Hollywood Hunter

In a blink of an eye it came to July 21st, Thursday.

Michael Eisner woke up early in the morning in the Plaza Hotel suite in Manhattan, New York. He rushed to the East Coast yesterday to persuade Sid Buss, the current owner of the Bath family, to give up the idea of ​​selling Disney.

Although the Bath family originated in Texas, many members of the family like to live in New York for a long time.

Arranged to have breakfast today, Michael Eisner got up and took care of himself. He was about to leave the hotel suite when the doorbell rang suddenly.

The slightly hurried doorbell gave Michael Eisner a bad feeling inexplicably.

Opening the door, two middle-aged men stood outside the door of the suite, namely Sandy Littlewater, the vice president and head of the legal department of Disney, and Bill Michalnick, the president of the home entertainment department.

This is after Jeffrey Katzenberg’s sudden departure from Michael Ovitz and staying on the sidelines, Michael Eisner urgently selected two executives who intend to succeed Disney’s next president and studio president.

Michael Eisner knows very well that in order to persuade the Bath family to reject Vivendi’s acquisition, Disney must stabilize itself as soon as possible.

Although Ovitz could not be invited to join, the two candidates in front of him were not chosen by Michael Eisner at random.

The Legal Department has always been one of Disney’s core departments that pay attention to copyright operations. Disney’s ridiculous titles such as "Copyright Madness" and "California Pizza Hut" and the drawing of a Mickey Mouse after living on a deserted island can attract Disney planes to help. The jokes were made by the Disney Legal Department.

Sandy Littlewater, as the head of the legal department holding the title of Disney's vice president, has always reported directly to Eisner himself.

Not only that, the current president Frank Wells also happened to be a lawyer. Over the years, he has cooperated with Eisner tacitly and now has Sandy Litwater take over the position of Frank Wells, and he is very much in front of Disney’s board of directors and major shareholders. Easy to gain recognition.

Another Bill Michanick can be described as Michael Eisner's "direct line". At the beginning, Bill Michanick joined Eisner from Paramount to Disney. He has been in charge of Disney's home entertainment department for these years.

When he first joined Disney, Eisner and other management's overall valuation of Disney's film library was only $200 million. However, under the operation of Bill Michalnick, the re-released Disney classic animated film and video tapes continued to sell, among which only the "Cinderella" video tape sold 6 million boxes, with a revenue of 180 million US dollars.

Disney’s rapid recovery in the late 1980s contributed to the large sums of cash provided by video tape sales.

Therefore, Bill Michalnick also has enough qualifications to take over the position of president of Katzenberg Studios.

Seeing the two subordinates appearing dignifiedly in front of him at this time, Michael Eisner wanted to pretend to let them into the room easily, but before he could speak, Sandy Litwater had already A newspaper was handed over: "Michael, you may need to read this."

Michael Eisner raised his hand and took the newspaper.

This is a "Hollywood Reporter", as one of the most popular professional film newspapers in the industry, "Hollywood Reporter" is also on sale at the East Coast Film Center in New York.

Without special guidance from Litwater, Michael Eisner saw the blacked-out headline on the front page of the newspaper at a glance: "Daenerys Entertainment is about to launch the Universal Studios Europe Project."

Just after reading the title, Michael Eisner felt his heart tighten slightly.

Disneyland Paris, which has been in business for more than two years, has not improved, and it is Disney's biggest weakness at present.

Stimulated by the success of Tokyo Disneyland that year, the original US$1 billion European Disneyland project snowballed to US$5 billion. It also suffered from the loss of Tokyo Disneyland’s use of copyright fees and no investment in investment. Disney accounted for the European Disneyland project. Half of the equity share, most of which comes from borrowing.

Disney currently has a total debt of 5.3 billion US dollars, of which 2.5 billion US dollars are brought by Disneyland Paris.

If Disney maintains the same growth momentum as in the late 1980s, this part of the debt may not be a big deal. Now, Disney's film business is sluggish, and even the major theme parks that lack fresh IP injection are also implicated. Now the interest generated by the huge annual debt is already a huge burden for Disney.

With multiple shares in Disneyland, Disney's net assets have reached US$12.8 billion, but the current market value is only half of the net assets, which is largely dragged down by Disneyland Paris, which is struggling in the mud.

