hunt hollywood

So until the evening, Simon rejected Akio Furui's invitation to stay overnight, boarded his private jet and returned to Los Angeles again.

Before leaving, Furui Akio promised that Simon would give him a definite answer within three days.

All the way back to the United States, due to the time difference, when I arrived in Los Angeles, it was still Monday morning on the west coast.

The Halloween schedule has already started during Simon's busy time. Prior to October 10, there were mainly three new films released in North American theaters, namely Universal Pictures and Daenerys Entertainment's "Ten Days of Dangerous Love", Pai Ramon's Graveyard and Columbia Pictures' Pillow Talk.

In the first week of release from October 10th to November 26st, "Ten Days of Dangerous Love", which was well-reviewed by the media and invested enough publicity and distribution, was the best. With a scale of 11 screens, it won the first week of seven days. The box office of 1 million U.S. dollars far exceeds the total box office of the other two new films in the first week of less than 1639 million U.S. dollars.

However, in the three days of the next weekend, "Ten Days of Dangerous Love" also dropped by 33% compared with the first weekend, and received another US$719 million, and the cumulative box office in ten days was US$2435 million.

Due to the relatively large decline in the second weekend, the estimated total North American box office of "Ten Days of Dangerous Love" is between 6000 million and 8000 million US dollars. Bad part.

Of course, this is only relative.

The total North American box office of more than 6000 million U.S. dollars is considered a big hit in this era, not to mention that the total cost of production and publicity of "Ten Days of Dangerous Love" is only about 2000 million U.S. dollars, and it only depends on the local box office in North America. Silk Entertainment and MCA will be able to recover all costs and achieve profitability.

In addition, compared with the original version, the new version of the heroine Susan Sarandon commented on the "Hollywood Reporter" as a "chilling" wonderful performance, and it is very hopeful that she will win next year's Oscar for best performance like Kathy Bates in the original time and space. heroine.After the film was released, both distributors have begun to build momentum for Susan Sarandon's Best Actress for the sake of subsequent channel revenue.

After the silent and secret trip to Japan, Simon focused on the announcement and release of Daenerys Entertainment's two major films at the end of the year in the next few days.Before rushing to Japan, an extra US$2000 million publicity budget was prepared. Of course, this money cannot be spent aimlessly, and must be maximized as much as possible.

On the other hand, the negotiations between James and Bell Atlantic are also progressing smoothly.

Many things are always planned and cannot keep up with the changes. Before leaving Japan, Simon has already noticed Akio Furui's intention to withdraw, and the news of Bell Atlantic's acquisition is no longer so eager to announce, which can also reserve more time for the two parties to negotiate.

So until November 11th, the last day agreed between Simon and Akio Furui.

I haven’t heard any news for three consecutive days. I thought it would be the news that Panasonic would further increase its offer to MCA. In the evening, I attended a community reception after the official establishment of Malibu with Janet. The couple just returned to Dumei In the villa on the west side of the cape, the C girl Claire who was guarding the villa reminded Simon that there was a call from Japan half an hour ago, and hoped that Simon would return a call after returning from the reception.

Simon dialed the number reserved by the other party, and it was quickly transferred to Akio Furui.

Akio Furui did not go around too much on the phone, saying that Panasonic is willing to withdraw from the MCA acquisition, provided that the two parties must first complete the signing of the cooperation plan.Moreover, Panasonic hopes to obtain more concessions from Daenerys Entertainment on some detailed terms.

The two re-discussed some details on the phone for more than an hour. The basic contract framework has not changed. Simon also made some concessions on some terms, and finally reached an agreement quickly.

The next day was Friday, and Simon went to Japan again, this time bringing a whole team from Daenerys Entertainment.

Because a lot of preparations have been made in advance, this time it is only an overall cooperation agreement signed, and many follow-up details need to be adjusted in real time.Therefore, after two days of consultations over the weekend, the two parties quickly signed a formal agreement.

Simon and Amy both appeared in Japan and had frequent contacts with Panasonic executives. It is difficult to continue to conceal the relevant news. Both inside and outside Hollywood are speculating about what happened.

immediately.

On Monday, November 11, Panasonic suddenly held a press conference at its headquarters in Osaka, Japan, and officially announced that it would abandon the acquisition of MCA.

When the news was announced, the media on both sides of the ocean were in an uproar.

Chapter 386 Dust Uncertain (Revised)

Just as Michael Ovitz and his group walked out of Los Angeles International Airport, the assistant who came to pick them up reminded him that Lou Vasalman, the chairman of MCA, was already waiting in Marina del Rey near the airport.

