Seven Hundred and Nine - Far Water and Near Thirst

"With Peter Jackson, a native New Zealander, the crew's preparation work was very smooth, whether it was with the residents near the location or various local institutions."

One day had just passed in September, and Greenberg Manor became unusually busy. Just after eight o'clock in the morning, the first visitor was waiting in the living room. "Lord of the Rings" producer John Gray returned to Los Angeles first, and the first thing he did was come to the manor to report to Wayne on the progress of the work.

"The crew's huge and complicated scenery building work has received the full support of the New Zealand government. The local government clearly knows how much profit it can bring to the filming location once such a Hollywood movie project that does not lack attention is successful.

Just about two weeks ago, the New Zealand government signed an agreement with Peter Jackson. If necessary after the filming officially starts, they can dispatch local troops to assist the crew in filming large-scale war scenes..."

Without any pleasantries or nonsense, John Gray immediately started reporting on the crew's preparation progress the moment 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 had in-depth cooperation with him, so he knows exactly how to communicate with the other party.

"Several of Peter's assistants are inspecting local modeling companies in New Zealand, Australia and North America. What he means is that he hopes to select qualified handsome men and beauties from the professional modeling team to star in the unimportant roles in the film. The elf."

"A model..."

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

"No, it's nice to do that."

Waving his hand, Wayne motioned for the other party to continue speaking. It was not that he had any other ideas. He understood Peter Jackson's purpose of doing this. For the elves in the film who basically had few scenes, the idea of ​​​​choosing people directly from the modeling agency was completely correct.

The reason is simple. To play roles that are similar to backgrounds, you don’t need so-called acting skills at all, as long as you are beautiful, it is enough. Just hearing the other party mention the modeling agency, he immediately thought of the "secret" Tiantuan in his memory.

Shaking his head slightly, John Gray didn't think much. He recalled for a moment and continued: "Because we have to plan the trilogy in advance, there are some key scenes, such as the Battle of Helm's Deep, the Mines of Moria, and Mina. The Battle of Stirith and the like basically require a complete set-up for filming, so even if the crew's early preparations go smoothly, the progress of these work will not be too fast..."

In fact, Wayne didn't really want to know the progress of these work at all, because he knew better than anyone else that Peter Jackson was doing a very good job, and he didn't need to put his finger on it at all.

But rules are rules. As the actual investor and nominal producer of the film, you must understand what you need to know, and it is impossible to completely delegate power to Peter Jackson. It is precisely the existence of John Gray that directly restricts the director of "Lord of the Rings".

Listening to the various progress of the crew's early preparations, Wayne suddenly remembered some rumors from his previous life. It is said that Peter Jackson's favorite actor for Arwen is not the long-faced and dark-haired actress, but Uma Thurman.

Legend has it that Uma Thurman's audition was very good, but she suddenly became pregnant on the eve of the filming of the film, and finally New Zealand had to cast Liv Taylor.

Thinking of this, Wayne shuddered violently. At least from his aesthetic point of view, Uma Thurman didn't seem to be much better. The next large-scale audition for "Lord of the Rings" will soon begin. If possible, he hopes to choose a more beautiful actress with a more elfin temperament.

"There is a guest room upstairs. Do you want to take a rest first? After lunch, we will go to Warner Bros. together."

After the brief work report, Wayne looked at the dark circles under John Gray's eyes and knew that he should have come directly to the manor after getting off the plane.

"Okay, I feel like this body doesn't feel like my own anymore." John Gray didn't show any politeness, covered his mouth and yawned, nodded politely to Nina who was sitting next to him, and followed Hela towards Walk upstairs. Before going upstairs, he didn't forget to look back and say: "Wayne, remember to wake me up during lunch..."

After waving his hand, Wayne turned to look at Nina and asked: "When will Avi-Adela arrive?"

"I think it should be soon."

Glancing up at the clock next to the fireplace in the living room, the assistant lady shrugged and said, "The appointment with him is for ten in the morning."

Avi-Adela was very punctual and drove into the Greenberg Manor before ten o'clock in the morning. Then things went much smoother than he had imagined.

After briefly seeing his plan for superheroes, Wayne basically didn't raise many questions. He shook hands with him happily and agreed to sign an employment agreement immediately after the work related to "X-Men" was completed. By then, Avi-Adela will serve as executive director of Greenberg Studios, a shell film company.

The conversation between the two lasted less than half an hour. When Avi-Adela drove into the car and left the manor, he still felt a little dazed. Obviously, he had made a lot of preparations for today's conversation. No work.

"Once the plan starts, 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 successively launch "John Wick", "Tomb Raider", "King Kong" and other projects, followed by "Resident Evil", "A Dog's Purpose"..."

Having said this, she paused for a moment, stared into Wayne's eyes and continued: "Don't look at the studio's account with more than 100 million, but if you want to start so many projects one after another, this amount of money is just a drop in the bucket. Don't forget Now, boss, the follow-up investment in "The Lord of the Rings" and Blue Sky Studio, which may ask for money again at some point, have not yet been counted..."

"!"

When he heard the assistant lady settling accounts, Wayne frowned and waved his hand, interrupting the other person's next words.

He grabbed a cigarette on the coffee table and lit one. He raised a hand and rubbed both sides of his forehead. He said with a headache: "Don't worry about money. These projects will be jointly produced with Warner Bros. If it doesn't work, we will still Financing is available.”

Financing is the most commonly used method by Hollywood film companies. Almost every major production in the eyes of the public is inseparable from the shadow of financing. Especially for large film companies, they are best at using other people's money to create benefits for themselves, and they can also spread risks to a certain extent.

