Hollywood Hunter

An open-air restaurant halfway up the mountain in Beverly Hills.

In the rising sun, two Hollywood tycoons, Barry Diller and Michael Eisner, sat leisurely on the terrace overlooking the entire Los Angeles.

After ordering the meal, Michael Eisner said to Barry Diller: “You probably haven’t seen last week’s box office report yet? It’s $13.88 million, which is a total of 53.85 million in three weeks. Goldberg will not be able to do so this year So embarrassing."

Today is May 1st, Friday.

Michael Eisner didn’t mention the name of the movie, but Barry Diller understood that the only movie with a box office of over $10 million in a week that can be obtained in such an unpopular period is now only Fox’s "Butterfly Effect". "This one.

Due to focusing on the operation of the Fox Television Network, Barry Diller did not pay much attention to the film business, and asked: "What about "Lola Run"?"

Michael Eisner's expression became more emotional, and he shook his head slightly, and said: "7.59 million U.S. dollars, a total of 175.6 million, Orion may make more than 80 million from the box office. In addition, "Field Platoon", From February to now, Orion’s stock price has tripled, and its market value is now close to $1 billion. I heard that Summer Redstone and John Kruger are planning to seize control of Orion."

Barry Diller also felt a little weird, thinking of a young man who was talking about him all this time, he couldn't help but said: "What a miraculous little guy, maybe I should take the time to meet."

Michael Eisner smiled and said, "If you want to see him, you can follow me to Burbank later."

Barry Diller made a puzzled look.

The waiter brought up their breakfast at this time. The conversation paused for a moment. When the waiter left, Michael Eisner picked up the tableware and ate breakfast, and then said: "That little guy opened a production company. Have you heard?"

Barry Diller smiled and nodded, and said, "Of course, Daenerys Pictures also poached a vice president of production at Fox."

Michael Eisner smiled gleefully, and then said: "Daenerys Pictures is seeking a film release cooperation, Disney should be one of their choices. In addition, Simon Westeros also handed one Give us the animation script and want to entrust Disney to produce it. I have an appointment with Amy Pascal to have a formal talk today. I will wait for someone to call and let Westero come over."

Barry Diller nodded, paused, but shook his head slightly.

The two were colleagues during ABC, and Michael Eisner knew Barry Diller very well. He noticed his small movements, but realized that the head shaking behind him was actually aimed at Ronald Goldberg.

Simon Westeros has already collaborated with Fox Pictures on two films. "Reaper is coming" may have yet to be verified, but "Butterfly Effect" has been very successful. In this case, Fox should have been Daenerys's best partner.

Now Ronald Goldberg apparently gave up another opportunity.

Michael Eisner doesn't really like Ronald Goldberg in his heart. However, he also understood the deep friendship between Ronald Goldberg and Barry Diller, so he said: "It's not Ronald actually. The film, the director and screenwriter are not Westeros himself. , The script is relatively counter-mainstream. Daenerys Pictures is not only willing to give up the film’s local theater distribution rights, but also wants the Easter schedule next year."

After listening in silence, Barry Diller asked, "Where is your side?"

"Next Easter, we originally planned to re-screen "Bambi", plus there is no release pressure for a live-action movie. Moreover, you should have seen "Lola Run", although the success of this movie exists There are many accidental factors, but Westero’s film skills are absolutely impeccable. I plan to take the opportunity to sign some of his film contracts." Michael Eisner said with a smile: "So, Barry, I want to meet you. That little guy?"

...

When Barry Diller and Michael Eisner had breakfast together, Simon also woke up earlier in his Century Mansion apartment.

The location is the study room.

Secretly sighing that the life of a bachelor is really bleak, Simon packed up a pile of financial books by the sofa, got up and walked to the writing board embedded on the wall of the study.

At this time, two general charts of the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes in the coming months are drawn on the large writing board, and there are densely mixed Chinese, French, Spanish, Hebrew and other languages. Text annotation.

It's never easy to find this information from more than a dozen memories in your mind, sometimes it's just a passing thought. Therefore, it took Simon a week to get these.

Just in case, Simon did not use English labels, and the other languages ​​are all suggestive words that only he can understand. Except for the two index charts, it is probably unlikely that others will be discovered. understand.

After looking at it for a while, he carefully wiped the two trend charts that had been drawn many times and had been completely engraved in his mind, leaving only a variety of scattered text annotations before Simon left the study.

A supporting role audition for "Pulp Fiction" was originally arranged in the morning. Simon received a call from Amy during breakfast. Michael Eisner hoped that he would participate in today's meeting personally, so he had to temporarily change the schedule.

