Hollywood Domination Chapter 258: The rise of intuitionism

Although she is not very interested in literary and artistic films, her impression of Austrian films is also intermittent - for example, she remembers the Oscar for "Avatar" very clearly, it should be "The Hurt Locker" Grand prize, "Avatar" has won several technical awards, mainly because she likes "Avatar". If the time is pushed forward, Jenny can't even remember the best picture and best actor and actress. However, She still watched "Slumdog Millionaire", because this film was the big winner of the Oscar that year, and it also had a lot of social influence, even the domestic media did some reports. It seems that in her impression, the best picture, best director and some miscellaneous awards were all won by it, and after the Oscars, some controversial news broke out. It's such a thing that a few young actors are still living in poverty.

According to the calculation of time, the award of "Millionaire" should be in the past two years - since "The Hurt Locker" is the award for next year, it can be easily calculated, "Millionaire" " should have won the Oscar in 2009. Although the 2009 Oscar was still in the library until May, which is a bit strange, but Jenny doesn't plan to go into it. Warner Independent intends to sell its copyright now, and this is the most important thing.

After reading the simple plot introduction several times, Jenny also fell into deep thought: Judging from the space occupied in the materials, Warner Independent obviously does not attach great importance to this movie, and their marketing focus is still on "The Promise" On, of course, the asking price is not particularly expensive. Because after "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", the dvd sales of martial arts films from mainland China have risen in North America. For filmmakers, "The Promise" still has a certain appeal. As for the rest of the additions, they don't care too much about them. If they can't sell them, they will be collected in Warner's own film library, even if they can't generate any income from now on, it is irrelevant to a behemoth like Warner.

For Jenny, this matter is a bit tricky, because she has seen "Slumdog Millionaire". From her current perspective, she certainly knows how much this film is for the Oscar judges Appetite: Exotic, similar to the inspirational core of the American Dream, love and touch, with a twisted comedy ending, this movie is like "Forrest Gump" in 1995. Any good movie that collides head-on with it will be Lost badly, and this of course includes "A Week with Monroe"-although she has no ambitions to win the best movie or best actress for this film, just Simply want to make a good movie, but as a producer, it is almost an instinct to help your strong film gain an advantage in the awards season.

Of course, she hasn't seen the finished film of "A Week with Monroe", and Jenny is not sure whether it is qualified for an Oscar, but if this is the case, then she should win "Millionaire" ——Any Oscar-winning film will definitely not lose money. Warner Independent’s lowest quotation for "Millionaire" is 6 million US dollars (North American copyright), and Jenny is sure that Big Dream can easily earn back the cost ——If they can successfully win the film.

#

"If we can successfully win this film." Jenny said emphatically, "it will definitely not make us lose money. Now what I worry about is whether we can successfully win it."

"Hmm." Cesare said, he happily sat in Jenny's office - sat on 'her' office chair and turned half a circle, "Go on."

Jennie gave him a half-complaining look, but she didn't oppose Cesare, but continued to analyze as he wished, "It's just like the situation you gave me yesterday, although this sentence It seems shameless for me to say it-but we have obviously become a follower target. There is no reason why Pepper’s beacon effect should not spread to our investment films. Even if other companies don’t think so, Warner Independent may also Use this to hype up any project we like, and the millionaire gold mine will come into view, and our chances of picking up a bargain will be much smaller—or worse, Whichever project we are interested in, Warner will not sell any project, after all, this little money is completely a drop in the bucket for them, they are just lazy to spend time to operate these films.”

"Very valuable opinion." Cesare nodded, "Of course, from a strategic point of view, maybe this is a good thing for Disney - if Warner really does this, we should get Robert full support."

Among the big six in Hollywood, there are so many stories that have happened, even a hundred times more exciting than the bloodiest American TV series-producers like Jack Bruckheimer, or Jenny Many of the actors are still relying on their skills to make a living, while the senior executives of the six major headquarters are relying more on their own wrists. How to steal credit, pass the blame, and form cliques and infighting is a compulsory course for executives. Otherwise, Michael Eisner would not have fallen so quickly and so sadly, and in order to satisfy the shareholders, the struggle and cooperation among the Big Six have never stopped. Under the premise that profits are the top priority, major companies hope to stuff some glamorous slogans into their year-end reports, so this also makes them very happy to drag each other down while cooperating with each other from time to time.

