Hollywood Director 1992

Michael Ovitz was right. The huge success of "The Mask" had already made the Big Seven studios feel panicked. Now, the similar success of "Good Will Hunting" made the executives of the Big Seven feel extremely threatened.

Based on the current situation, at least four of the top ten films on the annual box office chart would come from Guess Who Productions.

Guess Who Productions' total annual box office revenue would also exceed $800 million, surpassing the box office performance of the Big Seven studios.

A film company that had been established for less than three years was stepping on the Big Seven's reputation and ascending to the top of the industry.

The groups and shareholders behind the Big Seven studios could not tolerate this happening.

They demanded that the executives of the Big Seven studios must do everything possible to regain the box office market and maintain the 'Big Seven's' position and dominance in Hollywood, or be replaced.

With Michael Ovitz's active coordination, the presidents of the Big Seven studios gathered at the Death Star building for a meeting.

On the surface, it was to summarize the gains and losses of the film industry this year and discuss the trends of the film market next year.

In reality, it was to discuss how to deal with the rapidly rising Guess Who Productions.

As the host, Michael Ovitz participated in and chaired the meeting.

"The first issue is that, in order to contain Guess Who Productions, everyone must reach a consensus to treat Guess Who Productions as an enemy and no longer cooperate with Guess Who Productions. Does everyone accept this?"

Michael Ovitz said.

Sherry Lansing, president of Paramount Pictures, Ron Meyer, president of Universal Pictures, and Barry Diller, president of 20th Century Fox, chose to support it.

Jon Peters, president of Columbia Pictures, Miggs Koslowski of Warner Bros., Stephen Cooper, president of MGM, and Michael Eisner, president of Disney, remained silent.

The reason was very simple.

Columbia Pictures had a $500 million film production agreement with Guess Who Productions.

Asking them not to cooperate with Guess Who Productions at this time was something they could not do.

Warner Bros. and MGM also had collaborations with Guess Who Productions or Link personally, and it was impossible to cut them off immediately.

As for Disney, Michael Eisner's main job was to resolve internal company disputes and win the support of most shareholders, so he could not put too much effort into this matter and remained silent.

Sherry Lansing adjusted her glasses and said, "Michael means that the previous cooperation with Guess Who Productions doesn't count. Starting next year, the Big Seven studios will no longer cooperate with Guess Who Productions. Without sufficient funds and resources, Guess Who Productions will have very limited film projects to invest in and produce each year, and its development will also be limited."

The presidents of the Big Seven studios nodded. They would not cooperate with Guess Who Productions, but they could cooperate with Link. They agreed with this proposal.

Seeing that everyone had reached an agreement on this matter, Michael Ovitz smiled with excitement.

"The second issue is that, starting next year, we will continue to jointly suppress Guess Who Productions' films, block Guess Who Productions' films on publicity channels, and reduce its exposure.

At the same time, we will compete with Guess Who Productions for theaters and screening rates in film distribution. In fact, we did a good job during the summer season.

If Link hadn't been lucky enough to encounter the 'O.J. Simpson case' when "Seven" was released, "Seven's" North American box office would have been at most $100 million, not the current $340 million.

We shouldn't give up this effective method because of one mistake.

What are your opinions on this proposal?"

"We can compete with Guess Who Productions in film distribution, but in terms of film promotion, that's the business of media companies. We few representatives can't represent the opinions of the group," said Miggs Koslowski of Warner Bros.

"That's right."

The presidents of 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and Universal Pictures nodded in agreement.

MGM's parent company, MGM Resorts International, did not have a media company, so Michael Ovitz's proposal had no impact on MGM.

As for Disney, Michael Eisner was the president of Disney, in charge of Disney's film animation company, television media, and Disneyland. His power was the greatest.

However, because many shareholders on the board of directors did not support him, his power was greatly restricted, so he did not express his opinion either.

"I hope that you will actively make suggestions to the group to suppress Guess Who Productions on publicity channels.

Currently, Guess Who has become an obstacle to the development of the film industry. As long as Guess Who Productions is still around, media groups will not be able to profit as they did before. I believe several media groups will agree to do so."

Michael Ovitz said with a smile.

The presidents of several film companies nodded in agreement, only making suggestions to their superiors, and the group's board of directors would decide whether to agree or not.

Seeing that everyone had agreed again, Michael Ovitz couldn't help but feel excited. Hollywood was the territory of the Big Seven studios. As long as the 'Big Seven' were willing to join forces to deal with Guess Who, Guess Who Productions and Link would undoubtedly be defeated.

"The third issue..."

Michael Ovitz hoped that the Big Seven studios would issue notices to directors, cinematographers, screenwriters, and actors in the industry through company channels, persuading them not to participate in Guess Who Productions' film projects, especially those talented directors and actors.