At eight o'clock, Simon and Amy met first, and then rushed to the headquarters of the Burbank Disney Company.

The secretary took the two to a conference room. After Simon walked in, he found that besides Michael Eisner, there was another middle-aged man sitting at the conference table. Moreover, he also immediately recognized the identity of the other party, the chairman and CEO of Twentieth Century Fox, Barry Diller.

Everyone greeted each other, Simon and Michael Eisner shook hands, stretched out to Barry Diller, and smiled: "Mr. Diller, it’s nice to meet you. Your high-concept film model makes all of us filmmakers Benefited a lot."

Barry Diller and Simon shook hands. Hearing what he said, he pointed to the "When Harry Meets Sally" script he was just flipping through, and asked a little bit: "But, Simon, I found it related to you. Several of the projects are not high-concept movies?"

Simon noticed that both Amy and Eisner were looking at him with interest, waiting for his answer, and smiled relaxedly: "Daenerys Pictures is only a child, and children can be more creative. Yes. When I grow up, I’m sure to be quite satisfactory.”

Barry Diller saw that Simon gave a decent and unconcealed answer without hesitation. He raised his eyebrows and said, "I look forward to seeing Daenerys Pictures'grow up'."

With that said, everyone sat down at the conference table. Simon saw that Michael Eisner didn't mean to talk about business right away, and he also understood that the two big bosses called him specifically today, just wanting to see himself.

That being the case, Simon did not miss the opportunity before him, and continued to say to Barry Diller: "Mr. Diller, I heard that you are helping Mr. Murdoch to improve the Fox Television Network. Maybe we can cooperate next year."

Barry Diller looked at the young man sitting across from him and asked, "Why not this year? Simon, this month is the promotion season. If you have a good idea, you can go to New York recently."

The North American Television Network determines the new year's TV program every May. As a result, every year this month, program producers from North America and around the world will gather in New York to promote their TV programs to TV networks through various promotion meetings.

Simon shook his head and said, "Daenerys Pictures will definitely have no chance this year. Our strength is still too weak. But it won't be the same next year."

Barry Diller said: "Simon, do you mean that Daenerys Pictures can'grow up' in just one year?"

"Of course not," Simon shook his head and said, "I mean, WGA may go on strike next year. At that time, Daenerys Pictures may be able to get some opportunities."

If Daenerys Pictures now wants to cooperate with the TV network, even if it has a good idea, the best result is just to be bought for creativity, and then the TV network commissions Daenerys Film to produce. The most important copyright must belong to the TV network.

What Simon expects is like Warner, Universal and other strong program producers, just sell the first-round broadcast rights to the TV network, and other channels are still in their hands. Only in this way can Daenerys Pictures get the most benefit.

However, if you want to achieve this goal in the short term, Daenerys Pictures can only seize the opportunity of the major TV networks to produce enough TV programs next year due to the impact of the screenwriting strike.

Barry Diller heard the explanation from the young man before him, but said: "Simon, you should also be a member of the Screenwriters Guild? If the WGA announces a strike next year, don't you plan to participate?"

Simon shook his head and said, "Barry, I am not a member of WGA, and I have no plans to join WGA."

When Barry Diller heard this, he could not help but look at Simon again for a moment, then smiled, took out a business card from his suit pocket and handed it over, saying, "It's really nice to meet you, Simon. What can I do? Call me."

"of course."

Simon agreed, took Barry Diller's business card, and also took a business card and handed it over.

Barry Diller collected Simon's business card and got up to say goodbye to everyone.

Sending off Barry Diller, the three returned to the conference room and sat down.

Michael Eisner opened the memo in front of him, almost subconsciously not paying attention to Amy Pascal, who had been in contact with him several times, and directly said to Simon: "About the cooperation of "When Harry Meets Sally" , Simon, Disney can give you the Easter schedule and guarantee 1,000 screens. However, our requirement is that you need to sign two directorial contracts with Disney. The script can be written by yourself or provided by Disney. The remuneration depends on the project. It depends on the specific circumstances at the time of determination. As for "The Lion King", Disney's animation department will not build projects for others. Therefore, we hope to buy this script for 300,000 US dollars. What do you think?"

Before this meeting, Michael Eisner had planned to kill the above conditions.

However, the conversation between Simon and Barry Diller was haunting his mind. Recalling the deeds of the young man in front of him over the past year, Michael Eisner almost instinctively felt that Disney should talk about this cooperation. After coming down, there is the last sentence of conclusion that can be discussed.