Hollywood New Century

In the conference room of Xinghai Pictures, Simon is talking with "Mamma Mia! "The main creators talked about the script.

"Mamma Mia! "The stage producer Judy Kramer;

Songwriter for the stage adaptation, Benny Anderson, a former member of the original Abba band;

"Mamma Mia! "The stage play's screenwriter Katherine Johnson and director Phyllida Lloyd;

Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, one of the heads of Playtone Productions, and Gary Goldzman, another Playtone partner;

Simon went through the screenplay, which had been adapted, and looked at screenwriter Katherine Johnson and director Phyllida Lloyd.

This is to directly recruit the screenwriter of the stage play to rewrite the script, and then recruit the director of the original stage play to direct the film!

"Simon, we have been preparing for the film adaptation for a long time, but I have no experience in film production before, and then Playtone company stepped in to make great progress," Judy Kramer explained, and then asked:

"Simon, what do you think about the plan?"

Simon smiled and said, "There's nothing wrong with the script, and the actors are well chosen. It's really attractive to have Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan sing in the movie!"

Then he turned his head to look at Tom Hanks and asked, "I heard that after the stage play on Broadway in New York, many film companies want to buy the film adaptation rights. Tom, how did you buy it in advance?"

Tom Hanks said with a smile: "It's because of Rita. After she saw the stage play, she liked it and recommended me to watch it. After watching it, I felt that it must be adapted into a movie!"

"So that's the case," Simon nodded first, and then asked, "Has the distributor of the movie been found?"

Tom Hanks spread his hands and said helplessly: "The movie budget needs $50 million. We found Relativity Entertainment and they are willing to invest $20 million. We have contacted several major filmmakers, and they are all waiting to see."

"It doesn't matter, the remaining 30 million US dollars will be funded by our Xinghai Pictures, and we will contact the distributor. Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount have all cooperated with us on projects, and the independent distributor Lionsgate Pictures There are also our projects.” Simon did not expect that there has been an investment of 20 million US dollars. According to the investment ratio, Xinghai Pictures is 60% of the equity income, but in production, they can only rely on Xinghai Pictures.

Relativity Entertainment is currently a movie investment company. Like Legendary Entertainment, as for Tom Hanks' Playtone Company or Judy Kramer's Littlestar Company, they are only nominal producers.

"That's great. With the addition of Xinghai Pictures, our progress is much faster," Judy Kramer was indeed happy.

Simon nodded, "I have no experience with stage adaptations, but this script is perfect, and the stage play was very successful before. Now that the director of the original stage play is in charge, I can rest assured!"

"Nina has a strong ability to control the film set. She will assist Ms. Kramer as the company's producer representative, and we will negotiate the release as soon as possible!"

Playtone producer Gary Goldzman said: "We should be able to enter the post-production stage of the film and start casting!"

"Of course, there is no need to worry about the release," Simon is of course confident, and now Xinghai Pictures is still somewhat popular.

After the meeting, Simon returned to his office with $30 million, leaving only $20 million of the $50 million he left behind.

"Simon, do you have confidence in this stage play adaptation movie?" Nina asked.

"The script is good, it should be fine, just pay attention to the director. After all, stage plays are different from movies, and too exaggerated stage play style is not suitable," Simon explained.

Nina Jacobson nodded, this is for sure, the director only had experience in directing stage plays before, and directing movies does require some attention.

"Twentieth Century Fox and we still have a distribution contract. The budget of "Mamma Mia!" is 50 million US dollars, which is just right for the third film," Nina smiled, she really wanted to sleep, and someone handed it over pillow.

"Hey, musicals, the most successful movie in recent years is "Chicago". The only failure is Richard Gere. Just change to a more professional actor," Simon did not forget to belittle him.

Nina explained: "Simon, you may not know, the original male lead of "Chicago" was John Travolta, he was in musicals earlier, because he didn't want to do musicals anymore, so he pushed "Chicago". Chicago", the production company hired Richard Gere instead!"

"Oh, so it is, but there are many failures in the adaptation of the stage play to the film. The adaptation of "The Phantom of the Opera" into a film is a big loss. In terms of the influence of the stage play, "Mamma Mia!" is far from "The Phantom of the Opera". "It's still a lot worse," Simon doesn't know much about drama, but musicals are still quite popular in film academies.

"By the way, I'm going to leave Los Angeles for a while recently, and the company's affairs will be left to you to manage," Simon is about to go to Miami to experience the hot beach.

"Understood, Marvel's project "Iron Man" is going well, we really don't contact the publisher now?" Although Nina knew Simon's thoughts, she was still a little worried.

Simon looked at Nina, then shook his head firmly and said: "No, I have a plan for "Iron Man", the release date must be in the second half of 2008, by then, Xinghai Pictures will definitely have Our own distribution network!"

In any case, during the financial crisis in 2008, we must take advantage of the difficulties of major filmmakers to get the North American distribution network. This kind of opportunity can be met but not available. At the same time, we must also pay attention to the TV station.

ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, Time Warner's WB and Paramount's UPN, the CW wireless television network, the five major wireless broadcast and television networks in the United States are all together with the film group.

Xinghai Pictures is no longer involved, and the basic cable TV networks are basically under their media group, AMC, TBS, MTV, CNN, CNBC, TNT, FX, syfy, USA.

In addition to the fact that the AMC basic cable TV station under the American Television Group is not a six major system, this is also unaffordable now.

Premium cable is also known as pay TV, HBO is owned by Time Warner, and Showtime premium channels are owned by CBS Group.

There is only one Starz pay TV station left, which can be considered in the future, but it is too late to step in now.

Simon's goal is to focus on Netflix, which is in the DVD rental business. It will soon enter the streaming media business. If the DVD business is separated, the stock price will fluctuate greatly!

The future of Xinghai Pictures is to use streaming media to impact TV stations.