Hollywood Hunter

""Game of the Brave" is a visual spectacle film based on CG special effects. The success or failure of the project is most related to the story and special effects. The main creation is of course important, but it is not a decisive factor, so Schwarzenegger and Stallone acted as The protagonists are not much different. Terry, I did prefer Arnold in the beginning, but the reason is just because the script character fits Arnold’s image. Now that the story has been revised, Stallone has become the most suitable one, and the entire project Preparations have begun around Stallone, and I cannot make a temporary substitution."

A private beach on the west side of Dome Point Estate.

The time is Saturday, July 8.

Simon returned to the west coast yesterday evening, no work plan was arranged on the weekend, Terry Semel came directly to the Dumei Cape estate to visit.The two are discussing two movie projects, "Game of the Brave" and "Evaporation Secret Order".

This is the storm caused by Stallone's "Special Police Inquisitor" box office defeat in a box office week just past. Disney's huge investment of US$90 million is expected to be only about 25 million at the local box office, plus the opening of the summer season "Tiger Dragon 3" The box office performance was also unsatisfactory. Not only did Warner Bros. have doubts about Stallone who had signed the actor of "Game of the Brave", but also involved another Warner-owned project "Evaporation Secret Order".

Schwarzenegger's new film "Evaporation Secret Order", which was originally scheduled to be launched in September and scheduled for next summer, reached US$100 million after the budget statistics were released.According to the global box office results of "True Lies" last year, a budget of US$100 million is still affordable.However, the failure of two old-school action blockbusters has caused Hollywood to completely re-examine this muscular man's personal heroic movie that saves the world.

Fearing risk, Warner executives began to hope to be able to cut the "evaporation secret order."

This kind of thing is very common in Hollywood.

It’s just that the millions of dollars invested in the early stage will be okay. The film contract that has been signed with Schwarzenegger is not so easy to cancel, because this is a common'pay or' agreement for Hollywood big coffee. In short, the two parties signed After the agreement, because the star has left the schedule to the studio, the studio must pay the full salary stipulated in the contract of the star, regardless of whether the movie is started.

The'pay or 'agreement happens to be in response to the situation where film companies often cut off movie projects for various reasons.Arnold Schwarzenegger’s contract pay was $15 million. Warner didn’t want the money anyway, so he had a whimsy, hoping that Simon would follow Alan’s initial plan to replace Stallone in the game of Brave ", such a double action, can not only allow Warner to successfully cut the "evaporating secret order", but also get rid of the potential box office poison Stallone.

Compared with Arnold and Warner's'pay or', the powerful Daenerys will not sign such an agreement with the star, even if it is Stallone's long contract, if Daenerys wants to repent, it does not need to pay too much.Of course, it will definitely lose some reputation, which is not a big deal in Hollywood.

Seeing Simon’s refusal, Terry Semel did not give up, saying: “Simon, as long as you agree, all the extra expenses can be borne by Warner. I can also release the news. It’s our perseverance that let us You have to change your mind."

Simon still shook his head: "Don't mention this matter again, I can't replace Stallone temporarily. In my opinion, what you should do on your side is to find a way to reduce the budget of "Evaporation Secret Order"."

Terry Semel smiled bitterly: "If you can, do you think I will not do this?"

"In my opinion, it's simple. Change the shooting location from the United States to Australia or Canada, even Europe, so that you can get a tax rebate of tens of millions of dollars first. Then, you can talk to Arnold again, like Sean Connery’s entire crew was waiting for the start of work, but he ran to play golf with his friends. This happened less often and could be saved by millions. Terry, in fact, last year’s "Real Lies" was like this ,

Terry Semel heard Simon say this, and immediately thought of "Future Water World".

$175 million.

It was also to accommodate Kevin Costner's request for a comfortable shooting environment, and it was agreed to choose the shooting location in the world-famous tourist resort of Hawaii.

As a result, no one expected that the tides in Hawaii would cause such a big trouble. The multi-million dollar set was destroyed again and again, and the shooting cycle was delayed again and again. Warner rides a tiger and has to keep throwing money at this project. In the end, the three-month filming cycle dragged on for eight months, and the entire project was completed with a budget of an unprecedented $175 million.

Now, "Future Water World" is scheduled for July 28th, far away from the blockbuster bombs such as "Jurassic Park 2" in the early summer, Warner only hopes that this project will not fail too badly.

It is precisely because of the lessons learned from "Future Water World" that Warner is now like a bird with a startled bow.You should know that a project of Future Water World, which has dragged down Time Warner’s stock price, has been unable to catch up with the overall trend of the US stock market for more than half a year.

