invest the missing 2000 million yuan."

In terms of the scale of the film "The English Patient", the investment of 2000 million is undoubtedly cheap, at least it can show that none of the cast and crew are "burning money". Erica thinks of James Cameron, but she really hopes this A great director can do the same.

If she just wanted to be an investor in The English Patient, she might have agreed at this point, but Erica had other plans, so she still didn't commit.

Saul Zaentz couldn't help being a little worried, whether she really had no intention of investing, which made him start to throw out more rights, which was originally one of his plans, "Erica, in order to thank you for the sudden withdrawal of capital from the original producer Finally, for the investment and assistance of "The English Patient", the entire crew, including the director and leading actors, are willing to pay their own expenses during the filming and production period of the film. "

After the entire crew learned that they needed to find a new producer, they unanimously agreed on the method of 'delaying payment'.

Zaentz thought that Erica would like this plan to reduce investment, but she categorically refuted it, "I would very much like to invest in "The English Patient" so that she can shoot, and the financial pressure should not be exerted on on the cast."

Hearing her voice, the chairman of the Screen Actors Guild, Alan Rosenberg, seemed to be relieved. As a radical member of the Screen Actors Guild, he has always opposed producers to squeeze the rights and interests of actors and actresses.

Allen Rosenberg and Erica can get along well because their wills are mostly similar and they can bring benefits to each other—

Erica, as a powerful and powerful person in Hollywood, can bring effective assistance to Rosenberg in the infighting between him and the moderate members in the Screen Actors Union, not only power and influence, but also some necessary working capital.

And after Rosenberg was promoted to the chairman of the Screen Actors Union, he could naturally promote some of Erica's propositions, such as the many films she produced and released in recent years. Len Rosenberg also helped her fend off a lot of opposition.

All in all, Erica and Rosenberg's "friendship" can bring about a win-win situation.

Hearing that Erica would not delay the crew from getting paid, Saul Zaentz was naturally more surprised than Rosenberg, like a bottoming out-she also made it clear that she would finance "The English Patient".

At this moment, Zaenz was really grateful to the young man.

"I have to say, Erica, you saved me from financial ruin, even bankruptcy." Zaentz looked relieved.

Erica didn't tell him that she might actually be in bankruptcy, but she smiled and said to the old gentleman, "I don't think the gold medal producer who produced "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" will encounter a career crisis. She is the most dazzling classic in world film history."

"That was 20 years ago," Zaentz says with a laugh. He's certainly used to these kinds of Hollywood compliments, but no one would be offended by compliments, especially after Erica's The English Patient comes in handy.

Zaentz's smile looks very charitable, and he can't see the scheming and scheming of taking the copyright of "Lord of the Rings" from United Artists with a strong hand when United Artists was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Erica's smile deepened, "However, I have seen the first film you made, and it was not "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". After all, I was only four or five years old at the time, and it was really not suitable for watching a crime adventure movie. Compared with the plot movies, I liked the animated movie Lord of the Rings more when I was young."

Saul Zaentz made an animated version of "The Lord of the Rings" in 1978, but the film failed to succeed at the box office.And in these years, the copyright of the adaptation of "Lord of the Rings" is still firmly in the hands of Zaentz, just like Smaug occupying the treasure of the Lonely Mountain.

“Oh, Lord of the Rings, I was so frustrated with her box office,” Zaentz said half-truthfully, “that I didn’t have the guts to remake her all these years.”

Half of his face was covered by a white beard, and he looked at Erica with his eyes behind the lens, as if he had noticed her interest in "The Lord of the Rings". He even couldn't help guessing that her willingness to invest in "The English Patient" might be related to this related.

He did, however, appreciate her help in funding The English Patient.

Erica's smile remained unchanged, and she continued to talk about "The Lord of the Rings" following Zaentz's words, "I think, if she is restarted and made into a trilogy based on the novel, it will bring a new epic masterpiece to Hollywood. , and the production cost may be as high as [-] to [-] million U.S. dollars."

When she said 'two to three hundred million dollars', Saul Zaentz's eyes widened a little, and he asked clearly, "Are you going to make Lord of the Rings?"

Erica didn't care about him, and clearly admitted the matter, "And I am willing to retain your production rights and participate in dividends."

"Guaranteed to be a trilogy? A total investment of [-] to [-] million US dollars?" Zaenz looked a little aggressive, instead of the previous charitable and gentle, "When are you going to start preparing for the filming?"

"About three years later." Erica didn't have the guts to spend a lot of money while producing "Lord of the Rings" after spending the [-] million US dollars budget of "Titanic". After all, she didn't want to really go bankrupt.

Then she thought about the big plan she had been planning for years and tried to carry out for Columbia Pictures, and she felt more and more that she had already stepped on a cliff with one foot in the air, and was very close to the end of going bankrupt and jumping into the sea.

Frankly speaking, she is really short of money.