hollywood draw

"With Peter Jackson, a native of New Zealander, the crew preparations are very smooth, whether it is with residents nearby or various local institutions."

Just one day passed in September, Greenberg Manor became rare and bustling. Just after 8 o'clock in the morning, the first visitor was waiting in the living room. John Gray, the producer of "The Lord of the Rings" in Los Angeles, was the first thing he did to come to the manor and report the progress of the work to Wayne.

"The crew's huge and complex landscape work has been fully supported by the New Zealand government. The local government clearly knows how much benefit it can bring to the shooting location once such a Hollywood film project that is not lacking in attention.

Just about two weeks ago, the New Zealand government signed an agreement with Peter Jackson. If the crew needs to be filmed officially, they can dispatch local troops to assist the crew in shooting war scenes in large scenes..."

Without any greetings or nonsense, John Gray immediately began to report on the crew's preparation progress when he saw Wayne.

The two of them are very familiar with each other. After all, the former has served as Wayne's producer and has worked in-depth with him, so they are particularly clear about how to communicate with each other.

"Peter's assistants are visiting model companies in New Zealand, Australia and North America. He means that he hopes to select qualified handsome men and beautiful women from professional teams to play the elves that are not important in the film."

"Model..."

"What's wrong? Do you have any other ideas?" Halfway through, John Gray heard Wayne's muttering and stopped to look at him and asked, "I think Peter's plan is very good, but if you have other plans, I'll call Peter now and ask him to stop the work of those assistants."

"No, it's great to do this."

Wave his hand and Wayne signaled the other party to continue speaking. He didn't have any other ideas. He understood the purpose of Peter Jackson doing this. For those elves who basically had few shots in the film, the idea of ​​directly selecting people from the model company is completely correct.

The reason is very simple. Playing roles that are similar to background boards will not use the so-called acting skills at all. As long as you are beautiful, it is enough. Just when he heard the other party mention the modeling company, he immediately thought of the "secret" group in his memory.

Shaking his head slightly, John Gray didn't think much, recalled it a little and continued: "Since we have to plan the trilogy in advance, some highlights are some of the highlights, such as the Battle of Victory Valley, the Moria Mine, and the Minas Tiris defense battle. Basically, it is necessary to fully set up the scene for shooting. So even if the crew's preliminary preparations are still smooth, the progress of these work will not be too fast..."

In fact, Wayne didn't want to understand the progress of these work at all, because he knew better than anyone else that Peter Jackson did a very good job and didn't have to point fingers on his own.

But rules are rules. As the actual investor and name producer of the film, you must understand what you should know, and it is even more impossible to completely delegate power to Peter Jackson. The existence of John Gray, the existence of Chacha, is the existence that openly restricts the director of "The Lord of the Rings".

Listening to the various progress of the crew's preliminary preparations, Wayne suddenly remembered some rumors in his previous life. According to legend, Peter Jackson's most optimistic actor was not the actress with long face and black hair, but Uma Thurman.

The legendary Uma Thurman's audition effect was very good, but he suddenly became pregnant on the eve of the filming of the film. In the end, the fat man in New Zealand had to use Liv Taylor.

Thinking of this, Wayne shivered suddenly. At least in terms of his aesthetic, Uma Thurmann seemed to be not much better. The next large-scale audition for "The Lord of the Rings" began soon. If possible, he hoped to choose a more beautiful and elf-like actress.

"There are rooms upstairs. Do you want to take a break first? After lunch, let's go to Warner Bros. together."

After the brief work report, Wayne looked at John Gray's dark circles and knew that the other party should have got off the plane and came to the manor directly.

"Okay, I feel that this body is no longer my own." John Gray didn't care about it either, covered his mouth and yawned, nodded politely with Nina sitting beside him, and followed Hela upstairs. Before going upstairs, he didn't forget to turn around and said, "Wayne, remember to wake me up at lunch..."

Wave, Wayne turned to look at Nina and asked, "When is Avi Adra?"

"I think it should be soon."