In the past few years, the rivalry between Warner and Disney has become more obvious. Warner, who owns "Harry Potter" and "Batman", is fighting with Disney, who owns "Pirates of the Caribbean". In the past, there were endless battles for the throne of the annual box office share. For Disney, who sits on the sidelines, if Warner spends energy on Warner's independent low-cost films, trying to find profit points from these junk films, and even waste distribution costs because of this, then they are of course happy to see it—— But for Warner, if Disney’s Big Dream has a strong interest in some of Warner’s independent films, they may not sell them anymore, and would rather keep it dusty than take the risk of letting Big Dream discover it. Opportunity to sell big movies.

Of course, this is also because the current results of Dameng and Jennifer are too weird, which makes people unable to believe in evil. If Fox Searchlight, Paramount Advantage and other small-budget film distribution companies come to the door, then Warner Bros. You will also discuss business with them normally. Problem Dream has never made a loss-making film since its inception, and it can even be said that it has never made a film that did not explode. This is the same as Jennifer Jefferson himself has never acted in a loss-making film. It is simply incredible— ——For Dameng and Jennifer, the law that only 10% of Hollywood movies can achieve box office profits does not exist at all. It is certain that the movies she sees will not lose money, and the question is probably how many hits.

"Of course, maybe doing this will make Disney happy, but what good will it do us?" Jenny said disapprovingly. Needs, of course, they have borrowed the power of Disney in many aspects, but this is also because Disney unceremoniously snatched away half of the profits - Jenny is now thinking about how to improve the skills of their managers. The salary was paid, otherwise she really felt that Disney's share of the money made her heartache. "I still want Millionaire - and I can tell you want it even more now."

This classic Austrian masterpiece escaped the attention of Warner's top bureaucrats for some reason, but for Cesare, who can judge the future of the movie from the script outline, it has been completed. How can you not judge the value of this movie? Among Warner's three independent unreleased films, he is the only one that has taken a fancy to this one. Now that he has the support of Jenny's 'intuition', his confidence is of course even stronger.

"If we can get the quotation before the release of "Iron Man", maybe we can still negotiate." Cesare did not deny Jenny's statement, but said, "However, the box office of "Iron Man" is now It once proved your investment vision. As far as I know, there are already people who are really studying your "intuition". There are still many crews who sell themselves under the name of "your intuitive choice". I think we use the conventional method , it may be difficult to negotiate "Millionaire" from Warner, but it should not be a problem to buy the movies they have already released, such as "Good Night and Good Luck" which I fancy."

A movie that has already been released, it is extremely unlikely that the box office will hit the box office after re-release. The three unreleased movies such as "Millionaire" are different. If she is an executive of Warner, When Dameng expressed interest in any unreleased film, of course she would not immediately nod and sell it. Regardless of whether Dameng offered a high price or a low price, as long as she expressed a certain interest, then Jenny asked herself, as a For an executive with some basic business intelligence and an understanding of market trends, the first thing to do is to organize an internal viewing meeting and hire experts to measure the distribution value of these films until it is confirmed that there will be no big impact. Only if there is a possibility of explosion, will it be sold with confidence. ——Take a step back, even if the first-hand executives who are connected are relatively paralyzed, the person in charge of the review should be a person at the chairman level. The possibility of "Millionaire" being fooled twice in a row is so small that it can be ignored. After all, this is an Oscar-level movie. It is ridiculous to be buried once, and it is even more difficult to be buried a second time or a third time than winning the lottery.

"Ordinary tactics are definitely useless," she said with approval. "It may even arouse Warner's vigilance. Of course, this is because there are really no well-known films in Warner's independent film library. A suitable cover."

Jenny's first idea was of course to find a tasteless movie to inquire about, to test Warner's attitude, but she wondered whether Warner would be careless after the explosion of "Iron Man", and she felt that there was a high possibility Well, Warner will see through their tentative attitude, and guess that there is a film in the company's film library that Dameng is very interested in, and he will take it at all costs—and then there is no need to talk about what will happen next. Therefore, on the premise that everyone is not stupid, if she must buy "Millionaire" before the craze of "Iron Man" is over, then the conventional strategy will definitely not work.

