Hollywood legendary director

If every major studio will experience a rotation-prosperity-peak-trough-recovery-decline... Then this year is the trough period for Fox.

In particular, Fox is not due to normal reasons such as poor production business or too small distribution share, but the party that has been affected-Fox's parent company News Corporation has been keeping down the eavesdropping door of public opinion. It finally broke out.

A few days ago, the British Sun newspaper was first accused of bribing the police, reporting adverse events, manipulating power and adding scandals, and then the former British chief executive of News Corporation was arrested by the London police, and it was even reported that Rupert-Mo, the head of the group, was detained. Doc.

As for what Labor Party leader Ed Miliband proposed to dissolve Murdoch’s media empire to prevent abuse of power;

Former British Prime Minister Brown delivered a speech in the lower house of parliament, angering Murdoch's media for the "despicable behavior";

And the current Prime Minister Cameron also took this opportunity to “disconnect” with this huge news empire;

There are even a large number of media colleagues, who have long been holding their breath, and directly united to attack Murdoch’s son James, asking him to step down from the chairmanship-Murdoch is already old, if it can bring down his son, the group will directly The change of ownership and the management cleanup was a shameful trick.

It can be said that the eavesdropping directly shook the "political bottom line" of the British ruling party, tore through the glories of the past, and forced those politicians who had been fighting with Murdoch to stand up and draw the line.

What does everyone call and beat? That's it. After all, the paper didn't cover the fire.

Affected by this, the entire group's senior executives in the UK have been targeted, one or two have to be questioned, many businesses are afraid to start a lot of business, afraid of being scratched, can only play dead, but secretly they must be active in public relations.

After all, although the loss was great, News Corp. was not dismembered as the people saw it, and it survived...

And this year’s summer file, Fox did not launch a blockbuster, only a romantic comedy "Fans of Las Vegas" with a production cost of less than 55 million, the silly big sister Cameron Diaz + Ashton Kutcher Acting as the male and female starring role, it was released for 5 days, and the North American box office exceeded 19 million, which is not very eye-catching but not bad.

Of course, even if business is not going well, Fox is still one of Hollywood's largest studios, and does not need outsiders to worry too much.

The next day.

When Lehmann came to the door, Fox's top executives were very enthusiastic.

This is also true. Who is not interested in a profitable cooperation?

Fox has the resources and channels, but what it lacks is good movies that can make use of its own advantages, and then realize it.

For these studios that have a complete distribution system, dialogue with theater chains, and more initiative, this is very important. It is to circulate and satisfy the wealth generated by the market.

With the success of Mann Media every day, Lehman has become more and more "strong".

This world is like this.

If the producer is strong, the distributor and theater are “weak”; vice versa, no one will take a high look even if they kneel and beg.

A lot of things, too much, will be indifferent.

Responded with a smile and entered a reception room.

Bill McNico shook hands with Lyman and said politely: "Lyman, congratulations, the results of "Iron Man" are very impressive, and all of this cannot be separated from your careful guidance."

"Mr. is serious, but it just happens to be liked by the audience." Lehman responded neither humble nor arrogant, and he was very comfortable with this kind of routine of complimenting first.

At this time, Isaac, the president of the Fox TV station next to him, also followed up and said: "That’s right, in the film and television industry, don’t we want to try our best to make more audiences like it. "Iron Man" can create such a dazzling performance. Congratulations on his transcript, the potential is immeasurable."

"Yes, yes. Come, let's sit and talk." McNico politely stretched out his hand, and the three of them took their seats.

After talking about some scenes, Isaac said: "Mr. Luster, you want to repurchase the copyright of Daredevil, can you talk specifically about it?"

The Fox executives were very curious, and the two of them couldn’t guess Lehman’s thoughts. Then they heard him say, “After I acquired Marvel, people often suggested to me to reclaim the role. I am more supportive of this matter. As far as I can bear, like Daredevil of your company, I think I can sit down and talk."

The words were euphemistic, but Isaac exchanged glances with McNico, and they all felt that Lyman was talking about it.What's the point of finding it for nothing?

"To be honest, Fox still has some disagreements on Daredevil's copyright, so..."

Lehman sighed slightly, and then said, "So, what do you two think? After all, this matter must be discussed and there will be a result."

Isaac's eyes lit up, and he immediately said with a smile: "The copyright is not transferable, but we hope that you can cooperate with Fox when shooting Daredevil-related projects."

"Mr. I think too much." Lehman said, "Marvel's copyright recovery is true, but I don't know how to deal with Daredevil, and there is no special direction. But when it comes to cooperation, everyone's energy is limited after all, so I I was just thinking about the "Captain America" ​​that has been clearly planned for the Marvel project. I wonder if you are interested?"

The two were stunned, the turning point was a bit big.

How do you talk about Daredevil, and how can you become a US team?

Originally, they planned to discuss with Lehman whether it is possible to jointly develop Daredevil. After all, it is more risky to start a failed project, but if someone pays the budget, there is a certain amount of traffic attention. It should be intervened. This When these things are changed to any studio, the executives will move this idea.

On the contrary, if Lehman didn’t mention it, Fox hadn’t expected to make money by developing Daredevil because of the experience of losing once, but if it was given out in vain, if it happened again, wouldn’t it be regarded as a joke by the industry, it would be disgusting Up.

Therefore, Fox doesn't have the idea of ​​being too greedy for cheap, but he doesn't want to be left alone.

But Lehman's idea is-if you can't hold all the copyrights for a TV series, then it's not necessary-originally the income is not high, and you still share it with others, so just put it aside and everyone will save some effort.

Furthermore, because of the success of "Iron Man", Lionsgate President Jon Fellermael always calls him when he is fine, and he wants to get a share of the pie. What projects can I ask them to publish? , The rake is still low.

However, because of the particularity of the Marvel project, Lehman does not value the small favors at the box office. It is completely different from other projects produced by the company. It is very popular with publicity and theaters, and because of the "can’t put eggs. With the idea of ​​"in a basket", Warner's resources are limited, and it is certainly not enough for Marvel. It is very necessary to pick a few more allies.

Even if it was Disney in the past life, the internal tilt of project resources, encountering some high-quality projects will make Marvel give way and empty the schedule.

Give me an example.

The summer file is a bit broader, from mid-April to the end of August, but this is close to a four-month box office spree. A studio can release two blockbusters at most, because the market capacity and publicity energy can only support it. So much, the rest is just throwing in a few low-cost projects.

Even if Christmas is added, it is still roughly maintained at around 3 blockbusters.

And Lehman’s plan for Marvel has been very complete. As long as "Iron Man" achieves results, at least three will be released every year in the future. It is difficult for any studio to arrange it because no one can eat it all. Publicity and schedule are impossible, let alone take care of "outsiders" wholeheartedly, regardless of their own projects.

There is no need to think about it. Once there is a conflict in the schedule, it is obvious whose interests will be sacrificed and left out.

In addition, it takes time to establish an overseas distribution network, and it also takes energy to maintain a channel. If you can tie up a few capital, the transition to self-reliance will be less pressured and will not be too crowded out. This is also the benefit of finding more allies.

If everyone has the same interests, holding your nose and tolerating it is not impossible.

This is also Lyman's calculation.