????一個(gè)老笑話幫助電影《饑餓游戲》(The Hunger Games)的制片人妮娜·雅各布森度過了一段艱難的時(shí)光。大意是這樣：圣誕節(jié)一大早，一個(gè)小孩醒來后就興沖沖在圣誕樹下尋找禮物，結(jié)果卻發(fā)現(xiàn)了一堆糞便。不過，這個(gè)小孩依然興奮地宣稱，肯定有一匹小馬藏在附近。“我總是嘗試著找到那匹小馬，” 雅各布森說。

????比如2006年那次。當(dāng)年，她意外地被免去迪斯尼公司(Walt Disney)旗下博偉影業(yè)集團(tuán)(Buena Vista Motion Picture Group)的總裁一職。盡管雅各布森監(jiān)制了第一部《加勒比海盜》(Pirates of the Caribbean) 、《沖鋒陷陣》(Remember the Titans)和第一部《納尼亞傳奇》(Chronicles of Narnia)等賣座影片，但她還是成為一次管理層變動(dòng)的受害者之一。但這次被炒經(jīng)歷，卻激勵(lì)她著手創(chuàng)建自己的制作公司。

????2007年，雅各布森推出Color Force公司。該公司迅速獲得杰夫·金尼 (Jeff Kinney) 著作《小屁孩日記》(Diary of a Wimpy Kid)的電影版權(quán)。根據(jù)電影融資網(wǎng)站The Numbers提供的數(shù)據(jù)，該系列的三部電影以5,500萬美元的總預(yù)算獲得了逾3.1億美元的票房收入。《饑餓游戲》系列電影前兩部的表現(xiàn)則更上一層樓，以2.1億美元的總預(yù)算斬獲18.5億美元的票房收入。即將于11月21日上映的《饑餓游戲3：自由幻夢(mèng)（上）》(The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1)，很可能將獲得類似的票房收入。鑒于這份奪目的成績單，雅各布森不只是找到一匹小馬，而是一只載著她疾馳過好萊塢的麒麟——她不斷開發(fā)自己真正喜愛的故事，然后將其轉(zhuǎn)化為風(fēng)行一時(shí)的商業(yè)大片。

????盡管獲得了龐大的票房數(shù)字，但Color Force依然刻意地保持小規(guī)模運(yùn)營方式。該公司目前僅有7名員工，每年專注于一兩部影片。“這樣一來，我就能夠告訴別人，他們將成為我們開發(fā)的5個(gè)項(xiàng)目之一，而不是50個(gè)項(xiàng)目之一，” 雅各布森說。

????由于員工人數(shù)少，雅各布森必須親自從事許多工作。在任何給定的一天，她總是忙忙碌碌的。她會(huì)去追求某本著作的改編權(quán)，尋找投資人支持項(xiàng)目，會(huì)見電影公司負(fù)責(zé)人，聘請(qǐng)編劇和導(dǎo)演，去拍攝片場(chǎng)，協(xié)助電影編輯或繪制電影分銷策略。這種親力親為意味著她完全投入到每個(gè)項(xiàng)目之中。

????“我知道，只要是妮娜提出某個(gè)項(xiàng)目，她肯定知道如何制作，目標(biāo)觀眾是誰，應(yīng)該采用什么營銷方式，” 福克斯2000影業(yè)公司(Fox 2000 Pictures)總裁伊麗莎白·高布樂說。“在她開始行動(dòng)前，一切都已經(jīng)過深思熟慮。” 高布樂曾經(jīng)與雅各布森合作拍攝過電影《小屁孩日記》，并且在今年夏天與Color Force簽訂了一份優(yōu)先合作協(xié)議。

????從商業(yè)的角度來看，一切都馬虎不得。由于Color Force每年只開發(fā)寥寥幾部電影，任何一個(gè)項(xiàng)目都不能成為啞彈。雖然《饑餓游戲》很可能為Color Force贏得了一筆可觀收入（該公司已經(jīng)獲得一筆未透露金額的服務(wù)費(fèi)，而且還參與了影片利潤分成），但在變幻無常的電影業(yè)中，對(duì)于這樣一家雄心勃勃，不斷壯大的公司來說，這些資金不會(huì)永遠(yuǎn)持續(xù)下去。

