Made in Hollywood

Driving through the seaside villa area in Santa Monica, Duke deliberately went to his former home to have a look, then turned around and drove to the marina area. As soon as he arrived at the parking lot, a special person came to lead the way and led him on the long road. Long trestle.

Although this is a private yacht club with very strict management, Duke still found a lot of paparazzi traces along the way, and obviously got relevant information.

For the media and the public, Wallace Lee's name is not familiar, only those who follow Duke in the circle know that he was the assistant director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and "Hurricane Rescue", the first independent director. A movie will be released soon.

However, Kate Beckinsale is still a bit famous, although she has never stepped into the position of a first-tier actress. After the failure of "Van Helsing", it is a bit reluctant to say that she is a second-tier actress. Few fans and supporters are still worth reporting in the eyes of the entertainment media.

And well-informed people know that she was pregnant out of wedlock and has a daughter. This engagement has also attracted the attention of many paparazzi and entertainment reporters.

Stepping onto a luxury yacht, Duke saw Wallace Lee and Kate Beckinsale greet them, smiled slightly, and said, "Congratulations."

After he finished speaking, he handed over the gift he had prepared, and was picked up by a little girl around five years old who was standing next to Kate Beckinsale.

"thanks!"

Although he joined after two thousand years, Wallace Lee was also a member of Duke's core team. He didn't say much. After Kate Beckinsale thanked him, he picked up the little girl and introduced him to Duke. , "This is my daughter Lily."

"Hi, Lily." Duke bent down. Looking at the little guy, he said, "How old are you this year?"

The little girl blinked and replied shyly, "It's five years old."

"you are very cute."

After saying this, Duke left, and there were guests behind him. He couldn't possibly take up much of Wallace Lee's time.

On the foredeck of the yacht, Duke found that most of the people who came for the engagement were members of his team, and a few were friends of Kate Beckinsale.

What Duke did not expect was that there were still cameramen taking pictures under the command of Nancy Josephson.

Seeing his agent, Duke walked over, and Nancy Joseph told the cameraman a few words. Then accompanied him to the port side guardrail.

"What is this doing?" Duke put his hands on the guardrail, looked at the cameraman who was a media practitioner, and asked, "You also invited people from the media to come over?"

"Just taking some pictures, and the pictures are mostly Wallace Lee and Kate Beckinsale." Nancy Josephson adjusted her wind-blown hair a little. Say, "They're not you, they need to take every opportunity they can."

She turned and looked at Duke. "My dear, I guess you forgot. Underworld, directed by Wallace and starring Kate, is coming out next weekend. The film has limited investment and needs explosive news to attract market attention."

Nancy Josephson is also the manager of Wallace Lee and Kate Beckinsale, and it's his job to take advantage of this opportunity. Duke thought about it for a while, and then he understood that, like most Hollywood stars, Wallace Lee and Kate Beckinsale certainly would not miss the opportunity to take advantage of the engagement hype.

Wallace is better. After all, he is a director, and Kate Beckinsale, strictly speaking, can be classified as a former actress. It is not an easy thing to re-emerge.

If Duke remembers correctly, the former Kate Beckinsale never turned over again after "Van Helsing", even in the "Underworld" series.

However, she returns to Nancy Josephson's banner, presumably there is still a chance in the future.

As for her and Wallace? Lee, Duke is not very optimistic.

The reason is very simple. Duke's deputy and classmate is somewhat similar to him when he was young.

"Duke, if there's a chance..."

Probably still as before, more optimistic about the potential of Kate Beckinsale, thinking that she can get enough returns in the future, so Nancy Josephson said, "Find a suitable role for Kate in your film. Well, only in small productions like "Underworld", she will never be able to become popular again."

"I'll remember."

In any case, this is an agent who has served him for more than ten years, and Duke will not refuse this small request.

Nancy Josephson knew the point of taking enough time, and immediately changed the subject, "I heard that the negotiation on Tina's side has come to a conclusion?"

"Well, the three-way negotiation has basically reached a consensus."

There is no need to hide this kind of thing, Duke said directly, "Time Warner will fully acquire Duke Studio and Pixar Studio in the form of cash and stock exchange. In the financing of share expansion, I will give priority to accepting my funds.”

