Hollywood Hunter

In a flash, it was Thursday, July 21.

Michael Eisner woke up early in the morning in the Plaza Hotel Suites in Manhattan, New York. He rushed to the East Coast yesterday in order to lobby face-to-face the current owner of the Bass family, Sid Bass, to give up the idea of ​​selling Disney.

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

I made an appointment to have breakfast today. Michael Eisner got up and took care of himself. He was about to leave the hotel suite, and the doorbell rang, a little hurried.

This gave Michael Eisner some inexplicable premonitions.

Opening the door, there are two middle-aged people standing outside the guest room door, Sandy Littlewater, vice president and head of the legal department of Disney, and Bill Micnick, president of the family entertainment department.

This was after Jeffrey Kasenberg suddenly left Michael Owitz and remained on the sidelines. Michael Eisner urgently selected two executives who planned to succeed Disney's next president and chief production officer. .

Michael Eisner is very clear that in order to persuade the Bass family to refuse Vivendi's acquisition, Disney must stabilize itself as soon as possible.

Although he failed to invite Ovitz to join, the two candidates in front of him were not randomly selected by Michael Eisner.

The legal department has always been one of the core departments of Disney companies that focus on copyright operations. Disney’s “copyright madness” and “California Pizza Hut” and other ridicules and drawing a Mickey Mouse after the deserted island can attract Disney special planes to save lives. The joke was made by a lawsuit in the Disney legal department.

As the head of the legal department with the title of vice president of Disney, he always wanted to report directly to Eisner.

Not only that, the current president Frank Wells happened to be a lawyer, and he has cooperated with Eisner in these years. Now Sandy Litwart takes over the position of Frank Wells, both in front of Disney’s board of directors and major shareholders. Easy to get recognized.

Another Bill Micnick may be described as Michael Eisner's'family'. At the time, Bill Micnick followed Eisner from Paramount to Disney, and has been in charge of Disney's home entertainment department for many years.

When he first joined Disney, Esner and other management's overall valuation of the Disney film library was only $200 million.However, under the operation of Bill Micnick, Disney's classic animated movie video tapes that were re-sold continued to sell. Among them, only "Cinderella" video tapes sold 6 million boxes, and the income was close to 200 million US dollars.

Disney's rapid recovery in the late 1980s contributed to the large cash income from the sale of video tapes.

Therefore, Bill Micnick also possesses sufficient qualifications to take over the position of chief director of Kasenberg Studio.

Seeing the two subordinates appear dignified together in front of them at this time, Michael Eisner wanted to easily let the two into the room pretendingly, but just didn’t wait for him to speak, Sandy Litwater had already put one A newspaper handed it over: "Michael, you may need to look at this."

Michael Eisner took over the newspaper. This is a "Hollywood Reporter". As one of the most popular professional movie media in the industry, "Hollywood Reporter" is also sold at the East Coast Film Center in New York.

No special guidance from Litwart is required, and Michael Eisner saw the blackened headline on the front page of the newspaper at a glance: "Daenerys Entertainment or the Universal Studios Europe Project will be launched."

Just after reading the title, Michael Eisner felt a slight tightness in his heart.

Disneyland Paris, which has not improved for more than two years since its opening, is Disney's biggest weakness.

At that time, due to the success of Tokyo Disney, the original US$1 billion European Disneyland project snowballed to US$5 billion. It also ate the Tokyo Disneyland and only took the copyright fee without participating in the investment. At that time, Disney was on the European Disneyland project. It accounts for half of the equity share, and most of the funds come from loans.

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

If Disney still maintains the growth momentum of the late 1980s, this part of the debt may not be a big deal. Now, Disney’s movie business is declining, and even several major theme parks with its lack of fresh IP injection have been implicated. Now huge debts are generated every year. The interest for Disney is already a huge burden.

Because of its many Disneyland shares, Disney’s net worth reached US$12.8 billion, but its current market value is only half of its net worth. It is also largely dragged down by the Paris Disneyland struggling in the mud.

Now, the operating situation is not satisfactory, if there is another movie theme park from Hollywood in Europe, and it is still the Daenerys Entertainment Group that has many classic IPs under its control over the years, it will inevitably divert the source of Disneyland Paris. Make the Disneyland Paris even worse.

Originally intended to let the two subordinates in the advanced room, because of inner concerns, Michael Eisner stood directly at the door and started reading the news in The Hollywood Reporter.

The eye-catching photo in the press release is the photo of Bruce Peque, president of Daenerys Theme Park, leading the team at the Colosseum in Italy.

The Westeros system has a lot of layouts in Italy over the years, and the political and commercial circles have been closely linked. It is completely expected that the highest priority Disneyland construction site is selected in Italy.

The news article opened with a brief introduction of Bruce Peker and his party who have suddenly appeared in major European cities in recent years to conduct site visits for the location of Universal Studios Europe.

Not only that, but the reporter of "The Hollywood Reporter" called Daenerys Entertainment Media's public relations department. Although the other party's language was unknown, he received a positive answer. Daenerys Entertainment did intend to build a movie theme park in Europe.

Subsequently, "Hollywood Reporter" simply contacted several core senior executives of Daenerys Entertainment, and received a short telephone interview with Mark Belford, Vice President of Global Operations of Daenerys Entertainment. Things about Studios.

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

Reporters will certainly not forget to talk about Disneyland Paris.