The operating conditions of Disneyland Paris are unsatisfactory. If there is one more movie theme park from Hollywood in Europe, and Daenerys Entertainment Group, which has a lot of classic blockbuster IP resources, will inevitably divert to Disneyland Paris. The source of customers has made Disneyland Paris worse.

Originally intended to let the two subordinates enter the room, because of his inner worries, Michael Eisner stood directly at the door and began to read the news on the "Hollywood Reporter".

The eye-catching picture on the press release was a photo of Bruce Peck, president of Daenerys Theme Park, leading the team during a tour near the Colosseum in the Italian capital.

The Westeros system has had many layouts in Italy in recent years, and all sectors of politics and business are closely connected. The location of Universal Studios Europe first considers Italy, which is completely expected.

The news article opens with an introduction to Bruce Peck and his party who have suddenly appeared in major cities in Europe in the past few days to conduct a site visit for Universal Studios Europe.

Not only that, after the reporter of the "Hollywood Reporter" called Daenerys Entertainment's media public relations department, although the other party did not disclose too much, they gave a positive answer on the Universal Studios Europe project. Daenerys Entertainment did intend to Build a movie theme park in Europe.

Subsequently, the "Hollywood Reporter" simply contacted several core executives of Daenerys Entertainment, and obtained a short telephone interview from Mark Belford, vice president of Daenerys Entertainment's global operations, and briefly talked about Europe. Things about Universal Studios.

Mark Belford said that the overall film market in Europe is far larger than Japan. For brand marketing and other considerations, it is imperative for Daenerys Entertainment Group to build its own movie theme park in Europe.

Of course, reporters will not forget to talk about Disneyland Paris.

Mark Belford did not criticize the extremely failed Disneyland Paris. Instead, he said that Disneyland Paris had more than 10 million visitors each year in the past two years, which proves that Europeans also like movie theme parks. The failure of Disney in Paris is largely a failure of Disney in planning and management.

Mark Belford also stated that Daenerys Entertainment’s Universal Studios Europe will try to avoid making the mistakes of Disneyland Paris. For example, first of all, in terms of site selection, this time it will definitely choose the Mediterranean coast, which is like spring all year round. It is not Paris, which can only open for half a year because of the climate.

Of course it is an exaggeration to only open for half a year each year.

However, Paris, with its four distinct seasons, enters the theme park off-season as soon as winter arrives, and the passenger flow has dropped significantly. This is indeed a major mistake in the original site selection process.

In the initial site selection phase, Disney actually considered this issue.

It's just that Disney didn't conduct more detailed research, instead it rigidly applied Tokyo Disney's successful experience to Paris Disney.

Tokyo also has four distinct seasons, but the Japanese are very willing to wait in line in the cold wind to visit Disneyland.

Therefore, the Disney planning team took it for granted that Europeans would also be willing to continue to Disneyland Paris in the cold winter.

In the two years since its opening, the fact that Disneyland Paris's passenger traffic has dropped significantly in winter proves that Disney's original idea was so wrong.

Because of France's strict labor security laws, the number of tourists has decreased significantly in winter, but Disney Paris cannot lay off a large number of redundant employees during the off-season, which has caused serious staff redundancy. This is also an important reason for the continuous loss of Disneyland Paris in the past two years.

Michael Eisner regretted more than once in the past two years why he didn't fix the location of Euro Disneyland on the Mediterranean coast.

The Mediterranean coast is the birthplace of the most authentic Mediterranean climate and is very suitable for tourism consumption throughout the year.

Of course regretting now will not help.

The headline in front of me, although Daenerys Entertainment did not talk too much about the failure of Disneyland Paris, Michael Eisner can almost imagine that with the news that Daenerys Entertainment is about to establish a movie theme park in Europe , The most direct impact is certainly Disneyland Paris.

There is no need to wait for other media to fall into trouble. After the headlines, there is an article from the "Hollywood Reporter" that counts the failures of Disneyland Paris.

Serious mistakes in the early planning, the budget out of control due to great success, the arrogance and arrogance of the management caused many cultural incompatibility incidents, the downhill of Disney in recent years has made the theme park lack of new projects and the playability has seriously declined, etc.

Standing stiffly at the door of the hotel suite after reading two articles in a row, a layer of fine sweat oozes from Michael Eisner's forehead.

If it were other times, Daenerys Entertainment exposed the news that it was about to build a movie theme park in Europe, at most it would only impact Disney's stock price, perhaps causing the media to jump out and comment on Disneyland Paris.

