章節 144: Chapter 144
As more and more Wall Street capital flowed into Hollywood, major film studios signed slate financing agreements with Wall Street investors.
20th Century Fox Film Corporation announced an agreement with Wall Street venture capital firm Dune Capital's Dune Entertainment involving 28 films and hundreds of millions of dollars, with the possibility of additional financing.
Warner Bros. also announced a $500 million agreement with Legendary Pictures, planning to co-invest in 25 films over the next five years.
Credit Suisse First Boston, which had just signed a credit loan agreement with Capet, established a billion-dollar fund to invest in 32 live-action films produced and distributed by Disney through its subsidiary Kingdom Pictures.
"Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros.' development of Batman Begins and Superman Returns really paid off," said Charles Capet, who put down his newspaper. "Even Warner Bros. didn't expect Batman Begins to be such a hit!"
After all, George Clooney's Batman & Robin had such a bad reputation that it almost spelled the end for superhero movies.
"Thomas Tull has a lot of private equity backing him," Dona Williams said, keeping tabs on the industry.
"Relativity Media is also negotiating slate financing deals with Sony and Universal," she added.
"With Paramount's cooperation with Merrill Lynch's fund last year, these six major studios all have their own investment partners!" Charles was not particularly envious, as Capet Pictures' film revenues were very high. Although they bore the risk alone with direct loans for development, the profits were also solely theirs.
When Capet Pictures grows in the future, they too would bring in investment partners, as Charles couldn't possibly oversee all the films alone.
"Has Ike Perlmutter from Marvel gotten back to us?" Charles asked.
Dona Williams shook her head. "414 million dollars isn't a small amount. Ike Perlmutter is probably considering selling his shares."
"Alright then, I'm heading back to Los Angeles soon anyway. I'll apply some pressure during the shareholders' meeting," Charles said as he lit a cigarette and continued, "Get some media to publish bearish news about Marvel. Even Merrill Lynch is skeptical about Marvel's remaining obscure characters."
The third film of the early Marvel character Blade: Trinity had a poor reputation and box office performance last year, further shelving yet another character.
Dona Williams nodded. Phyllis Jones entered and handed Charles a list of this year's Cannes Film Festival awards and transactions.
Charles glanced over it. No Country for Old Men didn't win any awards. He quickly skimmed through some of the film transaction records.
...
"When are you coming back to LA?" Charles received a call from Megan Fox while he was in a private club in Manhattan.
"In the next couple of days, why?"
"My movie, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, is premiering. I'd love to hear your thoughts!"
"Alright, I'll check it out once I'm back. We can go to the theater together." Charles couldn't be too indifferent to Megan Fox's feelings; after all, it was her first leading role.
After hanging up, Charles returned to the room and continued chatting with Luc Besson, who was seated across from him.
Luc Besson had come to the U.S. to promote Unleashed which was releasing in North America this month. The film had grossed only $10.6 million at the opening weekend box office.
It had been about two weeks, and the North American box office had barely reached $20 million. The movie didn't have great reviews, and its daily box office was down to just $300,000 to $400,000. It was expected to be pulled from most theaters within a month.
"Charles, The Da Vinci Code production in France is going smoothly. The crew shooting at the Louvre is really something!" EuropaCorp, the distributor for The Da Vinci Code in France, was a French partner in this movie.
Charles smiled, "The Louvre, huh? I've never been inside!"
He then shook his head and changed the topic: "I have an idea for a collaboration with EuropaCorp."
"Oh, what idea?" Luc Besson straightened up, clearly interested.
"A retired agent's daughter is kidnapped while on a trip to Paris. The agent has 96 hours to rescue her... an action movie, which is your forte," Charles was describing the plot of Taken.
"It's not enough to have just action. You need to add some emotional elements, and the action scenes should be cohesive..."
Luc Besson, who had a deep understanding of action films, had produced a plethora of action-packed movies like District B13, The Transporter, and Taxi.
"I need to prepare the script first. Once it's ready, I'll send it to you. If it's good, we can go straight into production!" Luc Besson, already fond of action films, found the story intriguing.
"Sounds good, I'm actually quite interested in your The Transporter series. The second one should be out this year, right?"
Luc Besson nodded and smiled: "It will be released in France in August, and 20th Century Fox should have it in September for the U.S."
EuropaCorp developed films in the Hollywood style and had partnerships with Hollywood distributors for the North American market.
Charles nodded. "By the way, the story I mentioned - the script could be titled Taken!"
"Taken," Luc Besson thought for a moment and then nodded. He stood up and said, "Charles, you should visit France again. I'm heading back to Paris tomorrow!"
"Paris, I'll be there!" Charles had always been fascinated by major European film markets like the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
Especially Spain, where the Spanish-speaking market in Latin America was vast. In Mexico, Central America, and most of South America, apart from Brazil where Portuguese is spoken, Spanish was the dominant language.
After seeing Luc Besson off, Charles called Anne Hathaway to invite her out for a bite to eat.
As for the movie project he discussed with Luc Besson, there was no telling how long it would take for the script and other initial work to be completed.
After waiting in his room for a while, Anne Hathaway arrived. Wearing just a trench coat, she walked in, embraced Charles, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Why didn't you come to the hotel? I was waiting for you after coming back directly from the set!"
"Just finished a chat with Luc Besson. I'm now collaborating with EuropaCorp," Charles said, holding her as they sat down on the sofa. "Have you eaten yet?"
Anne Hathaway stood up with a smile, puzzling Charles for a moment, before slowly untying the belt of her trench coat.
When the trench coat opened, Charles was stunned. Anne Hathaway had come out wearing nothing but the trench coat!
Charles stood up, embraced her, and kissed her, laughing, "It's only in the teens at night in New York, huh?"
*****
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