Hollywood Drawing

Twentieth Century Fox Film Company, arguably one of the major film and television program distribution and production companies in the United States, is headquartered in Century City, west of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California.

This company, founded in May 1935, is still one of the Hollywood film giants. Since it was acquired by Murdoch's News Corporation, its complete upstream and downstream channels include all media-related industries.

The F150 pickup truck was driving on the way to Century City, and Wayne was thinking about all the information about this giant movie company. When he was a projectionist on the other side of the Pacific, many films released by this Hollywood giant passed through his hands and were screened.

Later, I was bedridden due to a heart problem. Even if I didn't deliberately learn about outside news, I heard the blockbuster news that this giant was acquired by Disney.

On December 14, 2017, Disney announced that it would acquire some assets of 21st Century Fox for US$52.4 billion in stock.

Unexpectedly, Comcast, the largest cable television operator in the United States, proposed a $65 billion cash acquisition plan for Fox assets on June 13 of the following year to compete with Disney.

Note that Comcast is proposing a cash deal. It didn’t take long for Disney to raise its offer to $71.3 billion, and Comcast withdrew from the competition on July 19.

Fox executives expressed satisfaction with the offer. 71.3 billion was indeed an offer they could not refuse, and the acquisition officially entered the process stage.

In fact, the opposite is also true. Fox has an irresistible attraction for Disney. This deal is a win-win for both parties. And this has also created Dibaobao, the world's number one media group. Fox's supplement to Dibaobao is too important.

What Disney doesn't have, Fox has. Dibaobao cannot refuse various copyrights whose subsequent income cannot be calculated.

Among the six major Hollywood companies, Fox may have the most diverse distribution tastes. There are almost no genre shortcomings in science fiction "Avatar", romance "Titanic", horror "Alien", comedy "Home Alone", and animation "Ice Age" .

Fox even owns the world's largest movie IP, the copyright and subsequent distribution rights of the first "Star Wars", and Disney has acquired Lucasfilm at this time. After the restart of "Star Wars", every one of them has When it was launched, it almost seemed like it was robbing money from the pockets of moviegoers.

The car was parked in the parking lot under the building. Wayne looked up at the building and had a hunch that his road to Hollywood might start here.

In the rest area at the entrance of the building, Jimmy was walking around anxiously. When he saw Wayne arriving, he breathed a sigh of relief. Jimmy didn't know how he ended up on Foxgate, but it was definitely a turnaround.

"Hi, Ms. Watts." Jimmy greeted Naomi before continuing: "Wayne, who did Fox contact you? Is it credible? It's not a prank, right?"

Not to mention that Jimmy was confused, he was also confused.

"The phone calls I received at home will be clear once I go in and take a look. To be honest, I don't know how they knew about me."

As soon as the three people reached the front desk of the building, a white man in his early thirties stood up on the sofa in the sitting area next to him. He took a careful look at the three people and walked directly to Wayne.

"Director Greenberg? Hello, this is Terry who is contacting you."

Seeing Terry reaching out his hand, he quickly extended his hand and held it together. "Hello, I'm Wayne Greenberg, you can call me Wayne."

"Oh, okay, Wayne, let's go up and chat." After saying that, he turned around and led the three of them into the elevator.

Jimmy, who was following behind, looked at his director client with increasingly weird eyes, which could make Fox distribution department employees go downstairs to pick him up. What's going on in the world? Could it be that I had wrongly blamed these giant companies that are considered to be the biggest gangsters in the industry?

The three of them followed Terry silently to the sixth floor with doubts and walked into a small conference room.

After everyone sat down, Terry looked directly at Wayne and asked: "Director Greenberg, I am here mainly to talk to you and listen to your opinions. How do you want to distribute your film?"

"Then don't you need to watch the movie first?" Wayne asked the other party strangely. "If possible, I hope to sign a distribution contract with you and distribute it in a mainstream way."

His strategy has never changed: asking for high prices and paying back the money. This is also his way of testing the other party. Wayne doesn't know why they came to him. He doesn't believe that pie in the sky will fall.

"There will be an internal film test meeting, and you need to prepare film copies and project-related information later, which can be arranged tomorrow."

He thought about Terry's words, which made him more and more confused. The other party did not continue to discuss the issue of distribution, and he was already prepared to be ridiculed by the other party and sell at a loss. This made him feel like punching the air with all his strength. Feeling of depression.

"Okay, I'll bring the copy over tomorrow. What about distribution issues?"

