บท 587: Chapter 588: How Much Money Do You Really Have?
[Chapter 588: How Much Money Do You Really Have?]
Waterworld resembled a water-based Mad Max, set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland after the collapse of civilization. However, while one was set in a world strained by resource depletion following a nuclear war, Waterworld took place in a distant future where continents were submerged beneath the ocean.
Compared to the massive investment in Cutthroat Island, which bombed at the box office, Waterworld's global tally of over $200 million didn't seem like a total failure. Yet, its production faced financial hurdles similar to those of Titanic, wherein a series of cost overruns forced investors to keep pouring money into the project to avoid losing their initial investments. Waterworld ultimately saw a production budget of $175 million, with promotional costs pushing the total investment over $200 million -- making it the highest-budget movie before Titanic.
The outcomes of the two films, however, were starkly different. Titanic set an unprecedented box office record while Waterworld, despite its global earnings, ultimately resulted in significant losses for the producers.
From an outsider's perspective, Eric was still quite fond of Waterworld's story concept. If it could have followed the low-budget route of Mad Max, Eric would have jumped at the chance to take on the project. However, as the head of Firefly Films, Eric wouldn't touch this project knowing its future prospects.
Moreover, with Kevin Costner already looking into starring in the Mission: Impossible series before Waterworld, Eric hoped that Waterworld might fall through. This would allow them to gain leverage in salary negotiations for the Mission: Impossible sequel.
Both Amy and Drew could sense that Eric was somewhat distracted while flipping through the Waterworld script. Drew knew this wasn't unusual for Eric when he reviewed scripts, but it didn't typically affect his judgment on a script's quality. Amy Pascal speculated that Eric's inattentiveness might hint at his lack of confidence in the project.
Sure enough, Eric quickly finished reading the script, displaying no excitement typically observed when he encountered a promising script. He asked Amy, "Have you discussed this project with Kevin Costner?"
Amy shook her head. "Not yet. While negotiating with Kevin regarding Mission: Impossible, I found out that his production company was reaching out about this project. Kevin's agency, WMA, intends to package it for major studios."
Eric frowned slightly upon hearing the word "packaged." Although CAA, WMA, and ICM stood as the top three agencies in Hollywood, after he had published that article, the other two firms had mimicked CAA's packaging strategy. Just three years ago, CAA's packaged project, Hook, had severely damaged Spielberg's directorial reputation.
When Eric first entered Hollywood, he felt from memory that this packaging strategy overly inflated agents' power while driving up star salaries and production costs. Yet, as he spent more time there, he came to understand that the damage from packaging strategies truly harmed film companies far beyond just inflated budgets. The creative teams of packaged projects were largely those recommended by the agency, meaning there was often little room for flexibility. This could lead to creative decisions that were ill-suited for projects, ultimately resulting in failure; Spielberg's Hook served as the classic example.
The true harm to a film company was the failure of a major investment. As film budgets grew, this harm became increasingly severe.
Like Waterworld in his hands, if one aimed to create a water-based wasteland film, the best-director choice was undoubtedly George Miller, who had risen to fame through the Mad Max series. The original Waterworld's costumes and sets were essentially copies of Mad Max elements, meaning they only scratched the surface aesthetically.
Eric recalled that the film's director had been Kevin Reynolds, who ultimately found himself overwhelmed and left the project as production dragged on, sensing the potential failure of Waterworld. It was easy to imagine that had they chosen the right director from the beginning, the film's outcome would have been much better.
"Since it's a packaged project, we should stay out of this one; Firefly Films cannot afford any failures right now," Eric remarked, handing the script back to Amy. "Let's pretend this never happened and focus on preparing Mission: Impossible."
Hearing the word "failure," Amy arched an eyebrow, realizing Eric's skepticism regarding the project. However, she quickly understood the underlying message and smiled knowingly.
If Waterworld flopped, it would certainly save a significant amount in salaries for the Mission: Impossible sequel.
Checking the time, it was almost noon, and Kevin Costner was about to arrive. So, Amy hurriedly stuffed the Waterworld script into her bag.
...
Kevin arrived shortly with his agent at the restaurant. Even though Eric orchestrated the situation surrounding Dances with Wolves back then, the passage of time had eased the tension. After all, Hollywood was a gamble; once one put their cards on the table, they had to live with the outcomes. If someone couldn't move on from a bet, they wouldn't last long in Hollywood.
During lunch, both sides finalized various details regarding Mission: Impossible. Although there were some reservations about Eric's recommendation of Brian De Palma, known for horror films, no one present was foolish enough to doubt Eric's vision.
Considering Kevin's age, Eric planned only to make three films in this iteration of Mission: Impossible. Beyond three films, unless Kevin voluntarily lowered his salary, the rising star salaries in Hollywood essentially meant the film company would be working for the stars.
However, as long as they owned the rights to the Mission: Impossible series, they could set it aside for ten or eight years. By the time Kevin's influence on the franchise dwindled, the project could be rebooted amidst nostalgia.
Since Kevin was eager to begin work on Waterworld and had tight scheduling demands, Mission: Impossible quickly entered production after a main creative team had been finalized. Columbia also set the release timeline for Mission: Impossible for the end of the year.
...
