I’m in Hollywood

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Strictly speaking, Captain Hawk did not fail commercially, and even made some profits, but this was achieved at the expense of Spielberg's personal reputation, and it was far lower than the industry's original estimates. Therefore, Captain Hawk can also be said to be an extremely unsuccessful work.

Martin Davis is well aware of these situations, but he doesn't want to be taken elsewhere by Eric with the Captain Hawk thread: When Eric, Sony and Panasonic bought Columbia and Universal , Haven't you cooperated with them, in that case, what's wrong with cooperating with Paramount, it is a win-win thing after all.

Eric smiled silently, looked at Martin Davis and said, Martin, you should know that the situation now is very different from a few years ago.

When cooperating with Columbia and Universal, Firefly was still quite weak, and could only improve its strength by relying on the channels of the two major film companies. Now the situation is completely different. Firefly's strength and status have been completely equal to the other six. In the case of not seeing enough benefits, only relying on some old grievances with Viacom to cooperate with Paramount, then It's like helping your competitors.

Martin Davis of course also understands this, but he has long considered relevant issues and quickly said: Eric, do you remember the Condor you worked with Fox?

Eric nodded lightly, faintly realizing what Martin Davis wanted to say.

Paramount also has some movie projects in reserve. We can imitate the cooperation model of Condor, you only need to select the next project and participate in the investment, and Paramount will do the rest. What do you think?

Most Hollywood movies usually have a very long project incubation period. This stage generally starts from the selection of a book or a script by the producer to the official start of filming. Investors, looking for directors and actors, etc., over 90% of the projects may be aborted in the project incubation stage, and no more than 10% can be successfully shot. After all, but relative to the level of investment of tens of millions of dollars at every turn. Stories on paper are worthless.

What Martin Davis said about the project reserve is the film project at this stage.

Hearing this suggestion, Eric's expression changed slightly and he thought about it for a moment. Only then nodded: It's not impossible to consider, but Martin, you must know about the sequel to Fighting Condor. If you cooperate, I will definitely not agree to the conditions last time.

Of course, everything can be discussed, Martin Davis immediately smiled and said, Eric, I have already prepared the information, and I will send it to you later.

One more point. If there are no projects that satisfy me... Eric shrugged at Martin Davis and made a look that you understand. He was just curious about Paramount's copyright library. . However, the original time and space Paramount's most successful Forrest Gump and Mission Impossible series copyrights in the 1990s are now in Flower Pictures, so Eric does not hold Paramount's copyright library. Expect too much.

The crew had a regular meeting in the evening. After dinner, Eric said goodbye to Martin Davis and left the restaurant.

Early the next morning, as soon as Eric got up, the door was knocked hurriedly.

Eric. You look at this first, Allen said after entering the door. He handed over the things in his hand immediately.

Eric took it and glanced at it. It was a copy of a newspaper faxed from Los Angeles.

Martin Davis went to Hawaii to secretly meet with Williams, and there is a major cooperation between the two suspects.

Below the blacked-out title is a photo of Martin Davis entering the set of Jurassic Park and leaving with Eric in the car at the end.

Allen followed Eric into the room, and closed the door before saying: Yesterday I met a reporter who took pictures outside the studio, and I thought it was an ordinary paparazzi and didn't care, but now it seems that it should be Martin David. As arranged by Si, on the New York side, after the stock market opened today, because of this news, the share price of Paramount Communications rose by 1.2% in a short period of time. I have already received several calls about this matter, Hansen Sir called at four in the morning, Allen said, handing a page of memo to Eric: This is the communication record.

Eric took the contact list and glanced at it. The executives of the Firefly System made a list, and the other list seemed to be longer. Eric raised his hand and looked at his watch. It was just six o'clock in the morning local time in Hawaii. Los Angeles was three hours earlier than Hawaii, and it was just work time there. These people responded quickly enough. Fortunately, Eric didn't leak his room number to too many people, and the few people who knew him knew his situation very well. Must have been awakened long ago.

Just as he was about to call Jeffrey to explain the situation, the phone in the room finally rang.

Hello, I'm Eric Williams... Jeffrey, good morning, I was just about to call you...

After a brief introduction to the situation, Eric hung up the phone and handed the memo to Allen: The Firefly is no longer a problem, please block the others for me, just say Martin Davis is coming to Hawaii. On vacation, happened to meet.

Allen nodded, and couldn't help but ask, Eric, are we really going to cooperate with Paramount?

What do you mean? Eric didn't answer immediately, but asked instead.

Allen just heard Eric's explanation to Jeffrey, thought for a while, and said, I don't think it's a good choice to cooperate now, Firefly is now completely on an equal footing with the other six, and every year The cake is only so big, even in the cooperation mode of Fighting Condor, it will definitely bring competition to itself.

You're right, but don't worry. Ellen, this matter is completely unclear, and even if it is cooperation. It must be guaranteed that Firefly may have enough interests.

Alan raised the fax in his hand: What about this?

Let's just pretend there's no such thing. Martin Davis spreads this matter, it won't do us any harm. It should be Redstone or Barry Diller who should be anxious, said here, Eric couldn't help but smile again: So, maybe it will bring some unexpected gains. No matter what, we will not suffer.

...

Mr. Malone. Outside the door of his office, he saw a middle-aged man in a neat suit who looked meticulous approaching. Barry Diller's assistant stood up and greeted him.

