Hollywood Hunter

Perhaps due to the chaos of jet lag, Sophia Fessie didn't sleep well all night, but still didn't get much tired in the early morning.

Naturally, the night raid did not happen.

I don’t know if it’s fortunate or lost, but I think it might just be a prank by Janet.

The sky turned on and the housekeeper got out of bed.Simply choose something, put on a slightly professional white shirt and black slim trousers, look at the dressing mirror with satisfaction, and walk out of the room.

It was just six o'clock in the morning.

Accidentally encountered Simon in the corridor who just got up, wearing black vest shorts and sneakers, should be going to fitness.Subconsciously glanced at the muscle lines of the men's vest, which is no less than that of professional athletes. Sophia Fisci was inexplicably guilty, but she still greeted herself calmly and calmly: "Good morning, Simon."

"Early," Simon was also surprised. He stopped and looked at the woman's serious dress, teasing: "Are you going to work?

The housekeeper who was absolutely very talkative on weekdays felt Simon's eyes and suddenly didn't know how to answer Simon's joke.

Simon sensed the restraint of the woman and quickly added: "It's very beautiful. In fact, I like how women wear professional suits."

Sophia Fishy finally responded: "Oh, thank you."

Simon smiled and said, "Since you are already up, help prepare breakfast. I happen to be lazy."

"Okay," Sophia Fishy nodded and followed Simon to the living room, asking, "What do you and Jenny like to eat in the morning?"

"Just look at the ingredients in the kitchen and prepare them at will. Jenny and I are not picky about these," Simon said, jokingly again: "Of course, if it's too unpalatable, I might be deducting your salary as the boss. "

After half an hour of fitness, Simon took a bath and changed his clothes, no need to prepare breakfast, so he sat in the living room and read today's newspaper.

Today is already August 30, Tuesday.

Last week's "Forbes" list of arguments continued, Simon was with Peter Butler for dinner last night, and the "Los Angeles Times" published a colorful interview today.

In addition, although only an intention agreement was reached with Terry Semel, Warner could not wait to announce in today’s "Hollywood Reporter" that Warner Bros. Pictures was about to launch "Batman" with Daenerys Entertainment. News of other project cooperation.

Warner Bros. has officially started merger negotiations with Time Inc. in recent months.As a listed company, timely release of such good news clearly helps to stimulate Warner's stock price.

Obviously, I saw the news in today's newspaper, but just for a short period of time before breakfast, Simon received consecutive test calls from Disney, Fox and Orion.Created six consecutive big-selling movies that are enough to squeeze into the top ten of the annual list, Daenerys Entertainment is now a partner that all major Hollywood studios are eagerly chasing.

Simon does not intend to completely cut off the cooperation with the Seventh Congress in the next few years, but he will not expand this scale of cooperation too much, so he just perfunctory on the phone.

So until seven o'clock, Sofia was ready for breakfast, Janet had already got up, and everyone sat together in the dining room.

Last night, because of Sofia’s affairs, Simon was ruined.

Simon glanced at Janet: "As a girlfriend, don't you feel ashamed to say this?"

Janet blinked innocently: "Why am I ashamed?"

Simon rolled his eyes helplessly.

Sophia smiled, but didn't intervene.

Simon took a few sips of corn sweet soup and said that the business was right: "A total of five people from the company will go to Australia with us this time. You said you are responsible for this trip. How are you preparing?"

Jenny said, "I've done it long ago. I rented a Boeing 767. If you are sure that there will be no further delay, we will leave at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. We can rush to Melbourne on September 1 at 5 p.m. , Fly straight, no need to stop halfway."

Simon recalled some of the information he had read, saying: "Boeing 767, this is Boeing's mid-size jet airliner. Are you sure you are flying straight to Melbourne?"

"Of course, this is an ultra-long-range Boeing 767-200ER with a standard full-load and heavy endurance of more than 12,000 kilometers. However, if it is used as a private jet, it has no problem with an endurance of 16,000 kilometers. Los Angeles to Melbourne is less than 13,000 kilometers. ."

Sophia heard Janet say this: "Boeing 767 is a twin-engine passenger plane, should it be subject to dual-engine extended flight restrictions?"

Double-engine extended-range flight is a requirement of the International Civil Aviation Organization to ensure the flight safety of a dual-engine passenger aircraft. Any point meets the alternate landing airport within 120 minutes.The cruise speed of subsonic jetliners is usually within 1,000 kilometers, and it is difficult to meet this requirement for trans-Pacific flights involving tens of thousands of kilometers.

Janet shook her head: "Private jets are not subject to this restriction."

Simon also probably knew some of the restrictions, but he didn't care too much and asked Sophia: "When are you going to return to Europe?"

Sophia heard this, but looked at Janet.

Janet said: "I stopped a manuscript from a nurse in the Watsonville hospital a few days ago. In order to prevent those people from continuing nonsense, I want George and Sofia to contact some people to sign a confidentiality agreement."

Simon paused. He was not taboo about his previous experience at the Watsonville Psychiatric Hospital, but he did not want to be repeatedly discussed about this matter. After thinking about it, he said, "I will wait with Henry. Dr. Chapman called on the phone, and he took great care of me at the time. George and Sofia went over there and could ask him to help with this matter."

Jenny characteristically said: "I was going to do this."

If George and Sofia come directly to the door and ask Dr. Chapman to sign a confidentiality agreement without discrimination, it will definitely hurt.But if Dr. Chapman cooperates with George and Sofia to do this, it means pulling the other party to Simon's side, and still keeping a favor.

Now that Janet thought of this, Simon stopped talking.

Janet is usually lazy and careless, but Simon knows that she is smarter and more careful than most people.If it wasn’t for you to ask yourself, the woman might have handled this matter in private.

