Rebirth In Hollywood

The matter of Disney can't be rushed. Although I don't know what Michael Eisner is waiting for, Ryan is also waiting for the most suitable opportunity. watermark ad test watermark ad test

Now there is the common interest of Pixar Studios, the Disney board shows rare unity, and even Roy Disney has begun to cooperate with Michael Eisner, a strong Walt Disney without internal problems, absolutely Not that Ryan can shake it himself.

But Ryan knows the crux of it. Because of the CEO incident in the 1990s, Michael Eisner actually left a huge hidden danger, and the key person among them is the former caa magnate and his friend Michael Ovitz , the contract and severance pay of that price, as well as the appointment that does not conform to legal procedures, once it breaks out, this tyrant who is good at playing with power will face a lot of trouble.

You know, this huge sum of nearly 200 million US dollars, even if it has not been paid up to now, any Disney shareholder has the right to file a relevant lawsuit in the court, so as to investigate the violation of the company's system and personal will to promote Michael ? Ovitz appoints responsibility.

In this highly developed business society, managers squandering shareholders' money at will, can not be offset by a few random excuses.

Ryan has secretly contacted some of Disney's retail shareholders and small investors, just waiting for the right moment.

Maybe in the past, he just wanted to live his life carefree, but no matter whether his biggest interest was movies, or he wanted to use his career to suppress his emotional rebound, since he chose the most difficult path a few years ago, then He will go on unswervingly until the day it comes true.

What belongs to me is mine in the end, no one can take it away, and no one can escape.

Like self-hypnosis. After Ryan muttered this sentence, he scattered his thoughts and put it back on the document in front of him.

Just in late July, The Mummy 2, a collaboration between Jenkins Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox, also landed in North America. This comedy-adventure series was rejected by Disney management. Showing great charm, it raked in nearly $69 million at the North American box office in its first week. With just over three weeks in the air, it has surpassed the previous film's $170 million U.S. box office.

The film was a huge commercial success, becoming one of the few live-action films to surpass the previous one, and director Stephen Sommers drew on the two Mummies. He became one of Hollywood's leading commercial film directors.

Perhaps because of the success of this magical series, Stephen Sommers has signed a new directorial contract with Universal Pictures, which is ambitious and plans to create a $150 million production cost. An unprecedented monster movie.

The project has not yet been officially named, and Ryan speculates that it should be "Van Helsing", which devastated Universal.

He vaguely remembered. The production cost of this movie in the previous life should have exceeded 150 million US dollars. It seems that it only returned a little more than 300 million US dollars at the global box office. The final result is even more miserable than "Pearl Harbor"...

Although the relationship with Universal is not bad, Ryan will not say much. It is undoubtedly a very disgusting behavior to casually interfere with the normal operations of other companies.

In addition to Stephen Sommers, the male and female protagonists are also the focus of Hollywood's attention, among which Rachel Weisz has become the English rose blooming in Hollywood in the mouth of the British media as early as the end of the first part.

Such a description is not excessive, but there are more English roses in Fleet Street. After the release of "Pearl Harbor" next year, Hollywood will definitely have another English rose.

Rachel Weisz is lucky. Among all the actors in "The Mummy", she even surpassed the male lead and became the most popular one.

And the success of this series has also brought her huge benefits. Just after filming the sequel, this talented girl from Cambridge, with a salary of up to 13 million US dollars, took over the shooting of a German studio. masterpiece of war.

The production budget of this large-scale production was originally 68 million US dollars. It brought together Jude Law, Russell Fiennes and Rachel Weisz three famous Hollywood movie stars. During the post-production, the producer even An additional investment of $95 million was made.

Because Paramount Pictures served as the film's distributor, Ryan had heard some news that Mr. Jean-Jacques Arnold, the director from France, was going to make this film called "Come to the City" and make it happen in the The war epic of the former Soviet Union even claimed to overturn "Saving Private Ryan" at the box office.

In addition to Luc Besson, how many French people have succeeded in shooting commercial masterpieces?

As for "Barrier on the City", which chose the Christmas file, unless the movie is remade, it must still be one of the most failed big-budget movies at the turn of the century.