John Malone hummed with the same expression, and knocked on the door a few times. Pushed the door and walked in. The assistant just opened his mouth, but did not dare to block the big boss of one of the parent company's remote communications.

Barry, have you contacted Eric Williams?

Barry Diller, who was sitting behind his desk reading the documents, glanced at John Malone and said, Eric's assistant just called me back and said that Martin Davis was just on a trip to Hawaii, and the two happened to meet each other. superior.

It happened, huh, how could there be such a coincidence, John Malone smiled disdainfully. Suddenly I remembered what Barry Diller just said: So, you didn't get on the phone with Williams in person?

No, my friendship with him has not reached the point where he can call in person. Barry Diller said lightly.

John Malone could hear Barry Diller's tone with a hint of displeasure, and couldn't help but say, Barry, you should cheer up a little bit, the proposal to acquire Paramount was originally proposed by you, and now it's just a small setback. .

Is it really just a small setback? Barry Diller gave John Malone a cold look and said, You have been to Los Angeles at least four times in the past few months. I guess Martin Davis has even gotten my personal Drafted takeover proposal, John. Tell me, am I right?

At the end of the day, Barry Diller's tone was filled with uncontrollable anger. He was not afraid of enemies, nor was he afraid of setbacks, but felt chilled by the betrayal of his allies. In the past few months, Barry Diller's several attempts at Paramount have been blocked, and he behaved as if he had taken precautions against Barry Diller's measures in advance.

After realizing the problem, Barry Diller immediately conducted relevant investigations, and then easily discovered the truth of the matter. Although Telecom, one of the parent companies, has authorized the acquisition of Paramount, but John Malone has the idea of ​​monopolizing Paramount again, and John Malone has made no secret of his intentions, continuously Visited Martin Davis' office several times in person.

Therefore, Barry Diller was able to guess the ins and outs of the matter in a short period of time. The only people who knew in detail about his acquisition plan were Comcast's Brian Roberts and telecommunications boss John Malone, and of course, Barry Dee Leh his own team, but he can be sure that his team will not go wrong, and John Malone has also done a little too obvious.

When John Malone heard Barry Diller's obvious accusation, he shook his head with a constant expression: Barry, I think you must have made a mistake. I went to visit Martin Davis for the acquisition.

It's about acquiring Paramount for telecommunications, not Paramount, right?

John Malone was a little angry at Barry Diller's chasing tone, and simply said: What if this is the truth, Barry, I also gave you a chance, but you haven't made any progress in the past few months. , isn't it?

Barry Diller was so angry that he almost laughed out loud at the other party's flattery. If it wasn't for the other party's betrayal and revealing his acquisition plan, Barry Diller can be sure that he can at least acquire a certain percentage of Paramount shares from the secondary market. , in order to achieve the purpose of entering the board of directors.

Although John Malone always looks like a meticulous gentleman, Barry Diller knows that this is just an appearance. What kind of person the other party is, has been revealed from the rascal's words just now.

It is Barry Diller's long-term wish to acquire Paramount and return to the long-leaved office as a master, but Barry Diller himself does not have the capital, and now he can only rely on telecommunication and conca Sterling's funds.

Therefore, the two looked at each other across a desk for a while, Barry Diller still sighed in his heart, and took the lead in compromising: John, even if Paramount cooperates with Firefly, it won't change anything. Their cooperation, at most, will cost us more. Our real enemies are Martin Davis and Summer Redstone. From what I know about Martin Davis, he doesn't want to sell Pyra at all. Meng, so, even if you spend a year in his office, this situation cannot change. If you want to win Paramount, the only way is to force the acquisition. In this regard, Summer Redstone's The style is tougher, as you can see from the Viacom acquisitions in the 1980s and last year's Disney acquisitions, that Summer Redstone is a guy who dares to put all the chips in.

Having said this, Barry Diller paused and looked at John Malone with a disappointed expression: Summer Redstone is using last year's financing to seek a controlling stake in Blockbuster. Blockbuster's huge cash flow, we will not have any advantage in the bidding, and at the same time, Martin Davis began to contact Williams to seek cooperation and self-protection, they are all working hard for their own goals, look at us again, What are we doing? Barry Diller slammed the table excitedly and slammed: And we are fighting infighting!

Mr. Diller, what happened? Hearing the muffled sound in the office, Barry Diller's assistant, worried that the two would fight, opened the door slightly and asked.

Barry Diller hadn't opened his mouth yet, but John Malone turned his head sullenly and shouted at the assistant, Get out, who let you in.

The assistant was so frightened that he shrank his neck, glanced at Barry Diller, and after receiving the gesture from the other party's eyes, he withdrew with lingering fears.

The office fell silent again. John Malone silently pulled out two cigars and handed one to Barry Diller. The two men lit them silently and took a sharp sip at the same time.

Brian Roberts doesn't seem enthusiastic about acquiring Paramount. It's only because of you that they agreed to this acquisition plan. Telematics doesn't want Comcast to take advantage of this ride, so I don't think What did I do wrong, and, even if Telematics acquires Paramount on its own, I personally would very much like you to be in charge.

I've already told many people that I won't sign another employment contract, Barry Diller retorted in a deep voice. Control, acquired Paramount in the name of which he is the owner. But if the parent company Telecom acquires Paramount, what does it have to do with him? (To be continued)