I’m in Hollywood Chapter 934: Acquisition of IMAX
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For more than a month, the Firefly Group management has drawn up a detailed schedule for the ‘RealD’ plan and the ‘4200’ plan.
The start date of "Iron Man" is determined in March next year, and the shoots cycle is three months.
Completed the shoots of "Iron Man" in the first half of the year, and the preliminary preparations for "Gravity" will also be ready. Eric can be invested in the production of "Gravity" in the second half of the year, from the film's start to the final 3D and IMAX version conversion. enough.
Therefore, the time when the two plans were finally completed was determined at the end of 1999.
Also, not only "Gravity", but also the "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy that has completed the casting, is also sure to start shooting early next year.
Because it is a trilogy back-to-back shoots, the shoots cycle is as long as one year, and then undergoes a year of post-production. The trilogy's first part "The Lord of the Rings Appearance" schedule will also be determined at the end of 1999. The epic level of the "The Lord of the Rings" series The fantasy masterpiece is obviously also suitable for the 3D and IMAX screens that pursue visual experience, and Eric will naturally not let go.
"Gravity" plus the first song of "The Lord of the Rings", which will ensure that 4000 3D screens and 200 IMAX theaters will have two heavyweight film sources.
As for the "Spider-Man" in charge of Cameron, although the film will be completed by the end of 1999 according to the plan, Firefly Group has no expectations for the completion of the film according to the plan from Cameron from top to bottom, Eric simply did not put This movie is included in the plan, intended to be tossed by Cameron.
However, according to the planned timetable, as the first Superhero movie of Marvel, "Iron Man" whose schedule is scheduled to be in the summer of 1999 can only be excluded from the list of the first batch of 3D-IMAX movies. Fox is responsible for the release of "Star Wars Prequel" first part and Metro Goldwyn Mayer. The next three special agent film universe blockbuster, also can not catch up with the first wave of 3D-IMAX.
For this, Eric can only express regret. After all, many things cannot be accomplished overnight.
Eric returned to Los Angeles, Katzenberg has also completed the first of two plans-wholly-owned acquisition of Canada IMAX company.
In 1994, Wall Street investor Richard · Gulfford was optimistic about the prospects of IMAX, overwhelming all his net worth to obtain a controlling stake in IMAX, and making every effort to promote the commercialization of IMAX technology.
However, due to the lack of support from Hollywood Film Studio and North America, Richard · Gulfford ’s plan has made little progress. IMAX technology is still limited to various museums for the screening of science and education films. Eric originally let the company invest a sum of money in IMAX for the research and development of DMR technology for the conversion of ordinary movies into IMAX movies. Although IMAX saw a glimmer of light, it did not allow this company's performance to be substantially improved.
Before Firefly initiated the acquisition, IMAX could be said to be heavily in debt. The market value of the entire company on the Nasdaq market was less than 200 million USD, but it owed huge debts of 150 million USD, including 30 million USD that Firefly had borrowed.
Since Eric intends to bet on IMAX, Firefly will naturally not let the dividends brought by the future IMAX technology promotion succumb to people. At the same time, the company does not want to be subject to others in the process of IMAX technology promotion. The company bought it, but the acquisition of less than 500 million USD, Eric will naturally not object.
After several years of hard work, IMAX company is on the verge of bankruptcy. Although Richard · Gulfford felt that the acquisition of Firefly Group would bring about earth-shaking changes to this company, it did not hold it in its hands anymore. .
After several weeks of negotiations, Firefly finally won this company at the cost of paying 230 million USD cash and bearing the debt of IMAX company 150 million USD. Since 150 million USD ’s debts include 30 million USD originally from Firefly, the actual total The amount is only 350 million USD.
Playa Vista.
Although the expansion plan for the Firefly Studios has not been formally started, many workers on the site west of Lincoln Avenue have begun simple clean-up work.