He looked up at the clock next to the fireplace in the living room, and the assistant lady shrugged and said, "I made an appointment with him at 10 am."

Avi Adra was very punctual and drove into Greenberg Manor before 10 o'clock in the morning. The success of things then went far beyond his previous expectations.

After simply reading his plan for superheroes, Wayne basically did not raise much doubts. He shook hands with him happily and made an appointment to wait until the work related to "X-Men" is completed, the two sides immediately signed an employment agreement. At that time, Avi Adra will serve as the executive director of Greenberg Studio, the empty film company.

The conversation between the two was less than half an hour. When Avi Adra drove into the car and left the manor, she felt a little confused. Obviously, the lot of preparations he had done for today's conversation between the two sides was useless.

“Once the plan begins, we will be under great financial pressure.”

Looking at the car leaving the manor, Nina put down the fashion magazine in her hand, sat opposite her boss, and reminded with a serious face: "Before the end of this year, Greenberg Studio will start projects such as "Quick Chase", "Tomb Raider", and "King Kong". Behind them are "Resident Evil" and "A Dog's Mission"..."

Speaking of this, she paused for a moment, stared at Wayne's eyes and continued: "Don't look at the studio's account with more than one billion yuan, but if you want to start so many projects one after another, this little money is a drop in the bucket. Don't forget, boss, the subsequent investment of "The Lord of the Rings", the Blue Sky Studio, which may require money again, is not counted yet..."

“Stop!”

When Wayne frowned and waved his hand, he interrupted the other party's next words.

He grabbed the cigarette on the coffee table and lit one. He raised one and rubbed the sides of his forehead. He said with a headache: "Don't worry about money. These projects will be jointly produced with Warner Bros. Isn't it possible, we can also raise funds."

Financing is the most common method used by Hollywood film companies. Almost every big production in the eyes of the public cannot escape the shadow of financing. Especially for large film companies, they are best at using other people's money to create benefits for themselves and can also spread risks to a certain extent.

And in Wayne's heart, what he is looking forward to is his work income and investment income this year, which can fill the funding gap in a short period of time.

The current global box office of "X-Men" is moving steadily towards $400 million, and this is far from the end of the box office of "X-Men". The producer contract he signed with 20 Century Fox was divided later on by 20% of the global box office of "X-Men", which is undoubtedly a considerable income.

Moreover, before the film was released, the basic salary of the producers of "X-Men" would be close to seven million US dollars. The first two dollars were 13 million US dollars, and Twentieth Century Fox had already paid for it as early as the filming and the release of the film.

There is also the box office share of "The Flash". Since the release of this film in mid-May to the present, the theaters still being screened in North America have dropped to less than 800. According to the current situation, by the end of the year, Warner Bros. will completely cut the film and start more profitable offline copyright operations as soon as possible.

Four weeks before the release of "The Flash", the box office in North America had reached US$250 million, but due to the film's attributes and subsequent releases of other major productions, the box office of this film has declined rapidly.

However, relying on time, the total box office in North America is now as high as 290 million US dollars, firmly maintaining the championship in the 1998 North American annual box office list. Compared with "X-Men", the effect of "The Flash" screening overseas is much better, and the global box office sum has exceeded 525 million US dollars.

Undoubtedly, this film will also create a sky-high income for him this year.

The rest are "Charlie's Angels" and "The Matrix", which are also different. The former is independently invested and produced by Greenberg Studio. Basically, after deducting the distribution agency fee of Warner Bros., all the income belongs to Wayne alone.

The latter is co-produced with Warner Bros. However, because of the fans accumulated in the first two films of "The Matrix" and the sales performance of movies that are completely different from the rules of R-level films, it can be said that the ability to make money is even better than "Charlie's Angels".

"Charlie's Angels" has passed its hottest screening time until now. The cumulative box office in North America was US$145 million, and the global box office reached US$264 million. However, the market potential of this film is still available, and it also exists in theaters in dozens of countries and regions overseas, and the final box office figures should still increase.

As for "The Matrix", it has just been released for two weekends and the box office in North America has reached $130 million. At the same time, before this weekend, Warner Bros. sent the film overseas to start a global screening journey.