The Dow Jones index, which represents the NYSE's broad market trend, has risen 26% from July last year to June this year. Time Warner's stock price has only increased by 18% in one year compared to the lowest valley last summer. The U.S. stock market situation is in good shape Next, the market value of the group is only 18.6 billion US dollars.

Without the drag of "Future Water World", Time Warner's market value should easily break the $20 billion mark.

The locomotive effect of the film business is too obvious. "Future Water World" is already a splash of water. Warner can't afford another similar failure.

Simon refused to change his mind, and Terry Semel could only follow the advice of the other party, starting with the project "The Secret of Evaporation" itself.

In any case, the budget of 100 million US dollars must not be thought of. Compressed to 70 million US dollars is in line with Warner's expectations.Think about the summer of next year, a new series of 007, "Mission Impossible 2", "Mummy" and a series of film lists, it seems that it is more sellable than "Evaporation Secret Order", and it is not considered to be solely owned by Daenerys. project.

There are many projects prepared by Daenerys Entertainment during this time, the new film of the Soul Universe, James Cameron’s Titanic, Kim Carey’s new film, and Jack Cheng from the other side of the ocean. "Rush Hour", these are either not catching up, or not very similar, in short, I don't know which will become the main theme.

If you want to ask directly, just think about it.

This is already considered a trade secret.

After all, the two companies still have a competitive relationship.

The two walked together on a private beach with a cool breeze in the summer. Hesitating for a moment, Terry Semel said another thing: "Simon, did you see Jack Welch last week?" "

Simon nodded, still a little puzzled: "What's wrong with playing golf together on the day of Independence?"

Terry Semel hesitated again for a moment before finally saying: "I heard the news. Probably, Welch invited Levin to dinner with us last night."

Jack Welch, Gerald Levin.

General Electric, Time Warner.

Simon jumped.

This big butterfly seems to have accidentally matched another seemingly inconceivable event.

If GE buys Time Warner, not to mention GE's other businesses, but NBC and Time Warner, it is definitely a very strong combination. If subsequent synergies can be successfully achieved, GE will not give up its existing industrial business. At the same time, it can also become one of the largest media giants in the world, even if you compete with Daenerys.

When the time comes, the two real powers will be side by side.

If things were to come true, Simon would have to admire Welch’s old-fashioned vision and was dragged down by a project called “Future Water World”, which has gradually got rid of the merged haze of a few years ago. It’s just that HBO, owned by Time Warner, is now stripped out separately, and Simon is willing to pay $20 billion to buy it.

What's more, because of the strong rise of the DC movie universe, the movie business of Warner Bros. Pictures has actually been Time Warner's cash cow in recent years.

Messed up.

Completely messed up.

Realizing that Terry Semel was still waiting for his reply, Simon considered for a moment and finally said: "Terry, I don’t know about this. However, from a friend’s point of view, my personal suggestion is that if this The thing is true, and it is expected to achieve a result, then you better participate more actively so that you can gain more initiative in the future."

As the co-CEO of Time Warner Group and Robert Daly, Terry Semel is now basically alone, second only to Chairman Gerald Levine.Simon had always hoped that Semel would go one step further, and one day in the future, he would replace Levi as the chairman of Time Warner and completely control the company.

The plan will never catch up with changes.

If General Electric initiates an acquisition with Time Warner, the future that Semel needs to take will be more than the parent company General Electric.

On the other hand, Jack Welch is a professional manager who understands decentralization. Otherwise, the large-scale GE cannot be orderly under the current scale.

Therefore, if Semel still wants to be in charge of Time Warner, he must actively participate in this possible acquisition in order to establish a good relationship with GE in order to gain more voice in the future new company. .

Terry Semel hesitated and told Simon about the incident, hoping to get some suggestions.

Hearing Simon say this, he reacted quickly.

If something really happens, active participation will definitely be much stronger than resolute resistance.

With Time Warner's current stock price downturn, the possibility of major shareholders and the board accepting GE acquisitions is very high.

The two chatted for a while, sending Terry Semel away, and Simon returned to the Shell Villa while considering Semel’s message.

None of the family went out this morning, and women and children were playing in the open-air swimming pool next to the villa.

Simon walked through the lobby of the villa to the side door leading to the open-air swimming pool. Two girls in swimsuits walked in front of them, both of which were baby-faced, one was Zoe Parks and the other was Qusi Gove .

Janet was not indifferent to Simon's lace these days.

The response was to call Qu Gove, who was just training in Los Angeles for the Game of the Brave, to Dumei Point Estate this weekend.

Simon felt that in the future, she would recommend fewer books such as "Dream of Red Mansions" to women.

