American fame and fortune.

Chapter 647 Advanced Business War

Annapurna Pictures, in the CEO's office.

Megan Ellison, the female boss, is on the phone with the real boss.

"I just read the investment report you sent over." Larry Ellison on the other side of the phone asked: "Why do you suddenly need to mobilize more than 200 million US dollars?"

Megan Ellison said: "I have taken a fancy to two film projects that require large investments. Annapurna Pictures has just been established. The market lacks confidence in us. It is not easy to raise funds from other channels."

Larry Ellison had a question: "More than $200 million invested in two projects?"

Meghan said: "The total production budget is actually US$3 million, and I still have more than US$1 million on hand."

Larry Ellison asked: "I remember you wanted to take the small and medium-sized investment art film route?"

"It was initially, but now the opportunity is rare. These two projects are generally optimistic in the industry." Megan briefly talked about "Seventh Son" and "Transcendental Hacker", as well as the related situation of Martin Davis.

Larry Ellison was silent for a moment and reminded: "Observe for a while, you should be cautious about such a huge investment."

Meghan can listen to her father's words. Do you think she should be more cautious when investing?

She hung up the phone and suddenly heard rapid footsteps outside.

Derrett held a Spanish newspaper and hurried through the corridor to the president's office, looking slightly panicked.

Megan Ellison looked up from behind the computer screen and said, "What happened? You need to stay calm in this company!"

Derrett also wanted to calm down, but the content in the newspaper made him unable to calm down. He quickly said: "President, those Mexicans are dead!"

He was in a daze: "They are all dead!"

The female boss Megan frowned: "What Mexican?"

"Those who provided us with information about the script." Drette put the newspaper on his desk: "They were shot randomly and all died in Tijuana."

Megan looked at the newspaper. It was in Spanish. She couldn't understand it clearly, but the picture in the newspaper was very clear. In the big picture, six bodies were lying in the blood, and bullet holes could still be seen on the wall.

In the six separate pictures, there are photos of the faces of six dead people.

Derrett really felt scared. Why were they shot to death randomly?

Meghan closed the newspaper and threw it aside.

Derrett came from a good background and graduated from a prestigious university. He had never experienced such a thing before. His voice was trembling: "Martin Davis must have done it! Absolutely! President, what should we do?"

Isn’t it a business war that we agreed on? Why don't they play according to the routine at all? How can you use a gun to engage in a business war?

"Yes, this matter must be related to Martin Davis." The idea of ​​a female domineering president is completely different from that of ordinary people. What Derrett saw was a threat to her personal safety, but Megan discovered a business opportunity!

She pondered and said: "Martin Davis resorted to such cruel methods because he was angry. This shows one thing."

Drette's legs couldn't help but tremble.

When facing those Mexicans, he had a superior calmness.

But after seeing the photos of Mexican corpses, there was only egg-breaking fear.

Megan's thoughts became clearer: "Martin Davis is very optimistic about the two scripts "Seventh Son" and "Transcendence", so he is so angry and uses this method to take revenge."

Derrett was stunned for a moment, but after thinking about it, it seemed that this was indeed the case.

He couldn't help but say: "This is a revenge method that is only used after suffering huge losses."

Meghan nodded slightly, looked at Derrett again, and said, "Don't worry, this is Los Angeles, not Tijuana."

Drette felt a little more reassured.

Megan thought for a while and said: "You continue to stare at Martin Davis. According to normal thinking, if he abandons these two projects, he will definitely actively look for new projects!"

A scene from the Oscar nominees luncheon flashed before her eyes: "The key to winning a project is funding! When we fight for money, who are we afraid of?"

Drette quickly responded.

After her subordinates left, Megan thought about it carefully, dialed her father's phone and explained the matter in general.

Larry Ellison has experienced real business wars, quarreled with Bill Gates, fought with Microsoft executives, sent business spies, and had security besiege hostile shareholders within Oracle.

He knew that the most high-end business wars are often presented with the most primitive means, and said: "I will send a team of bodyguards over and let them stay by your side 24 hours a day."

Meghan has been accustomed to life with bodyguards around her since she was a child. She did not refuse and asked: "Where is the investment?"

Larry Ellison didn't understand Hollywood. Just like he did to David Ellison, he asked directly: "How sure are you?"

Meghan said: "Seventy percent."

Larry Ellison dares to fight and bet: "Don't say 70%, you can try 50%."

Megan added: "If you want to do it, do it the best. I plan to invest more. The total production budget of the two projects will increase to 3.5 million US dollars."

The matter was finally settled.

