Hollywood Hunter

In the following week, the North American media were discussing the incident of Michael Ovitz and the ‘infantry soldier’.

The embarrassed Ovitz had to issue a public reply quickly, resolutely denying that he had threatened Joe Ezettehas in the dispute, and said that Ezettehas could leave CAA at any time, and he absolutely would not Will block.

Joe Ezethas did not buy Ovitz’s account. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times reporter, Ovitz again accused Ovitz of verbal violence against him, and claimed that he had suffered severe psychological trauma and had completely lost it. A sense of security, because Ovitz threatened to ruin his career, Ezette Haas also said that he had to sell the property he had just purchased with his family to avoid accidents.

Immediately afterwards, I don’t know if it was Ovitz’s promotion. Many CAA customers began to publicly support Ovitz. Big coffee such as Sean Connery and Sidney Pollack expressed their disbelief Ovitz, who is polite and rarely gaffes, will say those words to Joe Ezettehas, and also hint that Ezettehas is probably deliberately adding oil and jealousy to gain sympathy.

This possibility certainly exists.

However, Joe Ezettehas did not argue for himself, wisely continued to play the tragic card, and implied that Ovitz was putting pressure on himself by the voices of the big celebrities to make him shut up.

The media, which is not too big to watch the excitement, also continue to fan the flames.

Amidst such excitement, on August 23, Japan’s Sony suddenly interrupted the media’s heated discussion on the “infantry soldier” incident and issued an announcement stating that it had reached an agreement with Columbia Pictures to acquire Columbia Pictures at a price of US$3.4 billion in cash. At the same time, it bears 1.6 billion US dollars in debt of this established film company.

On August 25, the Colombian board of directors voted to approve Sony's acquisition plan.

So far, after a year of see-saw, Sony has officially acquired Columbia Pictures, the seven major Hollywood studios.

With a total value of US$5 billion, Sony’s Columbia Pictures assets include Columbia and Samsung’s two major labels, a huge film library with more than 4,000 film and television program copyrights, a Loews cinema chain with 820 screens, and some TV station assets.

At the end of the 1980s, the television sector in the United States was not open to overseas investors. Therefore, Sony also stated in the announcement of the agreement that it would divest the television assets of Columbia Pictures after the completion of the transaction.

Then, on Monday, August 28.

Sony has not finalized the head of Columbia Pictures, and co-hosted the fourth recent press conference with Daenerys Entertainment, announcing the fourth "League of Pink Fans" in Daenerys Entertainment's 10 film plans.

Like "Sleep with the Enemy", "Hands Shaking the Cradle" and "Death End", "League of Pink Fans" is also a newcomer screenwriter, based on real events during the Second World War in the United States, telling an outdated baseball The story of a star trying to build a women's baseball team after men rushed to the battlefield.

This North American sports-themed film does not make a big statement internationally, but it is also one of the top ten box office works in Simon’s memory of the year.

After "League of Stars", on August 30, at the fifth press conference, Universal Pictures and Daenerys Entertainment jointly announced the fifth of the 10 film plans, adapted from Stephen King’s novel "Dangerous Love Ten days". "Ten Days in Crisis" tells the story of a crazy book fan who accidentally saves a writer he likes, and finds that the other party writes the character he valued to death and then kidnap and imprison him forcing the plot to rewrite.

After Stephen King became famous, because of his high productivity, his novels were adapted into movies very frequently. Over the years, his works have been put on the big screen every year. Daenerys Entertainment has the copyright of Stephen King's "Children in the Cornfield", and there is also a "Pet Cemetery" adapted from Stephen King's novel of the same name during the Easter period in the first half of the year.

However, with the exception of "Pet Cemetery", which was released this Easter, which received more than 57 million U.S. dollars in box office, most of Stephen King's other novel adaptations had a box office of only 10 or 20 million. The producers will not lose too much. If you make more, you can't make too much.

"Ten Days in Crisis", a novel without ghosts and spirits, was originally not favored. It wasn't until Simon was fancyed that Universal Pictures, which had acquired the copyright in advance, started to take it seriously.

The five consecutive projects and five conferences were also intentional by Simon. He hopes that these 10 film plans can form an influence similar to the ‘brand effect’. Judging from the recent media response, the effect has been achieved. These films will not lack the attention of the media from various platforms from the casting, shooting, post-production, and release, but this is enough to offset the millions of dollars in publicity costs.

Five projects were announced, and Hollywood stars were even more eager to move.

Century City.

For more than a week, the media's critical and mocking attacks on Michael Ovitz have not stopped. Ovitz sometimes even wonders whether someone is deliberately targeting him. However, the root cause of this incident was that Ovitz was too low-key before. The media was full of curiosity but lacked understanding of him. Some relevant information broke out, and everyone naturally rushed to him.

