Unlike most Hollywood film foundations belong to the commercial investment type, George Lucas' film foundation has more charitable nature and rarely invests in commercial films. Instead, it actively supports the film education cause and will provide financial support to some experimental film projects to explore the possible future of the film industry.

Many of the funding targets of the George Lucas Film Foundation are mainly graduates from the School of Film at South China University.

The event was in Los Angeles and was held in a grand ballroom at a hotel near the University of Southern California Film Academy.

On the day Ronan rushed back to Los Angeles, he appeared on time at the event. In fact, his personal foundation also funded many projects, such as the latest practice base of the USC Film Academy.

Last year, Ronan’s personal foundation donated $42 million to the USC Film Academy, and the subsequent establishment of the USC Film Academy practice base was named the Anderson Film Production Center by the school.

Not only Ronan, Spielberg, a member of the *** alumni of the USC Film Academy, also donated nearly $40 million. A brand new building called the Spielberg Building in the Film Academy is currently under construction.

Ronan also knew that George Lucas intends to donate more than $100 million to the USC Film Academy at one time to strengthen the college's teaching software and hardware conditions.

This donation will not be realized until George Lucas sells Lucas Pictures.

George Lucas is currently the focus of Hollywood. He has officially announced that he will retire this year, that is, in 2009, and is preparing to sell Lucasfilm. Many companies are eyeing Lucasfilm.

After all, it is not only Relativity Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox that can realize the value of Lucas Film.

However, the severe economic situation, the temporary comprehensive withdrawal of Wall Street, and the inevitable shortage of money in Hollywood for a period have left most companies with little help.

Even if Warner Bros., the leading Hollywood company in the past decade, faces Lucasfilm's offer of more than $3 billion and does not accept exchanges and must trade cash, they must think twice before doing it.

In this special period, once a problem occurs in a certain link in the capital chain, it may lead to a break in the entire capital chain.

Even so, in the banquet hall, top executives from six major Hollywood companies all appeared. If Lucasfilm can accept three or five years of installments, wouldn’t their chance come?

Ronan chatted with Warner Bros. Kevin Tessulhara for a brief conversation. Seeing James Murdoch also entered the banquet hall, he thought about it and found George Lucas directly.

"Hi, George." Ronan shook hands with George Lucas.

George Lucas smiled and said, "I heard that you went to the UK, and I thought you wouldn't come."

Luo Nan shrugged slightly and said, "I just came back today." He looked at the resting place where there were few people in the banquet hall: "Talk a few words alone."

The two of them have known each other for many years, but George Lucas has no intention of refusing. He responded and went to the resting place together.

Ronan didn't go around in circles and asked directly: "George, have you not made a decision yet?"

The acquisition negotiations have been going on for several months and it has been difficult to actually reach an agreement.

When it comes to huge transactions, George Lucas is a qualified businessman. In addition to the senior executives and shareholders of Lucasfilm, they have been using the current attention of major companies to increase Lucasfilm's bargaining chips.

Someone has been paying attention to Ronan and George Lucas, and then walked over quickly and interrupted, "George, why don't you focus on the Twentieth Century Fox?"

Ronan has seen James Murdoch. James Murdoch nodded slightly to him with a smile and said, "Twentieth Century Fox has always been the closest partner of Lucas Pictures. We have had more than 30 years of cooperation history from 1977 to the present, and no company knows Lucas Pictures better than Twentieth Century Fox."

He emphasized: "There is no company that is more suitable for Lucasfilm than Twentieth Century Fox!"

This is exactly the advantage of Twentieth Century Fox.

George Lucas didn't respond, seemed to be thinking.

James Murdoch glanced at Ronan and said, "Ronan, as far as I know, your Relativity Entertainment is only working with Lucasfilm in special effects production, and the cooperation time is only a few years."

Ronan smiled and said, "Indeed, relativity entertainment is not as profound as the 20th Century Fox."

James Murdoch pulled away the chair, sat opposite Ronan, and said to George Lucas: "You left it to Hollywood and the entire world's film industry. The biggest wealth is the Star Wars series. Twentieth Century Fox also holds some of the interests in this series. George, you retire, you can't completely split the Star Wars series, right?"

George Lucas turned to James Murdoch: "Your style is the same as your father."