Arriving on a yacht in Marina del Rey, less than three kilometers north of Los Angeles International Airport, Ovitz shook his head slightly when he saw Vassalman.

The time is already May 11.

Panasonic suddenly announced three days ago that it would abandon the acquisition of MCA, which caught everyone by surprise.

Unwilling to give up at this point, Michael Ovitz rushed to Japan in person after communicating with Panasonic by phone to no avail.Ovitz, who was instructed by Lou Wassalman, even suggested that MCA could accept a slightly lower offer than Daenerys Entertainment, but he still failed to persuade Akio Furui to restart the acquisition of MCA.

Michael Ovitz also regrets it now. Last week, Meg Ryan gave up the planned lawsuit against Daenerys Entertainment without warning. He had already raised his vigilance, but he still did not expect that he secretly wanted to snipe Dany Liz Entertainment made so many preparations for the acquisition of MCA, but unexpectedly, the other party directly used a tactic to draw salary from the bottom of the pot.

In the cabin of the yacht, Ovitz and Vassarman sat opposite each other, and said: "According to the information I collected, Westeros proposed another cooperation plan between Daenerys Entertainment and Panasonic, which originally aimed at Hesitating whether to continue to increase the offer, Akio Furui finally decided to abandon the acquisition after a secret meeting with Westeros last week, coupled with internal pressure from Panasonic.”

Lou Wassalman pressed: "Is there really no redemption, or, if need be, can I fly to Japan myself?"

Michael Ovitz shook his head again, and said: "I haven't got the content of the cooperation plan between Daenerys Entertainment and Panasonic, but, according to Panasonic's statement, Westeros is very sincere, and Panasonic's top management agrees. I think we should abandon the acquisition and cooperate with Daenerys Entertainment instead."

Lou Wassalman frowned, remembered something after a moment, and asked again: "So, Mike, didn't you say that there are other companies in Japan that are interested in acquiring Hollywood studios, Toshiba, Ito, or Sanyo?"

"This is what I said last year, but it was only last year," Michael Ovitz nodded, then shook his head again, and said: "At that time, the Japanese stock market bubble had not yet burst, and the situation is different now. Affected by the economic situation. The Bronfman family in Canada is also interested in acquiring Hollywood studios. However, they do not have enough funds for the time being, so they can only test the waters by participating in second-tier companies such as Orion. Now Asia, North America and The overall economic situation in Europe is not very good, so, Lu, it is very difficult for a second buyer interested in MCA to appear in the short term."

After Michael Ovitz finished speaking, the two looked at each other for a while.

After being silent for a while, Lou Wassalman finally made up his mind and said, "Mike, if this is the case, hand over all the backups you prepared in advance to my people."

Michael Ovitz also nodded dejectedly, and said, "Yes."

Now that Panasonic's withdrawal is irreversible, using those methods has no effect, but will anger that young man again and again.Thinking of this, Ovitz was a little distressed. Perhaps, the matter of Meg Ryan had once again caused discord between Daenerys Entertainment and C.

Thinking of this, Michael Ovitz couldn't help asking Vasalman: "Lu, are you planning to cancel this acquisition?"

Lou Wasserman had a wry smile on his face.

In all fairness, Lou Wassalman of course wanted to cancel the deal immediately, because he had tried several times with Daenerys Entertainment, and the other party’s attitude was very firm. After the acquisition was completed, he and Sid Simber Ge must resign.Once this is the case, the two will completely leave the power center of Hollywood.

Lou Wasserman definitely does not want to let go so easily.

However, Daenerys Entertainment's offer of US$70 billion is almost twice as high as MCA's lowest market value some time ago.

At present, the United States is already under the shadow of another war, and the industry is generally not optimistic about the future domestic economic trend, believing that it may continue to deteriorate.In this case, many shareholders of MCA hope to accept the offer and cash out, and they don't care what happens to the management after cashing out.

Although he is the chairman and CEO of MCA and has run the company for decades, Lou Wassalman only holds about 5% of MCA's shares, and Sid Schinberg only has about 2%. People's shareholding together can't create much control.

In the past, the two were still able to firmly control the company. This time, if they blatantly violated the wishes of shareholders, even if they can mess up the acquisition in the end, they are likely to be kicked out.

Therefore, now we can only use external forces as much as possible to force Daenerys Entertainment to agree to more conditions from our side, or force Daenerys Entertainment to voluntarily give up this acquisition.

Now that his physical condition has improved, Lou Wassalman feels that he can run the MCA for a few more years, until he is 80 years old.Moreover, he believes that the U.S. economy will definitely recover one day. The stock price of MCA has been severely undervalued due to the recent downturn in the U.S. stock market. In the next few years, there will definitely be other buyers who can pay a higher price.

