Chapter 2121. The Walking Dead Project
After leaving AK Films, Eric took a special car directly to MGM. Now his status is different. Many times driving by himself is a pure waste of time, as he has to find a parking space and park his car. For people in high positions, wasting time is a waste of money.
Besides, hiring a driver can create a job, and the salary is not low, which is equivalent to supporting a family and benefiting society. Why not do it? Because the old boss of the previous dynasty was just scolded and driven away, and most of the projects were directly killed, now everyone in the company knows this new boss. When they see him, they greet him cautiously, for fear of making him angry and losing their jobs.
Walking into the office, which had been tidied meticulously, Eric pressed the doorbell, and a few seconds later, there was a knock on the door.
A young man in his twenties walked in. His name was Chen Xing. He was the secretary Eric hired for himself and he was of Chinese descent.
Why not find a female secretary with a sweet voice? Nonsense! Eric wants someone who can work, not someone who can do it! Can a female secretary be as useful as a male secretary when working overtime? Secretaries often have to be on call at any time, and the work pressure is very high, which most people cannot bear.
Chinese people have always been synonymous with seriousness, and given Eric's own reasons, he was naturally chosen. If he has potential and is willing to work hard, he may be promoted in the future, such as when developing the Chinese market.
"boss!"
"Send Biligis to see me."
"OK!"
A moment later, Chen Xing knocked on the door again and led Billy and others in.
"How's the investigation going on with the thing I mentioned?"
A woman wearing glasses immediately handed over a survey report. Eric had some impression of her as he had met her at a meeting. She seemed to be a middle-level manager in the marketing department.
Billy said, "In the past three days, we have visited almost all physical stores in Los Angeles and consulted professional comic companies and publishers. We have found a total of 27 zombie-related works, including comics and novels."
"However, these works are not well-known, and some of them were even published by the authors themselves. I bought all of them. Are you interested in taking a look?"
Eric looked at the research report carefully and found that there was no comic version of "The Walking Dead". He couldn't help but feel relieved. It seemed that the original work had not been released yet. This was good news for him.
"Sort those 27 works into categories and send me the ones that involve survival in the end times and the struggle of human nature."
Soon, several novels were delivered, but no comics.
"According to your requirements, only these five books meet the requirements. However, these five books only involve some struggles of human nature, and the main plot is still about killing zombies."
Eric opened a novel called "The King of the Last Days" and knew it had a similar flavor as soon as he saw the title.
It’s 2002 now, zombie movies don’t have much depth, and they don’t use discussions of human nature as a selling point.
"Well done. Next, keep an eye on George Martin and get the copyright of his novels as soon as possible, especially A Song of Ice and Fire. No matter what method you use, you must get the copyright of this one."
After receiving the compliment, several people immediately smiled. Everyone in MGM had been very nervous recently, and now they could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Eric spent the morning browsing through the five novels, and after making sure that there would be no copyright disputes, he felt completely relieved.
After lunch, he called the manager of the production department directly to the office. Although this middle-aged man was also a talent recruited by his father, he knew very well who was the big boss. He himself was just a senior employee, and the young man opposite him held the power of life and death.
"Julio, take a look at this script outline. I'm going to develop this project."
"The first part of The Walking Dead? The sequel has been ordered before filming even started?" Julio frowned slightly.
Seeing that Eric didn't say anything, he could only continue reading. The outline was not very long, and it just explained the background, characters and plot clearly.
After reading it, Julio pursed his lips and organized his words: "As far as the creativity is concerned, I think it is still very good, and the market prospects should be good, but there are also a few problems."
"explain!"
"How many episodes do you plan to shoot in the first season? Although the outline only contains the story, I can sense that it will be very expensive to shoot this kind of TV series. We can't even shoot many scenes in the studio, including makeup, props, extras, and locations. If we shoot them on location, it will involve troublesome things like blocking off blocks, which will cost a lot of money."
“Although the show has good prospects, I am worried that the profit margin may not be high considering the production cost.”