"We may wait for a while, two months would be a very reasonable gap." Cesare followed her train of thought and said, as if he could see through her mind. "By that time, people will pay less attention to you and Dameng. After all, this is Hollywood, and big things happen every day. No one will miss you."

Yeah, if she wasn't so sure about the results of "Millionaire", she would think so too... Jenny sighed helplessly: She already knows now that if you want to compete in the Olympic Games, you must In the summer vacation, the finished film will be released for film festival copies, and if some pre-operational events are counted, if "Millionaire" still wins the best film of 2009 in this timeline, then in July At that time, its copyright must have a clear attribution. So they really couldn't afford to wait for these two months, and what was even more annoying was that, as before, she still couldn't come up with a good reason to explain why she had to be so anxious.

"I'm afraid that within two months, other buyers will **** it away." Reliance does not decrease but increases, because the more she understands some basic ideas and rules in the industry, the more she realizes that some of her decisions have no reason at all, and she can only use "intuition" to fool the past—even she has Doubt whether Cesare believed in 'intuition theory', or had some guesses of his own in private, but he didn't say it clearly—Jenny generally didn't let herself think about this question, "But we must take it, Cesare Ray, that's my hunch—it's got to be a hugely successful movie."

When it comes to the theory of intuition, Cesare's expression has undergone indescribable changes. From the perspective of outsiders, he may still have the expressionless handsome face, but for Jenny, there are many signals worth analyzing: The change in the eyes, the subtle arc of the corners of the lips—after their first quarrel over intuitionism, every time Jenny used this excuse, Cesare would look at her so meaningfully—

"Okay," he said, "then we must try to get it within the month."

Yes, and then he always backs down.

Jenny was a little uncomfortable. She coughed, and she didn't intend to make false claims of 'you'll understand later'. "Iron Man" and several big dream movies have proved her vision—she Instead, he put forward his own thinking, "Can we use an excuse to expand the film library and negotiate a package price with Warner? You or Jim will come forward and say that this is a collective decision of Dameng. I have not seen their film library."

"Doing this is likely to stimulate Warner to suspend sales and screen their own film library." Cesare shook his head, he pondered for a moment, "If they want to give up their film library, they must add A more exciting and tempting bargaining chip makes Warner feel that even if there are profit points in the film library that they have overlooked, it is not as good as the huge benefits that the big dream can bring to them.”

"You mean?" Jenny was a little hesitant. She seemed to have captured Cesare's thoughts, but she was a little uncertain.

Cesare pointed to her, "We have to add you."

#

"Ah, Kerry, you're here." In Time Warner's spacious and bright office, Jeff Robinov said absently, "Come, sit down, coffee or tea?"

"Just give me a glass of soda." Kerry Orient said, he was a little nervous-although with the success of "Michael Clayton", his status in Warner Pictures has increased, But he hadn't had a private meeting with Jeff Robinoff before. Usually, this means that he will be promoted, but Kerry is not so sure, because he really doesn't know that Jeff will be promoted. What position has he been promoted to? Because there are not many internal vacancies now, unless some big boss is about to leave, and he hasn't heard the news yet. However, it is still difficult to explain Jeff's behavior, because Kerry is not his direct subordinate, he belongs to another Warner boss Kevin Tsujihara, the probability that Jeff will take the initiative to promote him is close to zero.

"Mia, give Kerry a glass of soda." Jeff pressed the inside line to order, "Wait for me a while, let me finish signing these documents."

"Of course, no problem." Kerry said hastily.

Jeff's second secretary quickly brought Kerry a glass of soda. Kerry sipped it nervously, and the office fell into silence again. After a while, Jeff dropped his pen and threw the documents away. When he got to the side, he stretched and sighed comfortably, "so—"

Kerry straightened up quickly, showing that he was listening attentively.

"Michael Clayton last year, you guys did a great job," Jeff said, "I read the reports, so far, he has provided us with hundreds of millions of profits-good job , by this time next year, it should be able to earn us so much."

Before Kerry gave way, Jeff asked another question, "What is your impression of Jennifer Jefferson in this cooperation?"

Kerry was taken aback, but then relaxed—it was a safe question, at least for him.

