Six Hundred and Ninetieth Chapters for a Little Money

San Diego, where Qualcomm's headquarters is located, is in southern California, less than two hours' drive from Los Angeles, making it very convenient to travel. After Eric expressed his intention to take a stake in Qualcomm to Owen Jacobs, the two parties started close negotiations.

In Eric's office in Firefly Studios, Kelly, who had just returned from San Diego, handed over a memo to Eric, saying: "Chris will also discuss with several important shareholders of Qualcomm in the afternoon. Just came back, this is the result of our negotiation in the morning, Qualcomm's board is only willing to accept half of our proposed capital injection, but their attitude is not so firm, it should only be a matter of time before the deal is finally reached."

Eric opened the memo that Kelly handed over and said, "Since the official contact has begun, this matter must not be hidden for too long, and if it drags on for a long time, some changes will inevitably occur. I only care about the time issue, a Week, I hope the deal is finalized within the next week."

Kelly said: "Eric, if the negotiation is compressed into a week, we will definitely be passive."

Eric shook his head and said: "This matter can't be resolved quickly, it will attract too many people's attention, and we will be really passive. You continue to go to San Diego tomorrow, and explain the benefits and Qualcomm clearly, at-t just got When the spectrum license was announced, gsm was announced as its technical standard, and the other operators who got the spectrum license would not hesitate for too long. If they missed the best time to lobby for dma because of hesitation, we would not hesitate. to give up the deal, so, it's only a week."

Once the news of Firefly's attempt to take a stake in Qualcomm spreads. Not only will the stock price skyrocket. It may also lead to follow-up. after all. Firefly's investments in companies such as Cisco, America Online, Yahoo, and Nokia in recent years have now achieved very rich returns, and the capital market has already begun to pay close attention to Firefly's investment trends. If the negotiations drag on for too long, and another company interested in Qualcomm suddenly pops up in the process, that's the biggest trouble.

Kelly thought for a moment, then nodded: "Okay, I'll prepare."

Eric read the memo, discussed some precautions with Kelly, and picked up a thick package on the desk. He got up and said, "The Wachowski brothers will be here soon, so come with you."

Kelly followed and said in surprise, "Eric, do you really plan to let them direct The Matrix?"

Eric said: "It hasn't been decided yet, let's see it first."

"I always feel that this is a bit too... outrageous, they are just two little-known screenwriters."

Eric smiled and said, "I used to be just a little-known screenwriter."

Kelly said: "But you didn't start directing a movie with such a huge budget.

The original budget of "Home Alone" was only one million. Later, there were "Pretty Woman", "Home Alone 2", "Dark War" and "Ghost Story", until the sixth "Tornado". I just started trying to make big movies. "

Eric explained: "At that time, I was relatively timid. In case of direct production of a big project with an investment of over 100 million yuan. If the box office was a fiasco, there would definitely be no me now."

Kelly is still a little puzzled. Judging from Eric's directing line from small to big, he has always been a very rational person, but this time his behavior seems a bit unreasonable.

Because of the great success of "Jurassic Park", Firefly has great expectations for Eric's film adaptation of "The Matrix", and the production budget is directly opened to 100 million US dollars. Katzenberg and others actually hope that Eric can continue to direct in person, but Eric has become interested in two new Hollywood rookies who have not even directed a work, which is really puzzling.

It was still the small restaurant near the administrative building where Eric often had lunch. As soon as he entered the door, the two brothers who were already waiting in the restaurant stood up, accompanied by a studio employee.

Eric sent the employee who was in charge of the escort to leave, and sat down with Kelly opposite the Wachowski brothers, looking at the Wachowski brothers who were still men at this time, Eric inexplicably had a weird feeling. It feels that, perhaps because of cultural differences, it is difficult for Eric to understand the thinking of transgender people.

Feeling Eric's gaze, Larry Wachowski, who looks thin and wears glasses but is actually his brother, looked at the package that Eric put on the table and said, "Mr. Williams, may I ask you? What do you think of our vision for The Matrix?"

Eric put away his inexplicable thoughts, took out the draft of the split shot in the package, and said, "You can call me Eric, I think the ideas about bullet time and 360-degree rotating lens in your draft are very cool, but, I feel that you have not completely adapted my novel, but these drawings did not give a detailed script, can you tell me your specific thoughts on the plot first?"