Meghan called Wilson again: "You are well-informed in Hollywood. Pay more attention to Martin Davis' situation." Wilson understood what she meant and responded: "Yes."

…………

An office building at Disney Studios adjacent to the Disney Studios Building is completely occupied by the cast of "The Martian."

Preparations have begun for a new film directed by Louise Meyer and directed by Ridley Scott, starring Martin.

They are also the three giants of this crew.

The new film's production budget totals US$1.2 million, making it the highest investment project since the establishment of Davis Studio.

Pacific Pictures, Disney Pictures and Gray Films all participated in the production investment.

During the just-concluded negotiations for the leading role, Thomas secured a lucrative acting contract for Martin.

"Gone Girl" has basically ended its North American screenings, with a total North American box office of 2.28 million US dollars.

Overseas screenings are continuing, and the global box office currently exceeds US$4.5 million.

Coupled with the huge success of "Inception", last year's two films allowed Martin, who had just entered the 20 million club, to firmly establish himself.

The contract signed by Martin and the crew of "The Martian" has a basic salary of up to US$2000 million, and then a tiered share of the North American box office.

The sharing line is US$1.2 million of the production cost. If the North American box office reaches US$1.2 million, Martin will receive a 3000% share. For every additional US$ million, the share will automatically increase by one percentage point, with a maximum cap of % of the North American box office. out of ten.

This is commonly known as the 20+10 contract.

There is also a 5% share of offline gross profits including DVD, online on-demand and TV copyrights.

This is definitely a single-protagonist movie, and the second-highest paid actor is Mene.

However, the salary of supporting actors in Hollywood is far different from that of leading actors. Mene only received 300 million US dollars plus corresponding post-production sharing.

This is already a high price among supporting actors in Hollywood.

The total salary of other supporting actors combined is not as high as Mene alone.

Jessica Chastain had already auditioned in makeup, and Louise and Ridley unanimously decided to cast her as the female commander of the spaceship.

The remaining roles are also being auditioned one after another.

"Several of my assistants have already gone to the Middle East and Australia to look for suitable locations." Compared with David Fincher, Ridley Scott is a serious director who pays special attention to efficiency in his work. In recent years, , regardless of the size of the investment, it basically maintains a production rate of one movie per year.

He looked at Martin: "I hope you will devote the next two months to preparing for your role. The role you are about to play is an astronaut living on Mars, and you must undergo a series of intensive physical training."

"I will," Martin said.

Louise said: "Since I have known Martin, he has maintained a large amount of exercise training, including running, fighting, strength training, firearm use, etc."

Ridley, an old-school director, suddenly changed his mind and said, "As people get older, sometimes their memory is not good. I almost forgot that you are the most athletic actor in Hollywood."

His voice changed: "One more thing, you find a farm or a planting company and learn how to grow potatoes."

This is one of the key plot points and selling points in the movie, and Martin responded: "I'm already prepared for this."

He had not learned from anyone, and growing potatoes was an ability he had in his previous life.

Martin, who was also born in the early 80s, came from the countryside. It was common for children of that era to help their families with farm work. They used farmyard manure to grow potatoes, vegetables and sweet potatoes. I don’t know how many times they did this.

To be honest, he has more experience in using farmyard fertilizer than many professional farmers in the United States.

The three of them discussed the shooting and production of the project and many other issues for most of the day. The entire crew was controlled by Louise. Ridley Scott is a super expert at shooting science fiction films, even though he never thought so.

The crew's preparation efficiency is astonishingly high. According to Ridley's plan, the early preparations must be fully prepared, so that the filming will start in mid-to-late May, be completed in two months, and complete all post-production by the end of October, so that the film can be released in November.

Then, he took a month off and went to work with 20th Century Fox. The new project has been finalized, a new "Alien" movie.

At the end of the three-person meeting, Ridley suddenly asked Martin and Louise: "Do you have a suitable epic film project in hand? We can continue to cooperate."

Sure enough, epic movies are true love, but Martin didn't want to jump into this trap and said, "I just encountered some changes here, and there is nothing suitable for the time being."

Ridley heard something and said nothing more.

Coming out of the small conference room, Martin chatted with Louise for a few words and left the crew studio.

Bruce came over from the other side and said: "Annapurna Pictures issued an announcement this morning. They will increase investment in the two projects of "Seventh Son" and "Transcendence". The production budget of the former will be increased to 1.8 million. US dollars, the latter increased to US$1.7 million.”

Martin was somewhat surprised: "Interesting, the domineering female president actually made additional investment."

(End of this chapter)