"A very professional actor and a very capable producer." He said without hesitation, "If there is an opportunity to work together again, I don't think we should miss it—of course, what I said is nonsense, Now in Hollywood, I don't think anyone is unwilling to cooperate with her."

"Well," Jeff raised his eyebrows, looking interested in Carrie's opinion, "There is no one who doesn't cooperate with her, are you sure?"

Kerry thought it was a very simple question, and he answered without hesitation, "Even George Clooney—I don't think anyone in Hollywood hates her more now, but even he, If there is a chance to work with Jefferson, I think he will not begrudge his money and connections. Jennifer Jefferson makes money in everything, sir, we all say, even if she smiles at the camera for 90 minutes can make money. "Iron Man" is a good example-"

He suddenly realized that he was saying something stupid, so he quickly shut up, but Jeff didn't seem to mind his gaffe, but nodded thoughtfully.

"Indeed," he murmured, "none of us took Iron Man seriously last year, but of course we now know we were dead wrong. Jennifer Jefferson did not. If you look away, this second-tier hero is right for the audience..."

In Kerry's view, the "Iron Man" series is even more promising than "Batman", because it reveals a new mode of filming comics, which is more comical than the dark reality that Warner likes. There are advantages, not only the box office is easy to explode, but also the requirements for the director and the script are not too high, but of course he will not say this in front of Jeff, Nolan's best friend and the main supporter of "Batman", He just nodded his head submissively, and at the same time, he became curious about Jeff's intentions: what exactly did he want to ask when he came here?

"Well, since this girl was born to perform miracles, it seems that we can also expect her to perform another miracle." As if realizing that he was confusing Carrie, Jeff somewhat With a self-deprecating smile, he also revealed his trump card. He picked up a document and threw it in front of Kerry, "This is an invitation from Dameng to cooperate with us... Tell me your opinion."

Kerry quickly flipped through the simple draft of the contract, "—cooperate with us to develop a new superheroine movie...The prerequisite is that Big Dream will be the leader, and the two parties will share the global distribution rights equally...Warner can inject up to 30 %, and if you want to enter the game, you have to pay for the copyright of Warner's independent film library."

This request is a bit weird, Kerry-of course, almost immediately thought of the possible purpose of the big dream.

"Dameng has taken a fancy to a Warner independent film." He said, "It is likely to be a project that is still under development, or has not yet been released in North America——"

"Yes," Jeff's tone showed that he is not stupid, of course such a simple reasoning can be completed in an instant, "and I think that Dameng also took a fancy to DC's comic copyright, which makes me feel strange ——If she wants to play a heroine, doesn't Marvel have a suitable movie for her to choose?"

Jeff only needs to raise his head, and Kerry can complete the other thinking process in a few seconds. After all, this kind of intrigue can be regarded as Warner's specialty. He exclaimed, "It seems that the rumor is Really, the Marvel tyrant Kevin Fitch and Jennifer are really at odds!"

Although he has long been used to the expression of "emotions and anger", Carrie's tone is still full of surprise: For top actresses like Jennifer, if they intend to star in blockbuster action special effects, production Fang definitely wants it, and Pepper is not without superpowers in the comics. Even Carrie has read the comics where she puts on the armor and starts fighting. If he is an executive at Marvel, and Jennifer intends to star in a female superhero movie, he can think of several ways to give "Iron Man" a rumor with his eyes closed, and no one can stop him from quickly listing this project. Isn't it stupid to not pick money for the top priority of this year - money delivered in front of you? The reason why Marvel did not find Jennifer, or the reason why Jennifer did not find Marvel, can only be one reason, that is, the cooperation between the two parties was not pleasant, and it can even be said to be extremely reluctant... And of course this is DC Chance!

Kerry's thinking didn't stop there. He quickly thought about the investment share provided by Big Dream to Warner - 30%, which should give a certain amount of room for bargaining, and it may be able to inject up to 40% of the capital. Although the share is only half, it is already a very good share in terms of Jennifer's usual return on investment. In fact, he couldn't think of any reason why Jennifer would extend an olive branch to Warner instead of choosing Disney. Disney would definitely pay for Big Dream without hesitation. After all, this is a Jennifer Jefferson movie!

