Mei Man: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Chapter 358 Dismissal
Los Angeles, Century City west of Beverly Hills, Fox Films.

After a period of deliberation, William Fox publicly admitted the fact that he sold Fox Films not long ago, which caused quite a stir in Hollywood.

"Capital predators from New York swim into Hollywood!"

That was the headline the Los Angeles Times ran across its front page on the first day the news broke.

Colin Looper, as the current owner of the largest newspaper in New York, apart from his identity as a newspaper tycoon, his identity as the creator of "Superman", a TV producer, and a friend of the president, no matter which one should not be underestimated.

No one thinks that such a big crocodile with a huge amount of capital buying a film company just does it casually.

Especially as Wall Street reported that Colin had contacted Otto Kahn before acquiring Fox, expressing his desire to acquire Paramount.It is even more imaginative, thinking that this New York newspaper tycoon had long had ambitions for Hollywood, so after the failure of the acquisition of Paramount, he turned to Fox and finally became the new boss of Fox Films.

And later it was confirmed by more people, the relationship between Colin and Howard Hughes, the investment in Disney and the scene of the previous Hollywood dinner all proved this point.

In fact, the newspaper tycoon started to lay out Hollywood a long time ago, and many directors had the experience of talking with him at the dinner that day.

The rumors circulating in Hollywood can’t be wrong. Colin did have ideas about Hollywood a long time ago, and it can even be traced back to when he first came to Los Angeles to meet Howard Hughes. Knowing the news that Paramount is on the verge of bankruptcy, this idea came up.

It's just that, unlike what the major Hollywood film studios are interested in, the purpose of Colin's acquisition of the film company is not to maintain huge ambitions for Hollywood, or to create a film that belongs to William Fox, like the former boss of Fox Films. own film empire.

The purpose of his acquisition of the studio is extremely pure, that is, to be able to produce a series of superhero movies around "Superman". Just collect more 【Faith】.

As I said before, Ke Lin is not a filmmaker, and he never thought of being a so-called filmmaker.

The film studio is a tool for him, a medium he uses to obtain [Faith] and upgrade [Golden Seal].

He has tried newspaper serialization, comic book publications, radio dramas on radio stations and television animations on TV, and naturally he doesn't mind one more film production.

……

"come yet?"

The rumors in Hollywood have also affected the employees of Fox Films, and everyone is a little uneasy about the new boss who is about to take over.

Although the new President Roosevelt has come to power, the Great Depression has not dissipated, and the unemployment rate in Los Angeles has remained high.

Even without Colin's acquisition, Fox Films' current financial situation is quite bad.

Under the influence of the general environment, Fox has not produced a blockbuster movie for several months in a row, and even the film studio in Beverly Hills has been shut down for a long time.

It is precisely because of this that the vast majority of employees have pessimistic thoughts about Colin's arrival, even though in fact the Fox Film Company in the hands of William Fox has not paid enough wages for a while, but during this period A decent job is still the only difference between the vast majority and the homeless.

Once fired by the company, most of them can only take off their suits and join the team of homeless people.

Such a feeling of worrying about gains and losses not only exists in the lower-level employees of Fox, but also exists in the middle and upper levels.

After all, there were not a few middle-class and even wealthy people who went bankrupt during the Great Depression. Not to mention that William Fox, the former boss of the Fox Film Company, suffered severe damage to his assets during the Great Depression, even to the point where he was forced to go to jail due to debts. Otherwise, he would not have sold the film company in his hand and the entire industrial chain to Ke Lin.

It is precisely because of this that the entire Fox Film Company was so nervous when they knew that the new boss was coming to Los Angeles.

In this way, in the midst of everyone's uneasy emotions, the person in charge of the Fox Film Company who took over appeared.

Unexpectedly, this person was not the expected newspaper tycoon—Colin Luper.

"Whoo~"

Getting out of the car, Louise Walton in a professional suit jacket looked at the Fox Film Company in front of him with a complicated expression on his face.

She never thought that one day she would return to Los Angeles and Hollywood in this form.

"Ms Louise Walton?"

From the previous contact, the person in charge of the film company already knew the identity of Louise, but just looking at the empty figure behind her, the person in charge couldn't help showing a look of astonishment in his eyes, and asked cautiously: "Excuse me. Is Mr. Lynn Luper here?"

"Mr. Colin Looper has gone to Fox's production department."

After recovering from the questioning of the person in charge, Louise informed Fox's staff of Colin's whereabouts.

As the so-called rotten ship still has three-inch nails, under the impact of the Great Depression, although the entire Hollywood film market has encountered an unprecedented slump, and the situation of Fox Films has become even more precarious, but after all, it was once the top few Hollywood companies. The studio, whether it is the production department or the movie theater industry, is still relatively intact, and there is no serious loss.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the slump in movie theaters as a whole. Movie theaters in Times Square in New York need to show erotic movies 24 hours a day to survive. The situation in major movie theaters in Los Angeles will not be much better either. .

During the entire Great Depression, more than a hundred movie theaters were closed alone, and almost all studios except MGM suffered serious losses. Even though Washington had changed to a new owner, this situation still did not change.

