Hollywood Tycoon [US Entertainment + Business War]

Although the producers of "Jurassic Park" are Universal Pictures and Aberin Entertainment, in fact, Aberin Entertainment is actually responsible for the production work, and Universal Pictures just contributes money but does not work hard.Therefore, Universal Pictures has no problem with Spielberg finding a young man to be an assistant producer and assistant director.Moreover, the company unexpectedly discovered that the two parties are about to collaborate on a new movie, although at this time the young man's identity is only a screenwriter.But according to the feedback from the copyright department, this guy's storyboard script is extremely detailed and scientific, which means that this guy's current goal is towards the director.For a future director, and a director Spielberg is willing to train, Universal Pictures feels that it should pay more attention.Therefore, at a regular press conference, Universal Pictures introduced this new appointment to Hollywood reporters, and also announced the shooting plan of "Scent of a Woman".

There are roughly two media camps in Hollywood, one is Prometheus Global Media Group, which owns magazines such as "Hollywood Report", "Billboard" and "Backstage"; the other is Penske Media, which owns It owns three magazines: "Variety Weekly", "Daily Variety" and "Gotham Daily Variety".Don't think that Americans don't have regional discrimination. In fact, Americans have more obvious regional discrimination.The simplest example is that Prometheus Media, which is based in Los Angeles, often ridicules that New York filmmakers are nothing but "pretentious"; Penske Media, which is based in New York, will naturally ridicule Los Angeles filmmakers who only have money but no art in their eyes.

In addition to targeting their respective ace filmmakers, the two camps also did not forget to attack each other's newcomers, such as Jed Sherman.Although Jed's novel was named "Best New Author's Work of the Year" by The New Yorker magazine, it does not mean that the New York critics fell in love with this Los Angeles lad.On the contrary, many New York magazines felt that Jed's novel was too commercial and not deep enough.

After the two TV series "Friends" and "Will and Grace" were released, the critics in New York became more and more dissatisfied.In the eyes of critics in New York, only slow-cooked porridge works like "Seinfeld" are truly popular works, and Jed's works as a screenwriter obviously exist only to please the audience, and there is no such thing as a screenwriter. Self reserved.

Sure enough, after Universal Pictures announced that it would shoot "Scent of a Woman" written by Jed, the "New York Times" was the first to stand up and ridicule, "When did Universal degenerate to the point of making a romantic film full of fragrance?" Oh, I forgot, the screenwriter of this movie has always been Mr. Jed Sherman, the author with the first goal of money. Since the Sherman family moved to Los Angeles, it seems to have forgotten the history behind this surname. Glory. I didn't have to go into a theater or even wait for the film to come out, and I could just imagine how bad it would be at the box office."

At this time, Jed and Spielberg were inspecting locations on the Hawaiian Islands. Although the communication at this time was not as convenient as the future, as the most important newspaper in the United States, the "New York Times" was issued simultaneously in Hawaii, so Jed And Spielberg both saw the bashing of Jed above.Spielberg is still dissatisfied with such a direct blow from the "New York Times". It's not that film works and filmmakers cannot be criticized, but after all, you have to watch a work before you can comment, right? The "New York Times" directly began to criticize, what is the difference between that and a group of children arguing?More importantly, Spielberg didn't want to hurt Jed's confidence, but he stole a glance at Jed and found that Jed just turned over with a smile.

"Aren't you angry?" Spielberg was quite satisfied with this junior.The most talked about topic between the two recently is "Jurassic Park", and Jed has put forward many favorable opinions for the movie.Jed's definition of "Jurassic Park" is a commercial blockbuster and a special effects blockbuster, and he also explained to Spielberg what a commercial blockbuster and a special effects blockbuster are.

Although Spielberg has some opinions on Jade making the film so superficial, he also has to admit that this film is indeed a purely commercial blockbuster, and it is difficult to give too much ideological conception.Fortunately, Jed also mentioned at the end that the warning given by "Jurassic Park" is that human beings should not try to think that they are really the rulers of nature. Once they lose their awe of nature, then nature's revenge will come.

Regarding these conversations, Spielberg's assistant later compiled them as materials for Spielberg's future autobiography.Scholars of later generations discovered an interesting phenomenon when studying these dialogues. Jed Sherman, who later became the "King of Disaster Films", actually formed a complete set of values ​​at this time, and endowed him with all his values ​​in the future. Disaster movie went.Some people think that this is the inspiration given by Spielberg, but others think that it is Jade's self-realization. In short, scholars from both sides have been arguing about this issue in later generations, and they have published countless papers.