Simon also happened to be returning from the East Coast when Michael Ovitz and Lou Wasserman secretly met.

After a period of negotiations, Bell Atlantic and Westeros initially reached an acquisition agreement with a total value of 70 billion U.S. dollars, which is comparable to Simon's expectations a few days ago, and a full 10 billion U.S. dollars lower than the original budget. .Once the quotation is agreed, other detailed terms will be advanced rapidly, and can even be negotiated after the transaction is completed.

Therefore, as long as it is necessary, Simon can announce the details of the acquisition as early as next week.

The next day is Friday, April 11th.

Thanksgiving is approaching, and the weekend will move into the finally completed villa in Cape Dumay. Janet has been busy on the west coast during this time, and Simon rushes to work at Daenerys Studios in Malibu as usual in the morning.

The box office data of the past week also appeared on Simon's desk as soon as he entered the office.

The box office trend of "Ten Days of Dangerous Love" is as expected.

It was released on October 10, and it was already the third week of the film's opening.

首周1716万美元之后，《危情十日》次周七天的最终跌幅为35%，再收1115万美元。11月9日到11月15日上映的第三周，跌幅收窄到21%，继续进账881万美元。

Three weeks after the filming started, the cumulative box office of "Ten Days of Dangerous Love" reached 3712 million US dollars.

What Simon is more concerned about today is "Dances with Wolves" which has quietly started to be screened.

"Dances with Wolves" opened two weeks ago on November 11 in some core cities in North America on a scale of 2 screens. blockbuster potential.In the second week after the screening, the screen size of "Dances with Wolves" increased to 16. With Daenerys' entertainment announcement and word-of-mouth fermenting at the same time, the number of theaters did not decrease but increased, reaching US$6.7

In just two weeks of screenings, "Dances with Wolves" has accumulated a box office of 463 million US dollars.Moreover, relying on the media's one-sided praise, this movie about the historical and political correctness of white Americans and Indians has quickly been promoted to next year's Oscar favorite.

However, because the theatrical version of "Dances with Wolves" lasted for 3 hours, Daenerys Entertainment only arranged 1031 screens in the end, and planned to rely on word of mouth and awards to accumulate long-term box office.

At the same time, with the official opening of the Thanksgiving schedule, in addition to the large-scale release of "Dances with Wolves", there are two other new films starting today, namely the sequel to Stallone's classic action film "Rocky 5" and Disney's 2D Animated film "Little Heroes to the Rescue".

After Panasonic announced its abandonment of the acquisition of MCA this week, MCA's board of directors found various reasons to delay the offer that did not pass Daenerys Entertainment, but others were a little anxious.

Like Paramount.

Before Simon contacted Panasonic last week, in order to avoid Paramount interfering with the acquisition, he temporarily promised to cooperate with the other party in two new films, and to maintain the status quo of USA TV after the MCA acquisition was completed.

The chairman of Paramount obviously saw Simon's scruples, so he was naturally up for grabs.Not only did they ask to increase the number of cooperative films to at least 3, but they also insisted that the investment ratio between the two parties be 30% and Daenerys Entertainment can only hold [-]%.At the same time, more demands were made on the USA TV station.

However, when Panasonic suddenly announced its withdrawal and the situation was reversed, Paramount was a little eager to reach a cooperation.

Amy has found out that Paramount intended to thwart the acquisition by filing an antitrust lawsuit.However, after Panasonic withdrew, probably aware of the general trend, Paramount began to rush to get the benefits promised by Daenerys Entertainment.

After all, the odds that Paramount will be able to successfully block Daenerys Entertainment's takeover of MCA if a lawsuit is filed are low.Even if it is successfully prevented, Paramount itself will not actually get much benefit, and the relationship between the two parties will deteriorate further.

Simon personally met with Martin Davis in the morning, and also made some concessions. Paramount gave up on the appeal of USA TV. In terms of movies, it still maintains a 50% investment ratio for both parties. At the same time, it will increase the number of cooperative movies to three. At the same time, the sequels of the cooperative films are also counted.

Through this cooperation, Daenerys Entertainment also successfully obtained the film rights of "Mission: Impossible" that Paramount has been preparing.

So, after several ups and downs, the two most famous spy film series in Hollywood after the 90s in Simon's memory, "Mission: Impossible" and "The Bourne Shadow", are all in his hands.

After working non-stop for so long, I finally rested on the weekend.

Move by the way.

