Hollywood Hunter

Normally, because the next day is a working day, Sunday is not a good time to host a party.

However, today’s situation is somewhat special.

After Warner Bros. Pictures opened its fifth week of "Deadly Weapon 2" after two days of release on Friday and Saturday, the total box office in North America officially exceeded $100 million, so the celebration party for this film was specially arranged today.

Because "Lethal Weapon 2" is the first film of Warner Bros. Pictures' first local box office to break 100 million yuan after the release of the "Pokemon" directed by Joe Dante in 1984. It is located at the Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. The scale of the celebration party was very grand, and Warner Bros. helm, Steve Rose, still took the time to come to Los Angeles at the fiercest moment of the three entangled mergers and acquisitions litigation of Time, Warner Bros. and Paramount Communications.

More than that, it is said that during the dinner for the creative team of "Lethal Weapon 2" at noon today, Steve Rose also rewarded a team of creatives with an expensive sports car, and personally handed the keys to everyone.

Steve Rose’s generous character is indeed the reason why Warner Bros. was able to win over a group of top filmmakers to collaborate with. 'Old Cowboy' Clint Eastwood has only made films for the Warner Bros. family in the past ten years. Famous Hollywood filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand and Cher have also collaborated with Rose. Intersect is irreversible.

Simon also received two consecutive enthusiastic invitation calls from Steve Rose, and could no longer refuse to refuse, and had to agree to attend tonight's party.

After the announcement of Daenerys Entertainment's 10 foreign cooperation film plans, Simon does not know if he has become the most powerful person in Hollywood, but he is definitely the person who has received the most invitations in Hollywood recently. Just look at the grand celebrations of Warner Bros. after the box office sale of Lethal Weapon 2 for the film, and it is not difficult to understand why Hollywood is so enthusiastic about Simon.

The box office performance of "Deadly Weapon 2" that made Warner Bros. overjoyed, it is expected that the total box office in North America may not reach half of "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural".

Because Simon’s partners took the initiative to provide scripts, the seven major Hollywood studios, mainstream second- and third-tier film companies, top producers in the circle, and even major talent agencies have all sent a large number of scripts to Dany. Liz Entertainment is here.

These days, no matter where he is, Simon has almost a stack of scripts at hand waiting to be read.

Daenerys Entertainment’s main creatives for next year’s "Human and Ghost", "Pretty Woman", "Dancing with Wolves", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and other films have been determined. However, with the development of 10 films The news broke, and various talent agencies and Hollywood stars, large and small, were also boiling.

10 movies naturally mean a lot of opportunities.

Daenerys Entertainment’s ability to become popular actors in a series of films is obvious to all. Second- and third-line actors are crazy about these opportunities that may allow them to advance to the top. Even if they are top-tier first-line stars, they can’t be calm in their plans for these 10 movies. .

Hollywood's resources are limited after all, and latecomers are promoted to the top, but the opportunities will not increase, and the original first-tier stars will inevitably fall.

Inside the banquet hall of the Hilton Hotel.

When Simon appeared, the sights of all the guests were like countless compasses encountering a powerful magnet, all focused on the young man at the door.

Steve Rose brought some people to us for the first time. Although knowing that it’s not appropriate to invite Simon, a young man destined to be the focus of the audience, on today’s occasion, Rose is also helpless, and he will fly to special tomorrow. Lahua State cannot squeeze another time to meet with Simon in the short term.

"Simon, it's nice to see you again," Rose joked with Simon enthusiastically, "Why are you alone, but it doesn't matter, you can find a female partner."

After Simon and Rose hugged and greeted them, they said, "How about you, Steve, how are you doing?"

"You know, if I can, I would love to fight Martin Davis."

Simon smiled and said, "Then he must not be able to beat you."

Rose also laughed, patted Simon on the shoulder, and looked at the others: "You know everyone, um, this is Barbara. She just wanted me to recommend it."

Simon nodded to Terry Semel, Mel Gibson, Joe Persie, and Richard Donner, director of Lethal Weapon 2, and shook hands with Barbra Streisand whom Rostey mentioned Started and said: "Hello, Ms. Streishan."

Barbra Streisand shook hands with Simon enthusiastically, and said, "Just call me Barbara, Simon."

"Of course, Barbara."

Everyone chatted for a few words, Mel Gibson and others once again dispersed the party crowd.

Steve Rose took Simon to sit down at the table in the corner of the hall, beckoned to the waiter to serve the two of them, and said: "I called George Cogo in the afternoon, Simon, WGA is targeting Daenerys Entertainment’s investigative farce should end here. You can get someone to contact there tomorrow, and you will be able to end this matter soon."

Simon was no longer worried about the WGA investigation, but he nodded his head with graciousness and said, "Thank you, Steve. Speaking of which, what happened to the outcome of this lawsuit?"

What Simon said was naturally the dispute between the three companies in the merger case.