As long as these people did not cooperate with Guess Who Productions, Link and his few friends could only produce four or five films a year at most.

With fewer films produced by Guess Who Productions, box office revenue would decrease, and the Big Seven studios would be able to regain the film market.

"That might not be easy to do," said Ron Meyer. "Link likes to use newcomers in his films, including Jim Carrey, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Joaquin Phoenix, Renée Zellweger, etc. They have all gradually grown up by participating in films under Guess Who Productions.

Even if we persuade all the actors not to participate in Guess Who Productions' films, we can't persuade everyone who wants to be an actor.

Secondly, top directors and actors have autonomy in choosing films, and it won't be easy to persuade them.

Finally, Link has close cooperation with WMA and UTA talent agencies. Even if CAA and the Big Seven studios join forces, they can't control half of the actors and directors in Hollywood.

This proposal sounds good, but it's not very practical."

Miggs Koslowski nodded in agreement, "That's right, like Tom Hanks, he insisted on starring in Link's new film, who can stop him?"

Michael Ovitz's face darkened. Last time Link was filming a new movie, he invited Tom Hanks to be the male lead.

He wanted to use Tom Hanks to manipulate Link, cut him off, and get more pay, but that bastard Link didn't buy it at all, and would rather change people than increase the pay.

In the end, not only did he not cheat Link, but he also created a gap between Tom Hanks and him.

Later, he was ridiculed by Link on the phone.

Every time he thought of this, Michael Ovitz gritted his teeth with hatred, wishing he could find someone to kill Link.

"Michael's proposal is correct."

Sherry Lansing spoke out in support of Michael Ovitz, "Although this method is difficult to implement, the effect is also the most obvious. As long as we can persuade Hollywood's top directors and actors not to participate in Guess Who Productions' projects, Guess Who Productions' production capacity will definitely be affected, and it will not be able to compete with us in the box office market.

However, considering that this proposal is difficult to implement, we will do our best when implementing it, it is not a must."

Everyone nodded after listening.

Seeing that another proposal was passed at the meeting, Michael was so excited that he could hardly contain himself, and the muscles at the corners of his mouth trembled.

Now three proposals have been passed. As long as these three proposals can be implemented, the day when Guess Who Productions goes bankrupt will not be too far away.

"The fourth issue..."

At the meeting, Michael Ovitz successively proposed seven strategies to besiege Guess Who Productions.

After repeated discussions, all of them were finally passed.

Michael Ovitz excitedly slapped the table and said that he would use these seven steel nails to nail Link to the cross, so that he would never be able to turn over.

Everyone applauded and cheered.

After the meeting, Michael Eisner found Michael Ovitz and invited him again.

If he was willing to work for Disney, everything in the company could be arranged according to his arrangements. The compensation was an annual salary of ten million, a 5% share dividend, and a 10% voting right.

The reason why Michael Eisner extended the invitation again was because he found Link's proposal to be very good when dealing with Disney's internal affairs.

With the death of Frank Wells and the departure of Jeffrey Katzenberg, Disney's internal disputes not only did not subside, but intensified. He was still unable to obtain the support and recognition of all the directors.

In order to prevent him from monopolizing power, the board of directors was preparing to select a CEO to check and balance him.

Considering this, Michael Eisner prepared to take the initiative and invite someone with more prestige, but not good at office politics, to serve as CEO of Disney.

After thinking about it, only two people were suitable for this position. The first was Link, and the second was Michael Ovitz.

Although Link was the chairman of Guess Who Productions, he didn't seem to be good at internal struggles. If he was willing to work for Disney, it would undoubtedly be the best choice.

It's just that Link was busy making movies and was not interested in this position.

So he found Michael Ovitz.

Michael Ovitz was a very capable person. He was good at diplomacy and business negotiations, and had leadership qualities. He relied on his personal charm and skills to make CAA the largest brokerage company in the world.

But his shortcomings were obvious. His business thinking was immature and he was easily emotional.

At CAA, Michael Ovitz relied on his personal prestige and strong network of relationships, and no one could shake his position.

Once he left CAA, his influence would be greatly reduced, and Michael Eisner was confident that he could control this trump card.

Michael Ovitz was conflicted again when he heard his invitation.

Joining Disney, he could use the company's channels to directly suppress Guess Who and Link, which was equivalent to using Disney to compete with Guess Who, which would definitely make Link suffer.

But after leaving CAA, he could no longer interfere in CAA's affairs, nor could he use CAA's relationship to contact the Big Seven studios to jointly deal with Link.

Michael Ovitz didn't know what to choose and said he needed to think about it.