hunt hollywood

Let's see if this can bring surprises.

Ok.

Robin Williams.

Michael Ovitz recalled that his brain, with its excellent memory, quickly provided him with a stream of information.

Robin Williams, who entered the movie circle with the live-action version of "Popeye", has not had any outstanding works in recent years, and can only be regarded as a second-line comedy star.There seems to be a new movie released recently, "Good Morning Vietnam", a popular type of reflection on the Vietnam War, with a satirical comedy style, a bit like "Army Field Hospital" that Robert Altman was nominated for best picture that year.

The reputation of the internal preview is good, and the schedule is on December 12, which is the day after tomorrow.

However, Disney seems to intend to let this movie take an award-winning route similar to "Army Field Hospital", adopting a long-term strategy of small-scale filming and accumulating word-of-mouth, with only single-digit release screens in the early stage.

The driver drove the car over.

After Michael Ovitz got into the car, he picked up the car phone and called his friend and Disney CEO Michael Eisner.The two families are neighbours, and maybe, arrange a family screening in the evening and watch a comedy together or something.

Chapter 136 Unreasonable

It was supposed to be a very happy Christmas, but one piece of bad news happened.

On the second day after reading the script of "Rain Man", Simon asked Amy to take down the project as much as possible, roughly explaining his reasons, and the two discussed some negotiation strategies in advance.

However, plans always fail to keep up with changes.

Simon didn't expect that Tony Tomopoulos, the chairman of United Artists, would call him on the spur of the moment, so he could only adapt to the situation.

Tony Tomopoulos can't be a fool if he can get a high position in Hollywood.After the meeting, Amy called the next day, but Tomopoulos pushed the negotiation to after Christmas on the grounds of the holiday, and asked Simon to come forward in person.

That's how things got stuck.

then.

Before Robin Williams' famous work "Good Morning Vietnam" was released, Amy had already negotiated a contract with the other party for "Dead Poets Society" with a salary of 200 million US dollars.

The average box office of Robin Williams's previous three films is less than $1500 million, and Daenerys Pictures' $200 million offer is already very generous.Such a male protagonist's remuneration can also keep the production cost of "Dead Poets Society" within 1000 million US dollars.

As a result, this incident also changed.

The two parties agreed to sign the contract on the morning of December 12th. When the matter came to an end, CAA suddenly changed its mind, saying that Robin Williams needed to think again, and agreed to reply to Daenerys Films after the New Year.

It's not hard to imagine that once Good Morning Vietnam hits the box office, Robin Williams will be on the A-list right away.

At that time, without $600 million, it would be impossible to sign the other party.If Daenerys Films insists on using Robin Williams, the overall production budget of "Dead Poets Society" will also rise, even exceeding $1500 million.

Followed by.

James Raybould rushed to Chicago a few days before Christmas, hoping to discuss with Motorola chairman Robert Galvin about joining the company's board of directors.

Among the 26 companies in which Westeros owns shares, Motorola has the highest market capitalization.

When Simon bought the bottom in the stock market crash, Motorola's share price had plummeted 40% from its highest point, but its market value still exceeded $50 billion.Therefore, the 4.9% Motorola shares that Westeros absorbed cost Simon approximately $2 million.

When the market closed the day before Christmas, Motorola's stock price had risen from the lowest point of the stock market crash of 53 US dollars to 75.5 US dollars.Although it has not yet touched the highest record of US$87 before the stock market crash, it has not been easy for an established communication and electronics giant with a large market capitalization.

As the company with the largest investment in Westeros, Motorola's share price can rise to the current high level, and the 'Westeros combination' obviously played a role that cannot be ignored.

Moreover, after more than half a century of development, Motorola has become a widely held company with very dispersed shares. With a 4.9% shareholding, Westeros has become the fifth largest shareholder of the company and is fully qualified Join Motorola's board of directors.

During this period of time, the 26 companies in which Westeros held shares were basically on the sidelines after receiving invitations to sit on the board of directors.Now, if Motorola, a veteran communications and electronics giant, can absorb representatives from Westeros to the board of directors, the resistance of other companies will definitely be reduced a lot.

However, James Raybould rushed to Chicago and waited for three full days in the town of Schaumburg, where Motorola headquarters is located on the outskirts of Chicago.

In the end, it was shut down.

The meeting had been agreed upon, but after being left hanging for three days, an employee of Motorola suddenly informed James that Chairman Robert Galvin had taken his family to Florida for vacation, and James could only return without success.