After many revisions, the fantasy engineer team responsible for the construction of the theme park finally came up with a satisfactory design of the air corridor.
The entire air corridor will reach four kilometers in length and 20 meters in height, roughly equivalent to seven floors. In order to make people who see the air corridor do not think of buildings such as reinforced concrete viaducts, the entire corridor will be completely constructed of steel and glass. Although the height of 20 meters will be easily compared with many buildings in other metropolises, but in the vicinity of Playa Vista where the height of the house is generally not more than three floors, once this corridor is completed, it will undoubtedly be the most striking landmark building within tens of kilometers .
"The conservative cost of 50 million USD will definitely be the most expensive building in the entire studio. However, I think anyone who has seen the renderings will find this 50 million USD worth the money. Board This air corridor, the sea to the west, the Fox mountain to the east, the Luocheng Airport to the south, and the Santa Monica city to the north, have a panoramic view. "
There are still some rugged wasteland, Katzenberg and Eric walk side by side, and at the same time, they are excited about the expansion plan of the theme park.
Eric looked at the open land around the area waiting to be developed, and imagined the picture of the Firefly cinema theme park being built here in the future. I suddenly understood why Michael · Eisner had gradually made Disneyland Paris of 1billion USD budget 5billion. Eric has never been a man of great joy, but listening to Katzenberg talking about the expansion plan of Firefly Studio Theme Park, he couldn't help but want to build the scene depicted by the other party.
The area of this land is less than one tenth of Disneyland Paris2000 hectares. However, it is just an air corridor, and it will spend 50 million USD. The whole cinema will be built, and the total construction will definitely not be less than 1billion USD.
Firefly Studios Theme Park, the 'RealD' and '4200' plans, the IMAX just acquired, and the Hasbro company that will be completely won in the plan ... Although I have always thought about slowing down the expansion of Firefly Group, I know In my mind, this company is still growing rapidly.
Kick a stone under your feet casually, Eric said: "Jeffrey, I do n’t have any opinions about the design of the attractions of" Jurassic Park "and 《A Nightmare on Elm Street》. However, the scene set designed by Peter · Jackson for the" The Lord of the Rings "series should be I ’ve seen it too, I am very optimistic about this project, so I hope that there must be enough space here to build the theme of the "The Lord of the Rings" series. "
"Of course, the design of the hole at the bottom of the bag, I also find it very interesting," Katzenberg nodded and said: "Speaking of this, aren't you going to make Miss Kidman play Elf Queen Kelly Trier, this time You are not here, and we do not know how to talk to her about this. "
"Well, I have talked to Nicole long ago. You can just ask someone to sign a contract with her. The payment is calculated according to 3 million USD."
Katzenberg asked with some uncertainty: "Three 3 million?"
"Yes," Eric nodded.
For Nicole ’s current coffee place, 3 million ’s appearance in the “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy is indeed a bit shabby. However, her drama was originally similar to the guest appearance, and the 3 million USD remuneration was actually the highest of all Actor.
Eric was chatting with Katzenberg, and an assistant of Katzenberg came hurriedly and said, "Mr. Mr. Williams, Katzenberg, and the representative of Texas Instruments have arrived. I have let them take them to install the equipment."
During this time, management has been considering how to reasonably reduce the budget for implementing the two plans. A large part of 1.6 billion USD's budget will be the cost of updating the RealD film projection system. As it happens, Texas Instruments is seeking the commercial promotion possibilities of the digital projector just developed, and Katzenberg arranged this demonstration.
Then the two Katzenberg's assistants said this, they walked towards the east side of the cinema together.
"I have read the information. Although the resolution of the digital projector prototype developed by Texas Instruments can only reach 1280 * 1024, but given them two years, I think they have developed a resolution of 1920 * 1080 with the film projector. Equivalent devices are not too difficult. "
The two of them walked back together. Katzenberg first talked about their views.
"Jeffrey, have you thought about it, if we use digital projectors, we may be resisted by the entire industry?"