With Mission: Impossible organized, Eric turned his attention to the ongoing ABC acquisition negotiations while allocating significant energy to a series of films in production or post-production.
Out of three summer releases, The Lion King was complete, while the other two films, Kathryn Bigelow's Saving Private Ryan and Cameron's True Lies, entered the final editing stages. Eric felt confident about Cameron's direction and limited his involvement with True Lies. Before shooting wrapped on Saving Private Ryan, Eric had already reviewed extensive footage Kathryn had filmed, which he found satisfying. Most importantly, the Normandy landing sequence, supported by cutting-edge digital effects technology, appeared even more stunning than the original. However, since Kathryn's directing style diverged considerably from the original, Eric found himself frequently in the editing room, occasionally prompting Kathryn's complaints. It wasn't so much his interference that bothered her, but rather her feeling of distrust towards Eric, even if she remained unaware of this sentiment.
These were the films Firefly was about to release, but Eric also needed to keep an eye on the preparations for Jurassic Park 2 and Independence Day, which were set to begin in the latter half of the year. Eric didn't intend to direct any more films in the Jurassic Park series, so selecting a director took considerable effort.
Aside from Firefly's films, the collaborative project Men in Black was also entering its final phase, slated for a summer release. Another film, Jumanji, faced delays due to large effects work, pushing its release to the end of the year.
At DreamWorks, Charlie's Angels was nearing completion of final production. This year, DreamWorks planned to launch three films to meet their goal of ten films within three years. Hence, Eric had to allocate enough attention to support that side while also selecting two additional projects. He wrote the story outline for Resident Evil and handed it off to the writers for completion of the script. He also lent a hand with the upcoming MGM James Bond sequel. With Sophie off working with Braveheart's crew in Ireland, Eric proposed an outline for GoldenEye but didn't assign the role of the female lead villain to Famke Janssen since she would be fulfilled with The X-Files during the GoldenEye shoot.
...
Amidst all these ongoing projects, time quickly rolled around to March. This year's Oscars were scheduled for March 21, considerably earlier than in previous years.
However, at the beginning of March, the attention of Hollywood was far from the upcoming Oscars. Everyone was focused on another event.
After chatting late the night before with Roland Emmerich about Independence Day, Eric planned to catch some extra sleep due to the recent whirlwind of activity. But as the clock approached eight in the morning, Elisabeth stormed into the bedroom, practically shaking him awake.
"Eric, wake up! You have to see this issue of Forbes, and the newspaper..." Elisabeth spoke hurriedly, excitement bubbling in her tone.
Still groggy, Eric wrapped his arms around her and mumbled, "Don't be noisy. Let me sleep a bit longer."
"You're the richest person in the country now and you want to sleep!" Elisabeth playfully hit him a few times.
Eric knew immediately upon hearing "Forbes" that something significant had occurred. He had discussed the latest Forbes Billionaires list over the phone multiple times with Steve Forbes, finally agreeing on a figure. Although this number still didn't reflect Eric's true net worth, it favored the ongoing negotiations for Firefly Films' acquisition of ABC.
"$19.7 billion! I never expected you had this much money, and that it was $10 billion more than Warren Buffett's second place!" Elisabeth exclaimed as she saw Eric still lingering in bed.
"Do you really trust the numbers they publish?" Eric turned to face her.
Elisabeth looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"
Eric replied, "This number was agreed upon with Steve Forbes, so it's not entirely accurate. Don't go making a scene about it; help me make breakfast."
"I already made breakfast!" Elisabeth shot back, pressing Eric to get up. "Then tell me, how much do you actually have?"
Realizing he couldn't get back to sleep, Eric opened his eyes and grabbed the Forbes magazine from her hand. He glanced through it and said, "See? It clearly states that due to the explosion of the film and television industry, of this $19.7 billion asset, $19 billion belongs to Firefly Films, and only $700 million is from other assets. If that was truly the case, do you think Chris still has the strength to attempt a hostile takeover of LTD?"
Elisabeth had heard about Chris's attempts to acquire LTD in New York. If Firefly sought public investment, they would need to form an independent board of directors for oversight. According to Federal law, investment companies had to establish such boards, even if they didn't go public. Yet, Firefly Investment Company had refrained from pursuing that route, indicating that most of its funds were likely Eric's. Currently, Chris had already offered over $2 billion in his attempt to buy LTD. Even if this was a leveraged acquisition, without sufficient capital, Chris wouldn't dare to make such moves. Elisabeth's interest piqued at Eric's words. "So tell me, how much do you actually have?"
Typically, Eric preferred to keep a low profile, yet like any man, he felt the urge to showcase his strength to the women around him. Responding to Elisabeth's question, Eric said, "Setting aside whether Forbes' valuation of Firefly Films is accurate, I personally believe it's worth far more than $20 billion. Through several private funds, I currently hold about 23% of Cisco's shares -- you know Cisco, right?"
Elisabeth nodded in astonishment. With Cisco's current market value, that 23% stake would be worth over $3 billion.
"Additionally, I also have stakes in Yahoo, Hotmail, and Internet Explorer," Eric continued. "Those companies have attracted a lot of eyes, and the most recent valuation was $500 million."
*****
https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง