Capítulo 420: Chapter 421: Finally Filming
[Chapter 421: Finally Filming]
Murdoch pondered these thoughts, inadvertently overlooking the different implications behind Eric's question. He responded somewhat straightforwardly, saying, "Liz is just a woman after all. I still hope Lachlan and James will take over for me."
Eric didn't say anything more. If Elisabeth couldn't achieve overwhelming success, it wouldn't be easy for her to take the reins at News Corp in the future.
After casually chatting about the Oscars, Murdoch brought up the recent developments at Firefly Films. With April fast approaching, it was getting close to the start of the summer blockbuster season at the end of May. Firefly was set to release two films, Toy Story and Terminator 2, simultaneously during that time.
Although Toy Story had aired a trailer during the Super Bowl two months earlier, whether audiences would embrace this 3D animated film -- so drastically different from traditional 2D animation -- remained uncertain. As a titan of the Hollywood animation industry, Disney recognized that its position was threatened by Toy Story's trailer and immediately sought to undermine it through various channels, overtly and covertly.
To prevent the film from being adversely affected by competitor smears before its release, Firefly allocated a marketing budget of $20 million for Toy Story in North America alone, which was about 50% of the film's production cost.
The situation seemed even less favorable for Terminator 2. Given the past experience with The Abyss, many believed that Cameron would again become entrenched in exploring film technology, resulting in a movie that was praised but commercially unsuccessful. Furthermore, everyone knew that Terminator 2 was set to become the first film in Hollywood history with a budget exceeding $100 million. When marketing costs were added in, the film would need to gross at least $300 million worldwide to break even. However, Cameron's previous film, The Abyss, only earned about $80 million globally. To outsiders, it appeared that Firefly would face tremendous pressure to recoup its investment.
Given Firefly's recent decision to sell the rights to the hit Running Out of Time to Columbia Pictures, many companies believed that Firefly was experiencing a cash crunch. In Hollywood, the major film studios often found themselves in such situations every couple of years. Even well-performing Warner Bros. and Disney each carried debts of no less than $1 billion.
Although Eric had participated in the fluctuations of the oil futures market twice in the earlier half of the year, Firefly hadn't taken significant action afterwards, leading many to conclude that he hadn't profited much from the oil crisis. Murdoch, however, became more invigorated by the prospect of potentially investing in Firefly. Although Eric could be a tough negotiator, he surmised that trying posed no real risk.
After chatting with Eric for a while, Murdoch asked, "Eric, Firefly sold the rights to Running Out of Time, so funding must be pretty tight right now, huh?"
"It's not bad," Eric immediately detected the old man's implication. It sounded similar to something he had heard last year when Murdoch had personally approached him with a similar proposal. However, this time, Eric had no intention of yielding in any way. He had just managed to gain full control over Firefly, and unless absolutely necessary, he had no plans to bring in any shareholders. "Mr. Murdoch, Firefly has just returned to my hands, so I won't be selling any shares. Let's not revisit that topic. Perhaps we can talk about something else."
Seeing Eric's outright rejection, Murdoch chuckled softly; he hadn't been holding out much hope, so the refusal didn't bring him disappointment. He adopted a serious tone and said, "Eric, investing in films is a high-risk endeavor. If you're not careful, you could lose everything. It's quite prudent to share the risk through collaboration. I think your investment in Terminator 2 is just too significant. James Cameron's last film, The Abyss, has yet to recoup the losses it incurred with Fox, and there's still a gap of about $20 million. However, Fox hasn't been too badly affected since that film was a joint investment. While the losses are considerable, they're not as burdensome on Fox."
"That's not entirely accurate," Eric replied. "Joint investment projects are typically ones that studios don't regard highly or lack confidence in. However, they will never compromise on their flagship franchises. For instance, Warner Bros. would never co-develop Batman with outsiders, and the Star Wars franchise wouldn't introduce outside investors either."
After realizing he couldn't persuade Eric, Murdoch changed the subject. "Speaking of which, you promised to let Fox distribute Home Alone. There's been no movement on it since last year. We can't delay it any longer, you know -- the kid, that Stuart Ronkel, is already ten years old. If we wait another couple of years, he'll no longer be suitable for the lead role."
"We're already in contact with CAA, but the price they quoted last year was outrageous. So Firefly has temporarily shelved the project," Eric explained.
"Eric, since you sold Running Out of Time, do you think it might be possible to transfer the rights to Home Alone to Fox?"
Eric quickly considered Murdoch's suggestion; he had previously entertained the thought. Based on Firefly's internal assessments, the budget for the third installment of Home Alone was projected to be between $40 million and $50 million, while the estimated North American box office was only around $100 million. Therefore, this sequel would likely only turn a profit through overseas distribution and home video sales. It might be best to simply sell off the development rights for this project. Although this approach could mean less profit, it would save Firefly a considerable amount of time and energy, allowing them to focus on other more valuable projects.
However, Eric had no intention of selling the complete rights to Home Alone. His plan for acquiring Disney was still proceeding quietly, and should that plan prove successful, the significance of Home Alone among children's favorites would be leveraged by Disney's full-channel development and a theme park attraction, generating substantial profits.