This is not counting.

On Christmas Day, Motorola publicly gave Simon a 'Christmas gift'.

Robert Galvin, the chairman of Motorola and the son of the company's founder Paul Galvin, issued a statement through the "New York Times", stating strongly that "Motorola is an industrial company with a sense of social responsibility and insists on making excellent products. The company's board of directors A speculator is never welcome in. "

After two months of waiting, the federal investigation agency still has not filed any investigations or charges against the huge profits made by Westeros Corporation in the stock market crash, and the media has already begun to die down.

After the Westeros Corporation owned this capital, it began to seek corresponding powers by asking to join the boards of directors of various companies.Although the matter did not cause much disturbance on the surface, many people were secretly paying attention to the progress of this matter.

Now, traditional capital forces suddenly challenged Simon Westeros, a young latecomer, and public opinion suddenly boiled again.

Although the Westeros Corporation quickly issued a rebuttal statement, the media who had waited for such a long time naturally would not let it go easily, and all kinds of incendiary remarks came one after another, which will make a good Christmas chaos.

Manhattan.

In the penthouse duplex of a building in the midtown section of Lexington Avenue, this is the second property Janet has bought during this time.It took half a year to complete the renovation of the apartment on Fifth Avenue in the Upper East Side. Now Simon was unwilling to live in any hotel at all, so Janet bought the penthouse in front of her again.

The 69-story building belongs to the 50s, but the interior decoration is quite in line with Simon's personal preference for modern minimalist style.

The duplex apartment has a total of 600 square meters of internal space on two floors. Although it is less than one-third of the apartment on Fifth Avenue, it is spacious enough.The entire apartment has 2 living rooms, 1 kitchen, 5 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms. It also has a study room and a private screening room. The oversized master bedroom upstairs with an area of ​​more than 100 square meters overlooks half of New York City.

Before the stock market crash, the price of this apartment was 500 million US dollars. After the stock market crash, Janet successfully bought it for only 350 million US dollars because of the full payment.According to Simon's memory, such a duplex apartment will have at least 30 times the appreciation space in the next 10 years.

The time is already December 12, the second day of Christmas, Saturday.

Invited to a party at Raybould's home in the evening, in the cloakroom, Janet, who had already changed into a wine-red evening dress, was carefully helping her boyfriend choose a tie, and at the same time asked, "What are you going to do about the Motorola matter? "

Simon buttoned his suit in front of the dressing mirror, and said, "Be rational, and then sell the stocks little by little, so as to maximize the benefits. If you are not rational, just smash the market and bring Motorola's stock price back to the lowest point during the stock market crash." .”

Motorola currently has a total share capital of approximately 9500 million shares, of which Westeros holds 470 million shares.

According to the stock price of 75.5 US dollars on Thursday, the total value of this batch of shares held by Westeros has exceeded 3 million US dollars. If capital gains tax is not considered, Simon will gain value from this batch of stocks in more than two months. Made $5000 million.

Janet chose a light blue striped tie, came over to help Simon tie it around his neck, and said with a smile, "You must want to be irrational once, right?"

"Yeah, a good Christmas has been tossed like this. If I don't fight back, more people will definitely jump out," Simon nodded, reaching out to wrap his arms around Janet's slender waist, in her smooth silk Rubbing on the quality dress, he said: "If you have to endure, weigh, compromise and haggle all the time just to make more money, what's the point of this life. I intend to enjoy wealth, and I never thought of becoming a slave to money. "

With sparkling eyes, Janet leaned over and pecked the man's lips. She continued to wear a tie and said, "What are you going to do after cashing out the money?"

"There are a lot of things to do, increase the stock holdings, find a way to buy two comic companies, Hollywood, and then I plan to invest in some technology companies that can promote the development of 3D animation and CG special effects, and set up my own special effects studio," Simon said. Then, he smiled at the woman in front of him again, and said, "Of course, there are also our affairs, the island in Australia, the mansion in Manhattan. By the way, you can also buy more apartments in Manhattan. I like to have many The feeling of the house, and it doesn’t have to be the top floor. Anyway, the money can definitely be spent.”

Janet listened to Simon casually mentioning some plans that he would never easily mention to others, the corners of her mouth curled up, and she said, "If you want, you can buy a hundred houses, but you definitely don't like renting them out, right? The house will rot if no one lives in it for a long time, even if the cleaners clean it regularly. I remember when I was a child, my family bought a manor on the outskirts of London. The castle inside is very beautiful. It’s just that England is too far away from Australia , the family didn't go there often, and then the castle became like a haunted house, completely deserted."

