Hollywood Hunter

The term Vanity Fair is very interesting. The name comes first and the profit comes after.

Therefore, it can be seen that most people subconsciously rank the importance of fame and fortune.

However, for some people who have climbed to reach the top of the social pyramid, they often need to accumulate enough wealth before they can pursue fame.

This is basically the case regardless of the cultural background of the East and the West.

For Simon, the desire to show himself and to be noticeable is still a certain instinct from the depths of human genes.

Like a peacock opening the screen.

The entertainment industry is undoubtedly one of the most convenient channels to get outside attention. Hollywood is the core of the world's entertainment industry.

Therefore, from very early on, capitals or tycoons from all over the world have come forward and wanted to show their ambitions in Hollywood.

Especially in the past ten years or so, the British, French, Germans, Italians, Japanese, Australians, Canadians, and Americans... or set up film companies in Hollywood, or target Hollywood veterans Seven majors, or as a sole investor, cast movies, all kinds of things, very lively.

Simon also knew that many years later, it was the turn of the Chinese again.

As for the results, they basically came home after paying enough tuition for Hollywood natives.

Just because of the desire for Vanity Fair, no matter how many people are planted in it, they can't stop the continuous flow of latecomers.

The French Vivendi Group, which suddenly expressed interest in Disney, is the latest "latecomer".

Vivendi Group is a monopolistic water company established in the mid-nineteenth century in France. It is responsible for the urban water supply business of Paris, Lyon and other core French cities. It has gradually developed into a water, energy, construction, and transportation business. Diversified infrastructure giants.

Then, since the 1980s, Vivendi, which has been inheriting for a hundred years, also began its own transformation to Vanity Fair. First, it invested in France to establish the first payable cable station Canal+, and participated in film investment, probably because of conscious accumulation. His experience naturally turned his attention to Hollywood.

In recent years, several giants such as MGM, Paramount, and MCA have seen the Vivendi Group civet paws.

Of course, none of them succeeded.

This time, Vivendi made enough preparations and directly aimed at Disney.

In the original time and space, Disney in this period was in the 1990s because of the great success of a series of blockbuster films such as "Pretty Girls", "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin", and "The Lion King". In its heyday, the market value was as high as 20 billion US dollars, even surpassing Time Warner, which had not completely got rid of the debt quagmire left by the merger in the same period.

Because of the emergence of Simon, the once-popular Disney was firmly suppressed by Daenerys Entertainment. Not only did it lose a lot of blockbuster projects, its performance was tepid for several years, and a high-level infighting scandal broke out recently, which further impacted the stock price. The market value was less than 7 billion US dollars for a while.

Not only that, Disney is also the only and last major Hollywood film company that has not experienced a change of hands since the wave of acquisitions broke out in the 1980s. Even if it was Warner, the original merger was actually the acquisition of Warner Bros. by Time. It is just that the combined company was completely seized by the senior officials of Warner. This gave people the illusion of the Warner acquisition era.

Therefore, if Vivendi Group wants to realize its ambitions in Hollywood, Disney is the best choice and the only choice in the short term.

Daenerys Entertainment has just been listed for a week. Probably the Vivendi Group, which was finally determined by Daenerys’ stock price, officially contacted Disney executives. For some reason, this news appeared in the Los Angeles Times as soon as possible.

Moreover, the "Los Angeles Times" was obviously not friendly to this transaction. The news article unceremoniously mocked that the French were still resisting Disneyland’s invasion of French culture two years ago, and wanted to invade American culture in the blink of an eye.

In fact, Vivendi chose to acquire Disney because of Disneyland Paris.

This large-scale theme park costing US$5 billion before and after began to operate in 1992, and it fell directly into huge losses. In the past two years, its performance has not improved much, and it has even been on the verge of bankruptcy. The original ambitious "Euro Disney" name has also been changed. Became'Disney Paris'.

Although the French media continues to ridicule Disneyland Paris, in fact, the French government dare not let such a large theme park go bankrupt.