????這種不可預(yù)測(cè)性意味著，關(guān)注細(xì)節(jié)是至關(guān)重要的。雅各布森的管理風(fēng)格已經(jīng)從對(duì)已經(jīng)成型的項(xiàng)目進(jìn)行最高層決策，轉(zhuǎn)化為精雕細(xì)琢項(xiàng)目的每一個(gè)細(xì)節(jié)。“作為一位電影公司高管，我可以認(rèn)為每個(gè)人都是有能力的，直至事實(shí)證明并非如此。當(dāng)當(dāng)你制作一部電影時(shí)，由于幾乎沒有時(shí)間來矯正出錯(cuò)的環(huán)節(jié)，你不得不抱有相反的心態(tài)：每個(gè)人都是不稱職的，直至事實(shí)證明并非如此，”她說。“他們通常都有能力完成各自任務(wù)，但你必須得思考，如果這個(gè)環(huán)節(jié)出錯(cuò)了咋辦？如果那個(gè)環(huán)節(jié)出錯(cuò)了咋辦？”

????There’s an old joke that helps The Hunger Games producer Nina Jacobson survive hard times. You know the one: A kid wakes up on Christmas morning to a pile of manure under the tree—only to excitedly claim that there must be a pony in there somewhere. “I always try to find the pony,” says Jacobson.

????Like that time she was unexpectedly let go from her gig as president of Walt Disney’s DIS -2.17% Buena Vista Motion Picture Group in 2006. Though Jacobson oversaw the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, Remember the Titans, and the first The Chronicles of Narnia film, among other blockbuster hits, she was one of the casualties in a management shake-up. But the firing pushed her to start her own production company.

????Jacobson launched Color Force in 2007. The company quickly secured the rights to Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. The three subsequent films in the series grossed more than $310 million on a total budget of $55 million, according to the movie finance site The Numbers. The first two The Hunger Games films have done even better, pulling in $1.85 billion on a total budget of $210 million. The next installment in the series, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, will likely reap a similar windfall when it’s released on November 21. Given that track record, Jacobson hasn’t just found a pony—she’s ridden a unicorn through Hollywood, developing stories that she genuinely loves and turning them into commercial hits.

????Despite the large box office numbers, Color Force purposely remains a relatively small operation. It has just seven employees focusing on one to two movies a year. “That gives us the ability to tell someone that they will be one of five projects we have, not one of 50,” says Jacobson.

????The low headcount keeps Jacobson busy. On any given day, she will pursue rights to material, find financiers to back projects, meet with studio heads, hire screenwriters and directors, be on a location shoot, assist in film editing or map out a film’s distribution strategy. Her ground-level involvement means that she is fully invested in each project.

????“I know that everything Nina submits is something that she knows how to make, who the audience is and how she would ask us to market and sell it,” says Fox 2000 Pictures president Elizabeth Gabler, who worked with Jacobson on Diary of a Wimpy Kid and signed Color Force to a first-look deal this summer. “Everything is completely thought out before she makes a move.”

????From a business standpoint, everything has to be. With only a few films in development, Color Force can’t afford to have any bombs. And while it likely earns a handsome payday from The Hunger Games—Color Force has been paid an undisclosed fee for its services and given a share of the profits—those funds don’t last forever for an ambitious, growing company in the fickle film industry.

????That unpredictability means attention to detail is crucial. Jacobson’s managerial style has transformed from top-line decision-making on projects already in good shape to sweating projects’ details. “As a studio executive, I took the approach that people are competent until proven otherwise. But when you make a movie, because there is so little time to fix things when they break, you have to almost come to it with the mindset that everyone is incompetent until proven otherwise,” she says. “They usually aren’t, but you have to think, What if this goes wrong? What if that goes wrong?”