Hollywood Hunter

An open-air restaurant on the mountainside of Beverly Hills.

In the rising sun, two Hollywood bigwigs, Barry Diller and Michael Eisner, sat leisurely on the terrace overlooking Los Angeles.

After ordering food, Michael Eisner told Barry Diller: "You shouldn't have seen the box office report last week yet? $13.88 million, a cumulative total of 53.85 million in three weeks. Goldberg won't make it again this year So embarrassing."

Today is Friday, May 1.

Michael Eisner did not mention the name of the film, but Barry Diller knew that at the moment this kind of unpopular movie can get a movie with a weekly gross of more than 10 million US dollars at the box office, and now only the "Butterfly Effect" that is still released by Fox This part.

Due to the focus on the operation of the Fox TV network, Barry Diller really did not pay much attention to the film business, asking: "What about "Roller Run"?"

Michael Eisner's expression became more emotional, shaking his head slightly, saying: "7.59 million US dollars, a total of 175.6 million, Orion can only earn more than 80 million from the box office. Plus "Field Platoon", From February to now, Orion’s stock price has tripled, and its market value is now close to $1 billion. It is said that Summer Redstone and John Kruger are both planning to take control of Orion."

Barry Diller also felt a little weird, remembering a young man who was talking all around during this time, could not help saying: "It's a miraculous little guy, maybe I should find time to see."

Michael Eisner smiled: "If you want to see him, you can go to Burbank with me later."

Barry Diller made a puzzled look.

The waiter brought the breakfast for the two at this time. The conversation was suspended for a moment. When the waiter left, Michael Eisner picked up the tableware and ate breakfast. Then he said: "That little guy started a production company. Have you heard?"

Barry Diller nodded with a smile and said, "Of course, Daenerys Pictures also digs out one of our Fox production vice presidents."

Michael Eisner smiled in misfortune, then went on: "Daenerys Pictures is looking for a film release cooperation, Disney should be one of their choices. In addition, Simon Westero also handed over a The animated script is for us, and I want to commission Disney to produce it. I made an appointment with Amy Pascal and officially talked today. Wait for someone to make a phone call and let Westeros come together."

Barry Diller nodded and paused, but shook his head gently.

The two were colleagues during the ABC period, and Michael Eisner knew Barry Diller very well.Noting his small movements, he understood that the shaking of his head was actually aimed at Ronald Goldberg.

Simon Westeros has collaborated with Fox Pictures on two films. "The Grim Reaper" may be yet to be verified, but "Butterfly Effect" has been very successful.In this case, Fox should have been the best partner for Daenerys Pictures.

Now, Ronald Goldberg clearly gave up another chance.

In fact, Michael Eisner doesn't really like Ronald Goldberg.However, he also understood the deep friendship between Ronald Goldberg and Barry Diller, so he said: "This is not really to blame Ronald. That film, director and screenwriter are not Westeros himself , The script is also more anti-mainstream. Daenerys Pictures is not only willing to give up the distribution rights of the film's local cinema, but also wants to Easter next year."

Barry Diller finished listening silently and asked, "What about you?"

"Eastern next year, we originally planned to rerun "Bambi", plus there is no release pressure for a live-action movie. And, you should have watched "Laura Run", although the success of this movie exists There are many accidental factors, but Westero's film skills are absolutely impeccable. I plan to take the opportunity to sign several of his films." Michael Eisner finished and smiled again: "So,

...

When Barry Diller and Michael Eisner had breakfast together, a little earlier, Simon also woke up in his Century Mansion apartment.

The place is the study.

Sighing that the bachelor's life was really bleak, Simon packed up a pile of financial books by the sofa and got up and walked to the writing board embedded in the study wall.

The large writing board is now drawn with two general charts of the Dow Jones Index and the S&P 500 index in the next few months, as well as various dense surroundings mixed with Chinese, French, Spanish, Hebrew and other languages Text annotation.

It is never easy to retrieve this information from more than ten memories in my mind, sometimes it is just a flash of thought.Therefore, it took Simon a week to get this.

Just in case, Simon did not use English annotations, and the other several languages ​​are all suggestive discourses that only he can understand. Except for the two exponential charts, others are probably unlikely even if they are found. understand.

After looking around for a while, I carefully wiped out the two trend charts that have been drawn many times and have been completely engraved in my mind, leaving only scattered text annotations before Simon left the study.

In the morning, the supporting role audition for "Pulp Fiction" was originally arranged. Simon received a call from Amy at breakfast. Michael Eisner hoped that he could personally participate in today's meeting, so he had to temporarily change the schedule.

