Seven Hundred and Fifty Six - New Star Wars
"George is attentive."
After closing the car door, Wayne stood beside the car and buttoned his suit jacket while looking up at the restaurant in front of him.
This is a typical Chinese restaurant. It is different from other Chinese restaurants all over Los Angeles. Although this restaurant does not look high-end from the outside, it clearly tells the passing diners that the signature here is duck.
In fact, even Wayne himself could not imagine that there is such a traditional-looking roast duck restaurant hidden in the Golden World Plaza in San Gabriel, Los Angeles.
In fact, after coming here for so many years, Wayne has long been accustomed to Western food. Although he still eats Chinese food from time to time, in general, Western food is still the mainstay in his life.
wcxsw/42219/"The Evil God"
"Hollywood director Wayne Greenberg is a complete Oriental fan, and he especially likes Chinese food." As soon as he entered the door, George Lucas gave Wayne a warm hug and led the way. Constantly chatting and joking.
"How's it going? It's nice here."
“The environment is very nice.”
Wayne smiled and shook his head, observed the environment in the restaurant, and followed the father of Star Wars into the box. "As for how the food is, you won't know until you eat it."
In fact, everyone present knew that neither of them cared about what or where to eat tonight.
The attitude given by George Lucas is that he hopes to have a suitable place to have a good talk with Wayne. As it happened, Wayne had the same idea in his mind.
However, this roast duck restaurant hidden in the corner of Los Angeles gave Wayne enough surprises. Not long after they sat down, a chef in white chef's clothes pushed a cart into the box, and then under the incredible gaze of the two people, he quickly sliced the duck into 108 pieces. piece.
After asking if he needed help explaining, the chef happily took away a postcard signed by the father of Star Wars and the Lord of Darkness in Hollywood.
"Have you ever eaten duck like this before?"
After just a brief taste, George Lucas stopped what he was doing and looked at Wayne curiously. The other party skillfully spread the sauce on a pancake, then put in shredded green onions, cucumber strips and duck meat, handed it to the female assistant beside him, and then skillfully rolled it up for himself again.
"uh-huh."
After swallowing the duck in his mouth, Wayne shrugged, did not answer the topic, and did not touch the food on the table. Instead, he picked up the prepared tissue and carefully wiped his hands and mouth.
He knew that the few hot dishes on the table, as well as the slices of roast duck, were not actually in line with the tastes of North Americans, including George Lucas.
So what do ordinary Americans eat? In fact, it is shown in many American life-style dramas that dinner is grilled and fast food is fried. At home, we either order pizza and burgers, or make simple sandwiches. The more complicated ones are just scrambled eggs.
As we all know, North America is a land where people of all ages love parties and get-togethers.
But even at a party, it's just me grilling a chicken and you mixing a vegetable salad. Then, no matter how the chicken is grilled or how the salad is mixed, they start to compliment each other crazily. Therefore, North Americans may not really pay much attention to food. The most important thing is to fill their stomachs.
If you are careful, you will find that among the most obese groups in North America, more than 95% are basically poor.
This is caused by the food they eat, but these poor people generally become fat, and they are actually forced out. Ordinary green leafy vegetables in North American supermarkets cost about $2. If they are bean sprouts, they cost about $4.
But if you look at chicken legs, many of them are on sale for about $0.80. Like steaks and pork, most of the time it only costs about two knives. From this, we can find that the price of green leafy vegetables is actually much more expensive than meat.
The more common foods that are high in sugar and carbohydrates, such as chocolate donuts and ice cream, are very cheap. Therefore, the average poor have no choice. They do not have the conditions to reasonably arrange a healthy diet.
Contrary to these poor people, if you are in the elite class or above, you will naturally eat more vegetables and nuts, and will not eat high-sugar and high-carbohydrate foods. This is also the case for many rich people who protect their bodies better. s reason.
The reason is simple. People above the elite level have enough ability and self-discipline to care about their own diet, health and living habits.
For example, looking at George Lucas in front of him, it was obvious that he was not interested in the high-calorie food on the table at all. Even when facing Wayne, he didn't pretend to be interested.
One thing I have to mention is that Chinese food is actually not cheap in North America, at least not at all for poor people.