Julio is a very experienced producer, but the more experienced he is, the more things he has to consider, and shooting costs are top priority for producers.
Based on his experience, this kind of drama is undoubtedly a big production, otherwise the desolate feeling of the end of the world cannot be created. I am afraid the cost of each episode will not be less than 1.5 million US dollars. Too little will not produce good results and will only end up with a poor result.
Therefore, what he really thinks is not only that the profit margin is small, but he is also worried about losing a lot of money. However, due to his status, he cannot say it too bluntly.
Eric had naturally anticipated Julio's concerns. Before traveling through time, he had learned that the average production cost of a single episode of "The Walking Dead" was $2.75 million.
Even in that era, it was considered a very expensive drama. If it was made in 2002, even after deducting inflation, it would still be horrifyingly scary. If the news got out, it would probably make all the colleagues drop their jaws.
But its return rate is also astonishingly high, with an average profit of $11 million per episode, which is more profitable than many movies.
"You don't have to worry about the cost. For the first season, I plan to shoot 12 episodes, with an estimated investment of 40 million US dollars. I want to create an award-winning masterpiece."
The original "The Walking Dead" had only 6 episodes in the first season. That's because of the high costs and great uncertainty about the future. Even the richest investors dare not invest too much at once. 6 episodes a season is also the regular number of episodes for many high-investment American TV series.
The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!
But knowing that it would be a huge hit, it would be too stingy to have another 6 episodes, so Eric planned to directly integrate the content of the original first and second seasons.
However, he will drastically edit the second season's emotional plot. Those dragged-out emotional entanglements are really unnecessary, especially the love triangle between Rick, Lori and Sean. The audience will only feel disgusted and unhappy. When he first started watching the show, he wanted to kill that old woman Lori! One of the main reasons why The Walking Dead is getting worse and worse is that it tests human nature for the sake of testing human nature. It's not that the audience doesn't like the struggle of human nature, but many times they don't even care about logic, and at a glance, they all think it's stupid, so the effect will only be counterproductive.
Therefore, the struggles and tests of human nature are necessary, but they must be profound enough and placed at key links to serve as the finishing touch.
At the same time, the proportion of scenes fighting zombies should be increased to continuously stimulate the audience's adrenaline and make "The Walking Dead" a work that is both exciting and profound. This is Eric's goal.
The budget for the 12 episodes is 40 million US dollars, which averages out to at least 3.33 million per episode. After deducting inflation, it is at least 1 million higher than the original per episode. The extra money is naturally for the large number of zombie scenes and for hiring more reliable screenwriters. The goal is to spend money to produce a high-quality script.
Across the desk, Julio's heart skipped a beat and he opened his mouth to say something to persuade him, but when he saw Eric's high-spirited and ambitious look, he held the words back.
"I'm just an employee, why should I upset my boss? Besides, it might not be a bad thing to let this young boy fall."
With this in mind, Julio nodded and said, "I understand. I will arrange the best producer to be in charge of this project. Do you have any requirements for the screenwriter and director?"
"The best director would be Frank Darabont or Neil Marshall. Of course, if you can invite John Carpenter, I will applaud you. You can find the screenwriter, but I will check the script."
Among the three directors Eric mentioned, John Carpenter needs no introduction. I believe everyone is familiar with his name.
Frank Darabont was the director of the original first season of "The Walking Dead". He also directed the masterpieces "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile". Eric likes his directing style very much. The zombies are more aggressive, and the sense of oppression and tension is stronger.
As for Neil Marshall, many people may not have heard of him. His works include "The Darkness", "The Shining", "The Invasion", etc., and American TV series such as "Game of Thrones", "Westworld", "Black Sails", and "Hannibal" are all from his hands. He is very capable.
Suddenly , the cell phone rang. Eric waved his hand and Julio left the office tactfully.
"Eric, this little beauty is a little difficult to deal with. I suggest you come to Israel in person!"
I just received a notice that there will be a meeting in the evening. It seems that I can’t slack off anymore.
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(End of this chapter)