Chapter 1919. Transformers The Walking Dead and Gal Gadot

In the MGM building, there were fewer people in the conference room at this time.

A moment later, someone came in holding a pile of scripts: "Boss, these are the movies that are currently being produced or are going to be produced next year."

Eric picked up a book and started flipping through it. He saw the title of it was "The Groom in the Wrong Bed", an urban light comedy that he had never heard of before. He thought it must be a money-losing product, so he threw it away.

I picked up the second one, the movie name is "Alien Dog", which is mainly aimed at the youth market. I haven't heard of it much. It is probably a money-loser. Throw it away! The third one is the movie "Limited Time", starring Denzel Washington. The contract has been signed and it will start filming soon.

Eric did have some impression of this movie, but it was not a good impression because the movie was not a box office hit.

Instead, Denzel Washington's acting as a big shot was criticized by the entire crew and made the entertainment news. The filming was not going smoothly, so how could the result be good?

He sighed, threw the script aside, and flipped through several books in a row. Finally, when he saw "Legally Blonde 2", his eyes lit up.

Although the investment in "Legally Blonde 2" doubled and the estimated cost was as high as 26 million US dollars, the impression is that the box office was over 100 million. Add to that the income from the disc market, TV stations and other aspects, so it is certain to make money and is a high-quality resource.

But that's all. Among the dozens of scripts, except for this one and a 007 movie that it also invested in, almost all of them are garbage.

MGM is such a big company, but its sense of movies and market is terrible.

Seeing Eric's uncertain expression, several middle-level managers knew that something bad was going to happen and stayed where they were, not daring to say a word.

With a sigh, Eric threw the script of Legally Blonde 2 back to him and said, "Continue to produce this one, but pay attention to reducing the cost. 26 million US dollars is a bit high. Try to reduce it to less than 22 million. The rest will be scrapped."

"???"

The meeting room was suddenly suffocated, and even dad Charlie Cooper looked confused.

"Eric, isn't your decision too arbitrary? Some of these movies have already started filming, and some contracts have been signed. We will lose tens of millions of dollars!"

Eric smiled and said, "Dad, trust my judgment. They are just a bunch of garbage. It is better to cut off your own hands than to continue investing and lose more money. What we need now is victory. What we need is a blockbuster movie. Trust me!"

Seeing his son's determined eyes, Charlie Cooper was silent for a moment, recalling their agreement.

The new MGM was the captain of the ship, but Eric had absolute power over the choice of film and television productions until the first work he led failed.

"Everything will be done according to Eric Cooper's wishes, regardless of whether the filming starts or the contract is signed, all these scripts are temporarily shelved."

Although Charlie Cooper's heart was bleeding, he still gave the order in an unquestionable tone. If he could win the bet of 10 million, he would definitely be able to win this time.

Moreover, my son has just joined the company, and in order to establish his authority, I must support him to the end.

The others looked at each other, and there was no point in saying anything. After all, it's your company, you can do whatever you want with it. Just pay me on time.

Judy asked, "Then the only movies that the company has waiting to be released this year are Red Dragon and Barbershop, and the only plan for next year is Legally Blonde 2. Do we need to add new plans?"

"Of course we need it, and I have made my goal clear. In the next two years, Transformers will be MGM's major project!"

Eric thought about what to make for the first movie for a long time. He originally thought that traveling back to 2002 would be a good idea, but when he carefully recalled those blockbuster movies, he suddenly felt that he was at a loss. It would have been perfect if it could have been made a few years earlier.

For example, the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the five films grossed 4.5 billion, an average of 900 million per film, but unfortunately the first film will be released next year, and Disney has been in production for more than a year, so it is impossible to cut in now.

JK Rowling had already sold the copyright of the Harry Potter series to Warner Bros., and the first film was released in 2001.

The Fast and the Furious series can be said to be the only popular racing movie on the market, with billions of box office revenue. Unfortunately, the first film was released in 2001.

Jurassic series, a masterpiece of the last century.

The Star Wars series is also a masterpiece of the last century.

The Lord of the Rings series, like Fast and Furious, was released in 2001, and Tolkien's copyright had been sold long ago.

In short, almost all the blockbuster series you can think of were the first ones released one or two years ago.

Now you know why people like to travel through time at the turn of the millennium.

After some thought, Eric set his sights on the few left out - Transformers.

Although the later Transformers films did not perform well, its money-making ability is undeniable, with each film taking in an average of over 800 million yuan at the box office.