But this possibility obviously does not exist. Ryan knows from the sporadic propaganda now that the movie is still a showdown between two snipers from the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

This proposition alone is one of the major failures of the film. In the film, apart from the Soviets, they are Germans, and even the three leading actors are British, and not a single American can see it. Although the audience in North America is becoming more and more open, but This 'foreign' film, full of French romanticism, certainly fails to arouse too many people's interest.

Even today, liberalism and isolationism in the United States are still prevalent. In the eyes of these people, the Soviets and the Germans beat to death, and they have nothing to do with them.

Movies are deeply influenced by the social environment in which they are located, and Ryan knows this well. For movies like "Come to the City", it's not just the content of the movie that fails.

"The Mummy 2" was a great success. Stephen Sommers became a first-line commercial director from a small director. Because of the investment decision made at the beginning, Ryan became the object of lobbying by many screenwriters and directors. After all, he chose to enter this film. People in Vanity Fair all want to gain both fame and fortune.

Whenever he encounters such a person, as long as there is no particularly urgent matter, Ryan will choose to listen to what the other party has to say. He has always been very enthusiastic about things that may bring benefits.

This has nothing to do with what the outside world said about supporting new directors and discovering screenwriter talents. What determines all this is only interest.

What Ryan didn't expect was that Ridley Scott became one of the lobbyists.

In the afternoon, he went to the editing room to check the post-production progress of "Gladiator", as well as some dubbing clips for the film. When he was busy with these breaks, Ridley Scott asked him to chat alone. .

"what do you mean……"

In the lounge, Ryan put down the coffee cup and looked at Ridley Scott opposite, "Want to adapt Mr. Mark Bowden's documentary report "The Black Hawk Project" into a movie?"

"That's right, it's the Somali incident." Ridley Scott nodded and said earnestly, "Before shooting 'Gladiator', I had a preliminary plan, and I've reached a deal with Jerry Bruckheimer. He's got people working on the script, and Bruckheimer couldn't afford such a huge investment, so we needed to find the right partner."

"Ridley, how much do you expect to invest?" Ryan asked after thinking about it.

"It's estimated at around $80 million." For most directors, this is an unattainable figure, but compared to the nearly $100 million production cost of "Gladiator", Ridley ?Scott obviously doesn't think it's a big deal, "Ryan, I'm sure you've heard of this event, I think it's marketable..."

During the filming of "Gladiator", Ridley Scott clearly grasped Ryan's views on the film. He did not mention any artistic and practical significance, but directly talked about the market value of the film.

Ryan has naturally seen this masterpiece by Ridley Scott in his previous life, and he was extremely impressed. This film does not have the sensational memories of "Saving Private Ryan", nor the painful reflections of "Apocalypse Now". It's just war, real and brutal war.

And Ridley? Scott himself, but also by virtue of this film once again won the Oscar for best director nomination.

Even now, Ryan still vaguely remembers the classic line - only soldiers who are sorry for the country, no soldiers who are sorry for the country, we swear allegiance to the country we love, not the damn politicians.

In a way, this movie has the potential to be a big hit, but it didn't come at the right time.

The movie is deeply influenced by the social environment, and it has been interpreted very appropriately in "Black Hawk Down".

If the film is released in the first two years, this year, or even next summer, as long as the war film is not made into a literary film, it will not be a problem to recover the cost.

But the problem is, the movie is definitely not going to be released before next summer.

"Black Hawk Down" is still in the planning stage. War movies often require extremely long preparations. It would be good to be able to start before the end of the year, and Ridley Scott will not be able to throw the film before "Gladiator" is released. Drop post-production and run off to shoot another film.

In this case, film shooting and post-production, even at the fastest speed, working overtime like "Gladiator", will be released until next year's Thanksgiving Christmas.

At that time, how many North American audiences were willing to see a movie in which their country failed and their compatriots were slaughtered?

Of course, the movie can be postponed. The problem is that the impact of the incident next year will be huge, and there will be no obvious improvement in two to three years. The result of this movie's release can be imagined...

This is an investment of up to 80 million US dollars, even if Bruckheimer Pictures can share a part, as well as the later promotion and marketing.

Do you have to rely on the long disc market and TV rights to recoup your investment?

After Ryan's euphemistic 'needs to consider' remark, Ridley Scott walked out of the lounge with some disappointment. ()