America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 579 God is not as crazy as him

Los Angeles Country Club, on a sunny golf course.

After finishing a hole, Thomas drove the electric car and took Martin and Daniel back to the rest area.

The latter ended the golf topic and turned back to the movie. He picked up his drink and raised it to Martin: "Congratulations on getting nominated for Best Actor again."

Martin raised his glass in response, saying, "I just won the Best Supporting Actor last year. It's hard to win the Best Actor for the role of Benjamin. I don't have any advantages, and the role uses too much CG technology."

Daniel took a sip of his drink and said, "You are still young and there will be plenty of opportunities in the future. Warner Bros. will fully support you."

The other party's words sounded nice, and Martin was not ambiguous: "Warner has always been my confidence."

Daniel followed up immediately, "Since you entered Hollywood, you have been working with Warner Bros. We have a tacit understanding and have created many box office legends."

He smiled and said, “Martin, have you ever considered working more closely with Warner Bros?”

Martin didn't understand, so he didn't say anything and continued to talk about the Oscar: "Warner will fully support me in my bid for the Oscar for Best Actor?"

Daniel didn't expect Martin to answer like this. He was slightly surprised and replied, "With your acting skills and artistic expression, if you continue to cooperate with Warner, the Best Actor award will definitely be yours."

Martin smiled and said, "I hope so."

Daniel found that when chatting with Martin, he would unconsciously be led by him, so he simply said directly: "What I just said about closer cooperation with Warner Bros. is not referring to Oscar."

He asked sincerely, "Martin, are you interested in joining the Warner family?"

Thomas, who had remained silent, suddenly looked at Daniel.

Martin was also a little surprised and asked slowly, "Am I not a member of the Warner family now?"

Daniel said, "Warner Bros. is interested in acquiring your Davis Film Studios."

Martin nodded slightly and asked, "Like New Line Cinema and Legendary Pictures?"

"Yes," Daniel said, "Davis Studios became a subsidiary of Warner."

As long as the price is right, Martin does not object to being acquired by Warner. Since it is a business transaction, he directly asked the price: "I want to know, how much is Warner willing to pay?"

Daniel was prepared when he arrived: "Warner did a systematic evaluation, $1.5 million."

He raised his hand to stop Martin from speaking, and said first: "Your studio has only been established for five years. Including the upcoming film "Gone Girl", there are only four film copyrights in the film library. Except for a publicity and marketing department, other departments can be basically ignored."

Martin was certainly not happy with the price.

Daniel hadn't finished speaking yet: "This includes the rights to the sequel to John Wick: Chapter 11, and your contract as the leading actor in the trilogy. Of course, Warner will pay your salary and dividends faithfully! In addition, the rights to Prince of Thieves, Lone Survivor, and The Martian, as well as the rights to other scripts you purchased, are also included."

"I personally enjoy working with Warner and want to strengthen our relationship." Martin was equally direct: "If Warner offers the right price, I can sell the studio to you."

At this point, he couldn't help but shake his head: "$1.5 million, in my opinion, can't even buy the rights to the sequel to John Wick, let alone the adaptation rights to the three novels."

This is a purely commercial act. Daniel said, "The success or failure of the three novels adapted into movies is completely unknown. Even the sequel to John Wick has considerable risks. Many sequels to hit movies have poor commercial feedback."

Martin nodded and said, "I have a way to avoid these risks. I will take the copyrights of these three novels, the John Wick series, and other scripts. In order to avoid severance costs after the acquisition, I will find a way to get rid of the staff. The remaining assets of Davis Studio will be sold to Warner Bros. for $1.5 million."

Daniel laughed: "Martin, you know this is impossible."

Martin spread his hands: "Our differences are too great."

Goods always have a price tag. Daniel asked, "What's your target price?"

"$5 million!" Martin thought the price was very reasonable. In addition to the money, he also asked for something else: "The production of the sequel to John Wick will be entirely based on my team."

Daniel thought the price was unrealistic, but neither he nor Warner had any objection to the latter condition.

Martin hadn't finished speaking yet: "I won't talk about the salary and share of the profits. The adaptation of the other works must also be led by me. From budget to director, etc., it must be implemented in the contract."

Daniel couldn't agree to this. The senior executives of Warner's film companies would definitely not agree to it. He said directly: "This is unrealistic, Martin. You know this is impossible in a big company."

In the next ten years, the executives of Warner Bros. will be more excited than each other. Martin still wants to star in the projects in his hands and it is impossible for him to give up the dominant position.

He said: "Let's not talk about this for now. $5 million is my bottom line."

Daniel shook his head: "Your asking price is too crazy and not in line with the market conditions."

This initial contact ended here.