In order to avoid the collision of thinking, the novel version of "The Matrix" written by Eric did not follow the route of the movie version in memory except for the name and main line concept, and there was no esoteric philosophical thinking, but mainly the accident of the hero Neo. After discovering that he is living in an unreal world, he fights against the mother body with his friends and returns to reality.

Hearing Eric's question, Larry Wachowski said: "Eric, in fact, Andy and I have had similar ideas before, but it's just been some scattered ideas, It wasn't until we saw your novel that we decided to script our story, so the storyboard you saw was drawn by Andy and I combined with your novel and some of our own ideas. We feel , Compared with the novel version, such a story should be able to carry out deeper excavation and exploration, about reality and fantasy, about the origin of life, etc., and should not be just a science fiction novel."

Eric nodded and said: "Then, completely put aside my story and talk about your ideas?"

"Of course no problem," Larry Wachowski said. "The idea is this, in a fantasy world created by the Matrix. Neo should be a programmer who is proficient in hacking. One day. A mysterious person suddenly contacts. he……"

The Wachowskis began to talk about their story ideas with great interest, and Eric interjected a few words from time to time, and unconsciously, even Kelly was gradually drawn into the discussion.

It was not until two o'clock in the afternoon that several people thought of having lunch and simply filling their stomachs. Eric began to ask the Wachowskis about the specific shooting ideas, and the discussion continued until the evening. The Wachowskis just left Firefly Studios.

Eric asked the waiter to remove the coffee from the table, ordered dinner by the way, and then asked Kelly next to him, "What do you think of them?"

Kelly thought for a while and said, "Two people with great ideas, but if they are shot according to their ideas, this film is likely to be a little... obscure, and if it is made into a low-cost ult film, it may become a classic. But as a big production with an investment of hundreds of millions, it is difficult to guarantee the box office.”

Eric nodded. The female assistant's eyes are still very keen.

In the original time and space, in order to pull the investment in "The Matrix". The Wachowski brothers are still very restrained in the script, combining the philosophical thinking and commercial elements they want to express, so the audience sees a cool sci-fi blockbuster without lack of connotation. The first "The Matrix" came out, and it immediately caused a sensation. Not only did it have a double harvest at the box office, but it also made the originally unknown Wachowski brothers become first-line Hollywood directors. Hollywood has a very simple and crude rule that as long as you can make a blockbuster movie for a studio, you can get everything you want. As a result, after the success of the first film, the two brothers became Hollywood's first-line directors and gained full control over the production of the sequel. Warner, the producer, also refused to accept the requirements of the two brothers. Therefore, the two brothers He began to add his own ideas to the film without restraint. The sequel used unbridled special effects while the plot became dark and obscure. The disastrous consequence of this extreme incongruity was that fans waited anxiously for four years. After that, I finally saw two dog-tailed sequels. After the second "Reloaded" had basically exhausted the reputation of the series, fans directly swayed their disappointment on the third part, which should have been The end of the series' peak has been reduced to the worst box office and word of mouth of the entire series.

Recalling these things, Eric said to the female assistant: "I will personally check the script, and I will definitely not let them mess around as they want."

"Eric, but they don't have any directing experience after all. According to the approximate film production cycle, if everything goes well, "The Matrix" will take about three months to shoot and the same four months of post-production. The preliminary preparations are about It will also take three months, and it will probably be less than a year in total. From now to next year's summer vacation, we still have a year and a half. In the future, the announcement can be carried out at the same time as the later period. If the time card is tighter, maybe they can use this In half a year, I will direct a low-budget film to exercise."

Eric nodded: "That's a good idea, um, a year and a half... um, a year and a half, eighteen months, six months, 1995, 1997..."

Kelly saw Eric talking, her face suddenly changed continuously, she muttered strangely to herself, and stood up worried: "Eric, what's the matter with you?"

Eric calmed down, smiled reluctantly, reached out and patted Kelly's little hand on his shoulder, and said, "I'm fine, just suddenly thought of something."

"Why doesn't it matter?" Kelly was still a little worried, and put the back of her hand on Eric's forehead again. Except for some fine sweat, she didn't feel anything different.

Eric smiled and grabbed the female assistant's little hand and kissed it on his lips, "It's really okay, but it suddenly occurred to me that I might have overlooked something."