Feudal dregs.

Obviously, Janet Gough, who has been tuned in well, did not have any grievances on his face, but could fit into the role.

Simon also admired this.

Janet can even tune a certain arrogant lady into a girl, and the beautiful vase, Qusi Gaofu, is too low.

In fact, many of the women around Simon are responsible for the training and placement, whether it is the batch of small vases that were selected and still in the cultivation stage, or a few girls who were raised in Ukraine, and even the very large Uygur family. The waitress and the Weijia female guard team.

Simon didn't care about it.

Over the years, Janet has taken care of it, and has never seen a special situation that makes Simon worry.

Two women, Zoe and Qu, saw Simon coming, politely greeted the host, and asked Simon when they said that the hostess suddenly wanted to drink coconut juice, and they were going to prepare.

After letting the two girls leave sideways, Simon walked to the pool terrace. If it weren't for the female assistants and waitresses in the pool, the two little guys, Melbourne and Nick, who were plopping under care, could be said to be very fragrant.Both Jenny and a female waitress wear all kinds of swimsuits. Except for Janet’s sexy bikinis, even if the swimsuits of Jennifer and the waitresses are conservative styles similar to women’s sportswear, helpless girls have a solid foundation. So good.

What did that say?

Pretty women can wear HF fan even if they approve a piece of broken sack.

This is true.

Came to Janet, leaned down and kissed the woman before asking: "Where's Sear?"

Janet, who was just holding a folder to read at random, put the information next to him and smiled: "Isa is in it."

Think of her daughter who is obviously not interested in learning to swim in the sun, no more questions, and Janet squeezed on a lounge chair, glanced at the document that the woman just looked at, the title is a series of abbreviations, ITER, I have read I never picked it up again.

ITER, the full name is'International Thermonuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor'.

Some things Simon started in Ukraine in April have been quietly advancing during this time.

Among them,'SpaceX' company has been established.

Compared to the company that used to be Musk, this time SpaceX will be as extensive as Simon described in Ukraine with Celia and A girl, such as launch vehicles, space shuttles, controlled nuclear fusion, space reactors, etc. and many more.

Moreover, SpaceX is only part of Simon's plan.

The professional consulting and headhunting team of the Westeros system is also looking for candidates from all over the world, planning to establish a series of high-end life science research laboratories based on major universities in the United States. The main research direction is to solve the mysteries of human life.

The pursuit of immortality is too unreal.

Simon is realistic.

With the biological knowledge he has mastered, one can probably understand that if one wants to live forever, at least a hundred years, the chances are slim.

From a genetic point of view, humans have been equivalent to a finished product since birth.

Just like the same building.

Different materials and different building structures must exist for different periods of time. Wooden buildings can be preserved for 20 years, and the life of reinforced concrete may be as long as 100 years.

The human body has been built into a'building' because the material structure has also determined a life limit. Even if it is carefully maintained to the greatest extent, all it can do is extend the life span as far as possible within the limit. The established limits.

If you want to change, you may have to build a gene from the infant or single-cell period, which is probably to replace the'wooden material' with the'reinforced cement', and so on.As for the'house' that has been built, it can only be repaired and repaired, perhaps at most in the decoration and reinforcement, and the basic material structure cannot be changed after all.

As for ITER, it was a piece of information sent by some people who heard the news from Washington after SpaceX was established.

Basically, I hope Simon can be a big deal.

ITER is actually a global plan, but the name of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor can probably determine the content of the plan.

In order to solve the energy problem of trapping human development, in 1985, during the meeting between the then US President Reagan and the former Soviet Union President Gorbachev, a project to build a large-scale Tokamak fusion reactor for the study of controlled nuclear fusion was finalized. After many years of planning, the experimental plan was initially completed in 1990.

Then, in just a few years, the world situation changed drastically, the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Gulf War broke out, and the global economy of many countries fell into a turbulent downturn, and the ITER plan also ran aground.

Mainly too expensive.

Five billion US dollars, it seems not much, but in fact it is just to build an extra large tokamak device.

The Tokamak controllable fusion scheme proposed by former Soviet scientists in the 1950s and initially confirmed under experimental conditions has been controversial in the scientific community. Many scientists believe that the Tokamak device will only prove to be a dead end in the end, and it is not worth sustaining. Invest.

Therefore, a huge amount of 5 billion US dollars was eventually built, and the result is likely to be just a float.Coupled with various other reasons, the plan was put on hold.

When someone finds that Simon is interested in these things, he will send the information quickly. If the super rich Westeros is willing to pay for it, then all the problems will not be a problem, 5 billion US dollars, for the current Simon West Luo said, it is not a big money.