Paramount suddenly made an offer to acquire Time in June. After the merger and acquisition between Time and Warner Bros., which was about to be settled, was resolutely resisted by Time, Paramount filed a lawsuit to push the matter up. The Federal Court of Delaware requested the court to stop the merger of Time and Warner Bros.

As we all know, for tax avoidance and other considerations, many large companies in North America are registered in Delaware.

Simon is concerned about the information that, in order to resist the offer made by Paramount, Time has recently adjusted its share swap merger and acquisition plan with Warner Bros. into a combination of stock and cash.

Hearing Simon's question, Steve Rose showed a confident expression on his face, and said: "The verdict will be out next month. It's not a big problem."

"Then, I want to congratulate you on becoming the head of Hollywood's largest media company."

Steve Rose smiled and raised a toast to Simon, feeling very proud.

As far as the current situation is concerned, this lawsuit that is being entangled, because Time Company’s resistance is too strong, Paramount is almost destined to go down.

Moreover, because of this lawsuit, although the merger between Time Inc. and Warner Bros. has had twists and turns, Warner Bros. led by Steve Ross has unexpectedly gained more benefits. Not only did Time’s offer to Warner have been increased, but the senior executives of Time, who were originally the acquirer, tried to fight for Warner’s cooperation in order to avoid the fate of being acquired. Recently, they have also made major concessions in the distribution of power to the new company in the future.

Now, although Warner Bros. is still the nominal acquiree, it has actually occupied the dominant position in the merger between Time and Warner Bros.

Steve Rose is a person who likes to discuss company management and business negotiation skills with people around him, and he unabashedly continues to reveal to Simon some of the current progress of the acquisition.

The two chatted enthusiastically for more than ten minutes before the veteran Hollywood tycoon entered the topic and asked: "Simon, Daenerys Entertainment's 10 movies, how do you plan to arrange it?"

Simon is looking back at some of the mergers and acquisitions that Rose just mentioned, and he is aware of it. He has been paying attention to this merger and acquisition case, hoping to gain some experience related to his future layout. Rose's personal explanation has given him a deeper understanding of this merger and acquisition case.

Time Inc., Warner Bros., and Paramount Communications are all listed companies. However, it is not the shareholders of the three companies that are driving the progress of this matter, but the management who are thinking about their own interests.

Therefore, the lawsuit initiated by Paramount Communications to protect the interests of shareholders of Time Company was wrong at the beginning. The management of the company with decision-making power does not care about whether shareholders can get 1 billion 2 billion US dollars. What they value is whether their own profits of millions and tens of millions of dollars are maintained and their own control of the company. .

Hearing Rose asked about the 10 movies, he temporarily recovered his mind and smiled bitterly: "I have received too many scripts recently, Steve, to be honest, I was still looking through the scripts in the car that came here just now. The most important thing for specific arrangements is the quality of the script."

"Simon, I watched the "Batman" sample in the afternoon and it was amazing. Although "Flying by the Innocence" and "Batman" have not been released yet, I believe we will definitely have a very happy collaboration. So, 10 Warner also asked too much for a movie. How about two more movies?"

"I also look forward to continuing to work with Warner, Steve, but, you know, this requires a suitable project."

"I understand, Simon. Warner's copyright library is still very rich, you can choose whatever you want. In addition, if you fancy any other script, tell Terry, he will do everything possible to get it. And, I know Dan Nilith Entertainment also reserves a lot of copyrights. If you are willing to cooperate with Warner, we can accept it even if the conditions are more compressed."

Simon has actually seen the first batch of scripts sent to him by Warner, and roughly confirmed the goal.

However, the dispute with WGA has not yet settled, and out of caution, Simon is not in a hurry to announce a few projects he has already fancyed.

Feeling Rose is still staring at him with piercing eyes, a look of reluctance to give up when he can't get the correct words, pretending to hesitate for a moment, Simon finally said: "I can only say, Steve, there will be Warner in these 10 movies. I’m not sure about the specific number of titles. In addition, even if we can’t cooperate on these 10 projects, you know that Daenerys and Warner will definitely continue to develop the sequel to "Batman", since you have already watched After the samples, I would definitely have such confidence."

What Steve Rose wants tonight is Simon's words.

Warner and Daenerys are already collaborating on two films, and Rose also sees Simon's intention to make this decision a few days ago, so he is worried that the young man in front of him will give the opportunity to other film companies. Rose actually thought of "Batman" and even "Superman" and "Wonder Woman."

However, the cooperation project with Daenerys Entertainment is naturally the more the better.

"In that case, then, enjoy the party tonight." After getting the promise he wanted, Steve Rose raised a glass of champagne to Simon, and ridiculed himself: "I already feel a lot of eyes It takes you too much time to fight against my old man."

Simon stood up and watched Steve Rose leave, and was about to eat something. Jonathan Friedman rushed over before everyone else moved and said straightforwardly: "Simon, did you pick the project?"