Kelly was kissed by Eric on the back of her hand, and she felt the surprised gaze of the waiter not far away. She withdrew her hand with a blushing face, and sat down again, but she forgot to ask Eric why he had lost his temper just now.

Eric's expression quickly returned to normal, but he did not let go of the thoughts just now.

Because of Kelly's inadvertent reminder, Eric suddenly thought of the production cycle of "Titanic". In the original time and space, after "Titanic" created a box office miracle, many production details were picked up by the media. Eric clearly remembers that the "Titanic" in the original time and space began preparations in the second half of 1995, and officially began shooting in 1996. Fox had planned to release it in the summer of 1997. As a result, Cameron dragged the production cycle again and again. It was finally delayed until the end of 1997 to be released, and the entire production cycle was nearly two years.

Although the production budget of 150 million US dollars was approved for "Titanic" at the beginning, Eric was already mentally prepared that Cameron would definitely overspend, as long as he could bring the same classic as the original time and space, Eric didn't mind Cameron pushing his budget to $200 million again. But he inadvertently overlooked that Cameron would not only overrun the budget, but also overrun the production.

Because of the auction of Disney's hand-drawn animation department last year, Firefly will have a break in the annual animation film next summer. If "Titanic" can't be released as scheduled, the 1996 Firefly summer file may only be left with "The Matrix".

In the past few years, the profits created by several major films of Firefly's summer program have accounted for about half of the annual film business profits, which shows the importance of the summer program to Firefly's film business department. If next year's summer movie upload scale suddenly shrinks to one-third of the previous size, the Firefly Group's movie business will inevitably be greatly affected.

This kind of thing, staring at Cameron will definitely have no effect, and it will only make him roar a little higher on the set in the end.

Eric quickly made up his mind, it is better to prepare in advance.

And, luckily, it's only early 1995. If I realize this again in the second half of the year, I want to prepare a film that can carry the summer of 1996. It's definitely running out of time.

...

The director of "The Matrix" was chosen by Eric himself, and the Wachowski brothers were quickly determined.

Eric also, according to Kelly's suggestion, asked the Wachowskis to shoot a low-budget film in advance to hone their directing skills during the preparatory stage of "The Matrix".

The Wachowski brothers are screenwriters, and they happen to have a script called "Amazing Flowers" written by themselves, but the script has been sold to an independent production company affiliated with Warner. With the coordination and Firefly agreeing to co-invest, Warner readily agreed to hand over the directorship to the Wachowskis.

Negotiations with Qualcomm continued, and the news inevitably leaked out in the next few days. Several major telecom operators expressed their close attention, and even high-level at-t called through Warren Buffett to ask Ai Rui. Gram's intentions.

Although Qualcomm's stock price also skyrocketed, under the tough attitude of Firefly, Qualcomm shareholders and the board of directors began to compromise step by step.

Hollywood, the Golden Globes are just around the corner. Eric paid little attention to this matter. In order to avoid the delay of Cameron's "Titanic", which caused no films to be released next summer, Eric began to be busy selecting the script.

"Mr. Williams, the story goes like this, a Marine Corps officer, dissatisfied with the attitude of the US government towards the fallen soldiers, led his subordinates to seize a batch of gas bombs and hijacked them on a prison island that had been turned into a tourist attraction. A group of tourists were taken as hostages, in order to threaten the US government to pay a ransom of 100 million US dollars to compensate the fallen soldiers. The abandoned prison was once called 'Alcatraz' and was famous for its strict guards. During the process of rescuing the hostages, forced to discover A former British agent is the only criminal who has successfully escaped from Alcatraz Island, so he forces the executive to deceive the agent that he will be **** by the US government, on the premise of leading special forces into Alcatraz to save the hostages... "

Firefly Studios, in Eric's office, a thin middle-aged man narrated his script idea to Eric, and made some gestures from time to time. Eric listened quietly, sitting on the other side. Jerry Bruckheimer kept nodding his head, waiting for the middle-aged man to finish his narration, and said, "Eric, how about David's idea, it's great, right?"

Eric smiled noncommittally, and said to the thin middle-aged man: "Mr. Weisberg, you go back first, if there is a result, someone will notify you."

The thin middle-aged man looked at Jerry Bruckheimer and said to Eric reluctantly: "Mr. Williams, you can imagine that the role of the old British agent is played by Sean Connery, The first 007 played a British agent, full of gimmicks, the chemist can be handed over to Nicolas Cage, the director chose John Wu, his directing style is very suitable for this script. It was shot with this cast. The movie will definitely be great Sold. And..."

