Heads Up Hollywood

Boston's Logan International Airport.

Accompanied by bodyguards, Dunn was waiting here early to be picked up at the airport. It was his official girlfriend, Natalie Portman.

It had already been agreed that Tang En would spare some time this summer to take her on a trip, but due to various things, it was delayed again and again.

Seeing that Harvard was about to start school, Natalie had to fly to Israel with her mother to see the splendor of her homeland.

Natalie tolerated him too much, Tang En couldn't help feeling guilty.

Soon, Natalie appeared in a simple white shirt and jeans, accompanied only by her mother, not even a shadow of an assistant, and no celebrity airs at all.

She was wearing a pair of sunglasses, and the long international voyage made her face look tired. After seeing Tang En who was waiting in the distance, a bit of joy appeared on her face, and she immediately pursed her lips.

Tang En smiled mischievously, walked up quickly, opened his arms, and embraced her, "Baby, you miss you so much."

Natalie twisted her body and snorted softly, "Aren't you busy making movies? How can you have time for me?"

Tang En lowered his voice, "Movies represent my career, and you represent my family."

Natalie pursed her lips, held back a smile and glanced at him, "Slick tongue!"

Tang En made her laugh, and then spoke to her mother, Shirley Heshler, "Shirley, the room has been booked, you can go directly to rest."

Shirley Hershler is now an employee of Dunn Films, in charge of finance. She came to Boston this time to accompany her daughter and send her to school, and also to work.

After staying here for one day, she will go directly to New York to meet Michael Ovitz, represent Tang En Pictures, and conduct business negotiations with Merrill Lynch.

According to Michael Ovitz, the project invested by Platter has aroused the interest of Merrill Lynch, one of the world's largest financial companies.

Now, with the dot-com bubble bursting, Wall Street is looking for new investment projects while withdrawing capital from high-tech stocks one after another.

Michael Ovitz took the initiative to come to the door, on behalf of AMG Brokerage Company and Tang En Pictures to promote the movie platter investment project, which immediately aroused the unanimous optimism of Merrill Lynch's senior management.

The reason why Merrill Lynch was chosen as the first partner is because Dunn has some friendship with Merrill Lynch Securities. Scott Swift, the general manager of Dunn Capital, and Blanca Reyes, the personal financial consultant It comes from Merrill Lynch; the second is because when Paramount created the platter investment plan in the previous life, the first investor to eat crabs was Bank of Merrill Lynch.

The platter investment plan was proposed by Tang En, and Michael Ovitz carried out the expansion and development of the plan, and proposed three major financing plans——

One, the debt priority model.

This part of financing is mainly based on loans from banks or lending institutions. This kind of funds will be repaid first by the film company, and the risk is the least for investors. Of course, the profit obtained is also the lowest, usually only between 5% and 9%.

Second, middle layer financing.

This is usually a hybrid of debt and equity financing, which means that in the event that repayment obligations are not met on time, the borrower has the right to convert the debt into equity, and its repayment time is after the senior debt, and the investor has to bear Greater risk, but also higher rewards. Usually between 10%-15%.

Third, share financing.

Investors occupy corresponding shares according to the proportion of their invested funds in the entire platter. When the project's debts are all paid off, it can obtain the profits corresponding to these shares. The risk is the greatest, but the income is also the highest, which is the real film investment dividend.

Bank of Merrill Lynch is the world's financial giant. They are not interested in ordinary lending models. What they pursue is a higher return on investment.

In the newly established "Legendary Films", even Twain has invested 100 million US dollars. How much risk can there be?

In the past, Merrill Lynch's analysts couldn't understand Twain's investment in X.com and the acquisition of Apple stock, but in the movie industry, they had 100% trust in Twain.

According to Michael Ovitz, Merrill Lynch and its subsidiary Bank of Merrill Lynch are very interested in the platter investment project. If all the negotiations go well, there will be about two or three weeks before the first platter investment in history. The special film company "Legendary Films" will appear in a real sense.

In the past few decades, Michael Ovitz played the role of intermediary between artists and film companies. Now, a new intermediary model is about to be born. Legendary Pictures will be an intermediary between Hollywood and Wall Street!

Shirley Hershler was a manager in the past, and now she is the financial director of Dunn Films. She represented Dunn Films in negotiations. In terms of negotiation skills, she must be better than Dunn.

The three of them walked out of the airport hall slowly, and soon saw a few young people with beaming eyebrows, holding microphones and recording pens in their hands, rushing towards them like crazy.

Tang En glanced at Natalie, and said bitterly: "These reporters are really pervasive, can they catch them?"