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

The current global box office of "X-Men" is steadily moving towards US$400 million, and this is far from the end of the box office of "X-Men". The producer contract he signed with 20th Century Fox will provide him with 20% of the global box office share of "X-Men", which is undoubtedly a huge amount of income.

Moreover, before the film is released, the producers of "X-Men" will earn nearly US$7 million in basic salary. The first two sums of US$13 million were already paid by 20th Century Fox at the beginning of filming and when the film was released.

There is also the box office share of "The Flash". From the film's release in mid-May to now, the number of theaters still showing it in North America has dropped to less than 800. Judging from the current situation, Warner Bros. will release it before the end of the year at the latest. Let the video be completely downloaded and start more profitable offline copyright operations as soon as possible.

Four weeks before "The Flash" was released, the North American box office had already reached 250 million US dollars. However, due to the nature of the film and the subsequent release of other major productions, the film's box office declined rapidly.

However, as time goes by, the total box office in North America is now as high as No. 2 and No. 1 on the list. Compared with "X-Men", the effect of "The Flash" in overseas screenings is much better. The combined global box office 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". These two films are also different. The former is independently invested and produced by Greenberg Studio. Basically, after deducting Warner Bros.'s distribution agency fee, all the profits belong to Wayne. people.

"This star really wants to retire"

The latter is co-produced with Warner Bros. However, due to the fans accumulated from the first two parts of "The Matrix" and the sales of movie peripherals that are completely out of touch with the rules of R-rated movies, it can be said that the earning power is even greater than that of "Charlie's Angels".

"Charlie's Angels" has already passed its most popular screening time. The cumulative box office in North America is 145 million US dollars, and the global box office has also reached 2. This film has market potential, and there are also theaters in dozens of countries and regions overseas. , the final box office numbers should improve.

As for "The Matrix", it has only been released for two weekends, and the North American box office has reached 130 million US dollars. At the same time, before this weekend, Warner Bros. will send the film overseas to start a global screening tour.

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

But there is a helpless problem here, and that is the time difference. This is also the reason why Nina took the initiative to warn him.

According to the rules of Hollywood film companies, the time for the film company to pay off the post-production share is within six months after the film is officially released! Don't think that this time is very generous, because most movie companies, including Warner Bros., will wait until the maximum payment deadline to settle all the shares.

Many people know that the film industry makes money, but objective factors such as large investments, high risks, and slow returns are all there invisibly.

Not to mention the income from "The Matrix" and "Charlie's Angels", even the box office share of "The Flash" and "X-Men", by the time Wayne gets it, the day lily will probably be cold.

That is to say, when preparing a movie, you don’t have to invest all the investment directly. Of course, there is also a time difference. But for the projects that are about to be launched one after another, the money sitting on Greenberg Studio is still a lot of pressure.

Originally, with Nina's precise planning, the money could be used to launch multiple projects in batches. With Warner Bros. sharing the pressure, as long as there were no unexpected surprises that required spending a lot of money, Wayne would not be able to get a share of the movie. What is the problem.

However, once Avi-Adela's plan is launched, things will become difficult to predict. Now that Greenberg Studio is preparing to launch the project, the investment itself is not small. If you start a superhero movie with a larger investment midway, it will undoubtedly challenge your own financial chain.

"I want to remind you, boss."

Nina, Sergey, Wayne, Naomi Watts and others have had a friendship for nearly ten years, especially Nina and Wayne, who have long been entangled and have inseparable common interests. . Wayne is taking risks in investment, which is exactly equivalent to Nina taking risks, so she tries to remind her boss as much as possible.

"According to our plan, the projects invested by Greenberg Studio are completely comparable to the output of some medium-sized film companies. Once there is a problem in the middle, it will not be affected by a certain project, and it may cause unpredictable consequences. as a result of."

With the tacit understanding between the two, some things need not be said too clearly. Both of them knew that once the tight financial chain was broken, it would not affect the advancement of one of the projects, but all the projects being produced.

More serious consequences are still waiting to come. If Greenberg Studio's several sequel film plans go bankrupt, it will also affect Wayne's overall plans for Warner Bros. and even Time Warner.

"As long as Avi Adela takes over Greenberg Studio, he will definitely be eager to start his plan. Boss, you must suppress his plan, at least until "X-Men" and "The Flash" are released. The share will be credited to the studio’s account on the day. Otherwise, you really have to consider financing the production project.”

Nodding silently, Wayne took a long puff of cigarette. Greenberg's studio's upcoming projects, and even the amazing superheroes that Avi-Adela wants to produce, all have a high success rate in his mind, and he is definitely not willing to raise external financing unless it is absolutely necessary.

Not to mention external financing, he is not even willing to let Warner Brothers get involved in the production of Marvel superheroes in his own hands.

"You must keep an eye on all project expenditures in the studio, Nina."

At this point, Wayne can only choose to continue. He just hopes that there will be no accidents in the process. "Find a lawyer as soon as possible. Before the studio's first project is launched, you can get 1% of the studio's shares."

"The kind that can be transferred freely?"

The moment she heard these words, Nina was obviously stunned, but she reacted quickly, shrugged and teased her boss: "If it can be transferred freely, I will sell it as soon as possible, and then use the money to travel around the world World, stay away from these damn jobs."

"What are you thinking about, Nina!"

He stretched out a finger and nodded at the assistant lady from afar. Wayne said angrily: "The one who only has the right to share dividends, 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 as time goes by.

"Don't worry, boss." The assistant whistled, stretched out her hand to push the glasses on her face out of habit, and said with a smile, "I won't easily lose my hope of becoming a billionaire."

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