Hollywood Hunter

Time has entered October, and the end of the year is approaching, and many films have begun the final stage of publicity.

Starting from Halloween, Daenerys Entertainment has four key projects at the end of the year, followed by "The Seven Deadly Sins", "The Lion King", "Mission Impossible" and "Schindler's List". There is also a DC movie universe film "Steel Bones", Simon is just the producer, and the project is completely operated by Warner Bros. alone.

A special parent-child activity was arranged in the afternoon.

Bringing Janet and the little guy to Daenerys Studios to watch the film "The Lion King", this is also the first time Simon has come to Daenerys Studios after his vacation.

It's a pity that Melbourne, who is only two months away from the age of two, is obviously not interested in cartoons. The little guy only stayed in the theater for less than ten minutes before being hugged by Girl A.

Simon watched the film with Janet and Daenerys Entertainment executives in a ‘fake private Jigong’.

The other movies are fine. As the most important project at the end of this year, it is impossible for Simon to ignore it at all.

Compared with the 2D version in memory, the 3D version of "The Lion King" is perfect in all aspects in Simon's view. The film only produced a budget of 60 million US dollars, far exceeding the first "Toy Story" by Pixar Studios. Of the 35 million U.S. dollars in production costs, most of the expenses are used to improve the various 3D technologies required for film production.

Although the expenses are huge, the management of Daenerys Entertainment believes that such an investment is worthwhile.

The excellent box office and huge peripheral revenue of "Toy Story" have proved the broad market prospects of 3D animation movies. Even if the box office of "The Lion King" is not satisfactory, the various technologies accumulated through this film can also be applied to other animation movies. Unlike live-action movies, usually only a one-time investment.

Out of confidence in "The Lion King", the scale of the film's announcement this time also reached 30 million US dollars.

With a total investment of US$90 million in production and publicity, except for Simon, Daenerys Entertainment basically does not expect this film to be released through North America to recover its costs. What everyone values ​​more is the peripheral output of "The Lion King" and its support. Daenerys Entertainment promotes the entire industry chain including records, games, and theme parks.

Because of the emphasis on this project, the schedule of the film has been carefully adjusted.

November 19.

This is the first week of the Thanksgiving holiday schedule, and it will span the entire year-end schedule at the same time, which can give the film market maximum space.

In order to make way for the "Lion King", Warner Bros. originally intended to set the Thanksgiving "Steel Bones" to be transferred to December 24 by Daenerys Entertainment. "Mission: Impossible", which was released a week after "The Lion King," the two films will not cause too serious conflict due to the difference in genre.

It's not that Simon hadn't thought about bringing "Mission Impossible" to Christmas as well. It's just that it's too obvious and unnecessary.

Speaking of it, the news of the "Lion King" project spread in Hollywood very early, because this is a gift from Simon to Janet, and other Hollywood studios can judge Daenerys Entertainment's commitment to this project without guessing. Invariably, genres such as animated films or family comedies that may compete with "The Lion King" have actively avoided this Thanksgiving.

Now we just need to wait for the 3D version of "The Lion King" to be as popular as the original time and space.

When the screening was over, Janet kissed Simon on the cheek and left the screening room.

Simon continued to listen to several executives introducing the announcement progress of "The Lion King" and peripheral product promotion strategies before leaving the screening room.

This projection room is located in the office Loft of the Pixar studio on the second floor of the studio.

After watching the movie and meeting, everyone else left busy with their own affairs. Simon went to another office in Pixar’s workspace. John Lasseter personally introduced Simon the story version of another 3D animation film that had just been completed. .

"Beauty and the Beast".

As a French fairy tale created in the 18th century, "Beauty and the Beast" no longer has copyright issues. When it was confirmed that Disney had abandoned the project, Simon asked Pixar to set up the project quietly.

Now that "The Lion King" has been completed, the team in charge of "The Lion King" will directly start producing "Beauty and the Beast".

Of course, the same is the 3D version.

