Heads Up Hollywood

This year's Oscars are relatively flat, lacking blockbusters like "Forrest Gump", "Schindler's List", "Titanic", "Saving Private Ryan", except for Sam Mende "American Beauty," directed by John Smith, and the other films in contention are all sub-heavyweights.

Therefore, this year's Oscar is destined to be "American Beauty".

"American Beauty" is a film produced by DreamWorks and distributed worldwide, so when receiving the best picture award, it was the two producers of DreamWorks' production department who came up to accept the award.

The real core of the film, the soul, screenwriter, and producer Alan Ball missed the stage.

Alan Ball is the quintessential writer-turned-screenwriter and then screenwriter-turned-producer. Producers of this type are usually literary and artistic, pursuing complex human nature, and the film market is becoming more and more entertainment-oriented.

Therefore, Alan Ball, who was neglected in the film industry, moved to the TV industry and joined HBO. He successively launched two episodes of "Six Feet Under" and "True Blood", and participated in the behind-the-scenes planning of many episodes. It is HBO's yellow and violent soul character.

However, the later "Black Eat Black" was so large in scale and sharp in subject matter that even HBO couldn't accept it, so it was directly thrown to the sister channel Cinemax, which is a channel that can directly push adult films.

However, in 2000, when the scale of American dramas was still a bit rigid, Alan Ball was definitely a master!

The director of "The Girl Who Moved Soul" is Sam Mendes, and Twain and Alan Ball are co-producers, so there is some friendship.

Since Tang En intends to participate in the production of "Band of Brothers", Tang En Pictures naturally has a TV production department.

Alan Ball was Tang En's first candidate.

At the subsequent Oscar reception, Tang En came to the crew of "American Beauty", laughed and greeted everyone, and asked Sam Mendes: "Is it possible to win another award in May?"

Sam Mendes laughed: "I can't say that!"

Tang Enruo said meaningfully: "I have found out that the chairman of the jury for this year's Cannes Film Festival is an old Hollywood friend, Luc Besson."

"Luc Besson?" Alan Ball cast a deep glance at Natalie beside Tang En.

Let's stop talking about this kind of topic. After all, it's a public place. Tang En changed the subject, "Alan, what's your plan next?"

Alan Ball sighed, "To be honest, I have written nearly a hundred scripts, and only "American Beauty" has been made into a movie."

"did you mean?"

"I'm going to try writing a TV series."

Tang En's heart jumped, and it really came!

Sam Mendes felt it was a pity, "Alan, you can't do this, movies are your future!"

Alan Ball shook his head, "Producers and directors are different. A director of a literary film can be honored as an artist, but what is a producer of a literary film? Even receiving awards, investors are on stage."

Sam Mendes opened his mouth and really had nothing to say.

He received a director's salary of 1.2 million U.S. dollars in "The Girl Who Moved Soul", and Alan Ball's production salary was only 200,000 U.S. dollars, which is too big a gap.

Tang En blinked and stared at him, "Alan, will you still choose to cooperate with Tang En Pictures?"

"Twain Pictures? I'm sorry, Twain, I'm afraid you didn't understand what I meant. Next, I plan to make a TV series." Alan Ball looked a little sad, like a loser.

Tang En said seriously: "So what? To be honest, Alan, Tang En Pictures intends to set up its own TV production department. The position of director may not be available, and the position of deputy director is definitely not a problem."

Alan Ball froze for a moment, staring at Tang En, a little dazed.

...

Bill McNick already knew Tang En's ambitions.

In a short period of time, Dunn Films has successively established its subsidiaries, Berserk Films, and at the same time established its own TV production department, which indicates that Dunn Films is no longer satisfied with a small film company, but is developing towards a multi-channel comprehensive development media company.

Twain Pictures must also have its own TV channel.

It is too unrealistic to create your own TV network. With the strength of News Corporation, it took nearly 20 years to create the Fox TV network.

With Tang En's character, he definitely couldn't wait.

Acquisition has become the only option for Tang En Pictures!

Twain couldn't afford public wireless TV stations, so he could only focus on cable TV stations.

There are two types of cable TV stations in the United States: basic cable TV stations and professional cable TV stations.

Basic cable TV stations, the main profit model is "family subscription fee + interstitial advertising fee + episode DVD sales", mainly including TNT, FX, AMC, Disney Channel, MTV and so on.

Professional cable TV stations do not broadcast any advertisements, and their main income depends on family subscription fees and sales of DVDs and videotapes, mainly including HBO, showtime, cinemax and so on.

Two different revenue models determine that the two TV stations target different audience groups. Basic cable TV stations have low subscription fees and higher audience ratings, which means that the episodes broadcast must be of a moderate scale, and there must be no excessive scenes that are not suitable for children.