He didn't say the rest of the words. James Murdoch is worthy of Rupert Murdoch's favorite son. His strong and overwhelming style is exactly the same.

James Murdoch could understand the implicit meaning in George Lucas's words, but Twentieth Century Fox was in a bad state, and George Lucas's personal opinion was biased towards relativity entertainment. Twentieth Century Fox had to think of some solutions if he wanted to win the opportunity to win Lucas Pictures.

He smiled and said, "Don't get me wrong, George. I'm just explaining an objective fact."

George Lucas remained silent: "I understand."

Ronan said at this time: "James, 20th Century Fox really has the sincerity to buy Lucasfilm?"

James Murdoch smiled at Ronan first, then looked at George Lucas: "That's right. As long as Lucasfilm is willing to sell it, 20th Century Fox will buy it."

Ronan asked slowly: "Buy? Acquisition? What method does Twentieth Century Fox plan to use? Equity exchange? Installment payment?"

Twentieth Century Fox is tight in funds. Because of the failure of consecutive large-scale production projects, the bank's loan withdrawal and investors' debts are not a secret in Hollywood, and news has long been circulated.

Ronan has a pretty good personal relationship with George Lucas. When these relationships involve billions of dollars in transactions, at most, George Lucas, as a businessman, will give priority to relativistic entertainment when the conditions are similar.

But this personal relationship and close contacts allow Ronan to accurately grasp George Lucas' mentality of selling Lucas Pictures.

A group of shareholders of Lucasfilm, headed by George Lucas, are not interested in equity exchanges and installments. What they want is cash transactions.

Especially George Lucas himself, Ronan once revealed that he wanted to use Netflix's equity as a condition for exchange.

But George Lucas, who only cares about the technological industry related to movies, refused.

George Lucas has made comprehensive considerations about the Hollywood film industry, experimental films, charity, the alma mater, the USC Film Academy, and the future of his new girlfriend. In his plan, these require a lot of cash.

As the second richest man in Hollywood, one of the purposes of George Lucas selling Lucasfilm is to cash in.

Everyone has their own ideas, and Ronan has long grasped George Lucas's ideas.

So, Ronan didn't need James Murdoch to answer and said directly: "James, even if I make a compromise with Relativity Entertainment, will 20th Century Fox have to pay in installments? Three or five years? Or is it like a dispute over copyright income sharing with Relativity Entertainment, without restrictions?"

James Murdoch retorted: "Twentieth Century Fox has its foundation..."

Ronan laughed: "I don't know which part of the industry 20th Century Fox plans to sell? Who will take over?" He no longer cared about James Murdoch: "George, let's talk about it in a different place."

George Lucas stood up first and said, "Come with me."

Ronan and he went out of the banquet hall.

James Murdoch watched the two leave, and George Lucas's attitude had already explained many problems.

Do you really want to sell some of your assets and continue to bid for Lucasfilm?

To be honest, James Murdoch did not make up his mind that the failure of consecutive major projects has caused him to be questioned by shareholders and Rupert Murdoch.

If Lucasfilm can accept share exchange or installment payment...

James Murdoch frowned slightly, recalling George Lucas' attitude, and gradually understood something.

He immediately thought of a backup plan. If Twentieth Century Fox was eliminated, it would not be a complete failure. Any company that acquires Lucasfilm will not be able to avoid the threshold of Twentieth Century Fox.

Even if Relativity Entertainment successfully acquires Lucasfilm and wants to recover its investment, it will inevitably have the idea of ​​the Star Wars series. At that time, whether it is shooting sequels or other aspects of operations, it will evolve into a long-lasting copyright dispute.

Unless, Twentieth Century Fox can get more cakes on this series.

In a lounge in the hotel, George Lucas asked: "Ronan, although I don't tend to 20th Century Fox, James Murdoch's words are not unreasonable. 20th Century Fox has always been the publisher of the "Star Wars" series. The copyright of the first "New Hope" is always in their hands, and other aspects..."

"I have considered this issue." Ronan has carefully considered it. The plan has developed to the present day. Even if some things are leaked, it doesn't matter. He said: "About this, Relativity Entertainment has a comprehensive plan. If everything goes well, Relativity Entertainment can integrate all the copyrights and related benefits of the Star Wars series."

George Lucas asked, “Can you say it?”
Chapter completed!