Chapter 337 Merger and Acquisition Completed
""The Return of the King" will not surpass "Titanic"." Michael Ovitz came to a conclusion very confidently.
"Oh? Why is this?" Sony Columbia Japan executive Kazuo Kojima asked.
"This comes from my keen judgment on the market." Michael Ovitz still sighed: "You have also seen the power of little Gilbert in the summer season.
Mr. Kojima, I think it is a wrong decision to release "Spider-Man" and "Return of the King" on the same schedule. We must change the schedule immediately. "
The "Spider-Man" movie produced and distributed by Sony Columbia Pictures is scheduled to be released in the summer next year, but the final chapter of the "Lord of the Rings" series next year, "The Return of the King," will definitely be released in this schedule.
So Kazuo Kojima asked Michael Ovitz, an expert in this field, for his opinion.
Michael Ovitz's opinion is simple, don't go head-to-head with "The Return of the King." If they were released together, the best result would be that both sides would suffer, and it would not be beneficial to either film.
However, Kazuo Kojima was a little unwilling: "Why isn't "The Return of the King" afraid of us and avoiding us? Instead, we should be afraid of him?"
"Because the director of "The Return of the King" is named Little Gilbert. Mr. Kojima is one of the best directors in Hollywood. There are no more than five people who can compare with him." Michael Ovitz said this very seriously.
He loves and hates little Gilbert, and has never fought against each other after many battles. But he really admired little Gilbert, especially little Gilbert in the summer season.
According to the information disclosed so far, next summer there will not only be "Return of the King", but also "Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones", "Dark Force 2", "Minority Report" and other films, and the competition pressure will not be high. Small.
Therefore, Michael Ovitz suggested that "Spider-Man" should not only avoid "Return of the King", but also "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones".
So Kazuo Kojima finally decided to put "Spider-Man" on the schedule at the end of May to avoid two super-hit sequel movies.
This is a sign of lack of confidence. "Spider-Man" performed quite well in its previous life and was the first North American movie to have a box office of over 100 million US dollars in its first week.
However, "The Return of the King" is too scary after all, and due to the impact of the incident on September 11, "Spider-Man" deleted a lot of scenes, so it is normal to avoid them.
There was a scene of Spider-Man crawling in the Twin Towers, which was completely deleted.
In fact, this is the effect that little Gilbert wants. He announces the schedule of "The Return of the King" in advance, scares away many opponents, and leaves a relatively empty weekend for "The Return of the King."
If "Spider-Man" is really released at the same time, "Return of the King" and "Spider-Man" will probably suffer losses.
Little Gilbert even thought that if Sony Columbia Pictures persisted, he would encourage Marvel Comics to publish an evil version of Spider-Man to discredit Spider-Man.
But this is not worth the gain, so Sony Columbia Pictures simply has no clue.
As Michael Ovitz said: "Stay away from that damn summer lunatic, Mr. Kojima..."
George Lucas' "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" is scheduled to be released on May 16, during the third weekend of "Return of the King."
Gilbert Jr. has communicated with George Lucas and will of course ensure that the two films will not conflict in schedule.
Having said that, although the movie is in the "Star Wars" series, to be honest, the quality of this trilogy is actually quite average. If it weren't for the "Star Wars" title, I'm afraid the result of the film wouldn't be very good.
"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" is scheduled to be released during the Thanksgiving holiday and will not be included in the summer schedule. Other films are not a concern.
It is worth mentioning that after ending "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", Chris Columbus did not want to continue as the series director.
Considering that Chris Columbus's own family-oriented and child-oriented shooting style, and the later part of the series actually became more adult, little Gilbert agreed to Chris Columbus's resignation.
Several other projects, the first of which is Christopher Nolan's "Insomnia," are already in post-production.
Although actors such as Al Pacino and Robin Williams participated, this suspense film was still not suitable for the summer release, so Gilbert Jr. discussed with the distribution department and placed it on the spring release.
The other is the project of "Fast and Furious 2", which will see the return of the original cast, including Vin Diesel, who is not planning to play.
Vin Diesel has a very bad temper. After watching the second film, he felt that his role was not as important as that of Paul Walker, so he planned to quit.
But little Gilbert could not agree to this request, and immediately asked Sheena Boone to put pressure on Vin Diesel.