At eight o'clock, Simon first met with Amy, and then rushed to the headquarters of the Disney company in Burbank.

The secretary took the two to a conference room. After Simon entered the door, he found that in addition to Michael Eisner, there was another middle-aged man sitting at the conference table.Moreover, he immediately recognized the identity of the other party, the chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox, Barry Diller.

Everyone greeted each other, Simon and Michael Eisner shook hands and reached Barry Diller again, smiling: "Mr. Diller, it’s nice to meet you, your high-concept film mode makes all of us filmmakers Benefit a lot."

Barry Diller and Simon shook hands. Hearing this, he pointed to the "When Harry Meets Sally" script he was just flipping through. He asked slightly: "However, Simon, I found something about you. A few of the projects are not high-concept movies?"

Simon noticed that Amy and Esna both looked at themselves with interest, waiting for his answer, and smiled easily: "Daenerys is still a child, and children can be more creative. Yes. When I grow up, I am sure to be quite satisfactory."

Barry Diller saw Simon make a decent and unambiguous answer without thinking, and couldn't help but raised his eyebrows and said, "I'm looking forward to seeing how Daenerys film has grown up."

With that said, everyone sat down together at the conference table, and Simon saw that Michael Eisner didn't mean to talk about the business immediately, and understood that today the two big brothers specifically called him out, just want to see themselves.

In this case, Simon did not miss the opportunity before him and continued to tell Barry Diller: "Mr. Diller, I heard that you are helping Mr. Murdoch to improve the Fox TV network. Perhaps, we can cooperate next year."

Barry Diller looked at the young man sitting opposite him and asked, "Why not this year? Simon, this month is the launch season. If you have a good idea, you can go to New York recently."

The North American television network determines the new year's television program every May.As a result, this month every year, program producers in North America and around the world will gather in New York to promote their TV programs to the TV network through various promotional events.

Simon shook his head and said: "Daenerys Pictures will definitely have no chance this year. Our strength is still too weak. But next year will not necessarily be."

Barry Diller said: "Simon, do you mean that Daenerys Pictures only needs a year to'grow up'?"

"Of course not," Simon shook his head. "I mean, WGA may strike next year. By then, Daenerys Pictures may be able to get some opportunities."

Now if Daenerys Pictures wants to cooperate with the TV network, even if they have good ideas, the best result is just to be bought for creativity, and then the TV network commissions Daenerys Pictures to produce.The most important copyright must belong to the TV network.

What Simon is looking forward to is like the powerful program producers such as Warner and Universal, but only sells the first round of broadcasting rights to the TV network, and other channels of distribution are still in their hands.Only in this way can Daenerys Pictures get the most benefit.

However, to achieve this goal in the short term, Daenerys Pictures can only seize the opportunity of next year's major TV networks being unable to produce enough TV programs due to the impact of screenwriter strikes.

Barry Diller heard the explanation from the young man in front of him, but said: "Simon, should you also be a member of the Screenwriting Association? If the WGA announces a strike next year, don't you plan to participate?"

Simon shook his head and said: "Barry, I am not a member of WGA, and I have no plans to join WGA."

Barry Diller heard it and couldn't help looking at Simon again for a moment. Then he smiled and took out a business card from his suit pocket and handed it over, saying, "I'm really happy to meet you, Simon. What can I do? Call me."

"of course."

Simon agreed, taking over Barry Diller's business card, and also took a business card and handed it over.

Barry Diller put away Simon's business card and got up to say goodbye.

Barry Diller was sent away, and the three returned to the meeting room to sit down.

Michael Eisner opened the memo in front of him, almost subconsciously did not pay attention to Amy Pascal who had been in contact with himself several times, and said directly to Simon: "About the cooperation of "When Harry Meets Sally" , Simon, Disney can give you an Easter schedule with a guarantee of 1,000 screens. However, our requirement is that you need to sign two director films with Disney. The script can be written by you in person or provided by Disney. The pay depends on the project The specific situation depends on the situation. As for "The Lion King", Disney's animation department will not work for others. So, we hope to buy this script, $300,000, what do you think?"

Before this meeting, Michael Eisner had intended to kill the above conditions.

However, the conversation between Simon and Barry Diller just lingered in my mind, recalling the deeds of the young man in front of him this year, Michael Eisner almost instinctively felt that Disney should discuss this cooperation. Down, so there was a final conclusion that can be discussed.