There is no doubt that the third part of "Charlie's Angels" and "The Matrix" can bring him a lot of cash flow. In addition, the post-box office share between "X-Men" and "The Flash", it is fully affordable for Greenberg Studio's projects launched one after another.

But there is a helpless problem here, that is, the time difference, which is why Nina will take the initiative to warn him.

According to the rules of Hollywood film companies, the time when the film company pays off its later share is within six months of the official release of the film! Don’t think that this time is very abundant, because most film companies, including Warner Bros., will be credited until the maximum payment period to settle all share shares.

Many people know about making money in the film industry, but objective factors such as large investment, high risks, and slow payment collection are invisibly placed there.

Not to mention the profits of "The Matrix" and "Charlie's Angels", even the box office share between "The Flash" and "The X-Men", by the time Wayne gets it, the daylily will probably be in a state of bleakness.

That is to say, preparing a movie, you don’t have to invest all your investments directly. Of course, there is also a time difference. However, for projects that are about to be started one after another, the money lying on Greenberg Studio is still under a lot of pressure.

Originally, after Nina's precise plan, the money could be launched in batches, and Warner Bros. shared the pressure. As long as there were no accidents that required a lot of money in the middle, there would be no problem until Wayne shared the movie.

However, once Avi Adella's plan is launched, things are hard to say. The project that Greenberg Studio is preparing to launch is not small. If you temporarily start a superhero movie with a larger investment in the middle, it is undoubtedly challenging your own capital chain.

"I want to remind you, boss."

Nina, Sergey, Wayne, Naomi Watts and others have a relationship that lasts nearly ten years, especially Nina and Wayne, who have long been entangled and indivisible common interests. Wayne is investing and taking risks, which is exactly the same as Nina is taking risks, so she should remind her boss as much as possible.

"According to our plan, the projects invested by Greenberg Studios can be compared with the output of some medium-sized film companies. Once there is a problem in the middle, it will not be a certain project, which may cause unpredictable consequences."

With the tacit understanding between the two, there is something that needs to be understood too clearly. Both of them know that once the tight capital chain breaks, it will not affect the promotion of one of the projects, but all the projects being produced.

The more serious consequences are still waiting. If several sequels of Greenberg Studio are planned to go bankrupt, it will also affect Wayne's overall plan for Warner Bros. and even Time Warner.

"Avi Adella will definitely be eager to start his plan as long as she takes over Greenberg Studio. Boss, you have to suppress his plan, at least to the day when the X-Men and the Flash are divided into the studio account. Otherwise, you really have to consider financing and production projects."

Nodding silently, Wayne smoked a cigarette. Greenberg's upcoming projects, and even the amazing superhero that Avi Adella wanted to produce, had a considerable success rate in his heart. He would definitely not be willing to raise external financing unless it was absolutely necessary.

Not to mention external financing, he wasn't even willing to let Warner Bros get involved in the production of Marvel Superhero in his hands.

"You have to keep an eye on all the project expenses in the studio, Nina."

At this point, Wayne had to choose to continue. He just hoped that there would be no accidents in the middle. "Find a lawyer as soon as possible, and before the studio's first project started, you can get one percent of the studio's shares."

“Is the kind that can be transferred freely?”

When she heard these words, Nina was obviously stunned for a moment, but she responded quickly, shrugging and teasing her boss: "If I can transfer freely, I will sell it as soon as possible, and then use the money to travel around the world and leave these damn jobs far away."

"What do you think, Nina!"

He stretched out a finger and pointed at the assistant lady from the air. Wayne said angrily: "There is only the kind of dividend right, are you satisfied?"

Only common interests can bring more careful work efficiency. Nina fully understands the weight of Greenberg Studio. Although it is only one percent, its value will become higher and higher over time.

"Don't worry, boss." The assistant lady whistled, and habitually reached out and pushed the glasses on her face, and said with a smile: "I won't lose hope of becoming a billionaire easily."

"f**k, then keep an eye on everything in the studio!"