Because of the recent negative news, or the ban of Daenerys Entertainment and the announcement of five of the 10 film plans, CAA's customers have continued to lose recently.

After Kurt Russell and Gotty Hans, Gina Davis, who just won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress last year, was also poached by WMA, and WMA also poached a man named Michael Clayton. Ovitz remembers that this client does not have a well-known blockbuster work, but the idea of ​​a dinosaur novel that he discussed with him a few days ago was very interesting.

Now I don't care about it.

If these two are not too important, the WMA reaching out to Tom Hanks, who has become popular in the past two years, will make it difficult for Ovitz to remain calm.

Tom Hanks's "Flying the Future" last year not only broke 100 million at the North American box office, but also received an Oscar nomination for best actor. The local box office of "Fortune Stars and Fortune Generals" this summer file is also very good, and it is now firmly in the front line. It’s okay for Gotti Han and Kurt Russell, who have already begun to go downhill, to switch jobs. If a star like Tom Hanks is on the rise, it will be a kind of reputation for CAA. Very serious blow.

With the continued loss of customers, it is difficult to guarantee that other stars will have the illusion that CAA has begun to decline and it is not worth staying any longer.

Once the domino effect is formed, the result is disastrous.

Moreover, when Columbia Pictures suddenly announced on August 31 that Gina Davis, who had just quit CAA, would serve as the heroine of the 10 movie "League of Pink", Michael Ovitz understood that he must be as fast as possible. Make some kind of decision.

September 1st, Friday.

In the new week, only a low-cost B-level thriller from Xin Xian Pictures will be released quietly, indicating that this year's summer vacation will be completely over.

Judging from the existing data, this summer file has confirmed that the box office has exceeded 100 million movies. There are a total of "Indiana Jones 3", "Ghostbusters 2", "My dear, I made the child smaller", "Lethal Weapon" 2", "Bodyguard" and "Sixth Sense of Supernatural", of which Daenerys Entertainment accounted for two.

Considering that at the end of the year, Daenerys Entertainment and Warner’s "Batman" and "Flying Through the Innocence" and Universal Pictures' "Back to the Future 2" will be released. If there are one or two dark horses, the box office for the whole year It is still very likely that there will be more than 10.

The fares in North America have not risen significantly in recent years. From the past few years, Hollywood only had four or five films with a box office of more than 100 million yuan each year to the current level of 10. Hollywood’s rapid rise after the silence of the seventies and eighties can be called Unstoppable.

In my memory, in 1990, the appearance of a series of blockbusters such as "Home Alone", "Pretty Girl in the Wind" and "Human Ghosts", as well as the further expansion of the global film market, heralded the re-emergence of Hollywood. Each year's 100 million box office movies will basically fill the top ten on the list.

In this time and space, later people sorted out the trajectory of Hollywood's development, probably as early as 1988, when Hollywood first appeared in Hollywood movies with more than 1 billion yuan a year.

The appearance of Simon, the big butterfly, can be said to have brought Hollywood's recovery two years earlier.

Around eight o'clock in the evening.

At the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Sony’s latecomer’s reception to entertain the Hollywood snake is underway.

Simon is following Famke Jensen, chatting with Jeff Goblen and Gina Davis. Goblen and Davis are lovers, both of whom are currently at the quasi-first-line level.

"Batman" is nearing completion. As long as the box office reaches expectations at the end of the year, "Wonder Woman" will probably start pre-planning, and Simon has also accelerated the speed of making Famick Jensen "familiar". Originally, the other two candidates, Helena Christensen and Erica Anderson, have given up their attempts to compete with Famick, and Simon is no longer doing useless work.

For more than a year, Famick has played several small roles in some film and television dramas. Simon arranged for her in Robert Altman’s group drama "Intersection of Life" and the company cooperated with Columbia Pictures. Starred in two small roles in "League of Pink Fans".

The attention of these two films will be higher, and Famike Janssen's figure and appearance are enough to attract the attention of the audience.

Everyone was talking about "League of Pink Fans". Michael Ovitz appeared nearby, found Simon, and walked straight over.

Those who were able to appear in the banquet hall tonight were all well-informed people. Seeing Ovitz walking towards Simon Westero, they all looked over curiously and did not forget to whisper a few words.

Michael Ovitz came to Simon without concealing himself, and said straightforwardly: "Simon, can you talk alone?"

Simon said readily: "Okay."

Nodding to Gina Davis, Simon and Ovitz walked to a sofa in the corner of the hall and sat down. Famick Janssen wittily did not follow.