However, at the time when Vivendi is preparing to acquire Disney, suddenly this kind of news came out. It is conceivable that this incident will inevitably seriously affect the already low confidence of many shareholders in Disney.

Furthermore, Michael Eisner thought that once Disney was acquired, Vivendi Group would definitely not leave him as the ‘culprit’ in the media’s mouth that made Disney fall into recession and turmoil.

For 10 years in charge of Disney, Michael Eisner’s foundation is entirely on this film company. If he leaves at the bottom of Disney, unless he stands on his own as Jeffrey Katzenberg, otherwise, the entire Hollywood There will no longer be his position, which means that his career will be completely over.

Michael Eisner is only 47 years old this year. He is not Frank Wells, who is over 60. He is in his prime and he is reluctant to experience retirement now.

Thinking of the bleak prospects he might face, Michael Eisner only felt that the suffocation in his heart became stronger and stronger, his chest stabbed, his vision began to blur, and the voices of the two subordinates in front of him suddenly appeared as tinnitus. Became vaguely uncertain.

Sandy Littlewater and Bill Michalnik realized that they were wrong and quickly stepped forward to help them, and when they looked again, the pale-faced Michael Eisner was in a coma.

Simon immediately received the news that Michael Eisner had a heart attack.

He was in the Woodside Mountain Villa in the Bay Area.

Robert Egger called from New York. It was not five o'clock in the morning on the West Coast, and it was just a bit bright outside.

After standing by the window of the master bedroom, Simon didn't know what to say for a moment.

Michael Eisner has a family hereditary heart disease. Simon has known for a long time. It happened to be around 1994 that Michael Eisner had undergone a life-and-death heart surgery because of the high risk of surgery. Sna had even made his will in advance.

did not expect.

Is this a repeat of history?

However, Katzenberg resigns, Wells is about to retire, and now Michael Eisner is suddenly ill. Coupled with the fire that Daenerys Entertainment has just added, Simon does not believe that many Disney shareholders are still confident. Continue to hold stocks in this company.

If you don't sell it now, Disney may become less and less valuable in the future.

A petite figure behind him leaned in silently like a cat, hugged him on his waist, and rubbed his cheek, and asked sleepily, "Simon, what's the matter?"

This is little Jenny.

Having said that this week's abstinence, Simon's persistence is not lacking.

Last night, even the elves of waist and legs who were recently in San Francisco rushed to the guest room, but the little fairy said that he was still a child and didn’t understand anything. It was just that he would be afraid to sleep alone at night. Barabara, in short, the success depends on Simon.

Simon didn't insist on this little fairy who could deal with it with just one finger.

Turning around and taking the girl's light body back to the big bed, Simon said, "It's still early to go to bed."

The little fairy who wore a pink pajamas and looked like a doll saw that Simon went to the bathroom to wash first. After he came out, he began to dress and got out of bed. He graciously helped a little, expecting: "Simon, let's go out together. Are you running?"

Simon tapped her head gently: "It's me. It's troublesome to be found with you."

The little fairy looked innocent with fake luoli: "It's okay, I'm just a little girl."

Simon couldn't help but squeezed her face, and smiled: "That would only be worse."

With that said, put on a sports vest and shorts, and enjoy the Japanese-style kneeling service that the little fairy deliberately made. Let her put on sneakers for herself. Simon left the villa and started the morning run with two bodyguards. .

For safety reasons, Neil Bennett and Ken Dixon, who are in charge of the security affairs of the Westeros family, have not recommended Simon to take a similar morning jog before, but Simon has not agreed. If he does not even have this freedom, What's the meaning of life.

Worry about safety, just make the environment safer.

The Westeros family now raises so many people, isn't it just for this.

As a result, in addition to the two groups of eight-person bodyguards in Simon's Villa, there are five additional groups of men and horses distributed in several other properties in the mountain. Three groups are in the light and two groups are in the dark. Around Simon's morning jog route, the Westeros family's security team has quietly installed cameras and other monitoring equipment to ensure that no one will approach this area.

Simon felt nothing wasted about this.

The Westeros family does raise a lot of people now, both on the surface and in the dark.

Simon sends out a lot of tasks that seem to be meaningless, such as monitoring the three of Gralf's mother and daughter 24 hours a day, the main purpose is to prevent these people from having nothing to do and causing slack. Simon firmly believes that any team can only keep running smoothly at all times to avoid losing vitality.