Eric still didn't say anything, but Jerry Bruckheimer frowned impatiently and said, "David, listen to Eric, you go back first, I will call you in the afternoon."

David Weisberg felt Jerry Bruckheimer's displeasure and dared not bother, got up and left the office honestly.

Wait for the office door to close. Jerry Bruckheimer said to Eric: "Eric, can you tell me what you think now?"

"Jerry," Eric spread his hands and said with a smile, "You know my rules, I don't want the incident in the original Cutthroat Island script to happen again."

Knowing that Eric was looking for a script, in just a few days, Firefly received a large number of scripts delivered by the script agent. However, learning from the past lessons, in order to send the script to Eric, the owner of the script needs to sign a strict intention contract with Firefly first. After confirming that Eric chooses the script, the screenwriter will not sell the script to other film companies for profit.

today. Jerry Bruckheimer suddenly came to the door excitedly with a screenwriter, saying that he had a good idea to recommend to him, so the situation just now happened.

Jerry Bruckheimer said: "Of course I know, and I also think that that incident was originally a hole you dug for Michael Eisner, am I right?"

Eric shrugged, even if everyone guessed it, he wouldn't admit it.

Jerry Bruckheimer smiled knowingly, and then explained: "I have already bought the script, so let it go. As long as Firefly agrees to invest, everything else will be fine."

"Jerry, you seem to have overlooked a problem. Until now, I still don't know the name of this script."

"Uh, I ignored it, but the name of the movie is often undecided at the script stage. Of course, David has already given a name to this story, called "Brave to the Dead Island"."

"Okay, "Brave to the Dead Island"," Eric read it again and smiled: "Well, David Weisberg just said, Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, John Wu, oh, and you, a gold medal producer, in this case, have you calculated the film budget?"

Eric doesn't know how much Sean Connery's salary was in "Brave Island", but he happened to know that Sean Connery was in the subsequent "Trap of the Sky" I got my first 20 million salary, even if it's lower now, it won't be too much lower. Cage's current salary is also around 15 million US dollars. John Wu has experienced three big-selling films, and the director's salary is also no less than 10 million US dollars. Jerry Bruckheimer, a gold medal producer, must have no 10 million. Certainly not. So, this film is just the main creator salary, it will not be less than 50 million.

Jerry Bruckheimer pondered for a moment and said, "Eric, the starring cost of this film is a bit higher, but the film doesn't have many special effects and big scenes, so the budget should be able to be controlled within 80 million. "

Eric doesn't know how much box office "Brave Island" got in his previous life, but this film was the first batch of imported films in China at that time, and it would definitely not be too bad at the box office in North America and the world. Knocking on the armrest of the seat and thinking for a moment, Eric nodded and said, "Okay, Jerry, only 80 million, and you know, Firefly doesn't have the habit of signing remuneration bonus agreements, so the 80 million is all the producers. expenditure."

When Jerry Bruckheimer reported this budget, he actually raised it a bit. According to his estimate, the film could be completed at about $75 million. Eric did not deliberately take out a main creator or compress the budget of 10 or 20 million to cause problems for the producers like those film company executives he had worked with before, which also made him feel very comfortable, so he nodded: "No problem, Eric, I know Sean Connery quite well, I can help convince him to join the project, and Cage and John Wu, you'd better come out and say hello in person."

The two discussed the project in detail, Jerry Bruckheimer was about to leave, Eric joked: "Jerry, in the last few days, everyone who enters this office will leave a script idea or two, don't you? Are you going to leave like this?"

Jerry Bruckheimer laughed, remembering that he had nothing to leave in a hurry, Eric said so, he sat down again, raised his legs and said casually: "I really have a script here. , but it's a bit old-fashioned. It's a crime action movie that imitates the two male protagonists of "Lethal Weapon". I originally planned to sell it to Colombia for a little money. The budget is not high, only 19 million. Are you interested? ?"

Eric narrowed his eyes slightly, his smile unchanged, and said, "Oh, what's the name of the script?"

"Jedi Boys." (To be continued.)

If you find errors in the content of the chapters, please report them and we will fix them as soon as possible.

For more exciting content, please pay attention to: novel network new domain name