Moreover, the film and television rights have not been purchased by Paramount yet. If we communicate with Hasbro now, we are very confident that we can obtain the copyright.

As for the biggest difficulty in filming Transformers, it must be the special effects technology. MGM's special effects department has no chance in this regard, and they must find professional teams such as Industrial Light & Magic or Weta Digital.

The original Transformers began production in 2005, but by the time we started filming, it was estimated to be 2003. The special effects technology was fully up to standard two years later.

In fact, if we talk about the most profitable film projects, the Marvel series should be the peak.

Although 20th Century Fox has already produced the "X-Men" series and Sony has just released the first Spider-Man, it was actually Iron Man in 2008 that truly opened the era of superhero movies.

From Iron Man to Avengers 4, superhero blockbusters have swept the world in 11 years, greatly suppressing the living space of other types of movies.

But after 11 consecutive years of glory, Avengers 4, although dazzling, was more like the afterglow of sunset. What followed was the cold winter night and the collapse of superhero movies.

There are many reasons for the failure of superhero movies, such as the epidemic, political correctness, and the outrageous actions of DC and Marvel executives, but in Eric's opinion, these are not the root causes.

The root cause is actually aesthetic fatigue, especially Marvel's popcorn model, which has remained unchanged for 11 years. Audiences around the world are tired of it, and the movie-watching potential has been exhausted.

Only time can restore this situation. We must wait until a new group of moviegoers grow up before superhero movies can have a chance of recovery. No other method will work. Even if one or two big hits appear later, they will only be single phenomena.

However, although the glorious period was not long, the money earned was quite a lot. At most, it could be transformed in the later stage. Eric would definitely take advantage of this piece of fat meat in advance.

DC was acquired by Disney as early as the last century, but Marvel is still independent, but its situation is very miserable, so miserable that it has to rely on selling its children to survive.

Spider-Man and his pals and Ghost Rider were sold to Sony, the X-Men series was sold to 20th Century Fox, the Hulk was sold to Universal, and Black Widow was sold to Lionsgate.

Even Iron Man was sold to Universal, but later Universal felt that there was nothing going on with it and sold it to 20th Century Fox.

20th Century Fox also felt that this second-tier hero was difficult to film, so it sold it to New Line.

New Line held on to it for a few years, but still couldn't figure out how to make a movie with this blockbuster, so it finally sold it back to Marvel.

Marvel took a gamble and mortgaged all its assets to the bank, and finally made Iron Man, which saved its life from danger.

In short, given Marvel's current dire situation, it is definitely a good time to acquire it.

However, Eric was worried that even his father would not support him as he immediately started a new merger and acquisition after acquiring MGM.

Others did not have foresight, and now Marvel is a mess and has no value.

Once he has made some achievements, it will be time to acquire Marvel. Eric has set the timeline for this acquisition next year.

"Mr. Volvo, you should contact Hasbro first. It would be best if you could obtain the copyright secretly before announcing it. I don't want to cause any trouble."

Volvo was a talent recruited by my father. He had worked in a small film company for twenty years and had rich experience.

"Don't worry, I will contact Hasbro as soon as possible."

Eric hummed, "Besides that, I'm also planning to start filming a TV series about zombies. It's about a sudden global infection, with only a few survivors left, struggling to survive in the apocalypse."

The TV series Eric was talking about was naturally "The Walking Dead". Compared to movies, TV series are also a piece of fat meat that cannot be missed, as well as variety shows.

However, the choice of TV series is more complicated, because income is greatly affected by ratings, and the ratings statistics in the United States are completely different from those in China. Not all TV series can be compared together, because like movies, American dramas are also rated and divided into public stations and cable stations.

TV series broadcast by public channels are all free to watch. In 2002, the public channels with the widest coverage were CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC, WB, UPN and PBS.

Among them, PBS is quite special. Its content is mainly about education and children. For example, "Sesame Street" is theirs, and it has nothing to do with American TV series.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

As for the CW that is often mentioned in China, it was formed by the merger of WB and UPN in 2006, and it has not been established yet.

Public TV stations have strict controls, and generally you won't see nudity or foul language. Even some sensitive words will be censored, which is equivalent to the PG13 rating in movies. For example, Eric's favorite show, "Friends," is from NBC.

Cable channels are pay channels, so the scale is naturally larger. After all, I have paid the bill, so are you going to let me watch SpongeBob SquarePants?