The streamlined shell-shaped building of Cape Dume Manor, modeled on the Iron Man villa in Simon's memory, has become the focus of a lot of media attention since it first took shape.

As the silver building, larger than Simon remembered, was completed on the cliffs of Cape Dume, the building gradually attracted more and more public attention.

Of course, inevitably, it once again became a piece of evidence that many media criticized Simon for his extravagant life.

The final completed villa only covers an area of ​​5000 square meters. It looks like a museum on the outside, far more luxurious than the Iron Man villa that was only generated by CG in memory. The silver building hovers in a streamlined style, with a total of three floors , if you count the underground garage modeled after the Iron Man studio, the total internal space exceeds 12000 square meters.

Compared with ordinary apartment villas, this shell-shaped building can't even be simply described with the word 'big'.

If you have to say it, it is very large.

The final construction cost of the villa also far exceeded expectations. Not including the later decoration, the cost of the main building alone reached 3000 million US dollars.

Naturally, Janet will not save money on later decoration and furniture, because various things are still being added, and the final budget may even exceed the construction cost.

Therefore, the seemingly simple decoration in the villa is actually expensive everywhere.

The couple originally lived in a villa less than 500 meters west of Cape Dumei Manor. Everything in the Shell Villa was already ready-made. The so-called moving was just moving some daily clothes and books there. Done.

It was put back in detail until the evening, and all the details were preliminarily settled, and then it settled down.

Beside the huge glass curtain wall facing the sea by the cliff, Simon relaxed on the sofa, and Janet leaned against the man with her legs curled up, looking at the magnificent sunset seascape outside the curtain wall, and the woman whispered, "It's like a dream."

Simon rubbed his face sideways on the woman's fragrant hair, crossed his legs and said with a smile: "Have you never thought about building such a house before?"

Janet leaned on Simon's shoulder and shook her head: "No, even if I can imagine it, it really takes so much money to build such a house, unless I sell the stocks under my name, but if I do that, the old man will definitely jump up .”

"Isn't it your dowry? Of course you can spend it however you want."

"I never thought about finding a man before. The stocks under my name are my life's living expenses. If I spend them all at once, the days to come will be bleak."

"Catherine mentioned it to me," Simon said, still smiling, "Why didn't you want to find a man?"

Janet raised her head and lightly bumped Simon's shoulder, saying in a delicate tone, "Wait for you."

"Oh, what an honor."

"Hmph," Janet said proudly, but pulled Simon's hand into her arms, lowered her voice, and said, "Actually, I was liked by others a long time ago, and I also liked others." But maybe I’m too smart, those guys let me down so much, I just plan to be alone forever.”

"Forever alone, very lonely."

"That's why God let me meet you."

"Well, after many years, when we see the old man, we must express our gratitude."

"Hehe," Janet slapped Simon again, looking at the increasingly magnificent fire clouds outside the curtain wall, and said, "I really want to thank you, otherwise, you might be alone forever."

"I won't. I am so popular with girls. If I hadn't met you, I would definitely have become the number one playboy in Hollywood."

"Uh huh, I finally revealed my secrets, playboy..." Janet scratched her little paw dissatisfiedly, and when Simon pinned her wrist, her little body softened immediately, and she said angrily, "You bullied me again."

"Do you like being bullied by me?"

"do not like."

Simon increased his strength slightly: "Change the answer."

"Yes, I like it."

Chapter 387 Litigation Bombing (Revised)

The couple were tired of chatting together, the sun gradually sank into the horizon, and the sky dimmed unknowingly.

The sound of clicking high-heeled shoes sounded, and it was clear and sweet in the empty hall.

Since learning that frequent wearing of high heels may lead to deformed toes and Simon likes natural beautiful feet, Janet seldom wears high heels outside of formal social occasions. Even when she is working, she often wears a pair of little girl-like white Flat sneakers.

However, Simon actually likes the crisp sound of high heels stomping on the ground.

Turning his head to look, it was the housekeeper Alice Ferguson who walked over.

Now that they are going to move, the seven-member team led by the four ABCD women and the housekeeper has been staying here for the past few days, responsible for a comprehensive cleaning of the interior of the Shell Villa and the placement of items in all rooms.

Usually, an apartment of 120 square meters can be divided into seven or eight rooms. The three floors of the Shell Villa have a total of 1 square meters of internal space, which is equivalent to 2000 times that of an ordinary apartment. It is conceivable how big the interior is.

Excluding the hall of about 2000 square meters and the basement floor, which is separated from the 3000 square meters of wine cellar, garage, vault and studio, the other areas still have 7000 square meters.