Mark Belford did not criticize the Paris Disneyland, but said that Disneyland Paris has more than 10 million tourists every year in the past two years, proving that Europeans actually like movie theme parks, and then said Danieli Silk Entertainment’s Universal Studios Europe will try its best to avoid making the mistake of Disneyland Paris. For example, first of all, in the selection of the site, this time, it will definitely choose the Mediterranean coast with four seasons like spring, instead of operating only half a year because of the climate Paris.

It is of course an exaggeration to operate only half a year every year.

However, Paris, which has four distinct seasons, enters the off-season of the theme park as soon as winter comes, and the passenger traffic is greatly reduced. This is indeed a big mistake in the original site selection process.

Michael Eisner regretted more than once in the past two years, why did not choose the address of the European Disneyland on the Mediterranean coast.

The Mediterranean coast, but the most authentic Mediterranean climate birthplace, is suitable for tourism consumption all year round.

Now regretting of course is of no avail.

In the headline article, although Daenerys Entertainment did not talk much about Disney in Paris, Michael Eisner can almost imagine that as Daenerys Entertainment is about to establish a movie theme park in Europe, it has received the most The direct impact must be the Disneyland Paris.

There is no need to wait for other media to go down the road. After the headlines, there is an article from The Hollywood Reporter that counts the failures of Disneyland Paris.

Serious mistakes in the early planning, great success caused the budget to be out of control, management arrogance and arbitrariness caused a lot of cultural incompatibility events, Disney's downhill in recent years has made the theme park lack of new projects and the playability has been seriously reduced, etc.

Standing stiffly in front of the hotel suite, after reading two articles in a row, Michael Eisner's forehead had exuded a layer of fine sweat.

If it was at other times, Daenerys Entertainment's exposure to the upcoming construction of a movie theme park in Europe would at most only impact Disney's stock price, perhaps causing the media to jump out and comment on the Disneyland Paris.

However, this news suddenly broke out at the point when Vivendi was about to initiate a Disney acquisition. It is conceivable that it will seriously affect many Disney shareholders who are no longer optimistic about this Hollywood studio.

Once Disney is acquired by Vivendi, Vivendi will definitely not leave him as the culprit in the media to let Disney fall into recession and turmoil. For 10 years in charge of Disney, all the foundations of Michael Eisner are here. If you leave the company at the lowest stage of Disney’s film company, unless you are a self-supporting portal like Jeffrey Kasenberg, otherwise Hollywood will no longer have his place, so it means that his Career is completely over.

Thinking of this, Michael Eisner only felt that the suffocation in the heart was getting stronger, the vision was gradually blurred, and the voices of the two subordinates in front of him also became vague in the sudden tinnitus.

Sandy Litwart and Bill Michanik realized that it was improper to step forward to help, and then look, the pale-faced Michael Eisner had fallen into a coma.

Simon heard Michael Eisner's heart attack and coma for the first time.

At that time people were in the Woodside Mountain Villa in the Bay Area.

Robert Iger called from New York. It was less than five o'clock in the morning on the West Coast. There was just some bright morning light outside.

After standing by the bed in the master bedroom, Simon didn't know what to say for a while.

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

did not expect.

Is this a repeat of history?

However, Kasenberg left, Wells is about to retire, and now Michael Eisner suddenly fell ill, coupled with the fire that Daenerys Entertainment just added, Simon can’t believe the decision to sell Disney. The Sri Lankan family also has the confidence to hold on to this company's shares.

Not selling now, Disney will only become less and less valuable next.

Behind him, a petite figure came silently, hugged his arm, and pressed his cheek against his face: "Simon, what's wrong?"

This is Jenny.

Speaking of abstinence this week, Simon insists on this.

Last night, even the waist, legs, and legs in San Francisco rushed to the guest room, but the goblin said that he was still a child, and he knew nothing. But at night, he would be afraid of sleeping alone. Barbara, in short, succeeded at Simon.

Simon did not insist too much on this little goblin who could handle it with one finger.

Reaching for the light body of Jenny and bringing it back to the bed, Simon said: "Sleep again, it's still early."

Wearing a pink pajamas, a goblin like a doll saw Simon go to the bathroom to wash up. When he came out, he began to wear clothes and got out of bed again, helping the little diligently, looking forward to: "Simon, we are together Go out for a run?"

Simon lightly tapped on her head: "It's me, it's troublesome to be found with you."

The little goblin looked fake Loli's innocence: "It's okay, I'm a little girl."

Simon couldn't help but pinched on her face: "The result is worse."

With that said, wearing sports vests and shorts, and enjoying the Japanese kneeling service that the goblin deliberately made, let her put on her sneakers, Simon left the villa and took two bodyguards to start a morning mountain run .

For safety reasons, Neil Bennett and Ken Dixon, who are responsible for the safety of the Westeros family, had previously not recommended Simon to perform a similar morning run, but Simon did not agree, if even this kind of running outdoors Can't do anything, what is the meaning of life.

If you are worried about safety, then let the environment be safer.

The Westeros family has so many people now, not just for this.

Therefore, in addition to the two groups of eight bodyguards resident in the Simon Villa, there are an additional five groups of horses distributed in several other properties in the mountain. Three groups are bright and two groups are dark.Around Simon's morning running route, the security team of the Westeros family quietly installed a large number of cameras and other monitoring equipment to ensure that no one will approach this area silently.

Simon felt nothing wasted about it.

The Westeros family now has a lot of people, both brightly and secretly.

In order to avoid these people having nothing to do, Simon sent a lot of work on weekdays, such as 24 hours monitoring of the three mothers and daughters of Graff, which seems to have little meaning. The purpose is to avoid these people from being lax. Simon firmly believes that any team has only Keep running at all times to avoid losing vitality to the greatest extent.