Well-known cable TV channels include FX, AMC, CNN, HBO, Showtime, etc., which are divided into basic channels and premium channels. Basic channels will also take teenagers into consideration and add some advertising elements. Premium channels basically have no advertisements and are more sophisticated.

For example, AMC, a basic channel, has representative works such as "Mad Men", "Breaking Bad", "Better Call Saul", and "The Walking Dead". The premiere episode of the fifth season of "The Walking Dead" even set a record for the ratings of basic cable TV dramas.

HBO is one of the premium channels. Its representative works include Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, True Blood, Band of Brothers, Sex and the City, etc. All of them are powerful representatives. HBO even made an advertisement for itself with the slogan "This is not porn, this is HBO."

Even in the fiercely competitive cable TV stations with frequent excellent works, "The Walking Dead" is not the highest rated nor the highest overall ratings, but it does make the most money and has a good reputation. Naturally, Eric has to get such a good show first.

It’s not too late to develop high-scoring dramas such as “Breaking Bad” after making money, because although “Breaking Bad” is the ceiling of American drama ratings, the ratings of the first three seasons and even the first half of the first four seasons were not high, and it was almost cancelled.

The main reason is that after the plot reaches its climax, many viewers who have not watched the previous plots pay to watch the previous seasons, thus bringing in the ratings, but the cost-effectiveness of "Breaking Bad" is far inferior to that of "The Walking Dead".

"Billy, you should work with the marketing and legal departments to conduct an investigation first, especially in the comics field. I don't want to have to file a copyright lawsuit later. Give me an answer within three days."

Billy understood that this was the first test for him, and immediately said solemnly that it was no problem.

Eric looked at the creative department again: "George Martin, do you know this person?"

A middle manager quickly replied: "I know him. He is a writer and screenwriter, but his screenwriting skills are not very good. He worked in Hollywood for a few years and did not create any well-known works, but his novels have good reviews."

"Yes, I just want the copyright of his novel. A Song of Ice and Fire is a great work, and we want to get it earlier than other companies."

"Also, keep an eye on horror movie scripts on the market, collect them and send them to my office. That's all the plan for now."

After Eric finished speaking, everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. The company hadn't stabilized yet, and taking too big a step could easily lead to trouble.

Then Charlie Cooper arranged some things and everyone left the meeting room one after another.

"Judy, wait a minute."

Hearing Eric's voice behind her, Judy couldn't help but turn around and retract the leg that was about to step out of the door.

"What is it, boss?"

Without the others, Judy suddenly became unserious, drawing out long, strange notes.

"Don't make trouble. Let me ask you something. I remember you are Jewish."

"Yes, what's the matter? Do you hate Jews? But it's too late to say that now."

Eric thought to himself, even if I really hated Jews, I wouldn’t dare say it. Look at Mel Gibson, how many celebrities have been banned for saying the wrong things?

"It's good that you are Jewish. I have something to ask of you."

Judy smiled immediately. "Warren and the Gis brothers were assigned jobs, but I was left out. It turns out you have a secret mission."

"Ahem. What secret mission? It's all for work. Take a look at this first."

Eric took out a magazine, opened a page, pointed to a girl with a bright smile and asked, "How is she?"

Judy's eyes lit up, she grabbed the magazine, looked at it carefully, licked her lips and said, "What a young and beautiful beauty. No, when did you start paying attention to the fashion world?"

"I saw it by chance recently. This girl is called Gal Gadot, an Israeli Jew. I think she's very good and has the potential to be on the big screen."

Judy chuckled: "There are many models who want to enter the film and television industry, but few are truly successful. I admit that this girl is very beautiful, but how do you know she has potential? Just by looking at her face?"

"Yes, just look at the face!"

"Well"

Judy was speechless for a moment before she asked, "Okay, what do you need me to do? Help you hunt for beauties?"

"Don't say such harsh words. This is all for work. Find out Gal Gadot's address and contact information, and test whether she is willing to develop in Hollywood. I will give you certain authority and you can make some appropriate promises."

Judy shrugged. "No problem. I'm good at dealing with women, especially beautiful women. Let me confirm that you are really not interested in her. If not, I will take action!"

Eric: "Don't mess around, she's still a minor."

"Really? Then I'm even more interested!"

“.”

As I said, don’t keep books, they will really die.

Everyone is welcome to comment and offer any good ideas or suggestions.

(End of this chapter)