At the same time, high ratings means high revenue and high market value!

Professional cable TV stations require a special set-top box to access, and the content is encrypted and strictly regulated, so the scale is extremely large, and there are even some super-scale channels, such as Playboy's Spice and Vivid.

Under such conditions, it is doomed that professional cable TV stations will not have high ratings, low revenue, and low market value, so it is suitable for Tang En Pictures to start.

Of course, a well-known TV station like HBO, which is famous all over the world for its high-quality dramas, has a high profit margin even if its revenue is not high, and its market value is no worse than that of a basic cable TV station.

Among the top executives of Twain Films, only Bill McNick is familiar with the TV field. The 20th Century Fox he leads includes the Fox TV network.

Especially under the leadership of Bill McNick, the Fox Television Network has achieved rapid development.

The suggestion given by Bill McNick is to suspend the acquisition, but to reach a strategic cooperation with a professional cable TV station.

Tang En Pictures is currently weak and weak, and it is not suitable to spread the stall too quickly. It is better to focus on one field.

Of course Tang En disagreed, if he didn't start early, if it was later, he wouldn't even have a chance to drink soup.

The "Band of Brothers" project is about to start. Once this series is released and has achieved great success, it will let HBO, which is still dizzy, find out the future direction.

Large-scale productions and high-quality American dramas are coming online one after another. In the entire cable TV market, HBO will dominate the entire cable TV market, soaring to the sky, accounting for 90% of the market share!

If Tang En started late, how would there be room for him to expand in the future?

"No, we must start as soon as possible! Bill, I entrust this task to you. Within this year, I will complete the acquisition of a professional cable TV station!"

Tang En's attitude was very firm, "Bill, "Band of Brothers" is a drama series that I am very optimistic about. If nothing else happens, Spielberg will definitely choose to cooperate with us to cast "Band of Brothers". To the North American television rights of "Band of Brothers!"

Bill McNick was silent for a moment, then sighed, "Twain, shouldn't we be more cautious?"

Tang En said angrily: "Bill, you are good in everything, but you are too cautious! This is Tang En Pictures, not 20th Century Fox! There is no board of directors supervision here, only me, the boss, what are you afraid of?"

Bill McNick's face was dark and he was in a bad mood. "I just don't want you to bring the company down."

"I'm sorry, Bill, what I said just now was a bit rushed." Tang En waved his hand, "Bill, you know, I won't make a decision lightly, the fields I'm not familiar with, or the situations I don't understand, are all based on you. The reason why I dare to make up my mind is because my decision is in the best interest of the company!"

Bill McNick pondered for a long time, and sighed, "Okay, DreamWorks, I'll contact and promise to bring in the "Band of Brothers" project. As for your plan to acquire a cable TV station, I will implement it as soon as possible."

Tang En finally smiled, "Bill, that's right, we cooperate sincerely, why not succeed?"

Bill McNick was not overwhelmed by Tang En's sugar-coated bullets, and warned: "Tang En, I have to say one thing again. Tang En Pictures can't pay any money now, and more funds must be injected!"

"I know, don't worry, within half a month, the funds are guaranteed to arrive!" Tang En was full of confidence.

Bill McNick glanced at him, "I'm very surprised, where did you get so much money? Buying a TV station, even a professional cable TV station, costs hundreds of millions of dollars!"

"As I said, I'll solve the funding problem. Bill, you just need to pay attention to Tang En Pictures." Tang En's highly leveraged and large-scale short-selling of the stock market is a taboo topic in any country, and he doesn't want to talk about it. .

Bill McNick shrugged, "Well, anyway, the company is facing a serious funding gap. Apart from the $100 million in debt, "The Chronicles of Narnia" is waiting for funding to be approved, at least $100 million. And "Band of Brothers", the principal acquired by the TV station... Oh, by the way, Jamie's new film is about to be approved."

"James Cameron?" Tang En's expression was shocked, "Are you sure? This time, he won't delay anymore, right?"

Bill McNick shook his head, "The script is on my desk, and I'll send my secretary to send it to you later. The script...is very exciting, but the budget of the film may not be low. What Jamie means is that if we have financial difficulties, He found a big company to cooperate with, and he didn't want to worry about funds during the filming process. After all, "Titanic" gave him a very bad impression."

"It doesn't matter!"

Tang En waved his hand, "He is our old friend. Whether it's personal or business, we have no reason not to invest in James' movies!"

"This investment...is probably no less than 200 million U.S. dollars!"

"Ha ha!"

Tang En laughed, high-spirited, "As long as he dares to open his mouth, I dare to give it! Bill, as I said, money will never be a problem!"