Hollywood is just North America. Every year, the industry chain around movie copying reaches 1 billion USD, which will be even more widespread if it is spread all over the world.
Katzenberg heard the question of Eric, but the tone was a bit ridiculous: "I still remember what you said at the Fireflyer player press conference early this year."
Eric shrugged and smiled: "Okay, but I just do n’t think it ’s the right time to promote digital projectors."
Eric has read the data of digital projectors developed by Texas Instruments. Strictly speaking, Texas Instruments has only developed the most core DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology, which can convert digital signals into optical signals of projectors. . In memory, many digital projectors or office projectors later used DLP chips from Texas Instruments.
However, like the current digital cameras, Eric is not too optimistic about digital projectors.
Both technologies are in the early stages of development, which means that whether it is a digital camera or a digital projector, even if the corresponding resolution is reached, it is definitely far from comparable to film in terms of color reproduction of movie images. Film uses chemical methods to record colors. Even if this method cannot restore the color of the image to the level of biological eyeballs, it far exceeds the immature digital technology.
For a simple example, in a relatively dim light environment, film can still record various things in a dim environment very sensitively, but due to the limited range of color recognition by current digital cameras, it is impossible to restore 100% When the color is used, it will be automatically compensated with similar peripheral colors, so the dark part of the screen of the digital camera shoots is often a dark piece, but the film screen will be much clearer.
Therefore, Eric feels that it is more appropriate to wait at least another ten years for the promotion of digital camera and digital projector technology. In fact, the digital movies in memory are indeed gradually popularized ten years later.
The Katzenberg has obviously done a lot of preparation homework. After listening to Eric, he nodded slightly: "I actually feel the same way, but I always have to look at it first. If you can use digital projection equipment , We will release a movie in the future, only the cost of copying, can save millions of USD, especially dual-machine 3D copy and IMAX copy, that can save more money. "
"But some money can't be saved," Eric sighed regretfully.
Since speaking, after the implementation of the two plans, at least in the next ten years, because the film will still be used, the cost of copying is definitely an important factor restricting the conversion of many films to 3D and IMAX. After all, the dual-machine 3D projector used in the Eric plan is equivalent to direct Doubled the cost of film copying.
However, this actually has a benefit. The high cost of conversion can avoid the appearance of too many inferior 3D movies. This is precisely the most worrying point of Eric in the 3D promotion process. Eric did not think that it could monopolize the 3D market for too long, and once 3D movies were popularized in advance, for the sake of benefit, Film Studio was able to keep up with the morality.
Texas Instruments obviously attached great importance to this demonstration, and the Vice Chairman responsible for DLP technology research and development were all rushed over in person.
Although both Eric and Katzenberg knew that the two plans in their hands were unlikely to use digital projection equipment for the time being, they still watched the whole demonstration seriously. As Eric imagined, although the resolution of 1280 * 1024 is already considered good, in terms of film color, the digital projection prototype developed by Texas Instruments is undoubtedly full of room for improvement.
After watching the demo, I discussed some technical details with the Vice Chairman of Texas Instruments, and the time soon came to the end of work.
It is already November 20, near Thanksgiving, but after returning from work Eric did not return to Cliff Peak Manor, but rushed to the Chinese Grand Theater in Hollywood with Katzenberg. Because the first part film "Monsters, Inc." produced by the Disney animation studio after the digital transformation will be held today at the China Grand Theater, and tomorrow will be officially released.
Although it is only an animated film, Eric and Katzenberg rushed to the premiere scene together. The front door of the China Grand Theater is already full of people.
The Disney animation studio is personally in charge of Katzenberg. After the summer files "The Lion King2" and "Finding Nemo" are regarded as great successes, Katzenberg is both expecting and quite anxious about this film of Disney animation studio. Many people are also in a mixed mood waiting for what the new Disney animation studio will do. (To be continued.)