"Of course I don't want to rent it out, but I can definitely find someone to live in it."

"Ok?"

"Pick some beautiful vases, you know, I don't reject the opposite sex."

Janet immediately gave him a blank look, and teased, "Like your ponytail assistant?"

"Jenny is no vase."

"Hmm... huh..." Janet dragged her voice, stepped back and looked at the tied tie, nodded in satisfaction, went to the shoe cabinet to pick out shoes, and said, "Warning, my dad But he is very face-saving and likes to hunt. You better be careful when fooling around outside, don't always be caught by the paparazzi."

Simon sat down on the chair next to him, waited for Janet to help him choose shoes, and argued with a smile: "It's just picking some vases, I don't plan to do anything."

"I don't believe you," Janet said. She chose a pair of leather shoes and walked over, saying, "Try them on, it's getting late. Let's turn to Madison Avenue to see the buildings first. There is simply no suitable land next to the avenue, only the most feasible place. As long as you can buy all six low-rise and old apartment buildings between 59th and 60th streets east of Madison Avenue , we have the site for the construction of the Westeros Building. I had someone do an assessment, and if we want to take all the six buildings including the land, we may have to invest 1 to 2 million U.S. dollars including the replacement of property rights. I I have asked Bingshan to help us register a shell company in Australia to acquire these land and properties, and you only need to pay for it.”

Simon nodded, wearing leather shoes, and asked curiously: "You seem to often mention Iceberg, man?"

Janet rolled her eyes: "Female."

"Oh, but the surname Asperger is really rare."

Janet picked out a pair of high-heeled shoes for herself, sat down on a chair, and said, "What kind of surname, Bingshan is just Bingshan, because the whole person is always cold, so it's called Bingshan."

Simon immediately became interested and said, "Ice Beauty, I like this type the most, isn't she pretty?"

Janet glanced at Simon: "It's prettier than me."

Although he felt that Janet's expression was a bit strange, Simon said casually, "Take the time to introduce me."

Janet nodded: "Okay, but if you dare to have any bad ideas, I will learn how to hunt with Dad."

Simon made a frightened expression: "So cruel, who is it?"

Janet said: "Veronica Johnston, who do you think this could be?"

When Simon heard the surname 'Johnston', he immediately understood that this was Janet's relative. Realizing that the joke just now was inappropriate, he quickly said, "I'm so sorry, baby."

Janet put on her shoes, left the cloakroom with Simon on her arm, and explained: "Veronica is my little aunt, only 10 years older than me. Our family is not as big as the Kidman family. After great-grandfather, my grandfather I was an only child, and my father was also the only son of my grandfather. Later, my grandfather had my little aunt when he was 53 years old. At that time, my elder brother Anthony was already 3 years old. After my little aunt was born, my mother gave birth to our four children one after another. Grandfather is very happy, he thinks little aunt is the lucky star that started our family to prosper."

The two came to the entrance of the apartment. Simon handed the windbreaker on the hanger to Janet, and put on the coat himself. Hearing what she said, he smiled and said, "This kind of story must have a beginning, right? And then?"

Janet put the windbreaker on the outside of the dress, gave Simon a white look, and said, "Then, many, many years later, Janet Johnston met one, and the tragedy began, so miserable. Well, help me tidy up my hair .”

Simon took out Janet's blond hair that was hidden in her clothes. Seeing that the woman changed the topic, she didn't ask any further questions. He pretended to be dissatisfied and said, "What a tragedy, it's obviously a fairy tale. The prince and princess have lived happily ever after."

Janet didn't know what joke she caught, she suddenly laughed, and said, "I've always thought there was something wrong with this statement."

The two left the apartment, and Simon locked the door, wondering, "Huh?"

Janet took the key from the man and put it in her kun bag, still smiling, said: "Look, prince and princess, this is very problematic in the first place."

"His Royal Highness, explain?"

Janet raised her hand and gestured wildly, and said, "Look, prince and princess, their parents should be the king and queen, right?"

Simon immediately understood the theory Janet was pulling out, and said righteously: "I decided not to talk to a woman with a dirty mind like you for the next minute."

Janet came over, took Simon's arm, and said coquettishly, "Honey, don't ignore little Jane."