Because the huge Disneyland Paris has provided France with more than 40,000 permanent or temporary employment opportunities, and a comprehensive business circle involving more people has been formed around Disneyland Paris.

The European currency crisis two years ago plunged the French economy into recession. At this stage, the unemployment rate is as high as 9.1%. If Disneyland Paris goes bankrupt, it will not only leave a shocking mess, but will even directly affect the further deterioration of the Paris region's economy.

The failure of Paris Disney was largely due to the blindness and arrogance of Disney's management.

Now, if Vivendi can get Disney in the bag, the French can directly control the operation of Disneyland Paris.

As for Hollywood, the news of Vivendi’s contact with Disney was exposed by the Los Angeles Times under Simon’s instruction.

Since Sony’s acquisition of Columbia five years ago, the U.S. media has been calling for the federal government to take measures to stop foreign capital’s invasion of the U.S. cultural industry. Film companies and major public television networks in the United States can merge and integrate each other in order to resist foreign capital acquisitions.

The public opinion turmoil that began in March caused a series of bills related to the Westeros system to be stranded, including the reopening of the media integration ban, which has been almost on the doorstep.

The relationship between the United States and France has never been considered harmonious.

This time, Simon wanted to use the power of public opinion to force Congress to start a vote as soon as possible to lift the media integration ban.

Otherwise, if another Hollywood giant is acquired by foreigners, half of Hollywood will become the purse of overseas capital, which is very unacceptable to Americans who also have no lack of national pride and hinders media integration. The two houses of Congress, where the ban is lifted, will definitely become targets of media attacks.

As for Daenerys Entertainment, after the media integration ban is lifted, it can further enter the traditional television industry.

Ohio.

The time is Monday, July 11.

In the new box office week that started last Friday, North American theaters once again launched two new heavyweight films, namely "True Lies" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and the romance film "I" starring Julia Roberts. Love trouble.

However, the most watched movie these days is "Forrest Gump".

Simon spent the weekend with his family in Los Angeles, and flew to Ohio early on Monday morning.

The private military force of the Westeros system "Military Consulting and Security Service Company" (MCSA), which directly reports to Simon personally, has undergone preparations for this period of time. The preparations have taken shape through the former owner of the Victoria's Secret parent company LTD Group, Leslie Weike With the help of Snell, Simon purchased 12,000 acres of land in the mountainous area of ​​Southern Ohio, his hometown of Wexner, as a training base for MCSA.

Ohio is located in the interior of the United States. Placing the training base here can avoid outside attention as much as possible.

The 50-square-kilometer training base is located in a valley surrounded by mountains on three sides. The surrounding hills and a winding river are also enclosed in this private territory.

Unlike the European side, Simon's expectation of MCSA is that it is not expensive. Therefore, within two months, under the operation of Celia Miller, Dan Rubier and Martin Stillman, MCSA For the time being, only 150 permanent members were recruited, of which 50 were former U.S. military officers at all levels and 100 were former U.S. Special Forces soldiers.

The first stage of these people's tasks is to improve the construction of the training base and start operations, and train a group of female bodyguards for the Westeros family.

In addition to the 150 employees who have already joined the MCSA, Celia Miller was also responsible for recruiting 100 young girls with various sports skills from all state universities in the United States, basically between 18 and 22 years old, freshman It doesn't wait until the senior year.

The Americans' concept of academic qualifications is far less intense than the Chinese.

The good treatment of the Wei family waitresses is well known. Therefore, most girls are willing to give up their current studies after receiving an interview invitation.

After a rigorous first stage screening, Celia selected 100 girls from more than 2,000 candidates. This group of people undergoes rigorous training and will eventually retain only 20 to 30 people, and most of them will still be eliminated. However, Westeros may promise that girls who have been eliminated can return to school. Westeros will not only complete relevant communications with their alma mater in advance, but will also provide girls with a one-time scholarship of $50,000.

At more than two o'clock in the afternoon, Simon saw the girls who were training for the first time at the MCSA training base near Fulston, southern Ohio.

The training content of bodyguards and soldiers is very different.