No matter how bad-tempered Vin Diesel was, he couldn't risk offending little Gilbert and making it difficult for him to survive in Hollywood, so he decisively agreed to continue starring.
Of course, in order to appease the actors, Gilbert Jr. still asked the producers of the series to give the actors a pay increase.
It has always been an industry practice to increase the salary for sequel movies, but now it is natural.
The other is Little Gilbert's own small project "Heartbeat", a youth love movie with a low investment.
To be honest, Little Gilbert has been in a series of blockbusters in the past few years, giving people the impression that Little Gilbert doesn't make movies unless he is in blockbusters.
In fact, "Chicago" can be considered a small production with a small investment, but the lineup of Tom Cruise and Naomi Watts looks a bit scary and has the makings of a blockbuster.
I have shot too many blockbusters, and it would be nice to shoot a small fresh movie once in a while for a change.
Although it seems that the price has dropped a bit, this is little Gilbert, and he now has the qualifications to be willful. As long as he doesn't go to the San Fernando Valley to film, he can film whatever he wants, and someone will always pay for it.
But before working on this small project, little Gilbert must first complete the signing ceremony and also go to China to participate in an actor's audition.
After a long tug-of-war, Disney and Warner Pictures finally jointly completed the acquisition of Melon Studios.
The acquisition involves billions of dollars plus the exchange of equity, which can be described as quite complex.
Gilbert Jr. was not very good at this kind of thing, but in the end, Gilbert Jr. became a shareholder of Disney and Warner Pictures and became a board member.
Disney and Warner each own 50% of the shares of Cantaloupe Studio and fully control Cantaloupe Studio.
"The latest news, a few days ago at the Disney headquarters Dalao, Director Gilbert Jr. and Disney President Robert Iger , Warner Pictures President Doug Walter signed the acquisition contract.
This contract is related to the acquisition of Melon Film Studio by Disney and Warner Pictures. The two giant companies have each obtained 50% of the shares of Melon Film Studio. ”—Los Angeles Times
"It is reported that after the completion of this acquisition, Director Gilbert Jr. will become the largest individual shareholder of Disney and Warner Pictures, and will also become a member of the board of directors of the two giant companies." - "Wall Street Journal"
"I don't know what this means. It's irresponsible. Director Gilbert should belong to all of Hollywood, but I really hope that he doesn't have more choices..." - A jealous and jealous president of a film company .
After the acquisition is completed, Gilbert Jr. will be able to oversee all businesses of Disney and Warner Pictures. One of the things he did was to sign new director contracts with Disney and Warner. One of the red items was that the film company was not allowed to interfere with his production of the film or his control of the crew.
If a fledgling director made this request, the film company would probably tell him to get out.
But little Gilbert is different. The reputation he has accumulated over the years has made the film company trust him enough.
Hollywood producers have a lot of power. Unfortunately, if there is a conflict between the producer and Gilbert Jr. on Gilbert Jr.'s crew, the producer will definitely be replaced.
What's more, the people who can be the producers of the show are all smart people, how could they offend little Gilbert?
This acquisition was a sensational one, but the outside world’s enthusiasm for it was actually average. It was mostly reported by the media, and it was over after being discussed by netizens.
However, the performance of the stock market was very lively. Almost in the afternoon after the signing ceremony, the shares of Disney and Warner on the New York Stock Exchange began to rise.
Disney's market value rose from US$44 billion to US$50.9 billion in one afternoon, a surge of US$6.9 billion, which is equivalent to half of Gilbert's worth.
Warner Pictures is not bad either, with its market value rising to US$12.9 billion, and the market value of its parent company, Time Warner, also rising to US$38.7 billion.
With its original size, Warner Pictures couldn't actually give more shares to Gilbert Jr.
Therefore, after consulting the parent company, Doug Walter exchanged part of Time Warner's shares plus shares of Warner Pictures for 50% of the shares of Cantaloupe Studios.
In other words, Gilbert Jr. is not only a shareholder and board member of Warner Pictures, but also a shareholder of Time Warner, and can also join the board of directors.
However, judging from the changes in stock prices, Time Warner still feels that it has made a profit.
As long as the stock market continues to perform strongly, every time a Little Gilbert movie becomes a hit, changes in stock prices will be reflected.