Jed looked at Spielberg, smiled and said, "Why should I care? Movies are entertainment, of course they're an art form, but art is entertainment in the first place. So, what's wrong with me making movies to entertain people? "

Although many viewers think that Spielberg is an advocate of art films, in fact Spielberg is not an art film director in the traditional sense.On the contrary, he is a commercial film director through and through.It's just that compared to ordinary commercial film directors, Spielberg's works have more thinking and artistic value.Therefore, Spielberg agrees with Jed's words very much. If a movie has no value of entertaining the public, let alone artistic value?Therefore, Spielberg did not continue the discussion on this topic. After all, he only needed to confirm that Jed was not hit.

"We're going back to Los Angeles tomorrow, and I've made an appointment with Mr. Lucas," Spielberg said. "By the way, you are already a member of the screenwriters' union, when will you register to become a member of the directors' union!"

The most indispensable thing in the United States is all kinds of trade unions, even in Hollywood, such as the directors' union, producers' union, role directors' union, actors' union, screenwriters' union and so on.Although these trade unions claim to seek benefits for union members, Jed does not see any value in them at all. More often than not, the trade union acts as an intermediary.

For filmmakers who have not yet become famous, such intermediaries can help them to a limited extent; and for successful filmmakers, they have a special agency to handle their intermediary affairs, and there is no need for various trade unions at all. meddle.But since I joined Hollywood, I had to follow the rules of Hollywood. Anyway, the union fee is not high, so joining one more is just a small matter.Jed doesn't want to go to trouble with the union, provided the union doesn't mess with himself.

In fact, these trade unions in the United States do not just take money and do nothing. On the contrary, they still do a lot of things. Whether these things are pleasing or not is another matter.For example, the directors' union once formulated a "title production specification", requiring all directors to list the main staff members in the title.But Lucas once refused to implement this so-called specification because it destroyed the overall sense of his title, and because of this, he had a bad relationship with the director's union, which led to Lucas' resignation in the end.Of course, Lucas was unable to work as a director for nearly 20 years because of this, which made many people sigh.

"I'll leave it to my lawyer." Anyway, Jed has to pay a lot of lawyer fees every year, so it's better to let the lawyer come forward to do the job if there is nothing to do. "Mr. Spielberg, have you decided where to shoot?"

"It hasn't been decided yet, what's the matter?" Spielberg was not in a hurry. If he didn't find a suitable location, it would actually do great damage to the film.This is why Spielberg sent a large number of staff to various tropical islands to find suitable locations.I also visited Hawaii on the recommendation of others, but I think there are a few good ones.

After thinking for a while, Jed revealed his plan to build "Jurassic Park".Jed knew how popular "Jurassic Park" was in the world, not only made the film a trilogy, but also remade it into a 3D version after the rise of 3D technology.More importantly, with the global popularity of "Jurassic Park", it directly led to the rise of the global "dinosaur fever", and it became fashionable to go to the paleontology museum to see dinosaur fossils.Since a movie can achieve a kind of pop culture, it might as well take "Jurassic Park" and make it yourself.

Make the first Jurassic Park in the location shooting location first, which is convenient for the early shooting and also conducive to the continuous income in the later stage.Then, in the form of brand authorization, the concept of Jurassic Park will be promoted to the world.It is equivalent to completely copying the development route of "Disneyland", but the difference is that "Jurassic Park" will occupy a relatively small area, so that it will not be as embarrassing as Hong Kong Disneyland.After Jed communicated his ideas with Spielberg, he found that this is indeed a very profitable method.However, this method of managing movie peripherals is not the way Aberin Entertainment operates, so Spielberg also raised his own objections.

As a result, Jed smiled and said: "Who said we have to run it ourselves? We just sold the concept to Universal Pictures. They have experience in operating Universal Studios, and they must be very interested in operating Jurassic Park." I will provide the plan, and Mr. Spielberg will provide the relevant copyright authorization, and let Universal do the specific operations.”

After hearing Jed's plan, Spielberg was also moved.Spielberg is not a god who does not eat fireworks in the world, so he naturally has no reason to refuse the dollar bills delivered to his door.So after the two made up their minds, they asked Abelin Entertainment to contact Universal Pictures.To the surprise of Jade and Spielberg, Universal was very interested in this.You must know that all the film companies are envious and jealous of Disneyland under the name of Disney, and they all say that children's money is the best way to earn money, but there are really not many ways like Disney to pile up children's money to their own homes.Therefore, Universal was very excited after hearing Abelin's suggestion.They're well aware of the prehistoric behemoth's appeal to kids and, importantly, adults too, and say they'll bring it up for board approval as soon as possible.After listening to the feedback given by Universal, both Jed and Spielberg were very happy. The construction of Jurassic Park is also very helpful for the promotion of the movie when it is released.