"What, do I need to arrange someone to meet Mr. Colin Luper..."

Hearing Louise's answer, the person in charge of Fox was surprised at first, and then quickly reacted and said hastily.

This is the next new boss of the company. If something goes wrong in the production department, the entire Fox will not pay back if it offends the other party.

"No, Mr. Colin Looper wishes that would be all right."

Shaking her head, she rejected the person in charge's proposal. Louise recalled what Colin had explained before she came here, and glanced at the person in charge who was still a little uneasy, feeling pity flashing in her heart, but soon she would The pity is extinguished.

"Let's go in, Mr. Colin Looper has already made arrangements for Fox's next development."

After nodding to the lawyer behind him, Louise Walton entered Fox Films under the guidance of the person in charge.

……

"It can be seen that William Fox once had great ambitions for the development of Fox, otherwise he would not have built such a huge studio here..."

In front of Fox's 300-acre studio in Beverly Hills, Colin couldn't help but shook his head and said.

The entire huge studio was once the proud existence of William Fox, but it became the last straw that crushed him during the Great Depression.

The construction of such a huge studio requires a huge investment of money, which is not only William Fox's own money, but also the bank's money behind it.

And all of this became a huge burden on William Fox with the occurrence of the Great Depression.

With the shrinking of his assets, he was simply unable to pay the studio's next expenses, which was one of the main reasons why William Fox was finally imprisoned.

Ke Lin also couldn't afford the land and the large studio with advanced equipment on it, even though he had already obtained a lot of working capital by relying on the imported wine business, but fortunately, the choice of capital in business operations was not just Only genuine funds, the existence of Superman not only gained a lot of [faith] for him, but also represented extremely huge benefits.

And this is enough, as long as Superman is in Colin's hands for a day, the bank believes that he has enough ability to repay Fox Studios.

Not to mention that in addition, he also holds the largest newspaper in New York and the production of the emerging industry of television.

After stopping at the door, Colin immediately entered the interior of the studio.

At present, most departments in the entire Fox studio are in a state of shutdown. After all, making movies is an extremely expensive business, and Fox's current situation obviously does not have so much capital to continue.

Today, some movie theaters owned by Fox are showing old movies from the past, and even some more remote movie theaters have just been closed to reduce more unnecessary expenses.

After strolling around the studio, the purpose of Colin's trip is certainly not to simply visit the property he acquired. Similarly, he is also thinking about the direction of Fox, or simply speaking, the direction of the film that the studio needs to shoot. .

There is no doubt that the main purpose of Colin's acquisition of Fox Films is to shoot the "Superman" movie.

Although, before that, he may cooperate with Howard Hughes to release "Titanic" first. After all, this is the first movie he shot in the real world, even if he "created" it at the beginning. The purpose of the script is not simple, but Howard Hughes sank a big ship in order to shoot this movie, and Colin, as the screenwriter, has to express it.

Especially now that after he acquired the Fox Film Company, he also has a large number of theaters. Instead of putting old movies there or turning them off, it is better to open them up and show them. By the way, Colin can also continue to show "Titanic" "" to get familiar with the film process first, and lay the foundation for the next production and production of the "Superman" movie.

The issue of "Titanic" does not need Colin to worry too much, Howard Hughes can handle it all.

Right now, what Colin needs to think about is how to make the live-action version of the "Superman" movie.

It is not a simple matter to make a live-action superhero movie in this era. After all, if the normal historical development is followed, the earliest live-action television related to Superman will not appear until 1948, and The movie didn't make its big screen debut until 1978.

That is to say, Christopher Reeve, the first Superman actor known to the public, was not even born in this era, and it is a question of whether their parents exist at this moment.

Obviously wanting to put "Superman" on the big screen is not an easy task in this era.

As the appearance of the live-action version of Superman, Colin naturally does not want to make a hasty decision, which will not only affect his promotion of Superman movies, but also hinder his collection of "faith".

It is precisely because of this that Colin needs to go to Fox's studio to see the situation here with his own eyes, and make arrangements for the shooting plan of the next "Superman" movie.

Compared with the problems of the "Superman" movie, the problems of Fox Films are not so important.

……

"...According to Mr. Colin Luper's request, Fox Films will officially change its name to Messenger Films."

Fox Films, no, it should probably be called Messenger Films next.

Louise first announced the first decision made by Colin. For this opinion, the staff of the Fox Film Company did not have much reaction. This is not a very normal practice. The company acquires and changes its name or Merging the two names together is entirely in accordance with the ideas of the new boss.

Of course, many times, some companies will find it troublesome to change their names and simply do not change them.

This point can also be seen in the acquisition of Fox Films in the original world. Obviously William Fox has been kicked out of Fox, but the name of the company is still named after him.

"Besides that, another thing that Mr. Colin Luper explained is..."

In the conference room, Louise glanced at the people in the Fox company, paused on them for a while, and then announced the second thing Colin had arranged.

"From now on, all employees of the Fox Film Company will be dismissed, which means that everyone present, no, all the employees of the entire Fox Film Company are no longer employees of the company."

"what?!"

"how come!"

"What happened……"

(End of this chapter)