This is also an embarrassing part of Chinese food. Even if it is modified according to local eating habits, North Americans generally think that it is okay to try this kind of food occasionally, but if you eat this kind of food for a long time, even if you put aside the taste, , which they also consider unhealthy.
Fortunately, the food served in the restaurant that George Lucas chose today is not improved, at least not the roast duck. This is the most friendly thing for a soul who has eaten it countless times in his previous life.
"Tell me, George, what do you want to talk about when you invite me here today?"
Putting down the tissue in his hand, Wayne motioned for Nina to continue eating, ignoring the conversation between them, and turned to look at the father of Star Wars next to him. "Hey, man, don't tell me you're just asking me to come over for dinner. I can tell you're not used to the taste of this food."
Without looking for traces, he glanced at Nina who was lowering her head to eat. George Lucas showed a hearty smile on his face, stared into Wayne's eyes, shrugged and said:
"Let's be honest, I know you are busy with the post-production work of "Wonder Woman" during this period. The reason I asked you out this time is to talk to you about 20th Century Fox and the release date of "Star Wars" s arrangement."
When he heard the word "Star Wars", Wayne's eyes narrowed suddenly, and even Nina, who was lowering her head to eat, paused. Obviously, after waiting for so long, they have been waiting for news about Star Wars.
If there is any film in this era that can pose a threat to the already established DC series, or even directly defeat the DC series of movies, then there is no doubt that it is "Star Wars", the world's number one IP.
Then he took out a cigarette and lit it. Wayne opened his arms and put them on the back of the chair. The expression on his face remained unchanged. He still asked casually with a relaxed look: "George, don't you want to tell me that Fox is planning to put you "Star Wars", let's put it in May, when the summer season starts."
Just after he finished speaking, he slowly shook his head and rejected the question. It's almost February now. If "Star Wars" is released in May, then there should be some publicity and momentum. But as of now, there is not much news related to "Star Wars" circulating in the outside world.
But what he is most worried about is that 20th Century Fox will temporarily learn from Universal Pictures and Paramount in the past two years. After all, the reality is here. This summer, it can be said that it will become more and more crowded as we go to the back. Who knows if that old guy Townsend Roseman will suddenly have a brain twitch.
Thinking of this, his eyes instantly locked on George Lucas beside him. Whatever 20th Century Fox wanted to do, it had to get the nod from the father of Star Wars.
"That's right, I turned down Twentieth Century Fox's distribution plan."
George Lucas touched his beard and sold Townsend Rothman without any hesitation. Needless to say, he believed that his friend was so smart that he could figure out what happened even if he only relied on his imagination.
"George, tell me what you think."
After hearing what the other party said, Wayne's eyes slowly narrowed. He didn't care about what Fox wanted to do. Instead, he immediately thought that since the father of Star Wars asked him out, he must have some special ideas.
"I don't know if you noticed, Wayne."
George Lucas didn't show off, and didn't even care about the female assistant next to him. He said directly: "In the past few summers, Warner Bros.'s various sequel series and large-scale productions with medium investment and above have basically been running through This has made Warner Bros. the most profitable major movie company in the past few years."
Speaking of this, he paused for a few seconds before continuing: "But what about this year? The total number of films produced by Warner Bros. alone, plus the films co-produced with your studio, was surpassed by Disney. Yes! So, what the Fox distribution department and I want to do is to first understand your thoughts on Disney. Do you want to..."
As George Lucas slowly talked about it, Wayne also thought of many related things. Yes, Warner Bros. has not only produced a large number of films in recent years, but also has an extremely high success rate. But Warner Bros. itself has its own difficulties that it has to mention.
That is to give the DC series the prime time slot at the beginning of the summer season. They have more films than other companies, and they are all crowded into the next few months.
A brief recollection will reveal that Disney seems to be experiencing a big explosion this year. From animated feature films, comedies, suspense thrillers, to grand war films, various types of films seem to be pouring out together. In terms of total number, it has already Faintly surpassing Warner Bros.
The most important point is that Disney does not have the scruples of Warner Bros., nor does it actively stay away from Wayne's projects like other movie companies.
Although we have not faced it head-on, if you look carefully, starting from "Pearl Harbor" in late May, the films produced and released by Disney have been spread throughout the entire summer. Especially from late May to July, Disney's focus There are just so many projects.