Simon remained silent firmly, and raised his wrist to tap on his watch.

Janet and Simon walked towards the elevator together, their eyes flickered in a funny way, and their tone suddenly softened a little, and they said, "His Royal Highness."

Simon immediately surrendered: "Don't, baby, I'd better be a groom. A groom can occasionally abduct a princess or two. It's more fulfilling."

"Ha ha."

Chapter 137 New World Entertainment

79th Street on the Upper East Side, in a red brick apartment building next to Third Avenue.

The scale of the party was not large, and it was basically all the best friends of the Leibold family. There were more than 20 men, women and men, big and small.

After some greetings and introductions, he sat down in the living room next to the living room, and James Raybould talked about something that Simon was very concerned about recently: "I have already collected a piece of information about New World Entertainment, Simon, if If you need it, you can take it back with you when you leave. Before the stock market crash, the business of this company was still good. Although the film department is not very good, the TV and comics departments are making profits. NBC ranked third in the ratings this fall "Ultimate Police Net" is produced by New World Entertainment."

New World Entertainment was reorganized from last year's New World Pictures.

The reason why James Raybould mentioned this company is mainly because New World Entertainment is now the parent company of Marvel, which bought Marvel Entertainment from a company that suffered bankruptcy and liquidation in November last year.

Simon withdrew his attention from a middle-aged man who worked for the ABC TV network among the guests and asked, "Now?"

James Raybould said: "After the stock market crash, the current stock price of New World Entertainment has plummeted by 51% relative to the highest point, leaving less than 1 million US dollars. However, the company's liabilities are more than 9000 million US dollars. dollars, and the main creditor is General Electric.”

Simon heard that, without further explanation from Leibould, he understood what the next situation of New World Entertainment would be.

Film and television production companies are very dependent on external funds, and New World Entertainment may have been doing well before the stock market crash.But now, with the share price plummeting to the point of insolvency, financial institutions are sure not to provide any more funding for the company.

Funds are scarce, projects are difficult to start, and profits are naturally impossible to talk about. The next step is a vicious circle towards bankruptcy.

However, Simon was a little curious: "How could New World Entertainment get in touch with General Electric?"

James Raybould explained: "GE bought the NBC television network last year, and because of several FCC laws in the mid-70s that restricted the networks from producing their own TV shows, GE has fostered New World Entertainment as its own. TV program provider."

Simon didn't expect that General Electric was behind New World Entertainment. He was only interested in Marvel in the hands of New World Entertainment.However, after combing through the materials mentioned by James Raybould in his mind, he quickly had another idea.

New World Entertainment's film business is tepid, but its TV and comics divisions are both profitable, so this company almost happens to complement Daenerys Pictures.If you can buy the entire New World Entertainment, in addition to the Marvel you want, Simon can also take advantage of the opportunity to get involved in the field of TV production.

However, the risks of doing so are also obvious.

The current market value of New World Entertainment is 1.9 million US dollars. If it is fully acquired, it will definitely need to pay a certain premium.In addition, the debt of more than 2.2 million US dollars will definitely need to be borne by itself in the future.

Moreover, it is easy to buy the company, you only need to pay for it, but when it comes to operations, Simon himself has no experience, and he is not sure whether Amy is competent.

Thinking of this, Simon glanced at the living room again, and was about to look back and continue chatting with James Raybould, but found that the middle-aged man named Robert Iger, whom he had been paying attention to, was carrying two eleven A two-year-old girl came over.

Coming to the two, Robert Iger took the initiative to introduce: "Simon, this is my daughter, Kate and Amanda, they are your fans."

As soon as Robert Iger finished speaking, Amanda, who was a little shorter, came over very familiarly and said, "Simon, you are really good at playing the guitar, can you teach us, um, as long as "Bumblebee" is fine .”

Simon smiled and said: "There is no trick to this song, as long as you practice more."

Amanda shook her head: "No, Kate and I have been studying for more than half a year, and we still can't play as well as you."

Simon said patiently: "That's it, it's a pity that there is no guitar now, or you can play it, and I will see what the problem is."

The two little girls immediately showed disappointed expressions.

Because it was a house party, the conversation was interrupted, but James Raybould didn't mind. Hearing this, he said, "Jenny has one, you can ask her to bring it. I happened to watch the video on "Good Morning America" ​​that day. And here, honestly, I'm looking forward to hearing Simon play guitar again."