"Jeff." He had forgotten the honorific, but raised his voice in a ecstasy, "Maybe, maybe this also means another thing, that is, the relationship between Jennifer and Disney is also getting colder... They may have started to find a home for the big dream."

"It's hard to say." Jeff was much calmer than his subordinates. He shook his head, "At least the existing signs can't fully prove this conjecture, and that's why I came to you——Warner Independent Film Ku, this is not a problem, the maximum package value will not exceed 20 million, even if one or two of these projects have good potential, they will not exceed the income that investing in Jennifer Jefferson can bring."

Kerry nodded in agreement, and he also very much agrees with Jeff's judgment: Warner's most profitable independent art film is "Good Night, Good Luck", and the total profit is just over 20 million, which is different from Jennifer's Several of Jefferson's blockbuster films are a fraction of what they are. Even if it is "Michael Clayton", the money that Warner can get in the end is enough to kill it instantly. Even if there are some underestimated projects in the film library, so what, Jennifer Jefferson's blockbuster special effects, the global box office is almost 800 million, plus DVD and peripheral development, copyright sales, Warner is 40 % share, you can get hundreds of millions of dollars at will. Even if Warner’s independent film library is included in the investment cost, the investment is 100 million. generated turnover. And it is more likely that Dameng just wants to enrich the film library-this is what every independent film company is doing. They don't think Warner's film library is valuable, but they just want to make more profits. Swipe in and pull some chips. After all, Warner Independent mostly purchases the North American copyrights of art films, which have a limited time limit. The reason why Jeff said that the packaged value of the entire film library will not exceed 20 million is also because the copyrights of some highlight projects are approaching. It's time.

Although there are many items in this calculation, it is not complicated for Kerry and Jeff. Jeff continued without explaining, "But I want to know why Jennifer Jefferson We will find Warner to invest in this movie, why not Disney, this will determine our strategy in the negotiation, Kerry, I think you understand what I mean, this will determine the bottom line of the interests we want to fight for Warner..."

Looking at Kerry who suddenly realized, Jeff said meaningfully, "This is what I want you to figure out-of course, if you want to take charge of this project, then I think you should also figure it out." Clear, isn't it?"

If Jennifer Jefferson and her big dream can be brought under the banner of Warner, if they can take some credit for this matter...

Carrie stopped thinking about it. He was afraid that if he thought about it, he would even laugh out loud. He cleaned up the expression on his face, looked at Jeff, and promised sincerely, "I understand you I mean, Jeff——I also understand whose favor I should remember in this matter.”

Under Jeff's satisfied smile, he took out his mobile phone and dialed Dameng's number impatiently...

#

"Warner's heart is moved." Cesare hung up the phone and said to Jenny at the other end of the desk. He looked at his watch and showed a slightly smug wolf smile, "Two hours and twenty minutes, the reaction speed It's pretty fast... They have already promised to suspend quotations for the film library. Fortunately, until now, the film library has not completed a transaction, and "Millionaire" has not yet been inquired."

He paused, and his smile gradually widened, "And as we expected, Warner also became suspicious. Carrie Oriente just gave me a good insinuation, and his attitude is better than that of "Michael". Even more affectionate when it comes to the Oscars."

Jenny can indeed feel the pleasure of taking a boat in the sea now. It feels good that this kind of strategy is sold. She couldn't help showing a satisfied smile. However, she didn't have time to speak, Chesa Ray's phone rang again.

"Yes, Kevin, ok..."

After a short call, Cesare hung up the phone, and he stared at the phone for a while—Jenny, who pricked up her ears when she heard the word 'Kevin', couldn't help but be shocked Said, "Is it Kevin Fitch? ——Although Warner is famous for its chaotic management, it's only been two hours, so he won't have received the news, right?"

"Fitch is right." Cesare seemed to have figured out what the problem was, he raised his head and said with interest, "However, he didn't come to question our cooperation plan with Warner...he wanted to Talk to us about the development of Iron Man 2 - guess what he wants?"

Jenny blurted out immediately without thinking, "He wants to buy back the development rights for the sequel of "Iron Man"!"

Cesare didn't speak, but from the smile in his eyes, Jenny could tell that she had indeed guessed Marvel's intentions.