In addition, the production progress of "Toy Story 2" has also been more than half completed, and the preliminary plan will be set for the end of next year.

After finally finishing work, Simon found Janet and her son who were playing in the rest area, and found that Veronica was also there, patiently accompanying Melbourne to build blocks.

Today is October 1st, Friday.

Veronica arrived at about the same time this time, and Simon was about to leave and fly to San Francisco to spend the weekend with the female assistant.

After saying hello, we continued to play here for a while, and we all returned to Dumei Cape Manor together.

"There is no big problem with AOL's finances. However, this company seems to be too aggressive. Comprehensive technical audits and monthly price cuts in disguise will definitely lead to sustained losses for this company. If it continues to expand to other regions in the United States , The loss next year may reach the level of 1 billion US dollars."

Veronica is presenting the results of this period of work to Simon in the Manor of Point Du Mei.

In the past half a year, AOL has not only started to fully upgrade the ADSL network, but also officially launched a monthly package with a minimum of 29 US dollars, which completely changed the previous hourly charging model. In fact, it was a large-scale price cut in disguise.

Although the exclusive agreement restricted the access of several large operators in the AOL business area to the ISP field, due to the development prospects of the Internet industry, in recent years, many small Internet service providers have emerged in AOL's sphere of influence. .

The ADSL network upgrade and monthly package plan have enabled AOL to gain a decisive market competitive advantage in one fell swoop, which is a devastating blow to other competitors.

It stands to reason that with these two big killers, AOL should thoroughly stabilize its existing sphere of influence before expanding, which seems more secure. However, neither ADSL nor monthly subscription cannot be imitated, especially the latter.

Therefore, AOL must quickly break into each other's territory before other regional operators can react.

To achieve this goal, there is actually only one way to burn money.

Unlike the original time and space, which only rents lines and networks of other operators to provide Internet access services, AOL now attaches great importance to the laying of its own network lines under the development strategy of Simon's compulsory development.

Up to now, AOL has two backbone optical fibers running through the east and west coasts of the United States, and the total length of optical fiber cables owned by North America alone has exceeded 150,000 kilometers, which means huge capital investment.

In the past, many operators fell into bankruptcy due to excessive investment after the Internet bubble burst.

However, there is nothing wrong with investing heavily in infrastructure.

After the dot-com bubble burst, many companies went bankrupt, mostly because of completely blind investment and financial frauds like the Enron incident.

Many operators of new technology companies don't know what they should do at all, and just follow the crowd in their hearts.

AOL's development goals are very clear.

Build a nationwide ADSL high-speed broadband network, and promote the integration of telephone, TV, and broadband after the federal government deregulates telecommunications.

ADSL technology is the future of Internet service providers. AOL once missed the upgrade of dial-up Internet to ADSL technology and quickly declined. Another reason is that AOL once misunderstood its own development direction and ignored its own basic lines. On the contrary, the construction of the Internet has turned to Internet media, which has a large bubble component.

Although AOL has also started the portal business, as long as the company is still under Simon's control, he will not allow AOL to go the same way.

The current ADSL upgrade, monthly package, and all-round expansion are radical, but the direction is correct.

According to one of the operating principles of the Internet industry in memory, this is an all-round dimensionality reduction attack against competitors, actively suppressing the industrial environment to the worst state, so as to eliminate competitors one by one.

If it is another start-up company or an operator who has just stepped into the ISP field, of course, they dare not do it, and in fact they have no strength to do so.

AOL, whose number of users in North America has exceeded 26 million, already has such confidence, not to mention that this company has a stronger Westeros system behind the scenes.

As long as the entire North American market can be unified, not to mention the annual loss of 1 billion US dollars, even if it doubles again, Simon has enough strength to make AOL lose more than 5 consecutive years.

Five years is enough to eliminate most of the competitors.