Because this trip to Australia was not just for work, Simon rushed back to Malibu in the afternoon to prepare with Janet.

Get up early the next day and rush to Los Angeles International Airport at six o'clock. At seven o'clock, everyone is here and a Boeing 767 slides from the airport runway to the sky on time.

Compared with Simon’s Gulfstream IV, which only has 20 passengers, Janet rented a standard Boeing 767-200ER with more than 200 passengers.However, the leasing company transformed it into a passenger and cargo aircraft. Except for the luxury cabin that can seat about 30 people in the front section of the fuselage, most of the space has been cleared out, which also greatly reduces the basic weight of the aircraft and maximizes the savings. Oil endurance.

In the cabin at this time, in addition to the crew of four pilots and four stewardesses, Simon and his party had a total of nine people, Simon and Janet, Neil Bennett and Ken Dixon, and Daenerys Entertainment including Simon Five employees including personal assistant Jennifer.

In the 1980s, there was no direct commercial flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne. It usually required two transfers from Los Angeles via Hawaii and Sydney to reach Melbourne. The whole process may take more than 20 hours.

Because there is no need for a stopover, Simon's group traveled for about 16 hours.

There is an 18-hour time difference between Los Angeles and Melbourne. It departs at 7 o'clock in the morning on August 31. When it is expected to arrive, the local time is 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

As long as 16 hours of flight time, Simon will not waste.

In an office in the cabin.

Simon was about to read through a pile of materials he was going to read during his trip to Australia, but Jennifer took out a package and said, "This was delivered from San Francisco yesterday afternoon, you were not in the office."

Simon took the package and looked at it. This was not a commercial express. The square box was simply attached with a signature using an oil pen: Steve Jobs.

Accidentally raising his eyebrows, Simon opened the package, which contained a video cassette and a page of notes.

Simon handed the tape to Jennifer and picked up the page of notes. There was only a short sentence on it: Simon, if you are interested in Pixar, you can call me.

Then there is a series of phone numbers.

Jennifer put the video tape in the office's video recorder, and a 3D animation quickly appeared on the TV screen in the corner, titled "Silver Soldier".

After playing for a while, Jennifer turned around and actively explained: "I checked that this short film was released by Fox's "Long Wei Hu Jiang" early last month, and the industry's response was very good. In addition, Steve Jobs' NEXT The new release of the computer company was delayed again, and Pixar’s image computer sales were also very bleak. He urgently needed to get rid of this burden. Jobs took Pixar from Lucas for $5 million and invested another $5 million to keep the studio running. , A total of 70% of the shares are obtained, and the other 30% of the shares are in the hands of Pixar employees. Considering the Randerman rendering tools and other graphics software that Pixar has developed in the past two years, its current value should be around $20 million."

Simon listened to Jennifer's introduction and looked at the baby's appearance on the screen that was still very rough, and knew that it was already very rare to be able to achieve this level under Pixar's shortage of funds.

Simon finished the movie without delay, and picked up the phone on the desktop to dial the number on the note.

The phone was connected, and quickly transferred to Jobs.

The two were unfamiliar, just a few simple words, and Simon went straight to the point: "Steve, you can give me a quotation...30 million dollars? It's too high, you and I know that this is impossible...I am of course I really hope to get Pixar, but you should also know about the effects of Daenerys. Frankly speaking, I am only interested in the Randerman rendering system of Pixar. With this software, Daenerys effects can save a lot. For half a year, even if you only contact me in March next year, I may not need this company anymore... 20 million US dollars, this is the highest price I have given, and this price is for the entire Pixar, you need to be responsible Convince Pixar employees to voluntarily give up their existing equity."

Simon did not intend to make too many concessions on the offer, and Jobs was obviously eager to get rid of Pixar without deliberate delay.

The two men bargained over some details on the phone, and the matter was basically finalized.Simon hung up the phone and connected to Jennifer's father again, asking James Rebled to contact Steve Jobs for a formal acquisition gesture.There wasn't much excitement in Simon's mind about this.

When he decided not to rely on Pixar's plans to make animated movies, Simon made up his mind. If he couldn't win the company, he would destroy it as much as possible.With his current strength, it is not difficult to achieve this.

In the memory, the reason why Pixar can continue until the successful production of "Toy Story" in the mid-nineties, the biggest reason is that Pixar graphics computers have gradually opened the market, and the biggest sales target is Disney.Therefore, if Simon wants to suppress Pixar, he only needs to reach an agreement with Disney and refuse to purchase image computers from Pixar.In contrast, Westero's heavyweight silicon drawing company also produces top-level graphics workstations. Simon does not even need to find additional reasons to do so. It is completely "legitimate" commercial competition.

However, winning Pixar is definitely a good thing.

Daenerys special effects will therefore no longer require time to develop a rendering system. Pixar's 3D animation technology can also be a good complement to Daenerys special effects technology.Of course, the most important thing is the team of John Lasseter, Simon has also been considering the work of digging angles.

In the past history, John Lasseter rejected Disney's solicitation after the success of "The Iron Soldier". It is rumored that Disney can be described as a scrupulous one. Because this talent was not available, he finally chose to cooperate in a roundabout manner and eventually contributed to The birth of "Toy Story".

In this process, John Lasseter was loyal to Jobs.

But in fact, things are not so legendary.

"The Tin Soldier" was released in 1988. "Toy Story" was established in 1991, and it was completed after repeated ups and downs in the following years.Obviously, if Disney is really so thirsty, there will not be a window period of up to three years.

Therefore, with Daenerys Entertainment's current industry status, Simon does not even need to offer too special a price tag, it is very likely to attract John Lasseter.Of course, now that the entire Pixar has been won, there is certainly no need to do so again.