"Mr. Murdoch, I won't be transferring the rights to Home Alone. However, Firefly doesn't have much time or energy to devote to this project, so if Fox is interested, we could authorize the sequel's development rights to them."
After some consideration, Murdoch agreed. Yet neither party rushed to negotiate the specifics of a collaboration agreement. The rights to Home Alone encompassed too many elements to finalize in just a moment and would need to be discussed slowly between the staffs of Firefly and Fox.
...
After the Oscars, the media predictably weighed in on the awards ceremony. The Silence of the Lambs, despite its strong quality, faced a barrage of criticism as per usual. The winners and the Academy itself refrained from addressing any of the critiques.
Due to repeated mentions throughout the award show, Elisabeth's emotional moment on stage when she won Best Picture left a lasting impression on many. For television viewers, Eric was just another topic of casual conversation, but in Hollywood, this indicated that his influence was growing stronger.
Just as Billy Crystal humorously pointed out, Hollywood executives were relieved to see Eric no longer frantically cranking out multiple films every year, yet here he was at the Oscars. Although none of the major seven studios operated as their primary focus to produce Oscar-winning films, the influence and surrounding economic benefits of the Academy Awards represented a significant opportunity, which had predominantly belonged to those seven studios in previous years. Eric's sudden entrance evoked a sense of competition akin to a crisis among them.
However, none of this phased Eric in the slightest. The pre-production work on Twister had been completed, and a crew of over 200 people had begun arriving in Oklahoma in waves, ready to begin filming.
Eric spent a few more days in Los Angeles finalizing negotiations with Fox regarding the Home Alone licensing deal. Firefly planned to produce and distribute five films this year, and before the Oscars, they had already locked in Toy Story, Terminator 2, Dumb and Dumber, and Hot Shots! In the final days of his stay in Los Angeles, Eric finally confirmed the last film, which would be a sequel to the New Line franchise A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Given the box office failure of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Robert Shaye had initially planned to create another sequel as a conclusion while still at Firefly and even drafted some scripts. Eric's role was to finalize this project, which was temporarily titled Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. Unless this sequel became a blockbuster hit, Eric decided to put any further development on the back burner for a few years until Hollywood's trend of remakes surged again.
Besides A Nightmare on Elm Street, Eric didn't forget about Disney's Cutthroat Island. Filming had already commenced in February, and Disney had not ceased promoting the project since its establishment. During the Oscars, they even arranged a public relations stunt to appoint director Renny Harlin and Gina Davis as award presenters, and rumors circulated that the project's script was initially favored by Eric.
According to various media reports, Cutthroat Island was being filmed on the Mediterranean island of Malta and might even be relocating to Thailand for on-location shooting. Occasionally, television networks would release sneak peeks. Furthermore, it was reported that the film's budget, originally set at $70 million, was visibly exceeding expectations due to the rushed schedule. After learning that the budget for Terminator 2 had surpassed $100 million, Disney and Robert Shaye openly declared that Cutthroat Island's costs would also exceed that figure.
Though there were still three months before the release of both films, tensions were already rising between Cutthroat Island and Terminator 2, and the media relished comparing the two. Eric always found a strange sense of humor in this, thinking about how these two films, in their original timeline, would only be comparable in a very limited context in Hollywood history.
...
In New York, while managing the investments for Firefly, Chris remained equally focused on acquiring Disney stocks. In February, he secured a significant 0.9% share from one of Disney's shareholders. Chris anticipated that by July, he could assemble a total of about 10% of Disney stock through various channels. If a friendly acquisition failed, Eric could leverage his funds and shares to initiate a hostile takeover with a dominating advantage.
...
On March 28, Eric boarded a flight with the last batch of the Twister crew to Oklahoma, located in the central southern United States.
In contrast to the densely populated East and West Coasts, the American interior could be aptly described as expansive and sparsely populated. For example, Oklahoma City, the state capital and largest city, had a mere population of around 500,000, with even fewer residents in the surrounding areas.
Filming for Twister wasn't set in Oklahoma City, but rather in a small city named Ponca in the northeastern part of the state. The crew constructed a multitude of sets in and around Ponca, such as the town where the main character's aunt lived and the hotel where the convoy stopped before encountering the massive tornado. Since these sets would need to be destroyed during post-production, they couldn't rent actual homes for shooting.
Eric's largest previous production was Running Out of Time, with a budget exceeding $30 million, and filmed under very convenient conditions in Los Angeles. In comparison, Twister marked Eric's first true large-scale production, having a guaranteed baseline budget of $70 million and a crew of over 200 people. Besides the core crew that Eric directly managed, three assistant directors each led different groups: one for the day's shoot, another wrapping the previous day's filming, and the last one preparing for the next day's scenes.
In addition to the dramatic scenes, a significant amount of tornado footage needed to be shot under overcast conditions. Therefore, shooting plans couldn't be rigidly fixed to specific days; instead, they had to be flexible in accordance with local weather conditions. To maximize the chances of filming, Eric even had the logistics team custom-build a vast black mesh covering several hundred square meters. If the crew faced an extended period without favorable weather conditions, they would hire a few cranes to hold up the net, artificially creating dark weather conditions.
*****
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