Therefore, some MCSA instructors will actually only be responsible for the firearms, physical fitness and fighting training of these girls. When it comes to professional skills such as guards, communications, and monitoring, they will be recruited by Westeros. The Secret Service instructors and professional agents from the CIA are responsible.

On the edge of the shooting range with bursts of gunshots, after watching a row of tall, well-proportioned girls in camouflage uniforms shooting at gunpoints, Simon looked around again.

Around the open shooting range, there are at least four obvious cameras. The entire training field is basically covered by the camera.

Simon also knows that the monitoring center connected to these cameras is not inside the training base, but the monitoring center in Columbus, the capital of Ohio, 100 kilometers away, and the Dome Point Manor Monitoring Center in Los Angeles, which can also access monitoring images here at any time.

The reason for this, the long-term consideration is to maintain the monitoring of this training base.

In the short term, it is to 100% ensure the absolute safety of the 100 trained girls in the shooting range at this time.

These girls with heights between 175CM and 180CM generally have athletic skills such as track and field, basketball, and fighting. Compared with ordinary women, they actually have considerable self-protection ability.

Unfortunately, this is a military camp.

The proportion of female soldiers in the federal army who have been sexually assaulted is shocking, and a group of girls who can be stronger than ordinary people is still unlikely to have much strength in front of the former US special forces.

Simon doesn't want the girls who will serve as the closest female guards of the Westeros to suffer similar injuries in the future.

Therefore, not only is the strict monitoring of the training venues, but the trainees do not live inside the base on weekdays, but the nearby city of Fulston. At the same time, there are also a considerable proportion of women among the various instructors. Strict preventive training regulations.

Just in case, the girls are even directly prohibited from contacting members other than the base instructor.

Celia, who was still in a black OL suit, noticed the gaze of the man next to him, followed it up and couldn't help but said with a smile: "Simon, I think you are not training a bodyguard, but raising a daughter ."

Simon retracted his gaze, glanced at the woman next to him, and smiled: "Do you like this kind of PLAY? We can try if we take the time."

Celia realized it after a little thought, and turned a reddish look at the man: "I mean, your desire to protect the women next to you is too strong."

Simon said: "Actually you want to say'possessive', right?"

Celia hesitated a little, but did not deny it.

Simon also did not deny, saying: "Of course this is possessiveness, very pure possessiveness from males. Since these girls have entered my territory, I will naturally avoid them becoming targets of other males."

Celia flickered a few times and suddenly asked a somewhat sharp question: "What about yourself?"

Simon glanced sideways at the woman next to him, with a naturally evil smile on the corner of his mouth: "Of course I am an exception. In my territory, everything is mine, including you."

"You," Celia's eyes widened slightly, but couldn't help avoiding the man's gaze, and said, "You are like a lion on the grassland."

Simon did not respond again.

Celia didn't know that she was not the first woman to feel this way.

After being silent for a while, Celia took the initiative again: "Boss, why are you not talking?"

Simon said: "What?"

Celia deliberately showed a bit of teasing: "Is it embarrassing to be exposed in person by me?"

Simon looked at the girls who started to gather here under the signal of the instructor after completing several sets of training, and said, "Celia, you must have known my growth experience."

The woman paused and nodded.

Simon said: "For you, or for most people in this world, since childhood, what you have received is very orthodox education in human social civilization. You will think that this world is bright and beautiful. Yes, even now, you at least think that this world is full of order. But I am not."

Celia did not answer, waiting for the man to continue.

Simon did not pause too much, and quickly said: "For me, I have lived at the bottom of this society since I was a child. The world in my eyes is cruel. If you are not strong enough, you will only be eliminated. Later, I stood where I am now. In my eyes, the top of the pyramid of this society is still cruel and the weak and the strong. Therefore, I am different from you and have always been different. My outlook on life has grown from childhood to large. It’s always the weak and the strong. You just asked me if I am embarrassed. Unfortunately, your moral code does not apply to me. In my eyes, the strong have everything. And the weak, if you can’t become strong, there should be weak Consciousness."