Two Hundred and Ninety-Eight-Everyone Has His Own Plans

How influential can a piece of gossip news be? The subsequent development is very mysterious.

Just when Wayne returned to the farm, began to taste his mother's food, and talked about football with his father, the news about him in Los Angeles began to spread more and more strangely.

In fact, most people in the industry who are concerned about this news, especially the executives of large companies, have the first reaction to think that it is fake. However, a few of them want to give it a try. Even if it is fake, they still think it is fake. Nothing is lost that is not.

Before getting off work that night, Paramount CEO Shirley Lansing sat alone behind her desk after a busy day, staring at the newspaper in front of her in a daze.

"Braveheart", which is currently in theaters, is far from the company's expected box office. It has been almost a week since the film was released, and the box office has not exceeded 20 million US dollars. It can be said that it has basically declared a failure.

If this film wants to recover its investment cost in the theater market, it must either start to gain popularity now and have its box office continue to rise against the trend, or it can only choose an award-winning strategy and use the powerful marketing capabilities of the Oscars to return the film to theaters for re-release. .

It can be said that both methods are difficult to achieve, especially for the Academy Awards. If you want to make a difference during the awards season, you must spend a lot of media resources and invest a lot of public relations funds.

Once nothing is won at the award ceremony, all the initial investment will be in vain.

The production cost of "Braveheart" alone was 72 million U.S. dollars, and the subsequent publicity investment was about 30 million U.S. dollars. If you want to recoup the investment of hundreds of millions online, the global box office of the film must be at least Reaching three to four times the production cost.

Since Shirley Lansing took over Paramount, her several investments have been successful. The glory of "Forrest Gump" is still vivid in her mind. It only took her a very short time to lead this veteran film giant. , emerged from the turmoil of being acquired.

Perhaps Paramount's performance is among the six major companies, and it is not one of the best in recent years. But compared with Columbia after the acquisition, anyone with a discerning eye can see how powerful this woman Shirley Lansing is. sharp.

Now this rare female executive, the biggest headache is not "Braveheart". According to the current trend of this film, even if the cost cannot be recovered through theater screening, after the film is released, it will be recovered through the operation of various offline channels. Investing isn’t too difficult either.

What gives her the biggest headache right now is James Cameron, the tyrant on set.

Several years have passed since the project of "Titanic" was established. It seems that half of 1995 has passed, but the crew still has not started filming.

Not only Paramount, but also 20th Century Fox, which invested together, is also extremely troubled by this mess.

Shirley Lansing talked to Townsend Roseman on the phone more than once. Faced with this project that was neither up to standard nor down, they talked many times and failed to come up with a satisfactory solution.

But James Cameron, not only was he not in a hurry to start filming, he was also asking for more investment over and over again. This was based on the fact that the two companies had already invested more than 150 million US dollars in production costs.

Now this big ship project has become an inside joke, and they have to hold their noses and continue to increase production costs, praying that the truck driver will start filming as soon as possible.

Today's gossip news gave Shirley Lansing a wake-up call.

As Hollywood enters the 1990s, who is the most famous fast-shooting director? There is no doubt that the only directors who can ensure both the shooting speed and the quality of the film are the two Jews, Steven Spielberg and Wayne Greenberg.

In fact, in terms of the type of "Titanic", Steven Spielberg is the best director, but the other party is focused on the growth of DreamWorks, and there is no possibility at all.

All that's left is Wayne Greenberg, but even if the other party really breaks away from Warner Bros., whether he can agree to this is still unknown, and the production style of the film is tantamount to a big adventure.

"There's nothing I can do, James, I've given you enough patience!"

With a "pop" sound, Shirley Lansing slapped the newspaper on the table. With a gambler's look in her eyes, she picked up the phone and dialed Townsend Rothman's number.

Although the collaboration between the two people on the film "Braveheart" was not very pleasant, and Paramount was sidelined by 20th Century Fox, these were normal business practices. Shirley Lansing admitted that If the positions were reversed, she would do the same thing.

Also, facing the huge investment in "Titanic", both parties must negotiate a solution. If this drags on, this mess will only make both parties sink deeper and deeper.

"Hello, Townsend, I have a proposal about "Titanic" that I want to talk to you about. Yes, maybe we can try another option and replace the grumpy truck driver. Yes, did you notice today? Is there a message..."