After thinking about the specific numbers for a while, Duke said, "In general, I can probably get about 7% of Time Warner's shares in this transaction with Duke's studio and a large amount of money, and at the same time. and Steve Jobs on Time Warner's board."

In this deal, it seems that Duke is the winner, but Time Warner is not a fool. The copyright of the part of the Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings trilogy held by Duke Studio is a machine for making gold.

To put it simply, this is just the difference between long-term revenue and short-term revenue. From two thousand years to the present, even if the Harry Potter series excludes the box office of the movie, various products have taken more than 10 billion US dollars in revenue from the global market. .

And with the passage of time, the influence of the Harry Potter series has become more and more popular, and the income brought by it has become more obvious. Although the Duke Studio only holds part of the copyright, it is also coveted by the whole Hollywood and even the American business circle. Object.

What's more, as a result, Duke also completely sat on Warner's chariot.

Spielberg has proven in the past the importance of a hugely successful director to a company, and Duke's rise has proven his worth, and even his influence on Warner's performance.

Steve Jobs was able to profit entirely because of Pixar Studios, and Pixar Studios also qualified for the attention of any group company.

In this day and age, absolutely no one would argue that Pixar is the leader of the entire Hollywood animation industry.

Although the three parties have not yet reached a formal written agreement, the negotiations that have lasted for several years have come to an end.

The end of this negotiation can also bring another benefit. Time Warner Group, Duke and Steve Jobs have become inseparable communities of interest. Several parties can concentrate on attacking the market with the greatest potential. It's possible to top Walt Disney's Disneyland with Warner World.

Today, Warner Group owns the DC Comics series, the Harry Potter series, the Lord of the Rings spin-off series, the Pixar animated series, and Duke's planned Transformers series and the distribution rights of the Marvel Universe. These investments are increasingly large. Production requires an extremely broad market space.

And Time Warner's product has never been a movie.

Of course, the planned park may also be called Warner Fox World.

After Duke's proposal, after a period of measurement and consideration, Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. have already expressed their intention to cooperate.

Although Disneyland is more famous, Duke has gathered the strength of two major media groups, which is enough to fight.

This engagement ceremony was not complicated. The routine ceremony ended with a party, and then according to Nancy Josephson's plan, the engagement photos of Wallace Lee and Kate Beckinsale were sent to major universities. The media and websites appeared on many entertainment pages the next day.

Perhaps Kate Beckinsale, the British rose, has not been completely forgotten, or perhaps it was Wallace Lee's The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the title of the assistant director of "Hurricane Rescue" that played a role. Their engagement news still attracted a certain amount of attention, and the "Underworld" crew and Warner Bros., who served as the distributor, also used it to make claims for the film.

Since the production cost is only 30 million US dollars, the scale of the claim is not large, and it is only made a big fuss with the relationship of Wallace Lee and Kate Beckinsale.

At the same time, Duke is also a platform for the film in the publicity. In any case, he is an investor in the film.

Even, he also expressed his views on the film on instant sharing - "Underworld" is different from any previous vampire or werewolf movies, it systematically expounds the origin of vampires and werewolves and the centuries of grievances and hatreds, like Audiences with this theme are well worth going to the cinema.

Probably enough attention was drawn in advance, and the quality of the film was not bad. "Underworld" was released in North America in mid-November, and received more than 27.5 million US dollars in the first week. For a film with a production cost of only 30 million US dollars , such first-week box office numbers are quite good.

Although the movie can only be said to be a niche movie close to a B-grade movie, the response among the fixed crowd is not bad. Such a movie cannot become a popular movie, as long as it attracts a large enough fixed audience to achieve profitability.

After Thanksgiving, the North American box office of "Underworld" has exceeded 50 million US dollars. Although the popularity of this type of film is very fast, it is no problem to recover the cost through the box office. The follow-up TV and video tape copyrights are basically all. is profit.

As a result, the sequel was naturally put on the agenda.

Kate Beckinsale also took this opportunity to get rid of a little bit of bad luck in recent years. In the eyes of some viewers who like "Underworld", she even has the title of "Goddess of the Night". (To be continued ~^~)

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