Natalie rolled her eyes, "I was interviewed in Israel and said that I would return to the United States today."

Tang En was so angry that he was speechless for a moment.

Natalie gently took Tang En's arm, and put on a happy look like a little bird clinging to others, intentionally or unintentionally, she showed a sweet smile at a few paparazzi who were taking pictures in the distance.

Tang En curled his lips secretly, saying that women are born actors.

Actresses with this profession...as expected, they are acting 24 hours a day.

Five or six reporters ran over excitedly, and handed over the microphone, recording pen, and microphone, "Director Walker, can I ask a few questions?"

Tang En said lightly: "Old rules, no questions about personal life will be answered."

The reporters were clearly aware of Tang En's rules, and immediately asked, "Tang En, the box office trend of "The Girl Who Moved the Soul" has been doing well recently. It doesn't look like a literary film at all, it seems to be a commercial film's box office curve. Can you tell me?" Is that why?"

Tang En said with a smile: "The reason is very simple, because my girlfriend's acting skills are so good."

Natalie pursed her lips and waved her small hands, "Don't listen to his nonsense, the movie is the result of the joint efforts of all crew members, it's everyone's hard work, and I'm just one of them."

Natalie's delicate appearance is no different from that of ordinary college students. She is very close to people and is very popular with reporters, "Miss Portman, congratulations, your movie has completed the box office crushing of "Fox and Dog Party" .”

""Fox and Dog Party"? What is it?" Natalie looked at a loss.

The reporter quickly fanned the flames and said, "It's a Disney movie!"

"Cartoon?" Natalie said innocently as if she didn't know anything, "This name is so strange, it's not cute at all."

"No, no, no! Miss Portman, you misunderstood. This is not a cartoon, but a crime comedy, a live-action movie."

"Huh? Live-action movies?" Natalie was surprised as if hearing it for the first time, "Didn't Disney specialize in making cartoons? They also made live-action movies?"

The reporters looked at each other a few times, and they were all secretly stunned.

This lady is not here for real, is she? As an actor, you don't even know about Disney's live-action movies? On purpose?

Tang En explained with a smile, "That's right, you know, she is still a student, she spends most of her energy on maintaining her studies, and she doesn't know much about Hollywood... Sometimes her news channels are even worse than some senior movie fans. She only I know some big film companies, such as Warner, Universal, and Columbia."

The hearts of the reporters were beating like numbness.

What does it mean?

Are you shooting again?

This is a movie that clearly satirizes Disney, not as good as Warner, Universal and other major giants.

But then again, what Tang En said was really not too much.

Throughout this summer, didn't the several movies produced by Disney have been rubbed against the ground by Tang En Pictures?

Facts speak louder than words!

Tang En looked at everyone's weird expressions, and said with a smile: "You just said that "The Girl Who Moved Soul" had a good box office. I admit this, but compared with the excellent mainstream commercial films, it still has no strength to compete. The first week At that time, "The Girl Who Moved Soul" ranked after New Line Pictures' "Invasion of Brain Cells". This week, two films from Universal and Warner also released strongly. How brilliant the performance of a literary film is, the key depends on the comparison object."

"Tang En, you mean...Disney's movies are too low-end, they don't match your movies at all, right?"

Such obvious provocative remarks that fueled the flames and added fuel to the flames aroused the dissatisfaction of many reporters as soon as the words fell. They were afraid that this rude question would make Tang En walk away.

Unexpectedly, Tang En's face was indifferent and calm, "You can't say that, Disney's cartoons are still good, as for live-action movies... I'm sorry, it's not because the company's hard power is strong that it can make excellent films." movie of."

"Are you saying that Disney lacks the corresponding film talent?"

"That's what I mean!"

"Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay have collaborated on many outstanding films in recent years."

Tang En curled his lips in disdain, "Michael Bay? That director who can only explode, is obviously overrated. As for Jerry Bruckheimer... Forget it, wait for the release of "Pearl Harbor" which the two of them collaborated with next year. You will know the meaning of my words today. Birds of a feather flock together, and people form groups!"

"Director! Director! There is one last question!" Seeing that Twain was about to leave, a little reporter with mischievous eyebrows rushed over, "Director, Bruce Willis divorced two days ago. It is said that the property was divided. His ex-wife What do you think about getting a huge fortune of 190 million U.S. dollars?"

Everyone knew that Bruce Willis had a feud with Tang En.

After hearing this, Tang En was startled for a moment, then laughed out loud, very recklessly, and then snorted coldly, "There's nothing to say, we're the same breed!"

Tang En now is completely different from two or three years ago, he is full of confidence!