"No problem, I can try to talk to him, but I can't guarantee the result. The little affection I had for helping him release "Happy Death Day" is definitely not enough to influence that young man's thoughts. Okay, I will try my best. try!"

"Okay, that's it, I hope everything goes well, bye..."

The call lasted only ten minutes, and they didn't talk about the specific content, let alone how to impress the young man, because they all knew that if they wanted to hire Wayne Greenberg, they would have to pay at least a sky-high salary and box office. The share must not be lower than Spielberg's contract for filming "Jurassic Park."

The current worth of this young director is indeed worthy of the sky-high price contract. Even so, except for Warner Brothers, you may not have a chance to let him take action with the sky-high price sharing contract!

After Shirley Lansing hung up the phone, she took a deep breath, looked at the time, put on her coat and went straight to get off work. She has done everything she can, and here comes the final result. It can only be left to God, and it is not something she can control.

They have proposed changing the director more than once, but there are too many things involved. This proposal has been discussed many times in the past two years, but every time it ended without any resolution due to issues with the selection.

Townsend-Rossman, who was far away in the Fox Building in Century City, was not as relaxed as his partner. After hanging up the phone, he had been looking out the window and thinking.

If the CEO of Paramount were here, he would definitely see the same gossip tabloid on his desk at a glance, and not just that one, but dozens of them piled together.

On the top of each newspaper, there are common features circled with a pen.

There is probably no one in the entire Hollywood who cares more about the authenticity of this matter than Townsend Rothman.

Since the news appeared, he immediately sent people from one newspaper to another to find the source of the news. After a day, he finally identified the paparazzi who took the photo, but it was from Time Warner's own gossip tabloid, which made him even more trapped. In confusion.

But no matter what, even if there is only a slight possibility of something, he has to try it with all his strength. He has advantages that others don't have at all.

Thinking of this, Townsend-Rosman did not hesitate at all. He threw all the newspapers and investigation reports into the shredder, put on his coat and left the Fox Building.

After having a warm dinner with my wife, I held a glass of red wine alone, looked at the time, picked up the phone in the study, and dialed a number that was both familiar and very unfamiliar.

The phone rang a few times before someone answered the call. "Hi Anna, I'm Townsend, is Reuben here?"

"Townsend? What do you want from Ruben?" The other party's confused voice came from the phone. It could be heard from the tone that Anna Greenberg was very surprised to receive his call.

"They are all in the study. Ruben, Wayne, and his big bodyguard have been playing with those broken guns since dinner. Do you want me to call him for you?"

"No, I told you the same thing." Townsend-Rosman let out a hearty laugh. The woman's voice on the phone seemed to take him back twenty years ago.

"I'm going to visit the farm tomorrow and chat with old friends I haven't seen in so many years. How about it? Are you welcome?"

"What? I mean of course! Ruben would be so happy if he knew you were coming over."

"Okay, that's it, I'll probably be able to go there tomorrow morning. Anna, I also prepared a gift for you, which is definitely a surprise you can't guess..."

After hanging up the phone, Townsend-Rosman looked up and saw his wife, staring at him with questioning eyes.

He smiled bitterly and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "My dear, I don't want to disturb their quiet life, but Ruben's son is doing so well. This may be the method with the highest success rate."

"I don't blame you. I never care about your work." His wife was as gentle as ever. She glanced at him and turned around and walked out of the study. "Go to bed early and don't work too late."

They have been married for decades, and Townsend-Rosman himself is convinced that his generous and gentle wife must be at least half of the credit for his success at work.

After glancing at the safe in the corner and recalling Anna's hobbies when he was young, he smiled and stood up, turned off the light, and walked to the bedroom.

In any case, he had made all the preparations he should have. All that was left was to have a good sleep and then try according to the plan.

As for Shirley Lansing's proposal to change directors, he didn't even think about it and pressed the "no" button in his heart. Let Wayne Greenberg make a romance movie? This proposal seemed like a horror story to him!

I am afraid that when the film is finally completed, not only will there be no beautiful love between Ruth and Jack, but it will also be full of dark intrigues. He has reason to believe that Wayne can definitely pull off the sexy trick of letting Jack stab Ruth to death with his own hands.

On the contrary, Wayne Greenberg's most prominent ability now is to operate superheroes, and 20th Century Fox happens to have a treasure trove of comic book rights!

The series of characters and stories in this comic are naturally full of dark attributes, and they are a perfect match for the other party's production style.