Simon did not conceal these thoughts from Veronica. He explained it carefully, and finally said: "As long as AOL is not on a wrong path, temporary losses are acceptable. My only requirement is this company. The company’s operations and financial status are completely transparent, at least to me, and there is no concealment or fraud."

Veronica didn’t quite understand why Simon was able to determine that AOL’s current development path was correct. However, she did not question any more, and understood what Simon had just said. He only needed her to keep an eye on the company. It's enough, don't care about others.

After talking with Veronica for more than half an hour, Simon checked the time and said goodbye to everyone, and rushed to the airport with Girl A and a group of bodyguards.

Los Angeles International Airport.

The private Boeing 767 is ready, and there are other people waiting for Simon here.

One of them is an agent of ICM, a middle-aged white man in his forties. The other is a tall and beautiful girl in her twenties. She obviously has the attributes of a model. She is indeed a model named Natasha Henstridge.

The middle-aged man saw Simon and greeted him eagerly: "Hello, Mr. Westeros, this is Raul Bradley, Natasha's agent."

Simon shook hands with the other party, and glanced at Natasha Henstridge next to the middle-aged man, and said, "Let's get on the plane first."

Everyone has no opinion.

We boarded the plane together, and more than ten minutes later, the Boeing 767 took off from the runway.

After the plane stabilized, Simon briefly confessed a few words and then took Natasha Henstridge to the front cabin.

Raul Bradley glanced at the figure of the girl who followed Simon to leave, a little envious and a little regretful. Naturally, it was a certain young man who was envious. It was regrettable that such a beautiful stunner had no chance to get involved.

"Mr. Bradley?"

A figure in the ear immediately caused Raul Bradley to look away, and looked at Girl A who was left behind by Simon: "Raul, Miss Norris, you can call me Raul."

Girl A nodded, and said, "The boss has already decided on the "Alien". What you need to do next is to arrange for Miss Henstridge to receive certain performance training."

Raul Bradley nodded, thought about it and said again: "I discussed this project with MGM, you know, Natasha has no acting experience yet, will the movie production progress be a bit anxious?"

"No," Alison shook his head and said: "The boss said that in this movie, the heroine does not need acting skills at all."

Raul Bradley responded again with some emotion.

Many people in Hollywood look forward to such an opportunity without acting.

"So, the movie thing is like this," Alison said, looking at Raul Bradley again, and said: "Next is the arrangement of Miss Henstridge. First of all, ICM needs to give her a The assistant must be a woman. Secondly, this is very important, Mr. Bradley, within the next year, ICM must ensure that there are no other women around Miss Henstridge, do you understand?"

"Of course," Raul Bradley nodded, then subconsciously said: "Only, does it only take a year?"

Alison's tone did not change much, and said: "The longest year, maybe three months, maybe one month, maybe just one week."

"..."

Alison ignored the change in Raul Bradley’s expression and continued: “Go back today. Miss Henstridge can choose a house in Los Angeles. ICM only needs to hand over the bill to me.”

Raul Bradley hesitated and said, "Well, how much is the price?"

Alison glanced at Raul Bradley with interest, and said, "This, Miss Henstridge can choose by herself, as long as she finds it suitable."

Raul Bradley suddenly thought of some rumors in the circle, nodded, a little envious again in his heart.

Since Westero opened his mouth to choose whatever he wanted, even if it was a two- to three-million-dollar mansion, there was no problem. However, if you think about it carefully, if this is the case, for a certain vase, the maintenance of this mansion every year is probably a problem.

As a barely second-tier model, Natasha Henstridge's income is not high. Even if she relies on the opportunity of "Alien" to become famous, because of the positioning of the vase, it can still be regarded as a second-tier in the future.

Alison waited for a while and looked at the opposite middle-aged humanity: "One more thing, Mr. Bradley, did you bring Miss Henstridge’s medical report?"

"Oh, of course."

Raul Bradley flashed some weird expressions, but he quickly took out a document from his briefcase and handed it over.

Alison took the file and said nothing, looking through it seriously.