After returning to California, Spielberg took the staff of Aberin Entertainment and Jed and set off for the Letterman Digital Art Center in the San Francisco Garrison, which is where Industrial Light and Magic is located.Since the appointment was made in advance, it was rare for George Lucas to show up at the company and wait for Spielberg to appear.Since Lucas had quit the directors' union at this time, he hadn't worked as a film director for some time.But he didn't leave the film industry. Industrial Light & Magic just completed the cooperation with Cameron. Lucas was very satisfied with the design of the liquid robot in "Terminator 2" and was proud of it.When talking with Spielberg in the conference room, this shot was also specially shown.From the perspective of Jade's future generations, this shot is no longer amazing.But for Spielberg and Abelin Entertainment, this shot had too much impact on them.

Spielberg came back to his senses a little, looked at the triumphant expression of Lucas on the opposite side, and knew that this was a "smackdown" given by Lucas to himself.Lucas' attitude is that don't look at me not making movies recently, but my movie concept is still the most advanced.In this regard, Spielberg can only smile bitterly in his heart.Since the other party has such strong technical capabilities, Spielberg also values ​​Industrial Light and Magic a little more in his heart, so his sincerity in cooperation has also increased a lot.

Although Lucas has the pride of being a director, he is not the kind of person who does not know what is important. After all, he is also a businessman, and it is necessary to make money with harmony.The demonstration of the video just now was not only to show off his directorial philosophy, but also to show off the capabilities of his company.It seems that the effect of this video is very good, and the attitude of Abe Lin Entertainment is obviously much better.Industrial Light & Magic is also very interested in "Resurrecting Dinosaurs", so the two parties soon reached a cooperation intention.

After Abelin Entertainment finished the negotiation with Industrial Light & Magic, Jed brought his team of lawyers into the conference room.Spielberg looked at Jed, and quickly understood the young man's covetousness for Industrial Light and Magic.Jade attaches great importance to computer special effects, so it is natural for him to acquire or participate in a computer special effects company, so Spielberg is not surprised that Jade wants to acquire Industrial Light and Magic.And Spielberg also knew that Jed had a lot of money, so he stopped intervening in this matter, but left with the members of Aberin Entertainment.

"Acquisition of Industrial Light and Magic?" Lucas looked at the contract, smiled contemptuously, and threw the contract back. "Hasn't Mr. Jed Sherman woke up today? The acquisition of Industrial Light & Magic also depends on how the day is going!"

"Mr. Lucas, if you read this document, shall we talk about the acquisition again?" Jed handed over another document.Jed is bound to win Industrial Light & Magic. If he can't buy it, he will set up his own computer special effects company at worst.It's just that Industrial Light & Magic is a giant among special effects companies, both now and in the future, so Jed decided to acquire it first.

The document Jed gave was a manual on "Particle Effects". Although the technical team that Jed is looking for has not yet fully developed an effect editor for particle effects, the relevant patents related to particle effects have been registered globally. .That is to say, future game development and computer special effects cannot get around Jade's patent barriers. Even if Jade does not do anything in the future, relying on this patent will allow him to live comfortably.Industrial Light and Magic's miss of particle effects has led to the cultivation of a terrible competitor in the industry-the digital field.

Although Industrial Light & Magic leads all special effects companies in dealing with detailed effects, it loses to the digital field in the production of large scenes.Although detailed effects processing is easy to win Oscar's favor, but the big scene production is where the real money is made.Although Lucas is not a professional, he still has a good understanding of special effects production.According to Jed's instructions, Lucas clearly sees a very bright future, a movie world that can be realized completely with computers.

Lucas is now starting to struggle. With this document, the young man opposite can almost form a computer special effects company that is not inferior to Industrial Light and Magic in the next two years.

After thinking for a long time, Lucas let out a long sigh and said, "If ILM wants to obtain particle special effects technology, how much will it cost? Mr. Sherman, I hope you don't go too far, otherwise ILM can also Abandon this technology."

"Of course." Jed didn't want to completely annex Industrial Light and Magic. The consequence of Michael Bay's annexation of the digital field was that the digital field was unable to accept the unexpected films of Paramount and DreamWorks, which also led to the bankruptcy of the digital field.Jade wanted to take control of ILM, but allowed it to operate independently. "I only want the controlling stake of Industrial Light and Magic, but I will not interfere with the operation of Industrial Light and Magic. The operation of Industrial Light and Magic is completely independent, and even serving my opponent is allowed."

Lucas thought for a while and said, "The 51% stake and the waiver of management rights must be written in the contract."

"No problem." Jed stood up and held out his hand to Lucas, "Happy cooperation!"

"Happy cooperation!"