Hollywood New Century

Hollywood experienced another baptism of its highest North American box office last year as the economy continued to recover.

Various film studios have also launched their own film plans with great ambitions. Needless to say, Xinghai Pictures, the Marvel series has already made Warner Bros., which owns DC, feel the pressure.

The bifurcation of word-of-mouth for "Watchmen" did not bring much benefit, and the "Green Lantern" project also started as soon as possible. At the same time, preparations for Christopher Nolan's third Batman "has also begun, and will only be fully committed after this year's "Inception" is released.

Not only that, Sony Columbia has also planned to restart the new Spider-Man movie because of the death of the fourth Spider-Man. In order to prevent Marvel from taking back the Spider-Man copyright.

Of course, 20th Century Fox will not let go of the X-Men series. The success of the derivative work "Wolverine" must have stimulated them, and the prequel series "X-Men: First Station" that continues to be developed is also in preparation. Not only that, the reboot of the old film "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is also not to be ignored, and it also bought the filming rights of "The Chronicles of Narnia 3" from Disney.

Paramount's previous reboots of "Star Trek 11" and "Indiana Jones 4" were also hugely successful, and after having eased relations with Tom Cruise, "Mission Impossible 4" has also joined the plan. Not to mention the Cash Milk Transformers 3.

Disney has Pixar's animation, and the live-action film "Pirates of the Caribbean 4" has also started. Except for Johnny Depp, neither the second male lead nor the female lead has signed a contract.

As for Universal Pictures, except for "Fast and Furious 5", the others are taking the path of low cost.

After all, NBC Universal is now deeply in the door of acquisitions, and last year's bottom results also made Universal Pictures unable to lift its head.

"Well, the film and television adaptation rights of "The Hunger Games" and "A Song of Ice and Fire" have been settled?" Simon asked, looking at Sonia Roman who was sitting across from him.

"After signing the contract, The Hunger Games is not difficult, mainly for the TV adaptation rights of "A Song of Ice and Fire". George Martin managed to persuade him. He doesn't believe that novels can be adapted into TV series." Sonia Roman smiled helplessly,

"It took a lot of time."

"The script is adapted, and he will be involved in the production process and cannot be treated sloppily," Sonia Roman still reminded.

Simon nodded and said with a smile: "This is Netflix's famous work. Of course, it can't be fooled. Let Nina and Dick find a good producer for development!"

"As for the script for The Hunger Games, preparations have also begun."

Sonia Roman also nodded in agreement. With the success of "Twilight", "The Hunger Games" will certainly be taken seriously.

"By the way, I have met Jan Martel, the author of "The Fantastic Drifting of Young Pi". The film and television adaptation rights of the novel were sold to 20th Century Fox in 2003. After all, "The Fantastic Drifting of Young Pi" is in It was very popular when it was published,” Sonia Roman went on to explain, after all, Xinghai Pictures is a new type of film company, and it can’t compare with the old film studios in terms of storage IP.

The old Hollywood studios have never stopped acquiring scripts.

"Forget it, if it's gone, it's gone. Anyway, there are a lot of producers working with us now, and some good novels will still be recommended." Simon himself only remembers some novels adapted from popular movies, most of which are Depends on the production department to screen.

"Simon, don't worry too much, there are very few original scripts now, and we haven't been established for a long time. There are no remakes or reboots of old movies. Let's take it slow!" What Sonia Roman said is also true , at present can only spend more time in the market to collect.

Of course, if Xinghai Entertainment can successfully acquire NBC Universal, it will not only enrich the film library, but also use a lot of inventory creative scripts.

"I heard that Thomas Tour is planning to join the two major Wall Street funds to acquire the shares owned by the investment funds of Legendary Entertainment's start-up?" Simon suddenly asked again. Thomas Tour is now the founder and CEO of Legendary Entertainment.

"There is a saying that in recent years, Legendary Entertainment has a certain reputation on Wall Street because of the seven-year and forty-film investment agreement signed with Warner Bros., and because of its participation in the investment in Christopher Nolan's new "Batman" series. Now Thomas Tour guesses that she hopes to better control Legendary Entertainment and to go further in Hollywood," Sonia Roman frowned and continued,

"After all, now Legendary Entertainment is already working on a TV division and a digital media division!"

"Hehe, it is estimated that it was stimulated by Relativity Entertainment. After Relativity Entertainment acquired Roger Pictures, the sub-distribution system of Universal's Focus Pictures, it has a distribution network for B-level films. Moreover, Relativity Entertainment has greater ambitions, not only The film and television department has also formed a music department, a sports department, an online media business, and it seems that they are preparing to enter the TV broadcasting business," Simon said casually, with disdain in his heart.

Do you think Relativity Entertainment is your own Xinghai Entertainment? How much money has been invested in Xinghai Entertainment, how many popular movies and TV have been produced, and several top singers in the world have been discovered.

With the support of the behemoth Nine Head Bird Capital, a manager who started with Wall Street hedge funds, dare to learn from himself?

Can Relativity Entertainment's Ryan Kavalaug be like himself in Star Sea Entertainment? Xinghai Entertainment can be said to be Simon's word, and Ryan Kavallaug of Relativity Entertainment must be supervised by shareholders.

"Perhaps, Relativity Entertainment relies on digital algorithms to invest in movies, focusing only on business, and it can always attract investors from the sector," Sonia Roman also laughed, too big steps require strength, Relativity Entertainment, as an independent production company, completely abandons it. For literary films, it is difficult to establish cooperative relationships with some filmmakers.

Simon shook his head and said: "I don't care about these companies. I heard that Carl Icahn, one of the major shareholders of Lionsgate, has been lobbying for Lionsgate to acquire MGM. Is there any news? "

"After all, the only film company I can pay attention to now is Lionsgate."

After hearing this, Sonia Roman shook her head helplessly and said: "I don't know, I just know that Carl Icahn has always had a controlling interest in Lionsgate, and his relationship with other shareholders of Lionsgate is not very good; "

"The chairman of Lionsgate has personally promised that if Carl Icahn were to take a hostile takeover, Lionsgate would initiate a poison pill and issue new shares to dilute Carl Icahn's stake."

"Oh, MGM, Lionsgate!" Simon shook his head, it's really too difficult, after all, how much is Lionsgate only worth? What MGM needs is a cash injection to keep operating. Lionsgate’s debt is not low, and MGM’s debt ratio is even more frightening.

Lionsgate shareholders willing to put up big bucks to back a takeover? Don't say Simon doesn't believe it, even Lionsgate doesn't believe it.