"Pearl Harbor" in late May, "Tarzan" in mid-June, "G-Man" in mid-July, and "Runaway Bride" co-produced with Paramount at the end of July... ..”
Seeing that Wayne was lost in thought, George Lucas stopped his voice. As the person who knew her boss best, Nina immediately guessed what he needed and immediately lowered her voice, like a computer. Recalling some of Disney's more famous project arrangements this year.
"Boss, there are actually projects like "Toy Story 2" and "The Sixth Sense" that are destined to perform well, but Disney has not yet announced the specific release time of these two projects."
The assistant lady didn't care about the smiling father of Star Wars beside her, and analyzed the man next to her very rationally. "But with the current density of Disney's film schedule, these two key works will most likely appear at the end of the summer season, and may even appear separately in the Christmas season."
"Toy Story 2" goes without saying about the market prospects of this film. After all, the previous film was so successful that it not only achieved impressive numbers in the theater market, but also made Disney's peripherals sell like crazy. It even caused Pixar's stock price to skyrocket, allowing Gang Leader Qiao to return to the fruit company!
The next film "The Sixth Sense" is also not simple. Just look at the name Jerry Bruckheimer written in the producer column, which to a certain extent indicates the market prospects of this film. It won't be any worse.
"Tell me, George, what do you need me to do?"
About five minutes passed before Wayne put out the cigarette in his hand, looked at the father of Star Wars next to him and asked.
George Lucas remembered Townsend Rothman's idea and happily stated his purpose. "Persuading Warner Bros. executives, at least persuading the head of the distribution department, Bruce Rosenblum, to sit down and have a good chat with the Fox executives."
"I don't understand, George."
When Wayne heard his words, he frowned immediately. The personal relationship between the two was very good, so he simply asked directly: "According to the tacit understanding between the six Hollywood majors, there is no need to sit down and talk about this kind of thing, right?"
In fact, to put it bluntly, it is nothing more than the two companies uniting to some extent to target Disney in terms of public opinion, publicity, etc. This is not difficult to guess at all.
Two of the six giants can actually do more than that when they join forces. More importantly, they can gather the power of the two companies to jointly put pressure on theater companies and reduce the release scale of the targeted projects. Release time, density and quantity of films scheduled after release.
But all this requires two major prerequisites. The first is that the quality of the projects of the two companies united must be good. Otherwise, even in the face of huge pressure and threats, purely commercial companies like theater companies will I won’t leave money without earning it.
Second, don’t look at things like this, they happen in Hollywood anytime and anywhere, but when doing these things, everyone usually relies on tacit understanding when joining forces.
The reason is simple. If the executives of Warner Bros. and the executives of 20th Century Fox sat down together today, it would not last more than one night, and the people who deserved to get the news would get the news.
There has never been an airtight wall in Hollywood, let alone for bosses like them, who have countless eyes staring at them every day.
"All I can tell you is that Fox and I are very ambitious."
The father of Star Wars did not hide it at all, and said unceremoniously: "Don't you think that your "Wonder Woman" plus my "Star Wars" should forcefully occupy more market share?"
Talking about this, George Lucas's face is full of confidence. "But Wayne, you should know that Fox and Warner Bros. are very difficult to deal with because of this cooperation with you on "X-Men". No one is deaf. I am afraid that many shareholders of Warner Bros. still think about it now. Fox took away the money that was meant to be theirs!”
Nodding silently, Wayne said, "OK, I'll call Bruce Rosenblum later."
This is something that benefits both parties, there is no doubt about that. It can also be heard from the subtext that "Star Wars" will never be released beyond mid-July.
Moreover, the intention of looking at the father of Star Wars is not to target a certain Disney film at all, but to completely squeeze out all Disney projects during the period between the release of "Wonder Woman" and "Star Wars"!
Both George Lucas and Wayne knew that the meaning of the conversation between them was more of a test, and if possible, it would be best to promote cooperation between the two parties. As for how to negotiate and arrange the next two film companies, that is not what they need to consider.
"Before the Oscars, Star Wars will hold several internal preview screenings. If you have time, you can come and take a look." After the business talk was finished, the father of Star Wars issued a special invitation.
"You know, George."
Mentioning this, Wayne's face immediately put on a smile. "I have been a Star Wars fan since I was a child. George, you have made us wait for this movie for too many years. Please let me know when it will be screened. I can't wait to see it..."