Hollywood New Century

"It seems that Simon is very dissatisfied with the Universal Pictures project. Basically, a "Fast and Furious 5" is not bad." After Simon left, Adam Ferguson said to Jean Mayer helplessly. .

Jean Mayer shook his head and said with a wry smile: "Who said no, you see that Marvel Studios now has two blockbusters every year, plus several popular series from Xinghai Pictures, and after the company is completed, It’s all distributed by Universal Pictures, and our own projects are indeed incomparable.”

""Robin Hood" is about to be released. This type of film has never been the type that Simon values." Adam Ferguson is now very worried that Universal Pictures will be in the same downturn this year as last year.

Jean Mayer has been immersed in Hollywood for decades, not only has a complex network of relationships, but also has been in charge of Universal for many years, and is wily.

"Xinghai Pictures has not respected the star effect from the very beginning, and has always been low-key in the use of big stars, relying mainly on the word-of-mouth and special effects of the plot," Jean Mayer understands, although many producers began to show concern for big stars last year. The high remuneration of stars cannot be said, but there are still many major filmmakers who are pursuing star effects.

It has become the norm for celebrities to ask companies for super-high salaries after a series of movies has become popular, especially in a series of movies that are dominated by one person.

"Simon said that the series "Fast and the Furious" should also know that Vin Diesel has a bad temper, but he is indeed indispensable in the series. "Adam Ferguson certainly understands, but this The series is the lifeline of Universal Pictures right now.

Jean Mayer smiled and said: "Don't worry, Simon understands very well, as long as it is not the only one, it can be replaced!"

With the various heavyweight IPs under Xinghai Pictures, Universal Pictures will be able to play more cards in the future. The "Fast and Furious" series has really reached the point where the budget is too high in the future, and the company has other alternatives. Taste.

Not to mention the ace Marvel series, the popularity of the "Twilight" series is not bad, and now another film adaptation of the youth literature "The Hunger Games" is in development.

Who can say for sure, isn't that the next Twilight?

"So many movie project plans are terminated at once, and the internal shock is indispensable." With so many layoffs, Adam Ferguson is still very worried.

There are also a lot of worries in Jean Mayer's deep eyes. Simon Parker is using the powerful appeal of Xinghai Pictures to reform Universal Pictures in one fell swoop.

Even if Universal Pictures does not have any projects this year, he is not worried, because the perfect Xinghai Pictures is enough.

The layoff of 1,200 people made Mayer know that this was Simon Pike's test for himself, and Nina Jacobson, who rose with Simon, was his direct descendant, ready to replace him at any time.

News of Simon's appearance at NBC and Universal headquarters in New York City couldn't help but go, and NBC Universal's re-split into NBC Television Network and Universal Entertainment soon followed.

Soon, the "San Francisco Chronicle" took the lead in throwing out that Universal Pictures had suspended more than 10 film projects that were in the preparatory stage.

Tekken, Super Battleship, and Tai Chi, Snow White and the Huntsman, and even The Bourne 4 and Les Miserables are among them.

Not only that, but another big news also caught people off guard. Jean Mayer announced that Xinghai Entertainment will lay off 1,200 people, the first of which are Universal Pictures and its independent film companies.

Many people in Hollywood know that the 1,200 layoffs this time must be from Universal Pictures and NBC.

Xinghai Entertainment was the runner-up in the North American box office market last year, and Universal Pictures, the bottom seven, of course, has to bear Simon's reform.

The old-fashioned and bloated production thinking has not kept up with the times, and it is a good time to clean up a group of Universal Pictures' management at all levels.

With the release of Universal Pictures' epic war blockbuster "Robin Hood" on May 14, starring Oscar winner Russell Crowe and local actress Cate Blanchett, director Ridley Scott is enough to attract attention. And it still cost a huge sum of 200 million US dollars. It is also a biographical film about the legendary British hero "Robin Hood". It should have a good harvest, but the result seems to be unsatisfactory. The film only collected 37.11 million US dollars in North America in the first week!

Originally, the $150 million monster movie "Wolfman" earned 62 million in North America and more than $75 million overseas, which was already uncomfortable.

Now, "Robin Hood", which cost 200 million US dollars in the first week, only opened for 37 million US dollars, and the word of mouth is not high. The film critics predict that whether the North American box office will exceed 100 million is a mystery.

Simon couldn't help but get angry, and Jean Mayer immediately accelerated the replacement of Universal Pictures, sending strong layoff emails to company employees one by one. At the same time, employees of Xinghai Pictures began to take over.

Manhattan, Lower City, 56 Leonard Street, Tribeca Street, the newly built modern science and technology building Xinghai Building is 792 feet high (about 241 meters), 52 stories high and covers an area of ​​66,000 square meters of skyscrapers.

Xinghai Building, which was completed at the beginning of the year, is a multi-functional complex building, shopping malls, playgrounds, conference office buildings, theaters, exhibition centers, restaurants, etc. Now the exterior decoration and most of the interior decoration have been completed.

The first company under Simon moved in was Xingchen Records under Xinghai, and then Nine Birds Capital.

The top three floors of Xinghai Building, the top floor is Simon's luxury residential area, and the lower two floors are the office headquarters of Nine Bird Capital.

Now Jiutou Capital is already a behemoth, not to mention its Phoenix Fund as an account management investment fund, as well as equity investment funds, venture capital technology funds, real estate investment funds, and hedge funds.

The Nine-headed Bird Fund and Nine-headed Bird Sports and Entertainment Company under Nine-headed Bird Capital are specially responsible for Simon's personal property management and investment.

"In the beginning, you made such a big move, not afraid of causing investors and creditors to worry?" Nancy Davis handed Simon a glass of red wine and said with a smile.

Of course, it is the major surgery that is going on on NBC and Universal, especially on Universal Pictures.

Xinghai Entertainment, since the acquisition of NBC Universal, Simon's own equity is now only 55.2%, but Nine Bird Capital also owns 16.8%, which is held by the equity investment fund under Nine Bird Capital.

However, isn't Nine-headed Bird Capital also owned by Simon, and the 16.8% equity will be distributed according to the proportion of investors' investment.

As for whether the reform of Universal Pictures will be too big now, Simon said with a smile: "Universal Pictures signed a platter investment agreement with Relativity Entertainment before, and now Ryan Kavallaug has contacted me after I took over the company. You can continue to increase the investment limit of the platter at any time.”

Ryan Kavallaug is the chairman of Relativity Media and has a lot of connections on Wall Street. However, after having a cash cow like Marvel, the attractiveness of platter investment is gone, because it is possible to directly mortgage loans, and banks and funds still know a lot about explosive IP.

Nancy Davis smiled, and she was not too worried about Xinghai Entertainment. After all, even if Universal Pictures stopped project development for one year this year, it would not affect Xinghai Entertainment's market.