After leaving the country club, Thomas got into Martin's car and asked, "Are you really going to sell the studio?" Martin said, "If Warner Bros. agrees to my terms, it's not impossible to sell the studio to them. We can just register another one."

Thomas just listened to what the two said and knew that what Warner wanted was the project in Martin's hands.

Martin thought for a moment and said, "Warner Bros. will definitely continue to contact the studio. I don't want the relationship with Warner to change too much in the short term, so it's not appropriate for me to talk to Warner directly. So, you can talk to Warner Bros. on my behalf."

Thomas asked, "What are the conditions?"

Martin roughly remembers that Warner Bros. would often have short-circuited operations in production over the next decade or so: "The conditions for project leadership cannot be compromised."

He tapped the armrest of his seat gently. “As for the price, it can be lowered to $4.5 million.”

When Thomas heard these two conditions, he knew it was impossible to reach an agreement.

Each party has different criteria. Warner Bros. has its own set of standards, and so does Martin.

There are huge differences in this regard.

Martin then joined the crew of "Gone Girl" to prepare for the filming. He also exercised occasionally and discussed the action scene design with Chad and Chen Hu. His work became busy.

Thomas negotiated with Warner Bros. personnel several times on behalf of Martin, but the two sides always had huge differences.

By the time the Oscars ceremony rolled around, there was still no sign or possibility of a consensus.

Warner Bros. also showed a certain sincerity and increased the acquisition funds to US$2 million.

But Thomas, representing Davis' studio, insisted on a minimum of $4.5 million.

Warner Bros. suspended the acquisition negotiations and turned its main focus to Castle Rock Pictures.

“Success breeds more success, but it also makes you lose sight of yourself.”

In Kevin Tsujihara's office in the Warner building, Jon Berg, the new president of Warner Pictures who led the negotiations, said: "Martin Davis overestimates himself. The asking price of $4.5 million is even more crazy than God!"

Kevin Tsujihara was not very happy about the failure of his first acquisition after taking office: "I think the offer of $2 million is very sincere. Most Hollywood stars cannot earn that much money in their lifetime."

Jon Berg, Kevin Tsujihara's brother-in-law, said without hesitation: "I think we should put some pressure on Martin Davis to help him figure himself out."

Kevin Tsujihara doesn't express his opinions easily.

Jon Berg continued: "For the next movie, the distribution company can put pressure on Davis Studio, such as a higher distribution commission. The sequel to John Wick is larger in scale and the publicity and promotion is more sensitive..."

Kevin Tsujihara waved his hand: "Go discuss this with Daniel."

He turned to the main topic of the day: "How is the progress of "Pharaohs and Gods"?"

This is the first major film project that Kevin Tsujihara has truly led since taking office, and he is particularly concerned about it.

Jon Berg said: "Ridley Scott has already completed the post-production of Robin Hood. There is no problem with the schedule. We have reached an agreement with him that he will start preparing for this project after the Oscars ceremony."

Kevin Tsujihara then asked, "Is it okay to release it in 2012?"

Jon Berg is very confident: "Ridley is more efficient than other directors. He said that his schedule is sufficient."

"The review committee has given the green light to Green Lantern. This project needs to be accelerated. You should keep in touch with Hamada of DC Films." All the heads of key subsidiaries of Warner Bros. were replaced by Kevin Tsujihara's confidants: "This is a key step for the DC movie universe to catch up with Marvel. We can't afford to make any mistakes."

Jon Berg nodded and said, "Hamada has chosen a very good director, Martin Campbell, who has directed films such as GoldenEye, The Mask of Zorro, and Casino Royale. The actor is Ryan Reynolds, who received a very good response in Wolverine. Although the actress has not been finalized, one of the candidates is Blake Lively, who has become very popular in recent years."

These sound quite credible. Kevin Tsujihara personally attended the project launch meeting for "Green Lantern". In order to catch up with Marvel as soon as possible, Warner Bros. is preparing to raise $2 million for filming and production.

After Jon Berg left, he immediately went to DC Films to discuss the details of the project with Hamada.

The film will be jointly promoted by DC Films and Warner Bros.

The entire Warner Bros. is confident in the project.

A complete movie universe plan, a sufficient financial budget, reliable management and production team, a director with a lot of successful experience, more mature CGI technology, and a protagonist that is popular with the market. There are risks, but they are much smaller than Marvel's "Iron Man".

Even the management of Warner Bros. believes that "Captain America", which Marvel Studios is preparing, is much riskier than "Green Lantern".

My brother in my hometown died of a heart attack. He was only in his early 50s. He will be in my hometown these two days. I can only write when I have time. Please forgive me if the update is late.



(End of this chapter)