"Okay, that's it. You go back and prepare. We can discuss distribution after the internal screening meeting. We need to know the quality of your film before we can customize a distribution strategy." After Terry finished speaking, he stood up and talked to Wayne again. After shaking hands, the conversation ended.

The three people walked into the building in a daze, and then walked out in a daze. It wasn't until she sat in the car that Naomi yelled:

"Ah! Wayne, did you see that, they're going to release our movie. Oh my God, 20th Century Fox is going to release our movie!"

This sound woke up Jimmy and Wayne. The two looked at each other with doubtful eyes. They understood that this was not normal and very illogical.

"Jimmy, do you think the movie I made will be so famous that it reaches Fox and they come to me to discuss distribution? Or am I still awake?" Wayne was driving, and for a time he thought he might be hallucinating. .

Jimmy frowned after hearing this: "Impossible, who do you think you are? Normally, even if you take the film and give it to them for free or even give them money, these giant companies won't give you a second look."

"Yeah, there's no reason." As he drove the car into the parking lot, Wayne felt more and more something was wrong. "What do we do, Jimmy, come directly over tomorrow with a copy?"

"Come directly, no matter what, this is a huge opportunity." Jimmy patted the car seat hard and continued: "We have no choice. When they watch the film and discuss distribution issues, they should understand how to do it." It’s happened.”

Just as they drove out of the parking lot, a Jewish man in his fifties, who was in another office on the sixth floor of the Fox Building, was looking at their car from the window.

"Terry, I will attend the film screening tomorrow, and I will call Yulianna. There will only be three of us. You can make arrangements in advance."

"Okay, Mr. Rothman."

Yuliana Avdeva is one of Twentieth Century Fox's film selection experts and usually has some say in the company's introduction and distribution of films. She is a true professional film viewer in the industry. She not only watches a large number of various films, but also selects those with market potential and recommends them to the company.

Julianna has been a die-hard supporter of Townsend Rothman for many years in the company, and the relationship between the two has been very good. The most powerful thing about Juliana is her insight into market dynamics. She is by no means just talking in vain like a film critic. She can analyze what type of films the market needs at any time.

Townsend thought about it for a long time after the lawyer left. He did not feel that a small-scale preview of human relations, a practice work for a twenty-year-old novice director, required the deployment of top experts like Yuliana Avdeva.

What made him change his mind was the news that Terry found out that the vampire Harvey Weinstein actually liked the film, which gave Townsend some interest. He wanted to see what kind of films this young man who had not yet graduated had made, and why he let that fat pig chase after him to buy him out.

For Townsend Rothman, the test screening was just a formality, and then he threw the film into a theater and showed it in a favor. He has a lot on his plate and doesn’t have much spare time to care about such a small-budget independent film.

But Terry's follow-up investigation report and the news about Harvey made him more interested, and he was ready to let Juliana see if there was any market prospect.

In Wayne's apartment, Luke, who had just arrived, also found the incident strange under Jimmy's narration. But now they don't have time to think about that, they are discussing tomorrow's screening meeting together.

"Luke, make sure there is no problem with the film. You have to check it again tomorrow morning." Wayne thought hard about the preparations, knowing that he had no chance of making a mistake.

"Don't worry, there will definitely be no accidents." Luke was confident. He was already planning to find another job, but he didn't expect that this film would turn around.

After Jimmy saw that they had finished discussing, he said, "Wayne, you have to make plans in advance on how to sign the distribution contract."

"Do you think we have the qualifications to raise conditions? Don't be stupid, Jimmy. After the trial tomorrow, we will see what the other party says." Wayne looked at Jimmy helplessly and continued:

"As long as the other party is willing to distribute the film, I can buy it out directly even at a loss. I said, my bottom line is much lower than you think."

"What if Fox is willing to release it according to the normal model?" Naomi asked him on the side.

"Nami, I have never had the aura of being mentally retarded since I was a child. How stupid does the director of Fox's distribution department have to be to be willing to agree to the dreamy conditions I proposed?"

Yes, every time he negotiated with a distribution company, he would first propose mainstream distribution conditions, but he would ask for an exorbitant price to test the other party's bottom line.

"Okay, no matter what, let's put aside our doubts and focus all our energy on tomorrow's trial." Jimmy clapped his hands, attracting the attention of several people. "Wayne, even if the pie that fell this time was wrapped with a bomb, could you resist eating it?"

Seeing everyone looking at him, Jimmy shrugged: "I'll go back first and go to the company to inquire before I get off work. See you at the gate of the Fox Building at 8 o'clock tomorrow."