So this is why Wall Street tycoons have been tricked by Hollywood vampires to the point where they don’t even know their mothers, but they still happily invest in Hollywood movies.
As long as a movie becomes a hit, all the previous losses will be earned back in the stock market.
After the signing ceremony, there was a celebration banquet, and Gilbert Jr. attended with Cameron Diaz.
During the dinner, Cameron Diaz asked: "My dear, your movies used to be divided among the three parties, but now that the three companies have merged into one, how can we still divide the accounts?"
Little Gilbert smiled and explained: "Of course it's a 50-50 split. After all, Melon Studio belongs to two companies."
"Doesn't that mean you have no income from the studio?" Cameron Diaz was surprised.
"No," Gilbert Jr. simply explained: "I am now the largest individual shareholder of the two companies. When they make money, I make money. In fact, there is not much difference, and I even make more."
Melon Studio was not listed on the stock market before, so it could not reflect its value on the stock market.
But Disney and Time Warner are both listed companies, and the success of a movie can drive up the shares of both companies. Although the stock market may fall or rise, as long as the overall trend is upward, you will always make money.
Having said this, little Gilbert patted Cameron Diaz's perky buttocks: "I see you haven't done a good job in class. Do you want me, a layman, to answer this kind of question?"
"Oh," Cameron Diaz said reluctantly, "They are just testing you! It seems you still understand."
"Nonsense, I'm not an idiot." Little Gilbert was speechless and rolled his eyes.
Seeing Robert Egger and Doug Walter waving in the distance, Little Gilbert and Cameron Diaz said: "Michelle, you eat something first, and I'll go talk to Bob Doug and the others about something. ”
"Yeah!" Cameron Diaz had already been coveting those desserts. He waved his hand, took a fork and plate, and went to fight with the desserts.
Gilbert Jr. walked up to Robert Egger and Doug Walter, and the three went to a break room to discuss something.
"As you might expect, after the schedule was announced, other films avoided us." Doug Walter looked very happy. He knew that "The Return of the King" would be a hit again next year.
Robert Iger said: "We will continue to maintain the previous strategy and strive for Oscar nominations. In the third part, the Academy will definitely reward you, little Gilbert."
"Yes," Doug Walter agreed: "Congratulations to Little Gilbert, you are about to win the second Oscar for Best Director in your career."
Although "The Return of the King" has not even been released, there will be no surprises. The Academy cannot ignore "The Return of the King" and must give it recognition.
As a result, Gilbert Jr. has won the same Academy Award for Best Director as Spielberg.
Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese haven't even gotten close to winning the Best Director Oscar yet, but little Gilbert is already on his way to winning the award twice.
The Oscars don't want it either. The "Lord of the Rings" series is a non-realistic film, which is inconsistent with the Oscar's consistent purpose.
But if no awards are given, the foundation on which the Oscars rest is untenable. Moreover, the director is Gilbert Jr., so he should be recognized both emotionally and rationally.
Little Gilbert didn't care about this matter. He said: "When the DVD is released at the end of December, I will edit a three-minute trailer and put it on the deluxe edition DVD."
"This is good. The DVD with the trailer for The Two Towers sold quite well last time. I believe it will be the same this time."
"Even after the trilogy is over, we can release a collector's edition, a director's cut and an extended edition, and continue to sell them."
The two presidents are already thinking about the bright future ahead, and Gilbert Jr. believes that when James Cameron perfects 3D technology, the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy can be converted into 3D movies and once again make money in theaters.
The last time he saw James Cameron was half a year ago. This technology geek has gone deep into the ocean many times to shoot 3D ocean documentaries.
James Cameron said that he likes the sea and water. No wonder the second part of "Avatar" is called "The Way of Water".
James Cameron also asked Gilbert Jr. to support his plan. He already had a rough prototype of a 3D movie, but the investment would be very large.
Of course Gilbert Jr. would support it, and honestly, seeing James Cameron's name, there are very few studios who wouldn't support it.
It’s just that how many film companies have the strength to support it? James Cameron is too expensive.
After the signing ceremony and celebration banquet, little Gilbert set off for China to audition for the role in "The Adventures of Cheng Long".
On the other side of the Pacific, the usually aloof celebrities have been torn apart and beaten to death because of a role.
(End of chapter)